What makes a good beginner board game?

Maybe you want to give a board game as a present to someone who hasn’t played a lot of games, or indeed any; here’s what I think makes for a good game for beginners. I updated this in January 2017, to add links to the various games and add a couple of recommendations.

Simplicity

Someone not used to learning and understanding board game rules should get to start with something easy. A simple game should have few rules, and those rules should be clearly presented, especially if you won’t be there to help them learn to play. Games with varying levels of difficulty or complexity can be good too, if the layers build on each other. Note though that not everyone enjoys complex games — for some, a simple game isn’t a stepping stone to something more complex. They just like simple games, and there are plenty of those. So make sure you find some simple games you like as well. Simple doesn’t mean boring! Lots of simple games (like Carcassonne, Love Letter or Coup) can have surprisingly deep strategy.

Balance of luck vs skill

All my favourite games have this, but I think it’s especially important for beginner games. When you first start playing a game you don’t know a lot about its strategy, and part of the joy of learning to play board games is discovering different ways to play, getting better each time. But if you always lose those early learning games, that isn’t as fun an experience. Games that have a reasonable amount of luck — dice rolls, card draws and so on — will allow new players a chance to win (or at least not come last), even against more experienced opponents.

An accessible theme

People new to board games probably haven’t played a lot of Dungeons & Dragons. A little bit of fantasy is good, but games of elves, dwarves and magic spells often assume genre knowledge not everyone has. Look for games that are about things they can readily get into. Think about what the person you’re buying for is into, but also the people they’re likely to be playing with. This doesn’t mean you have to stick with real-world themes! Yes, Sushi Go (making sushi) and Ticket to Ride (connecting cities with trains) are easy for anyone to understand, but so are King of Tokyo (giant monster movies), Codenames (spies) and Love Letter (wooing a princess).

Shorter playing time

You have to be devoted to spend an afternoon, or even a whole evening, learning and playing something that takes a few hours. Stick to games that take less than a couple of hours to play, ideally even on a first try; more than that is a big ask for new players. Really short games that are designed to be played in multiple rounds are a great way for new players to learn; Love Letter is a great example.

Variable number of players

You have to consider not only who will own the game, but who they can play with. The best games for beginners support a nice range of players, so they can play with just a partner or single friend, or with the whole family. If buying a game specifically for a family, try and get something that supports more than four players — team games are especially good, since no-one has to play on their own.

Consider collaboration

Most people are only aware of the “big four” games that everyone’s heard of: Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, Cluedo. Maybe they’ve also played Risk or a party game like Pictionary or Balderdash. Those games are all competitive, even if some are played in teams, and if you’re trying to defeat your opponents it can be difficult to also be giving them advice on how to win. (Even if you are, that can make for a very unsatisfying experience for the new player, since they either feel you let them win, or are disappointed they still lost even with you helping them.)

A great alternative is one of the growing number of collaborative board games, including Flashpoint: Fire Rescue, the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure System Games (though see the note above about theme) and Pandemic (or indeed most of Matt Leacock’s games). You’re working together to beat the game, so helping each other is already built in! In these games, though, watch out for “quarterbacking” — more experienced players giving instructions to less experienced players. Make sure that you offer suggestions, but leave the final choice of what to do up to the other players. That includes letting them make mistakes!

Recommendations for introductory games

I’ve linked to each game’s manufacturer below so you can learn more about them; I’d encourage you to look up your friendly local game shop if you’re looking to buy, and chatting to the staff about recommendations. Most people working in game shops really know their stuff!

• Ticket to Ride — my go-to game for new players, designed by Alan R. Moon. Short turns, simple rules, and a great mix of luck and skill mean no-one feels left out or at a disadvantage for long. Plus the trains theme is an easy one to grasp! There are many versions for different parts of the world; I recommend starting with the original, set in the USA.
• Codenames — a recent favourite by prolific Czech designer Vlaada Chvátil, Codenames features two teams of arbitrary size, an exciting but low-barrier theme (spies!) and really simple rules based around wordplay. I reckon this has a place in everyone’s collection. There’s now also an “adult” version with sexier words (Codenames After Dark) and one that uses pictures instead of words (Codenames Pictures), but I like the original the best.
• Love Letter — a Japanese game by Seiji Kanai, now readily available in English. The theme of getting your love letter to the Princess is an easy sell, especially with the simple rules — most of which are printed right on the sixteen cards you play with. The original game doesn’t support more than four players, but there’s now a “Premium” edition which five or more can play (though I’ve not played that one). There are also many alternative themed versions, if someone you want to play with would prefer Batman, The Hobbit or Adventure Time.
• A Battle of Wits— this card game, designed by Matthew O’Malley, recreates the famous scene from The Princess Bride. The rules are very simple, its great with up to ten players, and you can have multiple winners and losers. There’s only a little luck involved (everyone has nearly the same cards), but this really suits the theme, and everyone will get it after one game — and will probably want to play again, since it’s so quick! You don’t need to know the film to play, but fans will get an extra kick out of it.
• Tsuro — a beautiful, super simple game of arranging tiles and trying to eliminate your opponents, designed by Tom McMurchie. There are really only about four rules, but it would rank higher in this list if it weren’t for the rule about who gets the extra tiles when someone is eliminated, which is a little tricky. But as long as someone understands it you’ll be fine, and it supports as many as eight players in a short but delightful experience. The later Tsuro of the Seas is almost identical but includes a sea monster; I didn’t already own Tsuro, that’s the one I would have bought.
• Fluxx — a great beginner game designed by Andrew and Kristen Looney. It starts very simple, then adds complexity as you go, plus most of the cards tell you what they do in plain language. My favourite edition is Pirate Fluxx, but most of the ones published after Zombie Fluxx are great. There are many themed versions — space movies, the Wizard of Oz, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and more — so you’re bound to find one your players will like. If buying the basic game secondhand, I recommend sticking with newer editions, as early ones are a bit too random; get version 5.0 if you can (the box will have the version number written on the side).
• Carcassonne—a classic “Eurogame” designed by Klaus Jürgen-Wrede, Carcassonne is at heart very simple: you put down a tile to help build a landscape of castles, roads, cloisters and fields, and decide whether or not to place a follower (the original human-shaped wooden playing piece now universally known as a “meeple”). The strategy is quite deep, however! I suggest playing without Farmers for the first few games with new players, or leaving them out altogether with younger players; scoring Farmers is the trickiest rule to learn, and understanding how they work potentially gives experienced players a huge advantage. There are now many themed versions, but I recommend the original; if you enjoy it, the first couple of the many expansions (which add more tiles and extra rules) are great.
• Forbidden Desert (or Forbidden Island) — while Pandemic is my perennial favourite amongst Matt Leacock’s designs, it has a couple of rules that are tricky for players new to board games — plus it’s hard to win. The Forbidden games are simpler but still a great experience, plus they have cool objects in them (Forbidden Desert has a steampunk airship you assemble!) and they’re similar enough to Pandemic that they form a great stepping stone. The two are very similar, so you probably don’t need both; I prefer Forbidden Desert but Forbidden Island is slightly simpler if that influences you. (If the theme suits, I also recommend Leacock’s Thunderbirds board game, based on the old Gerry Anderson puppet adventure show; it has a tonne of flavour, and in difficulty and complexity lies between the Forbidden games and Pandemic.)

I’d love to hear your recommendations!