Play fun board games

There are no other marbles, spinners, or game pieces required, which makes this quick to clean up and great to take on the go. An Uno deck contains cards—25 cards each in one of four colors, plus 8 special action cards like Skip and Reverse. Players take turns matching a card from their hand by number or color to the card in the middle of the game. That, and the obligatory victory dance after you win. We love this game because it gets the whole family humming, sketching, solving, and thinking.

Each color along the game path indicates which of the four card categories you have to pull from to proceed. If you successfully complete the challenge presented on the card you get to roll a die and continue that number of spaces.

As an added bonus for time-crunched families, the game board offers three different rates of play. Dominoes is great fun for players of all ages, so grab Grandma and a set of dominoes and start play! While there are a variety of games you can play with dominoes, one of our favorites is Mexican Train.

The first player to complete his or her train wins. The Chutes and Ladders game board contains squares and depicts a series of ladders and slides. Each ladder represents a good deed and its reward, but every slide represents the consequences of bad behavior.

Every player starts in the first square and a spinner dictates how many spaces a player can advance from there. The first player to the square wins. Watch fields, roads, and cities rapidly expand in the Medieval-themed game Carcassonne. Players take turns placing one of the game tiles in an attempt to build up their land.

The role and subsequent point value of a follower varies depending on what piece of property you put them on. For instance, a follower placed on a monastery tile is a monk who earns different points than a follower placed on a road tile as a thief.

Calculate your moves carefully, because once all the tiles have been played, the player with the most points wins. In this single-player game, try to free the red escape car by maneuvering the cars and trucks out of the way. This will likely take lots of little moves, as the blocking vehicles can only move forward or backward in the direction they are facing. Traffic Jam comes with 40 different challenges with varying levels of difficulty.

Depending on the puzzle, up to 15 cars and tracks can be in the way but, slowly and carefully, you can shift them to free the red car. Buy It: Rush Hour Jr. In Trouble, the goal is to be the first player to get all four of your pieces around the board and back home again. The premise is simple, but there are challenges along the way.

For a piece to leave home base, you first have to roll a six. After that, pieces can advance normally based on the die roll. If another player lands on a spot occupied by one of your pieces, your piece is sent back to home base and has to start the process again.

All aboard! The stakes are high in this game to see who can visit the most cities in North America in just seven days. In Ticket to Ride, players lay claim to railroads across the United States and Canada and compete to connect the most cities with their trains.

Draw cards to see what kind of train car you can play or what your next destination might be. Earn points for placing trains and for successfully connecting two destination cities.

The game ends when a player has less than two trains remaining, and bonus points are then awarded to the player who created the longest continuous route. The player with the most points wins. You have a ticket to ride, so where will your journey take you? Move your four pawns around the board and safely navigate them home again in the game of Sorry. Sorry is a competition, and there are two ways to set back your opponents. Win by being the first to get all four of your pawns home. A scoring system exists if you wish to play multiple rounds of this game.

Buy It: Sorry! Each round, players receive three opportunities to roll up to five dice. After each roll, you can evaluate the dice and choose which, if any, you want to roll again.

You are looking for a pattern that will work for one of the 13 possible Yahtzee categories. At the end of your turn, choose which category you will use for that round and tally the score accordingly. You can only use a category once per game, so choose carefully. At 50 points, a Yahtzee is the highest possible score you can roll. Play up to 13 rounds and then tally your scores; the player with the highest score wins. Nothing gets the fun going like an invigorating game that prompts players to shout, act, and strategize on the fly.

Pictionary is a party game suitable for players of all ages. Teams take turns drawing and guessing as many words or phrases as possible in a timed round. You might think a game of drawing sounds easy, but this game can be more difficult than it seems. The path on the Pictionary game board is comprised of different colored squares, each denoting a different level of difficulty for a word on the corresponding game card. Play using the board and be the first team to make it all the way to the finish line, or ditch the board altogether and play just for the laughs.

We dare you to try and keep a straight face during a game of Apples to Apples. This clever party game will have everyone laughing out loud. Each box contains a set of green apple cards, which have adjectives on them, and a set of red apple cards, which have nouns on them. Each round, a new player gets to be the judge and presents a green apple card to the group.

The rest of the players select one of the red apple cards from their hands to play. Sometimes the nouns match the adjectives perfectly, sometimes they make no sense at all, and sometimes they are downright hysterical. Once everyone has contributed a red card, the judge chooses a favorite. Depending on your group you could play just for fun, or designate a set number of rounds and see who can play the most winning cards in that time.

Scattergories is a fun list-making game that requires thinking fast. The idea of the game is to come up with creative answers to 12 different categories—things like TV shows, U. At the start of each round, you roll a sided letter die which decides the letter that every answer must begin with. Then you set the sand timer and get going! When the time is up, players compare their answers with one another.

If the same answer appears on more than one list it gets crossed off, but a player receives one point for each unique word. The winner is the player who has the most points after three rounds. In this fast-paced game, players try to get their teammates to say the word on an electronic disc without actually saying that word or any variations of it.

The disc has some 10, words stored in it. Get your teammates to say a word and then quickly pass the disc to the opposite team. This process continues, passing the disc from team to team until the round ends.

A timer embedded in the disc gradually beeps faster and faster until it abruptly sounds a loud buzz, signaling the end of a round. Move fast! Taboo is the game of forbidden words. Try and get through as many cards as possible in the given time. Your team will get one point for each card correctly guessed, but you will lose one point every time you say one of the taboo words.

A one-minute hourglass and a buzzer button will be in the possession of the opposing team during your round. Buy It: Taboo Kids vs. This game is a riot to play at parties. In Speak Out, players read a phrase from one of the game cards while wearing a special mouthpiece that makes it hard to enunciate.

Have your group form teams and take turns trying to guess the phrase on a game card. Try to get through as many cards as possible in the given time. Each game comes with 10 dishwasher-safe mouthpieces, but you can buy additional packs of mouthpieces if you have a big crowd.

A friendly suggestion: Keep some napkins or paper towels handy to wipe up your drool. In Password, one player on each team knows the secret word and gives a one-word clue to his or her teammate.

This continues until the secret word is finally guessed or until 10 clues have been given, whichever comes first. Every password starts with a point value of 10 but decreases by one point with each clue given. Play 10 secret words for a total of five rounds, and in the end, the team with the highest score wins.

Think you can guess the password? The goofy game of Mad Gab is like the reverse of that. If you repeat a strange series of words enough times, they actually sound like a common word or phrase. Enjoy playing this game where everyone sounds silly. These multi-player games combine strategy, wit, and humor.

Will you be playing with folks who are already tabletop-savvy, or are you looking for more casual party games that anyone can jump in and play? Are you looking for games that can be played in quick, successive rounds, or are you willing to invest in a legacy game, one that's played over multiple sessions with permanent changes made to the game each time?

If you live with just one other person, are you interested in two-player board games? We've tried to include a variety of different board games in our list as well as a mix of tabletop classics and modern gems.

Another thing to keep in mind before we dive in: Many of the most popular board games can be played digitally these days.

This includes official digital releases on platforms like Steam or the Nintendo eShop. Another great option is Tabletop Simulator , which offers official DLC for some of the great board games on this list as well as a massive library of mods for both popular and niche titles.

If you don't have space for a bunch of physical board games or live far away from most of your tabletop-loving friends, this is an alternate way to enjoy everything the wonderful world of board games has to offer.

With that said, here is our list of the best board games we've played and love--be sure to let us know your favorites as well in the comments down below. It's difficult to talk about great board games without mentioning Gloomhaven, which multiple GameSpot staffers listed among their personal top three. There's a reason this tactical combat game, which was host to an enormously successful Kickstarter campaign, maintains the No.

Gloomhaven is a massive multi-session campaign where each person plays a wandering adventurer who develops their own skills and reasons for traveling over the course of the game, working together as a group to explore ruins, fight through dungeons, and gather loot all represented by different game pieces and tokens.

Throughout the game, you'll make decisions that affect the ever-branching story, and each character has their own secret motives as well. Combat takes place on a grid that changes with each battle and involves drawing cards that determine your available actions, all without the need for dice.

There's also a digital adaptation in early access on Steam. Its campaign is much more focused on tactical combat than roleplaying, but if you're into turn-based strategy and storylines that are deeply impacted by your actions, you're in for a real treat with Gloomhaven. Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 ranks right behind Gloomhaven on BoardGameGeek's list of the best board games, and it happens to be one of our favorites as well.

This is a legacy-style board game, which means you play through it over multiple sessions, with choices made in one session permanently changing how the story plays out in later sessions. Legacy games often require physically altering the game--writing on cards, ripping some of them up, and placing stickers on various parts. Because of this, a legacy game is played out in a single campaign that you can only experience once per copy of the game.

Pandemic Legacy is one of the best legacy games you can buy, and it currently has three seasons available, including a recent prequel set during the Cold War, Pandemic Legacy Season 0. Each game functions as a standalone campaign, so there's no need to have played the others first, though we recommend starting with Season 1.

The co-op campaign will be played over the course of sessions with two to four players ideally four , so you'll need a group that's in it for the long haul. Your group will play as disease-fighting experts whose mission is to treat disease hotspots and research cures for each of the four plagues before a pandemic occurs, with unique roles such as Medic and Scientist that allow special rules for each player.

New mechanics and twists are revealed over the course of the game, and intense cooperation is required as you race against time to find a cure and fight back against the looming pandemic. If you're someone who finds haunted houses thrilling, you're sure to love Betrayal at House on the Hill.

Perfect for fans of horror or story-driven games, Betrayal begins with a group of people exploring a haunted house, drawing tiles as they enter a new room, with various events or items possible within. About halfway through the game, a "haunt" will be triggered, and one of the players will become the traitor, with the remaining players racing against the clock to meet their win condition before the traitor meets theirs.

With 50 different scenarios in the base game--and another 50 added with the Widow's Walk expansion--there are numerous ways Betrayal can play out, but it's always a blast. Turn on some spooky music, dim the lights, and you've got yourself the perfect horror-themed board game night.

Plus, if you fall in love with Betrayal and want to take your game to the next level, there's a fantastic legacy version available as well. Don't be fooled by the adorable woodland creatures on its cover--Root is an asymmetrical war game that's fairly complex, and you'll probably need to play multiple times to fully get the hang of it.

In Root, multiple factions are fighting for control of a forest kingdom: Marquise de Cat, who wants to harvest the woodland's resources; the Eyrie Dynasty, birds who aim to build roosts throughout the forest as quickly as possible; the Woodland Alliance, forest creatures who build hideouts and spread sympathy for their cause; and the solo Vagabond, a warrior who moves through the woodland alone, forming alliances where it suits his own needs. Because each faction has completely different rules and goals, you'll want to play as each group at least once.

But while it takes some time to master, Root is an absolute blast to play as you experiment with different strategies and slowly learn how to play each faction well.

With its charming art design and excellent replayability, Root is a fantastic game to pick up if you have a group that's willing to master it over multiple sessions. A gorgeous digital version also released on Steam , iOS , and Android last year.

Scythe is designed for one to five players, but it also comes with a built-in single-player mode, if you have trouble getting a group together or live alone. Scythe is set in an alternative history of s Europe, which is recovering from a great war. Players control one of five factions that are competing to claim the stake in the land around a mysterious city-state known as the Factory, which played a major role in the great war with its armored mechs.

As an engine-building game, players aim to build structures, upgrade their actions, enlist new recruits, and more to grow their riches and complete certain goals.

And if you're looking to play solo, the Automa mode throws in an AI opponent, using a deck of cards to determine its actions. With stunning artwork and deep world-building, Scythe is one of the best board games we've played, and it's a great option for fans of resource management, territory control, and general empire-building. You can play Scythe on Steam too. Designed by Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield, King of Tokyo is a card game that has you and your friends go head-to-head as monsters battling for control of Tokyo.

You'll wield the fierce power of one of six monsters, aiming either to destroy Tokyo by garnering 20 victory points or to be the only monster still standing at the end. You'll roll dice to determine your actions and potentially gain victory points, and special playing cards will give your monster a new effect, like a second head that lets you roll an extra die, body armor, and more.

King of Tokyo is easy to learn, and each round lasts only about a half-hour, making this a quick and fun family game to teach to a new group. Blood Rage is a board game inspired by Norse mythology, casting you and your fellow players as Vikings during the time of Ragnarok.

Your ultimate goal is to go out with a bang, earning glory to secure your place in Valhalla, and there are several strategies you can adopt to achieve this. At the beginning of each round, or "Age" there are three , you'll be dealt cards called Gods' Gifts, giving you various abilities that you can then craft your strategy around.

You'll use the game's resource, Rage, to perform actions, and winning a battle isn't always the goal--sometimes, you'll win glory points for being defeated. At the end of each Age, a piece of the board is removed, and anyone on that portion is sent to Valhalla, earning even more glory for the players whose forces were there.

With detailed miniatures and fantastic artwork, Blood Rage is an excellent strategy game where the end goal isn't survival, but earning the most glory before you take your place at Odin's side in Valhalla. Blood Rage is also available on Steam though reviews for the digital edition are mixed.

Inspired by the H. Lovecraft novella, Mountains of Madness casts you and your friends as scientific explorers scaling a mysterious mountain in the middle of Antarctica. The problem: the higher you and your party climb, the more the mountain will begin to affect your mental health. To ascend the mountain, you and your team must pass a series of timed challenges that require quick and effective communication to pool a certain number of cards, and this task becomes much harder as your team begins to collect madness cards.

Madness cards are the core mechanic driving the chaos in this cooperative board game, as they add new rules that make communicating increasingly hard.

There are three levels of madness cards, and you may have to "upgrade" to a harder one if you and your team even partially fail a task and you will Needless to say, Mountains of Madness descends into chaos as the madness cards get more ridiculous and the tasks get more difficult.

It's a hard game to win, but that doesn't make it any less fun. Azul is an easy-to-learn game where you collect tiles based on azulejos , a type of Portuguese tile used as decoration in buildings. The game's premise is that you're an artist decorating the walls of the Portuguese king's palace, but you're competing against other players to complete a full row of tiles on your player board first. To do this, players take turns drafting tiles from the center of the table, placing them in a repository on the left side of your board.

Boards, tiles, and cards are all included for free in each game. Backgammon Master Chess Solitaire Klondike 2. Subway Surfers Temple Run 2 Venge. One Repuls. Games Board Games. What are you playing today?