I loooooove Apples to Apples!

Oh, and "25 Words or Less".

Seconding Apples to Apples.

Kill Doctor Lucky. Or Munchkin, or Shadows Over Camelot. Of course most of my friends are huge geeks, so YMMV.

Consider Dog.

Celebrities! (aka: Boutros-Boutros Ghali)

Balderdash yeah, bc most of my friends are word nerds.

You'll have to find copies at a thrift store or eBay or something, but Personal Preference and Compatibility are way up on my list. (Apples to Apples is in the same general vein, and is readily available.)

I also really like Scattergories (and the old 3M bookshelf game Facts in Five, which is almost exactly the same) and trivia kinda games, especially pop-music-trivia ones, but I don't think these are as universally popular.

Apples to Apples and Balderdash are go-to games for us.

When the family gets together, we break out the Imagineiff (tm) - it's filled with questions like Imagineiff (tm) _________ were a crime. Would he be a) theft, b) murder, c) embezzlement, d) flashing, e) assault, or f) arson. We've gotten a number of hilarious family in jokes out of it.

Scruples can be another fun one if yours is a talkative bunch.

What kind of people will be playing? Folks who already like board games? Verbal types? Trivia fans? Etc. etc.?

Cosmic Encounter

What kind of people will be playing? Folks who already like board games? Verbal types? Trivia fans? Etc. etc.?

I think they all like board games, since they're coming to my house for game night. One friend is really into Settlers of Catan and Dominion and Ticket to Ride and German board games. He, I, and another friend who will be there all played pub trivia together for a season, so trivia can be fun. Everyone there will be pretty verbal. Well, one is a mathematician, but still. We've played Apples to Apples before and had fun. We have also played Cranium but that game can drag. I forget what else.

The thing about Euro-style board games, though, is that they're polarizing--people who like them like them a lot, but people who hate 'em really hate 'em.

Do you have a bunch of games already, or are you planning on buying some?

Moods is fun, as long as no one has a hangup over their "acting" abilities. Loaded Questions is more fun if you ignore the game structure (the score-keeping, the board, and the limit on which questions to ask) and just pick the questions you want to ask. Once you understand the basic structure (one person asks the question, everyone but the asker writes their answers down, and the person to one side of the asker reads all the answers for the asker to guess who said what), you can make up your own questions and have even more fun. It also helps if your party guests are willing to provide something other than bland answers.

Gloom is a fun card game involving untimely demises. And along that dark and dreary path you can also find lunch money, which is all about beating your friends ... to death.

If you want something more cerebral, Carcassonne is fun. It takes a round to learn (or a lot of discussion), and then you might spend a while thinking of strategies for the next time.

Seconding Loaded Question with the flt-specified modifications. We have a group that plays it that way regularly.

Apples to Apples is best if the people don't really know each other. For regular game nights, I'd go with Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne.