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Table of Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………3

Games: A History of Having Fun……………………………………………………4

The Games People Play! Game Designer Kyle Miller Knows the Rules………4

Gamers Give Us a Clue…………………………………………………………..…8

Family Game Night …………………………………………………………………10

Girls‘ Game Night ……………………………………………………………………12

.

Guys‘ Game Night ……………………………………………………………………13

Poker/Card Games……………………………………………………………………15

Coed Game Night………………………………………………………………….…15

Adult Strategy Games …………………………………………………………….…16

Casino Night ………………….………………………………………………………17

Board Games Old and New…………………………………………………………18

Indoor/Outdoor Games…………………………………………………………….…21

TV Game Show Games………………………………………………………………21

Beyond Candy Land: Game Night Recipes…………………………………………22

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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 it‘s 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, we‘re going to focus on the games we play with others when we

gather for Game Night.

We‘ll 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, you‘ll 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! Let‘s 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 weren‘t 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 Miller‘s 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? I‘ve 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 won‘t 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 that‘s 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 you‘re keeping an eye on the budget. Games do not require a large investment and offer great social interaction. It‘s 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. They‘ll organize and go to conventions so they can share and play games with their fellow hobbyists. It‘s 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 aren‘t all that put out if an opportunity gets away – they just move on to the next one. I‘ve 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 don‘t go their way. When one person‘s 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. I‘ll need to ask a friend about it. In the meantime, let‘s 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 don‘t 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 didn‘t like about those other word games and make a game that gives everybody a chance to have fun. I also like Settlers of Catan. It‘s 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

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the time. It‘s a popular design that‘s had a lot of expansions and sequels. The third game that‘s on my list is there for a very special reason. The game is called Broadway and in some ways it‘s 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 don‘t see an advantage in doing so, then you‘re 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 didn‘t 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 don‘t 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 Kyle‘s 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

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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 different—don‘t 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 you‘d 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

again—I 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 great—simple 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: Let‘s

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.

We‘ll 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 & Beans–This 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. You‘ve got to tweet for the birds, clap for the bugs, and toot for the beans. Who doesn‘t love making raspberry sounds for the Bean cards???

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6 Years Old and Up:

Flapdoodle—In Ithis game, you‘ll 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 Snorta—This game is perfect for larger gatherings since 8 people can play. We‘ve played it during holidays when the relatives are over. We‘ve 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. (It‘s also a great drinking game for adults, but you didn‘t 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 you‘ll 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 it‘s not the only card game in town. There are some other very competitive games to try. My husband‘s 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, you‘ll 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, you‘ll 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 it‘s needed!

Girls’ Game Night

It‘s like any other evening at home with your friends—food, wine, lots of stimulating

conversation. Just add games, and you‘ll add lots more laughs. Whether it‘s 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 it‘s just for girls who want to have fun! It‘s called DivaGirl, and it‘s 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 not—whatever 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, doesn‘t 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

someone‘s 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 guy‘s 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 you‘re 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. It‘s 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 poker—and Las Vegas clearly teaches us that it‘s

possible to bet on ANYTHING! We thank Amazon.com for the descriptions:

ESPN Jeopardy—America'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 Challenge—If you love sports and think you know sports more than anyone

else, then here‘s 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, you‘ll 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 Game—NASCAR 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 Edition—SOCCER

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

Cave—the 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, brats—which 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 you‘ve ever wanted to play poker but don‘t know how to play or would like to

understand the finer points of the game, here‘s 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, you‘ll find them here at

Poker Cards.

Bicycle Cards teaches you how to play other well-

known 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 you‘ve read the section on Girls‘ Night Out

and Guys‘ Night Out, just put them together

and you‘ve 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, you‘ve 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 you‘re on your own for those games. Before we get into your strategy

game options, let‘s 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 someone‘s 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! Today‘s 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, you‘ll 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

There‘s game night—and then there‘s Casino Night, which might go well beyond the

casual atmosphere and single-game focus of a weekly or monthly game-time get-

together. 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 fund-

raising 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,

you‘ll want tables for the most

popular casino games: Black Jack, roulette, craps, slots and poker. To make it as easy

as possible on you—the planner—get 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.

You‘ll also need food, drinks and, of course, favors to thank your guests for coming

and send them home with a little something—especially 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

You‘ve grown up with Candy Land, Monopoly,

Trivial Pursuit, checkers, chess, Scrabble and

dozens of other board games—too many to list

here. As you‘ve grown, the industry has grown;

board games , video games and card games of

all kinds—including games that incorporate

DVDs into play—make 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.

We‘d 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, there‘s actually a game called ―Blurt!‖, and

it was invented by Tim Walsh at The Playmakers, who‘s 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-to-

face time when they‘re 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. What‘s a joint of the finger? Sure, it‘s ―knuckle,‖ but were you first to

Blurt!? How about a round window in the side of a boat? (That‘s ―porthole,‖ but did you

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say it first?) Blurt is so simple, yet so fun. It‘s 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, thought-

provoking 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 you‘ll 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 DVD-

based 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 aren‘t your ―thing,‖ but you still want to enjoy a game night with

friends or spend quality time at home with your family, Nintendo‘s Wii offers lots of

family game night choices.

Indoor/Outdoor Games

Since variety is the spice of life, we thought

we‘d 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 they‘re lightweight and portable, and they‘re designed to prevent a stray dart or

mishandled ball from hurting humans, pets and household objects.

TV Game Show Home Games

Alex, we‘ll 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, don‘t 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,

you‘ll discover the game might not be as

easy as it is when you‘re watching the

show on TV, and it‘s 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 you‘re smarter than a 5th grader!

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Beyond Candy Land: Game Night Snack Recipes

Do your game night snacks look like Candy Land—a bowl of M&Ms and some

Raisinettes? Let‘s 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 game-

night recipes, and finally, we‘ve

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 it‘s 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 Cheddar-horseradish 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 (who‘ll be glad they stopped by!)

Break Out the Game Board!

Games always have rules, but hosting a game night has only one rule—have 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! It‘s PLAY time!

““WWee ddoo nnoott ssttoopp ppllaayyiinngg bbeeccaauussee wwee ggrrooww

oolldd,, wwee ggrrooww oolldd bbeeccaauussee wwee ssttoopp ppllaayyiinngg!!”” ~Benjamin Franklin

Editor‘s Note: All pictures have been gathered from various sources around the Internet, including Google images.

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.