The best "Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming🇺🇸" winners and nominees 2026

In Love Letter, you must compete with other suitors to deliver a romantic letter to Princess Annette, who has secluded herself in the palace.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 offers an extraordinary gaming experience as a cooperative campaign game, immersing players in an overarching story-arc that unfolds over 12-24 gripping sessions. The duration depends on your group's performance and the fate of the world. Here's an overview of this thrilling journey:

Ticket to Ride offers a delightful and accessible gaming experience that can be grasped in under 15 minutes, making it perfect for both newcomers and seasoned gamers. Designed by the renowned Alan R. Moon, this board game revolves around a railway adventure across North America.

The Mind is a unique card game that combines elements of cooperation, intuition, and silent communication. It is as much an experiment in group dynamics as it is a game.

In Dominion, you step into the shoes of a monarch, much like your ancestors, ruling over a small, picturesque kingdom. However, your ambitions stretch far beyond the peaceful realm you've inherited. Your goal is to expand your territory, transforming these modest lands into a vast dominion filled with diverse landscapes and resources.

Terraforming Mars is a strategic board game set in the 2400s, where players, representing giant corporations, embark on the colossal task of terraforming Mars. Sponsored by the World Government on Earth, each corporation competes to contribute most effectively to raising the planet's temperature, oxygen level, and ocean coverage to make Mars habitable. While players work together in the terraforming process, they also compete for victory points awarded for their contributions to terraforming, advancing human infrastructure throughout the solar system, and other notable achievements.

Gloomhaven is a Euro-inspired tactical combat game set in a persistent and evolving world. Players assume the roles of adventurers, each with unique skills and motives, as they explore dungeons, ruins, and engage in cooperative battles against automated monsters.

Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space is a suspenseful card game set in the dark and treacherous confines of a space research ship afflicted by an alien plague. This game uniquely combines strategy, bluffing, and a claustrophobic science fiction theme.

Risk Legacy is a revolutionary approach to the classic board game Risk, introducing the concept of a "campaigning" board game. What sets Risk Legacy apart is its evolving nature; the game changes over time, influenced by the outcomes of each session and the decisions made by players. This version of Risk creates a unique and persistent world that is shaped by the players' actions, resulting in a customized gaming experience.

Magic: The Gathering (MTG) is a highly influential collectible card game (CCG) that has shaped the genre since its inception. Players take on the roles of planeswalkers, powerful wizards engaging in strategic duels.

Charterstone invites players into the Kingdom of Greengully, where they are tasked with building a new village as part of a grand decree by the Forever King. This competitive legacy game evolves with each play, offering a unique and enduring experience.

Welcome to the diverse and captivating land of Terra Mystica, where 14 distinct peoples inhabit seven unique landscapes. In this strategic board game, each group is intrinsically tied to its own home environment, and to expand and flourish, they must transform neighboring terrains into their native habitats, all while competing against rival factions.

Players solve over 1,200 puzzles and brain teasers, including anagrams, logic problems, visual riddles, and quiz questions, catering to thinkers of all ages. For those seeking an extra challenge, there are head-to-head puzzle competitions against opponents.

Players take on the role of caregivers tasked with looking after terminally ill patients. Their final patient, Billy Kerr, has just been rushed to the hospital after a massive heart attack, and they have only days to help him. Through over ten playable scenarios, players must piece together his lifelong memories while addressing his regrets and assisting him in finding the courage to confront them.