Thursday November 20, 2014

When you hear the name Wil Wheaton, different images might flash in your mind: the bookish teen Gordie, who goes out to find a dead body with his friends in Stand by Me; the gifted yet kind of snobbish cadet Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation; and most recently, the proponent of all things geek. Like Chris Hardwick and Patton Oswalt, Wheaton has risen up the celebrity food chain in recent years by tapping into the nerd demo. In the latest chapter of his career he's found success as the creator and host of the popular Internet show Tabletop (which just launched its third season), in which Wheaton plays popular board games with a group of celebrities, geeks, and game designers.

Sitting in a midtown Manhattan bar with Wheaton last week—where he was doing press as the new pitchman for Newcastle Brown Ale—we asked for his top five tabletop games of all time. Taking a deep breath, he gave us an ached look like we suddenly asked him to decide between Star Trek or Star Wars. "I can't rank these and I'll tell you why," he said, positioning himself in his chair like he's discussing a pressing bureaucratic issue. "When I sit down to play a game like Love Letter, I'm expecting a different experience than when I sit down to play Lords of Waterdeep. And when I play Cards Against Humanity I want a different experience than when I play Apples to Apples. We play different games for different reasons."

So with that bombardment of nerd etiquette, we settled on five games he's obsessed with playing right now. If you're familiar with Settlers of Catan and other settlement-oriented games—or if you're at all like Wheaton—these will probably appeal to you.

Will Wheaton: The top 5 board games you should play:

The Resistance: Avalon
Takenono
Marvel Legendary Deck Building Game
Lords of Waterdeep
Kingdom Builder

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