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Card games: bridge, Wizard (a trump game that is a good primer for bridge), 5 crowns

Other: mastermind

My 8 year old loves Dominion. The box says it takes 1/2 hour and up, but we've never played a game that took less than an hour.

Can someone explain Dixit to me? The cards are beautiful, but our games aren't that interesting. I'm wondering if there is a way to make that game more fun.

I'm drawn to Dixit since DD is so visual and creative, buthaving watched a Tabletop video of it, I don't think it's the right game for us yet. That's a great resource if one has the time and knows what to look at--has videos showing people playing a game through:

http://geekandsundry.com/shows/tabletop/

Based on today, I'm definitely going to pick up Coup. We like Love Letters, and it seems similar but more fun. Our favorite games are those that are not hard to learn but have intense strategy that doesn't get boring.

With Dixit, everyone has a hand full of cards with odd artwork that can have multiple interpretations, like a snowman looking out a window or a mouse chasing a cat (don't know if those are real cards, just making it up). When it's your turn, you secretly choose a card from your hand and you make up a clue about it, something that you think describes your card but isn't obvious (like you might say "Out of Place" to describe your snowman. You state your clue, and then everyone else looks at their own cards and picks one that they think best fits your clue (usually there is a good choice if the clue is vague enough, just one or a few words). Everyone gives their card to you and you shuffle them up along with yours, then line them up face-up, and everyone secretly votes on which card was yours. You get points if people guess your card, but lose points if everyone guesses it (because then your clue was too obvious). You want your clue to be obvious enough that someone gets it, but not so obvious that everyone chooses your card. Also, the people who guess your card correctly get points, and they get points if someone else chooses their card rather than yours. That's a very brief summary to give you an idea. Everyone that we have played the game with seems to enjoy it, including people who don't normally like games. It's very simple to learn. After a round or two, everyone understands what they are supposed to do. Our only problem has been that when DS was younger he would wave his cards around, basically showing everyone at the table what he had in his hand.

Citadels is another card game I thought of. It's a good game for larger groups (4 or more people). Simple to learn, interesting artwork, lots of interaction between players, etc.

It gets faster when everyone knows all the cards by heart. People often don't even wait for others to finish their turn before they start taking their own, and it can really whip around the table. But you have to play a lot of games before you get to that point.

DS11 was introduced to Go at math camp this summer, and became an instant addict. Very visual-spatial. Way less complex than chess, but supposedly much harder to strategize well.

I've thought about getting Go, but DS is already spending many hours a week playing chess and can crush all of us.