Reddit mentions: The best domino & tile games

oh this is perfect. An excellent exercise.

$100 to buy games on Amazon with a newbie who has specific needs.

Ok so we're looking to minimize card games, adult players, 2+

1. Alhambra - $30 - it's a fun game and it gets our requirements right out of the way. it's more than just a card game there's a board, there's tiles to play with, A nice amount of physicality. it's new player friendly and works with 2 players.
   
   
2. Last Night on Earth - $45 - Again going hard on the requirements here. It may be totally cheesy and it might not last a long time in your collection but if you're gonna get this game better to get it when you're young in the hobby so you'll have the most fun. It's team based but works with one player teams. It's a zombie game with a lot of mini zombie figurines to play with. It's a lot of fun to play with.
   
   

3. Blueprints - $30 - I want a dice game in your library and in my head the first game is King of Tokyo which is an excellent game but I don't know how useful it is for two players. Blueprints is easy to learn fun to play and performs well with two players.
   
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   At this point I'm about $5 over maybe a little more because i think i rounded down a few. I might have been able to switch a few things to get more games in but I wanted quality games that minimized or compensated for cards. Plus all of these games play 2 or more pretty wel.
   
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   Honorable Mentions:
   
   Jaipur - $35 - For a couple I think one of the best beginner games is Jaipur. It's a two player card game with a welcoming theme that's easy to learn and yet when you play it's as difficult as your opponent makes it. The games aren't long so even when you want to try and experiment with headgames you're not investing too much into it.
   
   Looney Pyramids aka IceDice - $9-15 - Now obviously the one to get is the Ice Dice. It's two "stashes" for $15 vs 1 for $10. Ideally you want three stashes and you can play the most excellent "Space Chess" like game Binary Homeworlds
   
   Bananagrams - $15 - Bananagrams is an excellent party game if you have the tablespace. Honestly this is the singular reason I haven't played my copy yet. It's light it's fluffy, it's fun.
   
   Splendor - $30 - Splendor is an excellent game. Nothing feels good as holding the poker chips in this game. It's a nice strategy game with a dash of tactical planning if you want. You could substitute it for Blueprints and still have excellent picks. Very fun quick game. But it is card heavy.
   
   Word ARound - $15 - Now most people probably haven't heard of this charmer. It's cheap, it's probably best as a party game. I happen to like the look of it but no doubt it'll burn out as you become familiar with the words a bit.
   
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   Race for the Galaxy
   
   I happen to love that game. If you're ever stuck may I recommend this awesome video tutorial.
   
   Modern Table Gamer
   
   Also don't forget you can play online at BoardGameArena. Some people might be recommending Roll for the Galaxy the new spin off game. I haven't played it yet but I found the Miami Dice episode about it to be very enlightening. Both Tom and Sam speak highly of the game especially in comparison to the original game.
   
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   Ticket to Ride
   
   Excellent game I hear for two players you want the Switzerland/India map
   
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   Agricola
   
   I think this might be a bit heavy for new players
   
   
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   Eldrich Horror/Castles of Burgundy
   
   While I have played CoB i don't know it well enough to judge it. I didn't have a great time with my play but it was just one time. I hear lovely things about Eldrich especially compared to Arkham.
   
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Other people have mentioned this stuff individually but I'll rehash and combine. From what I read it sounds like they are looking for company, or maybe they are feeling age creeping in and they want to keep their mind sharp. Before going any further with my -- or anyone else's -- suggestions, it's worth (gently) asking why they came to the group in the first place and what they're hoping to get out of it.

If you're willing to play match-maker, you can try to find them a like-minded gaming partner/group. You could put the word out to your group if they have an elderly relative/friend that would be interested in coming along. Or, find a current social gaming group for the elderly to see your options. What this entails depends heavily on what's available where you live, but if it were me I would ring up places like local senior citizen's homes (as long as they have a similar level of mental sharpness as your attendee), libraries, community centres, or churches. Maybe check for flyers at these places or ads in the community paper (or ring and ask if they've ever run anything).

Whether you want to invite others or sending yours away depends on the circumstance and what you want for your game night -- you could potentially end up with a senior's section that would have benefits and drawbacks. It's a tricky situation, but as you go please try to communicate with the person and your fellow organisers.

As for games, I echo what another said about traditional card games. There's a huge variety from simple to middling complexity and are the most likely seniors would have experience in. Euchre and Rummy (Gin Rummy is 2p) are probably best to start with -- they're too simple for my tastes, but then you can work up through others like Hearts, Spades, and Bridge. This website is good for rules and this website has rules + playable versions. The latter is where I taught myself many games -- many are fun and replayable and classics for a reason! As for mobility issues, you can check out playing card holders/trays/stands like these or games like Checkers, Dominoes, and Mahjong.

This is a lot of work for you to take on, but hopefully it means a lot less time spent tending to this person in the long run. I can absolutely understand you feeling bummed out about the situation -- you enjoy board games enough to organise a local group, and your time to play them is not being realised. You also seem like a very caring person, or you wouldn't have made this post, so I'm sure the attendee is grateful for your attention so far.

Wishing for the best outcome in this situation, and if you want to do any further brainstorming please don't hesitate to reply.

Edit: Album contains three pics comparing height width and depth

When I bought my first riichi mahjong set back in around June/July, I didn't know where I might find a high quality set to play with. I searched on Amazon US and Yellow Mountain Imports had a good looking set that was priced around 64 USD. I bought it, and along with shipping + tax it came out to 80 USD.


I was happy with the tiles at first, but soon something stood out to me as odd. The YMI tiles which I had looked about the same size as regular Japanese mahjong tiles, but they felt...slightly smaller than one would expect. At the time I did not have a Japanese set to compare, so I dismissed the thought.

Then one day while I was visiting family back home in Shanghai, I decided to order the 竹 (also known as Take or Bamboo) riichi mahjong set which I had seen people recommend online. I looked around and found that Amazon JP (amazon.co.jp) had lots of sellers which shipped internationally. The set was priced around 4500 yen, and with shipping came out to 7271 yen (~68 USD).

When I got the tiles I was shocked to see how wonderfully sized they were. I don't know how to describe it but the Take tiles felt the perfect size in my hand. There's just something about the dimensions that felt right. I did a size comparison between the YMI tiles and the Take tiles and immediately saw the difference.

The YMI tiles were shorter and thinner by roughly 1mm

The listed dimensions for the YMI set was 25mm x 20mm x 16mm.

The listed dimensions for the Take set was 26mm x 19mm x 16mm.

BUT, as you can see from the pictures I linked, the YMI set is clearly shorter by 1mm, which is expected. But the Take set is still clearly wider, even if just by a thin margin. I reckon that the YMI set is probably around 18 - 18.5mm in width. The depth of the two tiles seems to be exactly the same at 16mm.

For those of you who are thinking of buying a riichi mahjong set online, keep this post in mind if you plan on buying the YMI set. Buying the Take set off of Amazon JP and having it shipped to the US will come out to around 85-90 USD, a bit more expensive than the YMI but the tiles are properly sized. The selection on Amazon JP is also wider.

Ermahgerd. I'm super excited about this!

The school subject I really like (to teach) is ESOL. It's amazing to see these kids from different countries (and some from harsh backgrounds- I had a kid tell me his grandfather was a general in the army in his home country and that he'd watch him decapitate people... so disturbing) grow, learn, and become proficient in speaking a language that was foreign to them such a short time ago. I love seeing their eyes light up when they use a new word in a sentence for the first time.

In that spirit, I thoroughly enjoy these dominos for one-on-one instruction. Tactile, color coded, and interesting! I love them because the kids are given just enough information (the words the may not be able to think of) without a prescriptive kind of play. Amazing.

I'm excited to see your post, because I was going to write something similar. In particular, I wanted to link to the five geek social fallacies which is all about why nerdy gamers feel obligated to include socially awkward friends at the table, even when they're disruptive. And then, I wanted to suggest that OP transition this high-anxiety friend over to a different social event, and your suggestion of board games is perfect. Board games do not require role play in which a socially awkward person bungles the social interactions. Here are some of my favorites that seem to work well with socially difficult people:

• Dominion (a deck building game -- start with 10 cards, mostly cards to buy stuff, and spend the game buying up more cards that give you extra actions or cash -- what's extremely cool is that the cards you buy are varied, so one game might feel very different from the next game).
  
• Rummikub (you gain 14 tiles and must put them down in runs of color or number -- this is great for aspergers types, because it goes at your own pace, and someone who can envision adjusting all the numbered tiles on the board/table can sometimes on a single turn get rid of tons & tons of tiles in an epic reconfiguring of... everything).
  
• Sequence (team-based card game that involves putting down cards on a game board to form lines, sorta like Connect 4, but involving teamwork, so if someone nervous doesn't want all the pressure on himself or herself, there will be teammates to help in this game).
  
• Munchkin (a joke game based upon D&D but without the social interactions... perfect).
  
• Carcassonne (a slower game that involves making "kingdoms" by placing tiles, pretty good for someone looking for low-pressure).
  
  Good luck OP!

A good set, for me, must be resistant (bamboo sets are nice as a collectible, but I'm too afraid to damage them), stand easily without a support, and lightly sticky to help building walls.

We all prefer non-marked sets (without the number of the tile in the corner), if he's into it make sure to avoid marked ones ^^

Sets are slightly different as the rule played, I suppose it's the japanese one he plays. You'll need a set with red fives, and flowers are optional.

For the box, it's not as much as important of course, but light suitcases in plastic and cloth are not very durable... A suitcase in wood or metal is better. But it's really optional

I couldn't find sets on amazon Brazil, but some on amazon.com. This one seems interesting for a first set, with all the additionnal components, given the reports and its price - I think 70$ is a minimum for a good set :

https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Riichi-Mahjong-White-Tiles/dp/B003UU129U/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1511260892&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=riichi+mahjong+set&psc=1

My girlfriend and I own and really like Pandemic, Forbidden Island. I recently just got Ticket to Ride, we have played 3 times. She is getting good at it fast, she scored 130 on Christmas when we played with the family.

We both really enjoy Dominion. We tried Eminent domain which I really like but she didn't get it right away which frustrated her, but she wants to try again.

She loves to play Bananagrams.

We also very much enjoy Mr. Jack It is only two player and doesn't take 3+ hours, more around 30 min to play. It has a good amount of strategy.

I recommend starting off with Hong Kong Old Style. It's pretty easy to pick up IMO, and the rules you learn for it can be applied to just about all variations of the game (Japanese Riichi or American Style for instance).

A cheap way to get started is to get a deck of Mahjong playing cards from Amazon. They're around 10 bucks, and work just fine for learning the game. If it turns out you like it, there's decently-priced sets of the real tiles on Amazon too.

Just FYI - if you're unsure what style you'll end up playing it's usually a safe bet to order an American Mahjong set because it has all the tiles you need for all variations - plus a few extras (jokers, extra flowers/seasons) that are specific to American style.

edit - Also, the American sets will have arabic numbers in the corner for the character suit and letters for the cardinal directions (NSEW), which makes it a little less daunting for new players since you don't have to immediately learn the Chinese symbols up front.

Oh, awesome! I'd be interested in just about anything you felt like passing on - my brother and I have been wanting to try out 40k (or Fantasy, or really any solid miniatures wargame?) for ages (which is why we picked up Dust in the first place, as a middle ground between wargames and board games), but I'd be willing to swap for just about anything you were looking to get rid of that felt fair to you - we play a whole host of geeky games. Our Dust box is at his place - I'll swing by there and get a full list of what we've got, but looking at my Amazon order history, I pretty sure this is everything:

Dust Tactics Revised Core Set


Light Panzer Walker


Axis Gorillas


Grim Reapers


Light Assault Walker


and the Terrain Tile Set

All the minis are unglued and unpainted, and we really only played a handful of times. We'd been pondering trying out Dust Warfare, but have both been distracted by other things, so I'd love for them to have a good home!

Audiobooks, podcasts, music, and a Kindle full of books. Plenty of non-electronics time too--- just walking, observing, and clearing my mind. It's nice to have options.

I hiked a bit with someone who brought the game banagrams with her on a through-hike. A little weighty, but she called it her comfort item. It was super fun.

1. I only have 1 list, this one, but I have a few work-out related things on their (a roller, blender bottle, shirts, socks).
   
2. I love Bananagrams! We used to play this in high school English.
   
3. Work it. Work it.
   
   Hi, thanks for the contest! :D

I just did the Fancy contest where I had to find things that were over $10,000 so I'm all, "$200 is totally reasonable compared to $10,000 for a spiral-bound textbook!" but here are some dominoes that actually are reasonably priced.

I bet you didn't know that I am a ninja. No really.

Okay so actually you probably did not know (unless you are a botanist or read Michael Pollan) that apples grown from seed range in taste and texture from olive to what we know as apples in the supermarket. The way you get a Granny Smith apple tree is by cloning a pre-existing Granny Smith apple tree. Before prohibition apples were used for cider, which almost everyone drank because plain water wasn't very safe to drink. Then prohibition came along and cider held out longer than all the other alcoholic beverages, but eventually it too fell prey to prohibition... and suddenly all the apple orchard growers had all those trees and nothing to do with them. So they came up with the marketing phrase "An apple a day keeps the doctor away!" to encourage people to buy plain apple fruit.

Rød grød med fløde. What does this mean? I hope I did not just say that I am a pretty pretty princess. That would be embarrassing. (But true, of course.)

Games are very fun for me, and portable games even more so.

These are also much fun!

ty for the contest, op :)

Off topic, but you should totally get Banangrams.

A woman at work had one shipped here pretty recently and it's kinda awesome.

I literally bought my first mahjong set on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003UU129U/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

​

I got it in the mail literally the next day, and it's an awesome set! It was only $70 including the shipping, and definitely worth it!

I sure wish I got a hand like that.

Yellow Mountain Imports! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003UU129U/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_8reiub0XA5A8E

This is a randomly amazing contest of random amazingness.

Morthy Demands:

Posh Old Englishman in Londontown [Found on "Little Bit of Everything!"]

Oh God! [Found on "Read or GTFO!"]

So phallic right now [Found on "Little Bit of Everything!"]

Akeleie Demands:

Geektastic! [Found on "Read or GTFO!"]

Reach for the Stars! [Found on "Little Bit of Everything!"]

Deserted Island! [Found on Little Bit of Everything!]

This was hilarious to me!

As I said, already, for the top 10 games you can probably get a good deal online. But, stray from that and the deals aren't as big. My gaming habits tend more towards casual, family and friend style games, which may also make a difference.

Forbidden Island - 16%

Gloom expansion - 15%

Say Anything - 12%

Munchkin - 16%

Tsuro - 19%

MLP Trading Card Game - 9%

Bananagrams - 21%

Scrabble - 15%

Apples to Apples - 0%

Oz Fluxx - 23%

Those are the last 10 games I bought. The biggest percentage is 23%, and that was only a $3 difference. The biggest dollar difference was $5. For differences that small, i'll buy local. It supports the local guy and I get it now, not several days to a week from now.

Also, the reason I don't agree with the original statement is because (as is shown in my personal examples) the online prices aren't that much less for the games I have purchased lately. And, I have never called in to any of the local stores and found that they do not have something in stock that isn't also out of stock online. So, I also disagree with the assertion that they cannot compete for item availability.

Again, I use the bookstore analogy. Sure, I may be able to get a better deal for a book online, but it's not going to stop my from heading to Powells. And, except for the most obscure of titles, i'll probably find a copy of it at Powells.

While not the exact tiles you are looking for, I found this set's tiles to be of satisfying heft:

[Yellow Mountain Imports Professional Chinese Mahjong Set with Aluminum Case - Large Tiles Size: 1.6 x 1.1 x 0.8 inches (40mm x 29mm x 20mm) - For Chinese Style Gameplay Only] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008RJQX34/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_deTzCb3ESBDQE)


Its a Chinese set with large tiles with good weight to them. I hope you find what you're looking for.

https://smile.amazon.com/American-Mahjong-Mahjongg-Jongg-Mah-Jongg/dp/B005OTSTBE

Just get one of these. They should be a bit smaller than Riichi tiles (which are smaller than standard Chinese tiles) but should still be easy enough to handle. Seriously, I've played Mahjong with cards before and they're very annoying to work with. Also, if you absolutely insist on getting cards, you can save yourself the trouble of designing/printing by getting this:

https://smile.amazon.com/American-Jongg-Mahjong-Playing-Kards/dp/B0031ATWXW/

Another solution is to just have reference guides for the Chinese characters. I found that people learn to memorize them quick because they telegraph too much whenever they have to look up what a character means. My Mahjong group sometimes goes out to teach people how to play Riichi mahjong and this is the method they use. Basically only takes a day for most players to learn.

This is what I bought to do exactly what you are talking about.

Yellow Mountain Imports Chinese Mahjong (Mah Jong, Mahjongg, Mah-Jongg, Mah Jongg, Majiang) Set with Numbered Tiles, Accessories, and Wood Veneer Case, Champagne Gold https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002Q8UR3Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_q1RSBbT22MC2Q

The tiles are huge compared to the YMI Riichi sets, but they are beautiful.

Great idea!

What if you made a thin piece that slides over the top to lock everything in, kinda like a dominoes box...

Example

Happy Halloween! Thanks for the contest!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1932188126/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3JHKQHT8JCNNH&coliid=I2IQS31MNE2PWG

I love a reason to print. But the amount of work involved makes just buying them more worthwhile.

Double 15 Professional Mexican Train White Tiles with Colored Numbers https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085Z42OW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_-65gDbBXR1GZ5

bananagrams if you have a flat surface to play on. 20+ questions while hiking is fun sometimes.

> What do you have for entertainment?

• Music, movies, and TV on my phone or laptop. I have powerbanks, larger batteries and solar to keep them charged. I can also power the 10TB fileserver long enough to copy off anything I want to watch.
  
• Games. I love Bananagrams. All you need is a flat surface and a small bag of tiles. The only problem is that my wife wins every single time.
  
• Hand crank radio
  
• Lots of books
  
• Gardening
  
• Knitting, sewing etc. We can even run the sewing machine from battery/solar if desired.
  
• Ham radio so I can complain about the outage with others. I can also send texts and emails depending on how widespread the outage is.
  
• Alcohol and weed
  
• Fuckin'
  
  > According to the FDA, within the first 4 hours our cold food is spoiled. After 12 hours, our freezer food goes bad.
  
  As others have said, this is extremely conservative, based on the worst case for the most vulnerable populations. You might want to toss raw meat (or ideally cook it), but eggs, butter, cheese, orange juice, most leftovers and many other things will be fine for days. If you anticipate power outages, freeze a few 2L bottles to keep the freezer cold longer.

These might be terrible, but at $6 you might be willing to pay to find out:

Ideal Solid Wood Domino Trays https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000HZK15W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_cXUuzb2R5F0TB

Bananagrams is my favorite word game.

I have this set from yellow mountain. Tiles are tri-color, have English numbers/Letters in the upper right. The box is nice and it comes with betting sticks dice and other minor accessories. Note that it doesn't include the tiles for Western style mahjong (i.e. joker's). 148 tiles.

You can buy something like that on Amazon . It’s really expensive, though! It’s currently listed at $999.

as you wish

Looks like some sort of spinoff game.
http://www.amazon.com/Yu-Gi-Oh-Hexors-Battle-Tile-Game/dp/B00005YXWY/

Hold on now...all we need to do is write an Android app that plays Tri-Ominoes and this thing might just work.

I keep hearing good things about [Bananagrams] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1932188126/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=12DLECSTE4XR5&coliid=I287X0KK179HM2).

I have no preference.

I've recently bought a Riichi set from YMI on Amazon. Here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003UU129U/ref=cfb_at_prodpg

Note: Take into consideration I'm a new player too.

I got this set which includes the flowers shinkiii mentions, and it's relatively cheap (I think I paid 70€ for getting it in Spain, I imagine in US it would be cheaper). I've played like 10 games with it without a mat and so far no problems. Sizewise they are in the Japanese range but are of the smaller ones.

Bananagrams

Bananagrams!

it would have to be a tie on my list between this and this

I'm going to suggest Rummikub. It may not seem all that appealing but I can assure you that it's an addictive game to learn and once you get the hang of it, you probably wont want to stop. I used to play against my grandmother 3-4 times a day a few days a week week after she'd had a couple of strokes that left her partially paralyzed. She could still plan her moves very well and was still sharp up until her last days and I'll never forget her regularly accusing me of cheating. I'd even pretend to drop a tile on the floor so I could look at her hand just to mess with her.

I miss my Nana.

1. The vestibulocochlear nerve (8) is responsible for hearing, dysfunction of this particular nerve is referred to as sensorineural hearing loss.
   
   
2. Sentence Building Dominoes
   
   
3. When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act like a prism and form a rainbow.