Players can find a board game for any genre, skill level, play style, and age group on the shelves of their local gaming store. Cooperative or competitive, casual or involved, whimsical or grim, there's a board game out there to fit any requirements. With the wide assortment of games available, some games may work better for some player groups than others.
Especially in the tabletop industry as it is now, many games are intended for adults rather than young children. They may include adult themes, complex rules, or longer play times that make them better suited to older players. Whatever their reason, the best among them know how to keep players engaged.
10 The Red Dragon Inn: Spend Gold, Get Drunk
The Red Dragon Inn is a competitive hand management game about a group of Dungeons and Dragons-style adventurers settling down at the tavern for the evening. Each player vies to be the last one standing, with all others eliminated by drinking themselves under the table or losing all of their gold.
Players can start a round of gambling or invoke actions on their opponents in order to move the game forward. However, each character has cards that can negate others' actions, creating a complex game focused on balancing risk with reward.
9 Exploding Kittens: Irreverent, Casual Shenanigans
For a quicker game with a simple learning curve, players may want to turn to Exploding Kittens. This card game is full of lewd humor, and art to match. Since matches don't take remarkably long, Exploding Kittens works well under a time constraint. Additionally, each card tells players exactly what it does, so they don't have to study a lot of rules beforehand.
Competitors draw and play cards around the table until someone gets an Exploding Kitten. If they cannot defuse or otherwise refute the spontaneous feline combustion, they are out of the game. Turns continue until only one player remains.
8 Pandemic: Reign Of Cthulhu: A Fresh Take On A Popular System
Pandemic is one of the most popular board games of the last 15 years. Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu takes the original game's mechanics of point-to-point movement and infection eradication and applies them to the world of Lovecraftian horror. The table works together to combat ghastly creatures and seal the portals they came from before something worse finds its way through.
Those playing Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu must balance their sanity and resources to avoid being overcome by the monsters flooding the world around them. Players win when every portal is sealed, thus defending the world from unspeakable terror.
7 Fog Of Love: Relationship Building In And Out Of Game
Committed romantic relationships take work. Anyone who has been in one knows this well. Fog of Love takes that process and gamifies it. This award-winning two-player game has each side picking up different goals they wish to achieve in the relationship.
The players then try to weather the events of their characters' relationship and accomplish their goals, however, they aren't required to work together. Whether the relationship on the board survives the game is up to the players and their choices, the same as the relationship at the table.
6 Betrayal At House On The Hill: Tried And True Horror Adventures
Betrayal At House On The Hill boasts wild popularity despite being 18 years as of 2022. Part-collaborative, part-competitive, this game casts the players as the characters in a horror movie. Their movements and choices will determine not only the layout of the home they're trapped in but what the antagonist in their tale of terror will be.
This element of randomization between playthroughs gives Betrayal immense replayability, something gaming tables have been enjoying for years. The subsequent expansion includes more rooms, cards, and haunt scenarios, offering extra hours of delightful dread.
5 Gloomhaven: A Popular, Extensive Undertaking
Gloomhaven is the current holder of the number-one ranking on Board Game Geek. This massive dungeon-crawler boasts a minimum playtime of one hour and a table-sprawling set of physical elements such as miniatures, character information, and multi-use cards. The game's story is determined by players' responses to pre-written scenarios and battles.
Playing Gloomhaven isn't for the casual gamer or those who may easily become disinterested, like younger children. Fans of the medium or the genre, however, have a treat waiting for them in this game's large, heavy box.
4 Mysterium: Interpretation And Communication
Even though its aesthetic is on the spookier side, Mysterium is full of whimsy and fun. One player takes the role of the ghost, who uses beautiful abstract image cards to help a group of psychics — the rest of the table — discover the details of their gruesome murder.
Although Mysterium is rated as being appropriate for anyone 10 years old or older, its analytical mechanics may be difficult for younger players to decipher. The ghost has a limited hand of cards they can use to communicate their intent to each player and thus the connecting factor may not always be easy to deduce.
3 Wingspan: Soothing But Engaging
Calmer games often have a reputation for being slow-paced and failing to hold the player's interest. Wingspan manages to dodge these usual downsides without sacrificing its tranquil ambiance. Its one-of-a-kind setting in a bird sanctuary provides a peaceful background for colorful and involved game mechanics.
Instead of amping up heated competition, Wingspan keeps tables entertained with over 170 gorgeous bird illustrations and stunning tactile game pieces like a birdhouse dice tower. Add to that the multiple aspects of gameplay each player needs to watch in order to have the best habitat, and players have a treasure on their hands.
2 Odin's Ravens: A Quick Competition For Two Players
Adults have complicated schedules, which can make it hard to get a large group together for board game night. Odin's Ravens is a perfect choice for two people with limited time for their game. Each player takes on the role of one of Odin's raven companions from Norse mythology: Huginn and Muninn.
On their flight to bring news of the human world back to Odin, Huginn and Muninn race to see who can complete the route the fastest. Players can also employ special ability cards from the trickster god Loki to aid their journey or impede their opponent's.
1 Terraforming Mars: Cooperation And Competition
Even though every player in Terraforming Mars adds their effort to the game's eponymous shared goal, at the same time, they're competing to be the best at it. Players must be willing to multitask in this game in order to balance all of their different resources, actions, and goals.
Players can earn victory points for a variety of accomplishments, including their contribution to human advancements outside of Mars. Terraforming Mars ends when the temperature, oxygen, and ocean all reach their designated goal status.