Starter Board Games

I have gotten a good group of people hooked on Munchkin. It's pretty dorky but it's a card game that's all about fucking over your friends, in the worst possible way. Incredibly fun, and great for yelling at each other over drinks. They have it in all different flavors too so you can try out what works best for your group. I love Munchkin Cthulu the best, obviously...

http://www.worldofmunchkin.com/game/

Catan is a great start. Puerto Rico is a nice follow up. No dice at all, just loads of scheming.

Carcassonne is a good companion to Catan. It's a little lighter, but all the people I play games with seem to like it. I actually kind of prefer it to Catan when playing with my in-laws. Even though Catan is the better game, they're constantly asking me to remind them of the rules and they like to think about strategy so much that one Catan game takes 3 hours. Carcassonne is kind of breezy in comparison.

I'll second the recommendation of Munchkin. There's bound to be a flavor you like (I dig Munchkin Fu the most, but most of my friends love chopsocky movies). One warning though, they're all pretty much the exact same game with different skins. If you dig those games, I'd also recommend Chez Geek. It's a game where the main goal is to relax by balancing income from a job with the free time provided by said job.

Also, for any card game fans on this website, I'd recommend the B-movie game series from Z-Man Card Games (scroll all the way down). I own Grave Robbers from Outer Space and Kung Fu Samurai on Giant Robot Island. They all have the same mechanics, which is kind of Magic: The Gathering-lite, but they have some delightful movie references that anyone who posts on CHUD would appreciate.

I don't know, Puerto Rico seems like kind of a leap from Catan. Just the sheer amount of game pieces would be pretty intimidating for a board game beginner.

Risk. You really can't go wrong with this game.

Lord of the Rings is a fun collaborative game. Rather than fight against the other players, all of you are fighting against the game itself to destroy the Ring. It's really quite fun.

A fantastic game, I like it alot better than Scrabble (For two reasons, this game matches up better with how my brain thinks about language, and two, because I no longer play Scrabble. I got in argument over the rules to that game back in 11th grade and now refuse to play on general principle)

And here is the best board game of all time. You may end up paying over 100$ for a complete game board, but trust me, its well worth it.


Here is a great FIREBALL ISLAND resource. It can help you with refurbishing a gameboard and has all sorts of other great info

As a novice myself, I can't recommend this one enough:

One player is Mr. X. The rest are Scotland Yard detectives. It's the detectives' task to capture Mr. X within a certain number of moves before he escapes London. Tons of basic fun.
Another great one (that the folks here introduced me to):

You and your fellow players are competing railroad entrepreneurs in turn of the century America. The goal is to see who can build the longest railway line and screw over his fellow competitors by blocking their lines. Good stuff and wonderfully simple. My family--from my wife to my parents--had a great time playing this at the beach one summer.

Ticket to Ride sounds similar to Iron Dragon, a great railroad game set in a fantasy setting.

I'll second Carcasonne. Great and light game.

And fuck Fireball Island.

Kidding? I hope??

Nope. It's a retarded game. In a gorgeous 3D setting. For 1985.

I own Fireball Island. It's sitting right next to me. I've had it since I was 6. It's a great game. For a 6-year-old. My wife's little sister liked playing it a few years ago. She just turned 10. It's a great game. For a kid.

Yeah. I bought it when it came out. Played for a coupl of months, stored it. Uncovered it 10 years ago. Tried it again due to nostalgia. Understood why I stored it when I was 7.

Sold it on Ebay. So that's a positive point.

You might want to check the box, but I'm pretty sure it's for ages 6-99 or some such thing.

Well I like it. I still play with my friends sometimes. You're right about the game board being gorgeous though. Not sure if you went to that link I posted, but some people mod their boards with all sorts of insane details, including real moss on the rocks and even "real" fake water in the pools

I checked the box, it says ages 7 & up. That's not the point... Oh, nevermind.

I'll probably hang on to mine, just because it is a great game for kids, and I'll probably play it with mine (if I have any). It's just not something that can hold an adult's attention for long by itself.

Just don't tell her the pacifier in her mouth is for the 6 months and +....

I know what your point was. Fireball Island is for kids. Got it. However, there are plenty of games that set a specific age range like "2-6" or something. They purposely designed FB:I with an open ended age range because of it's potential appeal to game players of all ages. I still play it and I still love each and every time I sit down for a game with friends. Then again, I play "Perfect Dark" more than I play alot of next-gen games so maybe my tastes are different than yours. To each their own

PS: Check out this hand-modded FB:I board and tell me it's not the coolest game board you've ever seen:

Thanks for failing to notice the first game I mentioned was a word game that rewards players for having a large vocabulary, Martin

Why is it "FB:I"? The game is "Fireball Island", right? Not "Fire Ball: Island"?


...and why did I even bother to ask?

Because "FBI" reminds me of Mulder and Scully, not board games. I just realized that "Fireball" is one word though so I could have just typed FI. Thanks for providing the impetus for me to think through my abbreviation again, Mattioli

I haven't played it yet, but I'm told that the current Battlestar Galactica board game is an absolute blast.

I'm getting this on Bendrix's recommendation.

I hesitate to recommend it for mediumdave's purposes, though, because while my coterie aren't regular game players, they aren't dice-phobic either. I would only try BSG out once the group can play Catan without referring to the rules, because I still have to look at the rules while I play BSG a dozen or so games in. But I am slow.

(It uses an 8-sided die, not a 10, so you may be okay.)

That's not the coolest game board I've ever seen.

This is the coolest game board I've ever seen. It's the tenth anniversary edition of Settlers of Catan. All the pieces are modeled sculptures, and the whole thing comes in a big wooden chest. My friend has one and it's absolutely beautiful.

http://www.iconusa4.com/online/BG_Se...tan_3d_set.htm

That is very cool, no doubt. I just personally happen to prefer the more organic look of the titular island in FI. The tile divisions in the other one bother me. Not slamming your game though, that is pretty handsomely detailed gameboard.

I sure wish that they still made 'Dark Tower'. We played the hell out of that in the early 80s. Sure, there's a flash game for it that you can play online, but it's just not the same.

We had a Bermuda Triangle board game that had little plastic ships with magnets in them and a big plastic cloud that moved randomly around the board and could suck up your ship if it moved over it just right. Now THAT was cool.

EDIT: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2296

Damn... that is cool

There were alot of other really cool early 90s board games I'm just remembering. One was about looting an Aztec temple and there was a giant bird that would fly around and sometimes eat the players

That looks amazingly awesome. I'd love to try that one out one day.

Something in the same mould (though a bit more simplified) is Machiavelli. It has the same 'fuck you over' dynamics, and even a 2-player session can be great fun.

My wife's family loves board games, (just not some of the more complicated ones, Catan's about as complex as they get) and they still have this in their basement. My wife has told me it's fun on many occasions. I may have to see if they'll break it out some time.

ENVIOUS. That game, in good working condition, can fetch some pretty good money.