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Tabletop Weekly Discussion #2 - Board Game Essentials
I'd love to see a recurring thread here in ~games.tabletop where we can talk about board games in a fun way. Since this is the second in series, my dream has become a reality! Here's my hook for this thread:
If someone were wanting to start creating a collection of board games, what one game would you suggest that they put in their collection, and why? To standardize the question a bit, let's assume that the person is relatively into board gaming already, so it's not "introduce someone to the basics of board games".
I'd definitely have to go with Codenames. It's really easy to teach and understand, even for people that don't really play board games, and it works well with anywhere from 3 people to as many as you want to play with.
I also don't think we've ever played it with anyone that didn't end up enjoying it. It's a great party game.
Man, Codenames is such a good game. Our current favourite version is Codenames: Harry Potter, which introduces a pretty awesome mechanic for playing with just two people which you can add to other versions of Codenames for people who aren't Harry Potter fans.
I think every board game collection needs a game that you can play with people who are only casually interested in playing games. Not everyone wants to learn how to play Arkham Horror and spend 9 hours on a sunday battling the Eldritch; sometimes you want to have a 2 minute explanation and then jump into things, even if you have no real experience with board games. However, those games should still be fun even if you are the sort of person that likes to battle Eldritch horrors in your free time.
My suggestion is Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity, which are basically reskins of almost the same game; there's a judge who flips up a concept card, everyone puts a matching card in, and the judge picks their favourite. Apples to Apples is the family-appropriate version; Cards Against Humanity is it's raunchier sibling. They both usually bring laughs to most of the people involved, and you can explain it to everyone inside of 5 minutes.
A few years ago at stay over with relatives we see infrequently we were trying to think of something fun to do after dinner and target had games on sale. I bought ticket to ride, sushi go, king of new york and pandemic. ticket to ride and sushi go and king of new york were a hit as they require little explanation on how to play and the games go quickly. After that I started getting into board games more but would only buy games when they were on sale. recently my wife got a copy of Disney villains and that game is extremely fun but a little more advanced as each character has a different goal to win. I It's difficult to find games for over 4 people to play, some I would recommend would be one night ultimate warewolf, secret hitler, codenames and say anything. For the younger crowd I would recommend catan junior, and machi koro (with the expansions the base game isn't that great by itself).
I've been considering Disney Villains - I almost got it for one of my daughters last Christmas. I might pick it up and give it a shot. I do the same thing with sales, though I have a great local game store to buy from that sells at a low price above cost, so sometimes I just go through him on a whim.
I do love games for large groups - one that I have been enjoying lately is Avalon, which is simple, but fun. And my recommendation above (Apples to Apples / Cards Against Humanity) are both okay for big groups too!