“Come over and play board games!” they said. “It’ll be fun!”

[Ellyria]

Cool, it's super hard to get my good friends to play any rpg or mini's game so family classic will have to do, I'm open to suggestions

 

Don't get old games! There are so many better ones with more balanced/interesting/entertaining mechanics. You should look at videos on Dice Tower and Wil Wheaton's TableTop channel on YouTube. Everyone's tastes are different though.

 

This is my collection with ratings based on how much fun we personally have at game night. (Our group is a good mix of casual, competitive, cooperative, gamers and non-gamers.)

 

http://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/Ellyria

 

What kind of friends do you have? Would they prefer something confrontational, interactive or abstract?

 

Here are some good video reviews. Forbidden Desert is my favorite co-op.

 

 

If you like Checkers/Chess style games, Tsuro is great.

 

 

Some other similar (short, cut-throat) games: Blokus Trigon, Hey, That's My Fish!

 

If you insist on Clue, try to get your hands on The Great Museum Caper. It's out of print but you can still find it used online. Way more fun than the original.

 

If you like dexterity/recognition/reflex games, Ghost Blitz and Pick-a-Pig are a rowdy pile of fun and laughs.

 

If you're just looking for a party game, Cards Against Humanity is like Apples to Apples with highly inappropriate sexual/political jokes and potty humor. You can print your own version at home for about $10.

 

Another fantastic free game that gets infinitely more fun with lots of people is Telephone Pictionary.

 

If you're looking for an RPG theme without the actual RPG part of it, Red Dragon Inn is about brawling, gambling and trying to drink each other under the table.

 

And then there's RoboRally, which has already been mentioned a few times here. You're a computer in a robot factory trying to race around flag grabbing laser mazes.

 

I am CERTAIN any of these will suit your needs more satisfyingly than Trivial Pursuit. ;)

Edited October 19, 2013 by Ellyria

[Shogun]

Amazing!!!!!!! I will spend many hours researching all these great ideas . Thank you

[Slendertroll]

One aspect I look for in a good game is how easy it is to run away with it. My memories of playing monopoly are filled with instances where someone started picking up momentum early and it soon became clear they were going to win -- even though there was still an hour or two left in the game. That's not fun for anyone except the guy/gal running away with it.

 

The same problem exists in 40k -- "So, I just stand here for 30 minutes while you take your turn and shoot the crap out of my guys?"

 

For me, it's important that the game stays close for most of the game and that players are engaged. So, Infinity v. 40k where you can react to the acting player. Alchemist where players are usually around the same score until the final tallys are done. As awesome as Catan is, it can be troublesome to play if you find yourself with bad placement and/or fenced off by other players.

 

For friendly boardgame nights, co-op is where it's at.

If you're into superheros as a theme, check out Sentinels of the Multiverse. It's an incredibly fun cooperative tabletop card game, where each player takes the role of one of dozens of heroes, and you work together to take down some big bad. It's very thematic and fun, and has a really high replay value.

 

Disclaimer: my cousin is one of the designers, but I am confident that I would still love it even if he wasn't.

[Last Knight]

I've played Sentinels of the Megaverse; it's a lot of fun.

[Ellyria]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone here actually enjoy Monopoly?

 

There's a 7-page long thread on another forum I frequent where someone was asking for board game suggestions and every single reply was Monopoly. All I could think was...

 

[Slendertroll]

Monopoly can be pretty fun if you play by RAW. The problem is that everyone learned to play as a kid, and didn't bother to read the rules since, and play with heaps and heaps of house rules that only serve to draw the game out. Stuff like Free Parking, for example. It's supposed to be one of two spaces where nothing happens, but people pretty ubiquitously turn it into a way to put cash back into the game. Similarly, almost no one, in my experience, plays with the mandatory auctions. The rules clearly say that if you don't buy a property as soon as you land on it, it goes up for auction. But most people don't even realize that's part of the game. So it ends up taking forever to finish, even though it's a pretty short, fun game if you play it right.

 

Still miles behind some modern games, but isn't as terrible as most people remember it being.

[sumbloke]

Clue is really fun for that tier of classic/family board games. I'd definitely get it if you have a use for that genre of game.

 

For a better version of Clue, check out Mystery of the Abbey

[LordJosh]

Games on my never again list include:

 

Order of the Stick

Pictionary where my wife is teamed up with her sister and/or best friend (seriously, she drew a squiggle, her best friend shouted out "fox", and I rage quit, never again)

 

Games on my OMG, yes please list include:

 

7 Wonders

Dominion (all flavors but Alchemy - potions mechanic is weaksauce)

D&D tile games

Ticket to Ride

 

Games on my OK, I'll play, but not necessarily a go-to list include:

 

Cards Against Humanity (though this gets trotted out a bit too frequently in my gaming circles)

Puerto Rico

Stone Age

Talisman

Pretty much anything else.

[smokingwreckage]

I have tried to get people to try playing Monopoly by the RAW. You might as well suggest that you sodomise goats as performance art. In fact, next time I'm going to try to drop that in the conversation because I'm pretty sure the shock and suspicion will be substantially less.

[Email2085]

My friends and I had I bad Risk game. I thought I had negotiated safe passage through Australia when my own blood betrayed me. My dear, sweet, loving brother had played me for a fool and ambushed my forces.

 

TLDR: I almost made myself an only child.

[Shogun]

I play with my gf , a friend and his gf and they don't attack each other ... They gang up on me because I always win board games and I still manage to beat them!

 

Now we don't play risk any more