alt.hn

5/25/2026 at 3:45:04 PM

My new obsession: A horse-racing board game of pure luck

 https://alexanderbjoy.com/horse-race-board-game/

by surprisetalk

5/28/2026 at 9:04:56 AM

Repeatedly following a fixed algorithm by hand can be relaxing - simple Sudoku problems, Solitaire, simple Rubiks cube solutions, simple crosswords and math problems, word searches, etc.

Meanwhile social games are fun even if they are extremely simple - rules-lite RPGs, Guess Who, Pictionary, etc.

This seems to exist at an intersection of the two. It's interesting that following a mindless algorithm with a group of people sounds so ridiculous and pointless in principle, but it's actually fun. Our brains are somehow wired to find it rewarding.

Extreme luck has the benefit of bringing everyone to the same level regardless of age or background, whereas e.g. chess, Counter-Strike or boxing is much less fun if one person is 10x better than the other. The more skill a game requires, the more it needs separate leagues for differing levels of ability.

Maybe there's also ironic enjoyment in playing a horse-race gambling game when most people playing have likely never watched a real horse race, let alone bet on one.

by redeyedtreefrog

5/27/2026 at 6:01:28 PM

The highly random and somewhat convoluted mechanisms remind me of something like character creation in the rpg classic traveller.

You do have a little choice there (unlike here), but I think the same appeal is present even without the choice.

The experience is a bit like reading fortunes from tea leaves.

The fun comes from assigning meaning to the outcomes. This happens, generally, automatically as a human instinct. In traveller, the process of character creation generates a kind of narrative in your head of who the character is.

I've been thinking about these kind of experiences a lot lately.

Is it a game? I don't think a discussion of definitions is very interesting, but I would call it a game by any casual meaning of the word. Certainty, in traveller's case, a roleplaying game. But I recognize the same appeal in these zero-player games.

You're playing something, just in your own mind. The primary game isn't what's on the table, but what's in your mind. You're not committing to choices in physical (or digital) space, you have no agency there -- but there's still a rich experience happening between your ears -- full of hopes, predictions, disappointments, elation, creativity. It's like reading but you're also part author. You're not reading from a book, but from pattern matching inside randomness.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around it myself. I have little more than the recognition of something interesting in this direction, but beyond that I can't articulate it.

by psvv

5/28/2026 at 11:04:28 AM

> character creation in the rpg classic traveller.

This is half the game. I fondly remember a few "game days" in the early 80's with some friends spending hours "rolling" Traveller characters. Partly because it was quite possible for your character to due DURING GENERATION, before the "rpg" part of the game actually started.

by michaelcampbell

5/27/2026 at 3:13:59 PM

This sounds similar (but not quite) to Ready Set Bet [1], which is probably a lot easier to find than this.

This game, as the title suggests, is pure luck, based on the cards you were dealt.

In RSB, it’s real-time, and as dice are rolled to move horses forward, you can place bets on a number of spots, based on how the dice are being rolled (always by a designated player that is either part of the betting or not — recommended that they don’t bet if you have enough players).

Obviously still a lot of luck, as with most dice rolling games. But a decent amount of strategy in timing your bets, especially since bets freeze once horses get to a certain line in the game.

[1] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/351040/ready-set-bet

by jader201

5/27/2026 at 3:57:36 PM

Came to the comment(s) looking for this game. I've played this! Fun!

It's interesting to explore the spectrum of what people find fun. In large groups, it seems like games that tilt heavily towards luck can be a great deal of fun for everyone, while "board gamers" (like me) enjoy games where you can learn and leverage strategies to gain advantage, and the role of luck is diminished (to varying degrees).

As a board game host, you have to get that spectrum, gauge group size and preference, and pick a game that will work for them. Strategic games, in particular, take learning the rules, learning the strategies, practicing them, learning your opponents... it can take a dozen games before you're competitive. And for a lot of people, almost none of those games will be any fun.

A few games kind of nail this with an unexpectedly even playing field, where strategy helps, but luck offsets it. If luck really offsets it, very strategic players will also find that it's no fun.

Some luck-based games I really like include Lords of Vegas (not to mention... just Vegas), Bunny Kingdom, and Flip 7.

A lot of card-based strategy games like Terraforming Mars and Wingspan certainly have some amount of luck in them, but it can be dwarfed by good synergy / strategy.

by neogodless

5/27/2026 at 4:12:10 PM

I think for big groups it’s not so much luck/randomness that is the key but complexity. Low complexity games are going to play better. They can be pure skill games. Many drinking games are (beer pong etc).

Luck/randomness is directly against determinism. A way of making feel less mechanical and opening up the combinatorial state space? Essentially increasing the fun/interest without introducing high complexity necessarily? As well as narrow the skill range as you say, but not necessarily over longer time horizons.

Like you can do a 2d matrix of luck and complexity.

Tic tac toe - low randomness, low complexity

Chess - low randomness, high complexity

Poker - med randomness, high complexity

Roulette - high randomness, low complexity

by aleksiy123

5/27/2026 at 3:30:38 PM

Being allowed to place bets makes it actually not a pure luck game. That game can be optimally solved given knowledge of the world because there are choices involved.

TFA's base game, however, is pure luck - you place no bets, you discard no cards, you make no decisions. Perhaps you influence things by how you roll, but probably not consciously. If the same die roll sequence and same card shuffle sequence is replayed, the game is the exact same.

by jvanderbot

5/27/2026 at 10:48:11 PM

Another similar game is Camel Up

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/260605/camel-up-second-e...

by hiccuphippo

5/28/2026 at 7:00:42 AM

+1 to Camel Up. If you haven’t played the 2nd edition, they added two crazy camels going the wrong way. Lots of fun and playable from age ~6-7 onwards.

by amenghra

5/27/2026 at 9:00:35 PM

If we're listing modern games vaguely similar to this, we can't let the thread go without mentioning the fantastically entertaining (yet _mostly_ random) "Hot Streak" (2025)!

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/446497/hot-streak

by quuxplusone

5/29/2026 at 5:06:40 PM

Long Shot: The Dice Game is my favourite among horse-racing board games. It is so much fun!

by orkasi

5/29/2026 at 3:28:51 AM

Love RSB but then again I'm a filthy degenerate :D

by iqp

5/27/2026 at 8:17:17 PM

My favourite horse racing game is Knizia Winner’s Circle.

Long Shot: The dice game is also another decent option.

Ready set bet didn’t really work for me. But for a group that likes the more social side and yelling it seems good.

by nogha

5/27/2026 at 4:00:37 PM

I love what they're calling here "zero-player" games. They're automatons that you can build other games on top of (often in combination with other automatons) or, like this, they are games where players can simply identify themselves with one of the game's components. The latter are excellent for groups of drunk people.

Spectator sports are basically zero-player games.

Another classic is "LCR" (Left Center Right), and one that was popular a few years back is "Yahtzee Turbo."

by pessimizer

5/27/2026 at 7:51:35 PM

The classic I remember from childhood is the card game "War". Assuming neither player cheats or makes a mistake, the outcome is totally predetermined.

by munchler

5/27/2026 at 8:52:13 PM

Reminds me of an arcade mechanical game where you tossed balls into a panel with holes and depending on where it landed it would push your designated horse faster. It was a massive thing with room for an announcer in the middle like 20 seats at least around him in a horseshoe shape.

by culopatin

5/27/2026 at 3:31:09 PM

A great uncle of mine had made a similar but simpler game like this we used to play, decades & decades & decades ago. He didn't take credit for it, but he'd gotten it printed on a huge nice sheet of paper, and had horses that advanced down it. You just place bets and turn over cards for each horse, and the highest card horse advances. On rainy days we'd sit in the living room, my sibling & I, basically on top of the giant horse race game, making bets & turning over cards to see who the winner would be.

Our game was shorter, and only had uhh 6 tracks I think. The odds rose quite a lot for the un-favored horses, like, a lot a lot. The horses/tracks all had names, but I can't remember their names.

by jauntywundrkind

5/27/2026 at 5:21:23 PM

There is also an even easier variant (best for young kids) where each person gets 1 or more horses.

You then have people roll the dice and move the horse one spot forward if the number on the dice match the horse number.

It's total luck but a great way to explain probability to the younger kids and probability distributions to the older kids.

by alexpotato

5/27/2026 at 4:45:01 PM

A bit Off topic. I am looking for a Board Game for my step dad. He is a retired 80+ years old rancher. He doesn't know any english at all, so he is very limited on choices. Something that can be played by himself or with other person.

by MyHonestOpinon

5/27/2026 at 6:19:48 PM

Dorfromantik is a very nice game that can be played as a solo or co-op game. It was released in multiple languages: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/370591/dorfromantik-the-...

The basic rules aren't hard to learn and official digital versions of the rulebook and addendums with some clarifications are available (at least) in English and German.

If none of the official releases are in your language of choice, translating them shouldn't take too long. During the campaign, should you decide to play it, you unlock some cards with text on them which explains the unlock conditions and the elements they add to the game. An example of those cards can be seen in the addendum on pages 2 and 5. There aren't too many of them, so it's quite feasible to translate them.

For the English version, have a look here:

https://pegasusna.com/Dorfromantik-The-Boardgame/PNA51240.US...

Rule book: https://pegasusna.com/NetiMedia/download?mediaId=018e5c292cd...

Addendums: https://pegasusna.com/NetiMedia/download?mediaId=018e5c29466...

by max-m

5/27/2026 at 5:19:44 PM

I'd recommend that you try and ask this in a more specialized forum (e.g. BGG [1]). Also, if solo playable board games is a must - this drastically reduces the amount of games.

Maybe also consider card games (like Solitaire)?

[1] https://boardgamegeek.com/

by mkayokay

5/27/2026 at 6:38:21 PM

I also considered recommending Solitaire.

I personally enjoy playing Free Cell with a deck of actual cards (although a video game version is just as fun).

by regus

5/27/2026 at 5:30:48 PM

hard to give recommendations without more information. For example

1. what languages does he know? there are boardgames that are localized into other languages. Probably the easiest route tbh.

2. what kinds of games does he like? for example, many boardgames have very little english on the game pieces. think any game that uses a standard poker deck, e.g. solitaire, or many others. Mahjong is another example though, as is dominos).

There are some modern boardgames that might also be fine, namely ones that discourage communication in the first place. It's common in co-op boardgames. For example, the Lord of the Rings trick taking game is 1-4 players, and during gameplay there is no discussion allowed. Game pieces can be separated into two categories

1. scenario-specific ones, which have text on them/must be read to be understood/played. You could maybe translate them? or it may have been localized for a language he's literate in. I don't know.

2. secnario-independent ones, which are (functionally) poker cards.

For this game you only need to share language when understanding the scenario-specific cards, and when planning strategy before each scenario starts. I would be comfortable playing the game with someone I don't share a language with if

1. we both know the game (this would be the hard part), and

2. we have two copies of the game, so we each can read our scenario-specific cards in our own language, and

3. we struggled through with a translation app before each scenario starts, if we want to discuss strategy.

by mswphd

5/27/2026 at 10:19:06 PM

He only speaks Spanish. He plays with my Mom who also only speaks Spanish. They play Solitaire, dominoes and Sequence.

by MyHonestOpinon

5/28/2026 at 12:19:36 AM

Many boardgames are also available in spanish. BoardGameGeek is a popular boardgame website. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have an ergonomic way to filter searches on a spanish-language version of the game being available. But you can go to a particular game, look at the "versions" tab, and see what languages are available. From this I can see the LOTR trick taking game I mentioned is published in spanish (as well as many other languages).

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/429293/the-lord-of-the-r...

I don't know firsthand for good games similar to what you've mentioned. I asked an LLM about "enhanced" versions of Solitaire specifically and is mentioned

* The Crew: it's a trick-taking game (like the LOTR one). which of the two trick taking games is better is probably debatable, notably the crew is 2-5 players, while LOTR is 1-4. I've only played LOTR at >= 2, so can't comment on it at 1 player.

* Regicide: 1-4 person cooperative game where you "fight monsters" by playing standard poker cards. I haven't played it personally but I saw a video on it and was interested in it from that.

All of the above (I think) have their core game pieces not really involve any language (besides eg numbers). So you could get them in spanish, and still plausibly play with them if you learned the english rules from somewhere. BoardGameGeek often has rules files available online, e.g. regicide's rules in english are downloadable on this page

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/307002/regicide/files

by mswphd

5/27/2026 at 5:43:00 PM

SET - Great for a 80+ year old brain. If SET is too hard, there is a kids edition as well. https://playset.netlify.app/

by jasondigitized

5/28/2026 at 8:00:35 AM

Translations are pretty easy to make these days, and you can print out cheat sheets.

Because so many board games used to be German back in the day, boardgamegeek.com always had rating for how much language proficiency is required / what's required if you don't speak the language the game was published in.

What language(s) does he speak?

by eru

5/28/2026 at 8:20:07 PM

Magical Athlete. You can get it in Spanish. Fun with 3+ players

by bushwart

5/27/2026 at 5:25:19 PM

Azul comes to mind.

by InsideOutSanta

5/27/2026 at 6:35:25 PM

The existing suggestions are good, but what about Cribbage?

by a_t48

5/27/2026 at 6:35:49 PM

Here is my list, I won't go into too many details as to rules or anything like that. I recommend checking out the links below to see what the games are like.

Two Players:

- Backgammon: This is my favorite "classic" game. I think it is _way_ more fun than chess. Especially if you play it with the doubling cube. Backgammon is easy to learn and it is common across many cultures.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2397/backgammon

- Lost Cities: this is a card game for two players that does not require any reading, aside from numbers. The game is very simple to learn but has a lot of depth and it is a lot of fun. I usually recommend this a good game for couples.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/50/lost-cities

- Battle Line: This is like Lost Cities but a little more complex, it has great depth.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/760/battle-line

Four Players

- The Mind: This is a four player card game that won game of the year back when it came out. It has no words at all. This game is extremely popular and the game play is very easy to learn (even easy for a kid). It requires all players to work together as team.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/244992/the-mind

- The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine - This is also a four player card where you play as a team and there are no words. This game involves trick taking, which is gameplay mechanic that I was not familiar with before I played this, but you grandpa has probably played a card game in the past that does this (Bridge, Spades, and Hearts).

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/284083/the-crew-the-ques...

Single Player:

- Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases - This game is entirely made up of reading words. It is a very clever game that is kind of like a choose your own adventure. You get multiple cases to try to solve and you have to try to beat Sherlock Holmes. It can be frustrating but also rewarding. I would recommend getting it in grandpa's native language.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2511/sherlock-holmes-con...

by regus

5/27/2026 at 5:56:01 PM

Azul and Set are both good. Can’t Stop is another classic “push your luck” game.

by Our_Benefactors

5/27/2026 at 6:50:23 PM

I'd hoped this would be a post about Giro Galoppo, which is a fantastic little board game if you have kids (and can find a copy). It's easy enough for small children to learn, but the mix of strategy and luck is such that an adult can put real effort into winning, but will still probably only win 2/3 to 3/4 of games, not every time. And it's quick to play. Great game.

by tempestn

5/29/2026 at 2:26:27 PM

The horse racing game was the first program I programmed in school.

randint(1..6) per horse and watching them race was the "drug", that made me follow programming as a career.

by PapstJL4U

5/27/2026 at 8:56:28 PM

We have an even simpler version of this called "Derby Dash". It's basically just the race portion of the board with dice.

It gets used a fair bit, but mostly because it is zero-player. Not to get too much into it, but since neither of us can influence the outcome, it's a good way to imitate a fictional competition fairly.

by bena

5/27/2026 at 5:21:42 PM

Not to distract from what is undeniably a pretty cool thing, it's hard to even call these "games" as there's absolutely no decision making going on. I absolutely loathe games like these because you're not actually doing anything.

by maplant

5/27/2026 at 5:41:50 PM

Agreed. You might as well play candy land.

by dimes

5/27/2026 at 5:40:21 PM

[dead]

by interviewitis

5/27/2026 at 4:21:56 PM

kalshi has a feature in beta right now that lets the public bet on the outcomes of this game

by tqi

5/28/2026 at 6:24:41 AM

I find pure luck games really boring. Why not just flip a coin and be done with it.

I also find pure skill games boring. I mean like running races. You might as well play "who's tallest?"

But I seem to be in a minority

by ccppurcell

5/28/2026 at 7:12:25 AM

> But I seem to be in a minority

Given the design of nearly all popular modern board games, that seems very unlikely.

by gampleman

5/28/2026 at 8:50:01 AM

I got lost in the double negatives and inversions of this interaction.

But then again, I’m not unconvinced that I didn’t fail to misunderstand it correctly.

by wewewedxfgdf

5/28/2026 at 8:13:09 AM

How do you feel about chess?

by Calazon

5/28/2026 at 8:17:21 AM

You might as well play "who can memorize the most openings and lines"

by youngprogrammer

5/28/2026 at 11:51:03 AM

Seems dismissive at first, but I interviewed a chess team captain once and he told me they prepared for upcoming matches by learning new lines they wanted to play and studying the lines the opposing school was deemed likely to play.

by jgalt212

5/28/2026 at 4:37:06 PM

It is a memory game yes! But still you can choose what to memorise.

by ccppurcell

5/27/2026 at 6:54:33 PM

I’m pretty sure this was featured in a Stephen King horror story.

by andrewstuart

5/27/2026 at 3:58:41 PM

Reminds me of the horse racing game in needful things.

by blightful

5/28/2026 at 5:34:06 AM

And peope wonder why auto battlers and generally gacha with auto gameplay loops are popular.

by haunter

5/28/2026 at 4:31:40 AM

Is there a link to a really nice one to put on display somewhere?

by mallory854

5/27/2026 at 7:11:34 PM

We played this in university with a deck of cards. Great fun

by mattbettinson

5/27/2026 at 4:20:54 PM

Candyland with extra steps.

by datadrivenangel

5/27/2026 at 8:23:56 PM

Extra trots, you mean.

by wewtyflakes

5/28/2026 at 4:18:08 PM

underrated comment

by ammanley