(NB—posting this under the assumption that open threads have subsumed off-topic threads, of which I haven’t seen any recently. If this is mistaken, I’ll retract here and repost in an old off-topic thread)
I’ve seen numerous threads on Lesswrong discussing the appeal of the games of go, mafia, and diplomacy to rationalists. I thought I would offer some additional suggestions in case people would like to mix up their game-playing a bit, for meetups or just because. Most of these involve a little more randomness than the games listed above, but I don’t really think that should be seen as a drawback, because decision-making under uncertainty can include uncertainty about the state of the world, not just the intentions of other players.
If you want a slightly more polished and elaborate version of Mafia, you might try The Resistance.
If you can actually find a copy anywhere, Condottiere is basically a set of simultaneous and sequential Tullock auctions overlaid with a medieval Italian theme. (You can try this one out at gametableonline.)
And on a slightly different note, if you have creationist friends or relatives who aren’t really amenable to discussing evolution in scholarly terms but like playing games, you could always try to prime them with Dominant Species first.
(NB—posting this under the assumption that open threads have subsumed off-topic threads, of which I haven’t seen any recently. If this is mistaken, I’ll retract here and repost in an old off-topic thread)
I’ve seen numerous threads on Lesswrong discussing the appeal of the games of go, mafia, and diplomacy to rationalists. I thought I would offer some additional suggestions in case people would like to mix up their game-playing a bit, for meetups or just because. Most of these involve a little more randomness than the games listed above, but I don’t really think that should be seen as a drawback, because decision-making under uncertainty can include uncertainty about the state of the world, not just the intentions of other players.
If you like Diplomacy, you might like A Game of Thrones.
If you want a slightly more polished and elaborate version of Mafia, you might try The Resistance.
If you can actually find a copy anywhere, Condottiere is basically a set of simultaneous and sequential Tullock auctions overlaid with a medieval Italian theme. (You can try this one out at gametableonline.)
And on a slightly different note, if you have creationist friends or relatives who aren’t really amenable to discussing evolution in scholarly terms but like playing games, you could always try to prime them with Dominant Species first.