Board Games for Book Lovers

and this mik freaking yeah pull my Shir like why don't you clip it like I have cuz your shirt's done oh good call yeah there Jeff now nobody can see your chest fluffed love to see it except for me [Music] fluffy hello everyone welcome back to Foster the meat Channel all about board games board games about books exactly today we are talking about board games for Book Lovers I don't know if anybody knew this I know some of you did but before Jeff and I started here in the world of board games we had a YouTube channel about books okay it was called ardd Burks and another thing now's going to go well I changed the name okay so people can't find it as easily wahah because we had perfect intent of using the other channel for other things hasn't happened yet maybe someday probably not maybe someday though you never know also in our Discord which if you're not in you probably should be we just started a book club now the book club is bumping there's like over 40 people in it and we are choosing a different book every month reading it together and we set the book six months so anyways I've just been thinking a lot about board gamers and books because it's just been live and popping in the Discord with book club what book are you currently reading we are currently reading Starling house it's like a Gothic haunted house love story like our whole thing is that we are going to read Romany books but there's so many people in the book club that we're just reading a bunch of stuff everything's got a little hint of love in it perfect for February actually happy almost Valentine's Day peeps actually I think we've already missed Valentine's Day happy past Valentine's Day friends okay anyways today's video is about books that we want to recommend for Book Lovers and we have quite a few categories one category is board games that are based on books one is board games that are more story based and then the other category is just for fun things that we think book people might find fun we're book people we find them fun you didn't even ask me what I was reading what are you reading you asked what the book club was reading you're not even what are you reading oh yeah Starling host what are you reading I'm reading oathsworn which is the third book oathsworn is a board game also a book I you're oathbringer oh you might be right I think I am I know your book's better than you do sua it is oathbringer I am currently reading the third book in The Stormlight Archive uhhuh series y called oathbringer yes it's one of Jeff's favorite series he's read it now this is your third time I've read the first two books three times this is my second reading of oathbringer and I haven't read rhythm of War yet which is the newest one I think he might be on five now who knows that man pumps pumps out the books so we let's just get started Jeff maybe that that's a good segue actually the first category is board games based on books and one of the games that we're going to recommend is based off of Brandon Anderson happens to be that same series and that is Call to Adventure Stormlight Archives but there's also just regular Call to Adventure and you can get the Name of the Wind expansion which is one of both of our favorite books Call to Adventure is a card-based narr narration game where you are going to be building out a story path for your character and that story path is kind of like again all card based but you're kind of like going on quests you might be fighting baddies there's a little bit of like uh rolling these runes to uh allow you to uh accomplish or fail certain things and there's kind of this light and dark track it's very story driven it's very it's very like RPGs in a board game exactly and like I mentioned they have one based off of The Stormlight Archive series one based off of Name of the Wind which is a Patrick Rus King killer Chronicles series so if you're into high fantasy you like the development of a story I think these games are really great for that yeah and they're not overly complicated rule sets um it's just playing out cards basically exactly and Stormlight Archives is a standalone if you'd like to start there yep next up we have none other than games based around Alice and Wonderland now there's a ton but there are two in particular that obviously come to mind for us the first being pain theosis which is a deduction Style game a Cooperative deduction Style game where you are in the Queen of Hearts garden and you are trying to get people to guess the symbols that you have on your card so there's symbols and then there's also colors and there's easy medium and hard so you are doing that by placing out tiles on this board that have different colors and symbols on them H which are the symbols from a card clubs spades diamonds and hearts of course uh and you were placing out your little cubes to try and give people information about what you have in your hand the game continues until you either win or the Queen of Hearts chops your head off it's just is what it which is probably going to be the oome yes this is also on boardgame Marina if you'd like to try it for free but that's Alice and Wonderland theme and then the other one of course is wonderlands war which to me is just like a fully immersive Alice and Wonderland game it has every aspect of Alice and Wonderland in it m this is a bag building com combat Style game area control combat Style game where you are in Wonderland and the board has multiple sections from Wonderland tuly Woods the pool of Tears a bunch of different spots and you are going around having a little tea party as you do in Wonderland trying to gain different chips to add into your bag or possibly to recruit wonderlandians to your side to help you fight so there's the tea party and then you go into the battle phase where any of anybody who's in any section of Wonderland is going to fight it out for control that's basically the game you are pulling out chips and that's how you fight you're like which is one of my favorite things there's so many other aspects of it but like if you are looking for a fully immersive aliceon Wonderland game this one all the boxes yep next up we have the reckoners which is another Brandon Sanderson book Je reckoners uh yeah so the reckoners board game uh is based off the similarly named reckoners series of books from Brandon Sanderson in reckoners you're going to be facing a bunch of epics and these epics uh in this world are people with supernatural abilities think superheroes uh anti-hero anti-heroes and then your job is to basically go around the city defeating the uh epics and their little minion with the end goal of eventually fighting steel Hart who's like the leader they all have some asymmetrical like little abilities that you need to overcome um but ultimately in this game you're powering yourself up you're trying to mitigate an over an overflow of minions getting on the board and that sort of thing there's some dice chucking and and and that sort of thing very very difficult but very uh thematic to the reckoners uh series of books next up on the list we're just going to throw out anything that's based on Lord of the Rings there are so many options for this you have Lord of the Rings the confrontation Lord of the Rings journeys of Middle Earth you have War of the ring I just want to throw out like I think War of the ring is probably ring is a card game yep M go ahead I just want to throw that war of the ring is probably the one that's going to satiate the feeling of an actual Lord of the Rings experience you know but considering it's a big boy takes a long time and has some rules overhead take that for what it's I would say of all of them I would probably recommend Lord of the Rings journeys of middlee Earth the most because it is kind of you're playing through a story it's Cooperative uh it's maybe a little bit more approachable than something like War of the ring and easier to find because War of the ring and Lord of the Rings a confrontation not so easy to find but Journeys in Middle Earth you are playing through Lord of the Rings and you're doing a journey through Middle Earth as a Band of Brothers basically trying to get through and defeat yeah Sauron so it's also kind of like a story based game which is nice uh next we have Dune there's so many board games based on the Dune series there's one just called straight up Dune y uh but the most popular one of course is Dune Imperium I I haven't read Dune you have yeah so Dune uh Imperium is uh similar to the uh original book I've only read the first book in the Dune series I haven't read any others uh but you are fighting for influence and power uh on araus trying to take advant of the you know the worms the spice and that sort of thing and ultimately just trying to earn victory points but within the theme of the Dune world uh it's a deck builder so a lot of the cards have the familiar characters recognize some of the card art and that sort of thing but it's all based in the Dune world yes another one is red rising from ston Meer games Red Rising is a young adult series I think it's more than a Trilogy which I've read the first book and this is a board game based off a very popular popular card game called fantasy Realms where essentially you are just trying to optimize the cards in your hand but this game adds a little bit more meat to it all of the characters all of the cards are characters from The Red Rising series which has different factions so there's the pink faction the gold faction the brown faction the white faction all is very thematic to how it is in the book because each faction plays a different role you were also trying to go up kind of like different tracks almost but not really you're like collecting different things until you reach the end game objective but if you enjoy Red Rising by Pierce Brown definitely want to check out very quickly Game of Thrones lots of board games Battle of westros Game of Thrones the board game which is the one that I would definitely recommend because it just feels like you're playing out the book yep okay it's like a War battle style game with negotiation a little bit because you're trying to like maybe I won't attack you if you won't do this very thematic y I also want to shout out Jackal versus Hyde if you're into the classics it's a trick-taking game you know more about that one yeah Jack and hod is a 1V one trick-taking game with a tug-of-war mechanic to it so or mechanism so depending on how many tricks you win uh with some uh Nuance to it which I won't get into but basically you're trying to pull you're either representing uh Dr Jackal or Mr Hyde and you're trying to pull the influence to that side of the board uh in order to win yeah and it's a bit of a unique trick taker like the Trump suit kind of changes around and stuff it's pretty cool uh and last but not least on this section I want to talk about black Sonata which isn't directly based off of a book but black Sonata is based off of like Shakespeare and the dark lady it is a solo only deduction game which is really cool you are searching the city of London in order to find the dark lady who is leaving Clues as she kind of goes along so if you're into Shakespeare this one is kind of dripping with like Shakespeare language and themes and icons and like all of that stuff so it's very very good I want to mention one more just quickly we haven't played it but it's based off a really popular series so I'm sure it's going to come up in the comments and that's the uh Pillars of the Earth uh which is a Ken fallet book uh I do think there's another board game I can't remember the book name but there's another one in the series as well I think there's two based off of Ken fallet books I just want to mention them because I know people are gonna be like mentioning them but we haven't played them there are so probably so many others also that we haven't mentioned but we want to talk about just a few well there's a lot few that we've played and played yeah uh next up category is story based book so if you're a book lover what do you love stories exactly that's why you read we love stories books books obviously so we have a few recommendations for board games that are like fully like story that that's kind of like what drives them the first one is a thur because they're all from the same publisher and that's plaid Hat games we have two from The Crossroads series and then one which is an intro kind of campaign game so there's Freelancers and forgotten Waters one is pirate themed one is fantasy RPG mercenary freelancer themed both you are playing out through a story as a character making decisions as you go along it also has an app which reads to you and has music it's silly it's fun it's approachable both of them so realistically pick which one you prefer the theme or play one and then play the other because they are both they'll give you moments where you laugh out loud and it's just builds really good memories familiar Tales is essentially like you're playing through a story that's almost like a Disney princess story where this baby princess gets rescued from like an evil Warlock by this Trope of Merry Misfits exactly so there's like a fairy and there's a fox and there's a frog and there's a go yeah Gollum and so they are carrying this child trying to get her back home throughout her life as she grows up and there's just story intertwined throughout all of it next up is Artisans of splenden veil Jeff yeah Artis splendent Veil is as story driven of a board game that I've ever played it literally comes with four books I would say the majority of this game is storytelling between the characters yes each character comes with a basically a novel that you are going to be reading to each other kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure kind of uh Cooperative experience uh there is a little bit of gameplay uh at certain situations you're going to do what's like an event battle or a boss battle which is pretty light and easygoing uh the main driver of the uh of the game is actually reading out of the book though so if you're looking for like some sort of Cooperative uh narrative story driven game that you can experience with friends uh this would be one and it's very very inclusive uh very inclusive very pretty it gives cozy Vibes big time yeah it's it's one you could just I feel like you don't even have to really be a board gamer to enjoy it it's it's very again book dri next one on the list is called Ela and something shiny or Isa and something shiny I don't know how to pronounce it everybody says it differently this is a solo only campaign game where you are playing out the story of a young bunny who is trying to find the something shiny that is on top of the mountain you are going with I'll just call her Isla you're going with Isla as she grows from baby bunny to adult bunny through her journey making decisions based on cards and events that come up it is extremely approachable so if you're new to board games this is one that's great if you're a reader most likely you probably like doing solo activities this is a solo board game so I would highly recommend it's very cute and very story-driven next I want to shut out just a couple Mansions of Madness which is also lovecraftian so if you're into books you might know about Lovecraft Destinies and any kind of game that is within that Realm Mansions of Madness is love craan it's a little bit more intense yeah say a little bit more gamey than some of the other ones exactly whereas Destinies is also like you're playing OA story making decisions and it has an app that's reading the story driven very app driven and a bit more approachable yeah approachable Nice Dice cool story MH yep and I think people can relate to that and there is another one coming out called the dark quarter which is based in like New Orleans like vampire esque so that's not o yet but it will be eventually and then uh two more on this list Robin Hood Robin Hood is a of very uh story driven game that actually I think is super approachable for book readers that maybe have never played a board game before because the game teaches you as you're kind of playing it yes uh it's very approachable it's very easy to open the box and start playing uh there's a really beautiful leatherbound rule book that comes with the game but the rule book is basically just stories and you're going to be choosing different options you're playing as Robin Hood there's I don't want to spoil anything there's new characters that will be instilled into the game depending on uh options that you pick but basically you're doing very Robin hood-esque things in Nottingham uh depending on the scenarios that you uh go through everybody knows the story of Robin Hood steal from the rich give to the poor bada bing y bada boom last on this list is an RPG G but it's an RPG well all RPGs you're playing a character oat in a story but for me I find this one a little bit more it's on Rails it's on Rails this is Alice is missing and what's really interesting about this game is you're you're playing out a story where Alice has gone missing that's not a spoiler it's literally the title of the game and everybody plays a character in Alice's life trying to figure out where did Alice go what happened to Alice but it's all played out through text mage me you don't actually talk to each other you are just writing text messages back and forth to each other maybe to the group maybe one group maybe to one person my favorite part about this game is at the very beginning everybody records a voicemail to Alice as the character that you're playing like you have a character and a motive and like personality almost and then at the very end of the game all of the voicemails gets played and it's just really cool experience and for me as someone who's you know not as good at RPGs and like acting things out to do it and text was so much more approachable so last but not least the category is just for fun you're a book lover amazing you might like these the first game is called ex librus that game is about building out a library who what book lover doesn't love a library yep I haven't met one but basically the mayor of this town is saying you need to build out the best Library you are going to be going to different locations picking up different book cards and trying to organize your library from a to zed but there's a bunch of different A's with different numbers and you have to try and get things in order and then there's also band books that you don't want in your library and then there's also favorite books that you want more of in your library it's just a very very bookie board game yes very and I love it next up I think is just fun if you like to read newspapers that's fit to print m fit to print is a uh tile placement game where you're on a timer and you're going to be be collecting a bunch of different newspaper pieces that you need to include on your personal Tableau which is ultimately a grid of space for your newspaper and you're going to be grabbing advertisements you're going to be grabbing articles you're going to be grabbing pictures Etc there's bunch of placement rules where two similar things can't be next to each other it's just chaotic kind of fun if you like tactile type feeling of games and you like the theme uh I I think it's one worth trying if you've ever wanted to work at a newspaper and feel the chaos that I feel like it would be where you're like layout print and then you have to stop and it's just really fast and really fun the next one is simolo so simolo is like kind of like a deduction Style game but there's a bunch of different sets many of which are kind of related to things you might read about like myths or fables there's Lord of the Rings there's Harry Potter there's a bunch of different ones you can mix and match you can do all of these different things but essentially there's a grid of cards laid out on a board or on the table and there is somebody who's giving you Clues who's trying to get you to guess what the thing that they have in their hand or what they saw was it by telling you what is similo similar or dissimilar on the board extremely approachable you could play it with anyone and you pick the theme that works best for you yep uh also if you are a fan of history books you like history well why not try something like Memoir 44 or undaunted Jeff do you want to give a quick BL about those there's tons of History themed board games obviously that exists others being heavier like war games and that sort of thing so depending on what you're into take that for what it is but Memoir 44 and undaunted I think are really good entry points into war-based war themed games Memoir 44 is based off the command and color system uh where it's a bunch of d chucking Randomness so it's really easy to play you play a card and then you activate the characters that are in that you know section of the board the board's broken down by three sections depending on the card you play you're going to activate and roll dice for the troops that are in that area very approachable very easy you do not need to be a board gamer in order to get that game and play it undaunted probably a little bit more complex but not quite as bad because the rule book is very very good and undaunted but is a deck builder Normandy is a World War II themed uh entry point I think that would be good for most people but very thematic to what events existed in World War II all have scenarios in the game that you can play through yes yes and very approachable so if you're into like reading about history and and stuff like that it could tons of flavor text tons of flavor text last one on this list is a game that we actually haven't played but it has been sitting on our shelves for years maybe maybe one of the longest and that's called bring your own book yep now in bring your own book this is like the perfect game for Book Lovers because you everybody is going to grab a book off of the shelf and this game is going to tell you to read the first find this page read this word and you're basically building out like this weird story to share with other people so like you can do this really fun someone grab like a medical textbook someone grab a fantasy book Someone grab a romance and like you're going to be building out this very strange story but this is a perfect game to have if you have a ton of books and you have other friends that are Book Lovers to play don't ask me why we haven't played it yet there's been so many times when we're like we should play that why don't we play it we just got to do it I have one more oh spicy tap spicy I just thought of it uhuh what do Book Lovers like doing just like board game collectors like doing buying books and doing what with them putting them on their shelves and organizing them and organizing them yes do you know what's another game where you do that my shelfie my shelfie that was on my short list talk about yeah my shelfie is a kind of similar game to connect 4 yes it's got a similar Dynamic a similar little drop tile piece that you're playing at it's very very simple very approachable for new Gamers and very satisfying to put all your little books and your cats and your your get on your shelfie on your shelf uh in order to score victory points mhm it's so good and there are a bunch of these games that you can try out for free on board game arena we have no association with board game arena I wish I just think it's a really good resource it's a really great resource so throughout the video you probably see I I'll put BGA popup so that you can see what you can try out for free yep okay uh I also want to give just an honorable mention and it's an honorable mention because I work for this company but I what I want to say is I want to suggest graphic novel adventur there happens to be one right in front of me this is literally like a a story where you're going through and solving different things but it's a game within a story book and I mention it because I had never heard of graphic novel Adventures before I started with the company and I don't think a lot of people know about them so could be a good place to start as well and it was sitting right in front of me it's really cool yeah so this one is Sherlock there's so many different themes there's like I've never actually looked through this yeah I've done this one and it's like you're trying to in the shock ones you're trying yeah it's like Choose Your Own Adventure kind of exactly and it's like find this number and then you flip back to another page and there's so many that's another one 2070 but anyways that's just a just just a show out not a Shameless plug I just thought people should know about it anyways those are some of our recommendations for books for wait board games for Book Lovers if you have more suggestions throw them in the comments below so people can explore them we'd love to hear about them because obviously we ourselves are Book Lovers indeed but that is everything that we have for you today now if you're interested in buying board games like any of the manyu we mentioned today you should first start by checking your friendly local gaming store and for us that is boardroom Game Cafe heck yeah do you like snacks amazing where do people get snacks Munch pack Munch pack Book Lovers and board gamers everybody likes to eat snacks that's true and if you like what you see subcribe we hope to see you again soon and now we say goodbye goodbye it is [Music] Yoo remember that song Jeff these are the moment waited all my could not ask for more are we even feel like that's a song you made up no it isn't come on over good sure okay I am currently reading the third book in the star I am currently reading the third book what is happening I don't know you have I know that there Battle of no that's that's not let G my Thrones man we powered through that there are so many though Jeff hey some might call us professionals we did it we did it hey proud of you look at us who would have thought not me