Ranking My Horror Games

16: Lucidity: Six-Sided Nightmares

This one I think suffered for me for several reasons. The biggest reason that it’s my bottom one is that it doesn’t evoke a horror theme. It’s a push your luck die game with dark artwork and that’s really about what it is. I was hoping that it’d be something that gave more theme. Between the lack of a horror and a below average rulebook, the game play wasn’t interesting enough to make me like the game.

15: Arkham Horror: Final Hour

There are a lot of different Arkham Files games put out from Fantasy Flight games. This is the only one that I don’t like. Not because it doesn’t give you some horror feeling, it can do that. The monsters or cultists come out and you feel that they are rushing around the board. But the game play is just uninspired. The story of the game is limited but just ends up with a pretty random guess at the end. The whole of the game just feels too random.

14: Arkham Horror 2nd Edition

Arkham Horror 2nd Edition is a fantastic game, except for one thing which made it leave my collection. The game is just too long. I am fine with a long game, but that means it won’t get played often and Arkham Horror 2nd Edition is a very long game. But it tells a story as you take investigators around and try and defeat monsters, close portals to other realms and manage your sanity. Great massive game that it low because of how big it is.

13: Dead of Winter

Dead of Winter, not that long ago, would have been much higher on my list. I again like Dead of Winter, but there is no such thing as a fast game of Dead of Winter. They give you short games and that is still a couple of hours. But it’s a zombie game where you are dealing with zombies, but also dealing with the other players and trying to figure out if someone is a traitor. And the Crossroads cards that give you tough decisions are great.

12: Zombie Dice

It has a horror theme, though that doesn’t come through. You are zombies who are out to eat brains. But in reality, this is a little push your luck game to see if you can get to the number of brains needed first. It’s basically like a Farkle or something like that, but with zombies, runners, and shotgun blasts. I play it regularly, or at least a few times a year, during game nights while waiting for people to show up.

11: Deranged

Deranged was one of the highlights of GenCon 2019. Deranged has you trying to escape a cursed town, but the only way to do that is defeat monsters and solve your own curses. And you hope that no one becomes deranged when it becomes night time. Someone will, but you hope that it won’t be you. It’s a good game where it feels like you’re only doing your own thing, until you become deranged. I really like how you use the cards in the game.

10: Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Another Arkham Horror game, this time the living card game. And I really enjoy this game, I just need to figure out a way to play it more often. There is some set-up to the game with the cards you need to pull out. But the amount of storytelling that it can do just with cards is great. Sometimes the location cards might be a house, or a town, or whatever the story needs. And the different monsters and decks you combine makes a great experience.

9: Village Attacks

I never know where to place Village Attacks. I really like this game. However, I am still waiting on a Kickstarter from 2019, with limited communication, to get my copy. I want at least there to be more updates. I know the company, it is not their fulltime job and they had another game as well, but tell me more.

Anyways, enough about that part of it, Village Attacks is a tower defense game. But instead of being the good guys, you are the monsters in your castle overlooking the village, and the hordes coming are the villagers. You just want a nice peaceful evening, and here they come with torches and pitchforks to ruin that. The game has dark horror artwork, but feels much lighter as you play it.

8: Not Alone

One versus all works pretty well for horror. Or sometimes games with hidden traitors. Not Alone is a horror game where the all have crashed onto a planet and they are waiting for a rescue ship to come pick them up. But the planet is out to kill them, and that is what the one is doing. The crew of the ship can discuss what they want to do, but the planet can always here them. The horror theme isn’t too strong, but as the planet and the monsters on the planet player, it’s always fun to try and guess where the crew is going and ruin their fun.

7: Apocrypha Adventure Card Game

To just set the stage for this game, it has a card called a basket full of razor blades and the picture is a basket full of apples. It plays into that dark stuff a lot, but also is a very fun game with a very bad rulebook. This is the same system as the Patherfinder Adventure Card Game. But instead of it being epic fantasy, this is a dark world where you are “saints” who can see the horrible things happening actually in the world. So it’s a deck building, card management sort of game.

6: Unfathomable

Another Arkham Files game, though this one is different. It reimplements the Battlestar Galactica game from Fantasy Flight with the Arkham theme. You are sailing across the ocean and Dagon, deep ones, and others are attacking you. Plus, some of you might be cultists who don’t want the ship to actually make it there. Really fun game, takes what makes BSG good with all the expansions and puts it into a single game.

5: The Night Cage

The Night Cage is an abstract game, but one that plays with horror well. Firstly, the theme is amazing for an abstract, you are all crawling through tunnels, unable to pass each other, looking for keys and then a portal to escape. But there are monsters that pop-up. And as you build out the labyrinth, it all shifts around you, so as you lose sight of what you’ve explored, it will be different coming back. And all the while, tiles are getting reduced as a melting candle, until they run out and your candles start to go dark.

4: Final Girl

If you are going to do a horror theme, why not make the different scenarios called Feature Films? That’s what Final Girl from Van Ryder Games does. In this you play as the final girl, the last survivor in a horror movie trying to rescue the innocent bystanders, find weapons, and take out the serial killer. All the while, the killer is stalking you and the bystanders. Really fun game, and a good system that allows them to play around with theme so much.

3: Spire’s End

Spire’s End is a solo or two player story driven game. I played it on Malts and Meeples, which you can see below. But this game plays through a deck of cards, and you fight monsters, try and find keys and explore through this deck. As you go, you flip out cards or discard them, never being able to go back in the story. It’s a really cool system with even better artwork. And the storytelling in the game is good, and I’ve played a few times now, and there is still more story to explore.

2: Betrayal at House on the Hill

Not my number one, but only because of how random the game can be. Now, that randomness makes for some amazing moments, it also makes for some haunts that aren’t so great. In Betrayal you are exploring a mansion, building it out as you go. You find items, uncover omens, and eventually a haunt will happen. Then one person in the group will be betray you and the game changes up. I rarely have had a bad game of it, but it can go wrong. Just very thematic for a horror game.

1: Mansions of Madness

My top game with a horror theme is Mansions of Madness. Another in the Fantasy Flight Arkham Files line-up of games. This one is app assisted which is nice, because it can tell more story than some of the others. Though Arkham Horror: The Card Game does a good job without an app. But it takes care of a lout of the housekeeping for you with the game. And it can pop up monsters in more surprising locations and ways to really fill out what is happening.

I really like that sometimes you might be in a mansion, solving puzzles, and fighting cultists. Other times you are in a town and there are monsters coming out of the deep and once you know enough your goal is to get away. And if I play the same scenario twice, well, the app is going to change up some things.

Final Thoughts

I need more horror games, what are some really good ones. On my shelf I have Nemesis that I need to play since it is supposed to be Aliens the board game. And that sounds like a great game to play. I don’t need horror with blood and gore, though, I don’t mind that. But I want horror where it feels creepy, different, and like a good horror film.

I think that the only ones on my shelf to be played are Deep Madness, Nemesis, and The Faceless. So I know there are more out there that I really need to get to.

What is your favorite horror themed board game?

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

Cooperative Games Rankings

So just be aware I’m going to talk less about these games because there are a grand total of 52 that I ranked. Expect a sentence or two on each one of them.

52. FUSE

Fast paced game of rolling dice and then using them to try and complete enough cards to diffuse the bomb. I don’t love games that are only real time, and FUSE is only real time. It plays fast, but the game isn’t that interesting the more you play it.

51. Magic Maze

Another real time game, this time taking adventurers through a shopping mall. This one is more interesting because you need to work together more. But it’s going really fast without talking and sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t.

50. Forbidden Island

This one is a great introduction to cooperative gaming and gaming in general. It follows the standard, do something and then something bad happens. My issue is that the game is too easy and generally just an okay game.

49. Arkham Horror: Final Hour

Now, on the flip side of Forbidden Island, this game is hard as you try and guess some ruins to be able to stop ritual from happening. It basically takes Arkham Horror and tries to make it shorter. It succeeds on that, but it also just isn’t interesting. The couple clever things it tries to do are just misses.

48. God of War: The Card Game

And another game that was too easy when I played it. I wonder about playing a whole game if that would make it more challenging, but what I played was fairly boring. I also feel like the decisions weren’t that interesting in the game. Most of the time it was do the obvious thing.

47. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game

I talked about this yesterday. It’s a fine deck building game. It is just too slow to get to the table and too slow to get to feeling powerful. If they were to come out with a second edition and make the game play ramp up faster, I’d probably like it a lot. But right now, the ramp is just too slow.

46. Forbidden Desert

I like this a fair amount better than Forbidden Island, it offers more to do and a more clever mechanism of figuring out where to get things. It follows that Pandemic formula for things of do good things and then bad things happen. Played it a few times, enjoyed it, and have moved on.

45. The Mind

This one is an interesting one. You try and play cards down in numerical order without talking. The concept is cool, and the game works, but only sometimes. This is one where it really depends on who is in the group. And I had some good times with it but moved on again.

44. Sword Art Online Board Game: Sword of Fellow

I need to try this one again, it’s been a little while. The concept isn’t bad, you are basically playing the boss battles from Sword Art Online the show, and it has the main characters. The downside is that the rules aren’t that great, and it’s pretty simple and lucky. That said, it is tiny, so I don’t mind luck as much.

43. Exit Games

Exit Games are fun, but any escape room game is always hard to rank. I’ve played less Exit Games, and I don’t love that you can’t pass it on. Granted, I did see it kind of work with them at Fantasy Flight Game Center (now GameZenter), but I don’t want to buy something I need to then replace.

42. Flash Point: Fire Rescue

This is basically Pandemic but with fires. You haven’t seen Pandemic yet on the list so you know it’s higher. I think that Flash Point: Fire Rescue might end up being one that I get. And that’s because it might replace base Pandemic for me, but we’ll talk about why later. Very standard cooperative game.

41. Legendary Encounters: A Firefly Deck Building Game

On yesterday’s list, it is one that I like the theme of. Firefly was a great show, and the game is playing through the episodes. The game isn’t that easy and the artwork is just okay. Again, the ramp speed doesn’t seem right for the type of game it is, but it’s better than Marvel Legendary.

40. Stuffed Fables

This is one that I had a good time when I played it, but ended up being one that I never wanted to come back to. The game has a cool story about a kid who has a blanket, I believe, stolen, and you play as animals going under the bed with all the broken toys to get it back for her. But the mechanics were not that well taught and things that changed up on each different storybook page were worse taught.

39. Legacy of Dragonholt

Another one that was in my collection and left. When I heard about an RPG in a box, I thought it was going to be great. And in all fairness, it is a fun game with a lot of story in the box. But the story and writing was just okay. The best I can compare it is that it was written like a YA novel, but not one of the great ones. I think the system was very good, but I wanted writing.

38. Marvel Battleworld

This is dumb little game. I know it shouldn’t be this high on my list, though we’re not even half way yet. It is just a game where you roll a die and advance a track. The fun of the game is buying blind packs and getting little Funko figures. So I have it this high because it’s a fun toy with a little game attached to it.

37. Ghostbusters: The Board Game

We’re still in the area of games that are just okay, but we’re soon to games that are still in my collection. I loved the minis in the game, and the translucent ones look cool. But the game play was just okay. While there were different scenarios, they weren’t bad, but it wasn’t all that interesting. I just wished there was more.

36. Elder Sign

Another one that left my collection, some of that was just because I had only the base game. I have heard that the expansions help improve the game, and add more to the story of what you are doing. The base game is basically a Yahtzee type game, and I wish that it played a little bit faster for what it is.

35. Legends of Andor

Story driven puzzle game, Legends of Andor is good. The reason that it left my collection is that I never wanted to just sit down and play through all of it. So when I did want to play it, I’d play through the introductory scenario again and I did that a few times. But I like the story and the mechanics are pretty cool.

34. Sword & Sorcery

I played this one a lot, I got through the base game and one expansion. And I do like this game. Once I played that, though, I got rid of it. Even though I had more characters to play with, I wasn’t interested in going back through. The story doesn’t branch enough for that. And I wish that you could retire characters like in Gloomhaven.

33. Castle Panic

I almost culled this game, and I might, the board is a bit dinged so the FLGS didn’t take it. But the game is still playable. We’re not here to talk about that, though. The game is fun, and it’s a very light tower defense game. I like that I can play it with almost anyone, and while you rarely lose, it feels like you might. If I don’t lose a cooperative game fairly often, though, I will move on from it.

32. Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger

This is a fun silly little game. I would say that it’s pretty much a solo game. Because you all play as one character and basically just do a choose your own adventure. You can make decisions as a group and pass around who is reading and rolling a die, but that’s how it’s cooperative. It is fun for that, though, because it’s so silly that everyone is laughing together.

31. Mysterium

Mysterium bounces all over for me. I think it was in my Top 100 games this past year and now with this ranking it wouldn’t be. If and when I play it again, it likely will move up. This is about figuring out who the murderer is. And there are rules about how that all works, but really it’s about giving clues as a ghost to everyone so they can figure theirs out. It’s cool concept that can get in it’s way with how it tries to be a game.

30. Unlock Games

The better escape room style board game. Unlock Games you don’t destroy anything, unless in a fit of rage. And I like how it counts down building up pressure versus Exit which is just see how long it takes you. And there are a lot of these with a lot of different themes. I want to play more, but it’s kind of a lot of a game night and works better with 3-4 people not 6.

29. Arkham Horror

This is the 2nd Edition, I haven’t played my 3rd Edition yet, but I need to. This is a grand epic game that takes forever to play. But it is a lot of fun. I felt like when I’ve played it that I get into what is going on in the game. The story is light, but the longer you play, the more story develops just from what you are doing.

28. Dead Men Tell No Tales

I like pirates, so that helps this game. And the supernatural twist on it is good. It again falls into that category of do some things and then bad things happen. What ended up causing this one to leave my collection is that it is that bit more. There are so many things to keep track of and the game isn’t as familiar, I didn’t pull it out over Pandemic.

27. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

Another deck builder on the list, and one that I just got rid of as well. Why, because I own a lot of deck building games. This one I like the theme of it, and the mechanics are fun. The game gets a bit longer as you go, and I wish there were more characters in the base box. It’d be one I’d gladly get back when I have a group to play it.

26. Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth

It’s odd how many leave my collection, and this is another. And I actually just realized that I forgot to rank Star Wars: Imperial Assault which also just left. So this counts for both. They are great games, The apps work really well, and you can pick your preferred theme. These are campaign games with a nice sense of adventure, but because they are campaign games, that’s why they left.

25. First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet

This one is still in my collection, huzzah. And it’s probably surprising because when it came out people didn’t love it. But I really enjoy this game. It is a tough cooperative game where you can play all sorts of one off missions with different focuses. Or you can do a mini campaign. And it has an app, not a great one, to handle a lot of the bad things that happen, which I like.

24. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

I really should buy a copy of this game. I played a few times at Fantasy Flight Game Center and really liked it. But never picked it up, and then played a bunch on the app. There is story, campaign, deck construction, and a lot of cool card play. I prefer the game that this is based off of, but I’d gladly have both in my collection.

23. The Lord of the Rings

While some might argue this game is fairly abstract, where you are pushing up on tracks as you go through the story of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I really enjoy this game. It is a very hard cooperative game, but it gives you rewards at just the right time. It’s one I haven’t played in ages, but now that I’m thinking about it, I want to play it again.

22. Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

My favorite book series in a board game. When talking about this one, I always want to to point out that it is abstracted. And while the theme is there, it is mainly there if you know the books. I love picking out one of the books to play and then characters from that book and trying to beat the game. I like it best, I think at two, though three isn’t bad either.

21. Just One

Party game on the list, Just One is a great game. And I really like that we are getting a number of cooperative party games. Here one person is trying to guess a word, and everyone else gives them a one word clue. But any duplicate words cancel. Simple game, clever idea, don’t need to play for points, and always a blast.

20. Cross Clues

Another party game, I told you there are a few, Cross Clues I like just a little bit better. Though, last time I played it I was so tired that I messed up a few times. Here you are giving a one word clue to get people to guess the intersection of two words. So it might be day and octopus, what word is between those two? Eight might be a good option. Simple and a lot of fun again. You can play real time, 5 minutes, see how well you do, we never do that.

19. Pandemic

Here are all the Pandemic games. And I have to say, I don’t know that I need to play base Pandemic again. Pandemic Legacy games just kind of ruined it for me. Still in my collection, but like I said, I might get Flash Point and replace it. If I want to play Pandemic again, I’ll play legacy, I think.

18. Village Attacks

A bigger tower defense game, I am still waiting for my Kickstarter to come in. It funded in 2019. But I am excited for it when it does. Village Attacks has you playing as the bad guys with the villagers coming with pitch forks and torches. You might be grotesque or horrifying, but the theme is just funny to me, so while it’s a dark game, it doesn’t come across.

17. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

I really need to play more of this game, it’s another one that I just really love. Arkham Horror: The Card Game, is the living card game (LCG) from Fantasy Flight, and it’s so cool how they can do so many different things with the game. Great card play and fun deck construction that I want to do more of. I prefer it two player, I think, but it’s good solo as well.

16. Similo

Final party game on the list, but not final light game. Similo is game where one person is it. That person is giving clues of either a card being like or not like the secret card. Then the rest of the players eliminate cards. Simple concept for a game and a ton of fun, especially to mix decks. How do you tell players that a chicken is or isn’t like a vampire or medusa?

15. Apocrypha Adventure Card Game

This is the game that the Pathfinder Card Game was based on, though the Pathfinder one came out first, it’s confusing. But I like the dark theme of this one, there is warfare going on between supernatural forces, and not everyone can see it, but you can. So how can you stop it in the different scenarios. Good game, great art, and my sort of them. Horrible rule book.

14. Say Bye to the Villains

Definitely the hardest game on the list, at least in terms of winning. The play is simple, spend time to improve your stats, look at what a villain is doing, and hope that you can win when you run out of time. And there isn’t enough time to do everything in the game. I’ve come so close to winning so many times, I’m sure eventually I will.

13. The Reckoners

Pretty high on the list for limited plays, but I love the theme of the game. The Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson is a great series. And I love the game play, it’s tough, even on easy, but it has a lot of good choices. And you feel like you can do a lot on your turn as you roll dice and every face on the die is probably something you need.

12. Marvel United

Marvel United is a pretty easy game, but I love it a lot. In the game you are playing down cards to stop a super villain. As superheroes you all work together. So the last card you played, if I’m next to go, I’ll get to use as well. The villains also feel so different in this game, and while I have everything for it, the grab and go get it to the table is great.

11. Letter Jam

A game that just made me realize I forgot to rank Hanabi, I play a lot of cooperative games, Letter Jam is a game where you are trying to guess your word. But you can’t see the letters that make up your word. Only through clues and words given by other players can you infer what your letters are. There is some good strategy in figuring out what are good clues. Loads of fun and one that I think a lot of people will like.

10. TIME Stories

The highest escape room style game on my list, though this one has more going on than that. I really like TIME Stories for the puzzles that it gives. I haven’t played all of them yet, and I have heard that some are weaker than others. But every one that I’ve played thus far I really enjoy.

9. Roll Player Adventures

I’m really excited, I get to play into a campaign of this in February. Roll Player Adventures is my highlight from GenCon in 2019. Getting to playtest it was great. In the Roll Player universe, this takes characters you might have rolled up, or pre-made ones, and lets you take them on adventures. The adventures are fun, and the combat is interesting. It’s a lot of choose your own adventure and so good at that.

8. Mansions of Madness: 2nd Edition

Another Lovecraftian game, and another cooperative one. All of Fantasy Flights games in their Arkham Files line are cooperative. Mansions of Madness is app assisted and so much fun. Like Arkham Horror The Card Game, the game can be so different depending upon scenario. Some might have you stopping a ritual in a mansion, others exploring a town. One that I want to play more of to see what else they can do with it.

7. Sleeping Gods

You can watch me play this tonight, Jan 26th, on Malts and Meeples. Sleeping Gods is a big adventure game that I’m playing solo right now where you are the Manticore, a ship, and sailing around with crew that go on adventures. The game has an amazing aesthetic and story. Even though the story isn’t linear, it works well. And the world it’s set in is really cool.

6. Marvel Champions

I like Marvel a lot, and for me Marvel Champions is the best Marvel game. The different heroes feel like that hero, and you can take them up against any bad guy. While Marvel United you play as one hero they are a bit more generic. And Marvel Champions gives you that alter ego side, so you push and pull to keep the villain at bay. And there are so many heroes and villains already and there can be so many more.

5. Aeon’s End

Another one I talked about yesterday. Aeon’s End is a cooperative deck building game where you try and stop a nemesis. A great solo and two player game. There are so many set-ups and so many cards for it. Now this does include Legacy as well, which is a great introduction to the game. And I like that the randomness in the game isn’t shuffling your deck, it is turn order and what the monster does.

4. Xenoshyft: Onslaught

Another deck building game, this one is Starship Troopers and tower defense. I like how collaborative the game is. I build my deck, but if I have an extra troop and you need one, I can give it to you to defend your part of the base and it goes into your deck. It allows everyone to really balance out what is going on and have a chance, which is good, because it’s a tough game.

3. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

I feel like this one I talk about and always describe it in a way that doesn’t sound that fun. But in this game, I feel like I am a detective. It’s a bit like a detective TV show, but fun is how I put it. You get into the case and the theme and if you allow yourself to be immersed in figuring out the story going on it is a great time.

2. Tainted Grail

Another one from yesterday, Tainted Grail is an amazing story adventure game. You take these characters and build them up through a grim dark storyline. And the writing on the game is just so well done. In terms of thematic games, I feel like this one might top my list, though, not my favorite cooperative game.

1. Gloomhaven

For my favorite cooperative game, no shock, it’s Gloomhaven. I love this game. I love the leveling in this game and the card play in this game. And I love that you retire characters and get new ones. I think that the mechanics are amazing and the story is interesting. But overall it leads to a great cooperative experience.

Final Thoughts

I’m guessing since I missed Hanabi and Imperial Assault that I likely missed others. And I also found it interesting how many I’ve gotten rid of. I think a lot of that has to do with me having so many I’ve played. It means that they are fighting for playing time. So only the top ones stick around. Especially when you get down to campaign games, for those it’s even a tighter field because of Kickstarter games coming in and time.

What is your favorite cooperative game?

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

The Games

10. A Gentle Rain

This game might feel too much just like an activity.

9. Ohanami

The decision space, while matching the aesthetic of the game, might be too simple.

8. The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

You can bring the theme to the game but for a game that should have more theme it is very mechanical.

7. Apocrypha

The rule book is horrible.

6. Say Bye to the Villains

The game is too long for the stuff in the box.

5. Galaxy Trucker

Chaos and then destruction.

4. TIME Stories

You go on runs over and over again.

3. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

The game doesn’t let you do everything and you need the internet.

2. Icecool

It’s a flicking game.

1. Betrayal At House On the Hill

The scenarios are hard to understand and if a too strong a character is the traitor they can win easily.

The Beer

Last nights beer was from Bent Brewstillery out of Roseville MN. It is another brewery very close to where I live, though one I haven’t been to in a few years. They make good beer but not always my favorite beers. This one, a hazy fruited sour, O.P.P., is a very solid beer. To me, it would have been a great summer beer because of the very fruity nature. That sweetness balanced out against the tart nature of the sour for a very refreshing drink. I think that it’s getting a bit cold in Minnesota for a beer like that, but still really enjoyable.

What’s Coming Up On Malts and Meeples

Starting tomorrow I am tackling my Top 100 of all time live. The list is ready to go so every Wednesday at 8 PM from September 15th through November 17th I’ll be doing the next 10 on my list. Again that’s at 8 PM Central. Subscribe, click that notification bell and join me live as I talk about my Top 100 games of all time. That’s going to be mainly what I stream coming up here. There might be some Monday night streams, 8:30 PM Central, and those will be chats while playing a small game.

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

Why You Wouldn’t

There are obviously some reasons that you’d be unlikely to play campaign games again. A lot of them tell a story that is important to the game play as you go along. Once you know the story, it won’t be fresh or new again. You will see parts of the story over again even if the story does have some branching narrative paths. And that removes some of the fun of the game knowing what is coming up.

You also might have more campaign games to play. Honestly, this is what will keep me from revisiting something like Gloomhaven with another group soon. I have a lot of other campaign games to get through from Tainted Grail that I’m playing now to Reichbusters and Apocrpyha on the shelf now, and games like Middara, Frosthaven, and Oathsworn coming in probably this year. So it isn’t like I’ll be running out of games to play in the genre.

Why You Would

Now, there are reasons to again. I talk about how you might have seen a lot of the story, but you won’t have seen all of it. For example, I have played the first chapter of Tainted Grail 5 times now, twice solo, and then two different groups three times. I know I haven’t seen everything. I know that the group that I have played it twice with, I’ve done different things than before. So if the story is highly engaging and offers a wide variety, then there is reason to go back through it.

Mechanically if the game is interesting I’m more tempted to go back through it as well. For example, Gloomhaven, I love how that game works mechanically. I love the card play in it. I see going back to it eventually if my kid grows up to like board games. It is a big game, but it’d be something to share experience over, or if I have another group of players who really want to play it. I won’t get bored, even though I’ve seen a lot of story, playing through it again, because there are still classes I haven’t played.

Finally, bonding, board games are something that bring people together. And a campaign game can bring a group of people together more consistently. It is like Dungeons and Dragons that way, you can set-up a standing time where you play. It grows friendships and gives people a reason to get out and see people, which in Minnesota in the winter, you sometimes need. That is why I tried to keep it going, and we did a solid job of it, throughout the pandemic playing on TableTop Simulator or games via Zoom.

What Games Would I Wouldn’t I Play Again?

I think it might be useful to talk about the campaign games that I have played, the two I’ve finished and the one I’m going through now and see if I’d play them again and why. It is easy to explain that there are cool things about them, or I really like them, but is that enough to keep them around.

Tainted Grail

Let us start with the one that I’m playing. Mechanically the game is solid, but that isn’t the reason I have played it so many times. Some of it, thus far, is because it is hard. But the story is the element that really draws me back to it. I know, like I said, that there is more yet to find in that game. We finally made it to chapter four last night, and I’m seeing all sorts of new things that I didn’t know about before. I am going to new locations on the island of Avalon and fighting new monsters. For Tainted Grail that openness of the world and story is what keep me coming back to it.

Sword & Sorcery

Now, I sold this game, it might give you a hint. There are two things that kept me from wanting to come back to it. The story itself is fun, but it doesn’t branch much. So you play the story once, you know what will happen. And mechanically, it is a bit lacking at times as well. I love leveling up, getting new abilities, and fighting in new ways. But that doesn’t happen that often. So it ends up being the same thing, find a monster, use an ability, aim, and attack. You roll dice, and it’s just the same combos over and over. It is just missing that umph that Tainted Grail has.

Gloomhaven

Finally, Gloomhaven, that one is my #1 game of all time. It is staying in my collection, and I would gladly play it again. It doesn’t have the most in depth and branching story. But what it does well is give you enough story to keep it interesting. And it gives you a ton in it’s game play. Mechanically with all the different classes you can play, it is so much fun. We saw all of them in my play through, but I haven’t played all of them. So Gloomhaven gives you a lot to go back to, and you can just play randomly generated scenarios as well, which is cool.

Would you go back to a campaign game? What has made you go back if you have before? What do you look for in one that you think you might go back to?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

You can find my whole collection here.

Numbers

A’s

Aeon’s End: War Eternal & Legacy

I’m throwing these two together because they are kind of the same game. There are multiple versions of Aeon’s End all that build out a bigger world. Aeon’s End: War Eternal is the second in the series, and Aeon’s End Legacy I believe comes after that, though there might be one between. I really like this game as a deck building game. Mainly because it feels like you’re doing more than just deck building. You are preparing spells, dealing with threats to the town and trying to outlast massive monsters or take them down. I also like that for a deck building game you don’t have to shuffle, ever. When you play your cards you choose the order they go to the discard pile, you flip the discard pile, and if you figured it out correctly, you can set-up hands that have a lot of money in them, or for a real powerful combo.

Aeon’s End War Eternal Status: Played
Aeon’s End Legacy: To Be Played

Alien Artifacts

I got this one partly because it was really cheap and partly because you can play it solo. This is a card based 4X like game set in space. You are building up your space ship, getting technology researched and exploring new places, but really you’re playing cards. I like the idea that this will give some big space flavor in a smaller package. It also has a very nice and clean aesthetic to it which I like.

Status: To Be Played

Apocrypha Adventure Card Game

This game, base off of but also before the Pathfinder Adventure Card game, is a twisted magical version of our own world where there are demons and monsters and all sorts of crazy things that you have to deal with. I was interested in this game when it was originally on Kickstarter and then got a chance to grab it, some promo cards, and play it at GenCon in 2019. I like the world that this has created, and while I have found the rule book to be a bit janky, I do think that the game is a lot of fun. I also like how depending on where your skills are or cards are, it can influence how you can help and interact with other people on their turns. I like how you can also die with a character in this game and it’s expected that you will. This game also has some fun deck construction, more than deck building as in adding stuff in game. You do add stuff, but most of the time it’s going to be in and out of your hand. This will be a game I get to when I can start to do more of a campaign style game in person again, it just wouldn’t work at all over Zoom.

Status: Want to Play More

Arboretum

This is an abstract puzzle game about making the best, you guessed it arboretum and paths around your arboretum. You score points by putting out trees to creates paths of increasing numbers that start and end with the same tree. The trick is, that to score that you need to have that type of tree still in your hand at the end of the game, and there might be more, I own but need to play this one. It is a very pretty looking game, and I think that it looks like it’s a smart game and that it would have a lot of replayability to it with lots of groups of people. But it doesn’t look like it’s too complex. I like games that can be thinky but generally pretty straightforward.

Status: To Be Played

Arkham Horror 3rd Edition

This is a game that I picked up a while ago but I haven’t gotten to the table yet, and I need to. I picked it up because I liked Arkham Horror 2nd Edition, but that game was just a monster and took a long time. Arkham Horror 3rd Edition seems like a more streamlined version of the game. I love cooperative games, and I like challenging games, this one seems to be both. I also like the investigative feel of the Arkham games as well. I’m hoping it’ll live up to my expectations of being a really good game, but if not, I’m sure it’ll still be a lot of fun as I like all the Arkham stuff I’ve played from Fantasy Flight.

Status: To Be Played

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

This is a game that has been high in my Top 100, so clearly one that I’ve played a few times. I like the story telling in this game as you go around trying to get clues, deal with monsters and more. I also like how this game has deck crafting in it where you can build your deck with your character for a given campaign or scenario to the game. This is a living card game, not the last you’ll see in my collection, so that means that there is a lot of content you can get for it. I need to track down all for one of the stories and play through that, as it feels like it’ll be a very rewarding experience.

Status: Played

Ascension (Base, Delirium, and Dreamscape)

I like my deck building games, though most of the time I want them to do something more than just be about the deck building. Ascension is just about the deckbuilding, but that’s not a bad thing in my opinion. It is straightforward and easy to get into, and it feels like there’s just that one little bit extra that keeps it from becoming boring like Dominion does for me. I think the thing that does that is the changing market, the cards that you buy are put down from the top of a shuffled deck of cards, so there might be awesome cards for the Void one game that I can buy or it might be for Enlightenment or Constructs another game. You can’t plan a strategy and just stick with it, you have to be thinking on your feet and adapting to what the cards give you, and I really like that in a game.

Ascension Status: Played
Ascension: Delirium Status: Played On App
Ascension: Dreamscape Status: Played On App

That’s it for games that begin with the letter A. I have two games that I really love a ton in this section, Arkham Horror: The Card Game and Aeon’s End. I do like Ascension a lot as well. What is your favorite game to start with the letter A, excluding as is proper, games that begin with the word “A” or “An”, no articles allowed? Which is your favorite of mine?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here

Nemesis

This was one of the first games by Awaken Realms that I took note of. I didn’t actually back it the first time around, so I’m waiting on my copy from the second Kickstarter for it. Plus, this one is available in retail now, still might be tricky to find. This is a semi-cooperative game where each person has their own secret objective. In the game you are trying to survive an alien incursion onto your space ship, kill them off, and pilot back to earth. But of course, the aliens are out to get you and the engines and navigation are off-line. Plus, you might not want to end up on Earth, but to go to another planet instead, or you might have a rivalry with another character, so you won’t kill them, but you won’t help them in an alien flight. This game looks beautiful on the table with all of it’s minis and the game play is good as well.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

Another game by Awaken Realms, this one you’ll be able to find on the secondary market only, as I’m not 100% sure it’ll ever come to retail. But this is an epic campaign/adventure game in a wyrdness filled lands of Avalon, where the Menhir that King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table lit in the time of legends are starting to go out. A group was sent out from your town to explore and try and find somewhere or someone who could help in the lands, but they’ve been gone a long time. Now you and you and a few others in your town are being sent out to find them as the wyrdness and the tainted creatures start to come closer to the town. Can you survive? This game has a great story and is extremely hard as you push through it, trying to figure out how to survive, when to fight the monsters, when to run away, when to push into exhaustion and when to stop and rest. Overall, an amazing game, but like I said, it’s going to be harder to find.

Folklore: The Affliction

Maybe you want something that is a bit more standard fantasy, this game of ghosts, werewolves, and vampires, is definitely that, and definitely more D&D like. Greenbrier Games has created a DM less RPG type game, with set piece battles, travel and exploration and story that you can unfold as you go. This one is for that person in your life who is a bit more of a crunchy gamer as this really does straddle that line of being Dungeons and Dragons like with the dice you roll for attacks and damage. This one definitely has some challenge and survival to it, but as compared to Tainted Grail the difficulty level is easier and the story while dark is less dark. This one also doesn’t have the minis, though you could get them, and same with Tainted Grail actually, not that many minis. This one is also available via Greenbrier’s site, so one that you can get, it also might be available in some retail locations. There are a lot of small add-ons you can get as well for it, or big ones, such as minis.

T.I.M.E. Stories

This one is kind of a campaign game, but not really. In this game you are going through different scenarios in time and a multiverse, almost like an escape room. You are trying to figure out puzzles, deal with threats that come up, and interact with characters. You’re doing this as you race against the clock. Granted, only your consciousness is being sent back in time, into another body, so you can always try again. I know that some of the scenarios (and there is theoretically a campaign throughout, but not really) aren’t as good, but the four that I’ve played thus far have been a ton of fun. The puzzles are engaging, and while it can be a bit slow playing through part of the game that you’ve played before, it gives you a chance to checkout new parts of the story and world and decide what direction you want to go. I know that I always loved to delve possibly further in that I should have to see what I could find. Overall, a really cool game that has a lot of interesting scenarios.

The 7th Continent

This one has two different versions, there is a Kickstarter version that might be fairly hard to find, though I’ve started to see more show up on the secondary market, and there is a retail version. Both are going to be good, the retail version is just going to have some less content. In this game you awaken on the 7th Continent, an interesting land, knowing that you’ve been cursed. You then have to utilize cards, push your luck and explore the lands. Basically no minis in this game, but what is really interesting, and Tainted Grail does a similar thing, is what you explore the map as you go, and each curse might drop you into a different part of the map, but you’ll know what might be off in one direction if you head that way in future plays of the game. The first curse, for that reason, is extremely expansive and takes you all over the map and can take a very long time while ones after that are a bit more focused, so I will say, if you get this one or give this one, if the first curse is taking forever and you’ve sunk what you feel like is enough time into it, move onto the next one.

Now, i could go on further. Pandemic Legacy (any of the seasons) and Gloomhaven are two that I’ve talked about before that would certainly be epic games. Clank! Legacy, Aeon’s End Legacy, Reichbusters, deep Madness, Apocrypha, Dragonfire, Blood Rage, Zombicide, Mansions of Madness, Marvel Champions, Sword & Sorcery. All of these games have an epic feel to them at times and in their own way. So if none of the ones I’ve mentioned sound that interesting, you can spend some time going through those to see as well what might work best for yourself or who you’re giving the gift to.

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here

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?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

I’ve laid out one of the reasons why people play games solo, but I want to talk a bit about why I play games solo. First, board games don’t need to be a social activity, in fact some games you are playing by yourself just at a table with a bunch of other people at it. These games don’t have much interaction already, so the social aspect is just the table talking. However, there are some games that simply don’t give you time to talk to people more than just a little bit because you are going fast and trying to concentrate that you couldn’t carry on a conversation if you wanted.

Also, sometimes it’s hard to find time/people to play those board games with. There are games like Arkham Horror and Twilight Imperium that are all day events. You can’t get games like these to the table all that often, and then there are games like Dead of Winter which might be faster, but aren’t fast by any means. Dead of Winter still seems to take most of an evening whenever you play it, so while that’s easier to get to a table at two hours as compared to six, it’s still a good commitment for a lot of people. And even if you have the time to play a game like Arkham Horror, you might not have other people who have time to play it.

So when you need your board game fix, and you need that stimulation or reset for your brain after a busy day, solo gaming is a strong option. Most of the games that can be played solo don’t have a simple rule set that just allows you to only play with a single player and none of the rules change making the game either too hard or too easy, instead they have their own variant rules that keep the game balanced and challenging, or have been made specifically for a single player.

So what are some options for single player games, are there any good or interesting titles out there?

Onirim

This is a game that was specifically made for a single player though I believe there is a way to play with two players if you want. It’s a fairly simple game. You play as someone who is trapped in a nightmare and are trying to collect all the doors to be able to escape the dream. The game is a card game and you are trying to match sets of different colors as you play cards from your hand to find these dream doors. However, there are nightmares lurking in the deck trying to stop you from escaping. This game has a pretty small footprint and doesn’t have anything more than a deck of cards and a little nightmare token that isn’t needed to play the game. So it’s an easy one to take along somewhere if you are waiting at somewhere that has a small table.

Arkham Horror LCG

Not to be confused with Arkham Horror the giant board game, which you might be able to play solo, Arkham Horror the LCG is still Lovecraftian themed, but instead of a big board, you are playing cards and building up your investigator to try and complete the various scenario you are playing through. These scenarios are why it is called an LCG or Living Card Game. The game can be played without buying any additional cards or story packs, but once you’ve played through it, you might want to play a different story. So you can buy a pack of cards that has a new story for you to investigate. The game has a strong puzzle feel to it as you try and balance resources, race against the clock to complete the story, and what you do in a previous part of the story, they are generally three chapters, can influence future chapters. This game doesn’t have to be played solo, and can be played by four people if two sets are combined, but works really well as a solo game.

Legacy of Dragonholt

Another Fantasy Flight game, this one is a RPG like game. You design your character, giving them abilities that you’ll use as you go through a scenario. As you read through the scenario, you make decisions and use your abilities to open up options. Like Arkham Horror LCG, your decisions can effect future games. This is what gives the game a legacy feel. I’ve only played through a single scenario with this game as I think that Kristen would like it quite well, and it’s a game that can be played with a greater number of players. So should I consider this a solo game? I think that it is, not just because it has the option, but because the game has replayability so that playing it as a group certainly wouldn’t prohibit you from playing it again. Just going through the first scenario, there were plenty of story chunks that I didn’t read and plenty of story bits that I won’t know.

Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

It’s a handful of a name, but a really fun game. The Dresden Files Cooperative Card game takes you through the Dresden Files. There is a scenario for each book and a ton of different characters from those books to play as. It also gives you an option to create your own missions for even more replayability. What makes this interesting is that as a single player game, you can play with up to four, you play with three characters and have less cards to beat the game with than most other player counts. Yes, you have more knowledge than with a lower player count, but it is still challenging. The game has some very nice resource management, and the fact that the story board is set-up randomly each time means that playing the game twice won’t unfold the same. It’s a well developed game where it’s almost always close at the end and you’re just hoping for the last thing to go your way.

There are a lot more that can be solo played games as well if you’re interested at jumping in. A lot of the Legendary Games, Buffy, Aliens, Firefly, and Big Trouble in Little China can be played solo, and these more story based ones flow better than the more generic Marvel one that I had a review of saying that I didn’t like it all that well. Robinson Crusoe is another game that is about resource management that takes you through different challenging scenarios. You’ll find that a lot of cooperative games have a solo option because you’re always working with a little bit of open information and working together as a team. Even a massive game like Gloomahven can be played as a solo game with a variant to help you make it more challenging. I also have sitting yet to be played Apocrypha and 7th Continent for solo gaming.

If you’re looking for a way to unwind after a long day or just looking for more board gaming in your life, consider solo board gaming as an option. What games have you played as a solo game?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.