There are several beginner books for RPGs. I know the Star Wars RPGs all have beginner books designed to play somewhere between a board game and a full tabletop, with the option to roll that in to a full campaign.
Forces of Destiny, for example, comes with the option to use pregen characters with cards similar to what you’d see in a board game.
Get ready for more disturbances in the Force, because I have a few more suggestions (I did read what others posted, my apologies if I miss any and double-suggest).
I support what the others have said about Sushi Go Party and would like to also add that Sushi Roll is fun and light and great for non-gamers (though it only plays up to 5 people, whereas SGP plays up to 8).
Celestia is a fantastic game that is often overlooked. It’s a simple push your luck game with a bit of light bluffing thrown in. My family really enjoys this one (and I swear, my mom has the greatest luck and keeps kicking my butt in it, too).
I also (and you could argue this is a shameless plug, but I was playing this game before I joined the company and any non-gamer I’ve ever shown it to has absolutely loved it) highly suggest Dead Man’s Draw. This is a blackjack type push your luck game that is heavily luck based and requires almost no skill (which makes it great for all ages and interest levels because it doesn’t make you strategize too hard).
The Great Dalmuti is an old game, but a classic, and a lot of gamer and non-gamer friends of mine love this one. It’s very straightforward, has kind of an entertaining gimmick (whoever wins the hand is the Dalmuti or King, whoever loses is the ‘greater peon’ and must serve/be taxed by the king, etc) and it’s all about playing the lower cards and deducing what will help you empty your hand first. Anyone can play this game, and it goes quickly, so it’s perfect for those short attention spans.
I also suggest Guillotine, Love Letter (Premium Edition plays 8, regular edition plays 4), Coup, Roll For It, and any of the Tsuro games as fairly safe bets.
I have gotten many non-gamers to play and enjoy Splendor, Azul, and Century: Golem Edition. I’d also like to toss Takenoko out there, since I’ve had some luck introducing people to that one as well. These are all a stronger step toward hobby gaming than the others I’ve mentioned above, and would be good to test the waters with.
Good luck!
Dungeon Saga is pretty much explicitly aimed at being a Hero Quest successor. I don’t know if it’s good as I am no longer in the market for something that light (but I wish I had realized that before I backed it).
Does it specifically need to be fantasy dungeon crawling? if not I find things like Eldritch Horror (or potentially even a bit lighter coops) scratch that particular itch for me better than most of the “dungeon” games out there.
Played a round of Irish Gauge. I like it, looks like what I’ve heard about the amount of decisions is right, and it plays super quick.
It’s a second-hand question, so I can’t say for sure, but Eldritch Horror was going to be one of my recommendations as well. Also maybe Betrayal at the House on the Hill
We play The Great Dalmuti at least once a year - on New Year’s Day (and other times when people demand it!) - and since my wife runs a theatre company and has a bajillion props, we haul up a couple of big baskets of hats. Everyone must wear a hat of their choosing (except the king, who has to wear the crown, and the greater peon, who must wear the jester cap). We’ve played with up to 10 or so people and it is fun 100% percent of the time. Highly recommended!
That is AWESOME! Traditionally, we play with a plastic princess crown and a spaghetti colander, lol. I am glad we’re not the only ones who do this. :D
We make the losers take off their pants and sit on a plate of spaghetti.
We loooove Celestia!
Play session report from the latest London QT3 board-gaming club! This one with @Ginger_Yellow and a couple of legacy QT3rs, and not @Wendelius! If you might like to join us in Canada Water, London in future, ping me :-)
Played with five players thanks to the Community expansion which enables the 5th player and a popularity track and community cards. It is a mid-weight ish worker placement and engine building game.
A few nice touches . . .
Opportunities to interact with other players are few but those that exist are kinda friendly. Group projects allow multiple players to join and the more that join the more benefits everyone enjoys.
Wonderful theming. You can pursue an efficient engine or ‘role play’ for a lifestyle. I ended up recreating my real-life healthy living lifestyle via a “Healthy Eating” project and “Cycling” project that gave me extra health and via acquiring Garden and Gym “items” (in real life, I have a garden gym). As a result I lived longer than other players but achieved only moderate long-term happiness. Heck, did this game just try to teach me something?
Another player got a massively demanding job (level 3 of levels 1-3) very early on. This completely swallowing all his free time (worker actions) but he then managed to retire early with a nice pension. He did not win either.
Our first game winner spent most or all of his life without a job, instead focusing on projects and a partner. If you keep your upkeep costs low, by avoiding items with ongoing costs, this approach appears viable. Marvelous
Quick playing & low downtime. Even for a first play with lots of learning there was little downtime between actions. It is usually possible to plan your action whilst others are taking theirs.
. . . which after 5 plays feels like the best long-playing hidden traitor game and I cannot think of any other game which features as much player interaction and as much highly energised debate and trading. Spartacus, Battlestar Galactica and The Resistance are the closest peers but in New Angeles every dang thing seems to get debated.
Loving the feature that everyone has their own win condition, which is one of beating one specific opponent, beating any two, or for the ‘hidden traitor’ Federalist player hitting 25 credits and ruining the city in order to trigger a Federal take over.
Looking for clues for what each player has is a great challenge. In our last play the guy that needed to beat me at one point offered me an asset - which is a valuable ongoing resource - to contribute just 1 credit towards a group project. This seemed odd to me and others and kinda gave away that I was his opponent and by getting me to contribute 1 credit rather than himself he was widening the gap between us to make his win condition more certain.
In my last 3 plays though I have managed to pull off Federalist wins. Pretty remarkable for me to end up with this role 3 games in a row. Not sure whether the Federalist has a better victory chance or whether I am simply awesome. My opponents probably have opinions on this.
Fascinating. My experience with the game (not as the Federalist though) is that the Federalist win condition was extremely punitive, nearly impossible in our group. We played with 6, and the experience was not at all like you described. I thought it was decent, but the hidden traitor far less impactful than in BSG.
In fact BSG is still my favorite hidden traitor of all time, and a top 5 board game for me.
It probably helped that I am terrible at negotiation games.
On Mars arrived today. Wow that’s a lot of color and lot of weight and lot of pieces and a lot of…
I’ve been regretting skipping that one.
points. I believe the word you’re looking for is points. After all, it’s a Lacerda game:)
LOL!
Possibly.
I do love a good Lacerda, but this game looks intimidating and that’s coming from someone who owns every game he’s made.
I also am interested in any experiences on this one…I dropped my pledge and kind of wish I hadn’t.
Ooooh… In the hall of the mountain king was delivered unexpectedly this week (no shipment notice from the courier, just a nice surprise delivery).
It’s a triomino game with a cascading resource system I backed back around February that looks like good fun.
The components are also plentiful and cool (trolls, meeple totems carts and tools and nice metal coins). Plus a nice giant map for the trolls to dig as they strive to reach the centre of their former tunnels, as well as lots of triominoes to ensure Tetris fun is achieved:
Looking forward to trying out that one.
I’ve got that coming too. Can’t wait. I saw it at Pax Unplugged and I was like “Ooooh this looks like my kinda game”… Took me about a half hour wandering the show floor for it to hit me… “Dumdum you already backed that on Kickstarter”,
I am not a smart man…
New to me: We played Rise to Nobility last night. Reaaaaallly dug it. Good dice placement with a lot of stacking action.
