Two things with Settlers,
It needs three or four people, it doesn't scale very well with two, and
It involves trading with other players, which is a bit of a culture shock to anyone used to 'traditional' games. Not that this is a bad thing, it really means you're playing 'together' rather than the old "play your turn, wait bored for 20 minutes, play your next turn..." mechanic that you're probably used to.
Settlers is the classic 'gateway game' - it's the one most widely used to transition from non-gamer / 'traditional' gamer into playing games that, well, aren't crap.
Mousetrap
There are some classic games being mentioned here! I'm also a fan of Upwords 
Trivial Pursuit
Carom
Go (but I'm rubbish at it!)
In our house Othello and Pictionary are popular.
The kids do like Star Wars Monopoly and the Lego games like Minotaurus
ooops...double post although I was sure it didn't post the first time 
So you could have fun AND learn about macro-economic policy. How exciting!
Heh.. ironically this is why the game was invented of course, but for economics on a smaller scale.
It's better when you can do stuff like sell shares in yourself and such
Right...Mol it sounds like we need to have more kids so I can play Settlers 
How on earth do you fight over Trivial Pursuits? You either get it right or you don't.
Have you never played? It takes too long, I can't get the brown ones, you never get the number you want on the die, as everyone gets more fed up a time limit to answer is introduced, tempers fray, it descends from there.
Stick to the procreation & forget board games. Better all round
It's the funnest game in the whole wide world.....
mrsgrips - MemberRight...Mol it sounds like we need to have more kids so I can play Settlers
Sounds like you won't be needing a boardgame for the next couple of nights then 
Of course if you're looking at Monopoly you have to decide which version.
City Monopoly, Star Wars Monopoly, French Monopoly, Gallipolopy, New York Monopoly, 'Classic' Monopoly, EdnaKrabbopoly
Probably Carcasonne - the Hunters and Gatherers variant - simple, pretty and tactical enough for advanced play. Not good for the pub though.
But I also love Polarity which we play in the pub in teams. This is great fun because it has tactile weirdness and dexterity factors as well as tactics and gets very tense with magnets wobbling and threatening to fall all over the place.
We play this other trading/resource card game called Beananza which also works well in the pub. As does Loot and Pig.
I would like Perudo for it's mathametical vs bluffing tactics but I'm doomed to lose on both counts!
For something quite different try to borrow Pandemic, because its a co-operative game against the system. You may not like it; I'm still getting into it.
Two games I expected to love but strangely don't are Catan and Power Grid. You just can't tell until you try.
Not a boardgame as such but Dominion is rather good. Love Carcasson too.
Last time i played TP, we never finished, the dice we made got smoked. 
As a kid used to like playing 'game of dracula'
+1 for Carcassonne. Awesome game.
Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs is where it's at. Now I just need to find one to buy to relive my younger years.
+1 Settlers of Catan
+ (another) 1 for Don't Wiz on the Electric Fence ("what rolls down stairs, alone or in pairs, and over your neighbour' dog?")
We'll need a board game for at least the next 4 days... after that... well we'll see.
Diplomacy. Genius and very simple, but expect to lose friends.
And Panzerblitz by the much-missed Avalon Hill. :-'(
We just got two player Risk. It's all a bit newfangled, adding concepts like Capital cities, "rough terrain", radar installations and the like, but it still plays like old school Risk. No horses, just plastic markers, so there's something for everyone...
Have you never played? It takes too long, I can't get the brown ones, you never get the number you want on the die, as everyone gets more fed up a time limit to answer is introduced, tempers fray, it descends from there
Yes, I've played loads! I can't imagine anyone getting in a bad mood because they don't get the right number on the die. We're uber competitive in my family but even we aren't that insane!
Re Monopoly variants, I hate them. Mainly because in the original version the cheap properties really were poor areas of London, and the expensive ones swanky areas, which gave it a quaint air of realism I think. I've got the Wales one which is a bit silly because they should've had crappy towns as the Old Kent Road etc (Merthyr for example) and some posh part of Cardiff as Mayfair. But they haven't, they've just got random things around Wales, presumably (and probably rightly) to avoid offending anyone. Silly.
backgammom or draughts. GF doesn't like playing against me as i tell her that her last move was crap and proceed to jump all over her.
scrabble.
can't think of any others that i play with any reglarity.
Trivial pursuit at family gatgherings can be quite fun.
I like Connect 4. I am strangely good at it, but I suspect that's because most people haven't really thought about it as carefully as I have
Oh yeah, +1 for Pandemic. Co-op game, so great to play with partners who don't take well to being screwed over... (-:
molgrips - I take it you know the 3 opening moves in Connect 4 that ensure victory every time?
Cant you just have sex for the next 4 days??? It's free entertaining and you can even youtube it...
Ok
Ok
Ok
Mine is the black latexy one...
Not sure it is technically a bored game, but I like to encourage mrscrackfox to play 'pocket billiards'
We're not having sex for the next four days at least...and there will be no youtube involved in an sex sessions we do have and pocket billiards only gets one so far really I was wondering when things would deteriorate...
the board game was (mostly) going to be for Christmas boredom when his family is visiting
Hmm.. I do know how to create an unanswerable play but I'm not sure that I can do it without my opponent being able to nullify it in the build-up.
EDIT that refers to Connect 4 there.. to avoid any confusion
You need to think about it some more then.....
Clearly. Is there an online version we can play?
You could play rohypnolopy, it's a bit like Monopoly but they all fall asleep and you go out for a ride.
sharki - that game's good for playing with new girlfriends and dates too. Except you don't go out for a ride of course.
Pirate Memory Game
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