OK all, I am buying Dominion for my Catan/D&D/strategy game loving son. Lots of options on Amazon…do I need to start with a basic edition like Catan, and then which expansion is best?
I think he would love Gloomhaven but not have the people to play it with. He has a D&D group but they stick to D&D. My daughter and and I will play some, but we only have so many hours and brainpower to devote to his super complicated games!!! I just hope he finds a gaming group in college.
If you bought your son Gloomhaven, you and your daughter could play some, and he could play solo also.
Gloomhaven induces passions in people that they didn’t expect. People get attached to their character. Players name their characters, and some people paint the miniature that represent the character. And then, after a dozen or two games, the character reaches their goal (might be kill a certain number of monsters, or go a certain number of places, or something else) and must retire: a sad day, but a happy day also as the player gets to unlock a new character and find out about it. I still miss Heft Mountainfall, and Swipe Lightfinger, and Violet, Crunch, my dear deadly Lion, Blaze, Zmrzlina, and Shard. Well, maybe not so much Shard; I was glad to see her retirement.
Smart ass is a new game. Like an advanced 20 questions.
When my son came home at Thanksgiving - he asked to take Risk and Stratego back to school with him. I was so surprised - wuth all of the apps and technology I had no idea a group in their mid-20s played board games! He was like, “of course we do”.
@TS0104 ywe, you have to buy the base game. Our favorite expansions are Cities/Knights and Seafarers.
@rockvillemom We are huge board game geeks. All of my kids have played games with their friends after they have moved out. Dd has gotten her friends into games. Last Christmas they all came back with board games.
@mom2aphysicsgeek, are those Dominion expansions? Those sound like our Catan expansions. Thanks!
Oops, I posted Catan. Our favorite Dominion expansions are Hinterlands and Prosperity.
It feels to me like Dominion is the board game version of Magic: the Gathering.
Ah well @CardinalFang that seals the deal…DS used to be huge into Magic. We actually have a MTG board game!
We wandered into a bar recently (really, we were parked there for another reason and I needed to use the bathroom). It was a gaming bar, with a lot of the old video games (PacMan, Frogger), some built into the booths and tables. There was a big Connect 4 built into the wall. But most of the games were board games in boxed and you just asked the bartender for them.
I went to another function at a brew pub. My group was there to play bunko (we brought our own stuff) but there was a bookcase full of board games and puzzles to play. Another group was doing painting and they certainly wanted you to make yourself at home and stay awhile.
A board game restaurant opened up in town. I don’t know how they are doing. It seems kind of to go against the idea of turning over tables with diners doesn’t it?
Anyway, I got Telestrations for one of our sons and his wife.
All three of my kids have their own cadre of board games at their homes. They range from 21 to 30. They definitely play them a lot. S and his wife love have regular Chinese Checkers matches.
My thirtysomething kids are part of a regular board game group that meets weekly. And I know my S does various card games, Magic etc, regularly with other friends. And yeah, the coffee shop we hang out in has shelves full of board games.
A boardgame restaurant sounds strange, but a boardgame cafe with a liquor license sounds like a reasonable business.
I’m a huge Jane Austen fan & I received a game called “Marrying Mr. Darcy” as a gift recently. My teen daughter loved the game & it turned her into a fellow Austen fan - she watched some of the movies, then started on the books.
There was an article about a board game bar in Canada that I saw a year or so ago. Looked like great fun but they served food and drinks and I suspect some of those cards and game pieces are pretty grimy. It had all the fun games from our childhood like Hungry Hungry Hippos and Mousetrap. The places I found the games at were bars/brew pubs and they wanted people to linger. The brew pub actually allows you to bring your own food. It was well lit and a fun meeting place.
I remember years ago one of my nephews got the Sorry! game and the aunts and uncles were ‘helping’ the little kids play. Soon the little kids were bored and we took over and it became cutthroat. Old sibling rivalries were awakened.
OP here, following up. Thanks again for all the great ideas! I ended up getting Ticket to Ride–European version. It was received with enthusiasm … but the young crowd actually spent their board game time playing Joking Hazard. I joined in for a round. They said it was similar to Cards Against Humanity, only grosser. I can attest to its grossness! I am no prude but had to bow out after a short bit. It provoked lots of laughter among the post-college crowd. They promised to play something “more wholesome” next time.
Whatever you do, don’t waste your money on Monopoly for Millennials. You can achieve all the snark value by just reading a review article like this one https://boingboing.net/2018/11/12/monopoly-for-millennials-r.html/
My family loves Taboo.
We ended up getting Terraforming Mars. It’s great!