Games for the non-gamer

[krichaiushii]

The original version of Titan was always a nice quick game...

Backgammon or Chess. You can even find some nicer sets that double as expensive tabletop showpieces - not the best idea for a house with a 3 year old, but still.

You could also go down the dark path of the CCG. Beware, for it is twisted and treacherous!

Atlas Games has Once Upon a Time, which is a story-telling game. Very fun in a larger group, actually. If you have no imagination, its a problem, though.

Yahtzee might be your best bet, as all you really need (aside from the rules) are 5d6 and some paper and a writing utensil. I suspect you have all that at your disposal.

 

[Micah]

The LOTR board game by FFG (Fantasy Flag Games) is an excellent two player (or more) game. One of the really nice things about it is that it pits all of the players against the game system rather than each other - makeing it a cooperative rather than competitve based game. Medium complexity, easy to learn. PS - we've allowed our 4 year old to play although we pretty much tell her what to do - she still enjoy's it (It is, for the record, a far cry from Candyland - she doesn't really understand the game yet.)

I'll second Settlers of Catan - but I'm not sure about how the game would play for two players. Another one that we've enjoyed is Eurorails - however it can be lengthy - great game for gradeschoolers though and you can get it in an American version.