05-25-2009, 11:12 PM
I can now recommend "Chez Geek" if you have a group of people that you want to subtly move away from "Pictionary" and towards some real strategy games.
Chez Geek is a non-collectible card game similar to Dominion.
A lot of the typical card game elements are present:
* You have an income every turn with which you can buy stuff
* You can spend that income to buy improvements for yourself
* You can attack other people to undermine their position
* There are "counter" cards, that will counter something someone else is trying to do
It's basically a simple strategy card game with a silly, party-friendly setting and straightforward rules that won't take more than one game to master. But there's enough complexity to it that 3+ people in a game can play and make it interesting (you can also play with 2 people but that kills a little bit of the strategy). The setting is basically "20-something roommates" who aim to accumulate enough "slack" points to win. For example, you can Surf the Net for 2 slack, or purchase Cigarettes for 1 slack or a book for 3 slack, etc, then play a Busy Signal to cancel your opponent's Surf the Net and call up Hungry Girl to sit in someone else's area and eat 1 food per turn until they can get rid of her, etc.
Lots of elements that remind me of Magic: The Gathering, just simplified and made silly.
This game seems like a great stepping stone to get people off of the Cranium/Taboo, purely social games and into something more strategic without simply slapping down Settlers of Catan and expecting them to dive right in.
We haven't moved to Dominion yet, but that's next.
Chez Geek is a non-collectible card game similar to Dominion.
A lot of the typical card game elements are present:
* You have an income every turn with which you can buy stuff
* You can spend that income to buy improvements for yourself
* You can attack other people to undermine their position
* There are "counter" cards, that will counter something someone else is trying to do
It's basically a simple strategy card game with a silly, party-friendly setting and straightforward rules that won't take more than one game to master. But there's enough complexity to it that 3+ people in a game can play and make it interesting (you can also play with 2 people but that kills a little bit of the strategy). The setting is basically "20-something roommates" who aim to accumulate enough "slack" points to win. For example, you can Surf the Net for 2 slack, or purchase Cigarettes for 1 slack or a book for 3 slack, etc, then play a Busy Signal to cancel your opponent's Surf the Net and call up Hungry Girl to sit in someone else's area and eat 1 food per turn until they can get rid of her, etc.
Lots of elements that remind me of Magic: The Gathering, just simplified and made silly.
This game seems like a great stepping stone to get people off of the Cranium/Taboo, purely social games and into something more strategic without simply slapping down Settlers of Catan and expecting them to dive right in.
We haven't moved to Dominion yet, but that's next.