Negotiation: Bohnanza, Genoa, Intrigue, Lifeboats, I'm The Boss.

"Avalon: Big Box" is a misnomer. I have it and it's one of my smallest boxes.

If you enjoy a lot of table talk and want a social deduction game that has more room for individual creativity than Secret Hitler, then I would recommend you go for "Avalon: Big Box" since you mentioned regular Avalon is not available.

You sound just like a sales-bro that is here to brag as opposed to contributing to discussion by providing an actual solution.

I will concede that mentality, attitude, and consistency are key to success in any sales role, but what else are you providing here other than a condescending sales-bro word salad?

Awesome! What are the best things things you've made with the guidance of this book?

I'll check him out, thanks.

Forgive my ignorance, but I've never heard of the second book you mentioned. Looks like a good book about the essentials of camping.

How would you compare it to the books from Mors Kochanski? Would you rate one over the other as a starting point or better alternative?

That's a good point.

Do you think it's a good starting book for Bushcraft?

Thank you for the insight. I'm sensing that you might be recommending the other 3 books that he's got as well, or are all of his knowledge covered in the two you mentioned?

I'm thinking Nature Craft, Fire Council, and Woodsmoke.

I've been looking for this book, and I can't find anything new. How has your experience been with the book after 3 years, do you recommend it or is there something else better out there?

This is excellent, well done.

Well said!

You’re welcome!

I love player interaction, laughs, and table talk. I have a preference for games which are relatively light on rules, but have deep and emergent gameplay. My most frequent player count is two, therefore I want 40% or more of my games to be great at that player count.

Here is what I would keep if I were you.

Acquire

Battle Line

Bohnanza

Carcassonne

Cockroach poker

Codenames Duet

Hansa Teutonica

No Thanks!

Race for the Galaxy

Tammany Hall

Honorable Mentions with a note on why they didn't make the cut

Condottiere - You sure you don't want to make this a top 11 to keep? So close.

Scout - Almost made the cut.

El Grande - Tammany has more table talk and a little less rules.

Twighlight Struggle - Long play time and requires similar knowledge of the cards to shine.

Targi - I hear it's a wonderful 2 player game, but there other 2 player games I'd rather play.

Pandemic - Base game gets stale fast which then requires expansion. I have Fall of Rome version with a fan made variant that is just perfect for me.

Imperial - So long, when would I ever convince people to play this?

Troyes - In a top 20 list from your list of game it would make the cut.

Closing remark Everything else is either too Multiplayer Solitaire for my taste, too many rules for the depth of strategy, too long, or just unknown to me.

It really depends on your target market. You could position yourself to capitalize on that niche, but depending on what the game is you could risk losing sales.

For example: if you developed a game that helps 6 to 9 year old kids develop and practice arithmetic skills, and you can prove that it will increase their performance in Math class, you can potentially sell to schools, teachers, and ambitious parents. In this scenario, the "educational" tag would be something that is sought after.

You can tell by the other comments here that the "educational" tag would be an immediate red flag. Not because people don't want to learn of course, but because of the reputation of that tag.

If you want to fly under the RADAR in this community, there are games out there you can take inspiration from that have moral lessons/observations and even historical facts that players get out of the game.

For example: Think of what the inherent value of anything really is after playing a few games of Modern Art.

I suggest Bohnanza to get them talking, negotiating, and trading.

Mamma Mia! If you want to challenge memory skills.

Avalon / The Resistance for table talk and social deduction.

I didn't realize it started off as a TCG, that's interesting.

it is wild to me how well known this can be while people continue to gobble it up.

Same here, I presume it's the same reason people still go gamble in casinos.

I agree that Netrunner is the better game in term of gameplay and your wallet.

Regarding your point, it’s more than first mover advantage at play here. Mtg has gambling in the form of booster packs and a speculative resale market. It’s very addictive for people, and unfortunately is why mtg has a bigger following than Netrunner.

It’s a game that should be experienced at the very least once. It holds an important place in board game history. There are some important lessons about risk management and investing, also about pushing your luck and getting train-wrecked by misfortune that is out of your control. You must ask yourself how do you both manage that at the game level and on a personal level.

The human interaction element is the key in this game.

Playing monopoly, and games like it, can help you learn to better communicate and negotiate, in addition to improving your gamesmanship.

You don’t need to love this game, but you owe it to yourself to at least try it, and play games like it. Personally I’m a big fan of Chinatown and Bohnanza.

Great idea for a date night! 

Don’t listen to that negative comment, there’s a lot of elitism in this subreddit. 

I think it looks great!

And don’t forget the ladybug and pillbug piece.

Iberia is not a variant, it’s a standalone Pandemic game.

The variant is for Fall of Rome, which takes rules from Iberia.

They’re the top link under files https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/194636/pandemic-fall-of-rome-the-variant-pack-fanmade-exp

Hope you enjoy!

My partner and I enjoy Pandemic Fall of Rome. You can set the difficulty to the highest point for a great challenge. You can also play as 2 characters each, rather than just one. 

Contrary to other games of same lineage, it feels a little like a war game thanks to the dice, which adds an additional risk management factor to the game.

Once you feel like you have played it out, there’s a high quality fan variant posted on the games BGG page that adds in the challenges that are otherwise unique to the Iberian version. 

Thanks, it's an ongoing journey.

I get you, life ain't easy. I don't think anyone has all the answers, if anyone says otherwise that's a big red flag in my book. So don't beat yourself up over it.

What what helped me out in life more than anything is to build strong bonds with good people and seek out positive experiences.

I'm not sure I want to go down the route of psychedelics, but believe experiences will build you up as long as it's not detrimental to your health.