By now, you’ve burned through our list of movie recommendations. Your life has been changed after experiencing such good cinema. But you want to shake things up a bit and play a board game and/or card game. Well you’re in luck! We have several board games and/or card games listed below! Each one is handpicked by a member of the Tower Studios team!
Rachel Recommends… Cranium – This is a fun board game for the whole family, that puts your general knowledge skills and creative abilities to the test! This is Rachel’s favorite because, “there is so much variety in the activities – trivia, charades, word puzzles, whistling, drawing, etc. There’s an activity for everyone.” Cranium also features a cool 10-sided die, and some fun, colorful artwork on the cards. (Fun fact for the ‘90s kids: the art was drawn by Gary Baseman, creator of the Disney Channel cartoon Teacher’s Pet. You might remember Teacher’s Pet, the show about a talking dog who wants to be a boy. A horrific abomination against nature that will thankfully never happen in real life!)
Laurie Recommends… Wise and Otherwise – A designated player reads the first half of old proverbs. The other players must secretly write their guess for the second half. The designated player reads these endings, and the real one, aloud, and the group votes on which one they think is authentic. As Laurie says, “I love hearing the imaginative completion of ancient proverbs! I know, dorky right?” Perhaps, if “dorky” here means “rad!” We close this entry with our favorite proverb, from Sweden: “Don’t throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new one holds water.” Wow. Such a powerful reminder to be savvy while looking for buckets at Lowe’s. You need a strong bucket for all the gardening you want to do. Mulch doesn’t carry itself.
Jeanette & Andrew Recommend… Magic: The Gathering – Two wizards duel with spells, artifacts, and monsters! This is Magic: The Gathering, one of the oldest and most popular trading card games around. Don’t have the cards? It can be played online! True story: Magic: The Gathering was originally developed as a version of Dungeons & Dragons, by someone who had never played Dungeons & Dragons, only read descriptions of it. The writer of this blog has never played Dungeons & Dragons or Magic: The Gathering, and is developing his own game based on descriptions of both! The working title is “Monopoly.”
Jessica Recommends… Ticket to Ride – “I think I’m gonna be sad/I think it’s today, yeah/The girl that’s driving me mad/Is going away/She’s got a ticket to ride.” – The Bee Gees. We had to pay one million dollars to quote this song. We did it for you. You’re welcome.
Ticket to Ride is a board game wherein players go across the US on a train, collecting and playing cards along the way to win control over railway routes. Many of today’s youth yearn to build their own railway empire. And they can’t. They can’t do it, because airplanes are real, and the Big Highway lobby has decimated the train industry. But with Ticket to Ride, you and your loved ones can finally experience acquiring property transnationally! Wow! It’s like Risk, but instead of world domination, it’s trains!
Stryker Recommends… Quiplash – Quiplash is a game in the Jackbox Party Pack series of digital games. This is best played with a large group of friends with a similar sense of humor. Everyone anonymously answers different prompts, and then answers go head-to-head, and the group votes on the funniest answer. As Stryker puts it, “My friends and I usually vote for the answer that makes the least sense. I cannot imagine playing with someone who puts thought into their jokes.” That’s the great thing about Quiplash: it molds easily to the group’s sensibilities. If you and your friends are all grim Pilgrims who hate to laugh, you could even theoretically play a round where everyone answers the questions earnestly, with pinched frowns and glum faces. Whatever you want to do!
Brenton Recommends… President – President is a game played with regular playing cards, wherein players compete to “get rid of” their cards the fastest, in order to become “president” in the next round. There are a lot of different versions of the rules, so we suggest doing some Googling and seeing which one suits you best. If complex rules aren’t your style, you could have a “see who can throw a deck of cards the farthest” contest.
These board games and/or card games ought to keep you busy and fulfilled for another week. Once you’ve played your heart out, and can no longer bear to look at dice, tune in and see what the next blog will have to offer!