# The Non-Computer Games Thread



## Valrus (May 9, 2002)

This will be another "sink or swim" thread, depending on people's interest.

The Magic thread gave me the idea. I've played some really good board and card games in recent years, and I'm going to be the head of the Board and Card Games division of the gaming club at our school next year.

So I wanted to start this thread to see if people have any games to recommend, and to recommend some of my own. I'll start with the latter of those two:

Anyone ever played The Settlers of Catan? Best board game _ever_. And with the expansion sets it only gets better.

How about Apples to Apples? Best party game _ever_. It can be played for any length of time, it's phenomenally simple, and best of all it is incredibly fun.

How about any of the great games from Looney Labs? There's Fluxx, Aquarius, Chrononauts, and Icehouse (actually several games in one). All good, fairly quick, fairly easy games. Highly recommended.

Chez Geek? Lunch Money? Falling? Guillotine?

What about the Cheapass games? How about good games with a regular deck of cards? Anyone played Scum/Presidents and Assholes/The Great Dalmuti/Corporate Takeover? All different names for the same game.

Just throwing out a million game names so people will (hopefully) say, "Hey, I've played that!" and actually reply to this.

I hope this thread will take off. We'll see.

-the valrus

P.S. This was my 2^(2^3)rd post. Hopefully that counts for something in the Fate Scale. Powers of two are nifty.


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## nkuvu (May 10, 2002)

Family Business, and Star Wars Trivial Pursuit are the only games I've been playing recently.

I highly recommend RoboRally.


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## roger (May 10, 2002)

You can't beat Risk, a great one for playing late into the early hours.

I also enjoy a little known game called 'The really nasty Horse Racing Game'. This and Risk are great because most of the game is around doing deals 'off the board'.

I always take travel scrabble with me when going on vacation (along with iBook of course) and I also enjoy a good game of backgammon or chess, though I am not that good at either of the last two.

R.


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## ksuther (May 10, 2002)

Hrm, who would want to play a game that has nothing to do with a computer?  I don't get it...

Well, when there are enough people who are interested, Monopoly is very fun. Too bad that never happens, so I haven't played it for years  Same with Life.

The only one I've played recently is Magic


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## genghiscohen (May 10, 2002)

> _Originally posted by roger _
> *You can't beat Risk, a great one for playing late into the early hours. *


Oh yeah, nothing like striving for world domination!  
I once played Risk for two full days with a bunch of friends who were all brain-fried on psychedelics.   And I won!
Hey, is Twister considered a board game?


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## roger (May 10, 2002)

Twister is a great, great game. 

I know what you mean about Risk - I recently played until 2am, and then had to get up at 5.30am to go into work (still drunk from many bottles of wine - lucky I don't drive to work). It is a game that normally should only go around 7 or 8 rounds and no more, but when people start forming alliances, it never stops.

You mention chemically enhanced Risk - woaah! Those big sea monsters and mermaids pictured on the board could add a dimension or two. It would be very funny to play risk after taking ecstacy - everyone would be too friendly to go to war.


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## googolplex (May 10, 2002)

Errrr that would be great...............


Anyways I personally love monopoly. Although most people seem to develop a great dislike for playing. Risk its great too.

I love this game called balderdash. Its like the dictionary game, only theres more stuff  I laugh so hard while playing it.


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## scruffy (May 10, 2002)

Axis and Allies is a great game - sort of like Risk with WWII technology, only way more intense and long-running.  Takes about 6 hours to play properly.  Good if you can leave it in a back room undisturbed till tomorrow...

Balderdash is OK, but there's not much to it if I recall correctly - just a mediocre dictionary and some pre-printed pads and pencils.  If you have a big dictionary with obscure stuff in it, like a multi-volume OED, just borrow someone's Balderdash set for ten minutes or so to figure out the rules, and you're good to go.  It's more fun with a better dictionary than theirs.


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## nkuvu (May 10, 2002)

IMHO, Monopoly == Monotony  

A few years back I went to a gaming convention.  I thought it was insane that some people played Axis & Allies for hours on end (their games were running upwards of 10 hours, IIRC).  Then I found the BattleTech players.  "OK, my mech shoots at his mech."  An _hour_ later, the shot is complete, after rolling for about 100 modifiers, calculating angles and all that fun exciting stuff.  "Alright, my mech starts running."  Me, too.    I heard that in the three days of the convention, they played something like twenty minutes of game time.

  Bleargh!


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## gamedog00 (May 10, 2002)

Balderdash is one of the only board game's I really enjoy playing. The sequel is also pretty good (the name escapes my mind right now). Risk is great also as is Axis and Allies, I like war games.


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## googolplex (May 10, 2002)

scruffy, the actual board game balderdash is more then just a dictionary. It has categories like movies (you have to say the plot), dates (what happened on that day), acronyms (what it stands for) and people (what did they do). Its very very fun.


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## Valrus (May 10, 2002)

Actually googolplex, the original Balderdash was just words. The game you're describing is called "Balderdash Beyond" or something like that.

I can't stand Monopoly. Maybe it's because _every time_ I play, I land on every space but the properties and consequently I get screwed over later in the game. I don't know - it's just not that fun to me.

Likewise Risk, though I've only played it once. My friend went and piled up on Australia, and that was the end of that. It took too long.

You who like Risk should try The Settlers of Catan. It's not interminable like Risk is; it's long, but it usually lasts three hours _max_, and there's no possibility of stagnation because everyone is sitting around waiting for someone else to make a move. The game just doesn't work that way. As I said before, best board game _ever_.

I can't stand games that last more than a few hours either, with the possible exception of tabletop RPGs, whigh are usually split up into sessions of a few hours.

And those of you who like Balderdash - I do too - you should try Apples to Apples. Really.

-the valrus


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## Valrus (May 10, 2002)

By the way - sorry about the double post - I think some of the categories in Balderdash Beyond are kinda dumb. In fact, I think the only worthwhile ones are movies, acronyms and word definitions. The dates and people are too much just making any old crap up; with the others, you have to make sure there's some correspondence between the thing in question and what you come up with to describe it.

I agree that you could have some fun with just a dictionary though. That would make it more interesting for the person giving the word (the dasher). You could give him/her, say, a minute to look through the dictionary and try to find an obscure word, or one with a deceptive description, and they get more points if less people guess correctly.

Bonus points if they don't even _use_ the dictionary!

-the valrus


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## scruffy (May 10, 2002)

My family used to play something like Balderdash on long road trips.  We'd pick odd place names off the road map, and come up with definitions for them.


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## jbromer (May 11, 2002)

Settler's of Cattaan with the Seefarer expansion set - definitely the best board game ever...

The best part is my friends and I only have the original german version, and half the fun is trying to discern the rules every time we play...


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## Valrus (May 12, 2002)

Oh cool - the original German version. Have you tried Starfarers of Catan yet? I want to (although it looks kinda cheesy), but it's like $60, and that's kind of a lot when the original Settlers with Seafarers and Cities&Knights is so good.

-the valrus


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## Nummi_G4 (May 12, 2002)

There are too many little rules in Risk.  So LessthanMighty and I made our own rules up   but the game still lasts for hours and hours.

what about stip poker with that special someone?

or... what is that game?  where you try to bounce the quarter into a glass, and if you make it, you pick someone to take a shot of alcyahol. is it called quarters?


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## ksuther (May 12, 2002)

I happen to know a friend who played strip magic with his special someone. Pretty strange if you ask me


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## Nummi_G4 (May 12, 2002)

How about strip Twister !!!!!!!????

hehe... the game might end a little early if ya know what i mean


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## jbromer (May 12, 2002)

Valrus,

I haven't tried Starfarer yet for those same reasons... Looks kinda cheezy, and 2, it's 60 bucks for the game, then 30 for the 6 player add-in, then 60 for the expansion etc. etc...

Besides it's just not the same as sheep, wood, ore, brick and wheat, right?

jason


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## Valrus (May 12, 2002)

I'd play strip Magic with my special someone, if...

1. I had a special someone

2. She played Magic

Give it time. 

And jason - sounds like you need to get Cities and Knights, since you didn't mention "paper, cloth and coins" in there as well. After you've gotten used to Cities and Knights, the development cards seem really moronic. 

-the valrus


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## googolplex (May 12, 2002)

strip twister would be well.... interesting.

I'm not sure if anyone has played this, because its an old game, but I like the game Situation 4.  Its kind of hard to explain, but basically its a race to put a puzlle together.


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## nkuvu (May 12, 2002)

I have a friend who claims that his favorite game is Crisco Twister.

I've never asked for details, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to know...


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## Valrus (May 12, 2002)

There are a few other games that are "word-oriented" and pretty good... the one that comes to mind is "Wordsters," where you get a set of three letters, like "ard," and try to make words that contain it, in that order but not necessarily contiguously. Like "aardvark" and "bard" and "flared."

Or something. Bad example, maybe. Anyway, it's a good game.

-the valrus


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## scruffy (May 12, 2002)

> _Originally posted by nkuvu _
> *I have a friend who claims that his favorite game is Crisco Twister.
> 
> I've never asked for details, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to know...  *



Bwearch, that's in pretty poor taste - at least use real butter!  Or possibly olive oil, one would have to know the game to judge which would be appropriate...

A nice drinking game I learned from the Creative Anachronists is toblero.  It involves a board like a 7x7 chessboard, two dice, and little cups the right size to be chess pieces - shot glass like.  And booze, of course.

I forget the exact rules (of a drinking game, fancy that!) but the goal is to get a certain number of cups in a row, at which point you can empty them and your opponent has to refill them.  So if you do well at the game, you get drunk on other people's wine.


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## Valrus (May 29, 2002)

Well, if I drank... that would sound like a good game. I guess us teetotalers could use Jolt or something.

-the valrus


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## hazmat (May 30, 2002)

> _Originally posted by scruffy _
> *Balderdash is OK, but there's not much to it if I recall correctly - just a mediocre dictionary and some pre-printed pads and pencils.  If you have a big dictionary with obscure stuff in it, like a multi-volume OED, just borrow someone's Balderdash set for ten minutes or so to figure out the rules, and you're good to go.  It's more fun with a better dictionary than theirs. *



Yeah, Balderdash is basically someone making money off of the dictionary game.  But, it can be more fun than it normally would be, as my friends and I play it.  Besides the regular definitions everyone has to make up, on the back, we would put really sick and offensive definitions that the reader would have to read out loud.  One of them one time took three people to finally read it fully.  Everyone kept on laughing hysterically and not being able to finish.


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