Board Games for the Family – Not Only the Classics
This blog is brought to you by GeekGirlCon Manger of Editorial Servies, Adrienne Roehrich.
When my children entered elementary school, and extracurricular activities became more common, our family implemented a monthly family game night for quality time. My children are now in middle school and we still try to have this family activity. We still crave the quality time, but the kids actually ask for game nights because it’s fun for them to sometimes beat their folks at a game, and it builds our family cohesiveness. Back in February, I posted about some of our favorite video games throughout the years. Here are some of our favorite games through the years for family game night.
Our best favorite game to play for years has been Munchkin by Steve Jackson Games. We learned about this game when a couple friends played it with us at a monthly game night. This led to an immediate purchase of Munchkin Bobblehead Edition for our family. When attending GeekGirlCon ‘11, we spent nearly the entire Con at the Steve Jackson Games’ Munchkin table, which rewarded us with some Munchkin-related goodies. Did you know you can mix and match sets? After learning that nifty bit of fun, we acquired several more editions of the game.
Munchkin has some collaboration and some backstabbing during the play—more or less of each, depending on your players. It isn’t for the faint of heart and is definitely for those with a sense of humor. Suggested for ages 12+, my younger child has been playing since the age of around 7 (I can’t recall exactly when we got our first Munchkin game).
The UNO Card Game has been a longtime favorite. Who hasn’t heard of UNO? This is a game that even older toddlers can play—since they can match colors and numbers. In fact, it’s great for that! There are so many UNO game choices as well. We ended up with at least half a dozen versions of it and found several alternate rules online, such as Pirate UNO with those and some other altered rules, which made it more fun as the kids grew older and traditional rules became a little repetitive and uninteresting. We played with our children as toddlers, but the manufacturer’s suggested age is 7+.
Another game that my family likes, my daughter especially, is Apples to Apples. My daughter first played this game in about the third grade. She asked for it for Christmas, and received the Apples to Apples Junior game. I’ve played this game with a round of adults, which changes its innuendo. Apples to Apples is a round-robin game where a topic is given by a player and the remaining players put a card in that they like best for the match, however they decide – be it logical, comedic, opposite, dirty, or any other intention. The topic player selects the one they like best – under whatever conditions they like, the person who gave that card gets a point, and the round moves to the next player on the table to give a topic. The person with the most points at the end of the game wins. Apples to Apples is suggested for ages 12+; however, at the time we purchased Apples to Apples Junior, which is suggested for ages 9+.
As longtime chess players (my dad and I used to play when I was growing up), of course my husband and I had chess sets well before we had children. We continued to gain chess sets and play the game of chess, even though it is two players. It can be a great game when there are only a couple people available to play a game. And, of course, with our penchant to collect themed chess games, we have a Pirates of the Caribbean set. It’s the favorite one to get out at this point (because who wouldn’t love to play with a mini Captain Jack Sparrow?)
The last game I’ll mention that we frequently pull out for a game is Monopoly. At some point we had the traditional board game, but it is much more fun to play in themes. The two we have are Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. We play the Star Wars edition most often since the character pieces are a little hardier than those in the Lord of the Rings set and more interesting than those in the the traditional game.
I could go on and on about all the games we have in our collection and what we like to play. But I’d love to hear: what are your favorite board games? Who do you play them with?
Game set photos courtesy of Adrienne Roehrich.
