This is an excerpt from my ebook, How to Design Card Games.
The following are common themes for tabletop games, derived from BoardGameGeek‘s categories. Pages shows the number of pages of games with this theme (out of date now, but intended as a relative indicator of popularity).
| Pages | Theme | Game Examples | ||
| 50+ | Economic | Terra Mystica | Caverna | Through the Ages |
| 50+ | Educational | 1775: Rebellion | Freedom: The Underground Railroad | Evolution |
| 50+ | Fantasy | Terra Mystica | Caverna | Mage Knight |
| 50+ | Fighting | Mage Knight | Star Wars: Imperial Assault | Eclipse |
| 50+ | Movie / TV / Radio | Star Wars: Imperial Assault | Battlestar Galactica | Legendary Encounters |
| 50+ | Science Fiction | Twilight Imperium | Star Wars: Imperial Assault | Android: Netrunner |
| 50+ | Trivia | Wits & Wagers | Fauna | Timeline |
| 50+ | Wargame | Twilight Struggle | Twilight Imperium | Star Wars: Imperial Assault |
| 43 | Sports | Blood Bowl | PitchCar | Formula D |
| 42 | Animals | Caverna | Agricola | Dominant Species |
| 41 | World War II | Combat Commander: Europe | Memoir ‘44 | Advanced Squad Leader |
| 39 | Racing | RoboRally | PitchCar | Formula D |
| 36 | Humor | Dixit Quest | Dungeon Petz | Galaxy Trucker |
| 28 | Adventure | Mage Knight Board Game | Star Wars: Imperial Assault | War of the Ring |
| 28 | Word Game | Codenames | Paperback | Beyond Balderdash |
| 24 | Medieval | Dominion | The Castles of Burgundy | Caylus |
| 23 | Deduction | Codenames | Battlestar Galactica | The Resistance |
| 19 | Horror | Dead of Winter | Eldritch Horror | Legendary Encounters |
| 18 | Ancient | 7 Wonders: Duel | Tzolk’n | Tigris & Euphrates |
| 18 | Exploration | Mage Knight | Robinson Crusoe | Descent |
| 18 | Nautical | Dominion: Seaside | Le Havre | Keyflower |
| 17 | Novel-based | War of the Ring | Robinson Crusoe | Eldritch Horror |
| 15 | Political | Twilight Struggle | Twilight Imperium | Battlestar Galactica |
| 14 | Travel | Ticket to Ride | The Voyages of Marco Polo | Orleans |
| 13 | Math | Sleeping Queens | Utopia Engine | Zeus on the Loose |
| 13 | Transportation | Brass | Ticket to Ride | Galaxy Trucker |
| 12 | Aviation/Flight | Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures | The Manhattan Project | Airlines Europe |
| 12 | Modern Warfare | Twilight Struggle | Labyrinth: The War on Terror | Fire in the Lake |
| 11 | Comic Book | Legendary | Sentinels of the Multiverse | Marvel Dice Masters |
| 10 | City Building | Puerto Rico | Lords of Waterdeep | Le Havre |
| 10 | Trains | Ticket to Ride | Russian Railroads | Railways of the World |
| 9 | Murder / Mystery | Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective | Letters from Whitechapel | Mysterium |
| 9 | Napoleonic | Commands & Colors: Napoleonics | Napoleon’s Triumph | Manoeuvre |
| 9 | Pirates | Merchants & Marauders | Libertalia | Friday |
| 9 | Religious | Ora et Labora | Orleans | Here I Stand |
| 9 | Space Exploration | Twilight Imperium | Eclipse | Race for the Galaxy |
| 8 | American West | Lewis & Clark | Carson City | Shadows of Brimstone |
| 8 | Book | Warmachine | Infinity | Warhammer |
| 8 | Civilization | Terra Mystica | Twilight Imperium | Through the Ages |
| 8 | Mythology | Tzolk’in | Blood Rage | Five Tribes |
| 8 | Zombies | Dead of Winter | Earth Reborn | Zombicide |
| 7 | American Civil War | Freedom: The Underground Railroad | Battle Cry | For the People |
| 7 | Environmental | Pandemic Legacy | Dominant Species | Takenoko |
| 7 | Industry/Manufacturing | Power Grid | Brass | Le Havre |
| 7 | World War I | Paths of Glory | The Grizzled | Wings of War |
| 6 | Farming | Caverna | Puerto Rico | Agricola |
| 6 | Maze | Ricochet Robots | Dungeon Twister | Burgle Bros. |
| 6 | Music | Opera | Rock the Beat | Schrille Stille |
| 6 | Spies / Secret Agents | Codenames | Battlestar Galactica | Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective |
| 6 | Video Game | Railways of the World | Age of Empires III | Sid Meier’s Civilization |
| 5 | Renaissance | Keyflower | El Grande | Goa |
| 4 | Mafia | Ca$h ‘n Gun$ | Nothing Personal | Junta |
| 4 | Prehistoric | Dominant Species | Stone Age | Evolution |
| 3 | Age of Reason | A Few Acres of Snow | Maria | Saint Petersburg |
| 3 | American Revolutionary War | 1775: Rebellion | Washington’s War | We the People |
| 3 | Civil War (in general) | Sekigahara | Pax Porfiriana | Julius Caesar |
| 3 | Medical | Pandemic | Infection | Zombie State |
| 2 | American Indian Wars | A Few Acres of Snow | 1775: Rebellion | Washington’s War |
| 2 | Arabian | Five Tribes | Tales of the Arabian Nights | Yspahan |
| 2 | Pike and Shot | Virgin Queen | Hamburgum | Unhappy King Charles |
| 2 | Post-Napoleonic | Castles of Mad King Ludwig | Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective | Letters from Whitechapel |
| 2 | Vietnam War | Fire in the Lake | Fields of Fire | Phantom Leader |
| 1 | Korean War | Fields of Fire | The Korean War | Korea: The Forgotten War |
