History Main / TheBoardGame

* The ''VideoGame/HarryPotter'' games spawned a large non-trading card game based on the game Quidditch. It wasn't half bad, actually.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek''-based wargame ''StarFleetBattles'' is one of the most successful tabletop space combat games out there. However, with the exception of a few names, it has almost nothing to do with the show or movies. This is because it was mostly taken from the ''Technical Manuals'', and went off into its own universe (and license) prior to the movies.
* ''{{Bionicle}}'' had a board game that was generally well-recieved by the fans.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has a fun search-and-fight boardgame adaptation with scenarios covering the first four seasons. There was also a different ''Buffy'' game, and an ''Series/{{Angel}}'' one, which were the usual awful licensed fodder.
* ''TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror'', a highly-rated and much-expanded boardgame set in the Franchise/CthulhuMythos universe. Not a short game, though, and not easy either.
* ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'' has at least two board games, one of which is not at all bad for a standard "move around the board collecting tokens and avoiding hazards" adaptation. What makes it is the sheer brutality; zombie encounters require decent weapons to even have a chance at escaping intact, but most weapons are single-use and once the deck is exhausted there's no more to scavenge. Allies act as extra hit points but again are removed permanently once they die. Oh, and the first couple of players to be eliminated come back as zombies trying to kill the survivors.
* Both ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'' and ''{{Zathura}}'' received board-game adaptations. The Zathura one could even be considered a mass-produced prop replica, too.

** Back in its glory days in 1977, SPI produced ''The War of the Ring'' in its usual hexagon-and-die-cut-counter format. It was a visually appealing game with nice Tim Kirk art (characters in the story were represented on cards with a Tim Kirk portrait of the character). It was also a fairly decent simulation of the war. It won the 1977 Charles S. Roberts Best Fantasy Board Game of the Year award. SPI also produced two other games to accompany it simulating the siege of Minas Tirith (''Gondor'') and the battle of Dagorlad (the climax of the Last Alliance) (''Sauron'').

* Inversion: The board game ''Clue'' has been adapted into a campy movie, a TV series, a musical, and a series of books.

* A ''Mortal Kombat'' CCG.
* Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick has a board game that's basically a much simplified version of Dungeons and Dragons, filled to the brim with lampshade hangings. Of course even when simplified, it still takes a good hour to get through all the rules of the game and understanding how it all works. To help this he also includes a small comic to explain the basic gist of the game, and says if you don't feel like reading the manual, you can just wing it on stuff you don't get.

* TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} AND TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} have seen a number of quality games from Fantasy Flight Games. Chaos In The Old World puts each player in the role of the Chaos Powers in a race to conquer the WarhammerFantasy world first. Literature/HorusHeresy is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, an reenactment of the infamous event with one player as the traitors and the other as the Imperium. Part of what makes these games fun is the multiple paths to victory in addition to the random events/scenarios that prevent the game from getting stale too quickly.
* There is a TabletopGame/BackToTheFuture card game that is a version of {{Chrononauts}}, but much more streamlined and with the rules tweaked a bit. It is actually better than the original.

* ''MagicTheGathering'', when it first came out, launched a craze of [[CollectibleCardGame Collectible Card Games]], most of which were both licensed and imitations of Magic.
* ''HikaruNoGo'' deserves an honorary mention for being an inversion; a {{Shonen}} anime about playing [[MundaneMadeAwesome a classic boardgame]].

* The CBS 1960 game show ''Video Village'' was patterned like a life-sized board game. It was done locally in Los Angeles as ''Shenanigans'' and was revived for ABC under that name in 1964.
* Two inversions: ABC's ''Monopoly'' had three contestants solving crossword clues to obtain properties on a giant lighted Monopoly board, and NBC's ''Scrabble'' had two players solving crossword clues to create their words on a Scrabble board.

* ''TheLordOfTheRings'' has had many, many board game adaptations.
** ''Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation'' is a highly rated boardgame that is similar to ''Stratego'', except vastly better, seeing as each piece has different abilities, and players also get a hand of cards that they play to alter the course of a conflict. More importantly, it gets the feel of the books right. Boromir always dies early, Sauron's forces are MUCH stronger combat wise but lose if Frodo sneaks by them, and Gandalf god-modes the **censored** out of everything.
** The ''LordOfTheRings Strategy Battle Game'' from Games Workshop, which may very well be the most financially successful tabletop adaptation ever. It is (as of this writing) the third most popular game that the company offers, behind the two ''Warhammer'' franchises.
** Back in its glory days in 1977, SPI produced ''The War of the Ring'' in its usual hexagon-and-die-cut-counter format. It was a visually appealing game with nice Tim Kirk art (characters in the story were represented on cards with a Tim Kirk portrait of the character). It was also a fairly decent simulation of the war. It won the 1977 Charles S. Roberts Best Fantasy Board Game of the Year award. SPI also produced two other games to accompany it simulating the siege of Minas Tirith (''Gondor'') and the battle of Dagorlad (the climax of the Last Alliance) (''Sauron'').
** There's also the Reiner Knizia version, in which the players play as the four hobbits (plus Fatty Bolger in the five-player game) and, rather than competing against each other, have to cooperate and plan strategies to beat the game.

* ''VideoGame/PacMan'' received a ''Hungry Hungry Hippos''-ish game in which players moved their Pacs along a maze; these could actually "eat" the marble dots. There were ghosts and energizers, too, and one could even use a differently-colored marble as a "fruit" piece. Sadly, it was quite boring. A ''VideoGame/MsPacMan'' game was made, but with very different mechanics.

** To be sure, it can be argued that [=RPGs=] are a sort of "Lord of the Rings" adaptation...
** A ''Lord of the Rings'' version of Risk
** Did they make a ''LOTR'' version of Chutes and Ladders?

* The 1979 ''TabletopGame/{{Dune}}'' board game, designed by Eon and published by Avalon Hill, is widely considered a classic. That didn't stop them from allowing Parker Brothers to make yet another ''Dune'' game in 1984, which hardly anyone cares about.

* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' board games:
** One of those boardgames had an appropriately NightmareFuel -ish ending where two of the kids playing turned into zombies.
** One game involved various kids from different books sneaking through a graveyard. It truly was rife with NightmareFuel, a faceless grim-reaper figure, being turned into trees, death by falling into empty graves and tombs. Spooky stuff.
* The ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' board game is reportedly extremely unique and fun, especially if it's played similar to a roleplaying game: the game is co-operative, but one or more of the players is a Cylon and is actively, and secretly, trying to undermine everyone else. [[spoiler:(In a nice thematic twist, a player may only discover they're a Cylon partway through the game and therefore might not want to play too strongly in the early game....)]]
* Then there's ''Series/{{Lost}}'': the game. It came out early in the run of the show. There's probably something in the game that has been contradicted in the show.
* ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'' spawned a surprisingly good tactical board game which captured the glacial inevitability of the zombies well. It even sported a solo play mode where one had to weld all of the doors shut and then eliminate all of the zombies in the mall.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has had its fair share of board games, but the most unusual was "War of the Daleks," which was Parcheesi, but with a twist: turning the central Dalek Emperor piece caused the Dalek pawns to whirl about on fixed paths. If the Daleks reached one of the pawns, it was considered "exterminated." Woe betide the careless owner who breaks the small, toothed end-cap on the Daleks' base--they won't move at all without them.

* The 1979 ''TabletopGame/{{Dune}}'' board game, designed by Eon and published by Avalon Hill, is widely considered a classic. That didn't stop them from allowing Parker Brothers to make yet another ''Dune'' game in 1984, which hardly anyone cares about.
* ''ASongOfIceAndFire'' was given a very good board game treatment by Fantasy Flight Games.

* Blizzard has also licensed several of its computer games to Fantasy Flight for boardgame versions, including ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'', ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' and ''{{Starcraft}}''. Probably because the makers of these games are tabletop game players themselves.
** In particular, the ''Starcraft'' boardgame has the feel and spirit of ''Twilight Imperium'', but with several unusually clever mechanics.
* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' the boardgame, again by Fantasy Flight.
** If you want to play a first-person shooter on a board, Steve Jackson Games' ''[[http://www.sjgames.com/frag/ Frag]]'' is designed to be this, from the ground up. You'll need a Santa's sack full of d6 to play it, though.
* ''GearsOfWar'': The Board Game, also by FFG.
* ''TheLordOfTheRings'' has had many, many board game adaptations.
** To be sure, it can be argued that [=RPGs=] are a sort of "Lord of the Rings" adaptation...
** A ''Lord of the Rings'' version of Risk
** Did they make a ''LOTR'' version of Chutes and Ladders?
** ''Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation'' is a highly rated boardgame that is similar to ''Stratego'', except vastly better, seeing as each piece has different abilities, and players also get a hand of cards that they play to alter the course of a conflict. More importantly, it gets the feel of the books right. Boromir always dies early, Sauron's forces are MUCH stronger combat wise but lose if Frodo sneaks by them, and Gandalf god-modes the **censored** out of everything.
** For some laughs, read the rules for this [[http://flyingmoose.org/tolksarc/boardgame/lotrgame.htm board game version]] of ''TheLordOfTheRings''. [[StealthParody It's so awful it almost could be real.]]
** The ''LordOfTheRings Strategy Battle Game'' from Games Workshop, which may very well be the most financially successful tabletop adaptation ever. It is (as of this writing) the third most popular game that the company offers, behind the two ''Warhammer'' franchises.
** Back in its glory days in 1977, SPI produced ''The War of the Ring'' in its usual hexagon-and-die-cut-counter format. It was a visually appealing game with nice Tim Kirk art (characters in the story were represented on cards with a Tim Kirk portrait of the character). It was also a fairly decent simulation of the war. It won the 1977 Charles S. Roberts Best Fantasy Board Game of the Year award. SPI also produced two other games to accompany it simulating the siege of Minas Tirith (''Gondor'') and the battle of Dagorlad (the climax of the Last Alliance) (''Sauron'').
** There's also the Reiner Knizia version, in which the players play as the four hobbits (plus Fatty Bolger in the five-player game) and, rather than competing against each other, have to cooperate and plan strategies to beat the game.
* Despite the [[BrokenBase mixed reception]] it received, ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ThePhantomMenace'' was adapted by Hasbro into the surprisingly good ''Star Wars: The Queen's Gambit''. It was a simulation of the climax of the film on [[FourLinesAllWaiting all four fronts]] (Amidala in the palace, Gungans vs. droids, Jedi vs. Maul, and Anakin in the space battle).
** A number of the Parker Brothers ''Star Wars'' licensed versions of regular games actually add in new game mechanics to make the game a bit different. Force Jumping {{Stratego}} pieces, anyone?
* The ''VideoGame/HarryPotter'' games spawned a large non-trading card game based on the game Quidditch. It wasn't half bad, actually.
* TabletopRPG ''{{Exalted}}'' has two board game adaptations: ''War For the Throne'' and ''Legacy of the Unconquered Sun''.
* Inversion: The board game ''Clue'' has been adapted into a campy movie, a TV series, a musical, and a series of books.

* There was a ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' board game during its heyday, a kind of an ersatz 2D Jenga in reverse. And there appears to be a new version that operates more as a Connect-4 setup.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek''-based wargame ''StarFleetBattles'' is one of the most successful tabletop space combat games out there. However, with the exception of a few names, it has almost nothing to do with the show or movies. This is because it was mostly taken from the ''Technical Manuals'', and went off into its own universe (and license) prior to the movies.
* ''Vampire: Prince of the City'' is the board game version of WhiteWolf's ''VampireTheRequiem''. Since it was made and published by the same company it is faithful to the spirit of the RPG while still being fun to play.
* A ''Mortal Kombat'' CCG.
* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' board games:
** One of those boardgames had an appropriately NightmareFuel -ish ending where two of the kids playing turned into zombies.
** One game involved various kids from different books sneaking through a graveyard. It truly was rife with NightmareFuel, a faceless grim-reaper figure, being turned into trees, death by falling into empty graves and tombs. Spooky stuff.
* The ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' board game is reportedly extremely unique and fun, especially if it's played similar to a roleplaying game: the game is co-operative, but one or more of the players is a Cylon and is actively, and secretly, trying to undermine everyone else. [[spoiler:(In a nice thematic twist, a player may only discover they're a Cylon partway through the game and therefore might not want to play too strongly in the early game....)]]
* Then there's ''Series/{{Lost}}'': the game. It came out early in the run of the show. There's probably something in the game that has been contradicted in the show.
* ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'' spawned a surprisingly good tactical board game which captured the glacial inevitability of the zombies well. It even sported a solo play mode where one had to weld all of the doors shut and then eliminate all of the zombies in the mall.
* Pooyan had a board-game version that was actually quite well done.
* Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick has a board game that's basically a much simplified version of Dungeons and Dragons, filled to the brim with lampshade hangings. Of course even when simplified, it still takes a good hour to get through all the rules of the game and understanding how it all works. To help this he also includes a small comic to explain the basic gist of the game, and says if you don't feel like reading the manual, you can just wing it on stuff you don't get.
* ''{{Bionicle}}'' had a board game that was generally well-recieved by the fans.
* TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} AND TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} have seen a number of quality games from Fantasy Flight Games. Chaos In The Old World puts each player in the role of the Chaos Powers in a race to conquer the WarhammerFantasy world first. Literature/HorusHeresy is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, an reenactment of the infamous event with one player as the traitors and the other as the Imperium. Part of what makes these games fun is the multiple paths to victory in addition to the random events/scenarios that prevent the game from getting stale too quickly.
* There is a TabletopGame/BackToTheFuture card game that is a version of {{Chrononauts}}, but much more streamlined and with the rules tweaked a bit. It is actually better than the original.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has a fun search-and-fight boardgame adaptation with scenarios covering the first four seasons. There was also a different ''Buffy'' game, and an ''Series/{{Angel}}'' one, which were the usual awful licensed fodder.
* ''TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror'', a highly-rated and much-expanded boardgame set in the Franchise/CthulhuMythos universe. Not a short game, though, and not easy either.
* ''MagicTheGathering'', when it first came out, launched a craze of [[CollectibleCardGame Collectible Card Games]], most of which were both licensed and imitations of Magic.

* ''HikaruNoGo'' deserves an honorary mention for being an inversion; a {{Shonen}} anime about playing [[MundaneMadeAwesome a classic boardgame]].
* ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'' has at least two board games, one of which is not at all bad for a standard "move around the board collecting tokens and avoiding hazards" adaptation. What makes it is the sheer brutality; zombie encounters require decent weapons to even have a chance at escaping intact, but most weapons are single-use and once the deck is exhausted there's no more to scavenge. Allies act as extra hit points but again are removed permanently once they die. Oh, and the first couple of players to be eliminated come back as zombies trying to kill the survivors.
* Both ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'' and ''{{Zathura}}'' received board-game adaptations. The Zathura one could even be considered a mass-produced prop replica, too.
* ''VideoGame/PacMan'' received a ''Hungry Hungry Hippos''-ish game in which players moved their Pacs along a maze; these could actually "eat" the marble dots. There were ghosts and energizers, too, and one could even use a differently-colored marble as a "fruit" piece. Sadly, it was quite boring. A ''VideoGame/MsPacMan'' game was made, but with very different mechanics.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' received "interactive" VCR board games. Which is to say, not very interactive at all, but it's the thought that counts.
* ''Film/TheShadow'' and ''Film/TheMask'' both received 3D board games.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has had its fair share of board games, but the most unusual was "War of the Daleks," which was Parcheesi, but with a twist: turning the central Dalek Emperor piece caused the Dalek pawns to whirl about on fixed paths. If the Daleks reached one of the pawns, it was considered "exterminated." Woe betide the careless owner who breaks the small, toothed end-cap on the Daleks' base--they won't move at all without them.
* The CBS 1960 game show ''Video Village'' was patterned like a life-sized board game. It was done locally in Los Angeles as ''Shenanigans'' and was revived for ABC under that name in 1964.
* Two inversions: ABC's ''Monopoly'' had three contestants solving crossword clues to obtain properties on a giant lighted Monopoly board, and NBC's ''Scrabble'' had two players solving crossword clues to create their words on a Scrabble board.
* Parodied by ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' in the sketch ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto: The Boardgame''. MisaimedMarketing at its finest: The game pieces are criminals such as drug kingpins and pimps, you can snort fake cocaine and get makeshift tattoos, and the game includes guns, drugs, and real cash for the family to fight over. Ironically, there was a real life board game based on ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}'' that was sort of like this: "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghettopoly Ghettopoly]]", set in an inner-city criminal neighbourhood. For obvious reasons, there was a public backlash and the game was discontinued.
* Parodied by ''Website/CollegeHumor'' with ''Film/TheHungerGames: The Boardgame''. The story about a publicly televised duel game in which teenagers have to kill each other until only one is left is now marketed towards love-crazed teen girls.
** There is a fan-made non-collectible ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' card game which, while obviously a ''TabletopGame/{{Munchkin}}'' reskin, isn't half bad.
* ''Theatre/HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying'' "is probably the only musical to have inspired a board game," according to ''The Complete Book of 1960s Broadway Musicals''. The board game was released by Creator/MiltonBradley in 1963.

* The ''Mad'' magazine board game was specifically a parody of Monopoly-style games; the object of the game is to ''lose'' all your money, and the Community Chest cards bear instructions such as "Switch places with the person sitting to your left" or "This card may only be played on a Friday."

* The ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' board game is reportedly extremely unique and fun, especially if it's played similar to a roleplaying game: the game is co-operative, but one or more of the players is a Cylon and is actively, and secretly, trying to undermine everyone else. [[spoiler:(In a nice thematic twist, a player may only discover they're a Cylon partway through the game and therefore might not want to play too strongly in the early game....)]]

* ''{{Goosebumps}}'' board games:

* ''Film/DawnOfTheDead'' spawned a surprisingly good tactical board game which captured the glacial inevitability of the zombies well. It even sported a solo play mode where one had to weld all of the doors shut and then eliminate all of the zombies in the mall.

* TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} AND TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} have seen a number of quality games from Fantasy Flight Games. Chaos In The Old World puts each player in the role of the Chaos Powers in a race to conquer the WarhammerFantasy world first. HorusHeresy is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, an reenactment of the infamous event with one player as the traitors and the other as the Imperium. Part of what makes these games fun is the multiple paths to victory in addition to the random events/scenarios that prevent the game from getting stale too quickly.

* The ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' board game s reportedly extremely unique and fun, especially if it's played similar to a roleplaying game: the game is co-operative, and gimmick of the game is that one or more of the players is a Cylon and is actively, and secretly, trying to undermine everyone else.

* The 1979 ''{{Dune}}'' board game, designed by Eon and published by Avalon Hill, is widely considered a classic. That didn't stop them from allowing Parker Brothers to make yet another ''Dune'' game in 1984, which hardly anyone cares about.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek''-based wargame ''StarFleetBattles'' is one of the most successful tabletop space combat games out there.
** However, with the exception of a few names, it has almost nothing to do with the show or movies.
*** That's cause it was mostly taken from the ''Technical Manuals'', and went off into its own universe (and license) prior to the movies.

** Let us not forget the ''LordOfTheRings Strategy Battle Game'' from Games Workshop, which may very well be the most financially successful tabletop adaptation ever. It is (as of this writing) the third most popular game that the company offers, behind the two ''Warhammer'' franchises.

* Despite the [[BrokenBase mixed reception]] it received, ''StarWars: Episode I'' was adapted by Hasbro into the surprisingly good ''StarWars: The Queen's Gambit''.

* A number of the Parker Brothers ''Franchise/StarWars'' licensed versions of regular games actually add in new game mechanics to make the game a bit different. Force Jumping {{Stratego}} pieces, anyone?
** There were also some unique ''Star Wars'' games as opposed to just Jedi-themed reskins. ''The Queen's Gambit'' attempted to replicate the climax of ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' - on all [[FourLinesAllWaiting four fronts]] (Amidala in the palace, Gungans vs. droids, Jedi vs. Maul, and Anakin in the space battle).

* A number of the Parker Brothers ''StarWars'' licensed versions of regular games actually add in new game mechanics to make the game a bit different. Force Jumping {{Stratego}} pieces, anyone?

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and ''WesternAnimation/Gargoyles'' received "interactive" VCR board games. Which is to say, not very interactive at all, but it's the thought that counts.

* ''PacMan'' received a ''Hungry Hungry Hippos''-ish game in which players moved their Pacs along a maze; these could actually "eat" the marble dots. There were ghosts and energizers, too, and one could even use a differently-colored marble as a "fruit" piece. Sadly, it was quite boring. A ''MsPacMan'' game was made, but with very different mechanics.

* ''ArkhamHorror'', a highly-rated and much-expanded boardgame set in the {{Cthulhu}} universe. Not a short game, though, and not easy either.

* TheWalkingDead has at least two board games, one of which is not at all bad for a standard "move around the board collecting tokens and avoiding hazards" adaptation. What makes it is the sheer brutality; zombie encounters require decent weapons to even have a chance at escaping intact, but most weapons are single-use and once the deck is exhausted there's no more to scavenge. Allies act as extra hit points but again are removed permanently once they die. Oh, and the first couple of players to be eliminated come back as zombies trying to kill the survivors.
* Both ''{{Jumanji}}'' and ''{{Zathura}}'' received board-game adaptations. The Zathura one could even be considered a mass-produced prop replica, too.

* The ''HarryPotter'' games spawned a large non-trading card game based on the game Quidditch. It wasn't half bad, actually.

* While of course ''Film/{{Battleship}}'' was based off a board game the circle of life just wouldn't be complete unless we had a ''Battleship: Movie Edition'' board game.