Christmas Ritual - URGENT HELP NEEDED!

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Well a bit urgent.

Every year my family end up playing a boardgame. Every year this ends up being Trivial Pursuit. Even though I often win this is starting to drive me mental particularly as we are still using the original 1985 questions so they are all about Zola Budd, Richard Gere etc. I have decided to give my family a new boardgame this year. WHAT SHOULD IT BE?

(We have all of the classic ones I think.)

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

Monopoly: Pokémon Edition!!!

Scrabble: Inflatable Version!!

― Sarah (starry), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

Does it have to be a BOARDgame? I like Balderdash...anyone for ILX Balderdash?

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

Taboo, it's the only one I have....

I know where you are coming from with the Trivial Pursuits thing, my Dad is General Knowledge King and wins every single time no matter how many ways we dream up of making it harder for him. It's now at the stage where we don't wanna play anymore, it's pointless (and we have that ancient edition too)

― smee (smee), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

Totopoly, if you can still get it. My dad made the mistake of buying share dealing monopoly last year, it is still unplayed as it is unnecessarily complex.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

booorrrred games ?!?

Get the Playstation out.

― Fuzzy (Fuzzy), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:18 (twenty-one years ago) link

Rapidough (like Pictionary, but with umm.. dough)
TELL ME
Absolute Balderdash is a good souped up version of the original
The AA Game of the Road

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:18 (twenty-one years ago) link

You could just buy newer Trivial Pursuit cards???

Hmmm... We always play Canasta which is this huge card game that lots and lots of people can play at once and we use pennies... It can last for several hours but it's alot of fun and even little kids can play.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:18 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yay, Balderdash and Scrabble - though as mentioned on the other thread the former is not reccommended for inebriated elderly relatives.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:21 (twenty-one years ago) link

I third Balderdash.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:22 (twenty-one years ago) link

They now have an Essex editon of Monopoly. Cluedo is very popular round our way.

― Richard Jones (scarne), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

Think up a list of questions and be Quizmaster Supreme.

― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

Cos if you've gone to all that trouble, they can't refuse innit?

― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

TUMBLING MONKEYS! ok, it's not a board game. make a board game based on TUMBLING MONKEYS

― Alan (Alan), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

Cluedo is the most tedious of all the traditional board games. I made the mistake of pointing this out in the company of a friend who had bought me Travel Cluedo for my last birthday.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

xmas board Games are a more effective way to start arguments down my way than if the turkey was tuffed with PCP.

Actually maybe thats the problem....

― tigerclawskank, Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

cluedo is GREBT! as a child i thought it was the MOTHER OF ALL BOARD GAMES. but then i haven't played it in years and can imagine it being tedious now. thanks.

MAKE YR OWN FIGHTING FANTASY SLAINE BOARD GAME

― Alan (Alan), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

What like Mystic Wood?

Cluedo is awful - also banned because of a massive fight my Dad and I had over it on holiday once.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

who wants to be a millionaire all-chocolate edition!!

(this is a once-only game i seem to recall)

(not entirely acceptably the million-pound chocolate prize is the same size as many of the earlier prizes, except it has "million pounds" written on it)

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

Play hide and seek, it's more fun.

The Blockbuster game was rub.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

How can you fight over Cluedo?

Also, is it acceptible to notice whereabouts on their detective notepad sheet people are crossing off things?

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

Acceptable bah. Damn this speed ILXing.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

The new Trivial Pursuit, 20th anniv. edition is grebt!

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

Cluedo fight scenario:

I know what the right solution is, my Dad doesn't, but he knows the right room. To stop me going there to make the accusation, he keeps on calling my character back to the opposite room while he narrows down the options, making it a straight race once he's worked it out. While well within the letter of the rules this seemed to me in infringement of their spirit and I told him to in rather too certain terms. Huge row results.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

Terrific! This would normally happen the other way around, generationally.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

Tom this has happened to us too! But we just thought it was funny.

― Richard Jones (scarne), Thursday, 12 December 2002 14:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

Richard, just out of interest, how on earth did they find a Mayfair equivalent in Essex? And what is it? All the decent expensive places I can think of are in Suffolk. All I know is that it can't be anywhere bloody near Colchester. And I shudder to think what they've used for the pieces. Dice on string? A Rav4? A mobile phone? A thirteen year old girl with a greyhound skirt on? The mind boggles.....

Oh. Yeah. That's what you should get, Tom. Boggle. I knew there was a point to this post.

― lol p xx, Thursday, 12 December 2002 15:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

How can you fight over Cluedo?

You fight bitterly before you even start over who gets to be Miss Scarlett. The restrained fading elegance of Mrs Peacock (should surely be Lady Peacock) doesn't compete.

― Anna (Anna), Thursday, 12 December 2002 15:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

There are some tres posh villages around Saffron Walden.

― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 12 December 2002 15:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think you should play Scattergories Tom, it's good for fighting about words which don't exist. (Does any other family get a massive jigsaw every year)

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 12 December 2002 15:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

Carcassonne. http://www.hans-im-glueck.de/seiten/0245e.htm

(The game is actually way more interesting than the awful "Vee do not need professional translators" description makes it sound.)

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 12 December 2002 15:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

Why are you calling Clue "Cluedo?"

I love Scrabble. *sigh*

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Thursday, 12 December 2002 15:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

lol here is the gen on the Essex edition: http://www.shoppersworld.co.uk/store/default.asp?s=190
though I think this blurb was written by a sentimentalist: 'The unmistakeable outline of windmills' indeed!

― Richard Jones (scarne), Thursday, 12 December 2002 15:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

Carcassonne = lo-fi Civilisation?

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 12 December 2002 15:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

I saw a disturbing TV commercial for "Uno Attack," which has a machine that shoots out a stream of cards onto a poor victim. A G-rated money shot if I ever saw one. That commercial made me feel dirty. I'm sorry this doesn't help with your inquiry though.

Balderdash is good, because it rewards creativity, and if you know your competitors well, you can tailor your answers to snag their votes. It can be a quite complicated game if you play it as such.

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Thursday, 12 December 2002 15:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

Honeybears! it's about naughty bears running home from the beehives with a load of honey they've scarfed. playable by four year olds, or parents.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 12 December 2002 15:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

N -- yes, in a good way.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 12 December 2002 15:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

what's that survival game called? The one in the yellow box? I know "Survival" is part of the name but I can't recall the rest of it.

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 12 December 2002 15:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

Balderdash definately, or Articulate (kind of like taboo but without the taboo words). Nonsense Scrabble is a good variation, make up nonsense words, they are judged acceptable if you can give them a believeable enough definition.
Cluedo is rubbish. I loved it as a child, as an adult I realized it's just far too easy.

― Celeste (Celeste), Thursday, 12 December 2002 16:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

RUDE WORDS SCRABBLE, OBV

― Alan (Alan), Thursday, 12 December 2002 16:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

The worst game of all is "Scruples". I have known couples file for divorce after playing that.

― C J (C J), Thursday, 12 December 2002 16:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

Oh my god yes, you CANNOT play Scruples with your family.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 12 December 2002 16:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

I am not playing dirty scrabble with my family. Nor am I commandeering the crossword.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 12 December 2002 16:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

I love Scrabble.

not as much as me.

of course, there is CIVILIZATION THE BOARD GAME. but civ being civ, you'd all still be there playing next xmas. Civ is as good as scrabble even.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 12 December 2002 16:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

G-kit-
Do you refer to the official Scrabble Players Dictionary?
Do you also play online? (well, literati??)
Do you feel full of anger at the world if you lose?
S

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Thursday, 12 December 2002 16:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

Why are you calling Clue "Cluedo?"

Yeah, what's with you people? Use the real word, dammit!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 December 2002 16:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

my mother went to the nationals for scrabble in the mid 70s, also our trivial pursuit game is older- in fact the first one put out. They have this queer trivia game i played last night at the GLCCE open house- how would yr parents fair at knowing sodomites thruout history ?

― anthony easton (anthony), Thursday, 12 December 2002 16:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

Isn't the answer obviously...

http://www.hasbropreschool.com/common/images/products/4533_imageMain400.jpg

― Aaron W, Thursday, 12 December 2002 16:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

Do you refer to the official Scrabble Players Dictionary?

i have the american one, yeah

Do you also play online? (well, literati??)

yes, i regularaly get obliterated on www.playsite.com

Do you feel full of anger at the world if you lose?

yes, and i always lose, that is why i am such a bitter man.

have you read 'word freak' by stefan fatsis? that's an uberscrabblegeek book.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 12 December 2002 16:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

Windmills????????????????????????????????

― lol p xx, Thursday, 12 December 2002 16:54 (twenty-one years ago) link

I FINALLY beat my mom this summer at Scrabble... it was like one of those magic moments that was equal parts relief and let-down.

― Aaron W, Thursday, 12 December 2002 16:54 (twenty-one years ago) link

Do you allow all the letters of the alphabet 'spelled out' (eg. 'en')? I think they are in Chambers but it always seemed a bit of a cheat. I remember my grandparents writing in extra words to the Scrabble dictionary like 'qua'.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 12 December 2002 16:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

ems and ens are names for spaces/lengths in printing terminology

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

http://www.areyougame.com/images/items/WM1046.jpg

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

i just remembered: PIT!!

my family is not collectively dim, but we never could never get this game to work...

my mum really likes those memory games where you turn over two cards and have to find pairs of images: we had a really nice one w.about 200 cards with a weirdly random choice of images, which by weird coincidence included a picture-pair from a version of aesop's fables we also owned, and another from some completely unrelated book

(this game has a name — or several — but i don't recall it) (!)

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

how weirdly weird

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

My favourite game would have to be Squatter - The Australasian Sheep Farming Game. It's top notch.

― alix (alix), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

Do you allow all the letters of the alphabet 'spelled out' (eg. 'en')? I think they are in Chambers but it always seemed a bit of a cheat.

dont get me started. there are 92 acceptable 2 letter words in US scrabble, and yes, some of them are spellings of letters. they're all in the OSPD, so they all count. obv, house rules may rule otherwise, which is when the real scrabble players start getting pissy.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

oh shit, i'm a scrabble nerd.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

ok but em and en have real-life non-spelling-out-letters application eg in our office when discussing text lay-out

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

haha i'm a dictionary nerd

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

dictionary's a good one, too i.e. Balderdash but with a dictionary and pencil + paper. i think the memorization game you're talking about is called "concentration", mark

Anyway I think it's about time somebody gave it up for PARCHEESI! the UR-game of all board games!! It fits the ascetic yet slightly competitive mood of my Texas Christmases quite well....

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:36 (twenty-one years ago) link

In old children's books they are always playing HALMA!

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

http://www.expat.or.id/images/congklakplaygirls2.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

So that's what Halma is. Ever since I heard it referred to in the radio version of Hitchhiker's Guide I had wondered...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

ef ewe

― gygax!, Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

fur cue two

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

That's Mancala in the picture, right? What a great board!

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

didn't norman phay once say he wz specifically forbidden from using "roxor" etc? or did i dream that?

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

it calls it "congklak" on the site i found it, tom: the world's oldest board game, apparently

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 12 December 2002 17:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

You fight bitterly before you even start over who gets to be Miss Scarlett

I knew this was Anna before reading further!

Have you considered a WWF style wrestling tournament, Tom?

Or, more realistically only if your family has loads and loads of books, Ex Libris (except don't buy it as it is a total waste of money).

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 12 December 2002 19:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

Advanced Squad Leader is fun for the whole family!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 12 December 2002 21:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

two years pass...

a bump for Sorry!

or Axis & Allies

― kingfish crab trampycakes (kingfish 2.0), Sunday, 4 December 2005 01:11 (eighteen years ago) link

DOMINOES!

― Miss Misery xox (MissMiseryTX), Sunday, 4 December 2005 05:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Risk !

― jim wentworth (wench), Sunday, 4 December 2005 06:07 (eighteen years ago) link

Facts in Five!

― D.I.Y. U.N.K.L.E. (dave225.3), Sunday, 4 December 2005 19:50 (eighteen years ago) link

Articulate! Damn, it's fun.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Sunday, 4 December 2005 20:04 (eighteen years ago) link

Dutch Blitz is the favorite of all the canny, mouthy, cheating women in my family. Poss substitute: any card game variation that involves discarding/passing cards to your neighbor as quickly as possible and hoping that she's too rushed to notice what's in her hand.

http://static.flickr.com/35/70162408_f3e7250439.jpg http://static.flickr.com/18/70162405_08db01511f.jpg

― Laurel (Laurel), Sunday, 4 December 2005 20:06 (eighteen years ago) link

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