List of Family Board Games
Octobet 20, 2009
“I’m a big gamer and as such have a fair amount of games in my basement. Several are very kid oriented/kid friendly types of games. If you’d like to start a list of fun/educational games that even adults would enjoy (ones that aren’t just “die throwing competitions or random events”), these are the ones I’d recommend…There are literally 1000s of different games… and most of the ones we play require a fair amount of planning and thinking…”
age 6 and up I’d say – less than 60 min
Zooloretto GemLok
Blokus
Inca Gold
To Bethlehem
Carcassone with the Ark of the Covenant varient
8+… some patience/guidance required.. but tons-o-fun – less than 90 min
Ticket to Ride
Settlers of Catan
Fluxx
Alhambra
14+ – 2 to 3 hours to play
Power Grid
Agricola
Puerto Rico
Steam
I’m sure others could come up with 100s of other great games (besides the “Monopoly”, “Sorry”, etc. that we grew up with)
“OK you’ve heard the challnege…what can you come up with?”
Peter
Oct 21, 02:00 PM
If you haven’t checked out www.thedicetower.com or www.boardgamegeek.com, you’re missing out. I personally appreciate the Vasel’s reviews and Tom and his oldest daughter just did their top 100 list on Youtube.
Regarding the list above, Ticket to Ride is a favorite in our house. We just picked up Bohnanza, but haven’t had a chance to play it yet. We did pick up and really like “Roll Through the Ages” – a decent blend of Civilization and Yahtzee.
I’ve got my eye on Tales of the Arabian Nights, but it’s on hold at the moment due to cost and other factors. There are so many good possibilities that it’s hard to choose. (and budget)
Also, IIRC, the “Ark of the Covenant” variant is similar to a different expansion available for Carcassone and would give you a lot of flexibility in the other expansions available.
coyoteyguy
Oct 21, 02:05 PM
Apples to Apples is a good one.
DM Randy
Oct 21, 02:12 PM
Dutch Blitz. Fast-paced card game. The scorekeeping is a little work but we play this for hours!
Bryon
Oct 21, 02:44 PM
Curses – by Worldwise Imports. It is not the best name for a game but it is hilarious to play
Qwirkle – shapes and colors so easy to learn for kids but still a challenge for adults
Scott McCausey
Oct 21, 03:10 PM
Oh boy! Those games you listed above are sweet! Alhambra, Ticket To Ride (European), Settlers…awesome! How about some oldies like Dark Tower, Statis Pro Baseball or the football game with the vibration guys! Simply awesome…and if you don’t play games with your fam, you are missing out! Speaking of games, if anyone is in the Lansing-MI area and wants to try a new board game that I am inventing, let me know! It’s called SnowDay and features two gameboards seperated by a huge mountain pass, lots of player types to choose from, like cops, semi-drivers, mailmen and the like, as well as BAD WEATHER! Our family has been test playing and I am ready to try it with others!
Nerd Dad
Oct 21, 03:29 PM
Hiss – 10 minutes – Great for little ones
Toss Your Cookies – 10-20 minutes – A Blast to play
Detour – less than 30 minutes – We all enjoyed it until the “gas pump” broke
Littlest Pet Shop (Hideaway Haven) – less than 30 minutes – Our girls really love those pets and this game
We love game night and I look forward to trying out some of these suggestions. Thanks!
Nerd Dad
Oct 21, 03:40 PM
Just thought of one more…
Labyrinth – less than 60 minutes – A lot of fun
Scott, I wish we could take you up on Snow Day. It sounds great, but we are 700 miles away.
Scott McCausey
Oct 21, 04:56 PM
Hopefully you can buy it someday from a WalMart shelf and say, I remember Scott posting it on the FamilyMan site! I know him! I will give you a discount.
Agricola is super-fun too! It takes a bit to figure it out, but it’s very fun. “Who Shot Doctor Lucky” is a unique and fun game as well, easy to play and fun for everyone.
Randy Hall
Oct 21, 06:01 PM
My family enjoys ‘The Farming Game’. Though it can take 1-4 hours, it is a good one for a rainy/snowy day.
Father Bugsy
Oct 21, 06:37 PM
Amen to THE FARM GAME. We love it.
Police Dad
Oct 21, 07:16 PM
And here I thought Dutch Blitz was only a PA/Amish thing…our family loves it !! Also “Pit” , Color Scheme, Blokus, Rack-O, Bible Scattegories,and Phase 10. Let the games begin !!
Weaver
Oct 21, 08:10 PM
Sequence is one our favorites… 8+
Dave
Oct 21, 09:25 PM
We love Ticket to Ride here.
Also, RoboRally is great!
@Scott
I’m in Lansing and would love help you play-test SnowDay.
Coincidentally, I also have a game my family has been play-testing that I wouldn’t mind getting some more input on. :-)
Dave
Oct 21, 10:32 PM
We enjoy word games like Bananagrams and Perquacky.
A fun math game is Knockout/ Muggins. The Professor Noggins series which simply asks questions on a variety of topics is great for all ages too.
Scott McCausey
Oct 22, 06:53 AM
Cool Dave! Send me an email: scottmccausey@hotmail.com I would love to get together with our fam’s, order some pizza, and play games!
Here’s a website that will help you get acclamated to some games: http://www.boardgameswithscott.com/?cat=6 The guy is cooky, but he gives some cool insight on games. I now want to try Lifeboat after watching this sight.
Mark B
Oct 22, 11:23 AM
This is the wife – but the husband and all four boys really love the game Aggravation. Only the old black board for six players with real marble marbles would do for us, so we bought one on ebay for the mere sum of $23 (with the yard sale tage of $1.50 still attached) and one of the boys promptly spilt a drink on the board – it’s warped now but we still play – its only for 2 – 6 players. But it’s great!
Bob from SC
Oct 22, 12:23 PM
I am a boardgamer, and I have played tons of board games. By far and away, Settlers of Catan is the best game I have ever played. My 5yr old can understand the concept but does not have the attention span to finish a game yet. The game is never the same and always replayable. The expansion can provide a change of pace, and the sister game Settlers of Canaan is also interesting.
For the younger ones, a small game called Little Trackers is like concentration, but you match up the animal footprints to get to the end. (4 players)
An out-of-print bookcase game, Rail Baron, is a great one. You buy and connect railroad while travelling around the country amassing your fortune. (3-6 players)
Others for fewer players: Quattro, Pente, and if you can find it, Stop Thief.
Classics: chess, go, Risk.
Scott McCausey
Oct 22, 12:32 PM
I am so geeked about this post! Stop Thief is awesome! I found it on ebay a couple years ago and was in great shape. Settlers has to be our all-time favorite as well. Although the Cities and Knights expansions was just a little too much. The boat version is sweet though.
Sorry for hogging all the space in this forum. Todd needs to put together a familyman game convention weekend to unite we family boardgamers. I’m not far from Indiana Todd! (I think I just stooped into a new level of nerdville.) But I’d rather be a family-nerd who plays games with his kids than have my kids trapped into some of the other garbage out there!
Sara Adams
Oct 26, 06:15 PM
It’s a card game, but SET is a great game!
Don
Oct 27, 10:38 AM
Add REX to the list. It’s fun for ages 6+, and it promotes logical thinking.
Beth in PA
Oct 28, 05:10 AM
We love games. The nice thing about having a big family is there is always enough for games! We like Sequence for kids, Blokus, Zingo, Risk, Skip-bo, Uno Attack, Scramble States, 10 days in…(series), Set, Balderdash, Huggermugger, Guess Who?, Spoons, Pig, puzzles, chess, chinese checkers, checkers, hiss (with two boxes)
Leslie
Oct 28, 07:40 AM
Some of our family favorites that haven’t been mentioned yet are TransAmerica, Niagara, and Thurn and Taxis. I just have to second (or third?) the vote for Settlers of Catan. It’s fabulous! My son and daughter have been playing since they were 5. A great 2 player game is Lost Cities. I’ve tried to convince my family that Ubongo is really wonderful, but they just aren’t the puzzlers that I am!
TS
Oct 28, 01:45 PM
We taught our kids cribbage when they were young (yes, I know it’s a card game). The cool thing is they learned math-facts while playing a fun game. We love euchre (cards again), but the kids haven’t quiet caught on to this one yet.
Joanna
Oct 28, 03:52 PM
Bible Board games:
Journeys of Paul is a great game especially if you have company that doesn’t have much Bible knowledge. Good time consumer — about an hour min. to play. For those with more knowledge Outburst is great. Still if you play in teams you can have some with a small amount of knowledge and some with more and it will turn out okay. Other games: our family loves Up Words…Pictionary is a great game as well.
I would like to hear more about Bible board games. Anyone else have some favorite Bible board games?
Patti
Oct 29, 09:37 AM
Pre-k and up “Feed the Kitty” quick moving and easy to play!
10+ Risk—but you need to set aside hours to play it or set it up where you can come back to it.
6+ “Kinder Bunnies” quirky card game with three diffeerent ways to play.
12+ “Killer Bunnies” extra quirky card game that has a strategy impossble to define.
Heather
Oct 29, 11:29 PM
We LOVE Carcassonne!!! We use the Inns & Cathedrals expansion with it. My husband and I love to play it with just the two of us as well as with the kids.
I don’t think I’ve seen Qwirkle mentioned on here. That’s a really good one as well.
Karen
Oct 30, 12:19 AM
Our family loves to play Boggle, Oodles of Doodles, Bananagrams, as well as the usual card and dice games.
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