3 Things I Like

Games other than chess

The holidays are board game season, so today I’m sharing a few of my favorite (non-chess) games to play in a mixed crowd.

Coup

We recently cleaned out our basement. Various things had gotten lost down there, whether to water damage or just getting lumped in with old junk. For the most part they were things I didn’t mind losing, but I was bummed out that I couldn’t find my copy of the card game Coup. The game designer, Rikki Tahta, sent it to me after I wrote a blog post analyzing the strategy from a game theory perspective. They since changed the art to a technopunk theme that I don’t like nearly as much as the original. As far as I can tell, it’s virtually impossible to find the original anywhere, for any price. So I was thrilled when my copy turned up.

Coup is a bluffing game played with cards. You get a secret role, but you can use abilities of roles you don’t have…but the other players can also call you out. It makes for a great party game, even with non-gamers. Somehow the bluffing element allows players to express their personalities, while having a little more texture, and not as much stress, as poker. Like I said, I don’t like the new art as much, but the rules haven’t changed and the game is still a lot of fun.