Esk

Rich alerted me a while ago to Tabletop, a video series where Wil Wheaton and sometimes famousish guests play board games and explain the rules as they go. I finally got around to watching one today - it’s very good. Go see.

Back to the thesis Claire, I know, I know…

I Slay The Dragon set a challenge to choose your 5 desert island games. Here’s my take:

The key thing you need if you’re stranded for an indefinite period of time is replay value. It’s no good having Betrayal at House on the Hill, because you’ll eventually run out of scenarios, not to mention that you’ll need more than one other survivor for a decent game. Factor in the traitor element that with sunstroke and lack of proper nutrition could spill over to real life and there, you’ve gone all Lord of the Flies.

Settlers of Catan
C’mon, you’re stranded on an island! Has to be this. You could even change the theming to be just like your island. Got flotsam for seagull? Also, it’s a desert island, so get out those blank tiles and colour in some more deserts*. That’s sure to make the time fly by. Bonus points for including the seafarers expansion and looking longingly at the ships.

Tigris and Euphrates
I think this one has true replayability, and you can play it with 2. That means the whiniest survivor, if there are three of you, can be sacrificed to save the others. You could even decide who that is by means of a Tigris game. Build a monument to your dead friend/acquaintance/co-worker/sworn enemy. Try not to lose the cubes in the sand, though.

Carcassonne
It’s got enough expansions and enough variety of outcome to last you until the cows come home. Or more likely until you die of starvation because there are no cows. Only little wooden pigs, which will not sustain you if consumed, and you’ll have rendered your pretend farm that bit more pointless, too.

N-Tropy
Couldn’t resist this one - it’s a board game mostly made out of sticks. Short, practically kindling-sized sticks. The object is to build a structure until someone places a stick that causes the whole thing to fall over. The skills you learn from playing this game will be invaluable in making that conical signal fire by balancing sticks, and guess what? Here’s the fuel, in your hand!

Gloom
In Gloom you have a family whose sole purpose is to be tortured into depression and then murdered one by one. At any other time I wouldn’t bother to recommend this game, but on a desert island it’s going to help to be reminded how much worse things could be. Just think: at least you’re not going to be bothered by badgers, or terrified by topiary, or die in despair… Oh, wait, forget that last one. Nevermind. The cards are plastic so it won’t be much use burning them for warmth, making this one likely to survive until the bitter end. Like dog’s milk.

*I’m aware that it’s more about the desertedness than the desertness, just go with it, alright?

Dixit is a game with the simplest rules that anyone can play, but to play well requires a certain kind of thinking.

Play
Everyone gets a hand of picture cards and on your turn you choose a card, describe it with a sound, word, sentence, quotation etc. and place it face down. The other players must select a card from their hand that matches your description, again placing it face down. The selected cards are all shuffled. The other players then vote on which card they think was the original, but here’s the clever part - If they all get it, or if none of them get it, you get no points and everyone else gets points. You have to make your description a little vague to include one or two other cards, but not so vague that it no longer really describes anything. If you manage this, you get points, those who found your card get points, and those whose card fooled other people get points. The player with most points wins when all the cards have been drawn.

Components
The art on the cards is very pretty in itself, and each card is fairly enigmatic. The board is part of the box - you get little wooden rabbits to run around a field for keeping score. It’s a bit cutesy.

Experience
This game is very different to those our group usually plays, being about creativity rather than logical strategy. It is a nice break for between e.g. Eurogames, but would work equally well as a family game. It actually gets harder the more you play it as you have to think up new words for the cards you’ve seen, as using the same description again is going to give it away. Eventually the cards become a little familiar, but there are expansions out there to solve this, and simply not playing for a week or two helps with that.