Board Games

We play a lot of games that require independent score keeping, such as Azul and Bunny Kingdom. These are basically honor system games, more so than general victory point games. Since the scoring is complex and completed round by round, there's no way of knowing whether the score is being calculated correctly for each person -- and, often, it just isn't. Over time, I've noticed that the same people tend to win these games, even if they aren't generally good at that type of game. 

They aren't cheating.

They're confused. 

Legacy games are polarizing. Some players can't fathom paying for a game they can only play a set amount of times, while others compare it to purchasing a movie ticket or a video game. In reality, the grossly disparate experience of playing legacy games probably comes down to the group more than the budget. And, of course, not all legacy games are made equal: Charterstone is a different experience from Pandemic: Legacy, which is a different experience from Gloomhaven.

Reddit recently had a thread about commonly missed rules in popular board games, which brought to mind something else: collecting cash at Free Parking in Monopoly. Monopoly is notorious for house rules that become canon, because no one actually reads the rulebook; they learn to play from family and friends.

For both players and developers, point spread can mean a lot about a game and how it's played. Somewhat like accuracy and precision, "point spread" often indicates how reliable a game's strategies are, as well as the variance between the best and the worst players. Sometimes a large point spread means that a game is extremely random; other times a large point spread means that there's a lot of room for growth as a player.

With over 1,700 games, Van Fujishige is about as serious a hobbyist as you can get in the board gaming community -- and one of my closest friends. Running demos for multiple companies and involved in the local convention scene, he's constantly posting the best information on the best games. And it doesn't hurt that he has impeccable taste.

"I never play games with my husband. He's such a sore loser! If I don't make sure he wins, he just gets into a fight. And he'll cheat to win, too -- openly. It's just not worth the trouble."

We're giving away a copy of the popular game "Codenames"! Codenames is an excellent party game that can be adjusted to compensate nearly any large group. In Codenames, players take turns being the "Spymaster," directing their team to guess specific words while trying to help them avoid the assassin. Spymasters need to choose single word clues that can apply to multiple names on their gameboard, while the other team competes to reveal their spies first.

Games are getting larger, and let’s face it: we aren’t really doing anything to stop it. As games steadily take over our dining rooms, specialized board game tables are becoming more popular. It’s a rite of passage: you know you’re way, way too into board games when you drop a few thousand dollars on chit storage.

And you’re probably going to spend a few thousand dollars.

Whether you're just getting into the hobby or just about to start collecting in earnest, it can be difficult to figure out where to start your board game collection. Though there are suggestions out there, there are vastly types of game experience and different types of board gamer. So here's where to get started depending on your personal preferences.

Alright: our government is taking a bit of a break. And that could probably have some consequences for us, at some point in time. But the reason we play board games is to get our minds off reality. In keeping with that theme, here are some of the best political board games you can play at your "democracy is ending" game night.