How to use theme to make your board games better
Photo by Karthik Balakrishnan on Unsplash
Every board game has a theme, whether the designer intended it or not. But using theme well is what separates a forgettable game from one that players connect with, talk about, and want to play again. Some new designers treat theme as an afterthought—something to layer on once the mechanics are set—but that approach can lead to a game that feels hollow or disjointed. Others go all in on theme but end up with a game that looks exciting on the box yet falls apart in play.
The best games use theme and mechanics together, each reinforcing the other to create an experience that feels seamless and intuitive. If you've never thought much about how theme shapes a game, or if you're not sure how to make it work in your own design, you're not alone. In this guide, we'll break down how and why theme matters—and how you can use it to make your game stronger.
Board games should be easy to learn and play, so players aren't stuck memorizing rules or constantly flipping through a bulky rulebook. But that doesn't mean they're easy to design! In fact, the smoother and more immersive the experience, the more likely the designer has spent months refining every detail.
Thousands of great board games exist—new ones appear every year—but most share key design principles. When learning what makes a successful game, we often break these down and analyze them separately. That's useful, but no single element alone creates a great player experience.
Every part of a board game's design is interconnected, working together to shape gameplay. Here's a breakdown of the core elements to consider when designing your own. While we list them separately for clarity, remember that they function as a system—each distinct but only effective as part of the whole.
- Game type — or the fundamental idea of the game (race, combat, quest, collection, etc.)
- Game theme — the imaginative context and setting (historical, detective, fantasy, space, mystery, horror, etc.)
- Game mechanics — the technical operations necessary to play, such as random number generation, turns, bonuses and penalties, movement controls, etc.)
- Game components — the objects needed to play the game, which literally embody the theme and the mechanics to enable the idea: a complete or modular board, meeples, counters, miniatures, dice, cards, standees, spinners, score sheets, etc.
- A win condition — how you know who's won and when the game ends; first to the finish, collect a full set, occupy a territory, eliminate the other players, etc.
- A rule book — a printed booklet explaining the rules, often illustrated and containing examples for more complex games, and teaching the players how to play
Now, that's quite a lot to consider, isn't it? And if you're not already very familiar with the principles of board game design, it may not all seem immediately clear, even if you've been a keen game player for many years. In any case, you don't need to think about all of it at once. At least, not yet. Because, as we said, in this post, we're going to focus on one super-important aspect of game design: theme.
Why is theme important in board game design?
Theme is essential to any great board game. Getting it right is one of the biggest factors in creating a game people love to play. You might have noticed that when we listed themes earlier—fantasy, historical, mystery—they were also genres of fiction. That's no coincidence. If you want to design a great game, you need to understand why theme and storytelling go hand in hand.
Think about the last book or movie you truly loved—the one that left you thinking about it long after it ended. While you were reading or watching, were you analyzing the structure, studying the grammar, or counting the scene changes? No. You were immersed in an experience that made you feel something.
A game's mechanics—its rules, systems, and structure—are like the grammar and syntax of a novel. They should function smoothly in the background. Players don't love games because of mechanics alone; they love them because of the experience. Because they're fun.
Choosing the right concept, balancing mechanics, and refining components are all crucial. But none of it will create an immersive experience without a strong, well-integrated theme.
Take a simple race game. Players start at point A and must reach point B first. You add a board, meeples, and dice. Players roll, move across squares, and the first to finish wins.
This game, let's call it "Race!" has all the essential elements of a functional board game:
- An idea — a race
- Mechanics — random number generation, turns, and movement control
- Components — a squared board, meeples, dice
- A win condition — first from A to B
- Rules — players take turns and can only travel the same number of squares as the dice roll shows in a single turn
The game works, but would anyone want to play it? Probably not. It's missing something: theme.
You could add penalty squares, quiz cards, or collectible tokens. Swap meeples for miniatures, require players to gather gems before reaching the finish. More mechanics, more rules—but without a compelling theme, the game is still just a set of actions. Functional, but forgettable.
Why board games need themes
The game needs a theme to transform a mechanical race into an immersive experience. So, let's see what happens when we add a theme. And keeping the same basic idea, mechanics, components, and rules, we could add a number of different themes. For example:
- Fantasy theme: The players are knights in a medieval-inspired world. They must rescue the captured princess or prince from the Wizard's Tower.
- Thriller theme: Top secret government documents have been stolen by an international terrorist organisation. Players are agents who must reach the enemy headquarters before the terrorists decode the instructions for a weapon of mass destruction.
- Space theme: Players are intergalactic explorers racing against each other to claim a new planet for their own.
Now, you can see how suddenly, with the addition of a theme, the same basic game opens up a world of imaginative involvement. Of course, it doesn't stop there. Once you've got a theme for your game, it will inspire development of other elements, too. For example, with our fantasy theme above, you might want to add non-player characters such as the wizard and maybe a guardian dragon; perhaps a combat mechanic so that each knight doesn't need only to get to the tower, but once there, fight the dragon; so, then, you'd need to introduce new rules governing combat, and so on. The theme will also change the components. Perhaps RPG-style miniatures would be better than meeples, and the artwork and printing would reflect the fantasy genre.
But the point we want to make in this post is that without a theme — whatever your idea, mechanics, components, and win condition — your board game will likely be dead in the water. So, always think about your board game's theme. Take time to play with different themes and pick the one that best suits your game. It can make all the difference between success and failure when designing your own board game.
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