What are your favorite family boardgames?

[krazymamatoo]

Shame on me for being pretty clueless about this, I know. Truth is, we generally don't have the extra money to even consider picking up some new games.

My brother, however, has decided he wants to get us an assortment to add to our game shelf. (How cool is that?!?) So, he wants me to give him a list of 10-12 games that we would like to have, and he'll "see what he can do with it"; says he's going to stock our game shelf with or without my input(he has his reasons for wanting to do it, and I wouldn't be able to talk him out of it if I tried), but it may be in my best interest to give him suggestions. Oh, and he wants my ideas by tonight; and he asked me not to ask the kiddos (as he wants it to be a total surprise for them, and I think they could all use a nice surprise).

So, back to my cluesless self: Ideally, I'd like to come up with some games that are going to be fun and interesting for ALL of us.

This is a quick rundown of my family.
Me: I'm pretty boring, and can usually get interested in just about anything. But really kind of over the monopoly, scrabble, uno cycle we have going.
DP: He loves his video games, and says board games are boring. But he always enjoys it when we're all playing.
DS(13): yeah, um...pretty much same as DP, plus ADHD.
DD1(10): She's the sweetie of the bunch, doesn't really care what we're doing, as long as we're all together.
DD2(5): She's all over the place! She loves ALL games, whether or not she really understands them (she can generally catch on to rather complex gameplay within a few rounds). She's been diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum, has sensory issues galore, and despises "Baby Games" (her words) like Candyland, Memory, etc.

I know I want Fluxx. And DP wants Rat-A-Tat-Cat. So, any ideas? What games do you like playing? Money isn't a MAJOR issue (he says). But I'd like to try to offer more less-expensive ideas than costly ones, ya know?

Thanks so much for any suggestions!

[Lady Lilya]

We liked a lot of the card games, like Milles Bornes and Skip-bo.

I also loved Rumi-Kub and Stratego and Racko and Taboo.

By Jove was kinda fun too, and educational at the same time.

[limabean]

Cranium
Yahtzee
Rumikub
Phase 10
Catch Phrase
Scattergories
Pictionary

There are lots more but I can't remember -- I'll come back later if I think of them.

[LuckyMommaToo]

Apples to Apples
Blokus
Sorry!

[camracrazy]

We had to get Uno Attack! after my kids played it at my sister's house. It is basically like regular Uno, but you put the cards in a machine. When it's your turn to draw, you hit the button. You may get no cards, a couple of cards, or get showered with cards!

I second Rummi-kub. For some reason we called it Rummy Z when I was growing up!

You can play a ton of games with decks of cards. We play one game called Hand and Foot and I think it has 6 decks of cards:

http://www.pagat.com/rummy/handfoot.html#partners

Dice games are easy and plentiful too. Muddy Mississippi is one we play that my 5 yo can join in (I've also heard it called pigs and chickens)

If you got a set of double nine or double twelve dominos you could play Mexican Train, among other games (if your dominos don't come with the trains you can get them at Hobby Lobby. They are train shaped beads.):
http://www.pagat.com/tile/wdom/mextrain.html

Scrabble is a favorite of mine. My five yo can't do regular Scrabble very well, but she likes Scrabble Slam. It's a card game.

Battleship, Topple, Connect Four, Hungry Hungry Hippos (if your 5 yo would like it, it's kind of noisy), Operation (again, can be noisy. I wouldn't get the model that keeps making a sound until you pick the right organ. My girls got that one and I hate it. They also have a Shrek one that's not bad, it's more like the old basic model).

[laila2]

I second

apples for apples
battleship

[ancoda]

Some games my family enjoys are

In a pickle
apples to apples(we have the junior edition, but my 8 year old does fine with the normal one at my parents house.)

Not the same old boring monopoly
monopoly dot com
Garfield monopoly
I also recently saw a Nintendo monopoly that I want to get us for Christmas.

[Quinalla]

Sorry
Aggravation
Risk (this one is more advanced just fyi)
Taboo
Parcheesi
Cribbage (not a traditional board game)

And I really like card games, if you are game too, would he consider getting you maybe 4-6 decks of cards and a book or two on how to play lots of different card games?

[kathteach]

I just got my ASD son a "boy" version of this game because I thought it would help with pragmatics and pretend play: http://www.amazon.com/eeBoo-FAIRGM-F...=20O68RLIU3CLH

I think I heard about it here actually. It's got great reviews, I'll let you know what I think when it ships.

[ancoda]

My DH said that I should add that every family should own at one game of chess. He collects them and has around 4 or 5, though none of us play it much with him.

[ASusan]

Pounce is a great family card game. You can google for instructions, but you DON'T want the one with the cat and mouse on the box. You just need one deck of cards per person.

It's played like simultaneous games of solitaire, with everyone building into the middle. We had some "house rules" which included:

1. Name calling (even explicit names) was permissible during the game. ANYthing goes.

2. After each round, you switch seats and decks of cards (everyone rotates one chair clockwise, but the cards stay in that location). You play as many rounds as people, so each person gets to sit in each chair once. This evens out any advantages that might exist due to reach, lighting, stickiness of the card deck, etc.

[krazymamatoo]

Wow. Thanks so much for all of the suggestions so far! I knew I'd get some good input here!

Anyway, I just got off the phone with my brother. Basically I just read this whole thread to him. (He informed me that I am not boring.) He said he's already picked up a couple things, and what he's picked up has all been recommended by some of you.

He's coming over tomorrow evening for dinner and hanging out for a game night with us.

He stayed with us for a couple of months earlier this year while going through some really difficult circumstances, and loved sharing our game nights with us while he was here. So, in a way, this is his way of saying "thanks" for everything.

I'll be talking to him again in the morning; so if anyone has any other suggestions, he said "keep 'em coming!"

I told him that I think it's incredibly sweet of him to do this, but I really hope he doesn't spend too much. Then he growled at me! Told me he gets to do something nice for us, and I'm not allowed to concern myself about what it costs!

ummm, okay...

Really, I'm just super excited he'll be spending the evening with us. I kinda got used to him being here, and haven't even seen him in about a month now!

Anyway, sorry for the novel. And thanks again for all of your suggestions!

[Tway]

In case you're still looking for ideas, we used to play the Game of Life and Payday for hours. Also loved Trivial Pursuit, and I think they have a kids' version, too.

I also love Scattergories (although people refused to play with me after awhile--words are a Copywriter thing, I guess...), Pictionary, good ol' Snakes and Ladders, Battleship, Monopoly...

The only one I still have is Scattergories, which just goes to show you how lon it stuck around.

[galincognito]

carcassone (a build as you go game so it's different every time)
perfection
connect 4
dutch blitz
boggle (probably a bit old for the youngest but i think it could still be fun)

[happysmileylady]

Trivial Pursuit, I hope he stuck that one on the list. I love it because you can totally taylor it to whatever level you need to within the game and you can always buy different sets of cards on ebay and such to change it up as needed.

[mamabohl]

my 8yo ds and I love to play quirkle. It's like dominoes, but a little more complicated. My 5yo finds it boring and a little confusing, but he loves games like candy land, so your 5yo sounds like she might be up to it. We also love UNO and basic card games (having 2 or 3 decks on hand can be nice...). hmmm...a couple of my childhood favorites were sorry! and Clue (I also had clue jr, which was fun too). Oh chinese checkers! loved that as a kid. I think pictionary and scattegories are great family games. and yahtzee and boggle (I LOVED boggle and boggle jr as a kid too). I was a huge board game fan as a child, lol, still am, but my dh agrees with yours. =<

[LynnS6]

Classics:
Clue
Scrabble
Chinese Checkers
Othello
Boggle

Good group games
Cranium (your youngest might need help, but maybe not)
Uno (or Uno Attack is fun)
Mexican Train Dominoes
Apples to Apples
Scattergories

A bit less common but good games
Quiddler (I like this, but then I'm a word geek)
Ruckus

[LaughingHyena]

We like most things by Rio Grande that we have tried, they do some kids games which might be worth a look.

Tantrix is one DH and I like and DD (just 6) is starting to be able to play. It's got lots of single player puzzles and even DS (3) likes playing matching up the pieces

rush hour is another one both kids like, though its a single player puzzle. The same company make several other puzzle type games too.

Jenga

The kids love hungry hippos, me not so much.

[clutterwarrior]

We love the Gamewright brand ones,

especially...

Rat a Tat Cat
Mummy Rummy
Slamwich

[mama*pisces]

Cranium is really fun. I like Scattegories too. Right now the only games we are playing are Memory, Candy Land, and Go Diego Go, although DH recently took 4 yo ds to a church function where they had the game of Life(which we also have), and apparantly ds played with my MIL and now loves that game, even though the recommended age is 9-adult.