I love obscure and/or quirky games, so I really enjoyed this list. I especially enjoyed the dexterity games on Zee's list, and Mare Balticum. Here are a few of my picks for obscure games, and most of these are easy to find if you know where to look: Ab in die Tonne (Toss it in the Trash) Rhino Hero Mord im Arosa Riff Raff Trieste Attribute
Caravelas starts in Portugal and its a Portuguese game. You buy Jeronimos with pepper because it was the main spice that made the construction of that incredible building possible.
One of my favorite lists so far! Great to learn about new-to-me and more unique games instead of rehashing the same ol' set of popular games over and over.
22:14 It's Portugal Sam. They invented the caravel, and were the first to sail around Africa towards India (for spices). If you want to pronounce it like a Portuguese person would, it is not "Caravel-ASS", but "Caravel-esh"
SPINERGY GETS SOME LOVE!!! I found that game years ago, fell in love with it, and could not find anyone who had heard of it! Yes, it's very "schoolish", but is a riot with the right group. Thanks for validating my life choices!!!
Although not a board game, my favorite obscure game is Dallas - The Television Role-Playing Game, published by SPI in 1980. It calls itself a family role-playing game, and players take on the roles of the major characters from the tv series Dallas.
Never heard anyone ever talk about this game but its really fun its called " I drank what?" basically everyone has a wine card and its either wine or poison and you can use cards to swap wine cards with other people or look at wine cards. Super fun game that seems pretty obscure.
Dinosaurs of the Lost World is another really fun obscure Avalon Hill game that came out in the late 80's. I highly recommend playing it if you can find it.
I'm looking for the name of a game I played as a kid in the 1980s. You tried to fly planes to different destinations. However, there was a clear plastic sheet that fit over a quarter of the board and sometimes that sheet would move taking all of the planes on it to another part of the map. I have no idea what it was called and it might have been made in the 1970s.
I like a game called "Space Hulk: death Angel" it's hard, every decision counts, every turn is different, I like to imagine every perilous situation the event deck puts you in, I like it more than "D Day Dice" :)
Here's a game I loved playing growing up. It's so obscure it doesn't even have a Board Game Geek page devoted to it. So I'm not sure if these guys will even know of it. It's from 1987 and it's called Angler's Dream. Has anyone ever played that one?
I'm working on creating a heist game that sounds more and more like Mutiny on the Little Blue. When you mentioned it in another list (Underrated maybe?) I thought it sounded interesting and took the idea and molded it. Turns out what I turned it into at first is a lot like how you described Mutiny this time!
I own Dragons of Kir and Sam didn't explain it well. The players don't control any of the dragons directly, they manipulate the dragons' movements by placing tiles on the board which have varying effects, in hopes of eventually guiding a dragon into your opponent's tent. But yeah, it's super fun, the chaining of tiles makes it easy to appreciate even if you're a sore loser (and lose :P).
Great list! Figured this one would be right up Zee's alley. I need to check some of these out...if I can find them! If you're still looking for future topics, try: Top Ten Racing Games (I'd love to see the kind of variety there is) Top Ten Games with the Best Production (might be dominated by Days of Wonder, but whatever) Top Ten 8-Player Games (or 7, or both)
my favourite game almost no ones about is called barca. you should be able to find in online on it website. its a game from a southern california designer. its a chess variant of sorts that uses the rook, queen, and bishop (you have 2 each) on a 10x10 grid. the object is to control 3 of the 4 centralish spaces, but uses a forced move rock paper scissors mechanic instead of capturing. its great for people who want to play something like chess, but feel intimidated by it.
Krakow 1325 AD. This game isn't in print and I had to wait nearly a year to get a copy. one of my top 5 games that I own. Trick taking, secret identities, and area control all in one game to create something really unique. Only 474 ratings on BGG.
I have some mild reservations about Cat and Fish but do like it and won't sell it. We ordered Founders of the Empire direct from Rubrand. It looks pretty and pleasing. I am only at number 5 as of writing this and I have been happy to see a lot of titles I have not heard of!
As always, Zee's choices are the most left-fielded, even when you guys are talking about obscure games. But I must raise my hat to Sam for his number 1.
Ok. I love your top ten lists. This one left me a little cold. but, Im with Sam. I really don't care for obscure games all that much. I like well produced and well themed games. Only game that interests me from these 30 is Eruption which has been in my want list on BBG forever. Lifeboats is definitely is an obscure game that should top this list.
Okay, here are some of my favorite obscure games (in no particular order): Halunken & Spelunken, I.D., Image, Cue Me, Monad, I Think You Think I Think, Tabloid Teasers
Own 2 of them (Pala and Founders). Picked up Pala probably on Zee's recommendation before I discovered that my group generally doesn't go in for trick taking games. Founders I picked up in Essen (and got the copy that they were using to demo it as it was the last one)
Asteriated Grail (星杯傳說) its an awesome card game, it combines teamed play, variable player powers, and hand management, AG is definitely one of my favorite games, it plays real quick (30~40min a game with new players, 10~20min a game with experienced players), has no player elimination, and there is really no downtime (average downtime being about 15 seconds, and you really want to pay attention to what others are doing when its not your turn if you want to play competitively) it is a shame the game is only available in chinese atm, but even in china it is still obscure, partly because boardgames simply isn't a popular hobby, and partly because most ppl that play boardgames are only playing ltk (which is a knock-off of bang, using the three kingdoms period as its background) since it was a big hit when it was first released (the designer team shamelessly claimed that they created the system from scratch, even though it was 95%+ identical to bang, including character powers, deck buildup, and objectives for the different identities)
I'm a fan of De Vulgari Eloquentia, which is not obscure if we're basing the designation on BGG rank, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone else mention it.
Founders of the Empire is, actualy, translates as Settlers. And people on cover have the same style as mobs in Settlers 2. Just for you to know it. :-)
Speaking of obscure games, there's this game that I played on PC quite a while ago that I just CANNOT remember the name of, and can't find any videos on it. If anyone can help me find out what the name is, thank you. In the game you play as an angel, and it's an FPS. You can possess people and later on you gain cool abilities like causing people's blood to boil. The HUD is red, and the objective is basically to kill the bad guys (can't remember the plot, lol). You can be shot, and when you have possessed an enemy you can use his gun as well as your abilities. It was a little difficult, but I want to return to it and beat it cause I only played the demo. Again, if any of you can help me, thank you a lot!
Oh man, thank you SO MUCH!! I have been looking for that game for a LONG LONG time, and you are the first person who actually knew what game I was talking about!!
I still have acopy of the Journey of Paul and mine came in the tube. I got it at Gencon the year the box edition came out and it was much cheaper. Its not a bad game but theme specific and exclusive.
Bummer :/ This list was as close as my games could get to be featured in The Dice Tower :P Anyways, nice picks. Those HABA games are really great. Thanks :)
I know many that watched this watched to see if they recognize anything here. Aside from the Catan expansion, I'm sure most were like huh? For a time I actually followed Dust Tactics' development and it got too expensive for my taste. I actually own Dust. So I guess I had something in common with this video of otherwise unheard of games... I don't think I played a single full game of Dust...
There is some overlap with the 'Underrated games top 10 list', but yes, these games are quite obcure. I looked at my collection and thought of: Drakon (3rd ed.) // Ostrakon // Ditto // Dschamal // Spank the monkey // Torres // Tyros // Pirates Cove // Gangster, etc. Games that I like to introduce to gamers and non-gamers. Know any of these? (PS: I'm from Holland)
We also play that game a lot in my family (caused some major liquid spilling accidents), the more popular implementation is called Ligretto but we play the old Dutch Blitz version. In Germany (and off course) the Netherlands it is actually played quite a lot.
Yeah, I didn't find out about Ligretto until after buying Dutch Blitz. I don't actually remember where I found out about DB from, though. It might have been looking at the "Also bought this" after searching for Liar's Dice on Amazon.
I want someone to really make Assault on Ganymede, except with the similar theme as Mission Red Planet aka suuuuuuper retro sci fi, and with more modern mechanics. The company thst would fit best is of course Restoration Games xdddd
I think you're being a bit too strict on the criteria for this list. For instance I'd say Battlestations is obscure but has 819 ratings. Personally I would just list my favourites that don't any real mainstream recognition.
Zee ... You said you wanted a copy of Burdigala. I checked amazon.ca and they have copies for $102. Its been a while since this video was posted so its possible you've already found one, or are not reviewing comments anymore, but there you have it.
