When I was a kid, I loved the board game “Mouse Trap”. Oh sure, there were games that were more challenging, or maybe even more fun, but Mouse Trap had a great gimmick. As you roamed around the board, you would assemble a, er, mousetrap piece by piece. The trap was one of these elaborate things where you’d roll a marble down a pipe which would tip over a bucket and launch a hunk of plastic, and so on until the trap would come down over your player…a plastic mouse!
How about you? What’s your favourite board game and why?
The reason that Scrabble is my favourite board game is because my nephews love to play it, not only do I like the challenge of coming up with a great word for lots of points, but what I really enjoy is seeing what words my nephews (now aged 14,16 and 19) come up with, it can be pretty interesting stuff, especially when they were younger and one of them puts down a six or seven letter word for 45 points. Great fun watching them learn and grow. Keep up the interesting work Nora…CBC radio is awesome.
Settlers of Catan is a great game for the cold season… The expansion packs offer lots of variety too!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlers_of_Catan
Check out this huge version:
http://nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com/32988.html
Random story idea: Biodiesel – How come it’s so hard to find in Canada! I can drive down to California on pure biodiesel all along the I5. But I can’t get it outside of Vancouver! Why? Can the spark audience solve this problem?
@Luke– I keep hearing about these ‘German style games’. I’ve been thinking about getting one to play with my friends in the new year. Do you think they could be considered ‘general interest’?
I second Settlers of Catan. I just played it for the first time last week (with two other people who had never played before), and it was good fun.
“Ticket to Ride” is is one of the better new board games I’ve played. It’s easy to learn and fun to play.
Another great game is “Bohnanza”. It’s a card based game where you are a German bean farmer and you grow beans and trade them. Simple and fun.
I’ve actually had a new found interest in board games and have found that the best new board games seem to be coming out of Germany, I’m not sure why.
Jimmy
My favourite game is Risk. It is long, but very fun. Backstabbing, alliances, conquest, strategy, etc. It is always fun to take over the world, and there are endless strategies, so no game will be the same as another one.
Best board game for us Prairie folks: The Farming Game. It’s a classic, and always enjoyable with a group of friends. Of course, it has nothing in common with real farming.
Also, those Germans are making good games these days: Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, Carcassone, etc. Can’t go wrong with a well-made German game.
There are so many good games out there these days. Caylus is good, as is Age of Empires 3. Anyone interested should check out boardgamegeek.com for a good listing of the best ones.
Monopoly is always a favorite – with a board. I tried playing one of those computerized-versions and I got motion sickness with all the flying POV.
Of course, like everything else, they have to tinker with everything…
Trying to buy an old favorite game like “Candy Land” to relive memories is futile, because they changed the board design, to make all the characters more CGI-ish. It doesn’t even look like the same game, even though the game itself hasn’t changed. But it’s just not the same…
I hear you on the game redesign thing. So much for nostalgia!
We did a piece a while ago on the “German style games” phenomenon, but didn’t look into how it actually evolved and when they started coming to Canada. Sounds like that’s the route I should take for my board game buying!
I’m also going to have to put my support out for Settlers of Catan.
The game is a blast to play, and has become a phenomenon. I am currently in the process of starting a society at my university, and am filing the paper work after I finish exams. We play the game compulsively. It may sound nerdy, but we are proud of it. We’ve played games at school, and had people come and join, or talk about how mush they love settlers. We’ve even starting adding/changing the rules to make the game more challenging or intense.
The game is very engaging and I have seen marriages pushed to the edge because of this game.
Hmm. Is that a board gamer quorum? Sounds like Settlers of Catan it is!
One of the most popular games that I played with my friends was the MAD Magazine game. The rules included playing counter-clockwise, rolling the dice with your left hand and, the objective, which was to lose all your money.
The game had us do silly things like walk around the table backwards with a card on our head, “boo” another player, or cluck like a chicken.
Aah, MAD magazine! Who knew they had a game?
One of the better games to emerge from 2007 was Zooloretto. This board game won the prestigious “Spiel Des Jahres” (Game of the Year in Germany) for 2007. It has elements of Carcassonne (2001 Spiel Des Jahres winner) and Alhambra (2004 Spiel des Jahres winner). Easy to play, plenty of re-play value, and expansions for additional game play! A great alternative to video games (phooey!).
My favorite game when I was young was Dark Tower.
This had a groovy tower which had a spinning slideshow of images which it could display, and the game itself was a moderately complex fantasy quest.
The sounds that the game made are iconic. I recently replaced my cellphone ringer with them, and people have ocasionally looked around to see who was playing Dark Tower.
[quote]This had a groovy tower which had a spinning slideshow of images which it could display, and the game itself was a moderately complex fantasy quest.[\quote]
Read Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robins. Not only is it a good book about a life with Aspergers Syndrome, near the end John Elder talks about being an enginerre for Milton Bradley.
Apparently the dynamic breaking technology used to slow trains on hills is what allowed the tower to stop in the right spot without a breaking system wich would have cost well over the $35 pricetag
Persoanally my favorite game is monopoly it is a lot of funa and it teaches importaint skills. Business deals, odds, how to count money.
I think it’s so interesting how much of the appeal of so many board games is some cool little technological gimmick.
Hey Nora,
For boardgames you should check out: Quoridor. I played it for the first time when I was in Vancouver for a conference a few years ago, and haven’t been able to quit playing since. Very “traditional” in that it is simply wooden pegs/slats and a checker-like board, but the strategies involved and depth that arise (for both beginners and experts) are astounding. Like most great games, it’s very easy to pick up and difficult to master.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/624
Cheers!
Two of my favourite boardgames are Hero Quest and Mutant Chronicles. Both have the same sort of idea: HQ is like Dungeons and Dragons, except you have all the little miniatures included (heroes, goblins, zombies, skeletons, etc.). The board becomes your dungeon. A group can finish a dungeon crawl in under an hour! MC is similar except your heroes face mutated space undead. How cool is that? I love all the little pieces and because every game can be completely different. OH! and Talisman, too. Some many good games, so little time. I also have Settlers of Catan, but haven’t played it yet. My wife and I can’t find one more person who likes board games as much as we do. Good topic!
I play lots of different games but there are 3 that I keep coming back to. One I played while in High School and have recently reacquired off ebay called Swords&Sorcery from SPI. It is a brilliantly simple fantasy game that has both military and quest game play. A newer game called Railway Tycoon (Eagle Games now out of print) which was adapted from a computer game. This game requires resource management with cut throat capitalistic instincts. Lastly is History of the World (Avalon Hills). This is a fabulously simple game which lets players try to carve out great chunks of the world using the great empires of the past. It is a very entertaining and educational game. After playing this you get to understand a little about the troubles in the middle east.
Some of my criteria for determining if it is a good game, is simplicity of the rules, game play that balances luck and skill, and you have to have the opportunity to stick it to your buddies. In addition, it is important to be able to start the game with very little set up and you should be able to explain the rules to an 8 year old. This allows me to play the game with my kids and adults who drink lots of beer.
Dear Nora:
I like some of your previous commentators like a variety of the family friendly Euro-Games including Ticket to Ride, Carcossone (a tile laying game) and Cheeky Monkey. If you would like to learn more check out the BOARDGAMEGEEK website which contains a vast amount of information on boardgames. Hope you due a podcast on the topic since it is a great hobby.
hands down that would monopoly. i play by all of the following rules with no compromises. I am the car, all money except property buying money goes to the center of the board and is won by landing on free parking which has a min prize of $500, properties as well as written out free stays. sometimes i hide money in my pocket and other times i grab a pile a money and propose deals without saying how much money i am actually holding. and for someone to collect rent money they have to see someone land on their property before the next person rolls the dice. deals are made when all properties are sold but only occu when it is that persons turn. trash talking is a must.
hands down that would monopoly. i play by all of the following rules with no compromises. I am the car, all money except property buying money goes to the center of the board and is won by landing on free parking which has a min prize of $500, properties as well as written out free stays. sometimes i hide money in my pocket and other times i grab a pile a money and propose deals without saying how much money i am actually holding. and for someone to collect rent money they have to see someone land on their property before the next person rolls the dice. deals are made when all properties are sold but only occu when it is that persons turn. trash talking is a must.
[quote]all money except property buying money goes to the center of the board and is won by landing on free parking which has a min prize of $500[/quote]
Read the rules, that free parking business isn’t in there
I have been a reseller of German board games for many many years. Once you have played a German board game, you will probably never buy a North American one again. There is a little more thinking besides rolling your dice and moving your man around the board. You usually don’t get to sleep between turns like in Monopoly. I have been many many places in the world and this is what I have deduced. In China – lots of people – they work 6 1/2 days per week. No time to think of a game. In Germany – their culture is very family oriented with lots and lots of leisure time. Time to dream up games, games and more games.
Top beginner German board games this Christmas are Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, and last but not least Carcassonne.
Puerto Rico is #1, but its downfall is minimum 3 people. This is hard with couples unless your cat can play.
Therapy. My brother claims it’s risky to play it with family, but you can learn some interesting things about how people perceive one another–sometimes with hilarious results.
A lot of people never venture beyond Monopoly and Risk, never realizing there is a whole galaxy of tabletop games out there that far surpass those (classic as they are).
Junta is another great game. Absolutely classic. Plus homebrew miniature wargame systems.
Coming way late to the party…
I wanted to add that one can also find some very fun co-operative board games. These pit the players as a team against the game itself.
I recommend checking out Pandemic from Z-Man games. It’s a relatively quick and quite engaging game that I’ve introduced both my family and my colleagues at work to. Moreover, both groups wanted to play again. No lie!
Fantasy Flight’s Arkham Horror game is another co-operative game done in the Lovecraft mythos that has achieved some notoriety. It emphasizes the atmosphere by encouring players to read the encounters aloud in their best campfire horror story voice.
Rainy summer days at the cottage are made for boardgames. And co-operative games keep the whole group interested and avoid the uglier side of family game play. I’m looking at you, trash talkers!
Thanks, and I hope board games can come back around as a topic in the new season.