Monopoly is worse, but Catan can stall for sure if everyone isn’t playing it just right.
One game you might like if you can convince people to play it is Agricola. I pronounce it “ah-GREEK-ola”, but some people say it other ways. Anyway, you each have your own little farm to grow, but you have to make sure you end up with enough food harvested at the end of each season.
So mostly you’re all doing your own things, but there’s still a bit of tasty conflict, because in a single round each action can only be taken by one player. So if one player grabs “build a fence” I might be like “oh no! I was hoping to build one!”, which means I have to change my plans or adapt, but the player isn’t attacking me. They’re not destroying my farm or stealing my resources, but they are effecting me in ways that still feel like we’re playing a game together. This makes it feel like a relatively low-conflict experience.
The downside is that it looks intimidating, and it’s a big heavy box, and it’s not cheap, and so getting people to agree to actually sit and play it is hard. But it’s actually relatively simple once you get the feel for it. You put your dude on a space and do what the place says, basically. The hard part is figuring out what all the spaces do and why…
There’s another game by the same creator called Caverna, which I’ve heard is basically Agricola 2, it’s everything Agricola is and more. Or so I’ve heard… I haven’t actually played that one. So it’s probably a great choice, but I can only personally talk about Agricola.
Monopoly is worse, but Catan can stall for sure if everyone isn’t playing it just right.
One game you might like if you can convince people to play it is Agricola. I pronounce it “ah-GREEK-ola”, but some people say it other ways. Anyway, you each have your own little farm to grow, but you have to make sure you end up with enough food harvested at the end of each season.
So mostly you’re all doing your own things, but there’s still a bit of tasty conflict, because in a single round each action can only be taken by one player. So if one player grabs “build a fence” I might be like “oh no! I was hoping to build one!”, which means I have to change my plans or adapt, but the player isn’t attacking me. They’re not destroying my farm or stealing my resources, but they are effecting me in ways that still feel like we’re playing a game together. This makes it feel like a relatively low-conflict experience.
The downside is that it looks intimidating, and it’s a big heavy box, and it’s not cheap, and so getting people to agree to actually sit and play it is hard. But it’s actually relatively simple once you get the feel for it. You put your dude on a space and do what the place says, basically. The hard part is figuring out what all the spaces do and why…
There’s another game by the same creator called Caverna, which I’ve heard is basically Agricola 2, it’s everything Agricola is and more. Or so I’ve heard… I haven’t actually played that one. So it’s probably a great choice, but I can only personally talk about Agricola.