There's got to be quite a few folks into them, right? I was part of a local group who'd meet in a nearby pub a while back before the pandemic, and there's quite a nice variety of games these days. Some of my favourites remain Battlestar Galactica, one of the top hidden identity games of all time, and Spirit Island which is basically reverse Catan, where your goal is to kill or terrify all the settlers off the island. I've actually backed a whole bunch of kickstarters for boardgames too, with a nice looking tabletop version of Dune the latest one in the works, and there's a fun little cyberpunk one I spent an afternoon playing at the 2017 UK Games Expo that finally showed up earlier this year, Nightlancer, set in the same city as the latest Train Sim World release..
Oooh, if this works out well, I'd also suggest DTG look into licensing something like Caverna. That's a great one to sit down to with friends. Raising a family of Dwarves, mining, dungeoneering, and farming.
Croque Carrotte was a fun one I used to play in France but I don't know how well it would work as a game. For a board game to work it would need a world - games like Chess are just too basic to justify a video game equivalent.
The fun part with games like chess in videogame adaptations is finding a theme for it and then adding in new mechanics concordant with the universe you set it within, and ideally not possible in a tabletop game, to mix it up.
I occasionally play my wife at Monopoly but best to let her win... Think of what Han Solo said about letting Chewie win in the original Star Wars movie (ripping arms off etc.). Used to play backgammon but the board got lost in a house move and have forgotten the rules. Ludo is simple but brutal with blocks and "knocking off" other players just as they are almost getting a counter home. Best played with 4 people though. I also used to love Mouse Trap, constructing the apparatus and watching it trigger. Chess I've done a bit with freeware versions on the Android tablet but my brain still struggles with the permitted moves and strategy and the computer almost invariably wins. Which, of course, is the problem with bringing any board game to a PC or console format. How do you simulate the random dice throw(s) without wondering if the computer is cheating. Not strictly a board game but I used to enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles, minimum 1000 pieces but the bigger the better. Not practical these days with a cat who would either try eating the pieces, or just generally create havoc with the board. However doing a jigsaw on a PC is never going to be the same as sorting the real pieces from the box, getting the "edgy bits" down first then working out where to start on the middle section.
And you've to deal with the PTSD when you complete a 1000+ piece board, just to realize that a couple of pieces are missing...
Great Game of Britian and The London Game would both fit it well and see some crossover from their rail titles. Love a good game of London, for those of you who don't know it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_London_Game
Same for me when it comes to jigsaw puzzles. Now I feel like they're time consuming and they'll probably fall apart in some accident or something. I do enjoy Battleship. Though I usually break the "Don't look at the other side" rule.
I appreciate you letting me know your ideas. It makes a lot of sense given the time I have to myself.
Great idea for a thread! My wife and I recently discovered "build your own adventure" board games. We have 2 now. We started with House of Danger then we got Escape the Dark Castle (this one is super hard, played it a bunch of times over Christmas and got nowhere near to completing it!) But, House of Danger is a bit easier and a lot of fun. Does anyone have any other build-your-own adventure-style game recommendations?
Not heard of this, I'm guessing we're not talking about the one where you are trying to blow up the enemy team boat?
Place each ship in any horizontal or vertical position, but not diagonally. Do not place a ship so that any part of it over- laps letters, numbers, the edge of the grid or another ship. Decide who will go first. You and your opponent will alternate turns, calling out one shot per turn to try and hit each other's ships.
You know you mentioned like chess and backgammon and it reminded me of this cute little game I picked on the switch and it's called clubhouse games: 51 worldwide classics. It has like checkers, chess, and it Introduced me to the Japanese game Shogi (which is very chess like, but way cooler in my opinion).