It incorporates a few things I love: books, word play, and games. However, it also forces you to do something I don’t love: pay attention to multiple things at once.
Category: Games
#867: Play Pass the Pigs
If a game where you throw 2 plastic (rubber? I am unsure of the exact material) pigs into the air and get points based on how they land–on their side, snout, back, etc.–is a real game that people pay money for, who’s to say what is possible?
#847: Play Euchre
I claim I hate games, but that’s not true. I love card games and board games and non-card-or-board games. If it’s a game that isn’t played in the classroom, as something designed to break ice, or with a controller, I probably like it.
But I don’t pick up new games quickly, and learning to play Euchre was no different. The main thing you need to understand when you’re playing this card game is that some cards are not what they say they are. Each round, one of the Jacks changes suit. Sounds simple enough, right?
#842: Play Forbidden Island
“I don’t remember exactly how to play, but we can just figure it out.”
Yeah. No. This is not that sort of game.
Even after being told the rules, it still took me a few rounds to remember all of the things I was supposed to do, and it took both of us almost the entire game to remember we each had a card that would give us a special ability.
Not that having at least 10 rules automatically makes a board game bad. Rules don’t have to be terrible. They do have to be limiting (unless the rule is that you can do whatever you want, in which case it probably wouldn’t be a rule since that seems to be most people’s de facto status anyway). But limits can be good. Continue reading “#842: Play Forbidden Island”
#823: Win Cranium
Full disclosure: I’ve only ever played Cranium once before. Fuller disclosure: Cranium is really difficult.
Or maybe it’s just that we were playing the UK version. No, it’s just plain difficult–mostly because of how much it relies on luck.
#615: Play Scattergories
My brother and sisters and I played a lot of board games growing up. That’s probably why, every time I visit my family in Ohio, we plan a game night. Well, that, and because, by the time we get around to playing after the niece and nephew are in bed, everyone’s usually pretty tired and loopy, which makes for hilarious–though not exactly sophisticated–times.
Last night the game was Scattergories, and none of us had every played it before. Scattergories, Jr., yes. In fact, playing the junior version with my older sister is one of my more vivid board game memories.
But now we’re all grown up, and we have to play adult versions of games.
#565: Play Cards Against Humanity
I once asked someone on a first date what would be a good board game for my family, because he was very into board games. He told me Cards Against Humanity. We’re no longer in touch, but I wish we were so I could ask him, “What were you thinking??!”
To be fair, I can imagine some families would enjoy this game together, and since the guy didn’t know me, he would have no way of knowing that my mom doesn’t even like movies with swearing in them. But to recommend this game as a family game? No. Continue reading “#565: Play Cards Against Humanity”
A New Thing Every Day 