Family Games: Writers and Games Announced

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

  1. Carrie Bebris on 10 Days in the USA
  2. Steven E. Schend on 1960: The Making of the President
  3. Dominic Crapuchettes on Apples to Apples
  4. Mike Breault on The Awful Green Things from Outer Space
  5. Jeff Tidball on Balderdash
  6. Keith Baker on Bang!
  7. Bruce Harlick on Battleship
  8. James Wallis on Bausack
  9. Paul Jaquays on Black Box
  10. Lewis Pulsipher on Blokus
  11. Teeuwynn Woodruff on Boggle
  12. Fred Hicks on Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  13. James Ernest on Candy Land
  14. Ian Livingstone on Can’t Stop
  15. Bruce Whitehill on Careers
  16. Jared Sorensen on Cat
  17. Wolfgang Baur on Cathedral
  18. John Scott Tynes on Clue
  19. Alessio Cavatore on Condottiere
  20. Elaine Cunningham on Connect Four
  21. Will Hindmarch on Cranium
  22. Erik Mona on Crossbows and Catapults
  23. William W. Connors on Dark Tower
  24. John D. Rateliff on Dogfight
  25. Robert J. Schwalb on Dungeon!
  26. jim pinto on Dvonn
  27. Gav Thorpe on Easter Island
  28. Jeff Grubb on Eurorails
  29. Kenneth Hite on Faery’s Tale Deluxe
  30. Richard Dansky on Family Business
  31. Warren Spector on Focus
  32. Corey Konieczka on For Sale
  33. James M. Ward on Fortress America
  34. Stan! on Frank’s Zoo
  35. Bruce C. Shelley on The Game of Life
  36. Phil Orbanes on A Gamut of Games
  37. Monica Valentinelli on Gloom
  38. Matt Leacock on Go Away Monster!
  39. Steve Jackson on The Great Dalmuti
  40. David “Zeb” Cook on Guillotine
  41. Jason Matthews on Gulo Gulo
  42. Joshua Howard on Halli Galli
  43. Bruce Nesmith on Hare & Tortoise
  44. Mike Pondsmith on HeroClix
  45. Anthony J. Gallela on HeroQuest
  46. Chris Pramas on HeroScape
  47. Ed Greenwood on Hey! That’s My Fish!
  48. Colin McComb on Hive
  49. Alan R. Moon on Hoity Toity
  50. Jon Leitheusser on Ingenious
  51. Uli Blennemann on Java
  52. Luke Crane on Jungle Speed
  53. Monte Cook on Kill Doctor Lucky
  54. Emiliano Sciarra on Knightmare Chess
  55. Todd A. Breitenstein on Liar’s Dice
  56. Marc Gascoigne on Loopin’ Louie
  57. Andrew Parks on Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
  58. Seth Johnson on Lost Cities
  59. John Yianni on Magi-Nation
  60. Bill Bodden on Master Labyrinth
  61. Andrew Greenberg on Mastermind
  62. Ken Levine on Memoir ’44
  63. Scott Haring on Mille Bornes
  64. Steve Jackson on Monopoly
  65. Sheri Graner Ray on Mouse Trap
  66. Kevin G. Nunn on Mystery Rummy: Murders in the Rue Morgue
  67. Dale Donovan on The Omega Virus
  68. Darren Watts on Othello
  69. Charles Ryan on Pandemic
  70. Michelle Lyons on Pente
  71. Thomas M. Reid on Pictionary
  72. Nicole Lindroos on Pieces of Eight
  73. John Wick on Pit
  74. Matt Forbeck on Pokémon
  75. Robin D. Laws on Prince Valiant
  76. Stephen Glenn on Qwirkle
  77. Sébastien Pauchon on Ricochet Robots
  78. Peter Olotka on Risk
  79. Richard Breese on Rummikub
  80. Jesse Scoble on Scotland Yard
  81. Richard Garfield on Scrabble
  82. Mike Selinker on Set
  83. Rob Heinsoo on Small World
  84. Hal Mangold on Sorry!
  85. Jess Lebow on Stratego
  86. Eric Goldberg on Strat-O-Matic Baseball
  87. Andrea Angiolino on Survive!
  88. Karl Deckard on Thebes
  89. Dan Tibbles on Time’s Up!
  90. Tom Wham on Trade Winds
  91. Susan McKinley Ross on TransAmerica
  92. Ray Winninger on Trivial Pursuit
  93. Leo Colovini on Twixt
  94. Matthew Kirby on Uno
  95. David Parlett on Upwords
  96. Lester Smith on Werewolf
  97. John Kovalic on Wits & Wagers
  98. Philip Reed on Yahtzee
  99. Kevin Wilson on Zendo
  100. Jess Hartley on Zooloretto