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[Archetype]

So I'm looking to expand my collection by a little and buy a new game, but I'm having trouble picking one out.
I usually only play games with my family, and the vast majority of them like lighter games with very straightforward rules, not too many choices, and fast turns or being able to interact with others when it's noot their 'turn'.

Everyone likes:
Bohnanza
Bang

One half likes:
The Resistnce

And the other half:
Clue

They (NOT me) like crazy party games like Curses! or Apples to Apples, but I'd like to selfishly steer away from those.

The vast majority don't like Dominion (too many choices, long) 7 Wonders (confusing, but I think they just need to play again), and Innovation (too many things going on). There are of course others, but these are the major ones.

They don't mind Carcassone, but they find it a little dry.

So I'm looking for one that the vast majority will enjoy. If it can hold a lot of people, but also be fun with 2 or 3 in case I can't persuade everyone to play.

I've got my eye on:
Space Cadets
Flash Point
Agricola Family (Well they do like Bohnanza...)
Pandemic
Tzolkin

If you can rcommend one of these games, or have a game in mind that you think would fit perfectly with my family, that would be great!

Thanks!

[jonts26]

Incan Gold!

I have a friend who calls it iterated prisoner's dilemma. Very quick, fun, and light. There's only 1 choice you ever make, which is keep adventuring and hope to not die, or run away with whatever spoils you've collected thus far. I find it a lot better with more players (5-8), but it can be played anywhere from 2-8 players.

[raerae]

Take a look at Forbidden Island.  It's sort of Pandemic-y but less involved so maybe a little better for a wider audience.

[liopoil]

They'd probably like Escape, which is a 10 minute real time cooperative game. It isn't that in depth though, and is more of a party game of sorts than a serious game. It ends up pretty chaotic and a lot of the skill is "how fast can you roll the dice, recognize what you rolled, and move your piece". I'm not a big fan of it myself.

Hey, That's My Fish! Is a very simple 100% strategy game. It can be played with 2-4 players. It's a very spacial game... which for me at least leads to a lot of AP. How long it takes really depends on how far out you want to calculate each turn. That said, it's an easy game to play, but harder to be good at. It's similar to more tradition games, like Go and Chess in that regard. It's also cheaper than most others, if I remember it's ~$15. It's a fitting price seeing as it comes in a tiny box with just 60 small hexagons and 16 plastic penguins.

Citadels is relatively simple, but your family might not like it. A big part of it is guessing what choices your opponents made. I actually know a lot of people who don't like this game, but I do.

Pandemic I find has too much group-think. There are no individual choices. It generally turns into the players combining to become one player who plays all the characters. It turns into a puzzle for the group of players to solve. I don't personally like this mechanic.

Tzolkin I've never played except for the one I'm in the middle of on this forum, but I'm really enjoying it. It's pretty complicated though.

[AHoppy]

if you need a lighter game with more straightforward rules, don't go in the Agricola family.  It's not very light and quite overwhelming at first, or even second and third.  Have you thought of Puerto Rico?  There you do have to do things when it isn't your "turn" and it isn't quite as overwhelming as Agricola/Le Havre.  I used Puerto Rico to move people from Dominion to more Euro type games pretty successfully.

[DG]

San Juan is even lighter than Puerto Rico. Tobago is not the best game ever but its theme and complexity might suit your group. Forbidden Island is a good starter to see if your group like co-operative games. If you've 5 or more players than Shadow Hunters is an alternative to bang.

[Watno]

Settlers of Catan

[yuma]

I would suggest Dixit. It is considered a party game, but coming from a person that hates party games, it is not like any other game in the genre. Everyone I have introduced it to has loved it.

[yuma]

Take a look at Forbidden Island.  It's sort of Pandemic-y but less involved so maybe a little better for a wider audience.

I have both. I pull out Forbidden Island for the in-laws who like quicker, less in depth games and Pandemic for the more hard core gamers.

[Archetype]

Incan Gold: Forgot this from my 'interested in' list! It does look fun,and I love push your luck games so I'll look in to it.

Forbidden Island: Seen this as well, and does sound cool with a nice theme. Does it suffer from Alpha Gamer syndrome? I've heard it does.

Citadels: Heard of it, but have no idea how it plays. Will look into it more.

Hey, that's my fish: I've seen this and I remember there was a really cool mechanic in it, but I can't remember what.

Escape: LOVE Real Time games (trying to design one myself). That alone makes me want to look into it.

Agricola: Yeah…probably not. I just hoped it would draw people in more knowing he made Bohnanza too.

San Juan/Puerto Rico: I've heard good things about these, but have never reasearchd them fully.

Settlers: haha, this actually what got me and my family into gaming. It's gotten a little stale, but it's still one of the best games.

Dixit: Premise seems fun, but I'm not too big of a party game person. But I'll still take a look at it.

Has anyone here played Space Cadets? I keep hearing good things about it and was my go-to purchase, but maybe it's not as bif of a git as I thought it was? Seems like it would fit our family perfectly though.

Thanks for all your suggestions, they're greatly appreciated!

[liopoil]

mechanic in hey that's my fish is just moving your penguins around, claiming territory for yourself while blocking out other people.

[Archetype]

I forgot to mention that we do own Ticket to Ride and the majorty of us like it. We just haven't played it latey. Huh.

mechanic in hey that's my fish is just moving your penguins around, claiming territory for yourself while blocking out other people.

Could have sworn it was more interesting than that. But maybe I'm thinking of another game.

[yuma]

Forbidden Island: Seen this as well, and does sound cool with a nice theme. Does it suffer from Alpha Gamer syndrome? I've heard it does.

I think it suffers less than pandemic does because it is less complex and newer players are able to grasp the play and objective faster. But I think it is a bit more luck dependent, as well as easier (although you can increase the difficulty with different modes) to win than Pandemic.

Dixit: Premise seems fun, but I'm not too big of a party game person. But I'll still take a look at it.

I think what makes it nice is that it is still a very competitive game with scoring and basic strategy. It requires creativity, especially if you forbid one word clues and require phrases instead. But has a lighter atmosphere. Really I wouldn't call it a party game, but it appears that is the genre that has been assigned to it.

[eHalcyon]

What are you looking for in terms of number of players?

This Kickstarter for Gear & Piston looks like a neat little worker placement game.  I was thinking of backing it (mostly because I want to pick up Among the Stars as an extra) but it looks a bit light for my taste.  That means it might be good for you.

King of Tokyo might be good.

In the "Filler" category, what about For Sale or No Thanks?




Slight thread hijack: how different are Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert?

[ashersky]

Have you considered...mafia?

[Kuildeous]

Yeah, I think Dixit would be a good choice for your family. It has that party quality like Apples to Apples, but there is some tactical thinking since you come up with the clue. You don't want to make it so obvious that everyone knows instantly that it's your card, but you can't be too abstruse in your decision either. And the expansions help make the game not seem too dull. The difficult part, I've found, is that people's reactions to the cards can give away if they played it or not…at least for new players who find N-1 cards very interesting. That minus one was their card, which they already saw. You'll want to mitigate that.

Flash Point may work well. Not too many choices, because the board will sometimes force the issue for you. It could suffer from alpha-gamer syndrome.

I do like Citadels, but it may violate the choice clause. Granted, if you're at the bottom of the pile, you don’t have many choices.

Witch's Brew is a fun role-selection game, but that one probably violates the choice clause even more. New players won't even know which of the 12 roles they should pick first, which is why I teach the game to newbies with random starting hands.

TransAmerica is really light. There are choices to be made, but they aren't complex at all. In fact, your five cities are chosen for you, so you only have to choice which rails to lay first (there is a slight tactical decision to make here).

Room 25 sounds fun. I haven't played it yet, but I'll be starting a PBF version of Room 25 this week.

Gauntlet of Fools may also be pretty fun for them. It's light. The bidding process could get a little crazy, but a player could just choose a character without boasts and play it safe. Once you get going, choice selection is pretty simple.

[AdamH]

+1 for Incan Gold -- the g/f and my family, who are very casual gamers at best, LOVE that game for its simplicity. They will go out of their way to recommend that we play this game.

For Sale and High Society, made by the same people, are both nice -- a touch heavier but still popular among that group. For Sale more so than High Society.

I've played Tzolk'in twice. That game makes my brain hurt. Doesn't sound like a good match for your group.

Dixit isn't my favorite game in the world, but if everyone else wants to play a party game, I find Dixit to be better than Apples to Apples and other stuff like that, and they like Dixit just as much, so I would recommend it.

Resistance is a great game, but some groups just don't like to play it, and it takes a lot of people to play. It's cheap, so I'd recommend buying it and giving it a shot; I think Resistance does the "mafia" style games best out of all of them, and if your group likes Bang! then chances are Resistance is a good buy.

The neat mechanic about Hey! That's my Fish is that it gives you practice for Survivor immunity challenges.

[Thisisnotasmile]

Hey, That's My Fish! would get a lot more love from me if it didn't take longer to set up than it does to play.

[Watno]

Also Kingdom Builder might fit your requirements.

[Synthesizer]

Dixit isn't my favorite game in the world, but if everyone else wants to play a party game, I find Dixit to be better than Apples to Apples and other stuff like that, and they like Dixit just as much, so I would recommend it.

+1

Settlers of Catan is always a good one.

Carcassonne improves a lot if you add the first expansion (and degrades slowly as you add more

I have a card game called Take5!; in Germany it's called 6Nimmt!; I don't know about other countries; but it is extremely simple to explain, and really fun to play while remaining challenging and still working for up to 10 players.

Trans America is fun, simple to explain and fun with groups up to 6. And it has a train theme; even though the game is nothing like Ticket to Ride, the theme might convince people to at least try it

Pickomino is kinda fun http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15818/pickomino

St. Petersburg might also be worth looking into. Only allows up to 4, but is great fun and not too complicated.

[qmech]

TransAmerica

Trans Europa has gone down very well with my family.  You only act on your turn, but the turns are very quick: you play several games each ... game? ... and can easily be done in 20 minutes.  I think it has the best fun to price ratio of any game I've played (although I did get it very cheap on eBay, which helps!).

[Davio]

Games that have been a success with my family (2 parents, 4 siblings and the spouses, I'm the youngest sibling):

- Dixit, they absolutely love it. We have the Odyssey version which you can play with up to 12, we've done it with 10 I think, creates a lot of laughter and the spouses always have a hard time getting the old family jokes.
- Telestrations: Another big hit: the problem with Pictionary is that you actually have to try to draw well. With Telestrations, it doesn't really matter, as long as it's fun. Keeping score is optional, but it's a lot of fun to see how something like "tomb stone" gets transformed into "pickle jar". If you don't know the game, it's whisper down the alley with pictures and guesses. One person draws, the next guesses, the next draws from that guess, etc....
- Mystery of the Abbey: We didn't play a lot of Clue when we were young, but this is a great deduction game for us

[ipofanes]

It seems your crowd likes a deduction element in games, so may I suggest Dirk Henn's Timbuktu whose deduction elements are very well integrated in the game.

[Archetype]

Have you considered...mafia?

I have tried it! Vengeful 5P! But every time they'll say "What do you mean find someone to lynch? How do we know!?" And then I try and explain about interactions and why certain things matter more than others, but they just tune out. They do, however, like RMM-ish games with fun night actions, but we have a hard time getting enough players for that.

I have done research on all games you guys mentioned up until ashersky's post. Here's my thoughts:

Forbidden Island/Hey that's my Fish: Both look fun (FI, however, much more than HTMF) but I saw that they are on iOS, so I think I'd rather do that. I imagine it'll be easier for HTMY with setup, but it seems like some of the fun in Forbidden Island is watching the island sink right in front of your face. Alpha gaming could be a problem, and maybe essentially having the 'board to yourself' when playing will help remove that.

Citadels: Looks fun to me, but I don't think my family would enjoy it that much. I may be overcomplicating the whole role selection thing though. I may have to try this by PBF to get a feel for it.

Incan Gold: Alright, story time.

So I saw this and thought 'hey, this'll probably work with a deck of cards," I looked up a simple card list (giving me the 15 Hazards and 15 Treasures that make up the deck) and modified a 52 deck to do this. Made face values, aces and 2s to represent the Hazards, and then the other cards to represent the Treausure. I divided them up to have 1 '10' and 1 '3' and then some random other cards to give the deck some balance. It looked good to me, so I tried it out. Using a Stop/Go light from a kid's game to represent playing/quitting.

I tried it out a bunch 2 player...and they loved it! I thought it was OK 2player, but it ended up being much more nerveracking than I thought.

I got 1 game of 3 player in and it was a blast. The cards split more unevenly, leaving more in the middle and a greater incentive to leave.


I really like this game, but I don't know if it's enough to buy it. The missing variety of Treasure Cards, less incentive to leave, and bad components turned me off, but that's pretty silly to think knowing that the real game fixes that with a wide range of different treasures ( apparently from as low as 1 to as high as 17), artifacts, and some decent-ish components. The game just seems a bit overpriced for what you get. I think I'm going to have to play it with more people before I'm sold on the idea, but I'll most likely get it eventually.

Escape: Looks really cool and reminds me a LOT of that real-time game I told you I was working on (albeit this seems much cooler. How could I have missed using self-limiting dice. D'oh!). Pretty spendy, but it seems like the awesome game that I imagined the game I was making would end up like.

Dixit: This seems fun, but it seems like the type of game my sister would love, so I'll probably end up buying it later as a gift for her birthday. That way I'll occasionally be able to play, which is just fine for me.

So for now I have my eye on Escape or Incan Gold. But I haven't looked at the other games everyone's suggested, so I'll have to check those out before making the final verdict. Thanks!

[eHalcyon]

Incan Gold: Alright, story time.

So I saw this and thought 'hey, this'll probably work with a deck of cards," I looked up a simple card list (giving me the 15 Hazards and 15 Treasures that make up the deck) and modified a 52 deck to do this. Made face values, aces and 2s to represent the Hazards, and then the other cards to represent the Treausure. I divided them up to have 1 '10' and 1 '3' and then some random other cards to give the deck some balance. It looked good to me, so I tried it out. Using a Stop/Go light from a kid's game to represent playing/quitting.

I tried it out a bunch 2 player...and they loved it! I thought it was OK 2player, but it ended up being much more nerveracking than I thought.

I got 1 game of 3 player in and it was a blast. The cards split more unevenly, leaving more in the middle and a greater incentive to leave.


I really like this game, but I don't know if it's enough to buy it. The missing variety of Treasure Cards, less incentive to leave, and bad components turned me off, but that's pretty silly to think knowing that the real game fixes that with a wide range of different treasures ( apparently from as low as 1 to as high as 17), artifacts, and some decent-ish components. The game just seems a bit overpriced for what you get. I think I'm going to have to play it with more people before I'm sold on the idea, but I'll most likely get it eventually.

Where did you find the card list?  I think I'd be interested in trying it out too.