Family Games: The 100 Best – the sequel to the award-winning Hobby Games: The 100 Best – should be in stores sometime next week. If you can’t find it at your friendly local gaming store, you can pre-order it through Green Ronin‘s site, and they’ll offer you their Walk the Plank game for only $5 (about $10 off).
Editor Jim Lowder did a great job with lining up some serious talent for this tome, and the writers chose some excellent games to discuss. It’s also bookended by two of my favorite folks. Mike Gray leads off with the introduction, and Wil Wheaton cleans up with the afterword. For my part, I wrote about the Pokémon Trading Card Game, possibly the most popular tabletop game of all time.
There’s a full list of the writers and their games after the break. For Internet-meme fun, I bolded the ones I’ve played. I’m batting .500, which isn’t bad, but it leaves me lots of great games yet to play.
Family Games: The 100 Best essay list
Foreword by Mike Gray
Introduction by James Lowder
Afterword by Wil Wheaton
Appendix A: Games and Education by David Millians
Appendix B: Family Games in Hobby Games: The 100 Best by James Lowder
- Carrie Bebris on 10 Days in the USA
- Steven E. Schend on 1960: The Making of the President
- Dominic Crapuchettes on Apples to Apples
- Mike Breault on The Awful Green Things from Outer Space
- Jeff Tidball on Balderdash
- Keith Baker on Bang!
- Bruce Harlick on Battleship
- James Wallis on Bausack
- Paul Jaquays on Black Box
- Lewis Pulsipher on Blokus
- Teeuwynn Woodruff on Boggle
- Fred Hicks on Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- James Ernest on Candy Land
- Ian Livingstone on Can’t Stop
- Bruce Whitehill on Careers
- Jared Sorensen on Cat
- Wolfgang Baur on Cathedral
- John Scott Tynes on Clue
- Alessio Cavatore on Condottiere
- Elaine Cunningham on Connect Four
- Will Hindmarch on Cranium
- Erik Mona on Crossbows and Catapults
- William W. Connors on Dark Tower
- John D. Rateliff on Dogfight
- Robert J. Schwalb on Dungeon!
- jim pinto on Dvonn
- Gav Thorpe on Easter Island
- Jeff Grubb on Eurorails
- Kenneth Hite on Faery’s Tale Deluxe
- Richard Dansky on Family Business
- Warren Spector on Focus
- Corey Konieczka on For Sale
- James M. Ward on Fortress America
- Stan! on Frank’s Zoo
- Bruce C. Shelley on The Game of Life
- Phil Orbanes on A Gamut of Games
- Monica Valentinelli on Gloom
- Matt Leacock on Go Away Monster!
- Steve Jackson on The Great Dalmuti
- David “Zeb” Cook on Guillotine
- Jason Matthews on Gulo Gulo
- Joshua Howard on Halli Galli
- Bruce Nesmith on Hare & Tortoise
- Mike Pondsmith on HeroClix
- Anthony J. Gallela on HeroQuest
- Chris Pramas on HeroScape
- Ed Greenwood on Hey! That’s My Fish!
- Colin McComb on Hive
- Alan R. Moon on Hoity Toity
- Jon Leitheusser on Ingenious
- Uli Blennemann on Java
- Luke Crane on Jungle Speed
- Monte Cook on Kill Doctor Lucky
- Emiliano Sciarra on Knightmare Chess
- Todd A. Breitenstein on Liar’s Dice
- Marc Gascoigne on Loopin’ Louie
- Andrew Parks on Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
- Seth Johnson on Lost Cities
- John Yianni on Magi-Nation
- Bill Bodden on Master Labyrinth
- Andrew Greenberg on Mastermind
- Ken Levine on Memoir ’44
- Scott Haring on Mille Bornes
- Steve Jackson on Monopoly
- Sheri Graner Ray on Mouse Trap
- Kevin G. Nunn on Mystery Rummy: Murders in the Rue Morgue
- Dale Donovan on The Omega Virus
- Darren Watts on Othello
- Charles Ryan on Pandemic
- Michelle Lyons on Pente
- Thomas M. Reid on Pictionary
- Nicole Lindroos on Pieces of Eight
- John Wick on Pit
- Matt Forbeck on Pokémon
- Robin D. Laws on Prince Valiant
- Stephen Glenn on Qwirkle
- Sébastien Pauchon on Ricochet Robots
- Peter Olotka on Risk
- Richard Breese on Rummikub
- Jesse Scoble on Scotland Yard
- Richard Garfield on Scrabble
- Mike Selinker on Set
- Rob Heinsoo on Small World
- Hal Mangold on Sorry!
- Jess Lebow on Stratego
- Eric Goldberg on Strat-O-Matic Baseball
- Andrea Angiolino on Survive!
- Karl Deckard on Thebes
- Dan Tibbles on Time’s Up!
- Tom Wham on Trade Winds
- Susan McKinley Ross on TransAmerica
- Ray Winninger on Trivial Pursuit
- Leo Colovini on Twixt
- Matthew Kirby on Uno
- David Parlett on Upwords
- Lester Smith on Werewolf
- John Kovalic on Wits & Wagers
- Philip Reed on Yahtzee
- Kevin Wilson on Zendo
- Jess Hartley on Zooloretto