I will never forget the review of the movie “Clue” from the late Stewart Klein of WNEW, channel 5, in New York:
“‘Clue’ is a movie based on a board game. I would rather watch the movie version of ‘Scrabble’.”
Ludo is also the name of a board game, like Pachisi, in which you move pieces around a board based on the roll of a die. So Cluedo is a really good pun: Ludo…with clues!
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Fair enough – that’s a much, much better pun than I thought. 
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With at least the obvious exception of all the Monopoly house rules (i.e. money on Free Parking) that people think makes the game more fun, but make the game take much longer and actually inhibits fun in the long run. There’s a reason there are game designers. They are not always right, but a good many of them understand why things are the way they are.
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Yeah, omitting the dice makes it a much more quick and pleasant game.
Mysterium is great, it’s always sat in my mind as more of cooperative Dixit then cooperative Clue, but I can certainly see it that way also.
Yeah, well, that’s curry for you.
Yeah, that may be the case now, but old Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley games have absolutely awful mechanics and are deeply un-fun to play. Monopoly, for instance is a petty war of attrition in which all players but two get knocked out and the last few standing can take hours to resolve. Candy Land, Snakes & Ladders, Sorry, UNO and a whole host of others are really badly designed and have clunky gameplay that leaves players defeated and feeling enmity toward those they’re gaming with.
The wave of modern board games, which really kicked off in Germany, are truly thoughtfully designed and play-tested countless times to ensure fun, engaging play that (usually) gives everyone a fair shake and keeps all players engaged. The only time I have to modify the rules is for younger players. Carcassonne, Forbidden Island, Splendor, Arimaa and Munchkin are some of our favorites.
Thems fighting words. Also universally everyone plays Uno with house rules because its more enjoyable, if you played it exactly as designed it’d be boring because it also calls for tracking score for unplayed cards, not being able to end the game with a non-numbered card, etc.
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UNO almost gets a pass in this list, but the random nature of draws from the deck means that a player can go from an UNO hand to one loaded with one color in a single turn. It’s like 10% strategy and 90% luck. I’m ok with that in general, but it is wearying playing games as often as we do. Especially when there are so many really engaging card-based games on the shelf.
When i play with family it usually devolves into meta gaming, cheating, and trash talking. It’s pretty fun lol, that being said it’s usually engaging for a short amount of time and then we move onto another game.
I agree with you about those games/activities, but citing the extreme randomness in Uno and the pettiness of Monopoly as negatives and then saying you like to play Munchkin confuses me.
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Yeah, and playing with adults probably makes it a lot more enjoyable. I’m usually gaming with my twin 12 year olds. They’re excellent gamers, but I imagine that certain games would be a little more tolerable.
Ha! Fair enough. The intentionally arbitrary nature and dark humor goes a long way to making it more fun, imo.
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