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Games Entertainment

Intelligent Board Games and Social Interaction? 111

Posted by Cliff from the what-board-games-have-you-played-and-loved? dept.
frogcircus asks: "Several weeks ago, at a neighborhood yard sale, my wife found an intact copy of Scotland Yard. I had been looking for one for several years (ever suspicious of eBay), driven by fond memories of group games in the late 80s. We played with a group of friends last night, and while some of us loved the game, others seemed a little less enthralled. It soon surfaced that the logic and reasoning involved in the game made it highly attractive for some of us. This got me thinking that perhaps the game was especially appealing to the geek mind. Which leads to my question: to which board games do you feel a close affinity? And to what degree have they engendered social interaction who don't share your particular interests?"
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Intelligent Board Games and Social Interaction? More

Intelligent Board Games and Social Interaction?

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  • Iron Dragon! (Score:5, Informative)

    by FlyingOrca ( 747207 ) on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @02:56PM (#9307290) Journal
    The Rail Builder games from Mayfair (too lazy to google the links) were awesome. There were versions for the UK, Europe, India, North America, and Japan, IIRC. Best of all, though, was the fantasy version - the mighty Iron Dragon. For a while I was playing a game a night with a friend who was staying with my family; we had it down to such an art that we could get through a 2-player game in 45 minutes.

    I'm on my second copy, though it's lent out at the moment. I can't think of another board game that captured my interest like Iron Dragon. We had quite the little circle of players going for a while, too, though I think it's fair to say that we are all geeks of one sort or another. ;-)

    There was an attempt to create an online version, but I don't know what happened to it - I've never been able to get the demo to work on my machines. Anyone know anything about this?

  • Siedler! (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @02:56PM (#9307291)
    First and foremost Settlers of Catan. Other games may be Junta for the social interaction, History of the World, then the list drops off fast.

    • Re:Siedler! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Kyrthira ( 666470 )
      I. Love. That game.

      I discovered it about three years ago. A friend of mine had opened a hobby/gaming shop and had a copy of it there for all of us to play, before starting in on our weekly LARP games. Bad jokes and much fun ensued each and every week.

      I couldn't find it when I moved out to Michigan, until I -finally- happened across it at a local gaming store. I bought it as soon as I had the forty bucks (when did board games get so expensive?!? *boggle*) and, sadly, I've played it only once yet. Tw

      • Re:Siedler! (Score:2, Insightful)

        by October ( 107948 )
        Exactly! Settlers is not only a fantastic example of game design, it's also a great way to pass an evening laughing hysterically. Any game where two of your main resources are sheep and wood is bound to lead to some interesting comments.

        It's also a great game for social interaction. The interpersonal dynamics that show up are always interesting - it never fails to amaze me how fast the tables will shift when people realize someone's winning. Suddenly, that person can't trade for any useful resources, as

    • Re:Siedler! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by TheRoachMan ( 677330 )
      I agree. Last Christmas I asked for Settlers Of Catan (the basic 3-4 players box) and I've never regretted it. It's quite an expensive game, and some of the pieces (all the roads) were missing right at the start (factory screw-up?) but the very friendly people of 999games sent me the pieces, I had to wait 2 months but it was worth the wait.

      Me, my girlfriend, my brother and his girlfriend regularly play a game of Catan and it's always fun. It takes some time before you get a good insight in the game mechan

  • ASL (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I play and socialize with Advanced Squad Leader.

    www.multimanpublishing.com

    Hey, if Curt Schilling likes it (and owns the company), then it's gotta be good.

    • Game fanatic (Score:4, Informative)

      by gabec ( 538140 ) on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @10:50PM (#9311563)
      Cheapass Games [cheapass.com] -- A treasure trove of geek-friendly games. The premise? They provide the idea and enough materials to get you started, you provide the tokens, counters, and dice. The results are great fun at virtually no cost. Highly recommended are The Big Idea and Ben Hvrt.

      Another big hit was Four Player Chess, formerly purchaseable at 4playerchess.com but is now managed by a domain-name squatter. :/ Anyway, mine has always been a big hit amongst the Coffee Shop Crowd. it's not too hard one of your own. Take a normal chess board then add three rows to each side (making the board look like a big Plus sign). Add two sets of Chess pieces (preferably all distinct) and you're off!

      Steve Jackson Games' [sjgames.com] Knightmare Chess [sjgames.com]. It's a card game played while playing chess. Play a card, move a piece. The cards change the rules as you go (e.g. "All Pawns attack forward and move diagnal until this card is banished"). This game in conjunction with Four Player Chess is hours of insane fun. A quick search revealed one for sale elsewhere [unclesgames.com].

      Lunch Money [atlas-games.com] is a sick and masterfully done game of kill-thy-neighbor. Always a big hit amongst those with a ken of violence.

      Hot Death UNO [inanutshell.us]. My personal-favorite diversion, an extension of Crazy Eights (UNO), this card game add almost 30 new cards to the game of UNO. For example: Mutual Assured Destruction, Fuck You!, Harvester of Sorrows, The Shitter, Glasnost.... This game is not for the meek and merciful. There's also a PC version here [inanutshell.us] and a Sourceforge project [sf.net] desperately in need of a programmer with mad (motivational) skillz.

  • MouseTrap! (Score:5, Funny)

    by superpulpsicle ( 533373 ) on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @02:57PM (#9307307)
    Best board game on the planet. Come on now, it's got mouse, pussies and gadgets. How can you go wrong.

  • Poleconomy (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @02:57PM (#9307308)
    I haven't played it fo about a decade, but I remember it as being like a "grown-ups version" of Monopoly. Instead of property, you bought shares in companies. The general dynamic was the same as Monopoly, but it was more complex.

    • Hear, hear! The other strength of Poleconomy was that it did not treat economics in isolation -- there was a political factor as well, and the two influenced each other strongly. i.e. the Prime Minister set the direction for interest rates, which affected the economy.

      Great game.

    • I second that and would have modded it up if I had some points.

    • There's another game of similar scope called Acquire. [wizards.com] Fantastic for fun and profit^H^H^H^H^Hsocial interaction.
    • Yeah, that was a good one - Canada-centric, too, which was fine by me. I used to play it with a bunch of comm^H^H^H^H left-wing acquaintances and we had a great time. Good springboard for serious political-economic discussion, too.

  • Carcassone (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Pedro Picasso ( 1727 ) on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @03:07PM (#9307432) Homepage Journal
    Here in Raleigh, NC we have a few nice game stores. I like All Fun and Games in Cary best. As for the actual games, Carcassone can't be beat. It's a map building tile game with intrigue and guile.

    Also, Bang is nice group fun. Scotland Yard is a favorite of my family's. San Juan is card-tastic. Bohnanza is a really cute, easy to pick up game. Once Upon a Time is a neat storytelling game for little kids to share with adults.

    • Re:Carcassone (Score:3, Interesting)

      by araven ( 71003 )
      In the same geographical region, I spend too much money and not enough time at Cerebral Hobbies in Chapel Hill. They just moved out of the hard-to-park student-infested downtown and into a nice accessible strip mall...three blocks from my house. Doh.

      They stock a goodly number of Rio Grande "Games for Two" including some great German games (with translations enclosed). The Germans have the boardgame business down to a science. I particularly like anything at all by Reiner Knizia. (favorite is "Lost Citie

  • RoboRally (Score:5, Informative)

    by mosabua ( 534503 ) <manfred&simpligility,ca> on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @03:08PM (#9307443) Homepage

    You might be hard pressed to find this game as well as the many expansion but it sure is a lot of fun and a geek game. Programming robots to take part in a race of conveyor belts, pits and laser damages. WOW.

    As far as I know the game is discontinued but the community is still out there. There is plenty of alternative board to download, new rule sets and so on if you go looking.

    Go Twitch!!

    • RoboRally is indeed out of print, but you may still be able to find copies at a physical Wizards of the Coast store, and I'll bet eBay has a ton.
      • Robo Rally is the best game ever designed (IMHO)! I design software, but I have yet to find anyone with any background that does not like this game. The pacing, "fun level," and social interaction is perfect. Each player's robot can interact on the game board, so there's a lot of interpersonal communication (e.g., OMG you pushed me onto the spinner, which caused me to walk into a double laser).

        FYI, the story I was told involving the game's conception: Richard Garfield went to Wizards of the Coast with th
    • The poor man's version of Robo Rally is RAM Bots [wunderland.com]. It is played using icehouse pyramids and a chessboard.

    • Re:RoboRally (Score:2, Informative)

      by Rystan ( 783477 )
      There is an online version of RoboRally called RoboRunner (http://www.eyeplaygames.com) which started out faithfully recreating the boardgame and has since added new and improved game types and board elements. A basic account is free and there are various tiers of paid accounts which offer more simultaneous games and even the ability to create your own board designs to be uploaded and played by all. Definitely worth checking out for any RoboRally fan. Go Twonky!
    • I liked RoboRally. I mean, it's all about algorithms, really -- writing an algorithm for your robot's actions. You lay out the action cards, and then you execute them.

      The problem I had was that one of the players I would play with was really bad at the game. He'd put down cards moving him the wrong way. The thing is, he'd read his cards wrong again when he was executing them and you'd always have to correct him, "oh no, look -- you actually just drove your robot into that pit." (I guess you'd say he w

  • Clue (Score:2, Interesting)

    by commonchaos ( 309500 )
    My family enjoyed playing this game. Until my Dad (an embedded system engineer) figured out a strategy for winning really fast. He would basically keep track weather or not somebody could disprove a hypothesis (Mr Green, in the Library, with the Candlestick) After a while, when somebody says they can prove a hypothesis wrong, and you have marked that they do not have Mr Green or the Library, then you know they have the Candlestick.
    • You're not very good at Clue. Haven't you ever asked, "Was it Professor Plum, in the Conservatory, with the Revolver," when YOU ARE HOLDING Plum and the Conservatory? If no one disproves it, then you know it's the Revolver. If it is disproven, then your Dad's going to be wrong because he's assuming YOU don't have Plum and Conservatory--why would you ask about them? At worst, he would think that the person who showed you Revolver must -also- have Plum or the Conservatory or both.
      • No... he's got a point. It helps to mislead the other players.

        Clue is not about getting to the solution first - it's about using stalling tactics to make sure the other players are confused so you have time to figure it out. You have to be careful to play both of those sides. I've seen people get amazingly confused trying to do so.

      • That only works for so long before people start to catch on.

        If memory serves, after shuffling the three sets of cards seperately and choosing the hidden cards, all the sets are shuffled into one big bunch. I remember many games with only one person or weapon. In that senario the other players will be pretty keen to know that you have Professor Plum.
    • That's a common tactic with Clue (though my family has yet to catch on to what I'm doing, but my friends have). My wife calls playing Clue with me as "Clue in Three Turns."

      What's especially good is if you pick on one or two cards you have (or, even better, cards immediately in front you in the clockwise circle), setting up a "red herring" to lead the others down. When you keep picking on Mr. Green and the Library, then the others just know you are on to something... heh. :)

    • The secret to winning Clue is to have all of the potential information you collect organized and visible. I wrote a program for my PocketPC (it works with paper, too, but it's not as easy) that keeps track of *everything*.

      If they can disprove, then you know that they have one of the three cards; if they cannot disprove with a combination containing two of those cards later, you know that they have the third card and can rule it out.

      If they can't disprove, then you know that they have none of those cards.
      • Agreed. You are more articulate than I am.

        Do you the source or algorithms online anywhere?
        • No, but it was just a very simple app I hacked up in eVB.

          You can do the same thing on paper using checks for "they definately have it" amd "O" s for "Don't have it". Use numbers (and letters when you run out of numbers) for "they have one of these three".

  • Settlers of Cattan (Score:4, Interesting)

    by spyrral ( 162842 ) on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @03:09PM (#9307452) Journal
    Basically a turn based strategy game. You grab resources and build settlements and cities to be the first to get a certain number of points.

    • Re:Settlers of Cattan (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Sparr0 ( 451780 ) <sparr0@gmail.com> on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @05:06PM (#9309173) Homepage Journal
      I will second this. Settlers of Catan is one of the most replayable strategy games that I have played. My circle of friends plays a 3 to 6 player game every weekend, sometimes more than one. The 4-6 player expansion is a must, if only for the extra land tiles. Cities & Knights of Catan is a decent expansion, unfortunately it suffers from a few balance issues. I have not tried the SeaFarers of Catan expansion, but have played with a custom 'mod' ruleset that mimics it (allowing islands, peninsulas, and rivers on the map) and find that to be fun.
      • Agreed about Settlers of Catan. I have read that the original game as designed was in fact Seafarers, and that Settlers was cut down from it to make a nice 1-hour game that perhaps could be better marketed? I can believe that, having played both: Seafarers seems the more rounded.

        It's a great game and particularly interesting for the number of strategies available and the way in which the game limits force strategy changes over time.

  • Simple Answer (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gamgee5273 ( 410326 ) * on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @03:11PM (#9307479) Journal
    Diplomacy [wizards.com].

    First turn takes 30 minutes. Subsequent turns take 15 minutes each.

    Unless you have a very small circle of friends (up to seven others), your social life is over.

    • And even if you have a small circle of friends, it will be a lot smaller after playing Diplomacy with them.

      If you've ever played Diplomacy, you know what I mean.
      • Depends if you always pick on the one guy who always wants to get stuck with Austria-Hungary.

        Share the pain and stab someone else in the back for a change. :)

  • Magic the Gathering. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Flicka ( 97136 )
    I know it's [wizards.com] not strictly a board game but I cannot remember the last time I lanned with this group of friends. Lanning was a regular event, now its like why did we bother?

    The depth in this game is amazing due to all the possible combinations of cards. Every one seems to devlope their own play style and deck construction. Ive only been playing about a month but in that time I've played nearly every second night. Its well worth a look if you can get past the "thats way too geeky for me" factor. My mum saw
    • For me MTG suffers from too many combinations. They keep printing expansion after expansion, and its difficult to keep up mentally and financially. It gets to be a chore long term, since you have to constantly keep up with new cards, new rules, and most importantly new rulings.
      Because the game can be so complex, simple sounding things like what occurs during a turn, get ruled and re-ruled. Sometimes rulings are reversed 3 or 4 times. (ie for those who played awhile the: white knight->lighting bolt-

  • Take a chance (or not)... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ferralis ( 736358 ) on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @03:21PM (#9307646) Homepage Journal
    When I was younger, I found I was drawn more to games that minimized chance or at least where performance in the game was less due to chance than to skill.

    Chess, for example, would always be preferable to Yahtzee. In a less black and white model (yes, I know, and I meant to do it, durnit!) Scrabble vs. Poker might have been a harder call, each having

    As I grow older and (maybe) wiser, I've found that status and "winning" have become less important to me and the experience of playing has become more important... so chance plays a more important role (roll? :) in the games I enjoy.

    Of course, it might also be that a purely random game gives my young daughters a chance to win once in a while, and durn they're cute when they're proud.

  • I love Junta [boardgamegeek.com], which is a game for 3-7 players where each player is either the president or a member of the cabinet of a corrupt government in a Central American republic. The point of the game is to get as much foreign aid money into your Swiss bank account before it all runs out.

    The gameplay is wonderful if you like double-crossing.

  • Kill Doctor Lucky (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jeblucas ( 560748 ) <jeblucasNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @03:24PM (#9307689) Homepage Journal
    Cheapass Games [cheapass.com] has some real gems. Kill Doctor Lucky is great for a small group though. Some people figure it out quickly, and others kind of stare off not understanding why everyone else likes it.

    I can second the Settlers and Carcassonne nominations. Those both reward skill, though Settlers takes some bargaining craft to really excel.

    I didn't like Iron Mountain very much, but Eurorails [boardgamegeek.com] had the best map for the rail series of games I played. The US (Empire Builder) is too large, and Australia has the same problems of overly wide spaces with no cities. Never played India Rails.

  • Board Game Geeks (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Mr.Mustard ( 58247 ) on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @03:26PM (#9307716) Homepage
    First of all, there is a whole class of Board Game Geeks [boardgamegeek.com].

    It should also be noted that Scotland Yard is still available as a game called N.Y. Chase, but with a different map.

    With those points out of the way, I think the appeal of board games depends greatly on the type of board game. There are several board categories that each appeal to a different group of people. Logic games that involve deduction like Scotland Yard probably appeal to technology geeks more than they do to the general population.

    Some people play games as a way to relax, and they do not like to spend as much time thinking about things as it takes to play a deduction game. Some of those people prefer "party" games like trivia games and more social offerings.

    You could try to create a Venn diagram of different demographics and the type of board games that they prefer, but I don't know that it would be that useful. It is better, in my experience, to just try to find games that the people you plan to play with like and have fun.

    Here is a partial list of some broad categories of games (off the top of my head):

    Party games that revolve around social interation like Cranium, Apples to Apples, most trivia games, and most board games that are mass marketed for adults in the USA.

    Deduction games that involve eliminating possibilities and figuring out the answer like Scotland Yard, Master Mind, Coda, and Clue.

    Induction games that involve formulating a theory based on observed evidence like Zendo and Eluesis.

    Programming games where the moves are all set up and then executed like RAMBots and RoboRally (Diplomacy uses this mechanic, but it's really a different kind of game).

    Abstract strategy games where the players pit their mental abilities against one another. Many of these are limited to two players and frequently have perfect information. Examples include Chess, Go, Dvonn, Zertz, Tigris and Euphrates, Blokus, and Through the Desert.

    Dexterity games were players have to use physical ability to achieve an objective, like Pitchcar, Jenga, and Crokinole.

    There are many other types of games, and then there are many games that incorporate several of these aspects. There are even games that I refer to as "psychological interation" games because they revolve more around how well you can judge how the other players will act in a given situation (like Citadels and Werewolf).

    Many of the Euro/German/Designer games incorporate different elements to create an experience that appeals to many people for different reasons, but a lot of the preference comes down to why people want to play games. I personally like to win, so I tend to dislike games that involve too much luck. I also like to think, so I enjoy games that are "brain burners".

    Some of my favorites include:
    Go, a classic two player abstract strategy game

    Ricochet Robot, a brain burning puzzle game

    Zendo, an induction game

    Through the Desert, a multi player abstract strategy games similar to Go

    Princes of Florence, a complex designer game that incorporates auctions and strategy in an interesting way

    Carcassonne, a relativly light tile placement game that still has enough strategy to be enjoyable

    Age of Steam and Power Grid, economic simulation games that require tough decisions to try to implement complex plans

    However, I own a broad collection of games so I have something that is approprate and enjoyable for almost any situation. It all comes down to having fun, in the end (and winning).

  • We play Zendo [wunderland.com] asynchronously in my workplace (people take turns whenever they have a break, and we are pretty lax with turn order). This is an inductive logic game, like Eleusis [netaxs.com]. It's very friendly as opposed to competitive when we play, and is very social indeed as people talk over their reasoning with one another.
  • is A Game of the Throne [fantasyflightgames.com]. one of those military conquest / diplomacy / resource management type games (based on George R.R. Martin's [georgerrmartin.com] excellent fantasy book series, A Song of Fire and Ice). It's quite fun, and a total time waster. With 3 players, games take upwards of 4 or 5 hours. I haven't played it yet with a bigger group. My wife, who doesn't really like things fantasy or military, had fun playing it. Biggest draw is that there's no dice throwing and what random effects there are affect everyone, so

  • Puerto Rico (Score:4, Insightful)

    by meowsqueak ( 599208 ) on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @03:29PM (#9307757)
    A great game to play with other intelligent people. It's not hard to learn, but difficult to master. There's almost no element of luck in the game (there is one non-player source of entropy, but it's not completely random) but the design of the game leads to billions of possible scenarios. An excellently designed and balanced game - highly recommended.

    You can play it online too at BSW.
    • Best board game ever, Puerto Rico. Second best board game ever. Tigris and Euphrates. After that you've just got a bunch of 'em all mixed up
      Carcassone
      El Grande
      Settlers
      Amun-Re
      Tikal

      Just hit www.boardgamegeek.com

    • Re:Puerto Rico (Score:2, Informative)

      by GTarrant ( 726871 )
      Most definitely, Puerto Rico is a winner.

      I love showing the game to friends that have not yet played it, and somewhere around mid-to-endgame of their first play, suddenly the light turns on, and they see things like "Oh, Mayor might help me, but it would REALLY help you, so I should take something better, and force YOU to spend your role on Mayor" and things like that. It's great when everyone starts to see the potential of how to screw your neighbor's coffee crop by Captaining at the right time.

      A game

  • Axis and Allies (Score:4, Informative)

    by Doug Dante ( 22218 ) on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @03:31PM (#9307775)
    My friends and I have loved Axis and Allies [axisandallies.org] for over a decade now. Between us, we have the original game, and the spinoff games for both the European and Asian theaters.

    Hampered by a tedious setup and long turns, A&A is a battle of strategic resources that involves equal parts WWII and trash talk. It is fun to play with three to five players. (With two players, there is less finger pointing amongst the Allies or Axis. What fun is that?)

    If you're a geek, you love history, and you've never played it, you really must try it some time.

    • I've played quite a bit of A&A myself, though these days I prefer Shogun (aka Samurai Swords). There's less tedious piece-moving, and some of the less exciting steps (like buying units) can be performed in parallel. I also like how the turn order isn't fixed, the starting conditions are randomized (much like risk), and alliances aren't fixed.

      -jim

  • Robo Rally (Score:2, Informative)

    by pawn's gambit ( 553621 )

    Robo Rally [wikipedia.org] has to be the #1 geek board game out there. Unfortunately it's out of print and you can only get it used and abused from places like Ebay [ebay.com]

    I still create RoboRally parties and spend hours playing this game with friends and co-workers. And when I can't get together a group of people to play, there are variants [eyeplaygames.com] online that are really cool to play too.

    It was created by Richard Garfield [wikipedia.org] (the same guy that made the Magic the Gathering [wizards.com] game) and published by Wizards of the Coast [wizards.com] back in 1994

    It

  • PR - is a relatively easy and straight-forward game of market economies that is extremely complex upon examination. There are dozens of strategies to follow and while luck can help a bit, skill is large part of the importance to winning.

    Acquire - what can I say about this brilliant and somewhat abstract game that hasn't been said before. Luck is too important to the game in my opinion but it definitely will make the geek mind think about the right strategy and approach to the board at any one time.

    Both a

  • Axis & Allies! (Score:2, Informative)

    by Jack Comics ( 631233 ) *

    I concur with the recommendations of Settlers of Catan and Chess. In addition, I'd also recommend Trivial Pursuit, which is a good social game as well as an excellent brain tease.

    Foremost however, I can't believe my absolute favorite board game has yet to be mentioned. Axis & Allies [wizards.com]! Avalon Hill just recently released a Revised edition of the game in celebration of its 20th anniversary. It's a fantastic game for 2-5 players that pits countries (the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, and

  • One problem with selecting a game is that it will only appeal to some of your friends and not others.

    I love strategy, logic and bluffing games. I hate word games. I'll play Risk, Monopoly or poker for hours. Most of my friends like playing things like Boggle or Scrabble-- they'll play something like Cranium.

    One solution to this is to use game kits which can have multiple uses. A deck of cards can be used to play a huge number of games depending on the crowd.

    Another really cool "game kit" is Icehouse Pyra [wunderland.com]
    • I hate scrabble, but some friends turned me on to something they called speed scrabble. The tiles and scoring system remain similar to Scrabble. You deal out 7 pieces to each player who is independantly trying to make a connected series of words (like their own scrabble board) once they achieve this they announce their success (we shouted take two) and all players draw two tiles). Repeat until the tiles are exhausted (a game is pretty quick with more than 6 players). Once all the tiles are distributed a

  • Stratego (Score:3, Interesting)

    by hal2814 ( 725639 ) on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @03:49PM (#9308035)
    Stratego is by and large my favortie board game. It's not got a lot of social interation as it's only a two person game, unless you count people watching the game. One thing I like about Stratego is that it is really fun to watch two people play who are good at it. It's like watching a really good game of poker because it's very easy to bluff both on offense and defense. I especially like the now-defunct Electronic Stratego just because you don't know the rank of a piece until that piece dies and the electronic bomb system is more challenging.

    The other board games I love are Risk, Trivial Pursuit 80's Edition, and Clue.
  • Hands down one of the best classic games. No dice. No cards. No Random bonuses.

    It's purely a derivative of chess mixed with politics! A highly addictive game if you have a set of highly competative and suspicious friends!
  • Before they switched the the card (a la "Magic the Gathering") format. It was cut-throat, and a LOT of fun! Be careful who you play with. I've only played it with close friends, but I wonder if being a total bastard in the game would affect friendships that aren't so close...
    • Was?! Steve Jackson Games certainly does push INWO, but they still sell good 'ol Illuminati too. In fact, they just released a variant based on the same rules. They've had expansions for Illuminati itself as well (Illuminati Y2K and Brainwash). It's a fantastic game. It tends to grow "house rules" (my gang of college friends played regularly and usually do still manage a game when we get together for reunions). It's also a lot of fun to play with strangers (I always try to get into a game at GenCon when
    • Unfortunately, Illuminati suffers from the typical flaw of the Steve Jackson Game: a long, tedious endgame.

      Basically, your ability to hinder your opponents is far greater than your ability to make progress on your own. Thus, the end of the game consists of everyone taking down the leader until all the players run out of screw-you cards, and somebody wins. And winning isn't usually a matter of skill, just dumb luck that your opponents were out of cards when you were in a position to win.

      Munchkin and Hacker
  • The Lord of the Rings Boardgame [lordofther...rdgame.com] has to be #1 in my book for fostering social interaction:

    1) You have to work together towards a common goal (argue)
    2) You go through a number of adventure boards where you relive the adventures the hobbits went through (argue more)
    3) You have to deal with limited resources, and by the end of the game have tough decisions you need to intelligently discuss with the rest of the group, in order to succeed (open brawl/fistfight)

  • cosmic encounter (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mkanoap ( 209584 ) on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @04:09PM (#9308331)
    I can't believe no one has mentioned cosmic encounter, my favorate social game.
    3 or 4 different game companies have produced versions of it and the original had 9 expansions.
    Add that to the tons of user created expansions available on the web and you get a game that never gets old.

    The best CE site in my opinion (disclaimer, I did the database programming) is The warp [redamedia.com]

  • Missing option (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Nyarly ( 104096 ) <nyarly@redfivel l c . com> on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @04:09PM (#9308336) Homepage Journal
    While I concur with most of the other suggestions here, I've got a few more fish for the fire:

    1. Modern Art. Excellent abstract game for 3-5. Plays well with 3, 4 or 5 players. Players are running modern art galleries. The art has no inherent value, only it's future value based on how it sells now. Nonetheless, you have to bid on each piece. Very nice.
    2. Titan: The Arena. Eight monsters battle in an arena over five rounds. Players bet on which ones will survive. The earlier the bet, the more its value.
    3. funagain.com [funagain.com] more games than you shake a stick at. Used and out of print, too.
    • You mentioned Titan: The Arena (which I love), but don't forget the original _Titan_. That's a classic, and very popular with board gamers (at least around here).

      It's got a strategic board where you try and recruit monsters of increasing quality (depending on your existing monsters and the terrain in which you land) and a tactical board where you actually fight it out with other players. There are dice, so luck is a factor, but smart gameplay will almost always win out.

      The only downside to this game is le

  • So far I've seen no mention of Trivial Persuit. I love this game. Right now though I am at the point where in order to keep the game fair I have to answer two questions per turn rather than just one when I play with my wife and our friends. I've even gone so far as to give them the childrens cards for their questions and the uber-esoteric ones for myself.
  • Two board games that I still can play and enjoy are Risk and Settlers. These two games are amazingly simple, yet because of the infinite strategies involved, can provide endless hours of entertainment.

    I'm sure most of you know what Risk is. Basically, you can have up to 6 players and the objective is to take over enemy territory using die rolls to determine the victor. (Yes, a primitive form of D&D I guess but I never played the latter so I wouldn't know).

    Settlers is much more complicated. The obj

    • I will never play Risk again.

      Every person I've ever played with relies on a different obscure house rule which they insist is necessary "for balance" (curiously, I have never even come close to winning a game of Risk in which its "imbalance" had been corrected). If I refuse to allow the rule, I'm setting myself up for six to eight hours of pissing and moaning, and attempts by that opponent to use the rule surreptitiously, as if it were a game of Cosmic Encounter or Illuminati.

      Maybe I just have bad luck fi

  • So many! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by araven ( 71003 ) on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @04:29PM (#9308634)
    My husband and I collect board games, and will try any game (within reason) once. IMHO the way to make board games social is to have a set of friends who will also try anything once and consider the time fun, even if the game sucks. Then, once you know what to expect of a game, you can figure out who would enjoy it.

    Often if you ASK people what games they enjoy, or what they enjoy in a game, you can figure out what else they'd enjoy.

    My mom is a self-avowed game-hater, but she likes Scrabble and will tolerate games that are just excuses to hang out and talk with friends. "Apples to Apples" is a great one (it even plays well with kids), and a little-known Richard Garfield game, "What Were You Thinking?"

    For game geeks, anything by Steve Jackson Games is excellent. Illuminati (not INWO) is my all-time favorite. "Ninja Burger," however, is a brand new and darned awesome game.

    The "Chez" series (Chez Geek, Chez Grunt, Chez Greek...) are a lot of fun for a group of 20-30somethings. They're more about shared experience than about real gaming, but they've got enough game elements to keep a geek happy.

    For IT folk, I love Management Material (Zipwhaa Games) and now IT Management Material. I got a copy for one of my co-workers as a gift and we all spent the rest of the afternoon locked in an office playing it (poor users couldn't find a single sysadmin anywhere). Again, more about shared experience than the game, but beautifully balanced and with nice mechanics.

    Fluxx is another one that you can play with anyone, plus it's very portable. Easy to learn (starts with a single rule) but deep enough that someone who loves strategy can have a blast with it.

    Mmmmm...games....

    ~
    • Steve Jackson Games [sjgames.com] is the perfect place to check out for the geek board gamer.
      The assorment of games is great, and fill lots of niches. Alot of my non-geek friends enjoy Car Wars, my D&D friends like Munchkin, illuminati appeals to my political friends (its great when "the federal reserve" takes over "girlie magazines"), and everybody loves Ninja Burger.
    • That's funny, I have found most Steve Jackson Games to be a little over priced and they generally don't come with all of the bits you need to play out of the box. They also don't tend to be as deep as I'd like.

      I'd much rather play Carcassonne, Ricochet Robot, Tigris and Euphrates, or Through the Desert than Illuminati. I still play Illuminati from time to time, but it just doesn't have the same spark it once did.

      But, to each his or her own. =)
      • Oh agreed, SJ Games is cheap, but their games are expensive. The old Illuminati came with nice plastic poker "megabuck" chips, the new comes with badly-perforated cardboard megabucks. They couldn't possibly find smaller (read "cheaper") dice to include with the games, and the game "boards" in most games have devolved into large pieces of folded paper. All that for a mere $3X.XX. Still, if you're in to board gaming (and what customers of SJ Games are NOT into gaming of various kinds) then you've got plent
        • I think I've just been disappointed by Steve Jackson Games too many times. While I think the core game of Illuminati is interesting, it has some end game issues and becomes a little bit too much about who gets the richest groups. The ability of the players to constantly stop each other just short of winning can make the game drag on far longer than I'd like it to. Many other Steve Jackson efforts are cute or funny concepts, but don't really have interplay that is interesting to me in the longer term.

          I g
          • You make good points. I don't disagree with several of them. I have not played Citadels (it's on my list) so I can't compare intelligently, but agree that Illuminati v. Ricochet Robots is a bad example.

            I think that the Illuminati Brainwash expansion did a lot to balance the game. It took the alignment rules up a notch, and can help to balance a game in which one player has gotten too many powerful groups. OTOH, it does tend to delay the end in that "you've almost won, and suddenly you're back to the be

  • Games and social interaction (Score:3)

    by Kaimelar ( 121741 ) on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @04:37PM (#9308770) Homepage
    Which leads to my question: to which board games do you feel a close affinity? And to what degree have they engendered social interaction with those who don't share your particular interests?"

    Others have already mentioned several of my favorite games:

    • Risk
    • Settlers of Catan
    • Magic: the Gathering
    I think all of these games have "engendered social interaction". These games have been the impetus for social interaction since I was a kid, be it playing Risk with my family, the nights (and days) spent playing M:tG in college, or the evenings with friends around the coffee table and Settlers board now.

    For me, the games have always been a distant second to enjoying time with those close to me. Through these games I've found many people with whom I have common interests. I consider this a boon, and it was especially so in college. There was always a group of five or six Magic players who would hang out on weekends together. We'd relax, complain about politics, talk about whatever, and generally have a good time. Meanwhile, the rest of the campus was at the frat houses giving themselves alcohol poisoning and acting the fool until the cops or paramedics were called -- and that was never my idea of a good time.

    The way I see it, those who share my interest in these games probably have more in common with me, and I am more likely to get along with them and enjoy their company. At least, it's worked that way so far.

    • I would like to add to this that Risk 2210 is a great new version of Risk. The original game mechanics are present, as is the original layout (you can play the original game exactly on this board if you ignore the new stuff), but the idea of bases and leader units has been introduced, as well as a system of cards that can affect each part of the game. Also added are water territories, providing new connections between the continents as well as new 'continents' to control, and the moon which has its own sp

  • Robotanks (Score:2, Interesting)

    by wikthemighty ( 524325 )

    With all the postings mentioning RoboRally, I thought I'd mention another, slightly rarer, game where you do some programming, RoboTanks [fatmessiahgames.com]

    Each player has a small group of tanks, which you put cards into stacks for their program, which they then follow from that point out. Reminds me of the old Playstation game Carnage Heart, only with many units per side.

    It's a lot less direct than RoboRally, and hard to play if you can't think ahead a number of turns, but can be a lot of fun in the right company.
  • Scotland yard is a bad example.

    it is a very one sided game. (like axis and allies)
    the odds are stacked well in favour of the detectives....

    both games are quite fun to play, and involve some level of thinking ...but if you want a real fair chalange play chess or go, or mastermind.

  • Okay, maybe not quite a board game, but closely related. I remember continually increasing the difficulty by:

    • Not turning the timer all the way.
    • Piling pieces in a dense pile.
    • Piling pieces into a small box and pulling blindly.
    • Rotating the play arena to different orientations.
    • Rotating the play arena to different orientations halfway through the time limit.
    • All of the above in different combinations

    • Run Yourself Ragged [boardgamegeek.com]

      Like Perfection, it's not strictly the sort of thing the article asks about (although I suppose you need to be good at spatial relationships when blindly going through the maze), but it's an entertaining variant on the timed 1-player game.


      • OH YEA! I had that too! Forgot all about it. I had picked it up at a garage sale as a kid. Since it didn't have any original packaging, I never knew its name.

        Now, I have something else I need to re-buy that my wife will hate. Every time a new package shows up (usually thanks to eBay) she just rolls her eyes and asks silly questions like; "What in the world do you need a PacMan lunch box for?"

        SOs just don't get it.

  • There's an awful lot of extraordinary games being mentioned, but also some surprising omissions:

    El Grade [funagain.com], an easy to learn game which ostensibly centers around players vying for political dominance in 16th centruy Spain. This one will be coming back in print later this year, supposedly, but most gaming stores still have or can get it. While you're at it, get the Expansions, although King and Intrigue is the only one you'll be using with any regularity. Cost hovers around $45 retail.

    Babel [funagain.com] is an out of
  • I was just wondering if anyone has any recommendations for games that are good for two players, but can allow more. Most of the ones mentioned here seem to only be good for a larger group.

  • Carcassonne (Score:3)

    by magic ( 19621 ) on Tuesday June 01, 2004 @06:10PM (#9309835) Homepage
    Carcassonne [boardgamegeek.com] is the game that bumped the excellent Settlers of Cataan from the top spot for me.

    Carcassonne is incredibly elegant. You place new tiles to expand the world, optionally claiming them for your side. Play is simultaneously competitive and cooperative between players as temporary aliances are formed and broken based on mutual interest. There are several ways to earn points, leading to vastly different strategies (like in an RTS on a computer), and enough expansion packs to keep the game ever fresh.

    -m

  • My family still plays games when we get together mostly cards now (Penochle, or (Liverpool or Shanghai) Rummy we used to play hearts or Oh heck. Mom loves clue, I never found it very interesting, we all started playing pente (something like go or Othello). Risk was fun but we only did two player games. I loved Axis & Allies (and later Warhammer) but found Shogun/Samurai Swords to be more interesting. The game was different each time since players select territories, also the battle mechanism was dif
  • Trivial Pursuit

  • Civilization (Score:2, Insightful)

    by bllius69 ( 778318 )
    By Avalon Hill (the game that inspired the PC game by Sid Meier) is still one my favorites. Fairly easy to understand, yet difficult to master, the endless permutations and political backstabbing make this a fun, although long game, to enjoy with friends (8 hrs. is a typical game).
  • I don't know anyone around here to play chess with anymore, but at one time I was pretty good at it, I probably played at about an ELO rating level of 2000 or so (expert). I liked the older, flashy gambits, just for fun, although most modern masters prefer the queen's-pawn games.
  • Risk has always been the game of choice amongst my friends. In fact, I liked it so much I wrote a computerized version.

  • The most bizarre board game I've ever received is called The Tomato Game, (c) Susan A. Tambone. There isn't any other company name or publisher anywhere on it. It's a standard game with a path, tokens, die, and question/action cards that you draw when you land on different spaces. It comes in a box designed to look like a cardboard tomato crate. I grow veggies at home and my wife got this game for me several years ago after finding it advertised in the back of some magazine.

    It has the feel of a game wr

  • http://www.boardgamegeek.com/rankbrowse.php3?ranki ng=1 [boardgamegeek.com]
    I recently got Puerto Rico, and it is great indeed!
  • I feel a bit proud that games from german or european game designers are as popular in the rest of the world as they are here.

    Most of the classics have already been named so i will not repeat them. For those of you who seek games which are out of print in the US have you considered importing them over from germany or other places in europe? Of all the mentioned out-of-print games at least RoboRally and Scotland Yard are available here in germany and there may be others I don't think of at the moment.

    My al
  • Got to be the best 4 player game I have ever played.
    Its a boardgame that starts with the second Roman invasion of the UK and ends with the aftermath of the battle of Hastings.
    Well balanced game that takes a minimum of 3 hours to play with experienced players.
    The board is divided into stragetically important regions of the UK.
    We've taken it with us on various trips - the idea being to play a game in every region on the board. Started this with a few friends years ago, managed to get a game going up in the Or
  • I recommend the game I believe is called Democracy (I wasn't able to google it). It utilizes cards & chips and the goal of the game is to has out the victory conditions "democratically". It is very social, but not for everyone, being so open ended and all (may people seem to prefer the rigidity of Trivial Pursuit).
  • Snakes 'n' ladders. Arguments, when done properly, are thought provoking, and nothing causes more arguments than what, if anything, gets another throw. And whether or not you count the square you started on. Or even, 'does that mean I go forward four squares or do I go to square four?'. I wish I made that last one up.

  • Go (Score:2)

    by Bobtree ( 105901 )
    Geeks play Go. Nuff said.

    Also good social that I've been playing: Cosmic Enconter, Game of Thrones, Settlers of Catan, and Citadels.

    If you have a PS2 handy, Culdcept is an interesting Monopoly / MTG mix, and you can play 4-players with a multitap or hot-seat.

  • Mindtrap (Score:2, Informative)

    by LostSinner ( 546906 )
    i thought someone would have mentioned Mindtrap [amazon.com], but it doesn't look like it.

    the brain teasers are incredible (some of them are a little preposterous), and it scales well. sometimes i'll get bored and just start trying to figure out the questions myself. the game really comes into its own, however, when you have two teams of players constantly double-guessing themselves.

    there have been a couple sequels that add different types of puzzles as well, but they're getting harder to come by.

  • I don't like logic games, they seem like too much work and I might learn that I'm not as smart as I assume I am.

    I love Pictionary though, just the creative element involved...

    Scrabble and other similar word games suck...I hate the idea of treating words as mere collections of letters devoid of meaning. On the other hand, crossover stuff like Scattegories, which brings the meaning back into play, are ok.

    And Monopoly is just boring boring boring [kisrael.com].
  • I am quite fond of Illuminatti. Lots of strategic thinking, and the ability to interfere with rolls calls in alot of deal making and diplomacy.

    And how can you not love a game that specifically allows any sort of 'meta game' deal that you can arrange? And also explicitly allows you to break those deals?

    The only flaw is that the game can bog down when players try to calculate best / worst case scenarios for making thier rolls.

    END COMMUNICATION
  • The original Scotland Yard is still very much in print. The latest edition is just gorgeous - the board is heavy with nice artwork and the box is really well designed. The original board for tracking Mr. X's movements is also still included and is really well made.

    Overall a great game! You can get it for about $9 under MSRP by going to Fair Play Games [fairplaygames.com].
  • The AH Dune (re-released in a French format by Descrates Games a few years ago) is one of the most interesting and compelling strategy board games I've ever played. I grew up in a household with two copies: products of my father & uncle's Science Fiction Hayward Area book club. The game is one of Avalon Hill's most famous and until eBay and the French re-release, copies would sometimes go for more than $100.

    What makes it terrific is the six unique characters (and abilities) that are based on the bo

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