10 Best Board Games Based on Comics

Board games have seen a dramatic rise in popularity over the last ten years, going beyond just the old standbys of Monopoly and Scrabble. No longer the purview of the lucky few with great comic book stores, indie games for all ages are now available through major retailers like Tar get and Amazon. There are games made for parties, legacy games meant to be played over multiple sessions, and tiny games that can be played while waiting in a long line. Comics writer Gail Simone, recently at New York Comic Con, posted:

While many games start with an original idea and setting, a lot take an existing franchise and build a fun game in that world – and with the many worlds and multiverses of comic books, it’s no surprise that there are a lot of great board and card games based on graphic novels. Read on for 10 of the best board games based on comics.

10 DC Comics Deck-Building Game

Team-Up Against Iconic Supervillains

The name isn’t terribly creative, but all the time left over went into making a great, versatile game. Deck-building games feature a mechanic where all players start with the same hand of cards, but through acquiring new abilities and defeating villains, build stronger, unique decks to win the game. Here, each player also picks a hero card that gives them a special ability to help them on their way. The game is semi-cooperative: 2–5 players need to work together to wipe out a deck of supervillains, or everyone loses. The original game launched in 2012 with the main Justice League characters available to play, but in the decade since, DC Comics and Cryptozoic Entertainment have released non-stop expansions, promo cards, and two-player variants so that everyone’s favorite heroes and villains can be on the table. When it comes to tabletop gaming, there’s no better way to exist within the DC Universe.

9 Autumn Harvest: A Tea Dragon Society

One Year Raising a Dragon

Based on the ‘cozy fantasy’ Tea Dragon graphic novels by K. O’Neill, this adorable game is perfect to share with friends who are new to gaming or younger comic book readers. In the comics, characters befriend and raise tea dragons to have a cute pet, and – of course – easy access to fresh tea leaves that grow from their heads (harvesting the tea does not hurt the dragons). With some light deck-building elements, this card game simulates a progression through a single year with a tea dragon.

Cards are all played publicly, and while the game is competitive with one winner, there aren’t any cards that attack other players, creating a peaceful atmosphere that works at family game night. There is also the original Tea Dragon Society game that plays almost the exact same way, though Autumn Harvest had some tweaks that make gameplay easier. While both games are meant for 2–4 players, Autumn Harvest has extra cards so that if it’s paired with the first game, a fifth player can join in the fun.

8 My Hero Academia Collectible Card Game

The Ultimate Simulated Fight

A main feature of shonen manga is the head-to-head battle story arc. This collectible card game allows fans of My Hero Academia to live that out with their favorite characters. A warning for anyone who has played other CCGs: this game has a lot of special, specific rules. The goal is for the player to knock their opponent’s HP down to 0 via attacking, but the attacks have to undergo a check against other cards before they can be played, hit the opponent in low, medium, or high areas, and can be enhanced by playing other cards that also have progressively more expensive costs. As it is a collectible card game, there are base sets available to purchase that can quickly set up a two-player battle, but really refining an incredible deck counts on dropping money on booster packs to find rare cards.

7 Scott Pilgrim Miniatures the World

A Meta Comic Becomes a Meta Game

A meta story like Scott Pilgrim translates perfectly into a meta game for fans to act out the story of Scott fighting Ramona’s evil exes. The board is a large stand-up concert set, complete with 3D tables and amps, while the miniatures in this game are super detailed and come pre-painted. One team plays as Scott and his friends – Ramona, Knives, and others – while other players act as the evil exes and their minions.

The base game comes with Ramona’s first evil ex, Matthew Patel, and his demon hipster chicks. An expansion set includes the remainder of the evil exes to play out the entire story. Just like in the original series, there are a lot of video game references, and the mechanics include leveling up with XP, equipping items, and throwing objects from the set. Even for those who aren’t into miniature battles, the game is worth it for the figures alone.

6 Hellboy: The Board Game

Run the BPRD’s Weird and Wild Cases

This cooperative game has players act as one of the iconic members of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, solving cases and battling eldritch forces. The game comes with plenty of incredibly detailed miniatures, though they aren’t pre-painted (which means more customization for hardcore board game fans.) Each game starts by opening a case file, which not only gives players their mission and how to win, but gives instructions on what characters to use, what pieces to set up, and what cards to add to the Deck of Doom. The base game comes with the most famous of the BPRD characters – Hellboy, Abe, Liz, and Johann – but there are multiple expansions to add characters like the Lobster, Baba Yaga, the Giant Robot Hellboy, and more. The cards and rulebook are filled with Mike Mignola’s distinct art style, making a playthrough feel like living the comic.

5 The Walking Dead: All Out War

Human vs Human – But the Game Controls the Zombies

Just like in Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, everything in this game is out to kill the players. In tactical head-to-head style, this survival miniatures game pits players against each other as separate groups of survivors fighting over supplies. In addition, the game mechanics cause hordes of zombies to chase after both players every time they move. Each player’s team is made of popular characters from The Walking Dead comics like Rick, Shane, and Michonne, represented by miniature figures and character cards showing their stats and abilities (again, unpainted.)

The board is filled with terrain to block both players and Walkers, but obstacles can also be used by players to protect their team. Because the zombies are controlled by the game, players can even play a solo mode of survivors vs Walkers. The game includes rules for campaigns and guidelines to design new characters, so players can customize the experience even more. The undersung thing that makes The Walking Dead comics so unique is how zombies are treated like a natural disaster, forcing humans into opposition without ever stealing the spotlight – All Out War is built from the ground up on the same foundation.

4 Mind MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game.”

Deadly Hide and Seek

Matt Kindt’s Mind MGMT was a critically-acclaimed Dark Horse Comics series about a secret government agency who sought world domination by using its psychic agents to mind-control world leaders. This one-versus-many secret movement game throws players into the world of the comic as Mind MGMT and the psychic spies who’ve defected go head-to-head to bring the other side down.

One player serves as the Recruiter, an agent looking to collect new recruits around Zanzibar; they move secretly around the city via a hidden board. All other players act as rogue agents who work together, asking questions of the Recruiter and sharing information to track them down and win the game. An iOS and Android app is also available for solo mode, or for players who want to be fully cooperative, with a device acting as the Recruiter.

3 Batman: The Animated Series Adventures – Shadow of the Bat

Recruit the Bat-Family Against Gotham’s Rogues

Another customizable miniatures game, Batman: The Animated Series Adventures – Shadow of the Bat features 24 unique missions inspired by fan-favorite Batman stories. Players can choose any of the hero characters and swap in whatever villains they like for a single game, adding variety and replayability. The setup is 4v1, with 4 players acting as the Bat-Family and one as the Joker, Scarecrow, Two-Face, or others in Gotham’s rogues gallery. A solo mode or full cooperative play are available, as the design allows for villains to be controlled by the game itself. There is also enough modularity that creative players can design their own story scenario or bring in newer stories from the comics.

2 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures

Forty Figures Per Box!

This collection of games from IDW Games are dice-sharing, card-playing brawlers with a lot of customization and replayability. There are two core games – Change Is Constant and City Fall – and plenty of expansions and upgrade packs. Every character has an unpainted miniature, plus a variety of minion villains, adding up to over forty figures per core game box. Players can follow a longer campaign game, retelling a story lifted directly from the IDW comics, or a shorter one-shot, quick-play mission.

The setup can also be one-against-many, with one player as all villains and the others as individual heroes, or fully cooperative against an AI-controlled villain. Both games are excellent, though City Fall edges out Change Is Constant due to having more surprising scenarios to play through. Both games have fan-favorite characters inside: Change Is Constant has the heroes in a half-shell as playable characters, but City Fall has villains Shredder, Bebop, and Rocksteady.

1 Marvel Champions: The Card Game

A Super Hero Game That Respects Secret Identities

Players can recreate their favorite Marvel stories, or invent team-ups of their favorite heroes in this huge living card game. This cooperative card game has a base set featuring mainline Avengers like Captain Marvel, Black Panther, and Iron Man as hero options, but has over 25 sets of individual hero decks to purchase, plus campaign expansions featuring both new heroes and villain campaigns. One of the reasons this game is so good at simulating Marvel Comics stories is that the hero character cards also have an alter-ego side; while Spider-Man is best at fighting Rhino and AIM, only Peter Parker can deal with an eviction notice or a graduate thesis. Striking that balance between punching bad guys and dealing with mild-mannered problems has always defined Marvel’s outlook, which this card game perfectly turns into part of the play experience.

These are the 10 best board games based on comics as of this writing, but they’re only a fraction of the total comic book-based board games out there. New games, and new expansions for the above, are being Kickstarted every day, and gamers are getting inspired to create the next great board game at table tops all over the world. These are a great way to get comic book readers into gaming, and gamers into comic books, especially since, as Gail Simone says, all the coolest people are playing board games.

Source: Gail Simone