Hobbies And Interests
Clue
"Clue" is the granddaddy of detective board games. The board itself is laid out as the floor plan for a mansion separated into different rooms. Players, as the detectives, roll dice, move tokens and attempt to figure out who the killer is, the weapon used and in which room the murder occurred by engaging with cards that lead to clues to help narrow down the possibilities.
Scrabble
One popular old board game that is still regularly played today places a greater challenge upon the intellect than other board games that rely highly on the luck of the dice. Scrabble demands of its winners a rich vocabulary as well as a mathematical skill for quickly combining letters with numbered values on each. Tiles with one letter imprinted on them are placed upon a board to form words. Players score higher both by creating longer words, by using letters that appear less often in words, and by placing tiles on point bonus squares marked on the board.
The Game of Life
"The Game of Life" was created in the late 1800s, but most players are more familiar with the updated version released in 1960 that remains firmly grounded in the familial stereotypes of the time. Players drive little plastic cars around a board that represents the path of life that includes such elements as marriage, having children, going to college, getting a job and buying insurance.
Risk
"Risk" is a member of the board game genre that allows players to engage in world conquest. The board features a very simple map of the world's continents and the object of the game is equally simple, albeit sometimes time consuming: armies represented by blocks of different colors engage in combat as each player strives to conquer the territories on the map.
Chess
Chess traces its long history back to India or Persia around the 5th Century A.D. The venerable game was introduced to Europe through Spain sometime during the 11th Century and has been one of the most popular and often played board games ever since. The strength and powers of the famous chess pieces have not remained static, but have rather evolved over time. Though the most versatile piece on the board today, the Queen started out much weaker. The Bishop also gained strength during the 1500s when rules were changed to allow this piece to move diagonally more than just one field.