AmeriTrash for kids?

Of course AmeriTrash is for kids!

But I have a more specific question than that. I recently volunteered to play board games at a local Boys & Girls Club this coming Wednesday night. Apparently it's some kind of after-school community center for kids where they can study or play games or pool or whatever until one a parent can pick them up. I was told that these kids will age 6-16.

The group that arranged this event is a Meetup group that seems to be heavy on the generic boardgamers, the kind of people who still play Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, with a smaller faction of Eurogamers and a very small number of AmeriTrash gamers.

My girlfriend thinks that its great that I will put my boardgaming interest at the service of needy young children, but she wants me to be a good role-model and leave the AmeriTrash at home. I promised that I would do that the first time, but if somebody else brought AmeriTrash or if the kids requested it (after I tell them about it), I would feel free to bring AmeriTrash at subsequent Wednesdays.

So what should I bring? I'm not interested in buying any new games right now, so here is a big chunk of my collection:

Arkham Horror - new
Arkham Horror - old
Asteroid
Awful Green Things from Outer Space, The
Betrayal at the House on the Hill
Blood Feud in New York
Ca$h 'n Gun$
Citadels
Creatures & Cultists
Cults Across America
Deadwood
Disk Wars - L5R
Divine Right
Dungeon Twister
Fairy Meat
Frag Deadlands
Freedom in the Galaxy
Fury of Dracula
Game of Thrones, A
Gother Than Thou
Hacker
Heresy
Hills Rise Wild, The
Illuminati CCG
Illuminati, the original game
Intruder
Kill Doctor Lucky
Kung Fu 2100
Landyland
Legend of the Burning Sands
Legend of the Five Rings
Mall of Horror
Mertwig's Maze
Middle Earth CCG
Mythos
Netrunner
Nightmare House
Nuclear War
Prince of the City
Rage
Roaring 20's, The
Save Doctor Lucky
Shadowfist
Shapeshifters
Slasher Flick: Revenge of the Boogeyman
Slasher: the Final Cut
Snapshot
Starship Troopers
Strange Synergy
Temple of the Beastmen
Twister
Undead
Vampire: Dark Influences
Vampire: the Eternal Struggle
Vampyre
Vesuvius Incident, The
Viking Gods
Werewolf
Wiz-War
Zombies!!!

For the first week, I'm thinking Citadels, Save Doctor Lucky, Deadwood and Landyland. After that, I think that Awful Green Things, Disk Wars, Kill Doctor Lucky, Nuclear War, Werewolf, Vampyre and Zombies!!! would be good. Cash'n'Guns might be pushing it, though.

No way man. Just take BETRAYAL AT THE HOUSE ON THE HILL and they'll be eating out of your hand. Seriously, that game will go over like lemonade in hell with that group.

First glance I thought 'Mall of Horror', 'Werewolf', and 'Zombies' for the initial icebreaker.

If you take twister people may think you're a kiddie toucher.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

If you take twister people may think you're a kiddie toucher.

Ah, good point, I hadn't thought of that. Plus, I don't want to responsible for what happens if a bunch of teenagers play twister with each other.

Awful Green Things jumped at me right away. If they are teens then I don't think you need to worry too much. Betrayal would be good. Perhaps after you get a handle on the types of kids there after the first week you'll have a better idea. You can't go wrong with most of you titles over Monopoly...kids love theme and colorful games as long as they aren't too jaded.

I was going to say Talisman, but it's not on your list. I tried it with two of my kids (6 and 9), and they loved it.

Citadels might work, but I think it depends on the age/maturity level of the kids involved. You don't want to try that on kids that can't handle backstabbing.

--Mike L.

C&G is a surefire bet...the problem is that it might, um, chafe certain sensibilities. One of my favorite C&G stories happened when I was about to shoot this kid execution style (with an replica airsoft gun) and his mom walked into the store to pick him up.

I guess you could tone down the bad language and hard-ass posturing...ditch the guns and let the kids point finger-guns at each other. or you could just play BANG...

Betrayal is the winner! If there's a million kids, play Werewolf or Mafia or whatever the hell they call that game now.

Head over to Target and pick up some Heroscape on the cheap--those games are pretty, quasi-fun to set up, and Ameritrashy as all hell.

Dungeon Twister is a safe bet for the Chess Club crowd.

Betrayal is a no brainer.

I think that Werewolf would be really cool to play wioth a bunch of kids.

( the sound of two pennies clinking)

HEROSCAPE is a good one for that age too.

The key thing with gaming with non gamers is to play games that require zero investment or commitment to rules. If you can't explain how to play in five minutes, you've lost. If you use gamey terms like "phases", "resolution", "turn order" and so forth, you've lost.

BETRAYAL works because you can pretty much set it up and explain as you go- and it's very direct. You tell 'em they're exploring a creepy old house. That's all. It's intriguing, it draws them in, and after one game they'll be begging for more. And with a better understanding of how it works, they'll get more out of it.

Then, hopefully, after a few games they'll want to play something better.

I think you should take Ca$h and gun$, that way I will be able to write about your arrest and post it on this site!

Maybe I could write up some special rules to combine Twister with Cash'n'Guns to make sure I get arrested. I'll try to post some pictures before somebody calls 911.

Cash 'n Buns?