Hm... So, I actually *like* board games...

[conuly]

I know some people don't, but I do. I like playing games with my family, board games, card games, I have to clear the table now...

Anyway. Moving on. While on somebody's livejournal, I saw an entry about this game which, though insanely complicated, looks mildly interesting. That started me thinking. What can I get my mom for christmas which would encourage gameplaying? I like clue (though we don't often play it, not enough people) and museaum clue (though we lost that years ago, I want it back!) and parcheesi (though I'm too competitive... really... and ask Jenn about proper parcheesi piece placement) and mancala (hm. lost that too, and mommy's no good at it). My mom likes boggle, scrabble, upwords (we need another board), word yahtzee, regular yahtzee (ick).... We also have monopoly, chinese checkers, risk, and pick up sticks lying around the house. I hate checkers and chess, so don't suggest those.

Now, I have a dual question. 1. If I go randomly picking interesting looking games, would you tell me if they're good? and 2. what games do you reccommend?

Comments

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

I like Stratego. If you could find a Go board and pieces, it's an easy game to play but oh so difficult to master. I like backgammon too.

I made a wooden game box, and I made the lid into a parcheesi board. :-) It's nifty.

[phibby.livejournal.com]

Being a lover of board games myself, I'll recommend a few I like.

*Life - You didn't mention it, but you've probably heard of it. I love this game, really. It's quite fun, but your mom seems to like word games more than anything else, and Life isn't a word game. So...

*Letres - "The card game for people who like words." I think my sis got this for her birthday about five years back, but I'm not sure we've ever played it. I can't recommend it based on loving it from playing, but I guess I can recommend it since she seems to like word games. If we play it before Christmas, I'll tell you if we like it or not.

*Monopoly - You know what this is, but you didn't mention it. It's pretty fun now and then, but if she's not the type for games that take a while, don't bother.

*Guess Who - One of my favorites, but only for two players, so not really for the whole family unless you get two copies of it. Hm, we should try that some time!

*Trivial Pursuit - I love trivia and I love board games. What better to play than Trivial Pursuit?

*Stratego - Played it a couple times at grandma and grandpa's with Elyse. Two players, and it does take some thinking. We should go buy it one of these days...

*Jenga - Not really a board game, but still quite fun.

*13 Dead End Drive - You probably haven't heard of it. A very wealthy widow has just died, and some of her associates are battling it out to get her money. People like her boyfriend, hairdresser, butler, and cat try to make it out of her house with the cash before anyone else does and before the detective gets there and makes things worse. You get three character cards, and you have to make sure one of your three characters is the one who makes it out of the house. You get to move any character around even if it's not one of your cards, and you can either try to get yours out or kill off everyone else's. If you move a character to a certain spot, something will happen to them that will make them meet a gruesome end. You can push them down the stairs, send them into the fireplace, or make the chandelier fall on their head. It's got to be one of the most interesting and fun games I've ever played, but it does take a while to set up.

That's all I can think of right now. Other card games you can play that you can just play with a regular deck are Hearts, Whist, Spades, Crazy 8's, and if you've got a board, Cribbage.

[phibby.livejournal.com]

*I should've pointed out that that's not all you can do to kill off characters in 13DED. ^_^;;; Is it wrong that I find the most fun part of that game is killing the characters?

[conuly]

My mother hates life, and monopoly is a bit crazy... should've mentioned it, though. And we stopped playing trivial pursuit right around the time I realized you can read the cards EVEN WHEN YOU'RE NOT PLAYING.

But thanks for the other suggestions.

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

I wanna be on your neocolours friends list! I'm samulation. ;-; I just never log in. But I'm there! My icon is a chibi Butterscotch! (a my little pony)

[conuly]

I thought you were on my friends list....

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

On the neocolours group. I didn't see the linkie you were talking about on neocolours (where everyone was discussing an infamous NP member).

[conuly]

Yeah, I fixed that. It should be a few posts down.

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

Cool! Thanks. ^^ I'll try to post more on neocolours. heh.

[carlyp.livejournal.com]

I like board games too! But we hardly ever get to play them, only on the odd holiday.

I really like your journal.. I have no idea how to make them that cool, I'm just using the boring template...

[conuly]

I'm using a template too. Go to manage, customizations. That should do it. You can pick which style you want, and the colors.

[feathered.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but remember that only the system one styles are available to non-paid users. Not sure if carlyp is paid or not, but if she's not, she won't have styles like yours as options.

[conuly]

Actually, it's only system TWO styles. Not this one, this particular style is paid only, but most of them are available to free users. System one is when you make your own style. I think....

[feathered.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I guess it is. When they first added S2 about six months ago, I believe that S1 was not just customization - it was pretty much the 'old' LJ, with all of the original styles, and S2 was only available to paid users. I wasn't aware that they had changed it.

But, it's still good to point out that not all of the styles are available for free users. I'm not sure if carly was wanting a style like yours, or if some of the plainer, free-user styles would please her.

[xiggaroo.livejournal.com]

Parcheesi. ^_^

[feathered.livejournal.com]

We used to play LOTS of boardgames, so I feel really odd because I can't remember any now. Of course, I haven't played anything besides scrabble, manacala, chess and pente for years. They're my favourites because I have a good chance of almost always winning. ;) Well, not so much with chess and scrabble.. but I'm the queen of pente and mancala! Do you know pente? It's rather like cellblock on neopets, only a bit more complex and not so easy to always win. I adore that game.

[kimberly-a.livejournal.com]

Carcassonne actually isn't complicated when you're playing it ... it just has a lot of different kinds of bits and pieces. But then you already know I like it. :)

Lemme see if I can think of some games to recommend. I can't think of any more board games off the top of my head, but I can suggest some word games (since you mention Scrabble, Boggle, Upwords, etc.) played with cards.

My husband and I both really enjoy Quiddler (http://www.setgame.com/quiddler/), so you may want to have a look at it to see what you think.

There's also another card game called Letterhead (http://www.fairplaygames.com/gamedisplay.asp?gameid=265) which has instructions for a variety of different word games you can play with a single set of cards.

I'd be happy to give an opinion on any random game you mention, if I've actually played it.

[conuly]

I will do that! As soon as I stop being lazy, I'm searching google and finding games. Probably making a separate post.

As for word games... I'm scarily good at them. Mostly because I play them so expletive much. I'd like them more if I could win against my mom, though....

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

I like Stratego. If you could find a Go board and pieces, it's an easy game to play but oh so difficult to master. I like backgammon too.

I made a wooden game box, and I made the lid into a parcheesi board. :-) It's nifty.

[phibby.livejournal.com]

Being a lover of board games myself, I'll recommend a few I like.

*Life - You didn't mention it, but you've probably heard of it. I love this game, really. It's quite fun, but your mom seems to like word games more than anything else, and Life isn't a word game. So...

*Letres - "The card game for people who like words." I think my sis got this for her birthday about five years back, but I'm not sure we've ever played it. I can't recommend it based on loving it from playing, but I guess I can recommend it since she seems to like word games. If we play it before Christmas, I'll tell you if we like it or not.

*Monopoly - You know what this is, but you didn't mention it. It's pretty fun now and then, but if she's not the type for games that take a while, don't bother.

*Guess Who - One of my favorites, but only for two players, so not really for the whole family unless you get two copies of it. Hm, we should try that some time!

*Trivial Pursuit - I love trivia and I love board games. What better to play than Trivial Pursuit?

*Stratego - Played it a couple times at grandma and grandpa's with Elyse. Two players, and it does take some thinking. We should go buy it one of these days...

*Jenga - Not really a board game, but still quite fun.

*13 Dead End Drive - You probably haven't heard of it. A very wealthy widow has just died, and some of her associates are battling it out to get her money. People like her boyfriend, hairdresser, butler, and cat try to make it out of her house with the cash before anyone else does and before the detective gets there and makes things worse. You get three character cards, and you have to make sure one of your three characters is the one who makes it out of the house. You get to move any character around even if it's not one of your cards, and you can either try to get yours out or kill off everyone else's. If you move a character to a certain spot, something will happen to them that will make them meet a gruesome end. You can push them down the stairs, send them into the fireplace, or make the chandelier fall on their head. It's got to be one of the most interesting and fun games I've ever played, but it does take a while to set up.

That's all I can think of right now. Other card games you can play that you can just play with a regular deck are Hearts, Whist, Spades, Crazy 8's, and if you've got a board, Cribbage.

[phibby.livejournal.com]

*I should've pointed out that that's not all you can do to kill off characters in 13DED. ^_^;;; Is it wrong that I find the most fun part of that game is killing the characters?

[conuly]

My mother hates life, and monopoly is a bit crazy... should've mentioned it, though. And we stopped playing trivial pursuit right around the time I realized you can read the cards EVEN WHEN YOU'RE NOT PLAYING.

But thanks for the other suggestions.

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

I wanna be on your neocolours friends list! I'm samulation. ;-; I just never log in. But I'm there! My icon is a chibi Butterscotch! (a my little pony)

[conuly]

I thought you were on my friends list....

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

On the neocolours group. I didn't see the linkie you were talking about on neocolours (where everyone was discussing an infamous NP member).

[conuly]

Yeah, I fixed that. It should be a few posts down.

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

Cool! Thanks. ^^ I'll try to post more on neocolours. heh.

[carlyp.livejournal.com]

I like board games too! But we hardly ever get to play them, only on the odd holiday.

I really like your journal.. I have no idea how to make them that cool, I'm just using the boring template...

[conuly]

I'm using a template too. Go to manage, customizations. That should do it. You can pick which style you want, and the colors.

[feathered.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but remember that only the system one styles are available to non-paid users. Not sure if carlyp is paid or not, but if she's not, she won't have styles like yours as options.

[conuly]

Actually, it's only system TWO styles. Not this one, this particular style is paid only, but most of them are available to free users. System one is when you make your own style. I think....

[feathered.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I guess it is. When they first added S2 about six months ago, I believe that S1 was not just customization - it was pretty much the 'old' LJ, with all of the original styles, and S2 was only available to paid users. I wasn't aware that they had changed it.

But, it's still good to point out that not all of the styles are available for free users. I'm not sure if carly was wanting a style like yours, or if some of the plainer, free-user styles would please her.

[xiggaroo.livejournal.com]

Parcheesi. ^_^

[feathered.livejournal.com]

We used to play LOTS of boardgames, so I feel really odd because I can't remember any now. Of course, I haven't played anything besides scrabble, manacala, chess and pente for years. They're my favourites because I have a good chance of almost always winning. ;) Well, not so much with chess and scrabble.. but I'm the queen of pente and mancala! Do you know pente? It's rather like cellblock on neopets, only a bit more complex and not so easy to always win. I adore that game.

[kimberly-a.livejournal.com]

Carcassonne actually isn't complicated when you're playing it ... it just has a lot of different kinds of bits and pieces. But then you already know I like it. :)

Lemme see if I can think of some games to recommend. I can't think of any more board games off the top of my head, but I can suggest some word games (since you mention Scrabble, Boggle, Upwords, etc.) played with cards.

My husband and I both really enjoy Quiddler (http://www.setgame.com/quiddler/), so you may want to have a look at it to see what you think.

There's also another card game called Letterhead (http://www.fairplaygames.com/gamedisplay.asp?gameid=265) which has instructions for a variety of different word games you can play with a single set of cards.

I'd be happy to give an opinion on any random game you mention, if I've actually played it.

[conuly]

I will do that! As soon as I stop being lazy, I'm searching google and finding games. Probably making a separate post.

As for word games... I'm scarily good at them. Mostly because I play them so expletive much. I'd like them more if I could win against my mom, though....