Tabletop gaming

[psybox]

Pretty self explainatory.  Card games, board games, social games, pen and paper RPGs, and other categories that I can't think of.  What games do you guys like?

[Groddil]

Well, I tried getting some people at my school into DnD, that sort of thing. It failed miserably. However, I did manage to start something up:
"Cards Against Humanity."

[Blaggut]

Im GMing a D&D game, as well as a world of my own creation where fantasy races battle with Napoleonic and steampunk armaments on a grand scale.

[Lady Ashenwyte]

Well, I tried getting some people at my school into DnD, that sort of thing. It failed miserably. However, I did manage to start something up:
"Cards Against Humanity."

Also, don't look up Cards Against Humanity if adult themes don't appeal to you. Just don't.

I play Warhammer 40k. Haven't played a game yet, but I'll get there.

[Groddil]

Well, I tried getting some people at my school into DnD, that sort of thing. It failed miserably. However, I did manage to start something up:
"Cards Against Humanity."

Also, don't look up Cards Against Humanity if adult themes don't appeal to you. Just don't.

I play Warhammer 40k. Haven't played a game yet, but I'll get there.

Whoops, totally forgot to mention that. Thanks for the warning, Ash.

[Lord Daskar]

I play D&D a little, after we finish the Campaign we'er on he's gonna let me DM one, that's a big mistake, he's gonna die.

My favorite Board game is Catan, I do like card games too but no one will ever play them with me.

[Matthias720]

My current favorite tabletop game is Forbidden Island. Co-op gameplay at its finest.

[W0NWILL]

Ooh, Forbidden Island's pretty cool. Though I prefer Pandemic, which is along the same lines, only the world is infected by numerous diseases and you're collecting cards to cure those diseases, instead of getting treasures.

We have loads of games. Out of the ones we have, I personally really like Killer Bunnies, Munchkin, La Strada, Settlers of Catan, Argicola, and Ticket to Ride.

[Tam and Martin]

Poker

[Lord Daskar]

I played Poker once, I lost. My favorite card game is either Hearts or Whist.

[Wylder Treejumper]

Anybody here every played Tichu?

[Rainshadow]

  Has anyone ever played Avalon or Munchkin?  Both are really fun games, in my opinion. 

Avalon

  Based off of Arthurian legend, the game is a sort of roleplaying game, where everyone's handed a character card that only they may know.  Merlin (good guy) is in every game, as well as an assassin (bad guy), random good guys, and random bad guys.  You start off every round with everyone closing their eyes and sticking out their fist, waiting for the narrator to tell them when to hold up their thumb.  Merlin is allowed to open his eyes and see all the bad guys' thumbs, the bad guys are allowed to open their eyes and see who their fellow baddies are, and there are other characters you can add to the game that have special powers themselves.  If you add Percival (good guy), he's allowed to see who Merlin is.  If you have Morgana (bad guy), when Percival goes to see who Merlin is, she also puts up her thumb and throws Percival off.  You can also add Mordred (bad guy), who doesn't put his thumb up when Merlin goes to see the baddies, but he still knows who all of his fellow compatriots are.  And then there's Oberon (bad guy), who is essentially a neutral character, as he doesn't get to see who the bad guys are, but Merlin doesn't get to see who he is, either.

  The gameplay is mostly just the players talking and scheming, with the good guys trying to win the game and the bad guys trying to fail all quests they go on, thus throwing the whole game.  Each turn, one of the players gets to pick a party to go questing with, but they have to strategize who they choose, lest they pick an enemy who can fail the quest.  Then everyone decides whether they want said questing party; if they disapprove, you move the disapproval meter up one (if you get five disapprovals in a row, the enemy wins) and move on to the next person's turn, but if they approve, you get to go on a quest.  The questers are given a success and a fail card, and secretly choose which one they give to the head quester.  Good guys may only choose success, while bad guys can choose either success or fail.  If you have even one fail in a quest, the quest fails and you have to move on to the next one.  By the end of the game, whichever team has more "wins" on quests (out of five) wins the game.  However, if good guys win, the assassin shows their character card and can consult with their team members as to who they think Merlin is.  They then can kill one of the good guys, and if they kill Merlin, the bad guys win.

  Avalon is really fun to me, simply because the game is all about scheming and strategizing.  If you're Merlin, you have to keep it quiet that you know who the enemy is, lest they catch on to you and murder you at the end of the game.  If you're Percival, you need to speak for Merlin and draw attention to yourself, protecting Merlin.  If you're the enemy, you need to fail quests and make sure to put the blame on your fellow questers without seeming suspicious.  And if you're the assassin, you need to be paying close attention to all of the good guys, trying to find out who Merlin is.  It's so, so very fun. 

[close]

Munchkin

  Munchkin is far less of a strategy game than Avalon, but is still incredibly fun.  Basically, you start the game off as a level 1 human with no class, no armour, and no weapons, and are expected to get to level 10 to beat the game.  You're given a few cards to start off with, and if you have armour or weapons, you can add it to your character (AKA put it face up in front of you), which gives you attack bonuses.  Each turn, you "kick down the door", picking up a door card and showing it to everyone around you.  If it's a curse, class, race, or something like that, it's immediately applied to you (unless you already have a class or race and don't want to change).  If it's an enemy, you have to fight it by the rules on the enemy's card.  But what if you're level 2 and only have +4 attack power, and you're fighting a level 10 monster?  You can call in someone to help you fight it, promising to split the reward (level ups and treasure cards) when you beat it.  If you've kicked down the door and didn't encounter a monster, you have the option to "loot the room" (take a door card and add it to your deck) or "look for trouble" (fight a monster from your deck).

  One of the best things about this game is your interaction with the other players.  In the beginning levels, you probably want to ally with your fellow heroes, taking down monsters together and trading weapons and armour so that you can all have the best loot for your class.  However, when you get higher in the levels, your companionship with your fellow players gets thrown out the window as everyone starts sabotaging your battles, trying to keep you from reaching level ten.  And the worst part about this is that, while you can pay the equivalent of 1,000 gold to level up on your turn, you can't buy yourself to level 10.  You can only reach level 10 by defeating a monster.  Thus, it's incredibly difficult to reach the final level, because people will throw in extra monsters for you to fight, or make your monster go out for lunch (finishing the battle and keeping the level from you), or buff up your monster so much that you have to run away, etc.

  One of the worst rounds I ever played was with my siblings and my brother's friends, where I was level 9 and I had somewhere around 28 total attack power, but then I went up against a really high level monster (it was level 18 or something), and I was like, "Oh, I don't need to worry; I've got ten attack power more then him!"  But then EVERYONE ELSE decided to keep me from winning, throwing all their buffs onto the monster, and eventually bringing in another monster (which we later discovered was actually one of my bro's friends cheating, although he didn't realize he'd done it).  The attack power was far above my own, and since I was about to reach level 10, no one was willing to help me.  So I tried to escape, but a curse was thrown on me that made it harder for me to escape (instead of rolling a 5 or 6, I had to roll a 6 to get away).  I rolled a 5, and since that was too low, I died.  I went back to level 1, and my beautifully designed character, who had awesome gear (such as the Staff of Napalm, the Pointy Hat of Power, the Pantyhose of Giant Strength, the Boots of Butt-Kicking, a familiar, and a really impressive title (seriously, they have a 1+ attack power card that's just "A Really Impressive Title")), was no more.  All of my items went to the other players, and I lost the game because everyone else was either at level 8 or 9.  It was still really fun, though. 

[close]

  So, yeah, those are two of my favourite tabletop games, because it's not just about moving pieces around on a board, it's about communicating with the other players and ally with them, only to stab them in the back at the last minute. 

[Wylder Treejumper]

Psh, we own 3 different types of Munchkin: Original Munchkin (plus a bunch of expansion packs), Space Munchkin (probably our favorite), and Munchkin Booty (probably the worst one we own). We've played it so much and gotten so good at it, we have all the cards in the deck memorized; in fact, it's a bit boring now that we've perfected our strategies- plus it takes like 2 hours to play because we anticipate each others' "closers".

It is really fun, though. No idea how many hours of my life I've used on that game...

And, Avalon sounds like a mafia reskin.

[Rainshadow]

  Yeah, we have the base Munchkin, as well as Munchkin 2: Unnatural Axe and Munchkin 6: Demented Dungeons (we bought the expansions for my brother for his birthday/Christmas, since he really loves the game).  Sadly, my family doesn't play it too much (my mom hates the game, so whenever we all play a game together, Munchkin is never picked), so I don't quite have that great of a strategy yet.  Basically, the best I've got going for me is to be either a dwarf or halfling (or dwarf/halfling half-blood), because dwarves can have unlimited big items and can carry an extra card, and halflings can sell something for double-price.  And I usually play as a wizard if I can, simply because wizards get some pretty good gear (namely, the Staff of Napalm).  I just looooooooove collecting gear. 

  In a way, Avalon is sort of a reskinned Mafia, but there are some differences.  Namely, people don't get killed and/or lynched.  You can refuse to take certain people on quests with you if you're suspicious of them, but there's definitely more thinking and deceiving involved instead of just randomly voting someone to die.

[Groddil]

  Yeah, we have the base Munchkin, as well as Munchkin 2: Unnatural Axe.  Sadly, my family doesn't play it too much (my mom and dad hate the game, so on the extremely rare chance we all play a game together, Munchkin is never picked). I tried getting some people at school into it, but it just never caught on.