19 Best Board Games to Give in 2024

Written by James Bricknell

Villainous (assorted flavors)

Villainous is a fun game where you take control of the villains from a plethora of different movies. Disney, Marvel and Star Wars have their own branded versions of the game, and each is a little different. The main aim of the games is to be the biggest villain and defeat the others by controlling or exploring scenes or sectors. 

Villainous has a lot of main games and expansions, but unlike most game expansions, these can mostly be played as smaller, standalone versions or merged into the larger games for more variety.

Star Wars Rivals

To win Star Wars Rivals, you have to capture iconic Star Wars locations by having more influence on that location than your opponent. Character cards and action cards let you change the amount of influence and the turn-based style means you can never quite anticipate what your opponent might do. Each round is played pretty quickly, but it's a lot of fun to play multiple rounds. 

The fun hook for Star Wars Rivals is the collectible aspect. You can purchase light- or dark-side booster packs, which include a new figure, two new locations and three action cards, adding a huge amount of variety to the game for just a few extra dollars. This means you can buy the starter pack as a gift and then booster packs as small gifts in the future.

Mansions of Madness: 2nd Edition

I keep this game on the list with every update because it's easily my favorite "modern" board game, with tons of floor tiles you can use to create a haunted mansion, plus dozens of plastic miniatures for investigators and monsters; the vibe is classic H.P. Lovecraft. This board game requires you to use its companion app, which creates the layout, spawns monsters and even adds sound effects.

Munchkin

Munchkin has been around for a long time now, but it's still a mainstay of our game nights. Imagine playing a game of D&D where everyone only cares about maxing out their characters and you will have some idea of how to play. The goal is to level up to level 10 by defeating monsters and collecting loot. You do this by using your loot to make your character as powerful as possible, or by asking others to help. They won't always help, but that's part of the fun.

Because Munchkin is such a beloved game, a huge number of add-ons take the game from a 30-45 minute game up to several hours of monster-killing fun, and all of it is played only with cards. It's truly a great time had by all.

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion

Read our first impressions of Jaws of the Lion.

The Floor is Lava!

Finding fun games for smaller kids is tough. The Floor is Lava! incorporates aspects of the classic Twister game with a lot of jumping around your living room. The soft foam tiles can be spread over a large area and have the added complication of challenges as you play. If you're the last person to get to the right color, your tile is removed until no tiles are left. It's a great game and a budget-friendly option as a gift, too.

Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth

It's time to get the Fellowship back together. Another board game with a tech twist, it starts with tons of cards, map tiles and miniatures, but it also uses a free iOS, Android and PC app. These add extra narrative content and tell you how to lay out the map and which monsters to fight.

King of Tokyo

King of Tokyo is a longtime favorite family board game in our house, because it's easy to pick up (even for younger players), quick to play and still strategically satisfying. Each player takes control of a monster -- think Godzilla or King Kong -- and attempts to control Tokyo on the central game board. What ensues is a fun and often hilarious game of dice-rolling (imagine Yahtzee, but using dice with claws, energy bolts and points on them), aggressive play and chaotic attempts to wrest control of Tokyo from your competitors. The game ends when only one monster remains alive or when someone reaches 20 points. It's simple but endlessly fun, even in a mixed crowd.

Disney Lorcana

Disney's Lorcana took the gaming world by storm when it was released in late 2023. Think of it as an almost perfect mix of Magic: The Gathering and everything Disney. You play as an artist, bringing the characters of the world of Disney to life using ink -- your currency in-game -- so they can quest for forgotten lore. It's so polished, it feels like a game that's existed forever.

Planted

This was an impulse buy that turned out to be one of the best games of the year in our house. The premise is simple: You're growing houseplants and need to collect water, sun and plant food. You do that by playing cards from your hand and then trading that hand with the person next to you. Because each round is played simultaneously, Planted is faster than most turn-based games and has the feeling of a co-op game without actually being one. It's a joy to play and is now a staple in my family's game night.

Cranium

Cranium is an oldie but a goodie: It's perfect for bringing together kids as young as 5 or 6 with the rest of the family. This classic game includes everything from sculpting clay to Pictionary-like challenges and pop culture trivia.

The Fox in the Forest

The Fox in the Forest is a simple trick-taking game with a few special cards mixed into the traditional format -- but unlike almost any other trick-taking game, it's built for two players.

What makes The Fox in the Forest a great game is the unique card powers and the scoring system. Rather than trying to take all the tricks to win the game, you're trying to take certain numbers of tricks for certain point values -- and if you narrowly miss those ranges, you often miss out on a big bonus.

Twilight Struggle

Twilight Struggle balances the strategic complexity of a "big" game with the simple mechanics of a traditional conquest game like Risk. One player takes the role of the United States, and the other person plays as the USSR as you struggle for presence, domination or complete control of various battleground regions around the world. Both sides race to put a man on the moon and degrade the DEFCON status through military operations, while carefully avoiding the devastation of nuclear war (an instant loss). Perfect for those history buffs who also love to play games.

Codenames: Duet

Codenames is a super-popular small party game, but there's a two-player version of this great game that's just as fun -- if a little less satisfying, since you can't rub your victories in as many of the vanquished players' faces. The players set up a grid of cards, each with a single word on them. Then one player is tasked with using single-word clues to get the other player to guess a certain number of "correct" cards. It's a game of word association, shared knowledge and trust. It's fun, and as a bonus, it's good for couples because it teaches you to communicate very efficiently with your partner.

Patchwork

If you're in need of a simple puzzle game that's easy to learn and soothes your anxieties, look no further than Patchwork, a game in which you "sew" your own quilt and race your competitor to collect buttons. The game is fast-paced, the racing and patch-buying elements satisfy competitive spirits, and the Tetris-like quilt-sewing mechanism is as gratifying as finishing a puzzle.

Windward

In Windward, you play a boat captain who sails the skies of a planet looking to capture giant space whales called Crestors. There is a small amount of luck in the amount of damage you take, but because the wind direction controls your movement, there's a lot of strategy around how you move and making sure you don't encounter other players.

Small World

This conquest game feels different every time you play it. Essentially, players are vying for control of a Risk-like board with too few spaces to accommodate everyone, hence the name. You bid for one of dozens of fantastical creatures, each randomly paired with an additional special ability -- which can lead to hilarious combinations like Were-Will-o'-the-Wisps or Peace-loving Homunculi. Then you spread using your special abilities, collect coins based on the territory you control and leave that race behind for a new one. It's an addictive gameplay loop, often equal parts funny and competitive, and you can learn and play it in under two hours.

The Castles of Burgundy

Many of the best strategy games take a couple of hours to play, but satisfying strategy need not take all day: The Castles of Burgundy is a perfect example of a great game that usually only takes about an hour to play -- often less, once you know how to play -- and is surprisingly replayable.

Agricola

Agricola is one of the best board games ever designed, and it's one of the best examples of worker placement mechanics, too. The concept is simple: Players each use their farmer and wife (both called "workers") to complete various actions as the seasons progress, such as gathering wood or vegetables, upgrading their farm house, building pens, buying animals, having children and much more. Over time, players have children (more workers to use) and expand their farm. The problem during all this, though, is scarcity: Agricola is a harsh game. Even without an opponent blocking you from certain actions, it often feels like you're just scraping by -- getting just enough food to feed your family for the winter. Players often end up with very few (or negative) points in their first game, but when you start to learn, it feels incredibly satisfying.