Board Game Night Playlist: Deck-Building Games

In the late 2000s, Dominion took the board gaming world by storm. It essentially invented the deck-building genre of game, which has since been riffed on countless times. For those wanting to put on a deck-building game night, finding games is easy. Throw a rock into and game store and it’ll hit three deck builders before touching the ground.

With this edition of the Board Game Night Playlist, we’re going to build the perfect deck of cards within three different deck-building games. Let’s see what made the list this month!

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Board Game Night Playlist: Small Games

For a market that was fixated on large games, Love Letter bucked the trend in a big way. Containing only 16 cards in a small satchel, it provided a great game that travels well and was cheap to purchase. Thanks to the success of Love Letter, the entire subset of small tabletop games is booming.

Choosing just three games for this list is a daunting task, as there are so many great games in this category. I will have to come back to this one in the future to cover more of them. For now though, here’s a trio of terrific tiny titles to consider for your next board game night!

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Board Game Night Playlist: Games Designed by Matt Leacock

You may not be familiar with his name, but there’s a good chance that if you’re a modern board game fan, you know at least one of his games. He’s the guy that created Pandemic, one of the biggest and best modern board games in existence.

Looking at his portfolio of games, he clearly has a niche. Co-operative games are his bread and butter, which he does better than just about anyone in the business. In this edition of the Board Game Night Playlist, you’re not only getting a spotlight on Matt Leacock games, but also a great co-operative game night.

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Board Game Night Playlist: Tile Placement Games

For most of my life, there was no tile placement sub-genre of board games. There was just Scrabble. This all-time great won me over at a young age and continues to be a favourite. Once I discovered the world of enthusiast board gaming, I discovered that there were many other games that use the concept of tile placement in very different ways. In this installment of the Board Game Night Playlist, we’re doing nothing but quality tile placement games. Let’s go!

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Board Game Night Playlist: I, Spy

Spies are a surprisingly common trope in board games. They usually aren’t of the James Bond variety, though they’re often used to represent someone who is hiding their true identity. All three of these games on tonight’s Board Game Night Playlist feature these undercover agents. Curiously, all three games are also designed to work as party games for large groups. Let’s blow the cover on these spy-themed board games!

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Board Game Night Playlist: Sci-Fi

Somewhere in a galaxy far, far away, our minds think of extraterrestrial worlds, space ships and out-of-this-world weapons. Board games are generally a playground for medieval fare, though I’m much more interested in games are grounded in the world of science fiction. Why mess with horses and swords when you can play with the Starship Enterprise and lightsabers? This month, let’s go to infinity and beyond with a sci-fi themed board game night!

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Board Game Night Playlist: Large Groups

Playing board games at my family gatherings is hard. With so many cousins to account for, most of my collection can’t handle player counts to support us all. For moments like this, I turn to a few quality games that shine with many people in the same room.

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Board Game Night Playlist: Call My Bluff

Am I bluffing? Most of the time, if I am, it’s pretty obvious. I suffer from a crippling inability to bluff. In most cases, being hard-wired to be honest is a great thing. Unfortunately, it puts me at a real disadvantage in games where bluffing is key.

This edition of the Board Game Night Playlist is the equivalent of my board gaming Kryptonite. These games are certainly fun, though my inability to bluff puts me at a huge disadvantage in all of them. Still, bluffing is a very popular board gaming mechanic and one that can lead to a hilarious night of tabletop gaming. If you’re in the mood to lie through your teeth, try out this trifecta of bluffing goodness!

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Board Game Night Playlist: Cooperative Play

Up until relatively recently, board games have been a primarily competitive medium. Thankfully, thanks to innovations in game design, players can now work together to face off against an opposing force that can only be stopped with your combined talents. This edition features a group of games that will keep you working as a team all night long.

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Board Game Night Playlist: Introductory Dungeon Crawls

Dungeons & Dragons is one of the most influential games of all-time. It’s also one of the most intimidating. The game features a ton of rules and requires a group of players to have at least one that’s designated as Dungeon Master, which is a very difficult role to fill. To this day, I’ve never played actual D&D before and I’m not sure if I ever will.

With that said, that doesn’t mean I’ve been deprived of the dungeon crawling experience. D&D might be the original, though its core concepts have been streamlined, simplified, or just straight-up copied a countless number of times. This Board Game Night Playlist features dungeon raiding games that are fine-tuned for casual players to get their fix. Now let’s gear up and head into this introductory dungeon crawl playlist!

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