Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I was reminded of my love of 500 after posting in the "What do you do on weekends?" thread. viewtopic.php?t=306
Does anyone play? Not rummy, the kind with four people, two sets of partners.
My parents learned in a class in high school, as I guess was typical then, so I grew up playing. I feel like it's a dying game amongst my generation.
I love games like this where you can think and strategize. I can't stand playing "roll the dice" games where it's mostly chance.
Others I enjoy are Taboo and occasionally, Risk. I learned chess when I was younger, but too boring for me. I like games with more people where you can yell and discuss, etc.
These games are a great source of really inexpensive fun.
Anyone have any to add?

Robo Rally. Program robots to go where you want, taking into account conveyer belts, pits of death, etc., and guessing about how you might get pushed around by other robots. The cards you get are random, and the more damage you get, the fewer cards you get, so you have less control over where you're going. (Note: it is depressing to watch certain people throw themselves into the pit, over and over.)

Board gaming is actually a fairly expensive hobby, but I keep it within my budget and support the developers I like and my FLGS (friendly local gaming store) even though it's usually $25-$50 a pop for new. But robo rally, settlers of catan, agricola, et. al. all great fun. They're pricier but more in-depth than your standard milton-bradley game. Helps if you have a group to split up purchases.
Although the best bang for your buck has to be a deck of cards. My personal favorite game is bridge. Used to have a bridge group in college with some of the professors, nowadays it's mostly random online games (I use http://www.bridgebase.com/ a free online system). I wasn't familiar with 500, but a quick wikipedia check looks like it's related to Euchre, which that and Pinochle I have played.
Edit to add: Also I'm a geek so I guess I'll admit to role-playing games as well. As in D&D and the like, fun if you've got the right crowd for them (and are into that sort of thing).

Try adult board games. The king of these is Settlers of Catan which at ~$50 is not cheap, but on a per hour basis, it will end up costing you almost nothing!
After you get hooked on Settlers, there is an entire world of these games, the best being Puerto Rico, Agricola, and Ticket to Ride. (In my opinion, of course.)
A deck of cards is still the best bang for your buck though.

Also rather than try to list out a dozen recommendations, I'll just say, check out http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ as a general go-to resource. Also another caveat is that many board games tend to have expansions, so once you're hooked on the game, of course you'll want to buy it. Dominion's really been the game going around my circle, and there are already 3 expansions out for it.

LOL... great to hear that y'all are enjoying Robo Rally!
That was one of Richard Garfield's earliest games that "the Portland clan" felt was worthy of publication (first pass was in the early '80s). It wasn't until after Magic: The Gathering was published that Robo Rally went to press. You'd laugh at the early artwork attempts on cardstock and Richard's notoriously bad penmanship. My small contribution to it was the idea of the registers sticking when you take damage.

Diplomacy

There's no better way to learn the skills of negotiating.
Nuclear War

Add poker hands where the stakes are population cards. Add a dummy hand (plays randomly). Make a nation of zombies.
We found that it's possible to liven up most board games by pokerizing them. In Risk, for instance, the armies can be poker stakes. For Monopoly the cash and/or real estate (including houses/hotels) can be poker stakes.

Robo Rally huh? Never heard of it, but will have to check it out if I tire of everything I have this winter.
Oh yes, poker! I forgot about poker! If you keep the stakes low, losing is minimal, but winning could still buy a few drinks at the bar! Love it.

Dang, nearly forgot about "Junta!". Don't know if that's still available, but there's nothing like trying to rule a banana republic while stashing as much cash as possible. Lots of negotiations and voting, staging military coups, and the ever popular "seizing the chamber of ministers".
And just when you think some of the actions are made up or happened only in the past, along comes a banana republic where those very actions make today's headlines.

****
Uh-oh, "Junta!" is getting harder to find: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junta_(game)

Um, be careful with Junta. You can lose friends over it. There are a lot of games where you have to or almost have to be evil to win, but this one seems worse than usual.

Chess, especially if you like the mental discipline of memorizing enormous amounts of otherwise useless data, just like college.

@Debbie M - People that can't separate gameplay from friendships shouldn't be playing games. If "Junta!" causes a problem, then none of the games I know of are suitable.

Cashflow 101 and Cashflow 202 are educational board games if you are into wealth building. The games themselves are expensive, but you can often find a Meetup group that plays them.
Note that many of the people who sponsor the games have an agenda (e.g., they work in real estate or multilevel marketing and use the games as a prospecting tool), so go in with your eyes wide open.
I played the games about 50 times over a four year period and learned things that helped me expand my understanding of financial freedom.

I really like Axis & Allies. They also came out with computer game versions, but I still like the board.

@vegan mom
It almost sounds like the card game hearts?

I enjoy playing Quarto. It's a simple game to pick up, but really gets your brain working. My Dad made me a board and pieces a few years ago (a nice woodworking project), but there are online versions as well.

You can play Cashlow online for free now. I started maybe a month or so ago. I don't necessarily like the emphasis on leveraging your way to prosperity, but it keeps me in the wealth-building frame of mind.

Forgot to add that I'm a big fan of Settlers. Used to have some games with guys from the pizza shop that would start after work (i.e. 4 a.m.) and last well into the morning.

@Ralphy "You can play Cashlow online for free now."
Cool! It also exists as a PC game, but not for free AFAIK.

Go is another classic strategy game. It has a depth similar to chess, but is somewhat purer since all the pieces work the same way. If you're a student of military history or martial arts, you can appreciate the differences in how medieval Japan/China viewed warfare vs. how Europe did.