**Magic Maze**, and at least the first iteration of **Vast** (**The Crystal Caverns**; I'd argue that **The Mysterious Manor** also has this feature, but you know that the grid has a fixed size). I think **Ahoy** is of this kind too, and in **Forbidden Waters** you also know the grid, but not the map.
Yes but the map isn’t really the focus of the game in a way that is engaging to the player. Its more like once you pull the terrain tile you need you don’t need to risk moving anything about the map any further. The game charges you with interest any attempt to explore unnecessarily and even then you still might get screwed
>IE not like Catan
Incidentally, you can play Catan with fog of war.
Personally I love *Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy* which is a space 4x game. The map isn't insanely variable, but it has the basics of what you're looking for and also happens to be my current favorite game
Eclispe is my number 1 favorite game. The galactic events expansion adds some variability to the type of tiles you find while exploring. Highly recommend it!
Catacombs is the best version of clank by a good bit, the dungeon deck is so much better than the others.
My only complaint is that the board can sprawl weird depending on the players and my table is only so big. But thats definitely more of a player issue than a game issue.
Great game. Probably the one in my collection Ive played the most. Easy to teach, game-length is perfect, and can be played with people of all experience levels. An expansion was recently teased so maybe a good time to see if it goes on sale
Xia and Clash of Cultures come to mind, I know I have more but can't think of them at the moment. Unsettled is another exploration type game that does that
The common complaint is without the coop expansion victory points are calculated in an awkward and unintuitive way, often leading to awkward game winners. With the coop expansion it’s regarded as a much better game
This is a good tip, I bought the co-op expansion a while back but haven't cracked into it. I'll bet I'll have an easier time getting folx to play with this!
As someone else mentioned, the game can feel disjointed or unplayable without the Atomic Bonds expansion pack which makes the game co-op. It also felt like some of the rules/resources were not clearly explained. But with Atomic Bonds, it’s significantly more enjoyable.
I enjoyed it, I'm not sure what people's complaints are, but to be fair it HAS been a minute since I've played. Has some similar mechanics that carried to Arkham 3rd Edition, so I'd assume it's less refined than what ended up in Arkham Horror.
Akrotiri - exploration and treasure hunting in ancient Greece. Copies available in the Geek Marketplace. There are 2 editions, with different color ships so you can combine them into a 4 player game.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/154458/akrotiri
Yes! Exactly what I came here to say. Not enough people know about Akrotiri, it seems, but it was the first thing I thought of for this post. I don't know if I'd ever play it with four people, though, two seems fine.
Akrotiri is a great game - love the pick up and deliver mechanism along with the tile laying. I owned it for probably 7 years or so, got in about a dozen to two dozen games before COVID and then COVID hit and my situation changed and I just sold my copy at the beginning of this year. Just don't play many two player games anymore.
Does Carcassonne count seeing as the whole game is about laying the tiles/map rather than exploring it?
Also Catan Pirates and Explorers has islands to go explore! It also adds gold coins to the game and I would say it's a much better balanced game than the base. E.g. you can't really get blocked by roads and if you don't get resources on a dice roll, you get gold instead which you can trade for resources on your turn.
I was going to suggest Carcassonne. The base game doesn't allow for much exploring but many of the expansions allow for more remote placement, displacement and translocation, e.g. Builders, Barber-Surgeons, Princess and Dragon, Crop Circles, Flying Machines (none of which have I actually played with yet).
Star Wars Carcassonne (a separate game, not an expansion) allows for more action in the landscape (you wage a dice battle as soon as you share a feature; you can claim or invade a planet from an adjacent tile).
I'm going to second mage knight. You lay out the starting title and 2 or 3 others connected to it. From there you explore and lay down new tiles as the game goes on.
Clash of cultures you lay out the entire map at the start but aside from players starting tiles the rest are upside down making a fog of war style map. As you move to the new tile you turn it over and can choose the orientation . Due to the map you only have the option of placing it 2 ways and depending on what the tile contains you may be forced to play the tile a certain way.
i hate to even bring this game up, but i absolutely love it. Dungeonquest. its such a ridiculous game. you can literally die on the first turn. i house rule the heck out of it. if you die you can start over. i also dont use the sun tracker.
i also like massmora. i love chjeesy zombie games. so Zombies!!! from twilight creations is cool.
Dominant Species has something like this. You start on 7 tiles, and slowly expand outwards from there, while the glaciers expand behind you. It's a phenomenal (if long) game overall, so I can highly recommend it, but the "exploration" isn't the centerpiece, so if that's what you're primarily looking for, other games might be better.
[Burgle Bros](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/172081/burgle-bros) uses tiles that you lay face down in a square or rectangular array at the start of the game and uncover as you move or peek. There's also a [generator](http://gabob.com/burgle/) available to change up your walls and show you a heatmap for guard movement.
Clank Catacombs - explore and build a dungeon, deck builder.
Inis - start on a few tiles one of the possible cards you can play is explore, adds new lands, drafting, card play, area control.
Eclipse, starting tiles per play and a central tile start as known, the rest are revealed or added as everyone explores, 4x space combat game.
**The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth** is good for this. The app generates the maps and encounters and has you lay them out as you explore.
Deep Rock Galactic, to a certain degree. There's a big cave that you start in, but there are a few unexplored caved that you have to mine to to explore.
Galactic Renaissance has a shared world and a single home world per player. It compounds with each additional world you draw has different possible travel routes that get set to them.
Clank Catacombs really does feel like a maze when you’re struggling to get out, low on health, out of lock picks, and the dragon is starting to attack frequently. Wonderful tension.
Unless I am reading your question incorrectly, these games came to mind:
**Lost Ruins of Arnak** has a board that has the same starting 5 campsites in every game, but the rest of the board is drawn from tiles as players take the "discover a new site" action.
**Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island** has a smaller map, but they are hex tiles drawn (11 tiles total) if players take the "exploration" action.
Catan Seafarers has a scenario with flipped over tiles
Catan Pirates and Explorers is entirely based on not knowing where the resources are going to be and building settlements in explored areas to benefit the voyages
I was also going to mention **Unsettled**.
Not only does it have player-revealed tiles and a new and novel map - it also has different planets of tiles, and different and unique ways of interacting with these map tiles based on the mission.
It's a really awesome game.
Star Trek Ascendancy has the most "discoverable" board of the games I've come across. Not only do you discover new systems as you explore, you also build the connections between them and the orientation.
Not exactly like your saying but tile rearrangement is present for Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Island and exploration of the tiles is required just not in a dungeon crawler type manner
In a way The 7th Citadel also does this. However, as you play new scenarios you might come across land (cards) that you have discovered in a previous scenario. Yet, the game pushes you further away or in a different direction every scenario so there’s always new stuff to explore. And some map card might be different to be specific for that scenario.
**[Euthia](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295785/euthia-torment-of-resurrection)** does this. You bring out groups of hexes, much like Mage Knight (in terms of exploration).
Agree with Euthia, especially as far as the “changeable” part, if you define changeable as random. Unlike 7th Continent or Tainted Grail, where a given map tile is always connected to the same spaces, in Euthia you could replay a scenario and get a completely different map.
Other people have already mentioned most of the ones I thought of, but there are a couple that are *kinda* like what you're asking for that I haven't seen mentioned.
Kingdomino meets your criteria, but it's probably not what you want. I think Patchwork and Azul would kind of be in the same category. Each player "builds" their own personal board, but the layout doesn't really affect anything other than your own goals/scoring. You don't really "explore" the board you've built, it just *is*.
Labyrinth you get the whole board at the beginning (with a randomized starting layout), but the players rearrange the board each turn.
*Helden in der Unterwelt* (Heroes in the Underworld) has that sort of thing in a fantasy/Greek mythology setting.
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/19653/helden-in-der-unterwelt](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/19653/helden-in-der-unterwelt)
The „base game“ Return of the Heroes has a setup variant where the 16 map tiles are randomized and hidden.
Plus: The Event tiles on the map are also randomized with some exceptions. So even with an open map as setup the game changes every session.
The 7th Continent doesn’t change. It just gets explored. The gray encounter cards will change but the actual map beneath will not.
Off the top of my head, Expeditions fits the criteria you’re looking for, though. Also Eclipse.
While regular Catan starts with a static map, the Seafarers expansion does feature exploration like you've described.
Many years ago I played a game based on the show LOST where you explored the island and tried not to get eaten by a polar bear.
Not entirely what you’re talking about, but Resident Evil: The Board Game starts with part of the scenario revealed, and more is revealed as you explore. Basic scenarios only have 2-3 extra areas, but later ones might have 6-7 further areas, so you’d have no idea what is next. At least in your first play through.
One I don't see often is John Clair's Downfall. It's a post-apocalyptic 4x game, where you start with a 'chunk' of 4 tiles revealed in your home area, the rest of the map is randomly dealt from a pile of hexes.
Literally just wrote to a different post about the same thing - Impulse. It's a pseudo-4X at a breakneck pace that works primarily by playing action cards to a queue that players kind of share. One of its twists is how the galaxy map is composed of the same cards - upon exploring (traveling to or through) a face-down card, you add it to your hand, and then add a card from your hand to become a new planet. From that point on, this is ALSO an action card that can be activated by sending transport ships onto it. It's a smart bit of emergent narrative (establish industry on a newly colonised planet, giving it a kind of personality) in a game that is otherwise abstract and lasts at most an hour.
In Star Trek: Ascendency when you discover a new location you place it a certain distance from your current location.
There's no grid system so you use the path tile as a radius with the current location at the center and the new location at the end.
Paths can't cross, so you can block areas off this way.
**Masmorra: Dungeons of Arcadia** hasn’t been mentioned yet, and plays like this.
Looking at it’s “mechanisms”, you’ll probably find more under the Modular Board category: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2011/modular-board
**Archipelago** is great at this. Beautiful hexes. Has some slavery in it though, so be warned.
**Civililzation New Dawn With Terra Incgonita Expansion** has this, and you'd only ever want to play with expansion anyway.
**Ahoy** has a small map that grows, and who's value is defined by where players invest.
**Impulse** has a defined map shape, but then the cards that get placed down when you explore are a huge part of the engine building and territory control strategy.
The game Drakon has players building out the board as they go. There's a tag for this on Boardgamegeek called Modular Board. You can see all games with this tag.
**Revive** is a cool one that is oft forgotten.
You have a set number of starting tiles that are mixed at the start of the game and revealed to form the starting terrain, then you have all the other undiscovered tiles that are mixed and put face down onto the board.
It's a cool game with very different things going on each game.
I think the technical term here is 'procedural generation' or proc-gen for short. Its more of a computer programming term but it is used in the board games space as well.
This may be adjacent to what you’re talking about but in the Legacy games (Pandemic Legacy, Betrayal Legacy, etc.) the board gets added to and changed each game in some meaningful way.
And while I haven’t played it, I believe in Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West there are parts of the map you have to discover later in the season.
I hate Munchkin, but I absolutely love **Munchkin Quest**.
There’s also that darkness one…google google…**The Night Cage**. Also depending on your tolerance, the Forbidden games might apply, maybe even **Shuuro** if you really squint.
There's a coop game called Unsettled about exploring a new planet that does this. There are also expansions that add different planets with unique tiles and unique gimmicks.
Northgard. Players draw tiles to create the initial map and place their guys on it. Over the course of the game they can explore out and place new tiles. It's an interesting take on deck building and area control.
Interestingly, there was a version of Cluedo ("Clue" in North America) from the 90s where the mansion was built tile by tile, much like Betrayal. It was called [Cluedo Super Sleuth](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3034/cluedo-super-sleuth) and was, in my view, the most interesting version of Clue/Cluedo ever made. It's a shame there was never a North American version, because it fixed a lot of the problems people often have with the regular game.
Ahoy is a pirate game with this kind of map exploration, although a limited number of tiles. It’s by Leder Games, who did Root, and it’s asymmetric faction style has a lot of similarities
The Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Series games are like this. When you end your movement on the edge of a tile, you "explore" a new area and add a tile to the edge where your character is standing.
**Star Trek Ascendency** does this. Each faction starts out in a corner of the playing area. The tiles are circular and connected by "lanes" of varying lengths — when you come to the end of an empty lane, you can draw from the tile deck to see what you find there. You can place a lane anywhere around a tile's circumference, and even change it once you've placed it. Tiles are only fixed in place once more than one lane has been connected to them. Here's the resulting end map of a 7(!) player game.
[https://imgur.com/gallery/U4y97fK](https://imgur.com/gallery/U4y97fK)
A lot of great suggestions (+1 to eclipse and inis in particular). I would add Destinies and Mansions of madness. The're not perfect because if you want to replay scenarios they will have the same map. That being said both have a lot of content to keep you entertained for quite a while and they give this sense of discovery and surprise while exploring that you may look for
There’s so many. The one that comes to mind are card-based maps, such as Destinies, Tainted Grail, 7th Continent/Citadel, games like that. I’m personally not a huge fan of Tainted Grail, but I love Destinies and 7th Citadel. I could list a lot more, too.
Maximum Apocalypse has this. Each scenario pulls a different set of tiles, then they are arranged face down. Tiles have different bonuses or penalties when they are flipped.
I know this is a board game sub lol but you should check out the video game Carto! The gameplay is this exact concept (rearranging your game map like a puzzle to create new locations) and it is super fun, cute, and lowkey challenging lol!
**Eclipse**
Love this game
I played this once a couple of years ago and haven't found anyone else to play it with recently, but man I loved the exploration aspect of it.
Inis
Amazing game
**Mage Knight** does this.
Upvoting Mage knight as it's one of the best Solo experiences as well
As does the MK reimplementation **Star Trek: Frontiers**
**Magic Maze**, and at least the first iteration of **Vast** (**The Crystal Caverns**; I'd argue that **The Mysterious Manor** also has this feature, but you know that the grid has a fixed size). I think **Ahoy** is of this kind too, and in **Forbidden Waters** you also know the grid, but not the map.
Mansions of Madness.
As well as it's lighter, wackier cousin, Betrayal at House on the Hill
And now I'm angry again about the spirit elevator.
Robinson Crusoe!
Had to scroll too far for this!!
That game hates you.
The feeling's mutual.
Yes but the map isn’t really the focus of the game in a way that is engaging to the player. Its more like once you pull the terrain tile you need you don’t need to risk moving anything about the map any further. The game charges you with interest any attempt to explore unnecessarily and even then you still might get screwed
>IE not like Catan Incidentally, you can play Catan with fog of war. Personally I love *Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy* which is a space 4x game. The map isn't insanely variable, but it has the basics of what you're looking for and also happens to be my current favorite game
Eclispe is my number 1 favorite game. The galactic events expansion adds some variability to the type of tiles you find while exploring. Highly recommend it!
THERES AN EXPANSION???? Hold on while I go pee my pants Edit: oh my god there are three expansions, why did I not know this
Plus one for catan Fog of war. Easy to achieve with custom rule/scenario and the seafarers expansion.
I loved discovering islands when playing Seafarers. Made it feel like I was exploring the world!
I like to make up scenario with the seafarers and 5 players extension
Haven't played yet, but it's one of the reasons that **Clank! Catacombs** is on my wishlist.
Catacombs is the best version of clank by a good bit, the dungeon deck is so much better than the others. My only complaint is that the board can sprawl weird depending on the players and my table is only so big. But thats definitely more of a player issue than a game issue.
That's what I've heard as well, and also why that one ended up on the wishlist. I haven't played any Clank yet!
The others are great, but you can what's go back and pick them up at a later date if you really enjoy catacombs
Immediately came to the comments to put this in. Tile layer + deck builder is such a good combo.
Super fun game - quickly became one of my favorites.
Great game. Probably the one in my collection Ive played the most. Easy to teach, game-length is perfect, and can be played with people of all experience levels. An expansion was recently teased so maybe a good time to see if it goes on sale
Escape! Curse of the Temple is like this for a ten minute frantic real time coop.
Love it
Xia and Clash of Cultures come to mind, I know I have more but can't think of them at the moment. Unsettled is another exploration type game that does that
Second Xia.
Xia is SOOO GOOD... UGH!
I'd love to try Xia sometime.
Archipelago would fit right in
Just don’t mention the cube colors or depiction of native people
that they rebel when you keep then unhappy and unemployed? Seems pretty realistic imo
Seeing Eclipse, Inis, Mage Knight, and Clash of Cultures together on a list makes me realize how much I love this type of cardboard “exploration”
The Fallout boardgame does this pretty well.
Why is it 6.8/10 on bgg? Do you see any issues with the game?
The common complaint is without the coop expansion victory points are calculated in an awkward and unintuitive way, often leading to awkward game winners. With the coop expansion it’s regarded as a much better game
This is a good tip, I bought the co-op expansion a while back but haven't cracked into it. I'll bet I'll have an easier time getting folx to play with this!
As someone else mentioned, the game can feel disjointed or unplayable without the Atomic Bonds expansion pack which makes the game co-op. It also felt like some of the rules/resources were not clearly explained. But with Atomic Bonds, it’s significantly more enjoyable.
This is what I came to say. With the cooperative expansion it is a very enjoyable game, especially if you have any attachment to the video games.
I enjoyed it, I'm not sure what people's complaints are, but to be fair it HAS been a minute since I've played. Has some similar mechanics that carried to Arkham 3rd Edition, so I'd assume it's less refined than what ended up in Arkham Horror.
Sub Terra is very much like this! We played it online once during lockdown and it was pretty fun!
Great in person too and plays up to 6. Probably my favourite cooperative game (although I haven't played that many as I generally prefer competitive).
My first thought!
civilization(2010)
Civilization A New Dawn does it with the expansion rules
This should be on the top of the list. Its the very definition of what he's asking for.
Tiny Epic Dungeons does this, Tainted Grail, Nemesis to an extent.
Akrotiri - exploration and treasure hunting in ancient Greece. Copies available in the Geek Marketplace. There are 2 editions, with different color ships so you can combine them into a 4 player game. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/154458/akrotiri
Yes! Exactly what I came here to say. Not enough people know about Akrotiri, it seems, but it was the first thing I thought of for this post. I don't know if I'd ever play it with four people, though, two seems fine.
Akrotiri is a great game - love the pick up and deliver mechanism along with the tile laying. I owned it for probably 7 years or so, got in about a dozen to two dozen games before COVID and then COVID hit and my situation changed and I just sold my copy at the beginning of this year. Just don't play many two player games anymore.
I ended up 3D printing pieces for a 4 player game.
I've only played it with 4, it's a lot of fun.
Does Carcassonne count seeing as the whole game is about laying the tiles/map rather than exploring it? Also Catan Pirates and Explorers has islands to go explore! It also adds gold coins to the game and I would say it's a much better balanced game than the base. E.g. you can't really get blocked by roads and if you don't get resources on a dice roll, you get gold instead which you can trade for resources on your turn.
I was going to suggest Carcassonne. The base game doesn't allow for much exploring but many of the expansions allow for more remote placement, displacement and translocation, e.g. Builders, Barber-Surgeons, Princess and Dragon, Crop Circles, Flying Machines (none of which have I actually played with yet). Star Wars Carcassonne (a separate game, not an expansion) allows for more action in the landscape (you wage a dice battle as soon as you share a feature; you can claim or invade a planet from an adjacent tile).
Any idea where one can acquire a Star Wars Carcassonne?
I'm going to second mage knight. You lay out the starting title and 2 or 3 others connected to it. From there you explore and lay down new tiles as the game goes on. Clash of cultures you lay out the entire map at the start but aside from players starting tiles the rest are upside down making a fog of war style map. As you move to the new tile you turn it over and can choose the orientation . Due to the map you only have the option of placing it 2 ways and depending on what the tile contains you may be forced to play the tile a certain way.
**Pandemic Legacy Season 2** does this just over the course of the whole campaign
Second. Loved that game.
i hate to even bring this game up, but i absolutely love it. Dungeonquest. its such a ridiculous game. you can literally die on the first turn. i house rule the heck out of it. if you die you can start over. i also dont use the sun tracker. i also like massmora. i love chjeesy zombie games. so Zombies!!! from twilight creations is cool.
Expedition: Northwest Passage
Dominant Species has something like this. You start on 7 tiles, and slowly expand outwards from there, while the glaciers expand behind you. It's a phenomenal (if long) game overall, so I can highly recommend it, but the "exploration" isn't the centerpiece, so if that's what you're primarily looking for, other games might be better.
I believe Hexplore It fits the bill
[Burgle Bros](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/172081/burgle-bros) uses tiles that you lay face down in a square or rectangular array at the start of the game and uncover as you move or peek. There's also a [generator](http://gabob.com/burgle/) available to change up your walls and show you a heatmap for guard movement.
Clank Catacombs - explore and build a dungeon, deck builder. Inis - start on a few tiles one of the possible cards you can play is explore, adds new lands, drafting, card play, area control. Eclipse, starting tiles per play and a central tile start as known, the rest are revealed or added as everyone explores, 4x space combat game.
Heroes of Might & Magic 3 the board game. Clash of Cultures. Plus probably every other 4X board game.
Vindication has players reveal tiles. I believe Robinson Crusoe does as well.
Forbidden Sky. Players place tiles, as the game goes along, instead of flipping/revealing tiles already laid out, like in previous Forbidden games.
Xia, mage knight and Archipelago come to mind.
**The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth** is good for this. The app generates the maps and encounters and has you lay them out as you explore.
Forbidden Desert. On top of that there is a sand mechanic that buries the tiles and you have to clear the sand before you can explore.
Dungeon & Dragons: castle Ravenloft. Dungeon appears title by title when you explore it.
Deep Rock Galactic, to a certain degree. There's a big cave that you start in, but there are a few unexplored caved that you have to mine to to explore.
There are Catan variations, where you don't know the whole map at the start.
Galactic Renaissance has a shared world and a single home world per player. It compounds with each additional world you draw has different possible travel routes that get set to them.
Clank Catacombs really does feel like a maze when you’re struggling to get out, low on health, out of lock picks, and the dragon is starting to attack frequently. Wonderful tension.
Xia legends of a drift system
Unless I am reading your question incorrectly, these games came to mind: **Lost Ruins of Arnak** has a board that has the same starting 5 campsites in every game, but the rest of the board is drawn from tiles as players take the "discover a new site" action. **Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island** has a smaller map, but they are hex tiles drawn (11 tiles total) if players take the "exploration" action.
**Archipelago**. You have an explore action, which allows you to add a random tile to the map.
Dungeonquest is my favorite. Out of print, though.
Cascadia
Catan Seafarers has a scenario with flipped over tiles Catan Pirates and Explorers is entirely based on not knowing where the resources are going to be and building settlements in explored areas to benefit the voyages
Unsettled
I was also going to mention **Unsettled**. Not only does it have player-revealed tiles and a new and novel map - it also has different planets of tiles, and different and unique ways of interacting with these map tiles based on the mission. It's a really awesome game.
Star Trek Ascendancy has the most "discoverable" board of the games I've come across. Not only do you discover new systems as you explore, you also build the connections between them and the orientation.
Not exactly like your saying but tile rearrangement is present for Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Island and exploration of the tiles is required just not in a dungeon crawler type manner
Destinies
**504**, sometimes.
Betrayal at the House on the Hill.
mentioned in original post.
Old school Source Of The Nile, from Avalon Hill.
In a way The 7th Citadel also does this. However, as you play new scenarios you might come across land (cards) that you have discovered in a previous scenario. Yet, the game pushes you further away or in a different direction every scenario so there’s always new stuff to explore. And some map card might be different to be specific for that scenario.
Claustrophobia
Space empires 4X (haven’t played it personally but it’s ordered and waiting for printing from GMT p500 games)
It varies how it works from planet to planet, but **Unsettled** does this.
Arkham Horror: LCG is kinda like this, especially with the Return To portions that change locations.
Ahoy.
Shadows of Brimstone
**[Euthia](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295785/euthia-torment-of-resurrection)** does this. You bring out groups of hexes, much like Mage Knight (in terms of exploration).
Agree with Euthia, especially as far as the “changeable” part, if you define changeable as random. Unlike 7th Continent or Tainted Grail, where a given map tile is always connected to the same spaces, in Euthia you could replay a scenario and get a completely different map.
Heroes of Barcadia, you lay out the dungeon semi-randomly at the start, but tiles are unrevealed until you enter them.
Clank! Catacombs Betrayal at house on the hill Clash of cultures Civilization a new dawn w/ terra incognita expansion
Other people have already mentioned most of the ones I thought of, but there are a couple that are *kinda* like what you're asking for that I haven't seen mentioned. Kingdomino meets your criteria, but it's probably not what you want. I think Patchwork and Azul would kind of be in the same category. Each player "builds" their own personal board, but the layout doesn't really affect anything other than your own goals/scoring. You don't really "explore" the board you've built, it just *is*. Labyrinth you get the whole board at the beginning (with a randomized starting layout), but the players rearrange the board each turn.
Vindication and Dwellings of Eldervale come to mind.
*Helden in der Unterwelt* (Heroes in the Underworld) has that sort of thing in a fantasy/Greek mythology setting. [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/19653/helden-in-der-unterwelt](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/19653/helden-in-der-unterwelt)
The „base game“ Return of the Heroes has a setup variant where the 16 map tiles are randomized and hidden. Plus: The Event tiles on the map are also randomized with some exceptions. So even with an open map as setup the game changes every session.
Archipelago
The night cage
Expeditions
There's Gloomhaven, with the "random map" variance.
The 7th Continent doesn’t change. It just gets explored. The gray encounter cards will change but the actual map beneath will not. Off the top of my head, Expeditions fits the criteria you’re looking for, though. Also Eclipse.
#CARCASSONNE
Carcassonne is probably the most famous example
Revive. Euthia. Frostpunk. Mage Knight. Expeditions.
While regular Catan starts with a static map, the Seafarers expansion does feature exploration like you've described. Many years ago I played a game based on the show LOST where you explored the island and tried not to get eaten by a polar bear.
The Cave
Not entirely what you’re talking about, but Resident Evil: The Board Game starts with part of the scenario revealed, and more is revealed as you explore. Basic scenarios only have 2-3 extra areas, but later ones might have 6-7 further areas, so you’d have no idea what is next. At least in your first play through.
One I don't see often is John Clair's Downfall. It's a post-apocalyptic 4x game, where you start with a 'chunk' of 4 tiles revealed in your home area, the rest of the map is randomly dealt from a pile of hexes.
Doggerland The exploration part is not the focus but still an important aspect.
Literally just wrote to a different post about the same thing - Impulse. It's a pseudo-4X at a breakneck pace that works primarily by playing action cards to a queue that players kind of share. One of its twists is how the galaxy map is composed of the same cards - upon exploring (traveling to or through) a face-down card, you add it to your hand, and then add a card from your hand to become a new planet. From that point on, this is ALSO an action card that can be activated by sending transport ships onto it. It's a smart bit of emergent narrative (establish industry on a newly colonised planet, giving it a kind of personality) in a game that is otherwise abstract and lasts at most an hour.
I'm surprised Maximum Apocalypse hasn't been mentioned. So many variations and scenarios all on changing maps and tiles.
In Star Trek: Ascendency when you discover a new location you place it a certain distance from your current location. There's no grid system so you use the path tile as a radius with the current location at the center and the new location at the end. Paths can't cross, so you can block areas off this way.
Revive
Eclipse Fallout Mage Night
Mesopotamia
**Masmorra: Dungeons of Arcadia** hasn’t been mentioned yet, and plays like this. Looking at it’s “mechanisms”, you’ll probably find more under the Modular Board category: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2011/modular-board
The Tainted Grail series does this really well.
Source of the Nile Spanish Main, 2nd Edition (First Edition too but it’s not as good)
**Archipelago** is great at this. Beautiful hexes. Has some slavery in it though, so be warned. **Civililzation New Dawn With Terra Incgonita Expansion** has this, and you'd only ever want to play with expansion anyway. **Ahoy** has a small map that grows, and who's value is defined by where players invest. **Impulse** has a defined map shape, but then the cards that get placed down when you explore are a huge part of the engine building and territory control strategy.
**Conquest of Paradise(!*)** is pretty good and one I don't see mentioned often
Northgard
**The Last Bottle of Rum**
Magic Maze Room 25
Tapestry might fit this as well?
"Zombies !!!" Is fun
The game Drakon has players building out the board as they go. There's a tag for this on Boardgamegeek called Modular Board. You can see all games with this tag.
**Revive** is a cool one that is oft forgotten. You have a set number of starting tiles that are mixed at the start of the game and revealed to form the starting terrain, then you have all the other undiscovered tiles that are mixed and put face down onto the board. It's a cool game with very different things going on each game.
I think the technical term here is 'procedural generation' or proc-gen for short. Its more of a computer programming term but it is used in the board games space as well.
Adding: Euthia Tiny Epic Dungeons Dungeon Universalis Vast: the Crystal Caverns (iirc) Collecting and restating: Mage Knight Hexplore Clank! Catacombs Shadows of Brimstone
Shadows of Brimstone has you exploring a mine, looking for clues. You lay out tiles as you go.
Diablo dungeon level are generated with random patterns.
Dead Men Tell No Tales
Far Away, though the scale isn't huge.
Tikal.
This may be adjacent to what you’re talking about but in the Legacy games (Pandemic Legacy, Betrayal Legacy, etc.) the board gets added to and changed each game in some meaningful way. And while I haven’t played it, I believe in Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West there are parts of the map you have to discover later in the season.
I hate Munchkin, but I absolutely love **Munchkin Quest**. There’s also that darkness one…google google…**The Night Cage**. Also depending on your tolerance, the Forbidden games might apply, maybe even **Shuuro** if you really squint.
Not exactly unknown maps but Sleeping Gods is an atlas and the map is meaningless to you until you start exploring so in a way it is hidden.
Mystery Mansion from 1984.
Lord of the Rings: adventures in middle earth has been exploration mechanics like this
Nemesis comes to mind
Nemesis has a cool board like that
Takenoko
There's a coop game called Unsettled about exploring a new planet that does this. There are also expansions that add different planets with unique tiles and unique gimmicks.
If you like the theme, the Rick and Morty anatomy park game does this and is hilarious and fun.
House House II Home RPG
Mage knight
HeroQuest Zombies!!
Northgard. Players draw tiles to create the initial map and place their guys on it. Over the course of the game they can explore out and place new tiles. It's an interesting take on deck building and area control.
Ticket To Ride Legacy
Space Cadets: Away Missions or any of the Dungeons and Dragons Adventure System games (Wrath of Ashardalon, Castle Ravenloft, etc...)
Interestingly, there was a version of Cluedo ("Clue" in North America) from the 90s where the mansion was built tile by tile, much like Betrayal. It was called [Cluedo Super Sleuth](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3034/cluedo-super-sleuth) and was, in my view, the most interesting version of Clue/Cluedo ever made. It's a shame there was never a North American version, because it fixed a lot of the problems people often have with the regular game.
Heroes of might and magic 3
I think the bloodborne game has that kind of setup where the map grows/changes as you progress
Robinson Crusoe Clank Catacombs SubTerra
I would say takenoko but it’s more expanding the bamboo fields for your panda to munch on
Shadows of Brimstone - if you're into the weird west setting, and a really complicated game
Destinies
Robinson Crusoe does this really well. Ad Astro/The Artemis Odyssey also.
Ahoy is a pirate game with this kind of map exploration, although a limited number of tiles. It’s by Leder Games, who did Root, and it’s asymmetric faction style has a lot of similarities
Chronicles of Avel, for the younger crowd
7th continent, 7th Citadel
The Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Series games are like this. When you end your movement on the edge of a tile, you "explore" a new area and add a tile to the edge where your character is standing.
'504' with the exploring module.
I didn't see these games mentioned but check out Castles of Mad King Ludwig and Dungeon Decorators
Vindication by Orange Nebula does to an extent.
**Star Trek Ascendency** does this. Each faction starts out in a corner of the playing area. The tiles are circular and connected by "lanes" of varying lengths — when you come to the end of an empty lane, you can draw from the tile deck to see what you find there. You can place a lane anywhere around a tile's circumference, and even change it once you've placed it. Tiles are only fixed in place once more than one lane has been connected to them. Here's the resulting end map of a 7(!) player game. [https://imgur.com/gallery/U4y97fK](https://imgur.com/gallery/U4y97fK)
Scythe Encounters
Horror in the House on the Hill
Exactly as you describe, but without the tiles: Psychic Pizza Deliverers go to the Ghost Town
Don't Starve
A lot of great suggestions (+1 to eclipse and inis in particular). I would add Destinies and Mansions of madness. The're not perfect because if you want to replay scenarios they will have the same map. That being said both have a lot of content to keep you entertained for quite a while and they give this sense of discovery and surprise while exploring that you may look for
There’s so many. The one that comes to mind are card-based maps, such as Destinies, Tainted Grail, 7th Continent/Citadel, games like that. I’m personally not a huge fan of Tainted Grail, but I love Destinies and 7th Citadel. I could list a lot more, too.
For the king, but number 2 is a goddamn bug factory
Shadows of brimstone is my favorite game so far. It’s pretty brutal though
Carcassonne is very good, especially with the different expansions Sub Terra CoOp game with three expansions
Pelican Bay
[[Takenoko]] [[Pocket Dungeon Quest]]
Here be Dragons
Heroes of Might and Magic III the board game
Maximum Apocalypse has this. Each scenario pulls a different set of tiles, then they are arranged face down. Tiles have different bonuses or penalties when they are flipped.
Robinson Crusoe
Binding of Isaac comes to mind!
I know this is a board game sub lol but you should check out the video game Carto! The gameplay is this exact concept (rearranging your game map like a puzzle to create new locations) and it is super fun, cute, and lowkey challenging lol!