5 Family Board Games for Being Stuck Inside
Many family board games are designed with short attention spans in mind, and to accommodate our busy lifestyles as well. The vast majority of kids games on our shelves are over in no more than 30 minutes - if not much sooner. And that makes sense when we’re often trying to squeeze in a game with the kids after work and before bedtime.
But every once in a while you find yourself in a situation where you want a game to take up a lot of time. I’m thinking about times like summer vacation, big blizzards, or, perhaps, a pandemic that closes all of our schools and keeps us home from work.
Our local schools, like many others across the country, are currently closed for the COVID-19 pandemic. And since I’m a teacher, quite frankly, we all have a lot of time on our hands while we are social distancing together. In fact, it seems we aren’t going back to school for over a month. And there’s no doubt that that time can be put to good use.
Of course you could just play 10 different board games to pass a significant amount of time. There’s nothing wrong with that. But there’s also something special about getting obsessed with one game in particular, and, best of all, finally having the time to dedicate to it. It turns the entire experience into a real event.
There have been several board games we’ve bought over the years that turned out to be mini-obsessions in our family. They enchanted the kids and captured their imaginations - and we ended up spending many hours on them. And right now is really their time to shine!
What I love about the games on this list is that they lend themselves to repeat visits. They’re all designed to come back to - and not merely to play again, but to actually build upon what you’ve already accomplished. That’s what makes them so special for times like these when you have a lot of time together.
When I was a kid, one of my fondest board game memories was spending a summer playing Hero Quest with my dad, my brother, and a neighbor. It’s an amazing RPG that we set up in the den and returned to every day for several weeks. It sticks in my mind because it was so engrossing and we spent so much time on it. The memory of the game helps me latch onto the feeling of a carefree summer as a child.
And that’s what I hope to give our kids with the games on this list. We’ll certainly be working on these games quite often in the days to come to help us pass the time. Maybe one day they’ll look back fondly on the time we spent using our imaginations together during that surreal quarantine.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. Clicking on those links will lead you to view the games’ listings on Amazon.
1. Stuffed Fables
Published by Plaid Hat Games and Designed by Jerry Hawthorne
Stuffed Fables is a very special game, as it’s designed as a kid-friendly RPG that can introduce kids to games like the beloved Hero Quest from my childhood. Games like Stuffed Fables are just perfect for unleashing the imagination of kids, and our son was easily sold on the idea of keeping track of a character and his own items and special abilities.
In Stuffed Fables you play as a stuffed animal trying to save your beloved girl from the evil forces that have stolen her away. And the entire game is presented as a storybook that also serves as the game board - and the story is really fantastic. Obviously this game is very much up our alley.
While there are several nuts and bolts to learn about gameplay and combat, once I read through the rulebook our 6-year-old son was easily able to play with us. Entering a fantasy world like this and fighting monsters and making choices together as a family is an absolute blast.
2. Untold: Adventures Await
Published by The Creativity Hub and Designed by John Fiore & Rory O’Connor
Untold: Adventures Await is powered by another one of our favorite games - Rory’s Story Cubes. Story Cubes are a collection of dice with various images on each side that you can use to weave together a story. What Untold does is add a frame and structure to the whole process. And our son is crazy about it.
Basically what you are doing together is writing your own TV show. Each player is a character in the show, and you start out by naming your character and fleshing out the details of their personality. And everyone also needs to agree on what kind of story you want to tell - like a comedy or an action show.
Then you start rolling the dice and telling your story together. You can really get into character and act it out if you want, because Untold is absolutely anything you want to make of it. Like Story Cubes, it’s just a great tool to help unleash your creativity. There are cards to draw and rules to follow along the way to give structure to the various scenes of your show, but ultimately this is your story. And you can come back add a new episode to your show anytime you want.
For more games like Untold: Adventures Await, make sure to check out our list of storytelling games.
3. Zombie Kidz Evolution
Published by Scorpion Masqué and Designed by Annick Lobet
Zombie Kidz Evolution is easily the board game we have played more than any other board game by a long shot. It’s not even close. And there’s a good reason for that. It’s designed with replayability at its very core. It’s what’s called a legacy game, because the game changes the more you play it - like with the addition of new rules or new characters.
The theme is great - a zombie outbreak at a school. And the aesthetic is top notch - with cartoon students carrying weapons like a Super Soaker or a suction cup bow and arrow. But best of all is definitely the manual where you keep track of your playthroughs, and the secret envelopes you get to open after a certain number of games.
Our son is absolutely obsessed with placing stickers in the manual for playing, winning, and earning special achievements during rounds. And every single one of us gets excited when we get to open a new envelope and see how the game will be changed. If you’re looking for a game to light a spark in your kids, and become an obsession for several weeks - Zombie Kidz could definitely be it.
To read more about Zombie Kidz, make sure to check out our featured article.
4. Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger
Published by Z-Man Games and Designed by Prospero Hall
I have fond memories of Choose Your Own Adventure books, and I’m happy to say that our son is now discovering the excitement of making choices while reading his books too. We’re such big fans, I’m barely able to resist buying the complete set from the official CYOA website. Maybe one day!
So I was just blown away when I found out they were publishing a CYOA board game. And House of Danger was a great choice. It’s a spooky one, which is great for us, but it’s also incredibly wacky. And I had no qualms about sharing the contents of the story with my 6-year-old. We absolutely love this game.
Playing the game is very much like reading a book, as the story is printed onto cards that you read out loud. Obviously there are choices to be made while you’re reading, as well as challenges to perform and battles to be fought using the roll of a die. And, based on your choices and a bit of luck, there are several different endings you can reach. We’ve played this game for 6 hours in one day - and you can’t ask for much more than that from a good family game.
To read more about House of Danger, make sure to check out our featured article.
5. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
Published by The OP and Designed by Forrest-Pruzan Creative, Kami Mandell, & Andrew Wolf
I’m a big fan of the Harry Potter books and will always have fond memories of purchasing the books as they came out at their midnight release parties - and rushing home to read them as fast as we can. And now we’ve started reading the books to the kids using the Jim Kay illustrated versions. But even though we haven’t gotten to the end of the stories with the kids - we’ll still let our son join in with Hogwarts Battle.
This is a cooperative deck-building game with a beautiful layout and lots of great details from the books and movies. The cards feature several famous characters and spells and items from the world of Harry Potter, and the whole package is just very impressive from The OP - who are really making several great Harry Potter games.
What’s very cool about Hogwarts Battle, is that it is split into 7 different adventures - for the 7 years of school at Hogwarts or the 7 Harry Potter books. That means, at the very least, if you’re stuck at home and counting the days on your fingers, you are looking at a solid week of entertainment - and that’s not even counting replaying the adventures. Working together to fight iconic villains in your very own Battle of Hogwarts is just plain awesome.
Is your family currently stuck inside for one reason or another? Have you played any of the games on our list? What’s your go-to game in such a situation? Let us know in the comments!
