The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

Forbidden Island/Pandemic (depending on your interest in the theme and how difficult you want it to be)

onewild wrote:

Looking for a new game to play with my parents, we already have and enjoy Ticket to Ride, Carcassone and Small World (well my dad can't play this since the board gives him migraines). So something along those lines would be good, around the 40min to an hour to complete. Although I was thinking of getting a co-op game as well to mix things up abit.

Any advice?

Dominion is easy to learn, doesn't take long to play, but has a lot of depth.

For co-op, yeah, Forbidden Island or Pandemic sounds good.

I'll 3rd Pandemic if you want a co-op game. So much fun

Another co-op to consider would be Castle Panic!, but the theme might be a little "too kiddy" to play with your parents.

onewild wrote:

Although I was thinking of getting a co-op game as well to mix things up abit.

Any advice?

Forbidden Island is great: not expensive, comes in a nice case, easy to set up and play. It is a little on the easy side, and like any co-op game, can become an exercise in delegation. I love Pandemic, but Flashpoint might be a better call. Everyone can relate to firefighters, it takes a certain amount of geekiness to strive to be an international disease fighter. I feel like Flashpoint is a longer set up, and a little more complicated, but most people seem to feel that Pandemic is harder to set up.

I prefer Flashpoint, theme is easier to appreciate for me. And kids understand how to play much easier.

I'd also consider Wits and Wagers and Dixit as options. Though Dixit with 4 isn't so hot. (It supports up to 12).

I would recommend against Pandemic, actually. Sure, it's coop, but "coop" often means "everybody do exactly what player X says". On the lighter end I'd say look into Ascension or Lords of Waterdeep. If you think they can enjoy some mystery, accusations, and failure, and a much more dense game, I'd definitely look into Battlestar Galactica: the Board Game (no knowledge of shows necessary). Finally, there's always parent-friendly Rummikub, tons of fun and fast to play, even if it's not a "themed" game like we're used to.

BSG teaser: http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=Wg7jO...

It's a little faster paced (read: hectic), but Escape: The Curse of the Temple is good too. Each game is only ten minutes long, so it's a bit shorter than you're looking for, but it's absolutely a co-op game. It isn't even a "co-op but someone still wins" game. Like Forbidden Island, it's an all or nothing, you all get out or you all lose game.

McIrishJihad wrote:

I'll 3rd Pandemic if you want a co-op game. So much fun

Another co-op to consider would be Castle Panic!, but the theme might be a little "too kiddy" to play with your parents.

I dunno, my mom loves it.

Then again, to put it as kindly as possible, my mom doesn't exactly have the highest Wisdom score in the family.

Keithustus wrote:

I would recommend against Pandemic, actually. Sure, it's coop, but "coop" often means "everybody do exactly what player X says".

It always bugs me when someone says this. That's an issue with group dynamics, not with co-op games. sure, if you have a bossy person in your group that could happen, but to say that's always going to happen is just wrong.

edosan wrote:
Keithustus wrote:

I would recommend against Pandemic, actually. Sure, it's coop, but "coop" often means "everybody do exactly what player X says".

It always bugs me when someone says this. That's an issue with group dynamics, not with co-op games. sure, if you have a bossy person in your group that could happen, but to say that's always going to happen is just wrong.

No, it is going to happen, and the only way it's not going to is if you go to Lima and give that card to Keithustus after he flies from Jakarta—wait, Keithustus, show me your cards—yeah, Jakarta.

edosan wrote:
Keithustus wrote:

I would recommend against Pandemic, actually. Sure, it's coop, but "coop" often means "everybody do exactly what player X says".

It always bugs me when someone says this. That's an issue with group dynamics, not with co-op games. sure, if you have a bossy person in your group that could happen, but to say that's always going to happen is just wrong.

It's not always going to happen, but frankly it's come up often enough with Pandemic (the same thing has happened to me) in specific to be written off. Sure, it's a group dynamic problem, but if its a COMMON group dynamic problem, it can't be ignored. There are a lot of more recent coop games that include specific design elements to address this issue, such as by including information that individual players can't reveal to each other (You can't boss people around if you don't know what they can do). The design of Pandemic is such that it lends itself to this problem more than other co-op games, IMO.

Dysplastic wrote:
edosan wrote:
Keithustus wrote:

I would recommend against Pandemic, actually. Sure, it's coop, but "coop" often means "everybody do exactly what player X says".

It always bugs me when someone says this. That's an issue with group dynamics, not with co-op games. sure, if you have a bossy person in your group that could happen, but to say that's always going to happen is just wrong.

It's not always going to happen, but frankly it's come up often enough with Pandemic (the same thing has happened to me) in specific to be written off. Sure, it's a group dynamic problem, but if its a COMMON group dynamic problem, it can't be ignored. There are a lot of more recent coop games that include specific design elements to address this issue, such as by including information that individual players can't reveal to each other (You can't boss people around if you don't know what they can do). The design of Pandemic is such that it lends itself to this problem more than other co-op games, IMO.

I agree with this, and readily admit that I tend to be "that guy" in Pandemic; it's not like I plan to be, but, well, grabbing hold of disparate groups and leading them in a direction is pretty much what I do for a living. It's hard to turn that part of my brain off when it's game time.

Pandemic has hidden information for exactly that reason.

+1 to Castle Panic as well.

SixteenBlue wrote:

Pandemic has hidden information for exactly that reason.

Pandemic doesn't really have hidden information in a meaningful way. Sure you're not supposed to show people your cards but there is zero incentive not to tell people exactly what you have.

While it can definitely be a problem, I agree that it's one that can be circumvented. I mean, the exact same thing should be happening in Flash Point, and to a greater degree since there's absolutely no hidden info in there.

If I'm the experienced one in a co-op, I make an effort to present a bunch of options to the group and solicit feedback from the quiet people. If someone else is turning into bossypants, I might suggest we do the opposite and force the others to weigh in. I don't think any co-op without a traitor element has really figured out a solid way around the bossypants problem, but that doesn't mean Pandemic isn't well worth playing.

Demyx wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:

Pandemic has hidden information for exactly that reason.

Sure you're not supposed to show people your cards but there is zero incentive not to tell people exactly what you have.

Beyond the "bossy jerk" problem, yeah. Teaching co-op games is really hard for just that reason, you need to tell people what they can do, so doing it well can be a challenge.

I forgot to mention my favorite coop game, Space Alert! It avoids the bossy arguments of Pandemic by not giving you enough time to conduct thorough central planning, and is a spectacularly fun time even when losing, possibly more so. BUT it's not for everyone because it is teamwork under demanding time constraints, so read some reviews on BGG before purchasing.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardga...

I'm throwing my vote in for Elder Sign. If they can get past the theme, it's a great co-op dice game that my family fell in love with over the Christmas visit.

Double Post for Space!

Space Cadets is a co-op that came out this year that's been getting a lot of love in reviewer circles. Everyone mans a station, which has a unique task (with a unique game mechanic to go with it) that you have to perform that no one else can do. Your team depends on you to do your job while they do theirs, and hopefully the ship doesn't get blown to smithereens.

Thanks for the suggetions, having playing Elder Signs and not really enjoyed it I will have to pass on that.
I was looking at Flash Point today, think it is a theme that my parents would find easier to get behind than anything sci-fi based although I will look into the other ones, plus it has the advantage for me in that it is more than 4 players so I can also rotate it into my gaming group.
I do love Battlestar but it really isn't one for my parents and there is one me and them normally so it doesn't work with 3 players plus I have got to the point where our gaming group is bored of it because we have played it so much the humans pretty much win all the time.
I already own Dixit, which is a brilliant game, played it on Christmas Day with my parents, brother in law and sister, so much fun.

Chaz wrote:

While it can definitely be a problem, I agree that it's one that can be circumvented. I mean, the exact same thing should be happening in Flash Point, and to a greater degree since there's absolutely no hidden info in there.

In Flash Point there aren't as many things to keep in your head in order to determine an "optimum" move, and there's not as much focus on playing optimally unless you play at the heroic difficulty with 4 or fewer fire fighters. Also, a single person's turn has significantly less impact on the game outcome than it does in Pandemic.

Put this all together, and folks feel more confident about making up their own mind and aren't as pressured to just mindlessly obey the alpha dog. I play Flash Point all the time with non-gamers or casual gamers, and it has earned a spot with Family Business as a perfect thing to toss on the table when we have a few people and some time to kill. Pandemic, on the other hand, has 100% of the time devolved into the non-analytical types passively following instructions after the third turn.

DanyBoy wrote:

Space Cadets is a co-op that came out this year that's been getting a lot of love in reviewer circles. Everyone mans a station, which has a unique task (with a unique game mechanic to go with it) that you have to perform that no one else can do. Your team depends on you to do your job while they do theirs, and hopefully the ship doesn't get blown to smithereens. :)

I just got Space Cadets last week and it has been fun learning it. So far it has been very difficult and we have lost every mission we have tried, even the training missions but I have a feeling most of that has to do with learning and practicing your stations. That being said it has been great fun going down in a ball of flames. They have just released an ios app that should make the time keeping/being captain better. I have not tried it yet as I have to wait for them to finish the android version but either should work nice.

Just played a game of Android: Infiltration. Fun little screw-your-neighbor score chase, with some interesting asymmetrical/bluffing mechanics.

Was also nice to see it was designed by Donald Vaccarino - had ZERO influences from Dominion.

Demyx and I digged Infiltration as well. We still need to check out the advanced rules to see if they add any layer of strategy to it. We thought it's a little thin, but I'm hoping they come back to it with an expansion or two to beef it up a little.

McIrishJihad wrote:

Was also nice to see it was designed by Donald Vaccarino - had ZERO influences from Dominion.

Nefarious is another design of his which doesn't have any relation to Dominion, however I don't think I've seen it in any of the FLGS near us

MonoCheli wrote:
DanyBoy wrote:

Space Cadets is a co-op that came out this year that's been getting a lot of love in reviewer circles. Everyone mans a station, which has a unique task (with a unique game mechanic to go with it) that you have to perform that no one else can do. Your team depends on you to do your job while they do theirs, and hopefully the ship doesn't get blown to smithereens. :)

I just got Space Cadets last week and it has been fun learning it. So far it has been very difficult and we have lost every mission we have tried, even the training missions but I have a feeling most of that has to do with learning and practicing your stations. That being said it has been great fun going down in a ball of flames. They have just released an ios app that should make the time keeping/being captain better. I have not tried it yet as I have to wait for them to finish the android version but either should work nice.

I've never even heard of Space Cadets. Sounds pretty fun!

Poppinfresh wrote:

I've never even heard of Space Cadets. Sounds pretty fun!

I would call it Artemis in card board and made of mini games. Well other then the roll layout it is not that close but it has a similar feel.

MonoCheli wrote:
Poppinfresh wrote:

I've never even heard of Space Cadets. Sounds pretty fun!

I would call it Artemis in card board and made of mini games.

Does that make Space Alert the card board form of FTL?

The coop group leader issue doesn't bother me in Flash Point or Sentinels of the Multiverse.

Flash Point: Individual turns and their effects are easy enough to understand that there's no real need for someone to tell others what to do. You can kind of figure it out and be fine.

Sentinels of the Multiverse: Goes the opposite way of Flash Point. There's enough going on that, while one person can run the show, there's enough to process that it's very difficult. Each person having their own hand of cards helps here.

shoptroll wrote:
MonoCheli wrote:

I would call (Space Cadets) the Artemis in card board...

Does that make Space Alert the card board form of FTL?

Absofreakinlutely! Lol