Tabletop gaming

[Yippee38]

I know Boob created a thread a long time ago about board gaming, but I want to find out who the tabletop (board/strategy/PnP) gamers are out there. Basically, what's your tabletop gaming history, and what do you like to play now?

I've been into board games since I was a kid, playing Monopoly and Life with my family. When I got a little older, I got some wargames as gifts (the old Avalon Hill war games with books of rules). I tried to play with my dad, but he didn't have the patience to learn the rules. I played one game with a guy in college, but his "interpretation" of the rules was pretty liberal (in his favor always).

I played a lot of D&D around college, and for a long time after that. We played every weekend, but most of the group moved away. For a long time, it was just my wife, my best friend and I, but that doesn't work very well.

We've played some "euro-style" board games. Mostly the standards like Cataan, Ticket to Ride, Risk, etc. Again, there's not enough people around who are interested in playing.

 

[OrbWeaver]

AD&D, Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf, Numenara - those are all the tabeltop RPGs I have played.

I did some Settlers of Cataan in college but found it boring. Love Risk, though, and Met-Al has something called Rail Baron, which is like Risk meets Monopoly with railroads.

I'm also a fan of some tabletop card games, like Fluxx and Munchkin.

 

[TheLongshot]

I do board gaming every two weeks with a group in MD. I generally play whatever people are in the mood for playing.

 

[jhallum]

I know Boob created a thread a long time ago about board gaming, but I want to find out who the tabletop (board/strategy/PnP) gamers are out there. Basically, what's your tabletop gaming history, and what do you like to play now?

I've been into board games since I was a kid, playing Monopoly and Life with my family. When I got a little older, I got some wargames as gifts (the old Avalon Hill war games with books of rules). I tried to play with my dad, but he didn't have the patience to learn the rules. I played one game with a guy in college, but his "interpretation" of the rules was pretty liberal (in his favor always).

I played a lot of D&D around college, and for a long time after that. We played every weekend, but most of the group moved away. For a long time, it was just my wife, my best friend and I, but that doesn't work very well.

We've played some "euro-style" board games. Mostly the standards like Cataan, Ticket to Ride, Risk, etc. Again, there's not enough people around who are interested in playing.

I've been playing and running RPGs 45 weeks out of the year since I was about 17. Since we moved to Ann Arbor in 2001, I've had a continuous game running with most of the same people (gotta pimp our wiki) We are pretty traditional, playing the d20 derivatives (3e,3.5e, a little bit of 4, and now Pathfinder). It's slowly escalated to the point now, where over half of us have gone to at least one con every year to do RPGs (Origins and now Gen Con).

More recently, some of my co-workers have formed a boardgame group, as one of us is an investor in a Gaming Store, so he gets lots of games for cheap. We've tried a lot of games this way, including Libertine, Cash and Guns (ever pointed a foam gun at your boss? that feels strange), Seven Wonders, lots and lots of Smash-up, amongst other things.

 

[KingsGene]

I'm an old school table-top board gamer, mostly of the Monopoly, Sorry, Risk variety. Went through the D&D phase, too. But, my all-time favorite had to be Battling Tops. I pulled it out of the attic sometime ago when we had a house full of drunk people, and there was soon money flying in the air as we had our own mini betting parlor going on.... $5 on Dizzy Dean!

 

[lady_space]

We play board games when we can, but alas, it isn't as often these days with us living outside of Atlanta and Urban on tour a good bit. I grew up playing the 'standards' with my family; we were always playing something or other, a little D&D when I was in high school... I think Urban's game-playing history is far more interesting, though. Maybe he'll chime in.

Some of the ones we've played most recently are Munchkin Quest, Ave Caesar, and SmallWorld, and we've been known to play a bunch of others: Axis & Allies and Advanced Civilization (although you basically have to bribe me to play those two these days), and a bunch of Jim Pridgin's (Settlers of Catan, Game of Thrones, Discworld, Ticket to Ride, too many more for me to remember). Heather brought a cool new game down last time she visited, but I can't remember what it was called.

Like Joan, we like card games, too, and have played Munchkin (we have several flavors of it) and Exploding Kittens recently, as well as a number of more 'traditional' card games (Maja, Chicago, and some poker-style games with my parents). Unfortunately, having just 2 or 3 of us here 97% of the time does limit what we can realistically play.

Shaye

 

[Keir]

I played lots of D&D in middle/high school (1st and 2nd edition AD&D as well as the classic Red Box system). I dabbled in other systems though the only one that I stuck with was Warhammer. Then in the 90s when my group moved on to the White Wolf games (Vampire and the like) I really lost interest and pretty much stopped playing. About 2 years ago my son found my old books and got interested so I started running a group with him and some of my friends every 2 weeks (3rd edition with some 3.5 rules thrown in). It was great for a while but lately it's been hard to get together so bi-weekly has turned into monthly or less.

I'll occasionally play other tabletop games like Catan, Small World, Carcassonne, etc. Sometimes I'll even break out the old Dungeon! board game. Again, though, it's always a challenge getting a group together to play.

lots and lots of Smash-up

I got this game and loved it, but no one I played with has any interest in playing again. What is wrong with them?!?

 

[TheLongshot]

I got this game and loved it, but no one I played with has any interest in playing again. What is wrong with them?!?

Smash Up, IMO, is a better conceptual idea than it is in execution. Personally, I don't find the game all that fun.

 

[Oblivion Ocean]

Smash Up, IMO, is a better conceptual idea than it is in execution. Personally, I don't find the game all that fun.

I would kinda agree on this, even though I have had fun with it. I think 3 players is the sweet spot with this one. It comes to the table sporadically; but I think King of Tokyo/New York kinda scratched the same light-fun theme itch.

 

[Oblivion Ocean]

I have been playing table top games for years, but really in the last 4-5 years have dove in feet first during their resurgence.

The games I am playing heavily recently are:

Roll for the Galaxy
Castles of Burgundy
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game
Viceroy
Dead of Winter
Galaxy Trucker

 

[Mardoch]

Played lots of D&D since the AD&D days, some Pathfinder, MT:G, Flux, Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrots, Lunch Money, Exploding Kittens (own but haven't had a chance to play yet), Risk, and other "traditional" board games. I'll try almost any game at least once.

I miss D&D badly atm. I have no crew, and my old one is too off-shift from me to establish one.

 

[Yippee38]

My group got started on the Red Box, then moved on to 1st edition (because one of my friends had books from when he was a kid), 2nd edition. Our group stopped playing before 3, and I'm happy about that. It got way to rules heavy. The last game we played (a few months ago) was Castles & Crusades. I like the Old-school dnd feel games. That was the session that convinced us all that 3 people just isn't enough for PnP-RPGs.

I miss D&D badly atm. I have no crew, and my old one is too off-shift from me to establish one.

I go through periods where I really miss playing (like right now). My weird schedule makes it hard to play. My prejudices from when I was in HS, and thought people who played DnD were never going to get laid in their entire life, make it virtually impossible for me to find additional players for our group. I know there are other players out there who would be cool, and not total dorks, but I don't know how to find them.

 

[jhallum]

I go through periods where I really miss playing (like right now). My weird schedule makes it hard to play. My prejudices from when I was in HS, and thought people who played DnD were never going to get laid in their entire life, make it virtually impossible for me to find additional players for our group. I know there are other players out there who would be cool, and not total dorks, but I don't know how to find them.

Finding good, sane players is hard. We started with blind adverts in gaming stores, and enworld (at the time). Our first batch of players, about two thirds ended up being sane. Over time, the sane people stuck around, and at this point, we're mostly relying of friends of friends for new players, rather than being blind about adding new people. We still have lunch with folks before we invite them into someone's house (because it's still someone's house), but it's worked well so far. At this point, we have a two Uni Professors, 3 IT guys, and two Federal agents. It almost seems like we're all adults or something.

Well it works mostly well. It doesn't prevent an established player who'd seemed completely good, sane and around for over a decade from ending up in a Federal Prison....but that's a story for another time...

 

[The Colorado Kid]

Grew up playing Risk, Life, Monopoly, Stratego, and lots of D&D. When I was a bit older played Nuclear War, Yahtzee, and Axis & Allies among others. Loved playing euchre. Currently playing Life (PS3), dominos, pass the pig (seriously fun game), and Ingenious (which is a lot of fun).

Picked up Catan, and the latest D&D books (5e?) along with lots of dice. I'm prepping for DragonCon.

 

[Yippee38]

Loved playing euchre. Currently playing Life (PS3), dominos, pass the pig (seriously fun game), and Ingenious (which is a lot of fun).

We had Pass the Pig when I was a kid. It was called Pigmania back then, and one of the highest scoring rolls you could get was Makin' Bacon. It had one pig on its feet, and the other pig "mounted" on the back of it. Then they got PC.

 

[The Colorado Kid]

We had Pass the Pig when I was a kid. It was called Pigmania back then, and one of the highest scoring rolls you could get was Makin' Bacon. It had one pig on its feet, and the other pig "mounted" on the back of it. Then they got PC.

Hahaha... I'm sure my 8 year old would have looked at the card and asked, "Dad, what are they doing, and why is it called 'Makin' Bacon?'"

 

[shreddy]

I would love to get back into D&D, mostly to get my son into it. I haven't shown him any of the books yet, I think I'm going to give him my copy of the Fiend Folio for him to check out. I've played Carcassonne on the Xbox but never table top, I would like to give that a try.

 

[OrbWeaver]

Oh! I also forgot Kobolds Ate My Baby! and Ninja Burger. Those were both a lot of fun.

 

[spag]

I used to play some of the Avalon Hill games, Panzerblitz and the like. Car Wars, and other Microgrames back in the day, Ogre, Melee, etc. Star Fleet Battles was another good one. Some friends in Auburn and I used to play massive games back in the day. Good times. Later on I got involved in some miniatures, Wooden Ships, but haven't played in many years.

 

[Yippee38]

I would love to get back into D&D, mostly to get my son into it. I haven't shown him any of the books yet, I think I'm going to give him my copy of the Fiend Folio for him to check out. I've played Carcassonne on the Xbox but never table top, I would like to give that a try.

I've got Carcassonne (table top) but I've never actually played it.

How old is your son?

I used to play some of the Avalon Hill games, Panzerblitz and the like. Car Wars, and other Microgrames back in the day, Ogre, Melee, etc. Star Fleet Battles was another good one. Some friends in Auburn and I used to play massive games back in the day. Good times. Later on I got involved in some miniatures, Wooden Ships, but haven't played in many years.

I played Panzer Leader and Luftwaffe. I played a game of The Russian Campaign several years ago, and got my butt handed to me.