After all that intense soul-searching analysis, now it's time to brainstorm! I haven't played that many board games (or games at all) but I have a few favourites I tend to return to when I'm at home.
Games I've enjoyed (or, rather, my family enjoys):
Outrage! Steal the Crown Jewels:
My brother was a particular fan of this board game because it was competitive and belligerent with serious conflicts but didn't drag on like Risk or Monopoly. The basic essence is break into the Tower of London and steal the Crown Jewels from the White Palace using tools you pick up along the way. It has a very basic combat system using weapon cards with numeric values, but you can also improvise by using the tools you brought with you to steal the Crown Jewels. It has a lot of English history built into it as well, which gives it an air of realism that makes it more serious. The only problem was that you could find yourself playing it for two or three hours: if it were shorter, it would be much more fun.
Cranium:
I'm not sure how we got this game, but it's the only game my family can all agree on. It mixes charades, pictionary, number games, and general knowledge into a game that's varied enough to interest anyone. That way, your team can plan on exploiting their strengths to move forward and hinder the other teams. It's a pretty long board game, though, and a lot of the charade prompts are out of date. It could do with a revamp.
Bananagrams:
Not exactly a board game, but it's certainly a bored game (haha). My mother and I play this all the time when I'm at home, as it's a bit like DIY Scrabble. I like the timed aspect of it, as everyone's rushing themselves against the other player, but I always feel like it could be a lot more organised. My sister never really liked it because she could never get the words right, so maybe there should be a Bananagrams for the word-challenged?
Ideas for games:
Bananagrams but mixed with Bioshock pipe game
Given a 6x6 grid and 10 tabs of straight or curved pipe tabs to start off with and you have to get from the source to the depository. As you finish one line, you have to take another tab with a pipe on it and integrate it into your layout.
I tested this one out and it works to a degree, but I'm not sure how fun it is. I think I'd need to add different shapes of pipes, or maybe make the whole thing a different shape?
Psychological benefits/detriments developmental game
Psychosocial or psychosexual? Withdrawn or outgoing? Dependant or independant, trusting or suspicious? In this game of chance and inflicted pain and suffering, who will make it through the developmental stages to adulthood with minimal damage? Probably a rather complicated board, as you make moral choices based on psychiatric tests, and these choices dictate which dark path you go down.
Adjective/verb/noun charades game
Pick an adjective card, a verb card, and a noun, and act it out entirely without saying it.
Dante's Inferno narrative board game with concentric circles of Hell
Roll a 5 to summon Geryon!
Board game with board shaped like motherboard (players as bytes?)
Pick up an information card and make it back to your microprocessor before the others do!
Darwinism: The Reckoning (evolve by picking up certain biological traits)
Pick up biological traits and then someone pulls a card that states the style of the next epoch and then either your creature survives or it doesn't. Very much a game of chance.
Moebius Strip-shaped board, maybe based on reincarnation
Papercraft catapults assault on a papercraft castle
Archaeology-themed board game
not unlike Outrage!; acquire important parts and leave for the museum with your name on them for fame and glory. Shaped like an archaeological dig, with landslides and cave collapses.
Robot building workshop
2D Sidescroller-themed game, reminiscent of Mario or similar platformers
Cake shop themed game, get ingredients and head back to the kitchen before the others
Pokemon-themed battle system that's more like the video game (turn based, with dice)
Art History revision game to help study for Development of Art and Ideas
Racing game with personalised cars with specific stats (power, turning, durability, tires, engine)
Pirate-themed game with a continuous board and hidden treasures, gathering resources and taking down opponents
Titans vs Humans, a game of slow attrition and patience
Build a wall, break it down. Build it higher, break it down again.
Deliver the mail! fighting obstacles like dogs, trees, government shut down, and tornadoes
3D construction game, building bridges to cross rivers, very popular with engineers
What if the board looked like a public transportation map and you're trying not to crash trains?
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