• These are my favorite, you want what people consider best, see the Board Game Geek Top 100
• If a game you love isn’t on the list, it might be be coming, I might not have played it, and if I have, it’s 101
• If a game looks cool, I have links to buy it from CoolStuffInc or Amazon, or you can grab most at your FLGS
• There are a few games, Destiny 2 Player versus regular Destiny where if they are basically the same thing, I only do one of them

80. Lift Off! Get me off this Planet!

This game has the honor of being the first game that I backed on Kickstarter. When I backed it, I did so without really having the gaming collection that I have no or the experience gaming, I just thought that the game looked fun, and, well, I was right. This game is pretty simple, you move around aliens to get them off the planet, but there is some challenge, because you need the right stuff to get them off the planet, and you need the moon to be in the right phase to get them off the planet at certain locations. So while the game is simple and very cute, there is some strategy, there is some timing, because if you don’t have enough resources placed at the right time for the launch, you might have to wait for the moon to travel around again. The game looks great on the table, and while it’s not one that I pull out and play a ton, it is a fun one to play.

Last Year: Not Ranked

79. Codenames: Pictures

Now, you will not see Codenames on the list, I’ve come around on it a little bit, but I don’t enjoy Codenames that much. Linking the words can be done, but there are some issues with it, people need to know all the words and all the possible meanings/slang for the words to really make it work. With Codenames: Pictures, there are just a whole lot more interesting ways to connect the pictures. It makes the game faster, a bit easier, but also has more memorable moments and memorable clues where you can get a lot of answers. Codenames: Pictures just has more of the party feel to the game for the weight that it’s at and I like it for that.

Last Year: 75

78. Dead Men Tell No Tales

I’m a big fan of cooperative games, and Dead Men Tell No Tales is a fun pirate themed one where you are going onto a cursed and burning pirate ship to try and grab all the treasure and leave before the ship burns and you get cut off from either the treasure or your escape. The game can get to you in a lot of ways with the fire, the guardians, the skeletal crew and just a nice challenging feel that has a bit more going on than base Pandemic, so is a bit less of a gateway game. But if you have someone in your life who likes games and pirates, and is even just familiar with modern gaming, this is a really enjoyable game. Not one of the cooperative games that gets played most often, but one I like quite well.

Last Year: 81

77. King of Tokyo

When we talk about gateway games, King of Tokyo has to be one of them that comes up. It uses a Yahtzee style dice rolling in a fun way as you all take on the roll of monsters who are battling it out over Tokyo. The game plays fast and you can either win by knocking out all the other monsters (the most fun way), or by getting points (also fun, but less punching). You can improve what you do by getting power and buying cards. And you can go into Tokyo where you can punch everyone, but the issue is everyone can then punch you. The game is fast, it’s pretty silly, and while there is player elimination, that rarely happens and then the game continues for a long time. Overall, just a fun gateway game that works best at the higher player counts.

Last Year: 37

76. Sword & Sorcery

I promise you this isn’t the only dungeon crawler on the list. It’s the first just because compared to some of the others on the list, the story isn’t as interesting. But there are some parts of the game that I really like. I like the leveling up mechanic and I like that you have two sides to each character. It makes the game feel like I could play it again with the same characters and it would play differently. And this is a true Amerithrash game where you have a big handful of dice for an attack or defense and you better roll well or you might be in trouble. And while the game has a massive rulebook and a few trickier rule things, like who a boss monster might target and how that changes, the game is actually pretty easy, you just move, explore, and fight basically, and fighting is done with the dice. I wish the story felt like it had more choices to it, but that’s about my only knock on it.

Last Year: 25

75. Skull

A very different type of game than most on my list, this is a push your luck bluffing game. Each player has a hand full of cards, a bunch of roses and a skull. Players take turns putting down a card in their own stack, face down, until someone bids on how many cards they can flip over without hitting a skull. The trick to it is that you have to flip over all of your own cards first. So if you’ve placed your skull in your stack, can you bid, just to push someone else’s bid higher so that they’ll hit yours and bust, or will you bust yourself because you’ll be stuck flipping over your own skull. There’s some interesting strategy in how you play and how you bid, but really it’s about reading the other players at the table to figure out what they’ve done.

Last Year: 99

74. Risk Legacy

First Legacy game on the list and just first overall legacy game in the hobby. While this game doesn’t have the story that the more modern ones do or try to have, the game play is still a lot of fun. It’s risk, but there’s more, you aren’t just fighting over the world, you’re fighting over bases and you’re trying to complete missions and if you can pull them off, you get victory points and the first person to hit the victory point threshold wins. Plus, all of the factions are different. And you get to decide how they are different as you add stickers to them, so you can make them better at attacking or better at defending, or maybe you get more troops to start. There’s all sorts of different strategies that you can take, but it still feels like classic Risk for the most part, it just goes much faster. Overall a fun time especially if you like Risk but can’t play it too often because it lasts too long.

Last Year: 79

73. Pandemic Legacy Season 2

Back to back legacy games, Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 is a bit further down on my list than Pandemic Legacy Season 1. I think that it tries to do a lot of new and different things, and while I think it does most of them well, it bogs down a little bit with all the new things you need to learn. That said, for being quite different than Season 1 and base Pandemic in what you’re trying to do, the mechanics seem really familiar and can get going on the base game quickly, there’s just a twist on to everything. So if you haven’t just gone from one type of Pandemic to the other, you’ll probably be able to pick up on those changes quickly. The story is very interesting, and there is a lot of legacy content in the game.

Last Year: 84

72. Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate

I like all of the Betrayal games, this one is just a bit further down on the list, because while I like the D&D theme to the game, it just doesn’t seem as epic and as good a thematic fit as horror does. This one does have some cool features though, class powers are awesome. I like that about 1/5 of the scenarios have no betrayer, there is just some monster or something that you have to do as a group, that makes it easier to keep track off since some of the haunts (betrayals) can be a bit tricky to understand and if you’re the betrayer you don’t have anyone to ask. They also fix an issue that can arise in the regular game where the haunt happens too fast. It’s still swingy and tricky to understand all the haunts, but I like it a lot and I like the silly random moments that you can have in the game, and the great rolls or the horrible rolls you can have.

Last Year: 35

71. Magic: The Gathering

By far the biggest game on the list, and actually a game that I have sold most of what I have for it, because I don’t have a consistent group to play with for the past few years. But I still really like the game. I especially like playing EDH (Commander). I never got into the competitive magic scene, but for more casual play and people not busting the bank buying stuff, I think it’s a lot of fun. I really can get into the deck building because you can come up with all sorts of odd and interesting combos and for me coming up with something odd and seeing if it can work is a blast. I like to try strange strategies and see if they’ll work or build a whole deck off of the concept of flipping and coin and see what happens with that and how well that’ll work. A few years ago this would have been higher, it’s just not one that I’m sure I’ll get to play that often anymore.

Last Year: 60

A whole lot of moving and shaking on my list. I think some of that is because, or the ones that are dropping, I like another game that does something similar that much better so it takes a bit of a hit. At least that is what I’m guessing. Still, I was a bit surprised to see a few of the games having dropped as far as they did from the 20’s and 30’s. Still really enjoy those games, just might not be the ones I pull off the shelf to scratch that game playing itch.

What is your favorite from this part of the list?

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***Disclaimer***
These rankings are the opinion of yours truly, and if you don’t like them, that’s okay. We all have different tastes in games and that is great. There are some games that I’ve only played as a demo, and I felt like I got enough of a feel to put them on the list, thanks GenCon for all the demos. These are living rankings so next year I’m sure that things will change, so I’ll probably be doing another one next year. Thanks to Board Game Geek for letting me enter/rate my collection and games I’ve played. Thanks to Pub Meeple for creating a tool that pulls in those games that I’ve rated and creating a ranking tool. Again, the numbers and names will be linked to Cool Stuff Inc and Amazon if you’re interested in the games.

40 – Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger
If you remember the silly choose your own adventures from the 90’s and earlier, that’s what this game is. You Read a bit of text, come to a decision point, and you hope to make the right decision so that you don’t die. But unlike the books, unless you kept your fingers stuck in spots to remember where you were, this is more forgiving and tells you where to go back to and try again. The game play for this is very simple, there are a few things besides making a decision that require a die roll, and if you do poorly, you can generally try to roll the die again, but it might be harder to get the roll you need. So, if you want something with decisions that really matter and are tough to make, House of Danger isn’t for you. If you want a silly fun time with your friends, House of Danger is a ton of fun with a completely absurd story. That’s what I was looking for, and I’m excited to play the second one sometime as it seems absurd as well. The simplicity of this game also makes it easier to play with non-gamers who might know the books, because this plays like the books.

39 – Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale
Is this connected to Roll Player which was down further on the list, technically yes. However, beyond the artwork that is similar, I don’t think there’s much of a connection, just the game developers wanting to keep their games in the same world. That said, Cartographers is a fun flip and write (roll and write) game where you are either placing one type of land in one of two shapes or one of two types of land in one shape. There are a lot of roll and write or flip and write games that have that put a shape on the board mechanic, but what makes Cartographers different? First, there are monsters, and when there are monsters, you pass your sheet to another player and they put the monster onto the sheet for you, and monsters can give you negative points if you aren’t careful. There’s some more player interaction in the game because of that. You also have interesting scoring which makes it feel different, instead of just scoring at the end of the game, you score 4 seasons, and instead of scoring everything in each season, you score two objectives (A & B) in spring, B & C in summer, C & D in fall and finally D & A in winter. So each objective gets scored twice, so you can’t just plan on one type of scoring, but if you want, you can lean into only a couple of them. Catographers while really being a little abstract game that doesn’t need to be a Roll Player Tale remains a lot of fun.

38 – Ticket to Ride
A classic game, Ticket to Ride as well as Catan are the two games that I would say got me into modern gaming. In Ticket to Ride you are trying to build routes between specific locations that you have on route cards. To do that, you need to take specific colored train cards to complete sections, get points, and get points for completing the routes. Ticket to Ride is a pretty simple game, but it’s a fun one as you try and figure out ways to get all your routes to stick together so you can get the bonus for a longest collection of trains in a row. This is very much a gateway game that a lot of people have seen, even if they haven’t played it. And the rules are simple, but there is a bit of strategy to it, to determine what routes you keep, to try and figure out where other people are going so that you know if you have to get ahead of them so that you can complete a route as efficiently as possible. This isn’t a big and thinky game, but it works really well at what it’s supposed to be, that game that almost anyone can sit down and play.

37 – King of Tokyo
Another gateway game, I’d say, is King of Tokyo. This game is all about giant, generic, monsters fighting in Tokyo and punching each other, who will be the last monster standing. Now, there is another way to win, by getting points, but most of the games of King of Tokyo that I’ve played, it’s been the last monster standing who won. The game is pretty simple as you are rolling dice Yahtzee style, so re-roll up to three times, to get things like fists for punching, energy to buy cards that give you a special power or points, hearts to heal, or just generic numbers that can maybe get you points. The trick of the game is that when you are in Tokyo, you can punch all the rest of the monsters around Tokyo with a single fist, but you can’t heal, so you have to decide how long you’ll stay in Tokyo, because you do get points for being there as well. The game is simple, it’s fast, and there is plenty of variety in the power cards that you can buy. All the monsters in the base game are generic monsters that a number of them are clearly riffing off of some other monsters like King Kong or Godzilla, but they didn’t get the rights to them. I wish each monster had their own powers, out of the box, but it is an expansion you can buy, if you have the 2nd edition of the base game, which I don’t. This really is one of those games, though, because of the simplicity that most people will enjoy, and because it’s rolling dice, it’s going to feel familiar, even though there’s more going on than a lot of old dice games.

36 – Onirim
This is the only purely solo game on my list, but one that I really enjoying playing with the cards and playing on the app. I think I like the physical copy more, just because I like to have the cards in my hand. But with digital one is nice since you shuffle cards a lot in the game. In the game, which is very abstract, you are in a dream world looking for doors to escape and trying to avoid nightmares. In reality, you are playing down groups of three cards, one at a time, in order to play doors, or getting them into play other ways and then discarding cards when nightmares come up, or spending keys that make it easier to put doors into play, but can also cancel a nightmare. If you get all the doors in play before the deck runs out, you escape the dream, if you don’t, you lose the game. I think I win just over 50% of the time. You can see a playthrough of this game on the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. What I like about this game is that it is simple and fast, and you don’t need a ton of room to play it. I’ve been able to play the game while watching TV shows that I don’t need to fully pay attention to, because while there is a lot of good depth to the game, the decisions end up being somewhat clear, except when the nightmares come up, so you can play it fast with only paying some attention. If you are looking for a solo game to try, I’d highly recommend Onirim.

35 – Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate
The other Betrayal game that I’ve played will be much higher on the list. But Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate is a ton of fun as well and I like the Dungeons and Dragons setting. In it, you are a group of adventurers who are back in town and just going around, finding things in the town, however, there are horrible things lurking in the town waiting for one of you to betray your friends. To do this, you are finding omens, and if a roll happens where you don’t get a high enough result, the haunt happens. In the haunt, the betrayer has a secret objective and the rest of the players have their objective, and they know generally what the other persons is, so they are trying to stop them and complete their own objective. Or sometimes, it might be something like a dragon attack so everyone works together, which is fun as well. Then, whatever side gets their objective done wins. The game really plays in two different parts, and I think it works well. I like playing as a character with a unique power, and while the theme doesn’t quite fit the mechanics like the other Betrayal game, this one is still a lot of fun to play, and feels like they’ve improved some of the balancing of the game that the other Betrayal had. If you think Betrayal sounds interesting but don’t like horror, Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate does a good job with it’s fantasy Dungeons and Dragons theme.

34 – Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl
This game isn’t even out yet, I think they were selling copies at Essen Spiel in Germany this past week, but I got to play a good demo of it at GenCon, and I feel in love with it immediately. The aesthetic is very fun with the fallout of Chernobyl having caused mutated monsters to show up, plus there might be magic now. In the game you are looking for artifacts that you can use to get into the main vault at Chernobyl and probably unleash a horrible monsters, but theoretically it’s some treasure worth having. The game is challenging as it’s competitive and you’re racing your other players, fighting these mutants and dealing with events in the world. But you are finding gear that’s still left around, and it can be what you needed to take care of a monster. This seemed like it would be a pretty long game, but the aesthetic is great and what you are doing seems challenging enough, plus, you have a countdown before the treasure is lost forever, so you can’t spend too much time. I’m really waiting for this game to be for sale in the US, because I want to get to play it more and fight more monsters in hopes of finding out the secrets. The characters felt cool and different, the monsters were different, and how you fought them was cool. Definitely a bigger game than some of the previous ones on the list.

33 – Century: Golem Edition
This is another very pretty game, while Zona was very monster filled and post apocalyptic, Century is very cute with some very pretty gems. In this game, you are buying cards for your hand in order to improve the gems that you have, so you can get the right collection of gems so you can power up various golems which give you points. This is very much an engine building game where you are looking to get the right cards so that you can turn gems into various types easily. This game plays fast because you are either paying for a golem, trading gems, or getting a card. But for being a fairly simple and fast game, you definitely have a good amount of decisions to make as to how you build up your engine. The draw for people who might not be gamers with this game, because I could see using this as a gateway game, is that the pieces are amazing. There are so many pretty gems, the golems look amazing, and there are metal coins that are fun to hold and mess with. There is another version of Century, Century Spice Road that came out first, but the Golem Edition definitely looks better and will have a broader appeal.

32 – The Lost Expedition
You are walking through the jungles of South America, and you are searching for the fabled lost city of Z, will you be able to find it before all of your guides die? That’s what this cooperative game asks of it’s players as you spend resources like bullets and food to navigate cards as well as the various skills in survival, tracking, and nature that your guides have. I’m really noticing that the game higher on the list all really have very nice aesthetics, as this game has great artwork that looks like Tintin by Herge comic art. But, beyond that, this game does a cool thing where it is cooperative, but players have a hand of cards which is for creating a path for the morning and evening walks, but you can’t tell people what is in your hand, so you have to decide what to play down yourself, and you lose a bit of the alpha gamer. Then, as a group, you go down the path you laid out for the day in hopes to get closer to the lost city of Z, while keeping your guides in good shape. The thing is, you never will, but that’s just part of the game, the question is, can you rush along fast enough but not do too dangerously. The game makes you make tough decisions on when to play certain cards and you hope that you get the good cards when you need them, because, not enough food, a guide loses a health, or no bullet, might be a worse option instead that you have to do on a card with a jaguar. I think I have over a 50% win total, but it’s generally close and a lot of fun as you’re worried about it.

31 – Sushi Go Party!
Final game in this section of my top 100. This game is another good looking game, though less on the table, and more with the cute artwork on the cards. A lot of people will prefer 7 Wonders as a card drafting game, but for me, Sushi Go Party! is the better of the two games because the artwork is cute anthropomorphized little Japanese foods like nigiri, sashimi, or pudding. In this game, you are trying to gets sets of different types of cards to get you more points. To do this, you are taking one card from your hand of cards and playing that, then you pass your cards either to the left or to the right and the take a card from the hand of cards that is passed to you. But you are looking at a lot of different things to determine how you want to get points. If you get nigiri they are guaranteed points, but they aren’t a ton of points, and sashimi can be ten points, but only if you have three of them. And tofu is worth five points if you have two of them, but if you get a third, they are worth zero points, because you don’t want to fill up on tofu. This game has variable different scoring, so you can play it over and over again with different scoring and what you’ll be drafting will change up. It’s also a game that is pretty easy to teach, even with having that out there, and the cute looks helps make it interesting to more people.

Alright, another ten done, we’re getting close to the end, if I’m right, we’ll finish on Friday, which will be exciting. I’m glad that I have a board game night coming up soon so that I can get some of these games to the table again.

What are some games that look like fun from this part of the list. This is definitely a section of my top 100 where the games are a lot lighter, but definitely a good time to play. Are there any that you love? Are there any that you want to play?

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So can a board game bring in a feeling of horror or can a board game be scary?

Obligatory joke, if the rules are bad it can be scary.

But the game itself can a board game be scary, possibly, and it elicit a sense of horror in a game? I don’t think that they can.

Board game are inherently social by nature. Sure, there is a huge push towards solo gaming, but with the exception of a few games, they aren’t only built for a solo audience. So you are experiencing something as a group. When you do that, things are generally less horrifying. Even when something scares you, you can talk about it and joke about it with the group. In fact, this is why when I go into haunted houses, I tend not to interact with my group or at least speak. I want the more immersive experience, but in a board game, it’s not built to work that way. Board games, in cooperative ones that could really draw out the most horror for the group, have you planning and discussing.

But board games can do a few other emotions that you can experience that get close to horror. Good board games should have a feeling of tension. Again, going to cooperative games, you can have a game where you are looking for that one card before a timer runs out. Or in Pandemic, you know that an epidemic is probably going to be coming up shortly and you hope that you get what you need or you can abate a situation before it happens in what could be that next card flip. You can also have a sense of dread. I think that Arkham Horror does a decent job of this as does the card game, you are pulling a chit from a bag and you are worrying that it is going to be something that makes the situation much worse. Or you are pulling a card and you know that there is something that might cause the big bad guy to win or at least show up and make the game way more difficult. And you know that it’s going to happen eventually and as you pull more good cards, the closer you are to that very bad thing happening and the more likely it is that the next pull is going to be that bad one. I think that Betrayal at House on the Hill does a solid job of this as you roll for the haunt after every omen.

What are board games missing, then, to keep them from feeling horrifying and can they get there?

This actually goes back to my apps in games or technology in games. Something like Chronicles of Crime isn’t horrifying with it’s VR technology as you look at a crime scene. Yes, it is a crime scene and they could make it easily horrifying if they wanted to, but they haven’t. Plus, that asks the question, is that part of the board game. You can look back into the archives and find that article if you want to discuss that more. But I think that’s an obvious way that you could create a jump scare, but I’m not sure that it would be a lasting sense of horror still.

Again, board games are such as social experience for me, and even when I solo game, that is basically always done on the stream, so I feel like I’m still engaged with an audience. So you’d have to get the whole group feeling horrified at the same time. I think another thing that is often missing that really can create a sense or horror and might work for a group is the ambiance. So you could turn down the lights, add in some spooky noise or music in the background and I think that would help create a bit more of a sense or horror, but I feel like it is still going to fall short. I feel like dread is the best word to describe it as you worry about the bad thing that is going to happen.

Now, it’s hard to say that dread is horror though, it might touch on that because you are getting a sense of fear from the card pull, but I think with horror, most of the time you are having fear but you don’t know of what. With dread, you are fearing what is inevitably going to happen. And again, with an app, you might be able to create more fear because you don’t know what is going to happen as you unfold a story.

I think that’s the final way that you can help create a sense of horror. I think with a good story that you can get a sense of horror in a game. Again, I’m going to say that an app is going to be helpful. A good narrator in the app is going to be able to read some part of the story in the right tone with the right background noises to make it feel more horrifying. If I were to read it myself, and I didn’t want to spoil what is coming up, I wouldn’t be able to intone correctly to create that sense of building tension and dread that you’d want. Even with that, I feel like it’s less horrifying, because you are still part of that group.

So, no, I’m not sure that a board game could ever truly be horrifying by itself. I think even with an app that is playing the right music and telling the right story that are part of the game, you are still part of the group. The other things, like dimming lights and creating a spooky feel, those are outside of the game that you can use to enhance a feeling of horror. Now, I think that’s probably a fine thing, I think the tension of a roll or a card draw and the sense of impending doom, those can be enough for a board game, because you don’t always want to be terrified. But because you can’t really do a jump scare, unless you are adding in VR to the mix, the game feels like it’s never going to be truly horrifying because you’re never truly afraid of what is around the next corner.

What do you think, can a game be horrifying or scary? What is the game that gets the closest for you?

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But in that top 10 for TV shows, Kristen had Doctor Who on the list. And she thought that I might have it on my list, but it wasn’t even in my honorable mentions. And if you look at my top 5’s that I’ve done at the end of every year, you’ve been able to see that falling on that list and then off that list.

What does that mean for me having liked that show? Is it okay to have something fall off for you as a fan? And should you feel bad about not being as much of a fan anymore?

Let’s start with the first question, because that has a lot to unpack. What does that mean for me (or you) as a fan of something for a long time and it falling off our list of fandoms we’re big into? And also let’s toss in if we should feel bad about not being a fan anymore as well to our questions.

I think that there are several different emotions that can come through with this process. Both that I can think of easily are betrayal, but from different directions. First, as a fan, when our interest starts to wain in fandom, we can feel like we are being betrayed by the fandom. We want to keep enjoying it, but it isn’t enjoyable to us anymore for whatever the reason might be, and we feel like the show isn’t, but should be, doing what we want and need it to do to keep our interest. There can be plenty of reasons why it doesn’t keep our interests or meet our needs anymore. It can because of the fan base, it can be because of the show/movie/book/comic/etc. itself where the quality or the storyline has changed to not match our expectations, or it can be because we’ve changed our place in life or our mindset in life, and now the fandom doesn’t meet our needs anymore. The feeling that it betrayed us can also lead to resentment for what it did previously. Sometimes this is valid, but most of the time, we need to remember that the betrayal we’re feeling about where it’s ended up doesn’t undo what we used to love about it, and doesn’t invalidate our good times with the fandom before.

But, you can also feel like you are betraying the fandom. That’s why I combined two of the questions here, because as a fan, we often have to deal with our own emotions of feeling like we need to force ourselves to like something still, or if we don’t like something anymore, we are betraying it. As fans though, it isn’t our requirement to like something and it isn’t reasonable to think that we won’t have changing tastes throughout our lives. Also, if the thing we’re a fan of is good, even if it’s not for us anymore, it’s going to be growing, and fans will be being added, maybe not as fast as we’d hope, but us leaving the fandom isn’t going to cause the fandom to crumble. And the fandom, as a whole, isn’t going to be insulted that we don’t like something anymore. And even our friends in the fandom, if they are true friends, aren’t going to be resentful if we don’t love it like we used to. Now, I will add in the caveat that we need to be respectful when we leave, this comes back to remembering our good times with something and not letting our current feelings invalidate what has been before.

Let’s tackle that last question quickly as well, is it fine to stop being a fan of something?

The answer to that should be pretty obvious, the answer is yes. People change as they grow in life, as they develop new interests, and as what they are of a fan of changes. We shouldn’t feel like we are betraying something or being betrayed by it, because change is a natural progression of life. And while it might feel like you won’t find something the same or that you’re leaving something important behind, you’ll find things to replace it. I used to be much more into movies than I am now, or Doctor Who as the example was to start, but, let’s go with movies. The reason that I’m less into movies now is that with a 7 month old, it’s harder to watch movies and sleep. Movies are simply too often too long, and while I make an exception for Marvel movies pretty often, I’m much more apt to watch TV (and recorded TV shows at that), because two episodes is an hour and a half which is shorter than a lot of movies.

Another reason it’s fine to stop being a fan of something, is that you might come back to it. I might come back to Doctor Who. I might come back to movies, it’s just a season in my life where these things aren’t as meaningful to me. We have to remember as fans of stuff, that just because we stop liking something doesn’t mean that we can’t come back to it. And if someone we know leaves a fandom and then wants to come back later, we need to be welcoming. I think that can be an intimidating piece that keeps fans in a fandom longer than they’d want, because they are worried about getting back into it, if their fandom is peaked again.

It’s a tough topic to write about in some ways. I think with Doctor Who, there was just enough effort keeping up with it that it made falling away from it pretty easy. But thinking about it, the seasons and episodes that I do love, I do want to watch again sometime. So it isn’t like I’ve completely divorced myself from Doctor Who, and I’m sure at some point in time I’ll be back to it as something draws me back in, but when that happens, that will be the time. I can’t spend time feeling bad for any reason, because there are so many other great things to be a fan of.

What is something that you’ve had your fandom wain on? Did you feel bad about it, like it was betraying you or you were betraying it?

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There are 13 different games and each one is a generation coming back to the house.

So generationally I’m assuming we might see stuff like clues left behind or maybe part of the house becomes too run down, that’s just my speculation, but it’s very interesting.

Thankfully, board games have moved forward since then into the world of what is called “European style” board games. This type of game balances strategy by giving you many ways to win, hides who is leading, and sometimes even involves cooperative play. The original example of this type of game is Settlers of Catan. This game really created a new style of tabletop gaming, which has been expanded upon greatly since.

Welcome to Table Top Games 101.

There are many different types of board games to jump into, and it can seem like an overwhelming sea. Whether you are a new player or someone who grew up playing games, there can be too much to process. What I want to do is simplify the different types of games out there and give you a starting point so you can really enjoy playing games as a social experience (which will be an upcoming post in the board game curriculum).

Types of Games

Classic Games

Image Credit: Hasbro

These games tend to be either logic- or luck-based, and the winner is either the one who knows the best strategy for the game or the person who ends up being luckiest.

Some of these games are:

• Monopoly
• Clue
• Scrabble
• Uno
• Phase 10

These games can still be enjoyable, and are nice to play when you want to stick with an old classic.

Party Games

Image Credit: BlackLightGames

Party games are best when played with large groups. They are more meant for a good laugh than actually determining a winner or a loser and are generally fairly fast-paced.

Some of the better ones of these are:

• Scattergories
• Catch Phrase
• Wits and Wagers
• Stipulations
• Cards Against Humanity (NSFW)
• Fluxx

These games tend to get played out fairly quickly, and if you play them too often, you start to learn the answers to the trivia, or start to see cards more than once. On the other hand, there are a lot of party games out there, so if you are fine buying several, they won’t become too repetitive.

Euro Games

Image Credit: Days of Wonder

What makes the “Euro” games different is that they tend to have more than one way of scoring–for example, both during the game and at the end of the game. This means that someone who doesn’t appear to be close to winning can come from behind in the tallying of the final points. These games also do a good job of giving the players a variety of ways that they can play and win the game.

Some examples of Euro games:

• Catan
• Ticket to Ride
• Five Tribes
• King of Tokyo
• Carcassone
• Smallworld

Cooperative Games

Image Credit: Z-Man Games

This category is pretty straightforward–instead of playing against someone, everyone plays together to try to beat the game. These games tend to be more story-based than traditional ones are.

Some cooperative games:

• Pandemic
• Forbidden Island
• Forbidden Desert
• Lord of the Rings
• Castle Panic
• Elder Signs

These games are great to play with a less competitive group, as no one will feel like they are getting ganged up on since you’re working toward a common goal.

Semi-Cooperative Games

Image Credit: Wizards

This category is similar to the one above, but instead of everyone working together, there is a player or a group of players working against the objective of the team, often hidden from the rest of the players.

Some of the best semi-cooperative/traitor games are:

• Resistance
• Betrayal at House on the Hill
• Shadows of Camelot
• Dead of Winter

Just be warned–if someone in the group is really good at lying, there could be hurt feelings at the end of these games, but since the traitor(s) are randomly chosen, that does help in that regard.

Deck-Building Games

Image Credit: Upper Deck

There are two types of deck-building games: one where you have a pre-constructed deck that you are playing from and one where you build the deck as you go. The second type is the most common. You add cards to your deck to be able to play more cards and perform more actions to get you closer to winning.

Some deck-building games are:

• Magic the Gathering (preconstructed decks)
• Dominion
• Legendary

Role-Playing Games

Image Credit: Wizards

This is a category that is hard to define, but the best way that I can put it is that these are cooperative storytelling games. They’re often directed by one person who sets the scene for the story while the other players fill in details.

Popular role-playing games include:

• Dungeons & Dragons (check out our Dungeons & Flagons Podcast for what playing sounds like)
• Pathfinder
• Fiasco
• Shadowrun
• Star Wars

You can tell many different stories in many different ways giving a very fun experience for those playing the game.

Now that we’ve had a quick summary of the different types of games that are out there, you might be thinking, where do I start?

The one game that I’m going to single out is Ticket to Ride. It is fast to learn and light on rules. It really isn’t a game that ever causes hurt feelings, and can be played completely in about an hour, so it isn’t as much of a time investment. It’s a good introduction for those who want to check out games beyond the standards from 30 years ago.

Class Dismissed.

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