- Date: November 22, 2024
- Topic: Parties
- Contributors:Written by Earl GoodsonEdited by Alexis Shiraki
Source: Peerspace
Game nights are as fun for adults as they are for kids, especially if you plan to use in-person games instead of online gaming. Looking for classic and new board games to enjoy for all skill levels? Peerspace is here to help with 27 of our favorite board games for adults for any upcoming game nights!
1. Rule the island with Settlers of Catan
Settlers of Catan has been a classic strategy board game for adults since its release in 1995. The concept is simple enough: a group of 3-4 players starts on an island called Catan. You compete to develop resources and create new trade opportunities to try and dominate the entire island. It’s simple to learn and each game runs for about an hour.
2. Figure out who did it with Clue
Do you recall playing Clue with your family during a power outage like we do? It’s a wonderful decades-old board game that’s as much fun as ever to play with 3-6 people. Clue is a murder mystery game where you work to find the room, person, and murder weapon over the course of an hour.
Before you start collecting your board games for the evening, think about booking a game night venue in advance. Especially if you’re expecting multiple gaming groups to show up! Did you know that Peerspace has event venues like this Huntington Beach coffee shop where you can have a barista cater an amazing game night inside the shop or on their outdoor patio?
3. Stop the spread before it’s too late with Pandemic
Not every board game involves winning or losing individually or with opposing teams. Pandemic is a great board game for adults who want to try cooperative strategy instead of competition. The game involves teamwork to keep the infection from taking over the world as you use the strengths of each character to their maximum.
4. Advance the story further with Pandemic: Legacy
Have we sold you on Pandemic yet? If so, then consider picking up Pandemic Legacy Season 1, which is a sort of expansion pack for the game. If you have a regular group of 4 players, you get to continue the game for a year, completing objectives and enjoying the story as it evolves!
5. Use single words to guess more words in Just One
Do you love word association games? Just One is fun for adults yet has rules that are easy enough for children to grasp. You work together as a team to discover mystery words involving single-word clues. It’s way more challenging than it sounds and guaranteed to leave you laughing as you eventually find the answers together!
6. Build your vocabulary for points with Scrabble
Scrabble is a classic board game for adults for good reason! It’s skill-based and if you’re a collector of obscure vocabulary words, you’ll have a huge arsenal of words to use. Rack up points using your letter tiles to be the winner of this fun vocabulary game.
7. Rule one of the 7 Wonders of the world
7 Wonders is a historical fantasy game where 3 to 7 players start with plots of land on a map. Each one has advantages and disadvantages to exploit during the game’s 3 rounds. Each round, which is an age, you get to pick and use cards to advance your military, cities, and other aspects of the country you rule. Once 3 ages have come to an end, you each compare to see who gained the most points!
8. Sink their Battleship
Looking for a two-player board game for adults? Have some fun with Battleship, a game of both luck and skill. You can learn the game in seconds: once you’ve placed your ships, call out coordinates on a grid where you try to target the other person’s ships. A destroyed ship means you’ll have to call out that nostalgic line: “You sunk my battleship!”
Check out these fun game night party ideas to plan all aspects of your upcoming game-filled gathering!
9. Enjoy some sci-fi fun with a game of Terraforming Mars
Terraforming Mars is one of the more complex board games for adults we’ve chosen for this list. That complexity is part of the appeal for advanced gamers, however. Each player selects a corporation that’s competing with other corporations to transform Mars into a world like Earth. You gain new technological powers and resources as the game progresses over roughly two hours.
10. Try Scythe, where peasants and mecha units come together on one board
Have you ever wanted to see steampunk concepts inside of a pastoral 1920s European setting? Well, that’s exactly what Scythe delivers! You have five different factions to choose from, each vying for power over a war-torn landscape. If you enjoy Scythe there are also expansion packs that take the maximum number of players from 5 to 7.
Game nights should be held in a comfortable venue with plenty of cozy chairs, seats, and tables. You can easily book a spacious venue with Peerspace, the nation’s leading online marketplace for special event venues. Check out this cozy event space in St. Louis, MO, that even comes with over a dozen board games!
11. Give the right answer – or at least bet on it – with Wit and Wagers
The problem with trivia nights is that not everyone has a head stuffed with impractical facts. Wits and Wagers is a trivia game for everyone because you can bet on the answers; even other people’s answers! You make your best guesses to each question in secret (answers that are always a number) and then the answers are displayed for bets to be placed before the winning answer is revealed.
12. Dodge Exploding Kittens with your friends
Exploding Kittens is exactly what it sounds like. Everyone takes turns drawing cards until someone reveals an exploding kitten, which they have to defuse or send elsewhere with their other action cards. Sometimes that means sending the exploding kitten to someone else. If you end up with an exploding kitten and can’t get rid of it, you’re out. The last unexploded person wins!
13. Play a quick round of Sushi GO
Have a few minutes to spare and want to play a quick board game for adults? Sushi GO is one of our favorites because each game takes just 15 minutes to play. It’s a simple concept where you try and pick winning combinations of sushi for the most points. New players will have the basics down in a single round as well!
14. Find out how Articulate you are
Articulate is a fun word-guessing game where you have just 30 seconds to get another person on your team to guess what it is without actually saying it. And oh, by the way, the other team is free to heckle and generally disrupt your efforts as much as they like! You can have 4-6 players in a game of Articulate and it goes for up to an hour.
15. Watch drawings get silly quick with Telestration
Fans of the kids’ game Telephone will quickly pick up Telestration. It’s like Telephone except you’re drawing out the first word. Once the person next to you guesses what your word was based on your drawing, that guess becomes the next work to be drawn. Things get really silly once the final reveal happens based on how good or bad the guesses were!
16. Figure out everyone’s Codenames
Codenames is a fast-paced game for 2 to 8 players where two teams are trying to figure out the code names of all their secret agents in the field. Each team has a spymaster who has all of the secret identities while the other players only have code names. They have to compete to try and gather all of their contacts before the other team does!
17. Build a nature preserve in Wingspan
Wingspan is one of the more unusual board games for adults out there, which is part of its charm! You’re working to attract any of the 170 bird species in this game into your nature preserve. Each bird can be attracted using different types of food and they bring abilities and advantages to your preserve. It’s the perfect board game for conservationists and bird watchers!
18. Be Indiana Jones and search for Incan Gold
Lovers of luck-based strategy and adventure themes are really going to enjoy Incan Gold! Three to 8 players are hunting through an ancient Incan temple, looking for valuable artifacts and avoiding traps. You’ll have to take chances, at times within reason and other times by risking it all, if you want to have any hope of winning.
19. Describe a word as fast as possible with Catch Phrase
Word games that put the pressure on you with a timer are some of the silliest board games for adults. And that’s what makes Catch Phrase so much fun! You have a digital timer and word generator that you pass around between the two teams. When it’s each person’s turn they have to figure out how to describe the word without saying it or acting it out. The word generator also keeps score for the teams as you go!
Plan a game night with other couples? Then you need to scope out these creative couples’ game night ideas the whole gang will love.
20. Play Bohnanza to compete and cooperate
Sometimes we want to cooperate but at other times we want to compete. Bohnanza gives you a good mixture of both; each player is a bean farmer looking to grow crops for gold. You’ll want to trade for more resources yet you’re still trying to out-compete the other players for the most resources and money.
21. Get four in a row with Connect 4
Tilt your board vertical for a game of Connect 4! This classic 2-player tabletop game has you trying to get four tokens in a row, just like an expanded version of tic-tac-toe. And your opponent is trying to do the same as you both try to disrupt each other. The first to get four tokens in a row wins!
22. Play Likewise! and guess together
Likewise! is a great ice-breaker game as well as a game for folks who know each other well. In fact, the better you know the other players, the easier it will be. The idea is that the group gets presented with a pair of general words, like “outrageous” and “celebrity.” Each person then comes up with an answer they think fits. But the catch is that you’re trying to come up with the same word you think everyone else will use. The word that comes up the most frequently wins for points!
23. Make fake potions as one of The Quacks of Quedlinburg
The Quacks of Quedlinburg is a skill and luck-based board game involving coins, victory points, and exploding potions. You choose specific ingredients and combine them for in-game advantages. Sometimes your luck runs out and you end up taking a loss if you mix the wrong ones!
24. Play Chess: the most popular skill and strategy game in the world
Chess is one of the world’s most popular board games for adults and has been around for over 1,000 years! If you’ve never played before, it’s a two-player game with 16 pieces on each side, all with unique abilities. Use your pieces to trap others and take the opposing king while losing as few of your pieces as possible.
25. Attract wild animals with Cascadia
Maybe you live in the Pacific Northwest or simply love conservation as a theme instead of conquest. In either case, check out Cascadia for some ecologically-oriented fun for 1-4 players! The idea is that you have to set up habitat corridors to attract wildlife in multiple possible configurations which affects how many points you receive.
26. Build the most beautiful quilt in a fast game of Patchwork
Who knew quilting could be made into a board game? That’s what Patchwork does; this two-player game involves competing players trying to come up with the most beautiful quilt using the tiles they gain. Patchwork is a Tetris-like board game and takes just 15 minutes to play a round.
27. Stay hidden but figure out the other players with Suspicion
If you’ve ever played Clue then you’ll feel right at home with Suspicion! You and everyone else is a master thief at a party. The idea is that you have to figure out which player is playing which character while keeping your own identity secret!
Board games for adults: conclusion
We have games of strategy, games of luck, games of knowledge, and games of sheer whimsy. These board games for adults can be played in groups of 2 to 20 people, depending on the kind of game you like. We hope you’ve found something brand new to try with your family and friends! Just be sure to book a spacious event venue near you as well if you want this to be a truly memorable occasion.
