Penn State Brandywine’s Vairo Library has over thirty board games available, and the collection is still growing!

Games are designed to stimulate social interaction, and they allow students and all borrowers to solve problems, critically think, and work together across ages and skill-levels.  As some games are language-independent, these items offer our visitors the opportunity to play with multilingual players as well as use games popular in other cultures and locales.  See our game offerings below, complete with number of players and a description of each game!

	Game	Number of Players	Description
	Backgammon	2	Each player has fifteen pieces (checkers) which move between twenty-four triangles (points) according to the roll of two dice. The objective of the game is to be first to bear off, i.e. move all fifteen checkers off the board.
	Bananagrams	2+	Game play involves arranging one's tiles into a grid of connected words faster than one's opponents. The object of the game is to be the first to complete a word grid after the pool of tiles has been exhausted.
	Battleship	2	It is played on ruled grids (paper or board) on which the players' fleets of ships (including battleships) are marked. The locations of the fleet are concealed from the other player. Players alternate turns calling "shots" at the other player's ships, and the objective of the game is to destroy the opposing player's fleet.
	Betrayal at House on the Hill	3+	Players all begin as allies exploring a haunted house filled with dangers, traps, items, and omens. As players journey to new parts of the mansion, room tiles are chosen at random and placed on the game board. Eventually the "haunt" begins, with the nature and plot of this session's ghost story revealed; one player usually "betrays" the others and takes the side of the ghosts, monsters, or other enemies, while the remaining players collaborate to defeat them.
	Cards for the Masses	4+	Choose and call out a question, select from your hand of 3 cards an answer you think will be most popular. Vote for the most unique, bizarre and creative answer.
	Carrom	2+	Players use a striker disk with a flick of the finger to make contact with and move lighter object disks called carrom men, which are thus propelled into one of four corner pockets. The aim of the game is to pot (pocket) one's nine carrom men and the queen before one's opponent does.
	Checkers	2	One player has the dark pieces; the other has the light pieces. Players alternate turns. A player may not move an opponent's piece. A move consists of moving a piece diagonally to an adjacent unoccupied square. If the adjacent square contains an opponent's piece, and the square immediately beyond it is vacant, the piece may be captured (and removed from the game) by jumping over it.
	Chess	2	Chess is a two-player strategy board game played on a chessboard, a checkered gameboard with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. The game is played by millions of people worldwide.
	Chinese Chess Xiangqi	2	The game represents a battle between two armies, with the object of capturing the enemy's general (king). Distinctive features of xiangqi include the cannon (pao), which must jump to capture; a rule prohibiting the generals from facing each other directly; areas on the board called the river and palace, which restrict the movement of some pieces (but enhance that of others); and placement of the pieces on the intersections of the board lines, rather than within the squares.
	Codenames	4+	Two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents. Their teammates know the agents only by their codenames. The teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first. Spymasters give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the table. Their teammates try to guess words of their color while avoiding those that belong to the opposing team.
	Coup	2 to 6	Play revolves around a deck of 15 cards, in which there are 5 unique cards, meaning there are 3 identical copies of each unique card. The cards are called the captain, duke, ambassador, assassin, and contessa. At the beginning of the game, each player is randomly dealt two cards from the deck. The goal of the game is to be the last player alive.
	Dominion	2 to 4	Each player uses a separate deck of cards; players draw their hands from their own decks, not others'. Players use their cards to perform actions and buy cards from a common pool of card stacks, including Action, Treasure, and Victory cards. The player with the most victory points wins. The game has a light medieval theme, with card names that reference pre-industrial, monarchical, and feudal social structures.
	Eldritch Horror	1 to 8	Eldritch Horror is a cooperative game of terror and adventure in which one to eight players take the roles of globetrotting investigators working to solve mysteries, gather clues, and protect the world from an Ancient One – that is, an elder being intent on destroying our world.
	Forbidden Island	2 to 4	Players take on the role of adventurers trying to retrieve treasures from a rapidly sinking island. They must retrieve four treasures: (The Earth Stone, the Crystal of Fire, the Statue of the Wind, and the Ocean Chalice) and return to the helicopter landing pad ("Fools Landing") before the waters rise covering the entire island.
	Get the MacGuffin	2 to 11	The game Get the MacGuffin is a quick and humorous deduction game involving hand management and player elimination. The goal is to be the last player with cards. The player with the MacGuffin card will frequently win the game, but holding onto that card can prove quite difficult! Also, because there are 23 cards in the deck and players are always dealt an equal number of cards, there will always be some cards that are not in play. Figuring out which cards are missing is part of the strategy!
	Go Weiqi	2	Abstract strategy board game for two players, in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent.
	Imhotep	2 to 4	Over six rounds, players move wooden stones by boat to create five monuments, and on a turn, a player chooses one of four actions: Procure new stones, load stones on a boat, bring a boat to a monument, or play an action card. The other players constantly thwart each other's building plans by carrying out plans of their own. Only those with the best timing will prove to be Egypt's best builder.
	Ludo	2 to 4	Players race their four tokens from start to finish according to the rolls of a single die.
	Machi Koro	2 to 4	Players assume the role of mayor of Machi Koro and by rolling dice, earning coins, and buying properties build out a city. The first player to build out a series of required landmarks is the winner.
	Mahjong	3 to 4	To get a "Mahjong", which consists of getting all 14 of your tiles into four sets and one pair. A pair is two identical tiles. A set can either be a "pung", which is three identical tiles, or a "chow", which is a run of three consecutive numbers in the same suit. A single tile cannot be used in two sets at once.
	Mancala	2	The object of the game is to capture more stones than your opponent.
	Monopoly National Park Edition	2 to 8	Monopoly themed to U.S. National Parks. Properties are renamed as various national parks (Yosemite replaces Park Place, Yellowstone replaces Boardwalk). Chance and Community Chest cards are appropriately themed. Trails replace Railroads. Playing pieces include a bear, hiking boot, cannon, ranger hat, backpacker, covered wagon, tent, and canoe.
	Qwixx	2 to 5	Quick-playing dice game in which everyone participates, no matter whose turn it is. Each player has a scoresheet with the numbers 2-12 in rows of red and yellow and the numbers 12-2 in rows of green and blue. To score points you want to mark off as many numbers as possible, but you can mark off a number only if it's to the right of all marked-off numbers in the same row.
	Saboteur	3 to 10	Players take on the role of dwarves. As miners, they are in a mine, hunting for gold. Suddenly, a pick axe swings down and shatters the mine lamp. The saboteur has struck. But which of the players are saboteurs? Will you find the gold, or will the fiendish actions of the saboteurs lead them to it first? After three rounds, the player with the most gold is the winner.
	Sushi Go Party!	2 to 8	Sushi Go Party!, an expanded version of the best-selling card game Sushi Go!, is a party platter of mega maki, super sashimi, and endless edamame. You still earn points by picking winning sushi combos, but now you can customize each game by choosing à la carte from a menu of more than twenty delectable dishes.
	Tangram	1	A dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap.
	The Resistance	5 to 10	The Resistance is a party game of social deduction. It is designed for five to ten players, lasts about 30 minutes, and has no player elimination
	Ticket to Ride	2 to 5	Players collect cards of various types of train cars they then use to claim railway routes in North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who fulfill Destination Tickets – goal cards that connect distant cities; and to the player who builds the longest continuous route.
	Uno Deluxe	2 to 10	Players race to empty their hands and catch opposing players with cards left in theirs, which score points. In turns, players attempt to play a card by matching its color, number, or word to the topmost card on the discard pile. If unable to play, players draw a card from the draw pile, and if still unable to play, they pass their turn. Wild and special cards spice things up a bit.