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Table of Contents
Introduction3 Games: A History of Having Fun4 The Games People Play! Game Designer Kyle Miller Knows the Rules4 Gamers Give Us a Clue..8 Family Game Night 10 Girls Game Night 12 . Guys Game Night 13 Poker/Card Games15 Coed Game Night.15 Adult Strategy Games .16 Casino Night .17 Board Games Old and New18 Indoor/Outdoor Games.21 TV Game Show Games21 Beyond Candy Land: Game Night Recipes22

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Ready for some fun without ruining your finances? As ticket prices for movies, sporting events, concerts, theatrical performances and other amusements skyrocket, more and more of us are finding ways to entertain ourselves, our families and our friends at home. Whether its the mental stimulation, friendly competition or the thrill of winning, games are becoming a popular form of entertainment. Video-game addicts can play for hours on end, by themselves or with others. In this guide, were going to focus on the games we play with others when we gather for Game Night. Well briefly explore the history of games, discover the ins and outs of game play from a game designer, peek into the game nights of true enthusiasts, take a look at the differences between girls game night, guys game night and family game night, offer lots of recipes for game night goodies, get into the nitty-gritty of game night and, of course, youll be introduced to a few super, new games just waiting for you to dive in! Some game nights are spontaneous and some are thoughtfully planned. Either way, game nights are challenging, exciting, silly, thought-provoking, relaxing, stimulating, educational, uplifting, competitive and fun! Lets play!

~Erno Rubik

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Games: A History of Having Fun

Did you ever wonder what pre-historic humans did in their leisure time when they werent fighting for their survival? We can only imagine that they invented games to pass the time, and those games probably got more intricate and challenging when communication moved past conveying basic needs to expressing intention and ideas. Several important historical sites, artifacts and documents exist that shed light on board games as early as 3,500 years BC. Senet, an Egyptian race game that may be the ancestor or our modern backgammon, has been found in pre-dynastic and First Dynasty burials of Egypt around 3,500 BC, making it the oldest board game known to have existed. The game was pictured in a fresco found in the royal tomb of Merknera. In 3,000 BC, an ancient backgammon set was found in the Burnt City in Iran. To make a very long story short, games have been around for quite a while, and the evolution of games has moved us to computer games and video games, all designed as diversions from our everyday lives. With a tip of our hat to all those game creators and players who came before, we move one space and land on

The Games People Play!

An Interview with Game Designer Kyle Miller Kyle Millers first game design was drawn on notebook paper when he was in school, and his love of games has remained undiminished. His journey through the world of game development began as a free-lance artist for Steve Jackson Games Toon, the Cartoon Role-Playing Game. Kyle soon joined the staff at Steve Jackson Games, providing art for several more Toon products as well as many products in the
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Car Wars, Gurps and Ogre series of games. Kyle eventually wound up as an art director at Dynamix (part of Vivendi/Universal). Later, Kyle moved to Chicago where he worked on the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Family Guy and Ben 10 games. His most recent work has been as a game designer for Hasbro, where he led the development of Nab-it, Scrabble Switch-up and others. In addition to game designing, Kyle also has a weekly webcomic on his site at http://www.gamecreature.com.
How did you get interested in game design? Ive always been interested in making games. Some of the first games I made were on notebook paper in school. They were awful! But that interest always stayed with me. What inspires you to develop a new game? Inspiration can come from anywhere. It could be a trend like a popular book or TV show, or it could be something really abstract. Often I will get a request to design a game that fits a certain set of parameters, such as number of players, age, etc. The challenge is to create an experience that matches that trend or request. What are the elements of a good board game or family game (like Nab It, which looks like great fun)? First of all, it has to be balanced. All of the players need to have an equal chance to participate and succeed. If a player feels overwhelmed, intimidated or bored, then they wont enjoy the game. Giving players a feeling of accomplishment, even a small one, increases their enjoyment of the game. Clear and simple objectives not only make it easier for the players to determine what they need to do, but also to understand how well the other players are doing. How they reach those objectives does not have to be easy, but attempting them (whether successful or not) should be enjoyable. And thats it in a nutshell fun for all! How do you explain the rising popularity of game night? It is often hard to find something new and fun to do, especially when youre keeping an eye on the budget. Games do not require a large investment and offer great social interaction. Its not passive like watching a movie or TV, and a large part of the fun of playing a game is the people you play it with. What is a hard-core gamer? As with any activity, there are people who take a casual interest in it and those who turn it into a hobby. Gamers in the latter group are always on the look-out for new products, discovering games that one would not normally find at the local department store. They have no problem picking up a game in a foreign language (just because it looks like fun) and then comb the Internet for a translation of the rules so they can play. Theyll organize and go to conventions so they can share and play games with their fellow hobbyists. Its kind of like a guy who collects cars, but a whole lot cheaper.

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What differences in dynamics, if any, do you see among an all-male game night, an all-female game night and a coed game night? As soon as I spot a trend among one type of player or another, the next person I meet invariably breaks the mold. Nevertheless, I tend to divide players into cats and dogs. Dogs are boisterous and quick to spring into action, having sized up the situation in a matter of seconds. Dogs are always in your face, but playful and have no problem chasing after something that looks like fun. Cats, on the other hand, are quiet, patiently waiting for the right opportunity. Cats arent all that put out if an opportunity gets away they just move on to the next one. Ive played with groups of mostly dogs, and sometimes a mix of cats and dogs. As with many individuals, some players have a mix of both characteristics. How do you handle a sore loser? Contrary to popular belief, the purpose of playing a game is to have fun, not to win. Of course, this idea may escape some folks (especially children) who get frustrated when things dont go their way. When one persons not having fun, it usually has an effect on everyone else. What you want to do is diffuse the situation while allowing the frustrated player to save face. The worst thing you can do is let them win. Trust me, nobody has fun in those situations. If possible, take the heat yourself you know what, I think we made a mistake with the rules. Ill need to ask a friend about it. In the meantime, lets play something else. Other times, you can end the game by just declaring the upset player the winner try to do it in a light-hearted manner. Whatever you do, just end the game, put it away and start another. What are your top three board games to play and why? Oh, please dont make me choose. The games I like change as often as my moods. Suffice it to say, the games I design are the games that I, myself, want to play. So I really like my latest release, Nab-it. I like it because when we were designing it, I wanted to remove all of the things that I didnt like about those other word games and make a game that gives everybody a chance to have fun. I also like Settlers of Catan. Its a completely different kind of game from those that most people are used to there is lots of bargaining and other interaction going on all Page 7 of 25

the time. Its a popular design thats had a lot of expansions and sequels. The third game thats on my list is there for a very special reason. The game is called Broadway and in some ways its a lot like Monopoly. Where it differs is that everyone buys percentages of the properties on the board. To own 100% is a very bad thing, as you need the support of the other players to help your properties thrive and if they dont see an advantage in doing so, then youre sunk. The reason this game has a special place in my heart is because playing this game was one of the first times I realized that I didnt care if I had won or lost I was having fun! Where do you see gaming going in the future? Gaming has been around for centuries. There are examples of games from Africa, Ancient Egypt and even references to games being played in the Bible. Games as a form of entertainment have been around for a long, long time and I dont see that changing any more than seeing books or theater disappearing. Video games have arrived, but they have created their own audience, rather than diminish the audience for other forms of games. As entertainment goes, there will always be a need for play and games fit that need very well. Here are Kyles suggestions for an exciting game night: Be consistent - A game night works best when your participants are looking forward to it. Try to schedule a time and date that works for everybody and stick with it. Popular TV shows don't come on at random times whenever the schedule permits. They come on every week at exactly the same time (when they don't, they stop being popular, don't they?) Admittedly there are going to be times when not everyone can make it and even the host may be out of town, but if it's a time that works for the majority of your group the majority of the time, then it will work for your game night. Feed me, Seymour! - The other thing that will bring people in is the promise of food. Especially if it's food they can look forward to like take-out pizza or special snacks or dessert. I recall a "brown bag" game lunch that didn't really take off until free food was offered. But that doesn't mean you have to break the bank. The group I play with always reimburses the host for the cost of the pizza. Give Veto Power - Sometimes getting everybody to agree on a game is like herding cats. And other times you find yourself playing a game that no longer seems all that fun. The rule we have in our group is Page 8 of 25

that anyone can make a motion to stop a game. But, that motion needs to be seconded by one of the other players (fortunately in our group, if one person isn't enjoying a game, there's a good chance at least there is one other, if not all, that's also not enjoying the game). Boring games are stopped by mutual consent. Of course, our group is adventurous and we like to try new things. I think that's probably true with a lot of gaming groups. Needless to say, every group is differentdont go out of your way to "spice things up" when your group has simple "meat and potatoes" appetites. Let things flow naturally and you'll have a good time.

Gamers Give Us a Clue

We thought youd like to hear how others do game night. Here are a few suggestions from some of our e-guide friends: Randee Zeitlin Feldman of Get Noticed Public Relations and Marketing gets things going as soon as her guests cross her threshold: Our game nights start with a carefully selected group of friends, usually 6-8 people, and sometimes they know each other...sometimes they don't. As my guests walk in the door, I stick a stickie on their back with the name of a celebrity (living or dead).They then have to ask other guests yes or no questions to reveal their identity. The first one who guesses who they are gets a very valuable prize (usually something from the dollar store like bungee cords or a figurine of a frog). Celebrities have included everyone from Lady Gaga to Golda Meir to my personal favorite, Bernie Madoff. There is also liquor involved in this portion of game night...usually whine...I mean wine! After dinner, which usually includes a game night salad, my secret-recipe honey chicken and a potatoes recipe I stole from one of the chefs on the Food Network, we get down to business and play my very favorite game, BALDERDASH. Who doesn't like to lie and get points for it...jus sayin'. After I win,(don't forget, I control the guest list so I know my
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competition) I give a touching and inspirational consolation prize to all my guests for coming. It is wrapped and when they open it they are pleasantly surprised (I think) with a framed picture...of me! A good time was had by all and no one can wait to be invited againI think!) Here are some good ideas from Josh Street of Purple Pawn, a gaming blog/news site: Food: gaming makes people hungry! Finger foods and light items that are portable are particularly popular. People: the great thing about gaming is that you can easily include entire families. We generally keep the kids in one area (sometimes playing games, sometimes just being kids) and the adults elsewhere (we use a babysitter). Games: For non-hobby gamers, game selection is critical! Rely on a combination of lighter fair and party games. For lighter games, games like Carcassonne (Rio Grande Games), Infinite City (AEG) and Cash n Guns (Asmodee) are all greatsimple rules with enough depth to be interesting. However, you're likely to want a few party games that you can pull out to entertain larger groups: Werewolf (multiple publishers), Say Anything (North Star Games), Apples to Apples (Out of the Box), Dixit (Asmodee) and Wits and Wagers (North Star Games) are all solid party games that get people going. To get her girlfriends in a gaming mood, Marcie Jacobs of Story Club Games focuses on food and drink: How do I do game night? Just had a great one with a gaggle of my girlfriends. Food not completely healthy, but surely delish! Started out with a amazing sangria where the wine had been soaking up the berries, pineapple, and citrus for 24 hours. Yum! To nibble, we added a gourmet cheese tray and some hummus. See how easy it is? Pick a few games and add your own personal touch!

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Family Game Night

Talk about a delightful way to spend time with the family! A weekly family game night is a terrific way to escape boredom and enjoy some serious quality time with your kids. Just set out some of your favorite snacks and jump in. Sue Kirchner is the founder of the Chocolate Cake Club, where she inspires families to have more fun together: Lets look at some of the suggestions she posted on her blog at ChocolateCakeMoments.com! Start a tradition in your family that every Friday Night you stay in and play games. You can take turns with each member of your family picking their favorite game. Or invite friends and neighbors over for a casual, inexpensive, and very fun evening. Well give you some ideas on how to host some awesome game nights, as well as our top picks for family fun games.

Add some great food. Keep it low maintenance by ordering in pizza, making chocolate chip cookie bars, or having an ice cream sundae bar. Indulge in your favorite munchies. If you are feeling more inspired, try out some of those appetizer recipes you keep marking and then never making. For the adults, have some beer in the fridge, make a pitcher of margaritas, or try out that new drink recipe. Make non-alcoholic versions for the kids. If you are inviting friends over, have them bring an appetizer or dessert to share. Serve up some silliness! Play some games that are just downright silly so everyone will be laughing. Some of our favorite gut-busting games are: 3 Years Old and Up: Birds, Bugs & BeansThis card game will be a hit with your pre-schoolers, but the rest of the family will love it too. This is a wild, loud, and fun card game where you throw cards down and then react quickly based on which card is showing. Youve got to tweet for the birds, clap for the bugs, and toot for the beans. Who doesnt love making raspberry sounds for the Bean cards???

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6 Years Old and Up: FlapdoodleIn Ithis game, youll have to use your creativity and imagination to answer crazy questions and do silly stunts. For example, you might have to take off your socks and shoes and have your two big toes talk to each other about potato chips. Crazy characters like Super Ninja Monkey, Pirate Luigi Pepperoni and the Platypus help you cruise around the board. This game is a huge favorite with our kids. 8 Years Old and Up SnortaThis game is perfect for larger gatherings since 8 people can play. Weve played it during holidays when the relatives are over. Weve taken it on vacation for some evening fun. In the game, each player chooses the sound of a typical farm animal. As cards are quickly flipped over, tongue-tied players stumble and stutter to blurt out the animal sounds of the other players. The fun part of the game is that the animal on the card is not the animal sound you need to make so you get all confused and tongue tied. This game is hilarious. (Its also a great drinking game for adults, but you didnt hear that from me.) Put on a Costume. Why just play a game when you can play the game in a silly way? For example, if you are playing a pirate game, have everyone wear pirate hats or eye patches. If playing Snorta, wear an animal mask. Make them out of paper plates before the game begins. Round Robin. If you invite a few families over for Game Night, have them each bring their favorite game. Set up a game in the kitchen, one in the family room, and one in another room. Each person then moves round robin to the next game as they finish playing. That way youll end up playing a few different games and not end up stuck playing the same thing all night. Have a kids game table and adult game table if you want, and make sure everyone knows which table to move to at the end of their game. Get those cards out! Whatever happened to the fine art of playing cards? My parents said that when they were just married and having babies, one of their main forms of entertainment was to
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invite over friends, also with babies, and play cards. I believe they said they used to line us babies up and throw us snacks as they played cards, although I could be imagining that. The poker craze brought a newfound attention to card-playing again, but its not the only card game in town. There are some other very competitive games to try. My husbands family is from Iowa and they play Euchre. In Iowa, Euchre is treated as if it were a religion. Backalley Bridge is another favorite. When playing cards, use pennies or macaroni noodles for betting or keeping score. Prizes! If you are going to play games, youll need prizes. Large chocolate bars or movie theater-size boxes of candy are great prizes to give to the game winners. If you are playing with younger kids, youll need to make sure that everyone is a winner, but for older kids and adults, let the competition begin. You can also play for chores or activities as prizes. If Mom wins, she gets to give a chore coupon to someone in the house so they have to empty the dishwasher. Before the game, have each player write down two or three coupon ideas. If they win, they get to hand in their coupon to another player. The other player then has to do what it says on the coupon. (You might need to set some limits but feel free to be creative.) Thanks, Sue, for some outstanding ideas, which are also perfect for hosting a Kids Game Night. Just be there for adult supervision when its needed!

Girls Game Night

Its like any other evening at home with your friendsfood, wine, lots of stimulating conversation. Just add games, and youll add lots more laughs. Whether its board games, mah jongg or poker, girls just want to have fun! Melinda Knight of Womentorz.com told us about a new game designed by Nancy Foley, and its just for girls who want to have fun! Its called DivaGirl, and its much more than just a game.

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DivaGirl is an event party as well as a card game. Each Diva brings a wrapped gift for the gift exchange that is part of the game. Who doesn't love getting gifts! DivaGirl is very flexible and fits everyone's budget because the hostess picks the price range of the gift her friends bring. There can be different themes for the dress and gifts traditional Diva lounging pajamas and "Diva" gifts, spa-day dress with spa items as gifts or wine and chocolates, just to name a few. You can dress up or notwhatever you like. The evening can be as elaborate or as simple as the hostess wants. You can plan the menu around a theme, serve a light dinner or make delicious appetizers and decadent desserts. And don't forget the bubbly! Sounds like fun, doesnt it?

Guys Game Night

Game night for guys can mean a couple of things: a bunch of guys get together to watch football, basketball, baseball, hockey, NASCAR, etc. on someones big-screen HD TV or to play some serious poker. Either way, (and yes, this is a generalization based on years of observation) a good guys game night host has plenty of beer on hand, maybe some good Scotch whiskey, and hearty food, like pizza, sub sandwiches, hot wings, nachos, bowls of chips and dip, nuts, M&Ms, etc. Have a few cigars on hand, and youre good to go. That said, we have a few new ideas that just might bring a long-overdue extra dimension to guys game nights everywhere. Its hard (though not impossible) to imagine a bunch of guys getting together to play a board game like Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit, but what if the games are about sports? Here are some suggestions for games that might be a welcome break from pokerand Las Vegas clearly teaches us that its possible to bet on ANYTHING! We thank Amazon.com for the descriptions: ESPN JeopardyAmerica's favorite quiz show meets ESPN for hours of play-at-home fun and entertainment. Choose from dozens of interesting and challenging categories
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with 1000 questions in all. Try to claim a question using the electronic unit. Each player has his own sports-themed sound and Final JEOPARDY is counted down with ESPN's Sports Center theme. ESPN Trivia ChallengeIf you love sports and think you know sports more than anyone else, then heres your chance to prove it! Created by sports fans for sports fans, ESPN All Sports Trivia Challenge is an exciting and unpredictable head-to-head sports competition like no other! To win, youll need more than sports knowledge and luck on your side because strategy is what separates this unique sports trivia game from the pack. Every move must be calculated offence or defense like a real sports match up. The object is to control a 25-box playing field by strategically picking questions and correctly answering them to win boxes and points while blocking your opponent from doing the same. There are 1,500 sports trivia questions jam-packed with facts and stats covering 10 sports categories, such as nicknames, football, baseball, basketball and golf. NASCAR DVD Board GameNASCAR DVD Board Game emulates the thrills of racing as players go head-to-head in an exciting competition to reach the checkered flag. The object of the game is to be the first player to complete a lap around either a short track (one side of the game board) or a super speedway (other side of game board) and enter Victory Lane. The game showcases DVD on-screen challenges and a two-sided game board that resembles a race track. The track features landing spaces such as Yellow Flag, Drafting, Passing and Black Flag. There are 15 unique race-simulating categories with more than 350 DVD challenges, including some never-before-seen NASCAR footage and the exhilarating sounds in 5.1 Surround Sound. Soccer Tactics World EditionSOCCER TACTICS WORLD EDITION is not a trivia or historical game. This is fast-paced, real soccer (football)! Everything that you can do in soccer, you can do in this game. This is not only a fun game for kids, but for fathers and mothers against sons and daughters; and husband against wife. Soccer Tactics WORLD combines the strategy of soccer
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with the heart of the game. This game includes dribbling, passing and capturing the ball; and intense battles for ball control. If guys game night includes grilling steaks and burgers before the games begin, check out Man Cavethe first home-party opportunity for stuff that men like! For years, women have been going to home parties for Tupperware, cosmetics, jewelry, gourmet foods, baby and pet products, etc. Man Cave is mostly about grilling and beer, and they sell some amazing grilling tools, gadgets and meat steaks, burgers, chicken, bratswhich explains why they call their house parties meatings! Man Cave also features gourmet spices and sauces, poker products and home bar accessories.

Poker/Card Games
If youve ever wanted to play poker but dont know how to play or would like to understand the finer points of the game, heres some help at Play Winning Poker. Texas Hold Em is the big game these days, but there are a number of different ways to play poker. For an overview of how to play other popular poker games, youll find them here at Poker Cards. Bicycle Cards teaches you how to play other wellknown card games like Bridge, Canasta, Hearts, Euchre, Pinochle and a few others. If you have an adventurous group of friends, it might be fun to get them together to learn a card game none of you has ever played before!

Coed Game Night

If youve read the section on Girls Night Out and Guys Night Out, just put them together and youve got a coed game night particularly when it comes to food and beverages. The dilemma may be which games to play. If the guys play poker and the girls play board games, youve missed the point of a coed game night.

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Choose games that are fun and challenge both sexes. If you want to check out dozens of games beyond Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, Monopoly and other perennial standards, go to Board Game Central and pick out a few that pique your interest!

Adult Strategy Games

The title of this section might be a bit misleading. They probably do have adult strategy board games where you have to figure out how to get someone into a compromising position, but youre on your own for those games. Before we get into your strategy game options, lets hear from Kevin Schlabach, who explains how to set up a serious strategy-game night: I run a local game group in Philadelphia focused on adult strategy board games. The group is called Seize Your Turn. The group is too large to meet in someones home, so I host these events in a local brew pub. Things I consider in finding a venue: location (easy to find), food/menu, parking, free room, bar selection (people like to drink), time window (keep the location free by bringing in business when venue needs it). We play for several hours to allow for multiple games to be played. I sometimes give out a free game or accessory donated by a local store (or myself). Gaming is important to most members of our group due to the social interaction, mental stimulation (brain workout) and challenge of friendly but good competition. Information about my events can be found here: http://www.seizeyourturn.com/category/events/. Many game stores hold free/open gaming sessions, but by holding the events in a brew pub, I tend to attract a more fun and social crowd than is typically found in a board game store. Settlers of Catan was the most popular toy sold on Amazon.com last year, and this game is a typical example of the types of games we play. Also, Boardgamegeek.com is a web site dedicated to strategy board games similar to our interests. Thanks, Kevin! Todays strategy games are like Stratego and Battleship on steroids. Of course, there are quite a few war strategy games, but for a coed group, you might want to take a look at adventure games, fantasy games, horror games, mystery games and science-fiction games. Here are a few titles to look for in adventure games:

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Carcassonne, Puerto Rico, Settlers of Catan, Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth. Find more here. In the fantasy genre, youll find The Lord of the Rings, Blue Moon City, Small World and these. Horror games include A Touch of Evil, Grave Diggers, Last Night on Earth and these. For science-fiction lovers, some titles are Race for the Galaxy, Starcraft, The Great Space Race, Andromeda and more. Go forth and conquer!

Casino Night
Theres game nightand then theres Casino Night, which might go well beyond the casual atmosphere and single-game focus of a weekly or monthly game-time gettogether. You can host a modest casino night in your home with a few poker tables, along with standard game-night food and drink, or you might have an occasion to host a full-tilt casino night. A casino night is often a fundraising event or a major celebration like a milestone anniversary. Planning and hosting a large-scale casino night requires an investment of time and money to create the ideal atmosphere. For a winning casino night, youll want tables for the most popular casino games: Black Jack, roulette, craps, slots and poker. To make it as easy as possible on youthe plannerget some help. Corporate Event Channel is one of the companies in the business of setting up casino nights in every state, so there should be help available in your area. Youll also need food, drinks and, of course, favors to thank your guests for coming and send them home with a little somethingespecially if they lost big-time! If your casino night is a fund-raiser with a big guest list, you might want to have it catered with a cash bar. When hosting a casino night on a smaller scale, appetizers should do the trick. Here are some links directly to dozens of appetizer recipes. Pick your favorites!
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Food.com FoodNetwork.com RecipeZaar.com Epicurious.com RachaelRay.com AppetizersRecipe.com MyRecipes.com CooksRecipes.com Drinks can be anything from water and sodas to wine and beer to a full bar and cocktails. Here are some delicious ideas from Ehow and TheBar.com.

To make sure all your guests leave with a little something at the end of the evening, treat them to Las Vegas favors, and there are plenty available, like personalized playing cards and dice candles! E-How also has lots of good info on hosting, planning, decorating and more for a casino night. Just click on the link for great suggestions!

Board Games Old and New

Youve grown up with Candy Land, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, checkers, chess, Scrabble and dozens of other board gamestoo many to list here. As youve grown, the industry has grown; board games , video games and card games of all kindsincluding games that incorporate DVDs into playmake it easy for you to add variety to your game nights. BestCovery.com
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provides its take on the best board games for families, and they explain why they think these games are the best. Of course, the best games for you are the ones you have the most fun playing. Be adventurous and try out lots of games to expand your game-night repertoire. A Web site called Board Game Exchange makes it easy to try out a game before you invest in a purchase. Wed like to mention a few board games that sound like a lot of fun! First up is Name 5 from Endless Games, and the game is best played in a team vs. team format. The idea is simple. You get a category. You have to name 5 answers within the category in under 30 seconds. For example, can you NAME 5 Meg Ryan movies? NAME 5 Beatles songs. How about 5 professional sports teams whose team name does not end in "s"? NAME 5 synonyms for happy. You yell out the responses! If you like games where you blurt things out, theres actually a game called Blurt!, and it was invented by Tim Walsh at The Playmakers, whos a big game night fan: I am a play advocate, and I think game night is a wonderful way to connect and bond with friends and family. In the age of the Internet with Facebook, Twitter, etc. we are connected to everyone, but are we truly close to anyone? Game nights allow people to rediscover face-toface time when theyre unplugged and offline, around a table and over a game. It brings people together on a much deeper level than the superficial connections that are often found online. I am also a father of two, and we play games all the time. Our tips for game night are: 1) Finger food that's not greasy. (Small pretzels work great! 2) Turn off the phone (KEY WITH A TEENAGE DAUGHTER!) and 3) Have fun! Thanks for the greasy food warning, Tim! Blurt! is an easy game to play, with a lot of laughs throughout. Whats a joint of the finger? Sure, its knuckle, but were you first to Blurt!? How about a round window in the side of a boat? (Thats porthole, but did you

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say it first?) Blurt is so simple, yet so fun. Its a vocabulary builder for kids and a riot for adults. Here are two terrific games from Buffalo Games: Truth Be Told is the revealing new laugh-out-loud, pretend-to-know-your-friends party game! Each round, one of the players is the Host and plays a question card, Truth Be Told, my favorite snack is _______. The Host writes a True Answer pork rinds. All other players pretend to be the Host, and write bluff answers pretzels, prunes, sardines. The Host collects and reads all answers aloud, and players try to guess the True Answer to score points. Bluff answers score points too so there are a lot of ways to win, and a lot of hooting, snickering and giggling along the way! Truth Be Told is for 3-8 players ages 14+. Likewise! is an award-winning, thoughtprovoking party game where it pays to think alike. In this game, individuals are presented with a random pairing of Description and Subject Cards and have to match answers with words or doodles. With over 5,000 possible category combinations, this is a laughable, lively, like-minded party game that youll love! Likewise! is for 3-8 players ages 12+. Digital technology brings us a few board games that are played in conjunction with your TV/DVD system. The first-ever DVDbased board game was Scene It?, which combines a cool social interactive board game with Hollywood trivia and the visual excitement of DVD technology, turning a flat board game into a 3-D multimedia match of memory, logic and pop culture knowledge. Naturally, Scene It? was followed by Scene It? 2 and special-edition Scene It? games for

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move juggernauts like Harry Potter, TV shows like Star Trek: TNG, Seinfeld and Friends, along with a number of other DVD-based board games, and the options are growing. Check out BoardGames.com for a good selection. If board games just arent your thing, but you still want to enjoy a game night with friends or spend quality time at home with your family, Nintendos Wii offers lots of family game night choices.

Indoor/Outdoor Games
Since variety is the spice of life, we thought wed mention a couple of neat indoor/outdoor games that require more hand-eye coordination than strategic skills. Sportcraft makes Soft Tip Sky Darts and Foldable Ladderball. As you can imagine, there are a number of indoor/outdoor games like these to test your physical and strategic skills. Other games you might like are tetherball, disc golf and indoor bowling. The beauty of these games is that theyre lightweight and portable, and theyre designed to prevent a stray dart or mishandled ball from hurting humans, pets and household objects.

TV Game Show Home Games

Alex, well take TV game show home games for $1000! We all seem to be so much better at playing our favorite TV game show than the contestants, dont we? That explains why almost every game show on the air (and a few older ones!) has a home version. When you play the home version, youll discover the game might not be as easy as it is when youre watching the show on TV, and its still great fun! Click here for a Web site that lists TV game shows (and other board games inspired by TV shows) in the left navigation bar. Some are still available, while older games may be a bit harder to find (try Ebay or Amazon. com). Have fun proving to family and friends that youre smarter than a 5th grader!
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Beyond Candy Land: Game Night Snack Recipes

Do your game night snacks look like Candy Landa bowl of M&Ms and some Raisinettes? Lets stretch our board-game board with some super, easy-to-eat appetizers and finger foods. Start with the list of appetizer recipes in the Casino Night section. Here are a few more sites with gamenight recipes, and finally, weve included a couple of our favorite game-night recipes. Cosmopolitan Paula Deen Babble.com As promised, here are two of our favorite game night recipes. We particularly like the first one, because its perfect for every kind of game-night crowd! Chicken Poppers from Good Things Catered Makes enough to feed a crowd! 4 cups low fat buttermilk 2 tablespoons kosher salt 2 tablespoons light brown sugar 2 tablespoons cayenne powder 1 tablespoon garlic powder 3 bay leaves, broken into pieces 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 1/2 cups prepared Italian bread crumbs 4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1 1/2 - 2 inch chunks (about 2 lbs.)
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In large, zip-top bag placed in a bowl, combine the first six ingredients and stir well. Place chicken pieces into the bag and toss to coat completely. Seal bag securely and place bag, still in the bowl, into the fridge to marinate for 2-3 hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line baking sheet with a wire rack. Remove bag from fridge and remove chicken from marinade, shaking to rid of excess liquid. Place chicken pieces on paper towel-lined baking sheet and discard marinade. In a wide, shallow bowl, add seasoned bread crumbs, Dijon mustard, drizzle of olive oil and stir to combine. Set chicken in breadcrumbs, sprinkle crumbs over chicken, and press to coat. Turn chicken over and repeat on other side. Gently shake off excess and place on rack. Repeat with all chicken and place baking sheet into oven to bake until tenders reach an internal temperature of 170 degrees, about 12-15 minutes depending on size. Remove from oven, place on serving platter and serve with barbecue sauce of choice. Crabbies A treat from Paula Deen, these appetizers are easy to make, look elegant and taste delish! The hot sauce or cayenne pepper gives them a tangy twist! Ingredients 8 ounces good white crabmeat, picked free of all shells 1 (5-ounce) jar Cheddarhorseradish spread 2 tablespoons mayonnaise 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened Dash hot sauce or cayenne pepper 8 large toasted bread rounds Chopped parsley leaves, for garnish
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Directions Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine crab, cheese spread, mayonnaise, garlic powder, butter and hot sauce. Divide mixture evenly over bread rounds and spread. Score each round into quarters and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake until topping is heated through and golden brown on top, about 10 to 15 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve hot. These freeze and store well for drop-in company (wholl be glad they stopped by!)

Break Out the Game Board!

Games always have rules, but hosting a game night has only one rulehave fun! Play your favorite games, snack on your favorite foods and share it with your favorite people. We hope our suggestions will inspire you to begin hosting game nights or have given you some new ideas to keep your game nights fresh and even more fun! Its PLAY time!

We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!
~Benjamin Franklin

Editors Note: All pictures have been gathered from various sources around the Internet, including Google images. Page 25 of 25 Some were submitted by their original photographers. If any of the images are copyrighted, and you are the owner of these pictures, please do not hesitate to contact us. They will be removed or credited, if you so desire.