Board Games

[poliphilo]

My son Mike (manfalling) is celebrating his aquisition of a vintage, secondhand boxed set of Shogun- which is a late twentieth century board game where you get to wage war all over medieval Japan. He and Joe loved it when they were kids. I got pulled in once or twice and found it slow. I guess the real joy is imagining yourself as an ancient Japanese warlord and if that doesn't float your boat there's nothing to hold your interest while your opponents agonise over their moves.

My favourite game from that era was Talisman- which is basically Dungeons and Dragons without the Dungeon Master. Or to put it another way, Dungeons and Dragons for lazy people.

I played Dungeons and Dragons too- but that's another story.

Further back- when I was a kid myself-  the games we played en famille (on winter evenings) were Scrabble and Cluedo. The thing about those two- which locks them in place as classics- is that there's skill involved. I was quite a whizz at Cluedo- good at befoozling the opposition and making deductions from other players' moves.  Games where it's all down to the fall of the dice soon become boring.

Ailz and I bought ourselves a Scrabble set last Christmas and gave it a bashing over the festive season. Perhaps we'll fetch it out again this winter.

There was/is a horrible game called The Game of Life, which is Snakes and Ladders reimagined (though imagination has nothing to do with it) as a turn upon the  middle-class treadmill. Go to university, get a corporate job, have kids, upgrade your house, get wheeled into the crem (only without the bit about the crem). More like the Game Of Not Having A Life, really. How cruel (and borderline sinister) to have kids play at being middle-management when they could be being shoguns or super-sleuths or orc-fighting adventurers. 

Do people (I mean young people- not oldies reliving their youth) still play board games- or has all the action moved into cyberspace?

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Lost Cities sounds interesting. I need to have a look at what's out there.

[glassgirl7.livejournal.com]

We got a copy of GAMES magazine, and once a year they publish a review of the best games of the year, with separate reviews for board/card games and electronic games. I think they put the Games 100 on their website, so you could take a look without hunting down a back issue. They have a shot of the board, and a paragraph or two describing and reviewing the game.

And Lost Cities is great. Its for two players, but I think if you have two copies of the game, there is an adaptation for four players, possibly in teams. I like a combination of strategy and luck, and this game has that; however it might not have complex enough strategy for you. I just get a headache if there are too many layers of think-ahead strategy.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I like a bit of strategy, but not too much- just enough to make me feel clever, but not enough to give me a headache. Although pretty good at Cluedo, I've never been able to master chess.