Giorgia

ALL railroad games: starting with the classic, British Rails:

Empire Builder, Eurorails, Nippon Rails, etc. The absolute best is Iron Dragon.

Any other "Puffing Billy" tournament enthusiasts here?

As for Monopoly -- borrrrrrrrring doesn't cut it. However, a similar game, Solarquest, which moves Monotony into outer space, adds enough variables to make it a fun challenge. For instance, not only do you have the objective of making the most money, you also have to buy and maintain fuel reserves: every move costs a proportionate amount of fuel. Not only that, but it takes a minimum amount of energy to leave the orbit of big planets: if you don't have enough, you just fly right past the launch window. You also need to have enough fuel to leave any moon on which you've landed -- if you're not on one of your own, you either have to continue to pay rent until you roll a number lower than your fuel supply, or you can try to negotiate a deal with another player to bring you some fuel pods. It's something like adding the negotiating tactics of Risk into Monopoly. Another catch is that you can be forced to sell a moon if someone takes the risk of running their reserves down to almost nothing and intentially lands on a moon on which you didn't place a fuel pod: you get charged with negligence and have to sell the moon to the player who landed there (at which point this player may purchase fuel pods).

Instead of the four railroads, there are space stations where fuel can be purchased. Instead of utilities, there are research stations. Cards you pick up may send you through wormholes to completely different parts of the system, etc. etc. Plus, there is the neat variant which allows shooting at your opponents if you happen to be within three spaces. Depending on how many "house rules" you add, this game can be over in a quick 45 minutes, or can be played for a couple of hours.

I've got about 65 boardgames at home, some real classics, some really obscure; the trick is to go to gaming conventions and buy whatever weird items come up at the auction.

I despise Scrabble, love Boggle.

Any Cribbage players out there?
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I'm moving to a small town and starting a subliminal "intentional community" there; if you're sick of noise, contact me.

VonEvilstein

Did anyone else ever play Games Workshops masterful Talisman? This was a huge board, with locations, quests and decks of cards for spells, gear, encounters, etc. A big, heroic fantasy romp, facing monsters, traps, farmers(!) and the other players.
You chose from a multitude of characters, and off you went on your epic quest for the Crown of Command, in the middle of the board.
The really cool thing, was the number of add-ons. Some contained extra cards and characters, but other also had extra boards. The City Board could be entered from the City on the main board, the Dungeon Board and Timescape from encounter cards. I think there were others, too, but I last saw it about ten years ago. We once played a twelve hour game with nine players and all the sets.
After writing all of this, I just have to track down a set.

EarlFlynn

One of my favourites remains "Bruce Lee Game." In "Bruce Lee Game," up to six players circle the board, honing their martial arts skills, getting into street fights, and learning different martial arts so that they can eventuall enter the Labyrinth at the centre of the board and take on the evil (?) Grand Master.

I was teaching my friends Jeff and Susan how to play, and I rolled the dice and wound up in a street fight. At the beginning of the game, your characters are really weak, with barely any skills, no weapons, etc. When you get into a street fight, you draw a card from a pile of various fighters. Well, I managed to draw Bruce Lee himself, the strongest character in the game, and he promptly kicked my weak ass and sent me off to the hospital, much to the gut-busting delight of my friends.

I recently picked up another amusing board game, Zombies. I picked it up mostly because it comes with 40 little plastic zombies, but it turns out to be a great game, too. The idea is that the players are trapped in a town full of zombies, and there's one way out - a helicopter. The catch is, the helicopter only carries ONE person, so the objective is to fight your way through the horde while also outmaneuvering your fellow humans. The board changes every game, too - it's made out of individual puzzle pieces that you lay down as the game progresses. Great stuff.

azidhak

YES!! I forgot Cults!! An utterly hilarious boardgame experience for those of us who are versed in Lovecraft Mytos. Another hilarious boardgame is "The hills rise wild" from Pagan Publishing. A minis game where you quest for the "Necronomicon" and have to get home alive with it.
"�a Shub-Niggurath"
Haakon

Ab_Normal

You can't have mine! Well, it was our neighbor's actually, he let us have it when he moved. We have to set it up on the big gaming table to have room for all the add-ons. Hmm, I think my daughter's attention span might be long enough to play -- we'll have to break it out Sunday.

BibleBelted

Here's a board game that teeches fundys how to spel:

Phonopoly (I'm not kidding)

And it's only $140.00

Bookman

Ugh. I hope John Ascroft sends his jack booted thugs to put a bullet in my head before I play another game of Talisman.

Oh, sure, its pretty. It's got tons of theme. There are lots of different things to be and do. Ultimately, though each turn consists of a die roll, a decision of "left" or "right" and then things happen. Kinda reminds me of a pinball machine...there's lots of bells and whistles, but ultimately I don't have that much control over what's going on.

Bookman

Ab_Normal

That's why I like it... It's a good "drink beer and have brainless fun" game.

VonEvilstein

It should come as no surpirise that I love pinball, too, then.

Bookman

As long as we're all having fun.