What are the best table top games?

I'm not at all experienced with them, so I can't really say what I prefer. Just gimme what you think is the best. 

Like board games?

Like board games?

Oregano & Penguins

@H2Oyea: Ticket to Ride is pretty fun and easy to pick up, recently I've been playing lots of Dominion, that's pretty good too. And, of course, Cards Against Humanity.

Dungeons & Dragons v3.5 is the most new-player friendly version of the game that was made before the advent of World of Warcraft, so it's obviously worth checking out if you're looking for a pen-and-paper RPG.

Dominion is fun, but I actually prefer other deckbuilding games. I'm a big fan of Ascension these days, and the Resident Evil card game is actually fantastic. FIASCO is probably the best character-oriented tabletop that isn't a traditional pen-and-paper RPG, but it's definitely still a storytelling game. Most people will point you to Ticket to Ride, Magic the Gathering, Settlers of Catan, and Carcassonne, but I'm not a fan of any of those. And, last but not least, The Metagame and Cards Against Humanity take Apples to Apples in new and exciting directions.

For Board Games I would suggest Dominion, Battlestar Galactica, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, and Carcassone.

For tabletop RPGs D&D 4th is pretty easy to pick up, but I prefer the Warhammer 40k games Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Deathwatch, and Black Crusade.

Candy Land

I enjoy D&D 4e and Warhammer 40k, though 40k is a really expensive hobby to get into.

Warhammer and 40k have really fun models. But if you want to get into it as a game, your initial investment will be huge. There's a new edition looming around the corner and I'd bet money the new rules will invalidate current army builds and shift the meta towards products that are higher grossing/don't sell as well/aren't tanks. So, if you're thinking about getting into 40k, wait a while. That, and there will be a new starter box. For $100 (Well, it's probably more now. $129?) you'll get a mini rule book and two very small armies. Enough for skirmishes. ~500 points. Current games are often played around 1500 points. If you get into 40k, you'll probably want to invest in an army builder program as well.

I am a bigger fan of Warmachine as a game. I find the rules more interesting. The models are nice, but they're all static. Posing troops is nigh impossible and warjacks must be built with stability in mind. You play with fewer models and this spring iOS and Android apps are coming out from the company that look like it'll really speed up the pace of the game by helping keep track of the play field. There's a two player battle box for Warmachine you can find online for ~$100.

If you have a local game store, stop by and see if you can get demos before you buy. If not, I suggest looking up miniature market. They have a decent discount and they ship super fast. Watch some youtube videos to get a feel for how a game/army plays.

Space Hulk. If you can find it that is.

Oregano & Penguins

Dungeons and Dragons Essentials is a good, cheap option to start with in my opinion.

Man. I'd really like to play Warhammer & 40K again. Must be about 12-14 years since I last had my Tyranid horde on a table/battlefield. Had the 2nd edition codex for them.

I have no idea where you are meant to meet people who play these things though, none of my friends are nearly as nerdy as me, clearly.

ctrl+f Arkham Horror
 

EVERYONE IN THIS THREAD IS WRONG.

@LordXavierBritish said:

ctrl+f Arkham Horror

EVERYONE IN THIS THREAD IS WRONG.

Haha, I just did the exact same thing.

D&D 3.5 is fun and never gets old.

Heroclix is a really fun game if you like comics.

Behold what I consider the best board games:

Chaos in the old world: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/43111/chaos-in-the-old-world

Penny Arcade: Gamers V. Evil: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/97803/penny-arcade-the-game-gamers-vs-evil

Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/59946/dungeons-dragons-castle-ravenloft-board-game

Space Hulk: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/54625/space-hulk-third-edition

Ticket To Ride: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/21348/ticket-to-ride-marklin-edition

Space Hulk and Chaos in the old world might be what you are looking for.

Sex.

I love the Battlestar Galactica board game. If you're familiar with the show, it uses the hidden Cylons agents concept to add a lot of deception and tension to the game. In a 5 player game, 1 or 2 of the players has the potential to be a secret Cylon agent doing whatever he or she can to undermine and annihilate the other players. The deeper you get into the game, players begin accusing each other of being the bad guy.

If you get a bunch of friends with the right mindset, dreadfleet is fucking awesome.

Arkham Horror!

Apart from Arkham Horror, there's the Call of Cthulhu card game & the Munchkin games that have been pretty fun from what I've played of them. Though after getting the link for Fantasy Flight Games I now see I need to get the Mansions of Madness game that they put out.

• Carcassonne is great if you're just starting out, it was my first "real" board game.
• Blood Bowl: Team Manager, fun, strategic card game which is also not really that complicated.
• Nexus Ops a light resource management and war-game that I really like.
• Warhammer: Invasion a "living card game" which is basically a regular TGC like Magic, except that you buy pre-determined Core-Sets or bigger expansions so there are no random cards.

All of these games are from Fantasy Flight Games (but for Carcassonne which is Rio Grande Games) and they usually have pretty great videos explaining the games for you if you'd like to know more. I'm new myself I just started playing this stuff a year ago, but it's totally worth getting into. Just go onto YouTube and check things out and you'll probably find something that suits you!

This wasn't really what the thread was about I guess? But fuck it.

Edit: And like most new stuff I get into Tested.com introduced it to me. Those fuckers are costing me so much money.

chutes and ladders :D

Cluedo... Mousetrap once you set up the fucking thing.

The Mad Magazine board game is really fun especially if the people in the group are drunk.

@H2Oyea: 7 Wonders and Dominion are my prime favorites. They aren't too hard to learn either.

A list of other notable games: Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer, Race for the Galaxy, Puerto Rico, Agricola, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Pandemic, and Civilization (yes, based on the video game) are all pretty good.

There are a lot of different types of games like that though, so finding stuff that you like is a bit of an adventure, just like finding out what video games you like. Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, and Carcassonne are all available in a nice form on Xbox Live Arcade and that is a nice way to try the games out for cheap (or free if you get the demo version). I got hooked on 7 Wonders recently, and then bought a bunch of those on XBLA. They are all rather awesome, and all but Catan can be played with local coop in a good way. If you have an iPhone you can get Dominion for free, and if you have Android you can try Androminion. While Androminion is rather ugly, it is a fast and perfect implementation of the card game. I learned through Androminion and the wikipedia page on the game.

If you want advice on these further, feel free to ask me. I have recently fallen hard in love with this type of thing. I wrote a couple bits for the Tested site, they are kind of broken right now since the changes there, but the links are here:

7 Wonders

Ticket to Ride

I'm working on moving those to www.boardgamegeek.com, as their site is much more stable at the moment, but I have also written a few more that are awaiting a day off on my side to finish up.

If you're a truly massive nerd you could get into Advanced Squad Leader.

Im a massive fan of buccaneer.

I got to play so many awesome boards games at PAX this past weekend. Before PAX I had not played a board game since Monopoly when i was like 14. The people there were super patient with me and took the time to teach me how to play. Here were my faves...

Arkham Horror

Catan

7 Wonders

Dominion

Game of Thrones

I know all of the are not "board games" but they fall in the category of table top gaming.

What is this Arkham Horror game about? It sounds interesting!

@TheSouthernDandy said:

@Zelyre what armies do you think will be in the new starter? I've heard a lot of Dark Angels and Eldar talk. That would be cool.

As a primarily Eldar player, I imagine GW would rather update all the Imperial codexes again before visiting the Eldar codex. The Eldar codex needs a lot of work. If not from a rules stand point (Space Wolves have better psychic powers/defense than the masters of psychic abilities? Um. Ok.) then a model stand point. While many still look good, they're all metal/fine cast. An Eldar guardian looks just boring compared to the Dark Eldar counter part.

My money is on Dark Angels vs. Chaos space marines. No Terminators in the starter box, since it was very easy to convert the super cheap terminators into any kind of terminator you wanted for a few bucks. Requisite vanilla Space Marine troop/berzerkers, a bike squad for the dark angels/daemon spawn for the chaos marines, a junky HQ for each side,

@Zelyre said:

@TheSouthernDandy said:

@Zelyre what armies do you think will be in the new starter? I've heard a lot of Dark Angels and Eldar talk. That would be cool.

As a primarily Eldar player, I imagine GW would rather update all the Imperial codexes again before visiting the Eldar codex. The Eldar codex needs a lot of work. If not from a rules stand point (Space Wolves have better psychic powers/defense than the masters of psychic abilities? Um. Ok.) then a model stand point. While many still look good, they're all metal/fine cast. An Eldar guardian looks just boring compared to the Dark Eldar counter part.

My money is on Dark Angels vs. Chaos space marines. No Terminators in the starter box, since it was very easy to convert the super cheap terminators into any kind of terminator you wanted for a few bucks. Requisite vanilla Space Marine troop/berzerkers, a bike squad for the dark angels/daemon spawn for the chaos marines, a junky HQ for each side,

Actually now that you mention Chaos I think i've heard that too, you're probably right. I picked up the Black Reach set last year, pretty great deal for what you get for sure. I'm hoping the next dex they update is Tau, I only own a Battlesuit or two but I've always been a fan. An from what I hear they're another race that needs updating.

if you want miniature games.

• A privateer press product: warmachine and hordes
• Bloodbowl as mentioned previously. probably the best from games workshop although not officially published by them anymore i think.
• Spacehulk is pretty fun too and the best 40k if you really need to have 40k (never tried the large scale 40k one)

Cutthroat caverns is pretty fun cardgame if you got a good group that likes backstabbing.

And the new living card games are good. The warhammer fantasy one is great but just with 2 people, the game of thrones one is only good with 3 or more.

Shoots and Ladders

@Zelyre: Yea, but there's ALWAYS a new break-your-current-army-and-make-it-obsolete edition around the corner. I can never find anyone to play with, but modeling and painting is fun as shit.

Anyway, Arkham Horror is fun, but teaching people to play is a bitch. Elder Sign is kind of like Arkham Horror Lite and is really fun. Space Hulk is fun but expensive and maintaining it can be a pain. Zombies (and the expansions) is a bit on the simplistic side but can be fun with enough alcohol. If you want to play DnD I suggest tracking down the 3.5 books cuz 4th edition is for babies. Munchkins is actually pretty fun but only for people well versed in games and gaming culture (heh heh).

DONT buy StarCraft: The Board Game.

For tabletop RPGs, Shadowrun is by far my favorite.

For board games, I'm a huge fan of Arkham Horror, which a lot of people have already mentioned. My friends and I have also had tons of fun with the game Isla Dorada. It's a pretty crazy game where everyone plays the same piece, an adventurer trying to explore an island, and each player basically bids resources to get the piece to move where they want it to. Lots of chances to screw your friends over in it.

@Jay444111 said:

What is this Arkham Horror game about? It sounds interesting!

It's a tabletop game that references H.P. Lovecraft's writing and universe. It's not really a roleplaying game or a horror game per se, as it's more of an adventure game. I personally cannot recommend it to anybody, as I think it's kind of stupid, requires a lot of set-up, and is complex without depth. I thought it would be interesting too, and I was sadly disappointed. The same applies to Munchkin, perhaps my least favorite tabletop game ever, though for entirely different reasons (namely, an hour long game with effectively 5-10 minutes of fun gameplay.)

Motherfucking BATTLETECH.  Scrap was so C-Bills.

Necromunda rules are available free from Games Workshop and provides a relatively cheap entry into the Warhammer 40k universe via gang warfare in a hive city. Bit outdated now, but still one of the most fun games they ever made.

Space Hulk and Gorkamorka are also fantastic.

@Little_Socrates said:

@Jay444111 said:

What is this Arkham Horror game about? It sounds interesting!

It's a tabletop game that references H.P. Lovecraft's writing and universe. It's not really a roleplaying game or a horror game per se, as it's more of an adventure game. I personally cannot recommend it to anybody, as I think it's kind of stupid, requires a lot of set-up, and is complex without depth. I thought it would be interesting too, and I was sadly disappointed. The same applies to Munchkin, perhaps my least favorite tabletop game ever, though for entirely different reasons (namely, an hour long game with effectively 5-10 minutes of fun gameplay.)

Wait... so it's like Dark Souls then?

@Jay444111 said:

@Little_Socrates said:

@Jay444111 said:

What is this Arkham Horror game about? It sounds interesting!

It's a tabletop game that references H.P. Lovecraft's writing and universe. It's not really a roleplaying game or a horror game per se, as it's more of an adventure game. I personally cannot recommend it to anybody, as I think it's kind of stupid, requires a lot of set-up, and is complex without depth. I thought it would be interesting too, and I was sadly disappointed. The same applies to Munchkin, perhaps my least favorite tabletop game ever, though for entirely different reasons (namely, an hour long game with effectively 5-10 minutes of fun gameplay.)

Wait... so it's like Dark Souls then?

Neither Arkham Horror or Munchkin are really like Dark Souls at all, which is basically just a grim version of the original Legend of Zelda (and is certainly not poor.) Though this isn't the venue to discuss that, of course.

Arkham Horror doesn't really have a comparison in videogames, it's a very table-top experience. It did, however, make me question the ability of premade tabletop experiences with random elements until I played the Resident Evil card game and found that it's totally possible to do horror as a tabletop. Its biggest problem is its pacing, which is atrocious, although its randomized characters are not much better, as it's hard to care if a card of attributes goes insane or dies.

Munchkin is more akin to roguelikes than Dark Souls, but the game is competitive and is based on who levels up to level 10 first. There are a number of items that stop other players, and your average game of Munchkin will focus upon holding onto power items until the last five or ten minutes, when every character is roughly level six to eight, and begins to use them to assure themselves victory/stop someone else from winning.

D&D 3.5 is pretty fun. I would recommend playing that.

For tabletop RPGs, I heartily recommend Savage Worlds. The system is designed for pulpy action and can handle pretty much any genre, like fantasy, espionage, superheroes, sci-fi. It's simple and plays a lot faster and smoother than D&D 3.5 or 4E. Other games I'd recommend are Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition, which is a great samurai fantasy RPG; and Eclipse Phase, which is a super cool cyberpunk game.

For boardgames, I've always felt that you could never go wrong with Small World or Pandemic. Both are great games with Risk-ish rules. There's also Shadows Over Camelot if you want something that can be ball-bustingly hard, yet fun.

For RPG's, I can't help but pimp the Fate System. Right now it's my favourite system for pure dicking around with how awesome you can be, though the rules are a bit messy. Besides that, I'll never give up my first love: Rifts. The setting, and the amount of crazy and weird shit to see and do in that game is astounding. I also recommend the World of Darkness RP system if you want to do horror based games, though I recommend adding some house rules.

@thornie: My friend just got the Game of Thrones board game, but is really intimidated by long instruction booklet. I took a look at it but also did not want to spend lots of time deciphering all of it. Is there a place that gives a good overview on how the turns and such work? Maybe a video or FAQ?

As far as this thread goes, I love Dominion, and everyone I have ever taught it is also now a huge fan. Just bought my first expansion in fact.

I did a couple of blog posts: one, two about games I suggest for introducing board games. I really can't recommend Dominion enough - everyone should own a copy.

Other than those, don't start with something like Game of Thrones, because that will just intimidate you. There's a lot out there, what are you and your friends in to?