Image: Kotaku
First choice: Tokaido | $ 50 | Amazon
It’s been a while since board game nights were safe in your home. But we’re finally reaching a point where you and some of them might soon be fine your most vaccinated friends have a little gathering inside. If your group of friends is one of the lucky ones to already have a vaccine – or you’re just busy preparing for the day you’re in – these are some of the best games a small group of people can play together.
Tokaido
Graphic: Eric Ravenscraft
Most games are competitive and pit players against each other. Tokaido is different. Instead, every player is a traveler on vacation on the Japanese Baltic Sea Road (the gives the game its name). The goal is to experience things like see beautiful views, spend time in hot springs, and visit temples. While players can easily sabotage each other, for the most part, it’s a cool experience that evokes the feeling of traveling at a time when it might otherwise not be possible.
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G / O Media can receive a commission
Boss monster
Graphic: Eric Ravenscraft
For fans of old school 8-bit dungeon crawlers, Boss Monster and its expansions Bring the side scrolling experience to the tabletop, but there’s a twist. In this game, YOU are the boss of the dungeon and defeat misguided heroes as they venture into your domain.
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Trogdor
Graphic: Eric Ravenscraft
Starring one of the worst breakout characters in the early 2000s Flash cartoon Homestar Runner, Trogdor is a board game with the Burninator Trogdor. In this game, all players take turns working together as trogdors to burn down tiles, huts and peasants and to avoid knights and archers. Players win when they have burned the landscape, the farmers and the thatched huts.
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secret
Graphic: Eric Ravenscraft
If the hint is a bit too easy for you, you might prefer a more abstract crime thriller. in the secretA gamer is the ghost of a murdered character and must use surreal, dreamlike graphics cards to convey who killed them, where it happened and what weapon they used. The game can be very open to interpretation at times, which makes it all the more interesting to see how your friends’ minds work.
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Ticket
Graphic: Eric Ravenscraft
Another game on the theme of travel, Ticket Up to five players compete against each other to claim railways on a map and connect cities with one another. Longer routes can score higher scores. However, if a route is incomplete, players lose points. The game requires strategy and long-term thinking to be successful, which makes it a great mental exercise for your more tactical friends.
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Pandemic legacy
Graphic: Eric Ravenscraft
I know!
Let me finish
After over a year of experiencing a real pandemic, a fictional one might be the last one you’re interested in. And although that’s fair Pandemic legacy might still be worth a visit. The Original Pandemic is a short game in which players work together to stop a deadly virus from spreading. Pandemic Legacy builds on this by telling a long story in many chapters. The experiences of each game will affect your characters, and these changes will also affect subsequent sessions.
It is this dynamic of an ongoing story that makes Pandemic Legacy worth a look. Not only because your group will have a unique experience with the game, but also because it gives you and your friends a reason to get used to hanging out together again week after week as soon as you finally can. It is only fitting that a pandemic should bring you back together after a pandemic keeps everyone apart.
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