If you like Settlers, I recommend "Scotland Yard."

It's for 3-6 players. One is a fugtiive trying to escape in downtown London. The others are detectives trying to track the fugitive down. It really creates a different dynamic than an "everyone for themselves" competitive board game.

That said, I also love Risk and Monopoly. And board games in general.

We are a monopoly family.

Settlers of Catan is good...and so is Sorry! We also have a really rare handmade game that a guy in B.C. makes (he based it on a U.S. idea) called Jokers...I guarantee it's one of the greatest board games ever -- anyone who I introduce to it loves it and buys a set! All my relatives have it, and each set comes with 8 boards, so we hook the boards up (you can have anywhere from 4 to unlimited) and have played with about 28 boards!

As for popular games...Monopoly all the way...I remember my grandparents buying it for me and my brother one Christmas when they came to visit us and the four of us played it Christmas Day while dinner was cooking...I forget who won, I just remember my grandmother losing sorely and never playing a round with us since :-)

scrabble.

i can kick your ass at scrabble.

needless to say, my husbands favorite boardgame is cribbage.

I always hated playing Scrabble with my family...my dad's a Kiwi and he'd use all these weird New Zealand words that weren't in our dictionary...so he insisted we use his New Zealand dictionary instead *shakes head and sighs*

Current favourite - APPLES TO APPLES - A word/card game- hilarious for all ages. When everyone is 'home for the holidays' we'll have the mandatory Monopoly game.

SighSnootles: I'd take you down on the Scrabble board no trouble: after all, I'm a New Zealander and "” All4Him note "” we DON'T use a lot of idiosyncratic words, just have bigger and better vocabularies because we watch less television and read more books... we are also intellectually superior to Australians and know more than Canadians who have a very bad habit of using that compromised spelling that's so common in the U.S.. We are amazing people but very modest with it... and that's why everyone loves us.

My best friend back home loves Apples to Apples. I believe she turned it into a drinking game though...

I miss the classics - Shogun and Axis & Allies.

Suval - You mean it's not supposed to be a drinking game?? lol Our only rule is that the Helen Keller card always wins!

Boggle, Scrabble and Monopoly - all wonderful games that can be 'manipulated' so that the kids can play. Though the rest of the family prefers PlayStation over good old fashion board games.

MikePaterson: You'd get along well with my dad :-) I always feel bad for the ignorance he has to endure -- "Well...aren't Aussies and Kiwis basically the same thing?" It especially bugs me when Canadians mention that, considering how outraged we get when we're told we're Americans with igloos...

And now that I'm older I'm developing an understanding for better vocabulary...it just sucked when he managed long words that always seemed to give him Double and Triple Word Scores and enable him to kick our butts to kingdom come...

Risk is good, for the first few hours at least. Cranium is pretty fun. I like scrabble, mastermind, chess, though it's been too long since I've played, Boggle. Card games too. I've heard Diplomacy is good, but never played before. Anyone here played it?

Suval,

Hi,

The current popular board game in our house is chess.

My nine year old thinks she's all that and a bag of chips but I have thumped her easily in the two games we had this weekend.

And the second time I kicked her all over the board was while I was watching Smallville at the same time.

But I don't rub it in.

Nobody will play trivial pursuit with me anymore.

The kids like scattergories but the buzzing timer makes me edgy.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Scribble is fun, so is Monotony. The recipe is simple just pull out the old board games and eat some Alice B. brownies and all the world is beautiful 8-P

Bibleopoly
Cranium
Full contact Uno

STOCK TICKER

... Anyone... anyone?

Oh, and I totally agree with you on the Axis and Allies. Risk is pretty radbatical too.

I hate Risk 'cause I always lose. Wait... it's not ABOUT winning...

I still hate it.

I'm an UNO gal. Its not just a card game anymore. UNO spin is really fun (and no batteries!) I also have UNO Attack (the one where the cards shoot out but it sorta dies after a while) I have about 15 UNO games of different styles. I want the round UNO cards I saw at Winners right now!

I also enjoy Sorry (and a different version I have called Sorry Card Revenge with a talking pawn) , I Spy, Cadoo and Chess.

Definitely trivial pursuit- has anyone tried the 80's version? am curious! The 80's version of songburst is a lot of fun, as is cranium and oh the one where you make up definitions of words.....not enough coffee today. All games are better if you have a big group to play! I also like Risk but you do need hours and hours...also like the kids version of labyrinth. I used to love Clue when I was a kid and I seem to remember some long nights of UNO- my sister, was pretty good at both if I remember correctly,

oh yeah, those cranium games RAWK...

we love 'whoo-nu' and 'cadoo'... those are awesome family games.

So is that new UNO game where the cards shoot out any good?

It looks fun in the commercials!

The shoot out UNO game is UNO Attack. Its been out a couple of years (at least 4 I would say) It is fun but the rollers that shoot the cards out do get wore out after a bit. It might be good for family play but for 2 hours a day 5 days a week at day care it wore out after a couple months (even new batteries didn't pep it up) UNO Spin is really fun and is kid powered so it doesn't run down.

I also like Ziggity by Cranium. Its a card game and is so much fun.

The Cranium people are GREAT btw. Someone lost our Cadoo board at day care and I wrote asking if I could buy a new one and they replied that they couldn't sell me one but would send one for free!

blokus and checkers and caranium

Popomatic Trouble. As a child that was our family time, playing board games after school/before dinner at the dining room table and I loved Trouble. I'm thinking about getting it for our family this Christmas.

Now, I'm more of a chess, scrabble type person.

Never heard of Settlers of Catan.
Stock Ticker? No. Had a "little brother" who always made me play it and I always lost and he always gloated and made me feel stupid. Too many bad memories. (He's a millionaire now by the way)
I like Clue. But then I usually win.
And Family Feud but no one will play with me because I usually get that too.
Labyrinth is pretty neat.
And a lot of UNO gets played at the cottage. We played a lot of Skip-bo too but some people find it boring. The one where the cards shoot out is okay but there's one where there a wheel. I haven't played it but my son told me it was good.
Cranium is fun. We play it every New Year's Eve.

Scrabble, Scrabble, Scrabble! Serious addiction. I play on Friday afternoons if I have time, at the seniors' hall. Doesn't sound exciting?--we have a ball. And in my family, it has caught on like a virus; my nieces and nephews seem to be born wanting to play, now we're into third generation of this. Summer holidays, Scrabble goes perfectly with cold beer and snacks. Christmastime, wine and snacks. We just love it. I look forward to many years of it, playing with my grandchildren. Cranium and Trivial Pursuit and the one where you guess what the words might mean--the kids love that. It's the only time I've seen some of the kids laugh until the tears stream down their faces. Live, laugh and love!

I used to play Scrabble with my grandmother almost everyday - she lived next door at the time...I haven't played in years, though...I've been checking out board games for my kids for Christmas; but I keep getting drawn back to the Star Wars version of Monopoly...Any suggestions kids around six years old?

Scrabble is the best!!! Next is Trivial Pursuit, or TP as it is affectionately known in our home. I have discovered Scrabble on-line and it is great fun to meet all sorts of people !!

Naked Twister.

Ha that's kids stuff Athiesto...you haven't lived until you've played strip scrabble .......8-P

I'm a trivial pursuit girl, but I prefer to play in teams. I find it a lot more fun that way. I also like to play Risk. Nobody will play monopoly with me because I tend to buy one of everything so that no one can build any hotels, and then I won't sell them.

I hate Monopoly unless there is a "robbing the bank" rule...then it's fun...

Trivial Pursuit...anybody tried the 80's version of it? We played it a while ago, and it made me acutely aware of how quickly the years have flown by.

Used to be Risk until I really "understood" the game.. very colonial-era themes of land splitting, inconsequential fate of native peoples of territories conquered, constant destruction.. I realized I was becoming disillusioned when I began to build towers, monuments and other "civilized" structures with the army pieces during the game..

"Carcassone" is a similar game to Settler's,
"Puerto Rico" is slightly more complicated.
"TransAmerica" is also good although quite simple according to my hubby, a games freak. He plays them online with friends across the country at www.brettspielwelt.de (german boardgames site)

I like simpler games (not a strategist) like "Bohnanza" (We call it the Bean Game).

I also like Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, because I WON I WON I WON! However, we've only played that once together. Go figure.

Although I am usually reduced to a single country and I never win, I adore Risk. I also enjoy playing monopoly; the FIFA edition is awesome! I am also a fan of pictionary and trouble, and Balderdash is a halirious and addictive game. I highly recommend it.