When I was a kid, board games such as Monopoly, Candyland, Trouble, Sorry, Bargain Hunter, Pictionary, Outburst, and Life were usually broken out at family gatherings. As I got older, those board games started to include Scrabble and various editions of Trivial Pursuit. But there never has been any designated "board game night" in my family; it was whenever one or more of us felt like playing a game.
And as the years went on, Pictionary was no longer played at my family's Thanksgiving get-togethers. In fact, my brother mentioned he missed those past Pictionary games this last Thanksgiving at my aunt and uncle's house. My cousins and other relatives seem to care more about watching the football games than trying to doodle a picture of a faucet or a heap.
Ross' family likes to play Trivial Pursuit and among all of us, me included, I think we have quite a few versions covered. I even have some '80s edition that I got on clearance for $5 at Target (I learned soon enough why it was marked down so low and we haven't attempted to play it yet). I?also have another '80s edition (different from the clearance one) that I?got from the Goodwill in Willmar. A couple of weeks ago, we all played one of the newest editions - The Master's Edition. Some of the questions were from the last four to five years. It was a blast to play.
In the last couple of years, Ross and I, along with another couple of friends, get together every once in a while to play board games. We've played Clue, Super Scrabble (double the tiles and quadruple word and letter scores!), Tribond, Worst Case Scenario, and Wise and Otherwise (not my favorite). Wise and Otherwise is where you start out with the beginning of a old saying and players come up with possible endings. The reader writes down the correct ending and then the players have to guess the right one in order to move on the board. Even though I?write for a living, I couldn't come up with clever endings to the sayings. And then I'd guess wrong. I got too frustrated. I'll maybe give it another chance.
New Year's Eve and this past Saturday saw us playing Bohnanza, which is not a board game, but a card game that involves trading and harvesting different kinds of beans. Trust me, you can get some trash talking going when trying to gather enough bean cards of the same kind to harvest one or more gold coins. "Sure, you'll trade that stink bean with him, but you wouldn't budge when I asked you to trade for the same card?" Ross said he probably splurged on the game at Games By James, which don't have too many locations around Minnesota anymore. It's also available through the Rio Grande Games website. I was looking at a few in one of the booklets that came with Bohnanza. There's different categories - city building, auction, abstract strategy, exploration, medieval and economic. Arctic Scavengers is a card game that takes place in the future. Here's the description:
In the year 2097, the entire earth was enveloped in a cataclysmic climate shift, plunging the globe into another ice age. Over 90% of the world's population was eliminated, driving the survivors to band together into loose communities and tribes.
You are the leader of a small tribe of survivors. Resources, tools, medicine, and mercenaries are all in scarce supply. You and your tribe are pitted against other tribes in a fight for survival. Build up your tribe, skirmish against other players head-to-head, or even bluff your way to victory. The leader who gathers the largest tribe will be victorious! Sounds cool, but I don't know if it's been released yet as the status according the website is "will be released/reprinted." And there isn't a retail price listed.
At the end of the night, my friend Maureen said we should do a games night get-together at least once a month. Hopefully with our crazy schedules we can accomplish that. When that was brought up, I mentioned to Ross that we should invest in a new board game, something none of us have ever played. He agreed.
So back into investing in a game or two. Ross had gotten a couple of games at the Willmar Goodwill recently. One was Wits and Wager and the other was a copy of Super Scrabble. I thought, "great, we can play sometime." The other night he opened the box and found that it didn't have any tiles. "So basically you got a board and tile holders?" I said to him in a text message. "And a box. For two bucks,"?he answered.
Ah, bummer.
So I've been toying with the idea of perusing the game selection of some of the area stores in the next few days. Should I?get a party game or a strategy game? Or in most cases, a new to me Trivial Pursuit edition. The possibilities are endless.