Exploring Themes - Exploration and Lost Worlds

Like games, this blog is constantly growing and evolving and with the bear of a review that I posted on Friday, I thought I'd keep things a bit lighter this time around. I've spent the last several months taking time on Mondays to post lists of games that had specific mechanics that they shared in common with one another as well as sprinkling in a few "Top 10", or "10 Games" lists in with the posts.

It's been a great time for me to look into the various mechanics of games that I like to play and really taking the time to dive deep into the various things that tie them all together to talk about what games I like to play, have played, and currently have in my collection. But my collection is actually fairly small compared to many of you (I only have 70 total in my collection not including expansions) and I'm running out of ways to include games from my collection that aren't necessarily ones that I would recommend.

Its been a really weird season of my life since my mother-in-law has been diagnosed with cancer, and I'm currently the only source of income for my family, so that means that my game purchases have significantly declined. On the other side of the coin, my mom has moved up to live less than 15 minutes away from me, and I now have a regular gaming group that I'm meeting with on Fridays every week and I'm generally getting two to three plays per day of board games (which is beyond exciting for me). I've also managed to add a few more friends that I play games with, even at work, and that's allowed me to not only play more games, but also try more new games since there are many that my friends own that I don't personally own.

It's been interesting to see my habits change from playing video games every night to playing board games, but I have found that I'm much more likely to get Sarah involved in a board game rather than playing a video game with her. As most users here on BGG, I've got a constant wishlist of games that I want to add to my collection and like a dragon with it's hoard, I'm loathe to give up games that enter my collection unless absolutely necessary.

So to twist things up, I thought that I'd start doing a few posts about another part of games that I personally find the most intriguing: theming. There's so many different themes out there and there's so many games that can be categorized into various themes that can result in quite a few posts about the same themes, even if five or six games are included in each post. Unlike my posts regarding mechanics, I'll be a bit more liberal with the games that I include on these lists to include games that I've heard about but have not had an opportunity to play. That should allow for more games to end up on these posts and not limit me to the ones that are only in my collection, thus reducing overlap of games on these posts.

For this first post, I thought that I'd talk about a theme that's been on my mind lately, and is featured in quite a few games in my collection: exploration of ancient ruins or acting as an explorer in an uncharted land. It is so interesting to me that there are so many different games that I own that fit this theme and make me realize that I tend towards games that are adventure-based and have more of a bent in that direction.

These covers just give me the chills in the best way possible.

The 7th Continent and it's expansion The 7th Continent: What Goes Up, Must Come Down both are recent additions to my collection and it's been one of my favorite games of the last year, easily shooting to the top of my list at #1, mainly due to the amount of exploration that can be done in the game. After obtaining the game, I've sunk at least seven hours+ on the game in just my first playthrough and I keep wanting to go back to it, especially since this is the first curse that I've been fighting and I have a feeling that I'll be playing through all of the curses contained within the box (I think it's 10 with the expansion). It's such an intriguing world that has been built with 7th Continent and I find myself wanting to check every potential route and location despite knowing that it will most likely result in my death. With so much to explore and find, I'm absolutely certain that I'll be playing this for quite some time now and with the release of The 7th Citadel by Serious Poulp recently, I'm absolutely certain that I'll be picking up a copy of that for my collection too.

As much as I would love to post photos of my playthrough of the game, it is specifically designed to have as little shown of it as possible as to not ruin the secrets that are liberally scattered through the game. Part of the fun of learning about the game is finding the secrets that are hidden in the massive deck that this game is built from and learning to adapt what might be thrown at the character during the game. I really loved the Choose Your Own Adventure games as a kid and this feels like a truly natural progression of that kind of story.

Next we have Cartographers and it's sequel Cartographers Heroes which tasks players with mapping out newly unexplored territory at the behest of your queen. While the theme is loosely hinted at through the gameplay, it does present an interesting idea to me as the basic premise of the game really is what drives the actions that players take, and yet there's not really any story to what you are doing aside from making a map of what you've explored on behalf of the Queen.

Interestingly enough, the game map is built out as players play the game, which is why I've included it in this list, since you're exploring and adding in new features to your map as you build it. What I find the most interesting is the game relies on the players to build their own idea of what story is behind the gameplay and what you encounter as you build the map. While objectives might change from game to game, there's a general sense of exploration that pervades through the entire game as you play, which I thoroughly enjoy as I play Cartographers.

There's also several map pack expansions and skills that can be added to the base game and I'm probably going to get them to expand my collection of just the base game at this time.

The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth is the next one that I want to include and while it technically could more fall into the "Adventure" category with it's theming, I do think that there's enough ruins and dilapidated structures for me to include it on this list. The world of Tolkien is permeated by history, especially some of the later books, as he built several entire Ages that span millennia before The Lord of the Rings take place. While Journeys in Middle Earth is more adjacent to the books than actual canon, it's still a fun experience to be in the world again outside of the movies and books. Plus, there are multiple expansions, both physical and digital for the game that allow players to play and replay the game in different ways with new enemies and encounters.

I can't make this list without including Lost Ruins of Arnak because it's the epitome of a game that's themed around exploring lost ruins lost in the jungle. I personally loved my time in the game and there's so much to learn about as you play the game that the sense of exploration pervades everything that you do. Players explore various parts of the jungle and encounter guardians, increase the information on your research track, and add new cards based on resources spent during the game. It's definitely dripping in the theme and has actually been one of my favorite games that I've played this year so far.

The final game that I want to include on this list is Escape: The Curse of the Temple as it also drips theme, being all about escaping a temple in real time. I love that the theme is what the game is built around with players having to cooperatively work together in order to get rid of cursed gems and find a way out of the temple, all while under a strict time limit that requires players to return to the central chamber twice before escaping the titular temple. All actions are taken by rolling dice and with the game being played in real-time, it makes for a stressful and fun experience.

While there are quite a few more games that I could include on the list, I think that I've run through enough with this post so it doesn't get too wordy. I'm liking this layout and I might continue to write blog posts about various themes that interest me and games in those categories. While every game that I've listed here is one that I own, there were a few more that I wanted to include, but have chosen to hold off since I thought they didn't truly fit the theme that I was exploring (pun not intended) with this blog post.

Give me your thoughts:What are some games that have the exploration of ancient ruins theme in them that I haven't listed here? Are there any games that have the theme initially, but don't really tap into it at all, using it only as a skin for the gameplay? What theme would you like me to write about next?

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*Originally posted on BoardGameGeek on 3/6/2024*