Block & Board

Block & Board brings tabletop games into Minecraft.

Play Chess in a tavern, deal cards with friends at your base, or settle in for a game of Solitaire. Craft tables, chairs and game boards to build a games room you can actually play in.

Choose from over 20 board, card and dice games, from a quick round of Connect Four to a longer match of Go or Mahjong.

• Board games: Chess, Checkers, Reversi, Connect Four, Go, Nine Men’s Morris, Mancala, Backgammon, Ludo, Gomoku, Sea Battle, Shogi, Dots and Boxes, Chinese Checkers and Carrom.
• Card games: Crazy Eights, Go Fish, Hearts, Gin Rummy, Cribbage, Spades, Texas Hold’em Poker, Blackjack, Klondike Solitaire, Spider Solitaire and President.
• Tiles and dice: Dominoes, Japanese Riichi Mahjong, Farkle and Yahtzee.

Each game has a board item that fits into a table. Compact boards use the Small Game Table; games with more cards, tiles or pieces use the Large Game Table. Fit a different board when you want to play something else.

Go has 9×9, 13×13 and 19×19 boards, and Spider Solitaire has one-, two- and four-suit games. Carrom has a full-sized board with pockets, a striker, coins and a queen.

Pull up a chair and take a seat. Games use one to four players, depending on their rules. Open the board to make your move: select a piece, play a card, hold a die or choose a scoring category. The screen shows the choices available on your turn.

The game also appears on the physical table, so friends can gather around and watch. Spectators can open the screen too. Private cards and tiles stay hidden from other players; taking a different seat changes which hand you see.

Mahjong uses Japanese Riichi rules, with concealed hands, discards and melds arranged around the table.

Poker has no-limit betting and side pots. Blackjack has an automatic dealer, with its hole card hidden until the hand is resolved.

In Yahtzee, hold the dice you want to keep, roll again and pick a category on your scorecard. For a shorter dice game, try Farkle: keep scoring dice and decide whether to bank the points or risk another roll.

The dice tumble across the table when you roll.

Carrom lets you aim the striker and set the shot strength. Watch the coins scatter as you try to pocket them.

Want to play for stakes? Agree on emerald stakes before the first move. The table holds the items and settles them when the game ends. High Rollers chips can be used too if you have that mod installed. These item stakes are separate from Poker and Blackjack’s game-chip scores.

1. Craft a Small Game Table or Large Game Table, a matching game board and Game Chairs. The recipes are in Minecraft’s recipe book.
2. Place the table and use the board item on it. Leave a clear 3×3 block area for a large table.
3. Place chairs facing the table and right-click a chair to sit down.
4. Open the board and play. The side tray holds How to play, seat controls and the game’s other actions.

To change games, the table owner or a server operator can crouch-use the fitted table with an empty main hand. The current board is returned and its item stakes are refunded, ready for another board to be fitted.

Every game has an illustrated guide built in. Open How to play from the side tray for examples of moves, scoring and the decisions you’ll make during a game. You can switch back to the board when you’re ready to try them.

Can I play on my own? Yes. There are Klondike and Spider Solitaire boards. For games with several seats, Play alone lets you control every side or hand yourself. It does not add computer opponents.

Can I save an unfinished game? Yes. Remove the board and keep the returned item, then fit it again in the same server world to continue. Back up the world as well as keeping the board item; the saved game belongs to that world.

Does everyone need the mod? Yes. Install the same mod version on the server and each player’s client. Singleplayer needs only your own installation.

Can I include it in a modpack? Yes. Block & Board is licensed under LGPL-3.0-only.

Can’t join a server? Your Block & Board version must match the server’s to be able to join. The rejection message after joining a server will tell you more details about the version you need.

The interface uses Pixelify Sans by the Pixelify Sans Project Authors (SIL Open Font License 1.1). Chess screen sprites adapt RhosGFX Vector Chess Pieces (CC0).