When it comes to luck in board games, people often have mixed feelings. Setting up a masterful strategy only to have it fall apart from a flubbed dice roll feels awful, but the inverse of that, being saved by an extraordinarily lucky one feels great! Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic The Gathering, once described the sweet spot of luck being that the winner feels that they won because of skill, but the losers feel that they could have won with just a little bit more good luck. There might not be a better example of this than push your luck games, games that encourage you to be greedy before slapping your wrist for it. Here are four of our favourites!

Deep Sea Adventure

In Deep Sea Adventure, all of the players share a single oxygen tank as they descend down a trail of treasure into the depths below. On your turn, you roll the dice and move that many spaces. If you land on a treasure spot, you may pick it up, but be warned: doing so will reduce oxygen by an additional point on your turn and your movement will also be reduced by one point per treasure. If the oxygen runs out, every player is forced to drop their treasure and return empty-handed. How soon will you turn back? I can guarantee you, it’s not soon enough.

Incan Gold 

Speaking of getting greedy, Incan Gold is a game about getting your grubby hands on as much of glittering gold as you can. In each of the five rounds, you secretly choose whether you want to continue exploring the temple or gather your share of the uncovered treasure and retreat back to the safety of camp. By continuing to explore, you may discover even more treasure, but you may also come across dangerous situations. If two danger cards of the same type are revealed, the unclaimed treasure is buried and the adventurers are left with nothing but unfulfilled dreams of riches. Incan Gold encourages players to guess how greedy or desperate they think their friends will be, and either pull back or venture forth accordingly.

The Quacks of Quedlinburg

As a charlatan doctor, your goal is to brew and sell as many potions as you can during the nine-day festival in Quedlinburg. Each round consists of every player reaching into their black bag, pulling out a single ingredient token, and adding it to their pot until they decide to stop or their pot explodes. Since it’s just the white tokens that contribute to your pot’s volatility, you might feel safe in knowing that the only way you’ll blow up is if you draw the white 3-chip, but you have six other chips in your bag, so it’s a one in seven chance. Yep. Basically impossible. Quacks loves to encourage your sense of greed almost as much as loves to remind you of the duality of luck. 

Deep Blue

That’s right! Another diving themed board game! You know the good thing about oceans? They’re full of treasure! Unfortunately for you, there are also sharks and other hazards. And a bunch of other captains looking to get rich by plundering submerged ruins too! The gameplay for Deep Blue consists of each player taking one action until all four sunken cities have been revealed. These actions can be to recruit a new crew member, sail, rest, or dive if you are on a wreck tile. Deep Blue is a good reminder that even in board games the ocean can be a scary place.

These were just some of the push your luck games we love to hate but definitely don’t hate to love. If you have a favourite, give it a shout out! If you’re interested in learning more about any of these fine games, we’ve covered them all in past game of the week posts! Happy March!