Board Games

[Bob Biter]

Ahhh, board games. Board games and friends. Board games and friends and snacks. All good things... Here are my faves:

- Chinese Checkers
- Mad Magazine : The Board Game (hilarious!)
- Stratego
- Talisman
- Fireball Island
- Monopoly
- Chess

[FngKestrel]

Originally Posted by Bob Biter

Ahhh, board games. Board games and friends. Board games and friends and snacks. All good things... Here are my faves:

- Chinese Checkers
- Mad Magazine : The Board Game (hilarious!)
- Stratego
- Talisman
- Fireball Island
- Monopoly
- Chess

Mad Magazine Game. That's a great game. Just the addition of the left hand only rule is enough to throw everyone for a loop.

Was Fireball Island the one with the big plastic volcano and fireball? I don't think I ever got a chance to play that.

[Kodega]

Is the Mad Magazine game the one where they spoofed Monopoly. And to win you had to go bankrupt?

[Coppertop]

Yup, that was Mad Magazine. Be thankful when playing that game that your name isn't Alfred E. Newman.

I think Fireball Island is the volcano one. If so, I had that way back in the day as well.

[Gilda]

Another Risk fanatic here. My SO, my sister, and her boyfriend du jour have a standing Friday night game going. I win about 40% of the time, and the poor guys Sissy brings in that think they're going to take out the three girls using their one strategy they learned in college routinely get their asses handed to them, and if not, we have ways of throwing them off their games. Sometimes when she's out on a date, we'll have the neighbor guys over as a substitute, and they're fun cuz they're not really there for the game and they're really, really easy to distract and take advantage of.

Clue is fun, if only for the freaky way my SO can figure out the solution in one or two turns.

Not a board game, but Jenga, the block stacking game, is surprisingly fun, especially when played as a strip version.

Euchre is a great trick taking card game for four players, easy to learn, perfect for partner play or cutthroat.

Any of the standard Trivial Pursuit games are like taking candy from a baby with team play. I cover literature, history, and movies, my SO the science and Nature and Sports. We've cleared the sixth edition in a single turn.

[FngKestrel]

Originally Posted by Gilda

Clue is fun, if only for the freaky way my SO can figure out the solution in one or two turns.

Not a board game, but Jenga, the block stacking game, is surprisingly fun, especially when played as a strip version.

That's mad deductive skills in Clue.

How do you play Jenga as a strip game? Each block successfully removed, you tell someone else to take off an article of clothing? What if you make the tower collapse?

[Gilda]

Originally Posted by FngKestrel

That's mad deductive skills in Clue.

Yep. She watches the other players arrange their cards, and follows where they're looking around the board, and if she's played with them before, knows their questioning strategy, and one or two questions tells her what they've got. Who and where are fairly easy, it's only the weapon that's very risky.

Good players know this strategy and plan against it, but we don't play against top notch players much.

How do you play Jenga as a strip game? Each block successfully removed, you tell someone else to take off an article of clothing? What if you make the tower collapse?

Whoever makes the tower collapse takes off a piece of clothing. And none of this "a shoe lace is clothes" crap, it has to be an entire piece of clothing. Whoever made the last move before the collapse gets to be the one to actually remove the clothing (you have to randomize turn order each round for this to work). My sister's Beaus du jour love this game, as do our neighbors when Sissy isn't available.

There are other variations. Sometimes the person who collapses the tower can be required to put on someone elses clothing as their punishment, you can add a double or nothing roll of the die, etc. Strip Jenga is an enormous amount of fun.

[FngKestrel]

Originally Posted by Gilda

Yep. She watches the other players arrange their cards, and follows where they're looking around the board, and if she's played with them before, knows their questioning strategy, and one or two questions tells her what they've got. Who and where are fairly easy, it's only the weapon that's very risky.

Good players know this strategy and plan against it, but we don't play against top notch players much.

Yikes. How good is she at poker? Sounds like she'd be a natural.

Originally Posted by Gilda

Whoever makes the tower collapse takes off a piece of clothing. And none of this "a shoe lace is clothes" crap, it has to be an entire piece of clothing. Whoever made the last move before the collapse gets to be the one to actually remove the clothing (you have to randomize turn order each round for this to work). My sister's Beaus du jour love this game, as do our neighbors when Sissy isn't available.

There are other variations. Sometimes the person who collapses the tower can be required to put on someone elses clothing as their punishment, you can add a double or nothing roll of the die, etc. Strip Jenga is an enormous amount of fun.

So it's actually a bit of time in between strippings. Unless people are just knocking down the tower for the hell of it.

[darkangel]

Originally Posted by FngKestrel

Mad Magazine Game. That's a great game.

Oh man Mad Magazine game. I forgot I even owned that till I read it here!

I hate monopoly. You know why? Because I always LOSE!

We used to play Clue, Boulderdash, Mall Madness (anyone play that?), Operation, Rattle Me Bones.. A bunch of these ratty games were just thrown out in these past years too. Now, I enjoy card games. I've always wanted to try Risk, but never have..

[FngKestrel]

Originally Posted by ei555

I've always wanted to try Risk, but never have..

What's stopping you?!

[darkangel]

Originally Posted by FngKestrel

What's stopping you?!

Just never got around to it. I don't want to play bad enough to go buy the game (no money for that sort of thing) and nobody I know ever owned it.

[Bob Biter]

Originally Posted by Coppertop

Yup, that was Mad Magazine. Be thankful when playing that game that your name isn't Alfred E. Newman.

I think Fireball Island is the volcano one. If so, I had that way back in the day as well.

Yep, Fireball Island is the game with the rotating plastic volcano that launches a red marble onto hapless adventurers. I was addicted to this game and Mad Magazine Game. I got them both after a particularly numbing session at the dentist that took me out of school for a week (root canal, 2 cavities, impacted tooth... the works) and I played the crap out of them with my neighbours. Good times.

[Bratwurst]

Originally Posted by Kostya

Risk Risk Risk...

I used to play Risk...

Then I discovered Diplomacy, the most Machiavellian political game ever!

www.diplom.org

My strategy game of choice is Abalone, an obscure but brilliant French game.

I used to play a lot of Monopoly, but since I played it like Diplomacy and beat the crap out of my family by exploiting all the loopholes I placed in my web of contracts and agreements, nobody really plays me anymore.

Just wanted to say thanks for informing me of this game, I'm playing my first game right now via one of the online judges as Turkey. It's a great game, I'm really enjoying it.

[spindles]

Originally Posted by Gilda

Euchre is a great trick taking card game for four players, easy to learn, perfect for partner play or cutthroat.

More fun with 6 players - every card bar one is in play - many a family evening spent playing euchre (though it is hardly a board game...)

I had a game of Carcassonne link a few weeks ago - it is a "tile laying" game - heaps of fun...

I love trivial pursuit - but it is much more fun with a large group - how well can you talk someone out of the correct answer?

Balderdash is also a favourite - making up your own definitions for real but obscure words

Pictionary - again a good group game...

[mtsgsd]

Ah, the old TSR games. I still play Awfull Green things every now and then. I remember when it showed up in an issue of "The Dragon" magazine. And Snits revenge, and others.
Oh shit, I'm showing my age aren't I? I still have the magazines too!

I also played most of the Steve Jackson games, and Car Wars has got to be one of the best games ever made. The board version that is. "Fight in the Skies" was another one we played.

I still play GO, and Othello and Reversi, and the occasional game of Backgammon, but that's about it now.

[Kostya]

Originally Posted by Bratwurst

Just wanted to say thanks for informing me of this game, I'm playing my first game right now via one of the online judges as Turkey. It's a great game, I'm really enjoying it.

Not a problem my friend, or are you my enemy??? In that case, I say Austria will move Bud to Tri so go for Greece!

[Bratwurst]

I got Greece already in the Fall of 1901! Thats pretty kick ass for my first game I think. The Austrians are completely bone headed I think, so I got lucky.

[~Lucian~]

Haha, I'm totally going for the unconventional games closet.. i've got like a million packs of random cards to start, but then there are 2 boardgames which I have that have really kicked off my ambition to start this closet:

1) Zombies

2) Frag

Zombies is this random ass game got from the local comic/games store. Basically it's dawn of the dead or evil dead, but in boardgame format, there are 4 versions, all can be added on to the next, plus 4 expansions.. Basically it rocks hard.

Then there's Frag. Frag's like zombies.. cept it's the quake equivalent i.e. railguns, machine guns.. ah and a portable nuke to boot. Only got it about a month ago, but it's provided many hours of asskicking fun.

Of course, you definitely can't go wrong with ye olde Risk, Monopoly and one of my old faves, The Game Of Life.. cos it's great.. and it's.. great.

-End.