It’s that time of year again for what might just be the most prestigious gaming award that can be given out by mere mortals! Welcome to the NoRerolls Top 50 Games of 2025 list; an arbitrary ranking of the games that I love.
This is a list of my personal top 50 games at this point in time. My choices are not limited to games from this calendar year, but instead, represent my current thoughts on the top 50 games to me. Next year, some of the games featured may move up and down as my opinions change and I get the chance to play more games or revisit old favourites.
This series will comprise 5 posts, each covering 10 games as we work down from number 50 to number 1:
- Part 1: 50-41
- Part 2: 40-31
- Part 3: 30-21
- Part 4: 20-11
- Part 5: 10-1
This year, this section of the list has a trio of new entries, some returning classics, and then a few games that were previously higher on the list. Let’s kick things off, shall we?
20: Paranoia
Previous Position: 15 (-5)
Year: 1984
Designer: Greg Costikyan, Dan Gelber, Eric Goldberg, Ken Rolston, Paul Murphy
Publisher: Mongoose Publishing (Originally West End Games)
Plays ~2-7ish players in however long you care to play for
Previously, my preferred edition of Paranoia was 2nd. This is still the best edition that comes as a single book. The boxed edition from Mongoose was bloody fantastic and I’d say that I had fully made the switch and committed to this edition. I was doubtful about it, as it went to using entirely D6s and changed the game quite significantly.
Paranoia, in this incarnation, is manic fun. The new approach to character creation sets the tone of the game from the very beginning, allowing players to really dick each other over from the get-go. The use of action cards for combat is also good, but took a bit of getting used to.
I’ve also picked up and am really looking forward to trying the new edition, but I’ve just not had time to properly digest it enough to get it to the table.
19: Everdell
Previous Position: 11 (-8)
Year: 2018
Designer: James A. Wilson
Publisher: Starling Games
Plays: 1-4 players in ~40 to 80 minutes
I picked up Everdell in 2023, but it wasn’t until 2024 that I actually got it to the table. It seems that I was really missing out! I’ve played it a lot since that first game, and it was my Game of the Month in May 2024.
I keep revisiting this game, and I try to vary my strategies, because I love building different sorts of towns, enjoying all the cool art, and generally having a great time. I win more often than I lose, which is a nice change for me! I think once you know how different cards interact with each other, you do have a slight advantage.
This is just a solid, delightful worker placement game. That said, it’s fallen a few places this year as I’ve perhaps overplayed it. I’m feeling the burnout.
18: River Valley Glassworks
Previous Position: New to the list
Year: 2024
Designer: Adam Hill, Ben Pinchback, Matt Riddle
Publisher: Allplay
Plays: 1-5 players in ~25 to 45 minutes
River Valley Glassworks debuts at number 18, a fresh addition that immediately stood out when I first played it last December (too late to make it onto the list). Its blend of resource management and artistry creates a rhythm that feels both strategic and beautiful.
The game rewards careful planning and timing, and you can find yourself making decisions that you will soon come to regret! It’s elegant, distinctive, and clearly earned its place high on the list, offering a satisfying mix of tactical play and thematic immersion that keeps me coming back to the table.
17: Lorcana
Previous Position: 10 (-7)
Year: 2023
Designer: David Iezzi, Ryan Miller, Steve Warner
Publisher: Ravensburger
Plays 2-6 players in ~60 to 60 minutes
I had no intention of getting into Lorcana last year, but my wife picked up a couple of starter decks on holiday, and we really enjoyed it. We quickly grabbed another couple of decks to vary up the game, and it wasn’t long before I built a couple of decks as well. One was gimmicky and bad, but the other wins pretty quickly. I actually also made a deck for my wife’s Christmas, along a theme I reckoned she’d enjoy.
I reviewed the game back in September of 2024, and most of what I said still stands. It’s a fun game. It’s not a massively complicated deck and it doesn’t have the depth of Magic… but then it also doesn’t have decades of rules bloat. It’s a fantastic, light trading card game.
We also ran a learn to play event at club, which was a lot of fun. It’s only really fallen out of the top 10 because of how good a number of new and returning games are.
16: Quadropolis
Previous Position: 21 (+5)
Year: 2016
Designer: François Gandon
Publisher: Days of Wonder
Plays: 2-4 players in ~30 to 60 minutes
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Quadropolis when I picked it up on a whim. I wasn’t expecting a city simulator or anything as complicated as that, but nor did I expect the game to be quite as abstract as it is. It’s a tile-laying game where players are trying to put combinations of districts in specific patterns to maximise points. It’s a bit of a pasted-on theme, but the game is a lot of fun and the artwork is cute.
Like many of the games from Days of Wonder, it’s pretty accessible and I’ve played it with my friends, parents, and groups of kids. It’s always pretty well received, but most people do better on their second playthrough, once they fully understand the scoring system, which is really the only (slightly) complicated bit of the game.
It’s climbed back up the rankings after getting to the table a few times this year and being reminded of just how fun it is.
15: Shipwrights of the North Sea: Redux
Previous Position: New to the list
Year: 2024
Designer: Shem Phillips
Publisher: Garphill Games
Plays: 1-5 players in ~60 to 80 minutes
Shipwrights of the North Sea makes its debut on my top 50 list this year, landing at number 15. It’s a game of drafting, resource management, and clever timing, where players compete to build the most impressive fleet of Viking ships. The mix of tight choices and escalating tension keeps every round sharp, and it’s easy to see why it’s earned a spot so high on the list.
Part of the fun is that I win a lot; its rhythm of drafting and construction seems to click with me, and that success makes the game even more satisfying. Whether it’s outmanoeuvring opponents in the shipyard or pulling off a perfectly timed build, Shipwrights rewards smart play and keeps me coming back, proving itself as one of the standout titles this year.
14: Twilight Struggle
Previous Position: 5 (-9)
Year: 2005
Designer: Ananda Gupta, Jason Matthews
Publisher: GMT Games
Plays: 2 players in ~180 minutes
Like 1960, Twilight Struggle is a card-driven game from GMT Games. The scope of Twilight Struggle is much wider than that of 1960, covering the entirety of the Cold War, allowing players to take on the roles of the US and USSR as they attempt to spread their influence around the world. They do this by letting historic events play out, directly spending resources to spread influence or launching coups in target countries. Scoring is presented as a tug-of-war between the two superpowers, which works well and contributes to the tone and feel of the game.
I’ve played a lot of this game over the years, and I’ve also picked up the PC edition in order to squeeze in yet more games, either against distant online opponents or against the computer. I’ll play this whenever I get the chance because I not only enjoy the game, but I really appreciate it, if that makes sense? Like, it’s fun, but I also love watching the game unfold, telling a story as it does.
It fell out of the top 10 this year just because it didn’t really see any play recently. I need to remedy that situation
13: Vampire: The Masquerade
Previous Position: 8 (-5)
Year: 1991
Designer: Graeme Davis, Tom Dowd, Mark Rein-Hagen, Lisa Stevens, Stewart Wieck
Publisher: White Wolf Publishing
Plays: Ideally 4-6 over however long you want. Again, RPGs…
I’ve had Vampire in my life since the late 90s and have long loved it. It’s a great RPG and I’ve run some very fun campaigns. More recently, starting with a taster at Tabletop Scotland in 2019, I’ve also gotten into the new, 5th edition with a home campaign starting soon afterwards and an online campaign during lockdown. With all of this goodness, Vampire has stayed firmly within my top 10!
Vampire is just such a good system. Mechanically, it’s fantastic. There are flaws, and certain aspects definitely lack polish, but it works well overall. The background is where it really shines. White Wolf developed such a deep, detailed, involved world that gives you a massive sandbox in which to play. I just love it.
This is another game that’s fallen out of the top 10 due to lack of play.
12: Century: Golem Edition
Previous Position: 4 (-8)
Year: 2017
Designer: Emerson Matsuuchi
Publisher: Plan B Games
Plays: 2-5 players in ~30 to 45 minutes
An impulse purchase at a game store, this is probably the best value for money I’ve ever had from a board game. I gave Century: Spice Road a miss when it came out, thinking it looked a bit dry and would not really be for me. Mechanically, I was wrong, but I still think the dry visuals would have put me off or would have seen me not play the game quite as often as I’ve played this (more fantastical) edition. The artwork is superb, as I’ve previously written.
I freakin’ love this game, and it was our game of the month for October 2023. It’s so accessible and simple, but it makes my brain hurt when I try to plan ahead. The points is to make combinations of coloured gems which can then be used to buy Golems (points cards). Players generate gems, use cards to trade groups of specific colours for other groups of gems, upgrade their gems… There’s a lot of moving around gems towards purchasing your golems. I’m not describing it well, but it just clicked with me.
My only slight gripe is the five-player version. With that many players, it can become really hard to plan ahead with any effectiveness. It’s still an amazing game, but I prefer it with three or four players. I’ve overplayed it a bit, too. I think the burnout has caused it to fall out of the top 10.
11: Apiary
Previous Position: 19 (+8)
Year: 2023
Designer: Connie Vogelmann
Publisher: Stonemaier Games
Plays: 1-5 players in ~60 to 90 minutes
This game became a pretty major fixture for me for a while, both at club and at home. If anything, we overplayed it. I predicted back in March 2024 that this would be a top 20 game for me and it did make it into that bracket. This year, it’s edging closer to breaking into the top 10.
It’s amazing. I love it. The expansion is also a must-have. It doesn’t grow the game so much as it fixes some of the little niggles we had with it. It’s less of an expansion and more of a second edition refinement.
No Rerolls 