Ready to dip your toe into adventure games but not sure where to begin? You’ve come to the right place! Our top picks for the best adventure board games for beginners are a great introduction to the world of fantasy.
Let your imagination soar as you take on different roles, travel unknown lands, and complete creative missions. There are options for solo play, cooperation, and competition. Give it a go with others or by yourself. Whatever you decide, don’t delay. Adventure is waiting for you!
Table of Contents
🏆 Our Top Picks for Best Adventure Board Games for Beginners
In a hurry? Take a quick peek before you go.
Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins
Players: 2-4
Welcome to Neverwinter. Delve into the world of fantasy and get to know your teammates in a creative, challenging environment. In this collaborative storytelling game, your team must work together to complete tests and ultimately defeat the monster boss at the finale. Let the adventure begin!
Choose your character along with their personality and abilities. Journey across each dungeon board, facing unique obstacles and adventures on each one. Experiences can include interactive scenarios, such as group problem-solving, decision-making, or even a dance-off to unlock a passage forward. If you encounter a gatekeeper along the way, the team members take turns attacking until they successfully defeat the beast. The victorious killer can take a stab at creativity by detailing their kill.
D&D requires the classic Dungeon Master to be the leader and help the story flow and the adventure succeed. The DM in this version changes every round, making Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins an excellent introduction for all those D&D newbies.
The Adventure Zone: Bureau of Balance
Players: 2-5
Playing time: 60-90 minutes
You’re entering The Adventure Zone. Let your imagination go wild as you create your own character and find creative solutions to solve missions.
In this collaborative game, your team of reclaimers will search for lost relics to support the Bureau of Balance. Choose your team leader wisely as they will be in charge of organizing missions and encouraging creative storytelling.
The missions come with a numeric value equal to their difficulty. Use your unique skills, beat evil villains, and keep your strength value greater than the mission at hand.
The Adventure Zone: Bureau of Balance is great for role-playing newbies or veterans alike. Enter this new world of fantasy, and don’t be afraid to get silly with it.
Disney Jungle Cruise Adventure Game
Players: 2-4
Playing time: 45-60 minutes
Cruise down this river of fun and fortune. Inspired by Disney’s Jungle Cruise amusement ride, this jungle is full of adventure and peril. Hold onto your passengers, collect clues, and beware of any dangerous traps along the way.
It’s a game of detective work and deduction. Encounter cards will guide your decisions along the journey. Roll the peril dice to see how many passengers or cargo you lose. But don’t worry, you’ll have an opportunity to win them back. Land on a Lost and Found space to collect lost passengers and cargo or land on an Outpost to reload Warning Shots.
Clue spaces can give you a peek at which families aren’t chosen as the Caretaker. Use those deduction skills to determine which family is chosen to collect more valuable passengers.
The player with the most valuable ship wins. Get ready to set those sails and embark on this adventure, captain!
What Next?
Players: 1-4
Playing time: 30-60 minutes
If you’re at a party and find yourself asking, “What next?” this game might be the answer.
What Next? puts your dexterity to the test. The set comes with three stand-alone games of varying difficulty.
Location cards get the story started and let you choose your own adventure. Work your way through it, competing in mini-games along the way. These might include a tangram-style challenge or identifying shapes while blind. Item cards can enhance your abilities to support you in challenges. But beware of the skull symbol! You must add a Peril Piece to the Jenga-like tower if you find one. If it falls at any point, it’s game over for all.
Keep a steady hand and a clever mind to complete the adventure unscathed!
Adventure Land
Players: 2-4
Playing time: 45 minutes
Choose from three different adventures in Adventure Land. The basic game mechanics stay the same, but the way you earn points differs slightly.
Travel down the Adventure Land board through dense forests, medieval fortresses, and gold-filled rivers. Collect companions, gather herbs and swords, or battle monsters along the way. You can only move right or down, so keep your moves strategic to gather all the tools and points you need.
Adventure Land is simple to learn, making it fun for the family or younger players. However, tactical play and a constantly changing board give more advanced players a run for their money.
The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth
Players: 1-5
Playing time: 60-120 minutes
Explore the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth in this cooperative, app-supported game. As the dark forces band together to take over the land, the heroes must also join forces to save Middle-earth from destruction.
The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth is a set of smaller adventure games that build the storyline as you go. The game does a good job of changing the storyline depending on player choices. You will encounter tests, battles, attacks, and make important decisions as you travel.
Journeys in Middle-earth goes outside the box by using an app to guide player moves and bring the story to life. Hero features also change throughout the game, forcing players to adapt accordingly.
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Plunder: A Pirate’s Life
Players: 2-6
Playing time: 40-120 minutes
Plundering is a pirate’s prerogative! Step into a pirate’s boots to steal that booty.
Will you be a peaceful pirate and conquer unclaimed islands? Or will you sneak up to battle it out with the opposing players? However your pirates play, you must gain 10 Plunder Points to win.
In Plunder: A Pirate’s Life, you will work to claim land and resources. Claiming locations is valuable as each location gets you one more card on your turn. Cards may grant you more resources or treasure, or they might have a negative effect. Nobody said a pirate’s life didn’t come with some risks!
It’s all about the plunder points. Every ship or location you are on gets one point. You may also exchange five gold cards or beat an enemy ship to score.
Play to see who is the most powerful pirate of the seas. This game will have you hooked in no time.
DungeonQuest (Revised Edition)
Players: 1-4
Playing time: 60 minutes
Your mission is to venture into the depths of the dragon’s lair, capture the treasure, and return unscathed. Sounds simple enough, right? Don’t be fooled. While the rules are pretty straightforward, surviving is not. This game can be played solo or against others, as the biggest challenge is simply making it out alive.
The time limit adds another element to the quest. Grab the loot and race back before the sun sets, battling monsters and avoiding traps along the way. Cards drawn each turn dictate how you move and what you encounter en route.
The Revised Edition provides a more perilous dungeon but also a “torchlight” to explore the darker corners of this dragon’s den.
Mice and Mystics
Players: 1-4
Playing time: 60-90 minutes
The evil Queen Vanestra has overtaken the King’s castle. All the King’s loyal followers have been turned to mice. Work together in this cooperative game as small but stealthy mice. Warn the king before all his followers get squashed by the opposition.
As the rounds unfold in Mice and Mystics, so does this interactive story. Each mouse is a different character with different abilities. You might be the King’s sword-wielding defense or the castle’s healer with just the right potion up your sleeve. Fight off cockroaches, dodge the castle cat, or collect crumbs to fuel your journey.
The storytelling is a bit cheesy but charming and draws you into the characters as you play. The elements of the board are constantly changing, so be careful not to fall into one of Vanestra’s (mouse) traps!
Above and Below
Players: 2–4
Playing time: 90 minutes
Your village and everything you own was lost to invaders, forcing you to forge onward and find new land to call home. Luckily, you’ve found the perfect place! The land is fertile, the resources are plentiful, but a vast network of inhabited tunnels lies just below the ground. You must go above and beyond to rebuild your community while maintaining peace with the tunnel dwellers below.
You have seven rounds to collect the most Village Points. Your collection of villagers with different strengths decides what you can do. Gain resources, complete narrative adventures, build structures, or maintain a good reputation to win points.
Above and Below gives you a balance of storytelling, logic, and luck. The unique buildings and villager cards bring the stories to life. The game develops the theme while still focusing on practical strategy.
Wrap-Up
We hope you enjoyed our list of the best adventure board games for beginners! These games are the perfect introduction to adventure games that are easy to learn, not too time-consuming, and fun for all ages. So, who’s ready for an adventure?
Have you tried any of the games on this list? Did we miss any of your favorites? Drop a comment below and let us know! We’d love to hear from you.
You may also enjoy:
- Best Gateway Board Games
- Best Board Games for Beginners
- Best Cooperative Board Games for Beginners
- Best Adventure Board Games
Looking for more Adventure Games? Check out our video below:
Cheryl is a teacher, writer, and board game fan. She likes incorporating games into all areas of her life, from classrooms and family nights to lively parties with friends. While she’s played too many to count, her favorites have always been classics like Codenames and chess.