Awesome Board Games

“Jumanji is a series of jungle emergencies! And we, sir, are not prepared for that!” Kristen Wiig returned to host Saturday Night Live for the fifth time this past weekend. One of the episode’s skits sees Wiig refuse to play board games because of what happened in the movie Jumanji. And yeah, Beverly, we’re talking about the true Jumanji. Jumanji Jumanji.

Here’s an unconventional way to generate random numbers for board games. This unique gaming accessory packs a complete polyhedral dice set onto a zinc alloy wand. Instead of rolling these dice, you spin them, and the number is indicated by a blue pointer. In addition to the six dice on the wand, its spinning base functions as a D20.

Forgecore’s playful take on Battleship replaces ships with picnic foods and torpedoes with ants. The 3D-printed prototype has tiny sandwiches, hot dogs, watermelon, and other eats, hundreds of ants, a tablecloth playfield, and a faux wicker picnic basket for its pieces. Sign up here if you’re interested in buying one. Hopefully, Hasbro won’t stand in the way.

Yarro Studios’ mechanical dice spinner is a modern spin on a vintage gadget. Push its button, and its flywheels go spinning. Let go, and two random numbers appear in its windows. The Dice-o-Matic is made from aluminum and comes in D20/D20, D10/D10, D12/D8, D6/D4, and D6/D6 with pips. There’s also a Zoltar Dice-o-Matic decision-maker.

Wyatt & Ashley’s GAMMN portable backgammon set packs the popular board game into a rugged case ready for all your adventures. Made from durable polystyrene, the slimline briefcase packs cork gaming surfaces and molded cutouts for storing checkers and dice. It’s small enough to fit in your backpack and has its own carrying strap.

Love colors and design? Hues and Cues is a great party game that challenges you to pinpoint a specific color based on one- or two-word clues from other players. The closer you get to guessing the exact color from the 480-hue grid, the more points you earn. It’s a fun, family-friendly game for 3 to 10 players.

This party game from Very Special Games asks players to come up with creative and witty text to fill in the center of a Venn diagram. Each player gets a board and draws two word cards. Everyone else competes to fill in the funniest intersecting answers to win points. Best for ages 15+ and 3 to 6 players.

Charles River Woodwork creates delightful handcrafted home decor. This 25″ x 25″ table has a built-in Scrabble board. Its recessed board has cutouts to hold tiles in place and is surrounded by letter racks for four players. A removable glass top lets you pause and resume games. We also dig their backgammon, chess, and puzzle tables.

Make the best of van living downtime (with or without an actual van) with this board game that fits in the glovebox. Van Life by Ridley Games steers 2 to 5 players around the board to punny places like Silly Cone Valley, Wood Sock, and Vanhaven on fictional Vantopia island.

This unique chess set has LED lighting inside each of its pieces. Its acrylic board uses induction to send electricity wirelessly to the pieces so they glow only when placed on the board. The board has a built-in storage drawer for pieces, and there’s an optional acrylic cover that doubles as a stand.

Uncommon Goods sells this fun and fanciful chess set for opposing fans of felines and canines. The set comes with a folding game board that doubles as a storage box and a full set of handpainted cats and dogs wearing playful hats to represent their roles in the game.

Upgrade your tabletop gaming with this digital display board from Crafty Kobolds. It features a 43″ Samsung 4K display wrapped in a handmade wooden frame and protected by clear plexiglass. Load it up with digital maps and animations, which can be easily found online. Choose from black walnut, oak, or cherry wood.

Maker W&M Levsha already created the tiniest barbecue we’ve seen. Now, he’s taken his miniaturization skills to the next level by building a tiny chess set that fits within a watch face. He had a bit of help from a laser engraver, but there was still plenty of precision craftsmanship required to pull off the feat.

We love watching videos of old things being made as good as new. In this clip, Old Things Never Die got their hands on a vintage mechanical soccer game, disassembled it, sandblasted off the paint and rust, fabricated custom replacement parts, and painstakingly repainted its playfield and players.

This roll-up electronic chess board connects with a mobile app so you can play with people around the globe and track their moves. It also helps you build your chess skills against the app’s AI. It has embedded LEDs with magnetic sensors to detect the positions of pieces and comes with 34 weighted chess pieces.

These unique nested dice offer more possible outcomes to your tabletop gaming sessions. Each has an inner die with a see-through outer shell that can be used to add, subtract, or as another game modifier. Available as a set of six D6 or seven polyhedral inner dice.

This portable chess set has an innovative design that rolls up into a 3″ x 6″ hexagonal tube for travel. Its pieces hold in place securely with powerful magnets so you can pause and resume games, and the roll holds closed magnetically so pieces can’t fall out.

Wood Season shows us how they created a chess board that looks like its playing surface is floating on water. The trick was encasing oak wood blocks in a thick bath of clear resin, then backlighting them with LEDs. A pearlescent resin backing and floating pine cones add to the effect. The set is available for sale on Etsy.

From the Empire State Building to the Flatiron to the Freedom Tower, the New York City skyline is iconic and imposing. Celebrate your love for the Big Apple’s architecture with Ian Flood and Chris Prosser’s skyline chess set, which includes 32 buildings, made from heavyweight acrylic, along with a folding game board.

Creative Workz takes us inside a factory where workers make beautiful chess sets by cutting, milling, and polishing marble. Each piece – from the squares on the boards to the individual game pieces – is made by hand. We’re guessing OSHA wouldn’t approve of the lack of respiratory and eye protection, though.

This custom-made chess set from 3DCubedPrinting comes with pieces that look like ammunition. Its 3D-printed plastic pieces are based on different calibers of ammo, from .45 ACP pawns to a .50 BMG king. The set includes a storage box and all 32 chess pieces. An optional camouflage vinyl chess board is also available.

Run away! Monty Python teamed up with game maker Exalted Funeral to create a tabletop role-playing game inspired by the British comedy troupe’s classic films, stage shows, and TV series. According to its makers “Its chief weapon is surprise. Surprise and being disguised as a tabletop role-playing game.”

This mini chess set from Arcane Science Academy has tiny laser-cut chess pieces that stick into holes on a wooden board. The board folds up and has interior cutouts for holding and organizing its pieces. Magnets and steel hex nuts hold the set together for travel.