[Franz Josef]

I used to play alot of this stuff - Sunday afternoons with a bunch of mates. All seems very old and pre invention of the microchip. Used to love Monopoly - all that raw greed and aggression and buying up the planet. Cluedo a bit boring - these days I'd be Colonel Panic in the drawing rooming killing Miss Mac with the Bad RAM Or Risk.....now that's a class act, massing armies in Kamchatka and Irkutsk to take over Central Europe. Anyone still play? I need to dust off my Monopoly board .....

[alcimedes]

There's a Mac version of Risk called iConquer. Allows you to play against people in your buddy list. Fun little game.

I still have the board game in my basement though. Nothing like an afternoon of world domination. Turns out the game goes much faster when you're not having to constantly roll dice though. go figure.

[bostongeek]

If you know anyone who plays Warfish (www.warfish.net), ask for an invite. It is a Risk-style game, played via a web-browser (minimalist graphics) and is turn-based (receive turn notifications via email). Here is a bit about the game from my website:
From Bostongeek.com

Warfish is, in a nutshell, a darn good implementation of an online Risk-style strategy game. The presentation is simplistic, which allows you to concentrate on conquering the planet and not get distracted by fancy graphics and sounds. Play occurs by visiting a particular game’s webpage. You see, each game has a unique ID and (after logging into the site), you are able to access your current active games. Its turn-based, and after completion of a player’s turn, the next player is notified via email. Because of this, games can last anywhere from a day or two, to more than a week. The game setup can be customized in various ways. If you are familiar with Risk, the rules are pretty similar. The first step in the game is for the players to colonize the territories of the six continents. This can be handled in several ways. Since it is turn-based over email, handling colonization the traditional way can be quite time consuming. So, Warfish offers a couple of alternatives to the traditional. Blind-at-once colonization involves all the players ranking all of the territories in order of preference, at the same time. Then, in order, the game assigns territories based upon preference order. The way in which I usually play is to allow the game randomly assign players to different territories. Sometimes, this leads to obvious advantages for particular players, but that just makes it more of a challenge for the other players. The next step in game setup is to place your armies in the territories you colonize. Again, this can be handled in one of several different ways. The traditional way, where each turn involves a player placing a single unit in a territory that he/she colonizes. This, again, takes a long time. Also, once again, the game can assign the units for the players. This is obviously the quickest way to get started, but removes that part of the strategy. My personal favorite way to play is to choose blind-at-once placement. This involves all the players simultaneously placing all of their units without knowing where any other player is placing them. Not until all of the players have placed all of their units does the placement of each player become visible to all. It makes for a fun moment in the game when the concentration of force becomes apparent. Wheels certainly start spinning at this point. One other part of the gameplay that can be customized is the card-scale. At the end of each turn, if a player has captured at least one territory he/she is awarded one card. Once a player has completed a set (3 of a kind, or 1 of each of 3 types), he/she can trade that set in for units. The card-scale comes into play, as it determines how many units a player gets for trading in a set of cards. The most common scale I have played in my games has started at 4 units, and incremented by 1 after each set has been traded the scale continues 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, [+5…]. This makes trading in cards later in the game extremely important. It also scales well to the total number of armies present in the later stages of the game, and also can provide some dramatic momentum swings. In addition, the game has a mechanism whereby players can leave messages for all to read. This means that there will usually be plenty of smack-talk during a game. And, what is boardgame without smack-talk? Unfortunately, at the moment, the only way to play Warfish is to be invited to join a game by a current player. I haven’t looked myself, since I have been playing for quite a while now, but I would imagine there are plenty of places on the ‘net where you can find games to join.

[bostongeek]

Also, my group of friends usually get together and play board games (when we aren't playing RPGs). If you are interested in some very fun board games, you should take a look at:

Carcassonne (the single most played game in our group, many expansions)
Settlers of Catan
Zombies
Civilization
Risk (and some of the newer variants: 2210, Godstorm)
Axis and Allies

[Sir Mac o' the Isles]

Mr Josef!

I am a great fan o' board games. Mony's the wild winter's night I hae spent huddled in front o' the flickering fire wi' freends, rolling the dice and moving the counters while ootside the wind roars and the waves crash on the dark rocks. There is nothing tae beat the thrill o' interacting wi' other people over a game o' Monopoly or Cluedo. The righteous indignation! The swearing. The fisticuffs! A' these things are missing frae these computer games where the rich vibrancy o' life is reduced tae the muddy shades o' virtuality. I hereby propose a global amnesty for kids everywhere tae hand in their PS Boxes and Gamesquares and Macs and PCs in exchange for chess sets, ludo and guid books tae read.

[holbox]

Originally Posted by Franz Josef I used to play alot of this stuff - Sunday afternoons with a bunch of mates. All seems very old and pre invention of the microchip. Used to love Monopoly - all that raw greed and aggression and buying up the planet. Cluedo a bit boring - these days I'd be Colonel Panic in the drawing rooming killing Miss Mac with the Bad RAM Or Risk.....now that's a class act, massing armies in Kamchatka and Irkutsk to take over Central Europe. Anyone still play? I need to dust off my Monopoly board .....

Hey Franz Josef,

Just a bit of history that you might enjoy. My wife and I & two friends enjoyed long Monopoly games before we were married. We still play
maybe once a year when we get together.

This year in December we celebrate our 50th. Anniversary.

That game has stood the test of time!

[Naderfan]

I loved Trivial Pursuit. When I was little, we had the Family version (easier questions for the kids, a set of regular questions for the adults) and I loved playing that. I recently got married and wanted to pick up some board games and wanted to get regular Trivial Pursuit...I can't find it anywhere! All I've seen is Trivial Pursuit-90s edition or else specific versions, like Trivial Pursuit SNL or Lord of the Rings or whatever. I'm terrible at pop culture and just want the regular classic version, but apparently we as a nation can only handle games that focus on TV/movies. Grrr.

Sorry, that was my little rant. I also have memories of playing Monopoly with my brother and dear cousin, who always seemed to have a secret stash of money hidden away...he was always the banker too. Mmmmmm.... Anyway, board games are fun.

[BlueRabbit]

Carcassonne is amazing. It's fun, and the games don't take too long. Everyone should play at least one game of Carcassonne in their lifetime.

Risk is also fun, but the games take forever, especially once you start making/breaking alliances and stuff. I've had Risk games take upwards of 6 hours.

[Wrao]

I will pwn you all at scrabble.

[midwinter]

Settlers of Catan. Best. Game. Ever.

[atomicbartbeans]

Originally Posted by Franz Josef Cluedo a bit boring - these days I'd be Colonel Panic in the drawing rooming killing Miss Mac with the Bad RAM

I'm printing that out and putting it on my wall. Not bad, for a Frenchman. Consider yourself an exception to the rule.

[Amadeus]

I remember play a lot of board games as a child. A great past time. The only ones that I can remember now is Monopoly and Scrabble. Not even sure if I even own any board games at the moment.

[dviant]

A bit more complicated than Monopoly but I wish someone would come out with a decent version of Space Hulk. My buddies and I in college would geek out on that all the time. A computer version would prevent the inevitable beer spills on the map tiles hehe.

Some other cool old-school quasi rpg board games that'd be sweet would be Car Wars or Ogre/GEV...

[Franz Josef]

Originally Posted by holbox This year in December we celebrate our 50th. Anniversary.

Wow. Now that is cool - 50 years married AND Monopoly.

[Crusader]

Ah Monopoly... a great game. At out New Years Party after the drinking and the poker we rang in '05 with three concurrent games of Monopoly. Unfortunately, when playing with a group of highly competitive friends we are all on the lookout to screw over the current leader when one of us is close to bankruptcy. Nothing like fucking the competition over before you are squished

[Luca]

Yeah I kicked some ass at Monopoly a couple days ago. Acquired the light blue properties and quickly built them up to hotels, then used the money I made from two people landing on them in a row ($550 each time!) to buy the orange properties from my opponents. Built those up to hotels as well and owned.

Best line throughout the game... I'm buying properties for my newly acquired orange properties and I pull out my stack of hundreds... "Here, I'll use $1000 and get... hmm... four houses on... oh hell, just make it an even $1200 and I'll take three hotels." People were glaring at me

[RowdyScot]

I'm a huge Trivial Pursuit fan The current set I believe is Genus 5. Came out 3 years ago or so. All of the family get-togethers culminate with a game or two of guys vs. gals. The gals finally broke a winning streak yesterday after nearly a year of the guys winning. And many of the questions kept coming up regarding Utah O_o

[CobaltFire]

I don't play a lot of board games, but Uno is still a favorite, and I play WhiteWolf RPG's, Battletech (best game ever...), and D&D. I am actually getting away from computer/console gaming as much, as even online the social aspect isn't there. It is great to walk into a conference room, meet 5 new people, and proceed to blow the crap outta each other's 'mechs, or start a new Vampire: The Masquerade story. Great fun. I am a young guy who works in the computer industry, too. Go figure that I am moving away from computer games as I get older...

[Koodari]

I remember many fine summer days out on the lawn playing Risk.

Lately we have been playing Settlers of Catan. Carcassonne is available, and we have played two games or so, but somehow I dig Settlers more. I feel like I should concentrate better on the initial placement... try to read the whole board, at least to the end of initial setup, before placing my pieces. Practically every game one of my roads has been cut off - in some games, both roads, or one settlement totally isolated. All before the "actual game" has even started.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

I've been playing Cranium lately and that is a great game. You play teams (we play either guys v. girls or couples against each other) and the object is to make it to the end of the track first. Whatever color you land on determines what type of activity you have to do. For some you have to draw the answer and your partner has to correctly guess it before time runs out. There's also charades, celebrity impersonations, drawing with eyes closed, clay modeling, spelling and other stuff. It's really cool.

[thuh Freak]

when i was younger we had some special monopoly rules. free parking was always atleast $200 plus any 'taxes' or 'fees' collected (sometimes we'd start it at 500), robbing the bank was allowed if no one caught you (unless you were the banker, inwhich case it was always illegal; penalty was loss of stolen cash plus a bunch more, but you wouldn't go to jail). hidden caches of cash were legal too (and would often make the game interesting as you looked around and sized up people's visible cash pile). partnerships were allowed if all players agreed (i own boardwalk, you own park place, lets make some hotels together...). if we all were low on cash and had atleast one monopoly/partnership, we'd say "how about everyone gets a grand from the bank". rent could be paid on layaway. you could sell free rides, or a free round the board trip (for your properties) in exchange for property. all kinds of special rules. my friend mike would win everytime. the bastard.

in college we played the game of global domination a fair amount. was always pretty cool. i figured out a good strategy (atleast against my friends). make one alliance with anyone, keep true to it (wrt joint attacks and non-competes), while keeping a healthy defense against my ally and a fair amount of territorial greed on non-competes. when it came down to one on one, cut him up good. they stoped making alliances with me, and i'd lose tho.

dont play board games so much anymore. tried playing poker a few weeks/months ago. $5 buy in and we managed to quibble over the stupidest shit. "you cheated" "no i didn't." "yes you did" "why would i cheat over $5.00?" "cuz u did" blah blah. put an end to that idea.

[Wrao]

I'm serious guys. I want to play scrabble.

make an account at
www.games.com

and PM me if you want to play.

[BlueRabbit]

Originally Posted by bassplayinMacFiend I've been playing Cranium lately and that is a great game. You play teams (we play either guys v. girls or couples against each other) and the object is to make it to the end of the track first. Whatever color you land on determines what type of activity you have to do. For some you have to draw the answer and your partner has to correctly guess it before time runs out. There's also charades, celebrity impersonations, drawing with eyes closed, clay modeling, spelling and other stuff. It's really cool.

Ooh, I forgot about Cranium. It's an awesome game, except you need a lot of people to play a fun game (I would say that 3 teams of 2 is the minimum for a good game). It's like all the best parts of Pictionary and Trivial Pursuit combined into one game!

[nomorewindows]

Originally Posted by Wrao I'm serious guys. I want to play scrabble. make an account at www.games.com and PM me if you want to play.

Not to brag, but my family will only play Scrabble with me once a year because I ALWAYS WIN.

Actually, I stink, but I still love to play. What's the deal with games.com? Is it a pay thing?

I remember weekend-long Monopoly marathons with my sisters. Sometimes it got vicious, with the occasional bloodletting.

Years ago, while living in Germany, I would take my Trivial Pursuit game to my neighborhood Gasthaus. They knew more about American geography than I did. Same thing with old movies.

The Worst Case Scenario Survival Game is kind of fun. You learn really obscure, useless facts while playing a board game. Goes well with beer.

Holbox, happy fiftieth!

[Wrao]

Games.com is free, make an account, PM me, let's tango.

[Dorian Gray]

Not sure if chess is a true board game, but I got totally, hopelessly addicted to it a couple of years ago when I met a physics student who taught me how to play proper chess. I idolised Robert Fischer, became obsessed with opening theory, and during the day (when I slept) I sometimes literally dreamed about discovered check, entombment, lost tempi, etc.

At night we would play chess while chain-smoking endless Davidoffs and alternatively listening to Heifetz's 1952 and Grumiaux's 1961 recording of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin (life-changing stuff). When the morning light started pouring through the window we would put on the Lavazza and make another move. Maybe switch up to East Coast hip hop. After a couple of weeks of doing this daily, reality becomes a pretty distant concept!

Is this the healthy, responsible fun you want to introduce to kids by nicking their PlayStations, Sir Mac? :-)