What do you think?
Rate this book
The Everything Tabletop Games Book: From Settlers of Catan to Pandemic, Find Out Which Games to Choose, How to Play, and the Best Ways to Win!
Tabletop and board games aren’t just for rainy days or awkward family events anymore. As the game industry grows, people of all ages are jumping to play “the original social network.”
In our ever-increasing technological world, playing old-school games is a welcome retreat from the overexposure to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and the rest of social media. Over the past few years, board games have become the hot new hobby. Instead of friends sitting around the same table and staring at their phones, they are now either working with or against each other. Millions upon millions of new fans have begun to join their friends in real life for a fun game of Pandemic , 7 Wonders , or Ticket to Ride .
The Everything Tabletop Games Book shows how to play some of the best tabletop games in the world, from classic strategy games like Settlers of Catan to great new games like Gloomhaven . Throughout the book, you’ll learn the different genres of tabletop and board games; how to play each game; rules and strategies to help you win; and even where to play online—including new expansions to keep your favorite games fresh and exciting.
So gather up some friends, pick a game from this book, and start playing! You’ll be having a blast in no time.
In our ever-increasing technological world, playing old-school games is a welcome retreat from the overexposure to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and the rest of social media. Over the past few years, board games have become the hot new hobby. Instead of friends sitting around the same table and staring at their phones, they are now either working with or against each other. Millions upon millions of new fans have begun to join their friends in real life for a fun game of Pandemic , 7 Wonders , or Ticket to Ride .
The Everything Tabletop Games Book shows how to play some of the best tabletop games in the world, from classic strategy games like Settlers of Catan to great new games like Gloomhaven . Throughout the book, you’ll learn the different genres of tabletop and board games; how to play each game; rules and strategies to help you win; and even where to play online—including new expansions to keep your favorite games fresh and exciting.
So gather up some friends, pick a game from this book, and start playing! You’ll be having a blast in no time.
- GenresNonfictionGamesReference
320 pages, Paperback
Published July 16, 2019
67 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 27, 2021
I'm just starting this book, and so far in chapter 2 there are all sorts of warning signs: the write up for Ticket to Ride uses the phrase "train cards" to refer to 3 different things (train cards, destination cards, and train cars), and the write up for Carcassonne gets the rules wrong, stating that points for cities and fields must be "divided" or "split" when more than 1 player has the same number of Meeples in the scoring area (this is incorrect - all players score the total value in this situation). So now I don't trust anything the book says about games I don't know.
ETA: I have now read further, and the book incorrectly states the rules for more games, such as Dominion (Goal: be the player with the most victory cards in your hand at the end of the game; you actually want the most points, not the most cards) and Kingdomino (stating that the dominos are number side up when you select them; they are not - they are placed in numerical order in the selection queue, but flipped terrain side up before any are selected).
Skip this book. It might have an interesting selection of games, but pretty much nothing written about those games can be trusted. This book seriously needed to be copy-edited by someone who knows the rules to the games. Way too many errors made it to print.
ETA: I have now read further, and the book incorrectly states the rules for more games, such as Dominion (Goal: be the player with the most victory cards in your hand at the end of the game; you actually want the most points, not the most cards) and Kingdomino (stating that the dominos are number side up when you select them; they are not - they are placed in numerical order in the selection queue, but flipped terrain side up before any are selected).
Skip this book. It might have an interesting selection of games, but pretty much nothing written about those games can be trusted. This book seriously needed to be copy-edited by someone who knows the rules to the games. Way too many errors made it to print.
February 29, 2020
As fond as I am of enjoying tabletop games, I must admit that this book is far beyond my own experience of having played such games. Looking at this book, I could say with confidence that there were only two games in it that I had played--Settlers of Catan and Dungeons & Dragons--and my feelings about both games being what they are, I was at least willing to appreciate that many of the other games included were likely to be good even if I was not personally familiar with them myself. Perhaps this book will be like that for you as well, and if so, you will likely find some games in here worth playing. My own general opinion in reading this book is that I was not convinced enough to buy any of these board games for myself, but that many of them would be well worth playing if I happened to know friends who played them. Likewise, I could see myself spending some hours at a friendly game store if such games as these were readily available as a way of helping to support the larger community of gamers. That is, of course, assuming the gamers would want any such support from me.
This book is a bit more than 300 pages long and is divided into sixteen chapters. The book begins with a discussion of joining tabletop gaming culture (1), with a discussion on getting started, local game stores, finding groups, and how to decide on a game to play. After that the author discusses such contemporary classics as Mnchkin, Settlers of Catan, King of Tokyo, Ticket To Ride, Carcassonne, and Splendor (2). After that comes a look at deck-building games like Paperback, DC Comics' game, Dominion, Harry Potter, Ascension, and Clank! (3). Then comes a look at tile-laying games (4) like Kingdomino, Seikatsu, Cottage Garden, Takenoko, Patchwork, Blokus, Cacao, and Quadropolis. Then there is a glance at worker placement games (5) like Lords of Waterdeep, Kingsburg, Fabled Fruit, Unearth, Near And Far, Stone Age, and Raiders Of The North Sea. A discussion of cooperative games (6) includes Pandemic (rather a propos at the moment), The Mind, Onirim, Forbidden Island, Betrayal At House On The Hill, The Grizzled, One Deck Dungeon, Gloomhaven, and Fog of Love. Hidden role games (7) include One Night Ultimate Warewolf, Spyfall, The Resistance, Coup, Dark Moon, Dead of Winter, and Battlestar Galactica. Area Control games (8) include Small World, Bosk, Tokyo Metro, Five Tribes, Kemet, Blood Rage, and Ethnos. This only includes about half or so of the games, which also include such categories as dexterity games (9), set collection (10), luck-based games (11), card-drafting games (12), direct attack games (13), party games (14), role playing games (15), and war games (16), after which the book ends with an index.
Admittedly, this book does not include every board game that is currently in print or that is worth playing. The book does not, in fact, include any of the games that people my age grew up enjoying except for Dungeons & Dragons. There is no Monopoly or Yahtzee here, although both games are mentioned as being classics, with Yahtzee helping to inspire a creative Japanese game about monsters fighting for control of Tokyo. Quite a few of these games look like inspirations for some of the free to play games that have become popular for cellphones, which is not the worst thing that one can say about the European-style games that involve complex maps and character decisions and sometimes even jobs. This book appears to have been written in order to help the sales of contemporary board games and is targeted at those who would appreciate such games, with a wide variety of game types and difficulty levels included, some games being extremely simple and short games that take ten minutes or less, with others being difficult and complicated games that will take hours and hours. That sort of variety makes it all the more likely that one will find something one appreciates here for many different gaming moods.
This book is a bit more than 300 pages long and is divided into sixteen chapters. The book begins with a discussion of joining tabletop gaming culture (1), with a discussion on getting started, local game stores, finding groups, and how to decide on a game to play. After that the author discusses such contemporary classics as Mnchkin, Settlers of Catan, King of Tokyo, Ticket To Ride, Carcassonne, and Splendor (2). After that comes a look at deck-building games like Paperback, DC Comics' game, Dominion, Harry Potter, Ascension, and Clank! (3). Then comes a look at tile-laying games (4) like Kingdomino, Seikatsu, Cottage Garden, Takenoko, Patchwork, Blokus, Cacao, and Quadropolis. Then there is a glance at worker placement games (5) like Lords of Waterdeep, Kingsburg, Fabled Fruit, Unearth, Near And Far, Stone Age, and Raiders Of The North Sea. A discussion of cooperative games (6) includes Pandemic (rather a propos at the moment), The Mind, Onirim, Forbidden Island, Betrayal At House On The Hill, The Grizzled, One Deck Dungeon, Gloomhaven, and Fog of Love. Hidden role games (7) include One Night Ultimate Warewolf, Spyfall, The Resistance, Coup, Dark Moon, Dead of Winter, and Battlestar Galactica. Area Control games (8) include Small World, Bosk, Tokyo Metro, Five Tribes, Kemet, Blood Rage, and Ethnos. This only includes about half or so of the games, which also include such categories as dexterity games (9), set collection (10), luck-based games (11), card-drafting games (12), direct attack games (13), party games (14), role playing games (15), and war games (16), after which the book ends with an index.
Admittedly, this book does not include every board game that is currently in print or that is worth playing. The book does not, in fact, include any of the games that people my age grew up enjoying except for Dungeons & Dragons. There is no Monopoly or Yahtzee here, although both games are mentioned as being classics, with Yahtzee helping to inspire a creative Japanese game about monsters fighting for control of Tokyo. Quite a few of these games look like inspirations for some of the free to play games that have become popular for cellphones, which is not the worst thing that one can say about the European-style games that involve complex maps and character decisions and sometimes even jobs. This book appears to have been written in order to help the sales of contemporary board games and is targeted at those who would appreciate such games, with a wide variety of game types and difficulty levels included, some games being extremely simple and short games that take ten minutes or less, with others being difficult and complicated games that will take hours and hours. That sort of variety makes it all the more likely that one will find something one appreciates here for many different gaming moods.
December 14, 2019
In this book, the author covers about 100 tabletop games from a variety of genres, all of them modern. This book serves as a great introduction to new gamers on different types of games and some of the more recommended games in those genres. Each entry contains the publisher, the difficulty of the game and an overview of basic gameplay. As someone who was familiar with a good 90 percent of these games, I did not garner a lot of use out of this book but I would highly recommend it to someone who is new to the board gaming hobby.
October 29, 2019
An invaluable resource for the librarian looking to build their games collection!
I really wish I'd learned about this book before my for my boardgame presentation at the Georgia Library Conference because it is exactly the resource that everyone was asking for. The descriptions of gameplay for each game are excellent but I really appreciate how quickly one can find age recommendations, player numbers, playing time, difficulty, and objectives. All important information for a librarian deciding what would be the best games for their patrons and collection.
I'm thankful for the hard work and research that Bebo put into this book. It's such a brilliant resource for gaming and it going to make the work I want to do in the library so much easier.
I heartily recommend this book to everyone, librarians and gamers alike.
I really wish I'd learned about this book before my for my boardgame presentation at the Georgia Library Conference because it is exactly the resource that everyone was asking for. The descriptions of gameplay for each game are excellent but I really appreciate how quickly one can find age recommendations, player numbers, playing time, difficulty, and objectives. All important information for a librarian deciding what would be the best games for their patrons and collection.
I'm thankful for the hard work and research that Bebo put into this book. It's such a brilliant resource for gaming and it going to make the work I want to do in the library so much easier.
I heartily recommend this book to everyone, librarians and gamers alike.
May 11, 2021
This is a good resource if you want to start a games collection or research games for a program.
But as an individual who already owns a robust collection of games, I was more interested in the strategies ("the best ways to win!").
Most of the games I browsed did not include hints about the best ways to win. These included: Catan, Ticket to Ride, Villainous, Dixit, and Patchwork.
Azul's advice was limited to "collecting more tiles isn't necessarily better."
But as an individual who already owns a robust collection of games, I was more interested in the strategies ("the best ways to win!").
Most of the games I browsed did not include hints about the best ways to win. These included: Catan, Ticket to Ride, Villainous, Dixit, and Patchwork.
Azul's advice was limited to "collecting more tiles isn't necessarily better."
August 6, 2021
I bought this book because I’ve not played many Tabletop Games and I thought it would be good to read about them before buying. I tried playing Settlers of Catan with a friend once and found it complicated. I prefer board games and party games.
The games are separated into categories such as deck-building games, tile-laying games, cooperative games, dexterity games, luck based games, role playing games and more.
For each game that is discussed, you will find a difficulty rating (out of 5), number of players, age recommendation and play time. This was helpful to find games your children can or cannot play. Or if you don’t like to play long games, you can skip the ones that take over an hour to play.
Following that is the goal of the game and then an explanation of how to play. Each game also has three WHENs. For example the game Munchkin says: when you’re at a dinner party, when you feel like a little competition or when you’re just getting started with tabletop games. Other possible WHENs are when you have a few spare hours, when you’re in a large group, when the whole family is around, when you want to play something challenging and many more.
Each game also lists any expansion packs. Finally there are different side bars that may give game facts, tips, alerts or any other relevant information.
The only thing that could have been better is that every game did NOT have photos of the game boards and pieces. I wanted to see what the game looked like too, not just read how it works.
The games are separated into categories such as deck-building games, tile-laying games, cooperative games, dexterity games, luck based games, role playing games and more.
For each game that is discussed, you will find a difficulty rating (out of 5), number of players, age recommendation and play time. This was helpful to find games your children can or cannot play. Or if you don’t like to play long games, you can skip the ones that take over an hour to play.
Following that is the goal of the game and then an explanation of how to play. Each game also has three WHENs. For example the game Munchkin says: when you’re at a dinner party, when you feel like a little competition or when you’re just getting started with tabletop games. Other possible WHENs are when you have a few spare hours, when you’re in a large group, when the whole family is around, when you want to play something challenging and many more.
Each game also lists any expansion packs. Finally there are different side bars that may give game facts, tips, alerts or any other relevant information.
The only thing that could have been better is that every game did NOT have photos of the game boards and pieces. I wanted to see what the game looked like too, not just read how it works.
July 22, 2022
From one board gamer to another (i.e. the author), the enthusiasm the author has for games and the selection of titles on display are fully on point. This book contains the vast majority of the 'Modern Classics' that came out before 2019, though it is notably missing Viticulture and Terraforming Mars at the very least.
But I do have nitpicks.
(1) "Estimated play time" for board games, either from on the box or reviews, is a number plucked from thin air. The barcode is probably more accurate.
(2) The difficulty ratings the author gives are... off, in my opinion. Root is my favorite game, it is also definitely 4/5 difficulty. Catan is the king of modern games, but it should be a 2/5. Both were marked 3, which is a big question mark. It makes little sense to even rate out of 5 stars when the whole book doesn't have anything rated a 5/5. The book also has Gloomhaven and D&D, both of which deserve 5 stars difficulty!
(3) Every game should have pictures of the game included... at least a small one somewhere. There's plenty of white space for most entries to not justify a picture's absence.
(4) Player count minimum-maximum is important, but more importantly is the 'ideal' player count... the # of players that make the game feel the most balanced.
But I do have nitpicks.
(1) "Estimated play time" for board games, either from on the box or reviews, is a number plucked from thin air. The barcode is probably more accurate.
(2) The difficulty ratings the author gives are... off, in my opinion. Root is my favorite game, it is also definitely 4/5 difficulty. Catan is the king of modern games, but it should be a 2/5. Both were marked 3, which is a big question mark. It makes little sense to even rate out of 5 stars when the whole book doesn't have anything rated a 5/5. The book also has Gloomhaven and D&D, both of which deserve 5 stars difficulty!
(3) Every game should have pictures of the game included... at least a small one somewhere. There's plenty of white space for most entries to not justify a picture's absence.
(4) Player count minimum-maximum is important, but more importantly is the 'ideal' player count... the # of players that make the game feel the most balanced.
May 24, 2025
A intenção é boa, mas tenho dois problemas principais com esse livro:
1. É MUITA INFORMAÇÃO. Quem é o público-alvo desse livro? É alguém que não conhece nada ou tá começando? Se sim, por que tantas minúcias de regras? Descrições simples com muito mais fotos seriam mais eficazes pra fisgar um novato que essa quantidade maçante de texto de regra.
2. A escrita não é das melhores. Dá pra ver que a pessoa que escreveu conhece muitos jogos e gosta muito, mas a escrita precisa de melhorias. Várias regras ou resumos de objetivos de jogos estão errados. A lista de expansões dos jogos quase me deu um ataque cardíaco. Falta consistência em alguns aspectos. E por mais que eu aplauda a tentativa de definir a "player" genérica no feminino, ficou realmente no campo da tentativa. A execução alternou demais entre o feminino e o masculino e deixou esquisito e caótico.
Não indicaria pra ninguém, porque acho que qualquer pessoa que possa achar úteis as informações desse livro vai achar o formato chatérrimo. A quem teria interesse em informações mais profundas, sugiro procurar outros livros.
1. É MUITA INFORMAÇÃO. Quem é o público-alvo desse livro? É alguém que não conhece nada ou tá começando? Se sim, por que tantas minúcias de regras? Descrições simples com muito mais fotos seriam mais eficazes pra fisgar um novato que essa quantidade maçante de texto de regra.
2. A escrita não é das melhores. Dá pra ver que a pessoa que escreveu conhece muitos jogos e gosta muito, mas a escrita precisa de melhorias. Várias regras ou resumos de objetivos de jogos estão errados. A lista de expansões dos jogos quase me deu um ataque cardíaco. Falta consistência em alguns aspectos. E por mais que eu aplauda a tentativa de definir a "player" genérica no feminino, ficou realmente no campo da tentativa. A execução alternou demais entre o feminino e o masculino e deixou esquisito e caótico.
Não indicaria pra ninguém, porque acho que qualquer pessoa que possa achar úteis as informações desse livro vai achar o formato chatérrimo. A quem teria interesse em informações mais profundas, sugiro procurar outros livros.
September 12, 2019
A great way to learn about different games. And not Monopoly and Checkers, but modern board games. The book is organized into game categories, such as Party Games, Set Collection Games, Role-Playing Games, etc. Each game is given a difficulty ranking from 1-5, although no games are ranked a 5. Recommendations as to when to play the game are made: dinner party, at a convention, etc.
I would only have liked there to be more photos of the games. Some games had no photos, so you couldn't visualize what gameplay looked like.
I would only have liked there to be more photos of the games. Some games had no photos, so you couldn't visualize what gameplay looked like.
December 2, 2019
While I knew most of the games in the book (from either owning them or having done previous research), I think this is a great resource for those who are just starting to dive into the hobby. Bebo explains things in a simple enough way to get a basic idea of how the games work that she chose to include. I think it was also really good that she divided the book up by major game mechanics. My biggest complaint is that I would have liked more imagery throughout and I think diagrams would have really helped some explanations.
January 22, 2020
Yay for the "When to Play" comments for every game; and the categories were intriguing (though not super informative). But this would have been so much more exciting if there were an index by number of players (I'm always looking for those great 2-person games!) and another for difficulty. And hey -- what about a grid that shows which game you might want for 4 people who don't want anything difficult? The authors did all the work to compile the info, but didn't think of how we readers would want to discover games.
November 2, 2024
OK, board game book depicting various popular board games from a couple years back. However, as I was going through the book, it was quite a struggle as there was not nearly as many photos I wanted, and the descriptions almost seemed to downplay a lot of the excitement some of these boardgames have.
November 21, 2025
3.1 / 5.
Might be useful for some ideas to a new board gamer. Doesn’t really make sense to explain and summarize the rules to a series of games. Maybe just a brief bullet list and more images would be better.
I enjoyed the factual excerpts. A book fully on that type of information of the most popular games in BBG would be more entertaining and worth the read.
Good effort nonetheless.
Might be useful for some ideas to a new board gamer. Doesn’t really make sense to explain and summarize the rules to a series of games. Maybe just a brief bullet list and more images would be better.
I enjoyed the factual excerpts. A book fully on that type of information of the most popular games in BBG would be more entertaining and worth the read.
Good effort nonetheless.
May 8, 2020
Provides an through yet consise look at tabletop games in several different categories. Summaries of each game provide a description of the game play, category, and when and where you are most likely to enjoy that particular game.
December 14, 2020
Really useful tool if you are looking for new games to add to your collection or wanting to play something different. I read it mostly to find games for possible programs at work as well as game night with friends. :-)
February 11, 2022
This is a FABULOUS book!
It covers so many games and increased my wish list by at least 50 games! LOL!
I really enjoyed every page of this book and I believe I need to purchase a copy to utilize when buying new games for family and friends.
It covers so many games and increased my wish list by at least 50 games! LOL!
I really enjoyed every page of this book and I believe I need to purchase a copy to utilize when buying new games for family and friends.
July 27, 2019
A great resource for games, with information on how to play each one.
December 18, 2021
Informative and made me want to build my collection of games more. Wish there was more strategy tips and game play insight but overall it was a good book.
November 2, 2024
Middle of the road information book about board games. Wish there were more pictures.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews