| Sure. 0) Neuroshima Hex! - It's an OS for battles. The armies are little programs and battles are when you let two programs execute simultaneously. 1) 51st State - Same universe/publisher as Neuroshima Hex! You carve out turf in a post-apocalyptic America. Cards in the game can be played in 1 of three ways. a) Incorporate. Bring it into your state. b) Make a deal. Establish an ongoing trading relationship. c) Conqueror. Smash it for parts. A school would give you a worker/turn + victory point if you incorporate it, a worker/turn if you make a deal, and three workers at once if you conqueror it. Some factions are better at offense, some are better at trading, etc. It's great with 5. 2) Ticket to Ride. It's simple. Got it when it first came out, still play it. 3) Cuba Libre/Falling Sky/GMT COIN games in general. It models insurgencies across history. Caesar in Rome, The American Revolution, etc. Great ways to get people interested in history. 4) 4X Space Games. Space Empires 4X & Twilight Imperium especially. 5) Codenames. It's the best way to get to know new people. Like really get to know how they think. I made a massive multiplayer version of it a few years ago. 6) Bios Megafauna. The rulebook for this one is not the product of an ordered mind. The rules are in seemingly random order, some rules or exceptions only appear in the glossary, and the footnotes are full of scientific/pseudo-scientific ramblings.. And it's a lot of fun. 7) Starship Troopers. The 1970's Avalon Hill game. It's a neat hex-and-counter skirmish game. 8) Railways of the World. Started off as Railroad Tycoon: The Board Game. Play it with as many people around the table as possible. For RPGs: 0) Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play 4th edition. Incredible. I had absolutely no interest in Warhammer before picking it up.. Now I'm painting a few Warbands for Warcry, have 6th-8th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and Blood Bowl is setup on my table. WFRP's a really solid game that blends the best of D&D and Call of Cuthulu. And, I really like The Old World as a setting. 1) Conan: Adventures in an age undreamed of. It's a 2d20 game (the Star Trek version is great too) that's equal parts RPG and dissertation on the works of Robert E. Howard. 2) DCC RPG. If you like D&D, play DCC. It's a heavily modified 3rd edition with a bonkers spell system and level-0 meat grinder dungeons. Some games try to be weird through art and tone.. DCC is weird through mechanism. It works. Everyone generates 4+ characters, runs them through a meat grinder, whoever survives to the end is your 1st level character, backstory included. <--THIS IS THE ONE if you want to create your own setting or run a hex crawl. Overwhelming number of games: I don't read reviews or watch videos. I still do what I've always done: Walk into game stores/conventions and buy what looks interesting. You get a lot of junk but also find great games that you might have missed because the internet decided that they are bad. If a game is popular you're not going to miss it. Just look around to see what people are playing at 12:00 AM at game store/con. |