Video games are the focal point of interactive entertainment and have been only rising in popularity since the seventies. Despite this monopoly, another type of game has been making a comeback over the last decade: Tabletop games.
Both tabletop and board games are slowly pushing their way back into the mainstream since the early 2000’s. While some groups have played Dungeons and Dragons since its first release in 1974, or avid fans of Monopoly, which dates back to 1904, new generations of “gamers” are stepping away from the flashing lights of their TV’s and picking up board games.
Recommended for you
With the rise in board game popularity, an increasing number of companies and individuals set out to create new games. To help those just now entering into the world of board games, here’s a list of my top six most noteworthy tabletop and board games of the last 15 years:
Carcassonne
Carcassonne is as simple a game as they come in terms of how to play. Players take turns drawing tiles from a bag and placing them so they connect to previously placed tiles via roads, cities, and farmlands. The strategy, however, comes from knowing where to place a tile, and whether or not to claim an aspect of it.
A relatively laid back game that can be easily played over conversation, Carcassonne makes this list because of its ease of access and straight-forward rules, while requiring a constant need to revise one’s strategy.
Pandemic (Legacy, specifically)
Pandemic: Legacy (season 1) is an ever-changing board game that only allows up to four players to experience the narrative only once. That being said, the first season has the potential of up to 24 games, and each month introduces new traits, new characters, and new challenges that alter the way the four-player team must approach the growing threat of disease.
While the game has a strict game limit (12-24), which may turn many people off of an $80 game, each game can take up to two hours. If, at the end of 24 hours of constant stress, you and your team wants to play more, there are two different versions of season 1 that contain different narratives.
Fiasco
A step away from the other tabletop games on this list, Fiasco involves up to six players creating characters with unique goals and setting forth to achieve those goals at any cost. Based on movies like Burn After Reading, Fiasco sets out to make life as difficult for the characters in the narrative all while leaving it up to players to do the dirty work.
Fiasco is a role-playing game that requires the players to form their characters from the ground up. While the first stage of the game (arguably the most fun) allows the players to choose their relationships with the players on their right and left, and the goals within those relationships, the players decide how to go about achieving those goals and who they may have to kill to get what they want. It’s more difficult than the others on this list, but Fiasco is a must play for anyone wanting to create their own story.
Mysterium
Like Pandemic, Mysterium is a fully cooperative game. The goal of the game is to solve a murder in an old mansion with the help from the victim. Where this game stands out from others is its use of an omniscient player (the ghost) who hands out clues to the investigators. The only twist, however, is the ghost cannot talk throughout the entire game, which leaves the investigators up to decipher the abstract clues for themselves.
A well-balanced mix of interpretation, problem solving, and teamwork, Mysterium forces its players to truly understand how his or her friends think to solve the murder. Although, it’s almost equally as fun with new people, in my opinion.
Spyfall
A game that doesn’t come with a board, nor does it necessarily need a table, Spyfall is a bluffing game that can take place in over two-dozen locations. Whether it be on a pirate ship, a business dinner party, or a space station, every player is assigned a role to fill. Every player, that is, except one: The spy.
Every player is given a hidden role with an image of the game’s location: The bouncer at a club, the captain of a cruise ship, or even the prisoner on a pirate ship. Each player will have the same location, as well as a role that fits the location. One player, however, will be given a card that simply says “spy” on it, with no clues toward the location or any role associated with it. It’s then up to each player to prove to everyone else they know the location by roleplaying their role, all while avoiding giving out too much information so that the spy can’t pick up on where the game takes place.
Spyfall takes very little introduction to start and the games can last as long or as short as the players want. It’s a great game to play with a few people, or a dozen.
Ladies and Gentlemen
This game is unique because it’s really two intertwined games put together. The game is played in teams of two; one teammate is the “lady” while the other is the “gentleman.” The two teammates each have separate roles that play into the final score at the end. It’s the job of the “gentlemen” to play the stock market and earn as much money as they can, while it’s the job of the “ladies” to buy and sell clothing at the shops set up by other players.
When the “ladies” find clothing that works to increase the points of their overall outfit by matching brands or style, they ask the husband to buy them their finds with the money earned for that day’s stock market, without knowing just how much the “gentleman” earned. The end goal of each team is to have the best-dressed lady at the dance at the end of a set number of rounds.
While the game may seem a bit old fashioned in terms of the genders associated with each role, it captures the Victorian era well in terms of social expectations and is simply a unique game that’s worth playing at least once.
While these may not be the “best” games created, or the most fun, they each offer a unique experience for the players and have provided me, personally, hours upon hours of fun. With the relatively recent explosion of new games, even the most stubborn board game hater can find one that speaks to them. While my list provides a small sample of variety in board games today, tons of unique and interesting board games exist that are worth looking into.
