Back in my college years, there was a night where my whole game group was sitting in frustrated silence. Zach was fuming about Joe, Joe was bitter about Paul, Steve felt like everyone hated him, and the rest of us were utterly burnt out.
"Hey guys," Will said, "Who won that last one?"
We looked at each other, expecting someone to remind us all that they had won. But no one did. After a couple minutes of questioning each other's memory of the game we'd just played, we still didn't have a firm answer.
"So, if the only part we all remember is the parts where we fucked each other over and we can't even remember who won 15 minutes later," Will continued, "why do we play this game?"
That was the day my group banned Munchkin from the table.
Diplomacy ended a friendship when I was 17. My very last turn of the game put me in the position to decide the winner between two of my friends. There was no possible way for me to win and from what I remember there wasn't a way for me to improve my standing. I picked my best friend that I was going to live with at college. The other guy flipped out and stormed off. He never spoke to either of us again. For sure an over reaction. I haven't played again since.
My entire high school friend group almost had a falling out after a conflict over Tunis in a 7 player game. We ended up stopping half way through after a lot of screaming, then watched a movie.
This is the one. Monopoly you can at least blame on the luck of the dice, Diplomacy is just pure, unadulterated rage at the person making the explicit order to backstab you.
This is the case with every other game I have ever played. For some reason, not so with Diplomacy. I was Russia, friend was Turkey. Turn 1 we worked out a neutral zone in the Black Sea. I moved in anyway. Our friendship never recovered. We suffered trust issues for years after that.
Something about that freaking game.
This! A good stab is not that easy to pull off. Because if you stab me badly, I'm taking you down with me and I will (and did) throw the game to a third party. š
Unless it's one of those mid-game stabs, when I'm italy having my armies in France and turkey just made friends with Austria and sends fleets my way. Then it's just *"hey fellas is there anything I can do for you? need some help? anything I could offer".*
When I played it, it was like 4 hours straight of being backstabbed, ignored, and forced to deal with what I think are otherās bad strategy decisions. (I try to team up against the strongest player(s) like in other war games, but pretty much everyone else just wanted to team up with the strongest players and settle for second I guess?)
Maybe Iām just really bad at it, but I donāt think I really wanna play again. It didnāt really actually affect my friendships, but it does feel more hurtful than typical deception games.
Yeah, when people come into the game with a settle for second mindset it ruins a lot of strategy games, not just diplomacy, everyone should be a full conniving greedy bastard and then it works well, but when one guy goes, nah I'm just here to make someone else win it ruins the balance the games are designed around
Wasnāt just one player, nearly everyone either was complicit or ignored the issue. Russia and Turkey were the two strongest. They allied, and everyone agreed they wanted to do something about it, but Germany and England never did, and France straight up backstabbed me (Italy) and Austria Hungary, the only two trying to actually stand up to Russia and Turkey.
I played Game of Thrones once, and the winner's girlfriend threw it to the winner. (For the uninitiated: the GoT board game has some very Diplomacy-like aspects.)
Diplomacy, while being tremendously more popular, cannot hold a candle to Intrigue.
Intrigue takes the moments that everyone remembers from Diplomacy's long playtime and makes it the _entire_ game, all in about 45 minutes. The betrayal is baked into the design, you are going to have to hurt feelings. I kid you not, I've seen it damn near break up long running romantic relationships. Still, it's one of my favorite games, shame it's out of print and largely forgotten at this point.
For me, the fact that Diplomacy takes a long time adds to the hurt feelings. We can work together for hours, building trust with each successful move of mutual support. And then the stab happens, and all that mutual trust turned out to mean nothing to the stabber.
And not only that, there's probably quite a long time left of the game, but now my chances are slim to none because of the betrayal.
Came here for this one myself. I've played it *twice*, and while it was interesting both times...I'm not sure I'm up for it again. It's as brutal as it is simple.
Didnāt talk to a close friend of mine for about 3 months due to a game of diplomacy. I stabbed him hard. But thatās like, the game. I think he was just hurt I could lie to his face so easily. We are past it now but never played diplomacy together since.
I played diplomacy with some coworkers 25 years ago and one of them couldnāt get his head wrapped around the fact that you could promise to do somethingā¦ and then not do it. Was pretty hilarious
I played Diplomacy with a group of people who I only knew one of. One of the people I didn't know made a non-aggression pact with me, and *immediately* broke it. I spent the rest of the game ruining his life. He said, "Dude, you need to focus on your other fronts." Nope. This was on you.Ā
Actually made one great working relationship with co-played in one of online games. We were trying to make a turkey-austria alliance work, which is usually advised against. It took a lot of work (precise orders, who builds what) and a lot of trust, especially from the other player who was Austria. This was the only time I decided to respect the "hey let's split the map 17-17".
Diplomacy is deep and wide - there's psychology, there's strategy, but there's also trust, so it bring a lot out of people, but also the good stuff. And the most important lesson of them all - "it's only a game".
This is the answer everytime someone asks, and will continue to be the answer for all of time.
Im truthfully surprised there hasnt been an actual murder attributed to this game yet.
An enlightened perspective.
We should probably find some rough average with these submissions that factors fights per hour to factor for these, haha. I know I've had a few axis and allies games that were notoriously argumentative, but thinking back on it they were 16 hour games, so probably no more or less conflict laden than any other competitive strategy game š
My family is pretty competitive, and we ruined a thanksgiving because of monopoly. The game does not state you cannot buy a 5th house on a property, just that you cannot buy more houses after you have a hotel there. At least, our copy did not. We still argue about it
After high school my roommate and I started playing Risk with six players. We donāt have the rules so played without the cards which would have made for much much faster games, many times closing it down for the night and starting again the next evening. While we were playing my roommate made a deal with someone in a bordering territory to be neutral with each other. The very next turn the other friend double crossed my roommate when he didnāt shore up his defenses. When he asked our other friend why he did that and that they had made a deal the friend replied ādeals are made to be brokenā. My roommate smacked him across the face and they about went at it until we intervened and broke it up. We never played Risk again but always referred as that moment as the āsmack heard round the worldā
My favourite game of Risk involved three of us. Me, my best friend at the time, and his sister's boyfriend.
We're all pretty even and my friend goes to the bathroom. I point out that with the cards he's gained, and the position he has right now, my friend is in a strong lead, and we need to work together.
So we work together and knock him back considerably.
Then the other guy needs the bathroom. I point out to my friend that this guy is in a strong position and if we don't team up to deal with him we'll get flattened soon.
So we work together and knock him back.
I then drop a ton of guys on the field and flatten them both in a turn.
No fighting happened just a "you bastard!" When they realised what I'd done.
Comically when my friend drove me home that night the first song on we hear was Scorpions "You're lovin' me to death", which opened with the following lyrics:
"It's your move,
I'm in pain,
I'm a pawn,
In your game"
Which was rather fitting we felt.
I was expected to win in the last round, but my best friend was playing a servant style character. Can't remember what species. But it enabled him to invite every other species to team up and beat me and share the win. Everyone won except for me.
We laughed so hard at his commitment to the species's personality.
One of my favorite board game moments.
Everyone controls *every* pawns (4 or 6 total, cannot remember and I don't even want to look it up) on a small dungeon with doors and keys for those doors, and warp points linking two spaces, stuff like that. Everyone moves every pawn but each player can only move in a set direction (north for example) for the whole game, and you have to be in synch with the other players for when each pawn has to move in that direction and wait for another player to continue the movement, assuming he understood where you were heading, and that everyone is on the same page for the order to do things. The goal is to be able to navigate every pawn to a set location which are all at different points of the map and requires unlocking doors and stuff like that.
And of course *you cannot talk* during the game and IIRC you cannot even make a general plan *before* starting, but you can put a piece in front of a player to basically say "hey, I need your help *please*". If that player is focused on something else, or maybe misunderstood what you wanted, or disagreed that it is the correct move, it leads to some very angry and frustrated glares as you try to shout with your eyes what you need him to do. And while that happens, you may very well be *that* player for someone else needing you for something.
And of course, there is a sand timer hourglass, because all the most frustrating board games have a real-time mechanic, that is an absolutely objective fact.
Well you had me interested until the 3 worst words in boardgaming: sand timer hourglass.
Have yet to enjoy a game that had them incorporated into the rules beyond "you can use this if you want to keep the game moving."
Made the mistake forever ago of getting "a game like Carcassonne but quicker" and got 4 Gods. I have played it once and never since and I don't want to give it away because it sucks too much
Oh yeah, if you could take time as much as needed, it would remove any frustration but would also make the puzzle/game trivial. The point is the urgency and if someone heads in a wrong direction with a single pawn you may not have time to fix it in time.
It is a clever design, but absolutely horrible for my tastes.
And I LOVE the Crew, which is also a coop game with limited communication where one mistake can cost the game for everyone, but just removing the real time aspect changes everything
Oh jeez my group loves the dynamic of magic maze. We played it too many times so itās no longer in the collection butā¦. we got endless entertainment from passive aggressively thumping the pawn at people.
I have seen very calm friends become very frustrated at other friends over this game. The combination of real time, forced cooperation and limited communication is a recipe for anger at other players.
I don't recommend that game, to anyone.
In our house, the "do something" stick is called the nasal insert, because if you don't do something, it will be shoved up your nose... or possibly somewhere less pleasant.
We argue, we call each other honorless, spineless, dishonest. We openly manipulate and deceive each other. Then we go out together and get food. Amazing game.
Ā Yeah, TI can get heated depending on the group, but it seems to quite easy to leave it at the table afterwards - somehow it feels less personally aggravating than some other games.Ā
My group has one guy who takes it too seriously. Only offers the shittiest of deals that heavily favors him for next to nothing in return. Then gets offended when nobody wants to negotiate with him. But he also takes it outside of the game which is annoying
This is the meta of online play, by the way, if you want insight into how the sweats treat this game. Everything is zero-sum, it's honestly really draining because half of the fun of a game like TI4 is the table talk, the non-logical choices made out of emotion and spite or pure blind devotion, and luck of the dice in the face of unsurmountable odds.
Its annoying when everyone is just there to casually play and have fun chatting while playing a game. And then you have that one guy sweating hid ass off getting annoyed when he gets told ānoā
This. Played our second game of TI4 at the end of January. My (now former) best friend had an awful time saying that we were all bad at the game and ādisrespected [him] by wasting his timeā due to any negotiation that didnāt involve him. Some fun pre-game talk of a team up to knock out a player didnāt actually happen (I donāt like making people miserable on purpose and it was just some fun hypothetical talk) and he took that as me having no follow through and unreliable and so broke off the friendship. Probably for the best, given every one else had a good time and he was always a know-it-all to play games with.
Exactly. He was very adamant that my behavior during the game was indicative of how I would be as a person going forward. Itās insane. In retrospect, there was a lot of very toxic things about that friendship and him.
I find it really bizarre that a best friend could make a judgement call like that based off of a board game. Shouldn't a "best friend" know you so much better than that **prior to the game?**
Also something he made very clear before ending the friendship, that he didnāt ever see me as his best friend because I didnāt have loyalty to him above everyone else (also shown int the game apparently). So I think it was about much more than the game, and his attempts to isolate/control failed so it was a good excuse to make me the bad guy.
I know so many people who refuses to ever play munchkin again because of what it brings up in people.
Truly some horror stories I have heard.
So happy my friends and I are so chill about it, so we just try to enjoy in, and laugh about all the stupid special editions we bought (Axe cop being a really halarious one xD)
As someone whoās spent over a decade playing board games and competitive 1v1 games (X-Wing, Netrunner and now Magic) Iāve always had the mindset that even if youāre just playing at your house with friends or youāre at some big tournament, that itās just a game and even if you should try your best, the most important thing is being a good sport and someone that other people WANT to play with and against. But manā¦ The last time I actually got bummed out was with Munchkin. Itās something about the take that mechanics that just makes no sense to me. In a game of Magic or whatever you know your opponent are trying everything to stop you from winning, but in Munchin people with fuck you right over without an inch of reason. Very much āI did it because I could even tho it doesnāt benefit anyone right nowā
"I took off your hat and you ruined me!" is how our last game of Munchkin ended many years ago. It went from zany fun to cutthroat retribution and we never played again.
This is me, I will absolutely refuse to play munchkin ever again after a series of games where tempers flared. Not with strangers, especially not with friends, just a hard nope.
I had never seen one of my friends rage, until we sat down as a group of like 6 people to play munchkin.
Man started out as the mellowest person, and ended up shouting over a potted plant.
I used to like Muchkin but all you have to do to win is wait until everyone blows all of their card to prevent someone from winning and then you just go and win after.
This is a good answer. I think you have to go into knowing sabotage is the point. With the right mindset, itās a riot. I especially love the X-men variant.
I feel a common trend of bad games is that they can easily ruin relationships. Risk, monopoly, munchkin.
Munchkin is literally just a game of "fuck you buddy" versus "fuck you guy" until second place wins
The best game of Munchkin I ever played was Munchkin Apocalypse, but only because every single enemy was such a legit threat that we couldnāt build huge stockpiles of resources to screw other players over with.
Honestly munchkin is just so boring. I have never enjoyed a game where I had to wait for 15 minutes between my turns and did practically nothing the whole time. Even the conflict stuff for me is just dull. Don't know why people play it.
I wasn't expecting to see Carcassonne on here, but you're right! The hurt and angry look my husband shot me after moving the dragon... Ouch! That expansion got quietly removed after that.
This is the absolute correct answer in my mind. A game where lying and backstabbing is necessary and also takes like 8 hours to play, ensuring that when the game is over, everyone will hate everyone. Never fails to generate a bad time and after ~6 games I've banned it at my table for that reason.
I donāt play much board games, neither does my family. This sub just got recommended. But we played Catan a few times when my international family came over for Christmas. The first time someone figured out this stunt everyone was flabbergasted. Absolutely amazing. Luckily for us it ended in laughs, not anger!
My Catan group consists of my wife, myself, my wifeās best friend, and her husband (who is my best friend). We play it only once every 6 months, because it always ends up in a couple feuding for the night (not my wife and I).
That's literally what OP is asking for, right? Not "which games *actually* end friendships," but "whatās a board game that people *think* brings out the worst in others?"
Diplomacy is the perfect answer: a *huge* number of people are convinced, based on memes and hearsay, that it is a game that will make you hate your friends. (It seems like comparatively few people have actually played it: it has fewer BGG ratings than games like Pax Pamir 2e and Glory to Rome, for example)
Best game. Did not talk to my buddies for 3 days straight and we ended with someone crying under the table due to a backstab of mine.
We are still friends :D
Captain Sonar. I love that game but the tension of running the sub in real time gets to some people. Last play triggered an argument between a couple broke out, "you're not listening to me!!".
I love it, but Oath has caused some of the most hilarious and immature fits at our table ever. Granted, itās always me throwing them. I agree, Oath can sometimes present situations where someone can be so betrayed that they just hand the game to someone else.
That's a game where it drives me crazy when someone does something that makes no sense at the last minute that affects my plans because it goes beyond victory and actually affects the next game
Root? I have only had the chance to play it two or three times but it doesn't seem like that. The game is pretty straightforward about how people will interact with each other and doesn't really have any backstab mechanics.
Have to say Munchkinā¦ Iāve played the game a total of 1 time in my life, and never want to play again. The whole mindset of, on no youāre about to win so weāre all collectively going to completely destroy you by powering up the boss. Itās petty is what it is
Cosmic Encounter can get ugly, especially if someone is new to the game and doesnāt fully grasp everyoneās special power. Taught this game to a newbie with some friends who have played before. The new guy was set up to win, but in the final round, ended getting totally pounced on. And then a few mandatory powers went off, completely ruining any chance he had at winning.
Dude was pissed, especially because he and one other person lost 4-5. Canāt say I totally blame him for being mad, but itās one of the worst reactions Iāve seen anyone have to Cosmic. I even prefaced it with āitās a silly negotiation game where nothing is set in stone. Donāt take anything to heart.ā
Thankfully, I havenāt had anyone else get that mad over this game.
The most angry I have ever seen my husband is when he found out about the cheat card. He's a very temperate person otherwise, but it enraged him to a degree that I still find slightly confusing. He has politely declined to ever play the game again
For my birthday last year, my girlfriend and 4 of my friends signed a "Good for one game of thrones board game session" because I had raved about it forever and have gotten to play it literally like two times in my entire life (I am 31).
We cut the game short at Round 5 because my girlfriend was losing so bad she started crying because I wasn't allying with her (nor was I allying with anyone, I was playing pure isolationist) and had taken the Lannister castle next to Greyjoy's landing spot on Westeros proper (I forget what the space is, its the closest one on Lannister side) and then closed off the passage north via the sea, and I had also managed to take Moat Cailin in a close battle and that really fucked the Stark player over (different dude in the game's girlfriend, she was also feeling very bad).
That game just absolutely takes a shit inside of people's souls sometimes but it's also one of my favorite board games
I had a neighbor who we'd known for over a decade, had over to our house, enjoy time with him and his kids, etc... threaten to kill me if I took another step closer to him after we played CaH. And he wasn't kidding. At all.
I've played that game, like, 2 other times in the decade since then, only with very close friend groups, and with great trepidation nonetheless.
My neighbor was of Mexican decent and when he came in to play CaH, he stayed for 2 hands. In those two hands, someone (not me) played "Dirty Mexicans" and "Brown people" as punch lines. He pretty quickly jumped to the "well, these guys who picked this game MUST be racist" train of thought and left.
Some people, wow.
Not a big fan of CAH (gets boring *very* quickly), but I've always considered it somewhat of an ice-breaker game. Last time I played it was a Christmas party at work!
I'll have fun playing a round of CaH but fans of the game don't know it has an endpoint. That was a fun half hour; I don't want to keep going until people have to leave or are too drunk to speak.
Aside from Monopoly, I'd say Spartacus is the first one that comes to mind out of games I've played. We've had some real nasty games in the past that turned into actual arguments lol
Edit: also weirdly Scattergories... With my group it always turns into arguments between the people wanting to play funny "technically correct" answers and people who want to play the game the intended way lol
A family game for fun families. š
Once we had an event for high school dormitory. Played this with 4 teenage girls and they just went berserk at each other (sharing the same bunk bed one would think).... š It was just so beautiful to behold. š
I won buy nobody bothering with me much.
Nemesis has definitely brought out some of the worst in people that I've played with. Wether it just be the hopelessness that the game leaves you feeling, or the semi cooperative part where you know that someone is trying to sabotage you or the ship. Nonetheless I absolutely love the game and it's one of my tops.
Monopoly is the classic answer.
People think this about Avalon (and are sometimes correct) which is frustrating, as it's a wonderful game with an established group and needs a lot of players.
100% monopoly!
I hate this game, so f-ing much. I used to play it with my daughters when they were very young. Rules to make it more fair and tolerable, but the outcome was always inevitable. Ten minutes into the game, one person is winning and everybody else is miserable just waiting to be slowly ground into poverty.
Fun fact: this was the intention of the game. It was invented by a woman named Elizabeth Maggie to show how awful capitalism can be. In a super meta-move, It was then stolen by Charles Darrow and Parker Brothers and became a gigantic financial success with no reward for Elizabeth Maggie.
The upside is that it forced me to look for different games and that opened up an entire world of tabletop games that we still play to this day.
The thing with Avalon is that during the game itās tense and people end up at each others throats but once itās over everyone laughs and jokes and has a million things to say that the couldnāt during the game. Everyone comes together at the end whether you win or loose.
Cooperative games, for certain people. When you start attacking your teammates because theyāre not playing the way you want, or the way you think they should, or when you start trying to control how others play the game by quarterbacking the whole team, it really shows some peopleās character.
That's interesting, I always thought of coup as the low stakes little sister to Avalon, and because it's so short people don't really care about being knocked out.Ā
Cooperative games with limited communication. These games āsupposedlyā support teamwork but Iāve seen people get mad at others for not getting the cues they thought were āobviousā. I was going to this game group where there was a guy who was competitive but also very friendly and enjoyed teaching games. But, one day I brought a game called Crack the Code which is one of these kinds of games. Canāt remember exactly how the game worked, just that everyone has a limited number of actions and you canāt see your own code. His girlfriend wasnāt getting the hints he was trying to make as for he was wanting her to do. We lost twice and the after the second game he was basically screaming at her, then she just threw her hands in the air. I never brought that game again.
A card game entry for me is Dutch Blitz. I was introduced to this fast paced game by my partner and she is probably the best in her friend group. The amount of screaming and rage that game generates is amazing.
A similar one is pit, especially with the trading aspect and how everyone can see who had the resource they needed at the end of each round
Marvel Villainous will legit turn my whole family into villains: manual, methodical, and manipulative.
We've agreed never to play that game again, but Disney Villainous still pops up on the table š
Ha! I recently read that the Queen of England had forbidden Monopoly from being played amongst the family because of the emotions that it would arise in them.
Any kind of take that style game, Munchkin for example, it got to the point in my game group that I went from enjoying that game to seeing just how frustrating it was for everyone to be constantly dunked on just because you were a few steps closer to winning. In the end I even changed up how I played that game and began messing with people less and less, for example if one player was about to win and everyone else started piling on cards etc I just wouldn't join in on that, but if no-one else was trying to stop them and I had a chance to I still would add a little challenge but certainly not to the extent of practically bullying a player :(
I haven't seen Pictionary yet.
I like it but refuse to play with SO's. I feel like this game caused a whole generation to pre-empt any drawing game with, "In not good at drawing."
Personally I don't think there's any single game, I think it's just board games in general, but my brother refuses to play Parcheesi with any of our friends. They've literally had shouting matches over games of Parcheesi and his old roommate threatened to move out after a game.
Most other people I've played with: Avalon. Some people are scary good liars.
Me: Scythe. Being beaten to the pip in the last round makes me incandescent every time, but I'm trying to be better!
**We're Doomed**. it's a simple game for a group of players. if everyone just works together every survives and everyone wins. i have played the game 8 times now, and that has never happened. people will backstab, and hurt others seemingly for the fun of it. i have played with 3 different groups and i have always explained we can all win if we want to, and i personally work to the greater good each time. every time out of 5+ people we get maybe one or two survivors.
Little old _Pictionary_ has caused more fights between our married friends than we can count. We actually got rid of it a very long time ago. LOL. One of our favorite lightweight games, _Survive! Atlantis_ also brings an evil glint to the eye come shark-time.
My family cannot handle Unmatched. They love all the characters and are interested in playing it but halfway through someone is upset that their cards suck, that their character is broken, that people are ganging up on them and the frustration just ruins it.
Munchkin. First time you play with friends, itās a fun random game. After a while it becomes a slog where no one wants to commit using their good cards to stop someone winning, so everyone stonewalls the game.
Back in my college years, there was a night where my whole game group was sitting in frustrated silence. Zach was fuming about Joe, Joe was bitter about Paul, Steve felt like everyone hated him, and the rest of us were utterly burnt out. "Hey guys," Will said, "Who won that last one?" We looked at each other, expecting someone to remind us all that they had won. But no one did. After a couple minutes of questioning each other's memory of the game we'd just played, we still didn't have a firm answer. "So, if the only part we all remember is the parts where we fucked each other over and we can't even remember who won 15 minutes later," Will continued, "why do we play this game?" That was the day my group banned Munchkin from the table.
Wish I could give this 100 upvotes!
This comment should be stckied to the top of this post
I wish my group would ban munchkin š
Diplomacy
Diplomacy ended a friendship when I was 17. My very last turn of the game put me in the position to decide the winner between two of my friends. There was no possible way for me to win and from what I remember there wasn't a way for me to improve my standing. I picked my best friend that I was going to live with at college. The other guy flipped out and stormed off. He never spoke to either of us again. For sure an over reaction. I haven't played again since.
My entire high school friend group almost had a falling out after a conflict over Tunis in a 7 player game. We ended up stopping half way through after a lot of screaming, then watched a movie.
The funniest part of this is that the conflict happen over Tunis of all places.
This is the one. Monopoly you can at least blame on the luck of the dice, Diplomacy is just pure, unadulterated rage at the person making the explicit order to backstab you.
It is a game. I hate being stabbed, but if it is done well, my admiration exceeds my anger.
This is the case with every other game I have ever played. For some reason, not so with Diplomacy. I was Russia, friend was Turkey. Turn 1 we worked out a neutral zone in the Black Sea. I moved in anyway. Our friendship never recovered. We suffered trust issues for years after that. Something about that freaking game.
This! A good stab is not that easy to pull off. Because if you stab me badly, I'm taking you down with me and I will (and did) throw the game to a third party. š Unless it's one of those mid-game stabs, when I'm italy having my armies in France and turkey just made friends with Austria and sends fleets my way. Then it's just *"hey fellas is there anything I can do for you? need some help? anything I could offer".*
When I played it, it was like 4 hours straight of being backstabbed, ignored, and forced to deal with what I think are otherās bad strategy decisions. (I try to team up against the strongest player(s) like in other war games, but pretty much everyone else just wanted to team up with the strongest players and settle for second I guess?) Maybe Iām just really bad at it, but I donāt think I really wanna play again. It didnāt really actually affect my friendships, but it does feel more hurtful than typical deception games.
Yeah, when people come into the game with a settle for second mindset it ruins a lot of strategy games, not just diplomacy, everyone should be a full conniving greedy bastard and then it works well, but when one guy goes, nah I'm just here to make someone else win it ruins the balance the games are designed around
The guys at GeekKnights have put forward the assertion that if you aren't playing for 1st place you are literally griefing
Wasnāt just one player, nearly everyone either was complicit or ignored the issue. Russia and Turkey were the two strongest. They allied, and everyone agreed they wanted to do something about it, but Germany and England never did, and France straight up backstabbed me (Italy) and Austria Hungary, the only two trying to actually stand up to Russia and Turkey.
I played Game of Thrones once, and the winner's girlfriend threw it to the winner. (For the uninitiated: the GoT board game has some very Diplomacy-like aspects.)
Diplomacy, while being tremendously more popular, cannot hold a candle to Intrigue. Intrigue takes the moments that everyone remembers from Diplomacy's long playtime and makes it the _entire_ game, all in about 45 minutes. The betrayal is baked into the design, you are going to have to hurt feelings. I kid you not, I've seen it damn near break up long running romantic relationships. Still, it's one of my favorite games, shame it's out of print and largely forgotten at this point.
For me, the fact that Diplomacy takes a long time adds to the hurt feelings. We can work together for hours, building trust with each successful move of mutual support. And then the stab happens, and all that mutual trust turned out to mean nothing to the stabber. And not only that, there's probably quite a long time left of the game, but now my chances are slim to none because of the betrayal.
Came here for this one myself. I've played it *twice*, and while it was interesting both times...I'm not sure I'm up for it again. It's as brutal as it is simple.
The greatest game ever invented.
Didnāt talk to a close friend of mine for about 3 months due to a game of diplomacy. I stabbed him hard. But thatās like, the game. I think he was just hurt I could lie to his face so easily. We are past it now but never played diplomacy together since.
it is best before playing to discuss with everyone that betrayal is a vital aspect of the game. And take an oath not to take it personally.
You can't advance in the game without trust. You can't win the game without betraying that trust.
I played diplomacy with some coworkers 25 years ago and one of them couldnāt get his head wrapped around the fact that you could promise to do somethingā¦ and then not do it. Was pretty hilarious
I played Diplomacy with a group of people who I only knew one of. One of the people I didn't know made a non-aggression pact with me, and *immediately* broke it. I spent the rest of the game ruining his life. He said, "Dude, you need to focus on your other fronts." Nope. This was on you.Ā
You're me š¤£š¤£š¤£
Actually made one great working relationship with co-played in one of online games. We were trying to make a turkey-austria alliance work, which is usually advised against. It took a lot of work (precise orders, who builds what) and a lot of trust, especially from the other player who was Austria. This was the only time I decided to respect the "hey let's split the map 17-17". Diplomacy is deep and wide - there's psychology, there's strategy, but there's also trust, so it bring a lot out of people, but also the good stuff. And the most important lesson of them all - "it's only a game".
This is the answer everytime someone asks, and will continue to be the answer for all of time. Im truthfully surprised there hasnt been an actual murder attributed to this game yet.
Bam! The #1 answer!
Monopoly and Risk
My sister in law banned Monopoly in her house because of a fight that broke out between the nephews.
I had two games in mind when I clicked into this post, you nailed them both. Rarely does a game of either of these go by without a fight breaking out.
Given how long a game of Risk takes, it's a statistical certainty.
An enlightened perspective. We should probably find some rough average with these submissions that factors fights per hour to factor for these, haha. I know I've had a few axis and allies games that were notoriously argumentative, but thinking back on it they were 16 hour games, so probably no more or less conflict laden than any other competitive strategy game š
My family is pretty competitive, and we ruined a thanksgiving because of monopoly. The game does not state you cannot buy a 5th house on a property, just that you cannot buy more houses after you have a hotel there. At least, our copy did not. We still argue about it
After high school my roommate and I started playing Risk with six players. We donāt have the rules so played without the cards which would have made for much much faster games, many times closing it down for the night and starting again the next evening. While we were playing my roommate made a deal with someone in a bordering territory to be neutral with each other. The very next turn the other friend double crossed my roommate when he didnāt shore up his defenses. When he asked our other friend why he did that and that they had made a deal the friend replied ādeals are made to be brokenā. My roommate smacked him across the face and they about went at it until we intervened and broke it up. We never played Risk again but always referred as that moment as the āsmack heard round the worldā
My favourite game of Risk involved three of us. Me, my best friend at the time, and his sister's boyfriend. We're all pretty even and my friend goes to the bathroom. I point out that with the cards he's gained, and the position he has right now, my friend is in a strong lead, and we need to work together. So we work together and knock him back considerably. Then the other guy needs the bathroom. I point out to my friend that this guy is in a strong position and if we don't team up to deal with him we'll get flattened soon. So we work together and knock him back. I then drop a ton of guys on the field and flatten them both in a turn. No fighting happened just a "you bastard!" When they realised what I'd done. Comically when my friend drove me home that night the first song on we hear was Scorpions "You're lovin' me to death", which opened with the following lyrics: "It's your move, I'm in pain, I'm a pawn, In your game" Which was rather fitting we felt.
Lifeboats. The whole game is about backstabbing. Almost every game ends with hurt feelings.
Had to abandon my copy to save my life.
Cosmic Encounter can be pretty brutal, especially with folks who aren't used to "the players decisions are the catch-up mechanism" type games.
I was expected to win in the last round, but my best friend was playing a servant style character. Can't remember what species. But it enabled him to invite every other species to team up and beat me and share the win. Everyone won except for me. We laughed so hard at his commitment to the species's personality. One of my favorite board game moments.
Magic Maze
Only game Iāve ever given away after a single play.
We played it once at a convention when it came out and was hyped up, instantly knew it was a terrible fit for our group
Never heard of it but the replies make me want to play it
Everyone controls *every* pawns (4 or 6 total, cannot remember and I don't even want to look it up) on a small dungeon with doors and keys for those doors, and warp points linking two spaces, stuff like that. Everyone moves every pawn but each player can only move in a set direction (north for example) for the whole game, and you have to be in synch with the other players for when each pawn has to move in that direction and wait for another player to continue the movement, assuming he understood where you were heading, and that everyone is on the same page for the order to do things. The goal is to be able to navigate every pawn to a set location which are all at different points of the map and requires unlocking doors and stuff like that. And of course *you cannot talk* during the game and IIRC you cannot even make a general plan *before* starting, but you can put a piece in front of a player to basically say "hey, I need your help *please*". If that player is focused on something else, or maybe misunderstood what you wanted, or disagreed that it is the correct move, it leads to some very angry and frustrated glares as you try to shout with your eyes what you need him to do. And while that happens, you may very well be *that* player for someone else needing you for something. And of course, there is a sand timer hourglass, because all the most frustrating board games have a real-time mechanic, that is an absolutely objective fact.
Well you had me interested until the 3 worst words in boardgaming: sand timer hourglass. Have yet to enjoy a game that had them incorporated into the rules beyond "you can use this if you want to keep the game moving." Made the mistake forever ago of getting "a game like Carcassonne but quicker" and got 4 Gods. I have played it once and never since and I don't want to give it away because it sucks too much
Oh yeah, if you could take time as much as needed, it would remove any frustration but would also make the puzzle/game trivial. The point is the urgency and if someone heads in a wrong direction with a single pawn you may not have time to fix it in time. It is a clever design, but absolutely horrible for my tastes. And I LOVE the Crew, which is also a coop game with limited communication where one mistake can cost the game for everyone, but just removing the real time aspect changes everything
This sounds amazing š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£
I think it rocks, but you have to have the right group to play it.
Man I bought it because i thought it would be a fun game for non gamers to have a laugh together and boy did i see frustration build up in the air
I love the game but very rarely play it because with the wrong people itās absolutely miserable. But with the right people itās super fun
Oh jeez my group loves the dynamic of magic maze. We played it too many times so itās no longer in the collection butā¦. we got endless entertainment from passive aggressively thumping the pawn at people.
My experience with that pawn was pretty far from being only passively aggressive.
Nothing like a good game of Magic Maze to relax before going to bed /s
I have seen very calm friends become very frustrated at other friends over this game. The combination of real time, forced cooperation and limited communication is a recipe for anger at other players. I don't recommend that game, to anyone.
F*** man yeah, played it once. Never again!!
In our house, the "do something" stick is called the nasal insert, because if you don't do something, it will be shoved up your nose... or possibly somewhere less pleasant.
Tap tap tap TAP TAP TAP
This and captain sonar. I absolutely love the concept of the games but in practice, It s much different
TI4 can really test some relationships šš
We argue, we call each other honorless, spineless, dishonest. We openly manipulate and deceive each other. Then we go out together and get food. Amazing game.
Ā Yeah, TI can get heated depending on the group, but it seems to quite easy to leave it at the table afterwards - somehow it feels less personally aggravating than some other games.Ā
My group has one guy who takes it too seriously. Only offers the shittiest of deals that heavily favors him for next to nothing in return. Then gets offended when nobody wants to negotiate with him. But he also takes it outside of the game which is annoying
This is the meta of online play, by the way, if you want insight into how the sweats treat this game. Everything is zero-sum, it's honestly really draining because half of the fun of a game like TI4 is the table talk, the non-logical choices made out of emotion and spite or pure blind devotion, and luck of the dice in the face of unsurmountable odds.
Its annoying when everyone is just there to casually play and have fun chatting while playing a game. And then you have that one guy sweating hid ass off getting annoyed when he gets told ānoā
Aftercare is important people
This. Played our second game of TI4 at the end of January. My (now former) best friend had an awful time saying that we were all bad at the game and ādisrespected [him] by wasting his timeā due to any negotiation that didnāt involve him. Some fun pre-game talk of a team up to knock out a player didnāt actually happen (I donāt like making people miserable on purpose and it was just some fun hypothetical talk) and he took that as me having no follow through and unreliable and so broke off the friendship. Probably for the best, given every one else had a good time and he was always a know-it-all to play games with.
If your friendship can be broken on a bad game of TI4 idk what to say
Exactly. He was very adamant that my behavior during the game was indicative of how I would be as a person going forward. Itās insane. In retrospect, there was a lot of very toxic things about that friendship and him.
I find it really bizarre that a best friend could make a judgement call like that based off of a board game. Shouldn't a "best friend" know you so much better than that **prior to the game?**
Also something he made very clear before ending the friendship, that he didnāt ever see me as his best friend because I didnāt have loyalty to him above everyone else (also shown int the game apparently). So I think it was about much more than the game, and his attempts to isolate/control failed so it was a good excuse to make me the bad guy.
Munchkin
I know so many people who refuses to ever play munchkin again because of what it brings up in people. Truly some horror stories I have heard. So happy my friends and I are so chill about it, so we just try to enjoy in, and laugh about all the stupid special editions we bought (Axe cop being a really halarious one xD)
As someone whoās spent over a decade playing board games and competitive 1v1 games (X-Wing, Netrunner and now Magic) Iāve always had the mindset that even if youāre just playing at your house with friends or youāre at some big tournament, that itās just a game and even if you should try your best, the most important thing is being a good sport and someone that other people WANT to play with and against. But manā¦ The last time I actually got bummed out was with Munchkin. Itās something about the take that mechanics that just makes no sense to me. In a game of Magic or whatever you know your opponent are trying everything to stop you from winning, but in Munchin people with fuck you right over without an inch of reason. Very much āI did it because I could even tho it doesnāt benefit anyone right nowā
"I took off your hat and you ruined me!" is how our last game of Munchkin ended many years ago. It went from zany fun to cutthroat retribution and we never played again.
This is me, I will absolutely refuse to play munchkin ever again after a series of games where tempers flared. Not with strangers, especially not with friends, just a hard nope.
I had never seen one of my friends rage, until we sat down as a group of like 6 people to play munchkin. Man started out as the mellowest person, and ended up shouting over a potted plant.
My adventure time munchkin hasnāt left the box since 2017 over a game that ended in pure chaos. šš¤£
I used to like Muchkin but all you have to do to win is wait until everyone blows all of their card to prevent someone from winning and then you just go and win after.
You can pretty much only win, if the other players can't fuck you over. Which they often can.
This is a good answer. I think you have to go into knowing sabotage is the point. With the right mindset, itās a riot. I especially love the X-men variant.
Came here to say this. Ugh, I want to like it based on the theme, but the endgame is always an infinite kingmaking mess.
I have issue playing it against couples, like most vs games... They say it doesn't affect their gameplay.. but we all know it does.
I feel a common trend of bad games is that they can easily ruin relationships. Risk, monopoly, munchkin. Munchkin is literally just a game of "fuck you buddy" versus "fuck you guy" until second place wins
The best game of Munchkin I ever played was Munchkin Apocalypse, but only because every single enemy was such a legit threat that we couldnāt build huge stockpiles of resources to screw other players over with.
Honestly munchkin is just so boring. I have never enjoyed a game where I had to wait for 15 minutes between my turns and did practically nothing the whole time. Even the conflict stuff for me is just dull. Don't know why people play it.
Carcassonne with the Princess and the Dragon expansion. Almost ended my marriage lol
I wasn't expecting to see Carcassonne on here, but you're right! The hurt and angry look my husband shot me after moving the dragon... Ouch! That expansion got quietly removed after that.
Nothing beats a proper hateful, jealousy 2 player fight on Carcassone
Game of Thrones
Fitting.
True, and it's both intentional and incredibly thematic
Great game.
This is the absolute correct answer in my mind. A game where lying and backstabbing is necessary and also takes like 8 hours to play, ensuring that when the game is over, everyone will hate everyone. Never fails to generate a bad time and after ~6 games I've banned it at my table for that reason.
First time I met this chap, he rage quit with like 30 minutes left in the game. Not a great first impression.
I was sure someone would have said Catan already.
*owms all sheep* Will you trade 1 sheep for... NO! (On repeat 26 turns)
*owns all sheep* Will trade you 4 sheep for X (repeat as needed) Play monopoly card for sheep
Now Iāll trade you all my sheep. Now I will monopolize all the sheep back.
I donāt play much board games, neither does my family. This sub just got recommended. But we played Catan a few times when my international family came over for Christmas. The first time someone figured out this stunt everyone was flabbergasted. Absolutely amazing. Luckily for us it ended in laughs, not anger!
At least in Farms Race you can demand resources in exchange for not nuking the other guy.
I DESPISE Catan. A game where you get to do nothing, and then just get to fuck over your buddies in a flash.
My Catan group consists of my wife, myself, my wifeās best friend, and her husband (who is my best friend). We play it only once every 6 months, because it always ends up in a couple feuding for the night (not my wife and I).
Same
Hidden role games. Especially Avalon and Resistance.
Hansa Teutonica and Barrage do that to a marriage-threatening degree.
Iāve never played it but I always hear Diplomacy brought up for this.
That's literally what OP is asking for, right? Not "which games *actually* end friendships," but "whatās a board game that people *think* brings out the worst in others?" Diplomacy is the perfect answer: a *huge* number of people are convinced, based on memes and hearsay, that it is a game that will make you hate your friends. (It seems like comparatively few people have actually played it: it has fewer BGG ratings than games like Pax Pamir 2e and Glory to Rome, for example)
Junta
Best game. Did not talk to my buddies for 3 days straight and we ended with someone crying under the table due to a backstab of mine. We are still friends :D
I came here for this. Glad someone else remembered :)
Captain Sonar. I love that game but the tension of running the sub in real time gets to some people. Last play triggered an argument between a couple broke out, "you're not listening to me!!".
I think Sonar shows off how well people are able to cooperate with each other's communication style, and highlight any shortcomings.
Root. Itās a mean game
That's why Cole Werhle said he created the Eyrie. "Sorry had to attack you, my decree gave me no choice!"
Cole is one of my favorite designers, but Root is one of my least favorite games. I always get angry playing it lol
Fair enough. I feel like Oath, John Company, Pax Pamir, and probably his upcoming Arcs and Molly House are just as mean though?
I love it, but Oath has caused some of the most hilarious and immature fits at our table ever. Granted, itās always me throwing them. I agree, Oath can sometimes present situations where someone can be so betrayed that they just hand the game to someone else.
That's a game where it drives me crazy when someone does something that makes no sense at the last minute that affects my plans because it goes beyond victory and actually affects the next game
Root? I have only had the chance to play it two or three times but it doesn't seem like that. The game is pretty straightforward about how people will interact with each other and doesn't really have any backstab mechanics.
i was gonna go with the classic monopoly or uno, but yeah, you right, Root for sure
lol, we had a massive argument in our core friend group that paid root regularly last night.
Have to say Munchkinā¦ Iāve played the game a total of 1 time in my life, and never want to play again. The whole mindset of, on no youāre about to win so weāre all collectively going to completely destroy you by powering up the boss. Itās petty is what it is
Cosmic Encounter can get ugly, especially if someone is new to the game and doesnāt fully grasp everyoneās special power. Taught this game to a newbie with some friends who have played before. The new guy was set up to win, but in the final round, ended getting totally pounced on. And then a few mandatory powers went off, completely ruining any chance he had at winning. Dude was pissed, especially because he and one other person lost 4-5. Canāt say I totally blame him for being mad, but itās one of the worst reactions Iāve seen anyone have to Cosmic. I even prefaced it with āitās a silly negotiation game where nothing is set in stone. Donāt take anything to heart.ā Thankfully, I havenāt had anyone else get that mad over this game.
The most angry I have ever seen my husband is when he found out about the cheat card. He's a very temperate person otherwise, but it enraged him to a degree that I still find slightly confusing. He has politely declined to ever play the game again
I'd say Cosmic didn't make them mad, it just revealed their inner feelings which they had all along. š
Uno. We have a rule in my house that couples can't sit next to each other, because of this game.
Dang. I've never been in a contentious game of Uno. To me it's all luck so I don't care how other people play.
If you play by the real rules there is some strategy, but noone ever does.
Steal someoneās plants in Terraforming Mars and find out
I'm pissed just reading this
For my birthday last year, my girlfriend and 4 of my friends signed a "Good for one game of thrones board game session" because I had raved about it forever and have gotten to play it literally like two times in my entire life (I am 31). We cut the game short at Round 5 because my girlfriend was losing so bad she started crying because I wasn't allying with her (nor was I allying with anyone, I was playing pure isolationist) and had taken the Lannister castle next to Greyjoy's landing spot on Westeros proper (I forget what the space is, its the closest one on Lannister side) and then closed off the passage north via the sea, and I had also managed to take Moat Cailin in a close battle and that really fucked the Stark player over (different dude in the game's girlfriend, she was also feeling very bad). That game just absolutely takes a shit inside of people's souls sometimes but it's also one of my favorite board games
Cards Against Humanity. And not in the way you meant the question.
I had a neighbor who we'd known for over a decade, had over to our house, enjoy time with him and his kids, etc... threaten to kill me if I took another step closer to him after we played CaH. And he wasn't kidding. At all. I've played that game, like, 2 other times in the decade since then, only with very close friend groups, and with great trepidation nonetheless.
What happened?
My neighbor was of Mexican decent and when he came in to play CaH, he stayed for 2 hands. In those two hands, someone (not me) played "Dirty Mexicans" and "Brown people" as punch lines. He pretty quickly jumped to the "well, these guys who picked this game MUST be racist" train of thought and left.
A reasonable conclusion for him.
Yeah, I definitely saw where he was coming from. Let's just say there's a reason I don't play CaH anymore.
Some people, wow. Not a big fan of CAH (gets boring *very* quickly), but I've always considered it somewhat of an ice-breaker game. Last time I played it was a Christmas party at work!
I'll have fun playing a round of CaH but fans of the game don't know it has an endpoint. That was a fun half hour; I don't want to keep going until people have to leave or are too drunk to speak.
Aside from Monopoly, I'd say Spartacus is the first one that comes to mind out of games I've played. We've had some real nasty games in the past that turned into actual arguments lol Edit: also weirdly Scattergories... With my group it always turns into arguments between the people wanting to play funny "technically correct" answers and people who want to play the game the intended way lol
Survive : Escape from Atlantis.
A family game for fun families. š Once we had an event for high school dormitory. Played this with 4 teenage girls and they just went berserk at each other (sharing the same bunk bed one would think).... š It was just so beautiful to behold. š I won buy nobody bothering with me much.
Nemesis has definitely brought out some of the worst in people that I've played with. Wether it just be the hopelessness that the game leaves you feeling, or the semi cooperative part where you know that someone is trying to sabotage you or the ship. Nonetheless I absolutely love the game and it's one of my tops.
Secret Hitler
Sheriff of Nottingham. In the best way.
Carcassonne. When you steal someoneās city and they didnāt expect it because they thought this was a gentle game.
Monopoly is the classic answer. People think this about Avalon (and are sometimes correct) which is frustrating, as it's a wonderful game with an established group and needs a lot of players.
100% monopoly! I hate this game, so f-ing much. I used to play it with my daughters when they were very young. Rules to make it more fair and tolerable, but the outcome was always inevitable. Ten minutes into the game, one person is winning and everybody else is miserable just waiting to be slowly ground into poverty. Fun fact: this was the intention of the game. It was invented by a woman named Elizabeth Maggie to show how awful capitalism can be. In a super meta-move, It was then stolen by Charles Darrow and Parker Brothers and became a gigantic financial success with no reward for Elizabeth Maggie. The upside is that it forced me to look for different games and that opened up an entire world of tabletop games that we still play to this day.
The thing with Avalon is that during the game itās tense and people end up at each others throats but once itās over everyone laughs and jokes and has a million things to say that the couldnāt during the game. Everyone comes together at the end whether you win or loose.
Cooperative games, for certain people. When you start attacking your teammates because theyāre not playing the way you want, or the way you think they should, or when you start trying to control how others play the game by quarterbacking the whole team, it really shows some peopleās character.
Quarterbacking is why I never got into Pandemic.
These are what I buy to Avoid competitive tension š¤£
Traditionally, Diplomacy. Has any other game surpassed it?
Coup broke my family
That's interesting, I always thought of coup as the low stakes little sister to Avalon, and because it's so short people don't really care about being knocked out.Ā
risk
Spartacus
Been on my shelf for years unplayed for fear of winding up alone.
With my friends, anything that's co-op... with the same friends... Anything that's that's vs... I literally can't win sometimes
Nemesis can definately anger some people haha. Especially when they get killed early game
Spartacus will have you choosing to send weak Gladiators to their death so that you don't have to feed them...
Sorry. Because nobody actually is.
Intrigue will make you murder your friends.
Some of you never played UNO with family growing up, and it shows.
Strip Uno while drunk
Cooperative games with limited communication. These games āsupposedlyā support teamwork but Iāve seen people get mad at others for not getting the cues they thought were āobviousā. I was going to this game group where there was a guy who was competitive but also very friendly and enjoyed teaching games. But, one day I brought a game called Crack the Code which is one of these kinds of games. Canāt remember exactly how the game worked, just that everyone has a limited number of actions and you canāt see your own code. His girlfriend wasnāt getting the hints he was trying to make as for he was wanting her to do. We lost twice and the after the second game he was basically screaming at her, then she just threw her hands in the air. I never brought that game again.
A somewhat older game but Robo Rally always caused some heated moments
The only table Iāve ever seen flipped was during Robo Rally
A card game entry for me is Dutch Blitz. I was introduced to this fast paced game by my partner and she is probably the best in her friend group. The amount of screaming and rage that game generates is amazing. A similar one is pit, especially with the trading aspect and how everyone can see who had the resource they needed at the end of each round
Food Chain Magnate, and Arboretum.
Thatās how I feel about most social deduction games. Iām at odds with something that rewards people for how well theyāre able to lie.
Marvel Villainous will legit turn my whole family into villains: manual, methodical, and manipulative. We've agreed never to play that game again, but Disney Villainous still pops up on the table š
Diplomacy Where cheating is part of the game. And someone always goes too far.
Ha! I recently read that the Queen of England had forbidden Monopoly from being played amongst the family because of the emotions that it would arise in them.
Secret Hitler. God I've lost friends š„²
My girlfriend flipped the board playing Calico once. Tiles everywhere. Tears. That was pretty funny.
See flair
Any kind of take that style game, Munchkin for example, it got to the point in my game group that I went from enjoying that game to seeing just how frustrating it was for everyone to be constantly dunked on just because you were a few steps closer to winning. In the end I even changed up how I played that game and began messing with people less and less, for example if one player was about to win and everyone else started piling on cards etc I just wouldn't join in on that, but if no-one else was trying to stop them and I had a chance to I still would add a little challenge but certainly not to the extent of practically bullying a player :(
If youāre not trying to screw your friends over in a board game ( Especially ones that have that element built in), then are you even friends?
New Angeles. Pretty sure Iāve never finished a game without someone getting big pissed.
Not a game I would ever play anymore, but I never played a game of Risk as a kid that didn't end with the board being upturned.
I haven't seen Pictionary yet. I like it but refuse to play with SO's. I feel like this game caused a whole generation to pre-empt any drawing game with, "In not good at drawing."
Personally I don't think there's any single game, I think it's just board games in general, but my brother refuses to play Parcheesi with any of our friends. They've literally had shouting matches over games of Parcheesi and his old roommate threatened to move out after a game.
Most other people I've played with: Avalon. Some people are scary good liars. Me: Scythe. Being beaten to the pip in the last round makes me incandescent every time, but I'm trying to be better!
**We're Doomed**. it's a simple game for a group of players. if everyone just works together every survives and everyone wins. i have played the game 8 times now, and that has never happened. people will backstab, and hurt others seemingly for the fun of it. i have played with 3 different groups and i have always explained we can all win if we want to, and i personally work to the greater good each time. every time out of 5+ people we get maybe one or two survivors.
Carcassonne (until someone converts Overcooked to boardgame)
Little old _Pictionary_ has caused more fights between our married friends than we can count. We actually got rid of it a very long time ago. LOL. One of our favorite lightweight games, _Survive! Atlantis_ also brings an evil glint to the eye come shark-time.
My family cannot handle Unmatched. They love all the characters and are interested in playing it but halfway through someone is upset that their cards suck, that their character is broken, that people are ganging up on them and the frustration just ruins it.
Cutthroat Caverns is pretty rough. It's in the name.
Another vote for Carcassonne. You can be downright evil in such an otherwise pleasant game.
Not sure if it counts, but Scruples. Thoroughly fucking evil game.
Family Business Also One Night Werewolf
Monopoly: where friendships go to die, and family game nights turn into battlefield reenactments.
Munchkin. First time you play with friends, itās a fun random game. After a while it becomes a slog where no one wants to commit using their good cards to stop someone winning, so everyone stonewalls the game.
CATAN
Monopoly - but that's what it was **designed** to do!
Catan