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[badmagic]

The Washington Post desribes Settlers of Catan as a necessary social skill among entrepreneurs and venture capitalists (one tech chief executive calls it "the new golf"). It's joined Monopoly as a boardgame played by people who aren't interested in boardgames

Comments

[scifantasy]

Settlers is good, of course.

I'm also fond of Pandemic, which is collaborative and therefore better, without too many rules (and you can have one experienced player handle a lot of the fiddly bits).

I'll add more later when I'm home and can see what I have in my milk crates of games.

[blueeowyn]

Milk crate of games? WOOT!

[scifantasy]

Not as many as you think, though. Games take up a lot of space. *grin*

[vvalkyri]

Yes, I like Pandemic, partly b/c of subject matter, and partly b/c I like things that go fast enough that if something more interesting is happening over there then I'm not stuck at this table for the next four hours.

I figure Battlestar Galactica could be good, but the only time I played it the rules seemed to take around an hour, and we were essentially dead within two turns but it was 4 hrs more to be done.

I think a good rule of thumb for intro board games is things where each turn is relatively short, the basic rules are 20 min tops, and there's something amusing or compelling to it. Ideally also some involvement when not your actual turn.

If you're not used to it, learning a set of rules that read like part of the tax code, and then remembering them for three hours, doesn't appeal.I think it needs to have been demonstrated to be worth dealing with

[melebeth]

Settlers is good because IT HAS SHEEP.

All other considerations are irrelevant.

(I haven't been playing many board games lately. I prefer card based games, these days. Lost Cities, if I want strategy. Flux, if I want humor.)

[blaisepascal]

Everyone loves sheep. Sheep go "baa".

[melebeth]

Scrooge goes "bah!"

[kmusser]

My current favorite for non-gamers is Ticket to Ride, I also like abstracts like Blokus. The key for intro games I find is how quickly can I explain the rules, ideally it shouldn't be more than 5 minutes.

[jazzfish]

+1 for Chicken to Ride. "You know Gin Rummy? Like that, but with a map."

[blueeowyn]

Some depends on what you mean by an introductory game. Is it time to play? Complexity of the rules? Complexity of strategy? All of the above

[badmagic]

"Introductory boardgame" = "Boardgame that will be enjoyed by people who don't already like boardgames."

[blueeowyn]

The challenge of introducing board games is similar to introducing roller coasters, you need to know the persons interests and anti-interests.

[vvalkyri]

true. All the things I listed in my response are based on my default tendency toward short attention span theatre and preference for socialness if I'm in a room with others.

[jazzfish]

Re Carc, I also tend to prefer 'you have a hand of two tiles,' although giving non-gamers that may options may just confuse them.