Tabletop Gaming - May 2020
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A T TR EN E EX NTSID CO IN
CRITICAL ROLE: EXPLORER’S GUIDE TO WILDEMOUNT OUR IN-DEP T H T WO PAGE RE V IE W DI V ES DEEP IN TO CRI TC AL ROLE LORE tabletopgaming.co.uk
May 2020
MY CITY
Reiner Knizia takes us on a guided tour of his legacy city building game
ROLL WITH IT
We explore the depths of the Rollplayer series
HOW TO PLAY RPGS ONLINE
THE DEFENCE OF PROCYON III £5.25
SH ADOWS OF KILFOR TH | WAV ELENG T H | ORIFL AME | FAFNIR O DYS S E Y O F T H E D R AG O N L O RD S | A F T E R S H O C K | M I YA B I
Display until 21/05/20
PLAYED
We join the asymmetrical, Eurogame style war on two fronts with David Turzci
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EDITORIAL EDITOR Christopher John Eggett 01778 392 400 [email protected]
ONLINE EDITOR Charlie Pettit [email protected]
CONTRIBUTORS Owen Duffy, Robert Florence, Richard Jansen-Parkes, Dan Jolin, Andy Leighton, David Parlett, Alex Sonechkina, Charlie Theel, Matthew Vernall, James Wallis, Chad Wilkinson
Welcome W
HEAD OF DESIGN & PRODUCTION Lynn Wright DESIGN Richard Hallam, Mike Edwards COVER IMAGE The Defence of Procyon III ADVERTISING TO ADVERTISE PLEASE CALL SALES MANAGER Murdo MacLeod 01778 391 129
NOW PLAYING... Rurick: Dawn of Kiev
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PRODUCTION MANAGER Nicola Lock 01778 392 420 [email protected]
MARKETING MARKETING MANAGER Katherine Brown 01778 395 092 [email protected]
MARKETING EXECUTIVE Luke Hider 01778 395085 [email protected]
PUBLISHED BY PUBLISHER Claire Ingram [email protected]
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This publication is printed by Warners 01778 395111 The views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the publishers. Every care is taken to ensure that the content of this magazine is accurate, but we assume no responsibility for any effect from errors or omissions. While every care is taken with unsolicited material submitted for publication, we cannot be responsible for loss or damage. While every care is taken when accepting advertisements, we are not responsible for the quality and/or the performance of goods and/or services advertised in this magazine. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) exists to regulate the content of advertisements. Tel: 020 7429 2222 © Warners Group Publications Plc, 2020
Get in touch tabletopgaming.co.uk
hile living in interesting times, the desire for distraction has become greater than ever. But what a terrible twist that we’re having to spend this time apart, rather than together. Here at Tabletop Gaming, it’s business as usual, as much as could be expected. We’re still writing about board games and we’re still printing magazines and dropping them through your letterbox (if you’re a subscriber, and following all government guidance of course). Our cover story this week is an exciting, sprawling wargame played across two boards but pulled with perfect and equal force in three directions. David Turczi’s baby is what happens when you carefully mix together equal parts Ameritrash, wargaming and Eurogames (bulked out by the understated use of nitroglycerine). If you don’t fancy planning an exit strategy, then try planning a city. Reiner Knizia lays out the blueprints of his new game, My City. A gateway legacy game that feels very much like a Euro-style tile-layer – imbued with the usual twinkly charm all Knizia games come with. And of course, we have tons of games reviewed and rated.
tabletopmag tabletopgamingmagazine tabletop_gaming_magazine
Christopher John Eggett Editor Q U I C K S TA R T
It took me two If the tribes years to figure don’t want out all the excess to fight, well, they I’m ‘allowed’ just don’t fight. Diplomacy rules!
...and then nature gives us some ‘obstacles’, some challenges
David Turczi on designing The Defence of Procyon III, p20
Reiner Knizia on what nature offer us in My City , p42
Christian Martinez explains the peaceful option in Inis, p30
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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In this issue
06 AT A GLANCE 09 FIRST TURN Cole Wehrle negotiates power in Pax Pamir
10 TEN OF THE BEST Tower defence games, for those of us under seige
13 ROLE CALL 14 HAVE YOU PLAYED?
We uncover the Celtic myths of Inis
36 THE INDIE SHELF 37 UNEARTHED ARTEFACTS 38 ROLL PLAYER We explore the extended universe of character creation game, Roll Player
59 AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 PLAYS 61 PLAYED Wondering what to play this month? Read on...
85 PAINTING GUIDE Our Batman painting guide
90 DUNGEON MASTER’S GUIDE TO ROLEPLAYING
Decrypto asks you to fool your friends
42 MY CITY
16 ALL THE JAHRES
A beautiful day in the neighbourhood with Reiner Knizia
94 EVENT REPORT: AIRECON 2020 PICTURE SPECIAL
Kingdomino, Bruno Cathala’s kingdom expanding tile layer
50 COURT OF THE DEAD
96 SHOP SPOTLIGHT
19 MY FAVOURITE GAME
Will you answer the call of the underworld?
Marc Langworthy on Infinity
55 CARDBOARD MANIFESTO
ON THE COVER!
56 HOW TO PLAY RPGS ONLINE
20 THE DEFENCE OF PROCYON III A war rages on two fronts – and David Turczi is leading the charge
4
30 HOW WE MADE
May 2020
58 MICROGAME OF THE MONTH: ROBO-OH, NO!
98 TABLETOP TIME MACHINE
SEE WHO’S COMING! P28-29
EXTRA DIGITAL CONTENT
LOOK OUT FOR THESE ICONS AND ENJOY EXTRA CONTENT, ALL JUST ONE CLICK AWAY!
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Gallery
Zoom
Panoramic
360˚
Sound
Video
YouTube Bad Bones
10
Carnival Zombie
10
Castle Pannic
10
Cloudspire
10
Conquest
98
Court of the Dead
50
Decrypto
14
Defection
94
Dice of the Dead
94
Elder Scrolls: A Call to Arms
96
Frosthaven
42
50
38
56
6
Harlem Unbound
13
Infinity
19
Inis
30
Kingdomino
16
Last Bastion
10
My City
42
Pax Pamir
9
Roll Player
38
Rurick
55
Sea Evil
36
Set a Watch
10
Slyvion
10
Space Hulk: Death Angel
10
Spirit Island
10
Starfinder
13
Stronghold
10
Sword & Spear Fantasy
96
Tales from the Loop
13
The Dark Knight Rises 85
62
85
The Defence of Procyon III
20
The Great Fire of London 1666
94
Tranquility
94
Warhammer Underworlds
96
Wingspan
55
Yogi Guru
94
Zombie Kidz Evolution 37
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AT A GLANCE TABLETOP GAMING LIVE 2020 SCHEDULED TO GO AHEAD AS PLANNED
FROSTHAVEN BACKED FOR OVER £5 MILLION
While the events calendar for 2020 is a complete mess, you can still save a date for us
While many things are not quite as they ought to be during the current coronavirus lockdown, with social distancing rules keeping us two metres apart from strangers and working from home meaning we’re more isolated than ever, Tabletop Gaming hopes to be a beacon of normality. And with that, we’re here to remind you that our event at the end of September is continuing as planned. The event is to take place Alexandra Palace, London on Saturday 26th to Sunday 27th September 2020, and is set to be a huge
celebration of analogue gaming. Assuming the world has returned to normality this might be one of the first times everyone in the tabletop community can get together under one roof and play the games we love. Recent sign-ups to the show include Lion Tower Miniatures (the adventurers guild series of minis), Decking Awesome Games (the creators of Dice Summoners), Culverin Models (scenery, and the Summoners tanks to blow it up with) and Accentuate Games (makers of everyones favourite excuse to put on a silly voice, Accentuate). Chaos Cards and Zatu will also be in attendance offering great deals on everyone’s favourite games. What’s more, with a world that will hopefully be back to normal, our huge open gaming area will be available for players to get to know one another in person – rather than suffering through zoom calls as we all have been these recent weeks. We’ve got some exciting news about our talks and workshops coming up, so stay tuned here, online and on our social media channels to hear it first.
Our chilly adventure is now certain
Frosthaven, possibly the most anticipated Kickstarter of 2020, has been backed to an eye-watering sum of £5.5m (at the time of writing, honestly, the numbers just keep going up every time we look). We interviewed Isaac Childres in issue 40 about the upcoming game, so pick up a digital issue if you want the inside scoop on a couple of possible unlockable characters within the game, and to find out if it’s okay to not have finished Gloomhaven.
Get your TTG2020 Tickets here ttgami.ng/cometottgl20
KNOW YOUR NUMBERS
14
the number of free microgames we’re giving away on our site right now. Visit: ttgami.ng/14Micros
16
the number of TOHO Godzilla monsters that will be appearing in the newest set for Magic: The Gathering, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
$250
52
pages in the The Hermit’s Sanctuary (free) adventure for Beowulf: Age of Heroes 5E.
the reward in gift vouchers offered by Portal Games if you create a new Robinson Crusoe adventure
6
the number of scandi-mechs in the Tales from the Loop board game
“EXCLUSIVE”, YOU SAY? Get your fix of the latest board game, miniatures, RPG and card game goodness delivered to your door every month – plus, save money and receive EXCLUSIVE subscriber gifts, discounts and offers!
6
January 2018
See page 18 for more details
For the latest news from the world of gaming visit
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PUBLISHERS GIVE AWAY GAMES TO KEEP THE UK ENTERTAINED DURING LOCKDOWN
From free print and play to digital outings, there’s still gaming to be done With the whole country in lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, we have seen an outpouring of kind gestures from publishers across the whole spectrum of gaming. A huge number of publishers have offered new solo modes of their games, print and play versions for people stuck at home, and digital offers to keep us all from going mad. Osprey have offered the entire Frostgrave rulebooks for free, along with some solo adventures, Mantic are giving away solo modes, campaigns and even fiction, while Chaosium has open sourced their Basic Roleplaying
System and provided a Call of Cthulhu colouring book. Asmodee has given away a whole host of games including Dobble as print and play games. Portal Games are offering Empires of the North, and Days of Wonder have Corinth available to download. There’s never been a better time to own a printer and a pair of scissors. On the Tabletop Gaming website we’re keeping up with the freebies and deals as they come out. Stay tuned for more.
We asked… What are your gaming
plans during the lockdown?
You said…
My plan is to paint a Bloodbowl team ready for when we can mingle again, and paint some scenery for the same reason. Brian Ian Edwards Tons of Legendary Laura Zuvanich-Guerrero
Just got Abomination yesterday, and It’s a Wonderful World coming tomorrow… and many I have yet to learn or play Stephen Jewell May get the kids playing Pandemic as an educational resource now Jeff Stokes
RESIDENT EVIL 3: THE BOARD GAME IS COMING TO KICKSTARTER
Zombie residents of Racoon City need a better understanding of what two metres is Steamforged are bringing the third instalment of the extremely popular Resident Evil video game series to our tabletops, with a Kickstarter coming on April 28. Resident Evil 3: The Board Game follows hot on the heels of the success of 2019’s Resident Evil 2. Working with Capcom’s licence once again, the team at Steamforged are unlikely to change what has worked so well for fans so far. The game offers either one-shot scenarios for quicker gameplay, or an over 19-hour campaign with overarching storyline. As part of this, the tension deck – a praised part of Resident Evil 2’s ’s gameplay – returns, which Steamforged suggest “will surprise players with unexpected threats to replicate the terrifying suspense of the video game”. Oh, and of course, we’re loving the Nemesis minis (one form pictured right).
THE TABLETOP GAMING PODCAST
Playing some Wingspan and hopefully finishing Charterstone and Pandemic: Season 1 Cory King Trying to paint a couple of warbands for Frostgrave Glenn Taylor I just picked up Legendary Encounters: Alien Alien, which I am looking forward to playing (if I can convince my wife to play ite) Mark Sosbe Finally, the time has come to play Campaign for North Africa John Davies
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7
FIRST TURN
COLE WEHRLE The master tactician behind Root casts his mind back to his historical 2015 debut: Pax Pamir Interview by Dan Jolin
BACKGROUND “I grew up in a big family, where playing games was a really important part of growing up. I’ve been doing design forever, but it was always a very personal kind of goofy thing, like making variants for Twilight Imperium, and I’d never been able to finish them. But in grad school I wanted to teach myself graphic design and started doing redraws of old games as a way of learning that. I also happened to live across the road from a store which stocked Phil Eklund’s games, like High Frontier, so I got really into them, and we started e-mailing. He liked some of my work and I offered to help him playtest, which gave me a ringside seat to seeing how a game actually gets made.”
COMPONENTS “I remember in September 2012 getting a copy of Phil’s game Pax Porfiriana and it just shaking me to my core, because I had been playing all these very long, knotty history games, and to see that done in 60 minutes without it feeling compressed was really amazing. I was working with Phil on Greenland when he said, ‘You’re researching Central Asia in the Victorian era, have you maybe thought about maybe making your own Pax game?’ And I thought having watched Phil do it, I can try.”
OBJECTIVE “I design the best when I dislike something. I love games that grapple with interaction. But engine builders and that kind of stuff? Not interested. So I had this puzzle: can you build a tableau builder that starts interactive and where player positions stay dependent all the way through the game? Also, I’m an anti-imperialist at heart, so I didn’t want to make a game that would valorise a really horrible thing like Russia and Britain’s Great Game in Afghanistan. Once I realised that mechanical question and that thematic question were tied together, the game started generating.”
SETUP “Pamir was a tricky design for lots of reasons. Before it had a board, when it was just a pure card game during development, it was so hard to think about. So I built some pivot tables to play it in a spreadsheet format, because it
May 2020
was fast and I could see the board state very clearly. Then it became clear it was just not built for people to think about. It was an unplayable mess. Phil Skyped me and said, ‘You have to do something or we can’t publish this.’ So I locked myself in my back room and worked on it for two days. That’s when I added the spy system, the way the map gets abstracted… Many of the core elements of Pamir came out of that one weekend.”
HOW TO PLAY “Pamir is a game about nation building, where this large empire has collapsed and players have to pick up the pieces to create a state. They do this in the context of these other world powers that are on the fringes. So you will array yourselves in these different coalitions and try to move between the coalitions, with the hope that you can position yourself in a winning coalition, and be the top person in that coalition. It’s a tableau builder: there’s a central market of cards that present different opportunities and powers. You buy them and play them to cultivate your own personal power base and differentiate your position, and then you use those powers to achieve that goal.”
I design the best when I dislike something. I love games that grapple with interaction
END OF THE GAME “It did great. I got so lucky. Sometimes with first games, they get very mixed reviews but that didn’t happen for me. I had some very positive notices, and then it sold out very quickly. I was shocked at how fast it sold out: about two months. There were these groups of people, a few in Portland, a couple in Seattle, who got really obsessed with it, and their comments and reports were so encouraging that I just kept thinking about design.”
STRATEGY TIPS “Be really attentive to your craft. Be critical of your own work. Self-care is really important, but you need to maintain your sense of criticism and your sense that you can do better when you’re evaluating your own work. You should keep that voice in your mind that says, ‘It’s not good enough.’ Also, find your audience, treat them with care, build them slowly. Attend to your audience, because a thousand true fans can get you through everything.” *
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1
LAST BASTION
Play as a group of heroes who have stolen a powerful relic from the Baleful Queen, who, understandably, wants it back. Attacked on four sides, the heroes must repel waves of monsters and enemies to secure their safety and survival. It’s a tough co-op game that reimplements Antoine Bauza’s classic Ghost Stories with a number of minor quality of life upgrades. Bar the dice combat, the game is one of low randomness and high tactics for you and your fellow hero-thieves.
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SYLVION
A card game version of a classic tower defence set up, with a bit of deck building. Sylvion has attacks that come down in four rows of waves. Attempt to keep the heart of the forest safe from raging fire elementals (you know what they’re like) by deploying the trees and animals at your disposal. The game uses a ‘discard cards to use other cards’ mechanism to play out cards that means the pressure you’re under can sometimes be of your own doing. A clever, forestsaving card puzzler.
OF THE BEST
TOWER DEFENCE GAMES
Feeling under siege these days? We’ve gathered together some of the best ‘tower defence’ games. Games that see you trying to survive waves of enemies, and sometimes, give you the chance to build your defences. Most of these can be played solo, a useful thing to know for these strange times Picked by Christopher John Eggett
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May 2020
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CASTLE PANIC
4
DEATH ANGEL
In a severe case of NIMBYism, the creatures of the magical woods nearby your newly erected castle have decided that you shouldn’t have got planning permission. As such they are marching on your castle in an attempt to knock it down. You’re a winner if you slay the most monsters, but working together and trading cards to help one another is an important aspect of survival. Available in Star Trek and Munchkins flavours, should you wish.
Another card game, but this time in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Set in a classic flavour of Games Workshop (that of a decaying space hulk that is infested with genestealers) players pick one of the six space marine teams available and use their special skills wipe out the enemy. A kind of roving adventure rather than a strict tower defence, with new locations coming up to hunker down in and ride out the storm after each wave.
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BAD BONES
Terrible skeletons have risen from the earth to knock you off your perch, or tower, rather. Things had been so peaceful until the dead got a bit overactive. A true tower defence where you must outlast your opponents, rather than defeat the enemy. With trap-laying, spell-casting and troop-recruiting to hold back the tide of the invasion. The game can be theoretically played with no downtime, and therefore a six player game can last a mere 30 minutes.
5
SET A WATCH
Not about time keeping, but dice assignment. Set a Watch sees your heroes traveling to different locations to defend them from an onslaught of enemies. A big part of the game is the management of the camp and the fire, as well as the monsters who are attempting to ruin your encampment. With plenty of options and strategies to pursue once the dice have been rolled, this is tactical game that invites a little quarterbacking, but not too much.
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SPIRIT ISLAND
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CLOUDSPIRE
In what could be consider, at least, a thematic tower defence game, as you defend your island from the threats of colonialism. Each player in the this co-op game takes the form of a an elemental spirit with their own powers, powers which can be used to scare and destroy the colonizers. As play is somewhat asymmetrical and played out through cards, working together gives you the best chance of overcoming the odds in this campaign defence game.
While not all videogame concepts can make the leap to the tabletop, the MOBA genre is one that is one that is readily tried over and over. In this case the towers you’re defending also have attack capabilities, and work as a kind of support for your troops on the ground. These units are hidden for the most part, only revealed when absolutely necessary, making for a game of shuffling your armies into position for the perfect attack. Plus, there’s lots of ways to upgrade your base.
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STRONGHOLD
A two-player game, rather than a co-op like many on this list, so one of you will have to be outside of the castle trying to get in. As the invader build war machines and throw your troops at the walls to try and break through. As the defender of the stronghold, you attempt to repair your walls in moments of calm and replenish your smaller number of troops. Every turn counts in this true test of your ability to survive.
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CARNIVAL ZOMBIE
A beautiful game of decaying people and streets. By day you and your co-op buddies are attempting to escape zombified Venice, while at night, you try and survive the attacking zombies behind barricades. During the day you’ll be searching for an exit, as well ways to make your barricades stronger, or survivors to help keep them standing. A game full of weird bosses and tactical retreats. You might not be defending a tower, but you’ll wish you were.
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COMING SO O N !
Role Call We’ve got a whole pile of revolutionary new RPG books inbound this month, ranging from sci-fi mysteries through to post-mortem adventures Words by Richard Jansen-Parkes
TALES FROM THE LOOP STARTER SET Tales From the Loop’s whimsical sci-fi mysteries are some of the slickest bits of roleplaying to come out in recent years, and this new box set promises to make leaping into the world of the Loop as easy as possible. Expect pre-gen characters, funky maps and streamlined rules for newbies. Free League | £29.99
May 2020
STARFINDER – NEAR SPACE The latest sourcebook for Paizo’s space-hopping Starfinder promises a major expansion to the game’s core setting, outlining dozens of new worlds and cultures ripe for adventuring through. Of course, as well as setting info you can expect the book to be dripping with new character options, gear and rules. Paizo | £35.99
STAR TREK ADVENTURES – DELTA QUADRANT Voyager has a rather mixed legacy among Star Trek fans, but there’s no denying that it’s exploration of the Delta Quadrant spat out some pretty cool ideas now and then. Ever wanted to roll up a liberated Borg player character? Well, this is your chance right here. Onyx Path | £27.99
HARLEM UNBOUND – SECOND EDITION
GEIST – THE SIN EATERS SECOND EDITION
An expanded and polished take on an award-winning look at Lovecraftian roleplaying in the busy streets of prohibitionera Harlem. As well as the usual monsters and plot hooks for players to invest in, you can also expect a crash-course in confronting issue of race at the tabletop.
In most RPGs, death represents the end of a character. In Geist, it’s just the beginning. Explore the world as a medium caught between the worlds of the living and the dead, take your vengeance on the exploitative necromancers and generally live your un-life to the fullest.
Chaosium | £17.99
Onyx Path | £37.99
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H AV E Y O U P L AY E D ?
DECRYPT0
Lead your friends astray with cleverly laid wordtraps, misleading puns and outright bluffing in a game that’ll teach you a lot about how your friends read the world in Decrypto Words by Christopher John Eggett ying to your friends isn’t usually advised. Not if you want to keep your friends, and especially not if you’re a bad liar. Obfuscating the truth, or white lies, can be permissible in certain situations. For
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May 2020
example, in moments of espionage in tabletop professional eavesdropping classic Decrypto. Like the similarly spy-like play of Codenames, Decrypto is a game that tests whether you really know your friends or not. Not just on your own team mind, but on the
opposing team too. Yes, this is a game that needs at least four people ideally, so not one for those of us trapped at home at the moment alone, or merely coupled. However, it does lend itself very nicely to playing across the internet. With two teams playing across a videocall services like Skype or Zoom, the game can function with very limited drawbacks. Of course, you’d each have to own a copy of the game, but considering its popularity, that’s not a stretch. So get settled in and prepare to learn how your friends think of the world, as well as what they think you don’t know. But be warned, it’s trickier cracking this particular thesaurusshaped safe than you might first imagine.
WHAT IS IT? Decrypto is a game about informing your teammate of the secret code drawn each turn. This code is a simple string of numbers, like 3-4-1-2. The numbers you’re trying to communicate are matched with a kind of cypher, drawn from the deck and added to your screen – a very nice screen which reveals the words, through a kind of witchcraft we assume, only when they’re inserted behind the coloured film. The words here are then associated with each of the numbers used for the code. So, you could have 1. Renaissance, 2. Monster, 3. Pit, 4. Fruit. You then want to convey to your teammate that the code you’re trying to pass on it 3-41-2, without the other team guessing your words – or rather, the numbers associated with those words. You might say hole-orangeleonardo-godzilla. And because you’re both aware of the words on your team, it’s quite easy to get the order right. You don’t get points for this however, you just don’t lose any points for getting it wrong. The next code will be in a different order, so the other team is going to have to think hard about whether there’s a connection between an energy drink and Godzilla or whether there’s a connection between an energy drink and the colour – or fruit – orange. And so it begins. Each round you’re listening to the opposing team tell each other a seemingly random string of clues, that you are trying to link together with others they’ve already mentioned to chain into the correct order. You do this with the handy pencil and pads provided. When you have enough information, you can guess your opponent’s code. Get it right, twice, and you’ll win the game with a total of two points. That’s it, but obviously, that’s not where the game is. Most of the game, once you understand this, is giving your team really odd clues in the hope they can connect, while throwing off the opposition. Fooling your friends while conveying the right thing to your team is at the heart of this game, and if that doesn’t sound like a good way to spend an afternoon, we don’t know what does.
WHY SHOULD YOU TRY IT? Games like this really let you know how your friends think about the world. It’s a game of making connections in your brain and hoping, that when you fling them out to the table, that your side get it, and the other side don’t. So while your reference to an actor might see very obvious to you – of course they’re most well known for that film, you think – your friends may think differently, or even might just not know that film at all. The opposing
Fooling your friends while conveying the right thing to your team is at the heart of this game team on the other hand might do, and now can guess one of your numbers, nudging them closer to being able to guess your codes the next time around. There’s a few tactics to follow here, there’s the classic ‘they’re my wife/husband/partner/ dogsitter – they will get this reference’ which can be a great system, unless you’re playing with people who know you both well together, then you might as well just give up. It’s also a great opportunity for partners to publicly reveal they don’t remember the first place that they went on a date together. Another tactic is to try and throw the opponent off as the receiver of the clue. Looking confused about things that you totally get, can really help keep the opposition confused about the validity of the clue, or how useful it is. Testing how your friends and loved ones read the world is a glorious thing, and while sometimes you’ll be left despondent that those around you aren’t taking the fractured pieces of language that you consider key signifiers of much of life, other times the opposite is true. And that opposing view is when everyone on your team is vibrating at the same level in the
same headspace and able to communicate exactly what is meant, in the strangest of ways, dodging the understanding of your rivals. In the same way the Asger Granerud compared The Mind to a dance in our last issue, we’re comparing the best moments of Decrypto to a perfect heist of language. Everyone did their job, and the getaway went off without a hitch. And with that comes the only drawback. For some, the sneakiness of Decrypto is a little extroverted (but it needn’t be) and some can get a bit choked up on thinking of new ways to describe the same thing. But that’s fine, as subsequent games (and it is a short game) will see people loosen up and give a little more. So like many of our favourite games, it’s one that encourages intense interactions between people over the table. It’s a competition that leaps from the bits of cardboard and the cards in front of you into the area between the players quickly. And that’s what we like in a good game of words. In these strange times of isolation, quarantine and lockdown, it’s no bad thing to look to the games that teach us how to communicate what we want to say in the best possible way. *
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All the
Jahres James Wallis replays the winners of the Spiel des Jahres so you don’t have to Words by James Wallis
KINGDOMINO ingdomino is the Kramer vs Kramer of modern Spiel des Jahres winners. It’s a good game. It does everything well, it combines its mechanics elegantly, it’s fun, satisfying and more-ish. But when you tell people that in 2017 it won the most important games award in the world, up against Magic Maze, The Quest for El Dorado and the Exit series, their faces drop. It doesn’t seem to fit. Kingdomino doesn’t seem big enough to wear the crown. A year earlier Codenames had won the SdJ, and there had been no question in anyone’s mind that it deserved it (except possibly Phil Walker-Harding and Rüdiger Dorn, the other nominated designers that year). Codenames had been an instant hit. Its gameplay was infectious and intuitive, and any designers whose minds weren’t filled with admiration for its make-you-feelclever mechanics were instead filled with envy that they hadn’t been clever enough to design it themselves. When Kingdomino’s victory was announced in 2017, Trump was president and the Brexit referendum had happened. It really wasn’t very long ago. That year the Spiel des Jahres also celebrated its fortieth anniversary, and when an award like that passes a big milestone there’s a certain amount of questions asked about what it represents, what it means, and what it’s for. The SdJ, which had started out simply as a way to bring some recognition to the best family game published in Germany that year, had gone on to be the standard-bearer for the spread of New Games across the world in the
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Year of win: 2017 Designer: Bruno Cathala Number of players: 2–4 Playing time: 15–20 minutes Worthy winner? Arguably Worth playing now? Yes Availability: Easy to find Price: £16.99
1990s, and a banner of quality and good gateway games in the 2000s. On its fortieth birthday, and with its spinoff awards for children’s games and expert games well established, it was facing the its midlife crisis, and the question: what is the Spiel des Jahres?
The answer from the jury seemed to be that it was for games that ticked boxes. Kingdomino doesn’t dazzle with innovation or components, break new ground in gameplay or push the boundaries of what can be done with cardboard. Its slottogether castles are a perfunctory nod to the glories of Colt Express’s 3D train, and serve no real gameplay purpose. None of which is to say that Kingdomino is in any way bad. It’s not. It’s easy to teach and a lot of fun, with emergent tactics and clever scoring. It sits at number 217 on the BoardGameGeek big list, not a stellar placing but a lot higher than many earlier Spiel des Jahres winners. It does the job. It’s pleasing to play and satisfying to finish. It is a game that’s difficult to dislike. Kingdomino is based, as you may have guessed, on dominoes. The history of dominoes is fascinating, mostly because so much of it is unknown. The game probably originated in China in the twelfth century, using tiles with faces that mimicked the rolls of two dice, then made its way into Europe via Italy in the eighteenth century, and that’s pretty much it for the history of dominoes. Kingdomino’s tiles are more like the simpler coloured sets you may have played with as a kid: they do have numbers on, but the numbers are on the back. The structure is simple: each turn you add a domino to your 5 x 5 kingdom, trying to connect areas of the same terrain (fields, forests, lakes, villages, gardens and mines). The cleverness comes in two parts: the tile-drafting, and the scoring.
FAR LEFT The familiar box for Kingdomino LEFT The colourful dominoes and tokens that make up your Kingdom
It does the job. It’s pleasing to play and satisfying to finish
Each turn you take as many dominoes as there are players, arrange them in the order of the numbers on their reverse, and flip them. Then each player puts their kingpiece on one, but they do it in the order of the pieces they chose the round before. Of course, the better pieces have the higher numbers. This is a really nice use of the pushyour-luck mechanic: do you go for the piece you really want, knowing it’ll mean you’ll choose last next turn, or do you settle for a less-good piece this time and a better place in the order next time? The other clever part is what makes some pieces better than others. Some terrains (fields, forests, lakes) are more common than others (villages and gardens), but the rarer the square of terrain, the greater the chance it has a crown on it – or in some cases two or even three. The crowns make all the difference in scoring at the end, as each area
of contiguous terrain is worth its total squares multiplied by the number of crowns in it. Play your tiles badly wrong and your beautiful 12-square field can end up scoring less than your opponent’s scrubby village, or even no points at all. These two systems lock together wonderfully, along with the pleasure of tessellating your tiles, to create a really satisfying experience – one that’s only spoiled when you realise that your majestic score is lower than everyone else’s. The game’s creator Bruno Cathala is a French designer living in Switzerland, who has been creating and releasing games since 2002. He refers to himself as ‘the other Bruno in the games industry’, though with titles like Shadows over Camelot, Five Tribes and 7 Wonders Duel under his belt, he comes a close second to Bruno #1, Faudutti. It’s almost a shame that his first Spiel des Jahres
win was for a little game like Kingdomino, because despite its delights it does feel like a little game. But with the craft, innovation and polish he brings to his designs, surely it’s only a matter of time before his name appears before the red pawn again. The last thing to say about Kingdomino is the excellent play on words in its title. It’s worth noting the game has the same name in almost every European language, knowing that the local audience would understand. When was the last time you bought a game under its original nonEnglish title?
Next issue: more tile-laying delights and a blast from the past, as Michael Kiesling storms back with Azul to become only the third designer to win the Spiel des Jahres three times.
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my favourite game
MARC LANGWORTHY Writer of the Kings of War Roleplaying games, and soon to be released Devil’s Run RPG, Marc Langworthy takes us to the futuristic trenches of Corvus Belli’s Infinity to show us what sci-fi wargames should be eing asked to write about a favourite game has been a lot harder than I initially thought. To prep myself, I delved back into past issues and soon learned that I wasn’t alone in facing this issue. I also talked my options over with my family, though the advice always mainly came back to choosing something I love to play. The trouble is, I have favourites at the top of the list when it comes to roleplaying games, board games and miniatures games, with several titles vying for top spot in each. Of the final contenders, I opted for a miniatures game that spills over into the other two in various forms. Produced by Corvus Belli, the Infinity wargame is a deeply tactical, high technology sci-fi skirmish game that takes place using gorgeous miniatures and inspiring scenery. Two players pit their troops against each other in a battle of wills and strategy to earn victory points that are set by the scenario. Each player also has a hidden objective to tackle during the game, which will earn bonus victory points at the end. I’ve played a fair few miniatures games over the years, and enjoy a few other games still outside of Infinity, but there are a few aspects to Infinity that have pushed it to the top of the list for me. The first things that set it apart for me are the rich background lore and visuals. I’m a sucker for fluff, and Infinity has plenty of material for anyone wishing to delve more deeply into the Human Sphere—which is the name for the regions of known space that humanity occupy. I’ll admit to more than a little bias here, as I oversaw the development of Infinity the Roleplaying Game for a good while. That role steeped me in the lore of the setting and gave me a real appreciation for the groundwork that the Corvus Belli team put into their brainchild. Of course, I also mentioned the visuals, which are quite simply stunning. Each of the playable factions has a very distinct style and there is so much character in every piece. The various images also offer more than unending scenes of war, with pieces ranging from a snapshot of life on the average neon-infused street of the high-tech future, to a sunlit glade that hides an alien artefact. In addition to the rich lore, the wargame also has a few rules innovations that, in my humble opinion, set
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it apart from other games in its genre. Each game is played over three rounds, with each player taking an active turn within the round. Nothing new there, you might think, but the key phrase there is active turn. While one player is taking the lead, the other player always has an opportunity to react to the actions of their opponent. This style of play really opens the game up and allows the action to always feel dynamic and fresh. Your miniatures can respond to events by dodging, returning fire or electronically hacking even outside of your turn. Hacking is itself another aspect of the wargame that sets it apart from others and adds extra tactical depth. Infinity’s ruleset soon begins to feel intuitive once you’ve played a few games. Any new system is intimidating, but by layering my own personal experience into bite-sized chunks, I soon gained an understanding of the mechanics. Having a soft spot for the underdog, I opted for the Japanese Secessionist Army. Now to just finish getting them painted! *
Each of the playable factions has a very distinct style and there is so much character in every piece
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STARSHIP TROOPERS
War is a messy, complicated kind of hell for the most part – especially when fighting on two fronts. Except for when you apply the mind of David Turczi – a designer attempting to wrestle with the challenge of designing an Ameritrash wargame, with the heart of a Eurogame Words by Christopher John Eggett
“T
he Defence of Procyon III. My tiny little pet project,” says David Turczi, presenting a large table with two boards and an armful of miniatures. Tiny is not a fair descriptor for what he’s excitedly talking about at the PSC booth at Airecon. It’s hard to blame Turczi for his enthusiasm. It really is a pet project, a labour of love, and one he’s wrestled into being through endless application of theory and a winnowing down of features. It’s the kind of game you’ve kind of always wanted to exist, containing a wish list of features that many of us idly dream of – asymmetrical play, multiple boards, a grand vision of war, but fast, without millions of detailed rules holding it up, and tons of miniatures. But usually, when someone does attempt to make it real, it’s a bit of a hot mess at the best of times. This is not the case here. Every aspect of the game seems to flex against the constraints it has been placed in. And for a game that seems complex from above – two boards, four rulebooks, and four factions with two on each side – the choices you make are simple, with huge consequences. Don’t worry though, Turczi has his pitch ready, “So the way I describe it is that the game is a hybrid between a classic war game and an Ameritrash card game. But every single mechanism is designed like it is a tight Eurogame,” he says, beaming, before drawing a triangular diagram in the air with his hands, “like on a chart of: Eurogames, wargames, Ameritrash games? I was like, ‘I’ll go for the middle’.” And that’s where we are now, orbiting Procyon III, and hoping that we’ll stick the landing.
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THE DEFENCE OF PROCYON III
GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR TOM It might be worth mentioning what hitting the bullseye in this particular scenario would be. To go through each corner of Turczi’s triangle, there’s the Eurogames we’re familiar with that have low player interaction, low randomness, and the feeling of running the engine of a machine until it’s very hot – before pulling the plug. Then there’s wargaming, for which we can simply think of Games Workshop games or heavier historical wargames that use tokens and hexes to play out manoeuvres and attacks. And then there’s what’s called, affectionately, Ameritrash. A kinder way to talk about these games is to call them thematic games, they have high amounts of luck, strong themes and often feature factions and conflict. The BoardGameGeek definition of Ameritrash includes Fantasy Flight as “currently the leading publisher of Ameritrash titles” – and we wonder why they haven’t taken this as their tagline. This is all to say that what Turczi’s aiming for here is the tightness of Eurogame with the conflict and thematics of Ameritrash, while allowing for the better parts of strategic wargames to come through. So, what is The Defence of Procyon III then? It’s probably best to begin by talking about the two boards. There is a large ground map, divided up into different zones. Consider these to be a little like the regions found in Dune, wobbly and mappy borders give you a sense of moving across varied terrain. Here is where the battle will be bloody, close, and vicious. Either as the human defenders of the colony, or as the alien invaders, hoping to wipe them out. High above, beyond the atmosphere, and right next to you in tablespace terms, is the space board. Broken out into sectors allowing for space combat, and even more deliciously, cross-board play. “One player takes charge of the ground battle. One player takes charge of the space battle. Both have cross-interactions in both directions,” said Turczi, “So it’s not two two-player games side by side.” Instead, the game is full of cross-board effects, where those controlling the space battle can provide aerial bombardment, while those on the ground use their ground defences to support the war in the heavens. There’s a strategic element too. The players controlling the space war can drop troops off on the ground. The game comes with four rule books, one for each faction. This might seem daunting, but there’s no real requirement to read anything but the faction you’re playing, Turczi explains, “It’s completely asymmetric. People call Root asymmetric. This is about four times as asymmetric as Root. The trick is that each rule book is what, eight pages? So I give you the entire rule book and said ‘teach it or people’ it looks like a super complicated game. But if I give each player one rule book we can say ‘start reading, start playing’. It becomes quite simple.”
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BELOW A big job sometimes calls for a big weapon
While it does sound simple once the rules are played out in front of you, there’s a huge amount of depth in the asymmetry of the game. It’s just that you only have to worry about your bit to begin with – only when the conflict gets going does the true depth of cross-board play become obvious. Turczi tries to place it for us in the canon of wargames, asymmetric games and area control games more generally. “The way I designed it was… Root goes in the right direction but was too random and too worried about area control. Quartermaster General is a brilliant theme game, but too abstract for what I want from it. Memoir ‘44 gives you, especially in the overlord mode, gives you the brilliant feeling of here’s a whole battlefield, you know, ‘I’ll take this, I’ll take that,’ but is ultimately a dice tracking exercise, which I find boring. Star Wars Rebellion, does the Ameritrash wargame theme very well, but has a million effects, no tightness. And if you play it in four player mode, the other players are utterly bored.”
He pauses for breath before admitting there was a struggle finding the perfect sweet spot between Wargames, Ameritrash and Eurogames, “And honestly? It took me two years to figure out where were the – not compromises – but, all the excess I’m ‘allowed’ to do while staying in the middle. Because the moment I went too far in one direction, the game got weaker.”
ABOVE Prototype miniatures of the defending human ground faction
This is me, unchained
BELOW Prototype miniatures of differing space factions
PERFECT PITCH Turczi is known for a number of things, the Mindclash released Anachrony – a Eurogame of time-travelling war where you can borrow from yourself in the future, but failing to cough up when the time comes can see disastrous results for yourself in the past (don’t think about it too much). He is also known as the creator of a whole host of solo modes for various games. At Airecon he was showing off seven games that he’s brought with him, all in various stages of release, design and Kickstarting. He’s prolific, and he explains his work rate, which highlights the effort that has gone into The Defence of Procyon III, “in comparison a game these days takes me about two to three months. So, Perseverance [a huge new game coming from Mindclash in the future] took us five years. But, we did four games in five years. This was one game in two.”
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THE DEFENCE OF PROCYON III
LEFT Concept art for the largest alien spacecraft BELOW Concept sketches OPPOSITE (TOP) A ship from the human fleet OPPOSITE (BOTTOM) One of the dwindling number of human soldiers available to defending players
Turczi then grins at Will Townshend, the managing director of PSC, “And I found somebody crazy enough to give me a game with 110 miniatures, two boards and so on.” “This is our third game with David,” says Townshend, “His output is prolific right now, and we’re thrilled to help get his work out there. We’re publishing his own design Rome & Roll this spring, and of course, he designed the solo mode for Blitzkrieg!” “So, I’m also testing the solo mode currently,” says Turczi, which, of course he is, “I need the solo mode because otherwise it’s a four player only game. For a while I was entertaining the question ‘can I come up with a rule set that’s ground board only?’ But had I spent so much effort making the game interesting across the boards that I said that if I could make a ground only game, then why would I ever play a two boards game? Both boards are so integrated and so necessary for each other’s existence, which makes the four player game great. But that means I can’t play a two player game with just one board.” You can play the game two player of course, but with additional learning from the two involved, but not much more as combat is simple and Eurogamey. And for a game that’s this big in what it’s reaching for, there’s a constrained play time. “It’s about two hours and a bit,” says Turczi, “The first game would be three hours, but it’ll go fast. The driving force behind this fairly tight time for a game this size is the turn limit, “It’s ten turns. You take ten actions in the game. It’s very strategic. A big move is a third of your game. I move, I shoot a little bit...” says Turczi, smiling, “I mean the game is maximum 10 turns, but usually it ends by turn eight.” Turczi is in the driving seat for everything in this game, “the other thing that makes it very special to
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my heart is that I normally work with big teams,” he says, “with designers and lead developers and art directors. And this game, other than signing the cheques, I did everything. This is me, unchained.” We can certainly see that in some of the art and model design – even at this prototype stage. There is a certain style to creating alien spacecraft that some run away from discussing, Turczi is not particularly phased by it. The aliens can join together some of their smaller, somewhat organic ships, into larger, nastier ships used to terrorize the space around the planet. The smaller ones have what we feel is ‘classic’ alien spacecraft design. “I spent many hours justifying the design of the ships,” says Turczi, “Yes, the space sperm. That was actually my graphic design notes. Half-mushroom, half-sperm is how I think I described it. Then, an evil blob with shield bubbles on it. That was my specification for the larger ships.” This style, which we have H. R. Giger to thank for, is balanced with a slightly lighter design on the human side of the conflict. Here we have something like cowboy space marines with a Starship Troopers vibe, while the threat is very real, there is a little levity in this particular alien invasion.
RESTRAINED The actions and combat in the game is a hybrid. None of the Ameritrash excesses can be seen here, although the use of cards can be. There’s four, small, decks of cards used in the game. The humans on the ground have a deck of 18 cards which gets one card smaller each round, and instead of being reshuffled at the end of the deck, it’s simply flipped. In space the humans have the largest deck, with 27 cards which will either be played once for the actions and special abilities (which trigger on the next turn), or shuffled into the combat deck to be used for their combat outcome. The aliens in space have a tiny eight card deck available, playing out two cards, one for the top action, one for the bottom action, and then uses some five-pipped dice to allocate how much of each action they’re carrying out. These are rolled at the start of the game and diminish as players carry out their actions. The dice show squares (usually used for moving ships) and circles (special abilities) – so deciding here how to split your two actions is key. On the ground, the aliens
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THE DEFENCE OF PROCYON III
use a deck of 21 cards which are shuffled only once in the game, they use a very-Euro combat bag. This contains a number of white (miss) and black (hit) cubes. The player draws a number of cubes equal to half the number of units in a region. This bag can be influenced by both sides, with the humans adding more white cubes to the bag, while the aliens add more black cubes. Turczi also mentions another elegant part of the game here, the bag is selfcleaning – in the sense that multiple hits mean removing a black cube, and the opposite for multiple misses. Through the combat mechanics the story unfolds, and the victory conditions become clear. For the humans who are defending the planet, there is only the desire to survive, their resources will dwindle over time – making the strategic choices here one of extremely high calculation. When your human soldiers die, they’re gone, every assault has to mean something otherwise you will be overrun. Playing the aliens means you can swarm your opponent and even use some insidious tactics to turn their dead into something that aids your expansion. The game is tightly constrained across all its fronts, even in a game with four (albeit small) decks of cards, they all have their place. It’s unlikely a turn will occur where there’s nothing for a player to do. There’s a few other points of asymmetry outside of the direct combat, “When an alien unit dies, it goes back to the reserve and the human unit dies, it’s out of the game. The scientist dies, your morale drops,” says Turczi. But what of the dead? “If any grounds human dies, the aliens get a ‘fallen’ token. The humans can retrieve the fallen tokens to gain extra actions,” as a ‘boosted spirit’ reaction because they brought back their dead bodies says Turczi, but of course, there’s the opposite side to this action that constrains it “aliens can lay eggs in it and get either more soldiers or more victory points out of them.” If the idea of bodies on the battlefield bursting forth with aliens and a bag building-element of the combat doesn’t feel like it’s ticking all the boxes for Eurogames-meets-Ameritrash, we don’t know what could convince you. Players can ask for help of course, this is where the cross-board play comes in. We’re told about players having moments of winning the war on one front, and looking across to their teammate, only to realise they’re inches from defeat. This is, in many ways, a very Eurogame feeling – that fact that your expansion in one way has hurt you elsewhere, that you have caused a problem for yourself somehow. Except here it’s for your teammate. If instead of advancing, there has been a concerted effort to help your ally in the heavens or down on earth, you may have found yourself in a better combined position. And this over the board play is what attracts a lot of people to this game, the fact that you will have to make sacrifices on one front to advance another, or thing will have to go very well for you for a couple of turns to avoid being wiped out. Desperate plays abound, especially for the more defensive human team, and the time ticks down, even for the endlessly pouring flood of aliens.
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THE REAL ENEMY “There is no randomness in there,” he says, like a Eurogame magician, “yet you have high replayability because since there are very few turns and every move is a strategic move, what your first move is makes a completely different game.” A slow start might reap rewards later, but crippling your opponent now could be the breaking-point for the whole game. If they rally you could be exposed and suffer for it. These choices ripple out across the turns of the game so quickly it’s hard not to imagine your next games’ strategy immediately after playing. It is an elegant outcome, killing randomness in games with conflict is a key challenge for many designers. While there’s a certain thrill to leaving your soldier’s live on the line for a dice roll, there’s also frustration. Bad luck can suck the fun out of a good war – even for the winning side. “Most of the two years I was taking things out,” says Turczi. What’s left is the strongest parts of the structure of the game, where every part of the game acts as a lodestone for another.
BELOW Concept art for the queen alien RIGHT A tankier alien footsoldier
This comes through in that high level of decision making asked for from the game. There’s something of Bliztkrieg! and Quatermaster General about the way the game asks you to make choices. Both games are praised for having a sense of making big decisions throughout, while enacting broad sweeps of a war minus the usual painful token shuffling. “If your first move is to build a lot of ships and not attack, that’s going to be completely different game than if your first move is to nose-dive towards the planet,” says Turczi, “And of course there’s some upgrade cards which come out different in each game. A little like Quartermaster General, in one way distilled and one way bloated to compensate the two boards and conflicts going on. “It’s very much like: low randomness, but diversity of play, and the means by which you go about it.” Where does it fit on people’s shelves then? It’s a question that David has thought about a great deal, “it’s a themeatic war game with the mind of a Eurogame. This is my pitch. To me the trick is to explain to people who like Mindclash, who like Vital Lacerda, that a wargame doesn’t mean ugly little counters or a hex map, 70 dice and a look-up chart. This game doesn’t have dice rolls, it doesn’t have lookup charts, doesn’t have hexes and doesn’t have chits with numbers on them. So whatever people think of as wargames, this has none of that. Yet, it’s a wargame because you move units on the map and shoot.” David’s next big games are the Mindclash published Perseverence – a game played over several episodic boards. It’s a dice placement game where players work together to defend their shared settlement, whilst competing to gain the most points and influence. The other is a co-authored game with one of his heroes, Daniele ‘Tzolk’in’ Tascini. A game set in Ancient Egypt that uses a large turning obelisk to represent the availability of dice from a pool – a clock of action which knocks on to the next, represented by Ancient Egyptian gods. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about these in the future, but for now, we’re busy fighting a war on all fronts. The Defence of Procyon III is coming to Kickstarter April 21, from PSC. *
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INIS Christian Martinez explains how he created the Celtic themed Inis Words by Owen Duffy
he 2016 strategy game Inis casts players as clan chiefs fighting for dominance over ancient Ireland – exploring new lands and throwing themselves into head-to-head battles for territory. But while it comes with many of the typical trappings of empire-building games, in many ways it’s dramatically different. It avoids the detailed and occasionally clunky approach taken by some similar games, with no branching tech trees or complicated combat systems. It offers players a multitude of paths to victory, not all of which rely on having the biggest and most powerful army. And it’s saturated in its Celtic theme, with beautiful artwork and elements inspired by Irish myths and legends.
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It’s come to be regarded as one of the best games of its kind. We spoke to its designer, Christian Martinez, to hear the story behind its creation.
DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY A resident of Lyon in France, Christian Martinez grew up playing games. “As a kid I played with my family and friends,” he recalls. “But when I was a teenager I discovered a game called Diplomacy.” Originally released in 1959, Diplomacy handed players control of major European powers at the dawn of the 20th century. Unlike many games built around conflict between
nations, it primarily focused not on clashes between massed ranks of soldiers, but on deal-making and deal-breaking between countries, revolving around shaky alliances and savage betrayals. To Martinez it came as a revelation. “When you’ve only ever played games like Risk or Cluedo, discovering something like Diplomacy is very special,” he says. “You can definitely see its influence in a game like Inis. “But after that my next big discovery was roleplaying games. I first heard of them in around 1980 in French gaming magazines, and over the next few years I played games including Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer, Star Wars and French RPGs like Rêve de Dragon and Légendes Celtiques.”
The latter, a 1984 game set in the ancient Celtic realms of Ireland, Great Britain and Gaul, cast players as warriors, druids and bards, combining historical details with magical fantasy. It intrigued Martinez, and inspired him to dive into Celtic history and mythology. “I found the culture fascinating,” he says. “The fact that we don’t know that much about the Celts certainly helps, because it leaves plenty of room for imagination. But the things that we do know about are very appealing to me. Irish mythology is epic, beautiful and kind of hazy. And I find Celtic art particularly inspiring, whether it’s from archaeological artefacts, the work of Irish monks – like the Book of Kells – or modern interpretations like the work of Jim Fitzpatrick, who worked on Inis.”
He adds that a number of factors persuaded him that the Celtic peoples were a perfect subject for a game. “The Celts diffused across Europe due to a number of complementary forces live migration, conquest and mixing of cultures,” he says. “That was very interesting to me both academically and from a game standpoint. I was also interested in emphasising some historical understandings that seemed important to me, like the fact that the Celts valued diplomacy and discussion, that they esteemed poets and druids, that they chose their kings, lived in different tribes sharing one culture, had their own ambiguous views on the otherworldly. “I felt all of that could make for a very different take on a ‘territory conquest’ style of game.”
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HOW WE MADE INIS
The modular board that gives Inis its sense of closely fought conflict, and an expanding domain
CELTIC CONQUEST Inis is, indeed, very different from games like Civilization or Clash of Cultures. It offers a stripped-down empire-building experience with games playing out in around 60 minutes rather than the evening-long sessions typical of other releases. And where other conquest games tended to hand players the same sets of actions to choose from on every turn, Martinez chose a different approach, dividing rounds into different stages. First, players drafted cards to determine the options available to them on their turns, then they used their picks to expand the game’s map, increase size of their clan and send their warriors out across the map to seize territory. “I wanted to have a dynamic way of handling the classic actions of these kinds of games,” he explains. “You know: recruit, build, move, fight, expand. And I just like to draft! Usually in drafting games, you just draft some cards and then you score. But I wanted drafting in Inis to be a means, not an end – like when you draft cards in Magic: The Gathering, but the draft itself isn’t part of the actual game.
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“It also serves the theme, because you have an assembly of chieftains discussing their actions for the upcoming season.” The drafting system meant that players needed to think carefully about the actions they wanted to take on each turn, trying to ensure that they picked up the cards they needed to pull them off. But if those cards simply weren’t available, it meant they had to think on their feet and make the best possible use of the ones at their disposal, finding ways to spread their clans across the board and become the dominant presence in as many regions as possible. Each area came with its own advantages for its controller, but Martinez was keen that these useful bonuses didn’t add extra complexity or stats for players to track. “I wanted players to feel that they were in the role of a chieftain, and to act accordingly,” he says. “That’s why I decided that there would be no precise resources, and that everything had to be represented by actions. For example, a land like a salt mine which provides wealth gives you greater choice in your actions. Or a valley allows you to rally a clan, because the surplus food you grow there can support more people. It’s all down to the
kind of scope I was trying to evoke – as a chieftain, you aren’t interested in bean counting. “And since there are only a few big territories, I wanted them all to be unique. Being chieftain of the valley clans shouldn’t feel the same as being chieftain of the iron mine clans. In the overall design, the point was to have a few distinct layers, each with a few simple elements, but to have all of these elements interacting with each other. That way I could create complexity out of a few simple mechanisms.” Along with this land grabbing, combat was another important component of the game. But once again, Martinez was determined to avoid complexities such as unit strength stats and dicerolling probability calculations. Instead, he devised a straightforward system where players took turns eliminating one another’s clansfolk until one side was eliminated, forced out of the region, or both sides mutually agreed to call a halt to hostilities. “This was a central point in the game,” he says. “The idea came from multiple sources. First, in my reading and understanding of Celtic history and legend, the tribes were not always enemies. The Book of Conquest describes a lot of shifting
allegiances, even during a campaign or an actual battle! Also, as much as I appreciate ‘4X’ or conquest games, I’m sometimes frustrated by the fact that in some of those games, war is never in question. You must fight, and you can only fight. “So the idea in Inis is really simple: if the tribes don’t want to fight, well, they just don’t fight. Diplomacy rules! It’s extremely simple, but it’s a bit unusual. I’ve seen players decide to fight ‘just because,’ but that really doesn’t work. You’ll lose everything if you act that way. Having this rule allowed me to make war really costly – losing your clans is harsh. “When I first tried this rule, it was liberating. So many possibilities arose. I could walk into another tribe’s territory with one innocuous unit and propose peace. It blurred the line between pacifism and aggression. It opened up the possibilities for discussion, diplomacy and bluffing. But it kept the constant threat of a clash, even though a normal game actually saw very few of them. The ones that did happen were generally crucial. There were no values or counters on anything, no ‘strength points,’ no ‘battle capacity,’ so the experience felt more epic, like a story you could tell afterwards. And with special cards that could tilt the outcome of battles, clashes never became too predictable and never lost the element of tension.” These ‘Epic Tale’ cards were one of the most thematically important elements of the game. Based on Celtic mythology, they introduced a collection of gods, heroes and mighty warriors who could grant players boosts and special abilities, giving them new ways to spread their influence across the board and potentially turning losing fights into winnable ones. “I used my memories and books about Celtic legends and tried to convey what I envisioned about my favourite characters,” Martinez explains. “The ideas for the cards were to reflect the legends, to be powerful in particular situations, and to be useful for building a strategy. But I also tried to design them in ways which let players discover some less obvious ways to use them. “Some of them were pretty obvious, like Cúchulainn, fighting alone against an army. Others had a few iterations before I found something I liked, like Oengus, for whom I wanted some kind of time-related effect, but that was hard to balance. “There was a difficult part of designing the Epic Tales though, and that was deciding how they would fit in the overall narrative of the game. I wanted the game to reflect a historical vision, and at the same time I wanted to use all those wonderful stories and characters. Working out how to combine history and romanticism was tough.
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HOW WE MADE INIS
The solution hit me one day and seems obvious now: those people invented these characters and stories, so it has to be presented that way. Action cards allow mundane actions and Epic Tale cards are gained mainly through the bard or the mastercrafter, and inspire your clans. When you play an Epic Tale card, the narrative is up to you, you can consider its effect as merely an inspiration or you can imagine some literal heroic figure fighting by your side. This blurry frontier is also something I was looking for, because in those stories nothing is clearly set out in black and white.”
CARVING UP THE MAP Other elements came together in the design process. One was the game’s map, which players originally built as part of the setup process. But Martinez soon realised that a gradual, modular approach offered greater variety as well as the potential for exploration and discovery during play. “The first version of the game had a fixed map,” he says. “It was OK, but if the starting positions were too far apart, the first phase of the game wasn’t very interesting, and if the starting positions were closely packed then the whole map was less meaningful in the early game. “So I tried with one territory tile per player at setup, with the possibility to explore the island during the game, and that was much more interesting to me. It had several benefits: players were already in contact from the start. They even shared some territories. They had to explore the island, and for many people it was pleasing to discover new territories. But it was also a way to
constantly change the game state and force players to adapt to new conditions. Thematically I also find it satisfying to start with a small piece of land and end as the king of the entire island.” Martinez tested his design with friends, tweaking and adjusting it over time until he felt it was ready to show to a publisher. “There was a point when I was sure I had something cool,” he says. “When all the games we had were tense and fluid and I still discovered and witnessed new tricks and combos, I had to show it to someone! I took it to the French publisher Matagot, since they released my previous game Expedition Altiplano. Inis is not an easy game to understand at first glance, even though the rules are simple, so they had to test it a few times. Then Arnaud from Matagot tried it and fell in love with it. So, he took charge of the development and we have collaborated from this day until today, on Inis at first, then on my game Cairn, and now on a new big project. “A big part of the development process was devoted to making people’s first contact with the game as easy as possible – to make sure it was not too intimidating, but without dumbing it down. That was not an easy task. Even today the game can be confusing for some players, sometimes it needs two or three games to click, but I like that it offers lots of things to discover with repeat plays. And you know, I’m still excited when a new game of Inis begins.” The effort in the development process paid off, and players praised Inis on its release. But Martinez was far from certain of its success in the run-up to its launch.
“I was excited and anxious,” he says. “I had put so much work and hope into Inis! I remember I was in Brittany when it was released at Gen Con, I checked BoardGameGeek several times a day to see people were saying about the game. At the Essen fair that year the players’ reaction to the game was very good, so yes I was really happy. “Since that time there was a lot of reviews and I try to read all of them. What I’m really happy about is that Inis has become part of the strategy game landscape. People continue to discover it, new reviews with new interesting takes on the game are published. Inis is here now. That’s cool.” The enthusiastic response from players led to an expansion, 2019’s Seasons of Inis, which added support for a fifth player as well as new effects for summer and winter actions as well as sea and island spaces. “I integrated the four major Celtic festivals,” he says, “Imbolc, Beltane Lugnasad and Samhain. I like that now every season the chieftains assemble, discuss actions for the season to come and then hold a festival. Each festival has an effect that you have to consider in your strategy and reflects the meaning of the festival and the season. In spring everyone goes back to work, in summer you prepare for battle, and so on.” And Martinez reveals that fans of the game could soon be enjoying its mix of warfare and diplomacy in an entirely new setting. “I have a few other games in the pipeline,” he says. “One of them might interest you. It’s a space game in the vein of Inis. It uses a new central system, but you’ll definitely find some familiar aspects in there.”
It’s all down to the kind of scope I was trying to evoke – as a chieftain, you aren’t interested in bean counting
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the independent shelf SEA EVIL
The terror of the supernatural deep comes to us… in ‘zine form
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ea Evil is weird, there’s no getting around it. But it’s also strangely familiar. This is because it’s the third entry in the Emperors of Eternal Evil’s magazine horror game series. The previous entry, FREAKFACE!!!, was featured in this very column in 2018. While that was an oddball circus tent gore-fest, Sea Evil is more grounded in forgotten myth and historical terror. But just like its predecessors, this one’s something special. If you’re not familiar with this trio of releases then the format may be somewhat of a surprise. The game itself is a magazine which contains the rules as well as a number of additional little comic strips and quirky advertisements. There’s a paper map and a number of low-fi chits with black and white artwork. You even have to physically cut out the central whaling ship and a small number of cards. It comes across as very underground and perhaps even naughty, like something you would hide under your bed and only pull out for a tantalizing game night. The feel is similar to a hex and chit wargame, two sides facing off to rend each other limb from limb with a ruleset that values simulation. One or more players take on the role of the whaling crew, each participant controlling a few of the diverse sailors and micromanaging their actions. The rest of the group manage the supernatural horrors that will emerge from the sea throughout play. Think giant squids, sirens, and ghoulish underwater abominations. Each crew member will move about the boat and perform actions such as patching a torn hull or repelling invaders. As sailors succumb to their wounds you’re left limping along and trying to hang on for dear life. Meanwhile the other side is continually adding to their aggressive onslaught and trying to hold your head underwater with a webbed foot. It’s odd how flexible these magazine games are. They can handle up to 11 players divided between the two sides,
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Words and photographs by Charlie Theel
Sea Evil offer us genuine terror in the form of a ‘zine split however the group wishes. With such a large number of characters and monstrosities there’s plenty to control. At the larger end of the player count it even has a bit of a party game feel. The atmosphere tends to be more social and laughter rises with the tension as blood and sinew coat the deck. Sea Evil is all about atmosphere. The crew of the Ishara are primarily focused on
navigation. There are sub-systems for bearing and weather as you steer through fog and supernatural entities in an attempt to find your way home. Each play is wildly different due to the wide range of events and adversaries. One session you may be constantly harassed by poor weather, while yet another features clear skies blotted out only by the unending wave of seaweed men, serpents, and witches. The prime accomplishment here is in achieving a real sense of terror. The sides are not equally balanced as the human sailors are fragile sacks of bone and flesh. It will take a titanic effort to overcome the Kraken and many lives will be lost. You will be beaten down across the horrific journey and if you can somehow defeat the odds and come out the other side, well then you’ll be downright emotionally spent. But being so thoroughly drained never felt so satisfying. Every play generates an emergent narrative that is fresh and quirky. You can sit there after a particularly tough session and just smile at each other, quietly in awe of a story that you will take to your watery grave. *
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ZOMBIE KIDZ EVOLUTION ++YEAR 3158++UNAUTHORISED TRANSMISSION++ --GAME FROM PRIVATE COLLECTION-- {lockdown} Message intercepted by Robert Florence
orgive me if I ramble, for I am suffering a fever. I am deep underground, where your species will never find me, and I am alone. Alone, that is, but for my collection of board games – a collection that I assembled with the promise to myself that someday I would have time to play them. But now, as you hear this, I have all the time in the world and no-one to play them with. I am like the fellow in that old episode of The Twilight Zone, safe in his bunker in an apocalypse, who told himself he would now have time to read all his wonderful books, only to break his glasses in the next instant. I am that fellow, and my glasses are my family and friends. I had children once. And when I did, I played a game called Zombie Kids Evolution. It is a small, inexpensive, colourful game. And oh, it is
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perfect. I would sit with my children, unfold the board, and tell them: “Each of us are going to be a little kid in this school. And hey – zombies are trying to break in. So we need to go around the school, bashing the zombies, and we need to lock all four of the school gates to win. How do we lock the gates? Well, at least two of us have to meet at the gates and then high-five each other!” And we’d high-five. The kids’ faces would light up with joy. The game, playing in around 15 minutes, seems so simple at first. Each player has to roll a die at the start of their turn. A zombie will appear in the room of the colour rolled. If the die roll is a blank, no zombie appears. Believe me, you’re going to want a lot of blanks. The player can then move one space, or stay in the space they’re in, and then they can bash up to two zombies. If two characters
are ever in the space with a gate, then the players can high-five, and the gate gets locked. If all four gates get locked, the players win... “Oh, that’s easy!” my kids would shout. And sure, first time we played, I was nodding in agreement. But here’s what’s so great about this game. It’s easy, easy, easy, then you LOSE. “Oh no, we lost!” The kids yelling and complaining. And then laughing. Because if that school fills up with zombies, it’s game over. And once a room has three or more zombies in it, you can’t even go in to do any bashing. It doesn’t take much for the game to tilt away, away, away. It’s constantly tense, even when it’s nice and easy, because it’s not nice and easy, it’s actually pretty tricky. It’s easy and it’s hard. “Okay, kids, listen... We need to think about this. Which way should we go? Which zombie should we bash first?” Teamwork, collaboration – important things for kids to learn. Ever play of the game lets you stick a sticker on a little track. Every win pushes you faster along the track. The kids get to open new envelopes with new rules and new powers. The game expands and evolves for the kids as they play. The world of the game unfolds for them. They can’t get enough. Neither can I. “One more play, daddy?! One more play before we go?” And where did they go? Do not call us Flesh Devils, I beg you. I am alone. *
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ROLLING WITH IT
As soon as we began telling stories, we also began creating new worlds, filling them with exuberant details from our imagination, shaping them to be our escape from everyday life. We explore the world of Roll Player and discover how a game about creating fantasy characters started a whole new universe Words by Alexandra Sonechkina
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here is no ‘right’ way to create a new world. Some choose to write epic fantasies, others make films out of them, others still gather around a table to create a new world together in a roleplaying adventure or a board game. Some worlds were born from a single scene of children finding wolf pups in the summer snow to grow into the epic fantasy that is Game of Thrones, the world of which can be experienced in many mediums, including tabletop games. Other worlds started with a setting fit for a purpose: a design of a new sci-fi video game to follow the footsteps World of Warcraft’s popularity, only to blossom to its full potential as the world of The Expanse when it gained its ‘second life’ as the roleplaying game later on. Sometimes, the creation of the world is unplanned. It was an idea, where the imagination could not be contained, and it kept developing and growing into something much bigger than it started as. That’s what happened with Roll Player. A dice-drafting game about creating a fantasy
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character, Roll Player has grown into its own world with space for many other games, like, workerplacement Lockup or roll and write Cartographer, and depth to explore more stories in its universe with the upcoming Roll Player Adventures.
IN THE BEGINNING Keith Matejka was at a local convention, helping to playtest an RPG prototype designed by his friend James Ryan, when he had a ‘lightbulb moment’ – “What if the whole game was about building characters?”, he thought. Matejka had worked in the video game industry for many years, including some games that had elaborate character creation elements, so the translation of that idea to the board game format felt natural. The decision on the type of setting for the game also came quickly: “I have always loved fantasy as a genre,” Matejka explains, “the escapism of going on an adventure, killing monsters, being part of a party, solving quests and getting more powerful – levelling up – has always been something I’ve loved.”
It’s important that players have the maximum amount of choices when building a character often thought about the game as parallel to other games. Dominion is to Magic the Gathering, as Roll Player is to D&D and Pathfinder. It’s the game before the game.”
SHAPING THE WORLD When Matejka began working on Roll Player, he was not envisioning the game as part of the series or a new world. His focus was just on one game and how to make it the best possible experience for all the players. “I wasn’t intending on making a world with its own lore. I wanted players to imprint themselves on the characters they were building,”’ he elaborates on the Roll Player design process, “I didn’t want people to ‘make Drizzt’ [a popular character appearing in the Forgotten Realms D&D campaign setting] I wanted them to make their own character.” As a result, a lot of Roll Player is very generic, but on the upside, this allows it to break away from many long-established fantasy tropes. There are no restrictions on which races can be which classes or what armour they can or cannot wear. “Dungeons & Dragons was an obvious influence,” he continues, “but I also was looking hard at electronic fantasy gaming I did throughout my life. As a kid, I played a lot of the Ultima series and Wizardry series. Then, later, the Elder Scrolls games like Morrowwind and Skyrim.” The game started to take shape soon afterwards. Players would be creating their fantasy characters by rolling and drafting dice. The individual player boards, loosely based on the RPG character sheets, had spaces next to skills like strength, wisdom, charisma, that would be filled with different valued and colour dice. Players had abilities to manipulate the dice, buy equipment and had objectives to complete to win the game. After a game of Roll Player was finished, players had created their own character – with skills, traits, alignments and items – that they could take further into an RPG adventure, if they wanted to. “People always tell me that I made a game about the best part of playing D&D,, so it seems other people like making characters as much as I do,” Matejka explains, “during development, I
“I wanted the players to be able to build an Orc Wizard that carries a longsword instead of locking out certain choices due to trope rules,” Matejka elaborates. “I also wanted to make sure that every race has a male and female option. I think it’s important that players have the maximum amount of choices when building a character in Roll Player, so I didn’t want to limit gender by race, or any other restriction.’
VENTURING FURTHER After Roll Player release, Matejka turned his attention to possible expansions for the game, still intending “to stay squarely in the existing system.” The most common feedback he received during the development of the game and after its release, was that players wanted to take their newly created characters and do something with them. Afterall, if you rolled a powerful fighter it is only natural to want to test them through a round of combat with some grizzly mystical monster. So, the combat became the focus of the first Roll Player expansions – Monsters and Minions.
LEFT Roll Player’s roll and write outing
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R O L L P L AY E R
Designing a game to fit an established universe can be quite challenging. “I knew players wanted to do more than just kill a few monsters with their new characters,” Matejka says, but he was also realistic about how much the current game could cover. “The character creation system in Roll Player isn’t built for strong storytelling. In the end, Roll Player is a character creation game at its core. Not an adventuring game, so I figured that a new game would be necessary to meet that desire.” The narrative games were on the rise, taking on a variety of genres and experimenting with board game mechanics and story-telling tools in really exciting and innovative ways. Keith looked at games like Time Stories, Near & Far, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective and thought that creating a narrative game using Roll Player characters could be an amazing project one day. Yet the scope of such game also scared him. “I am not a writer,” Matejka explains his initial hesitation, ‘narrative games are hard to create, so it took me a while to decide to go down that route.” James Ryan, the friend who ‘sparked’ the idea of the Roll Player, got in touch with Keith wanting to work on a narrative game together. They both were really excited about the project, even knowing it might be difficult. “I had a lot more confidence in the idea knowing that James was a talented writer and had a design-centric mind.” Matejka recounts. The project, the recently announced to be Roll Player Adventures, was ambitious and would
take many years to develop. Matejka had to figure out what to do with his publishing company, Thunderworks Games, in the meantime.
PRISONERS AND A CARTOGRAPHER At Protospiel Convention, Matejka played a workerplacement game Lock Up by Stan Kordonskiy. “It was not a formal pitch,” Matejka recalls, “After playing it, I told him I really liked it, and we started talking about working together. The idea of connecting it to Roll Player didn’t come until much later.” When Matejka played Lock Up for the first time, it was well into its development. Stan not only had a pretty good idea of its main mechanics but also had a solid inspiration for its theme, ‘My original idea was to design a game with a prison theme but set in a fantasy world,’ Kordonskiy recalls. “The inspiration came in part from the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. I went after kind of humorous vision of what it would be like to have elves, dwarves and orcs ‘doing time’ together.” At the time, Ryan and Matejka have already began developing some lore for Roll Player Adventures. So transitioning Lock Up which was still based in very generic fantasy world into Roll Player’s more defined one, made sense. The application of the theme went smoothly. “Designing a game to fit an established universe can be quite challenging. Luckily for me, in this
LEFT Roll Player Cartographer and Lockup add new game mechanics to the series OPPOSITE The game that started it all, and the newest outing Roll Player Adventure
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case, it was quite straight forward.” Kordonskiy recalls. “Roll Player theme was applied to Lockup after it was already a 90% complete game. So, I did not have to fit mechanics into the theme but rather the other way around. We already had things like fantasy gangs, goons, items and guards. For example, my original prison guards were big mean trolls whom I affectionately named Troll Patrol. In the final version they became clockwork guards instead, based on a creature type that already existed in Roll Player lore.” Matejka also saw this as an exciting opportunity to continue developing the Roll Player world: “If I’m going to do multiple fantasy games, and I’m developing a world, it was a logical jump to lean on the material I was already developing,” Matejka explains, “I love Easter eggs in video games and building connections between the games for players to discover, is just as fun. Putting these games in the same world gave me that opportunity.” The next addition to the Roll Player line came through a recommendation by Luis Francisco, the graphic designer for every Thunderworks game todate, including Roll Player. He suggested a game by Jordy Adan, at the time named Doodle Realms. Jordy was looking to create a roll and write game that would be more creatively complex and ‘not feel like a math test.’ One of his first successful prototypes, called Doodle Squire explored special planning through the drawing of tetrominoes (teris-block shapes). “Another thing that I wanted in this new game was to invoke the artist side of players and
that’s when the theme of Doodle Squire had to change, drawing equipment inside tetrominoes was too complex!” says Adan, explaining the design process, “that’s when a new game in the Doodle series was born, Doodle Realms. After that, came the Isle of Skye-esque scoring system and at last but not least, monsters where born.” Once again, Doodle Realms had a very light fantasy theme that fit well. The biggest challenge was finding elements in the world that fit with game mechanics. Ryan and Matejka took that as an opportunity to develop the world further, add a more detailed history, that would also help them with the work on the Roll Player Adventures that was still happening in the background. Adan has been very excited about Doodle Realms transition to Cartographer. To him, there is no IP more fitting for his game and he acknowledges being part of Roll Player universe was an important contributing factor to Cartographer’s success. Kordonskiy also agrees, “Roll Player has a name recognition and fan base which definitely helps to get a game noticed and that’s a very good thing.”
AN EXPANDING WORLD The world of Roll Player is still developing, growing and evolving with every game. “We add details to the world as we need them to support the fiction of the games,” says Matejka, “It’s like different areas of a painting are coming into focus slowly as we need them to. I think the process was easier since we started from such a generic fantasy place and slowly added details
instead of having all the answers and shoehorning the games into the fiction.” However, although each game started from purposefully generic premise, once they have all come together, their developed into a setting with unique elements and district identity, and having games so different to each other mechanically definitely helped that. “I like that each game in the Roll Player universe is very different mechanically, and I’d like to keep it that way. I don’t think there will ever be another roll and write game, as Cartographers is already in place. So, for future games in the series, I’d want them to be significantly different mechanically from the other games I’ve published so far. We can add to the lore as needed to make sure new games fit the world, so it’s really flexible,” says Matejka As for adding new games to the stable, Matejka follows a specific process of evaluation for every possible game and the gameplay quality always comes first: “Whenever a designer pitches me a game, or I have my own ideas, I always think through or discuss if the game could fit with Roll Player in some way. When I sign games from outside designers, I look for
great games first. That’s the core deciding factor as to whether I want to sign a new title. Then, I evaluate whether it’s a good fit. If not, that’s fine. I still move forward. If it is, then we start developing it in that direction.” However, not every new game that comes to Thunderwork Games needs to be re-worked to be part of the Roll Player extended universe. “For example, a game that is clearly connected to some historical event isn’t a great fit, or if the mechanics are really intertwined with another theme, it probably doesn’t make sense to place in the Roll Player universe.” Matejka elaborates. Afterall, there is no need to mould and change something, just for the sake of fitting into the theme. The process, Matejka explains, is more organic than that, “If I sign a game that makes sense to add it to the line, and it deepens the world, I do it. If not, I will keep the original theme or change it to something else.” That, of course, doesn’t mean that Matejka is not excited about introducing specific game mechanics into the Roll Player world. He would love to see an area control game or an economics game in the world. However, to him new styles of games are also an opportunity to deepen the lore of Roll Player. “My focus is more in adding different styles of game to the series knowing the world-building needed to support that title will naturally add more story to the growing world,” he says. As for now, his focus is on the upcoming Roll Player Adventures. The game that started development right after Roll Player, but was deepened and enhanced by the solid framework developed with the addition of Lock Up and Cartographer. Just as Adventures will showcase just how vast and complex the cosmos around Roll Player has become, any new games in the series will build up on that to give players more to explore and fall in love with.
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CITY LIMITS
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Legacy games seem to be at the height of their popularity, so it’s unusual that Reiner Knizia is making one – after all, doesn’t he usualy set trends? We discuss city building, legacy and what’s so wrong with downtime Words by Christopher John Eggett he city builder genre is one of contemplative fiddling for the most part. As you build and expand, you solve your original problems, but in the process, create new ones. It’s a genre of game that we have always felt is a little like a zen sand garden. You may be raking it into perfect curves, but the final curve can never be finished. It’s a metaphor for how progress is always tainted by what we’ve lost along the way. While there might be ‘glory’ in creating a large city, you may have paved over some of your own history, history that had previously been shared. This is why city builder games fit well with the legacy mechanics that are popular and widespread today. Reiner Knizia, who doesn’t really need an introduction nor a mention of the 700+ games that he has authored, has taken on the task of creating a legacy city building game that is accessible. He introduces the blueprints of My City to us from the architect’s point of view. “Legacy games have been established for quite a while, but I don’t think there’s been a real legacy game which is for the general public. Which is what My City attempts to do,” says Knizia, and he’s right. While there have been legacy games that are accessible, Zombie Kidz for example, they don’t contain the depth of something like a good gateway game. Games like Charterstone, while also in the ‘builder’ genre and somewhat accessible, still sit on the heavier side of the argument. Knizia suggests that legacy games should be more accessible by their nature. They have a natural learning curve built into them by default, “the legacy game has the advantage that you can introduce rules step by step.” Aside from this My City boasts simple, short rules, and a play time of around 20 minutes for each round. “We join three games together into one period. First of all we arrive as the settlers and build our city. Then they get
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more structure in there, with administration, and then nature gives us some ‘obstacles’, some challenges,” he says smiling. There’s plenty to be planning for when it comes to your personal urban development. After three games of around 20 minutes, another envelope is opened, adding more rules and more aspects to consider for the next round. One envelope might introduce churches in a round, another might introduce a factory type – it’s like putting together a particularly obtuse jigsaw puzzle where pieces are revealed after each opening. If only you’d known what was in the envelope coming up, you might have planned differently. This is where the over-theboard discussion and contemplation comes in – while there’s no direct conflict between players (this is still a Eurogame) – there is a very natural buzz created. “People can then compare, ‘how did you actually deal with these circumstances?’ or ‘how did I deal with my circumstances?’ But because after the first game, or after the first twist, everybody’s situation is different so you cannot really copy what the others did,” says Knizia. The game is full of these ‘I wish I had done that,’ moments – akin to that very Eurogame feeling of ‘I’ve just realised what I should have already done’. Except here you’re comparing against your friends, rather than the mechanics of the board’s puzzle unfolding like an M C Escher designed puzzle box before you.
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NO DOWNTIME IN THE CITY There is the danger, in a game like this, with so many blind corners coming up for players, that they will get caught out with nothing to do on their turn. Or ending up at a dead end with a city that can’t expand or even be enjoyed. “The boards are different but not radically different. You’re also keeping people from doing ‘nonsense’,” Knizia says, doing bunny quotes with his fingers, “because they don’t know what’s coming in the future.” The balancing here is key – and as elegantly implemented as you might expect, “very early you will have a few wells coming up to get fresh water. We actually give you some options in an area of the board, where the wells go on one side of the river because people don’t know that the flood will come on the other side of the river. And then if you have no wells, it’s very bad. So, we guide people a little bit because we know the events to the end, we help people to not to be trapped by unlucky decisions. So, there’s some guidance here.” If the thing that some people fear about legacy games is the permanence of choice – because that choice might be a mistake – then
this is one way for the designer to say ‘trust me’. And we do trust Renier – when was the last time he led us astray? The central, shared board also doesn’t change. Or at least, not dramatically, “You might take down a little bit more of the woods. You might mine a little bit more on the other side. But the basic building activities all the same,” says Knizia, of what sounds like a game set apart by its fairness, “everybody plays at the same time, there is no downtime. Everybody has their own city in front of them.” This inclusiveness and lack of downtime is designed to make the game accessible without losing focus. There’s a temptation in legacy games to always be peaking at the envelopes in the box, wondering what’s coming next. Here, there’s no time for that. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but your city will be built in 20 minute sprints. Downtime itself is almost as much a curse word in games as the dreaded ‘player elimination’ – but its removal from this game was simply a happy result of giving people their own playground. The original version of the game had a single city that players shared and built together.
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“Removing downtime wasn’t a specific goal when we set out to do it. But nobody likes downtime. In the initial discussions things came up ‘Oh, but when you build a city, you build one city, you don’t have that much influence when people change things’ – and so we just simply said, well, why don’t I build my own city. Then we said, ‘why did we take it in turns?’” says Knizia, laughing, “we all get started with the same buildings, but the order in which we build them is unclear. That is determined by a pack of cards.”
MY CITY
WHAT MAKES A GOOD CITY There’s no need to apply great philosophical city planning thinking here, there’s no room for that in a 20 minute game. If you’re hoping to test out the theories of Le Corbusier then you’re best off inflicting that nightmare somewhere else. There are two questions that remain however, what makes a good city? And how do we win? “It changes throughout the periods. You have to stick with some standard building rules of course. You start at the river, as usually settlements do and then you have to be contiguous. So, you cannot just jump and build somewhere else,” says Knizia, “for the scoring, there are three major types of building. Factories – or industry, or business, depending on the age we’re playing – then the normal residential areas, and then the communal buildings. Then there are some special buildings like churches. If you have a church, then the church benefits from getting connected to many different parts of the population and therefore you get a bonus if all three of the different types of buildings are linked to the church. I mean they can’t do it in spiritual ways, but I think it is logical to do it by placement. And so, if you have the factory workers next to it, the government next, then you get more points for that city.” A happy city then, is one that allows its connections to flow well and its people to move between the things they need to do and the things they want with ease. Of course, like any town planner, you can only control so much of your city – some things are demanded, and you must consider the greater good of those in your care, versus your victory in this round. Keeping your eye on the future is key to creating a great city. There are tools at hand for this, “you have also got the opportunity not to build certain buildings because you don’t like them. But some buildings, like churches, you cannot deny,” says Knizia, “If you waste resources and don’t build, you lose some points, and whenever you build a building, you get some funds. It’s a very simple thing” There’s also a nod towards preserving what nature you can in these placement rules, “Most importantly you have trees scattered around and you want to preserve these. The trees are different from the woods. Build over a tree and you lose points. So, they work as obstacles.” Not all of nature is there to punish players of course, some of the deforestation is designed
to help players in the long run, “there’s woods on the other side. Initially you cannot build in the woods. But later, you get more resources and we take some of the woods away and therefore our play area gets bigger. And again, it depends then how do I do this in the best way? Which part of the woods do I take down? And we’ll put stickers on them so that later I have a good opportunity to build here.” Like all the best builder games, the problems you are facing are ones you have created yourself. You are solving something for the now that will effect future generations, which in this case, is you in the next round of the game. You get to change the map that can provide you with an opportunities – or, equally as likely – a new puzzle for yourself, “you see,” says Knizia of these challenges “if I make an awkward cut into the woods, how will I go about getting my buildings in there? It essentially comes together in an intuitive way.” The designer might be following a natural flow for city construction, but he is also rewarding the player for being what we want real city planners to be – forward looking. “We start with a few very, very simple rules,” says Knizia, “and so this is a little rule, and then we get the next rule. And then come to churches. And the problem is there’s a big casino and you don’t know when it’s going to be built. But you know you have to build it. You have to have a space left – because as soon as you cannot build a building, you’re up.” Here Knizia is referring to the final moves of each round of the 20 minute episodes. There is an option to – instead of taking the points hit for buildings you can build – tap out of the
round. This allows you to stop building, and with that, avoid penalties. “In the last few minutes you may be out because you couldn’t build a second street. But everybody knows the concede moment to is coming, as you have it in front of you,” says Knizia, rejecting the idea that there’s any player elimination, or if there is, it’s only for a minute or so. Returning to accessibility, we talk about the idea that crops up a lot in design – that theme is the makeshift bridge between the rules and the players when there is uncertainty. While there isn’t a particular town or city that Knizia is looking to emulate here, we know the kind of place he is asking us to build. Its accessibility comes from an intrinsic understanding of what we already know about towns and cities. Knizia explains, “We are not terraforming Mars – there you are in an alien environment, and you need to explain much more. The more familiar we are with the environment the better the understanding. I understand that I cannot build a building over the river. And there are things which are still challenging but they are familiar, and therefore you need fewer rules because it’s just natural.” Players then, should simply go with it, “just act in the role,” says Knizia, “many don’t even question it because it’s so clear from them. I mean, yes, there is a rule saying you cannot build a building over the river, but I think people shouldn’t even attempt it because if there is a river – and you cannot have a building half this side of half the other side.”
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MY CITY
FINDING THE GOLD IN THE FLOOD Being a legacy game, ‘events’ crop up when envelopes are opened – the gold rush being one. This will change the way players see their boards as the discovery of gold means that they will have to make a bee-line to it to exploit it. This is one of the ways the game plays with the development of your city, stretching it out of your planned shape, into something of a compromise between you vision, and what the game challenges you with. “It’s a race for the gold. The point here is you have to start building along the river. Sometimes you’ll start in the woods, but if you start on the river, the river runs through the middle of the town or the city,” says Knizia, “And now of course you can make relatively quick steps because you have to have the city always linked together. You cannot have a separate settlement, and you start on the river, so while you can build the buildings very quickly to the gold mines. You can do that, but you screw up everything else because then the clusters don’t work and the churches don’t fit in anymore. So it is, it’s a race, it’s almost, if you go extreme, yes, you will make the gold rush you’ll win these points, but then you lose out and many other things until you need. “What I wanted in some of the instances is that you don’t play several solo player games together,” he says, expanding on the idea that we have competition if not conflict in My City “so, I see what the other player does and may feel defeated if I see he’s going for the gold. If he’s building over there, I have to ask whether should I do this as well or should I give up on it.” Renier goes on to describe a back and forth happening in a kind of meta game between rounds. Yes – the other player may have been
LEFT The personal boards that each player will be building their city on
ahead for the gold rush before, but as they’ve become distracted with shorter term changes to the map you may find yourself in a better position to outpace them. Floods are another part of the game, the river can burst its banks, causing a new puzzle of constraint for the players. “The flood eats a part of the map. So, on one side of the river you suddenly have restricted possibilities of building and that means you are now really, really short for space. And that now means you have the dilemma of you cannot get all your buildings down. It’s always a natural thing. Of course, when the flood subsides, then you suddenly have a bit of a bigger city space.” “So, fate changes sometimes. But this is what I mean, it’s interaction between the player, which is the gold rush introduces and it’s yet another challenge but within the theme of building your city,” says Knizia. My City is a game about everyone having to deal with the same problems, but through their reactions to it, facing different struggles in the future.
GROWING WITHOUT FAILURE There’s something nice about constructing anything in front of you. It’s inarguable that the placement of a tile to form a greater point-scoring area lights up part of most of our brains in some ways. “Seeing something grow constructively, having your little challenges of ‘how
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could I have done that differently?’– when it’s not a catastrophe – is nice. It’s just when you have a lot of flexibility and you are really in charge of your own destiny, it’s very nice,” says Knizia. When asked about failure in this game, Knizia pauses before saying “I did not want to build in failure in here, but it’s a city. And why does a city continue and grow into a million city and the city suddenly a ruin? I mean, yes, if you have the gold rush, it’s quite clear you’ll get the ghost towns afterwards. That’s not the fault of the city.” Here we’re asked to look at the cities we create as a creature in themselves, they are agnostic to the world around them, the people inside, they may be good or evil, but the city is just the city. While Knizia explored successful city state, the ancient cities of the Aztecs and so on, but this isn’t the path he decided to take. “It was just inspiring to me, not just looking at the successful things. It gave me more options to build in. But essentially I followed the natural path – you cannot fail with your city. Yes, the city will grow and yes, it will be fine,” said Knizia. Which says everything you need to know about the game really – you’re here to have a good time. “Initially you’re playing 24 games, and yes, you will score victory points as well. But is it really relevant?” he laughs, “I mean, for the general public, for the family, is it relevant if I after 24 games, win or don’t win? It’s about the enjoyment. It’s about everybody can have some success stories in each 20 minutes. And you have your own successes.” *
DEATH BECOMES US Overthrowing the current regime often has a lot of appeal, but smart schemers know that there needs to be something there to fill the power-vacuum. Will it be you? Tom Gilliland offers us the choice between selfishness and salvation
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t’s difficult being Death. Not only is your work of collecting souls endless, it’s also thankless. And a scythe can be a cause for repetitive strain injury which no amount acupuncture will cure (and besides, where exactly will they be putting the needles?). In Court of the Dead players are set the goal of scheming with Death (or, The Alltaker, we are informed they prefer to be called) to overthrow the powers that be – above and below. It’s a kind of worker placement game with a bit of location control, and risk built into every action. It’s risky anyway, because if you get spotted by the administration of either heaven or hell you’ll suffer.
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Words by Christopher John Eggett Tom Gilliland, the creator of the Court of the Dead and chief creative officer at Sideshow, introduces the game for us. “It’s a dark fantasy universe in which Death and his motley assortment of generals, warriors, oracles and spies are plotting a secret rebellion. They seek to overthrow heaven and hell, equally corrupt masters of an insidious, parasitic system through which they consume mortal souls… a system which Death and the underworld are also very much complicit in maintaining. Conflicted by their role in this cosmic tragedy, Death, his court strive to best their darker natures in order
to nurture a redemptive nobility to become the unlikely saviours of the mortal realm and underworld alike.” Bringing this story to life required a lot of work – as while Sideshow has been creating popculture collectables in the form of sculptures and models for 25 years, Court of the Dead was an entirely new world authored by them. Something that Gilliland describes as an “epic and humbling leap.” The mechanics of the game were primarily designed by Pat Marino (Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist) with Andrew Wolf (Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle) of USAopoly (recently renamed TheOP).
It was a risk, like many of the game’s mechanics. But one driven by the design of the world, and the strange characters and guilds of the underworld. “It’s inspired by the great deal of dark fantasy literature I consumed as a youth, like Michael Moorcocks’ Elric series. I’m an especially captive audience for anti-hero lore,” says Gilliland, “we also do a lot of superhero work here in the Sideshow studio, which inspired me to ask myself what a superhero team would look like if I had my shot at designing one. The specific design and character concepts were inspired by a thousand D&D games, heavy metal album covers, and my off-centre sense of what’s horrific and beatific.” So, we’re looking at a team of dark defenders here, all desperately attempting to avoid doing the thing they really want, which is to seize control as soon as any power vacuum appears. “I really didn’t want to borrow from established mythology too much in fabricating the universe, but I did want to use some fixture elements like ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ to serve the purpose of the accessibility to this flipped perspective that Court of the Dead promotes. Those characters that you’re accustomed to be being the good guys are not, and those characters that are reflexively viewed as the bad guys are the saviours in my universe.”
RIGHT Death, or The Alltaker, as they prefer to be known
I’m an especially captive audience for anti-hero lore
SAVING THE WORLD But what are they saving? The wretched denizens of some dark underworld don’t seem to be the most appealing applicants for salvation, nor does siding with Death sound like something most of us would do in usual circumstances. The answer? You should see the other guys. “The oppressive celestials, the first creations in this universe who hunger voraciously for the
RIGHT Malavestros, a chaotic element of the underworld element of creation called etherea. This element rides within mortal souls and exists primarily in the mortal realm of existence. The celestials need it to fuel their endless war for supremacy. In this world, they represent neither salvation nor damnation; rather, a cold hardline interpretation of law and chaos – minus any empathy for others,” says Gilliland, “they care little for the experiences and richness of mortal life, and even less for the mourners, who are enslaved to harvest the souls.” There is sympathy to be had for these strange peoples that make up the guilds of bone, flesh and spirit. They’re inflicted with a malady known
as dreadsgrip “a manifestation of the destructive nature that the underworld was formed in,” says Gilliland, of the affliction, “it feeds on one’s baser, more selfish aspects, the dreadsgrip seeks to undue one’s agency and turn you from the noble aspirations of the underworld into a mindless agent of destruction.” Which is fitting of course. The game is one where there is a temptation to be selfish throughout, but with the knowledge that without pooling resources, there’s a chance everyone will lose out. Or maybe not, if you’re lucky you’ll get away with it. But how much do you want to risk?
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COURT OF THE DEAD: MOURNERS CALL
One example of this is the blind bidding that occurs at the end of the action round. Here players have to collectively pay a tithe to the celestial beings. Each player takes what they want to contribute into their hand secretly, talks trash about other players if they want to, and then reveals all at once. The happiest outcome here is that the tithe is paid, and everyone moves on, taking unity tokens and points based on their contributions. If the tithe is not paid in full however, there are negative consequences all around. “Mourners struggle to do the noble thing when one’s nature is to be selfish,” says Gilliland, “the game puts the player in a similar spot: do what’s best for the united group, or allow the touch of the dreadsgrip to guide your decision to be selfish? It’s very thematic to the storytelling of the project, in that you never know where anyone else stands.” The dreadsgrip metre, if triggered by a certain threshold of guild figures in one location forces a dice roll that may wipe your allied figures out. It might also wipe your co-opposition out too. You have to make a choice about whether you want to be good or not. Unity tokens are also the timer of the game, the quicker you work together, the faster the game ends, the more one player sabotages, the longer the game will run. “It was a critical aspect of the lore and story to include this pressure as these hard decisions are what give the antiheroes of the underworld a greater degree of credibility,” says Gilliland “overall, in the Court of the Dead universe, one must work – and work hard – to achieve goodness. Being ‘good’ is not a default setting. If you’re just existing, no matter what realm you are in, you’re neutral at best. Those that actively promote destruction are the embodiment of evil. And some character fight for their diremption through unity, but it is hard-won.”
COURTROOM PSYCHOLOGY If this feels like the whole game is a bit of a Rorschach test for working out who should never be the banker in Monopoly, then you’d be nearly right. The factions are designed so as to present aspects of a diagram of a psyche. Gilliland explains, “the factions are a veiled personality or character alignment diagram. The Bone faction represents the foundational, logical thinking of a constructive mind. Flesh faction is the more adaptive, mental dexterity of a mind always evolving for answers. The Spirit faction encompasses both of these aspects in balance – while on a greater wavelength of imagination that asks all the ‘what if’ questions often coming from more philosophical minds. Together
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TOP The vast underworld board ABOVE Tarot sized character cards RIGHT Shard, a new character in the universe
LEFT The huge Court of the Dead box with art by Alex Horley RIGHT The board is about to change with the introduction of a powerful character card
the factions are a powerful council of all that matters, but separated they become fragile and their weaknesses threaten to bring down the elaborate house of cards the Alltaker is building with his court.” The characters that can be controlled by the players include the leaders of each faction, offering their own flavourful approach the situation. “It’s not too hard, I imagine, to see how this might be buffered by the strong personalities leading each faction: Gethsemoni, the Queen of the Dead, leads the mercurial Flesh Faction as it manoeuvres the variables of existence to find the way forward to the Alltaker’s purpose; Chancellor Xiall of the Bone Faction brings order and structure to the fabric of the Underworld’s resources and forces; and the oracle Ellianastis of Spirit Faction leads the majority of the Underworld’s ‘sleeping dead’ population on their greater quest to deduce the spiritual reality of the Underworld’s way forward. A trio of ‘sisters’ whose unique visions both complement one another, and find conflict at the same time.” Each member of a faction you control also pushes you up a track on the board that allows you to use their powers, so leaning into one way of playing the game is to your advantage, most of the time. But it is only through a display of unity that you will actually win the game. In some ways the game is a metaphor for how the acts of an individual cannot improve the world for everyone, only by organising can a community (even if they are wretch and cursed) find a foothold, and then a trail, to a better world.
SCULPTING THE UNDERWORLD Much of this story is told through the miniatures and art of the game. And it’s sometimes easy to
forget that the game is just a glimpse into the underworld that has been feverishly dreamedup by Sideshow. There’s an entire universe that exists outside the box, and we’re just playing with a small part of it. The box contains a huge list of artists from a number of disciplines. The cover art, by Alex Horley, whose art has appeared in Magic:The Gathering and Warzone, is described as harkening back to the fantasy art of the 70’s by Gilliland. The character design was carried by Gilliland with Amilcar Fong, Rachel Roubicek and Ivan Koritarev. As with any company moving from their home turf into a new medium, even if that medium is just making smaller models than the models they normally make, there were a few good-intentioned speed bumps on the way to the underworld. “Making miniatures proved to be a bit trickier than first imagined. In order to accommodate the smaller scale, a lot of our sculpture aptitude was found to be too detailed and not strategically engineered to better suit the more general manner great minis are sculpted in,” says Gilliland, “we had to re-learn a few things.”
THE ALLTAKERS NEXT MOVE So, where does the universe of Court of the Dead go from here? Onwards and, maybe, upwards. The saga will follow the mourners and the court as they seek to overthrow the celestials to regain balance. There’s to be a dropping of the veil too, for some newer characters, says Gilliland, “a Mortal Knight named Shard, who, like Alice in Through the Looking Glass finds her way into the Underworld, and comes to realize that not only were her notions of the afterlife very wrong, but she has a pivotal role in implementing the
Alltaker’s vision to achieve the rebalancing of the universe.” This story along with several prequels are currently being drafted in prose and graphic novels as a trilogy. But there’s more “a full-length prose novel with illustrative plates that tells the origin tale of one of the Court’s greatest heroes – the Reaper General Demithyle – will be released later this year, as will a new graphic novel called The War of Flesh and Bone. This graphic novel focuses on the less-than-unifying aspect of the Underworld’s faction system, designed to encourage unity but fragile in a way that often breaks down politically. Caught between the vying forces of the Flesh and Bone factions are two warriors who must find the way past conflict in themselves and the Court to be heard as the voice of reason.” Beyond the court there are new games coming. A new relationship with Skybound Games (The grimm Masquerade, Superfight) will see a backstabbing card game called Dark Harvest land on our tabletops. The game uses some of the blind bidding system of Court... to good effect. And of course, there’s a tabletop roleplaying game in the works, Gilliland explain, “you play a Dreadsbane Order Inquisitor – part of the team seeking to defeat the dreadsgrips’ latest threat to the underworld and the Alltaker’s fragile rebellion. It’s full of cool, playable underworld mourner characters, many of the fan favourite court members appear as NPCs, and lots of trench-line action with miniatures.” Which makes sense, the trend of using miniatures in your RPG session has been expanding in recent years, why not make the miniatures first? The rich world of Court of the Dead marches on, and we’re eagerly awaiting the next steps. Gilliland signs off with a spirited instruction: “Rise, Conquer, Rule!”
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The best-selling battle is taking a turn to the darkside… Capture this limited edition now!
C C M
CARDBOARD MANIFESTO
TIDY, GENTLEMEN, PLEASE
Tidy boxes, tidy minds. Or something like that. We explore the smallest hill on which to die when talking about games: how good the storage is in the box Words by Christopher John Eggett
t is by no means a metric for how good a game might be, but I have recently taken the following to be the universal metric for how much a game publisher cares about you: how many tiny bags they have packed in with the game. If you’re anything like me, you set aside a certain amount of time before playing a game for the first time to do all those things you’re meant to do, like read the rules and know what certain things are called in the game. If you’re hosting, it’s only good manners. However, with this comes the inevitable punching out of small pieces of cardboard and bagging them up. Often you won’t truly know how every small token is going to interact on the board, but often, the number of bags is a helpful indicator of what’s what. Beyond this, when it comes to putting the game away at the end of the evening, doing so in a way that makes sense can make getting the game out again next time less confusing. Games like Wingspan let you put your game away in an entirely sensible manner, and the soon to be released Rurick has a very inventive trays-within-trays-on-trays set up which leaves separate spaces for each individual card deck. Both of these make the ‘pack down’ a fast and enjoyable jigsaw that lets you get on with the rest of your evening. Games like Posthuman on the other hand, or Clinic: Deluxe Edition (reviewed page 84), come with so many tokens that some kind of indication of how it’s all going to go in the box after would really help. It’s not that it doesn’t fit, it’s just that there’s always a bit of sighing and mumbling of “oh, I’ve got those bits” when it comes to the end of the evening that doesn’t
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happen with the previously mentioned games. Boards in boxes come in to play here too. The recent Flyin’ Goblin does a cracking job of getting everything in the box in an easy way that doesn’t require you taking the castle apart after each game, well, only a little bit anyway. Mechanica a game about making little robots Mechanica, that clean human houses (reviewed next month) takes this to an entirely different level. It’s a game that, apart from removing some small boxes for keeping your earned coin safe until the end of the game, simply taking the lid off and placing out a couple of cards is all you need for set up. This of course, sounds like a very small gripe in the extremely varied and interesting world of tabletop games – but it’s one that strikes at the heart of the culture. We’re in the business of analogue experiences and physical objects. If, as a game publisher, you want your game to be played until it physically gives up, giving it a good home will make it much more possible.
Rurick uses a hyper-tidy multi-tray system to make it simple to set up and put away
We’re in the business of analogue experiences and physical objects
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TAKING IT ONLINE Roleplaying games have always been the easiest games to take with you. A handful of dice, a book to refer to if you get stuck, a pen, some paper, and your imagination are all you need. So it makes sense that these adventures in the theatre of the mind translate to our currently, slightly more online, times…
Words by Richard Jansen-Parkes | Images from Alien RPG by Free League can’t imagine why, but over the past few weeks the topic of taking RPGs online has suddenly been gathering a fair bit of attention. It’s almost as though there’s been some kind of terrible event forcing people to stay physically isolated, which we don’t really want to directly address in this otherwise light-hearted look at our hobbies. Or something like that, anyway. It certainly helps that roleplaying games are a natural fit for online play. While all the
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cards, counters and tiles can make more conventional tabletop games tough to run remotely, RPGs can – usually, anyway – operate without the need for any physical accessories or components at all. At their heart most of them only really need some dice and a way for you and your fellow players to speak to each other. This is something that can be neatly accommodated in a video chat, a group voice call or even a message board or email thread. Honestly, this ankle-high barrier to entry is
one of the best things about RPGs in general, and an edge that really comes into sharp focus when you have a couple hours to kill at an airport or – to pluck an example entirely from the void – because you’re spending days on end isolated at home. However, while actually running a game while wearing pyjamas should be an absolute doddle in theory, there are a handful of factors that you’ll need to consider before leaping into your brand-new online campaign.
GEARING UP Getting hold of the equipment needed to play games online is surprisingly simple these days. In truth, most of us probably have an entirely adequate set-up sitting on our desk or bouncing around in our pockets already. All you really need to get a game going is a device with a microphone and – ideally – some sort of camera. In practise this means you should be able to use almost any modern laptop, tablet or smartphone without too much difficulty, though if you have access to a high-quality external microphone and webcam that’s even better. On top of this, a pair of headphones can be useful to avoid irritating echoes bouncing back down the line to other players. If you ever have the chance to upgrade just one part of your set-up, always prioritise the sound first. It’s nice to be able to see your friends and family in detail, but when you’re sitting down for a game where communication is key, a clear voice is much more important. Finally, you’re going to want to make sure you’re sat somewhere with a decent Wi-Fi connection. If you find that you’re constantly dropping out from the call, try repositioning closer to the wireless router.
PICKING A PLATFORM The next port of call on your journey towards online gaming is picking the right platform to host your game. Most of the time you can get away with just picking one of the many conventional video-conferencing programmes that you’ve probably been using to chat with friends and family over the past few weeks. Of these, Skype and Google Hangouts are probably the most obvious choices, as they’re both free, stable and fairly straightforward to use. If these don’t float your boat then you have several other options out there, including setting up your own Discord servers and hosting games there, or even paying for a highquality conferencing service like Zoom. Any one of these platforms should be more than up to the task of running an online RPG session. Sharing things like maps and handouts with the rest of the part can be a little tricky, but this can be mitigated with careful use of screensharing and the occasional PDF being sent through the text chat. However, sometimes ‘up to the task’ isn’t quite what you’re after. Sometimes you want something with a bit more power under the bonnet and a few more bells and whistles hanging from the rear-view mirror.
In that case, you might enjoy messing around with one of the virtual tabletop platforms available online. These are elaborate programmes designed with the express purpose of helping you take your RPG sessions online and offer a whole load of extra benefits, ranging from integrated character sheets to digital battle maps. At first glance the sheer array of options and tools these programmes offer can be more than a little intimidating, and if you want to take advantage of everything they offer you’re going to have to spend a fair bit of time buried in the manual. However, the key to having a good time with a virtual tabletop is to simply pick and choose what options you want to use, and which ones you’re happy to ignore. Sometimes, simply being able to share character sheets and let the computer handle your rolls is enough. You don’t need to feel bad because you aren’t making the most of the elaborate fog-of-war effects too. The most popular virtual tabletops out there at the moment are probably Roll20, Fantasy Grounds and Astral Tabletop. They all have their own individual quirks and areas of expertise, but Roll20 probably has the other two beaten in terms of scale, which makes it easy to find new campaigns running all across the world.
PLAYING THE GAME So, you have your kit up and running and your party are waiting on the call for you to join. Everything’s easy from here, right? Well, that kind of depends. If you’ve only every played RPGs face-to-face before it can take a bit of time to adjust to the realities of online play. There are a few little bits of etiquette that you really need to keep in mind through your first few sessions. For example, it’s real important that you and your friends avoid crosstalk – by which I mean talking over and across one another. Of course, this is something you probably want to avoid in real life as well, but it can get especially annoying in an online game where you can only really hear one voice at a time. If you desperately need to continue a quick side-conversation, most of the chat platforms out there have the ability to have text-based conversations that can ping back and forth while someone else is speaking. Of course, hammering away on a loud keyboard with an open mic could easily end up being just as distracting as carrying on that conversation, which is why it’s important that you stay aware of background noise. Even if you’re able to tune out the TV that’s on in the background or the washing machine trying to shake itself loose from the plumbing, your fellow players probably won’t be quite so fortunate. Learn how to temporarily mute yourself and make use of it when needed. Next, try and ensure that you stay focussed on the game. This is something that’s especially important if you’re playing on a full-size computer, where the lure of Twitter and Reddit and just a couple of clicks away. It really doesn’t take too much to drift out of the game for a couple minutes, and only surface when the rest of the team are wondering why you’re so ambivalent to having your character’s brain scooped out. Finally – and more cheerfully – remember to take advantage of downtime. The reality of running a game online means that you’ll probably have some kind of chat set up to arrange and organise things, and while this can be useful for sorting out dates it can also serve as a great place for inter-session roleplay. If the system you’re playing has special rules for downtime this is the ideal time to implement them, and even if it doesn’t there’s still lots of little story moments and ideas that can be sketched out through the group chat. *
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A F R E E G A M E F O R YO U T O P L AY I N S I D E E V E R Y I S S U E O F TA B L E T O P G A M I N G !
MICROGAME OF THE MONTH 58
December May 2020 2017
ROB-OH, NO! elcome to MALWHERE - a town of corrupted hard drives and corrupt politicians. This place is a mess and there’s junk everywhere, but the real trash is other robots and you’re here to clean up. The Robo-mafia have their claws dug in deep and it’s time for a change. You are tiny, flawed trash Sheriffs with a passion for solving crimes & taking names. You and your Robot companions are ready to access the town’s memories of when things were different and RAM justice down the throats of the bad guys. You may not be perfect, you may have your flaws, you may be a little broken, but you’re all this town has got. It’s time to get to work...
ADAPTATION from the broken bits and pieces lying around. Explain what you are making and how it improves your STAT, then roll 2d6. Compare the results to the table. Take the highest roll as your STAT improvement and your lowest as its FLAW value increase. Once SCRAP has been used, it is gone. Alternatively, you can use SCRAP you have to add to a roll. Take +1 per piece of scrap used. Once a piece of SCRAP has been used, it is gone. Explain what the piece of scrap is, how it helps your action and what renders d6 STAT FLAW it useless afterwards. You 1-2 d6 3 can do this before or after 3-4 d8 4 5-6 d10 5 you roll.
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HOW TO PLAY First, pick a super cool Robot name and decide what you were originally made for, what ADAPTATIONS you have, and how you are FLAWED. Then, add something extra that makes you awesome. Roll 1d6 for each column below, or pick your own: Next, assign dice to your STATS. Each STAT has a pool of dice associated with it and a FLAW value, which denotes how that STAT is affected by your FLAW. Assign d6, d8, d10 (1 per STAT) between your STATS. Each STAT has a starting FLAW value of 4: ◗ PROTOCOL – Interacting socially with other Robots & Querying received data ◗ DIAGNOSTICS – Interacting with objects & Running searches ◗ ALERT – Acting under pressure & Kicking exhaust Whenever you attempt something and the outcome is in doubt, establish which STAT best fits what you are trying to do and how your FLAW could cause things to go wrong. Once this established, roll all the dice for your STAT and compare the total to its FLAW value. If your ADAPTATIONS would help out, or you can find a use your AWESOME EXTRA, roll twice and pick the highest result. If you roll equal or above your FLAW, you overcome your FLAW and your action is successful. If you roll below your FLAW, you fail and things go wrong as established. You also gain SCRAP. If you roll less than half your FLAW (rounded down), your GM may give you an unexpected consequence of your actions. D6 Original Purpose Adaptations
Flaws Awesome Extras
1 Housekeeping
2 Surgery
3 Security
Interactive Screen/Extendable Arms/Extreme Whisk Can’t Switch Off Cool Hat
High End Processor/Delicate Brushes/Low Intensity Laser Underpowered Sick Wheels
Solid Gold Rims/Satellite Dish/Water Cannon No Filter Tight Paintjob
UPGRADES Any time you roll below your FLAW, you gain SCRAP. SCRAP can be used to improve your STATS or to help out in situations. When you have 3 SCRAP, you can use this to improve a STAT. Whenever you improve a STAT, you create a new
RUNNING A GAME – FOR GMS When Robots attempt something when the outcome is in doubt, ask them “What could go wrong?”. In some situations, there may be two possible outcomes that players come up with, based on their FLAW. If this is the case, then ask them to pick which one happens after the result of the roll is declared. There’s always something shady going on in MALWHERE, and it certainly runs all the way to the top, but to find out who’s really involved, the Robots are going to have to do some digging. Roll on the table to find out what the Robo Mafia are up to and who else is involved. Roll 1d6 for each option: D6 WHAT ARE THE ROBO MAFIA UP TO? 1 Selling low quality circuit boards 2 Running an antivirus racket 3 Infecting people with Spyware 4 5 6
WHO ELSE IS INVOLVED? The mayor of Malwhere Someone the Robots trust most The Fibreoptic Bureau of Investigation An esoteric revolutionary group
Low quality construction projects Arms dealing, like Robot arms Another, more powerful Robo Mafia dealing family Smuggling Robot drugs, cut Humans! with scrap
When a Robot rolls less than half of their FLAW (rounded down), you may wish to add an unexpected consequence to their actions. Pick something appropriate to the narrative, or roll on the table: D6 1 2 3 4 5 6
UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCE Something gets broken Something gets lost Someone gets hurt Someone gets tipped off Someone gets angry Someone gets trapped
WHO MADE THIS? Matt Bear Jones, aka Ursidice, is a one-man roleplaying game design company. Follow Ursidice on Twitter @Ursidice, at ursidice.com or via patreon.com/ursidice
Download a free PDF of ROB-OH NO! at ttgami.ng/ roboohno
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around the world in 80 plays
POLAND Words by Chad Wilkinson
his month we hop back over to Central Europe, setting a course for Poland and its rich tabletop landscape. With Germany – the birthplace of modern gaming – as its neighbour, one can expect to find plenty of influences from tabletop culture trickling through its borders, alongside a number of traditional Polish games and the country’s own distinct impact on the hobby as a whole. Card games have existed in Poland for centuries, with popular regional games such as Kierki and Kuku still being played today. Kuku is a simple hand management game played with a standard 52 card deck. One player starts the game with four cards and deals each other player three cards before choosing one of their extra cards to pass on to the next player. If a player ever gathers three cards in the same colour or value they declare “Kuku!” – winning the game. Whilst many countries view board gaming as an arguably nostalgic or archaic pastime, Poland sets itself apart by viewing the tabletop scene with relatively fresh eyes. For the duration of Poland’s communist past, board game products barely existed in the country. Original games were being designed but remained sadly unavailable until much later, with a notable example being Warsaw professor Karol Borsuk’s, Super Farmer. Produced during WWII as a means of making money after the closure of his university, this quaint push-your-luck animal farming game captured the hearts of many Polish families during the German occupation. Unfortunately, following the Warsaw Uprising nearly all copies were destroyed, bar one which was returned to the Borsuk family after the war. Granna, one of Poland’s leading publishers, rereleased Super
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A selection of games from Poland’s board game history, whether new, or rediscovered Farmer in 1997, restoring its rightful place within the homes of families throughout Poland. Following the shift to democracy in 1989, Western board games gradually became available. Thanks to publishers such as Granna and Rebel, hoards of modern classics have received Polish translations alongside creating a platform for regional games from designers such as the esteemed Ignacy Trzewiczek (Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island) and Adam Kwapinski (Nemesis). Designers such as Karol Madaj and Łukasz Wozniak have used the hobby to create not only games suited to all manner of tastes, but also timely and personal designs detailing distinctly Polish issues. Madaj’s 2011 game Kolejka combines elements of worker placement, hand management and set collection to reflect upon mundanely oppressive daily life at the tail-end of Communist Poland. Players take on the roles of families out for their daily shopping, competing to gather up all the items on their lists before the shelves empty. More aspects of realism come through in the merchandise cards which portray recognisable original items from the period including shoes, cologne and tea. Madaj releases his games through the Institute of National Remembrance, a publisher whose main responsibilities
involve documenting and publicly exposing the communist crimes of the past. Several Polish games draw upon the country’s sombre involvement with the start of WWII. The invasion of Poland by Germany on September 1st 1939 can be played out on the tabletop in games such as Madaj’s hex-and-counter war game 111: Alarm dla Warszawy , Łukasz Wozniak’s cooperative 7 Days of Westerplatte, and many more from a variety of designers and publishers. 7 Days of Westerplatte deviates from the typical hex-based design of many war games, instead utilising the dark hues of Aleksander Karcz’s detailed artwork to convey the doom and chaos of one of history’s darkest moments. Karcz’s work has also appeared in Fantasy Flight’s The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game and Grey Fox Games’ 7 Ronin, created by Marek Model and Piotr Stankiewicz, designers of the distinctly polish hay-cart racing game Wiochmen Rejser. This month’s trip has shown the wealth of talent emanating from Poland and its troubled past. Fortunately, the tabletop hobby in Poland is broad enough to cater to those not wishing to engage with snippets of their country’s turbulent, oppressive past sprawled out across the dining table, but the existence of these nationally introspective games demonstrates the emotional and educational power tabletop games can hold. *
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In a Deck of cards, a mysterious case for true Detective, with a 3D crime scene scene!
The game line now features two pocket mystery crimes, with a brand-new package. package.
www.dvgiochi.com
PLAYED
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75
65
62 EXPLORER’S GUIDE TO WILDEMOUNT
74 VOTE ME 74 HATS
64 CLINIC: DELUXE EDITION
75 ORIFLAMME
65 SHADOWS OF KILFORTH: A FANTASY QUEST GAME
76 MIYABI
66 DUNGEON MAYHEM: MONSTER MADNESS
77 THE DEADLIES 77 NINE TILES PANIC
67 THE ISLE OF CATS
78 WAVELENGTH
68 VILLAGEO
79 EXPEDITION TO NEWDALE
68 ZOMBIES!!! VEGAS 69 AFTERSHOCK: SAN FRANCISCO AND VENICE 70 DWARVEN MINER REFORGED
80 ROBOTECH: ATTACK ON THE SDF-1 81 ANIMAL KINGDOMS 81 FAFNIR
71 BLACK VOID 72 ALUBARI: A NICE CUP OF TEA
82 ODYSSEY OF THE DRAGONLORDS
73 DICETOPIA
83 ADVENTURE MART
S H O U L D Y O U P L AY I T ?
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EXPLORER’S GUIDE TO WILDEMOUNT Critical success for Critical Role Designer: Matthew Mercer & Others | Publisher: Wizards of the Coast racking open the pages of the latest tie-in between D&D and the Critical Role crew feels a lot like walking into an impossibly polished version of somebody else’s homebrewed world. It’s a book packed with the kind of plot hooks and alternate rules that fill a million tattered campaign journals, but rather than being scrawled in illegible biro they’re all neatly arranged and backed up with the maps and stats needed to smoothly take them to the tabletop. Of course, it makes sense that Wildemount feels like it was dreamed up by a fellow GM, because that’s more or less what happened. The entire world is the creation of Critical Role’s GM Matthew Mercer, and the region laid out in the book is the setting for the incredibly successful
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live-play show’s second (and still ongoing) campaign. A lot of the writing within its 300-ish pages was supplemented by other folks on the D&D team, but the heart and soul of it’s still the creation of just one person. Well, one person and his table of talented nerds. This slow-burn method of creation has produced a world that sprawls and spirals in a rather charming way. It lacks the sharp, single-sentence summary required from settings that needed snappy pitches to editors and managers – the closest you could get is “high fantasy adventures, but with war brewing and a shedload of spiritual intrigue to uncover” – and while this does result in a pretty fuzzy core identity it also helps Wildemount to feel properly organic. Indeed, perhaps the book’s greatest strength is that it really doesn’t concern
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itself with trying to shake-up the classic D&D formula too much. Where other settings, such as the steampunk madness of last year’s Eberron: Rising From the Last War, try to take a battle-axe to the game’s old clichés and tropes, the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount is more than happy to merely remix them. The beautifully rendered maps stuck in the back of the book are littered with dwarven mines, monster-filled swamps and dragon-haunted peaks, any one of which could be neatly transplanted over to home games. Even the special character options, such as the undead Hollow One race, could easily be slipped into a standard D&D campaign with minimal fuss. That isn’t to say there aren’t sparks of originality here and there, of course. The Krynn Dynasty, a nation of creatures
traditionally considered monstrous foes, is a fascinating creation, for example, as is the gravity- and time-warping magic they use. It’s just that the most creative ideas impact things on a local level, rather than ones that radically shape the flow of the entire world. Okay, you may not consider this to be a particularly positive thing if you’re sick and tired of the fantasy staples. However, for those of us who want a solid D&D world to explore but want something other than the current edition’s staple Forgotten Realms setting, it all works rather wonderfully. And in case you were wondering, this all applies even if you haven’t even heard of Critical Role until you opened up this review. If you and your players are counted among the show’s legion devoted fans, though, you’ll probably be able to squeeze even more delicious story goo from its pages. On top of this, fans will probably be able to all-but ignore what’s probably the biggest issue with the world’s rather loose premise. This is useful, as it really feels as though the book’s first few vital pages are written mostly with existing fans in mind. Oh, there’s plenty of words devoted to explaining politics and history, but you get a lot more careful nuance than the broad strokes that really allow newcomers to get a handhold on what makes Wildemount special. It doesn’t help that the map that accompanies the list of regional powers at the core of the setting doesn’t actually label most of the nations you’ve just been reading about, either. Instead you get a geographical map that seems to assume you’ll fill in the border markers yourself. It would be sad if this caused any potential converts to bounce off the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, as once you get your initial reading squared away it really is a very impressive piece of work. Within its pages you get huge amount of content, ranging from new adventures and magic items to long lists of important NPCs and the secret history of the world. By far the lengthiest section of the book is an incredibly extensive gazetteer that runs through the details of dozens of towns, forests, dungeons and cities stretched from one end of the continent to the other. The writing is snappy and packed with little titbits of information ranging from who runs the local government to what kind of gear you might able to pick up in the shops.
Almost every single one of the locations it outlines manage to have something that makes them stand out from the crowd and feel worthy of hosting an adventure. What could easily have been just another trading post is instead home to a special breed of silkworms cultivated by dwarven clans, rife with struggles between farming families and spies trying to claim their secrets. On top of this, almost every one of these entries comes with at least one idea for a plot hook or an adventure for GMs to seize on, with many offering a handful of suggestions depending on your party’s level. There are well over 100 of these scattered throughout the book, and while some may represent a quick diversion that adds a bit of local flavour to a session, others can form surprisingly deep and creative quests that might reshape an entire campaign. It’s no exaggeration to say that you could potentially run an entire game about adventurers roving through Wildemount using nothing but these story prompts. This is one hell of an achievement, and one that sets a rather high bar for future setting books to aspire to. Of course, these aren’t the only adventure ideas nestled within the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount. There are also a quartet of solidly written quests, each of which aims to cover a party’s first handful of sessions and get them exploring a different part of the region. A couple of them are given to the hand-holding found in many adventures aimed at brand new players, but they’re a wonderful way to ensure that your
heroes always have a way to get going in whatever part of Wildemount you want to focus on. The downside to all this is that it can make it tough to actually use all four of the adventures, as they’re all aimed at the same, fairly narrow, set of early-game levels. Accompanying all these glorious tools for the GMs among us are the near-obligatory handful of new character options for players to try out. Actually, calling it a handful might not be quite fair, as between the magic items and the plethora of racial options you get rather a lot of new toys to choose from. Few of them seem particularly ground-breaking, but they represent rather good value for money – especially if you’re looking to pick up all the monstrous and rare races scattered across D&D’s back catalogue. The coolest and most potent new powers all come tied up in the funky ‘dunamancy’ magic found in the Krynn Dynasty. This gives both fighters and spellcasters a few ways to start messing with things like time, gravity and fate and, honestly, really drives home the fact that Wildemount got its start as a homebrew setting. This isn’t because it’s bad or even silly, mind you. Rather, it feels like something ripped from a homebrew because it’s so unselfconsciously cool. Warriors who can fight using time-echoes of themselves as allies is just the kind of thing a thousand GMs sitting at home have sketched out in the margins of their notebooks. However, it the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount was just what it took to get those ideas written up, playtested and put into an official D&D product. This is the heart of the book, and perhaps of Wildemount as a whole. It’s a world that so many of us could imagine creating, one settlement and dungeon at a time, but with slick production values and a bit of actual editing. Even if you aren’t a fan of Critical Role, this is a book well worth checking out and one that sets a high standard for the game’s future releases. * RICHARD JANSENPARKES
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
A world so beautifully messy it feels like you could have made it yourself. That’s a good thing.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED D&D ESSENTIALS KIT… If you hopped into D&D aboard the Critical Role train, this is a wonderful place to head after getting your toes wet with the starter set
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CLINIC: DELUXE EDITION Themeless hospital Designer: Alban Viard | Publisher: AV Studio Games
60-150m
riting about a hospital game during a pandemic is always going to feel weird, especially one you’re playing solo because of self-isolation rules. Clinic: Deluxe Edition is a re-working and tidying up of the 2014 self-published release. The art has been recreated by Ian O’Toole (On Mars, Lisboa, Age of Steam) and does look lovely and kind of charming. There are loads of custom meeples in the box, from the doctors of various colours to denote their skill level, to the nurses, orderlies, and even cars. The board is lush, even if a bit overloaded with stuff. So, it looks great, and everything is really well made and put together, it’s a pleasure to set up frankly – even if it feels like there’s really too many of everything, including the diamond-shaped module and treatment tiles that provide a pseudo-isometric view of your hospital floorplan. You build up your hospital by placing out three of your action tiles for the order in which you want to build recruit, or admit
patients. You can double up on these, and the order can be strategic. There are certain rules to building, and there’s a clever ‘building up’ system, so you can stack your treatment centre to the sky in theory. You buy doctors, orderlies (who reduce running costs) and nurses (to upgrade or downgrade your doctors’ skills a notch to match the patient they’re treating). And of course, the most important thing about hospitals is where everyone parks. Yes, everyone has to be able to part their car at your hospital, which means that when you admit a patient or hire a doctor, you have to ensure there is a parking space for them, and place a tiny black car on your board appropriately. When they leave, for whatever reason, you need to remove a car. Much like the way patients, before they enter your hospital,
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WHATS IN THE BOX ◗ 1 Gameboard ◗ 12 Player and extension boards ◗ 155 Tiles ◗ 305 Wooden pieces ◗ 56 Currency tokens ◗ 2 Bags
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can have their symptoms changed on the board (using a calculation which isn’t clear or integral to the game particularly – it’s the number of car parks) there’s a sense that this isn’t really about making sure you can treat people, but more that you’ve got a nice full hospital of people to cure into dollar signs. Which is fine of course, it’s a big crunchy, token-shuffley Euro-style game, the theme doesn’t need to be that tightly tied in – but parking does feel tedious and unnecessary. This is a game about the business of running a hospital, and as a satire of that bureaucracy it’s very good, the focus is on exactly what you wouldn’t want it to be as a patient – parking cars, the cost of running a hospital, and the time that you lose with someone moving from one area to another. But while the rules (which are, frankly, too complex) have a cheeky tone, there’s not enough pleasure in actually playing out the game, and it’s hard to tell if there’s any kind of real satire of privatised healthcare here. The solo mode, which is simply the basic game in a ‘challenge’ format also doesn’t offer much in the way of its own flavour. There are a handful of expansions included in the box, such as workaholic doctors and zombies, which while an interesting addition to the game, just end up piling on more fiddling, without a payoff. * CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
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PLAY IT? M A Y B E For its production quality and for those looking for a really fiddly, heavy euro-style game, Clinic: Deluxe Edition just about does the job. For those looking for Theme Hospital, but analogue, you’ll want to park your car elsewhere.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED ABOMINATION: THE HEIR OF FRANKENSTEIN... When it comes to fiddling about with too many tokens, Abomination at least represented the grim world of decomposing bodies, rather than Clinic’s oversanitised bureaucracy.
SHADOWS OF KILFORTH: A FANTASY QUEST GAME You just can’t keep a good Gloom down Designer: Tristan Hall | Publisher: Hall or Nothing
hree years ago, independent designer Tristan Hall treated us to a complex but immersive ‘whole fantasy RPG campaign in a single game’ with his ambitious debut Gloom of Kilforth. As enjoyable played solo as with a group (in either cooperative or competitive modes), and packed with finely illustrated cards, each featuring a unique piece of art, this demon-battling quester came out of nowhere to land in Tabletop Gaming’s Top 10 of the year. Like Hollywood, Hall couldn’t let a hit go without a sequel. So here’s Shadows of Kilforth, in which it turns out all the travails of those Kilforthian adventurers years earlier amounted to naught, and that nasty, realmchoking miasma is back, knocking the land out round by round, region by region, in preparation for more Hellraiser-ish Ancients to come and defile the world. Lore-wise, it’s not so much an advancement as a remix, with a murky new corner of Hall’s world to explore, a little more diverse than the last one, now drawing more on East Asian mythology in its heroes and monsters. As before, each player creates a race/class combo and embarks on
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their own race-against-time saga to complete before taking on those hideous, all-powerful Ancients. But now they can be a Samurai, Ninja or Yakuza if they like, while Hall’s new races feel more Kilforth-specific than Tolkien-ripped: the winged Seraph, for example, or the Gloomresistant Veilborn. Your foes are more interesting, too, such as the Kuei, a mind-controlling ghost that allows you to nab another player’s ally, or the one-eyed, undead Buso. Mechanically, however, there are fewer points of difference between Shadows and Gloom. It is still a matter of spending action points to move around the randomly assembled card-grid realm, encountering enemies and strangers to harvest keywords on cards and complete the chapters of your saga to level up. New players need no previous Gloom-y knowledge to get into it, but it will likely take them time to settle into the chewy rule-set, with its initially confusing differentiations between Actions (which cost an action point) and Deeds (which don’t), and Rumours (cards you hold in your hand) and Assets (cards you’ve played down).
WHATS IN THE BOX 1-4h
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£60
Shadows is also no less dicerolly than Gloom, with each stat determining how many dice are tossed, and only a roll of five or six granting success. There is some inbuilt mitigation, via a limited supply of Fate tokens and the discarding of Rumours to add auto-successes, but it is still possible for a quest to be frustratingly scuppered by consistently bad rolls. It also remains a game that, despite its ticking-clock momentum, can stretch for hours, especially if you choose the cooperative mode, in which you have to contend with one Ancient per player (in competitive you’re all racing to slay a single demon), but hey: didn’t you sign up for an epic quest? To be fair, Hall has tightened it by adding a setup rule where you cast a few regions into gloom before play starts, while there is some added flavour in making the players choose between two factions, getting different effects from certain events depending on which side they’ve taken. He also includes a wealth of suggested variants, including twoversus-two team play, the swifter, Ancient-free ‘Gold Rush’ mode (great for first-timers), and versions which allow for greater randomisation of event and reward placement. This, more than anything, rams home why the Kilforth games are so enduringly entertaining: as well as mashing up D&D and Arkham Horror so elegantly, they are also built to be malleable, adaptable, utterly home-ruleable. This quest need never end. * DAN JOLIN
◗ 1 Rulebook ◗ 81 Encounter cards ◗ 75 Reward cards ◗ 26 Location cards ◗ 25 Night cards ◗ 24 Saga cards ◗ 24 Plot cards ◗ 8 Race cards ◗ 8 Class cards ◗ 4 Ancient cards ◗ 4 Ancient Abilities cards ◗ 32 Skill cards ◗ 40 Card dividers ◗ 60 Gold tokens ◗ 32 Action Point tokens ◗ 32 Health tokens ◗ 24 Obstacle tokens ◗ 16 Fate tokens ◗ 4 Hidden tokens ◗ 25 Night Location tokens ◗ 42 Loot tokens ◗ 25 Reward Location tokens ◗ 15 Enemy/ Claim tokens ◗ 1 First Hero marker ◗ 8 Hero standees ◗ 6 Six-sided dice ◗ 1 Loot bag
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED GLOOM OF KILFORTH… Not least because it’s totally possible to mix the two games up however you like, and make your own Kilforthian cocktail.
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
A second serving of questastic dark fantasy as accessible to Gloom n00bs as Ancient-battling veterans. Kilforth and multiply!
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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DUNGEON MAYHEM: MONSTER MADNESS In the eye of the be(card)holder
Designer: Roscoe Wetlaufer | Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
M
onster Madness is the second expansion for the cutesified Dungeons & Dragons card game, Dungeon Mayhem. This expansion adds about the same number of decks as all the previous outings put together, doubling the size of characters you can play as. This time however, you take the role of the monsters. This is a trope that often feels ripe for exploration, but sometimes leaves us in the tabletop world a little cold. Sometimes it’s great being the monster, sometimes, it’s handled badly and just feels like a reskin. That’s not the case here however, as while the monsters are generically from the D&D universe, they’ve been brought to life with a great deal of character. There’s also been some smart choices in the characters available, Mimi Le Chaise is a grinning mimic of a chair (initially), Delilah Deathray is a beholder in a tiara, and Hoots McGoots is an owlbear in a tutu. All the characters have their themes fully expanded out, the aforementioned owlbear combos explosive chains of cards to KO other characters, while the mimic swaps players health around or copies other cards, while
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WHATS IN THE BOX
◗ 6 28 Card decks ◗ 6 Hit point trackers ◗ 12 Damage tokens ◗ 12 Divider cards ◗ 12 Hit point tokens ◗ 1 Token storage box
15m
Deliliah provide area of effect damage to everyone. The game plays as an extremely fast and brutal attack-and-defend card game. You start with ten health, a handful of cards, some with unique powers, and on your turn you play out a card (or combo of cards, should the symbols allow it). The basic actions are to do damage to a player of your choice, play out a defence card which provides a shield value between the enemy and your health, ‘play another’ and draw a card. There might be a number of these on a card so in theory you can be doing damage, combing into other cards which let you draw and play those cards. It’s kind of like many living card games where the meta is hyper aggressive. You just want to knock the other players out as quick as possible, as once it’s their turn, you’ll never know if it’s you that’s going to get smashed to pieces. Four player games are chaotic, and often it can feel that people are
2-6
8+
£20
getting picked on. There are separate rules for 5-6 player games that provide a sphere of influence, reducing the range of attack to one person either side of you. It helps, but doesn’t solve the issue entirely. There is a problem here, which is that on your turn you’re just hoping they can’t do the damage to you that they need to. It’s more of a gamble than a strategy. Often there’ just not enough defence cards to turtle your way through to whatever the right combo is for your character. Good for its lightness, but misses out on having more back and forth. * CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
PLAY IT? P R O B A B L Y It’s extremely light and highly aggressive, which can be great for certain situations. It’s not something you’re going to bring to a games night, but your mum won’t mind playing it on holiday. If you own the original games, you’ll want to buy it for the handy storage it provides regardless.
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TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED MARVEL CHAMPIONS...
If you liked elements of this marvel deck-smashing game, then Dungeon Mayhem might be a good gateway game to get others into competitive card gaming.
THE ISLE OF CATS It’s not purrfect, but it’s better than the musical Designer: Frank West | Publisher: The City of Games
f you’ve been on the internet at all in the past decade, you might have realised that cats are kinda popular. From kitten pics on Twitter to feline friends on YouTube, it’s been estimated (by me) that adorable furballs make up at least 27.4% of all online traffic. The Isle of Cats aims to capitalise on this craze with a box so stuffed with kitties that you’d think the RSPCA would have something to say about it. But while its main draw may be its lavish cat illustrations, it doesn’t forget to include some actual gameplay to get your claws into. Set in the same fantasy world at its designer’s previous releases, The City of Kings and Vadoran Gardens, it casts players as ship captains on a mission of mercy to a semi-mythical island populated entirely by cats. It’s come to the attention of the pirate warlord Vesh Blackhand, who has vowed to burn down its forests and crush its stones to dust. With his ship getting closer to the island with each passing day, you and your opponents will have to rescue as many cats as you can. To do that, though, first you’ll have to find them. The elusive inhabitants
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of the island aren’t keen to be caught by humans, and on every round you’ll draw an assortment of Tetris-style blocky tiles from a cloth bag, each showing a different type of cat. From there you’ll draft cards, some which let you grab kitties, and others which grant you special one-off abilities or new ways to score points by hitting a variety of objectives. It’s this last bit where the game reveals its real strategy. While everyone around the table will earn points for creating continuous areas of matching-coloured cats on their personal ship boards, you’ll also gradually build up your own set of goals as you play. You might find yourself aiming to rescue particular breeds, or positioning certain cats on certain parts of your vessel. Along the way you’ll also be able to hunt for treasure, granting you another potential source of points. The process of drafting your own victory conditions feels similar to Magic: The Gathering designer Richard Garfield’s three recent releases Treasure Hunter, Bunny Kingdom and Carnival of Monsters,
60-90m
1-4
8+
£44.99
and if you enjoyed any of those then you’ll likely find something to like here as well. One downside is that it’s hard to see why you and your fellow players are competing to round up cats. A competitive approach feels at odds with such an altruistic premise, and it results in some jarring thematic dissonance. Then there’s the fact that while in many ways they’re very different games, the combination of spatial puzzle-solving and attempting to pull off a variety of objectives feels a little similar to Vadoran Gardens, and the earlier small-box release felt quite a bit tighter. But The Isle of Cats offers an enjoyable enough hour wrapped in some beautiful presentation. If you’re a cat person, it’s worth a look. * OWEN DUFFY
WHAT’S IN THE BOX ◗ 30 Wooden cat figures ◗ 85 Cat tiles ◗ 42 Fish tokens ◗ 69 Treasure tiles ◗ 10 Basket tokens ◗ 1 Wooden pirate ship ◗ 4 Player boat boards ◗ 10 Basket tokens ◗ 1 Island board ◗ 1 Cloth bag ◗ 1 Score pad ◗ 150 Discovery cards ◗ 18 Family mode cards ◗ 47 Solo mode cards ◗ 4 Colour blindness assistance cards
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
While it might have the polish of an updated game, there's something 'new' missing here to make it worth checking out for absolutely everyone. Cat-meeple fans on the other hand already have it on pre-order.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED VADORAN GARDENS... It’s bigger, bolder, and more beautiful, but The Isle of Cats shares more with its designer’s previous release than you might think – a spatial logic puzzle with a host of ways to score points.
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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VILLAGEO Designer: Ives Janssens | Publisher: Blue Orange
15m
own planners often get a bad reputation. Their love for oneway systems, hospitals next to waste processing plants, and making
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it so you can’t park anywhere near your child’s school paints them as the villain. And if you’ve ever played a town building game, you probably consider yourself better than whoever designed your own town or city. Not with Villageo though. This colourful solo puzzle game challenges you to place parks, lakes, residential and shopping districts to the resident’s very strict standards. All coloured boxes on the challenge sheets must be covered by the correct coloured district and districts of the same colour may not touch at all. Not even by the corners. Which sounds simple enough and for the first few ‘easy’ challenge sheets, is quite straightforward. But as soon as the difficulty steps up, the head scratching begins and Villageo reveals that it is, in fact, a challenging little minx.
1
8+
£13
There are 60 challenges in the box that all revolve around the same core puzzle of placing L-shaped blocks in the right positions while adhering to the two aforementioned rules. Which is, at a bit over ten pounds, a bit lacking. The physical act of completing the puzzle does elevate it over similar app based games, and not getting bombarded with adverts is nice, but it really doesn’t last that long. Especially if you happen to ‘accidentally’ look at the back of some sheets and see the answers. For the right type of person, Villageo is perfect for those lazy Sunday afternoons or as an alternative to the daily crossword. Though, to be fair, anything is preferable to the daily crossword. * ANNA BLACKWELL
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
ZOMBIES!!! VEGAS Designer: Kerry Breitenstein | Publisher: Twilight Creations, Inc.
60-90m
ombies!!! Vegas is a new instalment in the Zombies!!! series, which all share delightfully pulpy artwork and pride in delivering a small mountain of zombie miniatures, while still keeping the price of the game affordable. Zombies!!! Vegas in many ways is the same game as the original, released all the way back in 2001: each round, players lay down new map tiles, fight zombies in simple dice combat and complete objectives. There is, however, one significant addition: players can visit casinos and play a whole host of different mini-games. In order to complete Zombies!!! Vegas, a player has to win three of the casino mini-games and make it back to the starting location. The mini-games were designed by the fan of the series as part of the Zombies!!! Vegas Kickstarter campaign. As a way for designers to interact with their fans and include them in their latest game, this is a really interesting idea. However, as
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2-6
15+
£40
an actual gameplay mechanic, it is less successful. The mini-games vary drastically in quality. Some of them – usually those that more closely follow that rules of the traditional casino games, like poker and blackjack, are quite entertaining. But there are also those that feel random or have rules that are too convoluted. However, the mini-games themselves are not the main issue. The whole concept feels disjointed from the rest of the game. It is as if two very different games were merged together, and the most successful part of that union is using the zombies killed during the exploration part of the game as money chips in the casino portion of the game. Combining a mechanically simple, yet still entertaining action-survival zombie board game with a whole host of casino-style mini-game is an intriguing concept, but unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work. * ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
AFTERSHOCK: SAN FRANCISCO AND VENICE Picking up good (?) vibrations
Designer: Alan R. Moon, Bobby West | Publisher: Stronghold Games global crisis has led to the collapse of vital infrastructure around the world, and teams of dedicated specialists are braving continuing danger to get things up and running again. At this moment, it might sound uncomfortably close to reality, but Aftershock: San Francisco and Venice isn’t about a disease epidemic. Instead, it casts players as engineers leading rebuilding efforts after a spate of earthquakes which has left cities in ruins. One of the first things you’re likely to notice about the game is the name of its co-designer. Alan R. Moon is best known as the creator of the phenomenally popular Ticket to Ride series of railway route-building games, and when you first unfold the twin boards representing the game’s titular cities, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a new spin on the bestselling formula. They each show different regions linked by bridges – rectangular slots that look exactly like Ticket to Ride’s rail connections. But play a few turns and it quickly becomes clear that Aftershock is a very different beast. It sees you and your opponents compete to have the greatest impact
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on the city’s recovery, repairing bridges and shuffling your workers between areas to score points. On each round you’ll first purchase cards letting you deploy worker meeples to the board, obtain bridge-building materials represented by rectangular wooden strips, or claim aftershock tokens which inflict new tremors on parts of the map. You’ll then assign the pieces you’ve acquired to different regions by placing them on a personal player board hidden behind a card screen. Once everyone has planned out their actions for the turn, you’ll all reveal your boards and resolve your chosen effects, but it’s the aftershocks which really threaten to throw a spanner in your carefully formulated plans. Whenever a new quake strikes, the workers in the affected area will flee to other regions, crossing over newly-built bridges as they go. Your workers can cross your own bridges for free, but if they pass over other players’, you’ll need to pay their owners for every evacuating meeple. Finally, there’s a scoring phase, but again it involves some subtle scheming, with players secretly placing activation tokens on regions
1h
3-5
14+
£60
on their player boards. For a region to score, it needs players to collectively spend at least two of their tokens on it, and to reap the maximum rewards you’ll aim to have as many workers in the active locations as possible, but it’s never certain which regions will trigger at any point in the game, and trying to get your own meeples into the right positions while shocking your rivals’ to other parts of the board is far from an exact science. It makes for some intriguing tactical decisions, but thematically, Aftershock feels disjointed. It’s hard to understand why engineers would compete with one another rather than cooperate in the face of a disaster. And while it includes a two-player variant, it involves adding a dummy player, which is probably why the box recommends a minimum of three. * OWEN DUFFY
WHAT’S IN THE BOX ◗ Double-sided game board ◗ 5 Player screens ◗ 5 Plastic clips ◗ 53 San Francisco cards ◗ 39 Venice cards ◗ 105 Wooden meeples ◗ 25 Wooden houses ◗ 80 Wooden bridges ◗ 7 Aftershock markers ◗ 15 Buy tokens ◗ 5 Influence markers ◗ Aftershock die ◗ 20 Score markers ◗ 55 Coin tokens ◗ First player token
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED CARAVAN... Like the desertcrossing pick-up-anddeliver game, you’re building routes and displacing your rivals. Although Aftershock brings a little more complexity to the table.
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
Aftershock feels like a moderate step up from a family level game, and its hidden planning makes for some twists and surprises as you play. But its competitive action doesn’t do much for its theme.
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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DWARVEN MINER REFORGED Disaster in the mines
Designer: Mike Richie | Publisher: Rather Dashing Games
R
ather Dashing Games’ reboot/ sequel Dwarven Miner Reforged sees designer Mike Richie has taken the core ideas of 2013’s largely wellreceived Dwarven Miner and given them an aesthetic and mechanical overhaul. Stripping the original’s central push-yourluck mechanism and introducing some crafty ‘take-that’ elements, Richie has made steps toward a more streamlined and interactive experience, topping it off with the stunning art of famed fantasy artist Larry Elmore. Described as a multi-tiered crafting game, Dwarven Miner Reforged invites players into its mineral rich depths. Essential and powerful equipment will be forged from the mine’s valuable reserves of Arcane Crystal, Mithril and Alchemist Powder – from ornate tankards and camping gear to magical staffs and weaponry. Players will take turns rolling the dice hoping to collect resources, whilst making use of the other three faces of the dice for stealing, gathering treasure and advancing the Orc Mischief Track.
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WHATS IN THE BOX
◗ 6 Mining dice ◗ 5 Backpack boards ◗ 5 Player pawns ◗ 42 Adventurer cards ◗ 18 Orc mischief cards ◗ 24 Arcane crystal tokens ◗ 24 Mithril tokens ◗ 24 Alchemist powder tokens ◗ 25 Rune markers ◗ 48 Treasure chest tokens ◗ 6 Orc markers ◗ 1 Game board
30-60m
2-5
12+
£40
Dwarven Miner Reforged differs from its predecessor by skewing the function of the Orc result on each dice and forgoing the push-your-luck mechanic. Now, rather than reducing your pool of dice, Orc results trigger a tense countdown toward negative events, causing players to lose resources or gold. It’s a nicely thematic alteration although perhaps not as engaging as the original’s repeated dice rolls. Similarly thematic are the mechanics for stealing, whereby accumulative results grant more fruitful opportunities to snatch away treasure, resources and even completed equipment. The most applaudable update to the game is the enlisting of Larry Elmore. Famed for his work on Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, Elmore’s illustrations here evoke a distinct warmth and sense of nostalgia. Confusingly, despite the large size of
the cards themselves, the detail and scale of Elmore’s work is dulled by their shamefully small footprint amidst hard to read symbology, bland text, and distracting drop shadow effects. Considering the pedigree of the artist, it seems to be a wasted opportunity not having full card art, perhaps cropped to highlight specific details, overlaid with clear icons and well considered font and text. This frustration is mirrored on the board, which is similarly hard to read and littered with jarring graphic design. Ultimately, despite the clear enthusiasm, Dwarven Miner Reforged’s ambitious refinements are at risk of crumbling beneath confusing graphic design choices and flawed production. On my first play-through I spent several minutes trying to sort the punched-out components as dictated by the rulebook only to realise that a large amount of them have simply been printed in the wrong shape. Whilst hardly gamebreaking this does become slightly frustrating when players have no choice but to fill the six circular spaces of the Orc Mischief Track with four circular tokens and two rogue square ones. I spent half the game amidst a humorous battle with my OCD over whether I’d rather eat the tokens instead of placing them. Sadly, these aesthetic flaws are accompanied by gameplay that never quite reaches the heights or sense of momentum you feel it should. Even with the mechanical changes to the game resulting in fewer dice rolls, Dwarven Miner Reforged plays incredibly slow, even with just two players. The reliance on luck negates any sense of planning between turns, and leaves players pondering on their own turns when poor dice rolls clash with the game design’s ingrained lack of choices and flexibility. It’s a great shame considering the stunning art assets, but it at least serves as a cautionary tale on how not to approach a reboot. * CHAD WILKINSON
❚ PLAY IT? N O
Dwarven Miner Reforged has several ingredients of a great game, but the final dish isn’t worth digging in to. Misjudged graphic design unfortunately impacts upon what should be a short and snappy crafting game.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED OH MY GOODS!...
They might share the same gameplay cycle of gathering things to craft more things, but Oh My Goods! demonstrates how sometimes less is more, managing to get away with deceptive complexity through slick gameplay and intuitive graphic design.
BLACK VOID A whole lot of something
Designer: Christoffer Sevaldsen | Publisher: Modiphius
B
lack Void is an interesting premise. Sometime around 2,000 - 1,000 BC, humanity had its collective mind shattered after seeing some elder gods. Not the Cthulhu ones, though they are visually similar. Tentacles being, of course, the scariest mouth parts a creature can have. After this collective mind shattering, the survivors ended up in an alien city. And that post-awakening setting, where humanity is forcibly made aware of what lies beyond the veil, is incredibly interesting. However, reading through the Black Void core rulebook you’d be forgiven for putting it down and taking a breather as there is a lot to take in. With people and places having names like Tgh’Jrg, Emir of Qtasaq it becomes a near Herculean task just to remember who is
who and what is where. Couple that with a setting that looks, tastes, and sounds Lovecraftian filled with elder gods and alien races, where every character has their own unique mutations and it’s a recipe for DM burnout. Black Void buries information in a deluge of tables about weapons, armours, boats, houses, esoteric materials, common goods, and slaves. Every potential action is written out with specific rules and effects which, for a game so packed with fluff, strangles the potential. There are 28 combat manoeuvres, all with their own rules! Sure, you can buy the GM screen and have all this information laid out for you but players are going to need a reference booklet of their own to understand what they can and can’t do.
419
12+
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And the only reason that this is frustrating is that Black Void has some interesting stuff lurking amidst the tables and crunch. The races, unpronounceable though they might be, are visually interesting. The concept of humanity shattering because of the dark truths of the universe is compelling and the city that the game revolves around is well fluffed out. There’s even a section that explains in nice straight forward terms what state humanity was in when the elder gods arrived. Explaining the sort of technology and cultures that human characters were drawn from. And each section provides helpful details on characters, notable locales, and plot hooks. Maybe this is part of the problem when you bill yourself as “esoteric” as the deliberately difficult names and concepts are near impossible to attach to anything of substance. From a GM’s standpoint, Black Void does pose an awkward question. What are you supposed to be afraid of? In the various Cthulhu games, you have a normal setting so the horror juxtaposes that well. Finding a shady figure in an alleyway is threatening; finding a pile of flesh that whispers secrets is horrifying. In Black Void however, that could be your character’s lifelong best friend, whispery Steven. It almost feels like it’s designed to make you need the campaign books. Black Void is definitely going to come down to personal taste. With a setting that feels similar to Rowan Rook and Deckard's Spire and a sanity system that is required by law for any game about elder gods, it’s already a specific cup of tea. Like peppermint and orange. Someone out there is going to love it but we’ll pass. Though it is nice to see the D12 get some love as the game’s primary dice. * ANNA BLACKWELL
Core
rulebook
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED SPIRE...
Both games centre around a terrible city filled with a plethora of races and dark magics.
PLAY IT? M A Y B E If you’re a fan of hefty tomes filled to the brim with fluff, yes. If you prefer your games to tell you what you need and get out the way, no.
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tabletopgaming.co.uk
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ALUBARI: A NICE CUP OF TEA Taking a leaf out of Snowdonia’s book Designer: Tony Boydell | Publisher: Studio H
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he visual design of board games has come a long way during the past halfdecade or so. Thanks to talented artists and graphic designers like Kwanchai Moriya, Beth Sobel and Ian O’Toole, plus the rigorous attention to detail and componentfeel of publishers like Stonemaier and Keymaster, setting up a game can sometimes feel like laying out a gorgeous work of art. All those old Euros on our shelves can look a bit shabby by comparison, the tabletop equivalent a beloved but slightly embarrassing older relative who wears a bum bag and Crocs with socks. Tony Boydell’s Alubari is a spiritual successor to his 2012 worker-placement railway-builder Snowdonia, relocated from 1890s north-west Wales to the tea estates of 1850s Darjeeling in the Lesser Himalayas. Replete with wooden resource cubes, ownership discs, worker meeples and icon-festooned cards it is, like Snowdonia, an old-school Euro game through and through, mixing a bit of rondel action (to determine the impact of occasional events) and bag-drawing into its workerplacement core. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But while it can be regarded as a refined reimplementation of
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WHATS IN THE BOX
◗ 1 Game board ◗ 1 Cloth bag ◗ 1 Score pad ◗ 8 Equipment cards ◗ 8 Tea Estate cards ◗ 30 Contract cards ◗ 7 Action cards ◗ 2 Help cards ◗ 67 Tea Leaf tokens ◗ 2 Fog tiles ◗ 1 Darjeeling blockage tile ◗ 3 Blockage tiles ◗ 1 Starting Player marker ◗ 40 Iron ore cubes ◗ 24 Stone cubes ◗ 14 Chai cubes ◗ 5 Event cubes ◗ 48 Rubble cubes ◗ 6 “5 Rubble” discs ◗ 10 Game Ownership markers ◗ 9 Weather discs ◗ 16 Steel bars ◗ 15 Worker meeples ◗ 100 Player Ownership markers
60-90m
Snowdonia, Alubari looks like it could have been published eight years ago, with old-fashioned, Euro-standard visuals that feel several steps behind the likes of Viticulture or Shem Phillips’ West Kingdom series. This isn’t merely a matter of being ‘sexy’. Boydell clearly has an affection for his theme, but this is hard to feel outside of its manifestation through the mechanisms, such as the impact of his weather system on tea harvests and the extent of your track-laying as you strive to build the twisty-turny railway up Darjeeling peak. Where a game like Wingspan or Parks will treat you to interesting info snippets about their subjects, Alubari has little to say about its historical and regional setting, outside of the intro text in the rule book. It is all function and (ironically) little flavour, and as such lacks the engagement strength of many other, similar games. Which isn’t to say it’s unenjoyable. Its action spaces offer plenty of variety for your worker placements, while its deck of Contract cards provide useful one-off bonus actions and
1-5
14+
£48
further opportunities for gameend scoring. You’ll clear rubble to take ownership of plantations, which will yield tea leaves come harvest time, which in turn can be converted to chai, which can be used to boost actions and provide a bonus worker for a round. There is trading, there is building, and there is enough competition for action spaces that grabbing the First Player marker can make a bigger difference than in many other games. It is simple to learn, and it’s hard to imagine anyone who will step away from the table feeling bored or irritated by any of its mechanical features. However, the bar for games like Alubari is much higher now than it was for Snowdonia in 2012. So while it’s gently serviceable, it’s hard to recommend over a great majority of titles which, with a more modern sensibility, really vitalise their themes and give you far more bang for your Euro. * DAN JOLIN
PLAY IT? M A Y B E Fans of old-school Euros which look like old-school Euros will get along with Alubari just fine. But, visually at least, it could be so much better.
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TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED SNOWDONIA…
It is very similar to Boydell’s 2012 title, but with enough added elements and refinements that it does feel like a different game.
DICETOPIA Your (not so) friendly neighbourhood dice Designer: Tobias Hall | Publisher: All Or None Games
dice drafting area-control game with a sci-fi theme sounds like a lot to get your head around. Yet in just about 20 minutes, Dicetopia weaves all these elements together, introducing it to a player in an approachable way. A game of Dicetopia passes swiftly and before you know it, all players have had their last round and the traditional counting of the victory points commences. Players begin by selecting a faction with a unique ability, then proceed to send their agents to the city board to draft a dice of their chosen value and colour. These will be used to complete objectives, that players keep hidden until the end of the game. Points from the missions, the total value of drafted die and the control of the areas (through the aforementioned introduction of the agents) is what determines the final score. The city board is the main hub, divided into neighbourhoods, each with its own ability which activates when the player exchanges their agent with the dice in that area. The abilities can either be used to mess up opponents in a ‘take-that’ manner or the player can apply their action
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to themselves to get a different dice, adjust a dice, or reroll. Determining what would be most worthwhile – attempting to improve your own chances or sabotaging the opponent – is at up to each player to decide. There is not much chance of guessing what the opponent is trying to achieve as there are 40 different mission cards in the game. This high number of missions means complexity to victory point value is not always perfectly balanced. There are cards that are almost impossible to achieve, especially when you know your opponents will mess up with your dice, and those that seem to reward too generously for a simple task. Players that are already sensitive to ‘take-that’ mechanics, might find the messing up interactions in Dicetopia frustrating. And because the game consists of only six turns and every dice matters, messing up even one of them, guarantees to have an effect on the end scoring. Dicetopia’s theme takes elements from sci-fi and cyberpunk genres and interprets it… by making everything look dark blue. The factions’ art is quite interesting and does the best job out of all illustrations to set the scene, but the
20-30m
2-4
14+
£26
city board and especially the scoring track look amateurish. With 'dice' as part of the name of the game, the expectation for that component is understandably quite high. Although, the game doesn’t reach the intricacy of design and detail of Dice Masters, for example, the standard D6 used in Dicetopia are quite nice. There is a lot of ambition and ideas in this quick and compact game. While the base game introduces very simple dice manipulations, there is space and flexibility to add more complexities, as the Roll with the Punches expansion confirms by introducing a second board and three new action areas. While not all of the ideas have been entirely successful and the quality of components can be very uneven, Dicetopia gives an interesting take on dice-drafting mechanics, that will appeal to players who like quick games with high level of interaction. * ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
WHATS IN THE BOX ◗ 1 City board ◗ 40 Mission cards ◗ 10 faction cards ◗ 4 Faction boards ◗ 10 Scenario cards ◗ 1 Score track ◗ 5 Ability tokens ◗ 30 Dice ◗ 28 Agent cubes
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
An interesting idea that is slightly underdeveloped, Dicetopia is engaging with its fast-paced and highly interactable gameplay.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED ROLL PLAYER... If you like dice drafting and manipulations games, like Roll Player, then Dicetopia satisfies the same need, while offering a lot more player interaction.
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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VOTE ME Designer: Redwell Games | Publisher: Tom Lovewell mprov is a critical skill for the blossoming politician. Being able to make up confident sounding stances on matters you have little more than surface level knowledge in marks the difference between those who float and those who sink. And while many of us watch the news and
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think “I could do a better job than that [expletive deleted]”, we never actually get the chance to try. Well, Vote For Me gives you that opportunity and honestly, it’s harder than it looks. Acting as the candidate for one of six parties (Purple Patch, Green Apple, Red Balloon, Orange Jelly, or, heavens forbid, Blue Butterfly) players will take turns improvising a one minute speech on a randomly drawn policy and theme. Combinations might be things like “education” and “magical creatures” or “foreign policy” and “household objects”. The challenge is to deliver a speech that outlines your party’s stance on the policy while incorporating the theme in clever and funny ways. Which, if you’re a confident improviser, is a load of fun and can lead to some hilarious
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stances like increasing funding towards anime to encourage criminals off the streets. The modular length, which involves players competing over regions, districts, or constituencies, for longer or shorter games really helps Vote Me fit into whatever niche you want it for. A silly in between game or as the focus of the night. The only issue is that if you already dislike public speaking, the one minute timer and rapt attention of your competitors is unlikely to help. But in saying that, floundering and spouting nonsense hasn’t stopped certain people from reaching lofty heights so maybe they’ll vote for you anyway. * ANNA BLACKWELL
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HATS Designer: Gabriele Bubola | Publisher: ThunderGryph Games lthough, it is not a trick-taking game, Hats, a small card game with a very loose Mad Hatter theme, will require players to wear the same type of thinking hat. This is a game about recognising patterns of suits and numbers, planning moves ahead, adapting on the go, while figuring out what the opponent’s strategy is.
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During the eight rounds of the game, players are collecting cards of various suits and values to earn victory points. Cards can be played straight from their hand, but only as black hats, with a low one victory point value, or they can be exchanged with cards in the central board and then added to player’s collection. Simple exchange rules, like needing
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to swap cards of the same suitor of a higher number value, ensure that there are some limitations to how players can use the central board. The most interesting part of the game is that the scoring rules are ever-changing. The central board also determines how the suits score at the end of the game. As the players are swapping cards as the game progresses, a suit that was worth six victory points at the start of the game could become completely worthless at the end. The interplay between the board, what players have collected and what is still in their hand makes for a very brain scratchy gameplay. It is a clever, quick little card game, that at the same time packs a lot of strategy and nuance with few components or fanfare. What the game has, it presents very well. From a bookstyle board game box, as if an instalment of Alice’s Adventures in the Wonderland to the cards with pretty illustration of different hats. It is a delightful package. * ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
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May 2020
2-4
14+
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ORIFLAMME
Is this the banner of a new champion? Designer: Adrien and Axel Hesling | Publisher: Studio H
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he ‘Oriflamme’ was the golden battle-standard of the King of France in the middle ages, and signified that no prisoners would be taken. Oriflamme – not to be confused with the banner or the French games company Oriflam of two decades ago – is the first major release from Studio H. New games labels are two-a-euro right now but Studio H is part of Hachette, the third largest publishing company in the world, which has begun buying up games businesses and distributors in a way that looks very Asmodee circa 2010. The signs are that Hachette doesn’t plan to take any prisoners either, if Oriflamme is anything to judge by. Oriflamme is a card game from two first-time designers that’s already picked up the As D’Or at the International Games Festival at Cannes. It’s set in an undefined medieval world where 3–5 families vie for influence after the sudden death of the king. In game terms, it comes on like Love Letter meets HBO’s Game of Thrones, on steroids, in a nice box. Each player gets an identical ten-card deck, and discards three randomly before play starts. Then they take turns to add cards to the start or end of the ‘Influence Queue’, and then in the second phase they either reveal and activate each card in turn, or leave it face-down and add influence chips to it.
Each card has a unique character (which stay in the queue) or power (which are one-use), from lords, heirs, spies and shape-shifters to ambushes and assassinations. Placing and revealing them is a combination of guesswork, bluff, short-term and long-term tactics, plus trying to remember what the cards you played last turn are. Deciding what and when to reveal is deliciously enticing, and pulling off a combo or tricking someone into attacking an ambush has a
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sense of reward that goes far beyond an influence chip or two. After all that, it’s almost a shame the game is a points-chase at its heart, and the battle of wits comes down to a scrabble for tokens. After six rounds the game’s done (your final card remains unplayed), and the player with the most influence chips wins. It’s a little bit of an anti-climax that diminishes the game’s atmosphere and weakens the story that’s built up from the interplay of the cards. The gameplay is strong, tactical and enjoyable, but it’s not perfect. One curious rule gives influence points to players for eliminating their own cards from the queue, which let me grab a bizarre victory by destroying most of my own forces in the final turn. That’s easily house-ruled out, but it shouldn’t have been in there to start with. But those are minor quibbles, like the slightly odd player counts or the occasional typo in the rules. Overall Oriflamme is a thoroughly engrossing mix of influences and play styles that hits all the sweet spots in a focused, fast-paced sixround blast of fun. It’s one of those games you pull out to start the evening, and look up to realise you’ve been playing all night. A couple of rough edges can’t detract from the fact this is a hell of a debut by the Hesling brothers – and Studio H. * JAMES WALLIS
PLAY IT? M U S T - P L A Y A small number of cleverly combined elements create complex gameplay and interesting tactical choices. Or you can just wing it, and it’ll still be a blast.
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WHAT’S IN THE BOX
◗ 50 Influence cards (5 sets) ◗ 70 Influence point tokens ◗ 1 First player tile ◗ 1 Resolution direction tile
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED LOVE LETTER... Oriflamme is to Love Letter what Lord of the Rings is to the Hobbit, if George R R Martin had written them. Get in.
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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MIYABI Multi-level mulching scheme Designer: Michael Keisling | Publisher: Haba here’s a certain draw to gardening for board game designers. It might be something to do with how tidy they are. There’s a sense of making minor edits now to reap rewards later down the line, which at its most basic level is what strategy is. There’s also the fact that gardens are flat arrangements that things need to fit into. Keisling’s most recent gardening game, Miyabi we’re making extremely tidy gardens on our own boards. When I say extremely tidy, it’s not just a bit of excessive Ground Force style renovation with planters, it’s a little more like a spreadsheet. Players take tiles from a central reserve, randomly selected each round, and place these on their garden. These are a selection of Tetris shapes of grass with only one area containing flowers, bushes, pagodas, and so on. The bigger tiles contain more than the smaller ones (three koi carp in the pond for
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WHATS IN THE BOX ◗ 4 Garden boards ◗ 24 Wooden lanterns ◗ 6 Bonus tiles ◗ 1 Bonsai tree ◗ 1 Round marker ◗ 1 Score board ◗ 4 Frog markers ◗ 96 Garden tiles ◗ 5 Expansion tiles ◗ 16 Zen tiles
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2-4
8+
£35
example). On the first layer the number is multiplied by one. The first layer you ask? Well, this is the fun bit. If you tile can be supported from below, you can go up a level. This includes the well-worn gardening game trait of laying tiles that completely demolish what was there before. None of this ‘I’ll move that tree over the other side and dig in a pond’ – we just bring the bulldozers in and plonk down our rock tile that uses its grass part to obscure a flowering bush. You can only place a scoring features in a column once per round, moving a lantern in to show that this column has been used. This is where the puzzle bit comes in, and making the most of what’s available to you becomes increasingly tricky.
In the gardening game genre, as much as there is one, the pleasure comes from the slow build up to massive points collection. Each round you are scored here, and then the final round includes most features of certain types getting a little extra. It’s still tight scoring despite this, with only a few points in it. Keisling seems to have wanted to make a very complex game, and instead made a very good simple one. With this though, comes the optional expansions for the game in the box. These are more or less new scoring modes for things like the biggest meadow, or, the one we would vote for inclusion in the main game, the frog expansion. Because you’re making tiers through the game, this expansion seems so obvious. Move a cute frost token around the board, and up into the next floor available, assuming it is grass only. When frogs hit level four, they can move through features too, allowing them to ascend to being top frog. This is a delightful mini game within the main box, and we’d suggest everyone play with this rule immediately. There’s no point making a lovely garden if there’s no frogs to enjoy it, after all. * CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
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PLAY IT? Y E S An extremely strong, strategic tile layer which leaves players puzzling over their board in a pleasant way. And as we said, always play the frogs.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED ISHTAR… The Cathala modern classic from last year that showed us how tight a game could be with so many ways to score points.
THE DEADLIES Designer: Paul Saxberg | Publisher: Smirk & Dagger Games mong the almost infinite number of cards games that can be played with a standard deck of cards, all of us have heard of (perhaps as recounting of a particularly merry night out) if not played games called Moonshine, Screw, or The President (also known by a less appropriate name). These card games, while not identical in a play, have the same goal: be the first player to get rid of all your cards. The Deadlies is a game very much in the same category, but it has its own specifically designed cards, representing the deadliest sins, like wrath and sloth, and little rule twists that introduce more strategic elements into the gameplay. At first, the Deadlies may seem almost redundant: why get a game which can be essentially played with a standard deck of cards? While this argument still has validity, the Deadlies is not a mere clone. The card powers, that relate to the sins
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they represent, are well-considered and balanced to dilute the luck of card draw and make actions matter. The players are not only trying to get rid of cards from their own hand, but they are also preventing opponents from doing the same first, and there is more to it than just overloading them with extra cards. Each card within the deck has a counter, making even the most powerful ability, at first glance, vulnerable when faced with a savvy opponent. Even though there are variations of the same game out there, some of which have become a part of card game folklore, the Deadlies is a worthy addition. It has delightful artwork and theme, and the modified rules, especially card powers bring a more modern, thoughtful, yet still cheeky feel to a familiar concept. * ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
NINE TILES PANIC Designers: Jens Merkl & Jean-Claude Pellin | Publisher: Oink Games s one of Oink’s bigger games, Nine Tiles Panic is also one of the more complex. Or at least, initially. Players use doublesided tiles to create a complete town in a nine by nine grid, with matching roads, to then score against the theme. This theme is made up of two cards randomly drawn from a deck that inform the scoring. This could be things like ‘most adjacent tiles with houses’, ‘most girls’ or ‘most captured aliens’. While the first two are a puzzle by themselves, it’s the depth of criteria like the latter that adds a really thinky layer to the game. Captured aliens are those aliens on a road that have an agent chasing them. The first player to complete their town takes the 1st token and then
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flips the timer to pour the pressure on to the next person. This is where the panic comes in, along with the alien invasion of course. Like all Oink games it’s lush, well put together, and way more thoughtful than the box should allow for. We found that it’s a less social game than we would have liked, and the ‘grab the 1st marker’ elements a bit too gamey on top of the puzzle (which itself is a frustrating pleasure to be pushing against). We didn’t need it to be a race, just a panic. That aside the core of the game is one that we’re happy to return to repeatedly, after a while, this weird little town did feel like home. * CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
❚ PLAY IT? P R O B A B L Y tabletopgaming.co.uk
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WAVELENGTH Don’t touch that dial Designers: Alex Hague, Justin Vickers, Wolfgang Warsch | Publisher: Palm Court
irst thing: reviewing a party game that’s obviously meant for crowds of people while you’re in the grip of a national lockdown is sub-optimal. But we can assure you Wavelength was played for the approved length of time with the approved number of people, with added coughing. Wavelength is a collaboration between Wolfgang ‘The Mind’ Warsch, and Alex Hague and Justin Vickers who co-created Monikers, in the sense of ‘took the public-domain game Celebrities and published it’. Both of those are games about intuiting unspoken messages from your fellow players, and there was a sense – at least on its Kickstarter page – that Wavelength would double down on that non-verbal, almost psychic communication. I don’t think I’ve ever backed a Kickstarter faster. And it’s… okay. It’s fine. It’s a reasonable party game. Nothing less, and unfortunately nothing more.
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WHAT’S IN THE BOX ◗ Wavelength device ◗ 126 Question cards ◗ 2 Scoring tokens ◗ 1 Guessing token
At the heart of Wavelength is the ‘device’, a large plastic wheel with a dial, a screen and a pointer. The wheel is marked with a wedge subdivided into sections marked 2-3-4-3-2, totalling about two-fifths of the visible space. The active player or team takes a card which will have two opposites on it – ‘Untalented/ Talented’ or ‘Cat person/Dog person’ for example – then closes the screen, spins the wheel to a random position, opens the screen, comes up with a brief clue to indicate where the midsection of the wedge lies, closes the screen, and gives card and clue to the other players or team. They have to position the dial based on the clue, the screen is opened and if they’re right the dial will overlap the wedge and they’ll score accordingly.
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This is fine as far as it goes, which is not far enough. A good party game is about creating a mood, whether it’s tension, hilarity or team spirit, but the elements of Wavelength never combine to do that. There should be great discussions and arguments among the team members about where to position the dial, but we found that one player would choose a position, another would go ‘Maybe left a bit?’ and that was mostly it. Then when the screen is pulled back it should be a big reveal, a sense of whoah-we-read-your-minds success or how-could-we-be-so-stupid failure, but there was a lack of any emotional build-up or release at all. First to ten points wins. The first couple of questions are quite fun, but any excitement quickly ebbs. The game has two modes: co-op and team-based: co-op is recommended for 2–5 players, probably because the team mode doesn’t work with less than six. It’s mentioned in passing on the last page of the rules. Also this is a minor point, but for something that’s basically a light trivia game there’s a lot of heavy plastic in here. The box insert on its own weighs more than a complete copy of The Mind. Yet it’s surprisingly fiddly: the device is hard to randomise properly, the screen gets stuck, the cards are tiny, and the scoring tokens are just odd. Wavelength may work for you. But we found it two-dimensional and too flat, only briefly coming to life when a good question-master produced a clever clue, which didn’t happen nearly as often as it does in Codenames. Lovely box design, though. * JAMES WALLIS
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PLAY IT? M A Y B E Given the calibre of the creatives involved this should have been a stonking behemoth of an arrival on the party-game scene, and it isn’t.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED MONIKERS... Other reviewers have liked Wavelength more than we did, and they seem to like Monikers quite a bit as well.
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EXPEDITION TO NEWDALE
WHATS IN THE BOX
Goodness gracious me, just me Designer: Alexander Pfister | Publisher: Lookout Games
efore we start it is worth pointing out that, because of the time it came to review Expedition to Newdale, was reviewed exclusively on solo play. Luckily it’s almost exactly the same game, although, a lot quicker and frankly, a lot tougher. Beating your friends, or rather, outrunning them in the victory points race is one thing, hitting the goals set out to you by the solo game in Alexander Pfister’s recent follow up to Oh My Goods! is and entirely different bucket of coal, and flour, that can be chained into bread… Expedition... is a heavier game than Oh My Goods! and comes with a host of boards to play with, rather than just cards – although, there are a lot of those too. Following on from Escape to Canyon Brook, your adventure to produce things continues. Why? It barely matters, but it’s something to do with stopping some ice giants killing everyone by using diplomacy. But we’re not here for the narrative, as novel as it is. It’s a campaign Eurogame about constructing building that can then apply the randomly drawn labour market to certain effects, and more interestingly, be used to chain together certain materials into others. So, you can take your cows to the abattoir to produce meat, or coal and flour to produce bread, for example. Doing so means that your coal, worth one coin while sitting on the mine
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card of your player-board engine, is now worth five on the bakery. You’re much richer than you were by the application of labour. Solo play works like a pleasantly frustrating puzzle. It teases at your brain in a satisfying way for the most part, but occasionally veers into unfair ‘tough luck’ situations. This usually comes from not being able to build your engine quick enough with plenty of cards to generate the goods required to meet the quota. There are actions that you can take to increase the cards in your hand, but because the game is played over only a handful of rounds using the (cleverly) build event decks, these actions are often a sign you’re just not going to make ends meet in the particular run through. It’s fine, but just having a bad hand with few options can be off-putting.
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That, however, is the only gripe with the game. The sense of progress is palpable, you change locations and situations regularly, you meet characters that, while you don’t get to know and love exactly, do become something like familiar faces during play. And most of the time, like any good Eurogame, the disappointment is only with yourself – when you realise you should have done something else already. * CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
◗ 3 Double-sided game boards ◗ 1 Action board ◗ 4 Double-sided player boards ◗ 40 Bonus tiles ◗ 8 Progress tiles ◗ 4 Bridge tiles ◗ 4 Victory point markers ◗ 1 Winners’ cup ◗ 44 Hourses ◗ 16 Action tokens ◗ 4 Ship tokens ◗ 22 Figures ◗ 50 Goods markers ◗ 1 Bag ◗ 1 Sticker sheet ◗ 220 Cards ◗ 1 Chronicle book
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
An extremely good, light, enginebuilding Eurogame with great depth and challenge at its heart. The campaign elements expand the longevity of the game and make the solo mode feel like something worth working through.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED OH MY GOODS!… The previous instalments, while a bit lighter, are a good indication of whether you’ll gain pleasure from chaining your good together, or find it all a bit tedious.
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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ROBOTECH: ATTACK ON THE SDF-1 Robot Bores Designer: Darius Hambleton & Jeff Mechlinski | Publisher: Japanime Games
great co-operative game brings players together where you battle bad luck to overcome the odds. A great adaptation of a franchise captures what made it incredible into a tantalizing tabletop triumph. This board game does neither. In Robotech: Attack on the SDF-1, you and your friends play through the first season of the eighties sci-fi anime, defeating waves of Zentraedi alien invaders and trying to keep your spaceship/giant robot mecha flying through five rounds (or "episodes") of setbacks and strife. Each episode starts with a short recap of an actual episode from the show, providing instructions for new challenges and round objectives. You then each take turns using actions to run around the SDF-1, repairing systems or preparing mechas, so you can go into space to destroy the little alien chits causing chaos. Depending on how well you dealt with their forces, the aliens return fire through an orders card revealed only after all player turns have finished, with different ships being able to deplete your reserves of mecha
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WHAT'S IN THE BOX? ◗ 3 Game boards ◗ 1 Self-assembly cardboard SDF-1 battle mode model ◗ 5 Scenario booklets ◗ 138 Cards ◗ 6 Scenario character cards ◗ 6 Hero boards ◗ 6 Cardboard stand-ups ◗ 4 Quick reference boards ◗ 159 Gameplay tokens ◗ 36 Mecha tokens ◗ 41 Enemy tokens ◗ 1 Zentraedi vessel bag ◗ 2 Standard D6 dice
units, ship structures or player health. If the ship get's too damaged, you lose. Survive five episodes and you'll win the scenario and can move on to the next. It's clear lots of love went into capturing the show's imagery, as the iconography, mechanical nods to the show and the enormous cardboard model of SDF-1 in battle mode will be highly appreciated by fans. It's a shame the same love didn't go into the gameplay. The 27 page rulebook is a mess, with key rules wildly scattered throughout and paragraphs of text repeating earlier rules explanations. Playing the game is just as unfocused, as before each episode's first turn everyone must agree on how many actions each player gets, so before you even start playing you're deciding who gets to have more fun. Pilot characters can whizz around space, ordering units or fighting enemy ships themselves to actually win everyone the game. Non-pilots (i.e.
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most other players) spend their turns tidying up and putting out fires, with rare opportunities to make positive steps forward instead of merely preventing steps back. Even the Captain, the sole person who can transform your ship into the cardboard mecha, can only do so at great expense to the rest of the team AND with the game's frustrating misfire mechanics, might ruin an entire +2-hour game session through one bad dice roll. Each character's unique actions are woefully unbalanced, making some strictly better to pour action points into. Doing damage relies on either slow but guaranteed success player actions or risking cards drawn from the mecha orders deck, which sounds promising as a risk/reward mechanic, but falls flat when the mecha deck is stuffed with too many lousy cards that its often safer to never risk using it. The game's five scenario booklets comprise of one so-so tutorial guide, three actual game sessions and a final forgettable array of two or three player scenarios. The three main scenarios are so committed to following what happened in the show, that if you don't know or care about these events, they will either feel arbitrary or infuriating. The manual also suggests an escalation mode, but forgive me if playing a game for over three hours that can't be won doesn't sound like an enjoyable experience. Maybe if you know your Destroids from your Veritechs, playing through the show's greatest moments will be enough. But for those looking for a thrilling co-operative game, it is a black hole of time and money. * MATTHEW VERNALL
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PLAY IT? N O The clunky instructions and gameplay makes this exclusively for diehard fans of the show or players who obsessively love tower defence strategy games.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED CASTLE PANIC... If tearing through waves of orcs has left you and your friends wanting a harder challenge, this game's escalation mode may prove to be the time sink you're looking for.
ANIMAL KINGDOMS Designer: Steven Aramini | Publisher: Galactic Raptor Games very kingdom has laws which must be followed without exception by anyone who steps across its borders. In Animal Kingdoms, many such laws exist. ‘Only frogs and wolf’, ‘only odd rank animals’ or ‘only animals not present in other kingdoms’. However, the rulers of these kingdoms are flexible with their own laws, which they change every age. In any other
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context, such behaviour would be found questionable, but in Animal Kingdoms, a family-oriented areacontrol card game, there is no need to think too deeply into the theme. It is very light and is used mostly as an excuse to have gorgeous animal artwork on the cards. In Animal Kingdoms, players are vying for control of the five kingdoms to earn victory points over the three rounds – or ages – of the game. To add their presence to an area, they must play a card out of their hand that satisfies the condition (some of which were mentioned earlier) of the kingdom. These are broad enough that players always have a choice to contribute to one of the areas on the board, but are also
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restricting enough, that they also need to stop and consider their options. They won’t have to think for too long, however, because Animal Kingdoms is not a strategy heavy game. Purposefully designed for the whole family to enjoy, it gives enough of the challenge to keep players interested, but not too much to over-stay its welcome. The biggest let down of the game, especially one so pretty, is the component quality. The cards are thin, the cardboard on the slotted game boards begins peeling after the first few plays and the cubes are roughly made and painted. A real shame considering that Animal Kingdoms feels perfect for frequent play as it is easy to set up, has high replayability and a wide appeal to different gaming groups. * ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
❚ PLAY IT? P R O B A B L Y
FAFNIR Designer: Jun Sasaki | Publisher: Oink Games afnir is a chicken that lays gems. For some reason, two brothers have decided that those who can display wealth by throwing away gems can have Fafnir’s gems. But the problem is, that as soon as the gems are thrown away, gems of the same type are worth less than they were. Players take their cute dividing screens, which we feel would be ideal for very small RPGs, and keep their gems secret. Each turn a blind bid is made for the gems that Fafnir has laid, and the victory point that comes with it. The blind bid is made by clutching, secretly, the number of gems you want to bid in your fist, before revealing at the same time. The gems you throw away are added to the market, which will tell you what each is worth at the end of the round (less gems, more points). That end is also dictated by the number of gems in the
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market, a row that reaches seven (for a three player game) ends that round, and then the gems are scored based on what you kept behind the screen. There’s bit of bluffing involved, and blind bidding is always fun with the right crowd – and it’s all designed as a very social game. Fafnir uses a number of gambling mechanics to create a kind of relaxed, jovial pub game. It calls out for a bag of pork scratchings, and a long afternoon with some equally tactically minded friends. Sparing that, it’s a game with replayability for a long evening indoors or a caravan buffeted by unpredicted rain. * CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S tabletopgaming.co.uk
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ODYSSEY OF THE DRAGONLORDS A marvellous mess of myth Designer: James Ohlen, Jesse Sky, Drew Karpyshyn| Publisher: Modiphius
pic’ is a word that gets thrown around pretty loosely these days, but it really is the only accurate way to describe Odyssey of the Dragonlords. By smooshing the world-shaking heroism of Greek myth into Dungeons & Dragons’ high-powered fantasy it manages to conjure up a titanic adventure about battling vast monsters, treating with gods and claiming your place in the annals of history. And, yes, despite carefully not mentioning it by name anywhere, Odyssey of the Dragonlords is explicitly meant to be played with D&D’s wildly popular fifth edition ruleset. It’s just rather than being put out by the official D&D team, the book comes from a trio of writers drawn from the ranks of Bioware, one of the biggest names in RPG videogames.
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The result is a chunky slab of a book that manages to bring a flavour of its own to the rather crowded world of fantasy adventuring. Part of this is the beautifully realised mythical setting, which comes with an absolute stack of new options for players and GMs alike, but the writing and design also manage to feel slick and snappy in a way that few other campaigns manage. This might be the conformation bias talking, but you can kind of tell that the main body of the writing came from folks who cut their teeth in videogames. The structure of the campaign, which starts with the party being hailed as destined heroes and has them slowly unlock more of the world to explore over time, feels as though it could have been ripped right out of Mass Effect or Baldur’s Gate. Even the climactic final showdown, which may well be one of the most dramatic, high-powered battles in any D&D campaign ever published, feels like something that could be accessed by clicking on a map screen. Honestly, this is both a good and a bad thing. For example, there’s no denying that the linear design of the first few chapters – which translate into a couple dozen hours of gameplay – does a great job of keeping things zipping along at an impressive pace. Plus, the feeling of unlocking a whole new array of islands to visit or cities to explore is just satisfying at the tabletop as it is on any computer screen. However, this does come coupled with an element of the dreaded railroading – the feeling that once the heroes start their journey, they’re bouncing their way down a corridor rather than forging their own path. For long sections of the game the party head from one dungeon-crawl to another, retrieving magical McGuffins and
having plot-relevant encounters when the book decides they’re ready. Indeed, the whole adventure opens with the party being named as the destined heroes, prophesised to save the world of Thylea and kick some titan arse. This is all supported by clever new rules that tie their epic destinies into the story, but all the talk of fate can sometimes feel like an excuse for leading the players around by their nose. Still, if they are happy to tread the road set before them, the heroes are probably going to be in for a rather lovely journey. The book is stuffed with cool characters and clever little adventures, all of which are supported by a truly impressive array of Grecianflavoured rules and tools. Every single core D&D class, for example, gets a new sub-class to try out with an appropriately epic flavour. Barbarians, for example, get to wrestle and shoot like Hercules, while rangers get access to an Amazonian sub-class that turns them into an off-brand version of Xena or Wonderwoman. It’s a little hard to tell exactly how these stand up against their official brethren, but at the very least they look both fun and incredibly flavourful. Just reading through the book is enough to fill your head with ideas for cool characters, and even if you don’t want to go full Grecian myth the hand-waved nature of the world means that you could very easily play a newly-arrived wandered from a more traditional fantasy world. The Odyssey of the Dragonlords is a truly impressive piece of work that can offer multiple years of action-packed roleplaying that really does blend the epic heroism of Greek myth and the easy action of D&D. At times the writing might be a little too tight and the plot a little too slick, but if you’re happy to be swept along in the current there’s a whole lot of epic adventuring to be had with it. * RICHARD JANSENPARKES
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PLAY IT? P R O B A B L Y An incredibly ambitious piece of work that adds epic Grecian flavour to D&D’s wizards and warriors.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: STORM KING’S THUNDER... Go fight big things, save the world and bounce across the planet while doing epic nonsense.
ADVENTURE MART Lose yourself in the magical world of retail Designer: Sam Taylor | Publisher: HUB Games
iven our current global predicament, many of our usual distractions are unavailable – dining out, socialising, retail therapy. Fortunately, we can always look to the tabletop for a taste of harmless consumerist escapism. In this fantastical land of anthropomorphic adventurers, literal pop-up shops magically materialise at the feet of those in need, ready to serve the growing queues of adventurers with an imaginative range of wares. Up to four competing store managers will rush to line their shelves with the finest necessities as they attempt to attract the most customers and boost their net worth. After five days, the stores will pack up as swiftly as they appeared, but not before crowning the player with the most profit as Manager of the Week! In Adventure Mart, running your store – or engaging in what the designers refer to as ‘adventurecapitalism’ – involves a breezy but original mix of deck building and auction mechanics. In each of the five rounds, players will take turns either spending gold in the Depot Area to acquire new Stock, Fixtures, and Staff, or starting a sale with a customer. Once all of the adventurers from the town have been served, play proceeds to the next day, beginning with the next Daily Bulletin which adds theme
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whilst making subtle changes to how each round plays out. In typical deck building fashion, each player will start out with the same deck of nine cards. Throughout the game these decks will become bolstered by more valuable stock cards. Each adventurer that comes to town will have a preference for the type of goods they wish to purchase, made up of a mixture of Martial, Magic and Exotic. The player who initiated the sale will put forward an opening offer in the form of a number of cards matching that adventurer’s desired stock types. After tallying up the other players will then choose to either pass or beat the offer, with the winner of the auction receiving gold before discarding their cards. Now, a successful store manager won’t usually thrust all their stock upon a startled adventurer. Not only would that be wasteful in regard to their dwindling deck, but also their stock’s potential for profit. Whilst each stock card does have a gold value, it will only retain that value for as long as it takes for the customer’s purse to empty. Some adventurers may be willing to spend up to ten gold but anything exceeding that is essentially given away. Aside from being nicely thematic, this rule also affords Adventure Mart a lot of potential for strategic planning and even a hint
45-60m
2-4
of bluffing. It plays out relatively fairly too, as there are no penalties for losing an auction, giving players a chance to succeed next time. Fixture and Staff cards also open up a level of strategic personalisation to players’ stores. More than just playful nods to anyone familiar with the convenience store workplace, cards like ‘Aether Slush Fountain’ and ‘Worker of Nights’ open up clear cut strategies through discounts to certain stock types and interruptions to opponents’ sales. The deck building genre is a crowded market nowadays, with each release seemingly requiring justification. Oftentimes, this thirst for uniqueness results in complex or bloated experiences likely to deter casual gamers or newcomers. Adventure Mart manages to avoid this largely by keeping things simple. There isn’t an overwhelming amount of card interactions here, just enough to keep things running slickly and smoothly, paired with an addictively clever mash-up of auction mechanics and deck building. * CHAD WILKINSON
10+
£28
WHATS IN THE BOX ◗ 185 Cards ◗ 13 Tokens ◗ 60 Coin tokens
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED VALLEY OF THE KINGS... Like Adventure Mart, Valley of the Kings manages to provide so much excitement with so few components. It also doesn’t hurt that they both admirably succeed at spicing up their solid deck building foundations with other innovative mechanics.
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
With its charming and relatable theme, solid interaction, and a tight balance of familiar and innovative mechanics, Adventure Mart is the perfect step up from other gateway deck builders.
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THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Flick on the bat-signal. We’ve got a colour palette that, even if we weren’t born in, we have at least adopted Words and photographs by Andy Leighton
PAINTS & TECHNIQUES » » » » » » » » » » »
Agrax Earthshade Alaitoc Blue Altdorf Guard Blue Astrogranite Debris Averland Sunset Cadian Fleshtone Caledor Sky Celestra Grey Dawnstone Deathclaw Brown Dorn Yellow
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» » » » » » » » » »
Drakenhof Nightshade Dryad Bark Eshin Grey Fenrisian Grey Flayed One Flesh Incubi Darkness Kantor Blue Karak Stome Kislev Flesh Mournfang Brown
» » » » » » » » » »
Nuln Oil Pallid Wych flesh Reikland Fleshshade Rhinox Hide Russ Grey Skrag Brown Steel Legion Drab The Fang Thunderhawk Blue XV-88
Each model is split up into 4 stages, each with a list of colours and the corresponding paint that was used for it. Each stage uses a different technique to achieve a similar effect on each element but with different colours. Stage 1 is basecoating. Base colours are applied using flat colours. This is usually applied over several thin coats, to achieve a bold, flat colour that is evenly spread.
Stage 2 is shading. During this stage we apply washes and glazes to the more shadowed areas of the miniatures, the lower edges and undersides.
Stage 4 is for final details and highlights. This stage involves adding the finishing touches, sometimes just small details like the eyes, and adding any highlights to increase definition.
Stage 3 is layering. This stage involves applying a layer of a lighter colour, generally focussed towards the top of the model, avoiding the areas previously shaded.
If you find yourself unsure of where to apply the highlights or spot highlights, look over the images alongside the guide and compare that stage to the last.
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DARK KNIGHT RISES
BATMAN
BASECOATING
SHADING
Incubi Darkness: Apply a basecoat to the cloak and armour. Kislev Flesh: Apply a basecoat to the chin. XV-88: Apply a basecoat to the utility belt. Rhinox Hide: Apply a basecoat to the bats. Eshin Grey: Apply a basecoat to the statue.
Nuln Oil: Apply a wash to the armour and chin. Agrax Earthshade: Apply a wash to the belt. Rhinox Hide: Make a mix with around 2 parts water and apply as a glaze to the statue.
CATWOMAN BASECOATING Incubi Darkness: Apply a basecoat to the bodysuit, boots and gloves. Kislev Flesh: Apply a basecoat to the skin. Dryad Bark: Apply a basecoat to the hair. Dawnstone: Apply a basecoat to the gun and belt.
SHADING Nuln Oil: Apply a wash to the clothing and face. Drakenhof Nightshade: Apply a wash to the belt and gun.
GOTHAM CITY COPS
BASECOATING Incubi Darkness: Apply a basecoat to the cloak and armour. Kislev Flesh: Apply a basecoat to the chin. XV-88: Apply a basecoat to the utility belt. Rhinox Hide: Apply a basecoat to the bats. Eshin Grey: Apply a basecoat to the statue.
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SHADING Nuln Oil: Apply a wash to the armour and chin. Agrax Earthshade: Apply a wash to the belt. Rhinox Hide: Make a mix with around 2 parts water and apply as a glaze.
LAYERING
FINAL HIGHLIGHT
Thunderhawk Blue: Apply a highlight to the armour. Flayed One Flesh: Apply a layer to the skin. Averland Sunset: Apply a line highlight to the belt. The Fang: Apply a layer to the cape. Steel Legion Drab: Apply a layer to the bats. Dawnstone: Apply a layer to the statue.
Russ Grey: Apply a spot highlight to the armour. Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a line highlight to the skin. Dorn Yellow: Apply a spot highlight to the belt. Alaitoc Blue: Apply a line highlight to the cape. Karak Stone: Apply a spot highlight to the bats. Celestra Grey: Apply an edge highlight to the statue.
EYES STAGE 1 Abaddon Black: Begin by adding an oval over each eye
STAGE 2 Ceramite White: Apply another oval within the first, leaving a little of the black showing around the edges
STAGE 3 Abaddon Black: Apply a small dot to each eye for the pupil
LAYERING Dawnstone: Apply a highlight to the boots and metals. Thunderhawk Blue: Apply a layer to the catsuit and a highlight to the mask and ears. Flayed One Flesh: Apply a layer to the skin. Mournfang Brown: Apply a layer to the hair.
FINAL HIGHLIGHT Celestra Grey: Apply a spot highlight to the boots and metals. Russ Grey: Apply a highlight to the bodysuit, mask and ears. Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a line highlight to the skin. Skrag Brown: Apply a spot highlight to the hair.
ON FOOT BASING STAGE 1 Eshin Grey: Apply a basecoat.
STAGE 2 Rhinox Hide: Make a mix with around 2 parts water and apply as a glaze.
STAGE 3 Dawnstone: Apply a layer.
LAYERING Thunderhawk Blue: Apply a highlight to the armour. Flayed One Flesh: Apply a layer to the skin. Averland Sunset: Apply a line highlight to the belt. The Fang: Apply a layer to the cape. Steel Legion Drab: Apply a layer to the bats. Dawnstone: Apply a layer to the statue.
FINAL HIGHLIGHT Russ Grey: Apply a spot highlight to the armour. Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a line highlight to the skin. Dorn Yellow: Apply a spot highlight to the belt. Alaitoc Blue: Apply a line highlight to the cape. Karak Stone: Apply a spot highlight to the bats. Celestra Grey: Apply an edge highlight to the statue.
STAGE 4 Celestra Grey: Apply an edge highlight.
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DARK KNIGHT RISES
TUMBLER & BATPOD
STAGE 1
STAGE 3
Eshin Grey: Apply a drybrush to the main hull. Incubi Darkness: Apply a basecoat to the tires. Dawnstone: Apply a basecoat to the metals. Kantor Blue: Apply a basecoat to the windows.
Dawnstone: Apply a light drybrush to the main hull, focussing on the edges. Thunderhawk Blue: Apply a line highlight to the tires. Dawnstone: Apply a highlight to the metals. Altdorf Guard Blue: Apply a line highlight to the windows.
STAGE 2
STAGE 4
Drakenhof Nightshade: Apply a wash to the metals. Nuln Oil: Apply a wash to the windows and tires.
Celestra Grey: Apply an edge highlight to the hull and a spot highlight to the metals. Russ Grey: Apply a line highlight to the tyres. Fenrisian Grey: Apply a line highlight to the windows.
VEHICLE BASING
STAGE 1 Astrogranite Debris: Apply a coat over the entire base.
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STAGE 2 Dawnstone: Apply a heavy drybrush.
STAGE 3 Celestra Grey: Apply a drybrush. Abaddon Black: Apply a coat to the base rim.
STAGE 4 Pallid Wych Flesh: Mix with around 2 parts water and apply lightly to form road markings.
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BUY YOUR FAV O U R I T E G A M E S D I R E C T LY F R O M U S !
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T H E D U N G E O N M A S T E R ’ S G U I D E T O R O L E P L AY I N G
WE NEED REINFORCEMENTS Pouring enemy spam on to players is no fun, but an organically occurring flow of enemies who heard the noise down the hall makes for dramatic showdowns and getaways. We discuss when to call in the reinforcements Words by Richard Jansen-Parkes | Image courtesy of Modiphius & Christoffer Sevaldsen
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he party thought they had everything right in the palm of their stylishly gloved hands. There were only a handful of guards wandering the halls of the corporate-owned warehouse, and despite the eternal uncertainty of combat they were pretty confident of taking down the goons with minimal risk to themselves or – more importantly – their brand-new outfits. Things certainly started off well. A couple of the rent-a-cops dropped to the initial burst of gunfire and katana-slashing, and before the bodies had even hit the floor most of the others were pinned behind crates stuffed with illegal tech. It looked like this was going to be just another brief snatch of combat in the exciting life of a cyberpunk. And then they heard one of the mooks turning on their radio. They needed back-up, apparently. Lots of back-up. The first wave of reinforcements stormed through the doorway just as the last of the initial guards fell. There were another half-dozen of them, all armed with battle rifles in place of the sidearms and clubs their bifurcated brethren had been wielding. A challenge, to be sure, especially considering the minor dings and dents the team had suffered in those first few rounds of confusion. However, it was nothing they couldn’t overcome with a bit of luck and a wellplaced frag grenade or five. As the sound of the explosions faded, though, it was replaced by that of roaring engines outside. Something big was pulling up. By now it was clear that things were rapidly going south, but if they were willing to risk a couple of pot-shots from pinned enemies they could still grab the loot they’d come for – the schematics of a dangerous new type of cybernetic muscle enhancer – and make a clean-ish escape into the safe anonymity of the streets before anything else bad happened. Then the walls exploded. Through the clouds of brick dust strode a trio of power-armoured killing machines, their miniguns already spinning up with a whirr that set the party’s teeth on edge. If they had all their gear, all their ammo and a plan, it might have been a fair fight. As it was, their goal had changed from securing an easy victory to scraping out some way to survive the night. Things, they all agreed, had escalated rather quickly.
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Some of this probably comes from the fact that it’s a nice and easy way to balance a battle on the fly, but honestly, I think I also like the way it makes the world feel a shade more believable. Sure, we have to ditch a certain degree of realism when we start talking about tossing fireballs about the place. However, it doesn’t seem too crazy to imagine that some of those goblins down the hallway might stick their head around the corner when they hear the explosions tearing through the dungeon. Having a handful of reserves flood their way onto the battlefield as the fight progresses often feels entirely reasonable, and helps to make the entire world feel a little more dynamic – a bit more like something that lives and breathes, rather than a series of static, unconnected scraps in the dark. On top of this, it can help to make battle feel truly epic in scale without being entirely unfair. The nature of many RPG combat systems means that being attacked by, say, 30 enemies all at once is much, much more dangerous than taking on three groups of ten that arrive on the battlefield a couple of rounds apart from each other. Of course, it is possible to overdo it. The joys of exploring a dungeon would be rather hurt, after
whatsoever. Those guys were essentially pulled from the void, and you can always send along another wave next round if you think things aren’t epic enough.
REINFORCEMENTS V ESCALATION Of course, at some point you’re going to have to decide what kind of enemies are going to come in through the door. The natural inclination can be to flood the battlefield with more of the same, but you can also add an even more dramatic and dangerous edge to the battle by having the quality, size or general scariness of the enemies mount up over time. This was the kind of escalating danger that the cyberpunks ran into when they raided the corporate warehouse, and it managed to turn an otherwise fun but forgettable throwdown into a proper fight for their lives. Sure, it didn’t quite turn out the way they had planned, but it sure stuck in their stories for a long ol’ time. Having the truly powerful enemies only make an appearance after enough of their minions have been cut down is one of the best ways to make a battle feel truly desperate. It all-but guarantees that when the big bosses turn up the party are already running low on the resources, whether that means explosives or magic spells, that they’d usually pull out for dealing with such titanic foes. This is one of the best ways to conjure up delicious “watching the entire room desperately scan their character sheets for some power of ability they’ve forgotten about” scenarios without having to rely on ludicrously overpowered enemies.
It can help to make battle feel truly epic in scale without being entirely unfair
THE WELCOMING PARTY I’ve got to admit, I’m an absolute sucker for confounding my players with reinforcements.
all, by having every single inhabitant rush the front door the moment the heroes arrived. There’s also a chance that, if it isn’t handled well, the flood of reinforcements can feel arbitrary and like an application of the dreaded GM Fiat.
ON THE WAY One of the best ways to make the sudden arrival of more enemies to chop through feel reasonably fair and grounded is to give some kind of hint that they’re coming. This can be as obvious as having the first wave of foes radio for back-up or smack out a warning on a drum, or as subtle as pointing out the sound of footsteps coming from the warren of small caves on one side of the room. This approach also gives the players at least a slight chance to prepare for the incoming wave of ravening foes, and stops them from being caught entirely off balance. Hell, sometimes it will allow the party to turn the potential danger into a chance to look cool and feel clever, by setting up ambushes or prepping to drop area-of-effect attacks in the chokepoint where the bad guys should be arriving. And if they do chop through the reinforcements with minimal hassle, there’s no need to worry
JUST DO IT The best thing about all this, however, is the simple fact that most of the time you don’t actually need to plan the reinforcements out in advance. If you feel a fight is going a little too easily or that things just don’t have the excitement you’re after, you can blow the doors of their hinges and toss in some more bad guys without a moment’s hesitation. Sure, it may not match up exactly with what’s in your notes, but that doesn’t really matter, does it? And if you’re worried about daily XP budgets or things like that, you can easily yank the bad guys out of a later encounter. Hell, coming across an abandoned guard room and realising why it’s empty can be a great way to make the players feel like they’re in a properly organic world. So, the next time you’re looking for a way to spice up a battle, remember that you always have reinforcements sitting in your back pocket. Whether you planned it that way or not. *
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CLUB DIRECTORY ABERDEENSHIRE ABERDEEN WARGAMES CLUB Aberdeen, AB15 4YQ BROCH BOARDGAME NIGHT Fraserburgh, AB43 9AH OLDMELDRUM WARGAMES GROUP Inverurie, AB51 0AA ANGUS ANGUS WARGAMES CLUB Forfar, DD8 3AQ DUNDEE LIBRARY WARGAMES CLUB Dundee, DD1 1DB KAMPF GRUPPE OST BERVIE Montrose, DD10 0RD KIRRIEMUIR WARGAMES CLUB Kirriemuir, DD8 4HN AYRSHIRE NORTH AYRSHIRE WARGAMES CLUB Irvine, KA12 0BA BEDFORDSHIRE AMPTHILL ON BOARD Bedford, MK45 2JS BEDFORD BOARD GAMING Bedford, MK40 2SX BEDFORD GLADIATORS Bedford, MK41 7TW LEIGHTON BUZZARD BOARDGAMES CLUB Leighton Buzzard, LU7 2NR LEIGHTON BUZZARD GAMING CLUB Leighton Buzzard, LU7 1ES SAXON GAMES & CRAFTS Bedford, MK40 4FU VINTAGE & MODERN BOARD GAMES CLUB Dunstable, LU6 2PJ BERKSHIRE BROAD STREET GAMERS Wokingham, RG40 3AQ NEWBURY & READING WARGAMES ASSOCIATION Newbury, RG1 4PS THATCHAM TABLETOPS Reading, RG7 6QH THE READING BOARDGAMES SOCIAL Reading, RG1 5DE WARFIELD BOARD GAMERS Bracknell, RG42 2DD WARGAMES ASSOCIATION OF READING Wokingham, RG41 5DU BUCKINGHAMSHIRE ARMAGEDDON INC High Wycombe, HP13 5TR AYLESBURY BOARDGAME CLUB Aylesbury, HP19 8SR MILTON KEYNES WARGAMES SOCIETY Milton Keynes, MK11 1JQ NEWPORT PAGNELL BOARD GAMES CLUB Newport Pagnell, MK16 8AN THE CHESHAM GAMING SOCIETY Chesham, HP5 2NN WYCOMBE WARBAND Beaconsfield, HP9 1LG WYRMBERG GAMES Aylesbury, HP21 9DT CAITHNESS NORTHERN KNIGHTS WARGAMES Thurso, KW14 8HN CAMBRIDGESHIRE 2D6 LODGE Cambridge, CB1 8NN BOURN GAMING CLUB Cambridge, CB23 2SH FENLAND RPG CLUB Ely, CB7 5NG HEFFERS GAMES BOARDGAMES AT THE BOOKSHOP Cambridge, CB2 1TY NEWMARKET KNIGHTS GAMES CLUB Ely, CB7 5HS
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PETERBOROUGH WARGAMES CLUB Peterborough, PE1 1NA ROLL WITH IT! Huntingdon, PE29 3TF SONS OF WAR CAMBRIDGE Cambridge, CB1 3QU ST. IVES TABLETOP St. Ives, PE27 5AD THE CHATTERIS WARLORDS GAMES CLUB Chatteris, PE16 6NA THE GAMES TABLE Cambridge, CB24 4RP CARMARTHENSHIRE CARMARTHEN OLD GUARD Carmarthen, SA31 3AD TOWY VALLEY TYRANTS (TVT) Carmarthen, SA31 2JE CHESHIRE ALTRINCHAM WARGAMING CLUB Altrincham, WA14 4PG CHEADLE BOARD ROOM Cheadle, SK8 1DW CHESHIRE GAMERS Crewe, CW1 4NJ CHESTER CENTURIONS BOARDGAMES CLUB (CHESTER) Chester, CH3 5LN CONGLETON AND DISTRICT LIGHT BOARD GAMES GROUP Congleton, CW12 1AH EAST WARRINGTON GAMING Warrington, WA20SF ELEMENT GAMES NORTH WEST GAMING CENTRE Stockport, SK2 6PT ELLESMERE PORT CENTURIONS BOARDGAMES CLUB Ellesmere Port, CH65 8DP GUARDIANS OF THE GAMES (TABLETOP GROUP) Macclesfield, SK11 6UB MUG AND GAME Congleton, CW12 1PG POYNTON BOARD GAME DAY Stockport, SK12 1RB VARIABLE MAGERS Stockport, SK4 3BS WARRINGTON BOARD GAMES CLUB Warrington, WA1 2SX WINSFORD TABLETOP GAMING CLUB Winsford, CW7 4AT CLEVELAND HARTLEPOOL WARGAMES SOCIETY Hartlepool, TS24 7DH MIDDLESBROUGH GAMERS CLUB Middlesbrough, TS1 2RW REDCAR IRONBEARDS Redcar, TS10 1RH CO ANTRIM BOARD MEETING Belfast, BT1 5FF DRAGONSLAYERS Belfast, BT7 1NN LISBURN GAMING CLUB Lisburn, BT28 1NY QUB DRAGONSLAYERS Belfast, BT7 1NN CO DURHAM DARLINGTON`S DOGS OF WAR Darlington, DL3 7LX DURHAM RAIDERS Croxdale, DH6 5HJ GAMERS@HART Hartlepool, TS26 9DE CO LONDONDERRY THE SIEGE BUNKER Londonderry, BT48 7JL CORNWALL CORNWALL MINIATURE WARGAMES ASSOCIATION Newquay, TR8 4LA SMIPHEES GAMES CLUB Callington, PL17 7AN
THE DICE AND DAGGER GAMING CLUB Bude, EX23 9BL WEDNESDAY NIGHT GAMING Redruth, TR15 3QY COUNTY TYRONE OMAGH WARGAMES CLUB Omagh, BT78 1HL CUMBRIA THE WIZARDS OF WINDERMERE Windermere, LA23 1DY DERBYSHIRE CHESTERFIELD REALMS OF WARGAMING Chesterfield, S40 1DN CONSORTIUM GAMES CLUB @GHQ Chesterfield, S40 1JW DERBY ON BOARD GAMES Derby, DE1 1QH GROWN UP’S GAMES NIGHT Matlock, DE4 3FQ SUNDAY NIGHT BOARD GAMING AT THE OLD KINGS HEAD BELPER Belper, DE56 1NP DEVON BARNSTAPLE SLAYERS GAMING CLUB Barnstaple, EX32 8LS CULLOMPTON BOARD GAMES GROUP Cullompton, EX15 1JX DARK STAR GAMING Plymouth, PL4 0AL DEVON WARGAMES GROUP Exeter, EX4 8AW EAST DEVON TABLETOP & RPG GROUP Honiton, EX14 1HR EXMOUTH IMPERIAL WARGAMES CLUB Exmouth, EX8 4SW MONDAY NIGHT GAMING; PLYMOUTH Plymouth, PL4 0DN NEO TIVERTON GAMING CLUB Tiverton, EX16 5JJ PLYMOUTH ASSOCIATION OF WARGAMERS Plymouth, PL3 5TB RED DRAKE GAMING Plymouth, PL4 7DJ TORQUAY BOARD GAME CLUB Torquay, TQ2 7AD DORSET DORCHESTER BOARD GAMES Dorchester, DT1 1TT SOUTHBOURNE TABLETOP & BOARDGAMERS Bournemouth, BH6 3AA WESSEX WYVERNS WARGAMES CLUB Ferndown, BH22 9AN WEYMOUTH LEVELLERS CLUB Weymouth, DT4 0AR WORLDS AWAY Bournemouth, BH2 5RQ DUMFRIESSHIRE ANNAN GAMING CLUB Annan, DG12 6EF THE FIVE ARCHES GAMING CLUB Dumfries, DG1 3JR DUNBARTONSHIRE DUMBARTON WARGAMES CLUB Dumbarton, G82 1QQ DURHAM DWG Durham, DH1 1QG DYFED GAMEPARK GAMING Aberystwyth, SY23 2JS WELSH WEYR GAMING GROUP Ammanford, SA18 1DX EAST SUSSEX 1066 WARGAMING CLUB St. Leonards-on-Sea, TN38 8BL FAMOUS COLLECTABLES Bexhill-on-Sea, TN40 1DU HASTINGS AND ST LEONARD’S BOARD GAMES NIGHT St. Leonards-on-Sea, TN37 7DA
UCKFIELD TABLETOP GAMERS Uckfield, TN22 5DT WADHURST WARGAMERS & ROLEPLAYERS Wadhurst, TN5 6UL EAST YORKSHIRE WOLDS WARGAMERS Driffield, YO25 6SS ESSEX BASILDON WARBOYZ Basildon, SS16 4NW BILLERICAY BOARD GAME CLUB Billericay, CM12 9BQ BRENTWOOD CRUSADERS Brentwood, CM13 1LP COLCHESTER WARGAMES ASSOCIATION Colchester, CO3 5RH ESSEX WARRIORS Chelmsford, CM1 3DU GBCON QUARTERLY GAMING DAY Loughton, IG10 4LF HORNCHURCH HEROES GAMING CLUB Rainham, RM13 7LP LOUGHTON STRIKE FORCE Loughton, IG10 1LH SAFFRON WALDEN GAMES COLLECTIVE Saffron Walden, CB10 1HQ SOUTHEND-ON-SEA ROLEPLAYING SOCIETY Southend-on-Sea, SS1 1BD THE HORNCHURCH WARGAMES CLUB Romford, RM3 9LB THE OVERLORDS Dagenham, RM8 2HQ THE PHOENIX GAMES CLUB London, E13 0AD THURROCK TABLETOP GAMES Grays, RM17 6FJ FIFE DUNFERMLINE WARGAMING AND ROLEPLAYING FELLOWSHIP Dunfermline, KY12 7DS EAST NEUK TABLETOP GAMES Anstruther, KY10 3DJ KIRKCALDY MEEPLE CLUB Kirkcaldy, KY2 6LF FLINTSHIRE DEESIDE DEFENDERS Chester, CH4 0DR FGC FLINTSHIRE GAMING CLUB Mold, CH7 6SZ GLASGOW ANTONINE BOARD GAMERS Glasgow, G64 4EN GLASGOW GAMES GROUP (G3) Glasgow, G20 7QE UNPLUGGED GAMES CLUB Glasgow, G41 3AB GLOUCESTERSHIRE GLOUCESTER TABLETOP GAMING COMMUNITY Gloucester, GL4 0RS GLOUCESTERSHIRE GAMES BUNKER Cheltenham, GL51 4XA IWARPUK Gloucester, GL2 9EB LECHLADE BOARD GAMES CLUB Lechlade, GL7 3HA LINCOMBE BARN WARGAMES SOCIETY Bristol, BS16 2RW PORK CHOP GAMING Cheltenham, GL50 3HA QUICK FIRE GAMES CLUB. Bristol, BS5 7RF THORNBURY BOARD GAME GROUP Bristol, BS35 2EG GREATER MANCHESTER TABLETOP MANCHESTER Cheadle Hulme, M15 4ST GWENT GWENT REAVERS TABLETOP GAMING CLUB Abertillery, NP13 3DJ
GWYNEDD CONWY WARGAMES CLUB Llandudno, LL30 3LB HAMPSHIRE ARBBL Andover, SP10 1DQ BLACK HOLE WARGAMERS Petersfield, GU32 3HS CHINEHAM BOARD GAMERS Basingstoke, RG24 8LT DARK WORLDS GAMING SOCIETY Fareham, PO15 6TL FARNBOROUGH BOARD GAMES CLUB Farnborough, GU14 0LE FARNBOROUGH WARGAME SOCIETY Farnborough, GU14 7LE FIRESTORM CARDS OPEN GAMING NIGHT Basingstoke, RG24 8FB FORDINGBRIDGE GAMING CLUB Fordingbridge, SP6 1AS GARY DONALDSON Waterlooville, PO8 8RG GOSPORT WARGAMING CLUB Gosport, PO12 3BU MUSKETBALLS 1812 WAR GAMING Southampton, SO15 3FQ PHOENIX BOARD GAMERS Bordon, GU35 0LR POMPEY PIRATES Waterlooville, PO7 7XD PORTSMOUTH ON BOARD Portsmouth, PO1 1PT RINGWOOD ASSOCIATION OF WARGAMERS Ringwood, BH24 1DW SOLENT WARGAMERS CLUB Portsmouth, PO1 1PT SOUTHAMPTON SLUGGAZ Southampton, SO17 2JZ THE GAMING DEN Basingstoke, RG21 7NT THE SOUTHAMPTON GUILD OF ROLEPLAYERS Southampton, SO14 0LH THE THIRD COALITION WARGAMES CLUB New Milton, BH25 5BT WATERLOO TABLE TOP GAMERS Waterlooville, PO8 8RG WESSEX WARGAMERS WINCHESTER Winchester, SO22 4QB WESSEX WARGAMES WINCHESTER Winchester, SO22 4QB WESSEX WYVERNS GAMING CLUB Ringwood, BH24 2NP HEREFORDSHIRE DICE AND DECKS Ross-on-Wye, HR9 5HR HEREFORDSHIRE BOARDGAMERS Hereford, HR4 9EA HERTFORDSHIRE BISHOP’S STORTFORD TABLETOP Bishop’s Stortford, CM23 3BQ BLACK WOLF WARGAMES CLUB Hitchin, SG5 1XL CALAMITY COMICS HATFIELD Hatfield, AL10 0JJ CHESHUNT WARGAMES CLUB Waltham Cross, EN7 5EG FINCHLEY GAMES CLUB London, N12 7JE FRIIDAY NIGHT GAMING Letchworth Garden City, SG6 1FP GAMES CAFE CLUB St. Albans, AL3 4BL HEMEL HEMPSTEAD WARGAMING CLUB Hemel Hempstead, HP1 1LD HERTFORD BEER & BOARDGAMES Hertford, SG14 1HH
HITCHIN HERETICS Hitchin, SG5 1XL LOST ARK GAMES RPG CLUB Stevenage, SG1 1EE LOST LEGION WARGAMING CLUB Hitchin, SG5 2PG NORTH HERTFORDSHIRE WARGAMES CLUB Hitchin, SG5 1XL NORTH LONDON WARGAMES CLUB Waltham Cross, EN8 9AJ POTTERS BAR GAMES CLUB Potters Bar, EN6 5BT ST ALBANS BOARD GAME CLUB St. Albans, AL3 5PE ST ALBANS WARGAMERS [SAW] St. Albans, AL3 5PE STEVENAGE BATTLEGROUP Stevenage, SG1 1NA THOR’S HAMMER GAMING CLUB Borehamwood, WD6 5PR TRING WARGAMES CLUB Tring, HP23 6BA WARLORDS WARGAMING ST ALBANS St. Albans, AL3 4DJ WATFORD WARGAMES CLUB Watford, WD17 4PN WELWYN WARGAMERS Welwyn Garden City, AL8 6PS INVERNESS-SHIRE INVERNESS TABLETOP GAMERS Inverness, IV1 1LU ISLE OF MAN KB TABLETOP GAMING - ISLE OF MAN Isle of Man, IM4 4LA KENT ALL AROUND THE BOARD Westgate-on-Sea, CT8 8RE ASHFORD (KENT) BOARDGAMES CLUB Ashford, TN24 9AJ BEXLEY REAPERS WARGAMING CLUB Bexley, DA5 1AA BROMLEY BOARD GAMERS Bromley, BR1 1TS CANTERBURY CRUSADERS Canterbury, CT1 1RT CANTERBURY DRAGONS Canterbury, CT1 2DR DICE ON THE HILL London, SE18 3EG GOLDCHEST GAMING CLUB Dartford, DA12DX GRAVESHAM WARGAMING AND TABLETOP GAMING CLUB Gravesend, DA11 9EU GREENWICH & BLACKHEATH BOARD GAMES AND BEER CLUB London, SE3 7JQ HYDRA GAMING CLUB Tunbridge Wells, TN4 8RA MAIDSTONE WARGAMES SOCIETY Maidstone, ME17 4AW MEDWAY AREA BOARDGAMERS Maidstone, ME14 1ED MEDWAY WARGAMES SOCIETY Chatham, ME5 9HG MILTON HUNDRED WARGAMES CLUB Sittingbourne, ME10 4BX PETTS WOOD AND ORPINGTON BOARD GAMERS Orpington, BR5 1QW SEVENOAKS & TONBRIDGE ASSOCIATION OF GAMERS (STAG) Sevenoaks, TN15 9HA TUNBRIDGE WELLS WARGAMES SOCIETY Tunbridge Wells, TN3 0PR WHITSTABLETOP Whitstable, CT5 1DA LANARKSHIRE CARLUKE WARGAMES CLUB Carluke, ML8 5JQ
List your club for free and see full club details
tabletopgaming.co.uk/clubs GLASGOW BOARD GAMERS Glasgow, G2 5AP LANARKSHIRE GAMERS Motherwell, ML1 1BS ML2 GAMERS Hamilton, ML3 6BU LANCASHIRE BLACK TOWER WARGAMING Blackpool, FY4 4ND BLACKWELL’S GAMING MANCHESTER - GAMING SATURDAYS Manchester, M13 9GP BURNLEY BOARD GAMERS Burnley, BB10 3LF BURNLEY WARGAMES CLUB Burnley, BB10 3EU DECKS & DICE Manchester, M25 1AW DICED TEA Oldham, OL1 2DB DUNGEONS & FLAGONS Manchester, M1 7HL ELWA: EAST LANCASHIRE WARGAMES ASSOCIATION Blackburn, BB6 7DD FAN BOY THREE BOARDGAME NIGHT Manchester, M1 1EL GECKO GAMES CLUB Accrington, BB5 3QW HARLEQUINS BLACKPOOL Blackpool, FY1 3QA HOUSE LANCASTER GAMING GROUP Lancaster, LA1 1EE LYTHAM ST ANNES GAMERS Lytham St. Annes, FY8 4BX PRESTON’S GAMERS GUILD Preston, PR1 7DP SALFORD AND MANCHESTER GAMING HAVEN Salford, M8 0TW THE HUNGRY DRAGON GAMES NIGHT Manchester, M21 0AE THE LIVERPOOL WARGAMES ASSOCIATION (LWA) Liverpool, L1 6HB THE NEGG ( NORTH OF ENGLAND GAMING GROUP ) Accrington, BB5 3EE THORNTON CLEVELEYS BOARD GAMES CLUB Thornton-Cleveleys, FY5 2TY THURSDAY SCYTHE BOARD GAMERS Liverpool, L3 8HE LEICESTERSHIRE CHARNWOOD ROLE PLAYERS GAMING CLUB Loughborough, LE12 8DT GEEK VILLAIN GAMING CLUB Leicester, LE19 2HE LEICESTER ALL SCARS Leicester, LE1 3JR LEICESTER PHAT KATZ Leicester, LE3 0QY MARKET HARBOROUGH WARGAMES CLUB Market Harborough, LE16 7JU SECTION 31 Leicester, LE1 1PA SONS OF SIMON DE MONTFORT Loughborough, LE12 8TX THE LEICESTER WARGAMES AND FANTASY GROUP Leicester, LE3 0QU LINCOLNSHIRE BOSTON TABLETOP GAMERS Boston, PE21 6QQ DICE CAVERN Grantham, NG31 6NL GRANTHAM FRIENDLY GAMERS Grantham, NG31 6LJ GRIMSBY WARGAMES SOCIETY Grimsby, DN32 9HT LINCOLN BOARD GAME GROUP Lincoln, LN1 3BJ
LOUTH STRATEGY GAMES CLUB Louth, LN11 8DB SPALDING WARGAMES CLUB Spalding, PE11 2RA LONDON LONDON ON BOARD London, W1F 9LD SELWG London, SE6 2TS TANELORN WAR GAMING CLUB London, E11 3DB THE ROLE PLAY HAVEN London, E15 2HU THE ROLE PLAY HAVEN London, SE13 6LH MERSEYSIDE FORGEMASTERS GAMING CLUB Wirral, CH63 6HD LIVERPOOL LION BOARDGAMERS Liverpool, L3 9NS MUTANT DICE GAMES GAMING GROUP St. Helens, WA9 4TR SOUTHPORT BOARD GAMES GROUP Southport, PR8 1NH ST. HELENS BOARDGAMES, ROLEPLAYING GAMES (B.O.R.G.) St. Helens, WA10 5BF MID GLAMORGAN BRYNCETHIN TABLETOP GAMING Bridgend, CF32 9YE CAERPHILLY BOARD GAMERS Caerphilly, CF83 1AP CASTLE GAMERS BRIDGEND Bridgend, CF35 6AU MIDDLESEX BATTLEUX WARGAMES CLUB Uxbridge, UB8 1PJ DICE CLUB Uxbridge, UB10 0RY DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS - UXBRIDGE Uxbridge, UB8 2EW HESTON AND EALING WARGAMERS London, W13 9SS LONDON WARGAMING GUILD London, WC2H 9LA TABLETOP TUESDAYS London, N16 8BX THE GAMES CLUB London, NW1 2JU WEST LONDON GAMES CLUB Twickenham, TW1 3RR MIDLOTHIAN EDINBURGH LEAGUE OF GAMERS Edinburgh, EH7 5EA SOUTH EAST SCOTLAND WARGAMES CLUB Edinburgh, EH7 4EW NORFOLK AFTERMATH GAMING CLUB Norwich, NR3 4HX KINGS LYNN RPG & WARGAMES CLUB King’s Lynn, PE30 4DN NORWICH BOARD GAMERS Norwich, NR2 4AL TAS GAMING CLUB King’s Lynn, PE34 4SJ NORTH SOMERSET POSSETT GAMING CLUB Bristol, BS20 7AN NORTH YORKSHIRE BOARDED UP Selby, YO8 8QE HARROGATE WARGAMES CLUB Harrogate, HG1 5LT SCARBOROUGH GAMES SOCIETY Scarborough, YO12 7BY YORK GARRISON WARGAMING CLUB York, YO32 4AQ NORTHAMPTONSHIRE BATTLEFIELD HOBBIES Daventry, NN11 8RB DESBOROUGH ROLEPLAYING AND WARGAMES CLUB Kettering, NN14 2NQ
PHOENIX GAMING CLUB Rushden, NN10 9YE THE BRACKLEY & DISTRICT GAMERS Brackley, NN13 6LF THE PIT GAMING CLUB Wellingborough, NN9 5TU NORTHUMBERLAND BOARD TO DEATH Alnwick, NE66 3NP KRAKEN ROLEPLAYING CLUB NEWCASTLE Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1RQ NOTTINGHAMSHIRE K.I.A GAMES CLUB Nottingham, NG17 8LA NOTTINGHAM BOARD & WARGAMES CLUB Nottingham, NG2 1NB RETFORD LIBRARY TABLETOP GAMING DAY Retford, DN22 6PE THE CLUB WITH NO NAME Nottingham, NG2 1NB WAR & PEACE GAMES CLUB Nottingham, NG10 5BD WILD WAYS Newark, NG24 1UD ORKNEY ORKNEY WARGAMES CLUB Kirkwall, KW15 1PA OXFORDSHIRE ABINGDON WARGAMES CLUB Abingdon, OX14 5AG AMBROSDEN GAMING CLUB Bicester, OX25 2LZ BICESTER BOARD GAMERS Bicester, OX26 3HA GWEEPLES Didcot, OX11 6GR NORTH OXFORDSHIRE WARGAMING CLUB Banbury, OX16 9AF OXFORD GAMING CLUB Oxford, OX2 7DP OXFORD ON BOARD Oxford, OX4 1EA OXFORD OUTRIDERS Oxford, OX1 2AU PEMBROKESHIRE PEMBROKESHIRE WARGAMING Haverfordwest, SA61 1JW RENFREWSHIRE GLASGOW AND DISTRICT WARGAMING SOCIETY Glasgow, G41 4AD SHROPSHIRE BIG ORBIT GAMES SHREWSBURY Shrewsbury, SY1 1PH E-COLLECTICA GAMES Shrewsbury, SY1 2DT GAMES @THE BIRD Shrewsbury, SY1 2DT STAGS TELFORD WARGAMING SOCIETY Telford, TF1 1LU TELFORD BOARDGAMERS CLUB Telford, TF1 2BW SOMERSET ABBEYWOOD IRREGULARS Frome, BA11 1PU BATH GAMING GROUP Bath, BA2 6AA MID SOMERSET WARGAMES CLUB Wells, BA5 2PU PIGMAR WARGAMING CLUB Bath, BA1 6AB THE ESCAPE COMMITTEE WARGAMES CLUB Burnham-on-Sea, TA8 2ET THE FROME BOARD GAMES CLUB Frome, BA11 1PU TRINITY WARGAMING CLUB Taunton, TA1 3JG WARGAMING @ RADSTOCK Radstock, BA3 4BD WESTON WARGAMERS CLUB Weston-super-Mare, BS23 1NF
WSM BOARD GAMING CLUB Weston super Mare, BS22 8PD SOUTH HUMBERSIDE GRIM DICE TABLETOP GAMING Grimsby, DN32 7EG SCUNTHORPE TABLETOP GAMERS Scunthorpe, DN16 1DQ SOUTH YORKSHIRE MALTBY AND DISTRICT WARGAMES CLUB Rotherham, S66 8JB ROTHERHAM WARGAMES SOCIETY Rotherham, S60 1JE STEEL CITY WARGAMING Sheffield, S13 7LL VAULT 14 Doncaster, DN1 3JU ZONE OUT GAMES CLUB Doncaster, DN1 2PX SOUTHWARK DICE CULT London, SE1 4GZ STAFFORDSHIRE ALL ABOARD GAMING CLUB Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 1JB BEACON BOARD GAMERS Stafford, st18 0gb CHASE WARGAMES CLUB Burntwood, WS7 0JL GAMING POTION Stoke-on-Trent, ST10 4JY LICHFIELD GAMERS AND RPG Lichfield, WS13 6EB TAMWORTH GAMES CLUB Tamworth, B79 7DJ TAMWORTH LIBERATORS GAMING CLUB Tamworth, B77 3AE THE ARTISANS’ GALLERY GAMING CLUB Stoke-on-Trent, ST8 6AP THE VINE INN GAMERS Rugeley, WS15 2AT TRITEX GAMES Stafford, ST16 1BG STIRLINGSHIRE FALKIRK DISTRICT WARGAMES CLUB Grangemouth, FK3 8QR LENNOXTOWN GAMING HUB Glasgow, G66 7LL STIRLING WARGAMERS Stirling, FK8 1QJ SUFFOLK BECCLES BOARD GAMERS Beccles, NR34 9AB BURY ST EDMUNDS BOARD GAMING GROUP Bury St. Edmunds, IP30 9LH HAVERHILL AREA BOARD GAME GROUP Haverhill, CB9 8AU HAVERHILL WAR GAMES CLUB Haverhill, CB9 9JE IPSWICH BOARD GAMERS Ipswich, IP3 0FS IPSWICH COUNTY LIBRARY BOARD GAMES LIBRARY Ipswich, IP1 3DE MID SUFFOLK GAMING CLUB Stowmarket, IP14 4SH SKYWARD FIRE GAMES Lowestoft, NR32 1TY WHITE EAGLES WARGAMES CLUB Ipswich, IP2 0RG SURREY BELLUM KNIGHTS Surbiton, KT6 5NJ CROSS GAMING CLUB London, SE1 7RW CROYDON BOARD GAMERS Croydon, CR0 1DP EAGLE GAMING CLUB London, SW18 2PT FARNHAM LIBRARY Farnham, GU9 7DR
GUILDFORD BOARD GAMES CLUB Guildford, GU1 4LH HAMPTON COURT GAMES CLUB East Molesey, KT8 0BT KINGSTON GAMES GROUP Kingston upon Thames, KT2 6LN REIGATE WARGAMES GROUP Reigate, RH2 0NA STAINES WARGAMES ASSOCIATION Egham, TW20 0QT STAY ON TARGET Woking, GU21 5BG SURREY GIRL GAMERS Woking, GU21 4AL SUTTON GAMES CLUB Sutton, SM1 1DT SUTTON GAMING CLUB Sutton, SM1 4DP SWIGGERS London, SE1 2TF THE SOUTH LONDON WARLORDS London, SE21 7BT THE WOKING WEIRD BOYZ Woking, GU22 7TA TOLWORTH 1ST FOUNDING Chessington, KT9 1PF SUSSEX BRIGHTON WARLORDS Brighton, BN1 1UB WARWICKSHIRE AFTERNOON PLAY Birmingham, B15 1AY BOARD GAME CAFE SUMMERFIELD Birmingham, B16 0EZ BRAVO ONE GAMING Birmingham, B1 1QP COCKED DICE GAMING Coventry, CV5 9EQ DREAMDEALERS GAMING CLUB Coventry, CV6 4FE GRANGE LIVE GAMING Birmingham, B1 1QP NUNEATON ALTERNATIVE GAMES ASSOCIATION Nuneaton, CV10 8LJ OCTOBER WARGAMES ASSOCIATION Birmingham, B29 6DX ROLEPLAYERS GUILD - BIRMINGHAM Birmingham, B5 5BL SCIMITAR WARGAMES GROUP Coventry, CV3 5GT WEST MIDLANDS BIRMINGHAM WARGAMES AND BOARDGAMES CLUB AKA DRAGOON’S DEN Birmingham, B13 9EA DUDLEY DARKLORDS Kingswinford, DY6 8AP PLAY MORE GAMES Solihull, B91 3TB PLAY MORE GAMES! Solihull, B90 3GG WEST SUSSEX BOGNOR REGIS GAMING ASSOCIATION Bognor Regis, PO21 5EU CRAWLEY GAMING CLUB Crawley, RH10 5DF DUNGEON CRAWLEY GAMES CLUB Crawley, RH11 7QG HORSHAM GAMERS Horsham, RH12 3LD MID SUSSEX MEEPLES Burgess Hill, RH15 8DX POUND HILL BOARD GAMING Crawley, RH10 7EQ SOUTH DOWNS SIEGEBREAKERS Pulborough, RH20 4DR THE ENGINE ROOM - GAMES NIGHT East Grinstead, RH19 1AW
WEST YORKSHIRE BOARD IN THE VILLAGE Bradford, BD14 6RE GAMING CLUB BRADFORD Bradford, BD1 2DX HALIFAX BOARD GAMERS Halifax, HX1 1SJ KEIGHLEY TABLETOP COMBAT Keighley, BD20 6EB MIDLIFE DICES Shipley, BD18 4SJ OTLEY BOARD GAMERS Otley, LS21 2AU PENNINE RAIDERS Halifax, HX3 6AW PUDSEY BOARD GAME CLUB Pudsey, LS28 6AT STOD FOLD BOARD GAME NIGHT Halifax, HX3 5AX WILTSHIRE BOSCOMBE DOWN & AMESBURY WARGAMES CLUB Salisbury, SP4 7LN CHIPPENHAM BOARD GAMES CLUB Chippenham, SN15 3WL DEVIZES & DISTRICT WARGAMES GROUP Devizes, SN10 5AD SALISBURY ROLE PLAY GROUP Salisbury, SP2 8HB SPIRE TABLETOP GAMING Salisbury, SP1 1DT WEDNESDAY KNIGHT GAMERS Salisbury, SP1 3TA WORCESTERSHIRE BROMSGROVE BOARD GAMERS Bromsgrove, B60 2DZ KIDDERMINSTER AND AREA ROLEPLAYERS Kidderminster, DY11 5QA PERSHORE GAMING Pershore, WR10 1EQ POSTAL ORDER GEEK MEET Worcester, WR1 1DN REDDITCH TABLETOP GAMERS Redditch, B97 5YE WORCESTER BOARD GAMERS (WOBOG) Worcester, WR1 2DP WYRE FOREST GAMERS Kidderminster, DY10 1RP YORKSHIRE AIREBOROUGH COMMUNITY GAMERS Leeds, LS19 6AS BEYOND MONOPOLY York, YO24 1AQ EAST LEEDS MILITARIA SOCIETY WARGAMES CLUB Leeds, LS25 2HD HEADINGLEY GAMES CLUB. LEEDS, WEST YORKS Leeds, LS6 3HN HOLMFIRTH GAMING CENTRE Holmfirth, HD9 7HP HULL’S ANGELS Hull, HU1 3HG IRELAND WOOD GAMES COMMUNITY Leeds, LS16 6BS KNIGHTSCAPE RPG CAMPAIGN Leeds, LS19 7LX LEEDS GAMING Leeds, LS1 3DL LEEDS NIGHT OWLS Leeds, LS6 1LJ SHEFFIELD AND ROTHERHAM WARGAMES CLUB Sheffield, S2 2TP SHEFFIELD BOARD GAMES Sheffield, S3 7HG SHEFFIELD WARGAMES SOCIETY Sheffield, S2 2TP
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EVENT REPORT
PICTURES SPECIAL
AIRECON 2020
Unbeknownst to us at the time, Airecon was likely to be the last convention we attended for a few months. Here’s a celebration of some of the best bits from the show
Words by Christopher John Eggett | Pictures by Anna Blackwell irecon is one of the largest tabletop conventions in the UK. Taking place in the lovely Harrogate, the show attracts designers, players and collectors of all kinds. In particular there is a very strong presence for prototype games and playtesting. Players can sit down and have real, meaningful discussions about games with their creators, before they get published. Hearing conversations in the hall about some part of the game being too heavy, too quick, too slow, not meaningful enough of a choice, and the designer responding with well-articulated reasoning and questions, made us all feel proud of the hobby we’re all part of. So, to celebrate our analogue hobby, and the people who make it possible, here is our round up in pictures of Airecon 2020. *
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5 1 The pulpy sci-fi deck-building of the excellently named Aliens Ate My Planet! 2 Defection is a space getaway of a game, with cool space combat 3 A miniature from the beta of Sythopian Wars
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4 Medusa Games’ reworking of The Great Fire of London 1666 for the third edition sees some really nice components 5 Dice of the Dead is all about ascending from your (stunning and entirely fabulous looking) coffin to the village of the afterlife 6 The Gorgon’s Loch might be the gateway dungeon crawl we’ve all been looking for 7 Ah, time to set sail with Tranqulity, an its lovely beer-mat shaped cards 8 Yogi Guru, which is Yogi, but more, from the ever-charming Bez 9 If you go down to the woods today, with Yay Games’ Gruffalo themed game box
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10 A game of Mob Sitters in action. Will you be able to accuse, lie and distract your way out of trouble with the boss?
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SHOP SPOTLIGHT
ASGARD WARGAMES Managing director Steven Johnston talks us through the wargaming scene in Middlesborough Interview by Christopher John Eggett How did the store first get started? I was working at a social club for several years when I was made aware of a business loan scheme for the under 30’s. Three months of working on a business plan alongside a mentor for me the funding I needed to make a go of being an independent retailer. What’s changed in the time it’s been running? Asgard has grown significantly over the last six years, we started with as broad a range of games as I could manage at the time, and I’ve been able to refine that to match up with the needs of the local community. Some games have come and gone, but we now have a core of regularly played games that we stock all year round, whilst always looking out for the next big thing! What’s the gaming scene like in Middlesborough? Middlesbrough has always been a big wargaming town, and has supported several game clubs over the years. Warhammer and its associated game are of course at the heart of that, but there’s long been support for D&D and board games as well. Asgard simply slotted into that community to provide a better option than just online. What’s been the biggest challenge of running the store? The growth of online sales for sure, I started out doing a handful of orders, but now it’s becoming more and more demanding on my time. It’s been
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a real learning curve (I’d never have imagined I’d one day have a favourite cardboard box size...), but one that I’ve settled into nicely now. What titles have you found popular recently? In the last year I have partnered up with a lovely couple, Jamie and Samantha, to provide board games alongside wargames, as the market for this has grown hugely. I think there’s been a real reaction to the amount of time we spend on social media, so traditional games have become a fantastic tool to enhance our increasingly rare face to face interactions. As such, games like D&D have seen a huge rise in popularity. For my part, I’ve found that the Games Workshop specialist games range has been amazingly popular, including Warcry which has recently become our most attended tournament night ever. What makes Asgard unique? The community – I’ve been blessed with a fantastic core of regulars who are all supremely talented painters, gamers and hobbyists. We have access to a huge wealth of knowledge between us, covering all genres of games. I am proud that no matter who comes through the door, I, or any of our regulars can provide a great sounding board for ideas for them to ensure that we continue to showcase the very best hobby in the town, if not the country!
What are some of your personal favourite games? I’ve recently become interested in Age of Sigmar on a competitive level, which is something a younger me would have hated. It’s such a beautifully written system that it’s a joy to pit my wits against other players. I’ve also fallen in love with Sword & Spear Fantasy as my mass battle game of choice. Ultimately my favourite games are ones that lend themselves to multi-player formats, The Men Who Would Be Kings from Osprey Games, Muskets and Tomahawks from Studio Tomahawk, and Time Stories from Space Cowboys are all fantastic games. What events do you run for the local gaming scene? We are only a small shop so we tend to focus on campaign gaming rather than big tournaments. Each month we have a themed campaign or league going for a different game system, be it Stalingrad for Bolt Action, or Path to Glory for Age of Sigmar. Then for variety we will run one tournament or single day event each month that is something different to our main game, so last month we did a fantastic Warcry tournament in a single night (with time for pizza). In the future we are looking forward to trying Elder Scrolls: A Call to Arms from Modiphius, and giving Warhammer Underworlds another bash.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT? 71 Gilkes Street, Middlesbrough, TS1 5EH | asgardwargames.co.uk
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HAMPSHIRE
GUERNSEY
A Fistful of Dice Independent Wargaming, Hobby, Roleplay & Card Game Shop & Gaming Centre
A new and exciting centre for many different types of gaming in Guernsey. Come and discover for yourself what’s in store and join in many events and activities! 0333 340 7470 72 Elm Grove, Southsea, PO5 1LN
www.afistfulofdice.co.uk /fistfulofdice
Stockists of Board, Card, Computer, RPG & Video Games. Unit 5, The Albany, St. Peter Port, Guernsey, GY1 1AE Tel: 01481 712240 Facebook: Facebook.com/JustGamesGsy
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CONQUEST ay back in the stone age (c.1970s) I had what I thought was a brilliant idea for a twoplayer abstract. Each would have about eight dice and instead of rolling them at random would ‘flip’ them from square to square on an 8x8 grid, so that at each flip a different but adjacent number would come up. The idea of trying to work out how to get a particular number onto a particular square seemed very attractive if you have that sort of mind, and I worked at it for ages. Unfortunately it never got anywhere – I could never decide on a satisfactory scale or objective and turned to other things instead. What I didn’t know was that 1975 had already seen such a game published, invented by Geoffrey Hayes and published in the UK by Denys Fisher Toys under the title Conquest. I pounced on it immediately, played it with delight, and reviewed it in Games & Puzzles magazine. My brother and I still enjoy it, using the original review copy, though with a few additional rules. You each start with eight large dice specially arranged on your nine-long home rank of a 9x8 chequered board. The central ‘key’ square of the row is occupied by your ‘key’ die. It moves just one square at a time, and you win by either getting it across to the opposing key square or capturing the opposing key die. A die moves orthogonally the number of spaces shown on it uppermost face at the start of a move, and it may (but need not) make just one right-angled turn in its move. It may not pass over another piece, but can capture an enemy piece by replacement. Success, of course, depends on your ability to position pieces correctly and ensure that they finish well placed and with a suitable number uppermost. Naturally, what that is, depends on the position. In an open game sixes are strongest; in a crowded game threes and fours are best; ones are nearly always definite weaknesses. At first sight it’s hard to visualise your way around a three-dimensional piece in order to work out where it can land up and in what orientation. In fact, however, it is a knack that can be learned in the course of your first few games. Thereafter it’s a game of pure skill and foresight.
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Conquest was successful to the extent that it has been published by a dozen or so companies in several countries and under a variety of names (Alea, Duel, Duelo, George v Mildred Dice Game, Tactix), and I think its German version, Duell, is still obtainable. But it can be considered unsuccessful in that ‘that sort of mind’ seems not to be very widespread. As one reviewer writes on BoardGameGeek, ‘You have to memorize the layout of the dice to get your perfect information. It’s a mental feat few players would be interested in grasping’. But I still think it’s great. *
BELOW Conquest: The Strategy Game of Dice, from David Parlett’s own collection
David Parlett is a games inventor and historian, author of The Oxford History of Card Games and its sequel on board games, and a visiting professor of games design at the University of Suffolk.
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CRITICAL ROLE: EXPLORER’S GUIDE TO WILDEMOUNT OUR IN-DEP T H T WO PAGE RE V IE W DI V ES DEEP IN TO CRI TC AL ROLE LORE tabletopgaming.co.uk
May 2020
MY CITY
Reiner Knizia takes us on a guided tour of his legacy city building game
ROLL WITH IT
We explore the depths of the Rollplayer series
HOW TO PLAY RPGS ONLINE
THE DEFENCE OF PROCYON III £5.25
SH ADOWS OF KILFOR TH | WAV ELENG T H | ORIFL AME | FAFNIR O DYS S E Y O F T H E D R AG O N L O RD S | A F T E R S H O C K | M I YA B I
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PLAYED
We join the asymmetrical, Eurogame style war on two fronts with David Turzci
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EDITORIAL EDITOR Christopher John Eggett 01778 392 400 [email protected]
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CONTRIBUTORS Owen Duffy, Robert Florence, Richard Jansen-Parkes, Dan Jolin, Andy Leighton, David Parlett, Alex Sonechkina, Charlie Theel, Matthew Vernall, James Wallis, Chad Wilkinson
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Get in touch tabletopgaming.co.uk
hile living in interesting times, the desire for distraction has become greater than ever. But what a terrible twist that we’re having to spend this time apart, rather than together. Here at Tabletop Gaming, it’s business as usual, as much as could be expected. We’re still writing about board games and we’re still printing magazines and dropping them through your letterbox (if you’re a subscriber, and following all government guidance of course). Our cover story this week is an exciting, sprawling wargame played across two boards but pulled with perfect and equal force in three directions. David Turczi’s baby is what happens when you carefully mix together equal parts Ameritrash, wargaming and Eurogames (bulked out by the understated use of nitroglycerine). If you don’t fancy planning an exit strategy, then try planning a city. Reiner Knizia lays out the blueprints of his new game, My City. A gateway legacy game that feels very much like a Euro-style tile-layer – imbued with the usual twinkly charm all Knizia games come with. And of course, we have tons of games reviewed and rated.
tabletopmag tabletopgamingmagazine tabletop_gaming_magazine
Christopher John Eggett Editor Q U I C K S TA R T
It took me two If the tribes years to figure don’t want out all the excess to fight, well, they I’m ‘allowed’ just don’t fight. Diplomacy rules!
...and then nature gives us some ‘obstacles’, some challenges
David Turczi on designing The Defence of Procyon III, p20
Reiner Knizia on what nature offer us in My City , p42
Christian Martinez explains the peaceful option in Inis, p30
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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In this issue
06 AT A GLANCE 09 FIRST TURN Cole Wehrle negotiates power in Pax Pamir
10 TEN OF THE BEST Tower defence games, for those of us under seige
13 ROLE CALL 14 HAVE YOU PLAYED?
We uncover the Celtic myths of Inis
36 THE INDIE SHELF 37 UNEARTHED ARTEFACTS 38 ROLL PLAYER We explore the extended universe of character creation game, Roll Player
59 AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 PLAYS 61 PLAYED Wondering what to play this month? Read on...
85 PAINTING GUIDE Our Batman painting guide
90 DUNGEON MASTER’S GUIDE TO ROLEPLAYING
Decrypto asks you to fool your friends
42 MY CITY
16 ALL THE JAHRES
A beautiful day in the neighbourhood with Reiner Knizia
94 EVENT REPORT: AIRECON 2020 PICTURE SPECIAL
Kingdomino, Bruno Cathala’s kingdom expanding tile layer
50 COURT OF THE DEAD
96 SHOP SPOTLIGHT
19 MY FAVOURITE GAME
Will you answer the call of the underworld?
Marc Langworthy on Infinity
55 CARDBOARD MANIFESTO
ON THE COVER!
56 HOW TO PLAY RPGS ONLINE
20 THE DEFENCE OF PROCYON III A war rages on two fronts – and David Turczi is leading the charge
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30 HOW WE MADE
May 2020
58 MICROGAME OF THE MONTH: ROBO-OH, NO!
98 TABLETOP TIME MACHINE
SEE WHO’S COMING! P28-29
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Sound
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YouTube Bad Bones
10
Carnival Zombie
10
Castle Pannic
10
Cloudspire
10
Conquest
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Court of the Dead
50
Decrypto
14
Defection
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Dice of the Dead
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Elder Scrolls: A Call to Arms
96
Frosthaven
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50
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56
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Harlem Unbound
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Infinity
19
Inis
30
Kingdomino
16
Last Bastion
10
My City
42
Pax Pamir
9
Roll Player
38
Rurick
55
Sea Evil
36
Set a Watch
10
Slyvion
10
Space Hulk: Death Angel
10
Spirit Island
10
Starfinder
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Stronghold
10
Sword & Spear Fantasy
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Tales from the Loop
13
The Dark Knight Rises 85
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The Defence of Procyon III
20
The Great Fire of London 1666
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Tranquility
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Warhammer Underworlds
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Wingspan
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Yogi Guru
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Zombie Kidz Evolution 37
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AT A GLANCE TABLETOP GAMING LIVE 2020 SCHEDULED TO GO AHEAD AS PLANNED
FROSTHAVEN BACKED FOR OVER £5 MILLION
While the events calendar for 2020 is a complete mess, you can still save a date for us
While many things are not quite as they ought to be during the current coronavirus lockdown, with social distancing rules keeping us two metres apart from strangers and working from home meaning we’re more isolated than ever, Tabletop Gaming hopes to be a beacon of normality. And with that, we’re here to remind you that our event at the end of September is continuing as planned. The event is to take place Alexandra Palace, London on Saturday 26th to Sunday 27th September 2020, and is set to be a huge
celebration of analogue gaming. Assuming the world has returned to normality this might be one of the first times everyone in the tabletop community can get together under one roof and play the games we love. Recent sign-ups to the show include Lion Tower Miniatures (the adventurers guild series of minis), Decking Awesome Games (the creators of Dice Summoners), Culverin Models (scenery, and the Summoners tanks to blow it up with) and Accentuate Games (makers of everyones favourite excuse to put on a silly voice, Accentuate). Chaos Cards and Zatu will also be in attendance offering great deals on everyone’s favourite games. What’s more, with a world that will hopefully be back to normal, our huge open gaming area will be available for players to get to know one another in person – rather than suffering through zoom calls as we all have been these recent weeks. We’ve got some exciting news about our talks and workshops coming up, so stay tuned here, online and on our social media channels to hear it first.
Our chilly adventure is now certain
Frosthaven, possibly the most anticipated Kickstarter of 2020, has been backed to an eye-watering sum of £5.5m (at the time of writing, honestly, the numbers just keep going up every time we look). We interviewed Isaac Childres in issue 40 about the upcoming game, so pick up a digital issue if you want the inside scoop on a couple of possible unlockable characters within the game, and to find out if it’s okay to not have finished Gloomhaven.
Get your TTG2020 Tickets here ttgami.ng/cometottgl20
KNOW YOUR NUMBERS
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the number of free microgames we’re giving away on our site right now. Visit: ttgami.ng/14Micros
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the number of TOHO Godzilla monsters that will be appearing in the newest set for Magic: The Gathering, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
$250
52
pages in the The Hermit’s Sanctuary (free) adventure for Beowulf: Age of Heroes 5E.
the reward in gift vouchers offered by Portal Games if you create a new Robinson Crusoe adventure
6
the number of scandi-mechs in the Tales from the Loop board game
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January 2018
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For the latest news from the world of gaming visit
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PUBLISHERS GIVE AWAY GAMES TO KEEP THE UK ENTERTAINED DURING LOCKDOWN
From free print and play to digital outings, there’s still gaming to be done With the whole country in lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, we have seen an outpouring of kind gestures from publishers across the whole spectrum of gaming. A huge number of publishers have offered new solo modes of their games, print and play versions for people stuck at home, and digital offers to keep us all from going mad. Osprey have offered the entire Frostgrave rulebooks for free, along with some solo adventures, Mantic are giving away solo modes, campaigns and even fiction, while Chaosium has open sourced their Basic Roleplaying
System and provided a Call of Cthulhu colouring book. Asmodee has given away a whole host of games including Dobble as print and play games. Portal Games are offering Empires of the North, and Days of Wonder have Corinth available to download. There’s never been a better time to own a printer and a pair of scissors. On the Tabletop Gaming website we’re keeping up with the freebies and deals as they come out. Stay tuned for more.
We asked… What are your gaming
plans during the lockdown?
You said…
My plan is to paint a Bloodbowl team ready for when we can mingle again, and paint some scenery for the same reason. Brian Ian Edwards Tons of Legendary Laura Zuvanich-Guerrero
Just got Abomination yesterday, and It’s a Wonderful World coming tomorrow… and many I have yet to learn or play Stephen Jewell May get the kids playing Pandemic as an educational resource now Jeff Stokes
RESIDENT EVIL 3: THE BOARD GAME IS COMING TO KICKSTARTER
Zombie residents of Racoon City need a better understanding of what two metres is Steamforged are bringing the third instalment of the extremely popular Resident Evil video game series to our tabletops, with a Kickstarter coming on April 28. Resident Evil 3: The Board Game follows hot on the heels of the success of 2019’s Resident Evil 2. Working with Capcom’s licence once again, the team at Steamforged are unlikely to change what has worked so well for fans so far. The game offers either one-shot scenarios for quicker gameplay, or an over 19-hour campaign with overarching storyline. As part of this, the tension deck – a praised part of Resident Evil 2’s ’s gameplay – returns, which Steamforged suggest “will surprise players with unexpected threats to replicate the terrifying suspense of the video game”. Oh, and of course, we’re loving the Nemesis minis (one form pictured right).
THE TABLETOP GAMING PODCAST
Playing some Wingspan and hopefully finishing Charterstone and Pandemic: Season 1 Cory King Trying to paint a couple of warbands for Frostgrave Glenn Taylor I just picked up Legendary Encounters: Alien Alien, which I am looking forward to playing (if I can convince my wife to play ite) Mark Sosbe Finally, the time has come to play Campaign for North Africa John Davies
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7
FIRST TURN
COLE WEHRLE The master tactician behind Root casts his mind back to his historical 2015 debut: Pax Pamir Interview by Dan Jolin
BACKGROUND “I grew up in a big family, where playing games was a really important part of growing up. I’ve been doing design forever, but it was always a very personal kind of goofy thing, like making variants for Twilight Imperium, and I’d never been able to finish them. But in grad school I wanted to teach myself graphic design and started doing redraws of old games as a way of learning that. I also happened to live across the road from a store which stocked Phil Eklund’s games, like High Frontier, so I got really into them, and we started e-mailing. He liked some of my work and I offered to help him playtest, which gave me a ringside seat to seeing how a game actually gets made.”
COMPONENTS “I remember in September 2012 getting a copy of Phil’s game Pax Porfiriana and it just shaking me to my core, because I had been playing all these very long, knotty history games, and to see that done in 60 minutes without it feeling compressed was really amazing. I was working with Phil on Greenland when he said, ‘You’re researching Central Asia in the Victorian era, have you maybe thought about maybe making your own Pax game?’ And I thought having watched Phil do it, I can try.”
OBJECTIVE “I design the best when I dislike something. I love games that grapple with interaction. But engine builders and that kind of stuff? Not interested. So I had this puzzle: can you build a tableau builder that starts interactive and where player positions stay dependent all the way through the game? Also, I’m an anti-imperialist at heart, so I didn’t want to make a game that would valorise a really horrible thing like Russia and Britain’s Great Game in Afghanistan. Once I realised that mechanical question and that thematic question were tied together, the game started generating.”
SETUP “Pamir was a tricky design for lots of reasons. Before it had a board, when it was just a pure card game during development, it was so hard to think about. So I built some pivot tables to play it in a spreadsheet format, because it
May 2020
was fast and I could see the board state very clearly. Then it became clear it was just not built for people to think about. It was an unplayable mess. Phil Skyped me and said, ‘You have to do something or we can’t publish this.’ So I locked myself in my back room and worked on it for two days. That’s when I added the spy system, the way the map gets abstracted… Many of the core elements of Pamir came out of that one weekend.”
HOW TO PLAY “Pamir is a game about nation building, where this large empire has collapsed and players have to pick up the pieces to create a state. They do this in the context of these other world powers that are on the fringes. So you will array yourselves in these different coalitions and try to move between the coalitions, with the hope that you can position yourself in a winning coalition, and be the top person in that coalition. It’s a tableau builder: there’s a central market of cards that present different opportunities and powers. You buy them and play them to cultivate your own personal power base and differentiate your position, and then you use those powers to achieve that goal.”
I design the best when I dislike something. I love games that grapple with interaction
END OF THE GAME “It did great. I got so lucky. Sometimes with first games, they get very mixed reviews but that didn’t happen for me. I had some very positive notices, and then it sold out very quickly. I was shocked at how fast it sold out: about two months. There were these groups of people, a few in Portland, a couple in Seattle, who got really obsessed with it, and their comments and reports were so encouraging that I just kept thinking about design.”
STRATEGY TIPS “Be really attentive to your craft. Be critical of your own work. Self-care is really important, but you need to maintain your sense of criticism and your sense that you can do better when you’re evaluating your own work. You should keep that voice in your mind that says, ‘It’s not good enough.’ Also, find your audience, treat them with care, build them slowly. Attend to your audience, because a thousand true fans can get you through everything.” *
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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1
LAST BASTION
Play as a group of heroes who have stolen a powerful relic from the Baleful Queen, who, understandably, wants it back. Attacked on four sides, the heroes must repel waves of monsters and enemies to secure their safety and survival. It’s a tough co-op game that reimplements Antoine Bauza’s classic Ghost Stories with a number of minor quality of life upgrades. Bar the dice combat, the game is one of low randomness and high tactics for you and your fellow hero-thieves.
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SYLVION
A card game version of a classic tower defence set up, with a bit of deck building. Sylvion has attacks that come down in four rows of waves. Attempt to keep the heart of the forest safe from raging fire elementals (you know what they’re like) by deploying the trees and animals at your disposal. The game uses a ‘discard cards to use other cards’ mechanism to play out cards that means the pressure you’re under can sometimes be of your own doing. A clever, forestsaving card puzzler.
OF THE BEST
TOWER DEFENCE GAMES
Feeling under siege these days? We’ve gathered together some of the best ‘tower defence’ games. Games that see you trying to survive waves of enemies, and sometimes, give you the chance to build your defences. Most of these can be played solo, a useful thing to know for these strange times Picked by Christopher John Eggett
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CASTLE PANIC
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DEATH ANGEL
In a severe case of NIMBYism, the creatures of the magical woods nearby your newly erected castle have decided that you shouldn’t have got planning permission. As such they are marching on your castle in an attempt to knock it down. You’re a winner if you slay the most monsters, but working together and trading cards to help one another is an important aspect of survival. Available in Star Trek and Munchkins flavours, should you wish.
Another card game, but this time in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Set in a classic flavour of Games Workshop (that of a decaying space hulk that is infested with genestealers) players pick one of the six space marine teams available and use their special skills wipe out the enemy. A kind of roving adventure rather than a strict tower defence, with new locations coming up to hunker down in and ride out the storm after each wave.
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BAD BONES
Terrible skeletons have risen from the earth to knock you off your perch, or tower, rather. Things had been so peaceful until the dead got a bit overactive. A true tower defence where you must outlast your opponents, rather than defeat the enemy. With trap-laying, spell-casting and troop-recruiting to hold back the tide of the invasion. The game can be theoretically played with no downtime, and therefore a six player game can last a mere 30 minutes.
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SET A WATCH
Not about time keeping, but dice assignment. Set a Watch sees your heroes traveling to different locations to defend them from an onslaught of enemies. A big part of the game is the management of the camp and the fire, as well as the monsters who are attempting to ruin your encampment. With plenty of options and strategies to pursue once the dice have been rolled, this is tactical game that invites a little quarterbacking, but not too much.
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SPIRIT ISLAND
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CLOUDSPIRE
In what could be consider, at least, a thematic tower defence game, as you defend your island from the threats of colonialism. Each player in the this co-op game takes the form of a an elemental spirit with their own powers, powers which can be used to scare and destroy the colonizers. As play is somewhat asymmetrical and played out through cards, working together gives you the best chance of overcoming the odds in this campaign defence game.
While not all videogame concepts can make the leap to the tabletop, the MOBA genre is one that is one that is readily tried over and over. In this case the towers you’re defending also have attack capabilities, and work as a kind of support for your troops on the ground. These units are hidden for the most part, only revealed when absolutely necessary, making for a game of shuffling your armies into position for the perfect attack. Plus, there’s lots of ways to upgrade your base.
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STRONGHOLD
A two-player game, rather than a co-op like many on this list, so one of you will have to be outside of the castle trying to get in. As the invader build war machines and throw your troops at the walls to try and break through. As the defender of the stronghold, you attempt to repair your walls in moments of calm and replenish your smaller number of troops. Every turn counts in this true test of your ability to survive.
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CARNIVAL ZOMBIE
A beautiful game of decaying people and streets. By day you and your co-op buddies are attempting to escape zombified Venice, while at night, you try and survive the attacking zombies behind barricades. During the day you’ll be searching for an exit, as well ways to make your barricades stronger, or survivors to help keep them standing. A game full of weird bosses and tactical retreats. You might not be defending a tower, but you’ll wish you were.
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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COMING SO O N !
Role Call We’ve got a whole pile of revolutionary new RPG books inbound this month, ranging from sci-fi mysteries through to post-mortem adventures Words by Richard Jansen-Parkes
TALES FROM THE LOOP STARTER SET Tales From the Loop’s whimsical sci-fi mysteries are some of the slickest bits of roleplaying to come out in recent years, and this new box set promises to make leaping into the world of the Loop as easy as possible. Expect pre-gen characters, funky maps and streamlined rules for newbies. Free League | £29.99
May 2020
STARFINDER – NEAR SPACE The latest sourcebook for Paizo’s space-hopping Starfinder promises a major expansion to the game’s core setting, outlining dozens of new worlds and cultures ripe for adventuring through. Of course, as well as setting info you can expect the book to be dripping with new character options, gear and rules. Paizo | £35.99
STAR TREK ADVENTURES – DELTA QUADRANT Voyager has a rather mixed legacy among Star Trek fans, but there’s no denying that it’s exploration of the Delta Quadrant spat out some pretty cool ideas now and then. Ever wanted to roll up a liberated Borg player character? Well, this is your chance right here. Onyx Path | £27.99
HARLEM UNBOUND – SECOND EDITION
GEIST – THE SIN EATERS SECOND EDITION
An expanded and polished take on an award-winning look at Lovecraftian roleplaying in the busy streets of prohibitionera Harlem. As well as the usual monsters and plot hooks for players to invest in, you can also expect a crash-course in confronting issue of race at the tabletop.
In most RPGs, death represents the end of a character. In Geist, it’s just the beginning. Explore the world as a medium caught between the worlds of the living and the dead, take your vengeance on the exploitative necromancers and generally live your un-life to the fullest.
Chaosium | £17.99
Onyx Path | £37.99
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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H AV E Y O U P L AY E D ?
DECRYPT0
Lead your friends astray with cleverly laid wordtraps, misleading puns and outright bluffing in a game that’ll teach you a lot about how your friends read the world in Decrypto Words by Christopher John Eggett ying to your friends isn’t usually advised. Not if you want to keep your friends, and especially not if you’re a bad liar. Obfuscating the truth, or white lies, can be permissible in certain situations. For
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example, in moments of espionage in tabletop professional eavesdropping classic Decrypto. Like the similarly spy-like play of Codenames, Decrypto is a game that tests whether you really know your friends or not. Not just on your own team mind, but on the
opposing team too. Yes, this is a game that needs at least four people ideally, so not one for those of us trapped at home at the moment alone, or merely coupled. However, it does lend itself very nicely to playing across the internet. With two teams playing across a videocall services like Skype or Zoom, the game can function with very limited drawbacks. Of course, you’d each have to own a copy of the game, but considering its popularity, that’s not a stretch. So get settled in and prepare to learn how your friends think of the world, as well as what they think you don’t know. But be warned, it’s trickier cracking this particular thesaurusshaped safe than you might first imagine.
WHAT IS IT? Decrypto is a game about informing your teammate of the secret code drawn each turn. This code is a simple string of numbers, like 3-4-1-2. The numbers you’re trying to communicate are matched with a kind of cypher, drawn from the deck and added to your screen – a very nice screen which reveals the words, through a kind of witchcraft we assume, only when they’re inserted behind the coloured film. The words here are then associated with each of the numbers used for the code. So, you could have 1. Renaissance, 2. Monster, 3. Pit, 4. Fruit. You then want to convey to your teammate that the code you’re trying to pass on it 3-41-2, without the other team guessing your words – or rather, the numbers associated with those words. You might say hole-orangeleonardo-godzilla. And because you’re both aware of the words on your team, it’s quite easy to get the order right. You don’t get points for this however, you just don’t lose any points for getting it wrong. The next code will be in a different order, so the other team is going to have to think hard about whether there’s a connection between an energy drink and Godzilla or whether there’s a connection between an energy drink and the colour – or fruit – orange. And so it begins. Each round you’re listening to the opposing team tell each other a seemingly random string of clues, that you are trying to link together with others they’ve already mentioned to chain into the correct order. You do this with the handy pencil and pads provided. When you have enough information, you can guess your opponent’s code. Get it right, twice, and you’ll win the game with a total of two points. That’s it, but obviously, that’s not where the game is. Most of the game, once you understand this, is giving your team really odd clues in the hope they can connect, while throwing off the opposition. Fooling your friends while conveying the right thing to your team is at the heart of this game, and if that doesn’t sound like a good way to spend an afternoon, we don’t know what does.
WHY SHOULD YOU TRY IT? Games like this really let you know how your friends think about the world. It’s a game of making connections in your brain and hoping, that when you fling them out to the table, that your side get it, and the other side don’t. So while your reference to an actor might see very obvious to you – of course they’re most well known for that film, you think – your friends may think differently, or even might just not know that film at all. The opposing
Fooling your friends while conveying the right thing to your team is at the heart of this game team on the other hand might do, and now can guess one of your numbers, nudging them closer to being able to guess your codes the next time around. There’s a few tactics to follow here, there’s the classic ‘they’re my wife/husband/partner/ dogsitter – they will get this reference’ which can be a great system, unless you’re playing with people who know you both well together, then you might as well just give up. It’s also a great opportunity for partners to publicly reveal they don’t remember the first place that they went on a date together. Another tactic is to try and throw the opponent off as the receiver of the clue. Looking confused about things that you totally get, can really help keep the opposition confused about the validity of the clue, or how useful it is. Testing how your friends and loved ones read the world is a glorious thing, and while sometimes you’ll be left despondent that those around you aren’t taking the fractured pieces of language that you consider key signifiers of much of life, other times the opposite is true. And that opposing view is when everyone on your team is vibrating at the same level in the
same headspace and able to communicate exactly what is meant, in the strangest of ways, dodging the understanding of your rivals. In the same way the Asger Granerud compared The Mind to a dance in our last issue, we’re comparing the best moments of Decrypto to a perfect heist of language. Everyone did their job, and the getaway went off without a hitch. And with that comes the only drawback. For some, the sneakiness of Decrypto is a little extroverted (but it needn’t be) and some can get a bit choked up on thinking of new ways to describe the same thing. But that’s fine, as subsequent games (and it is a short game) will see people loosen up and give a little more. So like many of our favourite games, it’s one that encourages intense interactions between people over the table. It’s a competition that leaps from the bits of cardboard and the cards in front of you into the area between the players quickly. And that’s what we like in a good game of words. In these strange times of isolation, quarantine and lockdown, it’s no bad thing to look to the games that teach us how to communicate what we want to say in the best possible way. *
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All the
Jahres James Wallis replays the winners of the Spiel des Jahres so you don’t have to Words by James Wallis
KINGDOMINO ingdomino is the Kramer vs Kramer of modern Spiel des Jahres winners. It’s a good game. It does everything well, it combines its mechanics elegantly, it’s fun, satisfying and more-ish. But when you tell people that in 2017 it won the most important games award in the world, up against Magic Maze, The Quest for El Dorado and the Exit series, their faces drop. It doesn’t seem to fit. Kingdomino doesn’t seem big enough to wear the crown. A year earlier Codenames had won the SdJ, and there had been no question in anyone’s mind that it deserved it (except possibly Phil Walker-Harding and Rüdiger Dorn, the other nominated designers that year). Codenames had been an instant hit. Its gameplay was infectious and intuitive, and any designers whose minds weren’t filled with admiration for its make-you-feelclever mechanics were instead filled with envy that they hadn’t been clever enough to design it themselves. When Kingdomino’s victory was announced in 2017, Trump was president and the Brexit referendum had happened. It really wasn’t very long ago. That year the Spiel des Jahres also celebrated its fortieth anniversary, and when an award like that passes a big milestone there’s a certain amount of questions asked about what it represents, what it means, and what it’s for. The SdJ, which had started out simply as a way to bring some recognition to the best family game published in Germany that year, had gone on to be the standard-bearer for the spread of New Games across the world in the
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Year of win: 2017 Designer: Bruno Cathala Number of players: 2–4 Playing time: 15–20 minutes Worthy winner? Arguably Worth playing now? Yes Availability: Easy to find Price: £16.99
1990s, and a banner of quality and good gateway games in the 2000s. On its fortieth birthday, and with its spinoff awards for children’s games and expert games well established, it was facing the its midlife crisis, and the question: what is the Spiel des Jahres?
The answer from the jury seemed to be that it was for games that ticked boxes. Kingdomino doesn’t dazzle with innovation or components, break new ground in gameplay or push the boundaries of what can be done with cardboard. Its slottogether castles are a perfunctory nod to the glories of Colt Express’s 3D train, and serve no real gameplay purpose. None of which is to say that Kingdomino is in any way bad. It’s not. It’s easy to teach and a lot of fun, with emergent tactics and clever scoring. It sits at number 217 on the BoardGameGeek big list, not a stellar placing but a lot higher than many earlier Spiel des Jahres winners. It does the job. It’s pleasing to play and satisfying to finish. It is a game that’s difficult to dislike. Kingdomino is based, as you may have guessed, on dominoes. The history of dominoes is fascinating, mostly because so much of it is unknown. The game probably originated in China in the twelfth century, using tiles with faces that mimicked the rolls of two dice, then made its way into Europe via Italy in the eighteenth century, and that’s pretty much it for the history of dominoes. Kingdomino’s tiles are more like the simpler coloured sets you may have played with as a kid: they do have numbers on, but the numbers are on the back. The structure is simple: each turn you add a domino to your 5 x 5 kingdom, trying to connect areas of the same terrain (fields, forests, lakes, villages, gardens and mines). The cleverness comes in two parts: the tile-drafting, and the scoring.
FAR LEFT The familiar box for Kingdomino LEFT The colourful dominoes and tokens that make up your Kingdom
It does the job. It’s pleasing to play and satisfying to finish
Each turn you take as many dominoes as there are players, arrange them in the order of the numbers on their reverse, and flip them. Then each player puts their kingpiece on one, but they do it in the order of the pieces they chose the round before. Of course, the better pieces have the higher numbers. This is a really nice use of the pushyour-luck mechanic: do you go for the piece you really want, knowing it’ll mean you’ll choose last next turn, or do you settle for a less-good piece this time and a better place in the order next time? The other clever part is what makes some pieces better than others. Some terrains (fields, forests, lakes) are more common than others (villages and gardens), but the rarer the square of terrain, the greater the chance it has a crown on it – or in some cases two or even three. The crowns make all the difference in scoring at the end, as each area
of contiguous terrain is worth its total squares multiplied by the number of crowns in it. Play your tiles badly wrong and your beautiful 12-square field can end up scoring less than your opponent’s scrubby village, or even no points at all. These two systems lock together wonderfully, along with the pleasure of tessellating your tiles, to create a really satisfying experience – one that’s only spoiled when you realise that your majestic score is lower than everyone else’s. The game’s creator Bruno Cathala is a French designer living in Switzerland, who has been creating and releasing games since 2002. He refers to himself as ‘the other Bruno in the games industry’, though with titles like Shadows over Camelot, Five Tribes and 7 Wonders Duel under his belt, he comes a close second to Bruno #1, Faudutti. It’s almost a shame that his first Spiel des Jahres
win was for a little game like Kingdomino, because despite its delights it does feel like a little game. But with the craft, innovation and polish he brings to his designs, surely it’s only a matter of time before his name appears before the red pawn again. The last thing to say about Kingdomino is the excellent play on words in its title. It’s worth noting the game has the same name in almost every European language, knowing that the local audience would understand. When was the last time you bought a game under its original nonEnglish title?
Next issue: more tile-laying delights and a blast from the past, as Michael Kiesling storms back with Azul to become only the third designer to win the Spiel des Jahres three times.
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my favourite game
MARC LANGWORTHY Writer of the Kings of War Roleplaying games, and soon to be released Devil’s Run RPG, Marc Langworthy takes us to the futuristic trenches of Corvus Belli’s Infinity to show us what sci-fi wargames should be eing asked to write about a favourite game has been a lot harder than I initially thought. To prep myself, I delved back into past issues and soon learned that I wasn’t alone in facing this issue. I also talked my options over with my family, though the advice always mainly came back to choosing something I love to play. The trouble is, I have favourites at the top of the list when it comes to roleplaying games, board games and miniatures games, with several titles vying for top spot in each. Of the final contenders, I opted for a miniatures game that spills over into the other two in various forms. Produced by Corvus Belli, the Infinity wargame is a deeply tactical, high technology sci-fi skirmish game that takes place using gorgeous miniatures and inspiring scenery. Two players pit their troops against each other in a battle of wills and strategy to earn victory points that are set by the scenario. Each player also has a hidden objective to tackle during the game, which will earn bonus victory points at the end. I’ve played a fair few miniatures games over the years, and enjoy a few other games still outside of Infinity, but there are a few aspects to Infinity that have pushed it to the top of the list for me. The first things that set it apart for me are the rich background lore and visuals. I’m a sucker for fluff, and Infinity has plenty of material for anyone wishing to delve more deeply into the Human Sphere—which is the name for the regions of known space that humanity occupy. I’ll admit to more than a little bias here, as I oversaw the development of Infinity the Roleplaying Game for a good while. That role steeped me in the lore of the setting and gave me a real appreciation for the groundwork that the Corvus Belli team put into their brainchild. Of course, I also mentioned the visuals, which are quite simply stunning. Each of the playable factions has a very distinct style and there is so much character in every piece. The various images also offer more than unending scenes of war, with pieces ranging from a snapshot of life on the average neon-infused street of the high-tech future, to a sunlit glade that hides an alien artefact. In addition to the rich lore, the wargame also has a few rules innovations that, in my humble opinion, set
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it apart from other games in its genre. Each game is played over three rounds, with each player taking an active turn within the round. Nothing new there, you might think, but the key phrase there is active turn. While one player is taking the lead, the other player always has an opportunity to react to the actions of their opponent. This style of play really opens the game up and allows the action to always feel dynamic and fresh. Your miniatures can respond to events by dodging, returning fire or electronically hacking even outside of your turn. Hacking is itself another aspect of the wargame that sets it apart from others and adds extra tactical depth. Infinity’s ruleset soon begins to feel intuitive once you’ve played a few games. Any new system is intimidating, but by layering my own personal experience into bite-sized chunks, I soon gained an understanding of the mechanics. Having a soft spot for the underdog, I opted for the Japanese Secessionist Army. Now to just finish getting them painted! *
Each of the playable factions has a very distinct style and there is so much character in every piece
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STARSHIP TROOPERS
War is a messy, complicated kind of hell for the most part – especially when fighting on two fronts. Except for when you apply the mind of David Turczi – a designer attempting to wrestle with the challenge of designing an Ameritrash wargame, with the heart of a Eurogame Words by Christopher John Eggett
“T
he Defence of Procyon III. My tiny little pet project,” says David Turczi, presenting a large table with two boards and an armful of miniatures. Tiny is not a fair descriptor for what he’s excitedly talking about at the PSC booth at Airecon. It’s hard to blame Turczi for his enthusiasm. It really is a pet project, a labour of love, and one he’s wrestled into being through endless application of theory and a winnowing down of features. It’s the kind of game you’ve kind of always wanted to exist, containing a wish list of features that many of us idly dream of – asymmetrical play, multiple boards, a grand vision of war, but fast, without millions of detailed rules holding it up, and tons of miniatures. But usually, when someone does attempt to make it real, it’s a bit of a hot mess at the best of times. This is not the case here. Every aspect of the game seems to flex against the constraints it has been placed in. And for a game that seems complex from above – two boards, four rulebooks, and four factions with two on each side – the choices you make are simple, with huge consequences. Don’t worry though, Turczi has his pitch ready, “So the way I describe it is that the game is a hybrid between a classic war game and an Ameritrash card game. But every single mechanism is designed like it is a tight Eurogame,” he says, beaming, before drawing a triangular diagram in the air with his hands, “like on a chart of: Eurogames, wargames, Ameritrash games? I was like, ‘I’ll go for the middle’.” And that’s where we are now, orbiting Procyon III, and hoping that we’ll stick the landing.
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THE DEFENCE OF PROCYON III
GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR TOM It might be worth mentioning what hitting the bullseye in this particular scenario would be. To go through each corner of Turczi’s triangle, there’s the Eurogames we’re familiar with that have low player interaction, low randomness, and the feeling of running the engine of a machine until it’s very hot – before pulling the plug. Then there’s wargaming, for which we can simply think of Games Workshop games or heavier historical wargames that use tokens and hexes to play out manoeuvres and attacks. And then there’s what’s called, affectionately, Ameritrash. A kinder way to talk about these games is to call them thematic games, they have high amounts of luck, strong themes and often feature factions and conflict. The BoardGameGeek definition of Ameritrash includes Fantasy Flight as “currently the leading publisher of Ameritrash titles” – and we wonder why they haven’t taken this as their tagline. This is all to say that what Turczi’s aiming for here is the tightness of Eurogame with the conflict and thematics of Ameritrash, while allowing for the better parts of strategic wargames to come through. So, what is The Defence of Procyon III then? It’s probably best to begin by talking about the two boards. There is a large ground map, divided up into different zones. Consider these to be a little like the regions found in Dune, wobbly and mappy borders give you a sense of moving across varied terrain. Here is where the battle will be bloody, close, and vicious. Either as the human defenders of the colony, or as the alien invaders, hoping to wipe them out. High above, beyond the atmosphere, and right next to you in tablespace terms, is the space board. Broken out into sectors allowing for space combat, and even more deliciously, cross-board play. “One player takes charge of the ground battle. One player takes charge of the space battle. Both have cross-interactions in both directions,” said Turczi, “So it’s not two two-player games side by side.” Instead, the game is full of cross-board effects, where those controlling the space battle can provide aerial bombardment, while those on the ground use their ground defences to support the war in the heavens. There’s a strategic element too. The players controlling the space war can drop troops off on the ground. The game comes with four rule books, one for each faction. This might seem daunting, but there’s no real requirement to read anything but the faction you’re playing, Turczi explains, “It’s completely asymmetric. People call Root asymmetric. This is about four times as asymmetric as Root. The trick is that each rule book is what, eight pages? So I give you the entire rule book and said ‘teach it or people’ it looks like a super complicated game. But if I give each player one rule book we can say ‘start reading, start playing’. It becomes quite simple.”
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BELOW A big job sometimes calls for a big weapon
While it does sound simple once the rules are played out in front of you, there’s a huge amount of depth in the asymmetry of the game. It’s just that you only have to worry about your bit to begin with – only when the conflict gets going does the true depth of cross-board play become obvious. Turczi tries to place it for us in the canon of wargames, asymmetric games and area control games more generally. “The way I designed it was… Root goes in the right direction but was too random and too worried about area control. Quartermaster General is a brilliant theme game, but too abstract for what I want from it. Memoir ‘44 gives you, especially in the overlord mode, gives you the brilliant feeling of here’s a whole battlefield, you know, ‘I’ll take this, I’ll take that,’ but is ultimately a dice tracking exercise, which I find boring. Star Wars Rebellion, does the Ameritrash wargame theme very well, but has a million effects, no tightness. And if you play it in four player mode, the other players are utterly bored.”
He pauses for breath before admitting there was a struggle finding the perfect sweet spot between Wargames, Ameritrash and Eurogames, “And honestly? It took me two years to figure out where were the – not compromises – but, all the excess I’m ‘allowed’ to do while staying in the middle. Because the moment I went too far in one direction, the game got weaker.”
ABOVE Prototype miniatures of the defending human ground faction
This is me, unchained
BELOW Prototype miniatures of differing space factions
PERFECT PITCH Turczi is known for a number of things, the Mindclash released Anachrony – a Eurogame of time-travelling war where you can borrow from yourself in the future, but failing to cough up when the time comes can see disastrous results for yourself in the past (don’t think about it too much). He is also known as the creator of a whole host of solo modes for various games. At Airecon he was showing off seven games that he’s brought with him, all in various stages of release, design and Kickstarting. He’s prolific, and he explains his work rate, which highlights the effort that has gone into The Defence of Procyon III, “in comparison a game these days takes me about two to three months. So, Perseverance [a huge new game coming from Mindclash in the future] took us five years. But, we did four games in five years. This was one game in two.”
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THE DEFENCE OF PROCYON III
LEFT Concept art for the largest alien spacecraft BELOW Concept sketches OPPOSITE (TOP) A ship from the human fleet OPPOSITE (BOTTOM) One of the dwindling number of human soldiers available to defending players
Turczi then grins at Will Townshend, the managing director of PSC, “And I found somebody crazy enough to give me a game with 110 miniatures, two boards and so on.” “This is our third game with David,” says Townshend, “His output is prolific right now, and we’re thrilled to help get his work out there. We’re publishing his own design Rome & Roll this spring, and of course, he designed the solo mode for Blitzkrieg!” “So, I’m also testing the solo mode currently,” says Turczi, which, of course he is, “I need the solo mode because otherwise it’s a four player only game. For a while I was entertaining the question ‘can I come up with a rule set that’s ground board only?’ But had I spent so much effort making the game interesting across the boards that I said that if I could make a ground only game, then why would I ever play a two boards game? Both boards are so integrated and so necessary for each other’s existence, which makes the four player game great. But that means I can’t play a two player game with just one board.” You can play the game two player of course, but with additional learning from the two involved, but not much more as combat is simple and Eurogamey. And for a game that’s this big in what it’s reaching for, there’s a constrained play time. “It’s about two hours and a bit,” says Turczi, “The first game would be three hours, but it’ll go fast. The driving force behind this fairly tight time for a game this size is the turn limit, “It’s ten turns. You take ten actions in the game. It’s very strategic. A big move is a third of your game. I move, I shoot a little bit...” says Turczi, smiling, “I mean the game is maximum 10 turns, but usually it ends by turn eight.” Turczi is in the driving seat for everything in this game, “the other thing that makes it very special to
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my heart is that I normally work with big teams,” he says, “with designers and lead developers and art directors. And this game, other than signing the cheques, I did everything. This is me, unchained.” We can certainly see that in some of the art and model design – even at this prototype stage. There is a certain style to creating alien spacecraft that some run away from discussing, Turczi is not particularly phased by it. The aliens can join together some of their smaller, somewhat organic ships, into larger, nastier ships used to terrorize the space around the planet. The smaller ones have what we feel is ‘classic’ alien spacecraft design. “I spent many hours justifying the design of the ships,” says Turczi, “Yes, the space sperm. That was actually my graphic design notes. Half-mushroom, half-sperm is how I think I described it. Then, an evil blob with shield bubbles on it. That was my specification for the larger ships.” This style, which we have H. R. Giger to thank for, is balanced with a slightly lighter design on the human side of the conflict. Here we have something like cowboy space marines with a Starship Troopers vibe, while the threat is very real, there is a little levity in this particular alien invasion.
RESTRAINED The actions and combat in the game is a hybrid. None of the Ameritrash excesses can be seen here, although the use of cards can be. There’s four, small, decks of cards used in the game. The humans on the ground have a deck of 18 cards which gets one card smaller each round, and instead of being reshuffled at the end of the deck, it’s simply flipped. In space the humans have the largest deck, with 27 cards which will either be played once for the actions and special abilities (which trigger on the next turn), or shuffled into the combat deck to be used for their combat outcome. The aliens in space have a tiny eight card deck available, playing out two cards, one for the top action, one for the bottom action, and then uses some five-pipped dice to allocate how much of each action they’re carrying out. These are rolled at the start of the game and diminish as players carry out their actions. The dice show squares (usually used for moving ships) and circles (special abilities) – so deciding here how to split your two actions is key. On the ground, the aliens
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THE DEFENCE OF PROCYON III
use a deck of 21 cards which are shuffled only once in the game, they use a very-Euro combat bag. This contains a number of white (miss) and black (hit) cubes. The player draws a number of cubes equal to half the number of units in a region. This bag can be influenced by both sides, with the humans adding more white cubes to the bag, while the aliens add more black cubes. Turczi also mentions another elegant part of the game here, the bag is selfcleaning – in the sense that multiple hits mean removing a black cube, and the opposite for multiple misses. Through the combat mechanics the story unfolds, and the victory conditions become clear. For the humans who are defending the planet, there is only the desire to survive, their resources will dwindle over time – making the strategic choices here one of extremely high calculation. When your human soldiers die, they’re gone, every assault has to mean something otherwise you will be overrun. Playing the aliens means you can swarm your opponent and even use some insidious tactics to turn their dead into something that aids your expansion. The game is tightly constrained across all its fronts, even in a game with four (albeit small) decks of cards, they all have their place. It’s unlikely a turn will occur where there’s nothing for a player to do. There’s a few other points of asymmetry outside of the direct combat, “When an alien unit dies, it goes back to the reserve and the human unit dies, it’s out of the game. The scientist dies, your morale drops,” says Turczi. But what of the dead? “If any grounds human dies, the aliens get a ‘fallen’ token. The humans can retrieve the fallen tokens to gain extra actions,” as a ‘boosted spirit’ reaction because they brought back their dead bodies says Turczi, but of course, there’s the opposite side to this action that constrains it “aliens can lay eggs in it and get either more soldiers or more victory points out of them.” If the idea of bodies on the battlefield bursting forth with aliens and a bag building-element of the combat doesn’t feel like it’s ticking all the boxes for Eurogames-meets-Ameritrash, we don’t know what could convince you. Players can ask for help of course, this is where the cross-board play comes in. We’re told about players having moments of winning the war on one front, and looking across to their teammate, only to realise they’re inches from defeat. This is, in many ways, a very Eurogame feeling – that fact that your expansion in one way has hurt you elsewhere, that you have caused a problem for yourself somehow. Except here it’s for your teammate. If instead of advancing, there has been a concerted effort to help your ally in the heavens or down on earth, you may have found yourself in a better combined position. And this over the board play is what attracts a lot of people to this game, the fact that you will have to make sacrifices on one front to advance another, or thing will have to go very well for you for a couple of turns to avoid being wiped out. Desperate plays abound, especially for the more defensive human team, and the time ticks down, even for the endlessly pouring flood of aliens.
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THE REAL ENEMY “There is no randomness in there,” he says, like a Eurogame magician, “yet you have high replayability because since there are very few turns and every move is a strategic move, what your first move is makes a completely different game.” A slow start might reap rewards later, but crippling your opponent now could be the breaking-point for the whole game. If they rally you could be exposed and suffer for it. These choices ripple out across the turns of the game so quickly it’s hard not to imagine your next games’ strategy immediately after playing. It is an elegant outcome, killing randomness in games with conflict is a key challenge for many designers. While there’s a certain thrill to leaving your soldier’s live on the line for a dice roll, there’s also frustration. Bad luck can suck the fun out of a good war – even for the winning side. “Most of the two years I was taking things out,” says Turczi. What’s left is the strongest parts of the structure of the game, where every part of the game acts as a lodestone for another.
BELOW Concept art for the queen alien RIGHT A tankier alien footsoldier
This comes through in that high level of decision making asked for from the game. There’s something of Bliztkrieg! and Quatermaster General about the way the game asks you to make choices. Both games are praised for having a sense of making big decisions throughout, while enacting broad sweeps of a war minus the usual painful token shuffling. “If your first move is to build a lot of ships and not attack, that’s going to be completely different game than if your first move is to nose-dive towards the planet,” says Turczi, “And of course there’s some upgrade cards which come out different in each game. A little like Quartermaster General, in one way distilled and one way bloated to compensate the two boards and conflicts going on. “It’s very much like: low randomness, but diversity of play, and the means by which you go about it.” Where does it fit on people’s shelves then? It’s a question that David has thought about a great deal, “it’s a themeatic war game with the mind of a Eurogame. This is my pitch. To me the trick is to explain to people who like Mindclash, who like Vital Lacerda, that a wargame doesn’t mean ugly little counters or a hex map, 70 dice and a look-up chart. This game doesn’t have dice rolls, it doesn’t have lookup charts, doesn’t have hexes and doesn’t have chits with numbers on them. So whatever people think of as wargames, this has none of that. Yet, it’s a wargame because you move units on the map and shoot.” David’s next big games are the Mindclash published Perseverence – a game played over several episodic boards. It’s a dice placement game where players work together to defend their shared settlement, whilst competing to gain the most points and influence. The other is a co-authored game with one of his heroes, Daniele ‘Tzolk’in’ Tascini. A game set in Ancient Egypt that uses a large turning obelisk to represent the availability of dice from a pool – a clock of action which knocks on to the next, represented by Ancient Egyptian gods. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about these in the future, but for now, we’re busy fighting a war on all fronts. The Defence of Procyon III is coming to Kickstarter April 21, from PSC. *
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INIS Christian Martinez explains how he created the Celtic themed Inis Words by Owen Duffy
he 2016 strategy game Inis casts players as clan chiefs fighting for dominance over ancient Ireland – exploring new lands and throwing themselves into head-to-head battles for territory. But while it comes with many of the typical trappings of empire-building games, in many ways it’s dramatically different. It avoids the detailed and occasionally clunky approach taken by some similar games, with no branching tech trees or complicated combat systems. It offers players a multitude of paths to victory, not all of which rely on having the biggest and most powerful army. And it’s saturated in its Celtic theme, with beautiful artwork and elements inspired by Irish myths and legends.
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It’s come to be regarded as one of the best games of its kind. We spoke to its designer, Christian Martinez, to hear the story behind its creation.
DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY A resident of Lyon in France, Christian Martinez grew up playing games. “As a kid I played with my family and friends,” he recalls. “But when I was a teenager I discovered a game called Diplomacy.” Originally released in 1959, Diplomacy handed players control of major European powers at the dawn of the 20th century. Unlike many games built around conflict between
nations, it primarily focused not on clashes between massed ranks of soldiers, but on deal-making and deal-breaking between countries, revolving around shaky alliances and savage betrayals. To Martinez it came as a revelation. “When you’ve only ever played games like Risk or Cluedo, discovering something like Diplomacy is very special,” he says. “You can definitely see its influence in a game like Inis. “But after that my next big discovery was roleplaying games. I first heard of them in around 1980 in French gaming magazines, and over the next few years I played games including Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer, Star Wars and French RPGs like Rêve de Dragon and Légendes Celtiques.”
The latter, a 1984 game set in the ancient Celtic realms of Ireland, Great Britain and Gaul, cast players as warriors, druids and bards, combining historical details with magical fantasy. It intrigued Martinez, and inspired him to dive into Celtic history and mythology. “I found the culture fascinating,” he says. “The fact that we don’t know that much about the Celts certainly helps, because it leaves plenty of room for imagination. But the things that we do know about are very appealing to me. Irish mythology is epic, beautiful and kind of hazy. And I find Celtic art particularly inspiring, whether it’s from archaeological artefacts, the work of Irish monks – like the Book of Kells – or modern interpretations like the work of Jim Fitzpatrick, who worked on Inis.”
He adds that a number of factors persuaded him that the Celtic peoples were a perfect subject for a game. “The Celts diffused across Europe due to a number of complementary forces live migration, conquest and mixing of cultures,” he says. “That was very interesting to me both academically and from a game standpoint. I was also interested in emphasising some historical understandings that seemed important to me, like the fact that the Celts valued diplomacy and discussion, that they esteemed poets and druids, that they chose their kings, lived in different tribes sharing one culture, had their own ambiguous views on the otherworldly. “I felt all of that could make for a very different take on a ‘territory conquest’ style of game.”
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HOW WE MADE INIS
The modular board that gives Inis its sense of closely fought conflict, and an expanding domain
CELTIC CONQUEST Inis is, indeed, very different from games like Civilization or Clash of Cultures. It offers a stripped-down empire-building experience with games playing out in around 60 minutes rather than the evening-long sessions typical of other releases. And where other conquest games tended to hand players the same sets of actions to choose from on every turn, Martinez chose a different approach, dividing rounds into different stages. First, players drafted cards to determine the options available to them on their turns, then they used their picks to expand the game’s map, increase size of their clan and send their warriors out across the map to seize territory. “I wanted to have a dynamic way of handling the classic actions of these kinds of games,” he explains. “You know: recruit, build, move, fight, expand. And I just like to draft! Usually in drafting games, you just draft some cards and then you score. But I wanted drafting in Inis to be a means, not an end – like when you draft cards in Magic: The Gathering, but the draft itself isn’t part of the actual game.
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“It also serves the theme, because you have an assembly of chieftains discussing their actions for the upcoming season.” The drafting system meant that players needed to think carefully about the actions they wanted to take on each turn, trying to ensure that they picked up the cards they needed to pull them off. But if those cards simply weren’t available, it meant they had to think on their feet and make the best possible use of the ones at their disposal, finding ways to spread their clans across the board and become the dominant presence in as many regions as possible. Each area came with its own advantages for its controller, but Martinez was keen that these useful bonuses didn’t add extra complexity or stats for players to track. “I wanted players to feel that they were in the role of a chieftain, and to act accordingly,” he says. “That’s why I decided that there would be no precise resources, and that everything had to be represented by actions. For example, a land like a salt mine which provides wealth gives you greater choice in your actions. Or a valley allows you to rally a clan, because the surplus food you grow there can support more people. It’s all down to the
kind of scope I was trying to evoke – as a chieftain, you aren’t interested in bean counting. “And since there are only a few big territories, I wanted them all to be unique. Being chieftain of the valley clans shouldn’t feel the same as being chieftain of the iron mine clans. In the overall design, the point was to have a few distinct layers, each with a few simple elements, but to have all of these elements interacting with each other. That way I could create complexity out of a few simple mechanisms.” Along with this land grabbing, combat was another important component of the game. But once again, Martinez was determined to avoid complexities such as unit strength stats and dicerolling probability calculations. Instead, he devised a straightforward system where players took turns eliminating one another’s clansfolk until one side was eliminated, forced out of the region, or both sides mutually agreed to call a halt to hostilities. “This was a central point in the game,” he says. “The idea came from multiple sources. First, in my reading and understanding of Celtic history and legend, the tribes were not always enemies. The Book of Conquest describes a lot of shifting
allegiances, even during a campaign or an actual battle! Also, as much as I appreciate ‘4X’ or conquest games, I’m sometimes frustrated by the fact that in some of those games, war is never in question. You must fight, and you can only fight. “So the idea in Inis is really simple: if the tribes don’t want to fight, well, they just don’t fight. Diplomacy rules! It’s extremely simple, but it’s a bit unusual. I’ve seen players decide to fight ‘just because,’ but that really doesn’t work. You’ll lose everything if you act that way. Having this rule allowed me to make war really costly – losing your clans is harsh. “When I first tried this rule, it was liberating. So many possibilities arose. I could walk into another tribe’s territory with one innocuous unit and propose peace. It blurred the line between pacifism and aggression. It opened up the possibilities for discussion, diplomacy and bluffing. But it kept the constant threat of a clash, even though a normal game actually saw very few of them. The ones that did happen were generally crucial. There were no values or counters on anything, no ‘strength points,’ no ‘battle capacity,’ so the experience felt more epic, like a story you could tell afterwards. And with special cards that could tilt the outcome of battles, clashes never became too predictable and never lost the element of tension.” These ‘Epic Tale’ cards were one of the most thematically important elements of the game. Based on Celtic mythology, they introduced a collection of gods, heroes and mighty warriors who could grant players boosts and special abilities, giving them new ways to spread their influence across the board and potentially turning losing fights into winnable ones. “I used my memories and books about Celtic legends and tried to convey what I envisioned about my favourite characters,” Martinez explains. “The ideas for the cards were to reflect the legends, to be powerful in particular situations, and to be useful for building a strategy. But I also tried to design them in ways which let players discover some less obvious ways to use them. “Some of them were pretty obvious, like Cúchulainn, fighting alone against an army. Others had a few iterations before I found something I liked, like Oengus, for whom I wanted some kind of time-related effect, but that was hard to balance. “There was a difficult part of designing the Epic Tales though, and that was deciding how they would fit in the overall narrative of the game. I wanted the game to reflect a historical vision, and at the same time I wanted to use all those wonderful stories and characters. Working out how to combine history and romanticism was tough.
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HOW WE MADE INIS
The solution hit me one day and seems obvious now: those people invented these characters and stories, so it has to be presented that way. Action cards allow mundane actions and Epic Tale cards are gained mainly through the bard or the mastercrafter, and inspire your clans. When you play an Epic Tale card, the narrative is up to you, you can consider its effect as merely an inspiration or you can imagine some literal heroic figure fighting by your side. This blurry frontier is also something I was looking for, because in those stories nothing is clearly set out in black and white.”
CARVING UP THE MAP Other elements came together in the design process. One was the game’s map, which players originally built as part of the setup process. But Martinez soon realised that a gradual, modular approach offered greater variety as well as the potential for exploration and discovery during play. “The first version of the game had a fixed map,” he says. “It was OK, but if the starting positions were too far apart, the first phase of the game wasn’t very interesting, and if the starting positions were closely packed then the whole map was less meaningful in the early game. “So I tried with one territory tile per player at setup, with the possibility to explore the island during the game, and that was much more interesting to me. It had several benefits: players were already in contact from the start. They even shared some territories. They had to explore the island, and for many people it was pleasing to discover new territories. But it was also a way to
constantly change the game state and force players to adapt to new conditions. Thematically I also find it satisfying to start with a small piece of land and end as the king of the entire island.” Martinez tested his design with friends, tweaking and adjusting it over time until he felt it was ready to show to a publisher. “There was a point when I was sure I had something cool,” he says. “When all the games we had were tense and fluid and I still discovered and witnessed new tricks and combos, I had to show it to someone! I took it to the French publisher Matagot, since they released my previous game Expedition Altiplano. Inis is not an easy game to understand at first glance, even though the rules are simple, so they had to test it a few times. Then Arnaud from Matagot tried it and fell in love with it. So, he took charge of the development and we have collaborated from this day until today, on Inis at first, then on my game Cairn, and now on a new big project. “A big part of the development process was devoted to making people’s first contact with the game as easy as possible – to make sure it was not too intimidating, but without dumbing it down. That was not an easy task. Even today the game can be confusing for some players, sometimes it needs two or three games to click, but I like that it offers lots of things to discover with repeat plays. And you know, I’m still excited when a new game of Inis begins.” The effort in the development process paid off, and players praised Inis on its release. But Martinez was far from certain of its success in the run-up to its launch.
“I was excited and anxious,” he says. “I had put so much work and hope into Inis! I remember I was in Brittany when it was released at Gen Con, I checked BoardGameGeek several times a day to see people were saying about the game. At the Essen fair that year the players’ reaction to the game was very good, so yes I was really happy. “Since that time there was a lot of reviews and I try to read all of them. What I’m really happy about is that Inis has become part of the strategy game landscape. People continue to discover it, new reviews with new interesting takes on the game are published. Inis is here now. That’s cool.” The enthusiastic response from players led to an expansion, 2019’s Seasons of Inis, which added support for a fifth player as well as new effects for summer and winter actions as well as sea and island spaces. “I integrated the four major Celtic festivals,” he says, “Imbolc, Beltane Lugnasad and Samhain. I like that now every season the chieftains assemble, discuss actions for the season to come and then hold a festival. Each festival has an effect that you have to consider in your strategy and reflects the meaning of the festival and the season. In spring everyone goes back to work, in summer you prepare for battle, and so on.” And Martinez reveals that fans of the game could soon be enjoying its mix of warfare and diplomacy in an entirely new setting. “I have a few other games in the pipeline,” he says. “One of them might interest you. It’s a space game in the vein of Inis. It uses a new central system, but you’ll definitely find some familiar aspects in there.”
It’s all down to the kind of scope I was trying to evoke – as a chieftain, you aren’t interested in bean counting
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tabletopgaming.co.uk
the independent shelf SEA EVIL
The terror of the supernatural deep comes to us… in ‘zine form
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ea Evil is weird, there’s no getting around it. But it’s also strangely familiar. This is because it’s the third entry in the Emperors of Eternal Evil’s magazine horror game series. The previous entry, FREAKFACE!!!, was featured in this very column in 2018. While that was an oddball circus tent gore-fest, Sea Evil is more grounded in forgotten myth and historical terror. But just like its predecessors, this one’s something special. If you’re not familiar with this trio of releases then the format may be somewhat of a surprise. The game itself is a magazine which contains the rules as well as a number of additional little comic strips and quirky advertisements. There’s a paper map and a number of low-fi chits with black and white artwork. You even have to physically cut out the central whaling ship and a small number of cards. It comes across as very underground and perhaps even naughty, like something you would hide under your bed and only pull out for a tantalizing game night. The feel is similar to a hex and chit wargame, two sides facing off to rend each other limb from limb with a ruleset that values simulation. One or more players take on the role of the whaling crew, each participant controlling a few of the diverse sailors and micromanaging their actions. The rest of the group manage the supernatural horrors that will emerge from the sea throughout play. Think giant squids, sirens, and ghoulish underwater abominations. Each crew member will move about the boat and perform actions such as patching a torn hull or repelling invaders. As sailors succumb to their wounds you’re left limping along and trying to hang on for dear life. Meanwhile the other side is continually adding to their aggressive onslaught and trying to hold your head underwater with a webbed foot. It’s odd how flexible these magazine games are. They can handle up to 11 players divided between the two sides,
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Words and photographs by Charlie Theel
Sea Evil offer us genuine terror in the form of a ‘zine split however the group wishes. With such a large number of characters and monstrosities there’s plenty to control. At the larger end of the player count it even has a bit of a party game feel. The atmosphere tends to be more social and laughter rises with the tension as blood and sinew coat the deck. Sea Evil is all about atmosphere. The crew of the Ishara are primarily focused on
navigation. There are sub-systems for bearing and weather as you steer through fog and supernatural entities in an attempt to find your way home. Each play is wildly different due to the wide range of events and adversaries. One session you may be constantly harassed by poor weather, while yet another features clear skies blotted out only by the unending wave of seaweed men, serpents, and witches. The prime accomplishment here is in achieving a real sense of terror. The sides are not equally balanced as the human sailors are fragile sacks of bone and flesh. It will take a titanic effort to overcome the Kraken and many lives will be lost. You will be beaten down across the horrific journey and if you can somehow defeat the odds and come out the other side, well then you’ll be downright emotionally spent. But being so thoroughly drained never felt so satisfying. Every play generates an emergent narrative that is fresh and quirky. You can sit there after a particularly tough session and just smile at each other, quietly in awe of a story that you will take to your watery grave. *
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ZOMBIE KIDZ EVOLUTION ++YEAR 3158++UNAUTHORISED TRANSMISSION++ --GAME FROM PRIVATE COLLECTION-- {lockdown} Message intercepted by Robert Florence
orgive me if I ramble, for I am suffering a fever. I am deep underground, where your species will never find me, and I am alone. Alone, that is, but for my collection of board games – a collection that I assembled with the promise to myself that someday I would have time to play them. But now, as you hear this, I have all the time in the world and no-one to play them with. I am like the fellow in that old episode of The Twilight Zone, safe in his bunker in an apocalypse, who told himself he would now have time to read all his wonderful books, only to break his glasses in the next instant. I am that fellow, and my glasses are my family and friends. I had children once. And when I did, I played a game called Zombie Kids Evolution. It is a small, inexpensive, colourful game. And oh, it is
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perfect. I would sit with my children, unfold the board, and tell them: “Each of us are going to be a little kid in this school. And hey – zombies are trying to break in. So we need to go around the school, bashing the zombies, and we need to lock all four of the school gates to win. How do we lock the gates? Well, at least two of us have to meet at the gates and then high-five each other!” And we’d high-five. The kids’ faces would light up with joy. The game, playing in around 15 minutes, seems so simple at first. Each player has to roll a die at the start of their turn. A zombie will appear in the room of the colour rolled. If the die roll is a blank, no zombie appears. Believe me, you’re going to want a lot of blanks. The player can then move one space, or stay in the space they’re in, and then they can bash up to two zombies. If two characters
are ever in the space with a gate, then the players can high-five, and the gate gets locked. If all four gates get locked, the players win... “Oh, that’s easy!” my kids would shout. And sure, first time we played, I was nodding in agreement. But here’s what’s so great about this game. It’s easy, easy, easy, then you LOSE. “Oh no, we lost!” The kids yelling and complaining. And then laughing. Because if that school fills up with zombies, it’s game over. And once a room has three or more zombies in it, you can’t even go in to do any bashing. It doesn’t take much for the game to tilt away, away, away. It’s constantly tense, even when it’s nice and easy, because it’s not nice and easy, it’s actually pretty tricky. It’s easy and it’s hard. “Okay, kids, listen... We need to think about this. Which way should we go? Which zombie should we bash first?” Teamwork, collaboration – important things for kids to learn. Ever play of the game lets you stick a sticker on a little track. Every win pushes you faster along the track. The kids get to open new envelopes with new rules and new powers. The game expands and evolves for the kids as they play. The world of the game unfolds for them. They can’t get enough. Neither can I. “One more play, daddy?! One more play before we go?” And where did they go? Do not call us Flesh Devils, I beg you. I am alone. *
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ROLLING WITH IT
As soon as we began telling stories, we also began creating new worlds, filling them with exuberant details from our imagination, shaping them to be our escape from everyday life. We explore the world of Roll Player and discover how a game about creating fantasy characters started a whole new universe Words by Alexandra Sonechkina
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here is no ‘right’ way to create a new world. Some choose to write epic fantasies, others make films out of them, others still gather around a table to create a new world together in a roleplaying adventure or a board game. Some worlds were born from a single scene of children finding wolf pups in the summer snow to grow into the epic fantasy that is Game of Thrones, the world of which can be experienced in many mediums, including tabletop games. Other worlds started with a setting fit for a purpose: a design of a new sci-fi video game to follow the footsteps World of Warcraft’s popularity, only to blossom to its full potential as the world of The Expanse when it gained its ‘second life’ as the roleplaying game later on. Sometimes, the creation of the world is unplanned. It was an idea, where the imagination could not be contained, and it kept developing and growing into something much bigger than it started as. That’s what happened with Roll Player. A dice-drafting game about creating a fantasy
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character, Roll Player has grown into its own world with space for many other games, like, workerplacement Lockup or roll and write Cartographer, and depth to explore more stories in its universe with the upcoming Roll Player Adventures.
IN THE BEGINNING Keith Matejka was at a local convention, helping to playtest an RPG prototype designed by his friend James Ryan, when he had a ‘lightbulb moment’ – “What if the whole game was about building characters?”, he thought. Matejka had worked in the video game industry for many years, including some games that had elaborate character creation elements, so the translation of that idea to the board game format felt natural. The decision on the type of setting for the game also came quickly: “I have always loved fantasy as a genre,” Matejka explains, “the escapism of going on an adventure, killing monsters, being part of a party, solving quests and getting more powerful – levelling up – has always been something I’ve loved.”
It’s important that players have the maximum amount of choices when building a character often thought about the game as parallel to other games. Dominion is to Magic the Gathering, as Roll Player is to D&D and Pathfinder. It’s the game before the game.”
SHAPING THE WORLD When Matejka began working on Roll Player, he was not envisioning the game as part of the series or a new world. His focus was just on one game and how to make it the best possible experience for all the players. “I wasn’t intending on making a world with its own lore. I wanted players to imprint themselves on the characters they were building,”’ he elaborates on the Roll Player design process, “I didn’t want people to ‘make Drizzt’ [a popular character appearing in the Forgotten Realms D&D campaign setting] I wanted them to make their own character.” As a result, a lot of Roll Player is very generic, but on the upside, this allows it to break away from many long-established fantasy tropes. There are no restrictions on which races can be which classes or what armour they can or cannot wear. “Dungeons & Dragons was an obvious influence,” he continues, “but I also was looking hard at electronic fantasy gaming I did throughout my life. As a kid, I played a lot of the Ultima series and Wizardry series. Then, later, the Elder Scrolls games like Morrowwind and Skyrim.” The game started to take shape soon afterwards. Players would be creating their fantasy characters by rolling and drafting dice. The individual player boards, loosely based on the RPG character sheets, had spaces next to skills like strength, wisdom, charisma, that would be filled with different valued and colour dice. Players had abilities to manipulate the dice, buy equipment and had objectives to complete to win the game. After a game of Roll Player was finished, players had created their own character – with skills, traits, alignments and items – that they could take further into an RPG adventure, if they wanted to. “People always tell me that I made a game about the best part of playing D&D,, so it seems other people like making characters as much as I do,” Matejka explains, “during development, I
“I wanted the players to be able to build an Orc Wizard that carries a longsword instead of locking out certain choices due to trope rules,” Matejka elaborates. “I also wanted to make sure that every race has a male and female option. I think it’s important that players have the maximum amount of choices when building a character in Roll Player, so I didn’t want to limit gender by race, or any other restriction.’
VENTURING FURTHER After Roll Player release, Matejka turned his attention to possible expansions for the game, still intending “to stay squarely in the existing system.” The most common feedback he received during the development of the game and after its release, was that players wanted to take their newly created characters and do something with them. Afterall, if you rolled a powerful fighter it is only natural to want to test them through a round of combat with some grizzly mystical monster. So, the combat became the focus of the first Roll Player expansions – Monsters and Minions.
LEFT Roll Player’s roll and write outing
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Designing a game to fit an established universe can be quite challenging. “I knew players wanted to do more than just kill a few monsters with their new characters,” Matejka says, but he was also realistic about how much the current game could cover. “The character creation system in Roll Player isn’t built for strong storytelling. In the end, Roll Player is a character creation game at its core. Not an adventuring game, so I figured that a new game would be necessary to meet that desire.” The narrative games were on the rise, taking on a variety of genres and experimenting with board game mechanics and story-telling tools in really exciting and innovative ways. Keith looked at games like Time Stories, Near & Far, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective and thought that creating a narrative game using Roll Player characters could be an amazing project one day. Yet the scope of such game also scared him. “I am not a writer,” Matejka explains his initial hesitation, ‘narrative games are hard to create, so it took me a while to decide to go down that route.” James Ryan, the friend who ‘sparked’ the idea of the Roll Player, got in touch with Keith wanting to work on a narrative game together. They both were really excited about the project, even knowing it might be difficult. “I had a lot more confidence in the idea knowing that James was a talented writer and had a design-centric mind.” Matejka recounts. The project, the recently announced to be Roll Player Adventures, was ambitious and would
take many years to develop. Matejka had to figure out what to do with his publishing company, Thunderworks Games, in the meantime.
PRISONERS AND A CARTOGRAPHER At Protospiel Convention, Matejka played a workerplacement game Lock Up by Stan Kordonskiy. “It was not a formal pitch,” Matejka recalls, “After playing it, I told him I really liked it, and we started talking about working together. The idea of connecting it to Roll Player didn’t come until much later.” When Matejka played Lock Up for the first time, it was well into its development. Stan not only had a pretty good idea of its main mechanics but also had a solid inspiration for its theme, ‘My original idea was to design a game with a prison theme but set in a fantasy world,’ Kordonskiy recalls. “The inspiration came in part from the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. I went after kind of humorous vision of what it would be like to have elves, dwarves and orcs ‘doing time’ together.” At the time, Ryan and Matejka have already began developing some lore for Roll Player Adventures. So transitioning Lock Up which was still based in very generic fantasy world into Roll Player’s more defined one, made sense. The application of the theme went smoothly. “Designing a game to fit an established universe can be quite challenging. Luckily for me, in this
LEFT Roll Player Cartographer and Lockup add new game mechanics to the series OPPOSITE The game that started it all, and the newest outing Roll Player Adventure
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case, it was quite straight forward.” Kordonskiy recalls. “Roll Player theme was applied to Lockup after it was already a 90% complete game. So, I did not have to fit mechanics into the theme but rather the other way around. We already had things like fantasy gangs, goons, items and guards. For example, my original prison guards were big mean trolls whom I affectionately named Troll Patrol. In the final version they became clockwork guards instead, based on a creature type that already existed in Roll Player lore.” Matejka also saw this as an exciting opportunity to continue developing the Roll Player world: “If I’m going to do multiple fantasy games, and I’m developing a world, it was a logical jump to lean on the material I was already developing,” Matejka explains, “I love Easter eggs in video games and building connections between the games for players to discover, is just as fun. Putting these games in the same world gave me that opportunity.” The next addition to the Roll Player line came through a recommendation by Luis Francisco, the graphic designer for every Thunderworks game todate, including Roll Player. He suggested a game by Jordy Adan, at the time named Doodle Realms. Jordy was looking to create a roll and write game that would be more creatively complex and ‘not feel like a math test.’ One of his first successful prototypes, called Doodle Squire explored special planning through the drawing of tetrominoes (teris-block shapes). “Another thing that I wanted in this new game was to invoke the artist side of players and
that’s when the theme of Doodle Squire had to change, drawing equipment inside tetrominoes was too complex!” says Adan, explaining the design process, “that’s when a new game in the Doodle series was born, Doodle Realms. After that, came the Isle of Skye-esque scoring system and at last but not least, monsters where born.” Once again, Doodle Realms had a very light fantasy theme that fit well. The biggest challenge was finding elements in the world that fit with game mechanics. Ryan and Matejka took that as an opportunity to develop the world further, add a more detailed history, that would also help them with the work on the Roll Player Adventures that was still happening in the background. Adan has been very excited about Doodle Realms transition to Cartographer. To him, there is no IP more fitting for his game and he acknowledges being part of Roll Player universe was an important contributing factor to Cartographer’s success. Kordonskiy also agrees, “Roll Player has a name recognition and fan base which definitely helps to get a game noticed and that’s a very good thing.”
AN EXPANDING WORLD The world of Roll Player is still developing, growing and evolving with every game. “We add details to the world as we need them to support the fiction of the games,” says Matejka, “It’s like different areas of a painting are coming into focus slowly as we need them to. I think the process was easier since we started from such a generic fantasy place and slowly added details
instead of having all the answers and shoehorning the games into the fiction.” However, although each game started from purposefully generic premise, once they have all come together, their developed into a setting with unique elements and district identity, and having games so different to each other mechanically definitely helped that. “I like that each game in the Roll Player universe is very different mechanically, and I’d like to keep it that way. I don’t think there will ever be another roll and write game, as Cartographers is already in place. So, for future games in the series, I’d want them to be significantly different mechanically from the other games I’ve published so far. We can add to the lore as needed to make sure new games fit the world, so it’s really flexible,” says Matejka As for adding new games to the stable, Matejka follows a specific process of evaluation for every possible game and the gameplay quality always comes first: “Whenever a designer pitches me a game, or I have my own ideas, I always think through or discuss if the game could fit with Roll Player in some way. When I sign games from outside designers, I look for
great games first. That’s the core deciding factor as to whether I want to sign a new title. Then, I evaluate whether it’s a good fit. If not, that’s fine. I still move forward. If it is, then we start developing it in that direction.” However, not every new game that comes to Thunderwork Games needs to be re-worked to be part of the Roll Player extended universe. “For example, a game that is clearly connected to some historical event isn’t a great fit, or if the mechanics are really intertwined with another theme, it probably doesn’t make sense to place in the Roll Player universe.” Matejka elaborates. Afterall, there is no need to mould and change something, just for the sake of fitting into the theme. The process, Matejka explains, is more organic than that, “If I sign a game that makes sense to add it to the line, and it deepens the world, I do it. If not, I will keep the original theme or change it to something else.” That, of course, doesn’t mean that Matejka is not excited about introducing specific game mechanics into the Roll Player world. He would love to see an area control game or an economics game in the world. However, to him new styles of games are also an opportunity to deepen the lore of Roll Player. “My focus is more in adding different styles of game to the series knowing the world-building needed to support that title will naturally add more story to the growing world,” he says. As for now, his focus is on the upcoming Roll Player Adventures. The game that started development right after Roll Player, but was deepened and enhanced by the solid framework developed with the addition of Lock Up and Cartographer. Just as Adventures will showcase just how vast and complex the cosmos around Roll Player has become, any new games in the series will build up on that to give players more to explore and fall in love with.
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CITY LIMITS
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Legacy games seem to be at the height of their popularity, so it’s unusual that Reiner Knizia is making one – after all, doesn’t he usualy set trends? We discuss city building, legacy and what’s so wrong with downtime Words by Christopher John Eggett he city builder genre is one of contemplative fiddling for the most part. As you build and expand, you solve your original problems, but in the process, create new ones. It’s a genre of game that we have always felt is a little like a zen sand garden. You may be raking it into perfect curves, but the final curve can never be finished. It’s a metaphor for how progress is always tainted by what we’ve lost along the way. While there might be ‘glory’ in creating a large city, you may have paved over some of your own history, history that had previously been shared. This is why city builder games fit well with the legacy mechanics that are popular and widespread today. Reiner Knizia, who doesn’t really need an introduction nor a mention of the 700+ games that he has authored, has taken on the task of creating a legacy city building game that is accessible. He introduces the blueprints of My City to us from the architect’s point of view. “Legacy games have been established for quite a while, but I don’t think there’s been a real legacy game which is for the general public. Which is what My City attempts to do,” says Knizia, and he’s right. While there have been legacy games that are accessible, Zombie Kidz for example, they don’t contain the depth of something like a good gateway game. Games like Charterstone, while also in the ‘builder’ genre and somewhat accessible, still sit on the heavier side of the argument. Knizia suggests that legacy games should be more accessible by their nature. They have a natural learning curve built into them by default, “the legacy game has the advantage that you can introduce rules step by step.” Aside from this My City boasts simple, short rules, and a play time of around 20 minutes for each round. “We join three games together into one period. First of all we arrive as the settlers and build our city. Then they get
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more structure in there, with administration, and then nature gives us some ‘obstacles’, some challenges,” he says smiling. There’s plenty to be planning for when it comes to your personal urban development. After three games of around 20 minutes, another envelope is opened, adding more rules and more aspects to consider for the next round. One envelope might introduce churches in a round, another might introduce a factory type – it’s like putting together a particularly obtuse jigsaw puzzle where pieces are revealed after each opening. If only you’d known what was in the envelope coming up, you might have planned differently. This is where the over-theboard discussion and contemplation comes in – while there’s no direct conflict between players (this is still a Eurogame) – there is a very natural buzz created. “People can then compare, ‘how did you actually deal with these circumstances?’ or ‘how did I deal with my circumstances?’ But because after the first game, or after the first twist, everybody’s situation is different so you cannot really copy what the others did,” says Knizia. The game is full of these ‘I wish I had done that,’ moments – akin to that very Eurogame feeling of ‘I’ve just realised what I should have already done’. Except here you’re comparing against your friends, rather than the mechanics of the board’s puzzle unfolding like an M C Escher designed puzzle box before you.
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NO DOWNTIME IN THE CITY There is the danger, in a game like this, with so many blind corners coming up for players, that they will get caught out with nothing to do on their turn. Or ending up at a dead end with a city that can’t expand or even be enjoyed. “The boards are different but not radically different. You’re also keeping people from doing ‘nonsense’,” Knizia says, doing bunny quotes with his fingers, “because they don’t know what’s coming in the future.” The balancing here is key – and as elegantly implemented as you might expect, “very early you will have a few wells coming up to get fresh water. We actually give you some options in an area of the board, where the wells go on one side of the river because people don’t know that the flood will come on the other side of the river. And then if you have no wells, it’s very bad. So, we guide people a little bit because we know the events to the end, we help people to not to be trapped by unlucky decisions. So, there’s some guidance here.” If the thing that some people fear about legacy games is the permanence of choice – because that choice might be a mistake – then
this is one way for the designer to say ‘trust me’. And we do trust Renier – when was the last time he led us astray? The central, shared board also doesn’t change. Or at least, not dramatically, “You might take down a little bit more of the woods. You might mine a little bit more on the other side. But the basic building activities all the same,” says Knizia, of what sounds like a game set apart by its fairness, “everybody plays at the same time, there is no downtime. Everybody has their own city in front of them.” This inclusiveness and lack of downtime is designed to make the game accessible without losing focus. There’s a temptation in legacy games to always be peaking at the envelopes in the box, wondering what’s coming next. Here, there’s no time for that. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but your city will be built in 20 minute sprints. Downtime itself is almost as much a curse word in games as the dreaded ‘player elimination’ – but its removal from this game was simply a happy result of giving people their own playground. The original version of the game had a single city that players shared and built together.
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“Removing downtime wasn’t a specific goal when we set out to do it. But nobody likes downtime. In the initial discussions things came up ‘Oh, but when you build a city, you build one city, you don’t have that much influence when people change things’ – and so we just simply said, well, why don’t I build my own city. Then we said, ‘why did we take it in turns?’” says Knizia, laughing, “we all get started with the same buildings, but the order in which we build them is unclear. That is determined by a pack of cards.”
MY CITY
WHAT MAKES A GOOD CITY There’s no need to apply great philosophical city planning thinking here, there’s no room for that in a 20 minute game. If you’re hoping to test out the theories of Le Corbusier then you’re best off inflicting that nightmare somewhere else. There are two questions that remain however, what makes a good city? And how do we win? “It changes throughout the periods. You have to stick with some standard building rules of course. You start at the river, as usually settlements do and then you have to be contiguous. So, you cannot just jump and build somewhere else,” says Knizia, “for the scoring, there are three major types of building. Factories – or industry, or business, depending on the age we’re playing – then the normal residential areas, and then the communal buildings. Then there are some special buildings like churches. If you have a church, then the church benefits from getting connected to many different parts of the population and therefore you get a bonus if all three of the different types of buildings are linked to the church. I mean they can’t do it in spiritual ways, but I think it is logical to do it by placement. And so, if you have the factory workers next to it, the government next, then you get more points for that city.” A happy city then, is one that allows its connections to flow well and its people to move between the things they need to do and the things they want with ease. Of course, like any town planner, you can only control so much of your city – some things are demanded, and you must consider the greater good of those in your care, versus your victory in this round. Keeping your eye on the future is key to creating a great city. There are tools at hand for this, “you have also got the opportunity not to build certain buildings because you don’t like them. But some buildings, like churches, you cannot deny,” says Knizia, “If you waste resources and don’t build, you lose some points, and whenever you build a building, you get some funds. It’s a very simple thing” There’s also a nod towards preserving what nature you can in these placement rules, “Most importantly you have trees scattered around and you want to preserve these. The trees are different from the woods. Build over a tree and you lose points. So, they work as obstacles.” Not all of nature is there to punish players of course, some of the deforestation is designed
to help players in the long run, “there’s woods on the other side. Initially you cannot build in the woods. But later, you get more resources and we take some of the woods away and therefore our play area gets bigger. And again, it depends then how do I do this in the best way? Which part of the woods do I take down? And we’ll put stickers on them so that later I have a good opportunity to build here.” Like all the best builder games, the problems you are facing are ones you have created yourself. You are solving something for the now that will effect future generations, which in this case, is you in the next round of the game. You get to change the map that can provide you with an opportunities – or, equally as likely – a new puzzle for yourself, “you see,” says Knizia of these challenges “if I make an awkward cut into the woods, how will I go about getting my buildings in there? It essentially comes together in an intuitive way.” The designer might be following a natural flow for city construction, but he is also rewarding the player for being what we want real city planners to be – forward looking. “We start with a few very, very simple rules,” says Knizia, “and so this is a little rule, and then we get the next rule. And then come to churches. And the problem is there’s a big casino and you don’t know when it’s going to be built. But you know you have to build it. You have to have a space left – because as soon as you cannot build a building, you’re up.” Here Knizia is referring to the final moves of each round of the 20 minute episodes. There is an option to – instead of taking the points hit for buildings you can build – tap out of the
round. This allows you to stop building, and with that, avoid penalties. “In the last few minutes you may be out because you couldn’t build a second street. But everybody knows the concede moment to is coming, as you have it in front of you,” says Knizia, rejecting the idea that there’s any player elimination, or if there is, it’s only for a minute or so. Returning to accessibility, we talk about the idea that crops up a lot in design – that theme is the makeshift bridge between the rules and the players when there is uncertainty. While there isn’t a particular town or city that Knizia is looking to emulate here, we know the kind of place he is asking us to build. Its accessibility comes from an intrinsic understanding of what we already know about towns and cities. Knizia explains, “We are not terraforming Mars – there you are in an alien environment, and you need to explain much more. The more familiar we are with the environment the better the understanding. I understand that I cannot build a building over the river. And there are things which are still challenging but they are familiar, and therefore you need fewer rules because it’s just natural.” Players then, should simply go with it, “just act in the role,” says Knizia, “many don’t even question it because it’s so clear from them. I mean, yes, there is a rule saying you cannot build a building over the river, but I think people shouldn’t even attempt it because if there is a river – and you cannot have a building half this side of half the other side.”
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MY CITY
FINDING THE GOLD IN THE FLOOD Being a legacy game, ‘events’ crop up when envelopes are opened – the gold rush being one. This will change the way players see their boards as the discovery of gold means that they will have to make a bee-line to it to exploit it. This is one of the ways the game plays with the development of your city, stretching it out of your planned shape, into something of a compromise between you vision, and what the game challenges you with. “It’s a race for the gold. The point here is you have to start building along the river. Sometimes you’ll start in the woods, but if you start on the river, the river runs through the middle of the town or the city,” says Knizia, “And now of course you can make relatively quick steps because you have to have the city always linked together. You cannot have a separate settlement, and you start on the river, so while you can build the buildings very quickly to the gold mines. You can do that, but you screw up everything else because then the clusters don’t work and the churches don’t fit in anymore. So it is, it’s a race, it’s almost, if you go extreme, yes, you will make the gold rush you’ll win these points, but then you lose out and many other things until you need. “What I wanted in some of the instances is that you don’t play several solo player games together,” he says, expanding on the idea that we have competition if not conflict in My City “so, I see what the other player does and may feel defeated if I see he’s going for the gold. If he’s building over there, I have to ask whether should I do this as well or should I give up on it.” Renier goes on to describe a back and forth happening in a kind of meta game between rounds. Yes – the other player may have been
LEFT The personal boards that each player will be building their city on
ahead for the gold rush before, but as they’ve become distracted with shorter term changes to the map you may find yourself in a better position to outpace them. Floods are another part of the game, the river can burst its banks, causing a new puzzle of constraint for the players. “The flood eats a part of the map. So, on one side of the river you suddenly have restricted possibilities of building and that means you are now really, really short for space. And that now means you have the dilemma of you cannot get all your buildings down. It’s always a natural thing. Of course, when the flood subsides, then you suddenly have a bit of a bigger city space.” “So, fate changes sometimes. But this is what I mean, it’s interaction between the player, which is the gold rush introduces and it’s yet another challenge but within the theme of building your city,” says Knizia. My City is a game about everyone having to deal with the same problems, but through their reactions to it, facing different struggles in the future.
GROWING WITHOUT FAILURE There’s something nice about constructing anything in front of you. It’s inarguable that the placement of a tile to form a greater point-scoring area lights up part of most of our brains in some ways. “Seeing something grow constructively, having your little challenges of ‘how
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could I have done that differently?’– when it’s not a catastrophe – is nice. It’s just when you have a lot of flexibility and you are really in charge of your own destiny, it’s very nice,” says Knizia. When asked about failure in this game, Knizia pauses before saying “I did not want to build in failure in here, but it’s a city. And why does a city continue and grow into a million city and the city suddenly a ruin? I mean, yes, if you have the gold rush, it’s quite clear you’ll get the ghost towns afterwards. That’s not the fault of the city.” Here we’re asked to look at the cities we create as a creature in themselves, they are agnostic to the world around them, the people inside, they may be good or evil, but the city is just the city. While Knizia explored successful city state, the ancient cities of the Aztecs and so on, but this isn’t the path he decided to take. “It was just inspiring to me, not just looking at the successful things. It gave me more options to build in. But essentially I followed the natural path – you cannot fail with your city. Yes, the city will grow and yes, it will be fine,” said Knizia. Which says everything you need to know about the game really – you’re here to have a good time. “Initially you’re playing 24 games, and yes, you will score victory points as well. But is it really relevant?” he laughs, “I mean, for the general public, for the family, is it relevant if I after 24 games, win or don’t win? It’s about the enjoyment. It’s about everybody can have some success stories in each 20 minutes. And you have your own successes.” *
DEATH BECOMES US Overthrowing the current regime often has a lot of appeal, but smart schemers know that there needs to be something there to fill the power-vacuum. Will it be you? Tom Gilliland offers us the choice between selfishness and salvation
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t’s difficult being Death. Not only is your work of collecting souls endless, it’s also thankless. And a scythe can be a cause for repetitive strain injury which no amount acupuncture will cure (and besides, where exactly will they be putting the needles?). In Court of the Dead players are set the goal of scheming with Death (or, The Alltaker, we are informed they prefer to be called) to overthrow the powers that be – above and below. It’s a kind of worker placement game with a bit of location control, and risk built into every action. It’s risky anyway, because if you get spotted by the administration of either heaven or hell you’ll suffer.
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Words by Christopher John Eggett Tom Gilliland, the creator of the Court of the Dead and chief creative officer at Sideshow, introduces the game for us. “It’s a dark fantasy universe in which Death and his motley assortment of generals, warriors, oracles and spies are plotting a secret rebellion. They seek to overthrow heaven and hell, equally corrupt masters of an insidious, parasitic system through which they consume mortal souls… a system which Death and the underworld are also very much complicit in maintaining. Conflicted by their role in this cosmic tragedy, Death, his court strive to best their darker natures in order
to nurture a redemptive nobility to become the unlikely saviours of the mortal realm and underworld alike.” Bringing this story to life required a lot of work – as while Sideshow has been creating popculture collectables in the form of sculptures and models for 25 years, Court of the Dead was an entirely new world authored by them. Something that Gilliland describes as an “epic and humbling leap.” The mechanics of the game were primarily designed by Pat Marino (Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist) with Andrew Wolf (Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle) of USAopoly (recently renamed TheOP).
It was a risk, like many of the game’s mechanics. But one driven by the design of the world, and the strange characters and guilds of the underworld. “It’s inspired by the great deal of dark fantasy literature I consumed as a youth, like Michael Moorcocks’ Elric series. I’m an especially captive audience for anti-hero lore,” says Gilliland, “we also do a lot of superhero work here in the Sideshow studio, which inspired me to ask myself what a superhero team would look like if I had my shot at designing one. The specific design and character concepts were inspired by a thousand D&D games, heavy metal album covers, and my off-centre sense of what’s horrific and beatific.” So, we’re looking at a team of dark defenders here, all desperately attempting to avoid doing the thing they really want, which is to seize control as soon as any power vacuum appears. “I really didn’t want to borrow from established mythology too much in fabricating the universe, but I did want to use some fixture elements like ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ to serve the purpose of the accessibility to this flipped perspective that Court of the Dead promotes. Those characters that you’re accustomed to be being the good guys are not, and those characters that are reflexively viewed as the bad guys are the saviours in my universe.”
RIGHT Death, or The Alltaker, as they prefer to be known
I’m an especially captive audience for anti-hero lore
SAVING THE WORLD But what are they saving? The wretched denizens of some dark underworld don’t seem to be the most appealing applicants for salvation, nor does siding with Death sound like something most of us would do in usual circumstances. The answer? You should see the other guys. “The oppressive celestials, the first creations in this universe who hunger voraciously for the
RIGHT Malavestros, a chaotic element of the underworld element of creation called etherea. This element rides within mortal souls and exists primarily in the mortal realm of existence. The celestials need it to fuel their endless war for supremacy. In this world, they represent neither salvation nor damnation; rather, a cold hardline interpretation of law and chaos – minus any empathy for others,” says Gilliland, “they care little for the experiences and richness of mortal life, and even less for the mourners, who are enslaved to harvest the souls.” There is sympathy to be had for these strange peoples that make up the guilds of bone, flesh and spirit. They’re inflicted with a malady known
as dreadsgrip “a manifestation of the destructive nature that the underworld was formed in,” says Gilliland, of the affliction, “it feeds on one’s baser, more selfish aspects, the dreadsgrip seeks to undue one’s agency and turn you from the noble aspirations of the underworld into a mindless agent of destruction.” Which is fitting of course. The game is one where there is a temptation to be selfish throughout, but with the knowledge that without pooling resources, there’s a chance everyone will lose out. Or maybe not, if you’re lucky you’ll get away with it. But how much do you want to risk?
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COURT OF THE DEAD: MOURNERS CALL
One example of this is the blind bidding that occurs at the end of the action round. Here players have to collectively pay a tithe to the celestial beings. Each player takes what they want to contribute into their hand secretly, talks trash about other players if they want to, and then reveals all at once. The happiest outcome here is that the tithe is paid, and everyone moves on, taking unity tokens and points based on their contributions. If the tithe is not paid in full however, there are negative consequences all around. “Mourners struggle to do the noble thing when one’s nature is to be selfish,” says Gilliland, “the game puts the player in a similar spot: do what’s best for the united group, or allow the touch of the dreadsgrip to guide your decision to be selfish? It’s very thematic to the storytelling of the project, in that you never know where anyone else stands.” The dreadsgrip metre, if triggered by a certain threshold of guild figures in one location forces a dice roll that may wipe your allied figures out. It might also wipe your co-opposition out too. You have to make a choice about whether you want to be good or not. Unity tokens are also the timer of the game, the quicker you work together, the faster the game ends, the more one player sabotages, the longer the game will run. “It was a critical aspect of the lore and story to include this pressure as these hard decisions are what give the antiheroes of the underworld a greater degree of credibility,” says Gilliland “overall, in the Court of the Dead universe, one must work – and work hard – to achieve goodness. Being ‘good’ is not a default setting. If you’re just existing, no matter what realm you are in, you’re neutral at best. Those that actively promote destruction are the embodiment of evil. And some character fight for their diremption through unity, but it is hard-won.”
COURTROOM PSYCHOLOGY If this feels like the whole game is a bit of a Rorschach test for working out who should never be the banker in Monopoly, then you’d be nearly right. The factions are designed so as to present aspects of a diagram of a psyche. Gilliland explains, “the factions are a veiled personality or character alignment diagram. The Bone faction represents the foundational, logical thinking of a constructive mind. Flesh faction is the more adaptive, mental dexterity of a mind always evolving for answers. The Spirit faction encompasses both of these aspects in balance – while on a greater wavelength of imagination that asks all the ‘what if’ questions often coming from more philosophical minds. Together
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TOP The vast underworld board ABOVE Tarot sized character cards RIGHT Shard, a new character in the universe
LEFT The huge Court of the Dead box with art by Alex Horley RIGHT The board is about to change with the introduction of a powerful character card
the factions are a powerful council of all that matters, but separated they become fragile and their weaknesses threaten to bring down the elaborate house of cards the Alltaker is building with his court.” The characters that can be controlled by the players include the leaders of each faction, offering their own flavourful approach the situation. “It’s not too hard, I imagine, to see how this might be buffered by the strong personalities leading each faction: Gethsemoni, the Queen of the Dead, leads the mercurial Flesh Faction as it manoeuvres the variables of existence to find the way forward to the Alltaker’s purpose; Chancellor Xiall of the Bone Faction brings order and structure to the fabric of the Underworld’s resources and forces; and the oracle Ellianastis of Spirit Faction leads the majority of the Underworld’s ‘sleeping dead’ population on their greater quest to deduce the spiritual reality of the Underworld’s way forward. A trio of ‘sisters’ whose unique visions both complement one another, and find conflict at the same time.” Each member of a faction you control also pushes you up a track on the board that allows you to use their powers, so leaning into one way of playing the game is to your advantage, most of the time. But it is only through a display of unity that you will actually win the game. In some ways the game is a metaphor for how the acts of an individual cannot improve the world for everyone, only by organising can a community (even if they are wretch and cursed) find a foothold, and then a trail, to a better world.
SCULPTING THE UNDERWORLD Much of this story is told through the miniatures and art of the game. And it’s sometimes easy to
forget that the game is just a glimpse into the underworld that has been feverishly dreamedup by Sideshow. There’s an entire universe that exists outside the box, and we’re just playing with a small part of it. The box contains a huge list of artists from a number of disciplines. The cover art, by Alex Horley, whose art has appeared in Magic:The Gathering and Warzone, is described as harkening back to the fantasy art of the 70’s by Gilliland. The character design was carried by Gilliland with Amilcar Fong, Rachel Roubicek and Ivan Koritarev. As with any company moving from their home turf into a new medium, even if that medium is just making smaller models than the models they normally make, there were a few good-intentioned speed bumps on the way to the underworld. “Making miniatures proved to be a bit trickier than first imagined. In order to accommodate the smaller scale, a lot of our sculpture aptitude was found to be too detailed and not strategically engineered to better suit the more general manner great minis are sculpted in,” says Gilliland, “we had to re-learn a few things.”
THE ALLTAKERS NEXT MOVE So, where does the universe of Court of the Dead go from here? Onwards and, maybe, upwards. The saga will follow the mourners and the court as they seek to overthrow the celestials to regain balance. There’s to be a dropping of the veil too, for some newer characters, says Gilliland, “a Mortal Knight named Shard, who, like Alice in Through the Looking Glass finds her way into the Underworld, and comes to realize that not only were her notions of the afterlife very wrong, but she has a pivotal role in implementing the
Alltaker’s vision to achieve the rebalancing of the universe.” This story along with several prequels are currently being drafted in prose and graphic novels as a trilogy. But there’s more “a full-length prose novel with illustrative plates that tells the origin tale of one of the Court’s greatest heroes – the Reaper General Demithyle – will be released later this year, as will a new graphic novel called The War of Flesh and Bone. This graphic novel focuses on the less-than-unifying aspect of the Underworld’s faction system, designed to encourage unity but fragile in a way that often breaks down politically. Caught between the vying forces of the Flesh and Bone factions are two warriors who must find the way past conflict in themselves and the Court to be heard as the voice of reason.” Beyond the court there are new games coming. A new relationship with Skybound Games (The grimm Masquerade, Superfight) will see a backstabbing card game called Dark Harvest land on our tabletops. The game uses some of the blind bidding system of Court... to good effect. And of course, there’s a tabletop roleplaying game in the works, Gilliland explain, “you play a Dreadsbane Order Inquisitor – part of the team seeking to defeat the dreadsgrips’ latest threat to the underworld and the Alltaker’s fragile rebellion. It’s full of cool, playable underworld mourner characters, many of the fan favourite court members appear as NPCs, and lots of trench-line action with miniatures.” Which makes sense, the trend of using miniatures in your RPG session has been expanding in recent years, why not make the miniatures first? The rich world of Court of the Dead marches on, and we’re eagerly awaiting the next steps. Gilliland signs off with a spirited instruction: “Rise, Conquer, Rule!”
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The best-selling battle is taking a turn to the darkside… Capture this limited edition now!
C C M
CARDBOARD MANIFESTO
TIDY, GENTLEMEN, PLEASE
Tidy boxes, tidy minds. Or something like that. We explore the smallest hill on which to die when talking about games: how good the storage is in the box Words by Christopher John Eggett
t is by no means a metric for how good a game might be, but I have recently taken the following to be the universal metric for how much a game publisher cares about you: how many tiny bags they have packed in with the game. If you’re anything like me, you set aside a certain amount of time before playing a game for the first time to do all those things you’re meant to do, like read the rules and know what certain things are called in the game. If you’re hosting, it’s only good manners. However, with this comes the inevitable punching out of small pieces of cardboard and bagging them up. Often you won’t truly know how every small token is going to interact on the board, but often, the number of bags is a helpful indicator of what’s what. Beyond this, when it comes to putting the game away at the end of the evening, doing so in a way that makes sense can make getting the game out again next time less confusing. Games like Wingspan let you put your game away in an entirely sensible manner, and the soon to be released Rurick has a very inventive trays-within-trays-on-trays set up which leaves separate spaces for each individual card deck. Both of these make the ‘pack down’ a fast and enjoyable jigsaw that lets you get on with the rest of your evening. Games like Posthuman on the other hand, or Clinic: Deluxe Edition (reviewed page 84), come with so many tokens that some kind of indication of how it’s all going to go in the box after would really help. It’s not that it doesn’t fit, it’s just that there’s always a bit of sighing and mumbling of “oh, I’ve got those bits” when it comes to the end of the evening that doesn’t
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happen with the previously mentioned games. Boards in boxes come in to play here too. The recent Flyin’ Goblin does a cracking job of getting everything in the box in an easy way that doesn’t require you taking the castle apart after each game, well, only a little bit anyway. Mechanica a game about making little robots Mechanica, that clean human houses (reviewed next month) takes this to an entirely different level. It’s a game that, apart from removing some small boxes for keeping your earned coin safe until the end of the game, simply taking the lid off and placing out a couple of cards is all you need for set up. This of course, sounds like a very small gripe in the extremely varied and interesting world of tabletop games – but it’s one that strikes at the heart of the culture. We’re in the business of analogue experiences and physical objects. If, as a game publisher, you want your game to be played until it physically gives up, giving it a good home will make it much more possible.
Rurick uses a hyper-tidy multi-tray system to make it simple to set up and put away
We’re in the business of analogue experiences and physical objects
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TAKING IT ONLINE Roleplaying games have always been the easiest games to take with you. A handful of dice, a book to refer to if you get stuck, a pen, some paper, and your imagination are all you need. So it makes sense that these adventures in the theatre of the mind translate to our currently, slightly more online, times…
Words by Richard Jansen-Parkes | Images from Alien RPG by Free League can’t imagine why, but over the past few weeks the topic of taking RPGs online has suddenly been gathering a fair bit of attention. It’s almost as though there’s been some kind of terrible event forcing people to stay physically isolated, which we don’t really want to directly address in this otherwise light-hearted look at our hobbies. Or something like that, anyway. It certainly helps that roleplaying games are a natural fit for online play. While all the
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cards, counters and tiles can make more conventional tabletop games tough to run remotely, RPGs can – usually, anyway – operate without the need for any physical accessories or components at all. At their heart most of them only really need some dice and a way for you and your fellow players to speak to each other. This is something that can be neatly accommodated in a video chat, a group voice call or even a message board or email thread. Honestly, this ankle-high barrier to entry is
one of the best things about RPGs in general, and an edge that really comes into sharp focus when you have a couple hours to kill at an airport or – to pluck an example entirely from the void – because you’re spending days on end isolated at home. However, while actually running a game while wearing pyjamas should be an absolute doddle in theory, there are a handful of factors that you’ll need to consider before leaping into your brand-new online campaign.
GEARING UP Getting hold of the equipment needed to play games online is surprisingly simple these days. In truth, most of us probably have an entirely adequate set-up sitting on our desk or bouncing around in our pockets already. All you really need to get a game going is a device with a microphone and – ideally – some sort of camera. In practise this means you should be able to use almost any modern laptop, tablet or smartphone without too much difficulty, though if you have access to a high-quality external microphone and webcam that’s even better. On top of this, a pair of headphones can be useful to avoid irritating echoes bouncing back down the line to other players. If you ever have the chance to upgrade just one part of your set-up, always prioritise the sound first. It’s nice to be able to see your friends and family in detail, but when you’re sitting down for a game where communication is key, a clear voice is much more important. Finally, you’re going to want to make sure you’re sat somewhere with a decent Wi-Fi connection. If you find that you’re constantly dropping out from the call, try repositioning closer to the wireless router.
PICKING A PLATFORM The next port of call on your journey towards online gaming is picking the right platform to host your game. Most of the time you can get away with just picking one of the many conventional video-conferencing programmes that you’ve probably been using to chat with friends and family over the past few weeks. Of these, Skype and Google Hangouts are probably the most obvious choices, as they’re both free, stable and fairly straightforward to use. If these don’t float your boat then you have several other options out there, including setting up your own Discord servers and hosting games there, or even paying for a highquality conferencing service like Zoom. Any one of these platforms should be more than up to the task of running an online RPG session. Sharing things like maps and handouts with the rest of the part can be a little tricky, but this can be mitigated with careful use of screensharing and the occasional PDF being sent through the text chat. However, sometimes ‘up to the task’ isn’t quite what you’re after. Sometimes you want something with a bit more power under the bonnet and a few more bells and whistles hanging from the rear-view mirror.
In that case, you might enjoy messing around with one of the virtual tabletop platforms available online. These are elaborate programmes designed with the express purpose of helping you take your RPG sessions online and offer a whole load of extra benefits, ranging from integrated character sheets to digital battle maps. At first glance the sheer array of options and tools these programmes offer can be more than a little intimidating, and if you want to take advantage of everything they offer you’re going to have to spend a fair bit of time buried in the manual. However, the key to having a good time with a virtual tabletop is to simply pick and choose what options you want to use, and which ones you’re happy to ignore. Sometimes, simply being able to share character sheets and let the computer handle your rolls is enough. You don’t need to feel bad because you aren’t making the most of the elaborate fog-of-war effects too. The most popular virtual tabletops out there at the moment are probably Roll20, Fantasy Grounds and Astral Tabletop. They all have their own individual quirks and areas of expertise, but Roll20 probably has the other two beaten in terms of scale, which makes it easy to find new campaigns running all across the world.
PLAYING THE GAME So, you have your kit up and running and your party are waiting on the call for you to join. Everything’s easy from here, right? Well, that kind of depends. If you’ve only every played RPGs face-to-face before it can take a bit of time to adjust to the realities of online play. There are a few little bits of etiquette that you really need to keep in mind through your first few sessions. For example, it’s real important that you and your friends avoid crosstalk – by which I mean talking over and across one another. Of course, this is something you probably want to avoid in real life as well, but it can get especially annoying in an online game where you can only really hear one voice at a time. If you desperately need to continue a quick side-conversation, most of the chat platforms out there have the ability to have text-based conversations that can ping back and forth while someone else is speaking. Of course, hammering away on a loud keyboard with an open mic could easily end up being just as distracting as carrying on that conversation, which is why it’s important that you stay aware of background noise. Even if you’re able to tune out the TV that’s on in the background or the washing machine trying to shake itself loose from the plumbing, your fellow players probably won’t be quite so fortunate. Learn how to temporarily mute yourself and make use of it when needed. Next, try and ensure that you stay focussed on the game. This is something that’s especially important if you’re playing on a full-size computer, where the lure of Twitter and Reddit and just a couple of clicks away. It really doesn’t take too much to drift out of the game for a couple minutes, and only surface when the rest of the team are wondering why you’re so ambivalent to having your character’s brain scooped out. Finally – and more cheerfully – remember to take advantage of downtime. The reality of running a game online means that you’ll probably have some kind of chat set up to arrange and organise things, and while this can be useful for sorting out dates it can also serve as a great place for inter-session roleplay. If the system you’re playing has special rules for downtime this is the ideal time to implement them, and even if it doesn’t there’s still lots of little story moments and ideas that can be sketched out through the group chat. *
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A F R E E G A M E F O R YO U T O P L AY I N S I D E E V E R Y I S S U E O F TA B L E T O P G A M I N G !
MICROGAME OF THE MONTH 58
December May 2020 2017
ROB-OH, NO! elcome to MALWHERE - a town of corrupted hard drives and corrupt politicians. This place is a mess and there’s junk everywhere, but the real trash is other robots and you’re here to clean up. The Robo-mafia have their claws dug in deep and it’s time for a change. You are tiny, flawed trash Sheriffs with a passion for solving crimes & taking names. You and your Robot companions are ready to access the town’s memories of when things were different and RAM justice down the throats of the bad guys. You may not be perfect, you may have your flaws, you may be a little broken, but you’re all this town has got. It’s time to get to work...
ADAPTATION from the broken bits and pieces lying around. Explain what you are making and how it improves your STAT, then roll 2d6. Compare the results to the table. Take the highest roll as your STAT improvement and your lowest as its FLAW value increase. Once SCRAP has been used, it is gone. Alternatively, you can use SCRAP you have to add to a roll. Take +1 per piece of scrap used. Once a piece of SCRAP has been used, it is gone. Explain what the piece of scrap is, how it helps your action and what renders d6 STAT FLAW it useless afterwards. You 1-2 d6 3 can do this before or after 3-4 d8 4 5-6 d10 5 you roll.
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HOW TO PLAY First, pick a super cool Robot name and decide what you were originally made for, what ADAPTATIONS you have, and how you are FLAWED. Then, add something extra that makes you awesome. Roll 1d6 for each column below, or pick your own: Next, assign dice to your STATS. Each STAT has a pool of dice associated with it and a FLAW value, which denotes how that STAT is affected by your FLAW. Assign d6, d8, d10 (1 per STAT) between your STATS. Each STAT has a starting FLAW value of 4: ◗ PROTOCOL – Interacting socially with other Robots & Querying received data ◗ DIAGNOSTICS – Interacting with objects & Running searches ◗ ALERT – Acting under pressure & Kicking exhaust Whenever you attempt something and the outcome is in doubt, establish which STAT best fits what you are trying to do and how your FLAW could cause things to go wrong. Once this established, roll all the dice for your STAT and compare the total to its FLAW value. If your ADAPTATIONS would help out, or you can find a use your AWESOME EXTRA, roll twice and pick the highest result. If you roll equal or above your FLAW, you overcome your FLAW and your action is successful. If you roll below your FLAW, you fail and things go wrong as established. You also gain SCRAP. If you roll less than half your FLAW (rounded down), your GM may give you an unexpected consequence of your actions. D6 Original Purpose Adaptations
Flaws Awesome Extras
1 Housekeeping
2 Surgery
3 Security
Interactive Screen/Extendable Arms/Extreme Whisk Can’t Switch Off Cool Hat
High End Processor/Delicate Brushes/Low Intensity Laser Underpowered Sick Wheels
Solid Gold Rims/Satellite Dish/Water Cannon No Filter Tight Paintjob
UPGRADES Any time you roll below your FLAW, you gain SCRAP. SCRAP can be used to improve your STATS or to help out in situations. When you have 3 SCRAP, you can use this to improve a STAT. Whenever you improve a STAT, you create a new
RUNNING A GAME – FOR GMS When Robots attempt something when the outcome is in doubt, ask them “What could go wrong?”. In some situations, there may be two possible outcomes that players come up with, based on their FLAW. If this is the case, then ask them to pick which one happens after the result of the roll is declared. There’s always something shady going on in MALWHERE, and it certainly runs all the way to the top, but to find out who’s really involved, the Robots are going to have to do some digging. Roll on the table to find out what the Robo Mafia are up to and who else is involved. Roll 1d6 for each option: D6 WHAT ARE THE ROBO MAFIA UP TO? 1 Selling low quality circuit boards 2 Running an antivirus racket 3 Infecting people with Spyware 4 5 6
WHO ELSE IS INVOLVED? The mayor of Malwhere Someone the Robots trust most The Fibreoptic Bureau of Investigation An esoteric revolutionary group
Low quality construction projects Arms dealing, like Robot arms Another, more powerful Robo Mafia dealing family Smuggling Robot drugs, cut Humans! with scrap
When a Robot rolls less than half of their FLAW (rounded down), you may wish to add an unexpected consequence to their actions. Pick something appropriate to the narrative, or roll on the table: D6 1 2 3 4 5 6
UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCE Something gets broken Something gets lost Someone gets hurt Someone gets tipped off Someone gets angry Someone gets trapped
WHO MADE THIS? Matt Bear Jones, aka Ursidice, is a one-man roleplaying game design company. Follow Ursidice on Twitter @Ursidice, at ursidice.com or via patreon.com/ursidice
Download a free PDF of ROB-OH NO! at ttgami.ng/ roboohno
tabletopgaming.co.uk
around the world in 80 plays
POLAND Words by Chad Wilkinson
his month we hop back over to Central Europe, setting a course for Poland and its rich tabletop landscape. With Germany – the birthplace of modern gaming – as its neighbour, one can expect to find plenty of influences from tabletop culture trickling through its borders, alongside a number of traditional Polish games and the country’s own distinct impact on the hobby as a whole. Card games have existed in Poland for centuries, with popular regional games such as Kierki and Kuku still being played today. Kuku is a simple hand management game played with a standard 52 card deck. One player starts the game with four cards and deals each other player three cards before choosing one of their extra cards to pass on to the next player. If a player ever gathers three cards in the same colour or value they declare “Kuku!” – winning the game. Whilst many countries view board gaming as an arguably nostalgic or archaic pastime, Poland sets itself apart by viewing the tabletop scene with relatively fresh eyes. For the duration of Poland’s communist past, board game products barely existed in the country. Original games were being designed but remained sadly unavailable until much later, with a notable example being Warsaw professor Karol Borsuk’s, Super Farmer. Produced during WWII as a means of making money after the closure of his university, this quaint push-your-luck animal farming game captured the hearts of many Polish families during the German occupation. Unfortunately, following the Warsaw Uprising nearly all copies were destroyed, bar one which was returned to the Borsuk family after the war. Granna, one of Poland’s leading publishers, rereleased Super
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A selection of games from Poland’s board game history, whether new, or rediscovered Farmer in 1997, restoring its rightful place within the homes of families throughout Poland. Following the shift to democracy in 1989, Western board games gradually became available. Thanks to publishers such as Granna and Rebel, hoards of modern classics have received Polish translations alongside creating a platform for regional games from designers such as the esteemed Ignacy Trzewiczek (Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island) and Adam Kwapinski (Nemesis). Designers such as Karol Madaj and Łukasz Wozniak have used the hobby to create not only games suited to all manner of tastes, but also timely and personal designs detailing distinctly Polish issues. Madaj’s 2011 game Kolejka combines elements of worker placement, hand management and set collection to reflect upon mundanely oppressive daily life at the tail-end of Communist Poland. Players take on the roles of families out for their daily shopping, competing to gather up all the items on their lists before the shelves empty. More aspects of realism come through in the merchandise cards which portray recognisable original items from the period including shoes, cologne and tea. Madaj releases his games through the Institute of National Remembrance, a publisher whose main responsibilities
involve documenting and publicly exposing the communist crimes of the past. Several Polish games draw upon the country’s sombre involvement with the start of WWII. The invasion of Poland by Germany on September 1st 1939 can be played out on the tabletop in games such as Madaj’s hex-and-counter war game 111: Alarm dla Warszawy , Łukasz Wozniak’s cooperative 7 Days of Westerplatte, and many more from a variety of designers and publishers. 7 Days of Westerplatte deviates from the typical hex-based design of many war games, instead utilising the dark hues of Aleksander Karcz’s detailed artwork to convey the doom and chaos of one of history’s darkest moments. Karcz’s work has also appeared in Fantasy Flight’s The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game and Grey Fox Games’ 7 Ronin, created by Marek Model and Piotr Stankiewicz, designers of the distinctly polish hay-cart racing game Wiochmen Rejser. This month’s trip has shown the wealth of talent emanating from Poland and its troubled past. Fortunately, the tabletop hobby in Poland is broad enough to cater to those not wishing to engage with snippets of their country’s turbulent, oppressive past sprawled out across the dining table, but the existence of these nationally introspective games demonstrates the emotional and educational power tabletop games can hold. *
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In a Deck of cards, a mysterious case for true Detective, with a 3D crime scene scene!
The game line now features two pocket mystery crimes, with a brand-new package. package.
www.dvgiochi.com
PLAYED
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75
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62 EXPLORER’S GUIDE TO WILDEMOUNT
74 VOTE ME 74 HATS
64 CLINIC: DELUXE EDITION
75 ORIFLAMME
65 SHADOWS OF KILFORTH: A FANTASY QUEST GAME
76 MIYABI
66 DUNGEON MAYHEM: MONSTER MADNESS
77 THE DEADLIES 77 NINE TILES PANIC
67 THE ISLE OF CATS
78 WAVELENGTH
68 VILLAGEO
79 EXPEDITION TO NEWDALE
68 ZOMBIES!!! VEGAS 69 AFTERSHOCK: SAN FRANCISCO AND VENICE 70 DWARVEN MINER REFORGED
80 ROBOTECH: ATTACK ON THE SDF-1 81 ANIMAL KINGDOMS 81 FAFNIR
71 BLACK VOID 72 ALUBARI: A NICE CUP OF TEA
82 ODYSSEY OF THE DRAGONLORDS
73 DICETOPIA
83 ADVENTURE MART
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EXPLORER’S GUIDE TO WILDEMOUNT Critical success for Critical Role Designer: Matthew Mercer & Others | Publisher: Wizards of the Coast racking open the pages of the latest tie-in between D&D and the Critical Role crew feels a lot like walking into an impossibly polished version of somebody else’s homebrewed world. It’s a book packed with the kind of plot hooks and alternate rules that fill a million tattered campaign journals, but rather than being scrawled in illegible biro they’re all neatly arranged and backed up with the maps and stats needed to smoothly take them to the tabletop. Of course, it makes sense that Wildemount feels like it was dreamed up by a fellow GM, because that’s more or less what happened. The entire world is the creation of Critical Role’s GM Matthew Mercer, and the region laid out in the book is the setting for the incredibly successful
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live-play show’s second (and still ongoing) campaign. A lot of the writing within its 300-ish pages was supplemented by other folks on the D&D team, but the heart and soul of it’s still the creation of just one person. Well, one person and his table of talented nerds. This slow-burn method of creation has produced a world that sprawls and spirals in a rather charming way. It lacks the sharp, single-sentence summary required from settings that needed snappy pitches to editors and managers – the closest you could get is “high fantasy adventures, but with war brewing and a shedload of spiritual intrigue to uncover” – and while this does result in a pretty fuzzy core identity it also helps Wildemount to feel properly organic. Indeed, perhaps the book’s greatest strength is that it really doesn’t concern
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itself with trying to shake-up the classic D&D formula too much. Where other settings, such as the steampunk madness of last year’s Eberron: Rising From the Last War, try to take a battle-axe to the game’s old clichés and tropes, the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount is more than happy to merely remix them. The beautifully rendered maps stuck in the back of the book are littered with dwarven mines, monster-filled swamps and dragon-haunted peaks, any one of which could be neatly transplanted over to home games. Even the special character options, such as the undead Hollow One race, could easily be slipped into a standard D&D campaign with minimal fuss. That isn’t to say there aren’t sparks of originality here and there, of course. The Krynn Dynasty, a nation of creatures
traditionally considered monstrous foes, is a fascinating creation, for example, as is the gravity- and time-warping magic they use. It’s just that the most creative ideas impact things on a local level, rather than ones that radically shape the flow of the entire world. Okay, you may not consider this to be a particularly positive thing if you’re sick and tired of the fantasy staples. However, for those of us who want a solid D&D world to explore but want something other than the current edition’s staple Forgotten Realms setting, it all works rather wonderfully. And in case you were wondering, this all applies even if you haven’t even heard of Critical Role until you opened up this review. If you and your players are counted among the show’s legion devoted fans, though, you’ll probably be able to squeeze even more delicious story goo from its pages. On top of this, fans will probably be able to all-but ignore what’s probably the biggest issue with the world’s rather loose premise. This is useful, as it really feels as though the book’s first few vital pages are written mostly with existing fans in mind. Oh, there’s plenty of words devoted to explaining politics and history, but you get a lot more careful nuance than the broad strokes that really allow newcomers to get a handhold on what makes Wildemount special. It doesn’t help that the map that accompanies the list of regional powers at the core of the setting doesn’t actually label most of the nations you’ve just been reading about, either. Instead you get a geographical map that seems to assume you’ll fill in the border markers yourself. It would be sad if this caused any potential converts to bounce off the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, as once you get your initial reading squared away it really is a very impressive piece of work. Within its pages you get huge amount of content, ranging from new adventures and magic items to long lists of important NPCs and the secret history of the world. By far the lengthiest section of the book is an incredibly extensive gazetteer that runs through the details of dozens of towns, forests, dungeons and cities stretched from one end of the continent to the other. The writing is snappy and packed with little titbits of information ranging from who runs the local government to what kind of gear you might able to pick up in the shops.
Almost every single one of the locations it outlines manage to have something that makes them stand out from the crowd and feel worthy of hosting an adventure. What could easily have been just another trading post is instead home to a special breed of silkworms cultivated by dwarven clans, rife with struggles between farming families and spies trying to claim their secrets. On top of this, almost every one of these entries comes with at least one idea for a plot hook or an adventure for GMs to seize on, with many offering a handful of suggestions depending on your party’s level. There are well over 100 of these scattered throughout the book, and while some may represent a quick diversion that adds a bit of local flavour to a session, others can form surprisingly deep and creative quests that might reshape an entire campaign. It’s no exaggeration to say that you could potentially run an entire game about adventurers roving through Wildemount using nothing but these story prompts. This is one hell of an achievement, and one that sets a rather high bar for future setting books to aspire to. Of course, these aren’t the only adventure ideas nestled within the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount. There are also a quartet of solidly written quests, each of which aims to cover a party’s first handful of sessions and get them exploring a different part of the region. A couple of them are given to the hand-holding found in many adventures aimed at brand new players, but they’re a wonderful way to ensure that your
heroes always have a way to get going in whatever part of Wildemount you want to focus on. The downside to all this is that it can make it tough to actually use all four of the adventures, as they’re all aimed at the same, fairly narrow, set of early-game levels. Accompanying all these glorious tools for the GMs among us are the near-obligatory handful of new character options for players to try out. Actually, calling it a handful might not be quite fair, as between the magic items and the plethora of racial options you get rather a lot of new toys to choose from. Few of them seem particularly ground-breaking, but they represent rather good value for money – especially if you’re looking to pick up all the monstrous and rare races scattered across D&D’s back catalogue. The coolest and most potent new powers all come tied up in the funky ‘dunamancy’ magic found in the Krynn Dynasty. This gives both fighters and spellcasters a few ways to start messing with things like time, gravity and fate and, honestly, really drives home the fact that Wildemount got its start as a homebrew setting. This isn’t because it’s bad or even silly, mind you. Rather, it feels like something ripped from a homebrew because it’s so unselfconsciously cool. Warriors who can fight using time-echoes of themselves as allies is just the kind of thing a thousand GMs sitting at home have sketched out in the margins of their notebooks. However, it the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount was just what it took to get those ideas written up, playtested and put into an official D&D product. This is the heart of the book, and perhaps of Wildemount as a whole. It’s a world that so many of us could imagine creating, one settlement and dungeon at a time, but with slick production values and a bit of actual editing. Even if you aren’t a fan of Critical Role, this is a book well worth checking out and one that sets a high standard for the game’s future releases. * RICHARD JANSENPARKES
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
A world so beautifully messy it feels like you could have made it yourself. That’s a good thing.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED D&D ESSENTIALS KIT… If you hopped into D&D aboard the Critical Role train, this is a wonderful place to head after getting your toes wet with the starter set
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CLINIC: DELUXE EDITION Themeless hospital Designer: Alban Viard | Publisher: AV Studio Games
60-150m
riting about a hospital game during a pandemic is always going to feel weird, especially one you’re playing solo because of self-isolation rules. Clinic: Deluxe Edition is a re-working and tidying up of the 2014 self-published release. The art has been recreated by Ian O’Toole (On Mars, Lisboa, Age of Steam) and does look lovely and kind of charming. There are loads of custom meeples in the box, from the doctors of various colours to denote their skill level, to the nurses, orderlies, and even cars. The board is lush, even if a bit overloaded with stuff. So, it looks great, and everything is really well made and put together, it’s a pleasure to set up frankly – even if it feels like there’s really too many of everything, including the diamond-shaped module and treatment tiles that provide a pseudo-isometric view of your hospital floorplan. You build up your hospital by placing out three of your action tiles for the order in which you want to build recruit, or admit
patients. You can double up on these, and the order can be strategic. There are certain rules to building, and there’s a clever ‘building up’ system, so you can stack your treatment centre to the sky in theory. You buy doctors, orderlies (who reduce running costs) and nurses (to upgrade or downgrade your doctors’ skills a notch to match the patient they’re treating). And of course, the most important thing about hospitals is where everyone parks. Yes, everyone has to be able to part their car at your hospital, which means that when you admit a patient or hire a doctor, you have to ensure there is a parking space for them, and place a tiny black car on your board appropriately. When they leave, for whatever reason, you need to remove a car. Much like the way patients, before they enter your hospital,
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WHATS IN THE BOX ◗ 1 Gameboard ◗ 12 Player and extension boards ◗ 155 Tiles ◗ 305 Wooden pieces ◗ 56 Currency tokens ◗ 2 Bags
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can have their symptoms changed on the board (using a calculation which isn’t clear or integral to the game particularly – it’s the number of car parks) there’s a sense that this isn’t really about making sure you can treat people, but more that you’ve got a nice full hospital of people to cure into dollar signs. Which is fine of course, it’s a big crunchy, token-shuffley Euro-style game, the theme doesn’t need to be that tightly tied in – but parking does feel tedious and unnecessary. This is a game about the business of running a hospital, and as a satire of that bureaucracy it’s very good, the focus is on exactly what you wouldn’t want it to be as a patient – parking cars, the cost of running a hospital, and the time that you lose with someone moving from one area to another. But while the rules (which are, frankly, too complex) have a cheeky tone, there’s not enough pleasure in actually playing out the game, and it’s hard to tell if there’s any kind of real satire of privatised healthcare here. The solo mode, which is simply the basic game in a ‘challenge’ format also doesn’t offer much in the way of its own flavour. There are a handful of expansions included in the box, such as workaholic doctors and zombies, which while an interesting addition to the game, just end up piling on more fiddling, without a payoff. * CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
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PLAY IT? M A Y B E For its production quality and for those looking for a really fiddly, heavy euro-style game, Clinic: Deluxe Edition just about does the job. For those looking for Theme Hospital, but analogue, you’ll want to park your car elsewhere.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED ABOMINATION: THE HEIR OF FRANKENSTEIN... When it comes to fiddling about with too many tokens, Abomination at least represented the grim world of decomposing bodies, rather than Clinic’s oversanitised bureaucracy.
SHADOWS OF KILFORTH: A FANTASY QUEST GAME You just can’t keep a good Gloom down Designer: Tristan Hall | Publisher: Hall or Nothing
hree years ago, independent designer Tristan Hall treated us to a complex but immersive ‘whole fantasy RPG campaign in a single game’ with his ambitious debut Gloom of Kilforth. As enjoyable played solo as with a group (in either cooperative or competitive modes), and packed with finely illustrated cards, each featuring a unique piece of art, this demon-battling quester came out of nowhere to land in Tabletop Gaming’s Top 10 of the year. Like Hollywood, Hall couldn’t let a hit go without a sequel. So here’s Shadows of Kilforth, in which it turns out all the travails of those Kilforthian adventurers years earlier amounted to naught, and that nasty, realmchoking miasma is back, knocking the land out round by round, region by region, in preparation for more Hellraiser-ish Ancients to come and defile the world. Lore-wise, it’s not so much an advancement as a remix, with a murky new corner of Hall’s world to explore, a little more diverse than the last one, now drawing more on East Asian mythology in its heroes and monsters. As before, each player creates a race/class combo and embarks on
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their own race-against-time saga to complete before taking on those hideous, all-powerful Ancients. But now they can be a Samurai, Ninja or Yakuza if they like, while Hall’s new races feel more Kilforth-specific than Tolkien-ripped: the winged Seraph, for example, or the Gloomresistant Veilborn. Your foes are more interesting, too, such as the Kuei, a mind-controlling ghost that allows you to nab another player’s ally, or the one-eyed, undead Buso. Mechanically, however, there are fewer points of difference between Shadows and Gloom. It is still a matter of spending action points to move around the randomly assembled card-grid realm, encountering enemies and strangers to harvest keywords on cards and complete the chapters of your saga to level up. New players need no previous Gloom-y knowledge to get into it, but it will likely take them time to settle into the chewy rule-set, with its initially confusing differentiations between Actions (which cost an action point) and Deeds (which don’t), and Rumours (cards you hold in your hand) and Assets (cards you’ve played down).
WHATS IN THE BOX 1-4h
1-4
14+
£60
Shadows is also no less dicerolly than Gloom, with each stat determining how many dice are tossed, and only a roll of five or six granting success. There is some inbuilt mitigation, via a limited supply of Fate tokens and the discarding of Rumours to add auto-successes, but it is still possible for a quest to be frustratingly scuppered by consistently bad rolls. It also remains a game that, despite its ticking-clock momentum, can stretch for hours, especially if you choose the cooperative mode, in which you have to contend with one Ancient per player (in competitive you’re all racing to slay a single demon), but hey: didn’t you sign up for an epic quest? To be fair, Hall has tightened it by adding a setup rule where you cast a few regions into gloom before play starts, while there is some added flavour in making the players choose between two factions, getting different effects from certain events depending on which side they’ve taken. He also includes a wealth of suggested variants, including twoversus-two team play, the swifter, Ancient-free ‘Gold Rush’ mode (great for first-timers), and versions which allow for greater randomisation of event and reward placement. This, more than anything, rams home why the Kilforth games are so enduringly entertaining: as well as mashing up D&D and Arkham Horror so elegantly, they are also built to be malleable, adaptable, utterly home-ruleable. This quest need never end. * DAN JOLIN
◗ 1 Rulebook ◗ 81 Encounter cards ◗ 75 Reward cards ◗ 26 Location cards ◗ 25 Night cards ◗ 24 Saga cards ◗ 24 Plot cards ◗ 8 Race cards ◗ 8 Class cards ◗ 4 Ancient cards ◗ 4 Ancient Abilities cards ◗ 32 Skill cards ◗ 40 Card dividers ◗ 60 Gold tokens ◗ 32 Action Point tokens ◗ 32 Health tokens ◗ 24 Obstacle tokens ◗ 16 Fate tokens ◗ 4 Hidden tokens ◗ 25 Night Location tokens ◗ 42 Loot tokens ◗ 25 Reward Location tokens ◗ 15 Enemy/ Claim tokens ◗ 1 First Hero marker ◗ 8 Hero standees ◗ 6 Six-sided dice ◗ 1 Loot bag
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED GLOOM OF KILFORTH… Not least because it’s totally possible to mix the two games up however you like, and make your own Kilforthian cocktail.
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
A second serving of questastic dark fantasy as accessible to Gloom n00bs as Ancient-battling veterans. Kilforth and multiply!
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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DUNGEON MAYHEM: MONSTER MADNESS In the eye of the be(card)holder
Designer: Roscoe Wetlaufer | Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
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onster Madness is the second expansion for the cutesified Dungeons & Dragons card game, Dungeon Mayhem. This expansion adds about the same number of decks as all the previous outings put together, doubling the size of characters you can play as. This time however, you take the role of the monsters. This is a trope that often feels ripe for exploration, but sometimes leaves us in the tabletop world a little cold. Sometimes it’s great being the monster, sometimes, it’s handled badly and just feels like a reskin. That’s not the case here however, as while the monsters are generically from the D&D universe, they’ve been brought to life with a great deal of character. There’s also been some smart choices in the characters available, Mimi Le Chaise is a grinning mimic of a chair (initially), Delilah Deathray is a beholder in a tiara, and Hoots McGoots is an owlbear in a tutu. All the characters have their themes fully expanded out, the aforementioned owlbear combos explosive chains of cards to KO other characters, while the mimic swaps players health around or copies other cards, while
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WHATS IN THE BOX
◗ 6 28 Card decks ◗ 6 Hit point trackers ◗ 12 Damage tokens ◗ 12 Divider cards ◗ 12 Hit point tokens ◗ 1 Token storage box
15m
Deliliah provide area of effect damage to everyone. The game plays as an extremely fast and brutal attack-and-defend card game. You start with ten health, a handful of cards, some with unique powers, and on your turn you play out a card (or combo of cards, should the symbols allow it). The basic actions are to do damage to a player of your choice, play out a defence card which provides a shield value between the enemy and your health, ‘play another’ and draw a card. There might be a number of these on a card so in theory you can be doing damage, combing into other cards which let you draw and play those cards. It’s kind of like many living card games where the meta is hyper aggressive. You just want to knock the other players out as quick as possible, as once it’s their turn, you’ll never know if it’s you that’s going to get smashed to pieces. Four player games are chaotic, and often it can feel that people are
2-6
8+
£20
getting picked on. There are separate rules for 5-6 player games that provide a sphere of influence, reducing the range of attack to one person either side of you. It helps, but doesn’t solve the issue entirely. There is a problem here, which is that on your turn you’re just hoping they can’t do the damage to you that they need to. It’s more of a gamble than a strategy. Often there’ just not enough defence cards to turtle your way through to whatever the right combo is for your character. Good for its lightness, but misses out on having more back and forth. * CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
PLAY IT? P R O B A B L Y It’s extremely light and highly aggressive, which can be great for certain situations. It’s not something you’re going to bring to a games night, but your mum won’t mind playing it on holiday. If you own the original games, you’ll want to buy it for the handy storage it provides regardless.
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TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED MARVEL CHAMPIONS...
If you liked elements of this marvel deck-smashing game, then Dungeon Mayhem might be a good gateway game to get others into competitive card gaming.
THE ISLE OF CATS It’s not purrfect, but it’s better than the musical Designer: Frank West | Publisher: The City of Games
f you’ve been on the internet at all in the past decade, you might have realised that cats are kinda popular. From kitten pics on Twitter to feline friends on YouTube, it’s been estimated (by me) that adorable furballs make up at least 27.4% of all online traffic. The Isle of Cats aims to capitalise on this craze with a box so stuffed with kitties that you’d think the RSPCA would have something to say about it. But while its main draw may be its lavish cat illustrations, it doesn’t forget to include some actual gameplay to get your claws into. Set in the same fantasy world at its designer’s previous releases, The City of Kings and Vadoran Gardens, it casts players as ship captains on a mission of mercy to a semi-mythical island populated entirely by cats. It’s come to the attention of the pirate warlord Vesh Blackhand, who has vowed to burn down its forests and crush its stones to dust. With his ship getting closer to the island with each passing day, you and your opponents will have to rescue as many cats as you can. To do that, though, first you’ll have to find them. The elusive inhabitants
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of the island aren’t keen to be caught by humans, and on every round you’ll draw an assortment of Tetris-style blocky tiles from a cloth bag, each showing a different type of cat. From there you’ll draft cards, some which let you grab kitties, and others which grant you special one-off abilities or new ways to score points by hitting a variety of objectives. It’s this last bit where the game reveals its real strategy. While everyone around the table will earn points for creating continuous areas of matching-coloured cats on their personal ship boards, you’ll also gradually build up your own set of goals as you play. You might find yourself aiming to rescue particular breeds, or positioning certain cats on certain parts of your vessel. Along the way you’ll also be able to hunt for treasure, granting you another potential source of points. The process of drafting your own victory conditions feels similar to Magic: The Gathering designer Richard Garfield’s three recent releases Treasure Hunter, Bunny Kingdom and Carnival of Monsters,
60-90m
1-4
8+
£44.99
and if you enjoyed any of those then you’ll likely find something to like here as well. One downside is that it’s hard to see why you and your fellow players are competing to round up cats. A competitive approach feels at odds with such an altruistic premise, and it results in some jarring thematic dissonance. Then there’s the fact that while in many ways they’re very different games, the combination of spatial puzzle-solving and attempting to pull off a variety of objectives feels a little similar to Vadoran Gardens, and the earlier small-box release felt quite a bit tighter. But The Isle of Cats offers an enjoyable enough hour wrapped in some beautiful presentation. If you’re a cat person, it’s worth a look. * OWEN DUFFY
WHAT’S IN THE BOX ◗ 30 Wooden cat figures ◗ 85 Cat tiles ◗ 42 Fish tokens ◗ 69 Treasure tiles ◗ 10 Basket tokens ◗ 1 Wooden pirate ship ◗ 4 Player boat boards ◗ 10 Basket tokens ◗ 1 Island board ◗ 1 Cloth bag ◗ 1 Score pad ◗ 150 Discovery cards ◗ 18 Family mode cards ◗ 47 Solo mode cards ◗ 4 Colour blindness assistance cards
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
While it might have the polish of an updated game, there's something 'new' missing here to make it worth checking out for absolutely everyone. Cat-meeple fans on the other hand already have it on pre-order.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED VADORAN GARDENS... It’s bigger, bolder, and more beautiful, but The Isle of Cats shares more with its designer’s previous release than you might think – a spatial logic puzzle with a host of ways to score points.
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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VILLAGEO Designer: Ives Janssens | Publisher: Blue Orange
15m
own planners often get a bad reputation. Their love for oneway systems, hospitals next to waste processing plants, and making
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it so you can’t park anywhere near your child’s school paints them as the villain. And if you’ve ever played a town building game, you probably consider yourself better than whoever designed your own town or city. Not with Villageo though. This colourful solo puzzle game challenges you to place parks, lakes, residential and shopping districts to the resident’s very strict standards. All coloured boxes on the challenge sheets must be covered by the correct coloured district and districts of the same colour may not touch at all. Not even by the corners. Which sounds simple enough and for the first few ‘easy’ challenge sheets, is quite straightforward. But as soon as the difficulty steps up, the head scratching begins and Villageo reveals that it is, in fact, a challenging little minx.
1
8+
£13
There are 60 challenges in the box that all revolve around the same core puzzle of placing L-shaped blocks in the right positions while adhering to the two aforementioned rules. Which is, at a bit over ten pounds, a bit lacking. The physical act of completing the puzzle does elevate it over similar app based games, and not getting bombarded with adverts is nice, but it really doesn’t last that long. Especially if you happen to ‘accidentally’ look at the back of some sheets and see the answers. For the right type of person, Villageo is perfect for those lazy Sunday afternoons or as an alternative to the daily crossword. Though, to be fair, anything is preferable to the daily crossword. * ANNA BLACKWELL
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
ZOMBIES!!! VEGAS Designer: Kerry Breitenstein | Publisher: Twilight Creations, Inc.
60-90m
ombies!!! Vegas is a new instalment in the Zombies!!! series, which all share delightfully pulpy artwork and pride in delivering a small mountain of zombie miniatures, while still keeping the price of the game affordable. Zombies!!! Vegas in many ways is the same game as the original, released all the way back in 2001: each round, players lay down new map tiles, fight zombies in simple dice combat and complete objectives. There is, however, one significant addition: players can visit casinos and play a whole host of different mini-games. In order to complete Zombies!!! Vegas, a player has to win three of the casino mini-games and make it back to the starting location. The mini-games were designed by the fan of the series as part of the Zombies!!! Vegas Kickstarter campaign. As a way for designers to interact with their fans and include them in their latest game, this is a really interesting idea. However, as
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2-6
15+
£40
an actual gameplay mechanic, it is less successful. The mini-games vary drastically in quality. Some of them – usually those that more closely follow that rules of the traditional casino games, like poker and blackjack, are quite entertaining. But there are also those that feel random or have rules that are too convoluted. However, the mini-games themselves are not the main issue. The whole concept feels disjointed from the rest of the game. It is as if two very different games were merged together, and the most successful part of that union is using the zombies killed during the exploration part of the game as money chips in the casino portion of the game. Combining a mechanically simple, yet still entertaining action-survival zombie board game with a whole host of casino-style mini-game is an intriguing concept, but unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work. * ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
AFTERSHOCK: SAN FRANCISCO AND VENICE Picking up good (?) vibrations
Designer: Alan R. Moon, Bobby West | Publisher: Stronghold Games global crisis has led to the collapse of vital infrastructure around the world, and teams of dedicated specialists are braving continuing danger to get things up and running again. At this moment, it might sound uncomfortably close to reality, but Aftershock: San Francisco and Venice isn’t about a disease epidemic. Instead, it casts players as engineers leading rebuilding efforts after a spate of earthquakes which has left cities in ruins. One of the first things you’re likely to notice about the game is the name of its co-designer. Alan R. Moon is best known as the creator of the phenomenally popular Ticket to Ride series of railway route-building games, and when you first unfold the twin boards representing the game’s titular cities, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a new spin on the bestselling formula. They each show different regions linked by bridges – rectangular slots that look exactly like Ticket to Ride’s rail connections. But play a few turns and it quickly becomes clear that Aftershock is a very different beast. It sees you and your opponents compete to have the greatest impact
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on the city’s recovery, repairing bridges and shuffling your workers between areas to score points. On each round you’ll first purchase cards letting you deploy worker meeples to the board, obtain bridge-building materials represented by rectangular wooden strips, or claim aftershock tokens which inflict new tremors on parts of the map. You’ll then assign the pieces you’ve acquired to different regions by placing them on a personal player board hidden behind a card screen. Once everyone has planned out their actions for the turn, you’ll all reveal your boards and resolve your chosen effects, but it’s the aftershocks which really threaten to throw a spanner in your carefully formulated plans. Whenever a new quake strikes, the workers in the affected area will flee to other regions, crossing over newly-built bridges as they go. Your workers can cross your own bridges for free, but if they pass over other players’, you’ll need to pay their owners for every evacuating meeple. Finally, there’s a scoring phase, but again it involves some subtle scheming, with players secretly placing activation tokens on regions
1h
3-5
14+
£60
on their player boards. For a region to score, it needs players to collectively spend at least two of their tokens on it, and to reap the maximum rewards you’ll aim to have as many workers in the active locations as possible, but it’s never certain which regions will trigger at any point in the game, and trying to get your own meeples into the right positions while shocking your rivals’ to other parts of the board is far from an exact science. It makes for some intriguing tactical decisions, but thematically, Aftershock feels disjointed. It’s hard to understand why engineers would compete with one another rather than cooperate in the face of a disaster. And while it includes a two-player variant, it involves adding a dummy player, which is probably why the box recommends a minimum of three. * OWEN DUFFY
WHAT’S IN THE BOX ◗ Double-sided game board ◗ 5 Player screens ◗ 5 Plastic clips ◗ 53 San Francisco cards ◗ 39 Venice cards ◗ 105 Wooden meeples ◗ 25 Wooden houses ◗ 80 Wooden bridges ◗ 7 Aftershock markers ◗ 15 Buy tokens ◗ 5 Influence markers ◗ Aftershock die ◗ 20 Score markers ◗ 55 Coin tokens ◗ First player token
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED CARAVAN... Like the desertcrossing pick-up-anddeliver game, you’re building routes and displacing your rivals. Although Aftershock brings a little more complexity to the table.
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
Aftershock feels like a moderate step up from a family level game, and its hidden planning makes for some twists and surprises as you play. But its competitive action doesn’t do much for its theme.
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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DWARVEN MINER REFORGED Disaster in the mines
Designer: Mike Richie | Publisher: Rather Dashing Games
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ather Dashing Games’ reboot/ sequel Dwarven Miner Reforged sees designer Mike Richie has taken the core ideas of 2013’s largely wellreceived Dwarven Miner and given them an aesthetic and mechanical overhaul. Stripping the original’s central push-yourluck mechanism and introducing some crafty ‘take-that’ elements, Richie has made steps toward a more streamlined and interactive experience, topping it off with the stunning art of famed fantasy artist Larry Elmore. Described as a multi-tiered crafting game, Dwarven Miner Reforged invites players into its mineral rich depths. Essential and powerful equipment will be forged from the mine’s valuable reserves of Arcane Crystal, Mithril and Alchemist Powder – from ornate tankards and camping gear to magical staffs and weaponry. Players will take turns rolling the dice hoping to collect resources, whilst making use of the other three faces of the dice for stealing, gathering treasure and advancing the Orc Mischief Track.
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WHATS IN THE BOX
◗ 6 Mining dice ◗ 5 Backpack boards ◗ 5 Player pawns ◗ 42 Adventurer cards ◗ 18 Orc mischief cards ◗ 24 Arcane crystal tokens ◗ 24 Mithril tokens ◗ 24 Alchemist powder tokens ◗ 25 Rune markers ◗ 48 Treasure chest tokens ◗ 6 Orc markers ◗ 1 Game board
30-60m
2-5
12+
£40
Dwarven Miner Reforged differs from its predecessor by skewing the function of the Orc result on each dice and forgoing the push-your-luck mechanic. Now, rather than reducing your pool of dice, Orc results trigger a tense countdown toward negative events, causing players to lose resources or gold. It’s a nicely thematic alteration although perhaps not as engaging as the original’s repeated dice rolls. Similarly thematic are the mechanics for stealing, whereby accumulative results grant more fruitful opportunities to snatch away treasure, resources and even completed equipment. The most applaudable update to the game is the enlisting of Larry Elmore. Famed for his work on Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, Elmore’s illustrations here evoke a distinct warmth and sense of nostalgia. Confusingly, despite the large size of
the cards themselves, the detail and scale of Elmore’s work is dulled by their shamefully small footprint amidst hard to read symbology, bland text, and distracting drop shadow effects. Considering the pedigree of the artist, it seems to be a wasted opportunity not having full card art, perhaps cropped to highlight specific details, overlaid with clear icons and well considered font and text. This frustration is mirrored on the board, which is similarly hard to read and littered with jarring graphic design. Ultimately, despite the clear enthusiasm, Dwarven Miner Reforged’s ambitious refinements are at risk of crumbling beneath confusing graphic design choices and flawed production. On my first play-through I spent several minutes trying to sort the punched-out components as dictated by the rulebook only to realise that a large amount of them have simply been printed in the wrong shape. Whilst hardly gamebreaking this does become slightly frustrating when players have no choice but to fill the six circular spaces of the Orc Mischief Track with four circular tokens and two rogue square ones. I spent half the game amidst a humorous battle with my OCD over whether I’d rather eat the tokens instead of placing them. Sadly, these aesthetic flaws are accompanied by gameplay that never quite reaches the heights or sense of momentum you feel it should. Even with the mechanical changes to the game resulting in fewer dice rolls, Dwarven Miner Reforged plays incredibly slow, even with just two players. The reliance on luck negates any sense of planning between turns, and leaves players pondering on their own turns when poor dice rolls clash with the game design’s ingrained lack of choices and flexibility. It’s a great shame considering the stunning art assets, but it at least serves as a cautionary tale on how not to approach a reboot. * CHAD WILKINSON
❚ PLAY IT? N O
Dwarven Miner Reforged has several ingredients of a great game, but the final dish isn’t worth digging in to. Misjudged graphic design unfortunately impacts upon what should be a short and snappy crafting game.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED OH MY GOODS!...
They might share the same gameplay cycle of gathering things to craft more things, but Oh My Goods! demonstrates how sometimes less is more, managing to get away with deceptive complexity through slick gameplay and intuitive graphic design.
BLACK VOID A whole lot of something
Designer: Christoffer Sevaldsen | Publisher: Modiphius
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lack Void is an interesting premise. Sometime around 2,000 - 1,000 BC, humanity had its collective mind shattered after seeing some elder gods. Not the Cthulhu ones, though they are visually similar. Tentacles being, of course, the scariest mouth parts a creature can have. After this collective mind shattering, the survivors ended up in an alien city. And that post-awakening setting, where humanity is forcibly made aware of what lies beyond the veil, is incredibly interesting. However, reading through the Black Void core rulebook you’d be forgiven for putting it down and taking a breather as there is a lot to take in. With people and places having names like Tgh’Jrg, Emir of Qtasaq it becomes a near Herculean task just to remember who is
who and what is where. Couple that with a setting that looks, tastes, and sounds Lovecraftian filled with elder gods and alien races, where every character has their own unique mutations and it’s a recipe for DM burnout. Black Void buries information in a deluge of tables about weapons, armours, boats, houses, esoteric materials, common goods, and slaves. Every potential action is written out with specific rules and effects which, for a game so packed with fluff, strangles the potential. There are 28 combat manoeuvres, all with their own rules! Sure, you can buy the GM screen and have all this information laid out for you but players are going to need a reference booklet of their own to understand what they can and can’t do.
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And the only reason that this is frustrating is that Black Void has some interesting stuff lurking amidst the tables and crunch. The races, unpronounceable though they might be, are visually interesting. The concept of humanity shattering because of the dark truths of the universe is compelling and the city that the game revolves around is well fluffed out. There’s even a section that explains in nice straight forward terms what state humanity was in when the elder gods arrived. Explaining the sort of technology and cultures that human characters were drawn from. And each section provides helpful details on characters, notable locales, and plot hooks. Maybe this is part of the problem when you bill yourself as “esoteric” as the deliberately difficult names and concepts are near impossible to attach to anything of substance. From a GM’s standpoint, Black Void does pose an awkward question. What are you supposed to be afraid of? In the various Cthulhu games, you have a normal setting so the horror juxtaposes that well. Finding a shady figure in an alleyway is threatening; finding a pile of flesh that whispers secrets is horrifying. In Black Void however, that could be your character’s lifelong best friend, whispery Steven. It almost feels like it’s designed to make you need the campaign books. Black Void is definitely going to come down to personal taste. With a setting that feels similar to Rowan Rook and Deckard's Spire and a sanity system that is required by law for any game about elder gods, it’s already a specific cup of tea. Like peppermint and orange. Someone out there is going to love it but we’ll pass. Though it is nice to see the D12 get some love as the game’s primary dice. * ANNA BLACKWELL
Core
rulebook
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED SPIRE...
Both games centre around a terrible city filled with a plethora of races and dark magics.
PLAY IT? M A Y B E If you’re a fan of hefty tomes filled to the brim with fluff, yes. If you prefer your games to tell you what you need and get out the way, no.
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ALUBARI: A NICE CUP OF TEA Taking a leaf out of Snowdonia’s book Designer: Tony Boydell | Publisher: Studio H
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he visual design of board games has come a long way during the past halfdecade or so. Thanks to talented artists and graphic designers like Kwanchai Moriya, Beth Sobel and Ian O’Toole, plus the rigorous attention to detail and componentfeel of publishers like Stonemaier and Keymaster, setting up a game can sometimes feel like laying out a gorgeous work of art. All those old Euros on our shelves can look a bit shabby by comparison, the tabletop equivalent a beloved but slightly embarrassing older relative who wears a bum bag and Crocs with socks. Tony Boydell’s Alubari is a spiritual successor to his 2012 worker-placement railway-builder Snowdonia, relocated from 1890s north-west Wales to the tea estates of 1850s Darjeeling in the Lesser Himalayas. Replete with wooden resource cubes, ownership discs, worker meeples and icon-festooned cards it is, like Snowdonia, an old-school Euro game through and through, mixing a bit of rondel action (to determine the impact of occasional events) and bag-drawing into its workerplacement core. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But while it can be regarded as a refined reimplementation of
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WHATS IN THE BOX
◗ 1 Game board ◗ 1 Cloth bag ◗ 1 Score pad ◗ 8 Equipment cards ◗ 8 Tea Estate cards ◗ 30 Contract cards ◗ 7 Action cards ◗ 2 Help cards ◗ 67 Tea Leaf tokens ◗ 2 Fog tiles ◗ 1 Darjeeling blockage tile ◗ 3 Blockage tiles ◗ 1 Starting Player marker ◗ 40 Iron ore cubes ◗ 24 Stone cubes ◗ 14 Chai cubes ◗ 5 Event cubes ◗ 48 Rubble cubes ◗ 6 “5 Rubble” discs ◗ 10 Game Ownership markers ◗ 9 Weather discs ◗ 16 Steel bars ◗ 15 Worker meeples ◗ 100 Player Ownership markers
60-90m
Snowdonia, Alubari looks like it could have been published eight years ago, with old-fashioned, Euro-standard visuals that feel several steps behind the likes of Viticulture or Shem Phillips’ West Kingdom series. This isn’t merely a matter of being ‘sexy’. Boydell clearly has an affection for his theme, but this is hard to feel outside of its manifestation through the mechanisms, such as the impact of his weather system on tea harvests and the extent of your track-laying as you strive to build the twisty-turny railway up Darjeeling peak. Where a game like Wingspan or Parks will treat you to interesting info snippets about their subjects, Alubari has little to say about its historical and regional setting, outside of the intro text in the rule book. It is all function and (ironically) little flavour, and as such lacks the engagement strength of many other, similar games. Which isn’t to say it’s unenjoyable. Its action spaces offer plenty of variety for your worker placements, while its deck of Contract cards provide useful one-off bonus actions and
1-5
14+
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further opportunities for gameend scoring. You’ll clear rubble to take ownership of plantations, which will yield tea leaves come harvest time, which in turn can be converted to chai, which can be used to boost actions and provide a bonus worker for a round. There is trading, there is building, and there is enough competition for action spaces that grabbing the First Player marker can make a bigger difference than in many other games. It is simple to learn, and it’s hard to imagine anyone who will step away from the table feeling bored or irritated by any of its mechanical features. However, the bar for games like Alubari is much higher now than it was for Snowdonia in 2012. So while it’s gently serviceable, it’s hard to recommend over a great majority of titles which, with a more modern sensibility, really vitalise their themes and give you far more bang for your Euro. * DAN JOLIN
PLAY IT? M A Y B E Fans of old-school Euros which look like old-school Euros will get along with Alubari just fine. But, visually at least, it could be so much better.
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TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED SNOWDONIA…
It is very similar to Boydell’s 2012 title, but with enough added elements and refinements that it does feel like a different game.
DICETOPIA Your (not so) friendly neighbourhood dice Designer: Tobias Hall | Publisher: All Or None Games
dice drafting area-control game with a sci-fi theme sounds like a lot to get your head around. Yet in just about 20 minutes, Dicetopia weaves all these elements together, introducing it to a player in an approachable way. A game of Dicetopia passes swiftly and before you know it, all players have had their last round and the traditional counting of the victory points commences. Players begin by selecting a faction with a unique ability, then proceed to send their agents to the city board to draft a dice of their chosen value and colour. These will be used to complete objectives, that players keep hidden until the end of the game. Points from the missions, the total value of drafted die and the control of the areas (through the aforementioned introduction of the agents) is what determines the final score. The city board is the main hub, divided into neighbourhoods, each with its own ability which activates when the player exchanges their agent with the dice in that area. The abilities can either be used to mess up opponents in a ‘take-that’ manner or the player can apply their action
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to themselves to get a different dice, adjust a dice, or reroll. Determining what would be most worthwhile – attempting to improve your own chances or sabotaging the opponent – is at up to each player to decide. There is not much chance of guessing what the opponent is trying to achieve as there are 40 different mission cards in the game. This high number of missions means complexity to victory point value is not always perfectly balanced. There are cards that are almost impossible to achieve, especially when you know your opponents will mess up with your dice, and those that seem to reward too generously for a simple task. Players that are already sensitive to ‘take-that’ mechanics, might find the messing up interactions in Dicetopia frustrating. And because the game consists of only six turns and every dice matters, messing up even one of them, guarantees to have an effect on the end scoring. Dicetopia’s theme takes elements from sci-fi and cyberpunk genres and interprets it… by making everything look dark blue. The factions’ art is quite interesting and does the best job out of all illustrations to set the scene, but the
20-30m
2-4
14+
£26
city board and especially the scoring track look amateurish. With 'dice' as part of the name of the game, the expectation for that component is understandably quite high. Although, the game doesn’t reach the intricacy of design and detail of Dice Masters, for example, the standard D6 used in Dicetopia are quite nice. There is a lot of ambition and ideas in this quick and compact game. While the base game introduces very simple dice manipulations, there is space and flexibility to add more complexities, as the Roll with the Punches expansion confirms by introducing a second board and three new action areas. While not all of the ideas have been entirely successful and the quality of components can be very uneven, Dicetopia gives an interesting take on dice-drafting mechanics, that will appeal to players who like quick games with high level of interaction. * ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
WHATS IN THE BOX ◗ 1 City board ◗ 40 Mission cards ◗ 10 faction cards ◗ 4 Faction boards ◗ 10 Scenario cards ◗ 1 Score track ◗ 5 Ability tokens ◗ 30 Dice ◗ 28 Agent cubes
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
An interesting idea that is slightly underdeveloped, Dicetopia is engaging with its fast-paced and highly interactable gameplay.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED ROLL PLAYER... If you like dice drafting and manipulations games, like Roll Player, then Dicetopia satisfies the same need, while offering a lot more player interaction.
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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VOTE ME Designer: Redwell Games | Publisher: Tom Lovewell mprov is a critical skill for the blossoming politician. Being able to make up confident sounding stances on matters you have little more than surface level knowledge in marks the difference between those who float and those who sink. And while many of us watch the news and
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think “I could do a better job than that [expletive deleted]”, we never actually get the chance to try. Well, Vote For Me gives you that opportunity and honestly, it’s harder than it looks. Acting as the candidate for one of six parties (Purple Patch, Green Apple, Red Balloon, Orange Jelly, or, heavens forbid, Blue Butterfly) players will take turns improvising a one minute speech on a randomly drawn policy and theme. Combinations might be things like “education” and “magical creatures” or “foreign policy” and “household objects”. The challenge is to deliver a speech that outlines your party’s stance on the policy while incorporating the theme in clever and funny ways. Which, if you’re a confident improviser, is a load of fun and can lead to some hilarious
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3-10
12+
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stances like increasing funding towards anime to encourage criminals off the streets. The modular length, which involves players competing over regions, districts, or constituencies, for longer or shorter games really helps Vote Me fit into whatever niche you want it for. A silly in between game or as the focus of the night. The only issue is that if you already dislike public speaking, the one minute timer and rapt attention of your competitors is unlikely to help. But in saying that, floundering and spouting nonsense hasn’t stopped certain people from reaching lofty heights so maybe they’ll vote for you anyway. * ANNA BLACKWELL
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
HATS Designer: Gabriele Bubola | Publisher: ThunderGryph Games lthough, it is not a trick-taking game, Hats, a small card game with a very loose Mad Hatter theme, will require players to wear the same type of thinking hat. This is a game about recognising patterns of suits and numbers, planning moves ahead, adapting on the go, while figuring out what the opponent’s strategy is.
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During the eight rounds of the game, players are collecting cards of various suits and values to earn victory points. Cards can be played straight from their hand, but only as black hats, with a low one victory point value, or they can be exchanged with cards in the central board and then added to player’s collection. Simple exchange rules, like needing
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to swap cards of the same suitor of a higher number value, ensure that there are some limitations to how players can use the central board. The most interesting part of the game is that the scoring rules are ever-changing. The central board also determines how the suits score at the end of the game. As the players are swapping cards as the game progresses, a suit that was worth six victory points at the start of the game could become completely worthless at the end. The interplay between the board, what players have collected and what is still in their hand makes for a very brain scratchy gameplay. It is a clever, quick little card game, that at the same time packs a lot of strategy and nuance with few components or fanfare. What the game has, it presents very well. From a bookstyle board game box, as if an instalment of Alice’s Adventures in the Wonderland to the cards with pretty illustration of different hats. It is a delightful package. * ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
❚ PLAY IT? P R O B A B L Y 74
May 2020
2-4
14+
£23
ORIFLAMME
Is this the banner of a new champion? Designer: Adrien and Axel Hesling | Publisher: Studio H
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he ‘Oriflamme’ was the golden battle-standard of the King of France in the middle ages, and signified that no prisoners would be taken. Oriflamme – not to be confused with the banner or the French games company Oriflam of two decades ago – is the first major release from Studio H. New games labels are two-a-euro right now but Studio H is part of Hachette, the third largest publishing company in the world, which has begun buying up games businesses and distributors in a way that looks very Asmodee circa 2010. The signs are that Hachette doesn’t plan to take any prisoners either, if Oriflamme is anything to judge by. Oriflamme is a card game from two first-time designers that’s already picked up the As D’Or at the International Games Festival at Cannes. It’s set in an undefined medieval world where 3–5 families vie for influence after the sudden death of the king. In game terms, it comes on like Love Letter meets HBO’s Game of Thrones, on steroids, in a nice box. Each player gets an identical ten-card deck, and discards three randomly before play starts. Then they take turns to add cards to the start or end of the ‘Influence Queue’, and then in the second phase they either reveal and activate each card in turn, or leave it face-down and add influence chips to it.
Each card has a unique character (which stay in the queue) or power (which are one-use), from lords, heirs, spies and shape-shifters to ambushes and assassinations. Placing and revealing them is a combination of guesswork, bluff, short-term and long-term tactics, plus trying to remember what the cards you played last turn are. Deciding what and when to reveal is deliciously enticing, and pulling off a combo or tricking someone into attacking an ambush has a
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10+
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sense of reward that goes far beyond an influence chip or two. After all that, it’s almost a shame the game is a points-chase at its heart, and the battle of wits comes down to a scrabble for tokens. After six rounds the game’s done (your final card remains unplayed), and the player with the most influence chips wins. It’s a little bit of an anti-climax that diminishes the game’s atmosphere and weakens the story that’s built up from the interplay of the cards. The gameplay is strong, tactical and enjoyable, but it’s not perfect. One curious rule gives influence points to players for eliminating their own cards from the queue, which let me grab a bizarre victory by destroying most of my own forces in the final turn. That’s easily house-ruled out, but it shouldn’t have been in there to start with. But those are minor quibbles, like the slightly odd player counts or the occasional typo in the rules. Overall Oriflamme is a thoroughly engrossing mix of influences and play styles that hits all the sweet spots in a focused, fast-paced sixround blast of fun. It’s one of those games you pull out to start the evening, and look up to realise you’ve been playing all night. A couple of rough edges can’t detract from the fact this is a hell of a debut by the Hesling brothers – and Studio H. * JAMES WALLIS
PLAY IT? M U S T - P L A Y A small number of cleverly combined elements create complex gameplay and interesting tactical choices. Or you can just wing it, and it’ll still be a blast.
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WHAT’S IN THE BOX
◗ 50 Influence cards (5 sets) ◗ 70 Influence point tokens ◗ 1 First player tile ◗ 1 Resolution direction tile
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED LOVE LETTER... Oriflamme is to Love Letter what Lord of the Rings is to the Hobbit, if George R R Martin had written them. Get in.
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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MIYABI Multi-level mulching scheme Designer: Michael Keisling | Publisher: Haba here’s a certain draw to gardening for board game designers. It might be something to do with how tidy they are. There’s a sense of making minor edits now to reap rewards later down the line, which at its most basic level is what strategy is. There’s also the fact that gardens are flat arrangements that things need to fit into. Keisling’s most recent gardening game, Miyabi we’re making extremely tidy gardens on our own boards. When I say extremely tidy, it’s not just a bit of excessive Ground Force style renovation with planters, it’s a little more like a spreadsheet. Players take tiles from a central reserve, randomly selected each round, and place these on their garden. These are a selection of Tetris shapes of grass with only one area containing flowers, bushes, pagodas, and so on. The bigger tiles contain more than the smaller ones (three koi carp in the pond for
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WHATS IN THE BOX ◗ 4 Garden boards ◗ 24 Wooden lanterns ◗ 6 Bonus tiles ◗ 1 Bonsai tree ◗ 1 Round marker ◗ 1 Score board ◗ 4 Frog markers ◗ 96 Garden tiles ◗ 5 Expansion tiles ◗ 16 Zen tiles
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2-4
8+
£35
example). On the first layer the number is multiplied by one. The first layer you ask? Well, this is the fun bit. If you tile can be supported from below, you can go up a level. This includes the well-worn gardening game trait of laying tiles that completely demolish what was there before. None of this ‘I’ll move that tree over the other side and dig in a pond’ – we just bring the bulldozers in and plonk down our rock tile that uses its grass part to obscure a flowering bush. You can only place a scoring features in a column once per round, moving a lantern in to show that this column has been used. This is where the puzzle bit comes in, and making the most of what’s available to you becomes increasingly tricky.
In the gardening game genre, as much as there is one, the pleasure comes from the slow build up to massive points collection. Each round you are scored here, and then the final round includes most features of certain types getting a little extra. It’s still tight scoring despite this, with only a few points in it. Keisling seems to have wanted to make a very complex game, and instead made a very good simple one. With this though, comes the optional expansions for the game in the box. These are more or less new scoring modes for things like the biggest meadow, or, the one we would vote for inclusion in the main game, the frog expansion. Because you’re making tiers through the game, this expansion seems so obvious. Move a cute frost token around the board, and up into the next floor available, assuming it is grass only. When frogs hit level four, they can move through features too, allowing them to ascend to being top frog. This is a delightful mini game within the main box, and we’d suggest everyone play with this rule immediately. There’s no point making a lovely garden if there’s no frogs to enjoy it, after all. * CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
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PLAY IT? Y E S An extremely strong, strategic tile layer which leaves players puzzling over their board in a pleasant way. And as we said, always play the frogs.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED ISHTAR… The Cathala modern classic from last year that showed us how tight a game could be with so many ways to score points.
THE DEADLIES Designer: Paul Saxberg | Publisher: Smirk & Dagger Games mong the almost infinite number of cards games that can be played with a standard deck of cards, all of us have heard of (perhaps as recounting of a particularly merry night out) if not played games called Moonshine, Screw, or The President (also known by a less appropriate name). These card games, while not identical in a play, have the same goal: be the first player to get rid of all your cards. The Deadlies is a game very much in the same category, but it has its own specifically designed cards, representing the deadliest sins, like wrath and sloth, and little rule twists that introduce more strategic elements into the gameplay. At first, the Deadlies may seem almost redundant: why get a game which can be essentially played with a standard deck of cards? While this argument still has validity, the Deadlies is not a mere clone. The card powers, that relate to the sins
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3-5
10+
£15
they represent, are well-considered and balanced to dilute the luck of card draw and make actions matter. The players are not only trying to get rid of cards from their own hand, but they are also preventing opponents from doing the same first, and there is more to it than just overloading them with extra cards. Each card within the deck has a counter, making even the most powerful ability, at first glance, vulnerable when faced with a savvy opponent. Even though there are variations of the same game out there, some of which have become a part of card game folklore, the Deadlies is a worthy addition. It has delightful artwork and theme, and the modified rules, especially card powers bring a more modern, thoughtful, yet still cheeky feel to a familiar concept. * ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
NINE TILES PANIC Designers: Jens Merkl & Jean-Claude Pellin | Publisher: Oink Games s one of Oink’s bigger games, Nine Tiles Panic is also one of the more complex. Or at least, initially. Players use doublesided tiles to create a complete town in a nine by nine grid, with matching roads, to then score against the theme. This theme is made up of two cards randomly drawn from a deck that inform the scoring. This could be things like ‘most adjacent tiles with houses’, ‘most girls’ or ‘most captured aliens’. While the first two are a puzzle by themselves, it’s the depth of criteria like the latter that adds a really thinky layer to the game. Captured aliens are those aliens on a road that have an agent chasing them. The first player to complete their town takes the 1st token and then
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20m
2-5
7+
£30
flips the timer to pour the pressure on to the next person. This is where the panic comes in, along with the alien invasion of course. Like all Oink games it’s lush, well put together, and way more thoughtful than the box should allow for. We found that it’s a less social game than we would have liked, and the ‘grab the 1st marker’ elements a bit too gamey on top of the puzzle (which itself is a frustrating pleasure to be pushing against). We didn’t need it to be a race, just a panic. That aside the core of the game is one that we’re happy to return to repeatedly, after a while, this weird little town did feel like home. * CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
❚ PLAY IT? P R O B A B L Y tabletopgaming.co.uk
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WAVELENGTH Don’t touch that dial Designers: Alex Hague, Justin Vickers, Wolfgang Warsch | Publisher: Palm Court
irst thing: reviewing a party game that’s obviously meant for crowds of people while you’re in the grip of a national lockdown is sub-optimal. But we can assure you Wavelength was played for the approved length of time with the approved number of people, with added coughing. Wavelength is a collaboration between Wolfgang ‘The Mind’ Warsch, and Alex Hague and Justin Vickers who co-created Monikers, in the sense of ‘took the public-domain game Celebrities and published it’. Both of those are games about intuiting unspoken messages from your fellow players, and there was a sense – at least on its Kickstarter page – that Wavelength would double down on that non-verbal, almost psychic communication. I don’t think I’ve ever backed a Kickstarter faster. And it’s… okay. It’s fine. It’s a reasonable party game. Nothing less, and unfortunately nothing more.
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WHAT’S IN THE BOX ◗ Wavelength device ◗ 126 Question cards ◗ 2 Scoring tokens ◗ 1 Guessing token
At the heart of Wavelength is the ‘device’, a large plastic wheel with a dial, a screen and a pointer. The wheel is marked with a wedge subdivided into sections marked 2-3-4-3-2, totalling about two-fifths of the visible space. The active player or team takes a card which will have two opposites on it – ‘Untalented/ Talented’ or ‘Cat person/Dog person’ for example – then closes the screen, spins the wheel to a random position, opens the screen, comes up with a brief clue to indicate where the midsection of the wedge lies, closes the screen, and gives card and clue to the other players or team. They have to position the dial based on the clue, the screen is opened and if they’re right the dial will overlap the wedge and they’ll score accordingly.
30-45m
2-12
14+
£XXX
This is fine as far as it goes, which is not far enough. A good party game is about creating a mood, whether it’s tension, hilarity or team spirit, but the elements of Wavelength never combine to do that. There should be great discussions and arguments among the team members about where to position the dial, but we found that one player would choose a position, another would go ‘Maybe left a bit?’ and that was mostly it. Then when the screen is pulled back it should be a big reveal, a sense of whoah-we-read-your-minds success or how-could-we-be-so-stupid failure, but there was a lack of any emotional build-up or release at all. First to ten points wins. The first couple of questions are quite fun, but any excitement quickly ebbs. The game has two modes: co-op and team-based: co-op is recommended for 2–5 players, probably because the team mode doesn’t work with less than six. It’s mentioned in passing on the last page of the rules. Also this is a minor point, but for something that’s basically a light trivia game there’s a lot of heavy plastic in here. The box insert on its own weighs more than a complete copy of The Mind. Yet it’s surprisingly fiddly: the device is hard to randomise properly, the screen gets stuck, the cards are tiny, and the scoring tokens are just odd. Wavelength may work for you. But we found it two-dimensional and too flat, only briefly coming to life when a good question-master produced a clever clue, which didn’t happen nearly as often as it does in Codenames. Lovely box design, though. * JAMES WALLIS
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PLAY IT? M A Y B E Given the calibre of the creatives involved this should have been a stonking behemoth of an arrival on the party-game scene, and it isn’t.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED MONIKERS... Other reviewers have liked Wavelength more than we did, and they seem to like Monikers quite a bit as well.
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EXPEDITION TO NEWDALE
WHATS IN THE BOX
Goodness gracious me, just me Designer: Alexander Pfister | Publisher: Lookout Games
efore we start it is worth pointing out that, because of the time it came to review Expedition to Newdale, was reviewed exclusively on solo play. Luckily it’s almost exactly the same game, although, a lot quicker and frankly, a lot tougher. Beating your friends, or rather, outrunning them in the victory points race is one thing, hitting the goals set out to you by the solo game in Alexander Pfister’s recent follow up to Oh My Goods! is and entirely different bucket of coal, and flour, that can be chained into bread… Expedition... is a heavier game than Oh My Goods! and comes with a host of boards to play with, rather than just cards – although, there are a lot of those too. Following on from Escape to Canyon Brook, your adventure to produce things continues. Why? It barely matters, but it’s something to do with stopping some ice giants killing everyone by using diplomacy. But we’re not here for the narrative, as novel as it is. It’s a campaign Eurogame about constructing building that can then apply the randomly drawn labour market to certain effects, and more interestingly, be used to chain together certain materials into others. So, you can take your cows to the abattoir to produce meat, or coal and flour to produce bread, for example. Doing so means that your coal, worth one coin while sitting on the mine
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card of your player-board engine, is now worth five on the bakery. You’re much richer than you were by the application of labour. Solo play works like a pleasantly frustrating puzzle. It teases at your brain in a satisfying way for the most part, but occasionally veers into unfair ‘tough luck’ situations. This usually comes from not being able to build your engine quick enough with plenty of cards to generate the goods required to meet the quota. There are actions that you can take to increase the cards in your hand, but because the game is played over only a handful of rounds using the (cleverly) build event decks, these actions are often a sign you’re just not going to make ends meet in the particular run through. It’s fine, but just having a bad hand with few options can be off-putting.
90m
1-4
12+
£48
That, however, is the only gripe with the game. The sense of progress is palpable, you change locations and situations regularly, you meet characters that, while you don’t get to know and love exactly, do become something like familiar faces during play. And most of the time, like any good Eurogame, the disappointment is only with yourself – when you realise you should have done something else already. * CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
◗ 3 Double-sided game boards ◗ 1 Action board ◗ 4 Double-sided player boards ◗ 40 Bonus tiles ◗ 8 Progress tiles ◗ 4 Bridge tiles ◗ 4 Victory point markers ◗ 1 Winners’ cup ◗ 44 Hourses ◗ 16 Action tokens ◗ 4 Ship tokens ◗ 22 Figures ◗ 50 Goods markers ◗ 1 Bag ◗ 1 Sticker sheet ◗ 220 Cards ◗ 1 Chronicle book
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
An extremely good, light, enginebuilding Eurogame with great depth and challenge at its heart. The campaign elements expand the longevity of the game and make the solo mode feel like something worth working through.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED OH MY GOODS!… The previous instalments, while a bit lighter, are a good indication of whether you’ll gain pleasure from chaining your good together, or find it all a bit tedious.
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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ROBOTECH: ATTACK ON THE SDF-1 Robot Bores Designer: Darius Hambleton & Jeff Mechlinski | Publisher: Japanime Games
great co-operative game brings players together where you battle bad luck to overcome the odds. A great adaptation of a franchise captures what made it incredible into a tantalizing tabletop triumph. This board game does neither. In Robotech: Attack on the SDF-1, you and your friends play through the first season of the eighties sci-fi anime, defeating waves of Zentraedi alien invaders and trying to keep your spaceship/giant robot mecha flying through five rounds (or "episodes") of setbacks and strife. Each episode starts with a short recap of an actual episode from the show, providing instructions for new challenges and round objectives. You then each take turns using actions to run around the SDF-1, repairing systems or preparing mechas, so you can go into space to destroy the little alien chits causing chaos. Depending on how well you dealt with their forces, the aliens return fire through an orders card revealed only after all player turns have finished, with different ships being able to deplete your reserves of mecha
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May 2020
WHAT'S IN THE BOX? ◗ 3 Game boards ◗ 1 Self-assembly cardboard SDF-1 battle mode model ◗ 5 Scenario booklets ◗ 138 Cards ◗ 6 Scenario character cards ◗ 6 Hero boards ◗ 6 Cardboard stand-ups ◗ 4 Quick reference boards ◗ 159 Gameplay tokens ◗ 36 Mecha tokens ◗ 41 Enemy tokens ◗ 1 Zentraedi vessel bag ◗ 2 Standard D6 dice
units, ship structures or player health. If the ship get's too damaged, you lose. Survive five episodes and you'll win the scenario and can move on to the next. It's clear lots of love went into capturing the show's imagery, as the iconography, mechanical nods to the show and the enormous cardboard model of SDF-1 in battle mode will be highly appreciated by fans. It's a shame the same love didn't go into the gameplay. The 27 page rulebook is a mess, with key rules wildly scattered throughout and paragraphs of text repeating earlier rules explanations. Playing the game is just as unfocused, as before each episode's first turn everyone must agree on how many actions each player gets, so before you even start playing you're deciding who gets to have more fun. Pilot characters can whizz around space, ordering units or fighting enemy ships themselves to actually win everyone the game. Non-pilots (i.e.
2-3h
1-5
11+
£70
most other players) spend their turns tidying up and putting out fires, with rare opportunities to make positive steps forward instead of merely preventing steps back. Even the Captain, the sole person who can transform your ship into the cardboard mecha, can only do so at great expense to the rest of the team AND with the game's frustrating misfire mechanics, might ruin an entire +2-hour game session through one bad dice roll. Each character's unique actions are woefully unbalanced, making some strictly better to pour action points into. Doing damage relies on either slow but guaranteed success player actions or risking cards drawn from the mecha orders deck, which sounds promising as a risk/reward mechanic, but falls flat when the mecha deck is stuffed with too many lousy cards that its often safer to never risk using it. The game's five scenario booklets comprise of one so-so tutorial guide, three actual game sessions and a final forgettable array of two or three player scenarios. The three main scenarios are so committed to following what happened in the show, that if you don't know or care about these events, they will either feel arbitrary or infuriating. The manual also suggests an escalation mode, but forgive me if playing a game for over three hours that can't be won doesn't sound like an enjoyable experience. Maybe if you know your Destroids from your Veritechs, playing through the show's greatest moments will be enough. But for those looking for a thrilling co-operative game, it is a black hole of time and money. * MATTHEW VERNALL
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PLAY IT? N O The clunky instructions and gameplay makes this exclusively for diehard fans of the show or players who obsessively love tower defence strategy games.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED CASTLE PANIC... If tearing through waves of orcs has left you and your friends wanting a harder challenge, this game's escalation mode may prove to be the time sink you're looking for.
ANIMAL KINGDOMS Designer: Steven Aramini | Publisher: Galactic Raptor Games very kingdom has laws which must be followed without exception by anyone who steps across its borders. In Animal Kingdoms, many such laws exist. ‘Only frogs and wolf’, ‘only odd rank animals’ or ‘only animals not present in other kingdoms’. However, the rulers of these kingdoms are flexible with their own laws, which they change every age. In any other
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context, such behaviour would be found questionable, but in Animal Kingdoms, a family-oriented areacontrol card game, there is no need to think too deeply into the theme. It is very light and is used mostly as an excuse to have gorgeous animal artwork on the cards. In Animal Kingdoms, players are vying for control of the five kingdoms to earn victory points over the three rounds – or ages – of the game. To add their presence to an area, they must play a card out of their hand that satisfies the condition (some of which were mentioned earlier) of the kingdom. These are broad enough that players always have a choice to contribute to one of the areas on the board, but are also
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restricting enough, that they also need to stop and consider their options. They won’t have to think for too long, however, because Animal Kingdoms is not a strategy heavy game. Purposefully designed for the whole family to enjoy, it gives enough of the challenge to keep players interested, but not too much to over-stay its welcome. The biggest let down of the game, especially one so pretty, is the component quality. The cards are thin, the cardboard on the slotted game boards begins peeling after the first few plays and the cubes are roughly made and painted. A real shame considering that Animal Kingdoms feels perfect for frequent play as it is easy to set up, has high replayability and a wide appeal to different gaming groups. * ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
❚ PLAY IT? P R O B A B L Y
FAFNIR Designer: Jun Sasaki | Publisher: Oink Games afnir is a chicken that lays gems. For some reason, two brothers have decided that those who can display wealth by throwing away gems can have Fafnir’s gems. But the problem is, that as soon as the gems are thrown away, gems of the same type are worth less than they were. Players take their cute dividing screens, which we feel would be ideal for very small RPGs, and keep their gems secret. Each turn a blind bid is made for the gems that Fafnir has laid, and the victory point that comes with it. The blind bid is made by clutching, secretly, the number of gems you want to bid in your fist, before revealing at the same time. The gems you throw away are added to the market, which will tell you what each is worth at the end of the round (less gems, more points). That end is also dictated by the number of gems in the
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2-4
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market, a row that reaches seven (for a three player game) ends that round, and then the gems are scored based on what you kept behind the screen. There’s bit of bluffing involved, and blind bidding is always fun with the right crowd – and it’s all designed as a very social game. Fafnir uses a number of gambling mechanics to create a kind of relaxed, jovial pub game. It calls out for a bag of pork scratchings, and a long afternoon with some equally tactically minded friends. Sparing that, it’s a game with replayability for a long evening indoors or a caravan buffeted by unpredicted rain. * CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S tabletopgaming.co.uk
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ODYSSEY OF THE DRAGONLORDS A marvellous mess of myth Designer: James Ohlen, Jesse Sky, Drew Karpyshyn| Publisher: Modiphius
pic’ is a word that gets thrown around pretty loosely these days, but it really is the only accurate way to describe Odyssey of the Dragonlords. By smooshing the world-shaking heroism of Greek myth into Dungeons & Dragons’ high-powered fantasy it manages to conjure up a titanic adventure about battling vast monsters, treating with gods and claiming your place in the annals of history. And, yes, despite carefully not mentioning it by name anywhere, Odyssey of the Dragonlords is explicitly meant to be played with D&D’s wildly popular fifth edition ruleset. It’s just rather than being put out by the official D&D team, the book comes from a trio of writers drawn from the ranks of Bioware, one of the biggest names in RPG videogames.
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The result is a chunky slab of a book that manages to bring a flavour of its own to the rather crowded world of fantasy adventuring. Part of this is the beautifully realised mythical setting, which comes with an absolute stack of new options for players and GMs alike, but the writing and design also manage to feel slick and snappy in a way that few other campaigns manage. This might be the conformation bias talking, but you can kind of tell that the main body of the writing came from folks who cut their teeth in videogames. The structure of the campaign, which starts with the party being hailed as destined heroes and has them slowly unlock more of the world to explore over time, feels as though it could have been ripped right out of Mass Effect or Baldur’s Gate. Even the climactic final showdown, which may well be one of the most dramatic, high-powered battles in any D&D campaign ever published, feels like something that could be accessed by clicking on a map screen. Honestly, this is both a good and a bad thing. For example, there’s no denying that the linear design of the first few chapters – which translate into a couple dozen hours of gameplay – does a great job of keeping things zipping along at an impressive pace. Plus, the feeling of unlocking a whole new array of islands to visit or cities to explore is just satisfying at the tabletop as it is on any computer screen. However, this does come coupled with an element of the dreaded railroading – the feeling that once the heroes start their journey, they’re bouncing their way down a corridor rather than forging their own path. For long sections of the game the party head from one dungeon-crawl to another, retrieving magical McGuffins and
having plot-relevant encounters when the book decides they’re ready. Indeed, the whole adventure opens with the party being named as the destined heroes, prophesised to save the world of Thylea and kick some titan arse. This is all supported by clever new rules that tie their epic destinies into the story, but all the talk of fate can sometimes feel like an excuse for leading the players around by their nose. Still, if they are happy to tread the road set before them, the heroes are probably going to be in for a rather lovely journey. The book is stuffed with cool characters and clever little adventures, all of which are supported by a truly impressive array of Grecianflavoured rules and tools. Every single core D&D class, for example, gets a new sub-class to try out with an appropriately epic flavour. Barbarians, for example, get to wrestle and shoot like Hercules, while rangers get access to an Amazonian sub-class that turns them into an off-brand version of Xena or Wonderwoman. It’s a little hard to tell exactly how these stand up against their official brethren, but at the very least they look both fun and incredibly flavourful. Just reading through the book is enough to fill your head with ideas for cool characters, and even if you don’t want to go full Grecian myth the hand-waved nature of the world means that you could very easily play a newly-arrived wandered from a more traditional fantasy world. The Odyssey of the Dragonlords is a truly impressive piece of work that can offer multiple years of action-packed roleplaying that really does blend the epic heroism of Greek myth and the easy action of D&D. At times the writing might be a little too tight and the plot a little too slick, but if you’re happy to be swept along in the current there’s a whole lot of epic adventuring to be had with it. * RICHARD JANSENPARKES
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PLAY IT? P R O B A B L Y An incredibly ambitious piece of work that adds epic Grecian flavour to D&D’s wizards and warriors.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: STORM KING’S THUNDER... Go fight big things, save the world and bounce across the planet while doing epic nonsense.
ADVENTURE MART Lose yourself in the magical world of retail Designer: Sam Taylor | Publisher: HUB Games
iven our current global predicament, many of our usual distractions are unavailable – dining out, socialising, retail therapy. Fortunately, we can always look to the tabletop for a taste of harmless consumerist escapism. In this fantastical land of anthropomorphic adventurers, literal pop-up shops magically materialise at the feet of those in need, ready to serve the growing queues of adventurers with an imaginative range of wares. Up to four competing store managers will rush to line their shelves with the finest necessities as they attempt to attract the most customers and boost their net worth. After five days, the stores will pack up as swiftly as they appeared, but not before crowning the player with the most profit as Manager of the Week! In Adventure Mart, running your store – or engaging in what the designers refer to as ‘adventurecapitalism’ – involves a breezy but original mix of deck building and auction mechanics. In each of the five rounds, players will take turns either spending gold in the Depot Area to acquire new Stock, Fixtures, and Staff, or starting a sale with a customer. Once all of the adventurers from the town have been served, play proceeds to the next day, beginning with the next Daily Bulletin which adds theme
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whilst making subtle changes to how each round plays out. In typical deck building fashion, each player will start out with the same deck of nine cards. Throughout the game these decks will become bolstered by more valuable stock cards. Each adventurer that comes to town will have a preference for the type of goods they wish to purchase, made up of a mixture of Martial, Magic and Exotic. The player who initiated the sale will put forward an opening offer in the form of a number of cards matching that adventurer’s desired stock types. After tallying up the other players will then choose to either pass or beat the offer, with the winner of the auction receiving gold before discarding their cards. Now, a successful store manager won’t usually thrust all their stock upon a startled adventurer. Not only would that be wasteful in regard to their dwindling deck, but also their stock’s potential for profit. Whilst each stock card does have a gold value, it will only retain that value for as long as it takes for the customer’s purse to empty. Some adventurers may be willing to spend up to ten gold but anything exceeding that is essentially given away. Aside from being nicely thematic, this rule also affords Adventure Mart a lot of potential for strategic planning and even a hint
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of bluffing. It plays out relatively fairly too, as there are no penalties for losing an auction, giving players a chance to succeed next time. Fixture and Staff cards also open up a level of strategic personalisation to players’ stores. More than just playful nods to anyone familiar with the convenience store workplace, cards like ‘Aether Slush Fountain’ and ‘Worker of Nights’ open up clear cut strategies through discounts to certain stock types and interruptions to opponents’ sales. The deck building genre is a crowded market nowadays, with each release seemingly requiring justification. Oftentimes, this thirst for uniqueness results in complex or bloated experiences likely to deter casual gamers or newcomers. Adventure Mart manages to avoid this largely by keeping things simple. There isn’t an overwhelming amount of card interactions here, just enough to keep things running slickly and smoothly, paired with an addictively clever mash-up of auction mechanics and deck building. * CHAD WILKINSON
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WHATS IN THE BOX ◗ 185 Cards ◗ 13 Tokens ◗ 60 Coin tokens
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED VALLEY OF THE KINGS... Like Adventure Mart, Valley of the Kings manages to provide so much excitement with so few components. It also doesn’t hurt that they both admirably succeed at spicing up their solid deck building foundations with other innovative mechanics.
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
With its charming and relatable theme, solid interaction, and a tight balance of familiar and innovative mechanics, Adventure Mart is the perfect step up from other gateway deck builders.
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THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Flick on the bat-signal. We’ve got a colour palette that, even if we weren’t born in, we have at least adopted Words and photographs by Andy Leighton
PAINTS & TECHNIQUES » » » » » » » » » » »
Agrax Earthshade Alaitoc Blue Altdorf Guard Blue Astrogranite Debris Averland Sunset Cadian Fleshtone Caledor Sky Celestra Grey Dawnstone Deathclaw Brown Dorn Yellow
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» » » » » » » » » »
Drakenhof Nightshade Dryad Bark Eshin Grey Fenrisian Grey Flayed One Flesh Incubi Darkness Kantor Blue Karak Stome Kislev Flesh Mournfang Brown
» » » » » » » » » »
Nuln Oil Pallid Wych flesh Reikland Fleshshade Rhinox Hide Russ Grey Skrag Brown Steel Legion Drab The Fang Thunderhawk Blue XV-88
Each model is split up into 4 stages, each with a list of colours and the corresponding paint that was used for it. Each stage uses a different technique to achieve a similar effect on each element but with different colours. Stage 1 is basecoating. Base colours are applied using flat colours. This is usually applied over several thin coats, to achieve a bold, flat colour that is evenly spread.
Stage 2 is shading. During this stage we apply washes and glazes to the more shadowed areas of the miniatures, the lower edges and undersides.
Stage 4 is for final details and highlights. This stage involves adding the finishing touches, sometimes just small details like the eyes, and adding any highlights to increase definition.
Stage 3 is layering. This stage involves applying a layer of a lighter colour, generally focussed towards the top of the model, avoiding the areas previously shaded.
If you find yourself unsure of where to apply the highlights or spot highlights, look over the images alongside the guide and compare that stage to the last.
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DARK KNIGHT RISES
BATMAN
BASECOATING
SHADING
Incubi Darkness: Apply a basecoat to the cloak and armour. Kislev Flesh: Apply a basecoat to the chin. XV-88: Apply a basecoat to the utility belt. Rhinox Hide: Apply a basecoat to the bats. Eshin Grey: Apply a basecoat to the statue.
Nuln Oil: Apply a wash to the armour and chin. Agrax Earthshade: Apply a wash to the belt. Rhinox Hide: Make a mix with around 2 parts water and apply as a glaze to the statue.
CATWOMAN BASECOATING Incubi Darkness: Apply a basecoat to the bodysuit, boots and gloves. Kislev Flesh: Apply a basecoat to the skin. Dryad Bark: Apply a basecoat to the hair. Dawnstone: Apply a basecoat to the gun and belt.
SHADING Nuln Oil: Apply a wash to the clothing and face. Drakenhof Nightshade: Apply a wash to the belt and gun.
GOTHAM CITY COPS
BASECOATING Incubi Darkness: Apply a basecoat to the cloak and armour. Kislev Flesh: Apply a basecoat to the chin. XV-88: Apply a basecoat to the utility belt. Rhinox Hide: Apply a basecoat to the bats. Eshin Grey: Apply a basecoat to the statue.
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SHADING Nuln Oil: Apply a wash to the armour and chin. Agrax Earthshade: Apply a wash to the belt. Rhinox Hide: Make a mix with around 2 parts water and apply as a glaze.
LAYERING
FINAL HIGHLIGHT
Thunderhawk Blue: Apply a highlight to the armour. Flayed One Flesh: Apply a layer to the skin. Averland Sunset: Apply a line highlight to the belt. The Fang: Apply a layer to the cape. Steel Legion Drab: Apply a layer to the bats. Dawnstone: Apply a layer to the statue.
Russ Grey: Apply a spot highlight to the armour. Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a line highlight to the skin. Dorn Yellow: Apply a spot highlight to the belt. Alaitoc Blue: Apply a line highlight to the cape. Karak Stone: Apply a spot highlight to the bats. Celestra Grey: Apply an edge highlight to the statue.
EYES STAGE 1 Abaddon Black: Begin by adding an oval over each eye
STAGE 2 Ceramite White: Apply another oval within the first, leaving a little of the black showing around the edges
STAGE 3 Abaddon Black: Apply a small dot to each eye for the pupil
LAYERING Dawnstone: Apply a highlight to the boots and metals. Thunderhawk Blue: Apply a layer to the catsuit and a highlight to the mask and ears. Flayed One Flesh: Apply a layer to the skin. Mournfang Brown: Apply a layer to the hair.
FINAL HIGHLIGHT Celestra Grey: Apply a spot highlight to the boots and metals. Russ Grey: Apply a highlight to the bodysuit, mask and ears. Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a line highlight to the skin. Skrag Brown: Apply a spot highlight to the hair.
ON FOOT BASING STAGE 1 Eshin Grey: Apply a basecoat.
STAGE 2 Rhinox Hide: Make a mix with around 2 parts water and apply as a glaze.
STAGE 3 Dawnstone: Apply a layer.
LAYERING Thunderhawk Blue: Apply a highlight to the armour. Flayed One Flesh: Apply a layer to the skin. Averland Sunset: Apply a line highlight to the belt. The Fang: Apply a layer to the cape. Steel Legion Drab: Apply a layer to the bats. Dawnstone: Apply a layer to the statue.
FINAL HIGHLIGHT Russ Grey: Apply a spot highlight to the armour. Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a line highlight to the skin. Dorn Yellow: Apply a spot highlight to the belt. Alaitoc Blue: Apply a line highlight to the cape. Karak Stone: Apply a spot highlight to the bats. Celestra Grey: Apply an edge highlight to the statue.
STAGE 4 Celestra Grey: Apply an edge highlight.
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DARK KNIGHT RISES
TUMBLER & BATPOD
STAGE 1
STAGE 3
Eshin Grey: Apply a drybrush to the main hull. Incubi Darkness: Apply a basecoat to the tires. Dawnstone: Apply a basecoat to the metals. Kantor Blue: Apply a basecoat to the windows.
Dawnstone: Apply a light drybrush to the main hull, focussing on the edges. Thunderhawk Blue: Apply a line highlight to the tires. Dawnstone: Apply a highlight to the metals. Altdorf Guard Blue: Apply a line highlight to the windows.
STAGE 2
STAGE 4
Drakenhof Nightshade: Apply a wash to the metals. Nuln Oil: Apply a wash to the windows and tires.
Celestra Grey: Apply an edge highlight to the hull and a spot highlight to the metals. Russ Grey: Apply a line highlight to the tyres. Fenrisian Grey: Apply a line highlight to the windows.
VEHICLE BASING
STAGE 1 Astrogranite Debris: Apply a coat over the entire base.
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STAGE 2 Dawnstone: Apply a heavy drybrush.
STAGE 3 Celestra Grey: Apply a drybrush. Abaddon Black: Apply a coat to the base rim.
STAGE 4 Pallid Wych Flesh: Mix with around 2 parts water and apply lightly to form road markings.
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WE NEED REINFORCEMENTS Pouring enemy spam on to players is no fun, but an organically occurring flow of enemies who heard the noise down the hall makes for dramatic showdowns and getaways. We discuss when to call in the reinforcements Words by Richard Jansen-Parkes | Image courtesy of Modiphius & Christoffer Sevaldsen
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he party thought they had everything right in the palm of their stylishly gloved hands. There were only a handful of guards wandering the halls of the corporate-owned warehouse, and despite the eternal uncertainty of combat they were pretty confident of taking down the goons with minimal risk to themselves or – more importantly – their brand-new outfits. Things certainly started off well. A couple of the rent-a-cops dropped to the initial burst of gunfire and katana-slashing, and before the bodies had even hit the floor most of the others were pinned behind crates stuffed with illegal tech. It looked like this was going to be just another brief snatch of combat in the exciting life of a cyberpunk. And then they heard one of the mooks turning on their radio. They needed back-up, apparently. Lots of back-up. The first wave of reinforcements stormed through the doorway just as the last of the initial guards fell. There were another half-dozen of them, all armed with battle rifles in place of the sidearms and clubs their bifurcated brethren had been wielding. A challenge, to be sure, especially considering the minor dings and dents the team had suffered in those first few rounds of confusion. However, it was nothing they couldn’t overcome with a bit of luck and a wellplaced frag grenade or five. As the sound of the explosions faded, though, it was replaced by that of roaring engines outside. Something big was pulling up. By now it was clear that things were rapidly going south, but if they were willing to risk a couple of pot-shots from pinned enemies they could still grab the loot they’d come for – the schematics of a dangerous new type of cybernetic muscle enhancer – and make a clean-ish escape into the safe anonymity of the streets before anything else bad happened. Then the walls exploded. Through the clouds of brick dust strode a trio of power-armoured killing machines, their miniguns already spinning up with a whirr that set the party’s teeth on edge. If they had all their gear, all their ammo and a plan, it might have been a fair fight. As it was, their goal had changed from securing an easy victory to scraping out some way to survive the night. Things, they all agreed, had escalated rather quickly.
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Some of this probably comes from the fact that it’s a nice and easy way to balance a battle on the fly, but honestly, I think I also like the way it makes the world feel a shade more believable. Sure, we have to ditch a certain degree of realism when we start talking about tossing fireballs about the place. However, it doesn’t seem too crazy to imagine that some of those goblins down the hallway might stick their head around the corner when they hear the explosions tearing through the dungeon. Having a handful of reserves flood their way onto the battlefield as the fight progresses often feels entirely reasonable, and helps to make the entire world feel a little more dynamic – a bit more like something that lives and breathes, rather than a series of static, unconnected scraps in the dark. On top of this, it can help to make battle feel truly epic in scale without being entirely unfair. The nature of many RPG combat systems means that being attacked by, say, 30 enemies all at once is much, much more dangerous than taking on three groups of ten that arrive on the battlefield a couple of rounds apart from each other. Of course, it is possible to overdo it. The joys of exploring a dungeon would be rather hurt, after
whatsoever. Those guys were essentially pulled from the void, and you can always send along another wave next round if you think things aren’t epic enough.
REINFORCEMENTS V ESCALATION Of course, at some point you’re going to have to decide what kind of enemies are going to come in through the door. The natural inclination can be to flood the battlefield with more of the same, but you can also add an even more dramatic and dangerous edge to the battle by having the quality, size or general scariness of the enemies mount up over time. This was the kind of escalating danger that the cyberpunks ran into when they raided the corporate warehouse, and it managed to turn an otherwise fun but forgettable throwdown into a proper fight for their lives. Sure, it didn’t quite turn out the way they had planned, but it sure stuck in their stories for a long ol’ time. Having the truly powerful enemies only make an appearance after enough of their minions have been cut down is one of the best ways to make a battle feel truly desperate. It all-but guarantees that when the big bosses turn up the party are already running low on the resources, whether that means explosives or magic spells, that they’d usually pull out for dealing with such titanic foes. This is one of the best ways to conjure up delicious “watching the entire room desperately scan their character sheets for some power of ability they’ve forgotten about” scenarios without having to rely on ludicrously overpowered enemies.
It can help to make battle feel truly epic in scale without being entirely unfair
THE WELCOMING PARTY I’ve got to admit, I’m an absolute sucker for confounding my players with reinforcements.
all, by having every single inhabitant rush the front door the moment the heroes arrived. There’s also a chance that, if it isn’t handled well, the flood of reinforcements can feel arbitrary and like an application of the dreaded GM Fiat.
ON THE WAY One of the best ways to make the sudden arrival of more enemies to chop through feel reasonably fair and grounded is to give some kind of hint that they’re coming. This can be as obvious as having the first wave of foes radio for back-up or smack out a warning on a drum, or as subtle as pointing out the sound of footsteps coming from the warren of small caves on one side of the room. This approach also gives the players at least a slight chance to prepare for the incoming wave of ravening foes, and stops them from being caught entirely off balance. Hell, sometimes it will allow the party to turn the potential danger into a chance to look cool and feel clever, by setting up ambushes or prepping to drop area-of-effect attacks in the chokepoint where the bad guys should be arriving. And if they do chop through the reinforcements with minimal hassle, there’s no need to worry
JUST DO IT The best thing about all this, however, is the simple fact that most of the time you don’t actually need to plan the reinforcements out in advance. If you feel a fight is going a little too easily or that things just don’t have the excitement you’re after, you can blow the doors of their hinges and toss in some more bad guys without a moment’s hesitation. Sure, it may not match up exactly with what’s in your notes, but that doesn’t really matter, does it? And if you’re worried about daily XP budgets or things like that, you can easily yank the bad guys out of a later encounter. Hell, coming across an abandoned guard room and realising why it’s empty can be a great way to make the players feel like they’re in a properly organic world. So, the next time you’re looking for a way to spice up a battle, remember that you always have reinforcements sitting in your back pocket. Whether you planned it that way or not. *
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CLUB DIRECTORY ABERDEENSHIRE ABERDEEN WARGAMES CLUB Aberdeen, AB15 4YQ BROCH BOARDGAME NIGHT Fraserburgh, AB43 9AH OLDMELDRUM WARGAMES GROUP Inverurie, AB51 0AA ANGUS ANGUS WARGAMES CLUB Forfar, DD8 3AQ DUNDEE LIBRARY WARGAMES CLUB Dundee, DD1 1DB KAMPF GRUPPE OST BERVIE Montrose, DD10 0RD KIRRIEMUIR WARGAMES CLUB Kirriemuir, DD8 4HN AYRSHIRE NORTH AYRSHIRE WARGAMES CLUB Irvine, KA12 0BA BEDFORDSHIRE AMPTHILL ON BOARD Bedford, MK45 2JS BEDFORD BOARD GAMING Bedford, MK40 2SX BEDFORD GLADIATORS Bedford, MK41 7TW LEIGHTON BUZZARD BOARDGAMES CLUB Leighton Buzzard, LU7 2NR LEIGHTON BUZZARD GAMING CLUB Leighton Buzzard, LU7 1ES SAXON GAMES & CRAFTS Bedford, MK40 4FU VINTAGE & MODERN BOARD GAMES CLUB Dunstable, LU6 2PJ BERKSHIRE BROAD STREET GAMERS Wokingham, RG40 3AQ NEWBURY & READING WARGAMES ASSOCIATION Newbury, RG1 4PS THATCHAM TABLETOPS Reading, RG7 6QH THE READING BOARDGAMES SOCIAL Reading, RG1 5DE WARFIELD BOARD GAMERS Bracknell, RG42 2DD WARGAMES ASSOCIATION OF READING Wokingham, RG41 5DU BUCKINGHAMSHIRE ARMAGEDDON INC High Wycombe, HP13 5TR AYLESBURY BOARDGAME CLUB Aylesbury, HP19 8SR MILTON KEYNES WARGAMES SOCIETY Milton Keynes, MK11 1JQ NEWPORT PAGNELL BOARD GAMES CLUB Newport Pagnell, MK16 8AN THE CHESHAM GAMING SOCIETY Chesham, HP5 2NN WYCOMBE WARBAND Beaconsfield, HP9 1LG WYRMBERG GAMES Aylesbury, HP21 9DT CAITHNESS NORTHERN KNIGHTS WARGAMES Thurso, KW14 8HN CAMBRIDGESHIRE 2D6 LODGE Cambridge, CB1 8NN BOURN GAMING CLUB Cambridge, CB23 2SH FENLAND RPG CLUB Ely, CB7 5NG HEFFERS GAMES BOARDGAMES AT THE BOOKSHOP Cambridge, CB2 1TY NEWMARKET KNIGHTS GAMES CLUB Ely, CB7 5HS
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PETERBOROUGH WARGAMES CLUB Peterborough, PE1 1NA ROLL WITH IT! Huntingdon, PE29 3TF SONS OF WAR CAMBRIDGE Cambridge, CB1 3QU ST. IVES TABLETOP St. Ives, PE27 5AD THE CHATTERIS WARLORDS GAMES CLUB Chatteris, PE16 6NA THE GAMES TABLE Cambridge, CB24 4RP CARMARTHENSHIRE CARMARTHEN OLD GUARD Carmarthen, SA31 3AD TOWY VALLEY TYRANTS (TVT) Carmarthen, SA31 2JE CHESHIRE ALTRINCHAM WARGAMING CLUB Altrincham, WA14 4PG CHEADLE BOARD ROOM Cheadle, SK8 1DW CHESHIRE GAMERS Crewe, CW1 4NJ CHESTER CENTURIONS BOARDGAMES CLUB (CHESTER) Chester, CH3 5LN CONGLETON AND DISTRICT LIGHT BOARD GAMES GROUP Congleton, CW12 1AH EAST WARRINGTON GAMING Warrington, WA20SF ELEMENT GAMES NORTH WEST GAMING CENTRE Stockport, SK2 6PT ELLESMERE PORT CENTURIONS BOARDGAMES CLUB Ellesmere Port, CH65 8DP GUARDIANS OF THE GAMES (TABLETOP GROUP) Macclesfield, SK11 6UB MUG AND GAME Congleton, CW12 1PG POYNTON BOARD GAME DAY Stockport, SK12 1RB VARIABLE MAGERS Stockport, SK4 3BS WARRINGTON BOARD GAMES CLUB Warrington, WA1 2SX WINSFORD TABLETOP GAMING CLUB Winsford, CW7 4AT CLEVELAND HARTLEPOOL WARGAMES SOCIETY Hartlepool, TS24 7DH MIDDLESBROUGH GAMERS CLUB Middlesbrough, TS1 2RW REDCAR IRONBEARDS Redcar, TS10 1RH CO ANTRIM BOARD MEETING Belfast, BT1 5FF DRAGONSLAYERS Belfast, BT7 1NN LISBURN GAMING CLUB Lisburn, BT28 1NY QUB DRAGONSLAYERS Belfast, BT7 1NN CO DURHAM DARLINGTON`S DOGS OF WAR Darlington, DL3 7LX DURHAM RAIDERS Croxdale, DH6 5HJ GAMERS@HART Hartlepool, TS26 9DE CO LONDONDERRY THE SIEGE BUNKER Londonderry, BT48 7JL CORNWALL CORNWALL MINIATURE WARGAMES ASSOCIATION Newquay, TR8 4LA SMIPHEES GAMES CLUB Callington, PL17 7AN
THE DICE AND DAGGER GAMING CLUB Bude, EX23 9BL WEDNESDAY NIGHT GAMING Redruth, TR15 3QY COUNTY TYRONE OMAGH WARGAMES CLUB Omagh, BT78 1HL CUMBRIA THE WIZARDS OF WINDERMERE Windermere, LA23 1DY DERBYSHIRE CHESTERFIELD REALMS OF WARGAMING Chesterfield, S40 1DN CONSORTIUM GAMES CLUB @GHQ Chesterfield, S40 1JW DERBY ON BOARD GAMES Derby, DE1 1QH GROWN UP’S GAMES NIGHT Matlock, DE4 3FQ SUNDAY NIGHT BOARD GAMING AT THE OLD KINGS HEAD BELPER Belper, DE56 1NP DEVON BARNSTAPLE SLAYERS GAMING CLUB Barnstaple, EX32 8LS CULLOMPTON BOARD GAMES GROUP Cullompton, EX15 1JX DARK STAR GAMING Plymouth, PL4 0AL DEVON WARGAMES GROUP Exeter, EX4 8AW EAST DEVON TABLETOP & RPG GROUP Honiton, EX14 1HR EXMOUTH IMPERIAL WARGAMES CLUB Exmouth, EX8 4SW MONDAY NIGHT GAMING; PLYMOUTH Plymouth, PL4 0DN NEO TIVERTON GAMING CLUB Tiverton, EX16 5JJ PLYMOUTH ASSOCIATION OF WARGAMERS Plymouth, PL3 5TB RED DRAKE GAMING Plymouth, PL4 7DJ TORQUAY BOARD GAME CLUB Torquay, TQ2 7AD DORSET DORCHESTER BOARD GAMES Dorchester, DT1 1TT SOUTHBOURNE TABLETOP & BOARDGAMERS Bournemouth, BH6 3AA WESSEX WYVERNS WARGAMES CLUB Ferndown, BH22 9AN WEYMOUTH LEVELLERS CLUB Weymouth, DT4 0AR WORLDS AWAY Bournemouth, BH2 5RQ DUMFRIESSHIRE ANNAN GAMING CLUB Annan, DG12 6EF THE FIVE ARCHES GAMING CLUB Dumfries, DG1 3JR DUNBARTONSHIRE DUMBARTON WARGAMES CLUB Dumbarton, G82 1QQ DURHAM DWG Durham, DH1 1QG DYFED GAMEPARK GAMING Aberystwyth, SY23 2JS WELSH WEYR GAMING GROUP Ammanford, SA18 1DX EAST SUSSEX 1066 WARGAMING CLUB St. Leonards-on-Sea, TN38 8BL FAMOUS COLLECTABLES Bexhill-on-Sea, TN40 1DU HASTINGS AND ST LEONARD’S BOARD GAMES NIGHT St. Leonards-on-Sea, TN37 7DA
UCKFIELD TABLETOP GAMERS Uckfield, TN22 5DT WADHURST WARGAMERS & ROLEPLAYERS Wadhurst, TN5 6UL EAST YORKSHIRE WOLDS WARGAMERS Driffield, YO25 6SS ESSEX BASILDON WARBOYZ Basildon, SS16 4NW BILLERICAY BOARD GAME CLUB Billericay, CM12 9BQ BRENTWOOD CRUSADERS Brentwood, CM13 1LP COLCHESTER WARGAMES ASSOCIATION Colchester, CO3 5RH ESSEX WARRIORS Chelmsford, CM1 3DU GBCON QUARTERLY GAMING DAY Loughton, IG10 4LF HORNCHURCH HEROES GAMING CLUB Rainham, RM13 7LP LOUGHTON STRIKE FORCE Loughton, IG10 1LH SAFFRON WALDEN GAMES COLLECTIVE Saffron Walden, CB10 1HQ SOUTHEND-ON-SEA ROLEPLAYING SOCIETY Southend-on-Sea, SS1 1BD THE HORNCHURCH WARGAMES CLUB Romford, RM3 9LB THE OVERLORDS Dagenham, RM8 2HQ THE PHOENIX GAMES CLUB London, E13 0AD THURROCK TABLETOP GAMES Grays, RM17 6FJ FIFE DUNFERMLINE WARGAMING AND ROLEPLAYING FELLOWSHIP Dunfermline, KY12 7DS EAST NEUK TABLETOP GAMES Anstruther, KY10 3DJ KIRKCALDY MEEPLE CLUB Kirkcaldy, KY2 6LF FLINTSHIRE DEESIDE DEFENDERS Chester, CH4 0DR FGC FLINTSHIRE GAMING CLUB Mold, CH7 6SZ GLASGOW ANTONINE BOARD GAMERS Glasgow, G64 4EN GLASGOW GAMES GROUP (G3) Glasgow, G20 7QE UNPLUGGED GAMES CLUB Glasgow, G41 3AB GLOUCESTERSHIRE GLOUCESTER TABLETOP GAMING COMMUNITY Gloucester, GL4 0RS GLOUCESTERSHIRE GAMES BUNKER Cheltenham, GL51 4XA IWARPUK Gloucester, GL2 9EB LECHLADE BOARD GAMES CLUB Lechlade, GL7 3HA LINCOMBE BARN WARGAMES SOCIETY Bristol, BS16 2RW PORK CHOP GAMING Cheltenham, GL50 3HA QUICK FIRE GAMES CLUB. Bristol, BS5 7RF THORNBURY BOARD GAME GROUP Bristol, BS35 2EG GREATER MANCHESTER TABLETOP MANCHESTER Cheadle Hulme, M15 4ST GWENT GWENT REAVERS TABLETOP GAMING CLUB Abertillery, NP13 3DJ
GWYNEDD CONWY WARGAMES CLUB Llandudno, LL30 3LB HAMPSHIRE ARBBL Andover, SP10 1DQ BLACK HOLE WARGAMERS Petersfield, GU32 3HS CHINEHAM BOARD GAMERS Basingstoke, RG24 8LT DARK WORLDS GAMING SOCIETY Fareham, PO15 6TL FARNBOROUGH BOARD GAMES CLUB Farnborough, GU14 0LE FARNBOROUGH WARGAME SOCIETY Farnborough, GU14 7LE FIRESTORM CARDS OPEN GAMING NIGHT Basingstoke, RG24 8FB FORDINGBRIDGE GAMING CLUB Fordingbridge, SP6 1AS GARY DONALDSON Waterlooville, PO8 8RG GOSPORT WARGAMING CLUB Gosport, PO12 3BU MUSKETBALLS 1812 WAR GAMING Southampton, SO15 3FQ PHOENIX BOARD GAMERS Bordon, GU35 0LR POMPEY PIRATES Waterlooville, PO7 7XD PORTSMOUTH ON BOARD Portsmouth, PO1 1PT RINGWOOD ASSOCIATION OF WARGAMERS Ringwood, BH24 1DW SOLENT WARGAMERS CLUB Portsmouth, PO1 1PT SOUTHAMPTON SLUGGAZ Southampton, SO17 2JZ THE GAMING DEN Basingstoke, RG21 7NT THE SOUTHAMPTON GUILD OF ROLEPLAYERS Southampton, SO14 0LH THE THIRD COALITION WARGAMES CLUB New Milton, BH25 5BT WATERLOO TABLE TOP GAMERS Waterlooville, PO8 8RG WESSEX WARGAMERS WINCHESTER Winchester, SO22 4QB WESSEX WARGAMES WINCHESTER Winchester, SO22 4QB WESSEX WYVERNS GAMING CLUB Ringwood, BH24 2NP HEREFORDSHIRE DICE AND DECKS Ross-on-Wye, HR9 5HR HEREFORDSHIRE BOARDGAMERS Hereford, HR4 9EA HERTFORDSHIRE BISHOP’S STORTFORD TABLETOP Bishop’s Stortford, CM23 3BQ BLACK WOLF WARGAMES CLUB Hitchin, SG5 1XL CALAMITY COMICS HATFIELD Hatfield, AL10 0JJ CHESHUNT WARGAMES CLUB Waltham Cross, EN7 5EG FINCHLEY GAMES CLUB London, N12 7JE FRIIDAY NIGHT GAMING Letchworth Garden City, SG6 1FP GAMES CAFE CLUB St. Albans, AL3 4BL HEMEL HEMPSTEAD WARGAMING CLUB Hemel Hempstead, HP1 1LD HERTFORD BEER & BOARDGAMES Hertford, SG14 1HH
HITCHIN HERETICS Hitchin, SG5 1XL LOST ARK GAMES RPG CLUB Stevenage, SG1 1EE LOST LEGION WARGAMING CLUB Hitchin, SG5 2PG NORTH HERTFORDSHIRE WARGAMES CLUB Hitchin, SG5 1XL NORTH LONDON WARGAMES CLUB Waltham Cross, EN8 9AJ POTTERS BAR GAMES CLUB Potters Bar, EN6 5BT ST ALBANS BOARD GAME CLUB St. Albans, AL3 5PE ST ALBANS WARGAMERS [SAW] St. Albans, AL3 5PE STEVENAGE BATTLEGROUP Stevenage, SG1 1NA THOR’S HAMMER GAMING CLUB Borehamwood, WD6 5PR TRING WARGAMES CLUB Tring, HP23 6BA WARLORDS WARGAMING ST ALBANS St. Albans, AL3 4DJ WATFORD WARGAMES CLUB Watford, WD17 4PN WELWYN WARGAMERS Welwyn Garden City, AL8 6PS INVERNESS-SHIRE INVERNESS TABLETOP GAMERS Inverness, IV1 1LU ISLE OF MAN KB TABLETOP GAMING - ISLE OF MAN Isle of Man, IM4 4LA KENT ALL AROUND THE BOARD Westgate-on-Sea, CT8 8RE ASHFORD (KENT) BOARDGAMES CLUB Ashford, TN24 9AJ BEXLEY REAPERS WARGAMING CLUB Bexley, DA5 1AA BROMLEY BOARD GAMERS Bromley, BR1 1TS CANTERBURY CRUSADERS Canterbury, CT1 1RT CANTERBURY DRAGONS Canterbury, CT1 2DR DICE ON THE HILL London, SE18 3EG GOLDCHEST GAMING CLUB Dartford, DA12DX GRAVESHAM WARGAMING AND TABLETOP GAMING CLUB Gravesend, DA11 9EU GREENWICH & BLACKHEATH BOARD GAMES AND BEER CLUB London, SE3 7JQ HYDRA GAMING CLUB Tunbridge Wells, TN4 8RA MAIDSTONE WARGAMES SOCIETY Maidstone, ME17 4AW MEDWAY AREA BOARDGAMERS Maidstone, ME14 1ED MEDWAY WARGAMES SOCIETY Chatham, ME5 9HG MILTON HUNDRED WARGAMES CLUB Sittingbourne, ME10 4BX PETTS WOOD AND ORPINGTON BOARD GAMERS Orpington, BR5 1QW SEVENOAKS & TONBRIDGE ASSOCIATION OF GAMERS (STAG) Sevenoaks, TN15 9HA TUNBRIDGE WELLS WARGAMES SOCIETY Tunbridge Wells, TN3 0PR WHITSTABLETOP Whitstable, CT5 1DA LANARKSHIRE CARLUKE WARGAMES CLUB Carluke, ML8 5JQ
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tabletopgaming.co.uk/clubs GLASGOW BOARD GAMERS Glasgow, G2 5AP LANARKSHIRE GAMERS Motherwell, ML1 1BS ML2 GAMERS Hamilton, ML3 6BU LANCASHIRE BLACK TOWER WARGAMING Blackpool, FY4 4ND BLACKWELL’S GAMING MANCHESTER - GAMING SATURDAYS Manchester, M13 9GP BURNLEY BOARD GAMERS Burnley, BB10 3LF BURNLEY WARGAMES CLUB Burnley, BB10 3EU DECKS & DICE Manchester, M25 1AW DICED TEA Oldham, OL1 2DB DUNGEONS & FLAGONS Manchester, M1 7HL ELWA: EAST LANCASHIRE WARGAMES ASSOCIATION Blackburn, BB6 7DD FAN BOY THREE BOARDGAME NIGHT Manchester, M1 1EL GECKO GAMES CLUB Accrington, BB5 3QW HARLEQUINS BLACKPOOL Blackpool, FY1 3QA HOUSE LANCASTER GAMING GROUP Lancaster, LA1 1EE LYTHAM ST ANNES GAMERS Lytham St. Annes, FY8 4BX PRESTON’S GAMERS GUILD Preston, PR1 7DP SALFORD AND MANCHESTER GAMING HAVEN Salford, M8 0TW THE HUNGRY DRAGON GAMES NIGHT Manchester, M21 0AE THE LIVERPOOL WARGAMES ASSOCIATION (LWA) Liverpool, L1 6HB THE NEGG ( NORTH OF ENGLAND GAMING GROUP ) Accrington, BB5 3EE THORNTON CLEVELEYS BOARD GAMES CLUB Thornton-Cleveleys, FY5 2TY THURSDAY SCYTHE BOARD GAMERS Liverpool, L3 8HE LEICESTERSHIRE CHARNWOOD ROLE PLAYERS GAMING CLUB Loughborough, LE12 8DT GEEK VILLAIN GAMING CLUB Leicester, LE19 2HE LEICESTER ALL SCARS Leicester, LE1 3JR LEICESTER PHAT KATZ Leicester, LE3 0QY MARKET HARBOROUGH WARGAMES CLUB Market Harborough, LE16 7JU SECTION 31 Leicester, LE1 1PA SONS OF SIMON DE MONTFORT Loughborough, LE12 8TX THE LEICESTER WARGAMES AND FANTASY GROUP Leicester, LE3 0QU LINCOLNSHIRE BOSTON TABLETOP GAMERS Boston, PE21 6QQ DICE CAVERN Grantham, NG31 6NL GRANTHAM FRIENDLY GAMERS Grantham, NG31 6LJ GRIMSBY WARGAMES SOCIETY Grimsby, DN32 9HT LINCOLN BOARD GAME GROUP Lincoln, LN1 3BJ
LOUTH STRATEGY GAMES CLUB Louth, LN11 8DB SPALDING WARGAMES CLUB Spalding, PE11 2RA LONDON LONDON ON BOARD London, W1F 9LD SELWG London, SE6 2TS TANELORN WAR GAMING CLUB London, E11 3DB THE ROLE PLAY HAVEN London, E15 2HU THE ROLE PLAY HAVEN London, SE13 6LH MERSEYSIDE FORGEMASTERS GAMING CLUB Wirral, CH63 6HD LIVERPOOL LION BOARDGAMERS Liverpool, L3 9NS MUTANT DICE GAMES GAMING GROUP St. Helens, WA9 4TR SOUTHPORT BOARD GAMES GROUP Southport, PR8 1NH ST. HELENS BOARDGAMES, ROLEPLAYING GAMES (B.O.R.G.) St. Helens, WA10 5BF MID GLAMORGAN BRYNCETHIN TABLETOP GAMING Bridgend, CF32 9YE CAERPHILLY BOARD GAMERS Caerphilly, CF83 1AP CASTLE GAMERS BRIDGEND Bridgend, CF35 6AU MIDDLESEX BATTLEUX WARGAMES CLUB Uxbridge, UB8 1PJ DICE CLUB Uxbridge, UB10 0RY DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS - UXBRIDGE Uxbridge, UB8 2EW HESTON AND EALING WARGAMERS London, W13 9SS LONDON WARGAMING GUILD London, WC2H 9LA TABLETOP TUESDAYS London, N16 8BX THE GAMES CLUB London, NW1 2JU WEST LONDON GAMES CLUB Twickenham, TW1 3RR MIDLOTHIAN EDINBURGH LEAGUE OF GAMERS Edinburgh, EH7 5EA SOUTH EAST SCOTLAND WARGAMES CLUB Edinburgh, EH7 4EW NORFOLK AFTERMATH GAMING CLUB Norwich, NR3 4HX KINGS LYNN RPG & WARGAMES CLUB King’s Lynn, PE30 4DN NORWICH BOARD GAMERS Norwich, NR2 4AL TAS GAMING CLUB King’s Lynn, PE34 4SJ NORTH SOMERSET POSSETT GAMING CLUB Bristol, BS20 7AN NORTH YORKSHIRE BOARDED UP Selby, YO8 8QE HARROGATE WARGAMES CLUB Harrogate, HG1 5LT SCARBOROUGH GAMES SOCIETY Scarborough, YO12 7BY YORK GARRISON WARGAMING CLUB York, YO32 4AQ NORTHAMPTONSHIRE BATTLEFIELD HOBBIES Daventry, NN11 8RB DESBOROUGH ROLEPLAYING AND WARGAMES CLUB Kettering, NN14 2NQ
PHOENIX GAMING CLUB Rushden, NN10 9YE THE BRACKLEY & DISTRICT GAMERS Brackley, NN13 6LF THE PIT GAMING CLUB Wellingborough, NN9 5TU NORTHUMBERLAND BOARD TO DEATH Alnwick, NE66 3NP KRAKEN ROLEPLAYING CLUB NEWCASTLE Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1RQ NOTTINGHAMSHIRE K.I.A GAMES CLUB Nottingham, NG17 8LA NOTTINGHAM BOARD & WARGAMES CLUB Nottingham, NG2 1NB RETFORD LIBRARY TABLETOP GAMING DAY Retford, DN22 6PE THE CLUB WITH NO NAME Nottingham, NG2 1NB WAR & PEACE GAMES CLUB Nottingham, NG10 5BD WILD WAYS Newark, NG24 1UD ORKNEY ORKNEY WARGAMES CLUB Kirkwall, KW15 1PA OXFORDSHIRE ABINGDON WARGAMES CLUB Abingdon, OX14 5AG AMBROSDEN GAMING CLUB Bicester, OX25 2LZ BICESTER BOARD GAMERS Bicester, OX26 3HA GWEEPLES Didcot, OX11 6GR NORTH OXFORDSHIRE WARGAMING CLUB Banbury, OX16 9AF OXFORD GAMING CLUB Oxford, OX2 7DP OXFORD ON BOARD Oxford, OX4 1EA OXFORD OUTRIDERS Oxford, OX1 2AU PEMBROKESHIRE PEMBROKESHIRE WARGAMING Haverfordwest, SA61 1JW RENFREWSHIRE GLASGOW AND DISTRICT WARGAMING SOCIETY Glasgow, G41 4AD SHROPSHIRE BIG ORBIT GAMES SHREWSBURY Shrewsbury, SY1 1PH E-COLLECTICA GAMES Shrewsbury, SY1 2DT GAMES @THE BIRD Shrewsbury, SY1 2DT STAGS TELFORD WARGAMING SOCIETY Telford, TF1 1LU TELFORD BOARDGAMERS CLUB Telford, TF1 2BW SOMERSET ABBEYWOOD IRREGULARS Frome, BA11 1PU BATH GAMING GROUP Bath, BA2 6AA MID SOMERSET WARGAMES CLUB Wells, BA5 2PU PIGMAR WARGAMING CLUB Bath, BA1 6AB THE ESCAPE COMMITTEE WARGAMES CLUB Burnham-on-Sea, TA8 2ET THE FROME BOARD GAMES CLUB Frome, BA11 1PU TRINITY WARGAMING CLUB Taunton, TA1 3JG WARGAMING @ RADSTOCK Radstock, BA3 4BD WESTON WARGAMERS CLUB Weston-super-Mare, BS23 1NF
WSM BOARD GAMING CLUB Weston super Mare, BS22 8PD SOUTH HUMBERSIDE GRIM DICE TABLETOP GAMING Grimsby, DN32 7EG SCUNTHORPE TABLETOP GAMERS Scunthorpe, DN16 1DQ SOUTH YORKSHIRE MALTBY AND DISTRICT WARGAMES CLUB Rotherham, S66 8JB ROTHERHAM WARGAMES SOCIETY Rotherham, S60 1JE STEEL CITY WARGAMING Sheffield, S13 7LL VAULT 14 Doncaster, DN1 3JU ZONE OUT GAMES CLUB Doncaster, DN1 2PX SOUTHWARK DICE CULT London, SE1 4GZ STAFFORDSHIRE ALL ABOARD GAMING CLUB Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 1JB BEACON BOARD GAMERS Stafford, st18 0gb CHASE WARGAMES CLUB Burntwood, WS7 0JL GAMING POTION Stoke-on-Trent, ST10 4JY LICHFIELD GAMERS AND RPG Lichfield, WS13 6EB TAMWORTH GAMES CLUB Tamworth, B79 7DJ TAMWORTH LIBERATORS GAMING CLUB Tamworth, B77 3AE THE ARTISANS’ GALLERY GAMING CLUB Stoke-on-Trent, ST8 6AP THE VINE INN GAMERS Rugeley, WS15 2AT TRITEX GAMES Stafford, ST16 1BG STIRLINGSHIRE FALKIRK DISTRICT WARGAMES CLUB Grangemouth, FK3 8QR LENNOXTOWN GAMING HUB Glasgow, G66 7LL STIRLING WARGAMERS Stirling, FK8 1QJ SUFFOLK BECCLES BOARD GAMERS Beccles, NR34 9AB BURY ST EDMUNDS BOARD GAMING GROUP Bury St. Edmunds, IP30 9LH HAVERHILL AREA BOARD GAME GROUP Haverhill, CB9 8AU HAVERHILL WAR GAMES CLUB Haverhill, CB9 9JE IPSWICH BOARD GAMERS Ipswich, IP3 0FS IPSWICH COUNTY LIBRARY BOARD GAMES LIBRARY Ipswich, IP1 3DE MID SUFFOLK GAMING CLUB Stowmarket, IP14 4SH SKYWARD FIRE GAMES Lowestoft, NR32 1TY WHITE EAGLES WARGAMES CLUB Ipswich, IP2 0RG SURREY BELLUM KNIGHTS Surbiton, KT6 5NJ CROSS GAMING CLUB London, SE1 7RW CROYDON BOARD GAMERS Croydon, CR0 1DP EAGLE GAMING CLUB London, SW18 2PT FARNHAM LIBRARY Farnham, GU9 7DR
GUILDFORD BOARD GAMES CLUB Guildford, GU1 4LH HAMPTON COURT GAMES CLUB East Molesey, KT8 0BT KINGSTON GAMES GROUP Kingston upon Thames, KT2 6LN REIGATE WARGAMES GROUP Reigate, RH2 0NA STAINES WARGAMES ASSOCIATION Egham, TW20 0QT STAY ON TARGET Woking, GU21 5BG SURREY GIRL GAMERS Woking, GU21 4AL SUTTON GAMES CLUB Sutton, SM1 1DT SUTTON GAMING CLUB Sutton, SM1 4DP SWIGGERS London, SE1 2TF THE SOUTH LONDON WARLORDS London, SE21 7BT THE WOKING WEIRD BOYZ Woking, GU22 7TA TOLWORTH 1ST FOUNDING Chessington, KT9 1PF SUSSEX BRIGHTON WARLORDS Brighton, BN1 1UB WARWICKSHIRE AFTERNOON PLAY Birmingham, B15 1AY BOARD GAME CAFE SUMMERFIELD Birmingham, B16 0EZ BRAVO ONE GAMING Birmingham, B1 1QP COCKED DICE GAMING Coventry, CV5 9EQ DREAMDEALERS GAMING CLUB Coventry, CV6 4FE GRANGE LIVE GAMING Birmingham, B1 1QP NUNEATON ALTERNATIVE GAMES ASSOCIATION Nuneaton, CV10 8LJ OCTOBER WARGAMES ASSOCIATION Birmingham, B29 6DX ROLEPLAYERS GUILD - BIRMINGHAM Birmingham, B5 5BL SCIMITAR WARGAMES GROUP Coventry, CV3 5GT WEST MIDLANDS BIRMINGHAM WARGAMES AND BOARDGAMES CLUB AKA DRAGOON’S DEN Birmingham, B13 9EA DUDLEY DARKLORDS Kingswinford, DY6 8AP PLAY MORE GAMES Solihull, B91 3TB PLAY MORE GAMES! Solihull, B90 3GG WEST SUSSEX BOGNOR REGIS GAMING ASSOCIATION Bognor Regis, PO21 5EU CRAWLEY GAMING CLUB Crawley, RH10 5DF DUNGEON CRAWLEY GAMES CLUB Crawley, RH11 7QG HORSHAM GAMERS Horsham, RH12 3LD MID SUSSEX MEEPLES Burgess Hill, RH15 8DX POUND HILL BOARD GAMING Crawley, RH10 7EQ SOUTH DOWNS SIEGEBREAKERS Pulborough, RH20 4DR THE ENGINE ROOM - GAMES NIGHT East Grinstead, RH19 1AW
WEST YORKSHIRE BOARD IN THE VILLAGE Bradford, BD14 6RE GAMING CLUB BRADFORD Bradford, BD1 2DX HALIFAX BOARD GAMERS Halifax, HX1 1SJ KEIGHLEY TABLETOP COMBAT Keighley, BD20 6EB MIDLIFE DICES Shipley, BD18 4SJ OTLEY BOARD GAMERS Otley, LS21 2AU PENNINE RAIDERS Halifax, HX3 6AW PUDSEY BOARD GAME CLUB Pudsey, LS28 6AT STOD FOLD BOARD GAME NIGHT Halifax, HX3 5AX WILTSHIRE BOSCOMBE DOWN & AMESBURY WARGAMES CLUB Salisbury, SP4 7LN CHIPPENHAM BOARD GAMES CLUB Chippenham, SN15 3WL DEVIZES & DISTRICT WARGAMES GROUP Devizes, SN10 5AD SALISBURY ROLE PLAY GROUP Salisbury, SP2 8HB SPIRE TABLETOP GAMING Salisbury, SP1 1DT WEDNESDAY KNIGHT GAMERS Salisbury, SP1 3TA WORCESTERSHIRE BROMSGROVE BOARD GAMERS Bromsgrove, B60 2DZ KIDDERMINSTER AND AREA ROLEPLAYERS Kidderminster, DY11 5QA PERSHORE GAMING Pershore, WR10 1EQ POSTAL ORDER GEEK MEET Worcester, WR1 1DN REDDITCH TABLETOP GAMERS Redditch, B97 5YE WORCESTER BOARD GAMERS (WOBOG) Worcester, WR1 2DP WYRE FOREST GAMERS Kidderminster, DY10 1RP YORKSHIRE AIREBOROUGH COMMUNITY GAMERS Leeds, LS19 6AS BEYOND MONOPOLY York, YO24 1AQ EAST LEEDS MILITARIA SOCIETY WARGAMES CLUB Leeds, LS25 2HD HEADINGLEY GAMES CLUB. LEEDS, WEST YORKS Leeds, LS6 3HN HOLMFIRTH GAMING CENTRE Holmfirth, HD9 7HP HULL’S ANGELS Hull, HU1 3HG IRELAND WOOD GAMES COMMUNITY Leeds, LS16 6BS KNIGHTSCAPE RPG CAMPAIGN Leeds, LS19 7LX LEEDS GAMING Leeds, LS1 3DL LEEDS NIGHT OWLS Leeds, LS6 1LJ SHEFFIELD AND ROTHERHAM WARGAMES CLUB Sheffield, S2 2TP SHEFFIELD BOARD GAMES Sheffield, S3 7HG SHEFFIELD WARGAMES SOCIETY Sheffield, S2 2TP
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EVENT REPORT
PICTURES SPECIAL
AIRECON 2020
Unbeknownst to us at the time, Airecon was likely to be the last convention we attended for a few months. Here’s a celebration of some of the best bits from the show
Words by Christopher John Eggett | Pictures by Anna Blackwell irecon is one of the largest tabletop conventions in the UK. Taking place in the lovely Harrogate, the show attracts designers, players and collectors of all kinds. In particular there is a very strong presence for prototype games and playtesting. Players can sit down and have real, meaningful discussions about games with their creators, before they get published. Hearing conversations in the hall about some part of the game being too heavy, too quick, too slow, not meaningful enough of a choice, and the designer responding with well-articulated reasoning and questions, made us all feel proud of the hobby we’re all part of. So, to celebrate our analogue hobby, and the people who make it possible, here is our round up in pictures of Airecon 2020. *
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December May 2020 2017
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5 1 The pulpy sci-fi deck-building of the excellently named Aliens Ate My Planet! 2 Defection is a space getaway of a game, with cool space combat 3 A miniature from the beta of Sythopian Wars
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4 Medusa Games’ reworking of The Great Fire of London 1666 for the third edition sees some really nice components 5 Dice of the Dead is all about ascending from your (stunning and entirely fabulous looking) coffin to the village of the afterlife 6 The Gorgon’s Loch might be the gateway dungeon crawl we’ve all been looking for 7 Ah, time to set sail with Tranqulity, an its lovely beer-mat shaped cards 8 Yogi Guru, which is Yogi, but more, from the ever-charming Bez 9 If you go down to the woods today, with Yay Games’ Gruffalo themed game box
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10 A game of Mob Sitters in action. Will you be able to accuse, lie and distract your way out of trouble with the boss?
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tabletopgaming.co.uk
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SHOP SPOTLIGHT
ASGARD WARGAMES Managing director Steven Johnston talks us through the wargaming scene in Middlesborough Interview by Christopher John Eggett How did the store first get started? I was working at a social club for several years when I was made aware of a business loan scheme for the under 30’s. Three months of working on a business plan alongside a mentor for me the funding I needed to make a go of being an independent retailer. What’s changed in the time it’s been running? Asgard has grown significantly over the last six years, we started with as broad a range of games as I could manage at the time, and I’ve been able to refine that to match up with the needs of the local community. Some games have come and gone, but we now have a core of regularly played games that we stock all year round, whilst always looking out for the next big thing! What’s the gaming scene like in Middlesborough? Middlesbrough has always been a big wargaming town, and has supported several game clubs over the years. Warhammer and its associated game are of course at the heart of that, but there’s long been support for D&D and board games as well. Asgard simply slotted into that community to provide a better option than just online. What’s been the biggest challenge of running the store? The growth of online sales for sure, I started out doing a handful of orders, but now it’s becoming more and more demanding on my time. It’s been
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May 2020
a real learning curve (I’d never have imagined I’d one day have a favourite cardboard box size...), but one that I’ve settled into nicely now. What titles have you found popular recently? In the last year I have partnered up with a lovely couple, Jamie and Samantha, to provide board games alongside wargames, as the market for this has grown hugely. I think there’s been a real reaction to the amount of time we spend on social media, so traditional games have become a fantastic tool to enhance our increasingly rare face to face interactions. As such, games like D&D have seen a huge rise in popularity. For my part, I’ve found that the Games Workshop specialist games range has been amazingly popular, including Warcry which has recently become our most attended tournament night ever. What makes Asgard unique? The community – I’ve been blessed with a fantastic core of regulars who are all supremely talented painters, gamers and hobbyists. We have access to a huge wealth of knowledge between us, covering all genres of games. I am proud that no matter who comes through the door, I, or any of our regulars can provide a great sounding board for ideas for them to ensure that we continue to showcase the very best hobby in the town, if not the country!
What are some of your personal favourite games? I’ve recently become interested in Age of Sigmar on a competitive level, which is something a younger me would have hated. It’s such a beautifully written system that it’s a joy to pit my wits against other players. I’ve also fallen in love with Sword & Spear Fantasy as my mass battle game of choice. Ultimately my favourite games are ones that lend themselves to multi-player formats, The Men Who Would Be Kings from Osprey Games, Muskets and Tomahawks from Studio Tomahawk, and Time Stories from Space Cowboys are all fantastic games. What events do you run for the local gaming scene? We are only a small shop so we tend to focus on campaign gaming rather than big tournaments. Each month we have a themed campaign or league going for a different game system, be it Stalingrad for Bolt Action, or Path to Glory for Age of Sigmar. Then for variety we will run one tournament or single day event each month that is something different to our main game, so last month we did a fantastic Warcry tournament in a single night (with time for pizza). In the future we are looking forward to trying Elder Scrolls: A Call to Arms from Modiphius, and giving Warhammer Underworlds another bash.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT? 71 Gilkes Street, Middlesbrough, TS1 5EH | asgardwargames.co.uk
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Stockists of Board, Card, Computer, RPG & Video Games. Unit 5, The Albany, St. Peter Port, Guernsey, GY1 1AE Tel: 01481 712240 Facebook: Facebook.com/JustGamesGsy
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CONQUEST ay back in the stone age (c.1970s) I had what I thought was a brilliant idea for a twoplayer abstract. Each would have about eight dice and instead of rolling them at random would ‘flip’ them from square to square on an 8x8 grid, so that at each flip a different but adjacent number would come up. The idea of trying to work out how to get a particular number onto a particular square seemed very attractive if you have that sort of mind, and I worked at it for ages. Unfortunately it never got anywhere – I could never decide on a satisfactory scale or objective and turned to other things instead. What I didn’t know was that 1975 had already seen such a game published, invented by Geoffrey Hayes and published in the UK by Denys Fisher Toys under the title Conquest. I pounced on it immediately, played it with delight, and reviewed it in Games & Puzzles magazine. My brother and I still enjoy it, using the original review copy, though with a few additional rules. You each start with eight large dice specially arranged on your nine-long home rank of a 9x8 chequered board. The central ‘key’ square of the row is occupied by your ‘key’ die. It moves just one square at a time, and you win by either getting it across to the opposing key square or capturing the opposing key die. A die moves orthogonally the number of spaces shown on it uppermost face at the start of a move, and it may (but need not) make just one right-angled turn in its move. It may not pass over another piece, but can capture an enemy piece by replacement. Success, of course, depends on your ability to position pieces correctly and ensure that they finish well placed and with a suitable number uppermost. Naturally, what that is, depends on the position. In an open game sixes are strongest; in a crowded game threes and fours are best; ones are nearly always definite weaknesses. At first sight it’s hard to visualise your way around a three-dimensional piece in order to work out where it can land up and in what orientation. In fact, however, it is a knack that can be learned in the course of your first few games. Thereafter it’s a game of pure skill and foresight.
W
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May 2020
Conquest was successful to the extent that it has been published by a dozen or so companies in several countries and under a variety of names (Alea, Duel, Duelo, George v Mildred Dice Game, Tactix), and I think its German version, Duell, is still obtainable. But it can be considered unsuccessful in that ‘that sort of mind’ seems not to be very widespread. As one reviewer writes on BoardGameGeek, ‘You have to memorize the layout of the dice to get your perfect information. It’s a mental feat few players would be interested in grasping’. But I still think it’s great. *
BELOW Conquest: The Strategy Game of Dice, from David Parlett’s own collection
David Parlett is a games inventor and historian, author of The Oxford History of Card Games and its sequel on board games, and a visiting professor of games design at the University of Suffolk.
tabletopgaming.co.uk
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