Jennifer and Zach's Game Collection

Introduction

My dear friend Zach Carter and I (Jennifer Hodgdon) have somewhat of a competition going, as to who owns the best collection of games. It's a fairly friendly rivalry (we often give each other games as gifts), and of course, the best part is that we both get to play all the games at various times (we play games together nearly every evening).

Partly to settle the question, and partly to share our opinions on some really good games that are out there, and promote some of our favorite game designers and manufacturers, we thought we'd put up a web page, with a list of all of the games in our respective collections. Being a software developer (the owner of Poplar ProductivityWare), I naturally made a database to store the list, and here's the result!

See notes below for a description of what the columns mean. Click on a column heading to sort the games by that column; use the search form below to restrict the list according to your preferences. If you have any comments, game suggestions, etc., please visit my home page and fill out the comment form, or send me an email.

Game Accessories

If you have a Palm OS device, you might want to download the free PScore program from the Poplar ProductivityWare Downloads Page. It is an easy-to-use score-keeping program -- great for Scrabble, Dominoes, card games, etc.

If you're traveling with a Scrabble set and a Palm OS device, I recommend you download the WordWiggle Palm OS game, and its official word list, because the word list makes a great Scrabble dictionary. (The game is pretty good, too!)

The List!!

Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
42, or Texas 42	Played with a double-6 set of standard dominoes, with partners. "Texas 42" rules available here, or in "Dominoes: Rules of the Game" by Gary M. Grady and Suzanne Goldberg.		N/A	NA	4	4	$	60	4	4				Y
88	Played with two double-6 sets of standard dominoes, with two opposing teams of 3. Rules are very similar to "Texas 42", played for points.	No writeup on this game seems to be available on the Internet (??) or in standard Domino books -- it's a game Zach's family plays quite a lot. We'll probably put a write-up in sometime soon.	N/A	NA	4	4	$	60	6	6				Y
Agora	Put cards on the table at odd angles and move your tokens into the Greek Marketplace.		Cheapass Games	ZC	4	3	$	30	2	4	Y	Y		Y	Y		Y
Alhambra	Build a better Alhambra than your opponents	Lots of strategy balancing	Queen Games	JH	3	4	$$$	60	2	6		Y		Y
aMAZEing Labyrinth	Shift the labyrinth, move your piece through the maze to reach your goal.	Conceptually simple, but it definitely requires some thought.	Ravensburger	JH	4	4	$$$	30	1	4	Y	Y		Y	Y
Aquarius	This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. Your goal is to connect seven blocks of the same kind of element together (which element you are working on could change at any moment)	Very silly and similar to Fluxx.	Looney Labs	ZC	1	4	$	10	2	5		Y			Y
Arkadia	Place tetris-shaped buildings on the board, and put workers around them, to help get seals. Strategically place tower pieces on the middle tower to make your seals more valuable. Turn in seals for gold when the time is right. The one with the most gold wins.	Very nice game, with interesting mechanics.	Ravensburger	B	3	4	$$$	60	2	4	Y	Y			Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Attika	Put together a city-state in ancient Greece, while preventing your opponent from doing it first.		Rio Grande Games	ZC	4	4	$$$	45	2	4		Y		Y	Y
Awful Green Things from Outer Space	Aliens attack the crew of a space ship. One player is the aliens, and the other is the crew. Who will win the battle?	Lots of strategy involved!	Steve Jackson Games	B	4	4	$$	90	2	2	Y	Y		Y
Babel	Deploy workers, build towers, knock down or steal your opponent's towers and workers.		Rio Grande Games	JH	3	3	$$	45	2	2	Y	Y		Y
Backgammon	Move all 15 of your pieces around the board to home before your opponent.		Various	B	3	4	?	20	2	2	Y		Y	Y			Y
Bandu	Stack odd-sized blocks in a tower, and don't let yours fall down.	Keep your elbows off the table! Without a doubt the best game in the collection -ZC	Out of Print (Milton Bradley)	ZC	1	5	?	15	1	6								Y
Big Idea	Put noun and adjective cards together to describe silly inventions, entice people to invest in your inventions.	Really fun, as long as everyone is in a somewhat silly mood.	Cheapass Games	JH	1	4	$$	20	3	6		Y				Y
Black Box	One player places hidden balls on the board, and the other player tries to guess where they are, by bouncing beams in from the edges and seeing where they come out.	The rules for how the beams bounce are a bit strange at first, but it's a very interesting game.	Parker Brothers (out of print)	ZC	3	4	$$	20	1	2	Y				Y		Y
Blokus (Travel Edition)	Lay tiles of different shapes on the board. Leave yourself moves and try to block your opponent from having moves to do.	A bit of a mind bender.	Educational Insights	JH	3	4	$$	15	2	2				Y	Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Boggle Deluxe	Rearrange the letter dice, find words snaking through the layout, and only count words your opponents did not find. Deluxe Boggle is a 5x5 version of the 4x4 Boggle, but (unlike Big Boggle) you can also play it in a 4x4 grid.	Unusual for a word game, since the words do not go in a straight line.	Out of print (Parker Brothers)	JH	4	5	?	30	2	20			Y			Y
Brainy Games	All players co-operate to accomplish the goal. There are several different games included.		Family Pastimes	B	3	2			1	9	Y				Y		Y
Buccaneer	Recruit your opponents' pirates, board ships, earn gold and booty.	Interesting strategy problems due to the unique method of recruiting and stacking pirate pieces.	Queen Games	JH	3	3	$$$	30	3	5		Y		Y
Canasta	Card game with 2 standard card decks and a large Tableau. Can play with 2 people, or two sets of partners. Canasta rules available here, or check Hoyle's rules of Games (should be available at your local book store).	Can be quite exciting when the stack gets big.	Various	NA	3	4	$	60	2	4		Y
Carcassonne	Build and occupy roads, cities, farms, and cloisters; complete them for points.	Beware of the farming points at the end!	Rio Grande Games	JH	2	5	$$	40	2	5	Y			Y	Y
Carcassonne: Castle	Similar to the Classic Carcassonne, but all the action takes place inside the walls of Carcassonne Castle.		Rio Grande Games	ZC	3	4	$$$	45	2	2	Y			Y	Y
Carcassonne: The City	Add Buildings, Roads, and Markets to the city as the walls go around you.	A nicely balanced variation to the already excellent Carcassonne line of games.	Rio Grande Games	ZC	3	4	$$$	60	2	4	Y			Y	Y
Caylus	Get resources, and use them to build craft buildings and castle segments, with the end goal of earning the most prestige.	Lots of trade-offs and choices, which makes for a good game. Quite good with two people.	Ystari Games / Rio Grande	ZC	4	4	$$$$	90	2	5	Y			Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Change!	Suite of 3 games, that take place in a fast food restaurant staffed by zombies, all revolving around trying to get more money.	Silly, but not very exciting games. Good if you just need something quick before some other people are ready to play something else more fun.	Cheapass Games	JH	2	2	$	10	2	8		Y		Y
Cheater	You roll the dice each turn, which determines if you are the cheater (the cheater gets to play by a different set of rules). Spell "Cheater" with cards, and you win!		Endless Games	ZC	2	1	$	30	2	4		Y	Y	Y
Chess	Move pieces around the board -- each piece has different rules. Capture your opponent's king before he captures yours.		Various	B	5	4	?	120	2	2	Y			Y			Y
Chrononauts	Travel through time, create and repair paradoxes, try to collect artifacts or return to your point in history.	Quite good if you do some role playing as you play.	Looney Labs	JH	4	3	$	30	1	6		Y		Y
Citadels	Choose a role each turn to enhance your ability to get money and play cards; play cards and pay for them to build sections of your city.	Smaller groups are better (less waiting), unless playing with people who know the game already. There are several interesting 2-player rules modification suggestions on Board Game Geek.	Fantasy Flight Games	JH	3	4	$$		2	7		Y		Y
Clocktowers	Build clock towers, watch out for cats and mice who might invade them!		Jolly Roger Games	ZC	2	2	$$	25	2	4		Y
Coda	Make a code, and try to guess your opponents' codes.	Kind of like Mastermind, but with numbers, and both people are guessing at the same time.	Winning Moves Games	JH	3	3	$$	10	2	4				Y
Connect 4	Drop checkers into a horizontal lattice, trying to line up 4 in a row.	Classic	Various	ZC	3	4	$$	5	2	2					Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Contack		We haven't tried this one.	Parker Brothers	ZC					0	0					Y
Corsari	Similar to Gin Rummy, with a different and colorful deck of pirate cards, and a few interesting variations in the rules.	very enjoyable.	Rio Grande Games	ZC	3	5	$$	30	2	4		Y
Cranium	Perform tunes, solve word puzzles, answer questions, or express yourself thru art. Each success brings you closer to Cranium Central.	Great for parties	Cranium, Inc.	ZC	3	3	$$$	60	4	10	Y	Y
Cribbage	Build card patterns for points, count them off using peg board.		Various	B	3	5	?	20	2	4	Y	Y			Y
Cube Farm	Put your people in cubes next to the coffee maker and the copier. Watch out for the vice president!		Cheapass Games	ZC	3	3	$	30	2	5	Y	Y		Y	Y
Da Vinci's Challenge	Place game pieces of two different types on the board to form patterns, and block your opponent from doing so.	Playable with 2 or 4 players, not 3. Takes a bit of playing before you can see all the patterns!	Briarpatch	JH	4	4	$$$	30	2	4	Y			Y	Y		Y
Devil Bunny Hates the Earth	Move squirrels around on the board, to your factory, and move Devil Bunny around to your opponents' factories, to take away their squirrels.		Cheapass Games	JH	2	2	$	15	2	5	Y		Y	Y			Y
Devil Bunny Needs a Ham	Try to make your pieces climb up a building diagonally faster than your opponents, while Devil Bunny tries to knock you all back down. When he does, catch one piece with another, by positioning your pieces underneath each other.	No actual ham involved.	Cheapass Games	JH	2	2	$	15	2	5	Y		Y	Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Diceland	The characters are 8-sided dice. Throw them on the table and see if they can attack your opponent's characters.	Interesting concept.	James Earnest Games	ZC	2	3	$$	20	2	2			Y					Y
Dilbert Corporate Shuffle	Get rid of your cards, and climb the corporate ladder.		Wizards of the Coast	JH	2	2	$$	15	4	6		Y
Dominion	Buy cards that help you buy more cards so you can buy victory points.	Sounds simple, but it's a really interesting game mechanic, and there are many card options to make each game unique.	Rio Grande Games	ZC	4	5	$$$	30	2	4		Y		Y
Dominoes	There are quite a few Dominoes games you can learn to play -- check out "Dominoes: Rules of the Game" by Gary M. Grady and Suzanne Goldberg for a good sampler.	See also "42" and "88" in this list.	Various	JH	3	4	$	15	2	4				Y	Y
Elasund: The First City	Roll the dice, get gold and cards, move the ship, build buildings, churches and walls. First person to plant 10 victory cubes wins.	Quite enjoyable. Part of the Catan universe of games, but does not bear much resemblance, other than the importance of dice rolls.	Mayfair	ZC	3	4	$$	40	2	4	Y		Y	Y	Y
Empyrean, Inc	Spend resources to build an empire of planets, which then produce resources. Corner the market on enough resources, and you win!	Fun, interesting, but not too complex to learn in a sitting.	Versal Entertainment, Inc.	JH	4	4	$$	30	2	4		Y		Y
Enemy Chocolatier	Control neighborhoods around a chocolate factory to earn points or complete your secret goal.	Works well with two people, not as well with three, probably more would be better.	Cheapass Games	JH	2	3	$	20	2	6	Y			Y
FBI	Arrest criminals (and sometimes innocent bystanders), and let the innocent (and sometimes the guilty) out of jail. The more notorious the criminals, the more points you get, and the more upstanding the bystanders, the more you lose.	Fun, and pretty easy to learn.	Phalanx Games B.V.	B	3	3	$$	20	2	5		Y		Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Fearsome Floors	Try to get thru the dungeon before the monster eats you. The monster is not very bright, so it is easy to manipulate him into eating your opponents.		Rio Grande Games	ZC	3	4	$$$	45	2	7	Y			Y
Fightball	Somewhat frenzied action card game, where you try to make shots and block your opponent's shots, by piling up cards.	No turn-taking here!	James Ernest Games	JH	2	3	$	10	2	2		Y		Y				Y
Five Crowns	A special deck with five suits: Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, Hearts, and Stars.	The rules are similar to Gin Rummy, with a few variations. Not all that exciting.	Set Enterprises	ZC	2	2	$	45	2	7		Y		Y
Fluxx	Card game where the rules, and object of the game, keep changing.	Delightfully silly, and easy enough to play even when somewhat brain dead. With 2 players, you can strategize to try to win, but with 4 or more, don't bother, just enjoy.	Looney Labs	JH	1	5	$	15	2	6		Y
Froop!	This simple game can be played anywhere, by anyone. Just match up the shapes and try to get rid of your cards before your opponents do. Includes instructions in over a dozen languages.		Savant Garde Entertainment	ZC	3	4	$$	30	2	10		Y			Y		Y
Galaxy Trucker	Race to build a ship out of modular tiles, and then fly it around the galaxy. Pick up cargo, fight pirates and smugglers, stop at planets and abandoned ships. Look out for meteor showers. Try to make the most money you can.		Rio Grande Games	ZC	4	4	$$$	90	2	4		Y	Y		Y
Geeks, The Convention	Try to keep your busload of geeks at the gaming convention longer than your opponents.	More fun if you do some role playing while playing this game.	Torchlight Games	JH	2	2	$$	20	2	6		Y		Y
Get Out	Move around the board, trying to get a job and an apartment, so you can move out of your parents basement.	Nice amount of silliness (typical of Cheapass Games), but not all that exciting of a game.	Cheapass Games	JH	1	2	$	45	2	8	Y		Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Girl Genius - The Works	Line up symbols on cards so they 'pop' out of the tableau, fun and silliness ensues.	One of our very favorite games.	James Ernest Games	JH	3	5	$	30	2	10		Y		Y	Y
Guilllotine	Its the French revolution. All the nobles are lined up to get their heads chopped off. If you can guillotine the most influential nobles, you win!	Silly, but fun.	Wizards of the Coast	ZC	3	4	$$	30	2	5		Y		Y
Hack Attack	A very abstract game involving multiple patterns. has nothing to do with Hacking.		GameWright	ZC	4	3	$$	15	2	2				Y			Y
Icehouse	Icehouse is a set of 60 pyramid-shaped game pieces, with which you can play quite a number of abstract strategy games.	The paper version is quite inexpensive, and a good starting point. Rules for many Icehouse-based games available on manufacturer's web site.	Looney Labs	JH	3	3	$	20	2	4	Y		Y	Y			Y
Igor: The Mad Scientist's Lament	A wonderfully silly game, where you are a mad scientist, and with help from your assistant (Igor), you build devices out of parts that give you special abilities in the game. Conceptually simple and interesting, and even more fun if you do a little role playing.	May be out of print. Best with 2 or 3 players -- with more, it drags because there are too many people thwarting each other.	Interactivities Ink	JH	2	4	$$	45	2	6		Y	Y
Isolation	Try to isolate your opponent by pushing down pieces of the board.		Lakeside (may be out of print)	ZC	3	3	$	10	2	2	Y			Y			Y
Jack Straws	Pull little plastic farm implements from a pile without disturbing the others.	Kind of like pickup sticks. Classic.	Out of print (Parker Brothers)	ZC	1	3	?	30	1	0				Y				Y
Jambo	Collect wares in your markets, and sell them for gold. Watch out for the Crocodile!		Rio Grande Games	ZC	3	4	$$	30	2	2		Y		Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Jenga	Build a tower, pull out a piece, put it on top, and hope the whole thing doesn't fall down.	Don't play it on a shaky table.	Hasbro	JH	1	3	$$	15	1	20								Y
Journey Through Europe	Find the most efficient way to travel through Europe. Hit all the right cities before you opponents and you win.		Ravensburger	ZC	2	3	$$	20	2	6	Y
Kings Corners	Played with an ordinary deck of cards. Players alternate trying to get rid of the cards in their hand, by playing red-black sequences on the 4 main stacks, or putting kings in the corner and playing on them. Rules available on this web site.	Pay attention -- if you miss a play, your opponent will do it instead!	N/A	NA	3	4	$	15	2	4		Y		Y
La Strada	Build roads to connect your worshop to towns and cities of various sizes. Larger cities are worth more, and the more people have connected to them, the less they're worth.	Pretty easy to figure out, fun to play!	Mayfair Games	JH	3	4	$$	30	2	4	Y			Y	Y		Y
Labyrinth: The Card Game	A card version of the popular game aMAZEing labyrinth. Add cards to the labyrinth, if you connect like symbols together, take a card away. The person with the most cards at the end, wins.		Ravensburger	ZC	3	3	$$	30	2	6		Y		Y	Y
Landlord!	This is a wacky simulation of the cutthroat business of being a landlord.	Very crazy. Watch out for Bombs, Lunatics, and Squatters!	Rio Grande Games	ZC	2	4	$	30	2	6		Y		Y
Le Havre	Take an action each turn: get goods or money, spend them to build buildings or ships, trade goods in or ship them to get more money. The richest player at the end wins!	Quite complex, and for that reason, quite interesting. After the first game, it gets a lot easier.	Lookout Games	JH	5	5	$$$$$$$		1	5	Y	Y		Y
Light Speed	Put your ships on the board as fast as you can while your opponent does the same, then see which ships are blown out of space.	It takes much longer to add up the score than to play the game.	Cheapass Games	ZC	2	3	$	10	2	4		Y		Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Living Labyrinth	Use cards from your hand to alter the labyrinth so you can move towards your goal, and so your opponents cannot.	Probably better for kids than adults; with adults, only play with 2 people. With 3 or more adults, the game may never end, because someone can always prevent anyone who gets close to winning from doing so.	Bucephalus Games	JH	1	3	$$		2	4		Y		Y			Y
Lost Cities	Build sequences of cards in 5 different colors, one by one -- but you can't go back once you've passed a number. Invest if you dare, but if you don't get enough points in a sequence, you'll lose a lot!	Fun!	Rio Grande Games	ZC	3	4	$$$	30	2	2		Y		Y
Mad Scientist	The object is world domination. Avoid evil robots while trying to take over the world.		Wizards of the Coast	ZC	2	2	$$	30	2	2		Y		Y
Mag-Blast	Build a fleet, and shoot your opponents' fleets.	Nice art, fun game, easy to learn.	Fantasy Flight Games	JH	2	3	$$	20	2	8		Y		Y
Mamma Mia!	Play ingredient cards and pizza cards. If all the ingredients are there, the pizza order is filled. Fill the most orders to win the game.	Not as good as the almost identical Sole Mio! from the same company.	Rio Grande Games	JH	2	2	$$	30	2	5		Y
Mancala	Pick up stones and drop them into bins. A very ancient strategy game with many variations.	Be prepared to think ahead.	Various	ZC	4	4	$	20	2	2	Y			Y			Y
Mastermind	One person makes a "secret code" of 4 colored pegs. The other tries to guess the secret code, using logic.	Fun, while using your brain.	Invicta/Pressman	JH	3	4	$$	7	2	2	Y			Y	Y		Y
Medici vs Strozzi	Compete to buy goods, load them on ships, and try to get monopolies on those goods.	Lot's of math and thinking. Interesting game, but you need to be in the right mood to enjoy it.	Rio Grande Games	ZC	5	3	$$	30	2	2				Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Mille Bornes	Race to get 1000 miles, while keeping your opponents from being able to move at all.		Out of Print (Parker Brothers)	JH	1	2	?	30	2	6		Y
Monstrosity	Wacky pictures of hideous body parts. You put them together and make the toughest monster you can. Then, see if your monster is tougher than your opponents. pretty wacky.		Dead Ant Games	ZC	2	2	$$	30	2	4		Y
Nexus	Put the cards down in a weave pattern, and stake your claim on a nexus by putting down a token.		Cheapass Games	ZC	4	3	$	30	2	4	Y	Y		Y	Y		Y
Nottingham	As a sheriff's deputy, collect taxes, ambush and steal from other deputies. The deputy that gains the most favor with the sheriff wins the game.		Uberplay	ZC	3	3	$$	30	3	7		Y
Pack of Flies	How many flies is your opponent holding? Are they bluffing?	Silly and fun, but not all that exciting.	Cafe Games	ZC	2	2	$	20	2	5		Y		Y
Pandemic	Cooperate to cure diseases before they overrun the whole world.	Very interesting game mechanic.	Z-Man Games	ZC	4	3	$$$	45	2	5	Y	Y		Y			Y
Pente	Get 5 tokens in a row or steal 10 pieces from your opponent.	JH does not like this one, but I think it's nifty. JH says: It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I'm not too good at recognizing when I'm about to lose.	Decipher	ZC	4	4	$$$	10	2	2	Y			Y	Y		Y
Phase 10 Dice	Complete all 10 phases before your opponent. They get harder and harder as you go.	Similar to Yahtzee. Based on the Phase 10 Card game.	Fundex	ZC	2	3	$	20	1	10			Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Pit	Trade commodities to corner the market.	Loud and frenzied. We have the older Parker Brothers edition, but it's now published by Winning Moves.	Winning Moves	ZC	1	3	$$	30	3	7		Y
Play on Words	Build words and lay them down, then modify your words and those of your opponents, to get rid of your cards and go out. The trick is that in each round, the number, length, and letter colors of the words you need to make are different.	Not too great for expert wordsters -- we often went out in a round before the other person had even one turn, which did not seem quite fair, because (due to the requirements of the rounds) it was only possible in some rounds. So, you might want to modify the rules so that even if someone goes out, the other person still gets one turn, or change the number of cards you play with, or eliminate the rounds where it is possible to go out immediately.	Winning Moves Games	JH	3	2	$$	45	2	4		Y				Y
Power Grid	Build a network of cities, bid on power plants, and purchase resources to generate electricity and supply your cities, which earns you money to start the cycle again.	Lots of strategy balancing, but not too complex that it's hard to learn.	Rio Grande Games	B	4	5	$$$	120	2	6	Y	Y		Y	Y
Quarto	Line up 4 wood blocks that possess the same characteristic.	Excellent. Make sure your brain is in good shape.	Gigamic	ZC	4	4	$$$	20	2	2	Y			Y	Y		Y
Qubic	like tic-tac-toe, but in 3-D (four levels high).		Parker Brothers	ZC	1	3		20	2	6					Y
Quiddler	Kind of a word rummy game -- the cards have letters on them, and your job is to arrange them into one or more words. You get points for the letters in the words you make, and subtract points for letters you can't use. Multiple rounds, with an increasing number of cards.	Not the most interesting game for experienced wordsters, as most rounds only last long enough for each person to have a single turn.	Set Enterprises	JH	2	2	$$	30	1	8		Y				Y
Race for the Galaxy	Build an empire of worlds and developments with various attributes, produce goods, and sell them. The person with the most successful empire wins, but each person's success can be different.	Your best strategy depends on the cards you draw, and you have to balance using the cards as payment for building, vs. saving them as new worlds and developments.	Rio Grande Games	JH	4	4	$$$	60	2	4		Y		Y
Railroad Tycoon	Build track to link cities, and increase your income as goods are delivered on your track.	Huge board, excellent game mechanics.	Eagle Games	ZC	4	4	$$$	90	2	6	Y			Y	Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Rhombo Continuo	Play diamond-shaped cards to make chains of the same color that snake from card to card -- the longer, the better!	Gets harder as each game progresses.	Maureen Hiron	JH	3	3	$$	25	1	5		Y			Y		Y
Roller Bowl (aka Stadium Checkers)	Rotate concentric rings in order to get your marbles to fall into the correct chute.		Winning Moves Games	ZC	3	4	$	10	2	4				Y	Y		Y	Y
Rook	Trick-taking card game.		Hasbro	JH	2	4	$	20	2	7		Y
Russian Bank	Card game, played with 2 decks of standard playing cards. Players alternate turns, trying to get rid of their cards by playing onto the tableau in the center and the opponent's stack. Rules available on this web site.	Watch carefully -- your opponent can say "Stop!" if you don't follow the rules, and take over your turn.	Various	NA	3	5	$	20	2	2		Y		Y
Safari Jack	Build a safari land, travel through it to find animals.	We found the concept a bit more palatable if we thought of "spotting" vs. "shooting" the animals, but that's just us.	Cheapass Games	JH	1	3	$	20	2	4		Y		Y	Y
San Juan	Choose a role each round: builder, trader, prospector, counselor, producer. Trade goods and play buildings to maximize your victory points.		Rio Grande Games	ZC	3	3	$$	30	2	5		Y		Y			Y
Scavenger Hunt	Use your special abilities as a scavenger to beat your opponents to the best carcasses on the Savannah. Drag enough of them back to your lair and you win!	More fun with 3 or more people	Goodman Games	ZC	3	3	$$	30	2	6		Y		Y
Scotland Yard	One player is Mr X., and everyone else is chasing him around London. You can take the bus, the underground, or Taxis.	Very simple, but fun.	Ravensburger	ZC	3	3	$$$	30	3	6	Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Scrabble	Crossword-style word game - players alternate making words on board from letter tiles.		Hasbro	B	4	5	$$	90	2	4	Y			Y		Y
Scuda Checkers	Like playing two games of checkers at once.	I've never seen this game outside my collection.	Out of print (Scuda Inc.)	JH	3	3	?	15	2	4	Y			Y			Y
Senat	Move your pieces around the board to home before your opponent does, apparently an ancient Egyptian backgammon game. Throw sticks as an alternative to dice, if you want.	Pretty interesting.	Fundex Games	B	3	3	$$	15	2	2	Y		Y	Y			Y
Sequence	Get 5 chips in a row by playing the right cards.		Jax Games	ZC	3	3	$$	20	2	12	Y	Y			Y
Set	Players race to find sets of three cards.	Conceptually easy, somewhat difficult to master.	Set Enterprises	JH	4	4	$	10	1	10		Y			Y		Y
Shipwrecked	Bid or bluff for food, shelter, water, and friends.	Better with more than 2 players.	Out of the Box	ZC	2	3	$	30	2	4		Y
Skip-Bo	Try to get rid of your pile, by playing cards sequentially.	Our default game for when we're brain-dead.	Mattel	JH	1	4	$	20	2	6		Y
Sole Mio!	Build pizzas from ingredients you and your opponents play -- before they use them up building their pizzas.	Confusing for the first few minutes of play, but just dive in and it becomes clearer. Translation of a German game by ABACUSSPIELE.	Rio Grande Games	JH	2	3	$$	30	2	5		Y		Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Space Beans	Collect sets of same-colored cards -- one set face up and the other secret. Score points when one of the cards in the open set has the same number on it as the number of cards in the set; then the secret set is revealed. The other twist: after your turn, you pass your hand to the person on your right.	With two players, the hand just gets passed back and forth, so we think it would be a bit more interesting with more people.	Rio Grande Games	B	2	3	$$	45	2	6		Y		Y
Star Wars Customizable Card Game	Collectable Card Game based on the Star Wars universe. Very addictive, if you like that sort of thing.	Quite expensive.	Decipher	ZC	5	5	$$$$$$$$$$	60	2	2		Y
Starbase Jeff	Try to make the most money by strategically adding modules to the starbase. Watch out for Sabotage!	AKA Spaceman Spiff	Cheapass Games	ZC	2	3	$	20	2	4		Y		Y	Y
Steam Tunnel	Put your tokens in the tunnels so when they get closed you'll get points.	Be prepared to trace lines all over the table	Cheapass Games	ZC	4	3	$	30	2	5	Y	Y		Y	Y
Sticheln	Trick-taking card game.	Better with more people. German game. Rules translated into English can be found on the Game Cabinet web site, and I think it can now be ordered to be shipped with English rules as well (try an Internet search).	Amigo	JH	2	4	$$	45	3	6		Y
Stone Age	Its the Stone Age. Send your meeples out to gather wood, bricks, stone, or gold. Give them tools, or have them reproduce. Build huts, and most importantly...get points!	Excellent pieces and game construction. Interesting game mechanic.	Rio Grande Games	ZC	3	4	$$$	90	2	4	Y	Y	Y	Y
Strata Gem	Line up the numbers and colors into a 3x3 grid while trying to foil your opponent.		PlayRoom Entertainment	ZC	4	3	$$	30	2	4		Y		Y	Y		Y
Thud	Dwarves vs. trolls on a chess-like board.	The strategy is difficult to figure out!	Mongoose Publishing	JH	4	3	$$$	45	2	2	Y			Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Thurn and Taxis	Draw city cards and put them together to make routes around the map. Strategically place your houses to get bonus awards.	Very nice game. Not much player interaction. We also have the expansion: Power and Glory, which adds an interesting mechanic, and a different map.	Rio Grande Games	B	3	4	$$$	60	2	4	Y			Y
Ticket To Ride: Europe	Collect sets of colored cards, which help you build train routes connecting cities together.	Excellent train/networking game.	Days of Wonder	ZC	3	4	$$$		2	5	Y	Y		Y	Y
TimeLine	Connect tunnels from one side of the board to another, while preventing your opponent from doing the same.	Excellent, like all Cheapass games.	Cheapass Games	ZC	3	3	$	30	2	5		Y		Y			Y
Toscana	Place tiles on a board to connect your color, while blocking your opponent's color. The twist is, all your tiles are partly your opponent's color.	Released in the US by Rio Grande Games.	Piatnik	JH	3	4	$$	20	2	2	Y			Y	Y		Y
Trans America	Be the first to build a network of train tracks. Watch out though, your opponent could use your network and win the game!	Easy to explain and learn, yet very enjoyable.	Rio Grande Games	ZC	3	4	$$$	45	2	6	Y	Y		Y
Triple Yahtzee	Yahtzee is the classic dice game where you get three tries to make various combinations of dice. In Triple Yahtzee, you play three games at once. You can also play the standard Yahtzee with the Triple Yahtzee set.		Out of print (Milton Bradley)	JH	2	3	?	30	1	20			Y
Upwords	Kind of like Scrabble, but you can put tiles on top of tiles for words already played, and the letters all count the same.	Pretty good, and 3-dimensional.	Hasbro	JH	3	3	$$	30	2	4	Y					Y
UWO: Unidentified Walking Objects	It's Pnorfs versus Gnorfs in an all out battle! Lay out your cards and let the fight begin. Don't like the piddly little fist-wielding guy? Morf him into a tank!	Silly premise and pictures. Very entertaining.	Elven Ear Games	ZC	3	4	$$	50	2	2		Y		Y
Title	Description	Comments	Manufacturer	Owner	Difficulty	Rating	Price	Time (minutes)	Min Players	Max Players	Board	Card	Dice	Strategy	Pattern	Word	Abstract	Dexterity
Very Clever Pipe Game	Connect pipes of your color into closed loops, and pick them up.	Best with 2 players. The Cheapass Hip Pocket version is slightly better than the classic Cheapass white envelope version.	Cheapass Games	B	3	4	$	15	2	4		Y		Y			Y
WARS TCG	Collectible card game that uses the same game mechanic as the original Star Wars Customizable Card Game (SWCCG).		Decipher	ZC	4	5	$$$$$$$$$$	60	2	2		Y		Y
Xactica	Trick-taking card game with bidding, but no trump suit. Each card could be in one of 4 suits, depending on what you announce when leading.	Very nice. Lots of strategy. A twist on the classic card game "Oh Heck" (known by many other names as well, such as "Up and Down the River").	Set Enterprises	ZC	3	4	$	45	2	10		Y		Y	Y

Game Statistics

B: 13 games, with total rating 50 and average rating 3.8
JH: 49 games, with total rating 164 and average rating 3.3
NA: 5 games, with total rating 21 and average rating 4.2
ZC: 63 games, with total rating 214 and average rating 3.4
Total: 130 games, with total rating 449 and average rating 3.5

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A Few Notes

• The list is sorted by game title, by default (we've omitted words like "the" at the start of game names). Click on a column heading to sort the games by that column instead. Or, fill out the search form.
• The Manufacturer column shows who makes the game, with a link to their web site if it's still in print and we could find the web site. If you are trying to order games, we suggest trying your local independent games store first, and if that doesn't work out, or you don't have one, you can also support our local independent games store, Gary's Games.
• The Owner column shows JH if it's Jennifer's game, ZC if it's Zach's, B if we either both own a copy, or someone gave the game to us as a joint gift, and NA if it's not a game that someone really owns, per se (such as a game played with ordinary playing cards).
• The Difficulty and Rating columns are our subjective ratings of how much thought the game takes to play (once the initial learning curve is up), and how much we like it, respectively. Both are on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most difficult/best liked.
• The Price column shows how expensive the game is: $ for a game that costs less than $10, $$ for $10-$20, and $$$ for over $20 -- in US Dollars, according to our best recollection.
• The Time column lists how long it takes to play an average start-to-finish game for us (usually the two-player version), in minutes.
• The Min Players and Max Players columns list the minimum and maximum number of people who can play the games. Nearly all of our games can be played with two people, you'll notice!.
• The right-most columns indicate (with a Y for Yes) whether the game:
  • is played on a game Board
  • uses Cards
  • uses Dice
  • requires the use of a Strategy
  • requires recognition of Patterns
  • is a Word game
  • is fairly Abstract
  • requires Dexterity
• We might not have all of our games in the database yet!

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Search Form

Use this form to restrict the list according to your preferences.

Difficulty: (1-5) Min Max

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In the following categories, choose whether you want games that definitely are or are not in the category, or whether you don't care. For example, if you don't like board games, choose "No" for Board, but if you don't care one way or the other about dice, choose "Don't Care" for Dice. See the notes section above for explanations.

Board	Yes	No	Don't Care
Card	Yes	No	Don't Care
Dice	Yes	No	Don't Care
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Pattern	Yes	No	Don't Care
Word	Yes	No	Don't Care
Abstract	Yes	No	Don't Care
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