i think my core conflict with boardgames is that i want the rules to be heavy enough for there to be meat on them bones, but not so heavy that i spend the whole game doing calculations in my head instead of chatting with my friends
very few games seem to strike that balance for me. even "light" games like Splendor involve a ton of calculating and planning that get in the way of the social experience
this is fundamentally a huge part of the reason i've become more and more about TTRPGs. but i think what i'm really itching for is a combination of both. games where the mechanics are meaty enough to hang together on their own, but they also evoke a theme and tell a story, and you can even trigger certain mechanics just via RP
the best "social game" in my experience is any game your friends have already gotten good at. for me, for years, this has been Dominion. sure it gets expansions now and then but the basic rhythm of "build your combo, then cash it out" is pretty reliable, and once you know what combo you're building, you can 'auto-pilot' a good chunk of the game.
I've heard that classic card games like Rummy and Bridge had a similar experience: play enough to plateau, and then it becomes social background; a game you all know so well that you can talk over it.
The 'catch' to this sort of thing is that since you're basically on auto-pilot, its very rare to have the game itself tell any new stories... unless you force it to. You can consciously decide "this time, instead of playing the best strategy, I'm going to make up a guy and play whatever combo that guy finds the most satisfying". Or you can wait for the small talk to inspire a bit, and then commit to it, as I did in Wet Boot.
I don't have a link offhand but I remember Andy Looney encouraged impromptu character-playing in Icehouse and Homeworlds, taking titles like "Emperor of Mars" and playing for "cool points" rather than just trying to win. Any game can be a roleplaying game.
Ive always loved board games in theory, but every experience I tend to have is a new group and a new game, so it ends up being a lot of learning rules and trying to socialize with people I dont know very well
