· By Rory Cockshaw
What are the best vegan tabletop games in 2024?
Okay, let’s cut to the chase.
Maybe you’re an activist looking for vegan Christmas gifts for your cronies.
Maybe you’re a meat-eating dad looking for the ideal birthday present for a vegan teen.
Maybe you’re just a board game enthusiast wondering what vegan board games and card games are out there.
In any case, we’ve got you covered. Here are the best vegan board games and card games for 2024.
1. Plants Against Veganity (by This Is Not A Game)
Plants Against Veganity is a vegan card game that’s simply flying off the shelves. Created by 23-year-old vegan entrepreneur Rory Cockshaw, this independently-produced adult party game for vegans has sold almost 700 decks to customers around the world.
As a trailblazer in the vegan-themed games industry, Plants Against Veganity takes a “no-holds-barred” approach to plant-based comedy gaming: the game makes fun of vegans as much as non-vegans, because “if everyone’s made fun of, then no-one’s offended.”
The aim of the game is to use your hand of white cards to make as many funny combinations with the central green “prompt” card as you can - just like a vegan version of Cards Against Humanity.
Indeed, Plants Against Veganity can be used as a vegan expansion pack to the classic CAH!
2. Bumúntú (by Tim Blank)
Bumúntú is a totally different kind of game to Plants Against Veganity - and, to be fair, it’s only tenuously vegan-adjacent.
Bumúntú is a game developed by Tim Blank based around finding a lost city of the same name, revolving centrally around the mythology of the Bakongo peoples in Africa.
However, the reason we’ve included this game in an article about the best vegan games is that you’ve got to befriend animals along the way, earn their favour, and advance towards the lost city.
If befriending and respecting animals doesn’t give this game a vegan vibe, we don’t know what does!*
*But if it’s a little too tenuous for an article about vegan-themed tabletop games, we apologise… there’s not that many to choose from!
3. Eating Vegans
Is eating vegans, vegan?
I mean, as long as it’s consensual, right?
Eating Vegans is an American card game that started not dissimilarly to Plants Against Veganity: some dude had a silly idea, developed it, and turned it into his own independently-created game!
However, Eating Vegans maaay not be to the tastes of everyone reading this article - because it’s not developed by a vegan, and while many vegans do enjoy it, it does take the mickey out of us a little by centering around the idea of feeding vegans nothing but grass and vegetables.
Eating Vegans advertises itself as a game battling against a tirade of “woke fundamentalism” because we vegans have “lowered ourselves to the bottom of the foodchain”.
But, y’know… to each their own.
I haven’t played Eating Vegans (yet!) but would love to; admittedly, I’m all for self-deprecating humour, idiot that I am.
4. Wingspan (by Elizabeth Harper)
Another one a little like Bumúntú in that it’s not explicitly about vegans or veganism, but it’s a great game for those that want to respect animals in their board games rather than simply exploit them for resources.
Designed by Elizabeth Harper and winner of the Kennerspiel des Jahres award in 2019 (yes, I’ll just pretend to know what that is, too…), this game is themed around birdwatching!
As a bird enthusiast, whether vegan or not, your goal is to attract all the best birds to your nature reserve and beat out your opponents by doing so.
It’s simple to set up, quick to play, and no two games are ever alike - a bit like Plants Against Veganity, just birdier and a bit less dirty!
5. Farplace: the Game
There ain’t many other vegan tabletop games, but as far as I know, this is the only vegan-themed board game currently in existence.
(That is, until I develop and build a few next year…).
Farplace: the Game is themed around an animal sanctuary - as some readers may know, Farplace is the name of an animal rescue sanctuary who run a series of charity shops around the country and have also developed a few branded products, of which this board game is just one example.
Aimed at ages 8 to adult and taking around an hour (or less) to play, Farplace: the Game combines set collection with some race mechanics, and each animal player moves slightly differently on the board.
As an animal rescuer, you need to collect items that help you rescue more animals and win the game!
What is a vegan board game or card game?
We’re playing fast and loose with an ill-defined term here, admittedly.
A vegan tabletop game can be a board game or card game in which no animals are hurt or exploited either physically or metaphorically.
For instance, in Bumuntu and Wingspan, animals aren’t resources to be exploited, but rather sentient beings who are respected and valued as inherent pieces to the game.
Alternatively, vegan tabletop games can be any game that has a vegan(-ish) theme.
Take Eating Vegans. It wasn’t created by vegans. It doesn’t really have a vegan message. But it is pretty funny, and it’s about vegans. So in that simple sense, it’s a vegan game.
Plants Against Veganity and Farplace are some of the few explicitly vegan games on the market, though - but fear not! More are on their way.
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