| 1 | %% |
| 2 | %%Image restored per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16702521190.38876600 |
| 3 | %%Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 4 | %% |
| 5 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/board_games.png]] |
| 6 | [-[[caption-width-right:350:[[Film/WarGames Or how about a nice game of]] ''TabletopGame/{{Chess}}''?[[note]]From top to bottom: ''TabletopGame/{{Risk}}'', ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}'', ''TabletopGame/{{Go}}'', ''TabletopGame/{{Battleship}}''[[/note]]]]-] |
| 7 | %% |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ->'''Homsar:''' Oh no! You shanked my Jengaship! |
| 10 | ->'''Strong Sad:''' I shanked your Jengaship? We're playing ''TabletopGame/ConnectFour!'' |
| 11 | -->-- ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', "[[http://www.homestarrunner.com/whereis.html Where's the Cheat?]]" |
| 12 | |
| 13 | {{Tabletop games}} of skill and chance, often featuring custom-designed components made from wood, plastic, or cardboard and art design specifically tailored to facilitate the ease and/or enjoyment of gameplay. When they're depicted in fiction, they are commonly used to either illustrate the participating characters' [[SmartPeoplePlayChess culture or intelligence]] (or [[FlippingTheTable dispositions otherwise]]), or [[FictionalBoardGame are incorporated as a worldbuilding or plot tool]]. There is a great variety in board games' mechanics, visual presentation, and theming, but those seen in fiction are typically either [[HollywoodBoardGames one of a few popular mass-produced titles]] or [[SmallReferencePools games which bear a strong resemblance to those titles.]] |
| 14 | |
| 15 | As a brief overview, there are five general categories of board games: |
| 16 | |
| 17 | * Abstracts like {{TabletopGame/Chess}} or {{TabletopGame/Go}}, which focus on minimalism and have a penchant for elegance through simplicity in their designs. |
| 18 | * [[AmeritrashGames American-Style Games]] (sometimes called "Ameritrash", though [[InsistentTerminology such a term's use is contentious among the genre's fans]]), which prioritize creating [[RuleOfCool epic narratives and dramatic moments while you play]]. Many AdventureBoardGames and {{Narrative Board Game}}s fall into this category as well, at least regarding the focus on laying the groundwork to tell an immersive story. |
| 19 | * {{Eurogame}}s, which often revolve around a skill-based challenge of maximizing points (often called "Victory Points", where [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin whoever earns the most wins the game]]) within the limitations and restrictions of the ruleset. |
| 20 | * [=Family Games=], which prize accessible designs that involve and engage players as much as possible. One of the most popular of these is ''TabletopGame/{{Catan}}''. Germany has a long history of producing high-quality titles in this genre and this type of game is sometimes called a "German-Style Game" as a result. |
| 21 | * [[WarGaming Wargames]], which typically feature maps full of troops duking it out at varying levels of realism. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | It should be said that despite geographical descriptors like "American," "German," and "Euro," these types of board games aren't always made in or are exclusive to the regions their names reference - games put out in the mid-to-late 1900s by publishers like the American-based 3M and Creator/AvalonHill, for example, reached international audiences for many years, and several game designers have made a name creating several games which each lie in different design philosophies, [[GenreMashup or even featuring multiple styles at once in a single game.]] |
| 24 | |
| 25 | The complexity and scope of board games vary wildly. To list a few examples, titles can range from [[TabletopGame/ApplesToApples a lighthearted party game]] with little in the way of thematic backdrop or artwork, to [[TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror a cooperative Lovecraftian card game]] where you win by preventing an Ancient One's awakening, to [[{{TabletopGame/Agricola}} a game where players are pre-industrial farmers]] who deal with the logistical challenges that come with building a farmstead, sowing fields, raising livestock, and growing their families. Likewise, board games' duration can be anywhere from a few minutes to months ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Campaign_for_North_Africa The Campaign for North Africa]], as one of the most extreme examples, has a listed playtime of ''1,500 hours''); however, most fall in the range of 30-90 minutes. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | There is a thriving hobby community surrounding board games. [[OlderThanTheyThink While board gaming has had a healthy hobbyist- and family-centered industry in Europe for decades]], 1995's ''Settlers of Catan'' popularized it in the United States and many European publishers have since established global distribution channels for foreign markets. ''Catan'' in particular has sold over 22 million copies worldwide as of 2015, a volume comparable to the sales numbers of the most popular video game released on the Nintendo SNES, ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld''. The board game database site [[http://boardgamegeek.com BoardGameGeek]] has hundreds of thousands of members. Board game conferences and conventions also have had a long history, with events like Gen Con in Indiana and Spiel in Essen, Germany drawing tens of thousands of attendees each year. Many review and podcast series give news on upcoming games and rate review copies sent to them by publishers; some of the most popular include [[https://www.dicetower.com/ The Dice Tower Network]] and Paul & Quinn's [[https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/ Shut Up and Sit Down]], as well as [[https://gamecows.com/ GameCows]]. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | Creator/WilWheaton has promoted the board game hobby with his web series ''{{WebVideo/Tabletop}}'', where he and several "geek celebrities" play a variety of board games. Additionally, webcomics like ''Webcomic/DorkTower'' and ''[[http://overboard-comic.com/ Going OverBoard]]'' detail the lives and adventures of board gamers. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | Board games have seen several [[DigitalTabletopGameAdaptation digital implementations]] over the years. While several publishers like Asmodee and Stonemaier Games have developed or outsourced their own official forks, there are also websites like [[https://www.yucata.de/en Yucata.de]], [[https://tabletopia.com/ TableTopia]], and [[https://en.boardgamearena.com/ BoardGameArena]], which feature free-to-play online implementations of games in several languages, programmed and updated by community members. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | The more "classic" board games tend to receive "skins" based on various other works: see ThemedStockBoardGame. |
| 34 | ---- |
| 35 | [[index]] |
| 36 | !!Eras of board-games include: |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [floatboxright: |
| 39 | '''Subcategories:''' |
| 40 | + AdventureBoardGames |
| 41 | + AmeritrashGames |
| 42 | + {{Euro Game}}s |
| 43 | + {{Narrative Board Game}}s |
| 44 | ] |
| 45 | |
| 46 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 47 | |
| 48 | [[folder:Ancient]] |
| 49 | %% |
| 50 | %% Games with ancient origins or those lost to time. |
| 51 | %% |
| 52 | * TabletopGame/{{Backgammon}}: Possibly the most ancient game in existence that is still widely played, though waning in popularity; the goal is to move your pieces into your own "home board" while doing everything possible to stop or outrun your opponent. Many of the higher-quality kits have boards that close and latch like a briefcase (with handle) for easy transport. |
| 53 | * TabletopGame/{{Checkers}} (also known as Draughts in some areas): The archetypical game of casual minds; e.g., young children and leisurely seniors. While definitely a simpler game than chess, checkers may be treated as if it were barely above the level of tic-tac-toe (noughts and crosses). Extra bathos points for a character using a chess set and board to play checkers. Almost invariably, one character will be looking supremely confident until the other player reaches out and ''click-click-click-click-click'' takes most of their pieces in a single move, often with a smug "King me!" at the end when they make it to the last row (even though they made backwards jumps that would be illegal if the piece were not ''already'' a king. |
| 54 | [[/index]] |
| 55 | ** Unless it's Russian Draughts, where men attack both forward and back, and kings move much like chess bishops, just like in Polish Draughts (the most commonly played variant worldwide, which in contrast to the Russian variant is played on a 10x10 board, and almost certainly did not originate from Poland). |
| 56 | *** Note that in real life checkers or draughts is an easier game than chess for beginning players and computers, but about as hard as chess for seasoned players, who in both games see an average of two valid moves in every situation. When played blind, 10x10 checkers variants are even harder to play than chess, because there are more pieces, and they're all the same. |
| 57 | ** Also, Chinese checkers is neither checkers nor Chinese -- it's more of a race to move your army from one point on the board (usually in the shape of a Star of David) to the other. It's a derivative of a 19th century American game called Halma. |
| 58 | [[index]] |
| 59 | * TabletopGame/{{Chess}}: The supreme Western test of intellect. TheSpock, TheProfessor and [[TheChessmaster cunning villains]] will all [[SmartPeoplePlayChess play this superbly]], because SmartPeoplePlayChess. Show them a game in progress, and they will confidently announce, 'Mate in three/five/seventeen.' In practice, even the world's best professional chess players would not be able to consistently do this well. (Spock, at least, has the excuse that he's an alien.) Sometimes, as in ''Series/{{House}}'' and Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/SixthColumn'', it's just a bluff. Chess, in turn, comes from the Persian Shatranj (below), which in turn came from the Indian Chaturanga. |
| 60 | ** TabletopGame/{{Arimaa}}: A chess variant involving animals attempting to shove each other into pits. |
| 61 | ** Hnefatafl "King's Table": Scandinavian chess known at least from IV century A.D. -- that is, Vikings played this. Mentioned in the ''Literature/PoeticEdda'', ''Literature/ProseEdda'' and ''Literature/TheIcelandicSagas'' both as a noteworthy skill and used for ChessMotifs: in Fridthjof's saga the King's man came with a war-related request to Fridthof and Bjorn who played the game, and they answered in game strategy terms, looking at the board. (Also notable as the inspiration for "Thud" in [[Literature/{{Thud}} the Discworld book by that name]].) |
| 62 | ** TabletopGame/{{Makruk}} Thai Chess, with short-assize pawns (i.e. starting on the third rank) that promote on the sixth, Bishops that move like Silver Generals in Shogi, etc. |
| 63 | ** TabletopGame/{{Shogi}}: The Japanese variant of chess. Typically used in anime as an excuse for old men to sit on porches of rice-paper houses, above the stone lanterns and shishi-odoshi, and discuss in slow grunts the vagaries of life. It's also notable for the "drop rule", in which captured pieces can be [[OhCrap put back into action]] [[FaceHeelTurn by the owner's opponent.]] |
| 64 | ** TabletopGame/{{Xiangqi}}: Chinese Chess. Two housebound Generals send Chess-like armies after each other. The name literally means "elephant game", and it was what happened when chaturanga went east from India. |
| 65 | * TabletopGame/{{Go}}: The supreme Eastern test of intellect. The aura of inscrutable Asian wisdom doesn't hurt either, though in reality playing either game at world championship level is equally difficult. And then, in the other direction, there's... (see the Shōgi entry.) |
| 66 | * [[/index]] Hangman: Guess the word or phrase letter by letter. Each time you guess wrong adds a new piece to the gibbet, noose, and hanged man. This game, of course is the spiritual ancestor of ''Series/WheelOfFortune''. [[index]] |
| 67 | * TabletopGame/{{Mahjong}}: The quintessential East Asian gambling game, where 4 players try to form 14-tile hands by drawing and discarding a tile per turn, in a manner vaguely similar to gin rummy. It could be considered the Eastern analogue to poker, being part luck and part skill and having many {{Popular Game Variant}}s. Commonly (but not always) played for cash stakes, converting points to money, although more recent trends have seen a shift towards playing for sport and bragging rights, especially with the Japanese Riichi variant. Not to be confused with Shanghai, which is a matching game played (usually on a computer) with an enormous pile of mahjong tiles. |
| 68 | * Mancala: A family of "sowing games" where stones are distributed around a circuit of cups, frequently capturing the contents of the cup opposite where the sowing stops. It seemingly originated somewhere in east Africa and is fairly popular in the USA and parts of Europe. Some of the most recognized variants are Kalah (created in the US), Bohnenspiel (German-Persian), and Awari (Ghanaian). |
| 69 | * Pachisi (and relations like Ludo, Parcheesi, and Sorry): A series of games, originally from India, that involves racing pieces around a track and trying to be the first to get all of them to a home space. |
| 70 | * Senet: The oldest known board game, dating as far back as predynastic Egypt. The rules aren't known with any certainty, but [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senet approximate reconstructions]] exist. |
| 71 | * [[/index]]Snakes and Ladders (aka ''Chutes and Ladders''): A kid's game, originally from India meant to teach moral lessons. Good deeds get you a ladder to the top of the board, bad deeds get you dragged down by a snake. [[index]] |
| 72 | * TabletopGame/TicTacToe (also known as Noughts and Crosses): First player to get three in a row wins. |
| 73 | [[/folder]] |
| 74 | |
| 75 | [[folder:18th Century]] |
| 76 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Cribbage}}'': A rare combination of a traditional card game and a board game, players advance pegs on a peg board to race to the end of a track based on rounds of card play. Utterly incomprehensible to the uninitiated, but undeniably popular. |
| 77 | [[/folder]] |
| 78 | |
| 79 | [[folder:19th Century]] |
| 80 | * ''TabletopGame/GameOfLife'': America's first popular parlor game. A much more girlier pretty in pink version was also released (as ''The Game of Life: High School Edition''). |
| 81 | * ''Reversi'' (including the commercialized ''Othello''): A vaguely Go-like game where surrounded pieces change color instead of being captured. Reversi can be very difficult to keep track of, since one piece placement can drastically alter the entire board, at least on traditional boards -- computer-based versions take care of this on their own. Reversi variations have appeared in some PartyGame series, including ''Videogame/{{Point Blank|1994}}'', ''VideoGame/MarioParty'', and ''VideoGame/WarioWare'', with the caveat that a player must win a minigame to claim a square. |
| 82 | [[/folder]] |
| 83 | |
| 84 | [[folder:20th Century]] |
| 85 | * ''TabletopGame/ThirteenDeadEndDrive'': Two players conspire to make their character inherit a vast fortune while luring other characters into deadly traps. |
| 86 | * ''[=18XX=]'': A variety of games on building railroads in the 1800s, with emphasis on designing quick routes and manipulating the stock market. |
| 87 | * ''Abalone'': A curious combination of Chinese checkers and sumo wrestling. Hails from France. |
| 88 | * ''TabletopGame/AdvancedSquadLeader'': A WWII war game. |
| 89 | * ''TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror'': A story based game based on the roleplaying game ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu''. |
| 90 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Atmosfear}}'' (aka ''Nightmare''): Players attempt to confront their fears while collecting "Keystones" then returning to the start. |
| 91 | * ''TabletopGame/TheAwfulGreenThingsFromOuterSpace'': Two players depict the eponymous Things' attempt to devour the crew of the starship Znutar. |
| 92 | * ''TabletopGame/AxisAndAllies'' (aka ''Axis & Allies Classic''): A turn-based game where players take the role of various nations during World War II. |
| 93 | * ''Balderdash'': A game of creating definitions for odd (but real) words, and voting on the best one--Including the actual definitions. |
| 94 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Battleship}}'': Naval warfare game originally created for pencil and paper play, but successfully adapted into a commercial form by Milton Bradley. If characters are seen playing this, it usually indicates they've had ''way'' too much idle time to kill. Due to the deeply embedded memories of MB's marketing campaigns, nobody ''ever'' is depicted destroying a cruiser or carrier, but within 3 turns one player ''will'' finally announce "You sank my battleship!" This is more often than not done ironically, or with a [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] on it, at least recently. It received a loose (and rather unsuccessful) [[Film/{{Battleship}} film adaption]] in 2012. |
| 95 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Bingo}}'': Gambling for old people, at least in North America. |
| 96 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Boggle}}'': Players have a moderate time limit to divine as many words as possible from a 4x4 grid of lettered cubes. Larger variants came up in later years, such as the 5x5 ''Big Boggle'' (some versions including a "challenge cube" with lesser-used letters) and ''Master Boggle'', and the 6x6 ''Super Big Boggle'' which features a ''two-letter'' cube and one with unusable "blocks" on three of its sides. |
| 97 | * ''TabletopGame/CandyLand'': The stock example of a childish game. Children are enthralled by the [[SugarBowl colorful world]], while anyone over the age of 10 will only play in order to spend time with someone under the age of 10. This treatment is very much TruthInTelevision: Candy Land is totally unaffected by any player choice (so the youngest player has an equal chance to win), but the flow of the game is not at all suitable for gambling. |
| 98 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Catan}}'': The original EuroGame. Players exploit the resources of an island to see who builds the most powerful colony. {{Memetic|Mutation}} for the InnocentInnuendo involved in trading [[BestialityIsDepraved wood for sheep]]. |
| 99 | * ''TabletopGame/ConnectFour'': A vertical checkers game that requires you to put four checkers in a row. It bears significant similarities to tic-tac-toe, and in turn may have been an inspiration for Tetris. |
| 100 | * ''TabletopGame/CosmicEncounter'' Each player takes on the role of one (or sometimes more) alien races attempting establish colonies on the others' planets. Each player has a different power that lets him/her circumvent a game rule. |
| 101 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}do'' (aka ''Clue'' [[MarketBasedTitle in America]]): A popular party game in which the players attempt to solve a murder by guessing the perpetrator, the location of the crime, and the murder weapon ("Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with the candlestick!"). [[Film/{{Clue}} The game inspired a comedy film in the '80s starring Tim Curry and several other stars of the era.]] (There is also an inversion/parody of the game called [[https://cheapass.com/free-games/originals/kill-doctor-lucky/ Kill Doctor Lucky.]] It is exactly what you imagine it is, but with more [[{{Pun}} backstabbing]] and frequent random failures.) |
| 102 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Cranium}}'': A game involving the players trying to get around a board by employing skills like sculpting, drawing, charades, trivia, rebuses, and so on. A bit of a "something for everyone" kind of game that has spawned and entire series of expansions and spinoffs. |
| 103 | * ''TabletopGame/TheCreatureThatAteSheboygan'' |
| 104 | * ''The Dark Tower'': An '80s fantasy game where you lead your warlord to build an army and conquer the Dark Tower. |
| 105 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Diplomacy}}'': A game of diplomacy, war, and treachery for up to seven players. Players move their armies and fleets in simultaneous turns, with hidden written orders. You may end the game with fewer friends than you had at the start, as ThereCanBeOnlyOne ruler of Europe, while the rest can enjoy having ornate daggers jammed into their backs. |
| 106 | * ''TabletopGame/EmpireBuilder'': The original member of the Crayon Rail family, the main family of railroad games that are not 18XX games. |
| 107 | * ''TabletopGame/FormulaD'': A tabletop game about vehicular racing with many complicated rules, thankfully, the game is divided into basic and advanced. |
| 108 | * ''TabletopGame/GameOfTheGenerals'' |
| 109 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Ghosts}}'': A two-player game taking place on a 6-by-6 grid representing a haunted castle, each player has eight ghosts, with four of them being good and four of them being evil. If one player gets all the opponent's good ghosts, s/he wins. If one player gets all the opponent's evil ghosts, s/he loses. |
| 110 | * ''Girl Talk'': A classic game of Truth or Dare that is aimed at girls who play it at sleepovers. |
| 111 | ** ''Girl Talk Date Line'' |
| 112 | ** ''Girl Talk Secret Diary'' |
| 113 | ** ''Girl Talk (1995)'' |
| 114 | ** ''Girl Talk {{Franchise/Bratz}} Edition'' |
| 115 | ** ''Girl Talk Series/HannahMontana Edition'' |
| 116 | ** ''Girl Talk Music/OneDirection Edition'' |
| 117 | ** ''Girl Talk Twister'' |
| 118 | ** ''Girl Talk Jenga'' |
| 119 | ** ''Girl Talk Pink Edition'' |
| 120 | ** ''Girl Talk Series/ThatsSoRaven Edition'' |
| 121 | ** ''Girl Talk Dare Confetti'' |
| 122 | ** ''Girl Talk Sassy Stix'' |
| 123 | ** ''Girl Talk: The CD-ROM Game of Truth or Dare'' |
| 124 | * ''TabletopGame/TheGrapeEscape1992'': A two-to-four player game where you make your playing piece "grapes" out of [[MadeOfPlasticine Play-Doh]] and travel around the machine-styled board without getting violently squished. |
| 125 | * ''TabletopGame/HeroQuest'': A dungeon exploration game that bears some relationship to the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' world. ''Warhammer Quest'' was the successor game to this. |
| 126 | * ''TabletopGame/IsaacAsimovsRobots'': A VHSGame created in 1988, as an [[LicensedGame adaptation]] of ''Literature/TheCavesOfSteel'' where the players participate in TheSummation at the end. |
| 127 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Jenga}}'': As mentioned in the page quote, Jenga isn't exactly a board game per se; it's a game where you try to deconstruct a stack of wooden or plastic rods without it falling over. It was created by an African-raised Brit, and the name is Swahili (and trademarked by Hasbro). A similar version of it was released and made just for girls (known as the official name of ''Jenga: Girl Talk Edition''). |
| 128 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Junta}}'': A game which places one player in the role of TheGeneralissimo of a BananaRepublic and the other players as his scheming cohorts, all competing for money and power. |
| 129 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Kismet}}'' is marketed as "The Modern Game of Yacht". As in the original ''Yacht'' and the earlier ''TabletopGame/{{Yahtzee}}'', players roll five MediaNotes/{{dice}}, and may try to improve their current score by rerolling any number of dice up to two times. Points are awarded for rolling matching numbers, or for various combinations similar to poker hands. The highest value combination is a "Kismet", which is all 5 dice with the same number. The major distinction between ''Kismet'' and the earlier games is the use of colored dice (black 1 & 6, red 2 & 5, and green 3 & 4) and the inclusion of color-based scoring combinations like a flush (all dice showing the same color). |
| 130 | * ''TabletopGame/LupinIII'' is a semi-cooperative game based on the adult cartoon of Lupin the 3rd (as much as the family-friendly cartoon movie before it, The Castle of Cagliostro, in which he rescues a beautiful young princess from a evil count) and his gang, {{Gentleman Thie|f}}ves, attempting to steal a treasure protected by Zenigata, an ImplacableMan with an army of policemen to support him. Fujiko, the lone woman on the team, makes the game more interesting as she may betray her fellow thieves at any point. |
| 131 | * ''[[Magazine/{{Mad}} MAD Magazine]]'' had a board game in 1979. The goal was to lose all your money. Other aspects of gameplay included: Play went counter-clockwise; you rolled the dice with your left hand; and the possibility of having to switch seats or exchange money with another player. |
| 132 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Mastermind}}'': Guess the code of the other guy, using the clues he or she gives you from wrong guesses. |
| 133 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}'' (originally ''The Landlord's Game''): A game for the whole family (so long as the whole family understands real estate, mortgages, land development, and math of at least a fifth grade level). Expect lots of squabbling, convenient luck and complicated trades, often [[{{Metagame}} extending outside the game]]. A pretty in pink version was also available for girls (''Monopoly Pink Boutique Edition''), as well as a slightly-reworked ''VideoGame/MarioParty''-esque version ([[http://kotaku.com/mario-themed-monopoly-gamer-has-power-ups-and-boss-batt-1796474545 Monopoly Gamer]]). |
| 134 | * ''TabletopGame/MouseTrap1963'': Popular game for kids in which the objective is to build a RubeGoldbergDevice to trap your opponent's mice. |
| 135 | * ''TabletopGame/MysteryDate1965'': Get the cards for the outfit that matches which date shows up at the door. |
| 136 | ** [[/index]]''Mystery Date Film/HighSchoolMusical Edition''[[index]] |
| 137 | ** ''Mystery Date Sparkle & Shine'' |
| 138 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Operation}}'': Removing various punny pathologies from a patient who reacts to mistakes and slips of the hand with a buzzing red nose. |
| 139 | * ''Pictionary'': ''The'' drawing board game, players draw pictures of things specified by cards and their categories for their teammates to guess. |
| 140 | * ''TabletopGame/RapRat'': A game similar in spirit to and created by the same team behind ''Atmosfear''. |
| 141 | * ''TabletopGame/TheRepublicOfRome'' |
| 142 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Risk}}'' (originally ''La Conquête du Monde''): A game for two to six players, featuring a full world map and hundreds of tiny pieces representing armies, in which the goal is to take over the world. This game often takes several hours to play out. A common strategy is to take over Australia as quickly as possible, since it's the hardest continent to attack. In Risk, every player tends to suffer from ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, as alliances between players are made and broken on a whim. |
| 143 | * ''TabletopGame/ScotlandYard'': A eurogame where up to six police officers must work together to track down the criminal Mister X (controlled by a seventh player) through a map of London. |
| 144 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Scrabble}}'': A game for people who know lots of words [[GrammarNazi and how to spell them]]. Having a big vocabulary is a plus, but actually knowing the definition isn't important to the game so long as it is an actual word. TheMagicPokerEquation applies here. The winner always has just the right letters for a long, high-scoring, but recognisable word, and there's somewhere on the board that it'll fit. They rarely resort to kind of obscure words common in professional Scrabble: ''aa'', ''cwm'', ''etui''. (Although one can occasionally expect ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''-esque arguments over the legitimacy of such words as "[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons kwyjibo]]," "[[Series/RedDwarf jozxyqk]]", "[[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes zqfmgb]]", or "[[Series/{{Seinfeld}} quone]]") Further, even though short words are common in professional Scrabble, anyone who plays a word less than four letters will be seen as a dummy. Another common Scrabble trope is when people playing the game all have and play words relating to the situation. 2 different versions were released in which they are made just for girls who know lots of words [[GrammarNazi and how to spell them]] (such as star, beach, sandals, flower, shoes and pink) (Scrabble Justice Collector's Edition and Scrabble Limited Too Collector's Edition). While this game was also adapted into a [[Series/{{Scrabble}} 1980s game show]] with Chuck Woolery as host, the format was plenty different (solving words to riddle-type clues)--But it did work well enough to become one of the longest-running game shows based upon a board game, at six years[[note]]The Dutch ''TabletopGame/{{Boggle}}'' surpasses it by one[[/note]]. |
| 145 | * ''TabletopGame/SpaceHulk'': A team of {{space marine}}s fight aliens in an abandoned space-ship, from the ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' franchise. |
| 146 | * ''TabletopGame/StarOfAfrica'': Classic Finnish board game about looking for the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cullinan_Diamond Cullinan Diamond]]. |
| 147 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Stratego}}'': War board game where red and blue pieces go into battle blindly, with the goal of capturing the other team's flag. As the name might imply, there is a fair bit of strategy involved. |
| 148 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Talisman}}'': A fantasy RPG-themed board game originally published by Games Workshop. |
| 149 | * ''TabletopGame/TrivialPursuit'': A combination of luck and knowledge. Entire books have detailed not only strategies for choosing categories and both asking and answering questions, but also the game's inaccuracies and ambiguities. |
| 150 | * [[/index]]Twister: Well, yes, there's a board, and yes, it's a game, although the players are the pieces. The aim of the game is to contort the players into shapes that don't collapse into a people pile. Or at least that's the ostensible aim; in practice the point is more to create embarrassing juxtapositions of body parts. It's sometimes used as a punchline for jokes, especially involving teenagers and a BoyfriendBlockingDad, suggesting that they are not playing so much as using the game as an excuse to feel each other up. 2 different versions were made towards girls (known to the world as ''Twister Girl Talk Edition'' and ''Twister Pink Edition''). [[index]] |
| 151 | * ''TabletopGame/VictoryInThePacific'': A two player historically-based wargame of the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Pacific Theater. |
| 152 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Yahtzee}}'' (aka ''Yatzie''): As in the original ''Yacht'', players roll five MediaNotes/{{dice}}, and may try to improve their current score by rerolling any number of dice up to two times. Points are awarded for rolling matching numbers, or for various combinations similar to poker hands. The highest value combination is a "Yahtzee", which is all 5 dice with the same number. Many [[ThemedStockBoardGame special themed versions]] have been released, often with custom dice and/or a custom dice cup related to the theme. |
| 153 | [[/folder]] |
| 154 | |
| 155 | [[folder:21st Century]] |
| 156 | * ''TabletopGame/SevenWonders'': A card {{drafting|Mechanic}} board game in which the goal is to make your city better than the other players', by building structures, winning wars, and researching science. It has received several {{Expansion Pack}}s and a two-player spinoff ''7 Wonders Duel''. |
| 157 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Abyss}}'': A game where you expand your influence in the kingdom of Abyss by recruiting Lords, affiliating valuable Allies and taking control of major Locations. Maybe you will become its new monarch. |
| 158 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Agricola}}'': A farming-themed game. |
| 159 | * ''Franchise/AmericanGirlsCollection'' |
| 160 | ** ''American Girl 300 Wishes Game'' |
| 161 | * ''TabletopGame/AssassinorumExecutionForce'': A board game from the ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', where Imperial Assassins attempt to kill a Chaos Sorcerer before he opens a gate to a demon-dimension. |
| 162 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Azul}}'': An abstract strategy game where you pull tiles from a central pool to fill out your mosaics. |
| 163 | * ''TabletopGame/BattleCON'' |
| 164 | * ''TabletopGame/BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill'' |
| 165 | * ''TabletopGame/BurgleBros'' is a map exploration game where the players are team members trying to pull off a heist without getting caught. Together, they must explore the building (represented by a grid of initially face-down tiles for each floor), find and crack all the safes, and escape to the roof. |
| 166 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Calico}}'': A puzzle game where players compete to make the highest-scoring quilts by laying hexagonal tiles to make patterns. Was adapted into a video game as ''VideoGame/QuiltsAndCatsOfCalico''. |
| 167 | * ''TabletopGame/TheCaptainIsDead'': A cooperative game about the crew of your favorite science fiction TV show trying to survive an attack from hostile aliens. |
| 168 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Carcassonne}}'': A EuroGame in which players compete to control and complete cities, roads and fields. Famous for having over 20 [[ExpansionPack Expansions]], which add everything from simple things like extra tiles to entirely new game mechanics and pieces. |
| 169 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Century}}'': While ''Spice Road'' as a stand-alone entry is a card game, ''Eastern Wonders'' involves board navigation, while ''A New World'' features worker placement on a fixed grid. |
| 170 | * ''TabletopGame/DarklightMementoMori'': A cooperative fantasy dungeon crawler inspired by ''VideoGame/DarkSouls''. |
| 171 | * ''TabletopGame/DeepMadness'': A cooperative {{Adventure Board Game|s}} with CyberPunk, SurvivalHorror, and Franchise/CthulhuMythos elements, set in a monster-infested deep sea mining facility. |
| 172 | * [[/index]]''Doomtroopers: Siege of the Citadel'', which is a greatly simplified board game set in the ''TabletopGame/MutantChronicles'' universe. You lead elite Doomtroopers from the various Megacorporations to destroy various alien beasts, including the centaur-like Ezaghoul. [[index]] |
| 173 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonSaga'' |
| 174 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Everdell}}'': A city-building worker placement game starring cute critters. |
| 175 | * ''TabletopGame/FlashPointFireRescue'': A cooperative game about firefighters struggling to save as many people as possible from a burning building. |
| 176 | * ''TabletopGame/FleetsThePleiadConflict'' |
| 177 | * The Forbidden Lands Series: |
| 178 | ** ''TabletopGame/ForbiddenIsland'': A cooperative game about adventurers trying to recover treasures before escaping a sinking island. |
| 179 | ** ''TabletopGame/ForbiddenDesert'': A cooperative game about adventurers trying to survive the heat and sand of the desert long enough to find the pieces of a legendary flying machine and escape. |
| 180 | ** ''TabletopGame/ForbiddenSky'': A cooperative game about adventurers trying to connect a circuit of cables to launch a secret rocket before they fall off the platform or are killed by lightning. |
| 181 | ** ''TabletopGame/ForbiddenJungle'': A cooperative game about adventurers trying to activate a portal that can get them out of the alien planet that they landed in before the whole jungle collapses, or one of them loses too much health. |
| 182 | * ''TabletopGame/ForgottenWaters'': A cooperative game where players become a crew of pirates exploring the seas, collecting treasure, and jockeying for position as they try to reach their Captain's goal. |
| 183 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Frag}}'' |
| 184 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Gloomhaven}}'' |
| 185 | * ''TabletopGame/HerdYourHorses'': A game that revolves around players attempting to swell the ranks of their herd with horse cards and avoid dangers as they manoeuvre across the board. |
| 186 | * ''TabletopGame/LEGOGames'': In the late 2000's, LEGO had a series of board games that were created with their signature blocks. |
| 187 | * ''TabletopGame/LostRuinsOfArnak'': Players are archeologists exploring the eponymous uncharted island. |
| 188 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Icehouse}}'': A boardless board game played with pyramidal pieces pointing at each other. Something like a cross between Go and vector arithmetic; more than four hundred games using the pyramidal pieces are listed on [[http://www.icehousegames.org/wiki/ this site.]] |
| 189 | * ''[[Characters/DanceMoms JoJo Siwa]]'' |
| 190 | ** ''[[Characters/DanceMoms JoJo Siwa]] Bust a Bow Dance Game'' |
| 191 | ** ''[[Characters/DanceMoms JoJo Siwa]] Dice Game'' |
| 192 | * ''TabletopGame/MageKnight'': A board game version of the Mage Knight miniature game. Play as a powerful [[TitleDrop Mage Knight]] and complete scenario objectives with the help of magic, military units and a few artifacts. |
| 193 | * ''Memoir '44'': A World War II strategy game for 2 played on a hex grid map, notably for having a lot of expansions and for the Operation Overlord set of expansions bumping it to 8 players and recreating some of the largest battles of the period. |
| 194 | * ''TabletopGame/MiceAndMystics'': Play as heroic mice, fighting vermin, stopping to hear the story's plot, and ultimately saving the realm. |
| 195 | * ''TabletopGame/MistbornHouseWar'': A board game with some elements of roleplay based on the universe of ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' written by Brandon Sanderson. |
| 196 | * ''Mr. President'': A solitaire (though also well-suited to cooperative play by up to 5 people) game published by GMT Games, in which the player is the President of the United States, navigating the domestic and international challenges of the first two decades of the 21st century. While very popular and well-received, the game is also noted for being highly complex and taking up to a couple of hours just to set up! |
| 197 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Mysterium}}'' (aka Tajemnicze Domostwo) |
| 198 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Oath}}'' |
| 199 | * ''TabletopGame/TheOthers2015'' |
| 200 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Pandemic}}'': A daring team of researchers and doctors out to stop the eponymous disaster. |
| 201 | * ''TabletopGame/PowerGrid'': The players compete to provide electricity to the largest number of cities, bidding on access rights, power plants, and fuel supplies. |
| 202 | * ''TabletopGame/RedDragonInn'': A board/card game where adventurers cheat each other out of loot. |
| 203 | * ''TabletopGame/ResArcana'': A game where alchemical mages vie for control of ancient monuments and places of power. |
| 204 | * ''TabletopGame/TheResistance'': SocialDeductionGame where heroic Resistance operatives must guess which players are spies. |
| 205 | * ''TabletopGame/RiseOfTheKage'' |
| 206 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Root}}'' |
| 207 | * ''TabletopGame/SalvageHiddenTreasures'': A small indie game where player scour the seas in search for valuable treasures. |
| 208 | * ''TabletopGame/ShadowsOverCamelot'': The players are [[Myth/ArthurianLegend Knights of the Round Table]] defending (or secretly betraying) Camelot. |
| 209 | * ''TabletopGame/{{SHASN}}'' |
| 210 | * ''TabletopGame/SmallWorld'': A ''TabletopGame/{{Risk}}''-like world conquest game with fantasy flavor and an emphasis on individual racial powers in combat over dice rolling. |
| 211 | * ''TabletopGame/SpiritIsland'': A cooperative game that flips the colonization and civilization themes of many EuroGame titles on its head - players are angry magical spirits trying to drive off invading settlers. |
| 212 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Splendor}}'': A resource-management game where buying gems gets you a ReducedResourceCost for future cards. Has a 2-player spin-off in ''Splendor Duel''. |
| 213 | * ''TabletopGame/StardewValley'': A cooperative game based on the popular farming [[VideoGame/StardewValley video game of the same name]]. |
| 214 | * ''TabletopGame/SushiGo'': {{Draft|ingMechanic}} conveyor belt sushi. |
| 215 | * ''TabletopGame/TerraformingMars'': The players are corporations competing to receive the most credit and prestige for their contribution to the terraforming of Mars. |
| 216 | * ''TabletopGame/ThroughTheAgesAStoryOfCivilization'': A civilization-building game. |
| 217 | * ''TabletopGame/TicketToRide'': Family game in which you build railroads. Published by Days of Wonder. |
| 218 | * ''TabletopGame/ATouchOfEvil'': Similar to TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror, but with a GothicHorror theme and minus [[NintendoHard the soul-crushing difficulty]]. |
| 219 | * ''TabletopGame/TragedyLooper'': Players use time-travel and attempt to thwart an opposing mastermind player's evil plan. |
| 220 | * ''TabletopGame/TrogdorTheBoardGame'': A spin-off of ''Franchise/HomestarRunner'', players team up to help Trogdor the Burninator devastate the land of Peasantry in this cooperative game. |
| 221 | * ''TabletopGame/TwilightImperium'': An incredibly in-depth {{doorstopper}} of a board game with a space opera theme that incorporates not just war strategy, but politics and trade as well. Combat is treated as a means to an end rather than always being a path to victory in itself. Games can last several hours. |
| 222 | * ''TabletopGame/TwilightStruggle'': A two-player, card-driven Cold War strategy game built around a mechanic of crisis aversion; it's notable for being a war game that doesn't involve any actual combat (save abstracted military coups). |
| 223 | * ''TabletopGame/UnderwaterCities'': Players are {{Badass Bureaucrat}}s solving the problems of the [[OverpopulationCrisis overpopulated]] Earth by building the eponymous underwater cities. |
| 224 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Unmatched}}'': An arena battle game between characters from folklore, and eventually modern adventure fiction. |
| 225 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Wingspan}}'': An engine-building game featuring birds. |
| 226 | * ''TabletopGame/WrathOfTheOldDog'' |
| 227 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Zombicide}}'': A game of fighting back against a zombie apocalypse. There's also a medieval fantasy version called Zombicide: Black Plague. |
| 228 | [[/folder]] |
| 229 | |
| 230 | [[/index]] |
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