Critical thinking is a very important skill to have for multiple different areas of your life. It will help you at your job, at school, and even in your personal relationships. While there are many different ways to build up your critical thinking skills. One of the most enjoyable and exciting is playing board games.
However, not all board games will boost up your critical thinking skills, despite how fun they might be. So which board games are good for developing critical thinking skills? Without any further ado, today I share 5 great board games to boost the critical thinking of everyone from teens to adults.
Some of the links in this post are affiliate links through which I will earn a small commission. Reviews are done based on my own opinions of the quality of the products. All opinions are my own.
Dungeons and Dragons
While more of a tabletop game than a board game, Dungeons and Dragons definitely can help improve your critical thinking. It is a game all about crafting your character and working through your own adventure with your friends.
My daughter loves D&D! She explains, “I like being able to experience the fictional words I always dream about, creating unique characters, trying things out, and experiencing the repercussions of my decisions. It’s also fun!”
I think the role playing aspect is large part of the attraction. My daughter really gets into the game when she plays and even uses uniques voices for her characters. She has journals full of character sketches and notes on their abilities.
By rolling dice, the game throws numerous different problems and roadblocks at you, and you will need to decide upon the right action incredibly quickly. The game can help you make the right decision at high speeds, and also helps you think outside the box. It allows for a ton of creativity as well.
The game is easy to get started with as long as you have some friends and a set of dice. Dungeons and Dragons can be made even more exciting by purchasing fun accessories like game mats, dice trays, game master screens, and mini-figures. If you’re in the market for some colorful and unique dice for your Dungeons and Dragons journey, consider checking out D20 collective. I’m partial to the Druidic Dreams color scheme shown here.
Settlers of Catan
Catan is a wildly popular game that is played by tens of millions of people regularly. The game starts you off with a couple of roads and settlements, and you need to build that up to a whole civilization. Using a roll of the dice, you will eventually get the materials required to build your settlement.
The game is incredibly fun and rewarding, but can really test and improve your critical thinking. You need to always be aware of how many resources you have, the best ways to use them and whether there are any trades worth making. You need to come up with a strategy for how you’ll build the best civilization, while also making assumptions about the goals of others.
There are many versions available of Settlers of Catan including expansion sets, card games, and dice games (pictured above) .
Chess
Dating back hundreds of years, chess is one of the quintessential board games when you think of critical thinking. The game is played by two people, with the ultimate goal being to take out the opponent’s king piece. Each piece in chess can be moved a certain way and is unique from the other pieces on the board.
There are thousands of different moves that can be made and strategies that can be used. Chess relies a lot on using your mind, applying critical thinking skills. You need to think of the best and most optimal strategy for yourself. Using concentration, logical thinking, and focusing on the potential moves your opponent could make in response to what you do.
While there is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to first playing the game, once you know the rules, it becomes easy. Chess is also great as it can be played by anyone, no matter your age or background.
Kübb, two Norwegian games.Mastermind
With a name like Mastermind, you just know that this game will be able to help boost your critical thinking. It is a game about breaking a code where one person creates a code, and the other tries to eventually break it over time. This takes a lot of critical thinking, deductive reasoning and helps to utilize and build up these skills.
There are well over 1,000 different patterns of colored pegs that could be chosen by the code maker, and the codebreaker has to start from nothing and use their critical thinking and reasoning to eventually decipher it. You need to think about not only choosing the right colors, but also eliminating the wrong ones on your journey to breaking the code.
Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride is without a doubt, one of the most exciting games on the market and is also one that challenges you to think critically. The goal of the game is to connect train cars and fill railways across the map, trying to make links between specific places. The game is all about using logic and strategy to successfully build your connections, while also preventing others from doing the same.
Ticket to Ride is one of my family’s favorite games. We actually own three different versions – Asia, Nordic Countries, and Europe (including the expansion, 1912). In my post, Board Games & Fun, I share more of our favorites.
Ticket to Ride is a game with very simple rules, but can be played and won in several different ways. Some people might try to fill the largest railways possible to score points. Others will spend their game trying to stifle other people’s plans and focus on building smaller train connections. You have a lot of options and with numerous ways to connect different routes. You are free to play the game how you want.
In conclusion, these board games are great ways to not only have fun, but also boost critical thinking. What are your family’s favorite games?