What currently makes your life awesome? Following on from this suggestion, I am kicking it off. Not only do I belong to a LAN group, I also belong to a group of friends, (3 other families we know well from when the kids were at primary school together), Board Games Night. In the old days when we were allowed out, we used to meeet every 6 weeks or so at one of the 4 houses, play board games, natter, drink and eat. One friend leads the group and is a bit serios. We used to have a meal first th the start, but that got in the way of board gaming, and latterly he'd tell us off for sociaising too much! He has a wall of shelves with games, and many of those travel to other houses where we don't have quite so much to choose from. We also had a Christmas meal with a secret Santa game for each family. Personal favourites include Codnames, Sushi Go, Seven Wonders (my wife HATES it!), Bohnanza and Ticket to Ride. Oh yes, and One Night Werewolf with the phone ap prunning the game. It' svoiced by that fantastic American voice artist whose name I forget. We did try some online meet ups on Zoom, but it didn't gel, nor did online collaboration.
i used to meet every week or 2 and play different games with friends. Blood Bowl Dungeons and dragons dresden files walking dead warzone dead zone and a crap load more over the years that I cant remember the name of. We tried zoom at the beginning and it just didn't work to well either. Might be something worth revisiting, it seems zoom is a lot easier for things like quizzes and chatting than a board game. Could try out the board game sim on steam, but from what I remember is clunky
I'm in a group who meet once a week via Discord/Table Top Simulator and we usually play one new and one or two "old" games - its really broadened my board-gaming horizons! A couple of us are enthusiastic amateurs, a couple are willing beginners, but we do have a veteran boardgamer who seems to have played pretty much every game we can think of, but also has managed to accumulate the best versions of them in the Table Top Simulator environment. Our favourite go-to "old" games (i.e. those we've played previously) are Tsuro, Azul (there's a cracking scripted mod for this) and Carcasonne. We tend to avoid social deduction games, and have probably had our most fun with the cooperatives games such as Pandemic, Backdraft, and Horrified. We've also recently started a D&D game (for some of us, me included, our first foray) which got off to a bit of a shakey start (we split up and almost got ourselves killed on our first encounter) but is turning out to be a lot of fun Its probably the only thing stopping me going totally round the bend in our current "situation"...
I love those games! Around 2011 to 2014, I lived in a house with other graduates from the same company. That's when I got into boardgames. We had the space so we hosted most of the boardgame sessions. My favourites are: - Battlestar Galactica - Coupe - Betrayal at the house on the hill - Catan - Power Grid - Ticket to Ride - Forbidden Island/Desert Since moving out, I've only been to a handful of games. My wife doesn't like thinking/scheming games, still play Sushi Go every now and then. The group drifted apart (geographically) in late 2010's, more serious ones found their own circles elsewhere and less serious (myself) don't play much. We tried to organise an Among Us session but it never took off due to everyone's vastly different free time. So not sure I can join in due to young family. But definitely still think back fondly.
Been playing "grown up" games for a few years now, like Arboreal in the 1st post we have some friends who are really into it and have hundreds of games tucked away. It's their primary hobby really, and we tagged onto it that way. Until the 'rona we've also been playing regularly with some friends and even ventured into our first D&D game too which is awesome once you get into it. Current favourites are (in no particular order/difficulty): Twighlight Imperium Wingspan Pandemic Ticket To Ride Tzolk'in Legendary (and various expansions) Clank We've got quite a few of the more rapid games too, obviously not all with a board, e.g. Chameleon, Joking Hazard, Exploding Kittens etc etc... One thing I'm now completely and totally sick of through over-exposure is cards against f'ing humanity! aka Cards against fun.
Got various friends fairly into them, not hugely myself but we've grabbed a couple. Crusader Kings was a surprising hit with both my and my brother's OH, but we've not managed to play as a 4 yet (was our one plan over Christmas that got killed by the restrictions). Imperial Assault, played the first couple of missions both with my brother and with my OH, I enjoyed it more than both of them so not sure how much that'll get played, had it since last Christmas Root was one I went in on with my brother to again play at Christmas that didn't happen but we're looking forward to when we can give it a go. Codenames is something I've played with various groups and even my parents grabbed a copy.
I used to run a local games club for people to come together and play board games, skirmish games and roleplay games. I'm no longer with the club but it's still going strong (online at the moment due to Covid). Since leaving the club my main focus turned into running roleplay games (Dungeons & Dragons, World of Darkness, Call of Chuthulhu and Paranoia) via Roll20/Foundry VTT and Discord along with the occasional board game on Tabletop Simulator... nowadays I only really get to play a physical board game when my niece visits. Me and my niece mostly play co-operative games, though do sometimes play something with a little competition. These are some of the many games under my bed and in my cupboard that we dig out for some fun: Forbidden Desert/Island/Sky Pandemic Elder Sign Betrayal at House on the Hill (we modify it slightly for 2 players) Eldritch Horror Takenoko The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine Carcassonne The 7th Continent King of Tokyo Splendor On Tour Tokaido Castle Panic It's a somewhat out of date list (3+ years), but this is a good chunk of what I own: https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/AndrewStar?own=1&subtype=boardgame&ff=1
It's often just me and Laura playing so we're quite fond of 7 Wonders Duel, it has enough dynamic to it that you need to keep thinking and paying attention, but it's not slow to learn. It can be a bit unfair with the finances but that's a luck element that won't often crop up. We also like Batman Love Letter, it's just a reskin of the original but in a fun way; a decent quick two player game but with three or more it's quite tactical, and is quick and easy to teach to people.
i picked up a few of these for me and the missus next week when we get some time together . https://www.amazon.co.uk/University...rds=murder+mystery+game&qid=1612180071&sr=8-5 https://www.amazon.co.uk/iDventure-...TW1FE004FV0&psc=1&refRID=J6DFMPSCDTW1FE004FV0
Anyone else find themselves constantly checking Kickstarter for new board games? I'd say a good chunk of my most recent games have been impulse purchases through Kickstarter.
Apologies for the wall of quotes! Dont get me wrong, social deduction games can be good, but you HAVE to be paying attention, and playing on TTS they dont hold the attention as well. Also having grown up where cheating was severely frowned on, i dont like lying in games even when the game requires it, it just feels wrong and makes me uncomfortable with that sort of game... Twiglet Imperium is one we're building up to, hopefully as a massive in person session when the restrictions are long gone. Wingspan, the wife and I like (played it at the sister-in-laws way back before COVID kicked off) but i feel the mechanics are a bit janky and cobbled together; but it is pretty! Exploding Kittens, yeah well (i have the NSFW version for full disclosure), i feel it falls into the same pitfalls as Munchkin (and CAH) in that the "humour" can sometimes be great and others fall flatter than a pancake sat on by a rhino... Will have to have a look at some of the others you list... Will have to have a look at those three.. More to look up. Cant say i got on with King of Tokyo... 7 Wonders Duel is a cracking 2-player game, lots of longevity, but easy to pick up... Ahh, good ol' Love Letter (and its derivatives) - simple enough for young kids, and complex enough to entertain adults - we quite often play Lovecraft Letter. i try not to... my wallet has too many other pressures!
Each to their own. It's certainly the type of game you either love it or hate it. I like it because of the uncertainty, it also gets people talking more than Ticket to Ride or Catan.
King of Tokyo is not really very high on my list of favourites either, my niece likes it though so I usually agree to play it if she asks. Thankfully she loves the Forbidden series of games & Pandemic, so those games end up on the table most of the time. These would some of my top choices for specific categories: Co-op Survival: Forbidden Desert / Pandemic Worker Placement: Caverna / Agricola Exploration/Story: 7th Continent Card Game: No Thanks Quick Game: On Tour / 5 Minute Dungeon
Dont get me wrong, i have enjoyed them in the past, i just find their reliance on the single mechanic of lying to each other a bit dull and highly confrontational... I think they're best as "ice breaker" games in new groups but there are a lot better games out there for established groups...
@Edwards and I would meet up occasionally before C19 and play some games. I think my favourite is Defenders of the Realm, not because it's the best game just one I enjoy. We've also played zombicide sushi go lords of waterdeep carcisone mice and mystics pandemic hero quest betrayl on the house on the hill castle ravencroft? firefly game I'm sure he'll correct anything incorrect above I'm more of a fan of co-op stuff in general and my rolling is god awful.
You nailed them all! (impressed you remembered firefly tbh). The general rule in our house is to buy games where it's us vs the board, with exception for Hero Quest which was a nostalgic pickup, and competative-lite games like carcassone, sushi go and waterdeep. I've since picked up Ticket to Ride and The 7th Continent which we've yet to try, plus i've been eyeing up hive for a good while now.
There was the french kill people and bury them hotel game too which was interesting. Waterdeep is cool, even if you and I always get destroyed. And while I like hero quest, you're always kinda forced to be the bad guy. Mice and mystics is better in this respect as an RPG in a box. Same as betrayal, though I hate being the bad guy. I'll add I've played Forbidden Island, as I got my nieces that for christmas one year, and that's pretty good too. Edit: I've been looking at Takenoko and Tokaido for a while, may end up getting Takenoko for my nieces.
I'd say, if you can, put the best part of a full afternoon aside for your first time with 7th Continent as it's worth taking your time to get a good feel of it all. Sure, for your nieces... we've all used that excuse.
The bloody inn. Definitely need to get another few goes on that to really figure it out. It's a nice one because whilst you can (and do!) stitch each other up, you're still essentially competing with each other against the deck/managing your hand, plus I love how absurdly dark the setting is. I'm always on the hunt for a decent campaign-style game, where your characters progress from level to level, whilst still being 'us against the game'. This fits the bill, except it's pretty hard/we're awful it at, and it's tough to have a do-over when you fall at the last hurdle: 90 minutes into a level! TBH, I'd happily spend the time to learn the systems/create a scenario/pre-create characters to DM as begginer-frendly a D&D game/campaign as possible with this in mind, but the wife certainly won't go for it.
