In the classic mystery solving board game Clue, the players must figure out who committed a crime, where it happened, and what implement the murderer used to do the deed. This basic premise has drawn many fans over the years. It has also inspired a movie spin-off by the same name as the game, and laid the groundwork for many fantastic tabletop titles to come. In this list, we’re looking at the best board games like Clue ?that expand on its formula with exciting mystery solving mechanics and themes.

1. 221B Baker Street

221B Baker Street has a movement style similar to Clue, though with a bit more complexity. You and your team, if you’r?e playing with one, will need to not only eliminate suspects, but analyze the links between the available clues to deduce what’s going on in each case. The locations on the board set up the Victorian theme perfectly and will be familiar to anyone who has seen or read anything related to?? Sherlock. If you’re planning to pick this one up, I highly recommend the deluxe edition, since it includes 200 different cases.

2. Mystery at Magnolia Gardens

The world’s best amateur detective Nancy Drew aids the players in their investigation of the Mystery at Magnolia Gardens, an exciting story that makes for the p??erfect evening in. Someone has been poisoning the local botanical garden, and it’s up to you to examine the evidence and figure out why. In the box you’ll find a mix of character p?ortraits, maps, and punchcards, along with an interesting lockbox. You can start anywhere, and the game is suitable for all audiences.

3. Spy Alley

Spy Alley is an intriguing game of secret roles, subtle strategy, and surprisingly high replay value. Instead of deducing who the murderer is like in Clue, it’s your job to guess the identities of the players across from you. Everyone has secret national? ties, and must gather a mix of codes, keys, and disguises before returning safely to their embassy. To cover your own tracks and keep the other players doubting who you are, you’ll want to pick up everything and avoid going straight for your objectives, since that’s the?? fastest way to blow your cover.

4. Cat Crimes

If you’re on the hunt for a mystery solving game that’s a bit more kid-friendly than our other picks on this list, Cat Crimes is a solid choice. Gameplay centers around solving basic logic puzzles, and there’s a fun cast of potential suspects. Many of the puzzl??es here a quite easy, but at other times they can even stump the adults. It’s technically a single-player game, but multiple players can also work together as a team just as easily.

5. Mysterium

In Mysterium, you and your fellow psychics?? work collaboratively to analyze eerie clues from the beyond. One player takes on the role of the ghost and can only communicate with everyone else by using a set of abstract images that look like they come out of a strange dream. If the ghost is able to lead the other players to??wards the identity of their killer, everyone wins. If just one player runs out of time when guessing the combination of suspects, locations, and items, the murderer will escape.

6. Betrayal at the House on the Hill

In Betrayal at the House on the Hill, players will explore a strange, haunted mansion that’s full of doors just waiting to be opened. Everyone goes in to the house on the same team, but there’s one amongst you who will change? sides before the night is up. The la??yout of the rooms changes every time you play, and each character has unique abilities. There are 50 different scenarios for you to investigate, and each one has a new twist to keep you on your toes.

7. Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Ja?ck the Ripper & West End Adventures

If you’re looking for a tabletop title that’s significantly darker and more advanced than Clue, the Consulting Detective series ??might be a great fit. You’ll have plenty of detective work to do, and more than a few confusing leads to follow. The game’s grimy Victorian London setting is intensely atmospheric. The stories included in the box are exciting, suspenseful, and often gruesome. If you can crack just one of the cases, you’ll feel like a genius.

8. Chronicles of Crime

For a more modern take on solving crimes, you should definitely give the cooperative board game Chronicles of Crime a try. Many of the game’s physical components are tied into its app, which helps narrate and guide the story scenarios. For example, you’ll need to scan the QR codes on the evidence cards. This helps you find out more about them and check in with related entries in the police database. While there’s no movement-based gameplay like in Clue, the debates yo??u’ll hav??e with your crime-solving associates about who did it and why are significantly more engaging.

9. Mystery Train

What better place for a classic whodunnit than aboard a moving train? The Mystery Train board game makes the most of this exciting setting and uses all the best tropes in the detective genre to ensure that everyone has a great time. The game’s randomized mix of motive, suspect, and location c?ards (plus the funny character names that riff off famous literary crime solvers) often make for a comedic experience.

10. Detective: City of Angels

Fans of a vintage, noir-themed mystery will love Detective: City of Angels. One of the players will take on the role of the Chisel, and must misdirect ?or lie to the other players to stop them from solving the crime. There’s an in-depth suspect interrogation system, and plenty of narrative twists. The map of Los Angeles is also full of places to search for clues, though doing so can use up your actions and move the case closer towards going cold.

The post 10 great board games to play if you like Clue appeared first on Destructoid.

Engine building board games at their best can?? be immensely satisfying and incredibly variable, with tons of unexpected outcomes. When you sit down to play, you’ll of course start out with nothing. But as it turns out, with a pair of farmers, a pile of rocks, and a couple bars of metal, you too, can build an empire. In the list below we’ve assembled our picks for the best engine building board games of all time. Every single one of them is a game night staple that’s absolutely ?worth playing.

What is an Engine Building Board Game?

The hallmarks of this type of board game are simple. You usually begin with very little to work with, whether it's coins or bushels of wheat or workers. You must then begin working toward victory by gathering resources. The more resources you have at your disposal, the more cards or tiles you can play. These cards and tiles will then e?ither make it easier to gather more, or make everything you have in play more efficient. By the end of the game, you’ll have a well-oiled machine that lets you take incredibly powerful turns.

13. It’s a Wonderful World

The futuristic, dystopian card game It’s a Wonderful World is a modern classic of the engine-building genre. The game takes place over the course of four rounds and includes a drafting system that allow??s you to sabotage your opponent’s systems. Well-timed card placement and resource generation are the keys to a successful strategy. However, you’ll also need to think carefully about which cards you need to discard rather than build. It typically takes less than an hour to finish a gam?e, and there’s a solo mode.

12. Gizmos

In Gizmos, each player works to design a machine that they hope will win them the top prize at the next Great Science Fair. When itâ€?™s your turn, you’ll have to file designs, build contraptions, or pick up resources from the game’s marble dispenser. With a good arrangement of cards in play, you can quickly pick up steam. It’s easy to learn and lo??oks deceptively simple, but mastering the game will be challenging for most players. On some occasions, your starting hand can make it tricky to win, and for that reason, it’s just a bit further back on this list.

11. Fantastic Factories

Fantastic Factories is perfect for players looking for a new engine building board game that’s a bit less of a slow burn than the other entries on this list. The theme is straightforward and direct, and the card combos are satisfying and easy to trigger. It’s a bit friendlier than your avera?ge tabletop title since player interaction is limited, and this can be either a blessing or a curse depending on your preferences. It’s easy to learn and works great for players of all ages.

10. 7 Wonders

Develop an ancient civilization from the ground up in 7 Wonders, and then build a monument to yo?ur greatness to clai??m victory points. The game takes place over three phases. The first is all about mining, logging, and quarrying stone. In the next round, you and the players to your immediate left and right can use these resources to start assembling armies and attacking enemies. By the final round you might have made a few scientific innovations, or perhaps built a pantheon or palace that people in the future will consider a great wonder.

9. Splendor

If you’re looking for an easier to understand engine builder that’s accessible for all players, Splendor is a great pick. You’ll have a set of gems to? work with in the first round, which you can use to pick up cards. These cards essentially function as more money for you to stack with your initial gems. The purchasing options are randomized, and most of the more expensive cards will give you victory points. The first player to 15 points takes ??the crown. Though it’s on the simpler side, there’s plenty of strategic gameplay.

8. Scythe

The first World War rages on into the 1920s in Scythe, an exceptional alternate history board game of mechs, worker movement, and production. Each turn you’ll need to think carefully about what you’re going to do both now and in the next several rounds. If you produce oil, you can upgrade the efficiency of your play mat. If you choose to make food instead, you can purchase bolsters that react to your opponents' actions. With more workers and more resource generation comes increased power and popularity costs. You can also make metal or wood to build mechs and structures. Mastery of this boa??rd game takes time, and that’s because there’s so much more here than just engine building.

7. Dominion

The classic deck-building card game Dominion is all about adding fuel to your deck’s engine to ensure that you have efficient draw and coin generation. While it might seem tempting to only pick up victory points for the end of the game, these cards typically slow down your deck. Instead, you’ll need to build a setup with actions and treasures to ensure that you can do something meaningful every turn, whether it’s putting down a string of markets and villages or cursing your opponents. There’s also a ton of great Dominion expansions that utilize novel me??chanics and give you more ways to win.

6. Underwater Cities

Underwater Cities is a building and development-themed board game in which each player aims to effectively transform the sea floor with new civilizations. ?Science and research are of course essential to success, though you’l?l also need to think carefully about where you’re going to put your domes and tunnels. Color-matching card placement will help ensure you get the most out of every turn, but this is often difficult depending on what you have in your hand. Like all the best engine building board games, it’s both complex and satisfying.

5. Wingspan

The bird-themed board game Wingspan is a medium-weight engine and tableau builder that just about everyone will enjoy on game night. Each round, you can either play a bird to your mat, lay eggs, gather food, or draw. As you continue to put more cards down, these actions will become significantly mor??e productive, and lead to some sizeable turns. There are ton of different effects to mix and match, because no two birds are alike. With the goal board and the variety of bonus cards available, no two games are quite the same either.

4. Race for the Galaxy

When you win a game of Race for the Galaxy, you’ll feel like you’ve conquered the entire universe. That’s because in each game you’re working to bend an immense network of planets and solar sys?tems to your will with new technologies and social changes. There are seven different phases that can happen in a given round, but each player can only choose one of them. As a result, the possible actions you can take will remain relatively unpredictable. It’s a system that keeps things exciting right up to the very end.

3. Res Arcana

In Res Arcana, the engine you build?? will quite literally be magical. That’s of course because you and your fellow players are competing mages who have to manage a mix of essences to make artifacts and claim monuments. You’ll know everything about the items you have to work with up front at the start of the game, though the order in which you get to use these tools varies. The first player to ten points wins, and with the right engine, you might be able to pick up all these points in a single round.

2. Agricola

Agricola is the ultimate farming board game, and perfectly balances worker placement with engine development. Your farmstead has little to offer at the start of the game, but by adding rooms, working in the fiel??d, raising livestock, and having children, everything will begin to run more smoothly. You’ll have both occupation and minor improvement cards in your hand to aid you, but you can also choose to use the major improvements available on the table instead. The scoring system also gives you plenty of different routes to victory and rewards setups with more variance in production.

1. Terraforming Mars

When it comes to building up a resource generation and card effect engine, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as Terraforming Mars. Each player takes on the role of a corporation bent on turning the Red Planet into an industrious civilization that churns?? out a massive profit. You’ll start by increasing your production tracks with mines, microbes, and monetary investments. By the end you’ll be building space technology on Jupiter’s moons, constructing domed cities, and thawing enough water to create an ocean. When it comes to engine ??building board games, it’s our top pick.

The post The 13 Best Engine Building Board Games of All? Time, Ra??nked appeared first on Destructoid.

In Nemesis, you and your fellow crew mates are locked in a ship in deep space with a dangerous alien species on board. It’s a board game with incredibly exciting gameplay, fun narrative choices, and more than a few tense moments. However, there’s so much more to this top-rated tabletop title than it’s base game. In this guide, we’re reviewing all the available Nemesis editions and expansions to help you and your group g??et the be??st survival horror experience.

Where to start: Nemesis Base Game

There are two places where you can begin your journey in the Nemesis universe: the original base game and Nemesis Lockdown. Both are standalone games that utilize many of the same gameplay mechanics, and neither one is a bad choice for your first playthrough. Classic Nemesis, ho?wever, is perhaps slightly less complex. The original follows the mission to find Earth, which is a narrative that’s? a little bit easier to follow. Both games have plenty of atmosphere, awesome miniatures, and interesting personal objectives cards that make it all too easy to betray your friends.

Nemesis Lockdown

Nemesis Lockdown is a standalone game set within the walls of a hidden base on Mars. The new alien species, the Night Stalkers, utilize a light and dark mechanic that’s absent from the original. The computers are more powerful and there are a few extra ways to escape the station and survive. The end game uses contingency plans rather than coordinates cards, and it’s a bit easier to avoid making noise when you move your character. You can’t go wrong with either Lockdown or the original Nemesis, and getting both isn’t a bad option either. Mixing and matching the characters from the two boxes is great fun and allows you to ti??nker with? the game’s difficulty.

Nemesis Board Game Expansions

Once you have either the original base game or Lockdown in your collection, you can upgrade your experience with the game’s expansions. You can mix and match the added content with either version of the game, but if you have Nemesis: Lockdown and not the original, you should prioritize the Stretch Goals expansion instead of jumping into the other options first. More detail??s on this box and our rec?ommended buying order follow below.

1. Nemesis Lockdown Stretch Goals Expansion

Nemesis Lockdown Stretch Goals adds the Chytrids, a deadly new alien threat with completely different mechanics from the Night Stalkers. If you have Lockdown in your collection but not the original Nemesis, you’ll want to pick up this expansion first, as it adds new cards that make the classic game’s expansions compatible with Lockdown. If you instead have the base game only, you can choo??se any of the other three main expansions first.

2. Nemesis Aftermath Expansion

Five new characters, the shuttle board addition, and the epilogue game mode await you in the Nemesis Aftermath expansion. The epilogue adds about an hour to the end of a normal game of Nemesis, and allows you to pick up a different character whose goal is to inve??stigate what happened aboard the ship. It’s a great way to bring players who were eliminated early on back into the game.

3. Nemesis Carnomorph Expansion

The Carnomorph expansion adds a brand new monster that replaces the intruders from the base game, along with a handful of new event cards. This new terror focuses on mutations and the absorption of DNA. While it might start out looking innocuous, it can quickly evolve into a new form that’s more deadly than anything you’ve come across so far. The new Flesh Beast and Butcher miniat?ures are particularly satisfying to paint and play with.

4. Nemesis Void Seeders Expansion

In the Void Seeders expansion, you’ll have to manage your character’s sanity as well as their health bar. That’s because the new monster in this box, the signature Void Seeders, can infect both your mind and body. There’s slightly less combat than the Carnomorph?? expansion, but this might actually be preferable for certain players. This time around you’ll also have to manage the adverse effects of the new panic deck instead.

5. Nemesis Terrain Expansion

If you love the miniatures in Nemesis and want to upgrade the visual appeal of your board game, the Terrain Expansion is a solid choice. This box doesn’t add anything new to the mechanics of the game, and thus it’s not really considered one of the game’s main expansions. However, it replaces many of the plainer cardboard components with more durable plastic ones. If you play Nemesis a lot or you enjoy collecting miniatures,?? it’s worth getting.

6. Nemesis Kings Miniatures

If you already own all the main Nemesis expansions and want to complete your collection, there are two additional miniatures packs you can pick up. The first of these is the Nemesis Kings pack, which adds five additional figures that replace the base game, Void Seeder, and? Carnomorph king and queen intruders. There are also a few art cards included th??at match the new miniatures.

7. Nemesis Space Cats Miniatures

The Space Cats Miniatures kit is a cosmetic upgrade for Nemesis that replaces some of the aliens with cats. While it’s not a necessity for enjoying the game, it’s definitely a fun, goofy twist. Like the Kings pack, it includes a few neat art cards that match the figures, which makes for the perfect collector’s item. There’s also a Lockdown Space Cats miniatures add on for players with t??hat version of the game.

The post The complete Nemesis board game and expan??sion buying guide appeared first on Destructoid.

The intrigue and excitement of guessing the right words in Codenames continue to make it one of the most popular party games around. It’s easy to learn, and the layout changes every time you play. However, if you’re ready to try something new, we’ve assembled ten great board games like Codenames for you to play with your friends and family.

1. Wavelength

If you enjoy trying to guess what’s on another player’s mind, like in Codenames, then you’ll have a great time with Wavelength. To start the game, your team draws a card with a pair of opposites written on it. Examples include “hot ?and cold�or “cheap and expensive� One of your teammates will sit across the table from you and look at the exact location of the needle on a spectrum. It’s their ?job to give the rest of your team associated word clues based on the drawn card to help you identify exactly where the needle lies.

2. Decrypto

The team-based guessing gameplay in Decrypto will immediately feel familiar to fans of Codenames. Each team has a set of four words that only they can they can see. When the round begins, one of the team members will have to communicate the correct sequence of these words without actuall??y saying the words or ??giving hints to the opposition. Your team collects an interception token when you are able to guess the other team’s sequence. However, you’ll receive a negative marker instead if you fail to communicate your own code first.

3. Spyfall

Spyfall is a game of secret roles that’s all about detecting the person in your group who secretly knows nothing about where you are. When you begin, you’ll set up a mix of random location cards. Then, you’ll deal a role card to each player. Every player will see the locale for the round on their card, except for the spy, who wins by guessing the correct place. You’ll have to ask and answer a lot of indi??rect questions to figure out who knows what.

4. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

In Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, one of the people a?t your party table isn’t quite as innocent as they seem. A killer is secretly among you, and your group of detectives will have to interpret the mix of forensic evidence and items next to each player to uncover the truth of what happened last night in the city. A witness to the crime may be able to aid you by identifying relevant locations, weapons, and motives. However, it’s up to you to associate their hints with the numerous clue cards before you.

5. The Resistance

The Resistance is a spy-themed social deduction game that’s all about guessing which half of the players at the table are on your side. If you support the Resistance, you and your teammates will need to complete three missions. If you’re a spy that favors the Empire, it’s your job to sabotage these quests and make the Resistance team members think that you’re on their side. Everyone gets to vote on who’s going on the missions, which allows everyone? to participate right up until the end of the game.

6. The Chameleon

If you love word association games and want to try something that moves a bit quicker than Codenames, The Chameleon is a great pick. At the start of the game, you’ll see a bo??ard of sixteen loosely related words. One of these is the Secret Word. The player who draws the chameleon role is trying to blend in with everyone else but doesn’t know the Secret Word. The players rapidly go around the table saying related words and trying to either guess the Secret Word if they’re the chameleon or figure out who amongst them is the imposter.

7. Dixit

The classic party game Dixit is an engaging and enjoyable experience for players of all ages. The active player in a given ro??und has to describe the picture on their cards without giving away too much of what it looks like. The goal is to communicate to a few players which card is theirs but leave everyone else in the dark. The other players pick one of their cards that best fits the original card’s description. Then, you reveal all the cards together and let everyone try to guess which card on the table belongs to ??the active player. There will be more than a few creative and unexpected outcomes when you’re playing this game.

8. Blank Slate

Blank Slate is an easy-to-learn, often hilarious board game that s?uits groups of all sizes. Your job is to fill in a mad-libs-style cue each round and guess what everyone else will write in the same space. If you write something that’s too obscure or outside the box, and no one else wrote the same answer to the cue, you won’t score any points. As a result, it’s best to predict what everyone will think and brainstorm the most common word associations to ensure that you have ??the same guess as at least one other player.

9. Banned

If you’re after a social, fiercely competitive contest of words that’s sure to be a hit on game night, then you should definitely play Banned. Every round, the two t??eams will try to guess the most correct words without using any of the banned ones. If someone accidentally uses one of the banned words as a clue, they immediately lose the round. Since you’re? trying to collect as many correct words as possible within a given time limit, you’ve got to think fast, which means making a mistake is all too easy.

10. Just One

The exciting cooperative communication game Just One is great fun for anyone who loves Codenames. Everyone in the group except for one person looks at a card with a word on it. Then, everyone but the selected player will need to write out a clue to the word that doesn’t directly name ?it. If your clue matches that of another player, then you’ll have to erase it. The excitement of the game comes from finding the perfect sweet spot between an obvious hint and an obscure one.

The post 10 Greatest ??Party Board Games to Play if You Like Codenames appeared first on Destructoid.

The recent spate of board game adaptations of video games has led to some great successes and some infamous failures, but the unique pitch of Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Board Game cannot fail to capt??ure the attention of a particular era of gamer. Rather than simply adapting the often complicated mechanics of the video game directly, Archon Studio has created a nostalgic treat that doesn't get overly caught up in faithfulness over function.

Heroes of Might and Magic III was a tactical turn-based strategy game released in 1999 as part of a spinoff series in the Might and Magic franchise of computer RPGs. Through rich storytelling, challenging campaigns and finely-tuned strategy, Heroes III, as it is known, managed to capture the imaginations of multiple generations of gamers. Players could choose from a wide range of monstrous settlements for their starting base, each w?ith their own evocative art and unique units. They w?ere motivated to explore a world filled with crystal mines, griffon towers, and witch's huts through a wide array of solo campaigns, skirmish modes and multiplayer options.

Heroes III stands out as a particular success in the franchise, as subsequent installments in the series failed to capture the same satisfying gameplay loops and fan loyalty. The board game adaptation from Archon Studio is a triumph of nostalgia without being overly loyal to the often-automated original mechanics of th?e video game. The core set comes with three factions (Castle, Dungeon, and Necropolis), and a series of expansions add fan favorites such as the Tower, Rampart, Fortress, an??d Inferno. Each faction has its own strengths and weaknesses and gives a slightly different experience of play, as well as its own heroes who gain unique benefits as they level up.

Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Board Game has utilized the wealth of recognizable art from the video game and also boasts new art that fits perfectly with the aesthetic. Fans will undoubtedly feel a warm glow o??f nostalgia looking at the hexes and city boards.

Combat is hugely simplified for ease and speed, and considering how many early fights end within a couple of actions, this is a boon to gamers who do not want to spend their whole day trying to work out how to split their horde of gargoyles into different stacks of troops. One of the things that made Heroes III so interesting was that you controlled groups of soldiers rather than individual models, a 'few' griffins and a 'throng' of pikemen, which indicated how many hits they could take before being removed from the fight but also how much damage they would do when they attacked. The game's resource limits for?ced players to make strategic choices about whether to buy more cheaper, weaker units, upgrade existing units into stronger versions, or focus on a few more expensive units. The board game has simplified this down to a more binary system: units start on the 'few' side and can be upgraded to a mechanically superior 'pack,' which is knocked down to their 'few' side when they take sufficient damage. For those who favor a more complex combat emulator over exploration, the Battlefield expansion provides an experience closer to a classic war game.

In the video game, heroes found or purchased artifacts and sp??ells and gained skills as they leveled, but the board game draws these elements together to make an engaging deck-building experience. Each player starts with a deck of cards that has basic abilities boosting attack, defense, magic, one or two magic arrow spells, and one unique ability card. As heroes level up by fighting, exploring, and building, they draw from expansive sets of spells, artifacts, and skills to build their hero deck. From powerful exploration skills like Diplomacy and Logistics to artifacts like the Black Shard of the Dead Knight, these are reworked for the board game mecha??nics and offer a wide range of tactical options.

Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Board Game has a satisfying gameplay loop at its core that not only draws on the nostalgia value of the original Heroes III experience but also remixes familiar elements into something that suits a tabletop game a lot better. There is an undeniable joy in the process of playing, whether you are revealing a hex filled with exploration points, slotting your latest structure into your growing city board, or rolling for a climactic fight with a Crystal Dragon. In some areas, the game has lost tactical depth through its simplification (for instance, instead of a different building for every ty??pe of unit, you now have a single building for all units of a particular power level), but the trade-off in terms of streamlined gameplay is undeniable.

My main complaint is that there are only a few cooperative scenarios in the many mission books, meaning that gaming with friends in a non-competitive way is likely to get boring quickly. However, the richness of the gameplay still means that each game has its own variety. If you loved Heroes of Might and Magic III, prepare to restore Erathia once more!

The post Heroes of Might and Magic ?III: The Board Game does nostalgia right appeared first on Destructoid.

Love the outstanding engine building and tile laying tactics of Terraforming Mars but feel ready to try something new? Thankfully, there are many great tabletop titles that feel equally satisfying and are absolutely worth adding to your collection. Below you’ll find our picks for the best board games like Terraforming Mars in terms of either their gameplay mechanics or? them?e.

1. Underwater Cities

Underwater Cities features an interesting action-card based engine system with some similarities to Terraforming Mars, though with a h??andful of unique twists. It’s your goal to match the colors of the cards in your hand with actions on the board, as this will allow you to take optimal turns. However, that’s not always possible, so it’s often up to you to make the best of your current resources and draw. Each player will also get their own building board on which they’ll get to map out a unique network of tunnels and domes for their city.

2. Dune Imperium: Uprising

Instead of taking over the Red Planet, why not attempt to become the overlord of Arrakis instead? In Dune Imperium: Uprising, you are the leader of one of the Great Houses. By sending your agents to various locations on the desert planet, you can generate spice, trade for resources, and participate in combat. If you choose to visit other locations in the Imperium, you will also increase your standing with factions like the Fremen and the Bene Gesserit. As your persuasion points build, your deck will? continue to pick more more steam, and your turns will become more powerful.

3. Scythe

The strategic depth of Scythe’s engine building gameplay is an exciting and engaging experience, especially if you’re already a fan of games like Terraforming Mars. Though the theme is admittedly completely different here, the complexities of resource generation and structure building are incredibly satisfying to manage. The game’s five major factions offer completely distinct play styles from one another, and the miniatures and artwork are both stellar. There are also plenty of great Scythe expansions to choose from if you’d like to add airships, ne?w factions, or space for seven players.

4. A Feast for Odin

While A Feast for Odin is primarily a worker placement game, the decision making, building, and resource management processes in this title will greatly appeal to fans of Terraforming Mars. You’ll have a sizeable collection of viking meeples to send out on raids, t?rades, and all manner of crafting and production tasks. When your vikings come back home, they’ll bring a collection of item tiles for you to add to your person??al board. You’ll need to smartly arrange these tiles to cover up negative victory point spaces and make room for your next loot haul.

5. 7 Wonders

7 Wonders is a classic of the engine building genre with mechanics that are significantly easier to manage than those found in Terraforming Mars. The result is a much more accessible title to share with people who aren’t as familiar with board games that still scratches the same itch. You are in charge of one of Earth’s age-old civilizations, and must advance from ancient times to an era of enlightenment over the course of three rounds. You’ll start by farming and mining, then?? move towards military conquest, artistic prowess, and perhaps even scientific progress.

6. Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy

If you enjoy sci-fi themed board games and want to try something that balances building an epic space empire with in-depth conflict, then Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy might be the perfect fit for you. On your turn you can construct unique technology tiles, build ships, and explore deep space. Alternatively, you can move your tokens and attempt to conquer your enemies, but only if there’s a nearby wormhole to their sector. Though there are a lot of components, the ??storage solutions included in the box make token management easy.

7. It’s a Wonderful World

The five major Empires left on dystopian Earth seek to extract the planet’s last remaining resources and restore their power in the It’s a Wonderful World board game. Rounds start with a drafting process that gives players a mix of project cards that they can either build or recycle. Completing projects will either give you mo??re resources during the production phase, or net you victory points. Games take less than an hour, and it’s surprising how satisfying the engine building experience is here considering the short play t?ime.

8. Race for the Galaxy

Build a unique civilization in space by exploring and settling new planets, developing new technologies, and producing goods in Race for the Galaxy. This excellent tableau-building card game has a unique mechanic that allows players to secretly choose which phases occur in a given round. For example, if everyone leaves the settle action card behind, there won’t be a settlement phase. Expansion content for Race for the Galaxy is also great, and adds plenty of int??eresting new home worlds.

9. Maracaibo

In Maracaibo, you’ll take on the role of an explorer, privateer, or pirate in the 17th century Caribbean. You’ll sail your ship around the board’s loop of locations, and take a variety of actions along the way, from completing quests and upgrading your ship to increasing your standing with various island factions. Like Terraforming Mars, there are so many different ways to claim victory points, and rushing to the journey’s end doesn’t necessarily mean victory. It’s also one of our top picks for pirate-themed board games.

10. 51st State: Master Set

The 51st State board game puts you in charge of a unique faction that seeks to control the ashes of post-apocalyptic America. To gain power, yo??u’ll need to build cards for your tableau, make deals, and, ironically, avoid hoarding resources. Some of?? the locations you construct will give you more of these resources each turn, while others will provide action and victory point bonuses instead. The master set includes two expansions worth of extra cards that help add more to game’s already high replay value.

The post 10 Awesome Board Games For ??Fans of Terraforming Mars appeared first on Destructoid.

Wingspan has won over many fans with its beautiful bird-themed artwork, variable objectives, and accessible gameplay. The engine and tableau building mechanics are outstanding, and your strategy shifts every time you play. However, if you and your game night group are ready to try something new, there are more than a few great board games like Wingspan that will surely win you over. In the list b??elow, you’ll find a few of our top picks.

1. Earth

The outstanding tableau building board game Earth shares several gameplay mechanics with Wingspan. However, there are of course plenty of mechanical twists that make it a distinct experience. Your player area has space for a 4x4 grid of Earth cards that you’ll fill up by spending soil. These cards often have interesting “when-activated�effects that trigger when you take actions. Placement order also matters because it determines which effects take place first. You can also build canopies on your Earth cards in similar fashion to how you lay eggs in Wingspan. There are a to?n of unique cards, and no two games play out quite the same.

2. Mariposas

Mariposas is a fun butterfly-themed board game from Wingspan designer Elizabeth Hargrave that’s all about collecting sets of cards and flower tokens. Your collection of butterflies migrates north every year in Spring, traveling from Mexico up the East Coast. They also complete the same journey in reverse for Fall. Each of the game’s three seasons has a unique scoring condition that affects how you move across the map, and there’s ton of variability for other card resource set bonuses. Just like Wingspan, the artwork is fantastic.

3. Ark Nova

In Ark Nova, you’re the manager of what will hopefully become the world’s best zoo. To achieve such heights you’ll of course need to build enclosures and find animals. Each animal brings in a new and exciting effect that can quickly change your strategy. You’ll also have to raise money with the aid of sponsors and invest in c?onservation projects to keep things sustainable. It’s an expansive and exciting game that takes a?? while to get the hang of, but once you do, you’ll find that there’s practically infinite ways to claim victory.

4. Wyrmspan

While it might look like it’s just Wingspan but with dragons, Wyrmspan actually has plenty of interesting differences from original bird-themed title. This time around you’ll get a mix of cave cards to explore in addition to hatching dragons on your board. There’s no di?ce tower, though luck of the draw can still affect what options you have on hand. There’s also no limit on the number of actions you can take during each of the four rounds. When you can’t trigger anything else on your board, you simply pass. There are still round-based bonuses you can compete for, and over 180 unique cards.

5. Evolution

The Evolution board game takes players back in time to the prehistoric era, when creatures were just arriving on land and had to adapt to survive. You’ll be in charge of a single species that you can customize with interesting traits. These traits make it easier to get food or avoid carnivores, and will hopefully keep you alive for another round. There ar?e a ton of different combinations to choose from, and the shared ecosystem that you and the other players create feels very much alive.

6. Oceans

If the mechanics of Evolution seem appealing but you’d prefer a more aquatic theme, then Oceans might be the perfect board game for you. This time you’ll be ??able to play multiple deep sea species, and add up to three adaptions to them. You’ll also need to feed these species and continuously move population tokens, which can trigger the Cambrian Explosion. During this phase, the amount of cards you can play doubles, which leads to some truly exciting turns.

7. PARKS

PARKS takes you and up to four other players on a journey to the most iconic viewpoints in America’s National Parks. Your job is to create photos and collect memories at these locations. This then allows you to visit new places or get new hiking gear for the changing of the seasons. Like Wingspan, there isn’t t??oo much direct competition with other pla??yers, which keeps things on the cozy side. I honestly can’t think of a single board game that has better art than this one.

8. Everdell

In Everdell, your goal is to create thriving village full of animal inhabitants. To do this, you’ll need to either build the cards in your hand, or send your workers to the different locations and destination cards in play. The tableau of travelers, governance, and construction projects that you build will ?be completely different in each game, and the cards and other resources you have on hand will for?ce you to adapt your strategies accordingly. The theme is gorgeous and establishes a completely original fantasy world that’s sure to win you over.

9. Terraforming Mars

If you love the engine building mechanics of Wingspan and want to try a board game with a completely different theme, Terraforming Mars is a fantastic choice. Each player takes two actions at a time, and c??an spend their turn by building projects, placing greenery or city tiles on Mars, or increasing their production tracks. As your board state continues to fill out, your turns get more and more exciting. Soon you’ll be crashing giant ice asteroids onto the surface of the Red Planet and building colonies on distant moons.

10. Botany

If you enjoyed collecting different species of birds in Wingspan, then you’ll love putting together a beautiful mix of flowers in Botany. It’s the Victorian era, and you and various other members of the British elite are traveling the globe in hopes of finding enough rare specimens to to win the Royal Botanist title. Gameplay takes place on an intricately linked world map, and travel requires that you gather both crew and supplies. It’s certainly different from Wingspan in terms of mechanics, but there’s still a randomized objective system to keep things fresh, as well as a gorgeous n??ature theme.

The post 10 Great Board Games to Play if You Like Wingspan appeared first on Destructoid.

Only some board games are po?pular enough to not only dominate the decade that they were published in, but to maintain relevancy and demand even today. Let's go back in time and have a look at some of history's most popular board games.

Each decade's most popular board games

Board games have become ??much more numerous and popular as time passes, and ??for good reason. We can look as far back as the turn of the 20th Century for data on board game releases, although it's difficult to discern objectively the most popular board games of any particular decade.

However, there are many tools that allow me to use my knowledge of the hobby and its history to determine what are the best candidates for the most popular board games for e??ach decade. Most of these board games are popular still today, and how old they are may surprise you.

1900s

Starting in the 1900s, there wasn't much going on for this decade in the board ??game department. Two very notable games were released this decade, however, which were popular at the time (and continue to be? so now through their ancestors).

Raumschach (Three Dimensional Chess) and The Landlord's Game were relea??sed and were likely the most popular of that decade.

Raumschach (developed in Germany in 1904) was a revolutionary chess variant. The creator, Ferdinand Maa??ck, made this game (called "Space Chess" in German) to more accurat?ely mimic modern warfare.

The Landlord's Game, invented by Elizabeth Magie in 1906, ??is the ironic predecessor to Monopoly and initially aimed to highlight the consequences and evils of Capitalism. It was particularly popular for some groups this decade, and lives on spiritually through the huge success of Monopoly.

These are the only two notable games I can find developed in the 1900s, so on to the next?? decade.

1910s

The 1910s also saw very few board games relea?se, although one was a classic that lives on today.

Uncle Wiggily, released in 1916, is a simple board game with mechanics extraordinarily similar to Snakes and Ladders. It was based on a book with the sa?me namesake, and despite being over one hundred years old, still gets published.

Although considerably less popular now, the fact that it's stil??l firmly in circulation is a huge testament to its popularity. So it stands that Uncle Wiggily was likely the most popular board game of the 1910s.

1920s

The 1920s was also a pretty barren ?expanse for board games, although just b?efore the next century began, one very popular board game was released.

Sorry! (patented in 1929) is a classic board game that still holds up today, and is as commonp?lace as Ludo or Snakes and Ladders. In fact, Sorry! is based on Ludo, a game that originated in India a few thousand years ago.

Although Sorry! may be losing its relevance in this day and age, it's been an incredibly popular game that I'm sure would have at least been one of the most popular, if not the most popular, game of the 1920s.

1930s

The 1930s starts to see an uptick of board games, and is th?e decade that one of the most notoriously popular board games were created.

Monopoly (first sold in 1934) was released, beginning its lasting legacy. Needless to say, it's still? widely played today, and was extensively popular in the deca??de it was released.

In true capitalist fashion, Monopoly saw huge success in the Christmas seas??on of 1934 before being patented in 1935, making this game rather timeless. Since then, it's benefitted from over 1,500 editions and has invaded almost every homestead.

1940s

The 1940s saw a t??remendous number of board ??games released compared to previous years. Two have remained enjoyed classics, and one has fallen behind although was very popular in its time. Although all three board games were released right at the end of the decade, they were very popular.

Clue (released in 1949), Scrabble (released in 1948), and Candyland (in 1949) were released. Although Candyland has fallen from i??ts plinth of popularity, I can't ignore how popular it was when released.

Clue and Scrabble remain some of the most ??popular household board games today. When stripped from its dressings, Candyland resembles Uncle Wiggily in gamep?lay mechanics, although I don't believe it's hit the same level of popularity.

1950s

?The 1950s is when board gaming really took off, as it s??aw the release of a surprising amount.

The most notable games of this decade were Risk (released in 1957) and Yahtzee (released in 1956). like Monopoly, Risk has seen many editions and is a solid pick of war game enthusiasts. And who hasn't played Yahtzee?

From this point onward, it's going to get real difficult to nail down the most popular board games of each decade as s?o many were released.

1960s

There are quite a few board games to go over in the 1960s, and I have filtered through t??he board games that were well-received at the time.

The Game of Life (released in 1960), Stratego (released in 1961), Mousetrap (released in 1963), Operation (released in 1965), and Battleship (released in 1967) were ?among the most popular board games of this decade.

It felt wrong leaving any of them out, as they're all very popular today and were in the decade of release. You've l??ikely played many of the??se games, considering they've all cemented themselves into the category of household games.

1970s

With more and more board gam?es being released every decade, it's not surprising that?? the 1970s also had some pretty popular games.

Boggle (released in 1972), Connect 4 (released in 1974), and Guess Who (released in 1979) hit the scene and earned their place on the pantheon of classics. Although Boggle has seen less general success than Guess Who and Connect 4, it??'s still had a very successful run.

Given the success and "vibe" of Connect 4, I'm surprised it was developed this decad??e, and not much earlier.

1980s

I hope you're ready for some more classics, as the 1980s produced many more games, although?? a few definitely hit the popular?? mark for then and now.

Trivial Pursuit (released in 1981), Jenga (released in 1983), and Pictionary (released ??in 1985) hit center stage and instantly became ?classics.

You've likely played one of the many variations of Trivial Pursuit, and Pictionary has become released by many imitators both digitally and physically. Jenga has (mostly) remained unchanged, but then again you can't really mess with?? perfection.

1990s

With the 1990s, we're leaving behind the "older" years and creeping up on our own decade. Naturally, an explosion of board games released this ??decade, although a few sit head and shoulders above the others.

Catan (released in 1995), Twilight Imperium (released in 1997), and Cranium (released in 1998) were (and still are) behemoths of modern board gaming. Although Cranium was for younger audiences compared to the other two, it was still a hit in its category and still gets played t??oday as an alterna??tive to Trivial Pursuit.

Although Twilight Imperium has faded from popul??arity these days, the franchise had a couple decades of widespread enjoyment as a bulky and huge space conquest adventure.

Catan has remain??ed competitive with many editions, expansions, and scenarios. It remains a titan in the board game industry and has many digital versions or deviations for even more enjoyment.

2000s

Here we go, the 21st century. Board games are evolving and releasing at an even more rapid rate now, mak??ing my job he??re even harder.

Carcassonne (released in 2000), Ticket To Ride (released in 2004), and Pandemic (released in 2007) are huge names in the hobby, each with man??y editions and expansions for the collectors and fans.

Those in this decade were very spoilt to have all three of these everlasting games release. It's hard to compare them to each ot??her considering they're huge success then and now. I'd ??even go as far to say that they qualify as some of the most popular board games of all time.

2010s

It took me the longest to sort through the 2010 board games releases, let alone to decide the most popular. However, as an active hobbyist during this decade, I can provide some ??personal insight.

7 Wonders (released in 2010), Codenames and Exploding Kittens (both released in 2015), Terraforming Mars (released in 2016), and finally Wingspan (released in 2019) were each instant hits and remain popular board games in the hobby communities and the general audience.

Although Wingspan just qualifies for this decade, it made a huge impression so I couldn't not include it. The rest of these entries have become common names in the board gaming world, and although I'm sure there are cases for ot??her board games in this deca??de, these games are firm entries.

Terraforming Mars may not be talked so much about now, but it had a massive release, and it's popularity was extended with the expa??nsions.

2020s

We've finally arrived to our current decade, the 2020s. As it's not currently over, all I can do is provide some honorable mentions that may well be some of the most popular board games in this decade. Although at the current rate of innovation and releases, I won't be surprised if even these games get dwarf??ed soon.

My City (released in 2020), Ark Nova (released in 2021), and Arcs (released in 2024) are some of the most popular games of this decade by far, although I'm sure they'll get joined by other board games ??soon.

Now that you know of the most po??pular board games of all time, why don't you give one a try? They'?re popular for a reason.

The post The most popular board games from each decade appeared first on Destructoid.

The Amazon Prime Day deals are now live, and you can acquire some terri??fic board games at bargain prices ahead of the festive season.

Whether you want to spend quality time with your loved ones or give them memorable gifts, board games are always a great choice. However, modern board games can be quite expensive, especially if you're looking for more recent re?leases. Thanks to the Amazon Prime Day deals, you can expand your collection or pick up some great potential gifts at low prices.

Disclaimer: This isn't a ranke?d list, so feel fre??e to pick as per your budget and preferences.

Ticket to Ride

Regular Price: $54.99

October Amazon Prime Day price: $29.99

An enjoyable board game that can get as strategic as you want, Ticket to Ride is a perfect game for a family evening. While best enjoyed in a group of four, Ticket to Ride can be quite competitive when pl??ayed between a duo. Each step requires you to decide between multiple actions, and to win you'll ??have to make the best decision possible.

Catan

Regular Price: $59.99

October Amazon Prime Day price: $29.99

Settlers of Catan is a fun family game until someone rolls a seven on their dice. This is my favorite strategy game of all time, and there's no better feeling than watching your strategy come good (or perform miserably due to bad luck). Catan is also a relatively easy game for board game beginners, and there are numerous expansions?? to increase the scope for replayability.

Red Rising

Regular Price: $24.99

October Amazon Prime Day price: $8.99

Based on the popular book series by Pierce Brown, Red Rising lets you play as one of the powerful houses and establish yourself as the top dog. The core gameplay revolves around playing your cards right and outsmarting your opponents. There are several references from the book series of the same name that help you relate to the original lore. Red Rising a??lso has an automa system that lets you have fun on your own.

Pandemic

Regular Price: $39.99

October Amazon Prime Day price: $25.64

While most board games would pit you against one another, Pandemic is different. It's a co-op experience where you attempt to defeat the game itself by preventing another mass disease outbreak. The job is easier said than done, as not everything will be under your control. The aim is to carefully play your cards in coordination with your mate to stop a disease before it can grow into an ugly manifestation. Make sure to check out the different versions of Pandemic as well while the Amazon Prime Day sale is live.

7 Wonders

Regular Price: $59.99

October Amazon Prime Day price: $37.99

You're one of the seven greatest cities in the world, but can you be the best? That's exactly what you'll have to do in order to win in 7 Wonders. The core strategy involves you having to manage your drafted cards carefully to build your military might through different ages. But you'll also have to keep track of how your opponents are doing to have increased chances of victory. While the base game requires at least three players, 7 Wonders also has a Duel version.

Splendor

Regular Price: $39.99

October Amazon Prime Day price: $22.49

It's not an easy task being a jewel merchant in the Renaissance era, especially when you have to face competition from your buddies. Splendor requires you to own different mines, use them to own jewels, and have the highest prestige points. But owning every mine isn't possible, as you'll have to use the jewels that are dealt to you. Splendor offer??s unlimited hours of replaya?bility since there's no one fixed way of winning a game. It's an amazing game in groups, or you can play with your partner (don't get overly competitive).

Everdell Collector's Edition

Regular Price: $99.99

October Amazon Prime Day price: $59.99

Everdell is one of the most beautiful board games I have ever played. Putting aside the strategic gameplay, the game board, cards, and the big tree make Everdell one of the best gifting opti?ons. Thanks to the latest deal, you can get the Collector's Edition for the price of Standard. But? you get the Legend expansion, Premium tokens, and more as part of your collection.

Dixit

Regular Price: $39.99

October Amazon Prime Day price: $29.99

If you're looking to add a board game that hones your creativity, Dixit it is. Every turn, you and your mates will be dealt a set of cards with extremely imaginative graphic designs. While one person takes the role of the riddler, other players have to guess. While your objective as the riddler is to ensure that all players don't think the correct card, you'll only get points if at least one person picks the right card. Thanks to the open-ended nature of the cards, you'll have to dive deep into the depths of your imagination. You can also pick up a Disney version of Dixit at the same Price as the base edition.

Twilight Imperium

Regular Price: $164.99

October Amazon Prime Day price: $119.99

One of the best sci-fi strategy games of all time, Twilight Imperium puts you in charge of different civilizations with the objective of reaching the top. Each civilization has certain unique powers and abilities, and you'll want to strategize accordingly. Reaching to the top has no one set way - trade, form an alliance, or wage a war if you wish. The 4th edition has a great deal as part of Prime Day. Do note that Twilight Imperium takes many ho??urs to finish a game,?? so you might have to play in multiple sessions.

Exploding Kittens

Regular Price: $20

October Amazon Prime Day price: $12.99

If you have a party coming up, you should add Exploding Kittens to your collection. A card-based game, Exploding Kittens has one sole objective - don't get blown up. To avoid being blown up, you'll have to play your cards carefully. Additionally, you'll also have to plan and try to get your friends blown up (no, not literally), for the last one standing is declared as a winner. Exploding Kittens is one of the best par?ty games. It's fun, easy to learn, and extremely chaotic at every turn.

Mysterium

Regular Price: $54.99

October Amazon Prime Day price: $32.99

With the spooky season coming up soon, Mysterium should be high on your wishlist. Like Pandemic, Mysterium is a co-op title, forcing you to work with your friends to unravel the mystery. Expect plenty of spooks and creeps as you utilize the cryptic clues to crack open your investigation. Mysterium allows you to play at your desired difficulty and offers plenty of replayability with different story endings??, suspects, and more.

The Witcher Old World Deluxe Edition

Regular Price: $190.95

October Amazon Prime Day price: $142.99

If you're a big Witcher fan like me (who owns the books and the games), maybe it's time for you to add the grand board game. Like Geralt in the stories and the games, you get to explore the vast land and create your adventures. You play with the help of your deck and the different cards, and it's all about balancing your actions. Sometimes, it might just be worth holding on to your cards to create a move with greater synergy, which will help you get more rewards. Even if you're just someone who loves RPGs and old-school grand strategy board games, The Witcher Old World is worth a place in your collection.

The post Our 12?? Favorite October P??rime Day Board Game Deals (2024) appeared first on Destructoid.

If you've ??read the Harry Potter books and watched the films a million times over, it ma?y be time to get a board game or two to continue enjoying the franchise with your friends and family.

I will be prioritizing unique Harry Potter board games over Wizarding World renditions of existing bo??ard games, although there are som??e classic examples I can't ignore.

Harry Potter Death Eaters Rising

Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising is a cooperat??ive board game of teaming together ?to get through the Death Eaters and defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Through play, the Dark Lord will point to different locations, indicating where he will be next.

Players must recruit wizards and visit different locations to defeat Death Eaters and protect the key locations from corruption. Damage and the ??abilities of the Death Eaters happen without dice rolling, allowing for strategic planning. Player actions, however, are at the mercy of action dice that all must be assigned.

In an exciting bout??, players must travel around the board to recruit wizards and defeat Death Eaters in a bid to stop You-Know-Who. Should all your wizards die, or enou?gh locations become corrupted, then evil shall reign victorious.

Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle serves not just as a cooperative card game where players work together to defeat villains and prot?ect the Wizarding World, but also as a retelling of all seven ?books (and all eight films). There are seven games to be played here, each one set in a different year.

The core gameplay is simple yet engaging. Players fight villains through card actions and can purchase more powerful cards to build their deck. In ea??ch year, the players need to defeat all the villains before they gain ultimate control of the lo??cations.

As each game goes over each year, the villains, settings, and cards progress in line with the films. Your character will progress from first year to seventh year, and you'll be able to look back and see how far you've come with your friends. You don't need to play Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle in year order, but a dedicated group will al??low for an engaging slew of game nights.

Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle �Defence ??Against the Da??rk Arts

Harry Potter:?? Hogwarts Battle - Defence Against the ??Dark Arts is an adaptation of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle that pits two players dueling against each other in a practice bout. Players? will choose a House, and will position themselves in t?he middle of the sparring board.

Players will take turns using their cards to push back their opponents with spells, recover themselves, place annoying Hexes in their opponent's deck, and grab better cards from the market. Should a player find themselves at the end of the board, that player gets stunned, and the boa??rd gets reset. Players keep their powerful cards, but must engage in the tug-of-war-esque battle again.

When a player gets stunned three times, they lose. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle - Defence Against the Dark Arts is a great two-??pla?yer duel that simulates spell battles pretty faithfully whilst delivering a solid card game.

Harry Potter Quidditch Clash

Harry Potter Quidditch Clash allows you and one other to g??o head-to-head in a glorious game of Quidditch.

With an oval board, a Quaffle, and a Golden Snitch (of course), players will be using decks of cards and a spinner to reposition themselves and the balls around the board. Should a Quaffle find its way into a hoop, that team will score points. Should?? a Golden Snitch find its way to a player, however, then I think you already know what happens.

With a great board and point s?tand, it's a fun and light game for two players. It may not provide an authentic Quidditch experience, but it's still a bit of fun.

Harry Potter Unmask the Death Eaters

Harry Potter: Unmask the Death Eaters is a social deduction game of secret and shifting loyalties. At the beginning of ??the game, one player will secretly be assigned as a Death Eater, and will have to subtly sabotage the Order of the Phoenix players.

The group will battle with giants and dementors and try to pass through the encounters to achieve victory. However, the secret Death Eater, should they be part of the encounter, will be using their cards to secretly thwart their efforts. Considering the different ways the cards are used in Harry Potter: Unmask the Death Eaters, a good player ma?y be forced to play a bad card, meaning susp??icion is always on the rise.

In the middle of the game, there's the potential for another player to secretly join the Death Eaters, meaning trust is never something that can be counted on. Whether the Death Eaters make it to the end uncompromis??ed or whether they get routed out by other other players is completely up to the scrutiny and guile of the players. It's brilliant.

Harry Potter House Cup Competition

Harry Potter: House Cup Competition is a worker-placement game where players align with a House and will compete against the others to?? ??make their wizards stronger and complete challenges for those precious House Points.

The game lasts over seven game rounds, and in those rounds ??players will assign their wizards to spots on the board to gain Knowledge, Magic, or to level up one of their skills (Potions, Charm, and Defence Against the Dark Arts). The stronger your wizards are, the better they'll perform in the challenges that earn you House Points.

Harry Potter: House Cup Competition is a tense game as players fight over positions on the board. Combos of placement and lessons allow for explosive turns, although it only matters how well you train your wizards to?? face the trials ahead.

Funkoverse Harry Potter

Admittedly, Funkoverse: Harry Potter is a complicated strategy game, but if ??you're into objective-based games with lots of rules, combat, and strategy, then you'll love it even more with the Harry Potter dressings.

Two teams will challenge each other in a scenario and map of their choosing. As players walk around the board to score points in line with the scenario's o??bjective, they can do battle with each other to push their opponents back and thwart their plans.

Funkoverse: Harry Potter has other Harry Potter-specific expansions to augment and enhance your play, and should everyone agree, you could even create strange cross-overs with other Funkoverse Strategy games.

Trivial Pursuit Harry Potter Ultimate Edition

If you're a Potter Head then the standard Trivial Pursuit: Harry Potter Edition won't do. You'll want the ultimate edition, boasting over 1,800 questions that explo?re the obscure and minute details of the franchise.

It plays like standard Trivial Pursuit, although with clean Harry Potter aesthetics and questions that challenge even the most veteran fans. And even if you don't know that much about Harry Potter, it'll still b?e fun time as you'??ll learn along the way.

Whether you're in the mood for an intense fact-off with your friends or a lighter trivia night, Trivial Pursuit: Harry Potter Ultimate Edition is a solid pick.

CODENAMES Harry Potter

Codenames: Harry Potter is a challenging two-player game of secrets and clues. A grid of tiles will sit in between the players, showing either a word or an image from one of the fi??lms. Each player will receive a secret grid, marking many of the tiles as Order of the Phoenix tiles, and a few of them as Death Eater tiles.

The aim here is to provide a small clue that relate to any of the Order of the Phoenix tiles, and from your clue, they must guess which of the tiles you're hinting toward. Once ??they've made a guess, it'll be your turn to pick a tile from a clue they provide. Be careful, however, because should any player choose a Death Eater tile from an opponent's grid, both players will lose.

To win, both players must be savvy with their word choice to hint their opponent toward all of the Ord??er of Phoenix tiles without accidentally suggesting a Death Eater tile. It's a tense word game that will keep both players on the edge of their seat.

Harry Potter Hogwarts Magical Mayhem

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Magical Mayhem is an extremely interactive kid's game that? honestly looks like a blast to play no matter how old you are.

With eight unique mini games to play, including push-your-luck, dexterity, and ?logic, players will go around Hogwarts trying to score points for their House t??hrough the completion of these challenges.

It's incredibly creative, easy, interactive, and most importantly fun for the smaller wizards in your life to enjoy. To be frank I also wouldn't mind a go at Harry Potter: Hogwarts Magical Mayhem, although I'm unsu??re ?if most adults would agree with me.

No?w that you know of these brilliant Harry Potter board games, the difficult part is picking one to set up the most magical game nigh??t.

The post 1??0 B?est Harry Potter board games for aspiring muggles appeared first on Destructoid.

Whether you're a fan of Marvel or not, there are many fantastic Marvel board games out there to be enjoyed with your friends. Whether fighting against each othe?r or side by side, you'll all be in for a good time.

Marvel Villainous

In Marvel Villainous, players take control of one of five notorious Marvel villains to try and complete what they couldn't. Each villain has their own board, abilities, an?d win condition to race toward. As players try t o be the first to complete their objective, other players will try to complicate their efforts.

What makes Marvel Villainous interesting is,? despite how complex this makes it, every villain is doing their own thing. Players will have to keep a keen eye on the activities of their opponents to und??erstand who to prioritise stalling.

With many expansions and lots of replay values, if you want to gather your friends and take on the mighty tasks the villains have set themselves out to do, just make sure y??ou're prepared for all?? the rules.

Marvel Champions

Marvel Champions is a cooperative deck-building card game where players wi??ll work together to stop a villain before their scheme is unfurled. Fair warning: although there are five characters with pre-built decks in the core set, you'll want to invest time in understanding deck building to get the most out of this game.

The card game itself is solid, and playing with decks you've designed yourself is gratifying and satisfying. Fighting against different villains and adapting to their ways and methods grants Marvel Champions lots of replayability. Although complex, it's reasonably graspable for mos?t players.

There are many expansions for Marvel Champions that add more characters and villains?, so players will be hardly left wanting more. Again, just be warned that formi??ng your decks of 40 to 50 cards takes patience, genuine interest, and a great understanding of all the mechanics and how they mesh together.

Marvel Remix

Marvel Remix is a light and quick card game that ??can be played almost endlessly thanks to the wide range of cards players can pull. Each player will start off with six regular cards (Remix cards) and one harmful Villain card.

Throughout the game, players will be trying to amass as many points as they can. They can pick up either a Remix card, a Villain card, ??or ??a previously discarded card to replace a card in their hand. Each card interacts with other cards in your hands, meaning you must be careful about which cards you keep and replace.

Upon there being ten discarded cards, the game immediately ends, and players resolve card effects in any order to score points. It's incredibly simple, yet the card interactions ar??e delightfully complex and satisfying??.

Marvel United

Marvel United is a very thematic cooperative board game that gives players the task of teaming up an?d taking down the villain of choice.

The players must stop the villain's evil plan by traveling around the locations to complete missions, by taking down enough thugs and minions, or by rescuing civilians. Once the heroes have accomplished their objectives, then they can directly hurt the villain. Naturally, if the villain performs their evil plan, then the players lo??se.

What makes Marvel United unique is the lengths it goes to to make the game feel like a story. Villain and hero action cards are placed in? a circle around the game board to form a storyboard of sorts, which also has?? its own gameplay implementations.

Hail Hydra

Hail Hydra is a very unique social deduction game where playe??rs will be secretly assigned the role of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent or Hydra Agent. Every turn, the players must band ?together to defeat the villains wreaking havoc on New York City, although the Hydra Agents will actively try to sabotage these efforts.

There are five villains that the good guys need to beat to win the game. The vi?llains will be damaging New York City, so they need to be dealt with as fast as possible. The damage done to the villains, however, is determined by the values (either positive or negative) each player secretly puts forwa??rd.

Each turn, a player will be voted out of the next battle phase in the hopes of removing a sabotaging Hydra Agent from the next conflict. However, a Hydra Agent can yell "Hail Hydra!" revealing themselves and having more direct nega?tive effects on the game.

Thanos Rising

Thanos Rising is a tense cooperative game where players try to challenge and take down Thanos befor??????????????????????????e he?? gains full control of the Infinity Stones. Or before he annihilates too many heroes, naturally.

The Thanos figure will be rotated during play to different sectors, where any heroes stationed there and the heroes of any present players could? be open to a Thanos attack. Whether?? it's Thanos or his minions attacking, the players need to make sure their heroes and the neutral heroes on the board don't fall.

As players recruit heroes and use their abilities, they will take on the minions and, eventually, Thanos himself. Careful positioning and priority is required to succeed in Thanos Rising, and a bit of luck, too.

Marvel Crisis Protocol

The Marvel: Crisis Protocol miniatures game pits two players against each other in a bid to score sixteen points. Unlike other miniature games, each character in Crisis Protocol is a mighty?? hero, meanin??g it's much harder to take down any one character.

Players will assemble teams of ten characters (heroes or villains) to play on the board. If over half of the characters are of the same affiliation, then the team is open ??to bonuses. Taking it in turns, players will activate and use their characters in glorious battle.

What's especially interesting about Marvel: Crisis Protocol is that when a character gets defeated, they can come back stronger. Although when they fall again, they're done for good. If you want a miniature board game with more permanent characters and prolonged epic battles, then ?you can't go wrong with this one.

Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R.

Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R. is a meaty and long cooperative game that sets players against a big bag of their choice. There are many Marvel heroes to choose from, and each one can be set up differently when starting, allowing for a r?ange of combinations and set-ups.

The game itself is a loop of the heroes traveling throughout the worlds to take down minions that spawn and defy the main villain's plans. With numerous stages to the game, it does simulate the whole process of taking down and? finally confronting a supervillain just like in the movies.

If you are to play Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R., then you need to be prepared for some grindy and heavy turns, but?? if you're prepared for a long bout against a villain, you can ma??ke the next game night one of epic proportions.

Splendor Marvel

Splendor: Marvel is a deck-building game where players build tableaus of characters using points gained every turn and from thei??r current tab??leau.

A player's tableau is their economy, and alongside the points they get each turn, players must decide which cards to buy, as this will determine?? their spending power and types next turn. As players are able to afford more expensive and valuable cards, they will gain access to buildi?ngs that give them a solid base stat of points.

A player will win Splendor: Marvel by assembling the Infinity Gauntlet by having one card of each type, a high-value card, and sixteen points, m??eaning h?ow you build your tableau will determine your path to victory.

Marvel Zombies Heroes' Resistance

Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance is a cooperative game set in a fan-favorite setting of the Marvel zomb?ie apocalypse. Players need to score victory points together and fight off the hordes of zombies??. And every now and then, a zombified superhero will come into play...

The game itself isn't t??oo complicated, although teamwork and thinking five steps ahead is key, thanks to how zombie spawning and activation works. As there are lots of unknowns, players must be cautious, although being too careful can cost the game.

The figures in Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance are fantastic, and they're all fun to play with. Doing ??battle with zombie heroes is always a fun time, although remember not to get too carried away fighting zombies when there are objectives that you need to complete.

Now that you know what amazing Marvel board games are out there?, all you've gotta do now is choose the one you like best.

The post 10 Best Marvel board games for MCU fans appeared first on Destructoid.

Whether you're looking for a gift for a f?an or a great board game that has familiar dressings, these board ??games based on IPs and franchises will sort you out. behind their familiar faces are fantastic games to be enjoyed by all, however.

Jaws

Jaws encapsulates the arcs of the movie pe?rfectly, with two stages that are so distinct they play like two completely different board games.

One player will become the shark, and the other will take the role of the three main characters who are trying to take the shark down. Stage One is a hidden location game where the shark must eat swimmers and sneak around Amity Island whilst the players must try to?? track him down and launch barrels. The second stage stimulates a tense battl??e as the shark tries to devour the boat and the crew.

Jaws is a surprisingly interesting game that remains tense throughout, thanks to the level of surprise in its mecha?nics. With two board game experiences and two totally different sides, you can e?xpect four different ways to interact with it.

The Witcher Old World

The Witcher Old World is a huge game with lots going for it, much like the games and books. Players will become Witchers from different disciplines to take on enemy creatures and each other for presti?ge.

Players will move around the map of The Witcher Old World to track monsters, acquire potion??s, gamble, solve events, and even do battle. Battling is awesome in this game, as your deck is both your offensive capabilities and your lives, so the more you attack, the more vulnerable you become.

A game that does not outstay its welcome and provides you with lots of opportunities, The Witcher Old World is a must-have for Witcher and strategy fans.

Marvel Champions

Marvel Champions is a cooperative deck-building game where you ??and your friends (or just you alone) must take on a villain of your choice using your curated deck.

Note that patience and lots of understanding are required for Marvel Champions, as you must build the deck yourself, and there are a lot of cards?? to choose from. Knowing what synergizes with what will allow you to become?? a powerful challenge to the villain.

Deck-building is a satisfying process, but only for those who enjoy doing so. Marvel Champions will let you and your friends become the ultim??ate force with the right strategizing, however.

Dune Imperium

Dune Imperium is a c?omplex worker placement game where players vie to gain victory points on the harsh planet.

A great worker placement system is used here that rewards players for using neglected spaces and allows for many approaches to victory, complemented heavily by the cards?. Alongside ?this is the conflict system, where players fight for control of a specific space every turn to receive benefits when it's used.

Interacting ?with the detailed action ?board whilst trying to keep ahead in the conflicts allows for exciting and varied turns that allow for lots of choice and strategy.

Star Wars Rebellion

Star Wars Rebellion is a tense one-on-one between The Empire and the Rebellion. Asymmetrical board games are always a great time, although both side??s here are completely different.

The Rebels have a secret base that the Empire must find, and through this conflict, players can reenact the beats of the original trilogy and can alter history. The narratives combined with the engaging space and land battles are what make Star Wars Rebellion such a joy to play.

Great strategy is required for Star Wars Rebellion, as is an understanding of? both sides of the conflict. Will history repeat itself, or will you change its course?

Disney Villainous

Disney Villainous allows players to finish what six notorious Disney villains started. Each villain has ??their own board, objectives, actions, and play style, allowing for an immersiv?e experience.

Although Disney Villainous isn't directly competitive, each player can hinder and block other players using hapless heroes. This does mean that you need to know about all other villains to understand who's ahead ?and who's catching up.

Disney Villainous t?hrows a lot at the players as there's so much content, but when you understand everything, it'll feel more like a te?nse race. There are many other expansions that add lots of other villains to play with.

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective allows any number of players to become detectives and solve the greatest of mysteries. In this game, mysteries are set in London, and there ??are plenty of questions that need to be answe?red.

Using any resources that the game gives you, like newspaper clippings, players must piece together ideas and evidence to create answers to the questions surrounding the case. When everyone f??eels they're ready, you can consult Sherlock to see how many questions you got right.

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is the closest board gam??es have gotten to true mystery-solving, and with so many expansions, the fun c??an keep going.

War of the Ring

War of the Ring is a huge board game that'll have you reading through the rules before, during, and after play for the first few games. However, it provides an extremely accurate and close simulation of The Lord of the Rings.

The Free Nations fight against the Shadow as Middle?-Earth is plunged into chaos. Both sides could scarcely get more mechanically removed from each other, and their victory conditions reflect that. Either side can win through military might, although the fate of the One Ring will also dictate who wins.

Through the cards and possibilities of War of the Ring, you can reshape the history of Middle-Earth. Again, the rules are grueling, and there is a lot going on, but War of the Ring is a strangely addictive ??puzzle that hardly plays the same twic?e.

Bloodborne The Board Game

Bloodborne The Board Game allows players to become Hunters of Yharnam and engage in different campaigns tha?t will spin different narratives, have ??different choices, and host different enemies and bosses.

Each campaign of Bloodborne The Board Game goes over three chapters, and each has rich stories, interesting challenges, unique mechanics, and awful creatures. The combat is tight and unforgiving, althou?gh it can lend itself brilliantly to teamwork and combos.

Exploring the streets of Yharnam has always been a daunting experience that has made me regret every step. The numerous expansions for Bloodborne The Board Game allow for new stories and enemies, meaning there is lots of fun to be had.

A Game Of Thrones The Board Game

A Game Of Thrones The Board Game is the definitive A Game of Thrones experience, where three to six players ga?ther a?round Westeros to fight for the Iron Throne.

Like any other strategy game worth its salt, A Game Of Thrones The Board Game has engaging battles between minis on a map. What makes the game special, however, are the secret orders that get revealed simultaneously and the levels of diplomacy and diplomatic advantages that don't just complement the game but are the game.

You w?ill need to do much more than just win battles to triumph here, as tactful dipl??omacy and strategic positioning will gain you the influence and support you need to control the seven castles required for victory.

No??w that you know about these brilliant games based on IPs and franchises, the hard part now is to decide which on??e you want to play first.

The post 10 Best board games based on IPs and franchises appeared first on Destructoid.

Disney is one of the biggest franchises o??ut there, so it's no surprise that it has a large board game collection that make perfect can??didates for game nights with family and friends.

Disney Animated

Disney Animated is a cooperative board game where players must complete their animation panel before the deadline. Along the way, after pla??yer turns, the villains ??will strike and cause calamity to make the players' job more difficult.

Interestingly, in Disney Animated, players will slowly co??nstruct their chosen animation panel for their selected film. The background must be constructed, and characters built on t??op. It's satisfying and fun to construct your animation panel, and when everyone finishes theirs, the players win the game.

As actions get performed in Disney Animated, they'll reduce in va?lue, meaning player cooperation is integral despite the divorced playing board?s.

Big Thunder Mountain

Big Thunder Mountain makes up for being somewhat complicated through t??he great board?? design. Each player is trying to make money and earn points by selling the gold they panned or picked from Big Thunder Mountain.

What makes this game special is the board, as it's a large 3D mountain where a player must twist the mountain top to release a marble. The freed marble will randomly pick one of the p??aths of the mountain and fall into a pocket, causing different effects depending on what type of marble it was and what other marbles it got paired with.

Big Thunder Mountain is incredibly interactive, and moving around the minecarts and marbles elevates the fami??ly fun th??at's easily had.

Disney Sorcerers Arena

Disney Sorcerer's Arena is a board game adaptation of the strategy arena mobile game, where players can battle it out head-o??n in king-of-the-hill battles for victory points.

??Each player will pick three characters to make their team and then use their cards to fight the enemy and stay on top of spaces that award points. It's refreshingly simple and can be taught as you play, making it ac??cessible to families who don't play a lot of competitive battle board games.

Disney Sorcerer's Arena is a fun game where most of the enjoyment comes from picking a team that complements each other, and then going to to??wn on your opp??onent.

Disney Villainous

Disney Villainous allows players to step into the boots of notorious Disney villains to comp?lete what they couldn't. Players can pick from six villains to play as, and they'll get specific player boards and icons to play with.

Move your villain across different locations to complete objectives and take down any heroes in your way. Each villain? has different objectives, player boards, and actions, meaning there are many games that can be had here.

There is a lot of complexity in Disney Villainous as you have to at least vagu?ely understand the other villains in play to know who's ahead and who's catching up. There is little direc??t competition also, which may not be for everyone.

Haunted Mansion

Haunted Mansion is a beautifully designed game about forming a tableau of cards. Players wi??ll use a rotating platform to visit different rooms of the Haunted Mansion to get new ghost cards and encounter the Hitchhiking Ghosts.

Although this game may go over the heads of children, adults will have simple fun moving around the Haunted Mansion and forming groups of ghost cards. Haunt cards gained by dueling others an?d meeting the Hitchhiking Ghosts will lose players points, and could lose you your biggest stack of ghost cards.

Although Haunted Mansion isn't terribly?? compl??icated, it's certainly less accessible for younger players. Some may not find the granular and gritty card collecting too much fun, whereas others will find it extremely satisfying.

Dixit Disney Edition

Dixit: Disney Edition allows the players to become the storytellers for once. Players will receive cards with iconic and abstract Disney moments, which are beautiful in their own right.

Using the cards, the active player will pick a card from their hand and will describe it to t??he rest of the group. Players will then pick a card from their hand, and all of the cards will go in the middle. Players will have to guess which card is the active player's.

If everyone or no one picks the active player's card, then everyone but the active player will gain points meaning you cannot be too specific or too vague when describing your Disney moment in Dixit: Disney Edition.

Codenames Disney

Codenames: Disney is a harder game to wrap your head around, but it's deceptively simple. A grid of images and phrases related to Disney? is spread on the table, and both teams wil??l work together to try and identify their cards.

Each team will have a guess master, and both teams' guess masters will receive a small combination grid that tells them which tiles their team needs to guess?. The guess master, for their team, can only communicate with one word and the number of tiles that clue corresponds to. The team will keep guessing until they unveil a tile that's not theirs.

Once a team has identified all five of their ti??les thanks to their guess master's skilled communication, they'll win.

The Magical World of Disney Trivia

The Magical World of Disney Trivia is a trivia board game that will put everyone's k?nowledge to the test. The game comes with both adult and child question decks, to make the game fair ??and for difficulty adjustments.

Players will move around the board using the spinner to answer questions of different color categories. Upon answering a question successfully, you receive that color's swirl. A player must obtain all the color swirls and reach the end first to win th?e game!

With points of interest, magic carpet rides, and fun player counters, The Magical World of Disney Trivia makes for not only a great trivia game but a solid game in gene??ral that can be enjoyed by anyone.

Lorcana

Lorcana is a trading card g?ame where the c?ombat is not the primary objective. With each deck consisting of 60 cards that can only be composed of two card types, players can get really serious with their deck building.

The aim of Lorcana is to gather 20 Lore Points, which charact?ers can freely grab as an action during their turn. Characters can also challenge other characters and s?ing, allowing players to execute a sing card for their effects.

The objective of Lorcana is refreshing and makes for a nice change of pace, as players must decide between gaining Lore Points and taking out their opponent's c??haracters. Do note that as a trading card game, this could be a gateway to a very expensive hobby.

Disney Sidekicks

Disney Sidekicks is a cooperative board game celebrating the (mostly) unsung counterparts to our famous heroes. In a twist, the villains have caged up some Disney heroes i??n their castle, and i??t's the job of the players and sidekicks to rescue them.

To win Disney Sidekicks, the players must free all the trapped heroes and defeat at least one?? of the villains on the board. Heroes can be freed through using stars, which are gained from many actions in the game.

There are other things to do in Disney Sidekicks, like rescuing villagers to unlock your sidekick's bonus effects, ma??king this game a dy?namic and very engaging experience.

With this grand selection of Disney board games, all you must do now ?is pick one to play with your fri??ends and family.

The post 10 B??est Disney board games for adults and children appeared first on Destructoid.

Tabletop gaming is usually anything but portable, but the Nintendo Switch offers quite a few great digital board games that flip this notion on its head. Rewarding turn-based gameplay, in-depth deck building, a?nd exciting strategic competitions are now all available on the go. Below you’ll find our picks for the best board games on Switch that you can dive into right now.

12. Steam: Rails to Riches

Steam: Rails to Riches is a great railroad board game that’s all about building a strong economic engine with locomotive ones. You’ll start the game by taking out a loan from the bank and linking cities with track tiles. Then, you can start moving resources between locations to turn a profit. This will eventually urbanize the smaller towns through which your railroad operates. There are six different maps to choose from, and the terrain will often alter your strategy. If you’re a fan of the Ticket to Ride theme but want a higher level of complexity, then this one’s a grea?t pick. 

11. CATAN: Console Edition

The digital version of CATAN deserves a place on this list because it’s a classic of the genre that’s familiar and comfortable to play. However, I’d only recommend picking it up if you’re planning to play either solo or on a single system, because the online multiplayer servers unfortunately shut do??wn about two years ago. The A.I., however, works great for a solo session. If you’re going to play in person, then placing the pieces that box your friends and family out of entire sections of the board is still a grand old time.

10. Talisman

The epic quest for the Crown of Command in Talisman includes all the classic fantasy adventure and character tropes that tabletop gaming enthusiasts love. You can pick from one of sixteen different archetypical roles, hoard magic loot, and slay monsters. What more could you want? Well perhaps some friendlier dice rolls for starters. The Switch port includes three expansions as a part of the base game purchase, the most interesting of which is probably The City because its loca?tion feels distinct. The digital edition follows the rules and content additions of the physica?l version’s fourth edition.

9. Armello

The digital tabletop game Armello has incredibly rich original world that’s brought to life by solid strategy mechanics an??d gorgeous animal-themed artwork. The various factions spread across the land seek the power of the King, and can win the game by claiming his crown. To do so, they’ll need to send out their most daring heroes to conquer towns, comple??te quests, and battle the other factions. It’s worth noting, however, that turns can sometimes be a bit long. As a result, it’s best enjoyed alongside more experienced tabletop gamers.

8. Carcassonne

The medieval landscapes of the classic tile-laying game Carcassonne are fun and often amusing to build alongside friends. The original Switch release of the game did not offer online multiplayer, but the developer Twin Sails Interactive thankfully remedied this in November 2021. Several expansions were also added? at this time to give the game furt??her variability, including The Princess & The Dragon pack and Traders & Builders. Nowadays the current Switch edition of the game is surprisingly solid and works well for players of all ages.

7. The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game

The digital adaption of The Lord of the Rings LCG allows you to pair together Middle Earth’s most iconic heroes and pit them against three exciting story-driven campaigns that take place in the years between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. There are tons of deck building variations to experiment with, and each scenario places its own demands on the player’s cards. In one quest you might need more battle power to defeat th??e orcs. In? another you might need higher willpower to ensure a successful journey through the Wilderland. Though it doesn’t quite have the physical edition’s complexity, this digital card game is still a great time.

6. Evolution Board Game

In the Evolution Board Game, you’re in charge of managing the development of an interesting new species as it fights for survival. In the early phase of the game, players compete for food by pla?ying adaption cards that add features ??like fat tissue or a long neck to their species. When one or more of the species becomes a carnivore, the adaption process changes, and you’ll quickly want to grow some horns or learn how to climb trees in the hopes of staying alive. I’d personally recommend adding the Climate DLC to the game when buying because it greatly enriches the original game’s theme.

5. Slay the Spire

Though it was first a video game before becoming a board game, Slay the Spire is an excellent deck building experience that all tabletop fans will enjoy on their Nintendo Switch. B??ranching pathways, dungeon-crawler style loot, and a big mix of bosses keep things fresh every time you attempt an ascent. The game mechanics aren’t too difficult to grasp, but assembling your deck for maximum impact takes practice. There are four different playable characters, and each one starts with a few unique abilities in addition to the basi?c strike and defend cards.

4. Raiders of the North Sea

The Raiders of the North Sea board game has a great digital adaption for the Nintendo Switch that takes full advantage of the original’s fun viking theme. It’s primarily a worker p??lacement game, though there are also a ton of other interesting things you can do when it’s your turn. These options include recruiting crew members, upgrading your longship, and launching raids. Sometimes it’s even beneficial to give your warriors a valorous death, because sending them to Valhalla can further increase your score. It’s easy to learn but there’s a ton of strategy involved. As an additional plus, the long setup times that plague the physical edition are of course mercifully absent.

3. Wingspan

Wingspan is a relaxing, medium complexity birding board game that absolutely everyone can enjoy. You’ll start the game by selecting a mix of cards and food tokens, which you can then use to add birds to your play mat. If you place your winged friends in the forest, they’ll mak?e it easie?r to get more food. Add them to your water area and you’ll draw more cards; put them in your grasslands and you’ll lay more eggs. Finish end of round goals, complete bonus cards, and have the most points on the board by the end to claim victory.

2. Istanbul

The grand markets, crumbling courtyards, and smoke-filled gambling dens of Constantinople come to life in the digital port of Istanbul the board game. You are a merchant whose aim is to collect five gems before your rivals. To do so, you’ll need to send your team of assistants across the city map and give them tasks, such as picking up goods, trading, or breaking a family member out of jail. Then you’ll either need to rendezvous with them at the central fountain or pick them up where you left them. The arrangement of location tiles is random, which means the board look??s ?completely different every time you play. 

1. Root

The untamed wilderness of Root is full of fun battles, unpredictable alliances, and exciting twists of fate. The game is a completely different experience depending on? the faction you’re playing, which gives it unparalleled replay value. The Marquise de Cat plays an aggressive war board game and builds workshops and lumber mills. The Woodland Alliance launches covert attacks on the Cat’s efforts, and the Vagabond goes on quests that cross through the chaos. Meanwhile, the Eyrie Dynasty employs a sequence of decrees enacted by its leader. The theme is gorgeous, the strategic complexity is high, and there are a ton of interesting DLC? expansions to choose from as well. For all these reasons it sits at the top of our list.

The post The 12 Best Board Game?s on Nintendo Switch, Ranked appeared first on Destructoid.

Intriguing puzzles, mysterious clues, and horrifying monsters from the beyond await you in the darkness of the Mansions of Madness. This tabletop adaption of H.P. Lovecraft’s world and works is full of compelling, thematic scenarios against which you and your team of one to five investigators will test your mettle. However, there’s so much more to the Mansions of Madness board game than the core box. In this guide, we’re reviewing all the expansions, DLC, and other ad??d-ons you can purchase to help you experience the best of what this game has to offer.

Where to Begin: Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition

The core Mansions of Madness box includes eight investigators and four scenarios, along with dozens of variable map tiles and minatures. The creaking hallways and darkened rooms of the game’s initial setup bring a high level of claustrophobic horror and atmospheric tension that will surely have you addicted right from the start. It’s also worth noting here that the second edition includes some substantial upgrades compared ?with the original release. The most significant of these is the companion app, which removes the need for one player to serve as the keeper and thus allows for solo gameplay.

How many Mansions of Madness expansions are there?

There are five major expansions for Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition, along with a trio of DLC scenarios available through the game’s app. Three of the five boxes are larger expansions with three new scenarios. The other two additions only contain two additional scenarios apiece. There is also a pair of expansions for the ??first edition, thou?gh these have long been out of print and are notably not considered a part of the current game. In the list below you’ll find our suggested purchasing order for the game’s additional content. However, keep in mind that you can just as easily skip to the expansions with the stories and themes that speak to you the most.

1. Mansions of Madness DLC Expansions

The Mansions of Madness companion app offers three additional DLC-based scenarios that utilize the same physical components as the base game. In order they are: What Lies Within, Dark Reflections, and Altered Fate. If you’ve already completed the original scenarios and want to continue exploring what the game has to offer without spendi??ng too much, then these DLC are a must. However, they aren’t as thematically unique as the boxed content that’s further down this list.

2. Beyond the Threshold

The first expansion for Mansions of Madness, Beyond the Threshold, adds two fantastic scenarios to your collection and is a great place to start exploring new game tiles. The first scenario, Vengeful Impulses, is a classic murder mystery that will be a guaranteed hit on game night. The Gates of Silverwood Manor is also awesome, and takes full advantage of the new moving tiles ??and key token mechanics that the box introduces. Like the DLC expansions, the atmosphere is relatively consistent w??ith the base game.

3. Streets of Arkham

The town of Arkham, Massachusetts roars to life in this big box expansion for Mansions of Madness. Warring gangs, strange break-ins, and mysterious happenings on the grounds of the Miskatonic University take center stage across three fun, completely distinct scenarios. Unlike in the other two larger expansions, the map tiles from this box can also show up in the core game’s?? scenarios and give them further replay value. The improvement tiles mechanic here is also great.

4. Horrific Journeys

The Horrific Journeys expansion for Mansions of Madness deviates significantly in theme and setting from the original game, but it’s all the better for it. The three scenarios in this box take place aboard a zeppelin, a train, and a steam liner. This might not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially considering that the claustrophobic horror of the original is not as present. However, most gamers will likely enjoy the change of pace and appreciate the developer’s creativity in designing these new spaces. The 10:50 to Arkham scenario is a personal favorite.

5. Path of the Serpent

Paths of the Serpent, the final expansion release for Mansions of Madness, takes players out of Arkham and into the jungles of South America. Deadly plants, cursed artifacts, and a thrilling showdown in the Lost Temple of Yig await you. Beware the difficulty of these encounters; they certainly aren’t for the faint of heart. The four investigators that this box adds are solid additions?? to the game as well, though perhaps not essential.

6. Sanctum of Twilight

Sanctum of Twilight adds two new scenarios along with a pair of decent strength investigators and the wraith monster. However, it’s the Behind Closed Doors scenario that keeps this box at the bottom of the list. Its mechanics are frequently frustrating, and though the app only gives it a three out of five difficulty rating, it feels significantly more challenging than that, especially when you’re playing solo. However, there’s still plenty to enjoy here, which means Sanctum of Twilight can still be worth picking up??? even if you aren’t just after a complete collection.  

7. Mansions of Madness Dice Pack

The Mansions of Madness dice pack is an incredibly underrated addition to your game experience. If you’re typically playing with four to five players, you may have noticed that ??passing the dice for every skill check can get old fast. The dice pack essentially prevents the game from getting too long because of this process, and for that reason alone, it’s worth picking up if you’re going to play the game on a consistent basis. 

Ready to explore more of this dark and gripping universe? We’ve also got a list of the best Lovecraft board games for your table.

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Deck building is an endlessly engaging and often surprising component of many popular board and card games. There’s so much variability to this type of tabletop gameplay, and whether you’re playing a classic of the genre or trying out the latest and g??reatest title that utilizes this mechanic, you and your game night group are sure to have a blast. In the list below you’ll find just a few of our favorite d??eck building card games that you should try out for yourself now.

1. Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure

Deck building meets classic dungeon crawling in Clank!, an engaging card and board gam?e? that just about everyone will enjoy. Delve underground, seek treasure, and defeat enemies to claim loot. Spend cards from your deck to move or fight, and avoid the dragon at all costs. If you escape the dungeon before the game ends, you’ll tally up the points on your artifact and loot tokens, then add that value to the points on your cards plus your remaining gold. If you take too many risks, your opponents can win just by surviving.

2. Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game

The Rebel Alliance’s fight against the Galactic Empire is the perfect setup for a two-player card game duel. You and your opponent will start a round of Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game with a handful of basic characters, ships, and bases. As the game progresses, you’ll add more powerful allies to your deck, u?nlock inter?esting card combos, and hopefully manage to destroy three of your opponent’s bases. Iconic faces from the original trilogy like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader bring unique, thematic effects to the table. 

3. The Quest for El Dorado

In The Quest for El Dorado, you’ll need to a??ssemble a team of explorers, sailors, and other travellers to help you cross different types of terrain in the South American jungle. Your goal is to reach the Lost City of Gold before the other players. Each round you can buy cards from the? market to make your deck stronger and give you more options for traversing the map. The game also offers a variety of board layouts to make the journey easier or more difficult, depending on your preference.

4. Dune Imperium: Uprising

Dune Imperium: Uprising mixes elements of deck building card games with worker placement board games to g??reat effect. Every round you’ll send your team of agents to different locations that are either on Arrakis or related to the Landsraad. Then, you’ll reveal the remaining cards in your hand and spend your persuasion points on a new card for your deck. You can also remove weaker cards from your deck thanks to the power of the Bene Gesserit. As you continue to amass spice and gain ground on the four influence tracks, your turns will get even more active and exciting.

5. Dominion

No deck building card game list would be complete without the classic, genre-defining title Dominion. This endlessly customizable entry first hit shelves in 2008, and has been popular with tabletop gaming enthusiasts ever since. The goal is simple: end the game with the most victory points in your deck. Unfortunately, these victory points don’t do anything during the game itself, so you’ll need to mix in some interesting treasure and action cards instead. With the release of Dominion Rising Sun, there are n?ow sixteen differ??ent expansions that help guarantee a different experience every time you sit down to play.

6. Trains

Trains is an easy-to-learn board game that mixes the best elements of the acclaimed Ticket to Ride series with deck building gameplay. It’s your job as a railroad manager to link together the best transportation network in Japan, and to do so, you’ll need to lay rails, set up signals, and build stations. Unlike other deck builders, you won’t need the aid of additional cards to trash the waste cards i??n your hand. Instead, you can simply spend a turn to get rid of them??.

7. Shards of Infinity

Unlike most other deck building games, Shards of Infinity allows players to upgrade the worst cards in th?eir possession gather than just adding more powerful ones to their deck. However, spending time on this mastery point system might be costly. If your opponent can reduce your health to zero before you reach thirty mastery, then it’s game over. Some cards also allow you to play them as soon as you buy them, which also flips the standard deck building formula on its head. The theme is great, and the strategic combinations feel endless.

8. Star Realms

In Star Realms, two players compete to determine whose authority and spaceships hold sway over the galaxy. Your bases and outposts will remain in play and give you fixed effects, while you’ll instead play and discard your ships each round. Trading for better cards has its merits, but you may also want to consider focusing on combat to prevent your opponent from reducing your authority? score. Your strategy will change completely from game to game, which means replay value is quite high.

9. Aeon’s End (2nd Edition)

If you’re looking for a deck building board game that focuses on player cooperation rather than competition, Aeon’s End is a great pick. Players team up to hold back the hordes of a horrifying nemesis monster from the deep. When it’s your turn, you’ll spend gems to pick up new additions for your deck and cast spells to deal damage. Unlike other deck builders, you wonâ€??™t need to reshuffle your deck. When you’re out of cards, instead simply take your discard pile and flip it over.

10. Ascension: Ten Year Anniversary Edition

The classic deck building card game Ascension is a great solo gaming experience that never gets old. Each round the players will attack monsters using strength cards and purchase upgrades that appear in later turns. Constructs apply status effects that trigger each round, and cards from the same faction also offer interesting combinations when you play them together?. The anniversary edition brings some significant upgrades to the card art, as well as a new play mat.

The post 10 Awesome Deck Building Card Games You Can Play Right No?w appeared first on Destructoid.

Nature and animal board games are a fun way to explore the outdoors from the comfort of your home while also enjoying a fun strategic competition with friends and family. All of the entries on our list offe??r solid game mechanics and beautiful artwork that engage with the wonders of planet Earth. Beyond the theme, they’re also all a guaranteed win on game night. 

10. Everdell

In Everdell, your goal is to build a city full of animals and cache resources before the?? next winter arrives. Whe??n it’s your turn, you can either place workers on the board, or play a card that either populates or further develops your town. The adorable artwork features cute critters dressed up as rangers, monks, post officers, and other interesting townspeople. The rules are easy to learn, and the amount of card combos available also gives the game considerable replay value.

9. Mariposas

Mariposas is a board game that focuses on the migration of butterflies in North America, which occurs each year from spring until fall. The game thus takes place over the course of three rounds, each of which represent a season. Scoring takes place after each season, and you’ll gain most of your points either by reproducing your butterflies or by accomplishing end-of-round goals on an objective board, in similar fashion to Wingspan. If you’re looking for a cozy, low difficulty tabletop title, Mariposas is a great pick.

8. The Fox in the Forest

The fairy tale artwork in the trick taking card game Fox in the Forest establishes a wonderful fantasy nature theme that also comes across well in the game’s mechanics. Char?acters like the witch, the monarch, and the fox shake up the trump? card system found in other similar card games, keeping things fresh and exciting. In addition, it’s not always best to play the most tricks; if you do, you might get zero points in a round just for being a bit too greedy. 

7. PARKS

Want to take a trip to the most beautiful national parks in North America without leaving the comfort of your home? PARKS lets you do just that. Players work to collect memories ??of the trails they’ve visited and gather gear for their next hiking adventure. Campfires allow you to share spaces with other players, while locations like trading posts and lodges allow you to gather more items and reserve more parks for future visits.

6. Photosynthesis

In the Photosynthesis board game, a group of competing arb??orists aim to collect the most light points based on the soil quality in which they’ve planted their trees. The sun rotates around the main game board, so that each tree casts a shadow that prevents some of the trees behind it from collecting points. The taller the tree, the longer the shadow. Though the box might make it look like one of the more relaxing nature board games, it’s actually a fiercely competitive experience.

5. Cascadia

The Pacific Northwest features a vast and diverse ecosystem, and in Cascadia, it’s your job to put ?that ecosystem together for its animal inhabitants. By grouping habitat tiles and placing anima??ls in the terrains you’ve created, you’ll score a considerable amount of points. However, each native species, from the brown bear to the river salmon, has its own placement requirements. You can often complete a game in under 30 minutes, and there’s even an enjoyable solo mode in which you can try to beat your previous high score.

4. Wingspan: Asia

While the original Wingspan is of course a great board game for nature lovers, few seem to know that Wingspan Asia is not just an expansion of the original game, but a great standalone board game for one or two players.? The birds in your flock are more diverse and rare than the original game, and many of the cards have more unique “when activated�effects. The artwork and play mats are gorgeous, a??nd there are plenty of interesting outcomes, which gives the game high replay value.   

3. Forest Shuffle

In Forest Shuffle, it’s up to you to create a beautiful forest full of different species of plants and animals. First, you’ll start by planting a collection of trees. Then, you’ll add birds, butterflies, foxes, and all manner of other critters to these tree cards to collect points. Set bonuses and strategic card pairings will net you a higher score. Depending on your strategy, you can also gather points by placing cards ?in your cave, which is activated by pred?ator animals like the brown bear.

2. Ark Nova

Ark Nova is a strategy-rich board and card game in which your objective is to build a conservation friendly zoo. You’ll need to meet the basic needs of the animals you’re hoping will inhabit your zoo. You’ll also need to keep track of your sponsors and association workers. In addition, you’ll have to carefully consider the placement of your enclosures and attractions on your player board if you hope to collect the most points. Ark Nova might feel complex the first time you? play i?t, but figuring out which strategies work for you is also an incredibly rewarding experience that board gaming enthusiasts will love. 

1. Earth

Construct a tableau of incredible natural wonders, animals, and flora in Earth, a strategy card game that offers seemingly limitless ways to win. Each card depicts a unique natural phenomenon, and takes players to fascinating locations as far apart as the fjords of Iceland and the southern regions of Japan. It’s up to you to decide which of th?e cards in your hand belong on your sixteen-card island, and which ones you’re better off composting for victory points instead. The game also offers a unique mechanic that allows you to keep taking minor actions when it’s not your turn. It’s great fun that just about everyone on Earth can enjoy.

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Ready to set sail on a high seas adventure? These ten awesome board games let you take on the role of a pirate, explore an island or three, and gather up as much treasure as possible. Just make sure to watch out for ghost ships, deadly curses, and the cannons of your rival??s. Hopefully, you’ll be the richest and most infam??ous of them all by the end of your next game night!  

10. Merchants & Marauders: Broadsides

The thrill of ship-to-ship combat is the core of Merchants & Marauders: Broadsides, an engaging pirate-themed card game for two players. You and your opponent are fighting over a particularly prosperous trade route, and can wrest control of the waves by either taking out key members of the opponents crew or sinking their ship. To do eith??er, you’ll need to carefully load, aim and fire your cannons with different types of ammo. In addition, you’ll have to sail your ship away from enemy broadsides and pay cards to repair any damage you take.

9. Sea of? Thieves The Board G?ame: Voyage of Legends

The tabletop adaption of the hit open world video game Sea of Thieves does a solid job capturing the soul of the source material. Becoming a pirate and captaining yo?ur own ship is as enjoyable as ever, and there are plenty of epic adventures to embark upon. Beasts like the Megalodon and the Kraken also add suitable suspense on the seas. It would be nice if there were more unique locations to visit and a slightly easier to decipher rulebook, but for fans of the original video game it’s a must own.

8. Jamaica

The family-friendly pirating board game Jamaica pits players against each other in an epic race aro??und the island organized by the local governor. The further ahead you are when you complete the circuit, the more money you earn. However, just reaching the finish line first won’t necessarily win you the game. Along the route, there are many place?s to stop and pick up treasure. The player with the most gold is one who takes home the ultimate pirate crown. 

7. Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest

Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest is a quick competitive board game in which players attempt to gather as much treasure as possible by raiding an island for buried treasure. Each day the players will have to send one of the six crew members at their disposal down to the island to compete with their opponent captains for the loot. Keeping track of what cards the other players has already used is essential to victory, as is avoiding the cursed treasure. Game times are slightly shorter than the original Libertalia, which definitely isn’t a bad thing.

6. Skull King

Skull King is a perfect pirate-themed party game for up to eight players that leans on trick-taking gameplay. Each round, you’ll need to bet how many tricks you can make based on the cards in your hand. A correct prediction will net you valuable points once the round is over. However, it’s all too easy to fa??ll into the traps of the Skull King, who trumps everything except the mermaid. Whales, krakens, and escape cards also add interesting twists and ensure that the game’s tension continues to escalate each round.

5. Maracaibo

Maracaibo is a complex yet rewarding strategy board game in which you and your fellow players will all get to captain your own pirate ships and explore the Caribbean. The game’s project cards and career options set up unique paths to victory for each player. The ship upgrades system also offers satisfying ways to upgrade your sailing vessel. In a??ddition, there is an optional campaign in which your choices from one game will roll into the next. The box includes a solo variant, but the game is in this case most enjoyable alongside a few other players.  

4. Plunder: A Pirate’s Life

If you’re looking for a pirate board game that’s a bit more on the easy-to-learn side of the scale, then Plunder might be the perfect choice. The goal of the game is simple; all you need to do is collect ten plunder points. However, there are many ways that you can achieve this goal, such as taking over islands, buryin?g booty, and destroying your opponent’s fleet. Both combat and ship movement operate using dice rolls, which means you’ll need to choose the right moment to take some risks if you hope to claim victory.

3. Dominion + Dominion Seaside

The acclaimed deck building board game Dominion offers players an outstanding chance to build an empire on the high seas with its Seaside expansion. Merchant ships, smugglers, treasure maps, and lookouts offer exciting new ways to claim the last province and end the game with the most victory points. If you don’t already have Dominion, you can pick up the Seaside expansion alongside the small Dominion Base Cards box to skip the original game and set sail on the perfect pirating adventure right from t?he start.

2. Dead Men Tell No Tales

Dead Men Tell No Tales is a cooperative board game in which you and your?? fellow group of sailors are trying to capture a treasure onboard a ghostly pirate ship. You’ll have to battle the undead crew, avoid hazards around the ship, and face off against the infamous Captain Fromm to succeed. Unlike the other tabletop titles on this list, the game focuses on a single raid rather than a series of journeys, which makes for a nice change of pace. Will you make it off the ship before the flames rise too high? It's?? tougher than you might think.

1. Forgotten Waters

Forgotten Waters offers three to seven players an exciting open world of pirating shenanigans that’s full to the brim with memorable quests and locations. Gameplay is fully immersive and easy to manage, with the game’s free app assisting pla?yers with everything from setup to encounter narration. Creating your character is also fun, since there are plenty of enjoyable skill combos to sample and role play alongside. Timed worker placement and roll-based skill checks add plenty of tension to each of the five lengthy scenarios included in the box.

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These days, there are many solitaire board games for those who prefer a solo experience or those who want to mov?e some things around a board in their free time (not judging, I get it). If you're looking?????????????????????????? for your next addition, then have a look at this great list of solo board games.

Too Many Bones

Too Many Bones has likely the mightiest production value of any board game I've ever seen. Although this makes the game expensive, playing this game f?eels lavish and luxurious, which is a fun contrast to the gritty combat of the game.

In Too Many Bones, you will pick a character or form a party and choose a tyrant to take down. Naturally, a slew of encounters reside in the path between you and your target. What makes Too Many Bones shine, however, is the unique dice syste?m employed.

Each character has a litany of upgrades and builds, and the dice in the game function as both upgrades and actions. Getting to properly flesh out your c?haracter for their specialized purpose is satisfying, and doing so with Chip Theory's amazing dice makes it so much sweeter.

Gloomhaven Jaws Of The Lion

Gloomhaven: Jaws Of The Lion is a standalone expansion to the mighty Gloomhaven. For a sol??o experience, I'd recommend this instead of diving straight into the gargantuan nerdatron-3000 that is the base game.

This game is a rich and story-driven RPG where you'll be building and playing as your own par??ty. The combat is vicious and unforgiving, and it'll sometimes feel like you're banging your head against a brick wall. However, the depth and strategy needed is almost addictive.

For those wanting to embark on a grand adventure and have a board game set up for far too long on the main room's table, then Gloomhaven: Jaws Of The Lion is what you want.

Under Falling Skies

Under Falling Skies is a print-and-play game turned board game that's specifically designed for solo play. Despite employing a dice-based system as a core mechanic, this game provides a low luck and high skill experience for those wanting somethi?ng more akin to an action puzzle.

Using a rather long board, alien ships and their mothership will be descending from the ski?es toward your bunker. Every turn, you will roll dice and slot them into different bunker buildings for specific actions. As the enemy AI responds specifically to your actions, ??it'll only be your actions that cause your downfall.

Under Falling Skies also comes with a campaign that adds m??ore features and content to the board game, making this ??a great story and engaging game for solo players.

Spirit Island

Spirit Island is one of those incredibly popular board games that often gets brought up a lot, so I'm sorry if you'd heard this before, but Spirit Island is excellent no matter the player count.

In Spirit Island, greedy and invasi?ve colonizers have infected the island, and it's your job as the deity of your choice to repel them. Although this is a very complex game, having the luxury to take your time and read between?? the lines allows you to really dive in.

Each God is very unique, and you must use each of their abilities and caveats to fight back. Spirit Island is a game that's far easier to lose th?an ??it is to win.

A Feast For Odin

A Feast For Odin is a relaxed resource management and worker-placement game that puts you in charge of a tribe of Vikings. In solo play, the game works virtually the same, except now it's about reaching high scores and trying out new strategies and rout??es.

Sending your Vikings to the board to engage in the large array of actions is instantly rewarding and enjoyable. From collecting items, to hunting, to exploring new lands, to constructing new lodgings, there truly is far too much to do in one?? sitting.

The goal in A Feast For Odin is to gather as much stuff as you can. Managing your inventory of gained goods in your homestead makes for a sat???isfying puzzle, although having to feed your Vikings every turn is always an unwelcome stress. Especially if there's no harvest that turn...

Final Girl

Final Girl is a love letter to the slasher genre that nails the vibe, aesthetic, and tropes of those cult classic films. Specifically a solitaire game, Final Girl is all about fighting back against the big bad before it finds you and delivers?? a disappointing off-camera death.

Across any map you play, survivors ?will be scattered. The killer is trying to slaughter them to get more powerful, and you're trying to rescue them to activate your special ability. As you scurry around the map, you can also find powerful items that will help you in your fight against the killer.

There are many expansions to Final Girl that add more locations and enemies, meaning there is a lot of mileage you can get out of this game.

Dark Souls The Board Game

You needn't be a Dark Souls fan to enjoy any of the three core Dark Souls The Board Game Core Sets (I'd personally recommend the Painted World of Ariamis box set). This reinvent?ion of the game makes for an extremely engaging and grueling dungeon for you to crawl through with one to three characters.

The miniatures are disastrously cool and unique, and the levels that you'll encounter them in are all unique and host great combinations of objectives, effects, and other nasty things to make you regr??et your purchase.

If you want to spend your evening thrashing against the nightmarish denizens of Dark Souls, then there's no better board game to get than Dark Souls The Board Game.

Lost Ruins of Arnak

The Lost Ruins of Arnak is an exciti??ng board game with many systems and lots of depth. Although complicated, the compartmentalization of the systems makes this manageable, and allows you to divorce your thinking slightly, which is needed considering how much thinking is needed.

You will be exploring and uncovering the ruins of this lush new land, where explorers are sent out to perform actions and creatures are discovered for you to fight. Despite the wealth of systems and cards present in Lost Ruins of Arnak, the game has a set timer and a set amount of cards you'll be dealt, meaning every?? decision is a crucial one.

In solo play, Lost Ruins of Arnak becomes more of a puzzle than ever. If you wish to pour yourself over a vast and exciting puzzle, then you may enjoy exploring the undergrowth and crumbled halls of Arnak.

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is among the greatest whodunnits in board gaming. It comes with ten mysteries to solve, each with their own unique components, such as newspapers ??and case files, that make you ??feel like you're really taking on a mystery.

Using the board and everything at your disposal, you will keep following leads and crafting theories until you're personally confident enough to ?answer all the questions regarding the case. Note that you can answer these any time you wish.

Once yo?u think you know the answers to the case, you can flip to the answers and see how many you got right. Sherlock will be waiting right there for you.

Mage Knight

I hope you're not one for analysis paralysis, for Mage Knight is an outrageously complex board game. Everything about Mage Knight requires plenty of tho??ught, even if you know the ?deep systems inside and out.

If this isn't a problem, then you will embark on an adventure that's different every single time, thanks to the procedural generation and randomness from the cards and other systems. There are several scenarios for you to embark on in Mage Knight, although a comm??on resort is conducting sieges on enemy cities.

With combat, raising armies, conducting sieges, and exploring, there's little that Mage Knight doesn't do and make exceptionally complicated.

Now for the hard part, actually choosing one of these soli?taire board games to get. Make sure you've enough room on your shelf first, though.

The post Best solo board games for those quiet nights in appeared first on Destructoid.

There’s no doubting the table presence of War of the Ring or the beauty of Scythe’s incredible miniatures. But present one of these to your usual group of friends and you’re likely to be met with glazed expressions. They’re generally too complex for novice?? board gamers.

Thankfully, there are t??housands of modern board games to choose from, including a vast number of gateway games: games that are basic enough for anybody to get to grips with and that will, hopefully, convert your mates to board game-loving geeks. Below are 10 quintessential gateway board games for different player counts and covering most gaming mechanics.

1. Settlers of Catan

Settlers of Catan is considered by many to be the first of the modern generation of board games and is played by three or four people. It combines dice rolling and resource management with some basic trading. A modular board allows for variable setup, and the rules are easy to understand. But the dice rolling does lead to more than a smattering ??of luck, which puts some players off, and it needs a minimu??m of three players, so isn’t a good choice for couples. Tens of millions of copies of Catan have been sold worldwide, which means you probably already know somebody who has one.

2. Carcassonne

Carcassonne is a tile placement, point-scoring game for two to five players. Launched in 2000, Carcassonne is a multi-award-winning game th?at is deserving of the accolades. Its popularity has led to more than ten expansions that introduce extra elements and game mechanics. As well as being ideal for beginners, Carcassonne remains popular even with experienced board gamers because it is quick to play and offers a lot of options and decisions.

3. Ticket To Ride

Ticket To Ride tasks two to five players with connecting train stations to create point-scoring routes. It is an open-drafting, hand-management game that can be learned in a few minutes. While it launched later than Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne it was the title that got me into board gaming and the one that I use to drag others into the hobby. Publishers Days of Wonder have eschewed the whole expansion market, there are nearly as many Ticket to Ride var??iants as there are versions of Monopoly, but each one does offer a slightly different map or add a different game mechanic.

4. Dominion

Generally regarded as the first deck-building game, Dominion is a two to four-player game that has a staggering number of cards in the box. You only really use a small handful of diffe?rent card types in each game, which means there is a lot of replayability and variance in games. It also means you can start with basic rules using easy cards before progressing to something more ad??????????????????????????vanced.

5. Pandemic

Cooperative games are a favorite in our house and Pandemic is one of the ones that started the phenomenon. 2 to 4 players work together to stop outspreads and find cures for pandemics around the world. Players take on different roles and have to work togeth??er to win. Several variants of Pandemic have launched since the original hit shelves in 2008, including a popular legacy ??version.

6. 7 Wonders

7 Wonders is a card drafting game that takes the early work of Dominion and, in some ways, improves on it. In the original, three to seven players take cards and play them to develop resources and use them to build structures like markets, while developing a military power. The game is quick, the setup is easy, and it is arg??uably a more fun drafting game than Dominion.  

7. Lords of Waterdeep

Technically, Lords of Waterdeep takes place in the Dungeons & Dragons world, but you reall?y don’t need any prior experience with the tabletop role-playing game. Lords of Waterdeep is a worker placement game for two to five players, in which players take on the role of secret rulers of the city of Waterdeep, recruiting adventurers and sending them out to complete adventures.

8. King of Tokyo

King of Tokyo is a thematic or story-driven game, which is one of the easiest mechanics to teach. They are also the most likely to drag players in, thanks to their levels of immersion. King of Tokyo, which can be played by two to six people, does? have some dice rolling and card drafting elements, though, which will keep more experienced players busy, too.

9. Colt Express

Colt Express is an action queue game for two to six players. In it, players play up to five action cards in a pile. Only when all players have played their cards are the actions taken, one at a time. This means that one person’s action can directly impact another player’s later action. The rules are simple but the strategy can be challenging. Colt Express’s board ?is worth mentioni?ng as it is a three-dimensional Colt Express train that looks great on the table.

10. Love letter

Love Letter is a simple deduction game for two t??o four players. Each player attempts to have their letter delivered to Princess Annette while stopping others from delivering their letters. Love Letter does include player elimination, which is rare in modern games, but it can be a lot of fu?n to eliminate friends and family.

The post 10 Gateway ??Games To G??et You (or Your Friends) Into Board Games appeared first on Destructoid.

The evenings are getting darker, the thick sweaters are being pulled from the back of the closet where they’ve been hiding all summer, and spooky season has officially begun. With Halloween in mind, here are some g?reat board games to get in the spirit of things.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year (in my opinion), and there’s nothing better than cozying up next to a crackling fire and whipping out a board game or two. I’ve got a cupboard full of them, including the ultra-spooky Ouija Board. If you’re too easily creeped out to give that ?a try, here are my 10 favorite, loosely Halloween-themed choices. 

Stupid Deaths

If you’ve ever witnessed the joy that is Horrible Histories, you’ll know what to expect from the Stupid Deaths board game inspired by a specific segment of the show. Each player takes turns to read out a Stupid Death Card, and the rest have to decide whether it’s actually a way in which someone died or not. Did I mention that the Grim Reaper is chasing you to give you your own Stupid??? Death? 

Horrified

As a player in Horrified, it’s your job to protect the village from the likes of Dracula, Frankensteinâ€?™s Monster, The Mummy, and other suitably creepy Monsters. Each Monster has challenges that must be overcome as a group, with the fight taking place in locations such as the Laboratory, Institute, or Church. 

Cadaver

Cadaver is a card-based game in which players duke it out to reanimate as many corpses a??s they can. Up to three players can play with a single deck, and each player has to gather as many arcane resources, coffin locks, and terrifying ghouls as they can. It’s a really quick game to play, and the illustrations on the cards are really pretty to look at, if not a little creepy. 

The Night Cage

The Night Cage is different every time you play, thanks to the mechanic of area tiles, which can be put down in any combinati?on. As a player, it’s your job to escape the ever-changing maze with nothing but the light from candles to illuminate the way. You’ll need to work together if you’re going to get out and try not to doub?le back on yourself.

Hocus Pocus

Another card-based game, but this time, there’s a cauldron and Binx the cat involved. You’ll need to work together in?? Hocus Pocus to try and stun the Sanderson Sisters three times, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. You’ve got objectives to meet, and each sister has her own special rules because, of?? course, they do. The Sanderson Sisters are nothing if they’re not awkward.

Monopoly: Ghostbusters Edition

If you’ve played any of the hundreds of versions of Monopoly, you pretty much know what you’re doing in the Ghostbusters Edition. It gets a place on this list for simply being Ghostbusters-themed, and rather than Chance and Community Chest cards, you have Roaming Vapor and Ghost Trap car????ds, both of which sit atop a replica Ghost Trap that plays Ray Parker Junior at the touch of a button. Perfection. 

Jumanji

Although not necessarily the first thing you think about when it comes to Halloween, Jumanji honestly terrified me as a child and put me off playing any board games for years, l?est I end up getting sucked into them. Plus, what’s scarier than a bunch ?of giant bugs and rampaging creatures coming out of a game to tear your world apart? 

Mysterium

Mysterium is essentially a cooperative murder mystery in which most of the players are Mediums, while one of them is the ghost of the m?urder victim. The Ghost can provide Mediums with visions, helping them to guess the suspect, location, and murder weapon. Imagine Clue but with a spooky twist. There’s also a bunch of expansions available.

Psycho Killer

Psycho Killer is a card based game in which play??ers take turns to draw a card from the top of the deck. These cards can give you useful perks, equip you with weapons, or, at worst, be a Psycho Killer. If you pull a Psycho Killer card, everyone in the group needs to use the cards in their hand to get away with their lives. 

Jumping Spiders

If you want a family-friendly fun game to play this Halloween, then Jumping Spiders is an excellent choice, and it’s really simple. If any adults reading t??his have ever played tiddlywinks, then you’re going to master this real fast. There’s a web set up between two trees, and you take it in turns to push down on spiders until they fly forward and, hopefully, attach themselves to the web.

The post 10 bo??ard games to get you in th??e spirit for Spooky Season appeared first on Destructoid.

There are around a dozen Root expansions?? to really kick up the already intense warfare waging in the forest. If you want to add more factions, Vagabonds, or throw in a solitaire or co-op mode, then one of these expansions will pick your fancy.

1. Root The Marauder Expansion

The Marauder Expansion for Root is the best for a few reasons, although it is a little more complicated and can be a challenge for those who aren't familiar with the game. Two new factions are brought into play, the r??avenous Lord of the Hundreds and the stalwart Keepers in Iron.

The Lord of the Hundreds are concerned with ravaging the board and gaining items, like the Vagabond. They offer a purely aggressive and greedy approach to Root that can prove fun for the militaristic. The Keepers in Iron are a devout order who are concerned with finding lost relics in forest cle??arings. They are highly complex, but h??ave great scoring potential.

The Marauder Expansion also adds four Hirelings, which are independent sub-factions mimicking the four main Root factions. Players can use them for their abilities, and they cause so much havoc and choice that they revolutionize how Root is played.

2. Root The Riverfolk Expansion

The Riverfolk Expansion was the first Root expansion, and adds another two factions. The zealous Lizard Cult and the mercantile Riverfolk Company. It also throws in an extra Vagabond figure, for double Vagabond play??.

The Lizard Cult are a tricky faction to play. They only get to act in clearings of the dominant card type that was discarded last round, although they can convert enemy warriors and buildings for their cause. Th??e Riv?erfolk Company are a joyous faction to have on the table as they can traverse rivers and can sell items and warriors to other players. Their commercial nature makes them less of a perceived threat, allowing for great gains.

Both of these factions are incredibly interesting and throw in stranger mixes and dynamics into Root, making this a must-have for Root players.

3. Root The Underworld Expansion

The Underworld Expansion adds yet another two factions to Root as well as two new maps. The imperial Great Underground Duchy and the sly Corvi?d Conspiracy are sure to erupt chaos on the boa??rd.

Playing the Corvid Conspiracy is a hard task. As you lay down plots and run around the board (ignoring rule) concocting secret plans, you must convince the other players that you're not as much of a threat as you are, or else your plots will be targeted and exposed ?by them. Unlike the Corvid Conspiracy, the Grand Duchy are a versatile and defensive faction that need to place buildings around the map to convince their ministers it's worth moving above ground. Their burrow feature allows them ?to pop up around the map and hold new positions.

Although the Grand Duchy are a solid Root faction, the Corvid Conspiracy are not exactly a fan fav?orite due to how difficult it is to win with ??them.

4.? Root Marauder Hirelings Pack & Hireling Box

The Root Marauder Hirelings Pack and Hireling Box not only adds six Hirelings tied to The Marauder Expansion, but also is purpose built to store all the Hirelings from all other Hireling Expansions for Root.

As aforementioned, Root Hirelings represent independent bands of creatures tied to main factions that can change how Root is played. Alongside the two Hireling stand-ins for the Keepers in Iron and Lord of the Hundreds, there are also two neutra??l Hirelings that are always available in every game.

Considering that this box doubles as a Hireling storage, it's worth prioritising purchasing this Root expansion above the others.

5. Root Riverfolk Hirelings Pack

The Riverfolk Hirelings Pack for Root adds new Hirelings associated with the two factions from The Riverfolk Expansion.

Alongside the Riverfolk Hirel??ings are the Bandit Gangs/Highway Bandits, a neutral Hireling team that can be integrated into any game.

Considering that the Riverfolk factions are so incredibly popular, i?t's likely that most players will want their respective Hirelings, giving this expansion a home just under the Marauder Hirelings.

6. Root Underworld Hirelings Pack

To finish off the Hireling expansions, we've finally got the Underworld Hirelings Pack. As you know by now, this pack contains Hirelings that represent the two Underworld Root factions and a third neutral Hireling group.

Although the ranking is fair for this expansion, it could be wiser to purchase this Hireling Pack for a taste of the Corvid Conspiracy and the Grand Duchy without having to purchase the more expensive Underworld Expansion.

Considering you can't use a Hireling if their respective faction is in play, you could augment your games with these Hirelings if you've yet to purchase the Underworld Expansion as no one can get in th?e way of putting these on the board.

7. Root The Exiles and Partisans Deck

The Exiles and Partisans Deck for Root adds a whole new deck of cards to not integrate with the default deck, but to replace it.

If you're getting tired and want to shake up the game fundamentally, you can use this deck, with more interesting, specific, and exciting cards. The cards h?ere allow players to take on new special powers, although these could lead to unique vulnerabilities.

Although The Exiles and Partisans Deck isn't necessary by any means, I can see it being used a lot more by regular audiences than the expa??nsions below.

8. Root The Clockwork Expansion

The Clockwork Expansion for Root adds AI versions of the four primary factions to act as stand-in players. The bots here all simulate their respective faction pretty well, and even if you don't think they do, they still ?provide an interesting and dynamic challenge.

Instead of using the AI factions as regular factions, you can instead turn Root into a cooperative game, where multiple?? players go against one or two bot factions.

The Clockwork Faction does a good job at bringing solo and cooperative play to Root alongside throwing in?? an extra player, although this?? will only be interesting to some audiences of players.

9. Root The Clockwork Expansion 2

The Clockwork Expansion 2 adds mechanical AI versions of all four factions from The Underworld Expansion and The Riverfolk Expansion, allowing for even mor?e cursed combinations for solo, coop, or competitive play.

Alongside the four new robotic factions, The Clockwork Expansion 2 also comes with trait cards for the four mechanical factions in the previous Clockwork Expansion.

I've ranked this expansion lower than its predecessor as it requires the base expansions from the respective AI players to work, and it's a?? little more com?plicated, meaning only select audiences will wish to play with it.

10. Root Landmarks Pack

The Landmarks Pack for Root is a small cherry on top should you have everything else you want. Although it does add content to the game, it's marginal a?nd doesn't really change the game too much, or at least not ??dramatically.

Six new landmarks will hit the board, offering small bonuses to whoever rules or is on the same clearing as them. Throwing in a little spice to your Root games, especially with the right landmarks and faction co?mbinations, can lead to exciting ne??w stories and engaging gameplay.

For the most part, however, they're not too interesting and should really be the last thing you get to complement your Root experience.

11. Root The Vagabond Pack

Realistically, The Vagabond Pack doesn't hold up to any of the other Root expansions. It may add three new Vagabonds and seven new meeples to represent the Vagabond, but none of these three new Vagabonds are that special.

The fan-favorite Vagabond isn't even a part of this pack, meaning you're only going to want to get this Root expansion if you're a huge fan of one of these middle-?of-the-line characters.

As it's so specific, I can't recommen?d this expansion above any of the others.

Root The Homeland Expansion

The Homeland Expansion, releasing October 2024, adds two new factions, two new maps, and some other extra "goodies" that are currently unconfirmed. It's looking like this expansion could be one of the best yet thanks to how unique i?t is, although until it's out, I can't rank it fairly.

The Twilight Council, a faction of bats, want to end the fighting. Instead of battling, these winged diplomats will host assemblies where players can attend to try and get what they want without bloodshed. The Lilypad Diaspora are a faction of frogs who want to integrate with the woodland. In a unique twist, they will introduce a new suit, the frog suit, to the clearings, changing Root on its head.

All details her?e are subject to change, but it's looking r?eal exciting.

Phew! That's a lot of expansions. Now that you know how you can improve your Root experience, ??the hard part is choosing which to get next.

The post All Root expansions ranked from best to worst appeared first on Destructoid.

When making an epic adventure for your friends, it may be difficult to decide on a TTRPG system to base it on. If you don't want to make your own and want ??a great system to use, then ??look no further than these amazing TTRPG systems.

Blades in the Dark

Blades in the Dark is an incredibly freeing and fun TTRPG system that provides players with gritty freedom that is seldom seen elsewhere. Although the theme of Blades in the Dark is of heists and criminal syndicates, a GM is free to take the systems and integrate them into any other themed adventure.

What makes Blades in the Dark's system stand out is the brilliant approach to planning and contingencies. Players get to jump into the action, and upon coming across obstacles or problems, they can either roleplay a flashback that explains why there's actually no problem at all (at the cost ??of stress) or they get to pretend they were prepared with an item for this exact occasion (at the cost of a checkmark).

The players are scarcely unprepared in the Blades in the Dark system, allowing for the real meat of the game to be in the problem-solving and web of preparations and creativity that goes with it. Naturally, players can only do this so much, meaning actual planning and caution is necessary. If you're hosting TTRPG where your players are professionals, Blades in the Dark will complement that perfectly.

Cyberpunk 2020

Cyberpunk 2020 is currently the best Cyberpunk RPG syst??em going. It's gritty, harsh, lethal, and makes you really feel like you're fighting for your life in every scenario. If you want to ?craft a more realistic game without much power fantasy, then you'll find it here.

In true Cyberpunk fashion, Netrunning and cybernetic enhancements are par for the course here, allowing? players to become noticeably stronger with each upgrade. Every improvement will be relished thanks to the harsh realities of street combat.

If this is the vibe you're after, you won't get better than Cyberpunk 2020. You can take the core tenets of this TTRPG system without the Cyberpunk aesthetic, although that will be pret??ty difficult.

Pathfinder 2e

Pathfinder is commonly regarded as the trickier cousin to Dungeons & Dragons, and for good reason. Although it's an offshoot of a previous D&D system, Pathfinder has found its own identity. It can be pretty difficult to create your own adventure in Pathfinder due to how many rules there are, but if you're? playing with an advanced group, this may not be an issue.

For a fantasy adventure with lots of rules and stipulations, Pathfinder is what you want. Th??e rules here can allow for a more grounded and le??ss wobbly experience if you want to make a serious fantasy world for your players to explore.

Due to how rigorous Pathfinder is, it can be hard to make it your own, but that may be exactly what you're after if you don't want to spend? much time calibrating an existing TTRPG.

Call of Cthulhu

Call of Cthulhu deviates from the typical TTRPG mantra by providing a system that's not intended for action or dungeon crawling but for investigating and discovery. H.P. Lovecraft's horrors have always been perfect inspirations for Call of Cthulhu games, naturally, but you can totally make your own existe??ntial horror.

Players in Call of Cthulhu will be less concerned with battle and action but with staying far away from whatever Eldritch horror is waiting around the corner. It is up to the players to try and banish or destroy wh??ate?ver evil is lurking, but success is never guaranteed.

If you want a TTRPG system that allows you to make a game where your players are fish out of water and the prey instead of the predator, then Call of Cthulhu is a great pick.

D&D 5e

Who doesn't know about Dungeons and Dragons? It's the most popular TTRPG system out there, and ??although it may be common to dunk on this system because of how mainstream it is, it's mainstream for a reason.

D&D is easy to work with and allows you to create an original fantasy world pretty easily. If you want to make a grand, fantastical adventure, you'll easily be able to do so. The systems are just complex enough to provide satisfying depth without getting too in the weeds. The freedom here also allows you to make games with varying emphasis on rules and other syste?ms.

I've had plenty of experience with D&D and yet none of the games I've made have stuck strictly to the D&D formula. For beginner GMs wanting to make their own elaborate worlds, starting with the D&D TTRPG system is a solid choice.

Warhammer 40K Wrath and Glory

Wrath and Glory is a controversial TTRPG with as many pros as cons. It's a system that allows for extreme power fantasy and can be broken and exploited to no end. However, if you're in the market purely for a TTRPG system and you're a beginner GM, then you may find some strange value ?here.

It's simple and easy to learn, making it great for casual and beginner groups. You can take the TTRPG system and leave the Warhammer 40K dressings behind. This is a little extra work??, but for a one-shot or casual grand adventure, the system here may be exactly what you're looking for.

Due to the potential exploits players may come across, you will want to work with a group that en?joys roleplaying more than the min-maxing.

Delta Green

Similar to Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green is a darker TTRPG system where the players will always feel vulnerable and powerful in the face of whatever urban horror mess is waiting for them. The mechanics employed in Delta Green allow for tense and dramatic engagements and?? satisfying progress.

The modern setting allows roleplay to be much more accessible to everyone, although you can take the brilliant mechanics found in Delta Green and assign them to a setting of your choice.

You'll want to look into Delta Green if you want your players to navigate a world with very little hope yet just enough g??usto to see it through or delay the inevitable?.

Stars Without Number

Stars Without Number is one of the greatest sci-fi TTRPGs out there, thanks to the detailed and incredibly helpful generators it uses. As a GM creating the universe your players are? embarking into, it can be incredibly useful to have these generators on standby to create full planets and civilizations at the drop of a hat.

If you're an experienced GM wanting to create a large-scale sci-fi adventure for your group, then Stars Without Number is the system you'll want to use. This isn't so beginner-friendly as this system was developed with ?sandbox games in mind.

For an adventure where your players can explore any world or star they wish and you don't have to individually sculpt thousands of worlds, Stars Without Number is what you need.

Scum and Villainy

For a plucky space adventure, Scum and Villainy (from the same creators as Blades in the Dark) presents everything a GM would need. If you've used Blades in the Dark before and are up for a change of theme, then Scum and Villainy is worth a try.

There are differences between the systems, however, for the savvy GM just looking for a great TTRPG system. However, you won't be able to use this system for anything else ot?her than a space adventure because of how curated it is. It can be adapted to existing space sci-fi franchises and settings, however, thanks to it being malleable.

A power fantasy in space, Scum and Villainy has all the tools a GM needs to build up a space opera for their players. It's gr??eat fun and allows for high-stakes adventures.

Slayers

Slayers is a fantastic TTRPG system that gives both the GM and players a lot of?? freedom. Set in a city cursed to expand forever, players take on the roles of Slayers to wander the streets and purge them of the beasts that lurk.

What makes Slayers special is the asymmetric combat and the constantly shifting setting. This system allows the GM extreme freedom, as you can play off the different combat mechanics employed by different classes to create dynamic a??nd unique encounters. Also, the shifting setting allows you literally change your mind mid-campaign.

You can take the many systems of Slayers and remove them from the urban setti??ng to create a very strange and exciting adventure. It may be tricky to pull off, but it will result in some truly unforgettable campaigns and encounters.

The post 10 Greatest TTR??PG Systems To Build Epic Adventures (R??anked) appeared first on Destructoid.

The best solo card games aren’t just for killing time. Instead, they’re a great way to experiment with exciting thematic gameplay, strategic deck building, and interesting tabletop narratives. With the ten single player card games on this list, you’ll won’t have to wait for someone else to take their turn. Instead, you can simply?? relax and play at your own pace.

10. Hostage Negotiator

Hostage Negotiator is a challenging game of conversational tactics in which you’ll be up against an anony?mous villain with the aim of freeing at least half of the hostages he’s taken. Each round, you’ll have to reveal a new terror card that makes that objective difficult. You’ll also have to track and continuously reduce the threat level of the hostage taker’s attitude and actions. Each conversation card you play can potentially save lives.

9. One Deck Dungeon

If you’re a fan of the classic tabletop dungeon crawling experience, you’ll definitely want to give One Deck Dungeon a try. As you delve deeper into the dark, you’l??l fight monsters, pick up items, and hopefully gather enough XP to level up your character and survive the final boss fight. While it all might sound simple enough, there are actually plenty of unique challenges within the game’s five dungeons, plus a bunch of skill and item combos that I found enjoyable to tinker with. 

8. Friday

Friday is a wickedly challenging solo card game that’s based on the classic novel Robinson Crusoe. Your goal is to help Robinson survive the island and ??defeat the pirates that arrive near the end of the game. You’ll have a mix of simple fighting cards to start with, and you'll need to improve them if you want to win. In an interesting gameplay twist, you’ll soon discover that the best way to improve your deck is to avoid stepping between Robinson and the island’s hazards ?and instead let him take a few hits. Deliberately losing at the right time is essential to victory. 

7. Sprawlopolis

In Sprawlopolis, your aim is to build the best city possible by arranging residential, commercial, in?dustrial, and park zones in a way that aligns with three of the game’s eighteen possible scoring parameters. These parameters represent the demands of the city’s planners. Sometimes you’ll score points for building parks in the city center. Other times you’ll be better off linking up roads to construct a highway. It’s amazing how much each game feels entirely different from the last.

6. The 7th Continent

Explore a vast landscape and lift the curse upon your character in The 7th Continent, a modern adventure card ga??me for one to four players. The wilderness of the newly discovered continent is harsh, and before you can complete the objectives of your expedition, you’ll first need to survive. By crafting tools and finding shelter, you can continue your journey outwards and hopefully survive the threats that await you in the wild.

5. Dune Imperium: Uprising

In Dune Imperium, you’ll play as a leader of a Great House looking to conquer Arrakis and forge alliances with factions like?? the Fremen, the Empire, and ??the Bene Gesserit. You’ll start with a basic deck of cards and two agents that you can send out on missions. These missions will either increase your diplomatic standing or allow you to harvest resources like spice and solari. As you gather more persuasion, you’ll pick up more impactful cards for your deck. These will increase your power on the desert planet. 

4. Palm Island

If you’re looking for a smaller, more portable, single-player card game, then Palm Island is the perfect fit. In the box, you’ll find two de?cks of seventeen cards each. One is for you, and the other is for a potential second player. It’s your job to gather res?ources on your island, recruit villagers, and score the most victory points over the course of eight rounds. The solo mode is great, and if you do end up playing with two players, you can choose between either cooperative or competitive gameplay.

3. For Northwood!

Play tricks and strategically utilize the power of your allies in For Northwood!, an enjoyable little card game in which your aim is to unite an adorable kingdom of animals. There are twenty?-four different rulers to match up against, sixteen challenge scenarios to work on, and a simple yet effective difficulty scaling system. To top it all off, the art establishes the perfect atmosphere and theme.

2. Marvel Champions: The Card Game

Marvel Champions is an immensel??y popular Living Card Game (LCG) that lets you assemble a team of superheroes and pit them against iconic villains from movies and comics. Wh??at if Black Panther and Professor X fought Loki? Or what if Peter Parker teamed up with Star-Lord to take down Dark Phoenix? The match-up possibilities in Marvel Champions feel endless. Since it's a Living Card Game, you’ll always know what’s in every expansion before you buy it. There’s no rarity system and no risk of missing out on your favorite characters. 

1. Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

In Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, you’ll build a unique deck of heroes, allies, attachments, and events. Then, you'll use your deck against a story encounter that takes place in Tolkien’s Middle Earth. The core game’s three scenarios occur between the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, in and around Mirkwood. Howeve?r, further expansions add more iconic characters to your pool of player cards and will transport you to realms like Moria, Gondor, and even Harad. The customization options available with a full collection are near limitless, and in my experience, building the deck and thinking about thematic combinations of card effects ends up being just as fun as actually playing a scenario.

The post The 10 Best Solo Card Games?? To Play By Yourself This Year appeared first on Destructoid.

Classic board games are typically classics for a good reason, although they can be so notorious, such as Monopoly, that people scarcely want to play them anymore. However, this list not only contains ??brilliant classic board games but also advises on more modern renditions to make them more exciting to play if you're grown tired of them. Here are the best classic board gam??es that still hold up today.

Risk

Risk is one of the most ?popular war board games and has a large competitive following to this day. For more casual audiences, Risk may come across as incredibly boring and drawn out as players refuse to attack and take risks, as it ultimately leaves you vulnerable.

However, Risk provides a very simple war gaming experience of pushing counters around the map ??and rolling dice over and over again, leading to minimal teach and lots of "take that!" moments swiftly followed by "you've got to be kidding me" as you roll nothing but ones.

If Risk has become too boring or "samey," then thankfully, there are countless Risk variants that make it a more established war game, such as Risk: Europe (my personal favorite) or even Risk Star Wars: Clone Wars edition) for an asymmetric two-player compatible version. Risk is a great war game that can be enjoyed by anyone who likes ??moving dudes on a map and rolling away?.

Clue

Clue is a brilliant deduction game of inve??stigating a manor to try and identify the who, what, and where of a murder. As players go around into different rooms, they will identify cards of other players to figure out, through ?deduction, the cards of the killer.

This classic stands up to today's standards pretty firmly and has a real skill level. The only real impeding element of randomness is the dice used to track players' movement?? through the manor, although some players ditch this mechanic and allow players to move fre?ely between the rooms, allowing for a more streamlined and fair investigation.

If you're fed up with Clue but want something like the classic, then Deception: Murder in Hong Kong provides a card-based deduction game with secret roles and asymmetric communication for a more exciting and thoughtful rendition of Clue's system.

Monopoly

No one really likes Monopoly, do they? In a horrid irony, the game designed specifically not to be fun but to warn against the dangers of extreme capitalism and monopoly has become one of the most popular board games sold worldwide where it feels like everyone has a copy. Even though it kinda sucks.

The goal here is to slowly bleed everyone else dry of their funds until they're forced to sell everything they own - only to then slowly lose what little they have left. Monopoly can drag on ??for hours as th?e whim of the dice dictates who lands where and how much money they have to lose.

If you're not a fan of Monopoly but enjoy gaining assets and partaking in shrewd business with your friends, then Lords of Vegas and Food Chain Magnate are great substitutes. They may seem removed from the classic game of Monopoly, but they're everything people want in Monopoly that Monopoly doesn't provide.

Trivial Pursuit

Trivial Pursuit is the classic go-to for any trivia game night due to its gargantuan presence, many editions, and many questions. Although fans of trivia games can get a lot of mileage out of Trivial Pursuit, it can grow tiresome when you start to c?ome across the same questions.

If you haven't played Trivial Pursuit yet and want a classic trivia game, then you can't go wrong. However, there are many Trivial Pursuit-adjacent games that can be neatly summed up to your friends as "like Tr??ivial Pursuit."

For a lighter and endlessly more fun trivia game, then Wits & Wagers is always a great game that's earned a place on many trivia fans' shelves. For something more comprehensive than Trivial Pursuit, try out Trivial Pursuit: Mastermind Edition or Outsmarted.

Yahtzee

Yahtzee is one of the most popular dice games out t??here, likely thanks to it being so easy to recreate at home as long as you have enough spare dice. Although the dice results are random, what you do with them and how you score is completely up to you.

Endlessly replayable and always at least a bit of fun, Yahtzee remains a classic game I'd generally recommend everyone to have, thanks to its accessibility and ease of play. Perfec?t for setting up or closing a game night.

However, for those sick and tired of Yahtzee, you can try out a whole genre of "roll and write" games inspired by Yahtzee's core mechanic. King of Tokyo and Dinosaur Island: Rawr and Write are only a couple of examples of games?? using this classic formula to create something completely distinct.

Code Breaker

Code Breaker is a lesser-known classic, but it is one nonetheless. With no luck involved, a player secretly sets a code, and the other player will need to guess it with mechanics similar to Wordle's. There ??is only a set number of attempts, so th??e player breaking the code will need to be savvy in their decision-making.

For thi?s classic board game, there isn't anything that really beats this straightforward code-cracking gameplay, so if you think you'll enjoy it, then you can procure many games from it.

However, Turing Machine is a fantastic game that pits players against an analog computer. Players will need to keep questioning the machine to try and crack the code before anyone else. To graduate from Code Breakers for a real challenge, try out Turing Machine.

Chutes and Ladders

Chutes and Ladders is the classic kid's game of nothing more than random luck. There is zero skill or thinking required, which is perfect for allowing children to cry and get mad thanks to losing for no reason. Despite this, I still enjoy Chutes and Ladders to this day and have no idea why.

Due to its simple nature, Chutes and Ladders is an easy pick for younger audiences to get out and play; however, there are similar gam??es that are much better as they are either more interactive or have some thought processes behind them.

Mousetrap is essentially Chutes and Ladders but with exciting contraptions that are a joy to activate whenever you're winning or losing. The Game of Life also has random progression but allows some cho??ices in the way of choosing professions, buying property, and more, to make it much more fun t?o play repeatedly.

Battleship

Battleship has such a simple premise yet provid??es such a tense and infuriating time. Hearing your opponent close in on your ships elicits a nightmarish feeling, and you despera??tely drop bombs only to keep missing.

As both players list out coordinates, all you'll know is if you've hit something or missed. From there, you'll have t??o work out where the rest of the ship is to bring it down. Just don't get?? your "g" and "j" sounds mixed up, or you'll be in for an argument.

If you've played too much of Battleship and can't stand hearing another "miss," then you can revitalize the Battleship feel with Decrypto for group play or Codenames: Duet to keep it a 1v1. They're brilliant deduction games that only excel and improve where Battleship remains simple.

Catan

Catan is an incredibly popular and pers??????????????????????????evering game of settling, trading, and building. The real competition here is for space, as players will strive to settle and build toward? needed resources, although they will keep getting in each other's way.

Unless Catan just isn't for you, it's hard to get tired of it. The nature of the game allows repeated plays to try out new strategies and ideas, although the dice and decks will keep tugging at your plans. If you haven't played Catan and think that expand??ing a small settlement and trading with ?your foes sounds enticing, then you have to try this next.

If Catan has grown tiresome, thankfully, there are some expansions and many scenarios to make this game feel better and/or utterly different. There isn't a great substitute for Catan that's better than trying all of the expansions a??nd keeping it current with modern improvements and ide??as.

Now tha?t you know about these classic board games and their substitutes for the jaded, you can bring new life?? into these old games.

The post Best Classic Board Games You Must Have At Home appeared first on Destructoid.

Monopoly is a board game that, in a horrific and ironic twist, has dominated the minds of the people. So much so that over 1,500 editions of the game exist. If you're going to play Monopoly, at least make su??re it's one of the better editions available.

Please note that I'll be going over more obscure and interesting variations of Monopoly, as the last thing you'll want if you're bored of classic Monopoly is classic Monopoly but with a different coat of paint. If you're after something more faithful, then search up "Mono?poly" and your current f??avorite franchise in Google. I'm sure they've got something.

Monopoly City

Starting off strong, Monopoly City is a much more "gamified" edition of Monopoly, as the center of the board has been refurbished into different gr??ids. When players land on a space, they can build a variety of different building?s on the respective area of land in the middle of the board.

As the game progresses, players will be building up residential houses, factories, and even special projects like stadiums. Upon owning a monopoly,? a player can then build skyscrapers and even towers. Hazard buildings can also crop up, which makes all residential buildings in that area redundant.

Monopoly City allows players to tangibly see their progress and build much m?ore exciting buildings, adding real strat?egy to an otherwise largely luck-based game.

Monopoly Hotels

I know Monopoly Hotels doesn't use a board, but out of all the stranger and divorced Monopoly board games, I thought this one was pretty good.

In Monopoly Hotels, players will try to be the first to construct a five-story Hotel with rooms in each (without any bill cards, either). It costs to build new floors, although the rest of the game, such as sabotaging your opponent and adding rooms and celebrities to your Hotel, are done purely from a deck of ?cards.

A faster-paced and more interesting way to enjoy Monopoly, Monopoly Hotels takes the core principles of Monopoly and turns it into a card game with psychological warfare and you both try to bluff each other?? about the values of the rooms of your Hotels. Wonderful stuff.

Monopoly Gamer

Monopoly Gamer, to my initial surprise, is so much more than a reskin, although it's less of a "gamer" edition and simply is a Super Mario edition, which may be a shame to some.

In Monopoly Gamer, the game will only last around eight rounds, as every time someone passes "Go!" a boss will be brought into?? play. They'll get tougher as the game goes on, and upon defeating a boss, rewards are given. Coins are used instead of cash, which can be dropp?ed onto the board for various reasons.

Each character in Monopoly Gamer has a different ability, and the winner is the player with the most points, which are accumul?ated from buying properti?es and defeating bosses, meaning a player's coin count is meaningless when it comes to deciding a victor.

Monopoly Longest Game Ever

Hilariously, Monopoly Longest Game Ever really leans into the franchise's reputation. Although the base game is likely the worst Monopoly game ever conceived, I can't help but find i??t incredibly amusing.

This edition of Monopoly comes with a board with double the spaces and only one dice. The only way to win Monopoly Longest Game Ever is by owning ?absolutely everything on the board. Better yet, players can forcibly purchase other players' properties by paying merely $10 ?more than the base price.

I feel like Monopoly Longest Game Ever is perfect?? for a one-off night of torture for you and your friends. Better yet?, you can make it into a drinking game or have other silly challenges associated to it to turn it from a genuine slog into an experience so nightmarish and grueling it becomes hilarious with the right people.

Monopoly The Lord Of The Rings

Monopoly The Lord Of The Rings, like all good Lord of the Rings games, has the One Ring and some sort of tracker that leads to Mount Doom. As players go around the board acquiring properties and eng?aging in classic 21st century capitalism, they'll also be escorting the ring.

The One Ring will be held by a player at all times, offering advantages. However, the dice now has a Sauron side. Every turn that player doesn't roll the Sauron side, the Sauron t?racker increases. Upon finally rolling the Sauron side, that player will need to pay money equal to the value of the space the Sauron tracker is on.

However, should the Sauron tracker reach the end (when a player manages to hold the One Ring for ??six consecutive turns), the game ends and a winner is decided. The pieces, especiall?y the ring, are of great quality and games are less likely to drag on for too long thanks to the ring mechanic.

Monopoly Star Wars

Monopoly Star Wars is the only team-based Monopoly on this list, and does a great job at h?aving a winning side and an "ultimate winner."

Firstly, the board is spherical, which is very cool. Instead of placing houses and hotels, players will instead be building a base, and will place a token of their side on the planet. The moment all the planets have a base, the game ends and the ?side with the most bases wins. It's that simple.

To make the game even more interesting, if you owe another player in Monopoly Star Wars, they'll take over your most valuable base. Bounty Hunter spaces can also be used to repossess enemy bases, making this edition a much quicker, yet much more strategic and tense, game of Monopoly.

Monopoly Gamer Overwatch

Unbelievably, Monopoly Gamer Overwatch is a very interesting edition of Monopoly where combat takes center stage. Players will construct teams of three Overwatch characters to take?? to the ??board to gain points and defeat opponents.

Using a smaller board, players will duke it out to claim objectives (the spaces) for points whilst dealing damage to other players. In place of money, players now have "HP." Throughout the game, loot boxes will be dealt to players, and when the last l?oot box is dealt,?? the game will end.

With each character having their own abilities, Monopoly Gamer Overwatch allows for a surprising level of replayability, and as each game has a hard limi??t, it's not ??so daunting bringing back to the table.

Monopoly Tropical Tycoon

Monopoly Tropical Tycoon is a more premium experience, even if it is a little dated. This game is to be played with the provided interactive CD (which, depressingly, some groups may not be able to use). The CD takes players through the g?ame, with exp?lanations and news broadcasts that give players interesting choices to make.

There are four new different types of buildings to build in Monopoly Tropical Tycoon, making this more than "Monopoly but with old animations in the background." Also, the winning condition has changed from having the most cash, to havi?ng the most Fortune Points.

For a more immersive, involved, and strategic experience, Monopoly Tropical Tycoon is one of the best Monopoly games out there. And the CD is a great touch if you can stand the? old graphi?cs.

Monopoly The Mandalorian

Strangely enough, Monopoly The Mandalorian is a very interesting edition of Monopoly that includes combat, Grogu, and villains. Oh, and?? the board is smaller too for those wanting more?? express experiences.

The Child will be moving around the board like the players, and p?layers sharing a space will receive unique benefits. However, sooner or later one of the three Imperial villains will enter the board (Storm Trooper, Dark Trooper, and Moff Gideon). You'll need to ke?ep The Child safe from them, as encountering them will lead to combat.

If The Child gets captures, no one will win. Conversely, upon defeating Moff Gideon, the game will end and a winner will be decided like normal. Having combat and special abilities thanks to The Child makes this version of Monopoly infinitely more interesting.

Monopoly Gamer Mario Kart

Upon first glance, I wrote Monopoly Gamer Mario Kart off as likely another reskin, until I looked closer. This edition provides a quicker game of Monopoly that has lots of interest?ing and thematic additions.

Using coins, players will use their chosen racer (each with special abilities) to drift around the board and purchase tracks with their coins. Each property is worth points, which is what counts instead of cold hard coins. Upon pas?sing "Go!" players can pay to enter a randomly selected race, which they'll then compete in.

With the powers from Mario Kart and the racing, Monopoly Gamer Mario Kart offers a strangely refreshing and infinitely more enjoyable variant of Monopoly that people of all ages can enjoy.

Now that you have lots of choice to make Monopoly much more interes??ting, all that's left to do is to pick your favorite and ??give it a go.

The post The best M??onopoly edition?s for bleeding your family dry appeared first on Destructoid.

Narrowing down a list of the 10 greatest strate?gy board games? of all time is no easy task.

In my experience, almost every board game that I have played involves some kind of strategy as you devise a plan to win. That said, this list includes games where strategy is the core part of gameplay. While there might be slight reliance on luck, your strategy, and that of your opponents, will ultimately decide who are the winners. In this list, you'll find some evergreen classics, along with a few rel??atively new ones.

10. Carcassonne

The strategic part of Carcassonne boils down to how you're laying down the tiles. Sometimes, you would be forced to lay down the tile at only one possible spot. But more often than not, you'll have to figure out the most efficient spot for dropping down your tile.?? When it comes to drawing your tiles, it's entirely dependent on luck. But it's up to you when it comes to the placements. Similarly, you'll also need t?o place your Meeples strategically as they fetch you all your points.

9. Splendor

Splendor has strategic decision-making at every step as you choose how to spend your gems. Being a jewel maker is no easy feat at all. Picking the gems most efficiently is the hardest thing to balance, and it becomes harder if you and your opponent are going for any of the same colors. Also, you don't have any control over which card is going to pop up next. More often than not, you might end up spending your gems on a card, only for an even better one to come up from the deck. Despite some reliance on luck, Splendor, whether played in groups ?of 2 or more, relies heavily on strategic decisions.

8. Wingspan

The beauty of Wingspan lies in the fact that you can only make one of four available decisions at every turn. In simpler words, you're already giving up on three alternate decisions every turn. The g?oal is to choose what you think is going to be the most efficient decision during a turn. However, a game changes every moment??, as you and your opponents take turns to pick up new cards. While you can decide how to play the cards, elements like card draws and food tokens aren't mostly in your control. Hence, you'll need to think deeply in order to succeed in this incredible nature-themed game.

7. Pandemic

Pandemic is very different from other strategy board games on this list. For starters, you play with other people, and not against them. Pandemic is also one of the best co-op board games you can add to your collection. The common goal is to work with your buddies to solve a disease and prevent it from spreading. But you don't get a magic wand; instead, you'll need to work with the cards dealt to you. How you play out the cards from your hand, along with your buddies, will ensure if you manage to halt the next COVID-19 or not. Pandemic is also available in different themes and timelines, offering great many choices to play??ers.

6. Twilight Imperium

Twilight Imperium is almost three decades old, and it's one of the best strategy board games of all time. Over the years, Fantasy Flight Games have made some changes with every new edition, and the latest one (fourth edition) perhaps has the most strategic decision-making at every step. Players choose from different factions, with the ultimate goal of rebuilding it. Every turn, you'll have to choose between one of the many available actions, which again depends on the cards you draw. You can't control every piece of the outcome in Twilight Imperium, but relyin??g ?on sound decision-making will make your life easier.

5. Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride can be one of the most elaborate stra??tegy board games you can come across. On a map, you and your opponent(s) are building the longest railroad possible while connecting cities. Each turn, you can only take one of three possible actions. There's a lot of emphasis on the risk-rewards approach. Having more destination tickets will allow you to score more, but only if you can connect the route. You can stack as many train cards as you want, but you'll have to keep pace with your opponents while laying down the routes. While the overall theme is simple, Ticket to Ride can have an extremely strategic approach at times.

4. Scythe

Scythe is arguably the best board game that I have played but don't own in my collection. Its theme can delight fans of strategic and general board games equally. There are five factions, and you have to vie for dominance in the closed city known as 'The Factory.' Each turn, you can make multiple decisions, but there's always an opportunity cost. Scythe has very little reliance on luck in the form of Encounter Cards. Other than that, every outcome will be based on your decision/actions. Additionally, every ??faction grows differently, adding to the overall complex nature of the game.

3. Ark Nova

Ark Nova is undoubtedly one of the new entrants to the world of strategy board games, and it inherits core parts from other hits of the genre. Like Ticket to Ride and Wingspan, your chances of winni?ng depend on action cards. But the role of the cards is a lot less reliant on luck and more on your ability to understand what to do with them. The main goal is to improve the appeal of your park and collect conservation points. But your opponents will try to do the same, and the primary strategy is about how you play out the cards.

2. Brass: Birmingham

Brass: Birmingham sits on top of the list for strategy board games on BGG. While the game, published in 2018, doesn't attempt to do something radically new, it implements all key aspects required for a successful strategy title. The main objective is to build, develop, and establish a thriving network of industries, which takes place across two eras. In Brass: Birmingham, you have a total set of six different options, but you can only ma?ke two decisions every turn. I am a massive fan of the theme of this particular board game as well, which helps it rank slightly higher than other names on this list.

1. Catan

Catan is a great family game until someone rolls a seven on the dice. Catan is undoubtedly one of the older titles on this list of great strategy board games. There are multiple expansions that help to expand the base experience. At its core, Catan relies more on strategy than luck. You have ??to be very careful about placing your first settlemen??ts. From there on, every step involves strategy. Whether you're trading resources or expanding your settlements, there's always an opportunity cost. A good roll of dice will benefit you immensely, but your chances of winning depend mostly on your decision-making abilities.

The post 10 Greatest Strategy Board Games Of All Time appeared first on Destructoid.

In recent years, tabletop gaming has evolved into a thematic and thrilling experience that’s somehow more accessible than ever. Though everyone is bound to have their favorite tableto?p titles, the most popular board games are s??till those that manage to appeal to all players.

In this list, we highlight ten modern board games that offer interesting new?? gameplay mechanics, exciting strategic opportunities, and guaranteed fun on game night. 

12. 7 Wonders

Build an empire from the ground up in 7 Wonders, a quick and easy game of strategic ?card placement and resource management. In the early stages of the game, your civilization is still young and must gather things like clay, wood, and copper to progress. But over time, you’ll develop military might, invest in scientific advancements, and build monuments to honor your own greatness. 

11. Patchwork

Patchwork is a puzzle board game in which each player’s aim is to put together a complete?? quilt using uniquely shaped pieces and then acquire the most victory points. Throughout the game, you’ll collect buttons that you can use to purchase more patches, all of which come in different shapes and colors. As the game progresses, you’ll continue to move your token along the time tracker. The earlier you finish yo??ur quilt, the better when it comes to scoring.

10. Pandemic

If cooperative games are more your style, then you should the immensely popular Pandemic board game a try. You and your fellow players are scientists aiming to stop the spre?ad of a deadly virus. To win, you’ll need to travel across the world, stop outbreaks, and develop a cure b??efore the virus infects too many populated areas.

9. Sushi Go Party

In Sushi Go Party, your objective is to put together the tastiest meal possible using a mix of rolls, sashimi, nigiri, and other Japanese delights. Each type of food has a different effect when scoring and benefits from either unique culinary pairings or sets ??of similar cards. It’s pleasant, portable, and popular with just about everyone.  

8. The Crew: Mission Deep Sea

Dive into the depths of the ocean in The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, a cooperative adventure in which the players are collectively looking for the sunken continent of Mu. Everyone has its own personal objectives, making each playthrough a novel experience. There’s a great story booklet included in the box and a near-perfect difficulty scaling system that ensures everyone will be up against a ch?allenge that properly manages their skill level.

7. Star Wars: The Deck Building Game

Star Wars: The Deck Building Game is a great tabletop title for two players and utilizes all the best characters and locations from the orig?inal trilogy to recreate the epic clash between the Rebel Alliance and the ?Empire. Each player starts with a basic mix of cards but can then add their favorite heroes and villains to their deck to build up their power. Destroy three enemy bases before your opponent to claim victory.

6. Sky Team

Sky Team is a c??ooperative two-player game in which each person takes on the role of either the pilot or copilot and attempts to land a plane together. A balanced axis, the correct speed, and fully deployed landing gear are all necessary if you want to make it back to the ground in one piece. Each destination brings its own set of unique obstacles and challenges that match the terrain of the location’s airport in real life.

5. Skull

Skull is a bluffing game in which each player has to stack their collection of skull and flower tiles facedown, th??en guess how many flower tiles on the table they can turn over without hitting a skull. The person who guesses the highest number gets ?to flip the tiles, but if they accidentally hit a skull, they lose one of their tiles for the next round. It’s a straightforward yet thrilling party game.

4. Sagrada

If you enjoy more abstract, artistic tabletop titles, then Sagrada is a great pick for your next game night. By rolling and assembl?ing a collection of beautiful colored dice, you can piece together the best stain-glassed window for the famous La Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona. The picture-perfect patterns and visual appeal of the game will be enough to win over just a?bout anyone. 

3. Carcassonne

If you enjoy classic tile-laying games, then Carcassonne is an essential addition to your game shelf. Players take turns drawing and arranging landscape pieces to build an epic medieval kingdom with roads, monasteries, cities, and farms. It’s amazing how different the map looks each time you play. Carcassonne is a gr??eat pick for families and suitabl??e for players ages seven and up.

2. Ticket to Ride

In Ticket to Ride, the goal is simple: build the best railway in North America. Longer chains of train cars that link together cities across the map from one another earn the most points. The game’s developer, Days of Wonder, has also rele??ased a substantial collection of expansions and different versions of the base game, so it’s easy to pick the map that interests you most. 

1. Wingspan

Wingspan is an immensely popular board game for good reason. You’ll get to play more than 170 different kinds of birds across the forests, grasslands, and marshes of your player mat, and each of t?hese zones will have a different chain of effects depending on what birds you’ve put there. The variations are seemingly endless, and as a result, there are countless ways to win. It’s easy to learn yet difficult to master, perfect for players of all ages. 

The post The 12 Most Popular Bo?ard Games ?For All Players in 2024 appeared first on Destructoid.

If you love cracking codes, solving mysterious enigmas, or slotting in the last jigsaw piece, then you’ll love the ten puzzle board games we’re highlighting in this list.?? Each offers an exciting new way to challenge your brain, compete or cooperate with friends and family, and find satisfying solutions to complex challenges. 

10. Ubongo

In Ubongo, players race to complete deceptively simple yet maddeningly difficult puzzles over the course of nine rounds. Each round, you’ll roll a dice to determine which pieces you can use to fill in the shape at the center of your player mat. If you fill in your shape before time runs out, you’ll get anywhere from one to four points. If you finish before the other players, youâ€??™ll get two bonus points as well. It’s a classic, easy-to-learn game that’s great for all ages.

9. Exit: The Game - The Sacred Temple

The popular ‘escape room in a box�series Exit has more than a few expansions that are perfect for puzzle lovers, but if you have to pick one, I’d recommend The Sacred Temple. That’s because it includes four jigsaw puzzles for the players to put together, each of which provides further clues and riddles necessary for advancing the story. You and your team of adventurers are? attempting to rescue a p?rofessor from the depths of the jungle, all while avoiding dangerous looters and preventing them from stealing artifacts. 

8. Azul

Azul is a tile placement game in which each pla??????????????????????????yer is ??assembling a beautiful mosaic for the walls of the Portuguese king’s palace. A scoring system determines the quality of your arrangement; if you can complete specific patterns and sets without wasting too many tiles, you’ll hopefully end up with the most points. You’ll be up against a brand new puzzle each time you play, and you’ll also need to watch your opponent’s boards carefully when drafting tiles. 

7. Cascadia

If you enjoy tile-laying puzzle games like Azul, then you’ll also enjoy Cascadia, which tends to be less competitive but mor??e thematically engaging. This time, you’ll be building a habitat for five types of wildlife and assembling regions where they can live using terrain tiles. Putting together specific groupings of animals and building larger habitats than your opponents will earn you the victory. It might sound simple, but it really gives the puzzle-solving part of your brain a workout.

6. A Feast for Odin

While it may look like a daunting game because of its seemingly countless boards and tokens, A Feast for Odin is actually an exceptional tabletop experience for puzzle lovers. The gameplay balances worker placement with figuring out how to fit all the goods you’ve gathered into the space constraints of your Viking settlement. You can do so many things to rack up points, and scoring isn’t too tricky. The ?solo mode is also great, and you shouldn’t have too much finishing a game within 90 minutes.

5. Spirit Island

Spirit Island is a complex yet rewarding tabletop experience in which you’ll defend your island against the Invaders, a corporate group hoping to extract resources from your home and settle there in pursuit of profit. Each player takes on the role of an elemental being whose aim is to protect their island. If you can rid the l?and of blight, pre?vent the Invaders from building too many settlements, and avoid the destruction of your Spirit, you’ll claim a hard-fought victory. 

4. Calico

Calico is a cozy, minimally competitive game of quilt patterns and cats. By patching together three tiles of the same color or several tiles of the same pattern, you’ll earn buttons that count for points at the end of the game. Each of the three cats that you’ll be building your quilt for? has a preferred pattern and arrangement, and if you can match these patches, you also pick up points. You’ll need to think carefully about colors, pa?tterns, and the quilt space you have available throughout the game to win.

3. Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases

The cases in the Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective series are perfect for anyone who enjoys the puzzle-solving aspects of mystery games. You’ll need to carefully examine period-appropriate newspapers for clues, travel around a map of Victorian London, a??nd interrogate both townspeople and potential suspects. Deducing the details of the crime and figuring out who has been lying to you all along is an incredibly satisfying experience. 

2. Mansions of Madness (2nd Edition)

Mansions of Madness is a dark, Lovecraftian adventure in which the players must work cooperatively to explore the terrifying streets and hallways of Arkham, Massachusetts, and rid the ?town of demonic creatures from the beyond. The game operates with the support of a companion app that includes slider puzzles and other fun brain teasers that each investigator will need to solve when they encounter specific scenarios on the game board. Though these puzzles are usually not too tricky, they’re presented with near-perfect thematic gameplay and atmosphere. They also open up sati?sfying twists and turns in each of the game’s three story scenarios. 

1. Turing Machine

Turing Machine is a game of deductive reasoning and code-breaking that’s absolutely fantastic for anyone who loves solving puzzles. The players all have a specific three-digit code that they’re trying to guess and will have to ask what is essentially an analog computer if the d??igits they picked are correct. Each player takes numbered overlays that match their guess, stacks them together, and puts them on top of a verifier card to find out if a certain digit is more or less than a certain number. From there, they’ll ask more questions and attempt to deduce the correct combination. Though the game might sound confusing, it’s quite easy to grasp once you’re actually playing it, and it's a blast for adult puzzle game fans.

The post The 10 Best Puzzle Board Games for Adults appeared first on Destructoid.

I always have a great time playing social deduction games with my friends, as it gives me a great excuse to lie to their faces and l??augh at them when they find out. Here is a great list of social deduction games that you have to try next.

Traitors Aboard

Traitors Aboard is a great social deduction game that pits pirates against mu?tineers. With the pirates trying to stock up as much treasure as possible and ?the secret mutineers sabotaging the efforts, players will have to lie and explain their way through their actions so they aren't forced to walk the plank.

Interestingly, with Traitors Aboard, one of the pirate players, at any point, can look through the face-down pile of treasure that the play??ers have been playing into. If there is enough Gold in there, the Pirates win. Otherwise, the Mutineers win, as they've decreased the value of the chest enough.

Special cards can be played that will give pirates clues and help mutineers maintain their cover. Traitors Aboard isn't a long game, either, allowing? for repeated games of piratical gaslighting.

The Resistance Avalon

The Resistance: Avalon is a social deduction game that gets recommended to no en??d. It's widely popular thanks to its atypical starting ritual where one of the "good guys," Merlin, knows who all of the bad guys are. However, should Merlin be found out, the good guys will lose.

Giddy tension always follows the beginning of The Resistance: Avalon, although it will turn into desperate pleading and strained convincing ?as players try to form teams to embark on quests, where, naturally, the evil players will try to sabotage their efforts.

I'd say that The Resistance: Avalon is a must-try. Its simplicity, combined with its depth, makes it a compelling fairy? tale every time you get it out to play.

Blood on the Clocktower

Blood on the Clocktower is an incredibly rich narrative experience presented as a masterful social deduction game. There are many roles and teams, and unlike other similar Werewolf-adjacent games, the storyteller is deepl??y embroiled in the game and acts as both a Game Master and a pl??ayer.

Likely the best part about Blood on the Clocktower is that negotiations aren't exclusively sho??rt and pu?blic like with other similar titles. Players can go off and have private chats and talk in small groups, and everyone reconvenes at the night phase, where votes are cast to execute a player.

The evil team will always have a Demon that can kill a good player every night. The evil team wants to kill the good folk, and the good players want to kill the demon, although that isn't always as straightforward as it seems. Blood on the Clocktower can host up to 20 players,?? and there are particular narrative "scripts" that provide unforgettable gaming experiences.

Unfathomable

Unfathomable is a special social deduction game as it plays mostly like a proper board game that isn't just about figuring out who's who. With the social deduction being one part of the game and not the main focus, you're forced to thoroughly work with everyone to try and keep the ship afloat and the monsters at bay, unless you side w?ith the Deep Ones, of course.

In Unfathomable, players will receive loyalty cards telling them which side they're on. The humans will ??have to try to keep fixing the ship and fighting monsters whilst sailing the ship and performing rituals to keep the monsters at bay. The Deep One players will be trying to sabotage efforts.

Unfathomable can end for a variety of reasons, such as a ship resource running out, meaning the humans have a tall order on their hands. It's thrilling, engaging, and has some incredible miniatures.

Coup

Coup is a social deduction game that may have roles assi??gned to players, but that doesn't mean they have to stick to them. Each player will be trying to knock other play??ers out of the game and gain influence by performing actions exclusive to a role. However, what's stopping you from lying?

In Coup, players can challenge other players when they perform an action of a role. There are consequences for either p?lay should a challenge pass or fail, meaning it's unwise to challenge everyone's actions.

As everyone lies and cheats their way through Coup, the victorious pl?ayer will be the one who can plan their l??ies the best.

Two Rooms and a Boom

Two Rooms and a Boom is a pretty large social deduction game for a bigger group of players, but it's the most involved. Pl?ayers will split into two different groups, each with their secret role. One group will have the president, and another will have a bomber.

Before the timer runs ou??t, both groups will have to exchange hostages and hope they haven't grouped the president with the bomber. During the conversation phase, players must talk to each other, find other teammates, and prove loyalties by showing their role cards. It's an extremely political game that puts players right into the hot seats of social deduction.

Two Rooms and a Boom is best played with larger group counts, making it less accessible to some inter??ested groups.

Mantis Falls

Mantis Falls is like the Schrödinger's Cat of board games, fo?r it is either a cooperative or competitive board game with two players, but the witness players will never know for sure.

This is a two to three-player game that has two?? witness roles and one assassin role. As these get divided up, in a two-player game, you'll either have two witnesses who don't trust each other and need to work together to escape Mantis Falls or one witness being hunted by an assassin. The witness will never know for sure.

Incredibly innovative and bursting with secrets and ambiguity, Mantis Falls provides an utterly unique ?experience that I previously thought impossible. A cooperative soci??al deduction game is simply unheard of.

Deception Murder in Hong Kong

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is a murder mystery social deduction game that also includes the game master as an integral player trying to help the detectives. At the beginning of the game, the murderer will point out the murder weapon and clue? to the Forensic Scientist (game master), a?nd the game will begin.

Thi?s game has the Forensic Scientist only communicating with bullet miniatures to highlight specific terms on tall tablets that should vaguely relate to both ??the means and clue of the murder. The investigators will have to tie together the vague hints to draw connections between the items to identify not only the murderer but how they did it.

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong employs a genius ??method of communication that has every player inferencing one player's vague hints to figure out the story the Forensic Scientist is trying to display that relates to the murder.

Secret Hitler

Secret Hitler is my favorite social deducti??on game, for every round invites tense explanations, backpedaling, and a series of denials. "I had no choice!" and "Yes you did!" will be the primary focal point?s every time someone places a Fascist policy on the track. It's hilarious.

In Secret Hitler, a genius turn order is used?? that rotates the president, who then chooses a chancellor. The president will pick three policies, either liberal or fascist, and will pass two onto the chancellor, who then plays one. Before this happens, the group must vote on that government. It's always tense and exciting to see the chancellor's office being ??passed around.

With bonuses for playing Fascist policies, even liberal players may get tempted into the dark side. A fast-paced song of policies and assassinations, Secret Hitler provides a blast of a time ever?y time it's played.

A Fake Artist Goes to New York

A Fake Artist goes to New York is a rare case of light and breezy fun that's both incredibly engaging and endlessly fun. Every player but one will have a prompt to draw, and the "fake ??artist" will have to produce a drawing on the theme with only the oth??er players' in-progress drawings as a reference.

As you act like you know what you're doing, you must mask any perceived mistakes and try not to make any definitive markings unless you're sure it tie??s int?o the theme. If you get outed as being the fake artist, then you better have a pretty good idea of what the theme is.

What's even better about A Fake Artist Goes to New York is that the game is so simple that it can be replicated without buying the game. H??owever, it provides its own little papers that will form a gallery of all the previous games played.

With all of these fantastic social deduction games, all you've got to do now is choose the one in which you'll enjoy lying to your fri??ends the most.

The post 10 B??est Social Deduction Board Games that make great excuses to lie to your friends appeared first on Destructoid.