The Best Thematic Board Games
My recent review of Rock Hard 1977, which is one of the best combinations of theming and game design I’ve ever seen in a board game, got me thinking: what are the best thematic games I’ve ever played? I mean games that are great, and have great themes, and where the game play and the theme work together in a way that helps you get into the game on a level just beyond the mechanics.
5. Lacrimosa
A heavier board game with an absolutely stunning board, Lacrimosa pits players as patrons working with Mozart’s widow to help complete his final piece, the Requiem. There’s a lot going on here mechanically, yet the theme keeps it from devolving into incoherence as you travel, stage performances, and commission work from other composers to finish the work.
4. Three Sisters
A roll-and-write based on the traditional indigenous farming method of that same name, with input from Native Americans on the authenticity of the design, Three Sisters follows similar mechanics to those of the designers’ previous roll-and-write hit, Fleet the Dice Game, but with much better integration between the theme and the game play.
3. Rock Hard 1977
Rock Hard 1977, the game I tabbed as the #1 game I saw at Gen Con this year, managed to break through the clutter because of its theme: You’re a wannabe rock star in 1977, and you have a limited amount of time to make your dreams come true. You have a day job that you might show up to, but maybe at some point you decide you can afford to quit, or just can’t afford to give up that studio time. You’ll rehearse, hire publicists, record a demo tape in the small hours, maybe get a record deal and play some bigger gigs. And maybe you’ll need a little extra pep in your step so you can pack more than 24 hours into your day. I can honestly say I’ve never seen a game like it, and given who designed it, I shouldn’t be surprised: Jackie Fuchs, known back in the 1970s as Jackie Fox, the bassist for one of the most important bands in rock history, the Runaways.
2. Wingspan
Le sigh, another list with Wingspan on it—but how can we argue with Elizabeth Hargrave’s famous spreadsheet of birds with all of their characteristics and habitats, which then led to the cards that power the game itself? It’s one of the greatest board games of all time, and one of the most commercially successful, with over a million units sold and copies available in Target, of all places. It’s also an exemplar of making your theme and your game work together.
1. Daybreak
From last year, Daybreak is a cooperative game of fighting, and maybe solving, climate change by bringing the world to net-zero before the planet gets too hot. (You might argue this isn’t so much a science-themed game as a fantasy one.) Each player plays as a different region of the world, with different strengths and challenges, and the game offers a wide array of ways to start to tackle the problem, and just as many ways for the problem to get worse. I do eagerly await the Denialist expansion, though. And the game’s components are all made from renewable resources, with no plastic involved. It’s a game with a cause, and it’s also a fun challenge, even if it’s probably easier to win at Daybreak than to convince your uncle on Facebook that climate change isn’t a communist hoax.
Keith Law is the author of The Inside Game and Smart Baseball and a senior baseball writer for The Athletic. You can find his personal blog the dish, covering games, literature, and more, at meadowparty.com/blog.