So here’s what inspired this particular article: I was thinking about board games based upon MMOs of various scales because the other day I wrote about Valheim’s board game, and so that led me to ponder how I could fill out a Perfect Ten based on that premise. This happens a lot when I think of an idea and then start checking to see if it has the required number of entries. And as often happens here, I knew there was at least one game that was good for two entries because World of Warcraft had two board games! There was the more recent one that I actually reviewed, and then I knew there was a prior one.
Then I started researching. And it turns out I was wrong. WoW does not have two board games. Or three. Or four. It has, in fact, a lot of tabletop games. Far more than even I thought it had. So I made this list about the ones I feel are most noteworthy in this context because it turns out you do not have one option to play World of Warcraft without launching your computer. You have several!
1. World of Warcraft: The Board Game
Well, that title is pretty straightforward, isn’t it? Released in 2005, this game gives you a selection of 16 different heroes to choose between, at which point you work together with the other players in order to take out an Overlord within 30 turns. That’s not so bad as a premise goes; it doesn’t really get the flavor of the game, but it fits in the broad strokes of the mythos, and it was 2005. Did anyone really expect the game to have the kind of legs it actually did?
2. World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game
Despite the name, this is also a WoW board game from 2008, also developed by Fantasy Flight Games (which did the previous game), and it’s sort of a refocus and sequel all in one. Players have expanded options for their characters and also get to adventure along the Eastern Kingdoms competing for glory. I haven’t played it, but I imagine it’s probably a decent title.
3. World of Warcraft Trading Card Game
There was a time when almost any halfway successful franchise could get an entire trading card game devoted to it. That was when we got the Middle-earth Collectible Card Game, a game where the average card had text so densely packed that you would need a jeweler’s scope to read it, and the X-Files card game, which is insane. The WoW card game came out well after that time, however, and yet because it was tied to the video game and even offered people loot cards, it held on for a remarkably long time.
4. Small World of Warcraft
I actually reviewed this game for this site, and I thought it was pretty neat. Not much else to say about it beyond that fact, but I imagine some of you are saying, “Wait, how are there more entries? These are all the ones I know about.” Well, keep reading.
5. World of Warcraft: The RPG
You may have also heard of this one because for a while White Wolf had a whole line of RPG sourcebooks for the d20 system based on third edition Dungeons & Dragons that was devoted to WoW as a concept. It was itself a sequel to a line of books just focused on Warcraft in general, but the line rebranded, updated and changed, and kept going for a while. Some of the material was later used in the MMORPG, too, but a lot of it wasn’t. It was White Wolf, after all – an outfit that always did its own thing with licensed properties. Like when the studio made a Street Fighter RPG. No, really.
6. Monopoly: World of Warcraft’s Collector’s Edition
This is someone’s monkey’s paw wish. This is cursed. This is a bad thing that should not exist. You can see it now: Someone who is well-intentioned but doesn’t know what is being done sees this in a store, and the thought process goes, “Hey, that’s a video game I know [PERSON X] likes. And it’s Monopoly! What a great holiday present.” And then you open the present, and you have to pretend that you’re happy to get a version of Monopoly, the game that is famously miserable to play and that’s the point. And it was even a rare version so you can’t be mad. 2012, folks. What a time to be alive.
7. World of Warcraft Miniatures Game
It’s all right if you don’t remember this one! It was spun off by Upper Deck Entertainment, the same people who made the card game, and it only got the base set and one expansion before it was cancelled. It exists now in that hazy half-remembered space, like a relic of that time when it seemed like packaged miniature games were the wave of the future. You know, the one that also gave us Mage Knight? Does anyone remember this? There was also that awful Battletech version. Did I dream that?
8. World of Warcraft: Trivial Pursuit
Do you spend far too much time on fan wikis? Are you familiar with far too many details about Azeroth and surrounding locations? Do you get particularly annoyed when someone refers to “the Outlands” because that’s not the name of the land mass, it’s Outland, that’s always what it has been, it is singular and not preceded by “the” and that’s been consistent for years, this isn’t hard, why are you still calling it the wrong thing? Then arguing over these trivia questions around a kitchen table as the timer ticks down to a family-ruining disagreement is probably going to be a time for you! Or at least it was, it came out in 2013, so probably it’s due for a new installment!
(Please do not do that.)
9. World of the Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King – A Pandemic System Board Game
All right, this one feels like cheating. This isn’t really a new board game; it’s Pandemic given a WoW coat of paint and tangentially linked to the idea of the undead plague. It’s like the game is tricking you into playing Pandemic. But it’s hard to be too angry about that because on the other side of this deception is… sitting around a table playing Pandemic with your friends, which is a really fun game! Even after, you know, we all lived through an actual pandemic that wasn’t nearly as cinematic and is still not somehow magically gone. But the game is fun.
10. World of Warcraft: Unshackled – An Escape Room Box
I honestly didn’t know about this game until I started doing research, but to my understanding you basically hide cards and turn a normal room into a WoW-themed escape room simulation, which means that… by the strictest definition this is arguably not a tabletop game? But close enough. It sounds rather interesting just the same, although it does not seem to have been particularly well-loved. The escape scenarios are also all based around in-game locales, for the record, so you will not have to Escape The Terrible Raid Before You Lose An Entire Evening or Avoid Talking To The Player You Knew A Decade Ago Who Wants To Recruit You To Pump A Crypto Coin.
Everyone likes a good list, and we are no different! Perfect Ten takes an MMO topic and divvies it up into 10 delicious, entertaining, and often informative segments for your snacking pleasure. Got a good idea for a list? Email us at justin@massivelyop.com or eliot@massivelyop.com with the subject line “Perfect Ten.”
