Gateway games - (“the game” that gets people interested in other boardgames)
- Carcassonne – tile lying about building a country side and cities
- Settlers of Catan – settling a continent and using resources
- Hey that’s my Fish – penguins eating fish
- Zooloretto – set collection and managing a zoo
- Ticket to ride – set collection and building rail roads
- Lost Cities – set collection archeology card game
Popular Euro or designer games - (emphasis is on rules and not on fancy bits or pieces)
- El Grande – area control, auction in medieval Spain
- Cartagena - hand management pirate escape game
- Puerto Rico – economic resource game
- Agricola – medieval farming
- Alhambra
Ameritrash style - (emphasis on great art, cool bits, dripping with good theme)
- The Adventures – Indiana jones type temple escape
- Runebound 2nd edition – Dungeon crawl type game – but outside
- D&D games – Ashardalon, Drizzt or Ravenloft
- Descent – huge, epic dungeon crawl
- Memoire 44 – WW2 combat
Cooperative style - (a group against the game not one winner)
- Last Night on Earth – Zombies
- Ghost Stories – Light horror
- Pandemic – Killing viruses
- Shadows over Camelot – Fantasy
- Battlestar Galactica – Science Fiction
Deck building – (where building your deck is part of the game)
- Dominion – light fantasy theme
- Thunderstone – fantasy dungeon theme w/ player interaction
- Resident Evil – horror and zombies
- Quarriors – combat dice building game
Party games – (quick game, many people)
- Wits and Wagers - trivia and betting game (don’t need to know the answers)
- Apples to Apples – word play type game
- Gift trap – good gift giving game
- Werewolves
- Bang