Ok, I play board games with my family sometimes. Not really intense ones, but stuff like Parcheesi, Monopoly, trivia games, etc. I thought maybe I'd try introducing them to one of these super-keen board games that people play, but I don't know where to start.
It needs to be simple but fun, and easy to learn. Games shouldn't take more than an hour or so. My mother and sister are not gamers of any stripe, so it has to have casual appeal while hopefully offering whatever it is that these hobbyist-type games offer. Any ideas?
Edit: also it has to be four players.
Last edited by extarbags; 01-23-2007 at 08:26 AM.
I'd start with Blokus. It's not necessarily going to turn them onto more complicated games (it's almost as simple as Go), but it is very fun for almost all types of gamers (including young children), and it might at least start to make them open to games that aren't part of the traditional canon...
Hi, go to www.boardgamegeek.com, and then click on Games and you'll see the games sorted by rank. There's tons of content relating to each game, particularly those in the top 50.
Lorini
Edit: Settlers of Catan and Ra should fit your bill too.
I have a question and I hope it's not too impolite. Is the expression "recommend me" just a slang expression that is grammatically incorrect, or is it actually correct grammar? I thought the proper usage would be, "Recommend (object) for me" but I tend to see "Recommend me" everywhere online.
Sorry for the diversion, but it's been on my mind when I see it lately. :D
-Kitsune
It's not a board game, but we played this game over the holidays, and it's a blast.
It's like Jenga. But the pieces are different colors and on your turn you have to remove a piece that matches the color you rolled on the die.
I've seen that in stores, it looks kind of neat. Is it basically a board game version of Tetris?Originally Posted by SorenJohnson
And what's this Carcassone thing? I saw it in the list on boardgamegeek and vaguely remember hearing something about it. It sounds like it may or may not fit the bill.
I don't think Carcassone is a very good game for starters. If you do play it, my recommendation is to forget about trying to explain/understand the farmers, it's just plain difficult. Any of the other Carcassone games are better than plain Carcassone, in that they implement the farmers much more sensibly.
Lorini
Which one is the best/most accessible? I saw "fairly light" on that site and thought that was a good sign, and it really does sound interesting.
I've only played Travel Blokus, which is the smaller 2-player version of the game, but it is very good. Another excellent game a family can play is Rumis, which is a game of stacking oddly shaped blocks in three dimensions in order to have the most on top at the end.
If your family isn't so much into the abstract games (blocks and colors and the like) then I'd also recommend Settlers of Catan as being a great starting point.
I've seen Carcassone bomb with beginners sometimes - the game mechanics are just a little too different from what most people are used to. I'd recommend Settlers of Catan or Scotland Yard if you want to go for a slightly more meaty game.
Also, very underrated game (once you grow up and stop just guessing): Clue
Really? It sounds complicated, with resource management and so forth.
Carcassonne:The City is probably my favorite. It plays in about an hour and can be explained/understood pretty easily.
I would also highly recommend Ticket to Ride (with the 1910 expansion for the better cards) and Ticket to Ride: Europe. Both very good, easy to explain, and non-gamers tend to enjoy them.
Lorini
No, it isn't grammatically correct, but it's part of American vernacular, so you probably won't get called on it.
The nice thing about Settlers is that the options are always fairly discrete - there are (at most) four different things you can build, you can only build new stuff off of old stuff, card trading is easy to understand - unlike Carcassone, which gives the player an increasingly high number of choices each turn.
Please reveal to me a ruleset that makes Clue stop sucking so, so hard. The default rules makes Clue one of the most inane party games imaginable. I'd rather drop names in a hat and play the Vampire game.
Scotland Yard! That game is a blast from the past. I remember playing that game, oh so vaguely, but can't place where or when, other than knowing it was some time in my childhood.
Thanks for your help guys. I'll try to pick up Blokus and either Carcassone or Settlers, whichever is cheaper/available. I want to have two options in case one doesn't go over, and it looks like Blokus is going to be a winner regardless.
Hmmm... I'm not grammar expert, but I think you are on to something. Clearly, the sentence "Recommend me" is a command with an understood subject (the person being addressed). However, it seems to me you are telling somebody to suggest yourself for some position or task, not give you suggestions. Example, "Please, recommend me to the Board of Admissions". I think using the phrase to suggest you recieve the recommendations, is incorrect. So, the proper construction would indeed be, "Please, Recommend canidates to me". So, yes the OP was using slang in his title, where the "to" is dropped.
Of course, I'm no language expert.
It's informal, just like "give me" should be "give to me".
Actually, I think it's technically correct as written; the problem is that it's ambiguous, as you have so astutely observed. I think we're just looking at a case of terrible style, here.
Is there a significant difference between the various version of X of Catan?
I got Thurn and Taxis for christmas and it fits your description perfectly.
You need 2-4 players, very easy to learn, takes 30-45 minutes to play and itīs a lot of fun with interesting choices to make and some strategizing.
You also donīt really destroy other playerīs progress, so itīs better for a family game.
Itīs by the same guy who did the Puerto Rico game, hereīs the link:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/21790
Complexity. The original Settlers of Catan is by far the least complex of the series. I'd hold off a while on any of the others.
Lorini
Ok, that's what I will do.
I actually was not a big fan of Thurns and Taxis - it feels way too much like playing competitive solitaire in that there is almost no interaction between the players during the course of the game. The only thing you can do that really screws over other people is to be the first to accomplish each goal (which gives more points than subsequently completing those goals). This is a flawed mechanic though, because the player that goes first always has a better chance of being first to finish any goal, and on average will simply net more points than the player going last.
Settlers actually is very simple in the grand scheme of resource management games. It also absolutely requires continuous interaction between players - a good thing for a family game - and is competitive but not cutthroat.
my girlfriend and I play Carcasonne every other night. We had been looking for a way to spend time together outside of tv and movie watching, since otherwise I go straight to my PC. She dislikes complex warlike games, but loves 'building' and making things, so this one fit the bill nicely. It's simple, different every time you play, and even more fun with several players. I disagree about the farms; it takes a minute or two to wrap your head around them, but laying down a sample board before you play ought to make things clear very quickly. No one we've taught was still stumped within minutes of seeing them laid out.
In a group, Ticket to Ride is also quick, easy and different every time you play.
I think Ticket to Ride: Europe is better than the original (though I don't know how it changes with the 1910 add-on). I think they learned from the original for Europe.
I picked up "The Big Box" of Carcassonne a few months ago. Since then I've played with a number of friends (both gamer and non) as well as my parents. All of them had a blast with it and greatly enjoyed it.
Games seem to last from an hour or so to about 90min. Depending on the learning curve and what expansions you're playing with.
Winners Circle (or Royal Turf) by Knizia. A horse racing game. Scales well from 2-6 players. 4 works fine.
VERY easy to play but some great choices.
I thought so too at first, but my sisters simply let me go first after I complained and it wasnīt an advantage. There are two reasons that balance the firstmover effect out.
1. The other players can react to your card picks. The last player can pick a similar route to the one you are trying to do and will take the cards which you could use best, so itīs less likely that you will be able to do your optimal route.
2. The end game. As one of the earlier movers you always have to calculate if itīs possible that one of the later players will be able to complete his route this turn making you waste a lot of cards unless you complete your route. So you either have to finish a route before you want to, or you have to risk losing the entire route if the later players manage to end the game.
The last player to move doesnīt need to complete his routes prematurely, since he is guaranteed one final round after another player has initiated the end of the game.
I found the game quite deep under the surface, but of course it becomes a bit repetitive after you play it ~10 times.
Lemme drop another recommendation for Carcassonne. It was the ultimate choice when I asked a similar question last month. We got the vanilla pack (with just the free river cards expansion) and it was really well received by the staunchly non-gaming OLG, the in-laws, and many different non-gaming couples we played with.
The rules really are simple, and the farmers thing was never an issue as they just don't play that big a role in the game. It's got elements of surprise in every turn (you take your tile from a pile where they're face down), and building your roads and cities is pretty satisfying. As I said, everyone found something in it that they liked, and even Obtuse Cousin Gravy got the rules within like three minutes.
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