Each year, there are dozens of amazing tabletop games worth discovering, and it can be hard to know which titles might be a good fit for your gaming group. We're here to help, with a comprehensive look at some of the best board, card, miniature, and role-playing games that came to North America over the last twelve months. When you're ready for a break from the excellent selection of video games we're seen recently, any one of these tabletop games should lead be a great time for friends and family.
This year's selections include a mix of licensed and original worlds, and a surprisingly even mix of competitive and cooperative entries. 2015 saw phenomenal games for experienced strategy players, easy-to-learn games for casual friend get-togethers, and even a couple of titles that should be very friendly to beginning players.
Dive into the selections below, and make sure and leave your picks for the best tabletop games of 2015 in the comments below! Ten board and card games are listed on the first three pages in alphabetical order. A fourth page details a selection of five role-playing games worth discovering.
Blood Rage
Publisher: CoolMiniOrNot
Big, beautiful, and filled with compelling strategic choices, Blood Rage casts you in the role of Viking warriors in a battle for conquest in the midst of the end of the world – Ragnarok. The game focuses on area control and combat against your fellow players, each of whom has access to a gorgeous selection of miniatures, including some massive monsters that can help to turn the tide of the war. While Blood Rage is complex and features plenty of interesting choices, games can be played in relatively brief sessions. The themes of Viking conflict are abundant, with warriors that move on to Valhalla, and even different gods to follow, which helps to shape your strategy in any given night of gaming. Highly replayable, Blood Rage should satisfy any group trying to find this year's choice for classic map-based combat, but with some fun twists along the way.
Codenames
Publisher: Czech Games Edition
Looking for a new party game that can appeal to a broad swath of player experience levels? Codenames is almost certainly on track to be the breakout group get-together game of the year, thanks to its clever design, simple rules, and strong theme. Two teams each choose a spymaster who knows the identities of 25 secret agents, represented by cards laid out on a grid on the table. The spymaster's goal is to communicate the identity of his or her team's secret agents, while everyone else on the team (the field operatives) are trying to figure out those identities. The two spymasters take turns offering a one-word clue that relates to some of the codenames on the table. The team tries to guess which names relate to that word. Succeed, and they get to go again. Fail, and play switches to the other team. The word-based play is intelligent and humorous, and the large number of cards makes Codenames enjoyable for session after session.
Darkness Comes Rattling
Publisher: Wyrd Games
Steeped in the feel of ancient mythologies from humanity's earliest days, Darkness Comes Rattling is a cooperative adventure board game that plays well for medium length game sessions, and provides clever gameplay and potent thematic elements. You and your friends control warriors drawn from the Tribes of Man, attempting to forestall the great serpent Darkness as it seeks to fully devour the sun. The game opens as you begin to prepare for your confrontation with the great serpent, but partway through your adventure, the strongest hero must enter the Darkness to do battle, while the other players hold off the shadow creatures that threaten success; this second phase injects tension for the latter half of the game session. Wyrd's new game provides storytelling in spades, injecting great descriptive text and a tribal aesthetic that is unique among recent releases. Game components, from the circular structure of the board to the colorful cards, are all gorgeous. Darkness Comes Rattling opens with the players already feeling like they face an insurmountable task, and gradually gets more difficult and devastating as you move along. Challenging, tense, and full of flavor, Darkness Comes Rattling is a great choice for experienced groups aiming for a change of pace.
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