Ticket to Ride
For some reason, my family doesn't seem to play very many board games. My parents didn't socialize much growing up, so I never really saw them play board games. However, recently we've had friends invite us over to play board games and I'm quickly getting addicted. My current board game to add to my wish list is Ticket to Ride (http://www.ticket2ridegame.com).
Ticket to Ride is a pretty simple game, but there's plenty of strategy involved. Your goal is to get the most points. You get points for sucessfully completing routes between cities. At the start of the game, you drawn three route cards and you must keep two, but you could keep all three. Later in the game, you can choose to draw three more route cards and you must keep at least one. The tracks are drawn out between the cities in specific colors (or you can use a set of any color in routes depicted in grey). You get more points for creating longer stretches of track, but they are also more difficult to create because you need to collect more cards of the same color. Extra points are awarded for the person with the longest continuous train line. The game ends when the first person is left with just two trains to place. I was quite pleased to see Ticket to Ride is one of the games offered at GenCon and look forward to playing it there.
I'm also looking forward to trying some of the other versions of Ticket to Ride -- Ticket to Ride Europe and Ticket to Ride - M
Great family game
Ticket To Ride (TTR) is a great family game and can be played with 2-5 players. We have TTR, TTR Europe, TTR Marklin and the Expansion 1910. We like the fact that the kids can play the game and it is still competitive enough for the adults if you want it to be. (We're a litte cut throat and love to block eachother's routes.)During the holidays we have 2 copies out with games being played at the same time. I recommend it highly.
More Board Games
I've seen that game on the shelf, looks interesting. My sister and her husband in Arizona play boardgames with their extended family and friends, we haven't gotten into that because we don't have the games, but maybe I could plan something with Adam's work buddies' girlfriends, we have Star Wars Monopoly, wonder if they have anything else. Would give us an excuse to get out of the apartment, or invite people other than or rpg group into our place. I love how you still support video games, but also encourage your family and self to get into more thoughtful and social games, Sephera, you're a great role-model for me when we finally have our kids!
I played one of the Ticket
I played one of the Ticket to Ride games Christmas day. It is our tradition to cook and host a traditional Christmas dinner for my single gaming friends. One of them brought TTR and we a lot of fun and I'm NOT a fan of railroad games.