The Nerdd had the chance to be at TimpCon, a board game convention that focuses on showing you new games to play.
So many people have memories of playing board games around the table growing up. Monopoly, Life, Risk, and CandyLand. However, many people don’t realize that these are just the tip of the iceberg, and there are many, many games to play as an adult, that can still keep your interest.
However, it can be tough to jump from Life (Have a career and a family), to Rising Sun (Be the greatest shogun in feudal Japan, helping your clan worship gods and fight alongside mythological monsters to rule the island). So we are here to help you take your steps up into new and exciting games!
Board Games
Monopoly, Life
Again, these games are the basics. They are good at teaching how to be both competitive in a healthy way, as well as cooperative, in that everyone agrees to follow the rules, so that everyone can have fun.
Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride
This is where more strategy comes in, because you can’t just go for the first solution, as that won’t always have the long term effects you are looking for. Much like the difference from checkers to chess, there are a lot more things to consider than what is currently on the board. You have to start taking into account all the possibilities of what might happen later.
Pandemic
Fully cooperative games! When you become more of an adult, you start to learn that sometimes you have to stick to a certain role in a team, in order for the whole team to succeed, as opposed to worrying about yourself alone. Similarly, in a game like Pandemic, a lot of times you have to use your turn for more of a support role, allowing someone else to have a spotlight moment, so that all of you can win together. Teamwork is harder than people give it credit for, and this game requires a lot of it.
Massive Darkness, Rising Sun
Both of these games come from the CMON game company, because the require semi-teamwork. There are times where alliances are necessary to continue, but at any point you are able to destroy those alliances for your own benefit. Break an alliance too soon, and you don’t have what you need to succeed. Break an alliance too late, your teammate might leave you, and the rug is pulled out from under you. Keep an alliance, you become predictable to the other players. All of this alongside more factors in play than before, and your brain is running a hundred miles an hour to keep up.
Splotter
Splotter games are commonly known as some of the most complex and challenging board games out there. Talking to the creators of TimpCon, they said that even they have a hard time playing Splotter games, but once you get it, you love it. This is only if you find other games too simplistic. Be careful.
Kids – Azul
Do you have children in your life that you want them to know about more than just the basics that have been around for decades? There are new games that, while are technically for children, aren’t as childish as Candyland. Push kids to think beyond the linear path, based on luck, and instead help them grow their capacity for thinking and strategy, while doing something as simple as decorate the King’s palace walls.
Card Games
When sitting around a table, there are more than just board games. Card games! Not just for gambling and Las Vegas, card games can be just as family friendly or complex as board games.
Uno
Again, starting with simple games that everyone is familiar with, you try to get rid of your cards as fast as possible.
Apples to Apples
A newer game, similar to fill in the blank. Each round one player (the Judge) flips over a prompt card, then from your hand everyone else has to pick a word that most relates to the prompt, then the Judge picks the winner. You keep your cards to track your score. Sometimes its not enough to match the word, but pick a combination that the Judge will like the most. A more mature (vulgar) version of this game is called Cards Against Humanity.
Bears vs. Babies
A Deck Building game wherein you draw either members of the baby army, or pieces of bear that you can put together in a Frankenstein style to fight the babies! Yes, in this game Bears are the good guys, Babies are the bad guys.
Dominion
You have decided to expand your kingdom into the nearby unclaimed lands. However, many other neighboring kingdoms have decided to do the same. Race out and grow your lands, while not leaving anything too undefended from attacks. Balance your resources, and keep track of your players movements in this competitive game.
Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game
You can’t have an article on The Nerdd about boardgames without mentioning one of the many superhero games. Grow your team of superheroes and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to stop all of the super villains and their evil schemes. Work together to bring them down, but try to do it all yourself to get the points.
Betrayal at House on the Hill
The last game is an interesting mix of card and board game. You and your friends are exploring a haunted mansion, and every room you go into, gets chosen at random from the deck of cards, creating a unique board everytime you play. However, at some point in the exploration, one of you will suddenly turn evil, depending on what omen in what room you found. There are 50 different “Haunt” ending scenarios, making it so you will never play the same game twice.
TtRPG
Lastly are table top role playing games. These games don’t involve a board nor cards. Instead, all you need is a book of rules, a sheet of paper to track numbers, and your imagination. These games are much more story focused, and you play a single player, and create a personality, motivations, and goals within this world that is created by a referee called the Game Master.
Dungeons and Dragons
D&D is the most popular, as it was the first one, created by Gary Gygax. Set in a high fantasy world of elves and dwarves, magic and gods, this game is usually what you see on a TV show or movie when they want you to know that these characters are nerds.
Warhammer 40,000
Warhammer is the next most popular TtRPG, set instead in the year 40,000, it involves miles long spaceships, aliens, the Imperium of Man, and spirits in machines. Within the Warhammer 40K universe, there are more war type games wherein you have entire armies under your control, down to the crew of a ship, exploring brand new expanses of space.
Kids – Stuffed Fables
Lastly, maybe you have played these games before, but want to bring a kid into it. Stuffed Fables is about a bunch of stuffed animals that want to save their child owner from an evil person. Simple role play, simple premise. Get them into it now!
The Nerdd 
3 comments