So, an update on some things attempted over the past few months with the Shiverspouse:
Star Wars: Empire vs Rebellion she liked, although at its core it is mostly just a fancy version of "21" with the Star Wars theme pasted on. It does have some innovative bidding mechanics that require you to read your opponent, so it has a few more choices than a traditional card game. Pretty cards, too. We did play multiple games of this.
Legacy of Dragonholt went over quite well, though so far we've just had time for the introductory adventure. It's a light RPG similar to choose-you-own adventure but with some memory elements as well as skills and character advancement. Will get played again. Was well received due to rules-lightness and good story. This one I can play solo, too, so it was a decent purchase.
The Hobbit (a Reiner Knizia co-op) got mixed reviews. While she took to the rules fairly quickly, she didn't like the scoring mechanism and "win condition", plus she found the mechanics a little too abstract. We at least won the game. Unlikely to see the table again with her.
Lord of the Rings (Reiner Knizia co-op) was a lead balloon. Despite being fully co-op, which I thought would be a plus, she found the mechanics too abstract and hard to learn, even after playing The Hobbit. I thought that a little weird because she thought
Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation was OK and it's a directly competitive game (essentially a smaller Stratego with an LotR theme and a surprise bidding mechanic), but the mechanics in Confrontation are much less abstract. I think what I'm finding is that for her mechanics need to be more literally linked to the theme and actions of what is going on, or be simple to understand. Simple RPGs are good, simple dice/card mechanics are good, less deep strategy and fewer choices (at least on the surface) are good.
One Deck Dungeon was actually reasonably popular, once she got the hang of the "dice covering" mechanics. This one is fun as both a co-op and solo, so it's got more play from me. RPG-lite elements were welcome. It's admittedly pretty random, but has some good choices.
Last, a surprising hit:
Lord of the Rings: Journey to Mordor. This is a pretty simple dice game; the entire strategy and set of choices is picking what dice to keep and which ones to re-roll. The adventure mechanic is a "race" of checking boxes based on the dice. At first she complained about the dice being confusing (six different symbols with different associated actions) but once she got those down she warmed up to it and followed the action well plus she saw a good fit for the mechanics (move forward, try to escape Nazgul and orcs) to the theme of the game. Surprised me as there isn't much to this game -- though maybe the "more of a family game, less of a gamer's game" is what I need to keep in mind.
It's a still struggle to get her to try a game, though ...
