Best Black Friday board game deals: my favorite deals on Monopoly, Dungeons and Dragons, Exploding Kittens, and more!

Usually, Exploding Kittens falls under the card games category, but not today. The Board Game edition of the popular card game sounds like a hoot, and your goal is to make it to the end of the board without exploding. Sounds easy but it should be noted that one wrong move can cause the board to flip, revealing a whole new path where every move could be your last. Designed for 2-6 players aged seven and over, this is the purr-fect strategy game that's sure to make you laugh (and scowl at your friends for betraying you).

I have very fond memories of playing Battleship as a child, so this is the perfect game to keep the young ones occupied — or you can join in on the fun, of course! The goal is simple: two players battle it out to sink their opponent's ships. This strategy game is the ultimate search-and-destroy mission: call a shot and fire.

Catan is arguably one of the best board games of all time, in my humble opinion. This highly addictive strategy game for three to four players turns you into hard-nosed settlers, competing to conquer an island. You need to collect resource cards to build roads, villages and cities. And acquiring these resources ain't a walk in the park — I'm talking about dice rolls and trading with other players. Oh, and there's a resource-stealing robber too. On average, one game takes up to 90 minutes. Are you up to the challenge?

What happens when you combine two classic games into one? Monopoly Scrabble fuses the best of both worlds and this game can be completed in under an hour (unlike traditional Monopoly). You start with seven letters and build words, and your word score determines the number of spaces you move around the outside of the gameboard. Player with the most cash at the end wins. You can also steal properties from other players by making a word on a premium square!

Heat: Pedal to the Metal puts you in the driver's seat where you must race, jockey for position and make strategic moves to outmaneuver your opponents and be the first to cross the finish line. You must also manage your car without overheating by balacing speed and engine temperature. You can upgrade your car and customize it before each race to secure victory too.

Azul is a very tactile game about tile laying as you are laying mosaic tiles inspired by Portuguese azulejos. It's easy to learn and deceptively deep in strategy and works great at just about any player count. If you're not feeling tile laying, there is a chocolate variant and three sequels that offer different rules and shaped pieces.

This one is for the little ones in your life. The original Ticket to Ride isn't too hard for kids to understand, but First Journey makes it brighter, easier to read and a little smaller in scope. Still, my five-year-old son loves this game, and there's just enough luck combined with the strategy that he occasionally wins on his own. Plus, it's been teaching him some geography, and he's learning to read the city names.

This one's for the Marvel fans (including myself, someone who has a Loki tattoo). Channel your inner detective to find hidden objects and characters as you journey through Wakanda, Asgard and New York. Not only is this a fun, easy-to-play board game, but it helps sharpen your memory and observation skills too.

Good morning, Night City! This is the perfect board game for fans of CDPR's hit video game. Similar to Risk, you and up to three other players compete to conquer the ruthless streets of Night City. Choose one of four gangs to be part of, each with asymmetrical styles and customization options for diverse strategies and experiences. Like the video game, the board game features multiple replayable endings, where every choice impacts the narrative, offering a unique experience every game. Become a Netrunner if you want, and meet characters from Netflix's Edgerunners too.

The Game of Life is, as the name suggests, a game of life. You and three other players work your way to the top, from college to retirement, by spinning a wheel and moving along a path. You must decide your career, your family life, and collect money. At the end of the game, you either go broke or become a millionaire. Your goal is to become the latter. Alongside Monopoly, this is the game that drew me into the vast world of board games.

When I showed this deal to coworker Erin, who is a massive How to Train Your Dragon fan, she squealed, so take her word for just how exciting this edition of Monopoly is. While the game follows the rules of traditional Monopoly, player tokens take the form of characters from the popular movie franchise, and the board is inspired by its iconic locations. There's also a dice you can roll to train your dragon and earn its shield — collect eight shields and you're the winner.

Okay, if there's one thing I'm buying this Black Friday, it might just be Creature Crash: The Capybara Balancing Game. Designed for two or more players, you take turns to roll the dice and place that number of capybaras on the tree balance board. If it topples on your turn, you're out! Sounds simple enough but I can imagine it gets quite hard. Maybe add a spin to the game, such as, the outgoing player has to do a dare or tell a truth.

Twisted Cryptids is a card strategy game for two to four players, and it features cryptid creatures, action cards and skill-based play that adapts to your group's pace and style. You must outwit your opponents in 60 minutes using hidden trait cards, Cryptid meeples, and take-that mechanics. This is the perfect card game for foggy, misty, spooky winter nights when all you want to do is stay in with a hot drink.

Designed for two to eight players, Cards vs Gravity is a simple, card balancing game. You must balance, stack and hang cards on top of a bottle (any bottle will do). As the card tree gets larger and more precarious, the tension builds. Think Jenga but more intense and unpredictable. My partner and I played this game with friends and we couldn't stop laughing at just how much strategizing was required to place our cards perfectly.

My partner and I play P for Pizza on cozy date nights. It's a fast-paced card game where the aim is to shout out a word that links the letter on one card to the category on another (on a pile in the middle of the table). Think: a food that starts with P, a bald celebrity whose name begins with B, a stringed instrument that starts with G, and so on. You need to be quick to add a slice to your pile, and the first one to form a 'pizza slice' wins.

Herd Mentality is a breezy party game that's easy to pick up and play. Flip over a card and read out a random question like, "What is the best Disney film of all time?" Players then write down the answer they think will be the most common among the group. If you're in the majority, you win points; if not, you'll be left with the dreaded pink cow of doom. It's a fun, simple premise, one which could see your next game night overtaken by a very heated debate over something as frivolous as the best brand of sneakers.

Did you get into Dungeons & Dragons because of Baldur's Gate 3? I don't blame you as the same happened to me. If you want to get into D&D or are looking to sharpen your Dungeon Master skills, the 2024 Core Rulebook is a must-have. It's packed with useful tools and advice for DMs of all levels, and it'll help you make your game sessions special with over 400 total and 18 new magic items, practical solutions for common Dungeon Master pitfalls, and Greyhawk, a customizable, pre-made campaign setting.

Why not grab a very cool set of dice to accompany your shiny new 2024 Core Rulebook? I love the look of this light up dice set featuring RGB glow technology which automatically lights up and turns off with each roll or collision. The set consists of seven dice, including 1*D4, 1*D6, 1*D8, 2*D10, 1*D12 and 1*D20, so it's suitable for all role playing games.

This one's for the fam: What Do You Meme? went viral on social media a couple of years ago, and the family edition of the popular card game keeps kids from being subjected to crude language. It includes 300 caption cards and 108 photo cards and the goal is simple: combine them and the person whose go it is picks the funniest answer as the winner! Warning: tears may emerge due to laughter.