The Thread Where We Are Board Game Geeks

About Scrabble practice ruining Big Boggle, I have to comment that I dominate by going for the big eight letter words and completely neglecting the tiny ones. So I think memorizing obscure combinations of two or three letters isn't essential to Boggle the way it is to Scrabble, given the point distribution. Geekiness!!!

One board game I liked a lot but is apparently hard to buy new now is RoboRally. Is it true you can't buy it anymore?
RoboRally went out of print, but I believe that a new edition of it just came out.

Ticket To Ride is very, very light (and isn't it one of those games where the 2nd version, Europe, fixed some problems in the first?) but it's certainly fun enough.

Juliaa would still like Puerto Rico.

This is how I managed to convince my ex to play, and he spent all his time trying to make his courtyard symmetrical, and somehow he won, despite generally not being very good at games.

Oltremare is okay, I think I might just be tired of free-trading games.

But I actually haven't played that many "conquer the world" type games. I'm sure there's a relevant GeekList on BGG.

Louis XIV, still.
Ingenius a bit (That wacky Knizia and his ridiculously simple ideas!)
Goldbrau, which is just the daftest, most sweetly inconsequential thing ever to play with beer and laughing when you're done with realer games, it says "the cleverest businessman wins" on the box but nothing could be further from the truth. I really like it!

http://www.somethingawful.com/index.php?a=3818

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/4829/captainawesomeie3.jpg

Played Settlers of Catan over the weekend while in Southend with friends, and it was wicked, so yesterday I bought us a copy, too.

I miss playing Settlers of Catan.
Also, Cranium, but mostly for the blue cards that made you draw things with your eyes closed or build stuff out of clay that went moldy after a couple years.
Also, Poleconomy, because it's horribly designed so there's no way everyone playing doesn't become a millionaire, even/especially during inflation. It was probably a neo-con invention meant to bring all the fun of uncapped capitalism to the family board game, but as it's the most boring premise for a game ever (think Monopoly without any sense of charity, community chest, or housing) I doubt any little kids were ever converted.

If you like Settlers, then I would recommend Puerto Rico, made by the same people. German board games rock!

i like scrabble

Puerto Rico wasn't made by the same people (different designer, different publisher), but it is a significantly awesome game. A little tricky to learn at first but everyone I've shown it to gets the idea about halfway through the first game and ends up loving it.

Is anybody here on Little Golem?

Thanks to a random Berkeley dude liquidating his massive game collection at fire sale prices my gaming shelf is well stock for the coming winter months. Some favorites and recommendations for your game nights.

Pandemic. Four player cooperative disease eradication. It's you (and bros) vs the board. The board wins about 60% of the time. Tense and easy to teach. If you have kids there is a similar but slightly lighter game called Forbidden Island.

Dominion. A non collectible card game where all players are building their decks in real time from a shared pool of 10 kingdom cards. No two games are ever alike thanks to a randomizer deck that changes the kingdom card lineup.

Dixit. A surrealist visual improvement of Apples to Apples. Won a "game of the year" award in Germany which is kinda a big deal. Players take turns telling a story then laying down an image from their hand. Each other player selects an image from their hand that matches the story. Everyone guesses which is the storyteller's card. You have to be vague and clever but not overly so.

Anyone else have any recommendations?

I like those 3 games. Panademic seems a bit less strategic but then again that can be a good for some groups of people (like a group with lots of BGG newbs).

Off the top of my head I'd suggest Bang the Bullet. It can be very random (low strategy) but it is very fun, especially with a large group.

A bunch of Euro strategy games that are in the top 100 games list on BoardGameGeek.com are fun (browse all games and the list should come up).

RoboRally is a really solid game

I tried to make a board game thread earlier this year but it didn't last very long

It gets mentioned upthread, but I'm interested in playing Eclipse. I like the 4x style of interstellar exploration. There's also the GMT Space Empires game but i think it's between printings rn.

Code Names! yes. I can't imagine how that would work with only two players, the 4-person dynamic is so fun

Role Playing Games: Search/Destroy

This is the generic rpg thread but a long time since anyone posted there

Role-Playing Games crush of shame poll

Why did you stop playing Role Playing Games?

Other candidates

There was one for indie/non fantasy RPGs that was in use a couple of years ago but I can't find it

But yes, the austerity one is the most up to date I guess

eclipse is super fun! but i haven't played in AGES. i also love Arkham Horror (the original bgg, not the card game) for some of the reasons you describe re Eldritch Horror above. but no one ever wants to play with me. it's so long (which is maybe why i love it)

Tabletop RPGs/story-building games - beyond D&D

Found it, this is the most alive RPG thread

there is a noise board dnd thread that - in classic old meets new fashion - starts with like 800 gigantic images, all of which are now dead links

aldo, see here:

The incredible austerity of D&D in 1980

that's the most active RPG thread in my memory, I tell stories from the 80s

(and 70s)

the new yorker article is great

Any recommendations for a game for an 11 year old boy, to play with the family? I've found quite a few hippy nature ones, I think I want to go a bit cooler, space themed if possible.

Galaxy Trucker. You each have to put together a spaceship from loads of pieces, like a competetive puzzle. Then you have to fly that spaceship to its destination, and hope the hodgepodge of elements will see off the asteroids, pirates, slavers and other misfortune that might come your way.

That was in my long list so I'll go for it, thanks!

I love it, am always playing it with my 8yo, but very much with training wheels on, so I reckon it should keep an 11yo involved, but also not scare off the rest of the family.

Yeah my first thought was Galaxy Trucker but there are guns etc (although purely defensive) if that isn't what you're after. (Solely based on "hippy nature" as a prompt.)

Tiny Epic Galaxies, Chimera Station, Asking For Trobils all good but don't know how in print the last two are which would probably be my recs. I'd also say Loop Inc but I think it's too complicated.

if you think they could handle a worker placement / tile laying game, i have black angel and think it is pretty cool. i think a sharp 11 year old could swing it.

on the other hand might be a bit too much, give the 2-3 hr play time, plus i think shifting victory conditions could be especially confusing for some kids

Yeah 2-3 hours is a bit long. Thanks for all the suggestions, I've bought Galaxy Trucker.

Galaxy Trucker is one of the few games I can think of that uses dexterity and a fun theme but is surprisingly strategic. Great choice for an 11yo I think!

galaxy trucker is classic, also you just unburied a memory of a different game i played like a decade ago that was a space 4x strategy game except movement around the board was done by finger flicking your wooden disk spaceship crokinole-style

I wasn't sure whether Galaxy Trucker truly counts as dexterity but I would be very bad at the game you describe, regardless of how strategic it is

you just unburied a memory of a different game i played like a decade ago that was a space 4x strategy game except movement around the board was done by finger flicking your wooden disk spaceship crokinole-style

this sounds very fun! if you remember the title...

Ascending Empires was the title, looks like it's actually getting a new edition next year

Thank you!

Does anyone else here play on https://boardgamearena.com/? My game night crew have been having a lot of fun with Decrypto (which is a twist on Codenames).