Humans have been telling stories as long as we can remember. From aboriginal cave drawings to folklore to dime-store novels, we’ve always found a way to weave narrative through our existence. Something about us craves the shared experience of a story. There’s something magical about walking out of a movie or finishing a book and knowing that someone gets you, that someone shares some part of your dreams or fears or imagination.
Storytelling games unite us in special ways. Long after the last roll of dice or card flip, we frequently share the narrative we create around the game table. Whether it’s an epic triumph at a pivotal moment or a poignant tribute to a fallen comrade, friendships are often formed during narrative adventures, and we recount these tales as part of our collective journey.
Until recently, there has been a divide between pure tabletop games and what we consider role-playing games. Even in the early days of the board game renaissance, most games had little theme and no story, just a set of rules and some components to complete the task as defined by those rules. Fun? Yes, absolutely! Story-rich? Sadly no. And role-playing games remained largely inaccessible to folks who couldn’t make the time commitment involved in character creation, world-building, and multiple-hour-long sessions.
Fortunately, in the last ten years, the industry has seen a boom in narrative games that bridge the divide between board games and role-playing games. Now, folks looking for a little bit more story for game night can find something to fit their evening, and those who need their RPG fix in a shorter format can scratch that itch as well. My faves (in no particular order):
Top 10 Story Telling Games
1. Forgotten Waters
Pirates, plunder, and adventures on the high seas. Beautifully narrated by a cast that includes ProZD, each session of Forgotten Waters is full of choices, consequences, and epic story building. Scenarios lead you through 30 beautifully illustrated locations in the storybook, where you’ll scramble to follow your chosen path while keeping the ship and stores ship-shape. Players also have their own personal stories to complete, which can lead to glory, infamy, or the end of the hangman’s rope. Be a noble buccaneer, be a bumbling rum-lover, or a greedy treasurer chaser – the choice is yours!
3-7 Players • Ages 12+ • 120+ minutes • $54
2. The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth
Dark forces roam Middle-Earth, and your party may be the only thing to protect the goodness that still resides in the world. Journeys in Middle-earth invites players to quest as one of many characters from the books while hunting orcs and pushing back the encroaching darkness in the land. This is a legacy-style game in which you’ll be able to build a deck of useful talents, weapons, and armor, while each adventure builds on the next. Character decisions can affect the later game, so every choice feels important. Map tiles make the board for each game unique, and there are miniatures galore for battles.
1-5 Players • Ages 10+ • 60-120 minutes • $95
3. The Dark Quarter
In New Orleans, the nightlife is not just filled with party-goers and jazz. Paranormal creatures and their hunters stalk the streets. In The Dark Quarter, you’ll take on the roles of detectives in the Beaumont Agency, a noir-inspired group of morally grey characters who are charged with solving cases that no one else can. Players solved mysteries by journeying through the seamy underbelly of 1980s New Orleans, as well as completing their own personal stories. Throughout each adventure, your skills will grow, as will your enemies. Even the most mundane crimes have a touch of the supernatural, and the personal quests are deep and as well as adding to the overall story. *The Dark Quarter features extreme violence and lots of adult language.
1-4 Players • Ages 18+ • 120+ minutes • $59
4. Artisans of Splendent Vale
Designed by always-crafty Nikki Valens, Artisans of Splendent Vale is a verdant realm in which many cultures settled to gather resources and craft. Scenarios become a sort of choose-your-own-adventure, with each Artisan having an entire book full of prompts, replies, questions, and choices to enhance the story. But don’t let the setting fool you! Gameplay is rich and unique, and conflicts can be brutal. In-game experience offers you opportunities to grow your character, and exploration is key to growth. As a bonus, the game and components are beautiful and add to the immersion.
2-4 Players • Ages 10+ • 45+ minutes • $110
5. Fiasco
Fiasco is probably more RPG than board game, but it’s easy to learn, easy to set up, and plays quickly, which lends itself to a board game night. Fiasco games feature a theme (like capers in the Australian Outback or hijinks in small-town America). There are numerous free scenarios to download online, or you can purchase a bespoke playset. The aim is disaster! Fiasco revolves around three acts playing out as a caper-gone-wrong. Rolls determine which directions lead to catastrophe, and players improvise the ways everything falls apart. If you like Dark comedy, add Fiasco to your next game night.
2-6 Players • Ages 12+ • 15 minutes • $23
6. Aftermath
Imagine if all the humans were gone. Now imagine that’s less of a big deal, because you’re a mouse (or hamster, guinea pig, or vole). In Aftermath, you’re one of the providers, a team of small critters charged with exploring and bringing back supplies to help your colony thrive. While the two-legged folk are gone, feral cats and roving gangs of lizards make each scenario danger-wrought. At the end of each mission, you can improve your base, getting bonuses for future gameplay. Each location is a special challenge for our tiny adventurers!
1-4 Players • Ages 10+ • 60-120 minutes • $59
7. The King’s Dilemma
Lead your great house to triumph… or ruin. The monarch’s councilors weigh in on every big decision in the kingdom, but not always in favor of the realm. Players become the head of a great house and attempt to sway decisions in their favor. Numerous threads weave tales of intrigue, deceit, revenge, greed, and ultimate power struggles that set house against house. Players must bargain to curry favor with and sway the decisions of other houses in their favor. Multiple storylines are decided over the course of this legacy game, and a choice made today may affect you years in the future when you least expect it. You’ll need to keep all your wits about you, or watch your legacy be destroyed. *The King’s Dilemma features some adult themes.
3-5 Players • Ages 16+ • 45-60 minutes • $80
8. Mythwind
In Mythwind Valley, you’ll establish a thriving town and meet the forest’s spritely inhabitants. Mythwind is a cozy game in which players set up and expand a town, setting goals, exploring the valley, and learning how to communicate with the local sprites. Players can choose to be the farmer, crafter, innkeeper, or hunter, and contribute to the town through each. In addition to big aesthetic cozycore vibes, Mythwind is easy to put away between sessions, with bespoke trays that feature covers so you can leave everything and come back to exactly where you left off.
1-4 Players • Ages 10+ • 30-60 minutes • $90
9. Robinson Crusoe
You may have survived the shipwreck, but will you survive the island? Players take the roles of one of the ship’s crew, cast on the shores of a remote island, now struggling to survive and explore this seemingly deserted land. Multiple scenarios will offer different challenges, and your party will get to decide who your camp evolves, as well as which direction their story will unfold. Treasure may await in a shallow hole, but death lurks around many corners as well. There are also numerous fan-made scenarios to explore!
1-4 Players • Ages 12+ • 60-120 minutes • $45
10. Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall
By day, you help run your family’s Chinese restaurant in one of the many Chinatowns of 1920s America. By night, you battle Jiangshi, hopping vampires that threaten to overrun your community. Gameplay is a balance of managing a successful restaurant and defeating Jiangshi at night. Unfinished tasks will mean consequences, and your pool of dice will decrease as the stress of your dual life starts to catch up with you. As well as being incredibly designed, a lot of thought was put into the box contents as well, which resemble paper mats and menus.
2-5 Players • Ages 13+ • 30+ minutes • $60
Honorable Mention: Murder We Wrote
Honorable Mention to Murder We Wrote, a fast-paced card game that compels you to create a mystery. Each player takes a turn as the host of a true crime podcast to reveal the how and whodunit. Gameplay is easy to teach, and the real fun begins when your group starts to create even more outlandish stories of murder and mayhem. Hundreds of potential card combinations make this replayable at all your parties, and the relatively short playtime and small size make it a great warm-up game while you’re waiting for others to arrive.
3-8 Players • Ages 14+ • 30-90 minutes • $20
