I think they can be good and bad, depends on what kind of mood I'm in. Usually It can be lots of fun though, as long as everyone sees it as fun. I've seen people get upset when they feel they're being "picked on" a bit too much.

Munchkin is a great example, and even many complex games have this type of element, Sid Meier's Civilization comes to mind, and Risk.

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Chicks dig giant robots.

Khador: 128 models/251 pts all painted!
Skorne: 116 models/225 pts all painted!
Circle: 32 models/110 pts all painted!
Mercs/Minions: 70 models/137 pts all painted!

Nomads: 7 Models/152 points all painted!

3325 Tons of Battlemechs

Risk is definatly on the top of the list for this type of game.   Alliances can be made and broken on everyturn.  Although if you are a known backstabber, there is a good chance it is going to come back and bite you, or other people are just going to team up on you and deal with other players later.

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Heh!  If you think Risk is a "backstabber" game then you haven't played Diplomacy.  Diplomacy is just as easy with the rules, but the game relies on player interaction and player backstabbing.  I think Diplomacy is the ultimate game in this category.

Although if there are people out there who really like Munchkin [like me... its tons of fun] try playing Talisman.  Its just as fun!

 

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Steve

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"Eagles may soar in the clouds, but weasels never get sucked into jet engines." John Benfield

A 1-4 player game I've come to love is Ingenious. I'm still not sure how it works with One player, but the game has a solitaire variant to it. Okay, the rules aren't that complicated, but you can play with up to 4 players, and even at 2 players the game is really intriguing. I may do a review of it in the reviews section later, but the general gist (and the thing that stands it above other 2 player games) is that you have to get your lowest score (of 4 categories) higher than your opponents.

Puzzled? Confused?

Okay, I guess I have to review the game. I'll rely on boardgamegeek's review to relay the explanation:
The game is played on a hex board. 120 equally sized pieces, each consisting of two joined hexes come with the game. There are symbols on each hex that makes up the piece – some pieces have two identical symbols, some have two different symbols (not unlike dominoes). The pieces go into a cloth bag so that they get drawn randomly. Each player receives six pieces to start the game, which are placed onto a rack and visible to them alone.

The goal of the game is, through clever placement, to obtain points in the different symbol colours. Points are claimed by placing a piece such that the symbols on it lie next to already-placed pieces with the same symbol. Pieces are placed onto any open spaces. So, for example, if a player places a piece with a purple circle on it such that it sits next to an unbroken line of four other purple circles already on the board, then the player scores four purple points. A newly placed symbol can lie next to at most five individual rows of symbols.

Each player uses a scoring track to keep track of his points – one track for each colour going from 1 to 18. If a player reaches the 18th space with any colour, then he gets to call out “Genial!” (or just think it if he’s not an extrovert) and take another turn.

At the end of their turn, players draw as many tiles out of the bag as required to bring their rack back up to six.

The game ends when no more tiles can be placed onto the board. Now each player looks to see how many points they scored in the colour they scored the least in. Whoever has the most points in their least-scored colour is the winner. Simple.

The author of the game has also come up with solitaire and team play, in which two teams of two play with each player not being able to see his partner’s tiles.


The only complaint I had with this game is a relatively small one: the pieces tend to shift and move when you try to place them on the board. It would have been better to have had the board cut with slight indentations that you put your pieces into... but as I said, a small complaint, and one they fixed with Ingenious: Travel edition (which is only for 2 players).

I hope you give this game a try.

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"Come my friends, 'tis not too late to seek a newer world." - Tennyson

So who will play the card?

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Fortune is most evil when she smiles.
--Boethius

Chaos in the Old World is a very Risk like game. I like how every God plays differently, which I think allows for a lot of replay value playing a different God.

I have this C'Thulu "card" game that really isn't a card game. Essentially, everyone is given a card detailing their role and depending on the amount of players(5-20 or so) 1 to 2 are cultists and the rest are villagers. In bigger games some people can take other roles like Seer, police etc. However, no one knows who is who and you have to find the cultists before they kill everyone. Kind of like Clue in a way, except you vote on who gets lynched every turn. No board though and you need a moderator. Would love to try it sometime. :)

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I bounce and cut off your head!

I agree

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Fortune is most evil when she smiles.
--Boethius

Mafia is exactly what it is. I've never played but a friend of mine told me about it.

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I bounce and cut off your head!

See I would have turned into a real werewolf there.

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I bounce and cut off your head!

I don't know that I'd call knifing the prosecutor in the ribs on his way to litigate against your senator at his corruption trial "subtle". ;-)

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Preparing: MSHAG, Task Force Zeta
Always Up For a Game Of: Agricola, Pandemic, 7 Wonders, Settlers of Catan, Sharur: Evolutions
Interested in Trying: Dirty Secrets, HeroQuest2, Burning Wheel