Awesome Board Games

Product design student Ben Meyers and his dad David teamed up to build this amazing wooden chess set which lets them play on a spherical board. Magnets under each space allow the board turned without the pieces falling off.

A truly unique chess set that uses old-school nixie tubes as its game pieces. Each tube displays a symbol on top representing its position, and they glow without wires or plugs thanks to wireless inductive power. Also available as a DIY Kit for about $300 less.

From special effects masters Weta Workshop comes Giant Killer Robots: Heavy Hitters. It’s a board game about corporate mechs salvaging abandoned cities for profit. Pick your mech and pilot and either salvage the most resources or destroy the enemy mechs.

A 23.6″ full HD Android computer designed specifically for playing board games. It works with finger touches, game pieces and cards, and can store digital versions of physical board games. A $99 reservation gets you an early bird system for $250 off the MSRP.

Be ready for a pickup game wherever you go with this portable beer pong set. It has a built in stand for shot-sized cups, two launchers, and its balls are attached by tethers so you don’t have to go hunting for them under the table. Comes with 50 dishwasher safe cups.

AberuizDesign creates 3d printed sets of chess pieces and matching wooden boards based on American cities. Choose from Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Seattle, San Diego or San Francisco. You’ll need to buy both black and white sides separately, so they’re quite spendy.

Edge3D sells a ready-to-play 3D printed chess set using pieces derived from a using a Voronoi mathematical model to create holes in the pieces without destabilizing them. Available in several colors; chess board not included.

Board Game Tables’ convertible tabletop gaming table is made of rosewood, with a 3’x 5′ neoprene padded playing surface, and pop-out drink holders. It comes with a topper so you can use it as a normal dining table without disturbing the pieces on the playing surface.

Preset Chess combines magnets with an elegant storage box to eliminate set up time. Just flip the box over and the pieces will stick to the board in their right spots. When you’re done playing, just place the pieces back in their labeled compartments.

Share all of life’s most embarrassing and humiliating moments with your friends when you play a game of Never Have I Ever. This card game asks players to collect cards for each of the questionable life decisions you’ve made. First player to 10 cards wins the game.

(PG-13: Language) Rooster Teeth parodies Apple’s ads to promote their new card game. It’s an Apples to Apples-style game based on their eponymous show. You combine cards to come up with a scenario that you would not do, even for a million bucks.

Inspired by his own holochess board from Star Wars, Academy Award winning effects wiz Phil Tippett is working with HappyGiant to create Hologrid Monster Battle, an augmented and virtual reality board game with collectible cards and battles between Tippett’s creatures.

YouTuber Make Crazydays made all of the components of the board game Settlers of Catan out of a single 96″x 2″x 4″ piece of wood. He got wood shavings from the block then ironed those flat to make the cards. Check out his guide on Instructables.

(Crude humor) A casual card game based on Cyanide & Happiness’ Random Comic Generator. Joking Hazard is a lot like Apples to Apples, except this time you’re forming a three-panel comic strip. The person who supplies the funniest third panel wins the round.

The board game equivalent of Choose Your Own Adventure books. Or Edge of Tomorrow. T.I.M.E. Stories is about time-traveling agents solving mysterious and exciting cases. If you die or run out of time, try again, armed with the knowledge from your previous run.

8man’s lab is working on an electronically enhanced version of chess called Blitzkrieg Speed Chess. Players don’t have to take turns, but each piece has a cooldown period before it can be moved again.

A social deduction card game in the vein of The Resistance and Spyfall. Secret Hitler splits players into Liberals and Fascists (including a Hitler) in 1930’s Germany. Download the printable prototype here (pdf), and the rules here (pdf).

A satirical Apples to Apples-style card game where you engage in US Presidential debates. You don’t have to know a lot about politics or facts; just string the phrases in your cards as best as you can to convince the moderator.

Risk: Game of Thrones is actually three games in one. Use Westeros, Essos or both maps to play the traditional Risk or a version with added mechanics. There’s also a two-player variant in which you vie for control of Essos.

Rocket Games’ Pie Face! is like a junior version of Russian Roulette. Place a dab of cream – or a knife, your call – on the hand and your face on the chin rest. Then spin the arrow to see how many times you’ll twist the handle and tempt fate.

Daniel Moynihan created this beautiful set for Marbles, The Brain Store’s recent chess set design contest. The pieces are designed to be inviting to touch, and give haptic clues to the ranking of each piece. Marbles plans to produce the set.

A modern take on Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Linknotize is a party game where players have to connect the Wikipedia entries of two topics in the fewest number of links. It has 450 topics distributed across six categories.

These precision-machined dice are cut from solid hunks of brass. The metal gives them great weight and substance, and will make your Monopoly set look just that much more classy. Brass wheelbarrow, shoe and top hat not included.