What Are Your Top Five Classic Family Boardgames?

Long before this hobby became a thing, normal families often played boardgames, and there was like a pantheon of classic family board games that everybody played. Monopoly. Clue. Scrabble. Stratego. Etc. What were your top 5? Do you own any of these games? Did they influence your current taste in gaming?

1. Stratego: My dad and I played a lot of Stratego, and I also played it with friends. Such a classic game, with strategy, deduction, bluffing, and those damned bombs.
2. Sorry: Not sorry. Our family always took such glee in taking each other's pieces out.
3. Clue: The deduction part was interesting, but the real draw for me was that cool mansion with the billiards room and secret passages.
4. Pit: Always exciting because of the interactive real time element. I sometimes played big games of this at family get-togethers for the Italian side of the family, with up to nine players all shouting and waving their hands at once.
5. Aggravation: Similar appeal to Sorry, plus the board looked like a neat neon sign.

Honorable Mention: Acquire: My dad was hardcore addicted to Acquire, so that was the game that we played the most when I was growing up. Acquire does an amazing job of capturing its topic with very minimal rules.

Of the above games, I own Pit and Acquire, though I left my Acquire at a relative's house years ago and keep forgetting to recover it. I also wouldn't say no to a game of Acquire. Of course, I would rather play AmeriTrash games, so maybe not much lasting impact from the classics aside from the habit of playing and enjoying boardgames.

Since you said "were" and not "are," this is going to take a bit more thought.

I was fortunate to grow up in a family that played a lot of board games. My brother and sister are both nearly 10 years older than me, though, so I was often just "helping" the others play until I got older. We had all of the usual classics, plus a bunch of others from the 70s: Masterpiece, Probe, Water Works, etc.

1. Monopoly - As maligned as this game is now, I loved it as a kid. It didn't bother me that it took forever, and no one was particularly sore when they went out first. I'm not ashamed to say I still enjoy it today, although I'm nerdy enough to be strict about playing by the real rules.
2. Cards - This is cheating a little, but we played so many card games and I loved them all: Spades, Hearts, Oh Hell, Gin. My mother was a master Bridge player, but I never caught that bug. I still played Spades vigorously through college, but I'm sad that I haven't played a traditional card game (aside from Poker) for decades.
3. Dominoes - This could easily be mashed together with cards, but they seem different enough to me. At any Texas college, it's almost required that you learn to play 42 (a domino trick-taking game), but I also grew up loving straight dominoes.
4. Scrabble - I just liked spelling and word games. My mom probably taught me this one as a subtle way to increase my vocabulary. Good idea! I play Words With Friends on occasion on my phone, but generally haven't touched this one in ages.
5. PayDay - I don't know why, but this unremarkable roll-and-move Parker Bros. game was the first one that sprang to mind when I reminisced about childhood games. I used to play this one over and over again. You'd think that might have taught me a little bit more about managing my money, but not really.

I played all the other classics, too: Clue, Risk, Stratego, Chess, but these were the ones I remember most from my childhood.
If I were to rank favorite classic or traditional games that I still play today, the list would be:
1. Acquire
2. Backgammon
3. Crokinole
4. Pit
5. Dominoes

1. Backgammon - My grandma taught me to play this and Acey Deucy, but I prefer Backgammon and still play frequently today.
2. Aggravation - When we stayed summers with my grandparents, this game was a nearly nightly thing. It really hardened us to the take that mechanic.
3. Cribbage - My great uncle taught me this during his visit from England. Great game.
4. Uno - The joy of laying down some Draw Four action on you opponent after they said 'Uno' is pretty good.
5. Careers - Better than Life as I recall. I remember there being more agency in the choices(?)

Honorable mention: Life - the original one with Art Linkletter on the promissory notes. Taught me what a promissory note was.
Stop Thief - so much better than Clue.

As a kid?

1. Risk
2. Life
3. Monopoly
4. Scotland yard
5. Parcheesi

I still like Risk, I thought I liked life until i played it with my kids. Scotland yard is probably still OK. I purchased Stratego for my son and we played a couple games, in an attempt to move on to Summoner Wars some day. He digs Stratego, I only played it once as a kid and didn't like it. Funny how things change.

No interest in Parcheesi ever again and Monopoly is great if you want to burn 3 hours and have people cry, otherwise it's pretty shitty.

1/ Fireball Island - Pure luck but that 3D board made such an awesome presentation and it was a genuinely fun game with a super cool setting. I still love it.
2/ Crokinole - Every day after school my buddy and I played the hell out of this.. sometimes Jenga too but Crokinole was our main thing.
3/ Sorry - My family played this together an awful lot. It's not good but there was a mean spiritedness about it that is still appealing.
4/ Cribbage - My Father and I played this all the time. Hundreds of games easily and I feel like I can still play it on automatic at this point. I don't think I ever want to play it again... but I could, easily.
5/ Risk - I learned more about boardgaming from Risk than any other game by far. I cried first time my Dad let me play because him and his buddies held no punches, they laughed at me as teared rolled down my face... I learned. Next game I betrayed someone else and it all started to make sense.

Of these, Fireball Island and Crokinole still hit the table with some regularity.

Well, we don't have most of the games above when I was a kid. Aside from the usual monopoly, snakes & ladder, parcheesi, chinese chekers, etc. But my dad used to goad us into a game of Scrabble. He'd pull the 5 inch thick English dictionary (since we're all not native speakers) and we played.

Topic seems to be asking about what we actually played as a family, not what we might play now. In which case the answer is.

1. Scrabble
2. Boggle
3. Monopoly
4. Mhing (this is a simplified card-based Mah Jong game. The card art is wonderful)
5. Yahtzee

I can recall many happy family holiday time spent playing these games in front of the fire.

Surprised I'm not seeing more love of Risk. It wasn't a game my family or any of my childhood friends owned. When I left home though I played it a ton. The old "mission risk" version that is standard in the UK is easily the best of the classic family games IMO.

I'm not interested in going back to Risk all that much. That may be because I played it so much. Great design though.

I just repurchased the original version of The Game of Life and damn, it's cutthroat as hell. I had forgotten how nasty it could be. The new versions have removed all of that and, as more than a few people here lament on a regular basis, new games are designed to be milquetoast. Modern versions of Life are poster children for the effect. What's seen as "improvement" -- less confrontational, less swingy, more inclusive have really turned the game into a snooze fest. We bought a modern version because it was cheap, and after playing it decided to purchase a reprint of the original (that company that redoes old games for $50 a pop, can't remember their name . . . Winning Moves maybe?). The difference was dramatic, with the original version being a far superior play, getting people laughing and yelling, one of my boys had to walk away from the table for a minute then came back vowing to make me lose at all costs. Helluva session.

Parcheesi is still good, light gaming. Enjoy it.

I'm liking Monopoly more and more. Each time I play it I see that the pejoratives thrown on it generally don't apply, especially now that my kids have gotten good at playing it.

I really suck at Scrabble, so it's out.

1. The Game of Life
2. Monopoly
3. The Stock Market Game
4. Parcheesi
5. Risk

The standard responses:
1. Monopoly
2. Risk
I will still play Monopoly but only with the speed die. I have not played Risk since college.
3. The aMAZEing Labyrinth - This Ravensburger title was a staple at my house growing up. It is a simple slide a tile in and move game, but many evenings were spent playing the title with my mother and little brother on the living room floor. I recently introduced it to my nieces and nephew (all under age 10) and they too fell in love with the simple gameplay but fun mechanics. A pipedream of mine is to combine Labyrinth with Ravensburgers amazing Curse of the Mummy/Fluch der Mumie and a touch of Wizwar, but that would be a complicated game of magnets and gravity and Ive just not figured it out yet.
4. American Carroms - My grandmother bought an American Carrom board when I was five or six. We used it mostly to play Checkers until she taught us how to flick the coins for carroms. And thus a lifelong obsession was born. I have played carroms atleast monthly for over 20 years now. During the summer my wife and I play it almost every day. My wife just bought me a hexagon board that came in Saturday and everything I have learned over the years is now suspect...
5. Crossbows and Catapults - I grewup in the 80s and for some reason they thought it was a good idea to give us toys to shoot at each other. Combinging shooting at eachother with base building and "tactics" made C&C a fantastic title. It was also the only boardgame I could beat my oldest brother at, being that he has four years on me. I still play C&C randomly, mostly when alcohol is consumed. It moved from a game I rush home to play to the one I pull out after Ive had a few and want to show people I can still bounce a shot off their tower into their men.

1. Risk
2. Scrabble - My grandma was a shark. But we grew up playing the game wrong, where you got to reuse the bonus spaces.
3. Monopoly - we'd throw $200 into Free Parking, because who doesn't love a 4-hour Monopoly game.
4. Stratego - there's that Spy following the General around.
5. Rook - I always thought I sucked at it, but it turned out my two younger brothers cheated by using gestures to describe their hands.

RobertB wrote: 5. Rook - I always thought I sucked at it, but it turned out my two younger brothers cheated by using gestures to describe their hands.

That doesn't prove you don't suck at it.

Child of the late 70's and 80's.

#1: Survive - Yeah. Good stuff.

#2: Torpedo Run - One of my earliest games. Shooting each other across a vinyl mat is fun.

#3: Jaws - The one were you had to fish junk out of his mouth before it snapped shut. Scared the crap outta me as a kid.

#4: Kerplunk - this was the epitome of excitement for a 4 year old crayon. (Close second was Aggravation)

#5: Curse of the Mummy - I have no idea why I liked it. Maybe the voice gimmick did it for me.

Not counting any of the fringe Hobby stuff like Acquire or Survive...

Risk
Scrabble
Clue
Monopoly
Pit

Aside from Pit and Scrabble, the other three have all been improved by licensed versions. Oddly. SW for Risk and Monopoly (the newest one is really fun). Harry Potter for Clue.

Special Mention- Pop-Up Pirate (One of the best BGG user comments ever- "the pirate flies out with considerable force").

CHESS: Starting at a fairly young age I used to play with my dad quite frequently. This game certainly shaped my approach to most board games, but especially war games. This is the game that taught me to think turns ahead and how to evaluate trades. My buddy Dan has always said that I play games like a Chess player.

RISK: Wow I loved this game! Probably the first area control-ish game I played, and certainly is at the root of my journey into ameritrash gaming.

MONOPOLY: I used to BEG my parents to play with me.

BOGGLE: One of the designers was a friend of my dad's, so this was big at my house. Man, the success of the game really changed this guys life. I wonder if that's why I thought you could actually make money designing a board game. . .

STRATEGO: Played this all the time with my younger brother until he got sick of losing. I still think about this game sometimes, with the hidden bombs and the guys who could disarm them. Brilliant!

Just thinking about stuff that was in our house...

• TRIVIAL PURSUIT. God, I fucking dominated at this. 12yo Jeb vs THE REST OF THE HOUSE (mind you, a non-zero % of them were drunk)
• CAREERS. I remember liking this, but I remember nothing about it. Was this fun?
• BOGGLE. Me vs Nanny (my grandmother). 4-letters or more. This was serious business.
• CLUE MASTER DETECTIVE. Had the bigger board, more of everything. Honed a lot of logic here...
• HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS. Don't @ me.

Honorable mention for STAY ALIVE. My neighbor had this and I loved this every time we played.