Thread by @TimClarePoet

Christmas is fast approaching, & for some, it's the only time each year they play boardgames. It would be a colossal tragedy if, during this age of unprecedented variety & quality, you were stuck playing games that were a bit crap. Here is a recommendations thread:

'My family are always ganging up on each other!'
Try NOT ALONE, a simple card-based version of Murder In The Dark where a bunch of you play astronauts who've crashlanded on a weird planet, & the other player is the sinister hivemind hunting you down. It's quick, atmospheric & fun

'If I have to play another round of Charades I swear to God I will hang every man, woman & child in the British Isles'
Woah, cool your jets Murdery McMurderson. Want a party game that's a piece of piss? WITS & WAGERS has you covered. Guess answers to Qs & bet on who's closest.

'We're very competitive but too apathetic for table tennis'
If you can find a copy, SAFRANITO is 1 game where the 'spice' is right. Sorry, if it's not clear from that pun it's like shove a ha'penny mixed with a stock exchange. Bid on spices! Fail to throw a small plastic disc 3"!

'We always end up doing a puzzle'
Omg if you like putting squares by other squares I can offer you not 1, not 2, but thrice tres bien games of this nature: CARCASSONNE (southern French puzzling), ISLE OF SKYE (Scottish whisky puzzling), or TANG GARDEN (ancient Chinese puzzling).

'I can only get through it with wine'
VITICULTURE, my friend. Grow some wines. Age some wines. Sell... some wines. Let people pay you to take little tours of your vineyard. Build a windmill. Get a little wooden rooster. All this & more can be yours in... 'Grapeworld' (it's good)

'I bet we'll have an argument'
Well if you like *betting* my friend you should try QUACKS OF QUEDLINGBURG, where you compete to make the best potions, adding more & more but always risking having the whole cauldron explode in your face. Will you like it? If you're not a big fool

'I can't play complicated games, also I don't want to play for more than 5 minutes'
TIMELINE actually has you covered. Pull cards from a deck & try, 1 by 1, to put them in chronological order. I've played this with my 5 year old daughter & with my whole family. Co-op or vs. Good!

'We actually like boardgames & would enjoy the opportunity to play something complex on this rare occasion of being together & having time'
TERRAFORMING MARS with the PRELUDE expansion & the extra boards is a good option. All the expansions except TURMOIL are pretty great, IMHO.

Following on from the above, if you're after a genuinely epic experience & there are a few of you who don't mind committing, TWILIGHT IMPERIUM is an intergalactic saga with space battles, genuinely good diplomacy, trading & more. I have mixed but mostly positive feelings about it

'I want to play with the kids' toys'
The uninspiringly-titled WILDLIFE SAFARI looks like it should be rubbish but it's actually... really quick, fun & charming? Play a card, pick up a cute animal. Try to score the most points over multiple rounds. It's by legend Reiner Knizia.

'Please God nobody mention politics...'
TAMMANY HALL plays well at 3-5 & is a really exciting game of mid-nineteenth century New York politics as you compete to win elections by stuffing wards with immigrants who owe you a favour. Negotiation & bidding are tense & fun!

'... or race...'
If it's a race you want, FORMULA D is one of the best games out there, seating a mighty 2-10 players, with rules that scale from very simple (roll a dice, move your car) to more crunchy, complex versions with gears, tyre wear, varied weather & driver powers.

'...or religion.'
Holy flip if you don't mind something a little on the thinkier side, TROYES is a rewarding puzzle where you place workers in the yeomanry, clergy & aristocracy, trying to establish your dynasty's reputation while building a huge cathedral & fighting off bandits.

If you all want to work together, MYSTERIUM is essentially CLUEDO, except the murder victim is back as a ghost, the other players are all mediums & the ghost is sending them weird visions to help them uncover whodunnit. My favourite co-operative boardgame - it oozes flavour.

'I don't like all this silly theme'
LIARS DICE also sold under the proprietary name PERUDO has no theme at all. It's just dice in cups. You roll your dice, secretly look at them, & make bids. It's easy to pick up & unreasonably fun. (SKULL is the beermat version of this)

'Can't we just play something with a deck of cards?'
Well look. I think NO THANKS is one of the best card games I've ever played. Looks rubbish, but it's actually astonishingly fun at higher player counts. I don't understand why - it seems too simple to be enjoyable, yet it is.

LOVE LETTER is a wonderous card game for 2-4 players. Very small deck, reasonably simple rules, plays quick, but there's a lot of game in this tiny package. Some nice guesswork involved, plenty of surprise, but you also feel like you get to make skilled plays. Amazing.

If you want a traditional card game, the Italian trick taking game SCOPA is simple & really fun. You can use a standard deck with some cards removed or buy a Sicilian 40-card deck (modelled here by me)

If you want to stick to a standard French-suited deck, OH HELL aka NOMINATION WHIST or OH WELL (to those squeamish about language) is a terrific trick-taking game that is basically whist, with trumps, where you have to guess each turn how many tricks you'll take. It's brilliant.

'We just want to fling stuff at each other'
I can't believe I nearly forgot COCONUTS! It's beer pong but with monkey catapults, themed around the Journey to the West. It's *really fun*. There's a 2 player version, COCONUTS DUO, & you can combine them for 6 player chimp action.

Those are my suggestions for now - if you have any specific requirements please @ me below & I can make recommendations. I enjoy doing it because it's one of the few occasions on which it's socially acceptable to monologue about one of my special interests.