Written By: Jerrin Duty 

Located on the second floor of Willis Library, the UNT Media Library offers many incredible resources for students, staff, and faculty. They offer not only video games and board games but also gaming consoles, controllers, PC gaming spaces, movies, and more. With the many different materials available through the Media Library, let’s take a moment to highlight some of the most popular board games as well as some of my personal favorite board games from the collection.  

5 Most Popular Tabletop Games: 

1. Uno – A classic. You know it; you love it. Uno is card game that is easy to play for all ages. Match the cards, get rid of your hand, but make sure you know the rules before you accidentally start a fight about stacking +4 cards. 

2. Cards Against Humanity – This card game is fun at parties but be careful because it is certainly not safe for work. These cards are silly and out of pocket so make sure you know the audience you’re catering to.  

3. Betrayal at House on the Hill – If you like working with your friends and against them this game is for you. In this board game, you reveal the haunted house with your friends until one of the players becomes a monster and betrays you. With 50 different haunt scenarios you won’t get bored of playing.  

4. Coup – In this easy-to-play card game, you hide your roles to try and knock out other players. If you can’t manage it through deception and lying, don’t worry you can do it with brute force and a seven-coin cost. Form alliances with caution and keep your cards close to your chest. 

5. Secret Hitler – Try to prevent the government from falling to fascism in this hidden role game. Pass liberal policies and root out Hitler and his fascist allies to protect the government or lie to your fellow players to turn the government to fascism and establish Hitler as Chancellor.  

5 Tabletop Games You May Not Know: 

1. Abducktion – Kidnap ducks in the UFO and strategically move your board around to form patterns and win points. This game is a quick and easy-to-learn competitive game where you get to pull ducks from a UFO, what more could you want?  

2. Hanabi – Mind meld with your friends to try and set off the fireworks without a hitch. In this collaborative card game, the players work together to play cards in order. Unfortunately, you cannot see your own cards and must rely on hints from your fellow players and your own memory to win.  

3. Cryptid – Try to find the cryptid’s lair fastest. With dozens of scenarios, each player gets one clue about the location of the cryptid. Deduct the location of the cryptid from other player’s moves without giving up what you know.  

4. Chrononauts – Playing as a time traveler from an alternate future you must alter the course of history to ensure the safety of your timeline. But be careful, altering history too much could result in the destruction of the universe.  

5. Tsuro – Carefully place path tiles to keep your meeple on the board the longest. Compete with the other players to create a long and winding path that keeps you on the board and sends them off.  

These are just small portion of the vast Media Library Collection. The collection consists of over 1,250 games and continues to grow. They have games for every age group, as well as games with accessibility features including extra-large print and braille. Their collection also includes historic board games such as Mansion of Happiness, a board game about Christian morality from the 1800s, and an early copy of Monopoly called “Progress and Poverty.” Don’t get too overwhelmed with the options though because the collection of tabletop games can easily be searched by number of players, play time, and player age-range. Or if you can’t be bothered to search yourself join the Media Library for Tabletop Time on March 6th to play fun games and get to know the collection.  

References

Media Library. UNT University Libraries. (n.d.). https://library.unt.edu/media/