Tired of Monopoly Ruining Your Friendships? Play These 5 Modern Board Games Instead

What is up, chat! Hexa’s here! I love my friends more than life itself, but a few years ago, we had a Friendsgiving that nearly ended in actual litigation.

We had made the classic, fatal mistake of pulling out Monopoly after dinner. By 1:00 AM, my living room had transformed into a psychological war zone. My best friend Sarah was staging a silent protest because her partner refused to trade her a utility, my brother-in-law had literally stormed out to sit in his car, and I was hiding in the kitchen pretend-washing the same clean pot for forty-five minutes just to avoid the ambient rage.

That night, as I swept a stray plastic green house off my rug, I made a solemn vow: Monopoly was banned from my apartment forever.

Here is my absolute hot take, and I will die on this hill: Monopoly is a genuinely terrible game. It was originally designed in 1903 as a political warning to show how monopolies bankrupt everyone except one greedy landlord. It was literally engineered to make you feel helpless, frustrated, and deeply resentful of your loved ones. Why are we still doing this to ourselves?

Since that fateful Friendsgiving, I’ve made it my personal mission to curate a board game collection that actually brings people together. I’m talking about games that are fast, gorgeous, highly strategic, and leave everyone laughing instead of plotting revenge. If you want to host a game night where people actually want to stay until the end, these are the five games I personally swear by.

The Quest for El Dorado

This is my absolute holy grail when I want a high-energy race. It’s designed by Reiner Knizia, a legendary designer who basically has a doctorate in making math fun, and it casts everyone as rival explorers hacking through jungles and paddling down rivers to reach the legendary golden city.

My absolute favorite thing about this game is that it completely chucks dice-rolling out the window in favor of deck-building. You start with a weak little hand of basic explorer cards, and on your turn, you use those cards to either navigate the physical terrain on the board or buy much cooler, more specialized gear from a shared market.

During our last game night, my friend Leo was smugly leading the pack, thinking he had the golden city in his sights. But I had spent the entire game secretly hoarding high-value coin cards to buy a giant propeller plane. On my final turn, I bypassed a massive swamp that had him completely bogged down, waved goodbye, and cruised straight into El Dorado. The collective gasp in the room was worth every single penny.

It is just so much better than Monopoly because you are always in control of your own destiny. If you get stuck, it’s because of a choice you made, not because a cheap plastic die decided to betray you. Plus, the map is modular, meaning you can rearrange the puzzle-piece terrain tiles to create an entirely new jungle every single time you play.

Carcassonne

Sometimes I don’t want a cutthroat, heart-pounding race. Sometimes I just want a rainy Sunday afternoon, a massive mug of hot tea, some lo-fi music playing in the background, and a game that feels like a warm hug. When that’s the vibe, I always reach for Carcassonne.

The wildest thing about this game is that there is no board when you open the box. Instead, you and your friends take turns drawing thick cardboard tiles out of a bag and placing them down on the table to connect with the tiles that are already there. Together, step by step, you end up building a beautiful medieval French countryside complete with winding roads, walled cities, and quaint little monasteries.

When you lay a tile, you can place one of your little wooden figures—which the gaming community affectionately calls a meeple—to claim a road, city, or field. Once that feature is completed, you score your points and get your little wood guy back.

My partner and I play this constantly as a cozy, low-stress date night game because it scales beautifully for two players. There is no bankruptcy, no crushing debt, and no cruel surprises. Even if you don’t end up with the highest score, there is this incredibly satisfying feeling at the end when you look down at the table and realize you just built a gorgeous, sprawling map together from scratch.

Catan

Now, if your group is the type that actually likes the bartering, deal-making, and high-society trading of Monopoly, Catan is your ultimate upgrade. This is the classic gateway game that dragged me kicking and screaming into the hobby years ago, and I still love it to pieces.

You are settlers on a modular island made of hexagonal tiles, and your goal is to build roads and settlements by harvesting resources like wood, brick, sheep, wheat, and ore. The catch is that the island’s resources are distributed based on a roll of two dice, and the board is designed so that it is practically impossible to produce everything you need on your own.

This is where the social magic happens. Because you are constantly lacking something, you are forced to negotiate with your friends. The entire game is fueled by hilarious, desperate trading sessions.

In my apartment, trading in Catan has become an art form. My friend Dave is a notorious smooth-talker who will try to convince you that his single sheep is worth three of your bricks because “wool is the fabric of the future.” In Monopoly, trading feels like a hostile takeover. In Catan, it’s a lively, laugh-out-loud negotiation where everyone is constantly involved, even when it isn’t their turn.

Ticket to Ride

If I need a game that I can teach to my non-gamer friends, my parents, or literally anyone in under three minutes, Ticket to Ride is my secret weapon. It takes the fun “set collection” mechanic of Monopoly—where you are trying to hoard matching colors—and turns it into a fast-paced, colorful railway adventure.

You get a hand of colored train cards and a secret “Destination Ticket” that tells you to connect two specific cities on a map of North America, like Seattle to New York. On your turn, you simply draw more cards, claim a route on the board with your cute little plastic train pieces, or grab more secret tickets.

My favorite memory of this game involves my sweet, quiet mother. She usually hates games with complex rules, but she took to Ticket to Ride instantly. By the middle of the game, she had completely transformed into a ruthless transit tycoon. She saw me eyeing the route into Miami, quietly saved up her yellow cards, and blocked me out of the entire East Coast with a sweet, innocent smile on her face. I was absolutely stunned, and it remains one of my favorite family game night memories.

The pace is lightning-fast because the turns are so simple. There is no downtime, no waiting around for someone to read the fine print on a property card, and no complex math. It’s just pure, satisfying, train-routing fun.

Horrified

But let’s be real: some friend groups are just way too competitive. If your crowd has a history of taking losses personally, the absolute best thing you can do is play a cooperative game. In co-op games, the players are on the same team, and you either win together or the game itself crushes you. Horrified is hands-down my favorite cooperative game of all time.

It is a beautifully spooky, atmospheric love letter to the classic 1930s Universal monsters. Your group plays as local heroes trying to defend a village from Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, or the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

What makes it so brilliant is that each monster behaves like a completely different puzzle. If you are fighting the Mummy, you have to run around sliding ancient symbol tracks into place. If you are fighting Frankenstein and his Bride, you actually have to teach them how to be human before they can safely live in the village.

We played this last Halloween with a full group of five, and the tension was off the charts. We were one turn away from Dracula wiping us out, and my friend Jess had to make a heroic run across the map to guide a lost villager to safety while the rest of us distracted the vampire. When we finally pulled off the win, the entire room erupted into cheers and high-fives. It is the perfect antidote to the toxic bitterness of Monopoly because you are sharing the victory as a team.

My Final Advice for Your Next Game Night

If you are ready to make the swap but aren’t sure where to start, here is my quick guide based on your group’s personality.

If your friends love a challenge and want a strategic race, go buy The Quest for El Dorado. If you want a relaxed, cozy evening with great conversation and beautiful aesthetics, grab Carcassonne. If you live for the drama of trading and wheeling-and-dealing, Catan is your champion. If you want something incredibly simple and fast that anyone can play, Ticket to Ride is an absolute must-have. And if you want to avoid arguments entirely and build team spirit, save your sanity and get Horrified.

Board games should be about spending quality time together, laughing until your stomach hurts, and creating memories you’ll talk about for years. They shouldn’t be about crying over rent money or questioning your life choices at 2:00 AM. Do yourself a favor: retire Monopoly, pick up one of these modern classics, and let me know how much better your next game night is. I’d love to hear which one you’re planning to bring to the table!