My family was never a big game playing family apart from Christmas time - mainly because my Dad ruled the roost with Monopoly and took everything so very seriously. We did have a Scrabble board set up for days at a time though - Dad took so long to choose his words that they developed a system where they just played their word then went on with house/family stuff until it was their turn again. Mum used to keep her tile rack in a kitchen cupboard and Dad kept his in his desk.
Anyway, things have come a long way in the board game world since then and whereas I remember only numerical, traditional card games, more unusual card games have come into being now. Cold introduced me to Cthulhu Fluxx and most recently to Lunch Money, both of which I enjoyed although I lost most of them to the master!
Cthulhu Fluxx (and indeed, I'd guess the other themed Fluxx games) is a little complicated at first but half the fun is arguing how many cards you have to pick up or throw away and whether you get to play again or have you finished your turn. Trying to work out whether to keep a card or has your opponent got the other half of the combo makes for some suspense but my favorite part is laying a card that makes my opponents reduce their hand of cards to just 2 cards - take that Mr Bad Guy!
Lunch Money is a whole different type of card game and requires a lot of smack talking as part of the fun. More alcohol was required for me to really get into it as I've never engaged in any type of smack talking and I felt silly. Another margarita or two and he didn't know what hit him although I still lost!
The cards have kind of creepy pictures of kids on them - not creepy in a bad way, just in an old horror movie kind of way - toned to sepia with old fashioned clothes made me think of ghosts. It's based on a playground fight and you have life counters.You get a starting hand of 5 cards made up of attack, defend or heal cards but the fun starts as you describe what you are going to do but with colorful insults - that bit is even in the Rulebook!
Different cards allow you to counterattack or use a blocking manouvre but it all comes down to last one standing and then the victory dance can be performed - if you've consumed enough alcohol I guess!
I wouldn't recommend either game for young children though - I think both are a bit too complicated for them but older children and grown up children can certainly have a lot of laughs playing these games!
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