Board Games

Where Monopoly ends and Catan begins:

is a question of who is sitting at the table. The Hasbro family classics, Monopoly, Clue, Jenga and the Game of Life, are explained before the drinks are poured and suit a table that runs from grandchildren to grandparents. Modern hobby games such as Catan, Carcassonne or Ticket to Ride ask for a longer sitting and a group that enjoys planning ahead, while party games like Codenames and Dixit are made for a loud room full of people. Then come the traditional games, chess, checkers and above all dominoes, which in Panama means a double-six set played by partners across the table. Pokémon and Magic cards have their own shelf under trading card games, and a quieter project for one sits among the puzzles.

Catan for a crowd, Azul for a couple:

the player count is the first thing to match to your household. Catan is at its best with a full table and needs its extension for a bigger group, while Azul and Carcassonne play as well as a pair as they do with more, which matters if most of your games are played by two. Words settle the rest. Codenames is nothing but words, so a table that plays in Spanish needs the Spanish edition, whereas Dixit, Azul and Ticket to Ride carry almost no text outside the rulebook and play the same in any language. Expansions only work with their base game, sometimes with one particular edition of it, so match the two before paying. A board-game café in downtown Panama City lends out hundreds of titles over a coffee, and an evening there is the cheapest way to learn whether a heavy strategy game suits your group before you own one.

Catan keeps its value where Monopoly does not:

a Hasbro family classic such as Monopoly or the Game of Life is around $25 new in Panama, and a hobby game like Catan starts near $50 before any expansion. Second-hand, the two part ways. The classics sit in every toy aisle, so a used copy fetches a few dollars, and only when nothing is missing. A hobby game is harder to find on a local shelf and keeps much more of what it cost, provided the box is complete, the board lies flat and the cards are clean. Once pieces go missing, it is worth only what its parts mean to someone who owns the same game.

Counterfeit copies of Catan and Codenames:

are the trap with the most popular hobby games, and they give themselves away with thin board, blurry print, flimsy tokens and a box without the publisher’s logo. After that comes the count. Almost every rulebook opens with a list of what belongs in the box, so checking takes minutes, whether it is the money and title deeds in Monopoly, the tiles in Scrabble or the weapons in Clue. Cardboard sheets still unpunched mean a game was barely played. Look for crushed corners and a board that has bowed. With dominoes, lay the set face up: every pairing from double blank to double six should be there, the tiles should match in thickness and colour, and the odd one out usually came from another set.

Edition, language and expansions in the listing title:

tell a buyer at a glance whether a game will work at their table, so put them first and name each expansion. Photograph the contents laid out beside the component list, say whether the cards were sleeved, and mention anything missing rather than waiting for someone to count it. For a domino set, say what the tiles are made of and whether the case still shuts properly. A set that leaves the house for a table in the park lives or dies by its case, and whoever comes in from Chepo to collect it will want to hear it snap closed.