Two Bats Gaming: Best of Backpacking & Hiking Board Games

We take a look at some of our recommendations for the best games for backpackers and hikers.

TwoBats Gaming: Board Game Reviews, How-To's, and More...

[MegaKemper]

gaming and backpacking, two of my favorite activities. I take my wife and kids with me and on those long winter nights we spend a lot of time in the tent playing games. Our favorites are Bang! Bonanza, Flux and Pass the Pig

[phantomfrogstudios]

I really like Valley of the Kings, it's a good deck building game that plays 1-4, and it also packs really small. You should give that a shot if you haven't already.

[BackpackingandBlisters]

Doing some research for our podcast. We are big gamers on the trail as well. Thanks for putting this out there!

[MatthewWheeler]

Nice review. I'll be checking these out for my next trip.

Two games I have had success with are Gloom and for a mindless time kill Zombie Dice. The reason I have taken these is mostly water proof-ness. While gloom looses its appeal for me after several player with the same people it was great for a couple nights in the winter. Those not participating enjoyed laying with their noses sticking out of their bags and listening to the tales off woe we wove. It isn't the lightest with two decks worth of plastic cards, but winter camping isn't really an ultra light thing no matter what Ray Jardine says.

Zombie Dice is just quick, ready to learn, and can be played anywhere.

Lastly, don't forget the original camping game, Blisters. Just 6 dice (3 pairs of different colors) and a piece of paper to keep score on and you are set. Originally designed for killing time on the AT while you are waiting for blisters to heal. It is also free (if you already have dice) and the rules can be found online.

[MeatBombMMB]

A Kickstarter just finished for One Deck Dungeon. It's a dungeon delve that fits in yer pocket. One of the tiers was to get plastic cards for extra durability, which would sure be nice when it's wet. I believe they were also working on a campaign with permanent character progression. Loads of content in a tiny package.

[redstang]

Love letter Adventure time is great! Got it for my 13 yp daughter and she enjoyed playing it. Thanks for the suggestion on Coin age and Werewolf too. I had never heard of them. Lastly we like to bring along the classic mexican game Loteria! You can have as many players as you have game boards. They have 4x4 grids of pictures. It also has a deck of cards with pictures. So its kinda like bingo. Plus the person dealing the cards (one at a time) says the cards as fast as they want so as to make the other players miss their mark on their cards if their pictures are called. When someone fills out the card (using anything to mark it like pennies, rocks or beans) they yell out "Buenas!" which is the equivalent of yelling Bingo! Fun for all ages.

[fulfooter]

I've got a family capming trip coming up soon and this is exactly what I needed! Subscribed!

[afulton]

I'm AMAZED Hive pocket isn't on your list! Very lightweight, waterproof, can play on a stump, etc. I always toss it in my backpack when going anywhere. Definitely recommend if you haven't tried it yet, unless it's "wackass" by your tastes of course!

[KainiusTheGreat]

Watched your gaming table build vid, loved it....this video? It earned you a new subscriber! My girlfriend and I are backpacking nerds and that's a pretty small demographic so finding this was awesome.

[hheintze]

Check out Age of War by Reiner Knizia, it's a sort of set-collection yahtzee area control game. It's 15 square cards, 7 dice, and a heavy little box that can be left at home.

[travishostetter]

Impressive video! Could you add a list (and with links) of the games in the description? This way we don’t have to pause to take notes. Thanks!

[kbuck]

Thank you for the really cool video! My partner and I will defiantly check out some of these games on our hikes this summer!

How many (or how much weight of) games do you typically bring with you? Would you look for anything different in a game if you were doing a 10 mile hike vs. a 100 mile hike?

[pfauxmusic]

Did you consider Ultra Tiny Epic Kingdoms, or did that fail the too many fiddly bits threshold? I'm planning a backpacking trip and was thinking of bringing that, Catan Dice (w/ laminated scorecards), and a straight up deck of mini cards for a group of 4-5 people with mixed board gaming enthusiasm.

This video was exactly what I was hoping to find, thank you for all the suggestions and info!

[Busterslegestue]

Check out Hive Pocket, it can be played almost anywhere.

[Astro_Voyager]

I'm going to bring UNO, Fluxx, Cosmic Whimpout and a good old deck of cards!

[bisherzever]

Consider: coup, hanabi, and saboteur1&2