Jamie Gibbs at Mithril Wisdom and Allison at Geek Banter are hosting the Level Up! Blogfest. The object of this blogfest is simple. In Allison's words:
Share your favourite game with us! It can be a video game, a board game, a party game, a card game, a childhood playground game--you name it. Let us know how it works and why you love it.
So, I know I'm only technically supposed to talk about one game, but I love so many board games that it's ridiculous! I'll briefly mention three of them that have been important to me over the years.
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| Three of my favorite games. |
The first game is Parcheesi (or Pachisi). I've seen the name spelled both ways. This board game is simple but fun. You roll to get your pieces out of start, and the goal is to get all four men around the board and to the home space first. You can kill your opponents and take bonus spaces as a result. It can be a cutthroat game, especially when people set up blockades to prevent you from moving. Believe me, it gets frustrating after you spend ten immobilized because of your fellow players. Still, that's half the fun.
This game is important to me because I grew up playing this game with my parents, especially on New Years Eve. Some families party on New Years Eve. We played board games and ate a ton of snacks.
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| The Pachisi board my dad bought me for my 22nd birthday. |
Another staple of New Years Eve fun was dominoes. I love the versatility of dominoes. You can build with them. You can line them up and demonstrate the Domino Effect to your drunk friends. My family usually played Matador or Mexican Train. You can go HERE to find the rules to those games as well as many other games you can play with dominoes.
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| One of a few sets of dominoes I own. You can only play Matador with double six dominoes. |
This last game I play more nowadays than I did as a kid. My husband and I have really gotten into playing Trivial Pursuit lately. The object of the game is simple. Most versions of the game have six categories: Arts & Literature, Science & Nature, Geography, History, Sports & Leisure, and Entertainment. In order to win, you need to correctly answer a question from each of these categories and collect the corresponding wedge. I'll admit it's cool (at least for me) that the pieces of this game look like miniature pies. Colorful miniature pies! I also love trivia. I love knowledge-based games. They make me think.
Though, most importantly, I love this game because it's a good way for me to spend quality time with my husband.
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| One of our Trivial Pursuit Games, along with our Trivial Pursuit book containing thousands of extra questions. |
What games do you love to play?
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ReplyDeleteGreat choices :) I've not heard of Pachisi, but it sounds like my kind of game - I'll have to check it out.
ReplyDeleteTrivial Pursuit was a cause of many arguments when I played as a kid - I'm sure others were cheating and adding extra pieces to their tokens!
Thanks for entering the blogfest!
Yay for board games! I love Trivial Pursuit!
ReplyDeleteI have to say, I think I have an unnatural hatred for Trivial Pursuit: I can't remember trivia. Ever.
ReplyDeleteParcheesi on the other hand... :3
I'm a big trivia junkie!
ReplyDelete"Demonstrate the Domino Effect to your drunk friends." And they are impressed every single time...
I haven't ever played the first two, but Trivial Pursuit I've definitely had a go at. It's always interesting but I always feel out of my depth. My general trivia knowledge has never been all that great, no doubt because I haven't done enough study. ;)
ReplyDeleteMy twin sister and I used to think the word Parcheesi was hilarious. Whenever we were feeling spunky, we'd think we were so funny to say "What are you doing? Playing Parcheesi?" LOL. Silly. Anyway, I love that game, and your version is so stylish! Have you ever played Cranium?
ReplyDeleteP.S. Your blog header turned out amazing!
Parcheesi! Yes, we used to play with the kids when they were little! We played the others too...classic games with so many wonderful memories:)
ReplyDeleteI love trivial pursuit but haven't played in a while. More of PC gamer now altho I still enjoy cribbage.
ReplyDeleteGood morning! Good games, and the one that I enjoyed from the three is Trivial Pursuit! Love it! I enjoyed reading your post and visiting your blog this morning!! Nice to meet you! Sandy
ReplyDeletesandysanderellasmusings
I hated Trivial Pursuit mainly because it made me feel not so smart. Then, I found the 90's addition and was pleased to discover I knew some stuff. I just needed to play the write level. Never played parcheesi.
ReplyDeleteSince I've always had a bunch of useless knowledge in my head, I've always loved Trivial Pursuit. I also remember playing Parchesi as a kid and we always had a good time with it.
ReplyDeleteGreat picks!
Finally two games I know. Trivial Pursuit and dominos. Never played the first, but the second one I've definitely tried :D
ReplyDeleteNutschell
www.thewritingnut.com
It should become law that every person, ever, MUST own Trivial Pursuit. :D
ReplyDeleteI am awful at trivial pursuit. Awful. You that painful feeling when you are trying to think of a word and it has vanished--that's me the entire game. But I love to play. :-)
ReplyDeleteParcheesi! We used to play that all the time growing up. And trivial pursuit. My favorite trivial pursuit game was a 90's edition where all the questions centered around 90's pop culture. So much fun.
ReplyDeleteDominoes are really fun. I've heard of Parcheesi but never knew exactly what it entailed. Sounds pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteWe played a chocolate edible version of Trivial Pursuit once...it was awesome!
ReplyDeleteMy brother and I had a tradition of playing Trivial Pursuit on Christmas Eve. Lots of times on New Year's Eve, we'd play Monopoly. :D Good games!
ReplyDeleteWe play boardgames on New Years Eve too, much more fun than going out partying :)
ReplyDeletePicking 3? Cheater! haha, I guess we'll let it slide ;) I've never really played trivia games but I think I'd like them a lot! Dominoes are so frustrating, but so fun.
ReplyDeleteAllison (Geek Banter)
I used to be obsessed with dominoes. I haven't played the other two you mentioned, though!
ReplyDeleteMy hubby can't beat me at monopoly or scrabble, but he's a master at Trivial Pursuit! We also love the card games hearts and spades, but it's been forever since we've played. Now he does all his gaming online! Sometimes I hate computers. :) Although, it's while he's doing that, that I'm reading blogs -- it all equals out, I guess.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I've always wanted to try Trivial Pursuit, probably be horrible at it, but that's okay, I don't mind losing. There was just never anyone who wanted to join me in a game.
ReplyDeleteTrivial Pursuit is one of my favorite games with the right people. Otherwise it's just annoying. Fun blog fest.
ReplyDeleteWe played a lot of board games when I was a kid and yet we never played Parcheesi, which surprises me.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't played dominoes until I met my then fiance (now wife) and was introduced to several versions of it by her family. All these years later we still play dominoes pretty much every time we get together. It is a lot of fun, especially with the expanded sets they have now. Thank God for the various colors as it makes it easier to figure out what you have.
And Trivial Pursuit is one of my favorites. Love all the versions of that game that I've played. If you haven't tried it, you might want to give Bezzerwizzer which combines trivial pursuit style questions with some strategy and chance. We've been playing it lately and have been having a lot of fun with it.
Parcheesi is really fun - love that game!!!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid we had a really OLD trivial pursuits - every question was about something that happened before I was born. Then when I grew up and got the ipad version I thought - hey I actually know some of these answers now - Now I quite like the game. :)
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