Gateway
The best board & card games to introduce non-gamers to the hobby...Also nominated:
For comparison purposes, the top five games from 2002:
Labels: Magical Doorways, Subjective Yumminess
posted by Mark (aka pastor guy) at 1:24 PM
Sunday, April 01, 2007
The best board & card games to introduce non-gamers to the hobby...Also nominated:
For comparison purposes, the top five games from 2002:
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- Name: Mark (aka pastor guy)
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5 Comments:
No real surprises in the top five (all are, IMHO, excellent choices)... but a couple of surprises in the nominees.
One pleasant - Around the World In 80 Days is delightful. One not - I just do not get the "love" for Ingenious.
Wow... excellent comment, Chris. I'd never put it in those terms before, but that does an excellent job of summarizing the way the particular games "work".
I'd add Around the World In 80 Days, Midnight Party, Niagara & Lord of the Rings (Knizia) to my personal "true gateway" games list.
I like Chris's list better than the Apple Pickers' list, with the exception of the overrated duo of Settlers (lose the dice) and Bohnanza (hard to guide newbies thru the hand management rules). Ingenious, Samurai, Modern Art and Blue Moon City are excellent introductions to modern boardgaming. I'll toss in Traumfabrik and the vastly underrated Pueblo as two more games that open eyes to the possibilities in boardgames.
As I told Mark when he announced this category, I don't see our goal actually as being "introducing non-gamers" to "the hobby." The people I introduce to the games I like are *already* gamers; they're merely unfamiliar with most of the games it has been my privilege to know about.
And goodness knows I don't want to introduce them to "the hobby," a phrase which to me calls up the endless stream of internet chatter. Not that I don't enjoy the internet chatter myself, but that's not the point. What I want is to share the joy of sitting down and playing a game together.
My goal is to get an idea where the person is coming from and then show them something they'll like but didn't imagine existed.
Settlers of Catan is the game that has most often brought about a response in the "Where can I get THAT GAME?" range from the people whose past experience had been limited to the standard American games.
Res Publica, with its unorthodox trading protocol (and resultant potential for laughter), always makes people realize they're thinking in a way they've never thought before. It also has the advantages of minimal set-up time and space needed to play.
Cartagena is so simple to learn and yet reveals its unconventionality in a very charming way. It's a good game for easing people in when they're not confident about tackling a lot of rules. Tsuro is another excellent and even lighter choice for this approach.
Around the World in 80 Days is a big favorite of mine and comes out when I think people will have the patience for it. Like Fabrik der Traume, it's a game where the storyline makes it a snap for new players to internalize the rules and enjoy the atmosphere.
Enjoy,
Stven Carlberg
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