Top 5 Adventure Games

5. The 7th Citadel

A new one to the list, and yes, I do plan to get back to streaming this. I am loving the adventure nature of The 7th Citadel. The game play is a ton of fun and it’s simple. Plus, one of the things I look for in a campaign game is an enjoyable story. And I think that the different threats do offer solid stories to go with the simple actions and game play. You can watch the videos and see why I like The 7th Citadel so much as an adventure game.

But let’s talk about the simplicity of the actions as well. Everything is based around getting stars. And you just need to figure out how much you want to push to get a star. If you spend a lot of cards, that is shortening what you can do later in the game. And as you get through cards, you spend health to get them back, which means that monster battles are trickier as well. But it is all done through drawing cards and seeing what stars you get on them.

4. Roll Player Adventures

Next up we have Roll Player Adventures. This is one that I had an amazing time playing through it’s whole campaign. Another one where the mechanisms aren’t that complex and the story is great to go with it. I think it is the story that really makes it shine. Though, I will say that the game is probably best as a three player game where there is enough difficulty to start, but it won’t become too easy towards the end. Also, it sounds like the updated rules with Gulpax’s Secret expansion help with that.

The main mechanisms are around dice placement. The original Roll Player game is about creating a D&D character, or an RPG character. This takes some of those mechanisms about matching up dice and optimizing placement to defeat monsters and make skill checks. Combine that with hand management as you try and complete all of those things, it works really well as a not too complex game.

3. Sleeping Gods

Then we have Sleeping Gods. This is another one that I played on Malts and Meeples. So I’ll drop that video below. But this one I think is a bit more intimidating of a game. Though, the complexity is still not all that high in the game. You are lost in another world and you need to try and find your way back to Earth by finding these totems. The trickier bit, I think, is that you play all the characters, or less that you play all the characters more that there is a single action pool. So it’s intimidating to try and keep track of what everyone has for abilities.

This one, though has one of the most unique stories to it. It is not a game where the story comes along linearly. It is an open world sandbox style game. If you want to go west, you go west or if you want to east, you go east. But that is up for the players to decide because the game doesn’t care. You find totems and prompts and that points you in direction. You see keywords and when you stumble across that keyword later, you know where to head back to. It is an amazingly ambitious project that works really well.

2. Stars of Akarios

Next up yet another one that I streamed on Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. This one is Stars of Akarios, so we’re going from fantasy to sci-fi. This is a massive and epic game, and one that gives you a ton of adventure while being more tactical than some of the others. But the story is great, and while I get the feeling of a lot of different sci-fi tropes, I think that it handles them all well to make a massive experience.

One of the things that I love about the game is three parts of the game. Now, one of them is a weaker link. Flying through space to get from story to story or planet to planet, less exciting. But I love the planetary exploration. I get the feel of The 7th Citadel with it. But then you get this whole tactical space combat.

And it is amazing, it’s all about managing your resources and positioning yourself for big hits on the enemy. Or it might not even be about taking out an enemy but instead protecting one of your ships. So there is great variety to the game, and it even has a mission where you can side with no one, go hide in a corner and let them duke it out.

1. Tainted Grail

Finally we come down to Tainted Grail. This is my #2 game of all time, at least in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. We will have to see where it lands this upcoming year. But this game, I think, is going to be the one that is hardest for some people to love. But for me, it is an amazing time. And so much of that is because it is the best story that I’ve ever read in a game. The narrative is so deep and it just works.

The downside is that it is more complex than some other games. This is not just an adventure game, but Awaken Realms always sold it as a survival game as well. Now you can play on story mode and that takes that survival down a fair amount. But that doesn’t mean that the game is easy. It just means that some of the resource collection elements are simpler. There is still going to be a lot of combat, especially early campaign where you just look at them and decide to run away.

But with all that said, this game is amazing. The story easily pushes it over the hump for me to my #1 adventure game. And I like the combat and diplomacy mechanisms. They do break up what you do in the game, but I really enjoy that puzzle, working together, and optimizing that you can do.

Final Thoughts

What are some of your favorite adventure games? Let me know which ones they are down int he comment section below. I own a number, Solomon Kane, Isofarian Guard, SHEOL, Agemonia, Divinus, Nova Aetas Renaissance and more that I need to play. Adventure Games are like my dungeon crawlers and boss battlers, it’s hard to get to them all because they take up space and time.

Are there any of the adventure games on the list that you want to try?

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Gloomhaven

No shock I’m adding this one to the list. I love Gloomhaven. On my 2019 and 2020 Top 100 Games (of All Time) it was #1 both times. And the 2021 list is on-going. But this is a great big box game that is probably intimidating. In it you take different heroes or mercenaries and go off on missions, fighting monsters and unfolding story as you go. The game is spendy, but it’s worth it for what you get in the box.

You could also jump in first with Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lions. This game can be found for a whole lot cheaper and it brings you into the game nicely. It teaches you the game over a few scenarios, and while your characters won’t retire, you still get to level up and have the Gloomhaven experience, just in a much smaller and cheaper package.

Mansions of Madness

Mansions of Madness is one of two Arkham related games on the list from Fantasy Flight Games. This is the bigger one of the two. This is an app assisted game where you are investigating a mystery. In the introductory scenario you are trying to find out what is happening at a Mansion, where the owner has gone, and then how to stop the ritual that has been started.

The app works nicely because you can play a scenario a few times without it being identical. The story might unfold the same way as before, but the rooms will have moved around. And the app makes the game work really well. Plus this game is scenario based not campaign based. That means that you can play a single scenario and call it good and then pick up months later without missing any story.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

The second of the two Arkham and Lovecraftian games from Fantasy Flight Games, Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a great little experience much like Mansions of Madness. You are exploring Arkham or Dunwich or Carcosaa, where ever it might be, trying to stop rituals. The game, however, doesn’t have an app and is just cards.

What is so amazing about this game is that you explore just using cards. And the game is different as you go through linked scenarios. At the start you might be trying to find a way out of your house and fight a ghoul. The next scenario you are hunting down cultists. The game just has a lot of fun to it and feels so unique with just using cards.

Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

This one is a completely different theme, but it’s an adventure in it’s own right as it’s a great deduction game. In the base game you are solving linked cases that tell and unfold a story of a murder from long ago. This is done with the use of a computer with a database you can look things up in, as well as cards that unfold the story.

I call this a procedural cop show, but it’s fun. You are the cops, or the investigators. If someone you know really loves stuff like NCIS and CSI, this game might be a great one to play with them. It’s five scenarios long and 3 hours per scenario. So you can get a lot out of the game and it’s one of the most immersive games in terms of theme that I’ve ever played.

Aeon’s End Legacy

Finally we have a Legacy game on the list. A legacy game means that there are components that you destroy or permanently alter. Gloomhaven has a little bit of that, but Aeon’s End Legacy has a whole lot more. This is going to be a good game for someone who wants to build out their own character. While others on the list do that to some extent, Gloomhaven mainly, this one really gives you big choices on what you do.

This game also teaches you how to play Aeon’s End. Much like Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion brings you up to speed for Gloomhaven, Aeon’s End Legacy will teach you how to play Aeon’s End in all it’s forms. And th ere is a lot more content. But in the game you work together, build your characters, and fight off monsters coming through breaches. The story is lighter on this one but it’s still a lot of fun.

I have a lot more of these games on my shelf. I won’t recommend Deep Madness as it’s hard to find, and if you can it won’t be cheap. But Nemesis will give you a sense of adventure as well as Roll Player Adventures that just came out and Reich Busters thought both might be harder to find again. There are a lot of these big box games that tell you story, but I hope I gave you a good variety to checkout and for a number of different budgets. Do you have a favorite adventure game?

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This also comes from DrGloryHoundd talking about the same thing when they, him and GloryHoundd, think about backing Kickstarter games. The question he asks quite often is when backing a game will it replace a like game on their shelf. They have their go to worker placement game(s). If the back another worker placement game, it needs to be better than the previous ones to stay on their shelf. But let’s get to the main question before we dive into some reasoning for adding or not.

How Many Board Games Do You Need Of Each Type?

This isn’t a number that anyone can really say. Now, that’s a cop out answer in some ways, but I think it comes down to the gamer. Lets say that someone only plays party games, they might want to have 20-30 different party games so they can have a big rotation. And that person only needs party games because they only play party games.

I, on the other hand, do not need that many party games. This is for two reasons, firstly, I don’t only play party games. I play all sorts of games and that means that I will buy and want a more diverse game collection. Secondly, since I don’t play only party games, that means that I don’t burn through the content on party games nearly as fast. So I don’t need all the content.

This is really true with how I game in basically any type of game. I don’t need a ton in any particular type because I play most types. That means that unless I really love a game, it’s going to take a longer time for me to fully explore it. But that’s getting beside the point, let’s talk about some of the reasons to or not to get some games.

Why Get More Or Not?

There are a number of reasons to get more in a type of game or not. Let’s start with the one thing to consider that I’ve already really touched on.

Is There A Spot on The Shelf Next To Other Similar Games?

This is the question that DrGloryHogg is always asking. And I think for a lot of types of games, this is something to strongly consider. Especially if you have a big game collection. My game collection is sitting at just over 400 with what I own for base games and expansions. That’s a lot of games, so I need to ask myself, if I get another deck building game will I play it over on Aeon’s End, Xenoshyft: Onslaught, Ascension, or Clank?

But not only if I’ll play it over them, but will it make it into the rotation. Does it do something that sets it apart so even if I keep and play all the others that I’d be playing this new deck building game? Which actually leads into the next question.

Does It Do Anything Different?

So you think that there might be a spot on the shelf for it. Not that it’d bump out a different game, but that it can get added. Why is that? Does the game just fit into that niche that you love so much, or, does it do something different?

I think when consider what game to buy if a game does something different or unique to what you’ve done before, that means that there might be room. If it’s just more the same type of game that you already have, then you have to ask will it replace the old favorites.

But let’s look at deck building again. Lost Ruins of Arnak has deck building in it. I bought it because Lost Ruins of Arnak is a worker placement and deck building game. I mention that I have Ascension, that’s just pure deck building, Clank is deck building and push your luck, Xenoshyft: Onslaught is deck building tower defense, and Aeon’s End is deck building, tower defense, and a boss battler.

Do You Need More Of Your Favorite Type Of Game?

I think one thing to consider is how much you like the type of game. I don’t need that many worker placement games in my collection. There’s a simple reason for that, I don’t pull them off the shelf because I don’t gravitate towards that type of game. I want a game with narrative and more high moments, in my opinion. Now, I don’t hate worker placement euro games, I am just never going to gravitate towards them. So I have a few that I like in my collection and it’d take something special, or the theme of beer, to get added to my collection.

On the flip side, I really love story driven and adventure games. That is why I am debating about Agemonia now. With games like 7th Continent, Midarra, Gloomhaven, Clank Legacy, Betrayal Legacy, Forgotten Waters, and more already in my collection, do I need another game with a lot of story? Add in the fact that I have Oathsworn, Frosthaven, ISS Vanguard, Etherfields, Isofarian Guard, and again even more, do I need another adventure game? This is really where I start considering differences as I mention above.

Can You Get It Later?

This one is fairly different but also an important consideration. Can you get the game later? This is something I talk about fairly often with crowdfunding games. And I won’t dive into all the details on it because, while, there are a lot and that is it’s own article. I talk about most of the points in my article on whether or not to late back a game which you can find here. But even for retail games it does matter.

Why, because over time games generally go down in price. I say generally because when a game gets extremely popular it can be more expensive on the second hand market. Everything for Battlestar Galactica costs $600+. Spire’s End was going for $150 for a $50 game. There are obviously exceptions but for most games you can get them water. So for a retail game, consider if you want/need to play it now. Or can you wait until you’ve played another game of it’s type enough times that you are done with it and then you replace it.

Final Thoughts

Like I said towards the beginning, there is no right number. But I think that it is something to be mindful about when purchasing a game. I keep on going back to how DrGloryHogg talks about it. Will it replace something already on my shelf. Because I might have room for more board games but how many do I have room for?

I think most hobby board gamers would be perfectly fine keeping every game we ever bought. Why, because there is an element of collecting that goes on as well. But we don’t, generally, have that room. And we don’t generally have that money. When I do a point of order/sale article it isn’t always because I’m 100% done with a game, it’s that I want to try something new.

How do you decide if you need to get another board game?

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10 – Dead of Winter
The zombies have taken over and you need to find a cure, get enough fuel to move, or one of several more scenarios, but can you trust everyone in your midst? Probably not, and should they fully trust you, probably not. In this game you play as survivors of the zombie apocalypse who are just trying to survive against the horde of zombies in the town, but there might be a traitor in your midst. There’s a sense of adventure in this game as you feel like you’re playing through The Walking Dead or other zombie time story where it is more focused on the survivors and if you can really trust them. Plus, the crossroads cards offer you a lot of tough decisions to make as well, maybe you can save someone and add them to your team, but will there be enough food to feed them? You’ll end up having to make choices like that throughout the game, and often times with no easy answers or right choices for the colony.

9 – Star Wars: Rebellion
A massive around three hours long game, Star Wars: Rebellion pits the rebels against the Empire in a battle for the fate of the galaxy. Taking from the original trilogy, you feel like you’re playing through it but shaping it your own way. Can you crush the rebel fleets and find where there base in hidden? Or will they be able to sow enough descent around the galaxy that the Empire crumbles away. And you get to send major characters out on missions to places, maybe Han Solo will get captured by the Emperor or Darth Vader will lead troops into battle against Admiral Ackbar on Tatooine. You can rewrite the original trilogy in this adventure and you won’t know how the story will end up until you’ve played.

8 – Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game
I was debating about this one on the list, is it really an adventure because it’s fairly abstracted away with trying to solve cases and fight bad guys just by putting tokens on them. But I feel like the puzzly nature of how you have to do that, and the fact it brings me back to the books and series, there is that sense of adventure for me as I get a chance to relive and play through those books myself. And there’s always a struggle to win in this game. Sometimes you can just win without getting into the final confrontation, but that’s extremely rare. Instead, so often you are hoping for a lucky last roll to take out the bad guy, which is thematic to the books, because through sheer stubbornness and sometimes force of will, Harry can prevail, and that’s how it works in the game as well. Less of a grand epic adventure than some, but still a fun one, especially for fans of the series.

7 – The Lost Expedition
Now, this is probably not a game that a lot of people would have thought of when they were thinking of an adventure game. It’s a small game, it’s only cards and very few tokens, and all you’re doing is going on a hike each morning and evening trying to make it to the Lost City of Z. However, there’s a sense of adventure to it as you are all cooperatively trying to play down cards in a way that makes sense without being able to communicate. But then, once the cards are down and your path is ready, you can all discuss as how to best go through it. It always feels like a close game and you have to decide when it’s worth it to sacrifice a guide in order to move ahead or to keep another guide alive. This game isn’t going to give you a big adventure, but it’s a fast adventure in a little package that won’t break the bank.

6 – Arkham Horror: The Card Game
The first of a couple of Fantasy Flights Arkham Chronicles games, this one has a very interesting adventure feel from what I’ve played, which admittedly isn’t a ton of it yet, but you get the sense of exploring, just from the first scenario in the first box, a house that is being twisted and warped around you. Then in the second one, you get a chance to run around the town and look for cultists who might just be hiding in the shadows. And all of this builds, so depending on what you do, scenarios or perks you’ve gotten will change, so it feels like a big unfolding adventure. And I like that it doesn’t come in a massive box, it’s just cards with a few tokens and you can have an epic adventure.

5 – T.I.M.E. Stories
This one is interesting because there’s a smaller level of adventure in the game since each scenario is it’s own mystery or puzzle to solve, but it always feels like something new as you unpack what’s going on. You could be in a mental hospital at the start where a time incursion is about to happen or maybe a town that has been quarantined for some reason or in ancient Egypt. While you might know where your adventure is going to take you, you don’t know how it’s going to unfold or what body you’re going to be put into. I really enjoy this as an escape room type of engine where you have to figure out the puzzle in the box, but it’s not as straight forward as a lot of the Unlock and Exit style games are, because why they might be fairly consistent in what they do, T.I.M.E. Stories is not.

4 – Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon
I need to play more of this adventure, but what I’ve played thus far has been great. There is just so much story happening, and it gives you a different sense of adventure because it adds in such a strong survival element as well. So not only are you going out into the land of Avalon and searching for ways to keep the land from falling into the Wyrdness, you have to figure out when to fight, when to run away, what path you want to go, the fact that there’s a branching story in a game that is so long and so big is pretty amazing. It’s also a really good solo experience. When a game offers you so many choices as to where to go, what to explore there, what you might run into, who you can help and side mysteries that you might want to check out as well, it’s very much an adventure game, and it’s one of the best I’ve come across.

3 – Betrayal At House on the Hill
Now, I know this game isn’t for everyone, but I love it. And for me it’s a great adventure game because I get to see what horror film I’m in. Am I going to be the final one standing in the end or the person who betrays everyone else. Will I have to play chess with death or maybe it’ll be the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I never know. Plus, I get to explore the house and have it unfold before me, and I never know in what room the haunt might happen, so I can basically always play a new scenario. I have Betrayal Legacy waiting for me at some point in time coming up here when we can start to get together in groups again, because I want to have the adventure of playing through a house year after year and watch the house change and unfold a new adventure. Now, I know that this game isn’t for some because it’s not always the most balanced, but I like that aspect as it works well in a horror setting because some horror movie monsters are just better than the college students.

2 – Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition
Adventure games don’t have to be on a super grand globe trotting scale, they can be in a small town or even in a mansion that is full of madness. But you’re unfolding a story and a mystery that gives me a sense of adventure because playing a scenario once, I don’t know what is going to happen and where cultists might show up or what my main goal is even sometimes. As the game unfolds that and explains it to you and as you unravel the mysteries, it just makes a great gaming adventure experience. And even if you play a scenario once, because of the app, you can go back and play it again and things might end the same, but the house will be set-up differently and there will be still be some adventure to the game. Mansions of Madness just really gives you that immersive experience of exploring and solving a puzzle/mystery unlike so many other games.

1 – Gloomhaven
I believe that this was left off someone’s list on the Dice Tower top 10, because it didn’t have enough exploring, though, I feel like Forgotten Circles expansion definitely has more of that feel. But I would argue that there is a sense of exploring through the story as you complete the various dungeons and you unlock more story and more places to go. Plus, even though you’re a mercenary team who keeps retiring, you still feel the progression of story and adventure that I’m looking for and love in a game. It has that RPG-lite feel to it with leveling up your characters and getting better at what you can do, so the whole thing feels like you’re taking those characters on epic adventures. While the mechanics for combat can be a bit crunchy as you figure out what tops and bottoms of cards to use and what order to play them in, the whole thing just works really well for me.

Now, I could have gone with more as well, Sword & Sorcery just missed the list. The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth or Lord of the Rings board game would work as well. Even something like Pandemic Legacy I considered for the list, but that one doesn’t give me as much sense of adventure. And I have more adventure games waiting for me to play, Apocrypha, Folklore: The Affliction, Aeon’s End Legacy and more are waiting for me to give into, plus more coming in the mail at some point in time like Oathsworn, Dice Throne Adventure (it says it in it’s name) or Frosthaven next year. So clearly I love these big epic sort of games.

How about you, what are some of your favorite adventure games? Are there any on the list that I should checkout?

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Now, that could be less exciting, because there are a lot of generic themes out there, and a lot of games that are using themes over and over again. Especially now with copyrights not being extended to kingdom come, there are more works that are now public domain. A few years ago Sherlock Holmes became public domain and HP Lovecrafts work some time before that.

So what are some of my favorite themes on board games?

Epic Fantasy –
Super generic, but I really do enjoy a good fantasy game. Especially since a lot of them have a better developed story than most. Now it helps that I’m a big fantasy fan, so I can quickly understand what is going on with the various fantasy tropes and it allows me to get quickly into the story being told. Games like Gloomhaven and Legends of Andor do a good job of baking story into the actual game play themselves. I think what I like about the fantasy theme on board games is that it gives me a bit of that feeling of playing an RPG in a lot of the games and I can make my decisions like I am that hero. In a lot of ways it scratches my itch to play an RPG when I can’t be in a game as a player or as the GM.

Lovecraftian –
I did a big board game battle post about all of the Fantasy Flight games that I’ve played with the HP Lovecraft world theme on them. I’m a bit surprised with how main stream Lovecraft is in board games, but it works in most of the cases. I will say that it gets slapped onto a lot of games that don’t need it. Like in Unspeakable Words, you’re just doing a pretty standard word game, but it has the Lovecraftian theme and cute Lovecraftian artwork on it. Now, that’s fine because it takes a game that wouldn’t have artistic direction and gives it some, but it’s kind of silly. Then there are games like Arkham Horror, Mansions of Madness, and Arkham Horror LCG that are just steeped in theme. Those games seek to make you feel like an investigator of some background who is really going through this world, dealing with the monsters, progressing the story, looking for clues, and sometimes dealing with the events of the normal world. It also does a good job of setting an aesthetic that is generally pleasing to play in but also being a horror focused game. It really doesn’t rely on blood and guts like some horror games would.

Sci-Fi –
Another super generic option, like epic fantasy, but I figured I should say more than just Star Wars. While the Star Wars games are great that I’ve played, Imperial Assault and Star Wars: Rebellion, there are other sci-fi games out there that I’ve liked as well. It’s interesting because you have a wide variety of scope with games in the Sci-Fi genre. Games like Star Wars: Rebellion, Battlestar Galactica, and Cosmic Encounters are planet level Sci-Fi games. And while Cosmic Encounters doesn’t feel like quire as grand a scope as Rebellion, it’s still a bigger game in some ways. Compare that to Imperial Assault and Clank! In! Space!, those games have a focus that is much more on a smaller part of the world. You’re on a planet or in a space ship dealing with things, but you aren’t as worried about the whole cosmos. Having that variety is what makes Sci-Fi such a strong genre to me.

Now, there are so many more genres out there, but you’re not going to have that much issue finding games in these genres, and I tend to gravitate towards them. There is one that I want to see more of though.

Weird West –
I really enjoy the weird west setting. Some might say that it’s a bit Lovecraft mixed with the wild west, and that’s probably pretty accurate. But when people say a Lovecraft game, that’s generally meaning 1920’s and Arkham area. Weird west can be a lot more than just that, and I like Shadows of Brimstone for that, though I’ve only gotten it to the table once. I need to go back and fix the monsters and hopefully stream that game at some point in time so I can actually play it some more. But the game is interesting and has some cool big moments to it.

Mythological –
Now, some might say this is part of fantasy, but I think I would qualify it differently than “Epic Fantasy”. Theming of games like Lords of Hellas, which I haven’t played or Santorini which is really an abstract game, but has the Greek mythology added to it, that’s a theme that I can get behind. What makes it generally pretty thematic is that all the deities have their own powers which really do track with the mythology that you’re in. Even if you aren’t going the standard Greek, there are now a lot of games with Norse Mythology. Blood Rage on the cards you draft does a really good job of creating that mythological feel for each deity that you can draft cards from. In fact, those cards are where you really get the theme of Norse Mythology in Blood Rage.

I could go on talking about more themes in board games. There are games with a heavily influenced theme by Japan and/or Anime. There are games t hat have cool adventuring themes that give you the Indiana Jones feel. There are a few themes that I’ll generally avoid though. If a game has the “trading in the Mediterranean” theme, that’s a hard pass for me. I’m also kind of done with the zombie theme at this point. I do like Dead of Winter, so I’m not opposed to it, but a zombie themed game isn’t all that interesting to me most of the time.

What are some themes you like in board games. What are themes that you want to see more of in board games?

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