CREDIT: SUPERMAW.COM

Move over, Monopoly! Step aside, Scrabble! There are new games in town.

Well, actually, they're not all that new. Hardcore board gaming geeks have been playing these games for over a decade, but they're just now coming into the mainstream.

They're called tabletop games — because you play them on a table — but there's so much more to them than that.

You may have played board games with your family when you were younger, but there's a huge difference between this breed of tabletop games and a traditional family game like Monopoly, said Marc Lanctot, who is the main organizer of the Great Canadian Board Game Blitz, a group that spreads the joy of strategy board games across the country.

"What sets (these games) apart from classic games would be, first of all, they come out of Germany. Settlers of Catan was made by a German designer, published originally in Germany. Only after it got immense success there did they start publishing it in North America," he said. Settlers of Catan was one of the first European tabletop games to become popular in North America and has helped set the strategy board game trend. It continues to be one of the most popular tabletop games today, 17 years after it was created.

"The second thing that separates them is that they're more strategic, in my opinion, than a classic game … In Monopoly, you spend a lot of time rolling dice. Same thing with Clue … you spend a lot of time rolling dice and just moving around, whereas in a lot of these new games, you have more control over what you can do to win."

He added that beautiful and detailed designs and cover art, a variety of themes and higher-quality components also set these games apart from the rest. "A lot of the appeal is aesthetic."

The social aspect of these games is another big draw, according to Chris McInnis, a local board game fan who owns Über Cool Stuff (122 Dundas St.), a store that sells a few tabletop games. "You're gathering around a table, so there's a lot of interaction. It's very tactile, and good games actually have you making choices and interacting with each other a lot," he said.

"You exercise all kinds of different ways of thinking: there's often humour, but you're strategizing at the same time; you're trying to predict (what will happen). Basically it just gets you thinking in a lot of different ways in a very short period of time."

A story published in mid-June in the Star Tribune newspaper out of Minneapolis, Minnesota stated that board game sales are up 6 per cent nationally in the last year, part of a five-year upswing. But Gord Mood and Carol Vandenberg, who sell tons of tabletop games at their store LA Mood (350 Richmond St.), said that isn't quite the case in their store: Mood estimated he's seen more like a 20 per cent increase in sales in his store each year.

"Games have really expanded for us a lot," said Vandenberg. "We've dedicated more space and time to them." A June 25 article in the London Free Press newspaper broke down LA Mood's sales figures into 50 per cent games, 30 per cent comic books and 20 per cent other (figurines and models, used LPs and more geeky goodness).

Part of this surge in sales can be attributed to geek godfather Wil Wheaton's game reviewing show, TableTop (which you can watch online at tabletop.geekandsundry.com). "Since the Wil Wheaton show, it's really taken off," Mood said. "Whenever he picks a game, there's always a short spike in demand for that game." Wheaton, along with a group of special guest stars (including Felicia Day), has reviewed games like Munchkin, Ticket to Ride, Small World and Settlers of Catan — games that board game geeks have loved for a long time — and made them more accessible to a wider audience by explaining the rules simply and showing every step of gameplay.

Rob Allison, a Londoner who just loves board games, said he thinks the media's positive portrayal of board games has helped them gain more popularity.

"Shows like Big Bang Theory, they have their fictional games on there, but they're highlighting the game-playing aspect as a social activity — it's more than just rolling the dice and moving pieces around the board and collecting rent."

What makes a good game depends on the individual, said Board Game Blitz organizer Lanctot, but "I think it's fair to say that the general (characteristics of a good game) are easy to learn — probably the most important one to me. I personally believe easy to learn is the reason that a lot of these games have become more mainstream, because there's nothing that turns you off quicker than something that just has a lot of rules and it's very hard to learn. It sort of shuts down your mind." Having a good strategic component is important as well, he added: "A lot of games in the past 10 years, since Settlers has come out, have been really easy to learn, but at the same time, they've been strategic. If you're using a good strategy, you want to be able to win. You want to be able to think, at the end of the game, you want to be able to reflect on what you did inside the game and be able to improve on it. When you play a game, you want it to be fun so that you have the incentive to play again."

On that note, "I think a good game should be fun to lose," said Über Cool Stuff owner McInnis, describing the frustration some gamers feel after losing all their money or territory in games like Monopoly or Risk and sitting at the table while everyone else continues to play. "One of the key things that a lot of new (games) like Catan have introduced is that everybody finishes at the same time, which, if you're playing with more than two or three people, is huge."

Another component of the replayability factor is the wide range of expansion packs for these games. "The expansions really add to the game too, especially if you like the game," Lanctot added. "You can buy all these different expansions and they add to the game."

"It gives your game more life, rather than buying the 67th version of Monopoly," chuckled Andy Berdan, a self-described board game addict who owns around 50 games.

Just looking around the shelves at LA Mood, there are so many tabletop games to choose from, no matter what you're interested in. If you're into science, try a game like Pandemic, where you and your friends act as a team of scientists and researchers defending the world's population from terrible diseases. If you're into history, there are a plethora of games to choose from, whether you want to explore and tame new lands (Settlers of Catan) or build a town, tile by tile (Carcassonne). If silly games are more your style, get cutthroat and screw over your friends in Munchkin or team up and fight against the undead in Zombies!!!. But where do you start if you're looking to get into these games?

Game fan Allison suggested new players start with "gateway" games, "Start with the classics: Catan, Carcassonne … (these are) nice, easy games to learn," he said. These games are gateway games because "they're fairly easy to learn. The rule set is pretty simple but it becomes such a complicated game: building your routes, the opportunity to screw over other players — I think that's a good part of the fun. Not only are you trying to win, but you're also trying to screw the other players ... it's all good fun."

Other gateway games include Ticket to Ride, Bonanza, Citadel, Bang! and Pandemic. "There's so many that are easy to play to get into (board games)," said Lanctot.

"Lately I've been really looking into cooperative games," said Berdan. "That seems to be a really good introduction for a lot of players. If you're bringing new players into the board game space, a cooperative board game allows other players to help the new players very easily without compromising the challenge." In competitive games, when you help a new player, you're giving them a bit of an advantage over the other players, he said.

Pandemic is the (cooperative game) one we go back to all the time; it's really, really challenging and it's really, really easy for a new player to get involved with," he added. Pandemic also has an expansion pack to make the game more challenging.

To find new games (and maybe even some new friends), Lanctot directed new and experienced players to Snakes and Lattes, a board game café located at 600 Bloor St. W. in Toronto. For $5, "you're allowed to use any of their games for as long as you want for the rest of the day. They have a library of over 2,000 games." He added that there is a team of helpful staff members to can help newbies navigate the rules of any game they choose. "Snakes and Lattes' popularity has gotten people thinking that maybe there's money in this model." A similar café, Monopolatte, opened up in Ottawa (640 Somerset St. W.) this past summer.

Another way to learn more about tabletop games is through Lanctot's own Great Canadian Board Game Blitz. "It's actually a tournament, but as far as tournaments go, it's pretty casual. We teach all the games. We do them all over the country, and they're also very low-cost. We're totally non-profit, so we put all our money towards prizes." While it is competitive, "for the most part, (people are) there to have fun and learn," said Lanctot.

If you're looking for some local tabletop fun, "go to a good game store like LA Mood, because they'll actually find out what you're looking for and make some suggestions," said McInnis. LA Mood also hosts a monthly board game night, which takes place at the store on the third Saturday of every month.

Bring something new to the table with a tabletop game. For user reviews, game details and more, check out BoardGameGeek.com — you might find your new favourite game.