Buying board games can get expensive quick—why not try some of ours? With your library card, you can check out modern classics like Catan and Carcassone and crowd-pleasing party games like Codenames and Sushi Go!
Still not sure where to start? Try one of our recommendations:
Modern games are too complicated!
Why not try a card game? Love Letter is an easy-to-learn, quick-to-play game where each player only has one or two cards at a time. The goal is simple: eliminate all other players from the round or have the highest value card once the deck has run out. Love Letter can be played with 2-6 people and is best suited for ages 8+.
Too complicated? I love complicated!
Wingspan is a beautifully illustrated engine-building game (i.e. a game where you build on the actions you took in your previous turns on each successive one) with a great theme: birds! While somewhat tricky to learn at first, Wingspan's instructions and "Swift Start" option guide new players through all the different mechanics. It also comes with a sweet-looking dice tower. Wingspan can be played with 1-5 people and is best suited for ages 10+.
My family's way too competitive for board games.
How about a cooperative game? Feel like Indiana Jones with Forbidden Island, where you play as a team of adventurers racing to save treasure from a sinking island. Each character has unique abilities and the layout of the island is different every time you play. Forbidden Island can be played with 2-4 people and is best suited for ages 8+.
For a slightly more meaty co-op experience, try Pandemic. Like Forbidden Island, Pandemic's players are each given unique characters with special skills that help win the game, but this time, you'll be playing as a team of expert responders fighting to save the world from the outbreak of several viral diseases. Pandemic can be played with 2-4 people and is best suited for ages 10+.
Games that are fun and pretty to look at are my favorites!
Have you tried Lanterns? In this aesthetically pleasing game, players place tiles and collect cards to create the most beautiful floating lantern display. The way you position your titles can benefit your opponents as well as yourself, so place wisely! Lanterns can be played with 2-4 people and is best suited for ages 8+.
I want to play a game with a novel mechanic.
Try The Mind. This simple game has only one goal: to work together with the other players to place down the cards, numbered 1 - 100, in order. The only thing you're not allowed to do? Talk! (Or, you know, use any sort of signal to indicate what card you're about to play.) The Mind will blow yours with how something so simple can be so satisfying. The Mind is can be played with 2-4 people and is best suited for ages 8+.
How about something cute and quirky?
What really killed the dinosaurs? Ice age? Meteor? Getting stood up on a date? Find out in Happy Little Dinosaurs, where you play as one of four cute dinos navigating all of life's challenges—natural, predatory, emotional—by combatting them with cards to buff your stats. The last dino standing (or the first to reach fifty points) wins! Happy Little Dinosaurs can be played with 2-4 people and is best suited for ages 8+.
Does the library have a simple game you can play with a lot of people?
You can play Hues and Cues with up to ten. In this game, one person gives one- and two-word hints to describe one of a hundred colors on the game board. The other places put their tokens on the color they think matches best. The closer the color, the more points you get! Hues and Cues can be played with 3-10 people and is best suited for ages 6+.
I love classic games and have somehow never played Ticket to Ride.
Well, there's your answer. Ticket to Ride can be played with 2-5 people and is best suited for ages 8+.
Age recommendations sourced from BoardGameGeek.com.
