If You’re Shopping List Includes Older Kids and Adults, Check Out These Games!
As you balance the day between recovering from yesterday’s feast and tackling Black Friday crowds, we’re here with another list of gift suggestions! This one is geared toward that group of hard-to-shop for older kids, young adults and grown-ups. I mean, seriously, they mostly just ask for expensive electronics and gift cards. The reality is there are people in this segment we WANT to purchase gifts for but their Santa wish-list and our budget don’t necessarily align. That’s where this list comes into play (pun intended!) with game ideas that help bring them together with family and friends.
Of course, don’t forget to keep watch for some of these in this years list of holiday giveaways. So you can purchase one as a gift then maybe score a copy for yourself too. If you happen to purchase something by clicking through one of our links, we may receive a small commission.
The One Hundred Torii: Diverging Paths
Pencil First Games
Furnace with Interbellum Expansion
Arcane Wonders
Furnace is an engine-building game in which players take on the roles of 19th-century capitalists building their industrial corporations and aspiring to make as much money as they can by purchasing companies, extracting resources, and processing them in the best combinations possible.
The Interbellum expansion brings the game into the 1920s and 1930s, the interwar period known as the Interbellum.
Amalfi Renaissance
R&R Games
Junk Drawer
25th Century Games
Players organize their junk drawer by carefully arranging various shaped items within the four sections. Each section has a unique organizational goal and each round, players must place one item in each section. At the end of the game, each section earns points based on how well they are organized. The player with the highest score wins.
The Search for Lost Species
Renegade Game Studios
Thousands of discovered plants and animals haven’t been seen for decades and could be on the brink of extinction! To save these lost species, we must find them again.
The Search for Lost Species is an eco-friendly game about this real-world search, utilizing the game system created for the award-winning Search for Planet X.
Calendar of Many Adventures 2024
Loke BattleMats
CDSK
Randolph
Critical: Sanctuary (Season 1)
Gigamic
On the Crescent archipelago, ancient tombs stir, and tales of monsters resurface. The Explorers’ Guild seeks answers, dispatching their most skilled members. In Critical: Sanctuary (Season 1), experience 9 thrilling 30-minute episodes in this uniquely crafted board game. Choose your role as Gamemaster or a character, dive into heart-pounding adventures, and uncover the mysteries!
Tesseract
Smirk & Dagger
Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game
Stronghold Games
Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game, is a card driven dice game where players use special dice to develop their corporations and terraform Mars into a new home for humanity. The dice represent resources that players spend to play cards and perform other actions. During the game you increase your production of dice, you terraform and place cities and greenery tiles on the board and gain various bonuses.
Tiny Epic Crimes
Gamelyn Games
Tiny Epic Crimes is a fast-paced, crime-fighting, deduction game for 1 to 4 players that offers multiple ways to play. Players take on the role of detectives, and depending on the game mode, will be working either together…. OR separately…. to crack the murder case. In Tiny Epic Crimes, time matters, and the first 48 hours after any crime are the most critical. Players race around the city collecting evidence, such as the murder weapon, forensics, or the getaway vehicle.
The Night Hunter
University Games
In this latest Murder Mystery Party Game, can you catch the Night Hunter before he strokes again? After confessing to a series of disturbing, animalistic murders, Bill Mendax – or “The Night Hunter” as he was dubbed in the press – was sentenced to life in prison. The public breathed a sigh of relief, thinking The Night Hunter’s reign of terror was over…that is, until a murder with similarities previously not released to the public occurs over 25 years later. Is it a copycat? Or is the wrong person behind bars? Play as an agent hired by The Bureau as you explore over 100 unique pieces of evidence to learn about The Night Hunter’s past and stop another murder from happening in the present.
Bazaars of Ubar
Grey Fox Games
Bazaars of Ubar is a fantastical engine-building game that takes players to the mythical marketplaces of Ubar – the Atlantis of the Sands! Draft trade using time as currency in a marketplace where the costs shift like the sands. Make clever use of tradewinds to reactivate your trades. And manage the space on your ship to carry only the most precious cargo as you make your way to floating bazaars to sell your wares for gold!
Radlands
Roxley Games
Behext
Smirk & Dagger
Applejack
Stronghold Games
Our prior family games gift guide includes additional items that could fit into this age group as well. What makes those different is they can also accommodate slightly younger individuals while these are mostly 14+ due to their length or complexity. And if you need ideas for preschool and elementary aged kids, check out the list of gifts for younger kids.
Who on your list is the most difficult to shop for?
Several good games on this list. I would love to get my hands on a number of them, such as Tesseract, Junk Drawer, Tiny Epic Crimes (just to name a few).
Definitely my little brother. He lives in a tinyhome, so no extraneous stuff…..
Behext and Tiny Epic Crimes seems interesting!
I would love to get Junk Drawer, Applejack and Tesseract
Behext has been on our wish list
Junk Drawer is on my list.
Ooh tiny epic crimes is on my list
Furnace with Interbellum Expansion, Amalfi Renaissance and Tiny Epic Crimes
Behext and Junk Drawer for sure!
On my wishlist are Radlands and Applejack!
Junk Drawer or Radlands would be nice.
The person that buys everything for themselves, and has tons of money to do it, and doesn’t let you know what their recent purchases are, can be frustrating to get anything for.
Great list. Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game really caught my attention.
Tesseract has me so intrigued!
Good luck to everyone!!!
I hope I win, but if not I hope YOU win!
Furnace looks great
I love to get Furnace
Tiny epic crimes
Junk Drawer has been added to my wishlist now.
Behext looks interesting we are a fan of deck building games in my house.
Everdell Complete Colletion is in my wishlist!
I would love to get Obsession under the tree!
I love tiny epic games!
I would like Tiny epic crimes or Critical Sanctuary.
great giveaways!
Tiny Epic Crimes
My little brother
Furnace and Tiny Epic Crimes are high on my want list
Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game