Can I drive from Chad into Kenya?

[larryhammer]

There's a geography card game janni and I are ... well, "addicted" is too strong for it. We're addicted to Sudoku. We have to ration our Sudoku games. Well, I do. Our feelings for Borderline are closer to "like playing when we remember to make the time" -- much like Scrabble.

Like all good educational games, the rules are simple. There's a deck of special cards, each with the name of a nation/state on one side and a map showing everything it borders on the other. 2-4 people are dealt a hand, and a starting point is drawn at random. Each in turn plays from their hand a card bordering the current location or a wildcard (which flies you anywhere), or else draw from the deck. Bluffing is allowed.* Play all your cards to win or, more often, have the fewest cards at the end.

We've had the USA and Europe/Mideast editions for a while, and just got Africa. Which is even more fun to play precisely because our African geography is a bit rocky. Well, more than a bit. I mean, our Sometimes Roommate is currently in a country I can pick out on an unlabeled map only by elimination. Bluffing takes on a whole new level when Benin is, lessee, somewhere on the Atlantic coast -- isn't it?** Like I said -- fun.

Though when Sometimes Roommate comes back, she's so going to crush us.

What are your favorite household games?


* Okay, I kinda lied about the simple -- the bluffing rules are confusing enough we have to check them when someone calls.
** Yes.

---L.

Comments

[marith.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the hexadecimal sudokus some paper printed a while back? (0-9, A-F)

[larryhammer]

I've tried a couple, but don't find them as satisfying as ye standard 9x9 puzzles. Same with other variations. Though I'd be interested in trying the ones with five 9x9s with overlapping corners in a quincunx.

---L.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Hmm, sounds interesting. I've never heard of Borderline, but will check it out.

I grew up playing card games, and they are still my favorite, especially cribbage. For word games I prefer Quiddler over Scrabble.

Friday nights are now game nights, and so I've learned to play Ticket to Ride, Alhambra, Munchkin, Carcassone, Puerto Rico, etc, basically anything that comes in a box with pages of rules that someone else explains while I open up the hard cider and the grab the snacks.

At one stage in my life I was addicted to both card games and crossword puzzles. I've moved past those stages, though I'm still considering dedicated a book to Microsoft Freecell...

[larryhammer]

Cribbage is my cardgame of choice, when I can find someone willing to play. I sometimes extort a round from my mother in return for a Scrabble game.

---L.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Hit me up next time you see me at a con--I always have a travel sized cribbage board and deck of cards in my suitcase. Just in case.

[larryhammer]

::rubs hands:: Will do.

---L.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Sudoku rocks. I finished the Brown Belt and Black Belt books fairly quickly, but can't manage to solve one in the Second Degree Black Belt book. That's probably good for me, because I spent way too much time solving puzzles.

[larryhammer]

Addict! addict!

---L.