Reiner Knizia is the King of German boardgames. He designs games with simple mechanics yet which are devilishly complicated in terms of players mechanics and suchlike, usually leaving the player in a situation where they can only do one of five things but unless they do them all they are FuXoRed.
Popular Reiner Knizia designed games include Tigris & Euphrates, Modern Are, Taj Mahal, Bushido, and the official Lord of the Rings Game.
however, my fave game of his is Honeybears, a game for under 10s about naughty bears running home after stealing loads of honey. The mechanics are unbelievably simple, the game ends in under thirty minutes, and it's got great cute pictures of bears but every turn presents you with excruciating dilemmas, leading to over 10s muttering "I'm so fucked" continuously.
Amusingly, the one time I played Honeybears with an actual under 10 she whupped our asses.
― DV, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
I've heard about this guy but have never played any of his games --
they sound great, though.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
i too have never heard of it. the LOTR game though sounds like a
blatant attempt to rip money off gullible people who wish they could
go out an fight orcs though. now where's my nearest toyshop?
― katie, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
I have the LOTR game but have never got to grips with it. I gather
it's one of those games where all the players have to collaborate
or Evil wins.
Katie, I think what you need is to start playing Dungeons &
Dragons.
― DV, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
one year passes...