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As summer comes to an end, there might be fewer sunny days to explore the great outdoors. But don't worry—no matter the season, board games can bring the adventure inside, letting us experience nature's wonders from the comfort of our homes. With games that capture the experience of walking through the woods, climbing mountains, kayaking upstream, and traversing the rainforest, there’s something for every type of explorer.
Whether you're missing the great outdoors or craving a new adventure, these games will transport you into the wilderness, allowing you to experience the beauty and excitement of nature from your living room.
Wonder Woods by Rachael Duchovny
What better way to explore the great outdoors than foraging for mushrooms. So, grab any ‘fun guys’ you know and get together for a ‘cap-tivating’ game of Wonder Woods, from Blue Orange Games.
Two to five players compete to become the mushroom foraging ‘champignon’ in this super quick clever deduction game which lasts around 15 to 30 minutes ‘morel less’. Whilst the recommended age to be ‘mold enough’ is 8+ the rules are simple to learn and you’ll have ‘mush-love’ for this game within no time.
Play by carefully choosing where to place your limited baskets to collect as many of the 4 different types of mushrooms; morels, parasols, chanterelles or porcinis as you can. Each has a secret score determined by face down cards dealt during set up, so forage wisely! Your individual hand provides you with limited information about the potential score by showing you points the mushrooms can’t be worth. You may choose to share some of this information by revealing a card for an extra basket which, could help you forage more but, it might also give your opponents vital clues.
The components are top quality and the mushroom meeples really ‘grow’ on you! There’s some strategy, deduction, a little luck and with quick game time mush-room to play again and again without getting into ‘truffle’. Don’t be a ‘spore loser’, go out and buy this game today!
Trailblazers by FavouriteFoe
Confession time: Ryan Courtney broke my brain. His Curious Cargo caused me so much mental anguish that the fingernail marks in my palm still haven’t gone…..two years after they were made!
So when I saw Mr. Pipeline was designing a puzzly, card patching game about walking around in nature, the twisted side of me had to have it. I was preparing myself for a mind- melting endurance race, but what I got was a brilliant pattern building, spatial experience that plays brilliantly solo as well as multiplayer.
The premise is simple – through a process of close-drafting, you will be laying cards over the course of three rounds to create trails around three different base camps. With walking, cycling, and kayaking to balance, you’ll score points for features along paths which start and end at their matching base. Each game will also include public scoring objectives which give you bonus points if you achieve them. You can lay cards adjacent to or overlaying existing cards, and you’ll be trying to create multiple loops using the sections of trail printed on each card.
Knowing that you’ll be giving your opponents the chance to use the cards you don’t place is a delightful dilemma. And the solo works really well even though the close drafting element is replaced by top-decking. With a huge variety of goals and challenges in the box, Trailblazers is like a S’more (or an armadillo but marshmallows feel more thematic haha) – a helping of smooth and crunchy delicious gaming!
The Quest For Eldorado by Pete Bartlam
Do you think of the real world of Sir Walter Raleigh bravely sailing out to discover new worlds or the fantasy of Indiana Jones unearthing hidden archaeological wonders. Either way neither of them ever discovered the fabulous lost golden city of El Dorado.
But you could!
In The Quest for El Dorado, Reiner Knizia’s excellent game of exploration, you hack, paddle and barter your way through the jungles of South America to be first to discover the lost city yourself. You lay out a twisting row of hexagon-shaped boards of two different sizes leading to the gates of El Dorado at the end. Now I know this isn’t true exploration as you know where the end will be but given there are 9 different double-sided boards that you link through any of their sides via one of six Blockade strips you will have to work out a new route very time (BTW I calculated there were over 20 million board configurations!)
You’re provided with 6 suggested layouts of various degrees of difficulty and tips on making your own which is simple to do. Once, to get the true feel of striking out into the unknown, we only added the next board as we got to the edge of the first. This wasn’t great, however, and spoilt the streamlined flow of play.
You navigate your course through the jungles, rivers and native camps by playing your cards. Starting with the same set as everyone else you can augment your deck from the market to get a super machete or a giant paddle or even a friendly aviator who will fly you into some of the deeper recesses. Not forgetting the dark caves you can explore for extra buffs.
So put on that Fedora and find that hidden gold.
K2 by Graham Silvanus
Exploring the outdoors does not get much more extreme than tackling the summit of the deadliest mountain on earth: K2.
If, like me, you are more cafes and cake than crampons and ice axes, you can tackle K2 from the comfort of your living room by playing the excellent board game of the same name. K2 presents a tense race up the mountain. Ensuring your mountaineers are suitably acclimatised is as, if not more, important than sheer speed. Losing one of your adorably salopetted meeples on the mountainside is disastrous for your chances of victory. If you can keep an eye on the forthcoming weather, erect your tents at key points and time it just right, you may just experience the elation of reaching the summit.
If you’ve ever seen Bill Paxton’s villainous turn in Vertical Limit, then you will know one of the dangers on the slopes of K2 is that posed by other, ruthless climbers. It is no different in the board game, as competition for spaces gets tight above 7000 metres. Your dash to the top may be thwarted by an opponent blocking your safe passage back down. Points achieved for heights reached only count if the meeple climber in question survives the ordeal…
K2 provides all the thrills of tense, dramatic mountain climbing from the comfort of your living room. It is, in my opinion, one of the best race games out there and one that does a superb job of portraying its theme. The big box version includes maps for Lhotse and Broad Peak too; all the outdoor exploration a boardgaming mountaineer could wish for!
Parks by Sophie Jones
If you read this blog often, you’ll notice that most of the articles about Parks are written by me. I absolutely love this game because it’s beautiful, calming, and all about hiking. When it comes to exploring the great outdoors, hiking is one of my favourite activities. I enjoy seeing stunning vistas, climbing to new heights, and having a picnic on a remote peak.
Parks captures all of this perfectly. In the game, players move their hikers along a trail, explore new areas, collect resources, and use these to visit America’s amazing national parks. But it’s not always easy—other hikers can block your path and prevent you from getting key resources. This adds a strategic twist that keeps each game fresh. The trail changes every round, new gear becomes available, and seasons introduce different resources, adding even more variety to your adventure.
There are also two expansions for Parks that add more parks, animal tokens, great outdoors and camping. The Nightfall expansion, for example, lets players camp at new locations to gain extra resources and boost their score. It also includes new wooden tent tokens, which add another layer to the game and make it even more visually appealing.
If you love hiking, camping, and exploring beautiful places, Parks brings all of that to your table. So, what are you waiting for? Kick off your walking shoes, put the kettle on, and get ready for a hiking adventure from the comfort of your home.
Whether you're an experienced adventurer or someone who simply enjoys the idea of being outdoors, there’s a board game out there that can bring the thrill of exploration to your living room. From the strategic hikes of Parks to the challenging climbs of K2, and the quest for gold in The Quest for El Dorado, these games offer unique ways to experience the beauty and excitement of nature without leaving home. So gather your friends and family, choose your adventure, and let these games transport you to the great outdoors—no matter the season.
