Not exactly related to video games, but for those who are interested in table top fun, here's a section for fun board games. /v/ and /tg/ are bros, you know it's true.
The List[]
| Boxart | Title | Description | # of players |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Arkham Horror |
Co-op adventures where you try to protect the city of Arkham from monsters and other events that can happen while trying to prevent the elder god from awakening, such as Cthulhu. Great fun with a group of people. Has several board expansions as well as card expansions. |
1-8 |
|
Axis & Allies |
The roast beef of WW2 wargames, and doesn't descend into hexmap cardboard-counter neckbeardery. Good for drinking beer all afternoon without insulting your intelligence. Popular enough that it produced spinoffs. (Most of the time, the allies win.) |
2-5 |
|
Bang! | This is Mafia/Werewolf with a western feel. Everyone has a mission: the sheriff must kill the outlaws, the deputy must keep the sheriff alive, the outlaws want the sheriff and deputy dead, the renegade wants to be last man standing. However, nobody knows for sure who the other players really are, so there's plenty of bluffing, like shooting your allies on purpose.
Consider Bang! The Dice Game also. It offers the same concept and experience of Bang with its hidden identities, but if you feel Bang! carries on too long, you get the same feel by squeezing out just the longevity. Many players prefer it for this reason. |
4-7 |
|
Battlestar Galactica |
Try to make it to the promised land before you run out of resources. Sounds easy, but every turn there's a crisis that everyone must cooperate to overcome... and some of you might be killer android traitors pretending to be human. You might not even know if you're a traitor until halfway through the game! |
3-6 |
|
Carcasonne | Carcassonne is a clever tile-laying game. The players develop the land of cities, roads and farms, and deploy their followers to reap benefits when territory is completed. The skill of the players to develop the area will determine who is victorious. Has many tile expansions to enhance gameplay.
Recommended expansions: Traders & Builders, Inns & Cathedrals (ups to 6 players) Recommended mini-expansions: The Ferries (great, simple mechanic for roads), The River II (splits up farms even more). |
2-5 |
|
Descent: Journeys in the Dark |
Sort of like Dungeons and Dragons-lite, this is the pseudo-sequel to the Doom board game. One player acts as Overlord, setting up the dungeon with traps, monsters, and the like, while the other players play heroes to traverse it. Unlike D&D, there's minimal flavor-text and no roleplaying, it's dependent entirely on the gameplay. The characters are also premade, though they include a template for making your own. If you're into tabletop roleplaying, inserting some into this probably wouldn't be too difficult. Has several expansions. |
2-5 |
|
Diplomacy |
Great griefing game. The combat mechanics are dead simple but biased towards stalemates, so in order to get anywhere you have to form alliances... but only one person can win, so alliances must be broken. This game has a reputation for causing ragequits and tableflips. |
2-7 |
|
Doom: The Boardgame |
Looked like it was going to be shit, but cribbed notes from one the tragically out-of-print game HeroQuest, and ended up being awesome. One player controls the demons, up to three other players are the squad assigned to secure the area. Scenarios, traps, that survival-horror feel of needing to conserve ammo. If you can't find this game, or if nostalgia isn't enough for you, look for Descent: Journeys in the Dark as it is an upgrade/rip-off of this gem. |
2-4 |
|
Game of Thrones: The Board Game |
In a way it's like Risk, you conquer lands, strategize and places armies and units... but it has 100% more backstabbing, political intrigue, flavortext, and friendship ruining. One of those that might require more than one session, but everyone will have fun (provided you don't strangle each other or ragequit). |
3-5 |
|
Heroscape |
Miniatures game where you build your own map. Has a Marvel expansion, but the units in it are fairly unbalanced. |
2+ |
|
Hobbit Tales |
Technically a supplement to The One Ring tabletop RPG, Hobbit Tales is entirely playable on it's own. The game places you and the other players in the roles of Hobbits, who happen to be exchanging tall tales and stories (in turns) while drinking at the Green Dragon. The Hobbit telling the story is assigned adventure cards, used to decide how the story goes and earn points, while the other Hobbits use hazard cards to try and interrupt their story and interject their own bit of the tale. Has all kinds of cool pieces, including cards, a die, chips, coasters, and of course, a game board. Drinking while playing is recommended, but take the time to learn the rules first! |
2-5 |
|
Memoir '44 |
Memoir '44 is a unique historical game from Days of Wonder where players command a horde of little plastic Army men facing-off in dozens of WWII battles on an oversize hex game board. Each battle scenario mimics the historical terrain and troop placements. |
2, 2 teams of 3, 2 teams of 4 with 2 copies |
|
Munchkin |
Basically, door-monster-treasure: the card game. You play an adventurer and your goal is to reach level 10. Each turn consists in kicking a door open, fighting a monster, taking the loot. You can get races, classes and a lot of equipment. Revolves a lot around being a dick to your friends, by cursing, stealing, crippling or decieving them. Can be a bit unfair, but that make it all the more fun! Has a LOT of expansion, and when I say a lot it's a LOT. There are even Cthulhu, Kung-fu, and Space Marines expansions, which can actually be mixed with each others. |
3-5 (3-7 with expansions) |
|
Pandemic |
Grab your buddies and get ready to exterminate the evil viruses all around the world! Great co-op game, everyone gets different roles and everybody has to be on the same page to win. Plenty of excellent expansions including a dice variation. |
2-4 (2-5 with expansions) |
|
Risk: 2210 A.D. |
Everyone knows Risk, and everyone knows it's crap, but there's a good game somewhere in there... 2210AD is it. Special leader units, more territories, more continents, no getting bottled up in Australia, cards that do more than just get you reinforcements, and a strict turn-limit so nobody is bored getting kicked out and waiting for everyone else to finish. Also, you can conquer the MOON. |
2-5 |
|
Scrabble |
If you don't already know this game: Every player picks an amount of letter tiles and has to lay words on the gameboard. If you can't lay a word you pick a new tile. You win |
2-4 |
|
Settlers of Catan |
Civilization without the war aspect. This is the gateway game that will get a lot of non-gamers interested in the good stuff. Compete for the sweet locations to colonize the island. Many expansions available. Put off buying the "Cities & Knights" expansion for a while, as it drastically changes the game. |
2-4 (2-6 with expansion) |
|
Starcraft: The Board Game |
Like Axis & Allies, but with Starcraft races. Among the few board games based on a video game that does not suck. (Stay away from the Warcraft boardgames, oh my god.) Uses a card based system rather than dice rolls. |
2-6 |
|
Ticket to Ride |
Collect colored train cards in order to form a route across various countries (USA, India, Europe [hurr durr not a country], etc). Pretty fun, but winning can be all about luck in what routes people get screwed on. |
2-5 (4-5 works best) |
|
Space Alert |
Co-op space game where you and your friends have to survive 10 minutes on a spaceship in dangerous airspace. Unique in that you listen to one of many different audio tracks, which act as the ship's PA to announce various issues. Fucking up once WILL get your ship destroyed. If your entire team isn't on the same page at all times, you WILL fuck up. |
1-5 |