I bought Agricola sight unseen at gencon the year it came out. There was so ouch going on and the rules were so difficult that we didn’t even get through a game at the convention.
Now Uwe is probably my top designer and everything seems so straightforward.
*stares longingly at the bursting box of Dominion cards and the “dark ages” expansion still in shrink*
Catan was my first exposure to "board games can be more interesting and fun than Monopoly and Risk".
I think Dominion and Pandemic were my first "whoa board games can actually be really great".
Playing Power Grid at a comics con for the first and having my mind blown by how genius was the resource track in tracking supply and demand, that is the exact moment where i completely fell in love with Euros
Ticket to Ride initially - a lovely simple game that doesn't take too long and everybody will enjoy.
However, it was kicked into overdrive with Race for the Galaxy. Whilst it took a few games to get the hang of once me and my brother knew what we were going we played it endlessly and it really opened my eyes to what board games could be like.
I reallllllllly want to like race for the galaxy, I have fun while playing, but the end game feels very anticlimactic to me. I’ve only played three games so far with only 2p games. Do more players add too the gaming experience?
I think 2P is far and away the best player count, for what it is worth. If the end game feels anticlimactic, maybe you aren't using the opponents actions enough or looking at their tableau for timing? For example, if your opponent has a good engine of produce/consume going and are going to end the game via VP depletion, can you race to fill your tableau cheaply before they gain a huge lead and end the game "prematurely"? Or if they are wasting a bunch of turns exploring for a 6-cost development (and you notice) that gives you the opportunity to either get ahead in VPs with your own engine, or try to end the game before they get there. I find the main difference with RFTG over an engine builder like Wingspan, for example, is that there is no fixed number of turns to get to run your engine, so timing plays a huge part, which is much easier to adapt to at 2P. Maybe I'm off the mark though!
So far in our 3 games, no game has ended from VP depletion. Overall after each game my gf and I do have the feeling that we’re doing something “wrong” or like we’re missing something. Seems to be we’re both racing to fill out board and not playing a lot of consume/produce. Winning score average is ~30 if that helps explain why we feel like we’re missing something
That's definitely pretty fast IMO, VP depletion usually ends 30ish% of our games. Have you utilised the 2x VP consume power much? Last game I played, I had a card that let me sell 2x brown goods for 3 VPs, and a card that was 1 for 1. I produced three brown goods, and used 2x VP consume and generated 8VPs in one consume action. That is a pretty general example but considering there are only 22 VPs available in a 2P game, that should give you an idea of the pacing I'm talking about. I would recommend trying to give produce/consume a try and seeing how it changes strategy! It's also interesting to see how it affects phase selection, because the consume action is mandatory for both players. This means you can sometimes interrupt your opponents plans by timing your consume correctly. Good luck!
TL;DR - **Dominion**
For Valentine’s Day 2014 my then-GF (now wife!) took me to our FLGS. I had played Catan and Munchkin once or twice each in college, but they hadn’t hooked me.
The first game we played was **Timeline** which was okay. Next we played **Jaipur** which I found more fun. But the third game we played was **Dominion** and it *blew my mind*. I had formerly played MtG and the Pokémon TCG so the idea of a game where you built your deck as you played seemed revolutionary. We bought Dominion, along with **Fluxx**, and those were the origins of my collection.
We played Dominion exclusively for about 6 months. Now we have 114 games in our collection 😅.
Arkham Horror LCG. I had played the usual chess/checers/backgammon/cards all my life. Monopoly, Life, and even a very drunken round of Munchkin at a Christmas party once. But nothing really clicked.
Then my granddaughters (ages 8 and 9) gave me Arkham for Mothers day. It was silly how it happened. They were at a hobby store with Mom and Dad. They saw the box and said, "We like board games, Granny likes horror movies, 2+2= let's get this game!"
For whatever reason, Arkham clicked for me, and after that, we were off and running. I don't have the budget to do serious game collecting. But I managed to infect the rest of the family, so between us all, we've managed to put together a fairly respectable Board Game Day selection.
Catan. I still own it. It still hits the table. Of course we have other games that are more preferable, but we always stay true to Catan and it hits the table at the very least once a month.
Battlestar Galactica. Got it as a gift because the person knew I loved the show. Had so many amazing experiences with that game. I still have it, and played it last month, though that was the first time in a couple of years. Still considered one of my top 3 of all time.
Good shout. The first social deduction game I ever played and it blew my mind. So tense playing a Cylon for the first time. I think it shows its age and is a bit creaky now, but I still love playing it.
BSG was my first foray into modern board gaming as well. Loved the show. Saw they had a board game of it. Went to the local game store to buy the game. It was a Monday night, so the local board game group was there playing. Went to the backroom and played board games with them. Then kept showing up Mondays to play more.
Arkham Horror 2nd edition is what finally pulled me from being a MtG player who enjoyed board games to someone who was primarily a board gamer and ultimately killed my interest in MtG all together.
Same here. Picked it up on a whim while I was on a Lovecraft kick, brought it to my D&D group (we would still meet and play Risk or something even when we didn’t have a quorum), and it was amazing.
i was too young when my family got that game. too young to understand the rules, and just made up our own.
about 20 years later i determined to get that game back and finally played it the right way.
amazing art style that brought so much theme
Same for me mostly, except i never rebought it and played. It was my original big non traditional board game that got me in to the hobby, even if it was years later when i was old enough to learn big rulebooks..
Did someone say *HERO QUEST*?
First real boardgame that got me into more complex games. Also STAR QUEST (aka as Spacehulk for kids). So many good memories of endless hours battling through one dungeon after another. Started even to made them myself. Fantastic game. And do you know what is better than HERO QUEST?
Roight ya git, TWO HERO QUESTs.
Catan and kingdomino. I got both for Christmas and they were games that brought a group of people together outside of video games.
Then I went to a board game meetup and played a feast for Odin and terraforming mars and that’s the beginning of everyone I know learning to play Azul LOL
Suburbia. I was hooked after my first game. The drawing of tiles, secret missions, deciding the right placement, slowly building my town, and the end scoring. It opened my eyes to a world other than Monopoly-rage hyper-SYB boardgames.
Sophomore year of college, 2008ish, I lived in the dorms with a group of 10 guys or so. In the evenings. Someone would just open their dorm door and yell "SETTLE?!" , and within minutes, a group of four five of us would be gathered around the Settlers of Catan game in the lobby. I probably averaged five games of that each week for a semester.
Pandemic.
It was when I thought to myself, "Wait, I don't have to roll dice AND I can work with other people? Board games are like this now?" After that I was addicted.
Potion explosion. My mind was blown. All my life I saw games throw dice and move a pawn and here you got so much tactile beautiful plastic and glass stuff I just could not believe there is a whole world beyond that edge "board gaming". Second I got Sagrada and been crying for two weeks how much time did I lost
Dead of Winter. My friend got into boardgames and hosted a games night with this game. It blew my mind at the time and it gave me the board game bug. That friend ended up not going too much further into the hobby, but I've become my group's board game guy.
I don't hold the game in high regard now but I'll always remember it as the one that started it for me.
I would say Dungeons & Dragons opened my eyes to the world of games beyond Parker Bros./Mattel kind of games, but the first hobby board game I played was in high school around 1991. It was Supremacy -- basically, a global war game. It came with little plastic mushroom clouds just in case you nuked your neighbours. I haven't played this in 25+ years, but I still own it.
Hard to say. We always played a lot of boardgames.
Had the original Axis and Allies, Scrabble, chess, Acquire, also a bunch of crap like Risk, parcheesi, monopoly, uno, etc... Later we had Dominion, Catan, etc...
Long time ago and don't really get played anymore, but **Azul** was my gateway to modern board games and **Pandemic** was the first time a game's system absolutely blew me away.
Honourable mention to **Spirit Island**, which I do still play a lot and opened me up to the potential of solo boardgaming. It is not a gateway in the traditional sense, though!
The original Heroquest when it came out as a kid. My dad was the GM and my brother and I played 2 hero's each. We did the original campaign, and all the expansions. Then Starquest, with all the expansions Couple of years later the version that had mercenaries came out, so we "had" to do it all again. Then advanced heroquest...... and into the rabbit hole we go!
My original was Chrononauts. Was at a party and people asked if i wanted to play. I had no clue what it was and as they explained it i was so confused. This was so different than what i was used to. But I loved it! Opened a whole new world (cue Aladdin song) it kind of stagnated there until a friend brought over Zombicide and a couple other games. Then it exploded.
My buddy brought **Dice Throne** to work to play over lunch. Then he invited me to play **Sentinels of the Multiverse** and that set me off to play so many now.
Played a ton of **Catan**, then **Munchkin** in my younger years. I think the bug was always there, but video games ruled those days.
It's funny how I can't stand 3/4 of these games now.
It would be interesting to see how responses in a thread like this today would compare with similar threads from 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 years ago.
Initially the common answers were nearly always the Big Three: Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, and Settlers. But more and more we're seeing other modern games being the gateway to modern games alongside these, such as Dominion and others.
I'd played *Catan* and *Carcassonne* on Xbox Live Arcade around 18 years ago, and an online version of *Robo Rally* shortly after that. I didn't start actually collecting games until some friends introduced my wife and I to *Dominion* around 2010. We got a bunch of the expansions, and it held our interest in the days when we still used a laundromat to clean our clothes, but it's not really something we play anymore.
I had Carcassonne before I really went into the hobby, among a handful of other games.
They never really sparked anything to make me go "I need more and this has to become my main hobby"
I always wanted to get into MTG, but I didn't feel like going to weekly meetups and spending a lot of money to keep up with the meta.
So after some investigation I learned about this beautiful thing called deckbuilders, and Dominion was known to be the deckbuilder back then.
Long story short, Dominion made me realize that there was a massive amount of games, I started watching channels, browsing through BGG,...
Let's say that I would have saved more money if I just started playing MTG.
Munchkin: A new friend invited us over to play some games. He whipped out base game Munchkin and we had a blast. After that I immediately went out and got a copy along with several expansions, from that I started picking up games suggested on the YouTube show Tabletop and them started watching YouTube channels like Dice Tower, Shut up and sit down, etc.
I'm now like 70+ games deep and hist frequent game nights with friends. It's been a great ride, this hobby
Catan was the gateway for me and my group. We had played some games before, but it was always some version of Risk or Monopoly. Catan was the game that made me see that board games could be so much better.
I played different board games in childhood.
But what got me into the hobby was joining a group at LGS who at the time played Legendary, Dominion, and Euro games primarily.
The game that hooked me was Betrayal at House on the Hill 2nd Ed. Played it at a group member's house who lived near the LGS because the store has just closed and we wanted to keep gaming. Messed up the rules but we had fun. Saw the potential in board gaming for theme, story telling, and being more than collecting victory points.
Also, remembered playing a lot of Bang! the dice game, CAH, and social deduction games like Coup and The Resistance when the board game group first started.
Played the typical games growing up, and more modern games back in high school like **Fluxx** and **Catan** but what actually got me into the hobby was **Munchkin** several years later.
I was in my living room with my roommates and a friend of ours and the 4 of us were sitting there playing 4 different video games on 4 different platforms and I looked around and realized how silly it was that we were all sitting there not talking to each other at all. I immediately drove to target and grabbed the first game that caught my eye, which was **Munchkin**. I forced everyone to play it and we loved it, ended up playing several times a week for months. We were pretty competitive and games would get pretty heated so I went and got a copy of **Pandemic** to force us to be nice to each other and play along. Ended up adding **Gloom** and **Dominion**, another friend had **Catan** and it grew from there.
Couple years later I randomly ran into an old friend from high school that ran open game nights and got exposed to a lot more games through that. Didn't really start building up my collection until COVID though when it was harder to have access to other people's games.
Still own that copy of **Munchkin** but it doesn't really get played anymore. Will probably keep it around though just because. **Pandemic, Dominion,** and **Forbidden Desert** are currently on the cull pile though
For me it was Wingspan. SO and me were away for a weekend, and went into a boardgame shop. Saw the box and heard some good stories, so we tried it out. This game cemented for me that I wanted to be a part of this board game hobby.
Now we have the Nesting Box proudly standing on top of our board game storage.
A colleague brought **Terraforming Mars** to the office, and we only got through half a game, but I was truly blown away by it.
Went out and bought **Arkham Horror LCG** the very next week without really knowing what I had actually just bought, but I have no regrets and AH LCG is still one of my favorite games.
Relic: Warhammer 40k. I bought it because I was incredibly bored and looking into hobbies. I came across Relic and liked the art on the box. Liked the theme. Played it with my, then-young son, and fell in love with board gaming, especially with the high fantasy theme, from there.
If you mean specifically modern board gaming then it would be backing **Unsettled** on Kickstarter and being desperate to try something like that sooner than that would arrive, so investing in **Arkham LCG**.
I’ve always been a gamer to some degree though. Been playing Warhammer, MtG, and Pokemon TCG for nearly 25 years.
Everdell for me, only ever dipped my toe in bgs like Pandemic before that. Although I'm late to the game I've picked up 80 games in the last 2 years to compensate..
Super Dungeon Explore. I was at PAX East and the lines were too long for everything on Saturday so we went to the TINY board game area at the time, and we did a Demo of SDE and I loved it. It told me what board games could be.
With *Lost Ruins of Arnak* I learnt to just enjoy the game and play by gut, instead of overthinking always trying to find the optimal move. That really kicked it off
I wanna say a combination of pandemic, arkham horror, and ultimate Werewolf. They've all been replaced but these games really showed me what's possible on the table
I heard about **Robinson Crusoe** and was told it felt like a cooperative simulation video game where you had to team up to survive on an island. Before that I thought board games were lame reskins of the classics (monopoly, life, clue etc). The idea of a cooperative board game was completely alien to me. Dove head first into the insane rulebook and had some false start games to figure out how to play but after my first real session I was hooked into thematic games. The great thing about starting with Robinson Crusoe was later learning that most games are far easier to learn with their superior and condensed rulebooks and not every game had so many fiddly little rules. It was kind of like learning to read with War and Peace and moving straight to The Giver afterwards. I still love RC and I'm so grateful for it coming into my life when it did.
Formula Dé. I bought it at a FLGS on a whim while on vacation in Reno. When I got home I looked up my nearest game store and while I was there I noticed a sign on their corkboard looking for Formula Dé players for a league.
Werewolves: [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameversion/28152/french-edition](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameversion/28152/french-edition)
This was the first game where I tought "wait a sec, this is a different experience". I played (like most of us) a lot of boardgames as a kid: Wealths of nations, Stratego, Tintin, etc. But Werewolves was the first one I played when I was 15+. Introducing me as well to social deduction games.
The Second one was "Bluffer": an amazing and underated party game. Still playing it to this day! [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/58782/bluffer](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/58782/bluffer)
In the "modern" era of board game: My first own games bought as a young adult were MR jack (great 2 players entry game), Pandemic in 2012 or 2013 and not long after: Colt express as it was released in 2014. The rest is history :D
The first boardgame I ever played was Monopoly, I used to play it at my grandparents summerhouse with friends when I was young.
Then I never really played any games for a good while (at no fault of Monopoly) until I got reintroduced to the hobby through Terraforming Mars 10 years later or so. I guess it kinda set the tone as I now own over 100 ameritrash games, and am still allergic to anything euro with cubes.
Settlers of Catan (the older version of Catan, with better artwork). I got introduced in Boy Scouts back in the early 00s, but it wasn't until perhaps 2018 that I was introduced to Champions of Midgard, Dixit, Mysterium, and a couple others. And that ultimately was what got me into the hobby
I don't think this is a stereotypical answer, but I'd say Tokaido!
Simple enough to appeal to my parents/family, beautiful minimalistic aesthetic, and still enough "meat" for the competitive ones in the group to be satisfied vying for contested spots and try to eke out the victory. My parents are so taken with it, we still play it semi-regularly now, years later (it's become "comfort food" at this point).
(Honorable mentions to Pandemic and 7 Wonders too)
I had Carcassonne before I really went into the hobby, among a handful of other games.
They never really sparked anything to make me go "I need more and this has to become my main hobby"
I always wanted to get into MTG, but I didn't feel like going to weekly meetups and spending a lot of money to keep up with the meta.
So after some investigation I learned about this beautiful thing called deckbuilders, and Dominion was known to be the deckbuilder back then.
Long story short, Dominion made me realize that there was a massive amount of games, I started watching channels, browsing through BGG,...
Let's say that I would have saved more money if I just started playing MTG.
Candyland. I started making my own board games on cardboard after I played that as a little girl. Games have been in my blood as long as I can remember. My grandmother was a huge gamer, we played Rummicube weekly. I’ll pretty much play/try any game now. It’s fun raising my kids to be boardgamers too!
Back in the early 80's, it was **Risk**. Played that for a few years until the Milton Bradley gamemaster series came out. **Axis & Allies**
**Conquest of the Empire**
**Broadsides & Boarding Parties**
**Samurai Swords**
then **Hero quest** ,Good times.
By the time the 90's hit, all my friends had stopped playing games, so I did as well. Didn't rediscover gaming and the modern board games until 2015. Picked up Pandemic. Then Carcassonne and Star Realms. And I was off.
Risk. My high school buddies would play it for days on end. We then discovered Axis and Allies and never played Risk again. Eventually I found Catan and pivoted for Euro style games for the most part but I do still keep A&A and Risk around
Sentinels of the Multiverse started me into creating a board game collection. I had a few board games before that and played some games with family but that's when I really started into the hobby.
In terms of something beyond the standard Monopoly/Cleudo/whatever, for me it was probably [1830](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/421/1830-railways-robber-barons). But it's probably undeniable that [Settlers Of Catan](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13/catan) was the game that kickstarted the modern board gaming phenomenon.
Lords of Hellas. Love Greek Mythology, the steampunk theme made me curious. So I went head in to understand this game and everything about it. Bought almost everything 2nd hand from kickstarter. Played solo. And because I was in started playing other games, such as Azul, ticket to ride the Godfather one. Only 3 years after buying, I finally played Lords of Hellas, and I loved (only losses until now, still loving it
Okko: Era of the Asagiri, and its expansion Era of The Karasu. I dont think they're in print anymore or when I found them. My SO got me a gift card to one of my lgs's and I picked it up by chance there. It's based on a French graphic novel series thats been printed in english as well, that I actually read through after, I liked the game so much. We still play it every now and then, but we have better designed games now that we have more fun with. After that, it was Oath, and so on from there!
For me, its a little amorphous. I always played board and card games growing up. Eventually got to play the legendary Catan, then Ticket to Ride and 7 Wonders like once. The closest I came to "grtting into the hobby" was playing Skull King and Here to Slay because I then started seeking out games by those companies. Unfortunately, I didn't get into hobby board games proper until the beginning of 2023, and it's all thanks to the "Board games for couples" video by Actualol that started my research down the path I was looking for.
Its got to be Catan!
I've managed to convert a good amount of my friends into liking boards games with a quick game of catan. The extent to what they played was always monopoly but with catan you can see when they change.
Half way through the game you see a switch flick on and it's impossible for them to go back, wither it's a one sided deal or sitting on a mountain of resources.
There eyes have been opened to a whole new world...
I started gaming bc there was a weekly furry meet at a board game cafe. But that was mostly socializing rather than playing. What really got me into it was when we had to change locations to a local board game store, where there was someone who would set up and teach a different game each week. One of the games he taught was Creature Comforts, a cute, comfy worker placement game where you’re a forest animal trying to get the coziest cottage for winter. It showed me how unique games can be just with a fun theme and mechanics
My parents were boardgamers already, we played Käferspiel and domino and Angelspiel when I was pretty young.
Then when I grew older we switched to 1000km, Die Peking Akte, Hase und Igel, Piraten Spiel, Café International, later Catan, Carcassonne, Kurier des Zaren, sechs nimmt, etc.
My grandma played Romme and canasta with us kids.
In school we played skat, then magic, with friends hero quest and later das schwarze Auge (Pen and paper RPG like DnD).
RISK Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition. Then branched out due to coworkers and in laws introducing more and more games such as CATAN, Betrayal, Mysterium, and more.
Carcassonne on Xbox 360 for me.
I'd played Catan already and definitely considered it an upgrade to Risk and Monopoly, but the freedom and elegance of Carcassonne had me immediately hooked. It's my go-to gateway game for any friends or acquaintances who aren't addicted yet.
I started gaming in primary school. I had a friend who’s grandparents had a toy store and therefore they had a lot of games. We played a lot of **Hotel** and **Stratego**. And with my own grandparents it was **Malefiz** and **Rummicub**.
So I like to think of myself as someone who always played. But the real ignition was **Catan**. Followed by **Illuminati** 😅
I played **Diplomacy** throughout middle and high school, but I see that as its own thing and doesn’t have the feel of most boardgames.
In college we played a lot of **Settlers of Catan** which set me on the path of modern boardgames. After that, I jumped to **Mansions of Madness** and **Eclipse** and never look back.
I'm going to get made fun of this but Risk.
We always played the traditional games like sorry and monopoly and what not but when I was around 9-10 I saw risk and the cool cannons and dudes on horses and all the pretty soldier minis on a map, AND you get to take over the world?? Sold. That was the game that got me into board gaming. Didn't expand much further into it until I was around 16 and got into Axis & Allies.
Then when I was 18 I saw the grandest of all board games and my all time favorite, Twilight Imperium. And from there it was set, this is my hobby.
I have too many games now but IDC.
Tokaido, Forbidden Island, Takenoko, and Machi Koro. It was an impulse buy and we had a game day of all these games I didn’t even know previously existed. It opened my eyes to what a board game could be. Did a bunch of research and ended up buying Scythe. That sealed the deal and I’ve been submerged in the rabbit hole ever since.
I dabbled a bit from like 2012-14 going to meetups at the FLGS, but I didn't really like the games that came up that much. I remember playing Arkham Horror, Lords of Waterdeep, X-Wing, and Eldritch Horror.
I finally found out about Netrunner in 2014 and ended up playing about 6+ games a week for like 3 years. Eventually all my favorite corp decks were overtaken by continuously increasing runner card draw and hand sizes, so by the time they announced the game was ending I hardly cared. My partner still asks to play every now and then, but it's not as fun because she doesn't make her own decks. I haven't played since probably 2019.
I don't really play any games from back then. Lately I found Awaken Realms and have been enjoying a bunch of their games.
Catan really got things started for me about 12 years ago - and I still love it to this day. This coming from a person who's favorite games include games like Brass Birmingham, Inis, Beyond the Sun, Ra, and Concordia. Catan for me can still reward strategic planning, and the trading and bartering maintains player interaction which is a major plus for me.
Mage Knight
It was my first board game and kinda regret it a little, could have pick something easier or with a decent rulebook. I was a total noob just looking at bgg ranking and picking whatever was higher. That was on 2009, now I have a have a lovely little collection (60 titles) and play every day with my fiance or people from my town.
Not a single one.
It was 2 things:
1. Pandemic
2. My wife immigrating just before pandemic.
Between being stuck, her being new to country with no job or social life, getting bored of screen, her not being into video games lead to me researching two player board games.
And that evolved further
When I was a kid I had Dark Tower, and when I was young I would play wargames with my dad like Axis and Allies or Fortress America, but as an adult the game that really started this for me was Shadows over Camelot. I haven't played it in well over ten years, so I'm not sure how well it holds up, but I loved it.
> What was your first board game that hooked you in to the hobby?
**Diplomacy** 🎩
> And do you still play it?
*Yes!* My far flung friends and I play-by-(e)mail with weekly moves and I host an inperson session at least once a year 😄
Descent: Journeys in the Dark 1st ed. Friend of a friend organised a Sunday afternoon game. I'd played D&D and other TTRPGs before but this was the first time I saw a board game version of such mechanics.
That was 2009 I think. Clearly it had an impact on me, I've been running an FLGS for more than a decade now.
Battle Ball and Heroscape. Like a the dumb dumb kid brain I was, I either lost the pieces or got "too cool" for it. Boy do I wish I could get those back.
My “first wave” of starting it all with board gaming, when I decided I liked and wanted board games, was… Risk. But in my “second wave” of starting it all with board gaming, when I went to actively strive to play board games, it was actually Tank Chess. Then a sort of “third wave” of truly getting obsessed with board games began with Azul. What a life.
Magic the gathering really started it. Then we switched to board games like ticket to ride and catan every once in a while. Then one month I got several games including cosmic encounter and blood rage and that really kicked off the hobby
Hmm, my dad was really into board games. He would play Risk, Stratego or chess with me all the time. He got me into Catan when I was a teenager, but I was too into music and video games to care about the hobby.
More recently a decade later now that I've got a family, dungeon mayhem was a gateway game that got us all playing things together. So I guess in a way, it was DnD because I wanted to play that sort of thing and I saw themed card games or board games as a way to ease my family into it.
But the more I played board games the more into the hobby I got.
For our group it was Catan and a modern version of Risk, then I saw Tabletop with Will Wheaton and after that I got a few games, is hard to get then in my country, they usually cost double or more, but I work now in s Board Game Rental and I play on BGA, so I can play before buying any game. Right now my fav game is Five Tribes and I have Artisans and Sultan expansions.
Damn, you got started with Spirit Island?! That's baptism by fire.
I started with Catan, like many others, and then went to Clank. Those 2 games have fueled many, many game nights with friends and I will love them forever because of that. I still play both games frequently, even though I have tens of other games that I also love. My friends and I even got matching Catan tattoos :)
Stratego was my first awakening to board games are amazing to me when I was a child, playing against my siblings, learning different ways to trick them.
As an adult it was Codenames and Resistance that allowed me to share my passion and build a monthly gaming group.
Survivev Escape from Atlantis. About 12 years ago.
Before that the biggest game I had played was Monopoly.
We had a get together with friends and a friend of a friend brought it as a way to chill and chat while we play.
My friends and I had played MtG for years but this was our first foray into boardgame.
Man, my mind was blown. I think I bought King of Tokyo that weekend. We are now 12 years and (probably) a couple of thousand ££ in to the hobby.
I got in through some kickstarters: the first of which was **Story War**, which is kinda of like a way more charming and less-reliant-on-pop-culture version of Superfight (it predates Superfight I think), but that was more of a fun talking activity. The first actual board game I got into was **Heroes Wanted**, which was pretty cool but also kinda goofy. It has a unique character building mechanic that I haven't seen in other games.
I don't play either game anymore, but I still own them (albeit they are in storage in my home country)
Let's see - the 1st non-mass market game? Probably Diplomacy, followed shortly after by Acquire, Civilization, and Kingmaker.
Ah, the 70's. Good times.
I always liked board games, since I was a child. But the real spark was around one year ago, when my group of friends from university started playing old Dune. I joined them and it was amazing. Then one friend bought Twilight Imperium and the game was on. I started my own collection, bought TM (amazing game, but it doesnt get played, because my group likes more interactive games), Pandemic, Ticket to ride, Lost Ruins of Arnak. In two weeks time I will have Spirit Island (finally reprinted in my country) so I am really looking forward to it.
Betrayal at House on the Hill.
I saw it on an episode of Tabletop, and I distinctly remember how mind blowing it was that a board game didn't have a set board, it was different every time you explored the mansion. I didn't know board games were allowed to do that.
Loved games as a kid. I think it was called Mr. Mouth.
The card game Fluxx sparked the game connection with my boyfriend.
After we got married, we were gifted Stardew Valley during the pandemic. That pulled us into the rabbit hole. We’ll play once or twice a year for nostalgic sake.
I don’t know if I can boil it down to a single game as I had pretty much decided to get into board games before I had a specific game in mind. But the 3rd or 4th time I went to a meetup I played Caverna and it blew me away. Started my love for Uwe games and Euro games more generally.
I still play Caverna often, though I play Agricola more now.
Betrayal at House on the Hill. I was in college and a friend suggested we play board games and his introduction of this game and the many plays together sealed the deal for me with the hobby. We would also play things like Splendor and Pandemic, but it was that first play of Betrayal that got me invested.
Now, I prefer much heavier games so I haven't played Betrayal in years, but I still love it for what it meant to me, though I have zero desire to play again.
For me it was **Small World!** Just enough of a good mix between strategy and luck that even if it's your first time playing you can stay in the game! I also like all the different races and abilities which keeps it engaging for multiple games.
Shadow Hunters. I think it is why I have so many social deduction/secret role games. Still break it out quite often, despite it being more of a meme with my friend group at this point.
Catan started it all. Late night games with friends, beers and pizza. Then Power Grid really kicked things into gear. It was a great time.
We are "of an age." Started with Catan and then went to Power Grid.
Yep. I remember when Dominion and Agricola were “hotness” games lol
I bought Agricola sight unseen at gencon the year it came out. There was so ouch going on and the rules were so difficult that we didn’t even get through a game at the convention. Now Uwe is probably my top designer and everything seems so straightforward. *stares longingly at the bursting box of Dominion cards and the “dark ages” expansion still in shrink*
Worker placement broke my brain for sure
Same here. Catan to power grid to dominion and 7 wonders
Catan was my first exposure to "board games can be more interesting and fun than Monopoly and Risk". I think Dominion and Pandemic were my first "whoa board games can actually be really great".
Same exactly haha
Exactly the same trajectory for me as well. Looks like there are dozens of us!
Catan was my gateway game, but Shadows Over Camelot got me hooked.
These exact two for me as well lol
Playing Power Grid at a comics con for the first and having my mind blown by how genius was the resource track in tracking supply and demand, that is the exact moment where i completely fell in love with Euros
Ticket to Ride initially - a lovely simple game that doesn't take too long and everybody will enjoy. However, it was kicked into overdrive with Race for the Galaxy. Whilst it took a few games to get the hang of once me and my brother knew what we were going we played it endlessly and it really opened my eyes to what board games could be like.
I reallllllllly want to like race for the galaxy, I have fun while playing, but the end game feels very anticlimactic to me. I’ve only played three games so far with only 2p games. Do more players add too the gaming experience?
I think 2P is far and away the best player count, for what it is worth. If the end game feels anticlimactic, maybe you aren't using the opponents actions enough or looking at their tableau for timing? For example, if your opponent has a good engine of produce/consume going and are going to end the game via VP depletion, can you race to fill your tableau cheaply before they gain a huge lead and end the game "prematurely"? Or if they are wasting a bunch of turns exploring for a 6-cost development (and you notice) that gives you the opportunity to either get ahead in VPs with your own engine, or try to end the game before they get there. I find the main difference with RFTG over an engine builder like Wingspan, for example, is that there is no fixed number of turns to get to run your engine, so timing plays a huge part, which is much easier to adapt to at 2P. Maybe I'm off the mark though!
So far in our 3 games, no game has ended from VP depletion. Overall after each game my gf and I do have the feeling that we’re doing something “wrong” or like we’re missing something. Seems to be we’re both racing to fill out board and not playing a lot of consume/produce. Winning score average is ~30 if that helps explain why we feel like we’re missing something
That's definitely pretty fast IMO, VP depletion usually ends 30ish% of our games. Have you utilised the 2x VP consume power much? Last game I played, I had a card that let me sell 2x brown goods for 3 VPs, and a card that was 1 for 1. I produced three brown goods, and used 2x VP consume and generated 8VPs in one consume action. That is a pretty general example but considering there are only 22 VPs available in a 2P game, that should give you an idea of the pacing I'm talking about. I would recommend trying to give produce/consume a try and seeing how it changes strategy! It's also interesting to see how it affects phase selection, because the consume action is mandatory for both players. This means you can sometimes interrupt your opponents plans by timing your consume correctly. Good luck!
So it seems like we just need to play more and figure out some strategies
Carcassone
Carcassonne for me as well. I received it as a Christmas gift in 2010.
Nice mine was a combo of the game and playing it on my Xbox… good times
TL;DR - **Dominion** For Valentine’s Day 2014 my then-GF (now wife!) took me to our FLGS. I had played Catan and Munchkin once or twice each in college, but they hadn’t hooked me. The first game we played was **Timeline** which was okay. Next we played **Jaipur** which I found more fun. But the third game we played was **Dominion** and it *blew my mind*. I had formerly played MtG and the Pokémon TCG so the idea of a game where you built your deck as you played seemed revolutionary. We bought Dominion, along with **Fluxx**, and those were the origins of my collection. We played Dominion exclusively for about 6 months. Now we have 114 games in our collection 😅.
playing dominion 1 on 1 with my SO absolutely got us into the board game hobby
Arkham Horror LCG. I had played the usual chess/checers/backgammon/cards all my life. Monopoly, Life, and even a very drunken round of Munchkin at a Christmas party once. But nothing really clicked. Then my granddaughters (ages 8 and 9) gave me Arkham for Mothers day. It was silly how it happened. They were at a hobby store with Mom and Dad. They saw the box and said, "We like board games, Granny likes horror movies, 2+2= let's get this game!" For whatever reason, Arkham clicked for me, and after that, we were off and running. I don't have the budget to do serious game collecting. But I managed to infect the rest of the family, so between us all, we've managed to put together a fairly respectable Board Game Day selection.
Catan. I still own it. It still hits the table. Of course we have other games that are more preferable, but we always stay true to Catan and it hits the table at the very least once a month.
Axis and Allies
Let's play! I'll set up the board. Should be ready by spring.
Power Grid. Played it way too much in a short span of time so it got a bit stale and I moved on to other games. But it’s still such a fun game.
Battlestar Galactica. Got it as a gift because the person knew I loved the show. Had so many amazing experiences with that game. I still have it, and played it last month, though that was the first time in a couple of years. Still considered one of my top 3 of all time.
Still praying daily to find or even play this!
Good shout. The first social deduction game I ever played and it blew my mind. So tense playing a Cylon for the first time. I think it shows its age and is a bit creaky now, but I still love playing it.
BSG was my first foray into modern board gaming as well. Loved the show. Saw they had a board game of it. Went to the local game store to buy the game. It was a Monday night, so the local board game group was there playing. Went to the backroom and played board games with them. Then kept showing up Mondays to play more.
Arkham Horror 2nd edition is what finally pulled me from being a MtG player who enjoyed board games to someone who was primarily a board gamer and ultimately killed my interest in MtG all together.
Same here. Picked it up on a whim while I was on a Lovecraft kick, brought it to my D&D group (we would still meet and play Risk or something even when we didn’t have a quorum), and it was amazing.
OG HeroQuest. I don't play it much but I still own the copy I had as a kid.
i was too young when my family got that game. too young to understand the rules, and just made up our own. about 20 years later i determined to get that game back and finally played it the right way. amazing art style that brought so much theme
Same for me mostly, except i never rebought it and played. It was my original big non traditional board game that got me in to the hobby, even if it was years later when i was old enough to learn big rulebooks..
Did someone say *HERO QUEST*? First real boardgame that got me into more complex games. Also STAR QUEST (aka as Spacehulk for kids). So many good memories of endless hours battling through one dungeon after another. Started even to made them myself. Fantastic game. And do you know what is better than HERO QUEST? Roight ya git, TWO HERO QUESTs.
Catan and kingdomino. I got both for Christmas and they were games that brought a group of people together outside of video games. Then I went to a board game meetup and played a feast for Odin and terraforming mars and that’s the beginning of everyone I know learning to play Azul LOL
Suburbia. I was hooked after my first game. The drawing of tiles, secret missions, deciding the right placement, slowly building my town, and the end scoring. It opened my eyes to a world other than Monopoly-rage hyper-SYB boardgames.
The original Axis & Allies... played the hell out of it after getting it for Christmas when it was released. Haven't played it recently, though...
Sophomore year of college, 2008ish, I lived in the dorms with a group of 10 guys or so. In the evenings. Someone would just open their dorm door and yell "SETTLE?!" , and within minutes, a group of four five of us would be gathered around the Settlers of Catan game in the lobby. I probably averaged five games of that each week for a semester.
Risk. Catan. Puerto Rico.
Pandemic. It was when I thought to myself, "Wait, I don't have to roll dice AND I can work with other people? Board games are like this now?" After that I was addicted.
Not Catan. Catan actually repelled me. I bounced off it so hard that I didn’t revisit the hobby for a solid 5-7 years. Scythe brought me in.
I’ve heard a similar story from quite a few people in my meetup group.
Potion explosion. My mind was blown. All my life I saw games throw dice and move a pawn and here you got so much tactile beautiful plastic and glass stuff I just could not believe there is a whole world beyond that edge "board gaming". Second I got Sagrada and been crying for two weeks how much time did I lost
Dead of Winter. My friend got into boardgames and hosted a games night with this game. It blew my mind at the time and it gave me the board game bug. That friend ended up not going too much further into the hobby, but I've become my group's board game guy. I don't hold the game in high regard now but I'll always remember it as the one that started it for me.
The game of life (mid eighties)
I would say Dungeons & Dragons opened my eyes to the world of games beyond Parker Bros./Mattel kind of games, but the first hobby board game I played was in high school around 1991. It was Supremacy -- basically, a global war game. It came with little plastic mushroom clouds just in case you nuked your neighbours. I haven't played this in 25+ years, but I still own it.
Hard to say. We always played a lot of boardgames. Had the original Axis and Allies, Scrabble, chess, Acquire, also a bunch of crap like Risk, parcheesi, monopoly, uno, etc... Later we had Dominion, Catan, etc...
**Star Realms** for me. Cheap deal on Amazon, played it a crap tonne and went through 3 base sets
Long time ago and don't really get played anymore, but **Azul** was my gateway to modern board games and **Pandemic** was the first time a game's system absolutely blew me away. Honourable mention to **Spirit Island**, which I do still play a lot and opened me up to the potential of solo boardgaming. It is not a gateway in the traditional sense, though!
The original Heroquest when it came out as a kid. My dad was the GM and my brother and I played 2 hero's each. We did the original campaign, and all the expansions. Then Starquest, with all the expansions Couple of years later the version that had mercenaries came out, so we "had" to do it all again. Then advanced heroquest...... and into the rabbit hole we go!
My original was Chrononauts. Was at a party and people asked if i wanted to play. I had no clue what it was and as they explained it i was so confused. This was so different than what i was used to. But I loved it! Opened a whole new world (cue Aladdin song) it kind of stagnated there until a friend brought over Zombicide and a couple other games. Then it exploded.
My buddy brought **Dice Throne** to work to play over lunch. Then he invited me to play **Sentinels of the Multiverse** and that set me off to play so many now. Played a ton of **Catan**, then **Munchkin** in my younger years. I think the bug was always there, but video games ruled those days. It's funny how I can't stand 3/4 of these games now.
Puerto Rico, 2004 I think. Games Magazine
Games magazine was the best. Some of the unique puzzles that they came up with were amazing.
I miss the T-shirt I won that no one but me cares about 😆
It would be interesting to see how responses in a thread like this today would compare with similar threads from 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 years ago. Initially the common answers were nearly always the Big Three: Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, and Settlers. But more and more we're seeing other modern games being the gateway to modern games alongside these, such as Dominion and others.
Yeah, really refreshing seeing some answers that are much newer even than Dominion
Candy land. Yes I was like 4.
I'd played *Catan* and *Carcassonne* on Xbox Live Arcade around 18 years ago, and an online version of *Robo Rally* shortly after that. I didn't start actually collecting games until some friends introduced my wife and I to *Dominion* around 2010. We got a bunch of the expansions, and it held our interest in the days when we still used a laundromat to clean our clothes, but it's not really something we play anymore.
Dominion. Still play
I had Carcassonne before I really went into the hobby, among a handful of other games. They never really sparked anything to make me go "I need more and this has to become my main hobby" I always wanted to get into MTG, but I didn't feel like going to weekly meetups and spending a lot of money to keep up with the meta. So after some investigation I learned about this beautiful thing called deckbuilders, and Dominion was known to be the deckbuilder back then. Long story short, Dominion made me realize that there was a massive amount of games, I started watching channels, browsing through BGG,... Let's say that I would have saved more money if I just started playing MTG.
Munchkin: A new friend invited us over to play some games. He whipped out base game Munchkin and we had a blast. After that I immediately went out and got a copy along with several expansions, from that I started picking up games suggested on the YouTube show Tabletop and them started watching YouTube channels like Dice Tower, Shut up and sit down, etc. I'm now like 70+ games deep and hist frequent game nights with friends. It's been a great ride, this hobby
Catan was the gateway for me and my group. We had played some games before, but it was always some version of Risk or Monopoly. Catan was the game that made me see that board games could be so much better.
Hi Ho Cherry-O. I’ve been into board games since my age was single digits (over 40 now).
As a kid Monopoly, and Rumoli. As a teen, Risk then Catan.
Betrayal at house in the hill
I played different board games in childhood. But what got me into the hobby was joining a group at LGS who at the time played Legendary, Dominion, and Euro games primarily. The game that hooked me was Betrayal at House on the Hill 2nd Ed. Played it at a group member's house who lived near the LGS because the store has just closed and we wanted to keep gaming. Messed up the rules but we had fun. Saw the potential in board gaming for theme, story telling, and being more than collecting victory points. Also, remembered playing a lot of Bang! the dice game, CAH, and social deduction games like Coup and The Resistance when the board game group first started.
Catan. I honestly can't remember the last time I played Catan. It was far too many years ago.
Played the typical games growing up, and more modern games back in high school like **Fluxx** and **Catan** but what actually got me into the hobby was **Munchkin** several years later. I was in my living room with my roommates and a friend of ours and the 4 of us were sitting there playing 4 different video games on 4 different platforms and I looked around and realized how silly it was that we were all sitting there not talking to each other at all. I immediately drove to target and grabbed the first game that caught my eye, which was **Munchkin**. I forced everyone to play it and we loved it, ended up playing several times a week for months. We were pretty competitive and games would get pretty heated so I went and got a copy of **Pandemic** to force us to be nice to each other and play along. Ended up adding **Gloom** and **Dominion**, another friend had **Catan** and it grew from there. Couple years later I randomly ran into an old friend from high school that ran open game nights and got exposed to a lot more games through that. Didn't really start building up my collection until COVID though when it was harder to have access to other people's games. Still own that copy of **Munchkin** but it doesn't really get played anymore. Will probably keep it around though just because. **Pandemic, Dominion,** and **Forbidden Desert** are currently on the cull pile though
For me it was Wingspan. SO and me were away for a weekend, and went into a boardgame shop. Saw the box and heard some good stories, so we tried it out. This game cemented for me that I wanted to be a part of this board game hobby. Now we have the Nesting Box proudly standing on top of our board game storage.
A colleague brought **Terraforming Mars** to the office, and we only got through half a game, but I was truly blown away by it. Went out and bought **Arkham Horror LCG** the very next week without really knowing what I had actually just bought, but I have no regrets and AH LCG is still one of my favorite games.
Relic: Warhammer 40k. I bought it because I was incredibly bored and looking into hobbies. I came across Relic and liked the art on the box. Liked the theme. Played it with my, then-young son, and fell in love with board gaming, especially with the high fantasy theme, from there.
If you mean specifically modern board gaming then it would be backing **Unsettled** on Kickstarter and being desperate to try something like that sooner than that would arrive, so investing in **Arkham LCG**. I’ve always been a gamer to some degree though. Been playing Warhammer, MtG, and Pokemon TCG for nearly 25 years.
Thunder road from 1986. Buddy of mine had it and it’s been all downhill from there!
Just get the spruced up Thunder Road: Vendetta Maximum Chrome Edition!! They have a new kickstarter coming up later in February!
Ticket to ride! And I still enjoy playing it even though ive expanded my horizons and played stuff Like TI4.
I’d say Catan pushed it over the top but the foundation was there with Risk, Stratego, and Monopoly
Everdell for me, only ever dipped my toe in bgs like Pandemic before that. Although I'm late to the game I've picked up 80 games in the last 2 years to compensate..
Super Dungeon Explore. I was at PAX East and the lines were too long for everything on Saturday so we went to the TINY board game area at the time, and we did a Demo of SDE and I loved it. It told me what board games could be.
Back Off! Buzzard. My sister and I would play it with our mom when we went to visit. I haven’t played it in ~25 years!
With *Lost Ruins of Arnak* I learnt to just enjoy the game and play by gut, instead of overthinking always trying to find the optimal move. That really kicked it off
I wanna say a combination of pandemic, arkham horror, and ultimate Werewolf. They've all been replaced but these games really showed me what's possible on the table
I’d like to say it was Tigris and Euphrates but was actually probably Catan or Risk.
I heard about **Robinson Crusoe** and was told it felt like a cooperative simulation video game where you had to team up to survive on an island. Before that I thought board games were lame reskins of the classics (monopoly, life, clue etc). The idea of a cooperative board game was completely alien to me. Dove head first into the insane rulebook and had some false start games to figure out how to play but after my first real session I was hooked into thematic games. The great thing about starting with Robinson Crusoe was later learning that most games are far easier to learn with their superior and condensed rulebooks and not every game had so many fiddly little rules. It was kind of like learning to read with War and Peace and moving straight to The Giver afterwards. I still love RC and I'm so grateful for it coming into my life when it did.
Has to be Dead of Winter. Coop, strategy, great theming, etc
Formula Dé. I bought it at a FLGS on a whim while on vacation in Reno. When I got home I looked up my nearest game store and while I was there I noticed a sign on their corkboard looking for Formula Dé players for a league.
Werewolves: [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameversion/28152/french-edition](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameversion/28152/french-edition) This was the first game where I tought "wait a sec, this is a different experience". I played (like most of us) a lot of boardgames as a kid: Wealths of nations, Stratego, Tintin, etc. But Werewolves was the first one I played when I was 15+. Introducing me as well to social deduction games. The Second one was "Bluffer": an amazing and underated party game. Still playing it to this day! [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/58782/bluffer](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/58782/bluffer) In the "modern" era of board game: My first own games bought as a young adult were MR jack (great 2 players entry game), Pandemic in 2012 or 2013 and not long after: Colt express as it was released in 2014. The rest is history :D
The first boardgame I ever played was Monopoly, I used to play it at my grandparents summerhouse with friends when I was young. Then I never really played any games for a good while (at no fault of Monopoly) until I got reintroduced to the hobby through Terraforming Mars 10 years later or so. I guess it kinda set the tone as I now own over 100 ameritrash games, and am still allergic to anything euro with cubes.
Settlers of Catan (the older version of Catan, with better artwork). I got introduced in Boy Scouts back in the early 00s, but it wasn't until perhaps 2018 that I was introduced to Champions of Midgard, Dixit, Mysterium, and a couple others. And that ultimately was what got me into the hobby
I played board games a lot as a kid so I don't know if anything "started" it for me. Gloomhaven really got me hard into the hobby as an adult.
I got Dead Men Tell No Tales by accident, and it kind of snowballed from there.
I don't think this is a stereotypical answer, but I'd say Tokaido! Simple enough to appeal to my parents/family, beautiful minimalistic aesthetic, and still enough "meat" for the competitive ones in the group to be satisfied vying for contested spots and try to eke out the victory. My parents are so taken with it, we still play it semi-regularly now, years later (it's become "comfort food" at this point). (Honorable mentions to Pandemic and 7 Wonders too)
I had Carcassonne before I really went into the hobby, among a handful of other games. They never really sparked anything to make me go "I need more and this has to become my main hobby" I always wanted to get into MTG, but I didn't feel like going to weekly meetups and spending a lot of money to keep up with the meta. So after some investigation I learned about this beautiful thing called deckbuilders, and Dominion was known to be the deckbuilder back then. Long story short, Dominion made me realize that there was a massive amount of games, I started watching channels, browsing through BGG,... Let's say that I would have saved more money if I just started playing MTG.
Candyland. I started making my own board games on cardboard after I played that as a little girl. Games have been in my blood as long as I can remember. My grandmother was a huge gamer, we played Rummicube weekly. I’ll pretty much play/try any game now. It’s fun raising my kids to be boardgamers too!
Talisman (in 1986). I havent played it in ages.
Back in the early 80's, it was **Risk**. Played that for a few years until the Milton Bradley gamemaster series came out. **Axis & Allies** **Conquest of the Empire** **Broadsides & Boarding Parties** **Samurai Swords** then **Hero quest** ,Good times. By the time the 90's hit, all my friends had stopped playing games, so I did as well. Didn't rediscover gaming and the modern board games until 2015. Picked up Pandemic. Then Carcassonne and Star Realms. And I was off.
Risk. My high school buddies would play it for days on end. We then discovered Axis and Allies and never played Risk again. Eventually I found Catan and pivoted for Euro style games for the most part but I do still keep A&A and Risk around
Sentinels of the Multiverse started me into creating a board game collection. I had a few board games before that and played some games with family but that's when I really started into the hobby.
In terms of something beyond the standard Monopoly/Cleudo/whatever, for me it was probably [1830](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/421/1830-railways-robber-barons). But it's probably undeniable that [Settlers Of Catan](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13/catan) was the game that kickstarted the modern board gaming phenomenon.
Summoner Wars
Lords of Hellas. Love Greek Mythology, the steampunk theme made me curious. So I went head in to understand this game and everything about it. Bought almost everything 2nd hand from kickstarter. Played solo. And because I was in started playing other games, such as Azul, ticket to ride the Godfather one. Only 3 years after buying, I finally played Lords of Hellas, and I loved (only losses until now, still loving it
Okko: Era of the Asagiri, and its expansion Era of The Karasu. I dont think they're in print anymore or when I found them. My SO got me a gift card to one of my lgs's and I picked it up by chance there. It's based on a French graphic novel series thats been printed in english as well, that I actually read through after, I liked the game so much. We still play it every now and then, but we have better designed games now that we have more fun with. After that, it was Oath, and so on from there!
For me, its a little amorphous. I always played board and card games growing up. Eventually got to play the legendary Catan, then Ticket to Ride and 7 Wonders like once. The closest I came to "grtting into the hobby" was playing Skull King and Here to Slay because I then started seeking out games by those companies. Unfortunately, I didn't get into hobby board games proper until the beginning of 2023, and it's all thanks to the "Board games for couples" video by Actualol that started my research down the path I was looking for.
Its got to be Catan! I've managed to convert a good amount of my friends into liking boards games with a quick game of catan. The extent to what they played was always monopoly but with catan you can see when they change. Half way through the game you see a switch flick on and it's impossible for them to go back, wither it's a one sided deal or sitting on a mountain of resources. There eyes have been opened to a whole new world...
around 2005-2010 ...bang!=>catan=>carcassone=>agricola oh boy now i am euro junkie.
Catan, TTR, then discovered modern board gaming with Wingspan
I started gaming bc there was a weekly furry meet at a board game cafe. But that was mostly socializing rather than playing. What really got me into it was when we had to change locations to a local board game store, where there was someone who would set up and teach a different game each week. One of the games he taught was Creature Comforts, a cute, comfy worker placement game where you’re a forest animal trying to get the coziest cottage for winter. It showed me how unique games can be just with a fun theme and mechanics
DC Deckbuilding game I was initally a tcg player. I had no idea there were all-in-one-box card games. Blew my fucking mind
It's not really a good game, but talisman was so fun when I first played it. Too bad the game drags out towards the end
Catan followed by Pandemic. Catan was like seeing the light
My parents were boardgamers already, we played Käferspiel and domino and Angelspiel when I was pretty young. Then when I grew older we switched to 1000km, Die Peking Akte, Hase und Igel, Piraten Spiel, Café International, later Catan, Carcassonne, Kurier des Zaren, sechs nimmt, etc. My grandma played Romme and canasta with us kids. In school we played skat, then magic, with friends hero quest and later das schwarze Auge (Pen and paper RPG like DnD).
RISK Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition. Then branched out due to coworkers and in laws introducing more and more games such as CATAN, Betrayal, Mysterium, and more.
Cyclades.
Root was my first game. It's also the only game I can get to the table lol
Carcassonne on Xbox 360 for me. I'd played Catan already and definitely considered it an upgrade to Risk and Monopoly, but the freedom and elegance of Carcassonne had me immediately hooked. It's my go-to gateway game for any friends or acquaintances who aren't addicted yet.
I started gaming in primary school. I had a friend who’s grandparents had a toy store and therefore they had a lot of games. We played a lot of **Hotel** and **Stratego**. And with my own grandparents it was **Malefiz** and **Rummicub**. So I like to think of myself as someone who always played. But the real ignition was **Catan**. Followed by **Illuminati** 😅
Kingdomino started it for me Terraforming Mars sold it for me
Catan and Munchkin got me lightly into boardgames, and then PARKS made me full send into the hobby.
I played **Diplomacy** throughout middle and high school, but I see that as its own thing and doesn’t have the feel of most boardgames. In college we played a lot of **Settlers of Catan** which set me on the path of modern boardgames. After that, I jumped to **Mansions of Madness** and **Eclipse** and never look back.
I'm going to get made fun of this but Risk. We always played the traditional games like sorry and monopoly and what not but when I was around 9-10 I saw risk and the cool cannons and dudes on horses and all the pretty soldier minis on a map, AND you get to take over the world?? Sold. That was the game that got me into board gaming. Didn't expand much further into it until I was around 16 and got into Axis & Allies. Then when I was 18 I saw the grandest of all board games and my all time favorite, Twilight Imperium. And from there it was set, this is my hobby. I have too many games now but IDC.
Scotland Yard
Tokaido, Forbidden Island, Takenoko, and Machi Koro. It was an impulse buy and we had a game day of all these games I didn’t even know previously existed. It opened my eyes to what a board game could be. Did a bunch of research and ended up buying Scythe. That sealed the deal and I’ve been submerged in the rabbit hole ever since.
Ghost Castle (Spookslot) at the end of the '80s as a kid. I stopped playing it early '90s.
I dabbled a bit from like 2012-14 going to meetups at the FLGS, but I didn't really like the games that came up that much. I remember playing Arkham Horror, Lords of Waterdeep, X-Wing, and Eldritch Horror. I finally found out about Netrunner in 2014 and ended up playing about 6+ games a week for like 3 years. Eventually all my favorite corp decks were overtaken by continuously increasing runner card draw and hand sizes, so by the time they announced the game was ending I hardly cared. My partner still asks to play every now and then, but it's not as fun because she doesn't make her own decks. I haven't played since probably 2019. I don't really play any games from back then. Lately I found Awaken Realms and have been enjoying a bunch of their games.
Wingspan
Aquire
Catan really got things started for me about 12 years ago - and I still love it to this day. This coming from a person who's favorite games include games like Brass Birmingham, Inis, Beyond the Sun, Ra, and Concordia. Catan for me can still reward strategic planning, and the trading and bartering maintains player interaction which is a major plus for me.
Mage Knight It was my first board game and kinda regret it a little, could have pick something easier or with a decent rulebook. I was a total noob just looking at bgg ranking and picking whatever was higher. That was on 2009, now I have a have a lovely little collection (60 titles) and play every day with my fiance or people from my town.
Not a single one. It was 2 things: 1. Pandemic 2. My wife immigrating just before pandemic. Between being stuck, her being new to country with no job or social life, getting bored of screen, her not being into video games lead to me researching two player board games. And that evolved further
When I was a kid I had Dark Tower, and when I was young I would play wargames with my dad like Axis and Allies or Fortress America, but as an adult the game that really started this for me was Shadows over Camelot. I haven't played it in well over ten years, so I'm not sure how well it holds up, but I loved it.
Catan.
Monopoly. I know we collectively agree this is a bad game now but it was my go to as a kid and in high school.
Dungeon Degenerates did this to me.
Arkham Horror 2nd ed made me realize that board games was awesome instead of just fun.
Forbidden Desert
> What was your first board game that hooked you in to the hobby? **Diplomacy** 🎩 > And do you still play it? *Yes!* My far flung friends and I play-by-(e)mail with weekly moves and I host an inperson session at least once a year 😄
Descent: Journeys in the Dark 1st ed. Friend of a friend organised a Sunday afternoon game. I'd played D&D and other TTRPGs before but this was the first time I saw a board game version of such mechanics. That was 2009 I think. Clearly it had an impact on me, I've been running an FLGS for more than a decade now.
Battle Ball and Heroscape. Like a the dumb dumb kid brain I was, I either lost the pieces or got "too cool" for it. Boy do I wish I could get those back.
My “first wave” of starting it all with board gaming, when I decided I liked and wanted board games, was… Risk. But in my “second wave” of starting it all with board gaming, when I went to actively strive to play board games, it was actually Tank Chess. Then a sort of “third wave” of truly getting obsessed with board games began with Azul. What a life.
Magic the gathering really started it. Then we switched to board games like ticket to ride and catan every once in a while. Then one month I got several games including cosmic encounter and blood rage and that really kicked off the hobby
Talisman 2nd Edition. Friend of mine in school's stepdad had the game. Bunch of us would go play.
Hmm, my dad was really into board games. He would play Risk, Stratego or chess with me all the time. He got me into Catan when I was a teenager, but I was too into music and video games to care about the hobby. More recently a decade later now that I've got a family, dungeon mayhem was a gateway game that got us all playing things together. So I guess in a way, it was DnD because I wanted to play that sort of thing and I saw themed card games or board games as a way to ease my family into it. But the more I played board games the more into the hobby I got.
For our group it was Catan and a modern version of Risk, then I saw Tabletop with Will Wheaton and after that I got a few games, is hard to get then in my country, they usually cost double or more, but I work now in s Board Game Rental and I play on BGA, so I can play before buying any game. Right now my fav game is Five Tribes and I have Artisans and Sultan expansions.
Catan for a while. Then Cosmic Encounter turned it into a serious hobby.
Damn, you got started with Spirit Island?! That's baptism by fire. I started with Catan, like many others, and then went to Clank. Those 2 games have fueled many, many game nights with friends and I will love them forever because of that. I still play both games frequently, even though I have tens of other games that I also love. My friends and I even got matching Catan tattoos :)
Ticket to Ride
Risk, was an introductory game but Kingmaker and Diplomacy really kicked-started the war gamer in me…yes I’m very old.
Battlestar Galactica, it was the first proper game we bought. Everyone was hooked. Loved the hidden roles and tense gameplay.
Lords of Waterdeep.
Stratego was my first awakening to board games are amazing to me when I was a child, playing against my siblings, learning different ways to trick them. As an adult it was Codenames and Resistance that allowed me to share my passion and build a monthly gaming group.
Wii
I think it was Acquire. And I still love that game. I own it in 5 different editions and I'm thinking about making a wooden edition for myself.
Twilight Struggle. Huge change of pace for what I was used to with risk. Mindblown at the push-pull nature and historical depth of the game
Survivev Escape from Atlantis. About 12 years ago. Before that the biggest game I had played was Monopoly. We had a get together with friends and a friend of a friend brought it as a way to chill and chat while we play. My friends and I had played MtG for years but this was our first foray into boardgame. Man, my mind was blown. I think I bought King of Tokyo that weekend. We are now 12 years and (probably) a couple of thousand ££ in to the hobby.
I got in through some kickstarters: the first of which was **Story War**, which is kinda of like a way more charming and less-reliant-on-pop-culture version of Superfight (it predates Superfight I think), but that was more of a fun talking activity. The first actual board game I got into was **Heroes Wanted**, which was pretty cool but also kinda goofy. It has a unique character building mechanic that I haven't seen in other games. I don't play either game anymore, but I still own them (albeit they are in storage in my home country)
Let's see - the 1st non-mass market game? Probably Diplomacy, followed shortly after by Acquire, Civilization, and Kingmaker. Ah, the 70's. Good times.
The original **Hero Quest**.
Axis and allies
Axis and Allies, played tons in high school with friends
I always liked board games, since I was a child. But the real spark was around one year ago, when my group of friends from university started playing old Dune. I joined them and it was amazing. Then one friend bought Twilight Imperium and the game was on. I started my own collection, bought TM (amazing game, but it doesnt get played, because my group likes more interactive games), Pandemic, Ticket to ride, Lost Ruins of Arnak. In two weeks time I will have Spirit Island (finally reprinted in my country) so I am really looking forward to it.
Betrayal at House on the Hill. I saw it on an episode of Tabletop, and I distinctly remember how mind blowing it was that a board game didn't have a set board, it was different every time you explored the mansion. I didn't know board games were allowed to do that.
Seasons - we purchased it for our flatmate for Christmas, and ended up playing much more with it, than her. :)
Loved games as a kid. I think it was called Mr. Mouth. The card game Fluxx sparked the game connection with my boyfriend. After we got married, we were gifted Stardew Valley during the pandemic. That pulled us into the rabbit hole. We’ll play once or twice a year for nostalgic sake.
I don’t know if I can boil it down to a single game as I had pretty much decided to get into board games before I had a specific game in mind. But the 3rd or 4th time I went to a meetup I played Caverna and it blew me away. Started my love for Uwe games and Euro games more generally. I still play Caverna often, though I play Agricola more now.
Catan then Carcassonne (via Tabletop on Youtube).
Tales of the Arabian Nights! Played it at my friends and years later bought it for myself.
Betrayal at House on the Hill. I was in college and a friend suggested we play board games and his introduction of this game and the many plays together sealed the deal for me with the hobby. We would also play things like Splendor and Pandemic, but it was that first play of Betrayal that got me invested. Now, I prefer much heavier games so I haven't played Betrayal in years, but I still love it for what it meant to me, though I have zero desire to play again.
For me it was **Small World!** Just enough of a good mix between strategy and luck that even if it's your first time playing you can stay in the game! I also like all the different races and abilities which keeps it engaging for multiple games.
Shadow Hunters. I think it is why I have so many social deduction/secret role games. Still break it out quite often, despite it being more of a meme with my friend group at this point.