The 10 Meanest Board Games Ever Created

These days it seems more important than ever to not be a massive wang, which makes it all the sweeter when we can gather round a table with some close friends, bask in the warmth and safety of affectionate companionship and then take a blowtorch to their hopes and dreams. Which begs a question, what makes a board game mean? After all, Chess is all about destroying your opponents forces, but it’s not really mean, that’s the central function of the game. Rather a mean game is one that gives you opportunities for major conflict, betrayal and punishment that you don’t necessarily have to take, so that when you do it goes beyond the mechanical, and into the deeply personal, you should have killed me when you had the chance. Not everyone likes games that encourage you to specifically and gleefully ruin your friends, but those that do, really do, and hey you devilish souls, I’m right there with ya. This is the Collection Starter and here are the 10 Meanest Board Games Ever Made. You’ve been warned.

10. Munchkin

So, Munchkin is incredibly successful and that’s a good thing. The hobby always needs more top-selling titles beyond the usual family of household classics. It’s a light, scrappy, cartoony little Viz magazine-tinged parody of fantasy and dungeon crawlers but also, daaaamn a lot of gamers hate Munchkin. See, in the game you and your friends play as adventurers trying to get to level 10, picking up a whole load of wacky, tongue-in-cheek cards that let you buff up your character, skip levels, cast spells, it’s silly stuff. You go up a level primarily by beating monsters but here’s the thing, to defeat tougher monsters you’ll most likely have to ask for help from the other players, bribing, begging, threatening, negotiating. That can be a lot of fun, but the closer you get to Level 10, not only will your friends refuse to help you, but they’ll start to actively sabotage you with cards. One lets a player steal one of your levels, which is some NON-SENSE, or more likely they’ll just watch you die so they can loot your cards once you’re dead and man, that can really make you feel a way about your friends. If you like messing with each other, great, but the game does have a tendency to drag on, with everyone just tripping each other up over and over again before they can get to the finish line.