JENN MCKINLAY: We recently had a cold snap here in AZ, and by cold I mean the highs were in the low fifties. Yes, yes, I know, this is nothing for you northern folks, why, it’s practically T-shirt weather. Whatever. Because we live in the land of sun, when we hit our third day straight of rain, we were perplexed. What do people do when they can’t be outside all day? I even work outside on a cushy lounge chair on the patio most of the time. We were boggled.
Speaking of boggle, it occurred to us that this was the perfect time to dust off the old board games. I mean you can Netflix stream yourself into a coma to pass the time, but every now and again it’s nice to connect with your people over haggling for rent, the correct spelling of a word, or some queen to rook trash talk, am I right? Of course, finding myself on the losing end of a chess match was not how I pictured my day going, but hey, at least there were snacks.
So, upon review, here are my top three board games - the big daddy of them all -- Monopoly! Honestly, I knew I had reached a new level of maturity when going to jail (three squares and a bed!) was a relief from being shaken down by a hooligan for rent. Next, is Scrabble. I have a friend who vets potential boyfriends by their ability with a Scrabble board. If they can’t give her decent competition, they’re outta there! And lastly, chess. It’s a fave, primarily because it fascinated me forever as something only really smart people could play, so when the hooligans came along, I put them in chess club in elementary school so they could teach me. Our favorite to play is a wizard chess set from Harry Potter, natch.
Of course, dusting off our old games like Sorry (should be called Sorry, Not Sorry), Rummikub, and Sequence brought back a million memories of times spent together playing, learning how to be gracious winners and losers, and some epic marathons that lasted for days. Curious, I had to look up what the most popular board games are. See: The 10 Most Popular Board Games and How They Made Gaming Better Spoiler alert: chess is number one. Also are board games even still a thing? They are. A new trend that’s happening is board game cafes like Snakes and Lattes in Toronto. See more: Board Games Are Getting Really, Really Popular and their popularity is expected to continue to surge through 2023.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I love board games, I am SO guilty of it! We played Risk , endlessly, through my 20s at dinner parties. (We were wild and crazy, RISK and fondue and Tavola Red. :-) )
I also love TRIVIAL PURSUIT, and um, what’s it called? Something where you have to recognize songs and lyrics. Also FACTS IN FIVE where you have a grid of five across and five down, and each player picks a topic like rivers, song titles, Italian foods, politicians, dead architects, or whatever and you write those down the side. And then the moderator picks five letters of the alphabet that you write across the top of the grid. Then you have five minutes to get each box filled. (Does that make sense?) A dead architect that begins with W, for instance. I also adore Scrabble, until I played with Jonathan-- but he is too good, so, sadly, we had an earthquake (how did it happen?) and that was the end of Scrabble. I am a terrible loser.
Oh--my grandkids love Settlers of Kataan (is that what it is?) and some game about trains where you have to build train tracks. SO complicated, and they all seem to be about economics. They also taught me how to play Magic, which is INCREDIBLY hard, and I swear to you they are making up the roles as they go to fool Grammy.
LUCY BURDETTE: We also played Risk and Monopoly and Chutes and Ladders endlessly as kids. And how about Life? Loved that one too--and multi-person wild games of Pounce aka Solitaire with friends. Nowadays my favorites are Bananagrams and Boggle. Though like Hank, and I suspect most of you, I do prefer to win:).
Last year I pulled out our old backgammon board, thinking it would be fun to play, but I need a teacher!
HALLIE EPHRON: I used to love board games - especially RISK, CAREERS, MONOPOLY, TRIVIAL PURSUIT. The truth? These days I will do just about anything (dishes, anyone?) to get out of playing a board game (though my daughter got us to play APPLES TO APPLES not too long ago and that was a lot of fun). I’m afraid my frame of reference has aged out of Trivial Pursuit.
The games I still like don’t have boards. Charades! Bridge! Hearts! And anyone remember how to play I Doubt It? Great for a tipsilated crowd.
RHYS BOWEN: I’ve just had the whole family here and we play endless games. Favorites among them are Taboo, Reverse Charades and Boggle. A new game this year was What’s on Your Mind? Everyone puts down a word association and if any match you get points. Grandson Sam and I were absolutely on the same wavelength. But my daughter bought a new game called Ridiculous Expositions. It was supposed to be mildly naughty but OMG it was DISGUSTING! Things you’d never want a teenager to hear. Needless to say it was not played again
Our standard is The Name Game. No board needed. Everyone writes down a famous person/character and we have to guess who wrote what. Always hilarious in my family when various teenagers come up with outlandish names.
All right, Readers, your turn! What's your go to board game?
CANASTA is a great game if you’re playing cards.
ReplyDeleteBut if we’re getting out the board games, then my all-time favorite game is CLUE.
We also enjoy MONOPOLY and SCRABBLE and CHESS . . . .
I used to play canasta with my Gramma. She taught me! Awwwwww. Thank you for the memory!
DeleteOh, I love Clue! Need to bust that one out.
DeleteI love board games, too, but I don't get to play them as often as I'd like these days. When I married my husband 43 years ago, I got introduced to the game of Aggravation. His parents played it with friends, and they were brilliant at it. After father-in-law died, my mother-in-law was still the reigning queen of Aggravation in the family. I should add here that my children and my husband's sister's children were also participated and still do in Aggravation games at MIL's. It has gotten rather heated on more than one occasion, but some of those people (my MIL and husband) play for blood. What's sad about our game now is that my MIL's dementia has finally affected her playing the game. But, we try to carry on. MIL has the old-time Aggravation board, and because it was such a part of our children's growing up, I bought my daughter and son their own old-time board set, too. That was back before they soared in price.
ReplyDeleteMonopoly and Clue are two favorites, too, and I've enjoyed introducing the granddaughters to Clue. We have played several Monopoly versions, from regular Monopoly to horse Monopoly to Harry Potter Monopoly. My younger granddaughter and I enjoy playing Parcheesi with animal themed playing pieces. Apples to Apples is another game that I played with my children and grandchildren. And, I still have a soft spot for Candyland. I loved Life and Mousetrap when I was a young girl.
The ten-year-old plays chess on her school's chess team and loves it. I think I'm beyond teaching it to now though. Oh, well. My son used to play some of the fantasy board games that were (or maybe still are) so popular. There was one I finally learned to play, too, and had a great time playing with him and the older granddaughter. It was called Small World, and it was lots of fun. There was another fantasy board game, too, that had to do with mystery, but I'll have to ask my son what the name of it was.
I have never heard of Aggravation - must look it up. Sounds like something Hooligan 2 would enjoy, he’s the reigning king of games.
DeleteI loved Clue as a kid. I think my ADD kicked in later and I could not sit through Monotony, sorry, Monopoly. I did enjoy Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble. Jenga is fun. And dominoes still rate here in Texas.
ReplyDeleteLOL - we play a hyper version of Monopoly, but I hear ya. I love Jenga ! We have a huge Jenna game in our backyard. So fun!
DeleteFun topic! My son and his wife play lots of board games with friends (all brilliant people). Once, the night before Malice, we played something but it my fading brain couldn't quite grasp the complexities. Here at home we love bananagrams and the dice game Farkle. And Scrabble - I had a women-only New Year's Eve party and my blind friend Jeanne brought her Braille Scrabble set - it was fascinating to watch her read the board after others had played. Wise and Otherwise is a bluffing game with where you have to complete a proverb from somewhere in the world - "When a woman leads a donkey..." - and then guess which out of the batch is the correct one (there's a stack of cards with the real endings on the back). It's hilarious and fun. Also Fictionary!
ReplyDeleteHow amazing, Edith. I love that Scrabble is accessible. Also, Fictionary - LOL - how’d I miss that one?
DeleteBlind Scrabble - fabulous! I'm sure my step-dad would have loved it so his daughter could play.
DeleteWe played a lot of board games: my favorite was Scrabble. We also played Life, Backgammon, Checkers, and Trivial Pursuit. There were others, but I can't remember them all.
ReplyDeleteI can totally see you killing at Trivial Pursuit, Dru Ann. Not literally, Obviously :)
DeleteMy favorite is Scrabble. Since retired, I joined a club and play twice a week.
ReplyDeleteAt home, with family, we play Tock and kind of cards games like Uno and Skipbo. We also have a wood board of Tic Tac To
Ooh, I love UNO!
DeleteMonopoly, Risk, Bogo, Clue. My kids are real card sharks.
ReplyDeleteWe have family poker night - for pennies - so fun!
DeleteYes to games. My then 9 and 10 year old nephews could beat me hands down on Monopoly every time. Parcheesi was big, though they still usually beat me. Scrabble and Boggle, too--still keep our hand in at Boggle. I can't strategize beyond the present move in chess, so not much of an opponent for my whizz-kid youngest nephew. Cataan--bah humbug! When in the car or in the field with a crew, we played Botticelli. Love that game!
ReplyDeleteRemind me what Botticelli is—I know we used to play it all the time.
DeleteSomeone starts with a person in mind--the other players have to ask questions framed for a yes or no answer to try and guess the name of the person. Your turn continues as long as you get a yes answer.
DeleteOh, we have a road trip to Mexico coming up - I’ll have to remember that one!
DeleteHint: You can limit it to real people or include characters from books, movies, etc.
DeleteOh, got it!
DeleteI loved board games when I was younger. I don't really play anything anymore though.
ReplyDeleteI loved Risk (gotta love world domination when you are 12 right?), Monopoly and Life. There was also checkers, chess and Trivial Pursuit. And a host of others as well I'm sure.
I tried to play checkers after years of only playing chess and realized I couldn’t remember how!
DeleteWhen I get together with my sisters, we play Quirkle. You build a grid of blocks, six different shapes and six different colors. Put together six shapes in one color or one shape in six colors and you've scored a Quirkle. It has become our favorite game.
ReplyDeleteSounds like my kind of game ... does it play well with young kids?
DeleteI haven't played it with young kids, but the box says ages 8 and up. The rules are pretty simple, so I think it would be a good game for kids.
DeleteI like the name :)
DeleteI'm not much of a board game fan although we've hauled out the Trivial Pursuit deck when we've had company and had fun just answering the questions. No one is interested in moving little plastic bits around a board tho. When my kids were kids, we played Risk until we wore out the game. The secret I found is to capture all of South America asap. Then you own the world. Wonder if real military strategists have figured that out yet?
ReplyDeleteAgain I'm pretty sure Hallie and I were separated at birth. I can play (and win) at cards usually, and I'm convinced there is no finer game ever invented than contract bridge. Give me a good (affable) partner, and I can play all night. Standard American, Michaels if we must, four card majors, convenient minors, Blackwood, Gerber, weak twos, transfers, anything else you'd like. I'm a fast learner.
No matter how long I have played, 50 years now, I learn something new each time. What is bliss is to have a partner with whom I can communicate without even trying. I do think there's such a thing as a psych bid, not in a paranormal sense but in being able to read my partner's affect, and putting in all the other information at the table together automatically, and coming up with the right strategy. Oh, and count every card in every suit, right down to the deuce of clubs.
Hallie? Are you free this weekend? xox
LOL - Bridge is another game that fascinates me! So complicated. Also, mahjong (sp?).
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DeleteI do play WWF online, with, amongst others, Kate Charles, who is a formidable opponent. For a couple of years she beat me almost every time. But now I'm holding my own and then some. Debs, she can be conquered. You just have to hang in there.
DeleteSIGN ME UP, Ann! I learned to play bridge long before they'd invented all the fancy conventions. Goren. Point count. And it's such a good mental workout developing a strategy and trying to count cards.
DeleteWe used to play board games when I was a kid, and we still pull them out when the whole family is together for holidays. My favorites are Trivial Pursuit ( finally find a use for all the trivial knowledge i’ve collected over the years), 5 Second Rule, Boggle, and Guesstures, which is similar to charades. One of my favorite memories from years ago is of my grandmother throwing herself on the floor and rolling around during a game of Guesstures. We were all worried that she was having a seizure. She was NOT happy. “I’m not having a seizure, I’m a crocodile!”
ReplyDeleteThat is HILARIOUS!
DeleteLove Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit but my absolute favorite is Aggravation! I think it's like Parcheesi but I have sort of forgotten that one. My grandson loves Connect Four - okay, it's not a board - but he doesn't like to lose and I don't believe in letting kids win.
ReplyDeleteJudi, see my comments above about our family tradition of playing Aggravation.
DeleteMy husband and I used to play Scrabble all the time when we were dating, until I figured out how to win. We have three sets of the game, including one with a rotating board, but no one plays.
ReplyDeleteOne Christmas we got snowed in at my daughter's home in Michigan, so we played a multi-generational game of Apples to Apples, suspending the rule of ending the game when the cards were gone. It was the "best Christmas ever", so we play it every time we are together now. This year we also played Pictionary, which Steve and I had never played before. It was fun, but mostly it was fascinating to see how each person communicated ideas so differently.
Cindy, I'm HOWLING at your grandmother as a crocodile!
Shalom Reds and fans. When I was a child, I remember playing chutes and ladders, Monopoly, Clue and Risk. We also loved MadLibs (not technically a board game). I did learn to play chess. I was a strong amateur but never really had the patience to memorize the openings. My younger brother, who started learning at the age of 3, did go on to play in tournaments as a kid. I cherish the memory of 3 specific games that I won against much stronger players. I have a strong program for chess on my computer. It has all the bells and whistles and I can’t win unless I cheat which I am wont to do when my patience runs out.
ReplyDeleteI know the rules of bridge and at one point tried to learn all the bidding conventions. I read a lot of books, including Bridge in the Menagerie by Victor Mollo, which I loved like very few other books. I would love to be good enough to hold my own in contract or duplicate bridge, but my head gets really foggy when I have to remember too many things at one time.
My friend Csaba’s wife, Miss Eva, every now and then organizes a game night. We usually play Trivial Pursuit and other trivia based games. For me, it was good just to hang out with friends and have fun.
I'll keep this short, need to leave and prep the church for a wedding. As a child I remember Dad teaching me chess. When we visited my maternal grandparents in Washington and went to the lake it always rained so double deck Rummy or Gin Rummy, Spoons were played. I'm our home, we had some board games but didn't played often, even in bad weather. My step-dad and mom play scrabble, nightly, I didn't really like playing with them, always felt intimidated. My paternal grandparents saved everything but I only remember checkers but other than the Lincoln Logs up in the attic, I don't remember much beyond Solitare.
ReplyDeleteHedbanz (yes, that's how it's spelled) is good for a crowd. There are versions for different ages and it's a fun guessing game. We've played it frequently at family gatherings along with other trivia and guessing games. I had a chess lesson once from a ten-year-old who gave me a very fast, very condensed version of the rules and then said "let's play" before I could even take a breath. Needless to say, I lost -- repeatedly.
ReplyDeletePeople... Yahtzee!!!!
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, we play that with the grands! We got HUGE foam rubber dice, and we play it outside on the patio. Good for all ages!
DeleteI love Yahtzee!
DeleteHere's a great road trip game. It's a stream of consciousness game we made up like, in the 70's. It's called: It's not the New York Mets.
ReplyDeletePerson one says, It's not the new York Mets, it's the New York Jets. Person two, within 3 seconds, says, maybe...: It's not the New York Jets, it's The New York Post. Person 3 says within 3 seconds, maybe: It's not the New York Post, its the Washington Post. Next: Its not the Washington Post, its Post cereals. Its not post cereals, its serial killers.
SO what you are doing is playing off one element of what the person who started the game says.
It doesn't have to be the New York Mets. But you can see that game above also might have gone: Not, mets, Yankees. Not Yankees, confederates. Not confederates, Bonnie and Clyde. Not Bonnie and Clyde, Warren Beatty. Not Warren Beatty, Shampoo. Not Shampoo, Prell. Not Prell, Oil of Olay. Not Oil of Olay, Persian Gulf.
It's really fun. And if you are good, you can two two-level answers: It's not Bonnie and Clyde, it's Annette Bening.
And it ends when someone can't think of a thing fast enough and as a result, gets hooted down. OR when a person can't reasonably explain what they said.
It's SO much fun! I hope I have explained it...
We have Apples to Apples in our game cabinet. Must try that again! And Clue, I think. Or Cluedo, as it's called in the UK.
ReplyDeleteWe were introduced to "Code Names" over the Christmas holidays, and it's fantastic! Three generations played it and had a great time. Also, "Splendor" is another favorite.
ReplyDeleteWhat is code names? And happy new year, darling Ingrid!
DeleteGrowing up our family played cut throat Canasta, 3 teams of 3 players each at our mountain place. At home lots of Monopoly. As an adult, Aggravation was our game. Now it's Mexican Train.
ReplyDeleteI love games! Wish I had someone around here to play them with.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone mentioned Clue yet? That's my go to game, although I haven't played in years.
I'm not good at it, but I find Settlers of Catan to be fun.
I also enjoy card games and boardish games like Rummikub.
Cannot stand Monopoly, but that's just me. My family likes it. I suck at anything that involves money! As a group, we enjoy Telestrations, Taboo, Scattergories (because I always win, lol) and Trivial Pursuit. I was gifted National Park Service-themed Trivial Pursuit this Christnmas, and we're having fun with that (making lists of all the parks we need to visit).
ReplyDeleteWe had the original Trivial Pursuits game, but it was over the girls' heads, for the most part. Then our local pizza joint started having just the question and answer cards on every table, so while we waited for our food we would take turns picking a question to ask the others in the group. It took the competition part out, and we loved it.
ReplyDeleteNow there are so many versions of Trivial Pursuits, including some for kids, it's a lot easier to play.
I still love Trivial Pursuit - we have like 20 editions and play mix & match. Scrabble, Sniglets, other word games. Pictionary. I will play Ticket to Ride, Settlers, or other games just to assiciate with family, but they are not my good old favorites!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Trying to remember which board games. I think we played Candyland ? or Clue Mysteries when I was growing up. Though I seem to remember jigsaw puzzles more. And I just found a travelling Scrabble board game in my living room. I asked my Mom to teach me how to play Scrabble.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Trivia Pursuit, I would like to try that someday. My father played Chess, though I never learned how to play.
Diana
Our favorite had always been Doghouse, a homemade board game my grandpa made many years ago with some scrap wood.
ReplyDeleteI play Scrabble and Shooters with my great grandchildren
ReplyDeleteMy favorite games involve words. Number one for me is definitely BALDERDASH. I almost always win. I guess I am good at deceit? 🤷♀️😬 I also love SCRABBBLE, TABOO, SCATTERGORIES. Honestly I love most games, but really fast, frenzied ones stress me out. I like a more leisurely pace or one where you can take turns. I want time for conversation. One game I do actually HATE is called PERPETUAL COMMOTION. It's so fast and you can't even talk to each other.
ReplyDelete