… Play Nice (please)
Plays on a vertical board. Player pieces have magnets. Players can only see one side of the two sided board so they need to communicate with each other! [available at I’m Board Middleton or Sun Prairie]
Ages 5-10 (adults can have fun with it as well)
=> BoardGameGeek
=> Written Review
=> Len’s One Page Rule Summary
Kids Game! Ages 4 and up (or younger with help). 15 minutes to play. Best with 3-4 players. Extremely simple. [available at I’m Board in Middleton or Sun Prairie]
=> BoardGameGeek
=> Lens Half Page Rule Summary
Like a beginners version of KingDomino (which is pretty simple itself). The more complex version is QueenDomino.
How To Play:
Requires the base game (Barenpark)
=> BoardGameGeek
=> Barenpark Expansion Rules
NOTE (from the game designer): When you discard two tiles to gain a Grizzly Tile, the two tiles you discard are out of the game (ie, back into the box)
Review by Game Boy Geek:
Polynomial tile laying game.
=> BoardGameGeek
=> Barenpark Rules
=> Barenpark 1pg Rules
See Also: Expansion “Bad News Bears”
How To Play Review – Jon Gets Games:
This is a great “filler” game (just like Popcorn) as a game can take as little as 10 minutes!
=> BoardGameGeek
=> Official Website
=> London Rules
=> Len’s 1 page rules summary
Review:
=> BoardGameGeek
=> Planet Rules (PLUS, since they are only 4 pages you can see all four pages at the bottom of this article)
How To Play:
Keep rolling 14 dice until you bust or choose to stop. Four burnt popcorn icons and you bust (your turn is over and you get zero points). 30 points or more wins OR roll all 14 dice with a single or double pop icon to be an INSTANT WINNER regardless of your score!
=> BoardGameGeek
=> Official Website
=> Popcorn 1pg Rules
=> Popcorn Scoresheets
=> Background Music while playing
Review:
=> BoardGameGeek
=> Official Website
=> Rule Book
NOTE: most expansion just add complexity (not fun) … but these work well: Inns and Cathedrals // Traders and Builders // The River (or River 2) is a nice way to start the game
How To Play in 3 Minutes (Rules Girl):
You likely already know how to play Yahtzee … so you then are ready for the super fun board and dice version, Showdown Yahtzee (one of the favorites for our Game Days).
For 2-4 players (best with 4). Instead of each player having their own Yahtzee score pad, there is just ONE and it is not a pad of paper, but individual large tiles that represent all the typical line items in the normal game of Yahtzee. Each player moves around a board and if you land on an empty square, you can try to get any of the available tiles and if you get it you take that tile and place it on the board on the square where your pawn is along with the stated amount of your chips. If your pawn lands on a square that already has a tile, if you can roll that, the tile becomes yours and you put your chips on it (if it was already yours, you just get a free turn to continue moving your pawn till you get to a spot that is wild or has a tile owned by another player). If you land on WILD, you can treat it as a blank square (try for any available tile) or as an occupied square (try to get it for your own).
I have FOUR boxes of this game (it really is that good). Someday it would be fun to have 16 people over for a Showdown Yahtzee tournament … 4 players at a table … the winner from each of the four tables then have a Showdown Showdown!
Review and examples:
Play Heavenly Games 