Most board games are competitive. Usually, individual players try to win according to the victory conditions specified in the rulebook. Like the protagonists in a romantic comedy who are fated to end up together at the end of the movie, the players are antagonists attempting to outsmart and outdo each other at every turn.
Fortunately for everyone, the story doesn’t end there. Even if the Valentine’s Industrial Complex would have you believe everyone’s searching for their One True Love, real life is much more complex. There’s a whole spectrum of relationships — what they look like, and what people want out of them, or even if people want them in the first place. Similarly, board games offer many options when it comes to the number of players and what “winning” looks like.
At Nerdverse, we realize that representation matters. To celebrate the infinite variety of human relationships, we decided to look at the concept of play modes in board games. Because why stick to the expected when we can delve into other, more exciting options? You may be surprised by how many options you have when choosing board games to play.
What are play modes?
“Play modes” describes the different relations players can have to the game, to each other, and to the game’s victory conditions —at least while they’re playing. In other words, it describes how many people can play, whether they work together or against each other, and all the combinations you can imagine.
Whatever your relationship looks like, there’s a game for you. Whether you’re a casual gamer, need something that supports many players, or prefer your own company, there’s a play mode designed to meet your needs. There are even options for long-distance relationships – see our series about digital board games for more.
So let’s explore a few popular play modes, the games that use them, and the options they give you. Although some games require you to buy expansions to add alternative play modes, we’re focusing on the play modes that come with the game “out of the box”.
Competitive two-player games
Like screenwriters attempting to pen the aforementioned rom com, let’s start with the most traditional dynamic. Two people going head-to-head in a duel against the odds, a race against time, or some variation of one-on-one battle. Note that these aren’t games that go to higher player counts. They are strictly two-player affairs.
Variously called duel, duet, or versus games, it’s not surprising if this play mode evokes the opening lines of Romeo & Juliet: “Two households, both alike in dignity,/ In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,/ From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,/ Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.”
“Duel” games, specifically, are variations of existing games have been reworked to make the experience best at two players. This includes 7 Wonders Duel, Kingdomino Duel, Splendor Duel, and plenty of others. But there is a whole category of two-player only games on BoardGameGeek. Some personal favourites include Patchwork, Star Realms, Quarto, Hive, and boop. (or BOOoop.) And let’s not forget the classics, like Go and Chess.
You don’t need to be in love with the person you’re playing against. Many people spend years playing the same game against a favourite opponent. It allows both players to deepen their understanding and appreciation of the game, as well as their opponent’s skills over time.
Whether you love abstract games (Go, Chess, Quarto, YINSH) or prefer games with a strong theme (any of the others mentioned above), you can find two-player game you’ll learn to love.
Cooperative games
If you like to avoid confrontation altogether and need a game that lets several people work together to achieve a common goal, cooperative games are the play mode for you! Again, BoardGameGeek has an exhaustive list of cooperative games, and new ones are being added all the time. Some are short, some are long; most have very well-defined themes.
You can choose a campaign game to last you a lifetime (Gloomhaven, Frosthaven). Or you can pick a medium-term game packed with memorable moments (Sleeping Gods, any of the Pandemic Legacy games). There are also shorter games you can replay often with different opponents or challenges to defeat (Spirit Island, Mansions of Madness 2nd edition, Cthulhu: Death May Die), or one-offs that can start and finish in a single session (any of the classic Pandemic games or the Forbidden Games series). Hey, there’s no board game slut shaming here!
Solo games
On the other hand, if you agree with Greta Garbo and simply “want to be left alone,” may we suggest a pleasant solo game? This market has boomed in recent years, so you’re bound to find a solo game to suit your tastes. Also called solitaire games, after the eponymous card game you can play with any standard deck of cards. Happily, solo games have come a long way since the days of Solitaire or Patience.
Some of the co-op games mentioned earlier also allow you to play on your own. Gloomhaven, Spirit Island, Pandemic, Sleeping Gods, and Mansions of Madness, among others. You’ll need to do quite a lot of admin, and it might not be as much fun as playing with others. So it’s usually better to pick solo games that are easy to set up or tear down (see the article about our most replayed board games). These are part of an elite group of solo-only games which are especially easy for a single person to play without assistance.
If that sounds like your thing, look out for games like Final Girl and Under Falling Skies. But there are also plenty of mid-weight games that don’t require as much commitment but still offer a lot of replayability. Check out the BoardGameGeek lists of solo-only and “one or more player” games. We highly recommend puzzle-like games like Calico, Cascadia, and Verdant for solo play, whether you have partners or not. (And we can all do with some alone time. Yes, even the most extroverted among us.)
Party games
Party games are usually short and accommodate a larger number of players, usually up to eight or twelve. Some party games can take much longer, and some can handle huge numbers of people. So this play mode is perfect if you prefer spending time with a large number of friends, bonding over a low-stakes, fun activity that doesn’t ask too much commitment. Or perhaps you simply need a change from all those intense, multi-year campaign games we mentioned before.
If you’re the kind of social person who likes to invite a crowd of friends over but you’re looking for something fun to keep them all entertained, try these out. Popular games in this category include Codenames, Blood on the Clocktower, Telestrations, Sushi Go Party!, or the ever popular One Night series of games. The latter includes One Night Ultimate Werewolf, as well as other games themed with vampires, aliens, revolutionaries, and super villains replacing the titular lycanthrope.
Most, but not all party games involve some amount of bluffing and social deduction. If you like the idea of party games but you don’t like social deduction, or your crowd is smaller, try games like Skull or Kluster, games that don’t take themselves too seriously or demand too much of anyone’s time and energy. (You social butterfly, you.) Again, BGG has an entire category devoted to party games.
Team games
Of course, we can’t discuss party games without talking a little about team-based games, which are often variations of party games. In party games it’s often a case of “everyone for themselves”. Instead, this play mode separates all the players into groups who then need to compete as a group against another group of players. Essentially, it combines co-op and competitive modes to create something new entirely.
Possibly the most famous one, but one that’s rarely available to buy in South Africa, is Captain Sonar. It involves lots of yelling, desperate attempts to coordinate everyone’s activity, and trying to ensure your team is the one to achieve the game’s goal: finding the other team’s submarine by launching attacks towards points on a map. If your team is right, you score a hit.
Again, several games we’ve mentioned already also fit into this category. Nemesis, Blood on the Clocktower, and the One Night games also involve teams. But in those games, none of the players can be sure which other players are also in their own group. Other examples, like War of the Ring: Second Edition and Star Wars: Rebellion, are actually two-player games where each player controls a team of characters. (We weren’t kidding when we said board games gave you every imaginable combination.)
For the BGG list of team-based games, go here.
1-vs-many games
The final two play modes are variations on what has been discussed so far. Both involve multiple players, but add an element that changes the relationship between all the players in some way.
The first variation involves a team on one side and a single player on the opposite side. For this, I’ll simply quote the explanation we included 1-vs-many games in the Board Game Jargon Primer, where you’ll find many of the terms we discussed here.
A game that is described as “1 vs many” is one where one player is an adversary to the rest of the players. In the most common variation, the “many” (2+) players work cooperatively to defeat the single adversary; in other types, the adversary acts as the storyteller or controller of every villain in the game.
An example of the former type is Fury of Dracula, currently in its fourth edition. In this game, one player takes on the role of Dracula himself, attempting to evade the remaining players. The other players take the parts of Van Helsing, the Harkers (Jonathan and Mina), and Lord Godalming as they in turn attempt to defeat the monster.
The latter type is well-typified in Descent: Journeys in the Dark. Other examples are Betrayal at House on the Hill and Letters from Whitechapel.
As a side note, older versions of games like Mansions of Madness or Descent involved someone controlling all the villains. Later versions replace that single antagonist with an app that handles all that automatically, turning them into completely cooperative affairs. For lots more examples, see this BGG list.
Multiplayer solitaire
Multiplayer solitaire isn’t a play mode, as such, but it perfectly describes a specific type of competitive board game. Most competitive games allow players to mess with each other’s plans, usually by getting in their way or claiming coveted resources first. However, as the term “multiplayer solitaire” suggests, some games have so little direct interaction between players that it feels like everyone is playing a solo game, but at the same time. For example, when two or more people play Cascadia, one player can take the combination of tile and token someone else desperately needs for their grand plan. But that rarely happens, and players can’t mess with what someone has already done. So several people can compete against each other without getting into direct conflict.
Unfortunately, BGG hasn’t assigned this a category or another tag yet, so the best way to find out whether a game matches these criteria is to read some reviews.
Final thoughts
Even if you don’t enjoy the specific examples we mention here, there will be similar games that match your needs. Whatever your relationship or your preferred mode of play is, there’s a game for you! If nothing else, we hope this goes to show that the variety of play modes makes it possible for many more people to play board games. Not to mention, increasing the diversity of the board games available to choose from.
A final note about playing with others. Regardless of how much you love playing board games, or playing a specific board game, remember: No one has to love board games. Some people don’t enjoy them at all — and never will. And that’s okay. There’s no point forcing someone to play a game they don’t like, or playing anything if they don’t even like board games in the first place.
