Paperback Adventures
Paperback Adventures is a twist on the roguelike genre of games. You choose your character and lead them through an adventure. All characters are based on fantasy or science-fiction elements. They also have their own special skills and gameplay functions. The goal is to help your character defeat a total of nine enemies that stand between them and victory.
To play, you use cards to create words from letters. Spelling words is the only way to perform any actions. The game comes with a deck of cards, and each card has a letter printed in the center. Each card also has various icons printed on each side of the letter. These icons determine your abilities. Some icons let you attack the enemy. Some block incoming attacks. The effectiveness of your abilities depends on the words you craft.
Ransom Notes: The Ridiculous Word Magnet Game
Ransom Notes: The Ridiculous Word Magnet Game is a hilarious party game where players create absurd sentences. Inspired by the often less-than-stellar writing seen on the internet, this game challenges players to complete word prompts using a select number of words.
Each turn, a player assumes the role of the judge and plays a Situation Card. These cards reveal the prompts that every other player must follow. Players then use their randomly selected magnet Word Tiles to write out responses that best match the prompt. The judge picks one to determine the round’s winner. Gameplay is similar to Cards Against Humanity in this way.
Word Limit
Word Limit is a competitive word game that forces players to think quickly and be creative with their word choices. During each round, two players serve as clue givers while at least one other player tries to guess the focus word.
Every player must follow a specific pattern to complete each round.
The clue givers place a Word Card face-up on the table for everyone to see. Word Cards have six related words printed on them.
One of the clue givers rolls a six-sided die to determine which of the six words on the Word Card will be the keyword. Example: If the die lands on one, the first word on the Word Card becomes the focus. The other players cannot look at the die when the clue giver rolls it.
Once the clue givers know the word to focus on, they look at a Word Limit card. Word Limit cards explain the rules they need to follow when giving their clues. Clues are always one word. The clue givers take turns giving clues.
Clue givers win the round if someone correctly guesses the focus word on the Word Card.
Vowl
Vowl blends the puzzling aspects of anagram solver games with the frantic nature of timed competitions. Each turn, every player has 25 seconds to figure out what words are printed on multiple sets of cards. The sets of cards are separated by difficulty.
What makes the game challenging is that the vowels are missing for every word on every card. For example, if a card says “RMVD,” then its word is “removed.” You need to find words without their vowels.
Players go through multiple rounds and use the cards, custom dice, scoring token, victory tokens, a game board and a timer. The dice determine how many cards are used and which of the three game modes—Solo, Partner and Head-to-Head—is played each round.
Word Hustle: A Strategic Game of Crosswords
Word Hustle: A Strategic Game of Crosswords is a fast-paced strategy game. Inspired by classic games like Scrabble, Word Hustle challenges players to create words in a grid using a limited number of letter tiles. Each player starts with a collection of tiles and must use them for the entirety of the game. They can, however, roll some dice to earn, steal or give extra tiles.
When a round begins, every player scrambles to create as many words as possible with their tiles. When a player manages to use all their tiles, they flip over a timer. From there, the other players have one minute to finish their grids. Points are tallied by counting the valid words. Each letter of each valid word is worth one point. The player with the most points after three rounds wins.
Loving Board Games Both Old and New
All of these games look like they will be a blast to play. The number of fun and original ideas for board games people can come up with is always astonishing. But, while you wait for these games to come out, there are still plenty of other board games to play. Read our list of fantastic family board games to find some options you can play with everyone.
Zac Pricener has been a content creator for the past eight years. He’s a bit of an all-around nerd, and he has a bad habit of working movie and TV show references into conversations whenever possible.
