Yahtzee Frenzy

I haven't played Yahtzee for years, but I remember enjoying it as a child. It wasn't one of my absolute favorites like Boggle or Clue, but it was a good second-tier game.

Yahtzee Frenzy is a faster-paced version, where everyone has their own set of five dice (and no noisy cup to shake it in). Rather than having to wait your turn, everyone is rolling dice at the same time. 

This struck me as an improvement, but unfortunately Sam hated it this game. He says it brought out the worst in him (which is basically his competitive side) and he wants to get rid of it. I'm a bit averse to that idea (especially because, if I remember right, this was a birthday gift to Finn from his sweet friend M) but if we do keep this game I'll try to remember not to make Sam play it again.

Do You Really Know Your Family?

This is a personal trivia game. Cards prompt you to think of your favorite [fill in the blank] and your family members have to guess your answer. Like my favorite outdoor activity (snorkeling!) or the place Finn would most like to go on vacation (Hawaii!) or how old Milo was when he learned to ride a bike (5!) or what makes Sam the most sad (when Liverpool loses) or what I would most like to build in the backyard (a tiny house for Stacia). We really enjoyed it!

Except for the Challenge cards. Some of these were okay, but some of them we all heartily agreed to skip. A prime example: smell everyone’s feet and rank them from best-smelling to worst-smelling. Um, no thank you! I want to be neither the smeller nor the smellee. 

Trivial Pursuit DVD: Pop Culture Edition

In my memory, Trivial Pursuit is Really, Really Difficult. Then again . . . have I even played it since I was a kid? Trivia is the sort of thing that tends to get easier as you get older (read: the more you learn), at least to an extent (and that extent would be the age where you start to forget stuff). 

Anyway, this Pop Culture version was a little easier than I remembered. It's possible this was mostly because I lucked out and got easy questions. It's also possible because of the subject matter--sadly, I probably know more about pop culture than about history. But I'm pretty sure Finn found it very difficult. It didn't help that this is definitely not a current pop culture game; I'd say it's at least ten years old, if not more like twenty, which means it's really from before Finn's time.  

But I had fun playing! (Maybe because I won?) I'm glad the whole thing wasn't on DVD, as this seems to slow down gameplay. Most of the game is from a deck of cards, and you only go to the DVD when you're on one of the spaces where you can earn a wedge. Weirdly, the DVD questions seemed easier than the card questions. At least this made it easier to earn wedges!

As with most trivia games, I feel like the best iteration of this one would be to bring the deck of cards on a long car trip. 

Rummy (with a Harry Potter deck of cards)

Our options for board games that we own but haven't played yet are really dwindling by this point. But there are all kinds of games that can be played with a deck of cards! And we have a really cool Gryffindor deck that we've hardly ever used. So Sam decided we should settle on a card game instead of a board game for Game Night tonight. 

It took a little bit to decide, since we needed a game that three people can play and that doesn't have super-complicated rules (both to keep from overwhelming Finn, and because we don't have unlimited time to play), but we didn't want to go with one of the more childish games that we've played before, like Go Fish or Memory. I suggested Hearts or Spades, then remembered that Spades has to be played in pairs (not great for 3 people), and Sam thought Hearts sounded too elaborate. We finally settled on Rummy.

We got off to a bad start, since neither Sam nor I could remember the rules, and we were too impatient to thoroughly Google it, so after a too-brief online review we jumped in. But so many things seemed off. We were discarding before we were drawing, the discard pile wasn't face up . . . it was just all kinds of wrong. 

Halfway through, we paused to read the Wikipedia entry for Rummy and ended up with a clearer idea of how to play. We restarted the game and it went much more smoothly after that--and it was much more fun. 

A quick rundown of the rules: Deal 7 cards to each player. Take the top card from the remaining pile of cards ("stock") and lay it face up; this becomes the discard pile. When it's your turn, choose either the face-up card from the discard pile or the face-down one that's on the stock pile. (You can take multiple cards from the discard pile, but having extra cards not only makes it harder for you to win--it also gives your opponent more points when s/he wins.) At the end of your turn, you must leave one of your cards face-up on the discard pile. The aim is to make two melds (three or four of a kind, or three or four cards in one suit that are in sequence). Whoever makes two melds first wins, and you score points by counting up the value of the cards remaining in your opponents' hands. 

Verdict? We're obviously going to keep this deck of cards (the face card art is so cool! And cards are so versatile) and we'll probably play Rummy again at some point, if not on a regular basis.

Monopoly

This is quite possibly the most famous board game ever. It needs no introduction. 

We played the short version (everyone starts with two random properties, and we set a timer) because ain’t nobody got time for the long version, especially on a Tuesday evening. But Sam is already dreaming about playing the long version at Christmas, with drinks. 

I get bored very quicky, playing Monopoly, unless my opponents keep it moving. No lollygagging!! Make it snappy, folks! Sam was brought to blissful reminiscence and nostalgia because apparently he played a lot of this game as a child (albeit the British version). Like, he played it enough that he has a lot of the (British) board memorized. It also brought out the ruthless side in both of us (although we kept it civil, so it remained fun) whereas Finn may be too easygoing and soft-hearted to ever claw his way to victory.

The Big Bang Theory Fact or Fiction Trivia Game, fan edition

We all like watching Big Bang Theory. Sam and I have seen all twelve seasons, and we're currently in the middle of a re-watch with Finn. But I don't think we can be considered Super Fans, and I know none of us has an eidetic memory. As a result, these trivia questions were Too Hard. Even if there's a chance we have a combined IQ of 360, there are too many BBT facts that just can't be retrieved from the recesses of our memories. 

This game would have worked much better for us if the questions had multiple choice answers! As it's decidedly not multiple choice, I suggested getting rid of this game, but Finn was strongly against that idea. So my next suggestion was to give lots of hints (which we basically did this time around, but we could make it official next time) except Sam was strongly against that idea, basically saying "where's the fun in that?" Then Finn suggested that we could each have a super power while playing. His ideas (one person can keep asking until they get it right, one person can have two turns every time...) may not be the ones we go with, but maybe the general idea does have some merit. Anyway, if we do ever play this game again, it will only be with modifications (because the only other option is to watch all the episodes about a half dozen more times, and THAT'S not gonna happen--I mean, sure, we like BBT, but there are other things in life). 

Friends Trivia Game

Another week, another Friends game. This one (obviously) is a trivia game. It has a fun, tricksy little way of keeping score, but really it would be just as much fun (or maybe more so) without that. And it would certainly be more fun without the Charades option, which we ditched halfway through. 

I won (no surprise there, since I practically have every episode memorized). What was a surprise was that I didn’t know all the answers! Only most of them. 

I think the best iteration of this game would be for travel (just asking and answering the questions, no scorekeeping or Charades). It would be a great way to pass the time on a long car trip.