Scrabble, Monopoly & Cluedo!
Looking through the key search words on my site I have noticed that people are searching for Scrabble, Monopoly and Cluedo.
This shows me that everyone plays board games but also suggests that when people think board games they may only be familiar with these classic games?
I don’t stock Scrabble, Monopoly or Cluedo. Will I do so in the future? I’m not sure? Maybe a Palmers Green version of Monopoly? Am I doing myself a disservice by not stocking them now? I don’t think so because I want to bring new games to people’s attention first!
I loved these games when I was a kid - and as an only child it was really hard to play board games but I somehow managed to be all the characters in Monopoly (although the boot always won!) and even to play Cluedo on my own too - how on earth did I manage to keep the clues I worked out…from myself?!!!
But these days apart from Scrabble, I don’t want to play Monopoly or Cluedo when there are so many other games on the market which tick the boxes that these games tick….and more!
If you want a Monopoly-like game why not try Ticket to Ride? It’s described thus by Screenrant.com (2020) ‘If you dream of acquiring all the railroads in Monopoly, you're going to enjoy this cross-country adventure game riding the rails. All you have to do is claim railway routes and make your way across the country before anyone else. Sounds simple, right? But make the wrong move and you'll find yourself going around in circles. Make the right connections from city to city and you win the game’.
I don’t sell Ticket to Ride yet…but you will be able to get hold of a copy at another friendly local games store until I start stocking it (in early 2021 hopefully!)
And if solving mysteries is up your street and you want to try something different from Cluedo how about trying one of the Adventure Games I stock or an EXIT: Escape Room game. They are a bit more involved than Cluedo but will test your skills of deduction and would make a great activity for all the family on Christmas Day for example.
As for Scrabble - well, it’s how I got to know my neighbours a bit better (a shout out here to Laura, Naomi and Steph) and it remains high on my list of great games…but if you want something similar but with no board, just the letter tiles, which is a bit more fast-paced, where you can reject letters that don’t work for you (back in the pot go Q, X and Z!) and where the creative types amongst you can make up your own rules…then I thoroughly recommend Bananagrams. It’s an awesome game (and again I hope to be able to stock it soon!).
It can even be played solo! I am so glad that only children everywhere are not required to play all the characters in Monopoly (as I had to in 1976!) if they want to enjoy playing board games these days!
In fact that has got me thinking….next time my blog will be about not the rise of Skywalker but the rise of Solo (solo games that is!).