Whenever I play a boardgame anywhere other than in a private residence (and even then sometimes), invariably, a passerby will ask "Hey, is this like Monopoly?" Rarely, people will ask if it's like Risk, but Monopoly is what people know. It's also horrible.
Are your children old enough for you to talk to them about Sid Sackson?
Sid Sackson was a German board game designer, and an avid player himself. At the time of his death, there were more than 18000 games in his collection. His games focused on economic models and negotiation mechanics. And I'm going to tell you about the ones you should play instead of Monopoly
Acquire
This game is pretty much the definition of a cult classic. 3-6 players, it plays best with any number, but I wouldn't play this game with anyone younger than 12, maybe 10 if they're bright and have a good grasp of money. The idea of the game is to build and buy stock in "corporations" that are represented by tiles on a grid. When any two tiles touch, they form a corporation, stocks of which are traded on the open market. The value of the stock increase as the corporations gain tiles, and when two corporations touch, they merge, with the larger corp "buying out" the smaller. A bit of a brain burner with a fair amount of randomness, it sounds as dry as dust when I explain it, but the game is studded with interesting decisions and is one of my favourites.
I'm The Boss
This is a negotiation game for 3-6 players, it plays best with 6. I'd play this with kids as young as 10, but make sure the rules are clearly taught. Players take control of one of six investors, and try to make "deals" worth varying amounts of money. Each deal has a number of required investors and it's up to the active player to put the deal together, dividing up the value and sealing the deal. However, every player also has influence cards that they can use to block, copy or even steal investors from other players, or even to become the active player themselves! The gameplay is usually fast and exciting, with most people engaged even when it's not their turn. An excellent negotiation game.
Haggle
This is a party game for 10 or more players. Before the party, the hosts will prepare a package for each guest, that has a number of coloured cards (usually 10), and two or three out of a set of 10-15 rules that will determine how the cards are scored. Over the course of the party, players will negotiate to trade coloured cards or rules between each other, using whatever valuation they would like. At the end of the game, each package is collected and scored, with the winner getting a prize of some sort. This is a great game, but it skews heavily in favour of math nerds. Last time I played this, there was a three way tie for first, because they had all min/maxed the game. Nerds.
The No Game
Another party game, it's probably not Sid Sackson's invention, but he does mention it in his book and it's simple enough to play with any crowd. Everyone gets a wearable, easily transferable token, like a pin or ribbon, and play starts immediately. The only rule is that you are not allowed to say "no". "Nah" and "nope" are okay, and so is "know". If you catch someone saying "no", you get one of their ribbons, and the player with the most at the end of the night gets everyone's admiration.
One of the advantages all of these games have over the usual Milton Bradley fare is that there is no elimination mechanic. Rather than win by last man standing (and we all know how boring it is to be first one knocked out), there is a game end condition and everyone tallies up their points.
So give one of these a shot, especially if you're a lapsed boardgame player. If you're interested, keep an eye on this space and I'll try to post weekly about some game that I think you should play.
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