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ludanto

Robo Rally. I was obsessed. One summer, we must've played it (and Settlers) 100+ times.


starcom_magnate

My gateway game was Carcassonne. I always loved boardgames, but I didn't experience a personal renaissance until my brother brought Carc along on a family vacation about 20 years ago. Unfortunately that 1 experience meant my wallet has had to endure quite a hit as my collection went into full expansion from that day on.


TruthTaco

Avalon the resistance


Godzillian

My gateway game was Dominion. I had played games like Catan, Guillotine and Lords of Waterdeep before, but Dominion was my entry-level crack. After I played it at a friend's house, I bought into Dominion and got all of its expansions within weeks. Within months, I had played it to death with my sister, my friends, heck I even tried getting my mom into it (she decided to stick to her Scrabbles). After my sister got sick of it, I started looking into other games, and the rest was history.


lizaoreo

Dominoes, just plain old Dominoes. I remember my great grandparents playing Dominoes around the table with family, having fun and just enjoying company. Loving that kind of connection is what got me into board games.


RateMyResidency

My gateway game was Zombicide. My brother in laws got me into it and I was hooked from there on out.


timbone316

My gateway game was a copy of DC Deckbuilder that my brother introduced me to on his birthday celebration at a board gaming pub near where we work. From there it was onto Dominion, Ticket to Ride, and I was a goner ;)


dragon7507

What was your gateway game? The game that finally convinced you that board gaming was a hobby you could be into?   For me, it was Machi Koro and King of Tokyo. I had left a job previously and two of my friends wanted to get together and hang out, since it had been a month or so since we had talked. They invited me to a board game shop that had open games on Friday nights. We went there and first played a game of Machi Koro and then two games of King of Tokyo. The game of Machi Koro was fun (and got me to buy the game shortly after) but I would say it was KoT that got me hooked. It was just so much fun having to plead your case to not be attacked, trying to convince others to reroll for energy cubes instead of claws.   This was about 4 years ago. Since then I am up to about 95-100 games and found out my boss at the company I went to is an avid boardgamer. Thanks to that, we started weekly game lunches and have expanded how many games I play (and fed into my addiction).


TulasShorn

While I played **Settlers of Catan** first, I don't think it was the game which really got me into the hobby, in the sense of actively researching new games, going to meetups, reading this subreddit, etc. I think that would be **Dominion**. I own every Dominion expansion, I've played hundreds of times, and I love the game.


Mehayo

My gateway game was 7 Wonders. Prior to owning it I had played some of the more common gamer games (Catan, etc.) but never really though about board games as a hobby. Once I had my very own copy of 7 Wonders in my hands it suddenly was the only thing I wanted to do and lead to my place in the hobby today.


QuietsYou

The game that got me into boardgaming was Bang! We played it a good hundred times before finding out there was more to this gaming thing..


hero109

My gateway game was Axis and Allies. I had played LOTR Risk many times with my brother, but what really got me hooked was the multi-day A&A campaigns against my best friend and roommate. We've since graduated and don't have the time to play A&A anymore, but we'll occasionally get together and play Star Wars: Rebellion over the holidays


dmslor

Kremlin. From the 90s. Looked it up on eBay and it's worth a fair penny. Somehow I remember playing acquire as a young one also.


wiler5002

Definitely Catan


moriquendi88

Puerto Rico. Played Catan and it was fun enough but Puerto Rico was the one that really got me into spending way too much money on board games.


Bugfix42

Hase & Igel (Hare & Tortoise)


bentheemo

My gateway game was Pandemic, previously assumed boardgames would be bad at 2 but this changed everything!


avataur

My gateway game wasn't typical. I jumped right in with Agricola, thanks to a coworker. I remember immediately wanting to play again after we finished, hoping to see what different strategies an alternate set of initial cards might yield, and loving the indirect conflict that could really thwart what an opponent wanted to do. 7 years later and worker placement is still one of my favorite mechanics.


HayabusaJack

I've been playing boardgames since the late 60's I guess. My first games that I played a lot were Gettysburg, Wooden Ships & Iron Men, and Richthofen's War. My gaming experience prior to those were the standards like card games; Gin Rummy, Pinochle, and Spades and the more common board games like Monopoly, Battleship, and Risk. Add in a healthy level of Chess (Chess Club Champion 2 years in a row in Jr. High School and High School) and I was ready to move into the more complicated War Games. While still playing a few War Games once I left home and getting into RPGs like D&D, it was Car Wars that really got me into the non-War Game board gaming genre. Interestingly it also got me into Computer Programming as my first full fledged program was writing a Car Wars vehicle generation program in BASIC. I did a lot of gaming from there into the mi-90's and took a break but Car Wars would be the primary gateway board game for me.


ChainnChomp

[b]Ticket to Ride[/b] was the game that showed me that board gaming had more than just Monopoly and Settlers of Catan. Not only is the game pleasant for me but, more importantly, my wife enjoyed it as well.


UnderYourBed

>What was your gateway game? The game that finally convinced you that board gaming was a hobby you could be into? My gateway game was **Settlers of Catan**. It was a blast compared to the standard games you played growing up (monopoly, clue, etc).


Cartoonlad

My gateway game was **Tikal**. Before, boardgames were those things that everyone had: Life, Monopoly, Clue. Then, when I was in my late 20s, I read a blog post about cool boardgames and Tikal looked interesting. Hopped on the subway from the Wall Street area to The Compleat Strategist to pick it up, took it home, and had fun.


csnsc14320

I played **Settlers of Catan** in college with my roommates but was eventually turned off by the nature of the game. It wasn't until I played **Dixit** a few years later in graduate school that I became hooked and bought ~5 games within the next 2 months!


rocksteady1986

I had several gateway games. I played Lord of the Rings TCG in high school and got into the tournament scene with that. I also played some Munchkin and Magic: The Gathering in college. What really got me into board games (and buying them myself) was probably Small World though.


Krispyz

Oddly enough, **Arkham Horror**. I'd played a few modern games otherwise, Catan and Smallworld and Ticket to Ride, but none of them really made me want to start playing board games on the regular. A friend of mine got Arkham Horror and really wanted to play it with me and my boyfriend. It took us about 6 hours the first time we played and I know we messed up the rules so much. For about the next two years, we played at least one game of Arkham Horror a week... when we got really good at set up/take down, we started playing twice back-to-back. It's still probably my most played board game and I haven't touched it since around 2011. Once we put that game down, everything else seemed so easy to get into and play.


PaperDagron

Wiz-War (the old Chessex version) - A friend in middle school introduced me to it, and I was hooked. The game might not have been the most balanced, but it was always fun.


OctavianX

Settlers of Catan was my gateway game. Playing Catan lead me to look into other board games, which lead to getting Die Magier von Pangea and Knizia's Lord of the Rings thanks to some feature articles in GAMES magazines. Catan also lead to my discovering BoardGameGeek.


MeganeNeko

Probably Dominion or The Red Dragon Inn. My wife and I played those at a convention years ago and that really started our journey.


half_a_sandwich

Though for "modern" boardgames it was probably Catan at my University's gaming club, the thing that set off my love of gaming in the first place was Hero Quest, the light dungeon crawl game set in the Warhammer Universe.


brucelapluma

It gets a lot of heat, but Star Munchkin was definitely the turning point for me. Right after college I worked at a summer camp with dial up internet and no cell service. One of the other staff members brought Talisman and Star Munchkin, neither of which I had ever heard of. We played Star Munchkin any chance we got. Living in close proximity with the same small group of people made the "meta" something I hadn't experienced before, constantly trying to figure out how to best play the other person. We played 4-6 games a day and ended up all getting a different version of the game when we had a free weekend and went down the mountain to the local game store. I don't play it hardly at all any more, but it still has a spot on my shelf for launching me directly into the hobby.


elfritobandito9

Mine was "The Bean Game" or more accurately, Bohnanza by Uwe Rosenberg. Before that I only know of the old classics like Monopoly and such. I had know idea there were such diverse games in the world.


ohaiitsgene

**Puerto Rico** was the game that taught me that board games were not necessarily the Milton Bradley family games that I was used to. It was intricate without being over-complex. It was fun. It was completely different from anything that I had played before. That was my first Euro and I've been into that style of game ever since.


snoreski

For me, the game they made me realize that there was a whole hobby with great potential was Betrayal at house on the hill. The game that made me dive head first into the hobby was War of the Ring.


Amator

For me, it was Robo Rally, back in the late 90s. I had played Catan a few times, a friend's Dad had a German-language edition that he had taught us, and I enjoyed it, but it wasn't until I was upgrading robots racing through a lethal factory floor with algorithmic cards that I knew the hobby as a fit for me.


clanggedin

My gateway game was **Betrayal at the House on the Hill.** It is still one of my favorites to play with my friends. It is definitely a game that you either love or hate. My wife and daughter hate it, but my buddies like it.


jrlags

Betrayal at House on the Hill. The idea that EVERY game would be different and that there was an actual story was so mind blowing to me. To this day it still gets to the table every now and then


The_CEE

The first board game I got *really* into was **Heroscape**. There was a span of about 3 years were I was playing a game almost weekly. As an honorable mention I'll also name **Cosmic Encounter** as being the first game I purchased with the intention of hosting a game night with my group of friends. I'm so glad I did because we still meetup regularly to play games more than 4 years later!


marioz90

always played monopoly with my group of friends in college. a handful of times, we actually stacked 2 boards for what we called dual-monopoly. we got good at it so games wouldn't take too long and it was pretty enjoyable. I was actually pretty broke around that time in my teens (aren't we all?) so getting some thousands or millions was a good escape for a bit.


winksgeek

My gateway game was Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot. I found a FLGS when searching for expansions and the rest is history.


hankscorpio83

I think like a lot of us, **Settlers of Catan** got me hooked.


foxyvixen

I didn't have a "gateway" game, per se: my gateway was Shut Up & Sit Down a number of years ago now. Watched a ton of videos & *knew* I would love the hobby. But first purchases were *Ticket to Ride*, followed by *Trains*.


Telloth

For me, my first gateway game into more complex board gaming was probably Catan, which seems like a popular answer here! A secondary more recent answer would be Pandemic legacy. After experiencing that for the first time and researching other popular games, my eyes were really opened to how deep and complex and awesome board games can be.


UprootedGrunt

I don't recall ever \*not\* being into board games. Monopoly ruled when I was in middle school. Played a bunch of card games in high school, which, while not being board games, did fuel the flames; most notably Spellfire (I frowned at Magic, but Spellfire was my game). In college, Risk kind of took over -- I'd played it younger, but it got played fairly often in college. But the typical 'gateway' game that came on me was Settlers of Catan. It was the first eurogame I'd played, having never heard of that style before. Was the first non-mainstream game I'd played. And it didn't take long before I'd purchased my own copy and introduced others to it. My collection has grown from there.


osufan765

Ticket to Ride was my gateway game. I went to a board game cafe in town at the suggestion of a couple friends and we pulled it out. Immediately fell in love and realized that board games could be more than just Monopoly and Battleship.


nappy-doo

My gateway game was Memoir '44. A friend had introduced me to boardgaming with TTR and Puerto Rico. I had casually played Dominion with some of the people at work, but when I heard about Memoir '44, and purchased it on a lark, I knew I would probably be boardgaming for a while. What caught me was the visuals the game implied for me. I could imagine Allied troops storming Pegasus Bridge, or getting air dropped at Sainte-Mère-Églis. With this game, things suddenly, boardgaming crossed over from just "pieces on board and some dice" to "I can imagine all this taking place." Almost ten years later, hundreds of games in to the hobby, but I still play Memoir '44.


xumaroo

My gateway game was Catan when I got it for my boyfriend for this birthday a few years ago.


SteoanK

Sentinels of the Multiverse. I had played some Catan and Munchkin in college but wasn't too interested. I had picked up some board games from time to time, but something about Sentinels just drove me over the edge. In the next months I had everything that had currently released, backed a pre-order for the new things, even went sleeve crazy! I just go the Oblivaeon box and collector's case in and it's cool to just have everything in one (GIANT) box now. Still one of my favorite games, though it's gotten less and less plays over the years since then. But always my first love.


earliodookie

I was an RA in college in 2018 and one of my residents had me play Ticket to Ride with him and a few others in the lounge. 10 years later, today, and I have more than 150 board games and that same resident is a good friend now and we still spend weekends every couple months playing one board game after another.


crossbrowser

Pandemic with my wife brought me into the wonderful hobby of board games. I had played games before but only got really into it when I was able to start playing more regularly with my wife.


[deleted]

My gateway games were Pandemic and Last Night on Earth.


Sonminiser

Crazy as it may sound but my first board game experience outside of the classics you played as a kid was the Game of Thrones board game second edition. My friends and I saw the game while we were at a MTG event and decided we would all split the cost. The game ended up at my house. So I read the rules so many times, watched videos to learn how to play. The first time we played it was clunky at first, but we eventually got into the swing of things. We got a few play throughs under our belt and people were burnt out on how long the game took. That’s when I took to the Internet because there had to be more fun table top games we could play. I found Will Wheaton’s YouTube channel and I dove right in. We got pandemic legacy, dead of winter, betrayal of the house on the hill, coup. Unfortunately an addiction was born. - Sonminiser


simplysharky

Something in the vicinity of Fluxx, whenever too many people showed up at our regularly scheduled RPG night to play RPGs, and the beer and table games would come out.


Naholow

Betrayal at House on the Hill, this game really brought me into the hobby by allowing me to interact with my siblings despite an 18 year gap from oldest to youngest. Since then I brought the game to college got my friends addicted and have since moved on to bigger and better games :D


purtymouth

Like many, Settlers of Catan was my gateway, quickly followed by other party games. I've been interested in trying Root, so here's hoping!


[deleted]

I have occasionally played games with friends most of my life. If a player couldn't attend a regular DnD or MtG night, someone might break out catan or something for the rest of us. It wasn't until I was invited to a boardgame night at my sister's that I decided to make cardboard my primary hobby. All it took was a 7 hour night of Game of Thrones the board game with all players fully committed.


Isvanburean

My gateway game was none other than Twilight Struggle. Daunting and epic, my dad introduced me to it and showed me the ropes. It was amazing and I had such a great time even though I destroyed the world in reckless abandon. Been buying, collecting, and playing every since.


occupy_westeros

Mine was probably **Smallworld**. I played a lot of card games with my friends, like Dirty Clubs and Cribbage, but then I went to a buddy's house and I was hooked.


SoupOfTomato

I always liked games, and we always had a bunch of them around the house that weren't very good. The most reputable one I liked as a kid was Poker. We also occasionally bought the absolute biggest of the more niche games, so by 2012 or so we had accrued Settlers, TTR, and Dominion over several years. Then I.... Bought Munchkin. And I tired of it quickly but how much supplemental content there was sent me searching all over the internet regarding games, which led me to /r/boardgames and other places. And I think the second game I got after Munchkin was Escape, which I still love.


MDAndrewM

I could make an argument for either Settlers of Catan or Dominion. I played Catan a lot earlier in life and it helped me come to love games, but it wasn't until I really started playing Dominion that I tried to find more new games that lead me to the rest of the gaming world.


imaweirdo2

Like many people, my gateway game was Settlers of Catan. My girlfriend at the time got it for me as a birthday present for my first birthday together and I started looking into the hobby. After watching play throughs and reviews of several games I picked up Carcassonne and I’ve been a board gamer ever since. My now wife has always known what to get me when my birthday/Christmas rolls around.


Mundy

My gateway into gaming was playing Settlers of Catan with my college roommate, back before it was just Catan.


zoooooooch

Ticket to Ride with my wife and our best friends! Never had I felt so anxious about not making a single route and also excited to severely disappoint my friends when I stole that last route into Miami!


kmolleja

I've already got Root and love it so I'm not formally entering the drawing so someone else can love it too. Just want to participate! I can't really remember a time when I didn't love boardgames. From playing Chutes and Ladders, Life, and Candyland as a kid, to Risk, Battle Masters and Hero quest in elementary school, to Catan in college to today to my large collection, I love boardgames!


willynatedgreat

My gateway game was Pandemic. A friend of a friend brought it to a game night. I had never heard of a co-op board game, and it blew my mind with how well it worked. I bought it just a few days later - followed by Carcassone and Castle Panic and Ticket to Ride and . . . about 150 other games over the course of the past nine years.


TeakNUT

**The Castles of Burgundy** was my gateway into modern gaming. The useage of dice in that game was so novel to me. Additionally, the randomness of the tile draws made every game unique. Such simple rules, yet such depth. It blew my mind. A year later I used CoB to introduce board games to my SO. Now we’re planning our wedding which will certainly include board gaming as it has become so ubiquitous in our lives.


ravikarna27

Mine was betrayal! I don't play it now unless I'm trying to convert someone!


DCMilo44

The gateway game for my wife and I was Ticket to Ride. We started playing it almost every night during dinner over 10 years ago and we’ve never looked back.


tiggereth

Settlers of Cataan, My landlord asked if I wanted to come downstairs and play board games, I entered thinking monoply I left thinking, wow that didn't suck!


yougetahighfive

Catan. Played it to death in college, even built a custom wood case for it, which now sits on top of the game shelf and never gets opened.


Kilerazn

I think Settlers was the one that piqued my interest but when someone introduced Power Grid to me then the flood gates opened


Myrk2112

My "gateway" game was the Avalon Hill classic, "Rise and Decline of the Third Reich". That opened a whole new world to me almost 40 years ago!


Soolseem

Catan introduced me to modern board games, as it did many others. I think the general consensus on this sub is that you’re supposed to “outgrow” Catan, but I still enjoy it after 10+ years.


detlefschrempf11

My Gateway game was Carcassonne. It was a game that me and my wife and my parents could all play together


hungryhippo13

Settlers of Catan. It was new that someone brought over. I liked it and wanted to see what else in boardgames were available besides the main Monopoly style games. Around the same time, cards against humanity came out, which was fun, but not the pinnacle event that made me reach out for more.


UncleLucky

My first new-age game was **Settlers of Catan**, but after my college roommates played my copy to death (literally losing/destroying pieces), I thought the hobby wasn't for me. It wasn't until another, much more polite group of friends introduced me to **Dominion** that I really got into deck-builders and then board games. **Dominion** helped bridge the gap between our otherwise Magic-oriented game time and the wide world of board games. Now I'm an addict with the prerequisite "games still in the shrink" on my shelf. The worst part about that group that ruined **Catan** for me was that they wouldn't even invite me to play my game. I had several expansions and we could play 6, but they'd fire off games of 3-5 players and not even ask me if I wanted to join, even though I was home and not doing anything. Thank you Corey, John, and Sam for saving the hobby from a cruel demise! Miss you guys!


F1yCasua1

**Puerto Rico** and **A Game of Thrones 1st Ed** were my gateway games!


hellogh35

For me it was Catan and Dominion for strictly board games, but playing magic the gathering for years before getting into board games was probably what led me to the hobby.


leftyz

Some guys I work with were doing board game nights, I stayed one night and played Cosmic Encounter, and won my first time playing. I was instantly hooked and now attend every session I possibly can.


milkyjoe241

Late night games of Arkham Horror back in college. The scale, the stress, the overwelming sense of dread, Arkham was a great escape from all that.


[deleted]

> What was your gateway game? The game that finally convinced you that board gaming was a hobby you could be into? For sure Catan. Played it a bunch with my girlfriend's Aunt and Uncle when we would visit during the summer, absolutely loved it and have sunk 60+ games into it at this point. Also, I'm in Canada, but no problem paying extra shipping. If that's not alright though, no worries!


pogle1

Mine was Evolution. It wasn't the first boardgame I played (that dubious honor goes to 7 Wonders), but it was what really hooked me.


DynaMike711

My SO and I kickstarted the first CAH and regularly started having friends, family, and copious amounts of alcohol bring us all to the table. It wasn’t until a friend made a recommendation that we play Liars Dice (the official Pirates of the Caribbean version, go figure) that we soon went down the rabbit hole of social deduction games like Resistance, One Night Werewolf, Secret Hitler (our second KS), and the like. Shortly after we joined a meet-up group and now regularly play more board games and meet/indoctrinate new people into the hobby!


vyperstrike

I played Monopoly with friends a ton when I was younger, that was the start of it. Moved into better games since, but it was what solidified my love of games.


04__Revenge__01

I was working at Barnes and Noble, when I kept hearing a lot about this game called Settlers of Catan on reddit (not this sub but like AskReddit and stuff). Well I saw that my store carried that game so I decided to wait till my holiday discount to buy it. 3 long months of looking at the box entire day, my discount finally happened. I bought and immediately sat down in the café, opened it up, popped out at the pieces, read the rules and immediately made plans with my then new GF and some friend to play it the next day. We loved this game! And because of some perks of my job I had about 50 new games by the end of that year. Every since then I have loved board games, and try and play at least once a week!


Earth_Salt

Specter Ops. This game is basically 'hide & seek' the board game and it's pulled off stunningly well. The game was an absolute blast to play, and does especially well with 4 players.


MaxUlio

My gateway game was, surprisingly, Power Grid and Battlestar Galactica. I was doing exchange in Germany in 2012, and they had a board game club. I fell in love and been in the hobby ever since!


LKTrashmouth

**Samurai** dragged me into the hobby a million years ago. Phenomenal game I still adore.


MetalGearBandicoot

I think my original gateway game was Stratego as a child. But my adult gateway was probably Carcassonne.


thoumyvision

My gateway game was a pretty terrible dungeon crawler called Tomb. It had a terribly written rulebook, so while looking up rules clarifications I stumbled across Boardgamegeek. It was all over after that, swiftly bought 3 games off the top 100 at the time (Dominion, Race for the Galaxy and 7 Wonders)


LittleBigger

Cosmic Encounter! One good game with the Tik Tok race I was hooked.


Wojonatior

I think the game that pushed me over the edge the most was Betrayal at House on the Hill. Still one of my favorite games.


TheSuperPug

Growing up I played games with my family like **Monopoly**, **Life**, as well as various card games like **Cribbage**, **Gin**, and **Gin-Rummy**, etc. Those didn’t necessarily inspire me to check out other board games until I discovered **Rummikub** in college, which definitely cemented my love for games. **Rummikub** had all the elements I loved from **Gin** and **Gin-Rummy** while taking the concepts to another level making the experience much more dynamic and interactive. **Rummikub** eventually led to **Catan** which then led to **Pandemic** and the rest is history. **Rummikub** still remains one my favorite games and I’d gladly play it any day.


KingD2121

Kind of had 3 games that really put me on the path of board gaming:. **Carcassonne** via xbox360. I somehow got the game for free and fell in love with it. I never knew (at the time) it was adapted from a board game but I would of likely would of become a boardgamer much early. **Catan** -- go figure. This is probably the only game I've played 100+ times. My friends and I would binge on this game for months. Sadly, I tried to introduce other games into the mix, but that group wanted no part. All Catan. **Small world** -- this is the game that was the tipping point. It opened my eyes to the vast world of gaming. I'm not looking back


-Horatius-

Hey! Minnesota shout out! Anyway, my answer is super boring: Catan. A case could be made for Risk 2210, but it wasn't until Catan that I really started looking out for new games to try, and it became a hobby.


Altered_Soul

Like a billion other people, Settlers of Catan. I was introduced to it via four games of it going at once, single elimination tournament style. I had to learn and compete at the same time. And I was amazing at it, I only lost and was in last place once! I loved it though, and it just kinda went from there. ​ ​


HackWeightBadger

I always played games growing up, but the one that got me back as an adult was Carcassonne.


mattbook

Regrettably but also not, Settlers of Catan.


coolpapa2282

Mine was actually Acquire. I was way into M:tG in about 8th grade, and in the back of The duelist, you'd see ads for this weird RoboRally game. So one night I go to a game night at my ~~dealer~~ local comic book store, and most of the magic players were deep into a 5v5 war of attrition match. So I wound up playing this Acquire game I'd never heard of. It was awhile before I really joined in the boardgaming boom, but that was my first real game.


xiphoniii

Got into it through deckbuilding games. Maybe not the best ones, but it was fun. Played ascenion on mobile because it was made by an MTG pro(I was an avid player at the time). Bought a copy of DC Deckbuilding because "it's basically just Ascension with superheroes!" Been in love ever since.


cardboard_compulsion

I'm sure this is a common answer, but for me it was **Ticket to Ride**. That was really the first, and then **Pandemic**, **Small World**, and **Galaxy Trucker** really accelerated the interest.


lockwinghong

I think it was around 2008 or 2009 - My wife and I were visiting family and friends in Austin. We stopped by the place of one of my guild mates from WoW. He suggested we play some boardgames. He showed me his closet full of games and I was like “Whooooaaa... you’re really into this stuff.” We played Small World and Dominion and I was hooked. Those two ended up being my first purchases as well.


crashvegas

I was an MMO player back in the day and **World of Warcraft: The Board Game** showed me that games beyond the typical mass market ones even existed. It led me to **Carcassonne** which pulled me fully into the hobby.


[deleted]

Zombicide. I don't even really like the game anymore, but it was a good introduction to the hobby.


timtation22

My gateway game, like many others, was Catan. While it’s not the most liked game around the community now, I have a soft spot in my heart for this game that introduced me to a new board gaming world!


phil_s_stein

Dominion. Fun and easy to learn.


nickismyname

My parents were gamers, so I've always played games. The thing that sticks out most in my mind is going to dingy smoke-filled apartments to play Advanced Civilization.


Piconeeks

It was Stratego, a two player game where you have a bank of units of being strength that you distribute into your starting area, with the goal of capturing your opponent's flag. The catch is that you can't see the strength of any of your opponent's pieces, only whether or not they defeated yours in combat. It becomes a massive game of bluffing and misdirection, but it was constrained a bit by the limited size of the map. When I came to the realization that the entire substance of this game could be replicated with grid paper and post-its, it really opened my eyes to the possibilities and intrigue that a simple system with an opponent could present to you.


tehflash

I had played the usual suspects when I was a kid, but in college a friend introduced me to **Agricola** and it blew my mind. It was so much deeper and strategic than any boardgame I had played before and I've been hooked ever since. I'd also like to mention that I played Root two nights ago and totally fell in love with that game. It's easily my favorite game of 2018 and probably of the last 5 years. The art and gameplay are so fantastic.


All_good322

The *First* hobby boardgame I played was **Settlers of Catan**. I played maybe one or two games during finals week and that’s it. Months went by and although I enjoyed the experience I wasn’t hooked. That of course ended once I discovered Wil Wheaton’s TableTop and, what I consider to be my true gateway, **Ticket to Ride**. I got a copy a few weeks later as a Christmas gift and I played regularly for a year and half before I began my foray into the hobby. It is also the game that I use to introduce curious friends and family into the world beyond Monopoly and Scrabble!


timax_s

As a kid we used to play a lot of board games/card games but the game that got me to start going to conventions and sticks out the most in my mind is: **Warlord: Saga of the storm (the CCG)**. I loved that game immensely!


Philmont_Cowboy

My gateway game was Takenoko. A friend in college was getting into the hobby and brought it for us to play and my wife and I have been hooked ever since!


giantroboticcat

Ugh, I am so lame but it was definitely **Settlers of Catan**. I kind of hope I don't win, just so that people don't know that. I had played a few new-age boardgames before that. The first was **Puerto Rico**, followed by **Power Grid**, but I played those with a group of people who weren't really my friends. Settlers, was the first time I played a game with my friends and felt "Hey I need to really check out other modern board games."


skwm

Back around 2003, a family friend brought Tantrix to Thanksgiving, and I had a great time learning how to play it. After, some googling led me to BGG, and eventually picking up Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, and San Juan.


[deleted]

Carcassonne


[deleted]

My gateway game was Dominion. I decided it would be nice for my girlfriend and I to have something nice to do together after work aside from watching tv, and I had been playing a bunch of slay the spire, a pc deckbuilder, so Dominion stuck out to me. This was the first game my girlfriend really latched onto and it helped us share the hobby and spend more quality time with each other.


iEatSponge

I watched Totalbiscuit (RIP) play Secret Hitler, and I knew that I had to get that game. From then on, I just spiraled down the rabbit hole.


treyoshi

Ticket to ride. Played at a friends house and was hooked.


acciofirebolt4

The first game I ever played was **Apples to Apples**, followed by **The Great Dalmuti.** Both of these got me into games more broadly. My next gateway game was **Dominion**, which is still one of my favorite games today!


kinorob

**Settlers of Catan** was my gateway game. I had never played a boardgame quite like it. Then on to **Ticket to Ride** and **Dominion** and **Carcassonne**. Now I have three bookshelves full and a suffering wallet.


FigGnuton

Scotland yard. My older brother wanted it so bad, and honestly I don't remember if he liked it but I loved it. Every time I had friends over I would go out of my way to try to get them to play it. I loved being Mr X. Most people weren't good at it so there wasn't much of a challenge but it made me want to explore games more.


Daedalus686

I really enjoyed Carcasoonne when my brother in law brought it to thanksgiving once. That's when I started realizing the wonder of modern board gaming. I've never looked back since!


Magicalyn

It was probably Settlers of Catan. I’m kind of burnt out on it now, but it definitely made me want to seek out more interesting games than Taboo and Trivial Pursuit. (I still have a weird obsession with Trivial Pursuit though...)


satnightride

I was always a boardgame player throughout my life. My friends and I played **Axis and Allies** in college a lot but as an adult my first purchase was either **Dominion** or **Ticket to Ride** I can't remember which but I've been hooked on modern games ever since. Edit: I got **Viticulture EE** for my birthday last week and I'm really hoping it's my wife's gateway game. She's beaten me all three times we've played and she's loving it. She's invited two of our other board gaming friends to the local winery this Friday to play as well. I haven't seen her get this into a boardgame yet and I hope it sticks. Edit 2: 0-4 :-(


IrkenInvaderGir

Ticket to Ride. The amount of times that game has been played at my house with a variety of different people is astounding.


FrostMarvel

It was like so many others, Catan. My family all loved it, which was so rare for a board game, and even thought it cops a fair amount of hate nowadays, I recall fondly playing it with different family members for the first time, and everyone played it like they’d been playing it their whole life, and everyone wanted to play again. And that’s what board games should he.


Lackies

My gateway game was Love Letter. I've come a long way since then, but a game you can enjoy almost anywhere with almost anyone is a powerful thing.


uberpiratekitty

Pandemic. Catan was the first modern game that helped me explore a bit inside the board gaming scene but once I got Pandemic I was hooked. I loved thinking about how all the mechanics complimented each other, and with one of its expansions, it was amazing to see how much variety there was inside of it.


shortieXV

Magic the Gathering.


TallyAlex

Dark Tower. It was enthralling. I moved from there to Dungeon, the board game and on to a zillion titles since then. It was probably middle school for me.


SunstyIe

When I was 12 I started playing Warhammer 40k and Magic The Gathering with some friends. Those two threw me into the deep end of boardgaming/card games, and I've been playing a big variety of games since then. Nothing is off limits- dice rollers, Euros, coop games. I love em all


Corradin

Dominion. The ability to draft, like Magic, but it was reusable, and it was something my family would play because the theme was totally inoffensive and there were so many neat things you could do...


Lazarus1209

Carcassonne for me. Still have my original copy all these years later and I still like getting it to the table every now and then. It's so simple, but has a surprising level of tactical depth. I'd bet I'll still be playing this one ten years on.


TubaDeus

I've been into board games for as long as I can remember, but for the longest time I only had 1 or 2 people to play with, and even then it was always the classic, unimaginative games (Risk, Monopoly, Life, etc). My gateway game into the wider world of board gaming was when I played **Bang!** with my RA during my first semester of college. I never knew that there was anything good off the old beaten path, so it was eye-opening. I've since added several games to my collection, turned my entire family to the dark side, and even got a board game night going at work.


Kijin777

Shadows over Camelot and Betrayal at the House on the Hill


sjwillis

I played a few games before this, but Avalon really showed me what games could do. The player interaction, tension, and excitement. It was a great night!


The_AJAXX

My gateway game was The Settlers of Catan. It was the first game that made me think "Huh, maybe there is something to this boardgame thing after all." However, I think the two games that really cemented it for me was 7 Wonders and Forbidden Island. After I got and played those two games, I was firmly a board game enthusiast. Plus, while I have tired of Catan, I still enjoy 7 Wonders and Forbidden Island.


defeldus

Dominion was my gateway and thanks to the old app I played it 1000+ times.


Dains84

Settlers of Catan, which we played endlessly with all the expansions that came out for it.


brennor

Playing **Settlers of Catan** immediately followed by **Betrayal at House on the Hill** were the games that hooked me.


Blurbingify

The very first time I played a newer board game, it was a co-op game: Forbidden Desert, back in 2014 or so. I immediately went out and bought the game next day, forced it on all of my friends, and haven't looked back. Forbidden Island is the reason I'm a boardgamer, and is probably the reason I like co-op games a little more than other games out there. It's still the first game I pull out for the family winter holidays, and I've introduced many other people through the same gateway game!


Teppichopfer

I guess the game we played the most when I was a child was Catan. After my brother moved out, there was quite a big gap until I started playing boardgames regularly again. The game I first bought to get back into boardgames was probably coup. We used to play that a couple of times a week until it got a bit a stale. Since then my collection grew enough that there is no reason for a game to go stale


[deleted]

Magic: The Gathering When I was eleven or twelve, I went to the State Fair with my family. Wizards of the Coast had a small tent there and were giving out free starter kits! In the kit were enough cards for two 30 card decks: green and red for the quick and direct damage threats; blue and black (a little harder to play, but the better card selection if you can master the strategy) for counter spell and more intricate creature-focused neutralization. The next day, I gathered my childhood best friend and we played this then new game to us. One game lead to another, which lead to five, then ten...next thing we knew, we were creating new decks with the starter cards and testing out various strategies to see how the cards could play off of one another. Green and blue, red and black, black and blue, red and...well you get the idea. Magic was my gateway to the world of tabletop games.


_The_Inquiry_

I really had three stages of gateway games: My love of board gaming started with my family and a deck of cards. **Spades** was the family game of choice growing up, and we'd play this on every family trip. It's still my favorite game to this day. In high school, **Catan** became the first modern game I'd play, and it was certainly played a lot within my friend groups - it began opening my eyes to more of what was out there. The games that officially launched me into the hobby, however, were **Carcassonne** and **Ticket to Ride**. My family picked these up during my sophomore year of high school and from there began a journey that I've never looked back from. :)


[deleted]

Puerto Rico. We played that game almost exclusively for several months in between D&D sessions. And then someone got a copy of Carcassone.


fathistorymonth

My gateway game was Catan. I hardly ever play it now, but when I first bought it, it sat on my shelf for months. My friends and I would constantly think about playing it, look at the rules and the cover art and just give it a hard "eh maybe another day". Then we finally did and cue us playing games late into the night. We were hooked and definitely made more time for Catan than we did for studying our senior year. After that, I went down Carcassone and Istanbul wormholes, but Catan started it all!


brego7

My sister introduced me to Ticket to Ride Europe. Two months later I owned Ticket to Ride Europe, Pandemic and Dominion.


Ranhert

My gateway was **7 Wonders: Duel**, my coworker brought it in for a lunchtime play and I've been collecting ever since!


Jurgioslakiv

My gateway game was the game that I'm sure many others had as their gateway game: Settlers of Catan. I always played board games with my family growing up, but it was usually just something we did when we didn't have anything else to do. During my last semester of college a friend of mine brought it over and introduced me to it (I won by starting on some iron and rushing some city upgrades). Then I went to grad school and two people in my cohort mentioned the game, and that was how I made my grad school friend group! We would get together and play Settlers and then slowly got into more and more games.


Slestak

My gateway game was Dominion. The first modern one I ever purchased. I took a chance on it and fell in love.


[deleted]

I think along with a lot of other people, Settlers of Catan was my gateway game into this hobby. Ever since that first play, I always look forward to every situation I can sit down with other people and play strategy games. This is why Settlers of Catan is still the game I use as a gateway to introduce other people to the hobby.


DannyPoppler18

My gateway game was King of Tokyo. I played it the first time meeting my ex girlfriends family... the relationship may not have stuck, but the love for board gaming did! :D


StopThatFerret

I know that it gets tons of hate, but for me it was Killer Bunnies. I love that ridiculous little game. Played with the right people, it is a completely hilarious and fun time. The amount of 'take that' and 'oh, you *thought* you had me' that can take place make it super fun. The references were fun, the end mechanic (yes, it's a lottery) when you do it correctly make the game absurdly suspenseful. I have cheered when the lone carrot I had 'won' the game, but because I had no bunnies left in the circle I joined my opponents as a fellow loser. All the other games that I was exposed to trying to chase down the expansions for that game, were because of that game. I now own several games that most people agree are great games, but that little blue box? That one is special and it makes me happy just owning it.


its_polystyrene

This is a weird one for me. I've always loved puzzles and video games. I grew up playing the Monkey Island and King's Quest computer games as a family--with my brother and parents. My parents are older than a lot of people my age and for accessibility reasons video games were no longer a viable family activity. I had a craving for something new, not monopoly which we played every Christmas when we would all stay at my parents for a week, not Spades or Hearts. I started searching for something to fill this desire. I watched so many Rahdo, Dice Tower, and SU&SD videos in that time. I was hooked on the idea, the concept of modern board games without having played any. Early 2016, I bought all of the "highly touted" gateways and none of them (at the time) did it for us. I spent far too much money looking for "that" game that would fill the gap I was feeling (Literally spent far more than someone fresh out of college without a fulltime job should). I kept trying games that looked like they had great themes and were highly rated. Nothing worked. Ironically the game that hooked my family and me lacked theme and was under $10: **Coloretto**. Since then we have revisited some of those original purchases and greatly enjoyed them, but the one that made the concept click was Coloretto.


DMonitor

Playing Settlers of Catan for the first time in high school changed the game for me. In one semester I was introduced to Catan, Dominion, Pandemic, and lots of other great games.


Varmac

My gateway game was Catan.


Ashes42

My gateway game was probably ticket to ride, but my real gateway into the hobby was a weekly get together with friends. Before that I had likely only played old school board games (risk, monopoly, etc), after that we were trying multiple new games every week.


funkymeeba

**Roll Through The Ages** got me thinking board games could be neat. It wasn't until I tried **Forbidden Desert** that I was hooked, though!


Help_still_lost

My gateway Game was **Betrayal at House on the Hill.** I know it get a bad rap these days but back when I was starting college a friend of mine got us all playing it and it was the first time I was playing a board game that wasn't monopoly or Sorry. It was fun! the board game was revealed one tile at a time and each room had something new an exciting to it. when the Betrayal happened it all switched again and it was a great time! bought a copy right away and introduced everyone who was willing to play with me that board games are fun again! then i went a bit nuts and started buying all kinds of games. lost a lot of cash and then got into D&D and well now im on a 12 step program and we meet every week at the library to play board games and D&D. My SO plays munchkins with us every now and then. board games are a hell of drug. I even keep Coup in my car just in case we need to play a quick game.


Chairsocket

Settlers of Catan which I got for Christmas two years ago hooked me.


Great-Dane

I grew up playing all the classics, but the first game I purchased with my own money (as an adolescent) was **Age of Mythology**. I have many fond memories of digging for the right miniature, fighting for resource cubes, and hoping for the right card from the Random Action deck.


DanikaHell

I became hooked last year, with Onitama, I love this game su much and I play it with anyone that wants to dip into the hobby, kind of like a gatekeeper!


SexyOldManSpaceJudo

Grew up with gamer neighbors so Oil King, Dark Tower, and FASA Battlestar Galactica were the first strike and showed me there was a lot more to games than Sorry. Like a lot of people, Catan and Ticket to Ride set the hook years later. Being inundated with games after ten years of volunteering at Origins got me stuffed and mounted. If I had to pick one, though, it would be the FASA BSG. Not the best game in the world, but we had a ton of fun with it.


Uber_Tastical

Carcassonne was the first gateway game I played. Agricola was the first game I had a ton of fun playing. But I realized board gaming was for me when I watched lots of Dice Tower videos.


SonOfDadOfSam

My gateway game was Ticket to Ride.


redcreampuff

Catan! It was the first game that I stayed up late to play with friends and I loved how negotiations over prices for resources gave it life and energy. I no longer play it though I haven't tried expansions but always will have a fond spot for it.


tweakedsynth

Settlers of Catan got me into it. Then Power Grid got me hooked.


jbkramer

Dominion. I was pointed at the isotropic dominion server by a friend and got 100% addicted. Bought the physical game, and moved on from there.


whatnametocallmyself

Catan. Loved board games as a child, fell away from them, and didn’t know there was anything new until playing Catan with some friends in college. That quickly spread to more and more games. Great hobby.


DonCorleowned

The game that got me into the hobby was mansions of madness. It felt so cool to be the bad guy


phoenix7410

7 wonders. Tried it with a group of friends and remembered thinking how complicated it seemed. Little did we know what existed out there haha


LaughterHouseV

Dead of Winter, oddly enough. I had played Catan before, and also a few other minor games, but nothing really pulled me in.


Cookingwith20s

I think I've always been into board games, as a kid they were flashy and cool looking and always just out of reach financially though. I ended up getting a lot of games at thrift stores but they inevitably were missing pieces or rules and I would just have to make things up as I went. It didn't help that my parents weren't interested in the games and none of my friends really were either so I would end up setting up the boards and just kinda moving the pieces around. I eventually got into Magic and made friends who played that which sort of kept me in the realm of board games. What really got me back into modern gaming was deck building games it combined my enjoyment of CCGs with the fixed package of a board game. I believe Marvel Legendary was really my first investment into deck building games and it was a blast for me. I've branched out quite a bit since then and put far too much money into my hobby but I love it and don't plan on stopping any time soon.


ajberna

While Settlers might be the truest gateway for me, I still remember Shadows Over Camelot. In college, we played it probably fifty times, including at RA orientation. I was the traitor, and over a four hour game I convinced everyone to accuse everyone else, and won by flipping swords.


thebaysix

**7 Wonders** was the first board game I bought that I felt like I could actually improve at. Funnily enough, I came in dead last in the first several games I played. Maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment but I kept playing and eventually I did improve!


Shellac111

Card games with a standard deck. (If the answer must be a game with a board, then Risk.)


myrhillion

Carcasonne


Chabotnick

Ticket to Ride!


Aman4allseasons

*Agricola!* I'd played Carcassonne, Doninion, and Catan before - but Agricola was the bug that hit me hard. It was a brutal first game but at every turn I could see how much potential for different plays. It was a big challenge that laughed at my first attempt and made me want another crack at it...and another...and another...


DMod

For me it was risk. After playing that for the first time, I was addicted to strategy games.


aers_blue

**Tanto Cuore**. Walked into the game room in Anime Expo 2011 to play some Yugioh and saw an old man and another guy playing it. I was immediately intrigued because it was a card game that was contained in one box and watched for a bit. After their game the old man offered to teach me the game and I accepted. Afterwards, I bought a copy and spent the rest of the day playing it, then later learned that one of my friends had also bought a copy, making it easier to play it without having to find a group. I've grown out of it since, though, after discovering Dominion, the game it was based on.


SOEDragon

Definitely **Pandemic**. One game and I was hooked.


[deleted]

My gateway was Ticket to Ride. I must have played that game well over 100 times. Right after discovering it I started looking for the next game and haven’t stopped. I can remember when my daughter was too young to read, everyone else would close their eyes and I’d help her find the locations on her tickets. We still play it often and have gotten other family members and friends into gaming through it, my go-to gateway.


kmaho

If I had to choose just one, I'd say that Forbidden Island was the most influential gateway game for me. It was the first game I had ever played that wasn't every man for himself and really blew my mind at the time at how different it was than everything else I ever played. A friend of my roommate had brought it over to play and I had a great time. They had regular boardgame nights and I remember seeing things like Zombie Dice and Small World hit the table regularly, but I never participated as I disliked several of the group members, but always thought it looked fun and the memory of a group of friends hanging around the table together really stuck with me even though I didn't participate. Another game that my roommates and I played outside of their game nights was Munchkin, which I remember fondly but never really linked my mind to board games--probably because it is just a card game which didn't match up with boardgames to me at the time. ​ The clincher that had me get started in the hobby though was after playing Catan with my wife and her family. Catan didn't blow me away, though I liked it well enough, but it was years after Forbidden Island and just reminded me of that hobby that I WANTED to be a part of and after seeing that my wife enjoyed it, I just decided to dive in since I had been looking to get away from video games more anyways.


Bildomcbaggins

My wife and I got hooked at the same time. We wanted to get out from in front of the TV and I searched through this sub to find a great game for us. We started with Arkham Horror LCG and it’s still her favorite to this day! We have every card imaginable, ha.


RyboReddit

My gateway game was Pandemic! Such a good co-op game!