In a quiet castle full of secrets, suspicion, and the occasional dramatic betrayal, there’s one goal that matters above all else: get your love letter into the Princess’s hands. Simple? Not even close.

Welcome to the new revisited version of Love Letter on BGA, the wonderfully sneaky card game where romance is risky, deduction is essential (unlike seduction), and your heartfelt message is constantly in danger of being intercepted, discarded, or, worst of all, thrown into the fire.

You don’t deliver your letter directly. That would be far too easy (and far too honest). Instead, you rely on a rotating cast of castle characters to carry your message. Each character has their own personality and ability: some help you gather information, some eliminate rivals, and some quietly ruin your plans while smiling politely.

Every card matters. Each decision reveals something. And every move sends signals to the other players whether you mean it or not. Some cards give you power and control, letting you knock others out of the round or peek at hidden information. Others are subtle, helping you stay under the radar while you quietly build your advantage.

Love Letter is not just about delivering a message. It’s about surviving the castle long enough to send it (and there is an easy way to learn that trick). And maybe, just maybe, winning the Princess’ heart along the way.

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=loveletter

Thanks to Seiji Kanai, the game designer, and Z-Man Games, the publisher, for allowing us to have their game on BGA. And a huge thank you to Moof for putting so much heart into revisiting this now-classic title.

This was your Friday release.

Get ready to feel the love this weekend. Take care and play fair…

If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a secret agent, Spyworld lets you step into that role, no gadgets or danger required.

In this fast-paced card game, you compete as undercover spies, trying to complete missions while keeping your plans hidden from everyone else. Each turn, you gather cards, build toward your objectives, and look for the perfect moment to strike. But while you’re planning your next move, your opponents are doing the same, and they might just sabotage your mission before you get the chance.

That’s what makes Spyworld so exciting. It’s not just about the cards you have, but about reading the other players. Should you move quickly and reveal your strategy, or stay quiet and wait for the perfect moment?

Every round feels different because no one knows exactly what the others are planning. One minute you feel in control, and the next your mission is falling apart because another player outmaneuvered you.

With its mix of strategy, bluffing, and suspense, the game captures the tension of a secret mission in a fun and light-hearted way. It is full of dramatic twists that keep everyone engaged.

Spyworld delivers exactly what its name promises: a world of secrets, strategy, and intrigue.

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=spyworld

A special thank you goes to Frédéric Morard, the game designer, and to Don’t Panic Games, the publisher, for bringing the game to players around the world. We’d also like to thank Moof for making it possible to enjoy it on BGA.

This was your Wednesday release.

Just remember: the best spy is the one nobody sees coming. So take care and play fair…

If you think a game about collecting insects sounds silly, Pickomino is here to prove that "silly" can be seriously fun.

In this fast-paced dice game, placed on the Spiel des Jahres recommendation list upon its physical release, a long time ago, in a galaxy... STOP!!! You play as a meerkat and rolling for red fire beetles, stealing from your opponents, and celebrating every lucky break like it’s a championship win. It’s quick to learn, full of suspense, and somehow turns a few dice and some numbered tiles into a surprisingly intense showdown.

The goal is simple: roll the dice to collect the highest-value tiles. Each turn, you roll eight dice and set aside all dice showing a matching number or paw symbol. But once you choose a number, you can’t choose it again during that turn.

That’s where the pressure starts.

You can stop and claim a tile whenever your dice total matches one in the center, as long as you’ve rolled at least one paw. Push your luck too far and fail to make a legal move, and you bust, losing one of your own tiles in the process.

And if your roll matches the tile on top of another player’s stack? You steal it.

Pickomino proves that even a light-hearted game about meerkats and insects can spark fierce competition. It’s quick, clever, and packed with those “one more turn” moments that make game nights memorable. So prepare to fight for your insects, grab the dice and trust your luck.

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=pickomino

We would like to thank Reiner Knizia, the game designer for letting us use this game on BGA. And we want to extend our thanks to n_e_s_s_u_n_o for the digital port.

This was your Monday release.

Red fire beetles are spicy so take care and play fair…

Sicily, the 80s. The sun is high in the sky and you soak in the Mediterranean life. You sit a café terrace, savoring an espresso, watching the world go by. Life seems calm, almost idyllic. But appearances can be deceiving. Beneath this sunlit façade, the Cosa Nostra, in what is known as “The Great Mafia War,” is tearing through Sicily, leaving no family, town, or street untouched.

In La Famiglia: The Great Mafia War, you face off one another to take control of Sicily. Six distinct families are at your disposal, each offering different advantages, from ruthless enforcers to clever schemers.

The game rounds are divided into two phases. In the planning phase, you develop your abilities and bring fighters as well as secret orders to the board. In the combat phase, these orders are revealed and executed. Whoever best combines and coordinates its abilities will dominate as many regions as possible and, ultimately, Sicily.

Winner of the 2024 As d’Or Expert Game, La Famiglia is an intense area-control experience that offers a simple but innovative combat system where strategic planning is key to domination. Whether you’re a seasoned strategist or a newcomer (we have a tutorial for you), get a taste of mafia life where every move matters, and betrayal is always just around the corner.

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=lafamiglia

Our gratitude goes to Maximilian Maria Thiel, the game designer, and the Boardgame Atelier family.** And we’d like to extend our thanks to LeSteffen and Tishanu for the BGA port.

This was your Wednesday "heavy" release!

No rings were kissed during the making of this article. Take care and play fair… or else.

Congratulations to all participants and winners from Season 24!

What exactly is "the Arena?"

The Arena is the competitive mode on BGA. If you master a game and want to play it competitively, this is THE mode to use, so you can challenge the best players and get the most experience points.

The Arena is organized in seasons of 3 months each. Achievements are awarded to the best players at the end of each season.

To play in the Arena: select "Play" and then choose "Arena" instead of "Simple game."

Read more about Arena mode

Arena format and Gurus

In the previous seasons the gurus chose the game formats for the Arena: player number, options used, ...

We are very happy to see that this way of doing things contributed to making the Arena more popular: thank you to all gurus for their smart suggestions and their votes!

Rules updates

No Arena rules are changing this season. It does not mean we are 100% satisfied with how the Arena is running, but you seem to appreciate the current rules, so we want to keep them as they are for now. Find out more here.

Season 25 is NOW Launched.

The new Arena is now open for its new season.

Some Explanation About: Relegations

At the end of each season, after winners have been awarded, you are relegated.

League relegation is determined by the number of Arena leagues available for each game:

• For games with 6 leagues: Elite players are demoted to Gold, Diamond players to Silver, and everyone else to Bronze.
• For games with 5 or 4 leagues: Elite players are demoted to Silver, and everyone else to Bronze.
• For games with 3 or 2 leagues: Everyone is demoted to Bronze.

Note that some games might not follow these relegation rules, as we might have decided to adjust the number of leagues in between seasons.

It's up to you to find the way to the elite!

May the odds be ever in your favor!

You can find all changes to the Arena Game Formats here!

Please Don’t Burn My Village is a competitive card game set in the Castle Panic universe, a world known for its frantic, cooperative defense against invading monsters. This time, however, the threat comes in a different form: a lone, cunning dragon is threatening to reduce every village in the kingdom to ashes! But he has a weakness: a taste for treasure and a willingness to negotiate.

You are a desperate villager trying to save your home and everyone is trying to outbid each other to win the dragon’s favor. What could have been a fully cooperative act to get rid of a dragon turned into a tense contest of greed.

Each round, you must decide what you are willing to give up to protect your village, balancing short-term survival against long-term strategy. Resources are limited and everyone is competing for the same outcome. Draw cards, manage your hand of treasures, and choose what to offer the dragon each round. The best bribe wins the dragon’s mercy, while everyone else risks losing their village.

Please Don’t Burn My Village mixes humor, tension, and social interaction. It’s not just about the cards you have, but how you use them. How far will you go to protect your village?

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=pleasedontburnmyvillage

We’d like to thank Simon Weinberg, the game designer, as well as all the awesome villagers from Fireside Games for letting us borrow their dragon on BGA. We don’t say it enough but no game would exist here without the work of developers: thank you fenadoruk, the_FlyingSheep and Chezzik.

This was your Monday release!

Bribe boldly, bluff wisely, and when the dragon shows up, take care and play fair…

You and your opponent face each other across the table. You each have a hand of cards representing your hero's powers, but absolutely no idea what the other person is about to play. The tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Both of you select a card, place it face down, and reveal them simultaneously. What happens next depends entirely on how well you read your opponent.

That's the Massive-Verse Fighting Card Game in a nutshell: a lightning-fast superhero duel powered by the acclaimed Pocket Paragons system, where every round is a tense psychological battle.

Each player picks one of eight Paragons from Image Comics' Massive-Verse and takes their six ability cards. Both players simultaneously choose and reveal an ability each round. If your card counters your opponent's, their card is nullified and you gain energy. Accumulate enough energy, and your Ultimate ability becomes available.

One last thing: if your opponent plays their Weapon while you Rest to recover your spent cards, you're instantly executed. Game over. Rest is necessary, but Rest is dangerous.

It’s a superhero duel where you and your opponent fight to the death, one great "read" at a time. Pick your Paragon and fight now! https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=massiveverse

A huge thank you to Brian McKay, the game designer, and everyone at Solis Game Studio for letting us add their game to BGA. And a very special shout-out to developers joezg and gorangatuzo for making it all come to life on the platform.

That’s it for this Wednesday!

Eight superheroes. One table. No turns. Just take care and play fair…

You know that feeling at the card table when you're holding a terrible hand and there's nothing you can do about it? Charuma has a very different philosophy: you bid for the hand you deserve.

In most trick-taking games, fate deals your cards and you play with what you get. In Charuma, you spend your hard-earned victory points to claim the cards you want. Every round begins with a dilemma: bid too little and you'll be playing catch-up with a weak hand; bid too much and you'll win the round but arrive at the next one bruised and depleted.

At the start of each round, groups of cards are placed face-up. Players take turns bidding their current score, their actual points, to grab one of these groups. Once everyone has secured their cards, the trick-taking phase begins. But here's the twist: each player also receives two hidden cards face-down, tucked underneath their visible hand. You can see most of what your opponents hold but you can never see everything.

Charuma is a trick-taking game unlike any other: bid for your hand, bluff with hidden cards, and find out if your reads are good enough to win.

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=charuma

A huge thank you to Takashi Saito, the game designer, and the Darucat’s crew, and the BGA developer who brought Charuma to life on the platform. We couldn't do any of this without you!

This was you Monday release!

Half your hand is on the table. Half is a secret. All of it is a gamble. So take care and play fair…

Dice have always been at the heart of games because they introduce an element of both chance and unpredictability, but all the experiences you’ve shared with us, as well as our own, have made us realize that we need to be able to adapt the randomness of games: don’t let the dice dictate the outcome any longer! No roll of the dice should ever produce the same result several times in a row, and you’ll have a better chance of getting the face you want with 7 Wonder Dice.

Through millions of games played, we have been able to refine a roll model that naturally adapts to each game according to its rules: it cannot be identical between a game of Backgammon, Catan, King of Tokyo or Krosmaster Arena. This analysis was made possible using the famous ‘bga_rand’ function, which is used for every dice and card roll. It is this function, both obscure and misunderstood, that lies at the heart of your gaming experience and is mentioned in our FAQ (1).

Optimize your chances of winning in all dice games and beat your own records at Yahtzee.

SETUP

From the next update of our site, you will therefore be able to join game tables with different dice roll options:

• Smooth: to ensure a perfectly balanced distribution of results: a D6 will therefore have exactly as many 1s as 6s in your game (provided there are at least 6 dice rolls; beyond that, the results obtained cannot appear in excess). This should allow you to anticipate your next moves as effectively as possible.
• Beneficial: to force an extraordinary stroke of luck and frustrate your opponents. We do, however, recommend this option for cooperative games.
• Chaotic: to favor dice rolls that will further destabilize your opponents’ plans and lead to unexpected situations.
• Physical: which requires you to shake your phone or mouse before each roll to maximize your luck
• Home Advantage: to favor only the table host (reserved for Premium accounts only)

ELO ADJUSTMENT

As these changes affect the outcome of ranked matches, we will be revising the ELO system so that it better reflects your skill level for each game. Aware that luck is a key factor in success or failure, we will introduce a luck score. This score will let you know how luck is playing a part in your victories. It will also allow you to check your opponents’ luck levels and restrict access to your tables for players who are too lucky.

This luck score will be reset on the 1st of each month and will evolve separately from your ELO.

TOURNAMENTS

As the roll of the dice will be influenced by the options, the tournament organizer should take great care to avoid any chaos or abuse that might hinder the smooth running of the tournament.

Please note that “Advantage” mode will only be available for official tournaments and at the organizers’ discretion.

Finally, as “Beneficial” mode may result in longer games in certain extreme cases, we will adjust the effects based on your feedback.

ARENA MODE

To avoid disrupting the current Arena season, the dice roll options will evolve over the course of the 6-week Arena period without the need for the gurus to intervene:

• “Smooth” for the first 2 weeks
• “Beneficial” in the middle of the season
• “Chaotic” for the final two weeks

The “Physical” mode is not applicable in the Arena for obvious reasons of fairness.

Furthermore, an adjustment will be made based on your Arena tier and that of your opponent, so that the supposedly weaker player may occasionally benefit from certain advantageous effects. In short, players in the Bronze League will have an advantage over those in the Elite League.

JOIN OUR GAMEFOUND CAMPAIGN

In addition to the various game modes, as we are committed to being a true complement to physical games, we are in the process of signing an agreement with a games accessory manufacturer to integrate these mechanics into real dice.

They will incorporate a unique, patented component: the miniaturized BGA Random Chip, which will adapt the dice rolls to suit your game type. You will then be able to change the roll settings from your phone before the games begin. An anti-cheating mechanism will be built in to ensure that every player around the table is alerted via a vibration in the dice if the configuration changes during the game.

You’ll even be able to pair your dice with your BGA account to enjoy a live feed of your rolls from your living room table directly into your BGA games (be careful not to leave multiple tabs open with different tables, as results cannot be guaranteed).

A Gamefound campaign will be launched in April to allow you to get exclusive designs.

Here is a sneak preview of the first design proposed for this campaign.

Moving forward, we are currently considering adapting the BGA Random Chip directly into the playing cards to achieve a more harmonious shuffle of your cards, which could even be integrated into booster packs.

(1) We are aware that some players may have been alarmed by the non-random nature of this function’s results during our testing phases. We had to replace it several times with a more random function when some players conducted in-depth analyses without our knowledge.

Another critically acclaimed modern masterpiece makes its way to Board Game Arena.

Scythe is one of those rare strategy games that looks like a war game but plays like something far more thoughtful. It offers a “heavy strategy” experience that remains accessible to all, blending engine-building, resource management, and light conflict into a smooth experience.

Set in an alternate 1920s Europe, the game takes place after a massive conflict. In the region of Europa, fallen empires are rebuilding while rival factions compete for land, resources, and power around a mysterious, abandoned city simply called “The Factory.” Massive diesel-powered mechs, once tools of war, still roam the countryside, giving the world its distinctive mix of rural calm and looming industrial strength.

What makes Scythe special is its balance. Combat exists, but it’s never the focus. In fact, fighting can hurt you if it lowers your popularity. Instead, the game rewards efficiency and smart planning as you build your economy and expand your influence.

Whether you are a seasoned veteran of the Europa region or a newcomer looking to pilot your first mech, start building your empire. The Factory is waiting!

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=scythe

This release wouldn't be possible without the support of Jamey Stegmaier, the game designer, and Stonemaier Games. We are also deeply grateful to Tisaac and vincentt for their expertise in developing the Scythe experience for the BGA community.

This was your Wednesday… oops, Tuesday release.

It may look like a joke, but it isn’t so take care and play fair…