I love board games!

The title says it all. I really enjoy board games. Growing up, we had a ton of board games that we would play with friends or siblings, and as a family. Of course, my tastes have changed over my twenty-ish years of playing board games, but these are some of my favorites.
Apples to Apples: Very simple concept here - cards with a word on them and cards with a category or group of some kind on them. Everyone plays their card that will best match whatever the current category is and the judge selects the best one (not knowing who played which card). We laugh every time we play this one and there's plenty of trash talking about how certain you are that someone will pick your card. And the judge has so much freedom - I like to pick cards that are quirky or the opposite of what you'd expect, which the people who are playing "properly" don't always appreciate ;)

Pay Day: I think this game illustrates how much I've always enjoyed thinking about money and finances. Your mission is to pick a number of months and see who can survive living paycheck to paycheck and finish the game with the most money. Of course, we bent the rules a little while playing to make the lottery more exciting (money was mysteriously "donated" by the bank each time to make the winnings greater). And as a child who wanted nothing more than to receive mail every day, this game's "mail" spaces were the most exciting to land on. 

Life: A classic. I'm sure you've heard of it. ;) We've played this so many times that even the most unlikely situations seem to have happened at least once - have you ever landed on the "baby" space so many times you needed an extra car? I have! haha

Hey! That's my Fish!: A great game to pull out when you only have 10-15 minutes to play. You play as a small wooden penguin who's hungry for fish. You can move to the ice floes that touch the one you're on to catch more fish, but you have to try to avoid the other penguins who will block you into a corner so you can't move. Based on strategy, but there's still a little luck involved.

Scattergories: This is kinda similar to Apples to Apples now that I think of it. You're given a category and a letter and a time limit (usually 1-3 minutes but we've been known to change that depending on who's playing). You have to think of as many words as you can that fit the category. I think I like this game because I talk too much and really enjoy arguing about why a word should count. 

Quelf: Very strange, but highly entertaining. This game involves rule cards that you follow for varying lengths of time. For example, every time the doorbell rings, you have to shout a certain phrase or balance a shoe on your head for five seconds. My favorite is when my brother drew a card, read it, and said he had to go to the bathroom. We waited for 20 minutes before one of us went to make sure he was okay - and balked at his card, which stated he had to wait in the bathroom for someone to check on him! We still laugh at that memory. :)

What are your favorite board games?

Oh, and I'd make approximately 2¢ if you clicked on one of those game links and purchased something. No pressure! I just figured I'd try it out.

Comments

  1. From your list, I like Scattergories. I was once made a laughing-stock because I had to list occupations beginning with the letter L and I forgot Librarian! The game of Life is a great opportunity to promote marriage equality, LOL! I am kinda old-school in that my favourite board game is still Scrabble. However, Rom and I have gone out to our local board game cafe twice now and learned to play new games with the staff's assistance. We love it!

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    1. haha, Scattergories is hit or miss that way! And I like your marriage equality idea - once, my male cousin wanted to marry a man in Life, and my mom was like, sure, you can marry whoever. And after that, we'd offer each other the choice to marry a man or a woman. One of those things you don't understand until you're older of course, but I do appreciate my mom's acceptance when I look back :)

      Mr. and I play Scrabble quite a lot - at least once a week - because it's one of his favorite games. Spelling is a weakness for me so I think that's why I don't enjoy it as much as he does. I love the idea of a board game cafe! Unfortunately, we don't have any nearby, but maybe the next time we visit a big city we'll get to experience one.

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  2. My favourite at the moment is Articulate. Basically you are given a word and you have to explain it while the rest of your team guess what it is. We gave it to my sister and her boyfriend for Christmas and the whole family has been playing it :)

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    1. I like the sound of that :) Board games make great presents!

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  3. I love Cluedo. Not that I that good at it!

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    1. I'd never heard of that one, but wikipedia tells me it's called Clue here. That's a good one! :) They made a movie based on it that I also love!

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  4. I love board games, but I don't really come from a board game family (save for Scrabble - Mum's an English teacher, Scattergories, Trivial Pursuit and that's about it). Interestingly, my cousin and his partner brought a game around when they came for dinner, it was lovely! Only at the end of the holiday did I think to ask the BF if he'd play cards (if I'd brought some) - he said yes! Silly me...

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    1. Oh, yes - I love Trivial Pursuit! We have a restaurant nearby that hosts trivia (with those little electronic responders) and we have so much fun there. We really should buy the game, haah. Cards are the best - there are so many games!

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