Just thought of another favorite–“Quiddler” . The cards are really pretty. Card game that’s a combo of scrabble and rummy–hard to describe but family loves it and we take it on trips a lot (easy to pack!)
I am a fan of Secret Hitler: https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Hitler/dp/B01JKD4HYC
best with 7-10 players, but can be played with 5
@gouf78 - i’ve only played codename pictures; not words. Maybe we will try words; is that what you play?
my daughter just saw this and said Secret Hitler is fun; her friend plays it. I’ll look at it.
A game i also ordered from a recommendation is Cash N Guns. Anyone tried that before?
Only played Codenames but read in some reviews that Code Pictures is bit less straightforward since people see more connections in pictures than in words. So in reviews anyway CP is an “upgrade” in some ways.
Great thread. My son in his mid-20s just asked for a game for the holidays. He wants an actual board game (love Settlers) did not want CAH. Tokaido seems like a good choice, Any others of that sort (I’ll go to boardgamegeek as well)?
My mid-20s board game loving son recommends Ticket To Ride to your son, @mom2and.
Seven Wonders is an interesting game which H and I have played with our kids. We have not played most of the others mentioned.
For a mid-20s kid looking for a game that’s not too heavy and gamery (like Dominion) but is not as light as games like TransAmerica or Lost Cities, other popular games are Puerto RIco, Carcassone, Small World.
Small World or Carcassone I think might work for someone who likes Settlers or Carcassone. Both games have expansion versions if you like them.
(Dominion is still my favorite though!)
Dominion is great for people who like Magic: The Gathering.
My kids played Magic, but I never liked it. I definitely didn’t like that it seemed to require buying infinite numbers of cards. I do gather that some of the play is very similar though.
There are big differences between “gamer’s games” (Magic, Dungeons and Dragons etc) and those of us who want a board game for “family time” .
Yes, gamer games can last many hours. I am not interested in games lasting more than 1-2 hours. Folks who get eliminated are bored and it becomes rather unsocial. I am glad some enjoy the more involved games, including D, but that excludes the rest of the world.
I played Dungeons and Dragons many eons ago one summer, but didn’t like it. Dominion games last less than an hour in our house. My kids won’t play Risk because of the games never end.
LOL… we used to spend weekends on a regular basis with friends and on Sunday (before we were to leave) we’d start a game of Risk despite our better instincts…
. Then we’d leave in the wee hours on Monday morning to make it to work… It was so fun though…I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
Risk does take a very long time and certain folks are much more likely to win and engender bad feelings and have folks not want to play against them again as they don’t like the same guy always winning. We rarely play scrabble around here as well because I or S generally win and fight over what is and isn’t a word (just because it’s in the scrabble dictionary, if no one in real life uses it, in my mind it’s NOT a word).
Lol. It’s a word if it’s in the dictionary!
@HImom – are you my sister? This is our family’s story! We definitely need games with a comic touch to them…
I prefer games that are silly and don’t bring out the competitive spirit that is so near the surface with all these super-high-achievers. Games that involve more chance than pure skill are more fun for a wider range of folks. Sadly, I know that I and S get very competitive and make it not fun for us or those around us when we start really getting “into” the games. I like games but prefer those that are short and don’t keep others out of the action for any extended time period.
That’s why games like Codenames appeal to me. Some games are so complex, strategic, that is complicated to even figure out how to start. And often, the players that want to play have played many times before and get the game and strategy. There are whole gaming conventions out there. I’ll stick to Sorry , Yahtzee, and Crazy Eights!