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CHRISTMAS is a perfect time for sitting down with friends and family around a board game, whether it is an old favourite with half the pieces missing or something hungrily unwrapped and brand new. Here are Culture’s recommendations for 2023’s best new board games. Enjoy!

Daybreak, 1-4 players

Imagine solving climate change in an evening. That is the hopeful prospect offered by (CMYK), which casts players as world powers attempting to cut carbon emissions without throwing their populations into crisis or taking too long and boiling the world.

Playing as either the US, China, Europe or the rest of the world (referred to as the Majority World), you start the game with 1.2°C of warming above pre-industrial levels, and a board representing societies mostly built on fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas-belching ways of living – pretty much as now.

Over six rounds, players must work first at a global level, agreeing to tackle international projects such as ecological protection or nuclear fusion, and then at a local level to green their economies. This is done with cards detailing everything from climate finance to walkable cities, which you can combine and activate in different ways to remove carbon-producing elements for your individual player board.

You will also face various crises, which you can attempt to mitigate, and any carbon emissions you fail to quash will increase the global temperature and risk destabilising ecosystems.

What is incredible about Daybreak is this could easily be a very dull, educational game, but instead it is a thrill. While every card comes with a QR code you can scan to learn more about the science and policy behind it, you are more likely to spend time studying the gorgeous art and figuring out the best way to combine your cards. Success isn’t assured, but when you pull it off, it is a rush, and an optimistic boost for the real world, to boot.

Earthborne Rangers, 1-4 players

From a world fighting climate change to one that long ago succeeded, (Earthborne Games) is set in the far future, when humanity has rewilded the planet and now aims to live in harmony with nature.

It is impossible to win or lose Earthborne Rangers – instead, you should think of the game more as an open-world, narrative engine for telling cosy science-fiction stories in the style of Wayfarers writer Becky Chambers.

Everything in Earthborne Rangers is powered by cards, from the locations you visit to the flora and fauna you encounter along the way, and even your own abilities and equipment. Together, these create a world that can respond to your actions, as every time you attempt a task, such as exploring locales or avoiding predators, you trigger other actions on other cards.

These have the potential to help or harm you, but can also be entirely neutral, such as a predator attacking its prey because they happen to be in the same place.

Executing all of these systems can be a bit fiddly – this isn’t a title I would recommend for people without some experience of board games under their belt – but when it works well, it is amazing just how evocative it can be.

Sky Team, 2 players

You are in an aeroplane cockpit as pilot and co-pilot, with one simple job: land the plane. But there is a problem – you aren’t allowed to talk to each other.

The way (Le Scorpion Masqué) works is that both players secretly roll a set of dice, then each uses the dice to take turns at various crucial tasks, such as steering the plane, setting its speed or operating the radio. At the same time, you have to use the dice as signals to the other player, which you desperately hope they will understand.

Take steering, which requires both players to put down one of their dice, with the difference between the values determining whether the plane banks left or right, or stays straight. Bank too far and the plane will crash, so you need to stay fairly close to the value placed by your teammate. If one player’s first action is to put down a 1 on steering, that could be an attempt to communicate that all their other dice have higher values.

Of course, such attempts at communication can go wrong, and there is a lot of fun between rounds laughing as you fly wildly off course due to a misinterpreted signal. Bringing everything together to land the plane requires strong teamwork and a bit of luck, which makes for a nail-biting finish each time.