Suggested Games.
All of us at RCGO are gamers, and gamers love sharing their favorite games! We have put together some of our favorite games to recommend to new players and families so that if you’re looking for a place to start with your own kid, you’ll have some suggestions to work from.
We’ve included links to Board Game Geek (a community resource for reviewing board games) for most of these games, and links to the official site for ones not reviewed on their site.
Beginner Games
Not to be mistaken as games for young children (though many of them are well suited for those ages), these games are great for introducing people to concepts and game mechanics often found in more advanced games.
Intermediate Games
These games build upon skills developed in beginner games, but often require a bit more planning ahead and reward players starting to develop strategy.
Advanced Games
These games use more nuanced rules interactions and strategy. Having a foundation of playing other games helps prepare kids for these more complex game systems.
A Note for Younger Players
The suggestions on this list are mostly meant for ages 8-to-18, but if you have younger children, don’t worry! Many games on this list have a “My First…”, “Jr.” or similar edition, such as Dragomino, My First Carcassone, or Ticket To Ride: First Journey, which are all fantastic. There is also an incredible selection of board games published by Haba, which are great for getting kids into playing.
Beginner Games
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Magical Kitties Save the Day!
An all-ages roleplaying game of cute, fierce, cunning kitties. Use your magical powers to solve problems and save humans from terrible troubles!
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Spot It! (aka Dobble)
Spot it!, a.k.a. Dobble, is a simple pattern recognition game in which players try to find an image shown on two cards.
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Sleeping Queens
In Sleeping Queens, players need to use strategy, quick thinking, and a little luck to rouse these napping nobles from their royal slumbers.
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Kingdomino
In Kingdomino, you are a lord seeking new lands in which to expand your kingdom. You must explore all the lands, including wheat fields, lakes, and mountains, in order to spot the best plots, while competing with other lords to acquire them first.
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Love Letter
Love Letter is a game of risk, deduction, and luck. Your goal is to get your love letter into Princess Annette's hands while deflecting the letters from competing suitors.
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Carcassonne
Inspired by the medieval fortress in southern France of the same name, Carcassonne is a tile-laying game in which players fill in the countryside around the fortified city.
Intermediate Games
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Set
In SET, each card contains 1-3 objects, with all of the objects on a card having the same color, shape and shading, e.g., two purple shaded ovals. All players compete simultaneously and try to claim sets of cards in a single pass through the deck.
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Scrabble
In this classic word game, players use their seven drawn letter-tiles to form words on the gameboard. Each word laid out earns points based on the commonality of the letters used, with certain board spaces giving bonuses.
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King of Tokyo
In King of Tokyo, you play mutant monsters, gigantic robots, and strange aliens—all of whom are destroying Tokyo and whacking each other in order to become the one and only King of Tokyo.
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Settlers of Catan
In CATAN (formerly The Settlers of Catan), players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces.
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Azul
In the game Azul, players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round, players score points based on how they've placed their tiles to decorate the palace.
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Ticket to Ride
With elegantly simple gameplay, Ticket to Ride can be learned in under 15 minutes. Players collect cards of various types of train cars they then use to claim railway routes in North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn.
Advanced Games
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Dungeons & Dragons
In Dungeons & Dragons (or D&D/DND), the players form an adventuring party who explore fantasy worlds together as they embark on epic quests and level up in experience. The Dungeon Master (also known as the DM) is the game's referee and storyteller. There’s no winning or losing in D&D—at least, not in the conventional way.
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Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering (or just Magic) is a collectible trading card game (or CCG) of fun-filled, strategic games to play with friends old and new.
Magic is among the most successful tabletop games in the world, and enjoys global popularity with international competitive events.
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Pandemic
In Pandemic, several virulent diseases have broken out simultaneously all over the world! The players are disease-fighting specialists whose mission is to treat disease hotspots while researching cures for each of four plagues before they get out of hand.
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Wingspan
Wingspan is a competitive, medium-weight, card-driven, engine-building board game from Stonemaier Games. It's designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and features over 170 birds illustrated by Beth Sobel, Natalia Rojas, and Ana Maria Martinez.
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Dominion
In Dominion, each player starts with an identical, very small deck of cards. In the center of the table is a selection of other cards the players can "buy" as they can afford them. Through their selection of cards to buy, and how they play their hands as they draw them, the players construct their deck on the fly, striving for the most efficient path to the precious victory points by game end.
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The Quacks of Quedlinburg
In The Quacks of Quedlinburg, players are charlatans — or quack doctors — each making their own secret brew by adding ingredients one at a time. Take care with what you add, though, for a pinch too much of this or that will spoil the whole mixture!