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[Yogi]

The title says it all.  Actually, I have around 2 completed games, I'm working on more, and I need to figure out how to protect myself from somebody just taking my idea and publishing it as their own.  The games are all board or card games (computers are only involved in the development of the game, not play).

[JimIvey]

I'd suggest copyright and patent(s).  Patents do issue on board games.  Personally, I don't have experience writing board game patents.  I think someone else here does.  You might search for similar patents, not only to see whether your game is novel (patents aren't the only prior art to worry about) but also to see how one goes about patenting a board game.

As for copyrights, that would protect against direct knockoffs of your artwork and any creative aspects of your game instructions.  Copyrights have at least two advantages over patents.  First, as things look now, copyrights will last forever whereas patents expire.  Second, infringement is pretty easy to spot (relative to patent infringement) -- aiding in enforcement.  I think copyright litigation is therefore significantly less expensive than patent litigation (based largely on the perception that patent litigation is some of the most expensive litigation out there).

The biggest weakness of copyrights relative to patents is that copyrights are limited to your expression and derivatives thereof.  In other words, if someone copies the play of your game by writes their own original instructions for the game place and create all their own original artwork for the board and pieces, they probably won't infringe copyrights but would hopefully still infringe your patent(s).  Similarly, independent creation is a defense to copyright infringement but not patent infringement.

Regards.