1Ghettopoly
There was a board game named "Ghettopoly" where instead of railroad properties, there were liquor stores.
2. In 1950, Nobel Prize winner John Nash co-invented a board game called So Long Sucker. Before it was published he wanted to call it “F**k You Buddy.” During play, players make agreements with the other players which are ultimately unenforceable. To win, players must eventually go back on such agreements.
3. There is a board game called U.S. Patent No. 1 whose goal is to invent a time machine, go back to 1790, and receive the first U.S. Patent for your invention.
4. A board game titled “Arimaa”, from 2003 uses a standard Chess set, but with rules designed such that it is hard for computers and easy for humans. By 2015 though, computers became better at the game than humans.
5. Sorry!, Trouble, Ludo, and Parcheesi are all western versions of an old Indian game, Pachisi, that was first played in the 4th century.
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6Carrom
Carrom is an extremely popular table game in South Asia with its own World Cup tournament.
7. There was a board game called Blacks and Whites that came out in 1970 which was, basically, a racist Monopoly.
8. In 1971, BP endorsed a board game called "BP Offshore Oil Strike" that included a game card which read, “Blow-out! Rig damaged. Oil slick clean-up costs. Pay $1million.”
9. Ancient Egyptians played a board game called Mehen. The rules for the game are lost but it's presumed to have been played with marbles and lion and lioness-shaped pieces.
10. In the original version of the board game Clue, from the UK, Mr. Green is known as Reverend Green. Parker Bros. changed it for America because they thought Americans would object to a parson being a murderer.
11Go
The ancient board game "Go" was being played at a tournament in Hiroshima in 1945 when the atomic bomb went off only 3 miles away. Though the building was damaged and people were injured, they finished the match later that same afternoon (white won).
12. There is a game called Tamerlane chess which is similar to chess, with a different board and includes elephants, camels, generals, war machines, 11 types of pawns, and several other pieces.
13. Trivial pursuit's 20th-anniversary edition has an incorrect answer to the Seinfeld related question: "in the bubble boy episode, which producer voiced the bubble boy". The answer they give is Larry David, when the answer is in fact John Hayman.
14. The original Dungeons & Dragons contained references to “hobbits” but those were removed when J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate complained that he held the copyright to the creatures. They were later renamed “halflings” in D&D.
15. The game Battleship dates back to the turn of the 20th century, where it was played with just paper and pen. The game is said to have been played by Russian officers before World War 1. A version using plastic pegs wasn't created until 1967.
16Risk
Risk (the board game) was almost banned from being sold in Germany due to its violent "imperialist" and "militaristic" tendencies, which are highly taboo in Germany's board game culture. Developers changed the rules to allow players to "liberate" their opponents' territories.
17. Chinese checkers is a German variation of an American game. It was later introduced to the Chinese by the Japanese.
18. Connect Four is a solved game. The first player can always win by playing the right moves.
19. Since both "F's" & the only "K" occur on the same die, it is impossible to ever spell the word "F*ck" in Boggle.
20. The original name for the U.S. board game “Sorry” is “Mensch ärgere Dich nicht” translated to Man, don’t get frustrated, a nod to the game’s mechanics being random, frustrating, and not fun.
21Yahtzee
The game Yahtzee was invented by an anonymous Canadian couple, who called it The Yacht Game because they played it on their yacht. Edwin S. Lowe, the same man who introduced bingo, exchanged the rights to the game for 1000 gift sets to the couple in 1956.
22. Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax was a devout Christian who refused to celebrate Christmas because he thought it was a pagan holiday.
23. A board game named Campaign for North Africa: The Desert War 1940-43 is so detailed and complex, it can easily take 10 people over 1200 hours to finish.
24. In 1909, British suffragettes released a board game called “Pank-a-Squith”. It was set out in a spiral, and players were required to lead their suffragette figure from their home to parliament, past the obstacles from hated Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and the Liberal government.
25. In 1969, there was a commercially sold adult board game called Chug A Lug, which involved smoking, beer and marijuana, The purpose was to win the most ALCOHOLIC UNANIMOUS cards and penalties involved liquor store runs, removing clothing or not being allowed to go to the bathroom.
