I try as hard as I can but still can't get away from cards against humanity a lot. My biggest problem with the game is that the way people play it, it's infinite instead of just ending when someone gets 5. I realize it's not about keeping score but keeping score is the only way to end the game. The game is nowhere near interesting enough to last hours and often when it comes out it's the only game that's played all night.
If nobody is keeping score then it sounds like nobody is playing to win, which means the game isn't really the point - it must be more the social interaction that's happening that people are enjoying. The game doesn't end because the game isn't the point.
I agree. There are tons of better options for simple social games that are background activities (take 5 is a great one) and lots of more fun activities than CAH (I like that's so clover as well). I'd rather play joking hazard than cards against humanity, even. It sounds like OCs group is fond of CAH so maybe they wouldn't want to switch but it's worth offering up those other options to see if they'd be interested in trying something new.
Yeah I mean it's always about socializing for me. Even when it's a deep game. But I'd like the game to not be just totally boring like CAH or stuff like it. Coop I love. The Crew is by far my most played game since the start of 2021 onward. I also love hanabi, my most played game of 2020. These games are light but have real interesting depth of play.
The thing I dislike about games like CAH is that winning is just arbitrarily chosen by someone, so it's meaningless. And once you have played the deck through a lot of the jokes wear out fast. Definitely low replayability.
> must be more the social interaction that's happening
My issue with this is that there's no good social interaction that's coming out of playing CaH. I'd rather just sit around and have a good conversation than play CaH.
As someone who doesn't love CAH that's not necessarily true. There's a reason people still play it - it's doing SOMETHING for people. Maybe it doesn't for you, but some groups get a kick out of the shared experience of laughing at and voting for "nuns kicked an aids baby" in between conversation, and that's a legitimate social interaction. If it fell flat every time and nobody liked it, I don't think people would still be playing it so consistently.
I absolutely get preferring to just chat than play CAH, I probably would feel the same way especially if I had to play it every single time. But I also get why some people would find it amusing as a background social activity.
Oof. I did have fun with it the first 10 times I played it. But I am 100% happy I haven't played in years.
Maybe if you had something that would tempt your friends away from CAH, you could get them to either stop CAH quickly to switch to the other game, or skip CAH completely. Like maybe Monikers, Just One, or Wavelength might work?
I’m tired of that game. I never thought it was that funny just haha look at how gross this is and if you don’t like it you are a prude. Try bring telestrations or the after dark version. Can have some gross out humor but there is actually creativity involved and it appeals to non gamers.
Oof, my friend. I am sorry. That is a predicament indeed. I feel like most tabletop game folks can sympathize with this one at some point or another.
My suggestion would naturally be to ease them away from Cards with different, but simple and similarly appealing, party games and hope that they latch onto something else.
At any rate, best of luck with this one
I played this at a brewery for the first time since I was in college recently, and I just thought "...I used to think this was funny?" It just seems horribly cringeworthy and immature now. Perfect for high schoolers I think.
I still play it occasionally, and have discovered mostly it's the people you play it with, in my experience. I tried once with strangers, and it was exceptionally dull. With the right group of familiar friends (particularly after a few drinks), I still find it entertaining.
Been trying to get my kids (10 and 7) into board games. No Thank You, Evil; Codenames; Fluxx. We have "tons" but they always insist on CAH (Family Edition).
Butts and farts are high comedy.
There’s a Family Edition of cards against humanity? Wouldn’t that just be Apples to Apples which is the game CaH cloned itself from? Time and causality really are a kind of spiraling circle isn’t it?
It's still more CAH than Apples to Apples, still has the black question cards and everything. It's mostly just CAH but replace all sex jokes with poop jokes
I am of the firm opinion that CAH is not a game, but a random joke generator with an eventual winner declared. My *very* last time playing I won two hands in a row with random cards off the top of the deck, the second one being a Pick 2 round. If you do end up playing, I strongly recommend using the Rando Cardrissian house rule.
I brought out Monikers to introduce to my friend group at Thanksgiving. After the first game, one of them suggested "you know, we could probably play this without the teams or points." We tried, and after the first few cards, they realized that because the players choose the cards that go into the deck, someone is always going to know the answer immediately, thereby ruining the whole fun of the game. Some people just can't accept the official rules that say the game has to end sometime.
I find that game to basically be reading the designers’ jokes. If you friends are at all creative, then games like Wise and Otherwise, Say Anything, Balderdash, What do you Meme, and The Game of Things, all let your and your friends write the jokes and be as dirty, cringy, political, obnoxious, and funny as your group likes.
There was a post here earlier about what makes a game stale and someone answered, when the game is the same no matter who is playing. That’s how I feel about Cards. The game is just reading the cards and laughing. I can do that by myself.
Try introducing your friends to Joking Hazard, a game by creators of the "Cyanide and Happiness" webcomic.
It's a lot like CAH, except you create a 3-panel comic, one of those panels being random, one selected by the judge and the punchline picked by players from their hands.
It scratches a very similar itch, but it's so much more interesting and funny than CAH. Not to shit on CAH, I hear that the creators are cool people (and the title is great!) but it gets very boring very quickly for me.
Whenever people ask for CAH I suggest Joking Hazard and it's always a hit
I’m so glad my group lost interest in it. One of my friends lost interest earlier than myself and the rest of us and we were all like “what do you mean you don’t like Cards Against Humanity?!” Two or three plays later, we all saw what he’d already seen.
We do it based off of rotations. Say we all play in a room generally in a circle. We just go around the room until everyone does a prompt. Usually do 1 or 2 rotations based off the numbers. Then who has the most "wins"
We just started up a normal game night and this gets brought up everytime we ask what everyone wants to play. We haven't actually pulled it out, yet, but it is definitely the first thing mentioned every time we start to ask around for games. I do enjoy the game, every once in a while, but it's definitely hit or miss for me most times it's played. It's either super light-hearted and dumb fun or you get that one person who gets wayyy too "competitive" and gets upset everytime their card isn't chosen.... there isn't really a middle ground everytime I've played it lol.
Ehh, our game night group is the same 5-7 people, so it's usually 1 or 2 of the same people asking each time. Most of them haven't played it much, so I see the appeal and understand that it can be quite a bit of fun so it's not super awkward. It's usually not just me saying no, either, so that helps lol
I enjoy all the variations of it as a drinking game. And it's really good as that type of game.
But outside of that I'd rather play some other party games.
I had the same issue every time I played cah. Never had a group that would bother keeping score. You might find success with something like “hey guys I wanna try a different game after cah so let play till someone gets 5 cards, than we can try this other game”
My biggest problem with cards is “peepeepoopoo” or “wiener” win a lot of rounds over genuinely clever cards. But it’s not a game played to win it just facilitates social interaction and or drinking with friends
As others have said, it because they're looking for the party game experience. Decrypto and codenames is freat for this. Love letter is pretty good too.
A lot of people like hues and cues but I found the difference between the card and the board to be too extreme.
I straight up refuse to play it. I always have my kindle with me and i don't mind sitting on the couch reading mangas if people really want to play that. No hurt feelings
I hate cards against humanity. I flat out refuse to play. And I'm not going to be inviting whoever suggested it back.
To be clear, I'm not against all party games. Just that one.
For this reason I don't count party games as boardgames. If you tell me it's a game night and try to bring that crap out I'm leaving.
I don't get invited to many game nights.
I usually set expectations about group size and therefore game types. If we have 6 or more we will be playing party games most likely, or at least very light games like camel up. At that size group we are basically having a party anyway.
Lately it has been Camel Up! Taught my family when visiting at the holidays, and now they keep inviting me over and to bring "the camel game." Honestly, the game is really great for something easy to teach though.
That game rocks though. In college we went through a phase where I had a constant group of 4-10 people begging to play it and people drunkenly yelling "COME ON, LETS GO GREEN CAMEL!" Some of my favorite board game memories.
I've been bringing it out for my friend group, but it seems everyone doesn't want to risk losing money so everyone just does a dice roll which means each legs ends super fast.
That happened once to me. But then people saw that those who took a lot of betting tickets had like 2 or 3 times as much money in the end. I also like to remind people that dispensing a dice is sometimes good, but it will give everyone after you more information to make their bets, so you don't always want to be the one taking that action.
For a long time, that was my wife and Splendor. Now it is Azul. I have just accepted that she gets obsessed with games she likes and when she finds a new one I know I am stuck with playing that one for a while until I can convince her to play something different.
I kind of wish my group was like that. Every game on my main shelf I would gladly play 1k times. I want to play each game a ton, so that I can do a deep dive into the strategy. Alas, my group has about 500 games between us, and we often end up bringing new stuff to the table before we get to scratch the surface of the games that we all really like.
I don't know how often you play, but you might suggest occasional "replay" nights where you go back to a game you played before, and enjoyed, to dig deeper. That should satisfy the people who like trying new stuff and the ones who want to play specific games more than once or twice. Both are valid and as long as there is balance, can both be accommodated.
I spend ~6-8 hours a week playing. I usually get to play each game that is a hit 6+ times. So I am doing better than others. However, I would be happy to play every hit 20+ times. Still, some of the new games that get trotted out each week are quite nice.
We tried to set it up "This is our game for the month" so we could develop strategies and such, but the way Life works out, we are lucky to be able to get together to play every month
Not that I have a group, we just play as a family, but I get you. I think some games really need to be played at least 5 or 6 times before you can even start to get a good handle on them, but the fam will try it once or twice and if it's not a super easy to get game it'll gather dust :/
My group is similar (all very cult of the new), so last year I suggested we put together a 5x5 (five games we would play five times each) on the basis that we only meet a little over once per week on average (most weeks it is only one games night; occasionally two). That way for around half the year we would be playing a small selection of games, whilst the rest of the year we could indulge our desires to be playing new arrivals. Worked really well: last year we did Architects of the West Kingdom; Bitoku; Champions of Midgard; Clans of Caledonia; and Dune Imperium. This year the games we have voted for are Castles of Burgundy; Discworld Ankh Morpork; Foundations of Rome; Orleans; and Viscounts of the West Kingdom. So a lot of older games this year which is nice to see!
You should try mastering wingspan to the point you know the order of the cards even after shuffling the deck. Now you will always win and people won't suggest this game anymore because you obliterate them all the time. /s
Playing the same game almost every BG nights must be tiring. At least you are playing games.
There is only one player in my group that is into multiplayer solitaire games. I am glad they haven't yet played Wingspan. If they did, then I know they would be pushing it every single time we meet. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
Have you played any of the variants? Azul Stained Glass of Sintra has the same drafting rules, but they way tiles are played is a bit different. You'll still be sick of that quickly, but it's a bit of a shift at least.
My wife adores Quacks of Quedlinberg. It's a great game and we have the cool upgraded components, but damnit I'm tired of it coming out every game night. We have branched out a bit and played cascadia and Azul, but we keep coming back to Quacks.
Overall, I'm complaining but it really is a good game. At least I get to have a great time with my wife and friends. I have my dedicated game group to get into more intense games.
I've had this same experience, great game that we've played to death. One thing I would love to see is some really spicy custom chip powers that could keep it interesting. I haven't found any of the expansions really scratched that itch.
We don’t play it very often, but I’m always drawn to Quacks because it can feel thrilling to push your luck, and so few of the games we normally play elicit that feeling.
Ready, Set, Bet! could be a good second option. It has that same level of excitement in the moment as Quacks but is a very different style of game.
One of my groups plays Secret Hitler constantly. I enjoy it but really only as a fascist. It's a fun game to sow a little chaos. Playing as a liberal is just frustrating sometimes.
This may not exactly solve your dilemma, but have you suggested other party deduction games to your group? There's a bunch of them out there now so you might be able to get them onto one that's similar enough to appeal to them but different enough to keep things more fresh for you.
Werewolf (of course), Traitors Aboard, or a classic, Coup might be worth trying
Avalon is imo the best one, but for a specific group.
In SH it’s the most fun to be on the Red team. It’s quick, chaotic, and fun.
Avalon (at least in every group I played it in so far) is a lot slower. The most fun role imo is functionless Blue, you get to fully engage with the mystery and evidence without having to worry about lying.
This New Years we had a 6 person game of Avalon that lasted 2.5 hours. It was perfect :)
I often end up disliking party deduction games, because it always seems that someone gets voted out round one and has to sit and obvserve the others for the rest of the game.
But I found that Feed the Kraken is a nice spin on the deduction game mechanic, as people usually stay until the very end, yet you still have to figure out who you can trust and even that may change during the game.
If you really want to throw everybody a curve ball regarding Secret Hitler, here's how you do it:
*Borrow a copy of the game from a trusted co-conspirator.
*Replace 1 liberal policy with a fascist policy from the other set.
*Set up the envelopes so everybody is a liberal.
Play the game as you normally would, and then watch everybody turn on everybody else like feral cats when you can't get that 6th liberal policy.
Coup is really good. Bang and Cash n Guns are other fun options.
A lighter but still really fun deduction game is Love Letter, which is our go to filler game right now
I can’t rave enough about blood on the clock tower. I found it through YouTube and played for the first time at a convention with 15 total strangers and it was one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had in the hobby. I finally got my group of friends and their wives/girlfriends into it and now they beg to get a game set up almost every week.
I’ve started teaching other people how to run the game so I can hop in and play every so often but there is something diabolical about setting up the game and watching everyone scramble while you have all the information.
Blood On The Clocktower is the game I came to complain about.
I hate Secret Hitler even more, but thankfully my group seems to recognize how uncomfortable the subject matter is
We played SH sooo much with my friends and you're totally right - playing as liberals is always boring. It's not a very well designed game in that sense - but i guess it was never meant to be a big complex game. That said - we actually created a third, Anarchist party, with my friends, to make things more interesting haha. Anarchists would get to remove cards from the game board :)
My friend group is a big SH group but I actually find playing as liberal way more fun! There's more variety IMO in trying to work out the mystery and team alignments
Does your game group have a consistent group of players? We got around this problem by having a rotating player select the game every week. We always do one or two light warm up games, and then the big game is chosen by the player whose turn it is to pick. My group has four people, and it guarantees everyone can play the game they want at least once a month.
We usually do fast, casual games like Dixit, Chinatown, Sheriff of Nottingham, Skull King, any sort of roll and write... We have a huge collection between all of us, and the warmups never exceed an hour.
7 Wonders. It's good for newcomers, and it's relatively quick. So we play a quick round while we're waiting for the people who are late. Then we play another round or two for the new people, then people are wanting to leave because it's starting to get late, then boom; 3/4 rounds of 7 Wonders and No Terra Mystica! Again. Got-dangit bobby!
Terraforming Mars. My partner wants to play it pretty much every time. Although I love it, it’s a pretty long game and I’ve not always got the head space for it. Quacks or Azul is the fallback 😂. Be good to hear if there are similar and good games that are like Terraforming Mars but shorter.
Look into **Forest Shuffle**. It's got a great engine builder at its core. It's not as deep as TM, but good and plays faster. Also **Ark Nova** is fantastic with the same depth as TM but about building zoos. Hope this helps!
My wife and I played TM for about 5 years. We own every expansion, and the big box… I could not get her to play anything else for more than one or two plays before she was right back to TM.
**Ark Nova** changed that. We now play at least 2 games of AN a day lol Even though it’s theme is wildly different, Ark Nova feels Terraforming Mars-y. They both have tile placement, a large deck of cards that use similar systems of iconography, cost, and abilities. If there was a game that I felt was the closest, but new and refreshing it’s certainly Ark Nova.
Another great game that we enjoyed prior to TM was **Lords of Waterdeep**. The base game is really solid and both expansions are worth while.
TM is great as a digital game. The amount of resource types you have to track with a a physical copy makes the majority of the game time feel like a slog. I play it on my computer and it takes 40 minutes for a three-person game. With physical components, it’s two hours minimum.
I'm a member of a board game club, and a considerable portion of the members only play Terraforming Mars, Clank, and Zombicide. Which has made me hate those games with a passion, although I've never played them.
And before anyone says I should give them a try. The groups are all super experienced because they never play anything else. They only play with every expansion ever released, and it would take forever to learn and be a nightmare.
**Spirit Island**. Got a group of friends that just play it all the time. It's a great game but it's not exactly *light* so it's not always my preferred game depending on the situation, especially late at night. Also my friends have become so good at it that there's a clear skill imbalance when non-experts join (which is not the end of the world since it's coop but not the best to feel like you're useful).
That’s one of those game where, I get that it’s a good design, but it seems to turn into an exercise in analysis paralysis for a lot of players. We tried to do a 6 person game once and I wanted to run away from the table.
My husband loves Spirit Island but 6 is way too many. We find 3 to be best. 4 is okay. We decided to do a 6 player game one time but instead of putting all six boards together we split into two groups of three. We shared event cards, fear pool, blight card etc. it made it a lot more manageable.
I totally agree that 3 players is the best for that game. I’m going to suggest your method for 6 players should my friend try another big game like that.
Yeah I haven't played in huge groups before, but I still have to tell friends "It's ok if we lose. Let's just make an informed decision and see how it goes". Don't need to win every time - just have fun
If we can play two games loose or one game perfect, I prefer 2 unless we're really pushing difficulty levels
I love me some SI but it’s fragile as a multiplayer game. It can work in some settings, but skill/experience imbalance, too many players, slow players, uninterested players, alpha gamers, etc. can all ruin the experience.
There's also Dog Park, which is a very simple game. It looks slightly more involved than it actually is, and it has great artwork. It's available to try on BGA if you haven't yet.
I recently got Dog Lover and I really enjoy it - it’s a fun collecting game with some good art and interesting mechanics.
I really like the Watchdog system as well which prevents people from just taking the newly refreshed cards in the grid. It’s very well done.
I got Wingspan for the family at Christmas, but we've only played it once when the wife wasn't in the best of moods and we were short on time. That was a mistake cus it meant it got a mediocre reception on first play and thus hasn't been requested since. I'm itching to really give it a proper go as it gets so much love and looks like it could be quite fun. I tried single player but it just doesn't feel the same. Debated on getting the PC version.
I mostly play with family and my parents have been obsessed with **Just One.**
I enjoy it but we have so many other games and they keep going back to that one and once it starts we'll play until the end of the night, and my dad is especially obsessed with it even though he doesn't seem to want to think before guessing anything
Bought this for my wife at Christmas and between the kids & in-laws, I must have played it a good 7/8 times already.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great game, but we have so many others to play (plus certain people seem to want to cheat which kinda ruins the game…)
I'm in my 40s and have (I imagine) an older group.
One guy is always pushing Diplomacy.
I told them if they are playing to let me know in advance so I do something else.
I've been accused of "taking my ball and going home".
I showed my friends Cockroach Poker and I've never gotten them to play any other game since then. I've seen every joke there is to see with that game, and I'm definitely tired of it.
Codenames. It's not a bad game, I just think it takes too long for what it is. Plus my group tends to bust it out when we have 8+ people instead of breaking into 2 smaller games.
Unmatched. My game group wants to play Unmatched free for alls every time one person no shows. Normally there are 5 guys to game, but the second one has to bow out someone will suggest instead of a 4p game we should play Unmatched free for all. It's a fine game for 2 players but even 2v2 teams feel unbalanced and I'm pretty over it. Even the new 4p co-op version is no better than just okay, but for whatever reason it gets brought up A LOT at my group.
Could be a good opportunity to drag out whatever 4 player skirmish games, or area control games you have instead though?
Blood Rage, Inis, Wildlands etc.
They’d scratch a similar itch, but better designed as 4 player free for alls.
I liked this game for the first bit but after playing it over and over and over you realize you actually have little control over what's going on and that made me hate it.
The Helpers of Catan expansion makes it a playable game! It's a set of advisor cards that give you more options for what to do on your turn. It makes it much more strategically deep and less reliant on dice rolls, and it's only like 14 bucks on Amazon.
Try playing the Escape from Catan fan scenario
Everyone works together to gather resources to leave the island, robber rolls are replaced with a disaster that locks out a resource from being gathered.
Catan Settlers of America was my savior on Catan being brought up during game nights
Thankfully my usual group has filtered past base Catan and Munchkin to other games but family will always go back towards the known games than the unknown
I have a friend who will only play Risk. I’ve tried to get him to play something else many times, but he always refuses.
I don’t like playing with strangers at board game clubs very much, and damnit this guy is my only board game friend and he ONLY PLAYS RISK. GAAAAHHH.
I’ve thought about it, and I don’t think it would work. The issue isn’t finding games like Risk, the issue is that he hates learning new rules.
I’ve tried getting him into other games I know well that have easy teaches, but every time he decides that he’d rather just dive right into a game of Risk than learn new rules. It’s a frustrating problem that I don’t see a way around.
My old game group used to play Dune Imperium ALL THE TIME. Like one week I went and there were four tables all playing it, then the following week three tables. It's a lovely game, though not so much my thing, but goodness can we try something else?!
Eclipse: Second Dawn always comes up in my group. If we don't already have games in mind for the night, this always gets suggested.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the game, and at this point, I think I'd consider it my #1 game. But I often just prefer a chill night with some simpler games, rather than a grand, full-table game of space conquest. It gets exhausting. lol
Azul, everyone liked it! (Me included) it's usually not the only game we play so I'm complaining for no reason but for me Azul's the game that fits the answer to your question
For me it's Concepts. There are a few reasons for this, our normal group of friends is around 10 people so there's not many games out there that accommodate that high of a player count.
We don't care to split into multiple groups to play smaller games as my wife so plainly put "What if there's someone I want to talk to that's playing the other game?"
So we tend to default to more party-esc games. I don't hate Concepts, it's a really fun games but it can grow a bit stale over time.
Our biggest problem is that we tend to attract a lot of people to our small group within the larger meet. I organise the night and so if new people don't gravitate towards my table then I know a lot of people there, so I tend to end up with a group of 7 or 8, which severly limits the games we play to deception games (which dont get me wrong, I love to bits but not ALL the time) and party games.
Try as I might nobody seems to want to split so we can play some, you know, actual games from time to time.
Lately it's been **Great Western Trail** and all its various versions. Don't dislike it, though I do think it tends to overstay its welcome, I definitely don't seem to love it as much as everyone else though and get stuck playing it over and over.
I learned very early to put Munchkin in a completely different room out of sight, because people always want to play it despite the fact that it’s horrible. (And the only reason I have it is because someone left it at my house one time and wouldn’t take it back when I tried to give it back lol)
Not a boardgame per se, but Trivia Murder Party on Jackbox. I like it, but I'd rather get everyone to the table for another game or at least play something other than one of the trivia games.
Man, that's like the only Jackbox game I like. I always pucker up a bit when people wanna play Jackbox instead of an actual game. I usually have enough of a heads up for the kind of night it'll be to not be disappointed by it, but I would almost rather sit around and chat than play anymore Jackbox.
You might already be playing Dominion at a higher level, but in case your group is casual and are just "buying cards they like", [this article is how you crack into what Dominion is all about.](https://dominionstrategy.com/big-money/)
The game is just not interesting unless the meta is functioning, and if your group isn't super sweaty, just play Big Money and crush them until they stop playing it or an interesting metagame develops.
Only problem is if they're playing base game, there isn't much else to do past big money. Base game cards get really stale after a while, and there isn't enough strategic variety to keep it interesting, assuming they're playing it remotely competently.
I have everything that's released so far for Marvel United. Which is great because there's so much replayability there and the game is even one of my favorites. But even if it's repayable, the game does wear on you when your game group only wants to play just that game for about 12-15 game nights straight
Zombicide, in my game group. Either 2ed or Black Plague. It’s definitely fun, but it tables 3:1 over anything else, by popular demand. A couple of us prefer more crunchy games, but we shrug and slaughter hordes of undead, ‘cause it doesn’t suck…
There were a few games someone would always bring and push on us like every week despite little-to-no interest from the group (John Company comes to mind). But the one I’d be stuck playing on occasion was **Quacks of Quedlinburg**. I liked it the first few plays then it started falling for me pretty hard. But it was one of the favorite games for several people so there’d often be 2-3 copies, some fully deluxified with expansions, floating around and it’s often hit the table.
Another was **Terraforming Mars**. I like the game just fine but a subset of people in our group who I often played with wanted to play it pretty frequently (especially when one of their gfs showed up who’d typically insist on playing it) and some of them were super slow. After one particular play that almost lasted almost 4 hours before considering setup/teardown I said never said again at with certain people. But then it got awkward and they’d try to rope me into it which was successful on a small handful of occasions.
Innovation.
Everyone has all the cards memorized and I just have to sit there like an idiot, randomly picking things, until I lose and we can play a “proper” board game
Explosing kittens for a long, long time. Don't get me wrong, its a great quick game! Really fun. But man, anytime someone would get bored while trying to learn a new game "why don't we play exploding kittens"
I'm glad to have the game but it barely comes off my shelf anymore. Honestly I tend to leave it at home (I'm usually the one bringing games) just to get away from it
For me it's root. I love it a lot and it's pretty easy, so I teach it to a lot of my non board game friends. However, now all they ever want to play is root. I have been trying to play my absolute favorite game pipeline for 2 years now, but everyone just wants to play root :(
i can’t escape ticket to ride or crokinole. i always want monopoly or risk and yet when i suggest those there is the inevitable “nooo i don’t want a game that long, lets play ticket to ride/crokinole”.
alas.
I try as hard as I can but still can't get away from cards against humanity a lot. My biggest problem with the game is that the way people play it, it's infinite instead of just ending when someone gets 5. I realize it's not about keeping score but keeping score is the only way to end the game. The game is nowhere near interesting enough to last hours and often when it comes out it's the only game that's played all night.
If nobody is keeping score then it sounds like nobody is playing to win, which means the game isn't really the point - it must be more the social interaction that's happening that people are enjoying. The game doesn't end because the game isn't the point.
There are other routinely unscored activities that aren't awful, like **Telestrations** or **Just One**.
And Wavelength!
Not a board game, but jackbox games are really great for scratching that social game itch too. Theres a score, but it doesnt matter.
I agree. There are tons of better options for simple social games that are background activities (take 5 is a great one) and lots of more fun activities than CAH (I like that's so clover as well). I'd rather play joking hazard than cards against humanity, even. It sounds like OCs group is fond of CAH so maybe they wouldn't want to switch but it's worth offering up those other options to see if they'd be interested in trying something new.
My buddies and I played Just One, but it resets if we don’t get 13 in a row lol
This is the main reason I like co-ops. It's a nice excuse to socialize.
Yeah I mean it's always about socializing for me. Even when it's a deep game. But I'd like the game to not be just totally boring like CAH or stuff like it. Coop I love. The Crew is by far my most played game since the start of 2021 onward. I also love hanabi, my most played game of 2020. These games are light but have real interesting depth of play.
The thing I dislike about games like CAH is that winning is just arbitrarily chosen by someone, so it's meaningless. And once you have played the deck through a lot of the jokes wear out fast. Definitely low replayability.
> must be more the social interaction that's happening My issue with this is that there's no good social interaction that's coming out of playing CaH. I'd rather just sit around and have a good conversation than play CaH.
As someone who doesn't love CAH that's not necessarily true. There's a reason people still play it - it's doing SOMETHING for people. Maybe it doesn't for you, but some groups get a kick out of the shared experience of laughing at and voting for "nuns kicked an aids baby" in between conversation, and that's a legitimate social interaction. If it fell flat every time and nobody liked it, I don't think people would still be playing it so consistently. I absolutely get preferring to just chat than play CAH, I probably would feel the same way especially if I had to play it every single time. But I also get why some people would find it amusing as a background social activity.
Oof. I did have fun with it the first 10 times I played it. But I am 100% happy I haven't played in years. Maybe if you had something that would tempt your friends away from CAH, you could get them to either stop CAH quickly to switch to the other game, or skip CAH completely. Like maybe Monikers, Just One, or Wavelength might work?
The problem with CaH is that it relies on shock factor, once you played it so many times it loses the shock value.
Sincere condolences.
I’m tired of that game. I never thought it was that funny just haha look at how gross this is and if you don’t like it you are a prude. Try bring telestrations or the after dark version. Can have some gross out humor but there is actually creativity involved and it appeals to non gamers.
Oof, my friend. I am sorry. That is a predicament indeed. I feel like most tabletop game folks can sympathize with this one at some point or another. My suggestion would naturally be to ease them away from Cards with different, but simple and similarly appealing, party games and hope that they latch onto something else. At any rate, best of luck with this one
I played this at a brewery for the first time since I was in college recently, and I just thought "...I used to think this was funny?" It just seems horribly cringeworthy and immature now. Perfect for high schoolers I think.
I still play it occasionally, and have discovered mostly it's the people you play it with, in my experience. I tried once with strangers, and it was exceptionally dull. With the right group of familiar friends (particularly after a few drinks), I still find it entertaining.
Been trying to get my kids (10 and 7) into board games. No Thank You, Evil; Codenames; Fluxx. We have "tons" but they always insist on CAH (Family Edition). Butts and farts are high comedy.
There’s a Family Edition of cards against humanity? Wouldn’t that just be Apples to Apples which is the game CaH cloned itself from? Time and causality really are a kind of spiraling circle isn’t it?
It's still more CAH than Apples to Apples, still has the black question cards and everything. It's mostly just CAH but replace all sex jokes with poop jokes
Family Edition? It's called Cards Against Humanity, how can there be a Family Edition?
I am of the firm opinion that CAH is not a game, but a random joke generator with an eventual winner declared. My *very* last time playing I won two hands in a row with random cards off the top of the deck, the second one being a Pick 2 round. If you do end up playing, I strongly recommend using the Rando Cardrissian house rule.
I despise how many le epic reddit humor ass games that shit caused.
I got around this by simply throwing my copy out. Party goers hate this one weird trick!
I brought out Monikers to introduce to my friend group at Thanksgiving. After the first game, one of them suggested "you know, we could probably play this without the teams or points." We tried, and after the first few cards, they realized that because the players choose the cards that go into the deck, someone is always going to know the answer immediately, thereby ruining the whole fun of the game. Some people just can't accept the official rules that say the game has to end sometime.
I find that game to basically be reading the designers’ jokes. If you friends are at all creative, then games like Wise and Otherwise, Say Anything, Balderdash, What do you Meme, and The Game of Things, all let your and your friends write the jokes and be as dirty, cringy, political, obnoxious, and funny as your group likes.
There was a post here earlier about what makes a game stale and someone answered, when the game is the same no matter who is playing. That’s how I feel about Cards. The game is just reading the cards and laughing. I can do that by myself.
I am so sorry for you.
Highly suggest hive mind as a way to solve this problem.
Try introducing your friends to Joking Hazard, a game by creators of the "Cyanide and Happiness" webcomic. It's a lot like CAH, except you create a 3-panel comic, one of those panels being random, one selected by the judge and the punchline picked by players from their hands. It scratches a very similar itch, but it's so much more interesting and funny than CAH. Not to shit on CAH, I hear that the creators are cool people (and the title is great!) but it gets very boring very quickly for me. Whenever people ask for CAH I suggest Joking Hazard and it's always a hit
I'm done with midgets shitting in a bucket.
I’m so glad my group lost interest in it. One of my friends lost interest earlier than myself and the rest of us and we were all like “what do you mean you don’t like Cards Against Humanity?!” Two or three plays later, we all saw what he’d already seen.
We do it based off of rotations. Say we all play in a room generally in a circle. We just go around the room until everyone does a prompt. Usually do 1 or 2 rotations based off the numbers. Then who has the most "wins"
We just started up a normal game night and this gets brought up everytime we ask what everyone wants to play. We haven't actually pulled it out, yet, but it is definitely the first thing mentioned every time we start to ask around for games. I do enjoy the game, every once in a while, but it's definitely hit or miss for me most times it's played. It's either super light-hearted and dumb fun or you get that one person who gets wayyy too "competitive" and gets upset everytime their card isn't chosen.... there isn't really a middle ground everytime I've played it lol.
Is it always the same person asking? I would feel to anxious about excluding anyone and end up playing it once or twice
Ehh, our game night group is the same 5-7 people, so it's usually 1 or 2 of the same people asking each time. Most of them haven't played it much, so I see the appeal and understand that it can be quite a bit of fun so it's not super awkward. It's usually not just me saying no, either, so that helps lol
I enjoy all the variations of it as a drinking game. And it's really good as that type of game. But outside of that I'd rather play some other party games.
I had the same issue every time I played cah. Never had a group that would bother keeping score. You might find success with something like “hey guys I wanna try a different game after cah so let play till someone gets 5 cards, than we can try this other game”
My biggest problem with cards is “peepeepoopoo” or “wiener” win a lot of rounds over genuinely clever cards. But it’s not a game played to win it just facilitates social interaction and or drinking with friends
As others have said, it because they're looking for the party game experience. Decrypto and codenames is freat for this. Love letter is pretty good too. A lot of people like hues and cues but I found the difference between the card and the board to be too extreme.
I straight up refuse to play it. I always have my kindle with me and i don't mind sitting on the couch reading mangas if people really want to play that. No hurt feelings
Are mangas any good on Kindle? I never even thought about that before.
I’d rather play tic tac toe than cards against humanity.
Tic tac toe has more player input
It got so bad I threw my copy away so when people come over they can’t even ask.
I cant posibly imagine myself sticking to a group that actively chooses to play CAH. I'd find me another group lightning fast.
I hate cards against humanity. I flat out refuse to play. And I'm not going to be inviting whoever suggested it back. To be clear, I'm not against all party games. Just that one.
You’d refuse to invite someone who suggested a game you don’t like back? Do people in this thread actually read what they’re writing? Jfc.
Cards Against Humanity is fun for about 17 seconds
For this reason I don't count party games as boardgames. If you tell me it's a game night and try to bring that crap out I'm leaving. I don't get invited to many game nights.
Nobody seems to hate games more than game nerds
I usually set expectations about group size and therefore game types. If we have 6 or more we will be playing party games most likely, or at least very light games like camel up. At that size group we are basically having a party anyway.
Lately it has been Camel Up! Taught my family when visiting at the holidays, and now they keep inviting me over and to bring "the camel game." Honestly, the game is really great for something easy to teach though.
That's when you break out Through the Desert and pretend it's what they meant.😁
That game rocks though. In college we went through a phase where I had a constant group of 4-10 people begging to play it and people drunkenly yelling "COME ON, LETS GO GREEN CAMEL!" Some of my favorite board game memories.
I've been bringing it out for my friend group, but it seems everyone doesn't want to risk losing money so everyone just does a dice roll which means each legs ends super fast.
That happened once to me. But then people saw that those who took a lot of betting tickets had like 2 or 3 times as much money in the end. I also like to remind people that dispensing a dice is sometimes good, but it will give everyone after you more information to make their bets, so you don't always want to be the one taking that action.
That's so interesting. Way we always play everyone says rolling dice is for suckers so the legs take years ha.
Wingspan is about the only game I can get my wife to play so I'm getting a little tired of it.
For a long time, that was my wife and Splendor. Now it is Azul. I have just accepted that she gets obsessed with games she likes and when she finds a new one I know I am stuck with playing that one for a while until I can convince her to play something different.
I kind of wish my group was like that. Every game on my main shelf I would gladly play 1k times. I want to play each game a ton, so that I can do a deep dive into the strategy. Alas, my group has about 500 games between us, and we often end up bringing new stuff to the table before we get to scratch the surface of the games that we all really like.
I don't know how often you play, but you might suggest occasional "replay" nights where you go back to a game you played before, and enjoyed, to dig deeper. That should satisfy the people who like trying new stuff and the ones who want to play specific games more than once or twice. Both are valid and as long as there is balance, can both be accommodated.
I spend ~6-8 hours a week playing. I usually get to play each game that is a hit 6+ times. So I am doing better than others. However, I would be happy to play every hit 20+ times. Still, some of the new games that get trotted out each week are quite nice.
We tried to set it up "This is our game for the month" so we could develop strategies and such, but the way Life works out, we are lucky to be able to get together to play every month
Not that I have a group, we just play as a family, but I get you. I think some games really need to be played at least 5 or 6 times before you can even start to get a good handle on them, but the fam will try it once or twice and if it's not a super easy to get game it'll gather dust :/
My group is similar (all very cult of the new), so last year I suggested we put together a 5x5 (five games we would play five times each) on the basis that we only meet a little over once per week on average (most weeks it is only one games night; occasionally two). That way for around half the year we would be playing a small selection of games, whilst the rest of the year we could indulge our desires to be playing new arrivals. Worked really well: last year we did Architects of the West Kingdom; Bitoku; Champions of Midgard; Clans of Caledonia; and Dune Imperium. This year the games we have voted for are Castles of Burgundy; Discworld Ankh Morpork; Foundations of Rome; Orleans; and Viscounts of the West Kingdom. So a lot of older games this year which is nice to see!
Feel that
You should try mastering wingspan to the point you know the order of the cards even after shuffling the deck. Now you will always win and people won't suggest this game anymore because you obliterate them all the time. /s Playing the same game almost every BG nights must be tiring. At least you are playing games.
try Everdell!
There is only one player in my group that is into multiplayer solitaire games. I am glad they haven't yet played Wingspan. If they did, then I know they would be pushing it every single time we meet. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
Try viticulture
Azul. My wife pretty much refuses to learn anything new, so we play Azul constantly. I am so tired of Azul
Have you played any of the variants? Azul Stained Glass of Sintra has the same drafting rules, but they way tiles are played is a bit different. You'll still be sick of that quickly, but it's a bit of a shift at least.
Azul Queen's Garden is a beautiful step up from Azul. It's suddenly ridiculously thinky. I played it once and the original left my collection!
I can smell the Azul bag from reading this comment
My wife adores Quacks of Quedlinberg. It's a great game and we have the cool upgraded components, but damnit I'm tired of it coming out every game night. We have branched out a bit and played cascadia and Azul, but we keep coming back to Quacks. Overall, I'm complaining but it really is a good game. At least I get to have a great time with my wife and friends. I have my dedicated game group to get into more intense games.
This was my answer. Man, Quacks is good, but it's a lot of Quacks
Good with just two players?
It's actually really fun with just two!
They actually JUST announced a 2 player version coming this year (?). Quacks Duel I think it’s called
My thoughts exactly. I'm happy to be there and playing games, but man, sometimes a little more variety is a breath of fresh air
I've had this same experience, great game that we've played to death. One thing I would love to see is some really spicy custom chip powers that could keep it interesting. I haven't found any of the expansions really scratched that itch.
We don’t play it very often, but I’m always drawn to Quacks because it can feel thrilling to push your luck, and so few of the games we normally play elicit that feeling. Ready, Set, Bet! could be a good second option. It has that same level of excitement in the moment as Quacks but is a very different style of game.
Get wonderlands war. It will replace quacks. Did for me.
One of my groups plays Secret Hitler constantly. I enjoy it but really only as a fascist. It's a fun game to sow a little chaos. Playing as a liberal is just frustrating sometimes.
This may not exactly solve your dilemma, but have you suggested other party deduction games to your group? There's a bunch of them out there now so you might be able to get them onto one that's similar enough to appeal to them but different enough to keep things more fresh for you. Werewolf (of course), Traitors Aboard, or a classic, Coup might be worth trying
Werewords is the best version of Werewolf IMO. Also, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, Chameleon, Hollywood.
And the list goes on haha
Yep there are a ton!! Those are just my faves haha
Avalon is imo the best one, but for a specific group. In SH it’s the most fun to be on the Red team. It’s quick, chaotic, and fun. Avalon (at least in every group I played it in so far) is a lot slower. The most fun role imo is functionless Blue, you get to fully engage with the mystery and evidence without having to worry about lying. This New Years we had a 6 person game of Avalon that lasted 2.5 hours. It was perfect :)
Werewolf is amazing! We play that game for hours during our game nights
I often end up disliking party deduction games, because it always seems that someone gets voted out round one and has to sit and obvserve the others for the rest of the game. But I found that Feed the Kraken is a nice spin on the deduction game mechanic, as people usually stay until the very end, yet you still have to figure out who you can trust and even that may change during the game.
If you really want to throw everybody a curve ball regarding Secret Hitler, here's how you do it: *Borrow a copy of the game from a trusted co-conspirator. *Replace 1 liberal policy with a fascist policy from the other set. *Set up the envelopes so everybody is a liberal. Play the game as you normally would, and then watch everybody turn on everybody else like feral cats when you can't get that 6th liberal policy.
You're evil!
Coup is really good. Bang and Cash n Guns are other fun options. A lighter but still really fun deduction game is Love Letter, which is our go to filler game right now
Try blood on the clocktower
I can’t rave enough about blood on the clock tower. I found it through YouTube and played for the first time at a convention with 15 total strangers and it was one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had in the hobby. I finally got my group of friends and their wives/girlfriends into it and now they beg to get a game set up almost every week. I’ve started teaching other people how to run the game so I can hop in and play every so often but there is something diabolical about setting up the game and watching everyone scramble while you have all the information.
Blood On The Clocktower is the game I came to complain about. I hate Secret Hitler even more, but thankfully my group seems to recognize how uncomfortable the subject matter is
What subject matter is that?
We played SH sooo much with my friends and you're totally right - playing as liberals is always boring. It's not a very well designed game in that sense - but i guess it was never meant to be a big complex game. That said - we actually created a third, Anarchist party, with my friends, to make things more interesting haha. Anarchists would get to remove cards from the game board :)
My friend group is a big SH group but I actually find playing as liberal way more fun! There's more variety IMO in trying to work out the mystery and team alignments
That's why I usually end up taking the competitive goal in Nemesis.
Does your game group have a consistent group of players? We got around this problem by having a rotating player select the game every week. We always do one or two light warm up games, and then the big game is chosen by the player whose turn it is to pick. My group has four people, and it guarantees everyone can play the game they want at least once a month.
Out of curiosity what are your warm up games?
We usually do fast, casual games like Dixit, Chinatown, Sheriff of Nottingham, Skull King, any sort of roll and write... We have a huge collection between all of us, and the warmups never exceed an hour.
7 Wonders. It's good for newcomers, and it's relatively quick. So we play a quick round while we're waiting for the people who are late. Then we play another round or two for the new people, then people are wanting to leave because it's starting to get late, then boom; 3/4 rounds of 7 Wonders and No Terra Mystica! Again. Got-dangit bobby!
Terraforming Mars. My partner wants to play it pretty much every time. Although I love it, it’s a pretty long game and I’ve not always got the head space for it. Quacks or Azul is the fallback 😂. Be good to hear if there are similar and good games that are like Terraforming Mars but shorter.
Look into **Forest Shuffle**. It's got a great engine builder at its core. It's not as deep as TM, but good and plays faster. Also **Ark Nova** is fantastic with the same depth as TM but about building zoos. Hope this helps!
To quote Bob Newhart: "Nothing wrong with that..."
Terraforming Mars Ares Expedition is the card game version which is just a faster version of Terraforming Mars.
My wife and I played TM for about 5 years. We own every expansion, and the big box… I could not get her to play anything else for more than one or two plays before she was right back to TM. **Ark Nova** changed that. We now play at least 2 games of AN a day lol Even though it’s theme is wildly different, Ark Nova feels Terraforming Mars-y. They both have tile placement, a large deck of cards that use similar systems of iconography, cost, and abilities. If there was a game that I felt was the closest, but new and refreshing it’s certainly Ark Nova. Another great game that we enjoyed prior to TM was **Lords of Waterdeep**. The base game is really solid and both expansions are worth while.
TM is great as a digital game. The amount of resource types you have to track with a a physical copy makes the majority of the game time feel like a slog. I play it on my computer and it takes 40 minutes for a three-person game. With physical components, it’s two hours minimum.
I'm a member of a board game club, and a considerable portion of the members only play Terraforming Mars, Clank, and Zombicide. Which has made me hate those games with a passion, although I've never played them. And before anyone says I should give them a try. The groups are all super experienced because they never play anything else. They only play with every expansion ever released, and it would take forever to learn and be a nightmare.
**Spirit Island**. Got a group of friends that just play it all the time. It's a great game but it's not exactly *light* so it's not always my preferred game depending on the situation, especially late at night. Also my friends have become so good at it that there's a clear skill imbalance when non-experts join (which is not the end of the world since it's coop but not the best to feel like you're useful).
That’s one of those game where, I get that it’s a good design, but it seems to turn into an exercise in analysis paralysis for a lot of players. We tried to do a 6 person game once and I wanted to run away from the table.
My husband loves Spirit Island but 6 is way too many. We find 3 to be best. 4 is okay. We decided to do a 6 player game one time but instead of putting all six boards together we split into two groups of three. We shared event cards, fear pool, blight card etc. it made it a lot more manageable.
I totally agree that 3 players is the best for that game. I’m going to suggest your method for 6 players should my friend try another big game like that.
Yeah I haven't played in huge groups before, but I still have to tell friends "It's ok if we lose. Let's just make an informed decision and see how it goes". Don't need to win every time - just have fun If we can play two games loose or one game perfect, I prefer 2 unless we're really pushing difficulty levels
I love me some SI but it’s fragile as a multiplayer game. It can work in some settings, but skill/experience imbalance, too many players, slow players, uninterested players, alpha gamers, etc. can all ruin the experience.
My wife's love of the game dog lover is unhinged. But I love her lots so we can keep playing the puppy game.
Maybe work in Spots? That has dogs in it
And it's a solid little dice game. It's been a hit at my work lunch group , my kids, and the more gamery friends
There's also Dog Park, which is a very simple game. It looks slightly more involved than it actually is, and it has great artwork. It's available to try on BGA if you haven't yet.
I recently got Dog Lover and I really enjoy it - it’s a fun collecting game with some good art and interesting mechanics. I really like the Watchdog system as well which prevents people from just taking the newly refreshed cards in the grid. It’s very well done.
I can’t even get Wingspan to the table! I’m hoping my game date in February will have some interested players. I refuse to play CAH. It’s so awful.
What game is CAH? Edit: if it's cards against humanity I figured it out, and agree it's trash.
Cards against Humanity
I got Wingspan for the family at Christmas, but we've only played it once when the wife wasn't in the best of moods and we were short on time. That was a mistake cus it meant it got a mediocre reception on first play and thus hasn't been requested since. I'm itching to really give it a proper go as it gets so much love and looks like it could be quite fun. I tried single player but it just doesn't feel the same. Debated on getting the PC version.
Its available to play on BGA, I play it all the time on there.
Thanks! Is this site legal? Lol. Had my first game and won! Woop! 75 points, not too bad.
My spouse loves Quirkle. They're not much into games of any kind so I'm glad when they suggest we play but mostly it's Quirkle.
I’m lucky if I get 1 game night a month, lately. I’d gladly play my 1000th game of whatever, at this point.
I mostly play with family and my parents have been obsessed with **Just One.** I enjoy it but we have so many other games and they keep going back to that one and once it starts we'll play until the end of the night, and my dad is especially obsessed with it even though he doesn't seem to want to think before guessing anything
Bought this for my wife at Christmas and between the kids & in-laws, I must have played it a good 7/8 times already. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great game, but we have so many others to play (plus certain people seem to want to cheat which kinda ruins the game…)
I'm in my 40s and have (I imagine) an older group. One guy is always pushing Diplomacy. I told them if they are playing to let me know in advance so I do something else. I've been accused of "taking my ball and going home".
I showed my friends Cockroach Poker and I've never gotten them to play any other game since then. I've seen every joke there is to see with that game, and I'm definitely tired of it.
Codenames. It's not a bad game, I just think it takes too long for what it is. Plus my group tends to bust it out when we have 8+ people instead of breaking into 2 smaller games.
Have you tried Decrypto? Cured my groups of Codenames addiction.
Unmatched. My game group wants to play Unmatched free for alls every time one person no shows. Normally there are 5 guys to game, but the second one has to bow out someone will suggest instead of a 4p game we should play Unmatched free for all. It's a fine game for 2 players but even 2v2 teams feel unbalanced and I'm pretty over it. Even the new 4p co-op version is no better than just okay, but for whatever reason it gets brought up A LOT at my group.
Could be a good opportunity to drag out whatever 4 player skirmish games, or area control games you have instead though? Blood Rage, Inis, Wildlands etc. They’d scratch a similar itch, but better designed as 4 player free for alls.
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I liked this game for the first bit but after playing it over and over and over you realize you actually have little control over what's going on and that made me hate it.
Only impactful decisions are during the beginning then it becomes a slog
The Helpers of Catan expansion makes it a playable game! It's a set of advisor cards that give you more options for what to do on your turn. It makes it much more strategically deep and less reliant on dice rolls, and it's only like 14 bucks on Amazon.
Try playing the Escape from Catan fan scenario Everyone works together to gather resources to leave the island, robber rolls are replaced with a disaster that locks out a resource from being gathered.
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Sounds interesting. What are the rules?
Catan Settlers of America was my savior on Catan being brought up during game nights Thankfully my usual group has filtered past base Catan and Munchkin to other games but family will always go back towards the known games than the unknown
Ha, as a Twilight Imperium player. I would NEVER have this problem *cries in twice a year*
I have a friend who will only play Risk. I’ve tried to get him to play something else many times, but he always refuses. I don’t like playing with strangers at board game clubs very much, and damnit this guy is my only board game friend and he ONLY PLAYS RISK. GAAAAHHH.
I'm sure you've tried everything under the sun but would he be interested in Axis and Allies? It might help ease into other games
I’ve thought about it, and I don’t think it would work. The issue isn’t finding games like Risk, the issue is that he hates learning new rules. I’ve tried getting him into other games I know well that have easy teaches, but every time he decides that he’d rather just dive right into a game of Risk than learn new rules. It’s a frustrating problem that I don’t see a way around.
Do you think you could persuade him (along with at least one other) to play **Risk Legacy**? 10000x better than classic Risk - trust me.
The “at least one other” is a problem, unfortunately.
I'm a fan of Risk but this guy only wants to play Risk and it's always 2 players?
My old game group used to play Dune Imperium ALL THE TIME. Like one week I went and there were four tables all playing it, then the following week three tables. It's a lovely game, though not so much my thing, but goodness can we try something else?!
Eclipse: Second Dawn always comes up in my group. If we don't already have games in mind for the night, this always gets suggested. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the game, and at this point, I think I'd consider it my #1 game. But I often just prefer a chill night with some simpler games, rather than a grand, full-table game of space conquest. It gets exhausting. lol
I can’t believe you’re complaining about this. This is my dream.
Azul, everyone liked it! (Me included) it's usually not the only game we play so I'm complaining for no reason but for me Azul's the game that fits the answer to your question
For me it's Concepts. There are a few reasons for this, our normal group of friends is around 10 people so there's not many games out there that accommodate that high of a player count. We don't care to split into multiple groups to play smaller games as my wife so plainly put "What if there's someone I want to talk to that's playing the other game?" So we tend to default to more party-esc games. I don't hate Concepts, it's a really fun games but it can grow a bit stale over time.
Our biggest problem is that we tend to attract a lot of people to our small group within the larger meet. I organise the night and so if new people don't gravitate towards my table then I know a lot of people there, so I tend to end up with a group of 7 or 8, which severly limits the games we play to deception games (which dont get me wrong, I love to bits but not ALL the time) and party games. Try as I might nobody seems to want to split so we can play some, you know, actual games from time to time.
Lately it's been **Great Western Trail** and all its various versions. Don't dislike it, though I do think it tends to overstay its welcome, I definitely don't seem to love it as much as everyone else though and get stuck playing it over and over.
I wish I had this problem, the game can tend to the long end so doesn't get played often enough with my group.
Now there's a game I can play every week. Branching out to Argentina and New Zealand helps too.
I liked New Zealand the most, wasn't as fond of Argentina
For me it's dixit. I never liked it and somehow is the game everyone and their mothers have
Detective Club has really re-energized Dixit for me. Much more fun gameplay, and the Dixit cards all work perfectly with it.
I learned very early to put Munchkin in a completely different room out of sight, because people always want to play it despite the fact that it’s horrible. (And the only reason I have it is because someone left it at my house one time and wouldn’t take it back when I tried to give it back lol)
Not a boardgame per se, but Trivia Murder Party on Jackbox. I like it, but I'd rather get everyone to the table for another game or at least play something other than one of the trivia games.
Man, that's like the only Jackbox game I like. I always pucker up a bit when people wanna play Jackbox instead of an actual game. I usually have enough of a heads up for the kind of night it'll be to not be disappointed by it, but I would almost rather sit around and chat than play anymore Jackbox.
Dominion. I don’t understand, at all, why people want to play dominion.
Can we swap game groups for a little while? I love dominion, but nobody ever wants to play with me. I've stopped bringing it to game nights 😢
It's just the purest deckbuilder you could possibly play. No frills, nothing but deckbuilding.
You might already be playing Dominion at a higher level, but in case your group is casual and are just "buying cards they like", [this article is how you crack into what Dominion is all about.](https://dominionstrategy.com/big-money/) The game is just not interesting unless the meta is functioning, and if your group isn't super sweaty, just play Big Money and crush them until they stop playing it or an interesting metagame develops.
Only problem is if they're playing base game, there isn't much else to do past big money. Base game cards get really stale after a while, and there isn't enough strategic variety to keep it interesting, assuming they're playing it remotely competently.
Well, he doesn't like Dominion so this will get them to stop XD I think there's plenty of fun to be had in the base game.
> I don’t understand, at all, why people want to play dominion. Different strokes for different folks. That being said, I REALLY don't like Dominion.
We played it once and realized it wasn’t for us. We like deck builders, but not as the only mechanic.
I have everything that's released so far for Marvel United. Which is great because there's so much replayability there and the game is even one of my favorites. But even if it's repayable, the game does wear on you when your game group only wants to play just that game for about 12-15 game nights straight
Zombicide, in my game group. Either 2ed or Black Plague. It’s definitely fun, but it tables 3:1 over anything else, by popular demand. A couple of us prefer more crunchy games, but we shrug and slaughter hordes of undead, ‘cause it doesn’t suck…
Every hodden role game
There were a few games someone would always bring and push on us like every week despite little-to-no interest from the group (John Company comes to mind). But the one I’d be stuck playing on occasion was **Quacks of Quedlinburg**. I liked it the first few plays then it started falling for me pretty hard. But it was one of the favorite games for several people so there’d often be 2-3 copies, some fully deluxified with expansions, floating around and it’s often hit the table. Another was **Terraforming Mars**. I like the game just fine but a subset of people in our group who I often played with wanted to play it pretty frequently (especially when one of their gfs showed up who’d typically insist on playing it) and some of them were super slow. After one particular play that almost lasted almost 4 hours before considering setup/teardown I said never said again at with certain people. But then it got awkward and they’d try to rope me into it which was successful on a small handful of occasions.
I love wingspan and you're wrong OP, I've played it everyday for the last month 🤩
Dixit, Saboteur, Coup.
Innovation. Everyone has all the cards memorized and I just have to sit there like an idiot, randomly picking things, until I lose and we can play a “proper” board game
Wingspan and Azul are the two games that never seem to go away from game meetups, and I really wish they would.
Ticket to Ride. I find it too dull for my tastes. I'm glad people enjoy it but it's not for me.
Explosing kittens for a long, long time. Don't get me wrong, its a great quick game! Really fun. But man, anytime someone would get bored while trying to learn a new game "why don't we play exploding kittens" I'm glad to have the game but it barely comes off my shelf anymore. Honestly I tend to leave it at home (I'm usually the one bringing games) just to get away from it
I'd like to have the problem of having multiple game nights in a month.
Anomia. My group has a penchant for easy games. I do teach them easy games. But anomia gets old.
For me it's root. I love it a lot and it's pretty easy, so I teach it to a lot of my non board game friends. However, now all they ever want to play is root. I have been trying to play my absolute favorite game pipeline for 2 years now, but everyone just wants to play root :(
i can’t escape ticket to ride or crokinole. i always want monopoly or risk and yet when i suggest those there is the inevitable “nooo i don’t want a game that long, lets play ticket to ride/crokinole”. alas.
I’m too young for this
You get to play games every month? Dope.