17 Comments

I am a terrible speller but win at scrabble a lot because of the scoring. So, naturally, I love Scrabble! I also love Rumicube but my Meno-brain gets a little hung up these days...

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We've never played games when the lights go out. More often than not, we were reading. So, we'd just light a candle (or use a flashlight) and continue reading. LOL

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Backgammon! Monopoly! Scrabble/Bananagrams! Cards Against Humanity! Cover Your Assets! Stet! Yatzee! And a good ol' fashioned séance. xo

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Same list plus Blank Slate. I wrote a piece about bonding with your kids over a board game.

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OMG, were we separated at birth??? These are so my games!

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When you're better, we shall play! xo

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Dec 15, 2023Liked by Alisa Kennedy Jones

We love table games, we have a whole shelf full. If it was a power outage and we had limited light, I'd probably reach for the dice and play Greed. It's been my family's signature game for generations. Its very similar to Farkle but a few rule differences. You roll 5 standard dice, save the 1's and 5's (or other scoring combos), then roll the remaining dice until you have a total you like, or until you bust. If you're greedy, you keep going in hopes of a big total, but risk busting. If you're not greedy, your total grows slowly and you might get left behind. Many tales of glory and defeat have grown into family lore from nights playing Greed!

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Oh, GREED, sounds fabulous! Thanks for taking the time to explain... am so going to try with our lot--they need something intergenerational like this!

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Dec 15, 2023Liked by Alisa Kennedy Jones

I found this set of rules online, it looks very close to what we play. And yeah, we use 6 dice. My brain was apparently not turned on when I typed the above! https://thehobbyts.com/greed-dice-game-rules/

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During COVID, our family played games nightly. Top three:

1. Monopoly, the card game.

2. Dominoes, Mexican Train

3. Puzzles

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Ooh, Monopoly, the card game... we haven't tried that one.

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Seriously. Addictive.

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We adapt the scrabble pieces for two different games; squabble, and take two. Do you know them? you play both without a board, all letter begin face down in the middle, one turned over at a time, and you make words in front of you. squabble is fast, you can steal and rearrange as anagrams allow, take two you build a crossword.

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Oh, Squabble sounds perfect for our lot... what a marvelous variation!!! Definitely going to play to get my brain back from all these dumbing-down post-surgical drugs... (for which I am absurdly thankful).

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Be warned: squabble gets quite tense

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Snakes and ladders 🐍 + 🪜

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Ahhh, I cannot think about this game without picturing the cult classic Ken Russell high camp horror film "Lair of the White Worm"!!! The game features as a trope along with the marvelous Amanda Donohoe. I wrote my NYU film entrance essay on it... I think we need to always have it around for better luck. Good reminder! xo

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