Looking for a recommendation

Some of the Tiny Epics work decently as two-player. Zombies is good that way, because you can play competitive or co-op, pending mood. Quest is good as a 2-player, too, because you can still compete, but it's not really the in-your-face type of competition. It's more about trying to take on more tasks successfully than the other player and some of the dynamism comes from the push your luck factor, which encompasses both players, even though only one is rolling the dice at any given time.

My wife considers Stuffed Fables as the most disappointing game of the year... just to throw a wrench into the recommendations.

WadeMonnig wrote: My wife considers Stuffed Fables as the most disappointing game of the year... just to throw a wrench into the recommendations.

I did say it wasn't a strong recommendation. My wife disliked it the first time we played, but warmed up to it a bit more the second time. But no one cared much for Mice and Mystics...

What about some games on the super-narrative end of the spectrum? Those that come to mind are things like:

Tales of the Arabian Nights
Near and Far
Time Stories
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective (series)

We ended up picking up: Quirky Circuits, Near & Far, and Spirit Island a the FLGS small business Saturday sale (plus Ticket to Ride First Journey for my daughter for Christmas). We have already played six games of Quirky Circuits, which has been a huge success. My daughter is surprisingly good at mapping out the robot's position in her head.

My wife and I have played two games of Near & Far (the first adventure and then started a campaign). This has been working so far. The storybook elements really add to it and the point-salad style scoring gives enough broad focus that it is not about optimizing a single item. I am sure we will at least play through the campaign once. Based on how it is gone so far, we probably keep it around after that to explore the character stories.

Spirit Island was my choice because y'all make it sound so interesting and I really like what I have read about it. It has not hit the table yet.

For other items the FLGS had, my wife said "no" on Street Masters (did not think it looked like her type of game), Mansions of Madness (bad memories of first edition, but she thought in the future she might try it), and Tiny Epic (well, it was only an expansion so no core games). Other than those, the rest of the items suggested had been sold out if they had previously had them in stock (Hellboy, Legendary Encounters, Firefly, Codenames Duet).

Thanks everyone for the recommendations! I stored the list so that we can take a look at other games once we have worked through these ones.

ModelVillain wrote: What about some games on the super-narrative end of the spectrum? Those that come to mind are things like:

Tales of the Arabian Nights
Near and Far
Time Stories
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective (series)

We have SHCD and still have the base game of Time Stories (only part of it I could not find a trade for). We previously owned Tales of the Arabian Nights, but I sold it when it hit a period between printings. As I noted above, we did pick up Near and Far and it has been great so far (two plays).

Shellhead wrote: Camp Grizzly is a fun co-op game. The Disney-like artwork offsets the dark subject matter, and it delivers a great sense of narrative. Just be sure to play with two characters each. Everybody that I have played with has enjoyed the game, even people who don't normally play anything heavier than Cards Against Humanity.

Room 25 works well in co-op mode, and offers a lethal puzzle to solve together.

Escape for 1,000,000 B.C. is a good co-op game with a distinctive theme. It's got a lot of pieces, but the rules are pretty clean and the game play is mostly intuitive. Strong sense of narrative.

Saltlands is a challenging game and maybe slightly harder in full co-op mode. The rules are not difficult, but just novel enough to resist easy learning.

Highly recommend Room 25. It's great as a coop or playing with hidden traitors.