Ten Games to Start Your Game Collection (And Twenty More)

Randolph Pub Ludique's games library. That's a lot of games. 

One of the most common topics I see in board gaming communities like DFW Nerd Night, The Boardgame Group, and /r/boardgames is about folks who are new to the hobby and want to expand their board game collection, but aren't sure what to buy. We're in a "golden age" of tabletop gaming, and with 1,500 new games being released each year, there are plenty to choose from and plenty of ways to evaluate them.

I've crowdsourced this list by polling the members of DFW Nerd Night, and used that list, plus some of my own discretion, to put together "Ten Games to Start Your Game Collection". It's important to note that these aren't the ONLY ten games I think our new friend should purchase, just the first ten that should give her plenty to play for the foreseeable future.

Cosmic Encounter, by Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge, Bill Norton, and Peter Olotka

Play It Again, Sam

In this golden age of gaming we're enjoying, new releases hit our local game stores like a heavy rain pounding on so many windshields. With each blockbuster, those classics we grew up with are pushed back farther into the recesses of our shelves, left to gather dust and retain fond memories as we buy new Star Wars minis and wield our new-found authority as Sheriffs.

I've been told that Cosmic Encounter is "a game that should have meant even more than it did." I'm not sure exactly how to interpret that, but I assume it means that if CE were released today, in our surge of attention for games, that it would be an instant classic.

But wait... it's already an instant classic! From all the way back in 1977, Cosmic Encounter continues to be a fantastic game. Read on, intrepid gamer!