jarrin > Interests

Miscellaneous Games
This is actually my favorite category, so I've decided to list it first. If a game is so unique, it can't be categorized as "board game" or "card game", I'm probably going to like it.

Dynamic Board Games
There is a set of board games in which the creation of the board is an integral part of the game. This can range from the old Pipeworks to Zombies!!! or Roborally. This helps make every game that much more unique and, I believe, improves the re-playability of a game. Fluxx also fits in this category; despite not being a game with a "gameboard", its rules are mutable and half the mechanics of the game are manipulating these rules.

Traditional Games
I have a suitable collection of traditional games, like Checkers and Chess. I don't play them very often, but they're nice to have around just in case I need to use the pieces for something else.  I also have numerous decks of cards and a couple sets of dominos (including one set of "Cow-minoes", which are just like regular dominos, but instead of pips, there are spotted cows).

Classic Board Games
I enjoy those old classic board games like Aggravation, Clue, Mouse Trap, The MAD Magazine Game, etc.  The stranger it is (and was) the more I'll probably want it in my collection.  I've managed to find some pretty bizarre games in my perpetual huntings (Mystery Mansion, Solarquest, Forbidden Bridge, Elixir, Dungeon Dice).

Conspiracy Games
These are some of my favorites. The granddaddy of all deal-making games is Diplomacy, which I'm actually not very good at because I've only ever rarely played it.  Some of the other good ones in this category are Illuminati, Empire Builder, Cosmic Encounter, Settlers of Catan, and a good number of Cheapass Games, as well.

Word Games
Another fun set of games are those in which you build or locate words. You know; games like Boggle, Scrabble and Letras.  While my active vocabulary isn't terribly large, I'm quite good with anagrams and pattern recognition, so I tend to perform well in these games.

Cheapass Games
I have so many of these, I'm not going to list them (see the aforementioned BGG site for a list); but they are all clever, all different and all worth playing.

3M Bookshelf Games
Facts in Five - I salvaged this from my mother's house. According to the enclosed score sheets, my parents & their friends often played this.  It's a simply trivia game of trying to come with names of things that start with a particular letter (everything is done in "fives", hence the name).
Feudal - A chess-like game but with more rules and special situations.
Foil - I believe this is your standard anagram game.
High Bid - Some sort of psuedo-auction game. Back when auctions were "quaint" (i.e., before eBay).
Jumpin - Pegs jump over one another on a board trying to get to the other side.
Twixt - The best 3M game.  It's a path building game; the twist here is the you first play a peg in the board, then you attach a link piece between a pair of pegs.  You can only make "knight's moves" in this game.  I own two of these games in case I have to opportunity to trade one away.