Green Ronin Releases Family Games: The 100 Best

Two years ago, Green Ronin Publishing released one of the best books on hobby gaming ever written. Their book, Hobby Games: The 100 Best, featured thoughtful articles highlighting some of the best games in the history of the gaming hobby written by some of the best game designers in the industry. Some of the games were well known and are played by thousands of gamers on a regular basis, others were rare games that influenced the creation of the games people play today. One thing is certain, the game became a Christmas Wish List for many gamers and started an internet meme where game hobbyists listed the games they own/play.

Green Ronin has now followed up on the hobby game book with a book entitled Family Games: The 100 Best. With it the company hopes to provide for family games the same kind of invaluable resource they provided for the hobby game industry. The book was originally slated to be released last year's Gen Con convention, but was delayed for a variety of reasons.

Your average consumer isn't a collector of games and doesn't have room in their house for 1000+ board/card/roleplaying/family games and resources like these two books allow for those consumers to purchase games based on the opinions of individuals who have a great deal of experience in designing and playing games. Why James Lowder and the folks at Green Ronin have yet to ask me for an entry in their compilations is beyond understanding, but the list of games in this edition is once again a wonderful selection of the popular and the rare and consumers cannot go wrong with any of the games on the list.

I have provided a copy of the games included in the new volume below, those games that are bold are games that I own and those games that are italicized are games that I have played.

Family Games: The 100 Best

* Foreword by Mike Gray
* Introduction by James Lowder
* Afterword by Wil Wheaton
* Appendix A: Games and Education by David Millians
* Appendix B: Family Games in Hobby Games: The 100 Best by James Lowder

* Carrie Bebris on 10 Days in the USA
* Steven E. Schend on 1960: The Making of the President
* Dominic Crapuchettes on Apples to Apples
* Mike Breault on The Awful Green Things from Outer Space
* Jeff Tidball on Balderdash
* Keith Baker on Bang!
* Bruce Harlick on Battleship
* James Wallis on Bausack
* Paul Jaquays on Black Box
* Lewis Pulsipher on Blokus
* Teeuwynn Woodruff on Boggle
* Fred Hicks on Buffy the Vampire Slayer
* James Ernest on Candy Land
* Ian Livingstone on Can't Stop
* Bruce Whitehill on Careers
* Jared Sorensen on Cat
* Wolfgang Baur on Cathedral
* John Scott Tynes on Clue
* Alessio Cavatore on Condottiere
* Elaine Cunningham on Connect Four
* Will Hindmarch on Cranium
* Erik Mona on Crossbows and Catapults
* William W. Connors on Dark Tower
* John D. Rateliff on Dogfight
* Robert J. Schwalb on Dungeon!
* jim pinto on Dvonn
* Gav Thorpe on Easter Island
* Jeff Grubb on Eurorails
* Kenneth Hite on Faery's Tale Deluxe
* Richard Dansky on Family Business
* Warren Spector on Focus
* Corey Konieczka on For Sale
* James M. Ward on Fortress America
* Stan! on Frank's Zoo
* Bruce C. Shelley on The Game of Life
* Phil Orbanes on A Gamut of Games
* Monica Valentinelli on Gloom
* Matt Leacock on Go Away Monster!
* Steve Jackson on The Great Dalmuti
* David "Zeb" Cook on Guillotine
* Jason Matthews on Gulo Gulo
* Joshua Howard on Halli Galli
* Bruce Nesmith on Hare & Tortoise
* Mike Pondsmith on HeroClix
* Anthony J. Gallela on HeroQuest
* Chris Pramas on HeroScape
* Ed Greenwood on Hey! That's My Fish!
* Colin McComb on Hive
* Alan R. Moon on Hoity Toity
* Jon Leitheusser on Ingenious
* Uli Blennemann on Java
* Luke Crane on Jungle Speed
* Monte Cook on Kill Doctor Lucky
* Emiliano Sciarra on Knightmare Chess
* Todd A. Breitenstein on Liar's Dice
* Marc Gascoigne on Loopin' Louie
* Andrew Parks on Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
* Seth Johnson on Lost Cities
* John Yianni on Magi-Nation
* Bill Bodden on Master Labyrinth
* Andrew Greenberg on Mastermind
* Ken Levine on Memoir '44
* Scott Haring on Mille Bornes
* Steve Jackson on Monopoly
* Sheri Graner Ray on Mouse Trap
* Kevin G. Nunn on Mystery Rummy: Murders in the Rue Morgue
* Dale Donovan on The Omega Virus
* Darren Watts on Othello
* Charles Ryan on Pandemic
* Michelle Lyons on Pente
* Thomas M. Reid on Pictionary
* Nicole Lindroos on Pieces of Eight
* John Wick on Pit
* Matt Forbeck on Pokémon
* Robin D. Laws on Prince Valiant
* Stephen Glenn on Qwirkle
* Sébastien Pauchon on Ricochet Robots
* Peter Olotka on Risk
* Richard Breese on Rummikub
* Jesse Scoble on Scotland Yard
* Richard Garfield on Scrabble
* Mike Selinker on Set
* Rob Heinsoo on Small World
* Hal Mangold on Sorry!
* Jess Lebow on Stratego
* Eric Goldberg on Strat-O-Matic Baseball
* Andrea Angiolino on Survive!
* Karl Deckard on Thebes
* Dan Tibbles on Time's Up!
* Tom Wham on Trade Winds
* Susan McKinley Ross on TransAmerica
* Ray Winninger on Trivial Pursuit
* Leo Colovini on Twixt
* Matthew Kirby on Uno
* David Parlett on Upwords
* Lester Smith on Werewolf
* John Kovalic on Wits & Wagers
* Philip Reed on Yahtzee
* Kevin Wilson on Zendo
* Jess Hartley on Zooloretto

As you can see, I own and have played a lot of these games. Some of them, like Heroquest and Heroscape, appeal to my "rpg" gaming personality. Others, like Zooloretto, are wonderful games for playing with people who want to play a great game but aren't interested in "fantasy" themes. I'm surprised at the absence of some games from the list, but I am not surprised that any of the games listed made the list. This is because there are more than 100 Family Games worth playing if you have the time.