Here's our list of some great tabletop-game gift ideas for the holiday season, the first of three: our lists of thinky toys and books are following shortly behind. I conceived of this list as "recommendations for someone who likes thinky videogames and is curious about dipping their toes into the adjacent world of boardgames." If you're a tabletop veteran a lot of this will likely be familiar to you, but if you're looking for good places to start, maybe with a partner or sibling, hopefully something here will catch your eye.
Lost Cities
(2 players) Amazon link
Lost Cities is an absolute classic of modern 2-player boardgames: this one will top almost any list you find in that category, and for good reason. It's my partner's favorite card game, one she requests to play often. Imagine that you're playing solitaire, laying cards down on top of each other in order, but the deck of cards is split between the two of you, each of you placing cards on your own side of the board, "fighting" for control over different suits. You never know exactly which cards you're going to have access to in the future, depending on what either of you draw, and that throws the perfect amount of uncertainty into your calculations. Choosing when to reveal the colors you're aiming for and what cards you can get rid of (making them available to your opponent) is a wonderful and agonizing puzzle.
Sprawlopolis
(1-4 players) Button Shy store link
I'm a big fan of Button Shy's line of tiny, compact wallet-card-games, and I've featured them on the site in the past. Sprawlopolis is without a doubt their flagship title — the one that really put them on the map. It's a tile-laying card game that can be played cooperatively or solo, a great option for couples who might not prefer head-to-head competition. Each turn you choose from the cards in your hand to add to your growing cityscape. They're broken into quadrants like commercial and residential districts, with road pathways running through them. Every game has great variety thanks to scoring conditions that you mix-and-match during setup: maybe this time we're trying to build the biggest park possible, or separate houses from the factories... all while keeping that pesky highway connected as best we can.
Hive
(2 players) Amazon link
Hive is an abstract game (think Chess-like) where players take turns constructing the board by adding chunky hexagonal tiles to the existing "hive". Each piece you place has a bug on it, which can later be used in different ways: spiders crawl along the outside of the hive, grasshoppers can leap across pieces to the other side, and beetles crawl over the hive, physically stacking on top of other pieces. The goal is to maneuver these critters to capture your opponent's queen bee by surrounding it on all sides. It's fascinating to play a game of simple moving pieces that shifts and changes dramatically because the pieces themselves form the board shape: every time one of them moves, it changes the context and the options available to many other pieces. Hive is also available in an even smaller "pocket" size that packs into a little drawstring pouch.
Star Realms
(2-4* players) Amazon link
Star Realms is a great introduction to the world of deckbuilding. Indie videogames have developed a bit of an obsession with this mechanic in the last few years following big hits like Slay the Spire, but it all started in tabletop. Choosing cards to add to your deck over the course of the game, manipulating the odds and planning synergies provides hours of interesting choices. The great part about multiplayer deckbuilders is that it's not only your choices that affect your strategy: you also have to react to what direction your opponent is going in. Star Realms uses a space-battle setting, featuring four unique factions fighting for galactic supremacy, but there are other versions like Hero Realms which is a very similar game with a fantasy flavor. (*2 players can play with a single deck, but with additional decks you can turn it into a bigger team game.)
Decrypto
(3-8 players) Amazon link
Looking for a game with a larger group in mind? Decrypto might be just the thing. If you've played the massively popular Codenames, you know a bit of what to expect here: a relatively social game of teams trying to interpret cryptic clues. But Decrypto takes this all to the next level. You're not trying to guess words, exactly, but rather deciphering incoming clues from your teammate using a list of secret words only your team knows. This game has given me some of the most memorable and intense game night experiences I've had: it's one of my all-time favorites. From a pure puzzle perspective the “thinkiness” present here might sound questionable, but it's no exaggeration to say that we have spent nights racking our brains to work out the system and crack the opposing team's code.
Patchwork
(2 players) Amazon link
Patchwork is another all-time great among 2-player games. Take turns drafting polyomino tiles (think Tetris pieces) and placing them on your board to fill out your quilt. If you have lots of buttons sewn onto your quilt, you'll gain more of them over time, allowing you to buy bigger and better tiles. It's a tight race of managing both resources and space on your board: you'll score points for all the buttons you've accumulated by the end of the game, but you'll also lose points for any remaining spaces you haven't patched up on your quilt board. Figuring out how to afford just the right shape of tile that you need while watching what your opponent is aiming for is a very engaging challenge. There are several different themed versions available, including a few holiday editions.
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