Fictional games are games which were specifically created for works of fiction, or which otherwise originated in fiction.
In his foundational academic work on this topic, Stefano Gualeni defines fictional games as "playful activities and ludic artefacts conceptualized as part of fictional worlds", and emphasizes that - as elements of a work of fiction - their purpose is to trigger the imagination of the audience and cannot actually be (or at least were not originally meant to be) played.
Many fictional games have, however, been adapted into real games by fans or ludophiles by creating pieces and rules to fit the descriptions given in the source work. For example, unofficial versions of Fizzbin can be found in reality, and Mornington Crescent is widely played in online forums.
Fictional games tend not to be presented in a detailed and formally complete manner by their authors. Within the respective works of fiction, they are typically defined just clearly enough to achieve their intended narrative functions.
Billiards games Dom-Jot – Star Trek: The Next Generation, a game similar to bumper pool played on an irregularly shaped table.
Board games Azad – A tactical game featured in the novel The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. The Blackening – A trivia game based on African-American history and culture, featured in the film of the same name. Cones of Dunshire – A strategy game invented by Ben Wyatt in Parks and Recreation. Cyvasse – A strategy game in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, which appears to be a combination of Chess and Battleship. Dejarik or Holochess – A variant of chess played in the Star Wars setting. Dragonchess - A three-dimensional chess variant created by Gary Gygax for Dungeons & Dragons. Eels and Escalators - A parody of snakes and ladders from SpongeBob SquarePants. Gatlopp – A drinking game from the film Gatlopp: Hell of a Game. Gungi – A strategy game in the Hunter × Hunter manga and anime. It is played on a non-checkered gameboard with 81 squares arranged in a 9×9 grid, and has 13 different types of pieces and several stacked constructs. Icehouse – The Empty City by Andrew Looney; an example of a fictional game that now exists as a real-world one. Jetan – A chess-like strategy game from the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel The Chessmen of Mars. Jumanji – A magical board game from the book and movie of the same name, later released in a variant as a real game. Kadis-kot – A board game first seen in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Infinite Regress". Liar's Lament – A board game first seen in the Pretty Little Liars episode "Playtime". Pai Sho – A strategy game first seen in the Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "The Waterbending Scroll". The game was recreated in real life, first by fans and then by Nickelodeon. Remnant: The Game – A board game in RWBY with the objective of conquering the world. Sazou – A game similar to Chess played on Draconia and Gallifrey in Doctor Who. Stars and Comets – in Andre Norton novels. Stealth chess – A chess variant played in the Ankh-Morpork Assassins' Guild, in which pieces move invisibly; Discworld. Survivor – A two-player game in Return to Zork. The game is asymmetric, and the Zork player character must ultimately win two games, one as each of the Survivor players, to complete Return to Zork. Tadek – A strategy game in the Farscape episode "The Flax" that involves building holographic columns while pushing game pieces around a board; the game can be used for gambling. Tak – A strategy game in The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, later developed into a real game. Three-Cornered Pitney – An unplayable board game invented by Mad Magazine. Three-Dimensional Chess – A strategy game first seen in the Star Trek episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before", later developed into a real game. Thud – A chess-like game of Trolls and Dwarves appearing in Terry Pratchett's novel of the same name. Wizard's chess – A variant of chess in the Harry Potter universe, featuring magically animated, intelligent pieces. Zathura – A Jumanji-like game from the book of the same name and the film Zathura: A Space Adventure.
Card games Caravan – A two player card game used for both gambling and passing time in Fallout: New Vegas. Card Wars - In Adventure Time, this is a two-player, head-to-head card game involving building landscapes, casting spells, and using creatures to defeat an opponent. Cripple Mr. Onion – Discworld; Fan rules have been created, but are not official, and use ordinary playing cards rather than a Discworld "Caroc" deck. Damage – A poker-like card game from Iain M. Banks's Culture novels, wherein players and audience members are subjected to telepathic emotional assaults based on cards played and losses result in the execution of bystanders affiliated with each player. Double Fanucci – A fictional card game mentioned throughout the Zork series of computer adventure games. Dragon Poker – The MythAdventures books by Robert Asprin. Fizzbin – A card game in Star Trek. It was spontaneously created by James T. Kirk as a distraction to escape capture on Sigma Iota II. Go Johnny Go Go Go Go – A card game from the television series, The League of Gentlemen from the Series 2 episode, "A Plague on Royston Vasey". Gwent – A card game in the novel series The Witcher. Later available as a video game. Joustus - A card game in Shovel Knight: King of Cards. It makes up half of the DLC's gameplay, and is used as the impetus for its plot. Lucky Horseshoes – A variant of Blackjack found in Fallout: New Vegas, played with an animatronic cowboy in exchange for in-game rewards. Pazaak – A two player card game in a 2003 Star Wars game, similar to Blackjack, where players have to be the closest to 20 without going over, in a best of three rounds competition. Players have their own assembled side deck of 10 cards, with both positive and negative values present, from which they pull four random cards at the start of a round. The main table deck has cards with values from 1–10, of which one card gets drawn for each player each turn. Queen's Blood – A minigame in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Sabacc – A card game used for gambling in Star Wars, and the game in which Han Solo won the Millennium Falcon from Lando Calrissian. Real versions of the game have been produced and can be bought at Disneyland. Tall Card – A draw poker-like game seen in Firefly, where trump cards are "tall" and suits such as plums replace traditional card iconography. Three-Dragon Ante – A card game used primarily for gambling in Dungeons & Dragons, played with a deck of 70 cards divided between 63 dragon cards, and 7 mortal cards. Dragon cards have a color, and a power, similar to suit and rank in a traditional deck of 52 cards. Tongo – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine TV series. Towers – A card game used to teach war strategy to generals in the Stormlight Archive series series by Brandon Sanderson. Triad – Battlestar Galactica (2004 series)(In the 1978 series and Galactica 1980, a similar game was called Pyramid.). Triple Triad – First appearing in the video game Final Fantasy VIII, it can also be played as a minigame in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and Final Fantasy Portal App. In 1999, after the release of Final Fantasy VIII, toy company, Bandai, produced a real Triple Triad card deck. Since the game was only produced in Japan and not readily available in America and Europe, the cards have become rare collector's items.
MMORPGS/Role-playing games Bat'leths & BiHnuchs – A Dungeons & Dragons-pastiche tabletop roleplaying game within the Star Trek universe, first appearing in the Lower Decks episode "The Least Dangerous Game". Game players assume the roles of legendary Klingon warriors and complete glorious adventures. The title roughly translates as "swords and cowards". Bunkers & Badasses – A parody of Dungeons & Dragons, the central game played in Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, (a DLC for the video game Borderlands 2 ) and in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. The Game – A parody of World of Warcraft, the unnamed MMORPG is played by the central characters of The Guild web series. HackMaster, which later became a real tabletop game, and its many spinoffs – Knights of the Dinner Table. Kingdom Scrolls – From the British television series Dead Pixels. OASIS – A virtual world and MMORPG featured in Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Ogres & Oubliettes – A tabletop role-playing game in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic animated series. Raven's Banquet – An expansion pack featured in the first season of Mythic Quest, designed for the MMORPG of the same name. T'Rain – A World of Warcraft like MMORPG featured in Reamde by Neal Stephenson.
Sports Athletic sports Assassin's Guild Wall Game – "A cross between squash, urban rock climbing and actual bodily harm", Discworld (named after the Eton Wall Game). Calica - A hybrid of laser tag, dodgeball, and capture the flag from the Star Trek universe, wherein players wield simulated firearms that can teleport opponents to a penalty box, and the objective is to blast a goal guarded by the opposing team's mascot. (First appeared in the Starfleet Academy episode "Vitus Reflux".) Lifting – A popular extreme sport, similar to surfing, but in the air; practitioners ride "reflection boards" on waves of "Transparence Light Particles"; from anime/manga series Eureka Seven. Taking the Stone – In Farscape, a game played by the youth of an unnamed royal cemetery planet. The game consists of jumping into a deep well, and chanting while falling. To protect a participant from smashing into the bottom of the well and dying, there is a sonic net which is sustained by the participants' voices, and is intended to provide a soft landing.
Combat sports Anbo-Jitsu – Star Trek: The Next Generation, a one-on-one martial arts combat sport wherein the players are blindfolded and use proximity-detector staves to locate the opponent. Ape Fighting – From Futurama, a fighting sport involving two apes (typically gorillas) engaging in pugilistic combat while adorned with comically-undersized costumes and props. The Hunger Games – From the franchise of the same name. Each year, adolescents from oppressed districts are forced to fight to the last survivor in an elaborate outdoor arena, itself designed to pose many threats to tributes' lives, for the entertainment of citizens in the wealthy Capitol district. Kosho – From The Prisoner, Kosho appeared prominently in the episode "It's Your Funeral". According to Kosho rules, one opponent must knock the other into a four-by-eight foot tank of water. Trampolines are placed on two sides of the pool and ledges above on three. Upon any successful dunking, the Kosho match is over. Pro-Bending – From The Legend of Korra, involves two teams of three benders, one from each of the main bending arts besides airbending. The objective of the sport is to gain as much territory within the ring as possible within three minutes, or, alternatively, to drive the members of the opposing team over the edge of the ring. The Running Man – From The Running Man, the titular television show features convicted criminals fighting for their lives (and pardons) in an arena while being hunted down by professional celebrity mercenaries called "stalkers", presented in the same vein as theme-based pro-wrestlers.
Team ball sports 43-Man Squamish – A college sport from Mad Magazine. Arena Stickball – A sport from Alternia, in both Homestuck and Hiveswap wherein two teams of 5 players compete to score points using 16 different balls. The game is played over two 11-hour halves. BASEketball – From the film of the same name. Blaseball – From the browser game of the same name. Blernsball – The 30th-century version of baseball from Futurama, wherein it is called the "Earthican Pastime." Blitzball – Final Fantasy X, a soccer-like game played in a massive sphere of water.