Top 10 Sneaky Party Games

10. Criss Cross

First of only two roll and write games on the list. And both of them are pretty similar in some ways. In Criss Cross you want to fill in a grid so that you score the most points in your rows and columns. This is done by filling in symbols on two dice that are rolled. The more like symbols in a row or a column, the better you do.

The twist on the game comes in that each time the dice are rolled you treat them like a domino. That means that the two faces of the dice always need to be played adjacent to each other. If you aren’t careful you might lock yourself out of being able to completely fill in your board.

The nice thing about this one is that it’s a short and simple. It is the type of game that you are apt to play a few times in a row which is a nice thing for a party game.

9. Knister

Knister is a fair amount like Criss Cross. You want to basically create Yahtzee style groups of five dice in rows and columns and on the diagonal as well. And this is done by rolling two dice and you place the combination of two wherever you want on your board.

This one I put slightly above Criss Cross for a party style game. Mainly because while both of the games are going to work great in a larger group, Knister is a bit easier to teach. Though the game itself is a bit harder to come by. But more people understand the concept of creating runs and pairs with numbers than doing so with symbols or pairs and sets. Plus there is not the domino type rule that people need to internalize.

8. PitchCar

I might have put more dexterity games on the list, but I wanted to keep it away from just being a list of that for alternative party games. PitchCar is the one I picked. It might be easier to get two copies of Ice Cool and play up to eight that way, it’s cheaper for sure. But I think that PitchCar is easier for players to understand.

This is a car racing game where to race you car you just flick it along the track. If you fall off, you go back to where you went. And when there is traffic you might run into traffic and push someone forward or off the track or into a spot where they don’t want to be.

The great thing about PitchCar is how everyone is engaged. In between your turn sure you are chatting, which is great for a party style game. But if someone makes a great shot, or falls off the track for the fourth shot in a row, everyone reacts. Especially for a great shot.

And there is a ton of PitchCar stuff you can get. If you play it a lot as a group, you can add in things like ramps and jumps, narrower tracks, or even a loop. Of course all that adds up and makes it even harder to store.

7. Strike

Strike is an obvious one for the alternative party games list. Mainly because it’s nothing more than rolling dice and taking pairs. Now, this is a game that only plays up to five. But if you want to play with more you can do like I did and buy another set of the game.

But the great thing, like some other push your luck games higher on the list, this game is simple. It is all push your luck. How many dice do you roll to get a pair? Okay, you didn’t get a pair or set of dice with the same number. Do you roll again or pass and not risk losing more dice. It has that egging people on, and those moments where you clear everything out that is exciting, or those moments where you roll a bunch of dice and somehow manage to get no matches.

6. Unlock Games

This does not need to be only the Unlock escape room style games. I think that Exit games work well as well. I will caveat this a little bit though. If you pick an escape room style game, it should be for when you need a party game at a lower player count. This one makes it on the sneaky party games list because it’s easy to get to the table and everyone generally understands the concept of puzzles and escape rooms. It’s just at higher player counts not everyone can see everything as easily.

The other nice thing is that you can scale or tailor multiple things to your group. Some of it is scaling how hard the puzzle is. They generally give you an idea from easy to hard. But you also can pick a theme. If you know you want to do this with a more casual group but they like The Pirates of the Caribbean movies, there is a pirate themed one. Or maybe they love Lord of the Rings, there is an Exit Game with the Lord of the Rings theme. It will all depend on your group.

5. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Now, a lot of social deduction games could go on the party games list. I think that most social deduction games are just party games without much actual game behind it. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is going to give you both deduction and social deduction as you try and figure out who the murder is.

But this game has a great twist on the normal social deduction games. Each player has four murder weapons and four clues in front of them. And the murder is going to, during the eyes closed time of the social deduction part of the game, pick one murder weapon and clue in front of them.

So how do the players know, the players can figure it out, with deduction, kind of, through reports sent up by the forensic scientist. Of course, the report might lead them in the wrong direction because they don’t know who the murderer is, so everyone is now suspicious.

It’s a great game to get people talking and engaging with each other. Even if it is just in the game it’s simple enough to keep things moving and works really well.

4. Fiction

People like the game Wordle online or at least they did. I don’t think it’s that people don’t like it anymore, I think that it’s more a lot of people just let it fall by the wayside. Fiction, though, is a one versus everyone Wordle style game. And that works as a party game because you can rotate who is the one. That one person is the keeper of the word. And everyone is going to be the guessers of the word.

Now, does that sound like too many guessers? Yes, it probably does. But there is a nice little twist on the game. The person who is the keeper of the word can also lie. Yup, you heard that right, they can lie. But when they lie, they need to be consistent about their lie. So as you go you might be able to track down or figure out what the lie is in what they are giving you as a clue. then when you either win or fail, you pass that keeper of the word role along and keep playing.

3. Push

The next two games are both of the same type. They are push your luck games. And both of them work well. I put Push slightly below the other one because the other one is easier to learn. But I think I like Push as a better game.

Why does Push work as a party game? I know there is an upper limit of six players, but I’ve played with more. So it works well for that larger group. And with a good party style game people need to be invested or engaged in egging others on or giving them grief. And with Push, you are invested. You want the player to stop if you might get something ideal for your collection. Or you want them to push because if they bust, well that is great for you.

2. Flip 7

Flip 7 has many of the same attributes as Push. But it is simpler in what you do. There isn’t the three piles, you just decide on your turn to draw a card or bank the points that you have. That is as simple as it gets. But it still has the same fun of egging someone on to draw one more card. And if they manage to pull that off, then do they push their luck again. And the same goes for your turn. It’s simple but it works really well as that bigger group party style game.

1. Ready, Set, Bet!

I debated about putting it on the list at all, but if it’s on the list, it’s #1. This is a betting game where a horse race is happening in real time and players are throwing down bets in real time. It’s a chaotic time and you would think that watching two dice being rolled over and over again would keep people engaged. But every time I play the game people end up standing and are highly invested in those two dice roles.

The reason it almost didn’t make the list is that it can have a bit more going on in it. There are prop bets that players can bet on and you need to know how those work. But if you don’t want to learn how those work, that’s okay, you can do great by betting on the right horse at the right time to win big.

What Are You Playing?

Now all of these games are going to have different results for you. So I think you need to know your group. Some of them are going to be better for different player counts as well. But all of them will move you away from those more traditional party games.

Is there one that stands out that you’d love to play with your group? Let me know that down in the comment section below. Or do you have a game that you go to that aren’t traditional party games when you need a party game?

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As normal, I am using Pub Meeple to do my rankings. You can find their ranking engine here.

Ranking New Games 35 through 5

35 – KADO
34 – Gold’n Crash
33 – Castellion
32 – Harmonies
31 – Pokemon Old Maid
30 – Karvi
29 – Panda Spin
28 – Unsurmountable
27 – Stalk Exchange
26 – The Royal Limited
25 – At the Helm
24 – Ancient Realm
23 – SpaceShipped
22 – ROVE: Results-Oriented Versatile Explorer
21 – Ext: The Game – Lord of the Rings: Shadows over Middle-earth
20 – Circus Flohcati
19 – A Nice Cuppa
18 – Toy Battle
17 – PUSH
16 – Knister
15 – Luxor
14 – Crafting the Cosmos
13 – The Architects of Amytis
12 – 6 nimmt!
11 – Imhotep
10 – Pyradmido: Forgotten Treasures
9 – One-Hit Heroes
8 – Fromage
7 – Schadenfreude
6 – Symbiose

Quick Thoughts

There are a lot of great games in this section. Everything from Old Maid up I’ll gladly play. And I mainly will gladly play old maid because my kid likes it. Also, I realized I have played old maid before growing up, but I never ranked it. So maybe shouldn’t be on the list.

There are some games where I wonder if they would move higher in other circumstances. Panda Spin, for example, at 29 feels low. But it’s also just okay on Board Game Arena. Would it be a better game in person. The downside of that one is downtime as you might not be able to partake in tricks. But that downtime would be way less.

Also there is a huge clump of Button Shy solo games there in the middle. I like those games. There weren’t any where I thought they were actively annoying or not that great to play. At the same time, there are some that are better than the others, and because it’s just 18 cards, they all fall into that similar feeling category, especially the ones that I’ve played on Malts and Meeples thus far.

Top 5 New Games of Q1

5. Pirates of Maracaibo

This game is great. I love everything that is going on in it and I also love how fast the game is. I wrote up a review of this one already and you can read that here. Just a quick recap, there is a lot going on, but the turns are simple. And there are a ton of ways to explore scoring. I like being able to spend time figuring out new ways to score. And each way to score really does feel good, but you can’t only focus in on one, most likely, you are going to need to get a few working together to do well in the game.

4. The Guild of Merchant Explorers

The next one is another one that I’ve done a review on already. You can read my review for The Guild of Merchant Explorers here. This one I love because I can play it so quickly at two players on BGA, as long as the other player is active. And it is a different puzzle each time you play as you get unique cards for each era. And the scoring objectives, which can easily swing the game, help give the game that more variety as well.

3. Zenith

Yes, another BGA game with a review, but the final of the BGA games, is Zenith and you can read the review here. Zenith is a very fun two player game. And while there are other two player games on the list, the lowest at 34, Zenith stands above with the variety of ways to win the game. It really feels like such a great back and forth two player battle. And that tug of war element where you are trying to get the planets to your side and figuring out how to do that best is great.

2. Clank! Catacombs

Next we have Clank!: Catacombs. We already know that I love Clank in all it’s forms. I’ve streamed the digital app this year as well, but Clank!: Catacombs is probably the best version of Clank!. And that’s really driven by the fact that the game is going to change every time. You don’t know how the tiles are going to come out, and you could decide to build things so it goes off into the distance. That is going to make it more replayable without any expansions, and I think it also makes it easier to have expansions.

1. Marvel Dice Throne: X-Men

The final one is another game that I’ve kind of already played, much like Clank!, but it’s Marvel Dice Throne: X-Men. And this one is great for me because it has two of my favorite players. Beyond that, it is still just more Dice Throne, and I love Dice Throne. I need to pull out my other Marvel characters and have everyone battle together and see who comes out on top. That’s another great thing about Dice Throne, it’s really built for a tournament or competitive play. I wonder if there are any shops around me who are doing the Dice Throne league, that could be something fun to join.

Final Thoughts

That’s all of the new to me games that I’ve played this year. And I know that I’m going to play even more. I am trying to learn new games each week on board game arena and I’ve done a very good job of that thus far. It might become harder later, but I think that I can do it.

Based off of these games, are there any that I should be looking out for in 2025 to tryout? Obviously these aren’t all the games that I’ve played, so I might have played your suggestion already. But let me know those down in the comments. And let me know which games you’ve tried for the first time this year?

Looking around me, I have games like Knarr, Finca, Thunder Rolls, Bomb Busters and a whole lot more that I’ve had come in this year. And there are kickstarters as well, like Dragon Eclipse, Lore, Star Realms, Andromeda’s Edge, and The Dark Quarter that I need to get played as well. So I’m at no shortage of games to get played. And I hope to get a lot of those games played this year, plus the oh so many more that have been on my shelf of opportunity for even longer.

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Games from Miniature Market

Bonfire

This is a game about gnomes building a bonfire, well, maybe that’s some of it. But it’s a Pegasus Spiele game, like the next one. And Miniature Market had a sale on them. Pegasus Spiele got on my radar because they put out First Rat, a game I wasn’t sure I’d like, but then I really did. Bonfire looks more complex, so I was interested in trying it.

Raccoon Robbers

This one I bought because it looked like a fun, more simple game from Pegasus Spiele. So I wanted to give it a go and see if it would work for me. Plus it’s about raccoons, a fun theme and comes with 3D (ish) houses that they climb up on, so fun components.

Via Magica

This is a light game that I wanted to try because I thought when I heard about it on the Dice Tower a while ago, Camilla is a fan of it there, it sounded fun. You can read my whole review here.

Mesozooic: Jurassic Mini Expansion and Triassic Mini Expansion

I’ve written a review on some of the games. Mesozooic I actually bought the base game a while ago. The two expansions were unlikely to be around much longer, on closeout, so I bought them. You can read my review on Mesozooic here.

Abyss: Kraken Expansion

This is an expansion, I own both, for a game that I need to play. It is probably not the smartest plan, but I have them now, so I need to get Abyss to the table soon. Abyss looks like a massive epic game, one you’d expect a lot of minis for. Well, it’s a much smaller simpler game than that type of game. More of an engine building from what I know. So I hope it’s one I really enjoying.

Escape the Dark Castle

This is one that just came back into stock recently. It and Escape the Dark Sector or games with fun dark looking artwork and, well, a dark theme. I want to play them and see how they stack up against something like Spire’s End. I know both can be played solo, so I’ll be getting to this one soon to really know.

18 Holes: Course Architect

18 Holes: Course Artchitect actually needs to get a review written about it. Same with the next one though that one I need to play more. But 18 Holes is about building out a golf course in a roll and write game and seeing how well that you can do. It’s a bit rules heavy for how simple the game is, but the more I play, the easier it is to pick up each time and faster games go. So it’s one that might just stick around as a solo game for me.

Bargain Basement Bathysphere

Bargain Basement Bathysphere is a solo game. And you can watch me play it on Malts and Meeples. It’s a roll and write game that is a campaign. So I want to see how it is over the long run before I write a review. It’s definitely very loosely a campaign. But the two games I played of it were a lot of fun, with really simple mechanics.

Clank! Catacombs

Clank! Catacombs I knew was a game I would buy. I waited until after Christmas, and then when I was told about Bargain Basement Bathysphere, I used Catacombs to get it to a level where I could get free shipping. It’s just another version of Clank! but one with a modular board which is build every time. Clank! In! Space! has a modular board, but that one is set to start the game. This could come out differently every time.

Three Sisters

A roll and write game from the people who did Fleet and now Motor City. I am curious about this one. I like Fleet, but it is a lot of mechanics, especially solo. Though I wonder if I will feel the same with Three Sisters. But it is one that I want to get to solo.

Star Realms Deck Building Game

Star Realms is the space version of Hero Realms, kind of. They are different games and Star Realms came first. But it’s a two player deck building game. I wanted to try it and see which one I like better. I think I’ll enjoy both, but will both stay in my collection?

Thornwatch: The Dark of the Wood Expansion

Thornwatch is a game that I picked up on a sale, probably hasn’t been in a Point of Order yet. I got it around Black Friday from the publisher. It looks like an adventure dungeon crawl sort of gaming experience. And it has some work done on it from Penny Arcade guys who I like their stuff. So I am curious about it and if it’ll be a dungeon crawler for me.

Planet Unknown

This one got an order all by itself. And I still need to play it. But Planet Unknown is a game about terraforming a planet. Yes, I own two games like that already. But it uses polyominoes and a lazy Susan. Though mine doesn’t come with it. But as you select pieces for your planet, you rotate a this central piece. And where I decide to stop rotating it, that determines what you get. So there is a bit of a puzzle where I might take a slightly worse for me piece to stop you from getting the perfect piece.

Star Trek: Super-Skill Pinball

I own two, no three, versions of Super-Skill Pinball. It is a roll and write game that I really enjoy and one I should play more. It is playing pinball and this one has a, you guessed it, Star Trek theme. There is a Christmas one as well with Christmas movies that I’m less interested in. But I do like Star Trek so I wanted to play this one.

Featherlight

Featherlight, another one that I played on Malts and Meeples with Bargain Basement Bathysphere. So you can find that in the video above. I like it as a way to optimize how you are scoring. It’s kind of a puzzle with some randomness. And I think that works really well for the length and weight of the game. It is very light, but offers you good choices as you play.

Unmatched: Marvel – Redemption Row & Hell’s Kitchen

I hadn’t planned on getting into Unmatched. But Marvel is what drew me in. And I have made a promise to myself that I won’t buy other sets, unless they are Marvel. So I am trying to get my hands on Deadpool, just waiting for someone from a Discord to ship it. But their lives are busy, so I understand. And there are upcoming Marvel sets, but I will talk about those later.

The Librarians

This is one that I got to try in 2020 when I did the digital GenCon. But it is a game around the Librarians TV show. The game is good, and I didn’t back it because I was backing too many things. So when it hit retail and hit a sale, I wanted to get it into my collection. It is a cooperative game and a fun theme that I want to play.

Ascension X: War of Shadows

Ascension, I’ve talked about it, this is my favorite introductory deck building game. I have two expansions, this one and a nature themed one, that I need to play still. But more is good because they are standalone or can be all mixed together. Well, maybe not all, but somewhat mixed together.

18 Holes: Second Edition & Expansion

You saw the roll and write, this is the tabletop version. It is still building a golf course. But you do that as a group. And then you play that course to see how well you do. I’m excited to try it. Sports games often aren’t the right match for board games. But I think that a golf theme works better than a faster spaced sport like Soccer or Football.

Starship Captains

Starship Captains is one that I played at GenCon in 2022. And I enjoyed it, but it is one that I want to spend more time with. It is a fast game, and I think that end snuck up on me in my one play. Is it one for me, or will it always feel too short? We will have to see, but I want to give it more of a try.

Relics of Rajavihara & Expansion

I just wrote a review on Relics of Rajavihara and you can read that here. But it is a fun puzzle game and I hope that this week or in the next two, I can fully wrap up the game. It’s fast and fun and a great puzzle.

Solomon Kane Expansions

Mythic Games is getting rid of their extra stock as they try and raise funds to complete and ship out other games. I could explain it more, but basically the pandemic hit them harder than a lot of companies. So this is a chance to grab the last of the stuff I don’t have. I think I own basically all of it now.

Enchanters

Another Mythic Games, another one that they sold the rights to. So it is discounted as they move their stock. A deck building game, but one I wasn’t super interested in. But when it is on sale and I can get the all in Kickstarter, or near that, it is worth buying and trying.

D&D Books

Just some more setting books and different books for more D&D content. I am there for that, and I want to mix it into my game.

Kokoro: Avenue of the Kodama

This is one that Zee mentioned in his Top 100 Games. It is a rework of an existing game, with a theme that Indie Boards & Cards has used before. So I want to try it with that theme. The rest of the Kodama games are less interesting for me. But this one because it’s an existing theme is interesting.

Exit: Lord of the Rings

It’s an Exit escape room board game. And this one my wife wants to try because of the theme. And in all fairness I’m excited for the theme as well. Exit games are not my favorite of the escape room style games because they are destructive. So it’s a one time use thing. But the theme in this case pulled me in.

Skyrim: The Adventure Game

Another one where the theme pulled me in. I avoided backing it on Gamefound. The game play looked fun, but I can only back so many games so often. Then as more came out about the game, the more interesting it became to me. And I hope that it’s a pretty narrative driven game that feels like Skyrim.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice

And to wrap it up, another video game one. And one that I wouldn’t have looked at too much. But it turned into one that I was very interested in because it has that big campaign feel to it, and cooperative play. And we know that is what I like in games.

Pre-orders

Plus there are a few pre-orders to talk about.

Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition – Discovery & Crisis Expansions

This one I should have added to my other set of pre-orders, but both of these are expansions to a game I really like a lot. Ares Expedition. One gives you ways to upgrade your action selection which will make you different and unique in the long run. The other one is going to offer a cooperative or solo play opportunity. So two things that I’m very interested in. There is a third one as well, but when it was on Kickstarter, it just didn’t interest me as much.

Earth

Another one coming from Kickstarter that I am picking up now. It’s an engine building game that looks like it should be pretty on the table. I find that I really like engine building games. And this one looks like it is in that framework of being light, but not too light. I’m hoping, mainly, that the rules are in a place where it is easy to teach and get to the table.

The Lord of the Rings: Adventure to Mount Doom

See what I said about Lord of the Rings before. This one is going to be an adventure book style game where you play through different scenes. Besides it being Lord of the Rings and based off of the same or similar system to the one used in the Princess Bride game I don’t know a ton more. But I’m more excited for this one than the escape room game.

Final Thoughts

Some of this has just been catching up on games that I’ve had an eye on and have been on my wishlist. The Librarians, Skyrim, and Assassin’s Creed were all on that list. And you can see a number of expansions as well.

But if it were you, which of these games would you play first? Of course, I’ve played some already, but I tried to call those out.

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Top 5 Video Games I Want To Become Board Games

5. Need for Speed

This one is lower on the list because I don’t know how I’d make the game as well. Mainly because there are racing games out there already. But there are some concepts in Need for Speed that I enjoy. I like that it’s not a tracking racing, it’s almost always street racing. And while I don’t love hearing it in real life, I live near an area where it does happen sometimes, I think it could be fun to try and simulate in a board game.

Plus then the fast pace of the game, but that is where it becomes tricky to get an idea. Racing games you tend to want to be pretty light on mechanics. Because too many moving pieces and the game slows down. Now, in a more strategic racing game, like Formula D, slower isn’t too bad, but for Need for Speed, the game needs speed.

4. Diablo

Diablo is also on the list but also lower. Mainly because this feels like another dungeon crawler board game if it were to happen. Yes, there is story, but what sets Diablo apart is that it’s a loot collector. How do you simulate that in a board game, you battle, you divvy out loot, you repeat the process.

I almost wonder if something like the Folklore: The Affliction way of doing it would work. You have little battles as you travel to big battles. Just in Diablo, you have more little battles between the bosses or the story points.

The other tricky part is all the abilities in Diablo. How do you create each attack so it feels different so it feels just insanely powerful like it can in the game, and get that feeling of mowing through enemies. Because sometimes you might just want to grind a little bit to get better gear or new gear.

3. Tomb Raider

The top three, I think, have easier times translating to a board game. Now, I say that and Tomb Raider is technically a cheat on the list, there is a Tomb Raider board game, it feels nothing like Tomb Raider. You all play as a different Lara Croft and race along a track, or in a circle really.

I want something steeped in story, and that gives you missions like the new Tomb Raider games. You play as Lara in solo or her and a team of other characters in multiplayer. And you need to figure out how to sneak past people, or sometimes go in there and start taking out guards unseen. Use a system, but more refined like Reichbusters with noise, and trying to keep it from happening.

Plus then story choices and moments where you maybe are even trying to solve a puzzle or a riddle. And eventually a classic escape type thing as you run out of whatever tomb you were raiding which is inevitably trying to kill you, or a bad guy is. Campaign for sure, but maybe several shorter, 5-6 games, campaigns in the box.

2. Myst/Riven/Exile

Speaking of puzzles, Myst or any of the games in that series, turn those into a board game. They almost have in some ways with escape room style board games like Unlock and Exit. But I want more. What made Myst so interesting was often times you’d find a puzzle and then need to go to a different part of the world or different world to find the answer.

Make it a big open, sprawling escape room style game. Make it so that you need to take notes on what the puzzles you found are, what you are looking for, and where they are at, because you’ll find so many that you’ll need to do that. And give me a little story in the mix as well. But make this something that if you’re good you could sit down and beat in a day, but most likely you’re packing it up to play again and again over evenings just like the video game.

1. Dragon Age

My number one is one of my top if not my top video game that I’ve played. Dragon Age is a big adventure of leveling up, gaining stuff, and then fighting bosses, using potions, building together a team and a strategy as you go, recruiting more characters, leveling them up, and well, a ton of story in there as well.

As compared to any on the list, Dragon Age would turn into a board game with the most story. Dragon Age really let’s you delve into a world and make a lot of choices and those choices matter later. If you make the “wrong” choice you don’t get a recruit a person. If you make a different choice you don’t get as many troops to help support you in the final battle. All of that is a lot of fun and I want that in a Dragon Age game.

Yes, you’d still likely have boss fights along the way and do some of the dungeon crawl type stuff. But I’d not mind seeing that abstracted away from a lot of the littler fights and only there for the really big ones. Because Dragon Age works so well because of the story it has.

What Games Would You Want?

There are so many different styles of video games out there to choose from. Would you want a solo Sim City game? Would you like to see a Jazz Jackrabbit crazy side scroller turned into a board game? Does playing Madden on the table top sound fun?

Let me know what video game you’d love to see get a board game treatment. And let me know what video games already turned into board games that are a lot of fun.

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How To Play: Exit: Hunt for the Golden Book

Someone has lost the Golden Book of everyone who has been naughty or nice and you’ve been tasked with finding it. And that’s all the premise that you get for the game.

After that it’s a series of puzzles that you need to solve, one per day. And without spoiling anything, I can’t go into what they are, but it does seem to be different each day, I’ll say that much. Mechanically, though, you don’t know what door to open next, and that is the main thing you’re solving each puzzle. You move from one door on the box to another based off of a numerical three digit key that you find. And you know if you are right if the directions that you use from the decoder give you the symbols that match on the door.

What Doesn’t Work?

I think for some people this is going to be a game that is just too easy. We’ve done four puzzles and we had a little bit of an issue with one of them, but the other three were simple and easy to figure out. And even this newest one, I think we should have done better on it. But some puzzles are going to be more apt to trip people up than others.

What Works?

Now, on the flip side, I think that those puzzles are about right for what it should be per day. It’s odd to have the same thing as not working and working. But the puzzles take about 5 minutes to maybe 10 minutes if you’re going slowly, or on the first day where there is a prologue to read as well. But that’s what I want from a game like this one. I don’t want to sit down every evening or morning and spend 30 minutes solving a puzzle. 5 minutes is a great amount of time.

Who Is It For?

Now, the previous two sections were short because I think it’s more important to talk about who this game is for. Again, I don’t want to give away too much about the game. But this is an advent calendar and it’s one that’s meant for families to do. My wife and I are doing it and having a good time. It’s beyond what my 4 year old can help with, but in a few years, by the time he’s 7, he probably could. Because it’s that simple.

But that is the point, it is supposed to be that simple so that it can be a quick family activity. Exit: Hunt for the Golden Book is meant to be a family project not something focused on hard core gamers. That is a good thing, because it’d be lacking if it was focused on more. It is one that I definitely recommend for people who want a fun little activity to do each day, a fun little puzzle to solve.

Final Thoughts on Exit: Hunt for the Golden Book

I enjoy my experience with Exit: Hunt for the Golden Book. And I think I might like it better than a normal Exit or Unlock game. Yes, it is easier to play. But the benefit of that is that anyone can play it. And you don’t pick a time to play it. It is just something you fit into your day. Not like the other escape room style games which you might plan your day or gaming session around for a day. This keeps it nice and short.

Plus, there is more story. Probably should be something that I like. But I like story, and Exit: Hunt for the Golden Book has more. Most escape room style games give you a bit of a story. But Exit: Hunt for the Golden Book gives you some each day. Yes, it bounces around a lot, but it’s there and that makes the experience better as well.

I definitely can see getting one each year, as long as they keep doing them. And that’s saying something, it’s a repeated buying experience. I feel like I’d play an escape room style game again, but I am not seeking them out as I once was. Something like Star Wars Unlock or Lord of the Rings Exit sound fun. But a random box, less so. But the advent calendar gives you that right amount of thinking for each day and just enough puzzle.

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Gen Con Preview

The list is just starting at this point with 169 different games. That is a lot of games, though, if you wanted to try and check them all out. I fully expect that more than normal won’t make it in time. But companies might be hedging their bets, as well, as a lot of the games are ones that will be released before hand.

Ra – 25th Century Games

This is one that I’d be surprised if it was out. The Gamefound campaign for it just wrapped up a few weeks ago, but at the same time, Ra is a game that’s already existed. This is an auction game that I’ve had fun with. In it, you are bidding on sets of tiles that get drawn from a bag. And the different things that you get give you bonuses and points.

But the cool thing about the game is the bidding. When you bid and win, you put your number into the middle. And then you take the number that was there. So there is strategy with the bidding because you likely don’t want to bid the 16 when the one is in the middle. Unless the tiles are so amazing. I find it a good and interesting twist on bidding.

First in Flight – Artana

Don’t know much about this one. But according to the description, thi sis going to have you building up a deck of cards and pushing your luck to be the first person to fly. I’m curious as to how it works, but looks like a lighter card game which isn’t bad. And it’s deck building, and I like that.

Call to Adventure: Epic Origins – Brotherwise Games

Call to Adventure: Epic Origins is a prequel to Call to Adventure. And Call to Adventure is a game where you cast runes and try and complete and create your epic story. I own the Stormlight Archives version of Call to Adventure that I need to get played. It seems like a pretty light game, but a good time. And, I believe, that Epic Origins, a standalone game, gives you more of the same, but builds your starting story.

Ark Nova – Capstone Games

Probably not much that I need to say about this one. But Ark Nova is a smash hit, right now, for Capstone and probably breaking into the Top 10 on Board Game Geek very very soon. It gets compared to Terraforming Mars, a game I need to play, in that it’s a bigger engine building game and one that offers lots of possibilities. I want to give this one a try for sure. I suspect it is a game I’d enjoy.

Starship Captains – CGE

The best way I can describe Starship Captains is that it reminds me, art wise, of Star Trek Lower Decks. Or maybe it gives me a bit of a vibe of Galaxy Trucker as well, not in play but in theme. I am curious about it as it has engine building and drafting. Those are two things that I enjoy quite well.

Fit to Print – Flatout Games

Fit to Print is an odd theme for a game but one that I find fun. In Fit to Print you are drafting cards and trying to collect and set-up the best front page of a newspaper for animals. The theme, very different. And I like this idea of trying to collect what you need and put it together.

Sagrada: The Great Facades – Glory – Floodgate Games

Glory is a given at this point. I own all of Sagrada, I believe just missing the Kickstarter promo window. And I know I want to grab this one as well. Sagrada is still one of my favorite games because it offers good choices but isn’t too complex. The expansions can definitely make it more complex, but again, that isn’t a bad thing as they are easy to add or remove and tailor the game to the group.

Oak – Game Brewer

Oak interested me more because of the theme than anything. Hand management and set collection I like. But they are very normal at this point in time. And I feel like I can find so many that it isn’t worth checking out. But add in druids trying to unlock a secret. That theme is what is drawing me in. And it doesn’t hurt that the cover looks great.

Ecosystem – Genius Games

Ecosystem is a game that apparently has been out for while. The Board Game Geek release date was November 20th, 2019. But I wonder if it is newly picked up by Genius Games for an American distribution. I like the them in this game. You draft cards to try and build a balanced ecosystem. It feels different but also not too different. And give a game pretty nature artwork, at least aesthetically it is more interesting. One that I want to checkout for sure.

Critical: Foundation – Season 1 – Gigamic

First of two back to back campaign and adventure style games. It will give you some role playing feeling, at least that is what they are saying. And Critical, it h as an interesting cover. I’m curious to see what type of story it has, set in 2035, so not that far into the future. I feel like they limited how sci-fi they can go with the story, because of the timeline. And also not the normal type of game I expect from Gigamic, but one that’ll be interesting to checkout.

Forgotten Depths – Grand Gamers Guild

I considered backing Forgotten Depths on Kickstarter. I like the artwork on the game and a dungeon crawl style is something I always enjoy. On Kickstarter, I think, I thought it looked lighter than I’d normally back. But for a $40 MSRP, that isn’t bad and for a game that can be played solo, it isn’t bad as well. I think it’d be a much smaller footprint campaign game.

Suspects – Hachette Boardgames

I believe that Zee Garcia, of the Dice Tower, recently did a review on this. Or he will be doing one shortly. But for me, this has two things that interest me. Firstly, I like cooperative deduction where you are trying to solve a mystery. It makes for an interesting time. Generally some very good experiences. And then add in Agatha Christie, or a world inspired by her works, I’m very curious.

Exit: The Game – Lord of the Rings: Shadows over Middle-earth – KOSMOS

I find the Exit escape room style games just okay. They have a destructive element to them which makes it feel like more of a waste. But play with 4 people for an hour, it isn’t bad for $20. And Lord of the Rings, that is a theme that I am curious about. What sort of story can they tell, what puzzles will they create for the game interests me a fair amount. It’s one that I could pick-up and play with my wife and she’ll appreciate the theme a lot.

Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles – Mindclash Games

Now a big Kickstarter. Mindclash always makes big games, and Perseverance with basically two games in one box, created a game with a huge box. I am curious about this one. I didn’t back it on Kickstarter, but dinosaurs, survival, and then building up your society, it is interesting. For demo only at Gen Con, that’s probably a good thing. Means I won’t be tempted on a game for a lot of money because it has dino minis.

Venn – The Op

A party game on the list, and this is one that I want to try, not buy. Mainly because it is a party game, and sometimes they are great, sometimes not so much. But I generally want to try before hand or watch someone play it. This one, though, I find intriguing. As the person who is it, I believe, you put down three cards, and people are trying to guess that middle spot on the Venn diagram. So the word that intersects all of the other words. If that is how it works, I think it is one that could provide a lot of laughs and a lot of replayability.

Long Shot: The Dice Game – Perplext

Another game that is getting a ton of love already. Long Shot: The Dice Game is a horse racing game where you buy and bet and horses. That, combined with a roll and write game. I love my roll and write games. And the idea of one that has a physical board that people race around, it seems different. Often roll and write games can limit interaction, but Long Shot seems to lean into that.

Northgard: Uncharted Lands – Shiro Games

Another big Kickstarter game that I looked at. I believe that Northgard is based off of a video game, which is intriguing. I don’t know anything about the video game though. And for the board game, I like the artwork. I love Norse mythology. So the game seems like it should be one for me. But the fact it is a 4x game makes me a bit hesitant to back it.

Cartographers Map Pack 4 through 6 – Thunderworks Games

And this is another one that I know I’m going to get like the Sagrada Expansion. I own everything for Cartographers thus far, and I really like it as a roll and write. Against, like Long Shot, it is more interactive than a lot of roll and write games. And while I enjoy a good roll and write that is a puzzle, like Railroad Ink or maybe has a race element like Welcome To for objectives, I like placing the monsters onto other players sheets here.

Unboxing

And two games were unboxed last night as well. It is fun to get in new games, and some of them, with Kickstarter, are a good time to show off. Now, this isn’t as minis heavy as a lot of the time, though, because , well, neither game has a ton of minis.

Steelslayer

Steelslayer is an expansion for The Reckoners. And Steelslayer adds in two more major epics. Plus more locations and cities as well. Overall, it just seems to add more to a game that could probably use a bit more. I haven’t played The Reckoners a ton, but I noticed we went through all the epics. Or we got close, in the one play. And while that isn’t a massive issue, it would be nice just to keep more variety built in.

Too Many Bones: Undertow

Too Many Bones: Undertow is going to be another game that I have played before. Or, I should say, I did a demo at Gen Con in 2019. I thought that the game was fun. But it didn’t jump off the table for me, mainly because we played only so little in the demo. I think more chance to play with it, and seeing more game play, the game looks like it should work better for me.

Plus, the price on Chip Theory Games went up at the start of June. So I knew if I wanted to grab it, I wanted to buy it before that happened. And I have another two character standalone game/expansion on Gamefound last year. The gearlocs in the base game are just okay, but the expansion ones, they seem like a lot of fun.

Upcoming Streams

So what is coming up. My plan is to learn and start getting Pathfinder Adventure Card Game to the table of Wednesday. Then for the next Monday, I hopefully will have a whole bunch of Massive Darkness 2 from CMON available to unbox. I believe that will be my plan for the next Monday stream. Another unboxing and picking a topic to chat about.

Let me know how you want me to do my unboxings. I personally like going with a bit more of a BoardGameCo style where I ramble on about a topic and about the game and spend some time. I know there are other channels that do them shorter. But for me, part of the fun, and why I do them live, is I can chat with everyone.

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Escape Room Games

With this, I’m mainly talking about Unlock and Exit, because I’ve played both of those series, and I really highly recommend Unlock. In fact, Unlock has a new Star Wars box that is out, so a theme that will even standout. These games are basically little escape rooms in a box. Now, that doesn’t mean that they are easier than an escape room since they are smaller, they can be really tricky with hidden clues and figuring out how to use the information that you’ve found together. But this is a great family activity sort of a game. You can only play each of them once, but they work really well for casual groups and are really engaging throughout. Unlock is nice because you could play it in your group and then pass it to another group because you don’t destroy anything. Exit you do often destroy part of the game to figure out a puzzle or two or three. I also like Unlock because while both of them are time based for how well you do, Unlock has an app with a count down timer that just makes it smoother, versus Exit where the time is counting up.

Draftosaurus

I’ve talked about a lot of roll and writes, and this actually isn’t one, but it has a bit of that feel to it. In this game, you are drafting a dinosaur meeple from a handful of them that you have, and then based on how a die is rolled placing it on the board into a pen. Some pens want all different dinosaurs, some want all of one type or pairs of dinosaurs. It’s a fast little game that works really well for drafting and is pretty easy to keep track of because everyone will end up with the same number of dinosaurs on their board. There are other drafting games out there that are solid as well. I always recommend Sushi Go Party! as well, but that one can, at times get muddled because if people don’t draft at the same speed someone can end up ahead or behind and it’s harder to count it out. Draftosaurus doesn’t offer the variety, but it is a very simple game that can be played with a wide variety of ages.

Splendor

I was torn on this one between Splendor and Homebrewers, I actually prefer Homebrewers by a fair amount, but it’s just a bit more complex and the theme won’t be for everyone. In Splendor, you are renaissance jewelers who are going out and getting the best jewels. You start out by taking one time use jewels, and then you can buy a jewel card for a cost of your one time use jewels. Those jewel cards then give you a permanent jewel of that color that you can use to buy more jewels. And your goal is to get the jewel cards that score points and be the first to fifteen. The game is simple and it works well. Generally, there isn’t anything that stands out as making this game amazing, but there is also nothing to knock about it. Something on par with it would be the city building game of Machi Koro that would work as well. If the people you know already have those games (or one of them) and might be looking for a step up, Homebrewers is great, or Century: Golem Edition, of the brewing theme doesn’t work.

King of Tokyo

Sometimes you just want some dice chucking fun, and King of Tokyo is that. In this game you take on being a Kaiju who is battle other Kaiju. Think Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Here, you are trying to be the king of Tokyo by either knocking out the rest of the monsters or by winning via victory points. While I have seen people win via victory points, most of the time, it’s smashing. If you are outside of Tokyo you can only hit the monster in Tokyo, if you’re in Tokyo you can hit everyone else. But the downside to being in Tokyo is that you can’t heal, so as you are getting hit by everyone, you need to know when to drop out and let someone else go into Tokyo so you don’t die. It’s a fun push your luck dice chucking game. You can also buy upgrades that allow you to do more damage, or a one time boost to victory points or something like that, so you have a lot of different strategies depending on what cards show up. They also have some expansions that add more monsters and more things to do in the game.

Silver

This could be Silver Amulet, Bullet, Coin, or Dagger, you can take your pick. If you have a bigger group of people you can play with, Dagger would be very good, if you’d mainly just be playing with with two, I like Amulet and Bullet better for that. This game is a push your luck type and take that type of game, so it might not be for everyone. Everyone starts with a village of five cards face down in front of them. They can look at two of them, and the goal is to go down in the number of cards and have the fewest cards when a vote is called for. To do that, you will either draw a card or take a card from the discard pile on the turn. If you draw it and it has a flip ability, cards 5 through 12 have them in every game, you can either add it to your village or use that ability. Cards 0 through 4 have a flipped up ability, so if they are in your village facing up, you can use their ability. But how do you get down in cards, you can trade in two of the same number for another number. So you do try and rush that, if you can figure out you have decent cards so you can call for the vote before other people can change up their village too much. It’s a fun game, plays fast and all of them can be mixed and matched together, so get two and you have a ton of different combinations that you can play.

Now, there are a lot more games. I realized that I could have easily mentioned games like Marvel United, which I mentioned before by a list, Dominion or Ascension for a deck building game, Small World, Deception Murder in Hong Kong, a whole slew of roll and write games and more. There are plenty of really good options that can help encourage and engage new gamers to maybe look beyond the standard games that were a part of a lot of our youths, and that aren’t too intimidating.

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So, most people are going to be somewhat familiar with the idea of an escape room. They have been something very popular in the US at least over the last handful of years and have been a concept for longer than that starting in 2007. The idea of these are that you and a group get placed into a room with a time limit on how long you have to escape. You need to work together to find clues, solve, puzzles, and get out of the escape room. These are generally themed around something, maybe you are trying to get out of an asylum or you are doing a jail break.

They’ve taken this over to board games in a few different ways and series of games. Some of the games are intertwined stories that expand over time as you go. Others are one off games that pit you and a group against a certain amount of time or will give you a score based off of how long it takes and how many clues you use. In these games you have things like ciphers to break, numbers leading to the next thing hidden on cards, in images, and so many more different puzzles.

Players in these games work together to solve these puzzles, it might be somewhat on their own, but generally there is free communication and collaboration around the table as you try different solutions and race against the time. Fairly often that means that these games could play an infinite number of players, but since everyone needs to see what is on the cards, there is limited real estate to do that, so more than a handful starts to become a little bit cramped.

But let’s look at some games in this style:

Gateway Game

Unlock – This is a series of games that aren’t connected except around mechanics. In these games you are using cards to find items, figure out puzzles and get to the next room so that you can eventually escape. It might be something like escaping from Oz or a submerged submarine or a haunted house. What these games do different than some is that you buy them as a one off or in a set of three. And each is playable once by the same group, but they aren’t destructive in nature. What I mean by that is not pieces need to be modified to solve any of the puzzles. It also uses an app integration for the timer and for entering in codes to see if you can unlock some doors or open a safe. This allows them to create some nice thematic tension with a sound track for the game you are playing.

Medium Weight

Exit – Now, there isn’t a massive difference between Unlock and Exit, both of them are pretty light weight, Exit is just going to have you stretch your brain more because you have more puzzles and more almost disconnected puzzles in it. Along with that, Exit is a destructive game. That means that you might end up pulling apart some of the box to get something or cutting up a piece of paper in order to able to easily solve the puzzle. The reason I say that this is medium weight versus Unlock’s gateway level is because that you can’t just focus directly on the puzzle, you have to go over everything because you don’t know where a clue to solve the puzzle might be hidden so it stretches the brain more but can be more frustrating as well for that reason, but if Unlock seems to easy, Exit is a slight step up.

Heavy Weight

TIME Stories – Now, I actually, again, don’t think that TIME Stories is too heavy, and there might be some people who disagree with this being an escape room game, but it certainly has a lot of the elements of it. You’re trying to figure out what is going on in a timeline after you and your team are sent into the past, future, another dimension, to stop something that is about to royally mess up the timeline. Your memories and knowledge are put into a body there so you can blend in, You go on runs trying to solve the case, and if you run out of time with the event happening the TIME agency can send you back in again, equipped with the knowledge that you have to try and solve it again. For this reason TIME Stories, while once you complete the case is basically a one and done, has a longer playing time and more game that you can get out of it. It’s also is easier to play over multiple sessions because you can more easily save between the runs that you make. Overall, not an extremely complex game, but it has more moving parts than the others do.

There are a lot more Escape Room games out there or games that have a similar feel to them. I did a Board Game Battle recently between TIME Stories and Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, and while there are similarities, TIME Stories has more of an escape room feel versus Detectives more deductive feel. What are some of your favorite escape room style board games? Do you like escape rooms in real life, if so, how do the games compare to the places?

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Why did I pick Chronicles of Crime?

There are multiple reasons, first, I really like games that have some sort of puzzle or deduction to them. Escape room games like Unlock or Exit are good examples, Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition or Arkham Horror The Card Game even have elements of them. So I like detective style games as well, even Clue, the classic, I still enjoy because of the puzzle of figuring out information as efficiently as possible.

The other thing is that is has an interesting app integration piece. Now, that’s going to disappoint some people, but I really find it interesting, though it can’t be played without the app. The app scans QR codes allowing you to interact with people and ask them about clues or other people you might have found during you investigation. But that’s not the coolest piece of the app in my opinion. Instead, there is a video component that you can use basically as VR if you want, where you can look all around and see the crime scene. While you’re doing that, you’re telling the other players what you see and they’re grabbing what might be useful clues for you to use later in your investigation.

The other thing that’s really cool about this for me is that there is a community aspect to it. It’s not just the company making scenarios, you can go out and get scenarios that other people have created and put together so maybe someone did a dog napping or there was a grisly murder, you don’t know. But there can be an ever increasing amount of story just from the base game. Plus there are expansions, there is a Noir expansion that looks cool, but I’m more excited for the Redview expansion which is a kids on bikes, almost RPG like version of the game, so it doesn’t have to just be crime, you can do wildly different things with it.

So hopefully that explains why I was interested in the game and picked it up. Does it sound like a game that would be cool? Maybe see if your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) and get it ordered in for you and help them during these times.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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