Depends on the mood I'm in: 1) Go. Emergent gameplay, endless depth. Studying this game will teach you how to think strategically in the real world. 2) Magi

Depends on the mood I'm in: 1) Go. Emergent gameplay, endless depth. Studying this game will teach you how to think strategically in the real world. 2) Magic Realm, a '70s Avalon Hill fantasy game. It's a fantastically complicated hack & slash dungeon crawl board game. But it's still simpler than D&D, and takes less time for you and all your geeky friends. The creator of the game is (or was, last time I checked) still active on the fan mailing list.