Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 103 i Tabletop Gaming

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These suggestions can build the backbone of your future narratives. Feel free to change everything you’re about to read, so that it fits your party perfectly. This month we’re looking at the world of science fiction… or rather worlds. Whether you’re attempting to create an RPG based on your favourite sci-fi show, or are tapping into those beloved pre-existing titles inspired by the likes of Dune, Star Wars and Star Trek, the basics of this small arc could be utilised in your favour. Here we want to focus on the trope of a lone ship, travelling through the cosmos, facing down threats that its inhabitants could have never predicted. THE LOCATION We begin on the Octavis, a ship named after a fallen military leader and monarch of a bygone era.…

There are few things more frustrating in our hobby than being introduced to a new game, loving it, and then finding it’s out of print. If you’re lucky, and it wasn’t a massive hit, you may be able to find it in the secondary market. But at the other end of the scale, you’ll find what the hobby call Grail Games, ones you spend your whole time searching for, that have disappeared, despite being loved, seemingly never to return. So why do games go out of print? COST VERSUS DEMAND: A GAME IN ITSELF The story behind most games going out of print is simply lack of demand. Small publishers often consist of a few people working from home, so holding large amounts of stock is a risk and an…

Recently, in the pages of this very magazine I told you lovely ladies and gentlemen that the competitive side of Disney Lorcana was being overrun by Sapphire decks. I suggested that this could be a bit of a problem. Well, it would appear that Ravensburger, the designers of the game, agreed because the ban hammer has been dropped with Hiram Flaversham – Toymaker and Fortisphere no longer being allowed in competitive play moving forward. I’M BLUE DA BA DEE DA BA DIE I am a person who plays a lot of TCGs, and I have done for many years. I have seen many cards banned in many games. Hiram Flaversham is one of the most deserving and least surprising bans I have ever seen. The skill “Artificer” allows you to…

3-15m 2-5 8+ £12 Anyone who’s read my work for a time will know that I love nothing more than a quick to explain, tiny game. Having said that, there is a real art to getting it right, and so when I find one I like, I really do shout about it. Kittin, was one such game, a game contained in a tiny tin that involved stacking cat shaped meeples in formations on cards quickly. “Make the pattern in the picture and don’t let it fall” is basically all you need to know. Kittin wasn’t alone though, Alley Cat Games also gave us Tinderblox (“Make the pattern in the picture and don’t let it fall” but using tweezers), a Pusheen version of Kittin, and more recently, two new ones in…

30m 1-4 8+ £30 I love the idea of this game. It’s a spin off from Frank West’s fantasy adventure game City of Kings. The story of that game is that the world that was once populated by friendly dwarves and flying Vadora has been ruined by attackers. That game is a medium-weight, cooperative mission with exploration, battle and so many mechanics and stories to get your teeth into. Vadoran Gardens, in contrast, is a light, tile-laying family game set in the same world. At this time, the Gardens of the Vadora are filled with flowers, lush grass, and young Vadorans training for greatness. If I were a fan of City of Kings, I would relish the chance to enjoy the world in a 30 minute bite-sized game. Even as…

3-4h 1-4 14+ £50 I have to admit, I approached Civolution with a certain amount of dread. Heavier eurogames are not always my bag. From the box, Civolution looks like the cover of an educational Nintendo DS Game spliced with a scientific conference poster. Laid out, it’s a vast array of pictograms, tiny wooden markers and progress tracks. The creation of some mad euro-game scientist. And yet, something about this game got its hooks into me. The sheer number of options is absolutely overwhelming, but once you overcome the admittedly lengthy teach, the turn-to-turn loop is simple. Opening out before you is a huge sandbox of actions, strategies and mechanics to tinker with. What is Civolution about? Well in theory each player is a god undertaking their final exam at…

1-2h 2-4 12+ £50 NOVA ERA is a game of competitive dice drafting and tech-tree tableau building. If that seemed like jargonised nonsense to you, what I mean is that you’ll be choosing between sets of dice to get the ones with the best colours and numbers for your needs. You’ll use them to “develop” cards, some of which will stack on others you already have, or outright replace them. The aim is to build the most advanced civilisation across a number of scoring conditions. NOVA ERA is built on a fine tradition of games like Castles of Burgundy, where you spend your dice to perform a very limited number of actions. Unlike some games with tight action economies—I’m looking at you, Agricola—this limitation never seems oppressively tight, although you’ll certainly…

120m 1-4 12+ £30 We’ve come a long way in this trilogy, along the Tigris, but it’s finally time to take the world’s knowledge and put it to good use, designing water-powered bookshelves and rotating eyeglasses. Inventors of the South Tigris is the third in Garphill Game’s “South Tigris” trilogy, and this is the most complex one yet. Inventors is about designing, building, testing and publishing some wild inventions, collectively moving each invention through its lifecycle, capitalising on each step as an opportunity to gain royalties or improve your workers. There’s too much to summarise in a short review, but the game plays out over four rounds, on your turn you use one of your three types of resource piece (dice, worker or tent) and take a range of actions.…

15-20m 2-6 14+ £50 Of all the potential spin-offs for Love Letter - a game that was originally about trying to woo a princess and fending off other suitors - one based on the horrors of Cthulhu may seem like a stretch. However, the result is something that offers a different experience to the classic Love Letter and is still great fun… even if you do risk going mad. First up then, a little explanation of how the Love Letter ‘system’ works. Across the course of a series of rounds you’re attempting to be the last one standing - either by eliminating your opponents or holding the highest numbered card of the players remaining. The way you do this is so incredibly easy. You start each round with one card…

20m 2-5 9+ If you search for small, travel-sized games, you’ll always get suggestions of Scout. It’s versatile, it plays well at all its player counts and it doesn’t take up any more space than it needs to. It’s a staple at my local gaming cafe, and the regulars love introducing newcomers to it. It’s a great introduction to the mechanic where you aren’t allowed to rearrange your hand of cards. There’s a regular debate about whether you can shuffle your hand after it’s dealt but before you look at it. Followed by a discussion of what random means and, depending on who’s in, some statistical facts on the matter. It’s a brilliant filler card game that you can teach to anyone. If you’ve not played, I highly recommend it.…

Welcome back to another issue of Tabletop Gaming, where this month, you’ll find us at UK Games Expo! That’s right, the biggest event in the UK calendar takes place just one week after this issue goes on sale, so we’ve got a guide for your visit included within. Plus, once the doors close, the traders clear, and the lights go out – what happens next for UK Games Expo? Director Richard Denning has the answers. Of course, you can’t miss our fantastic cover, brought to you by Modiphius Entertainment from their Fallout Factions: Core Rulebook. We’ve been chatting to Evie Moriarty, the game designer, about bringing the essence of Fallout to the tabletop – gnome stuck in a toilet and all. We’re not even close to being done. We’ve taken…

This week, I booked tickets to Disneyland in Anaheim, California. This might seem like an odd way to start a column about Trading Card Games (TCGs) but it’s actually a wonderful example of what has become one of the best things about being a TCG player, you get to travel to some really cool places. Now I must confess that my trip to Disneyland (this time) isn’t TCG related but it just so happens that the Pokémon TCG World Championships this year are happening in Anaheim and if I’m going there anyway, it seems a little rude not to not at least pop over the road to Disneyland and have a little run around. Why did Pokémon choose to have their World Championships in Anaheim? I can’t say for sure,…

15m 3-8  17+ £30 I was nervous about reviewing this game. For me, like many, Cards Against Humanity was a rite of passage that brought friends together long before we’d discovered the extent of modern gaming, but it’s not a time in my life I’m looking to hark back to. Add to that, my go-to party gaming group is my family. Against all odds, Horrible Therapist made it to the dinner table. We gave a quick trigger warning speech, unwrapped one pack of cards, and quickly put it back in the bag it came in. No, mum, I don’t think you’d like this game. After that, I wasn’t sure how to broach the topic with the group at the local gaming cafe’s social night. They’re an eclectic bunch and I…

1-2h 1-5 14+ £100 Molly House is the rare board game that is not about war or conflict, nor is it about nature or tranquillity. It’s a historical game set in 18th-century London, but its central themes are kinship, freedom, and happiness. Players take on the role of mollies, British socialites intent on exploring gender and sexuality that was not accepted in general society. To practice this way of life, you must gather in backrooms and underground establishments in order to partake in grand masquerades and passionate revelry. Secrecy is paramount, as the Society for the Reformation of Manners is hunting in the streets looking to squash any behaviour deemed deviant. Above all else, this is a unique game. Not just in theme and setting, but also mechanically. The board…

20-40m 2 12+ £50 Joyride: Survival of the Fastest tore off the starting line in 2024 and was quickly joined by a slew of expansions and a ‘big box’ edition, hinting at a successful franchise launch. Now we have Joyride Duel: Next Gen, which is both an expansion and a standalone two-player version of the game. So, what can both new and returning players expect? Let’s start with a brief overview of the system. If you’ve played Powerboats, you’ll be on familiar ground here. This is a controversial point, with a dispute that played out over Board Game Geek forums (and potentially beyond), but certainly the movement system is largely similar here, as inspired by Powerboats. Changing gear adds or removes dice from your pool, some of which you can…

1-2h 1-4 14+ £100 Recently, we have been spoiled with excellent video game to board game makeovers. From the fantastic Slay the Spire, which brought a digital dungeon crawler deckbuilder to tabletop, giving the gameplay a fresh take, to the recently released Dead Cells: The Rogue-Lite Board Game, that managed to figure out how to bring something new and exciting into a repeating gameplay loop, or even Mass Effect: The Board Game - Priority Hagalaz that tackled a behemoth science fiction epic through a standalone campaign that respected player’s time and offered tactical dice play that kept things interesting and challenging. These games understood that while fans loved the original properties, they didn’t want them simply replicated in cardboard form. The best video game adaptations took the essence of the…

20m 2-6 8+ £30 If card games are to be believed, Japanese food is relentlessly cheerful. You’ve enjoyed your meal with Sushi Go, washed it down with some tea in Sabobatage, and are now ready for dessert: smiley blobs of Happy Mochi. If you’ve never had it, mochi is a sweet or savoury Japanese rice cake popular at new year. Interestingly, each year the emergency services have to put out warnings about cutting them up into smaller pieces for children and elderly folks, as their gooey texture can lead to choking if they’re not chewed sufficiently. Scary mochi. Happy Mochi is a simple game of playing higher and higher two digit numbers, unless the value card is flipped to its negative side, then you play lower numbers. The neat part…

300 14+ £35 When I first picked up the Exodus Traveler’s Handbook, something occurred to me. It’s very rare that a tabletop RPG is given the same focus and love as the IP that inspired it. And yet, James Ohlen, the visionary behind the Exodus video game, is also firmly in the pilot’s seat for this spinoff. So, while the console version of Exodus, starring Matthew McConaughey, is set to be released later this year, this in-universe variation should provide a strong sense of the world-building and thematic exploration. Artistically, the Traveller’s Handbook attempts to recreate the visuals of the game, so there is a sci-edge to the detailed art, which ultimately feel like concept illustrations. It establishes the authoritative voice of a title that goes to great lengths to…

GALACTIC CRUISE Designer: T.K. King & Dennis Northcott & Koltin Thompson Publisher: Kinson Key Games Artist: Ian O’Toole Space tourism. It’s a reality these days for the rich and famous, at least. Galactic Cruise sets you up in a not too distant future, where you are an employee and potential future CEO of a company running cruises through the stars. Using worker placement mechanics, players compete to earn the most points through building ships, attracting travellers and eventually sending them into space. This is not a light game, there is a lot going on and a lot to learn. It looks like they have done their best to make this game as accessible as they can. There is a website including onboarding instructions for you as the new employee, the…

“There’s a broken toilet with a gnome down it,” Evie says during our interview, talking about fun extras on sprues. “It’s very Fallout.” Last year, Modiphius brought the world of Fallout to the tabletop…again. Fallout: Wasteland Warfare is a large spread miniatures game with a wide player base and a committed audience, and so their decision to release Fallout: Factions, raised a few eyebrows and concerned (to put it politely) internet comments. What was quickly established was that Fallout: Factions was an opportunity to play the same apocalypse but in a more skirmish manner, opening it to an even wider audience, without trying to make Wasteland Warfare do all of the work. Fast forward a year from Fallout: Faction’s starter kit’s release, and we’re diving back in with game designer…

1 CAPTAIN SONAR I wouldn’t wish being trapped in a submarine with your whole family on anyone, yet, oddly enough, simulating such a high-pressure situation on the tabletop is great fun. Players will be manning various stations on their submarines, ideally in two teams of four, and attempting to blast each other out of the water through deduction and communication. The components are great with a large, thematic screen dividing the teams, job-specific dry-erase boards for each crewmember, and the game accommodates both simultaneous and turn-by-turn play. 2 CODENAMES Bordering upon being a household name now, this team-based word game has been immensely popular with large groups and families. The box states two to eight players (it doesn’t really work with two) but, in reality, any number of people could…

This month we’re exploring Cambodia. Whilst tourists may be distracted by the capital of Phnom Penh, the awe-inspiring ruins of Angkor Wat, or the south-western beaches, there are some fascinating traces of gaming culture to be found if one delves deep enough. Cambodia’s national or, at least, most enduring game is Ouk Chaktrang, alternatively known as Khmer Chess. Its rules are similar to the Thai game of Makruk, with both providing examples of chess-like gameplay before rules were streamlined and standardised into their international form. Compared to chess, the most notable differences are the starting positions of particular pieces and some alternative movement rules. For example, all pawns start the game on the third row, and the queen has a more limited move of one square diagonally, whilst the bishop…

Weight Getting a shared language in board gaming is tough, but important. I’m not sure which is worse, agreeing to attend a games night expecting to play Monikers and finding everyone playing Brass: Birmingham or the other way round. A good first clue to weight is the rulebook. Generally, a heavier game will literally have a heavier rulebook. More pages to explain more things. During your first play through even of a medium-weight game, you’re likely to need to follow the rulebook. If you’ve played once before, you can probably explain a lightweight game to new players without needing to take the rules out of the box. Party games will usually fall into the lightest category, as they’ll be the easiest to bring to a table and teach to a…

20m 1-4 5+ £25 Eyes. Most people have them. Some might even have two. But should we trust them? Sure, they’re useful, but when it really comes down to it - specifically, when asked to pick out nine chalices scattered around a busy game board - are they up to the task? Spy Guy Fantasy, from Trefl, had me asking myself these questions, but, for now, let’s just take a look at what the game actually is. Despite its name suggesting some sort of saucy 007 fan-fiction, Spy Guy Fantasy is actually a cooperative family game tasking players with finding various things hiding within its vibrant and sprawling game board before time runs out. This is a sequel to 2022’s Spy Guy, and whilst not much has changed mechanically, this…

20-30m 2-6 10+ £50 In 2025, it’s far too easy to think that the end of the world is right around the corner. Doomlings provided us some gentle comic relief from that, as we worked to build a species that could survive the inevitable disasters bubbling up all around us. As a family-friendly table-laying card game, Doomlings is easy to pick up. You begin with a hand of cards and a Gene Pool number. Each turn, you place down a card into your “trait pile”; these are characteristics that your species gain; such as “Sweat” (gain a point, but have a sweaty, moist card fall out of your hand) or “Fecundity” (increases the size of your Gene Pool). Trait cards can have three aspects: a value, an action, and an…

40-120m 1-4 10+ £50 I first learned of mycorrhizal networks in Peter Wohlleben’s fantastic book, The Hidden Life of Trees. In it, he describes a complex system of communication occurring between plants, fungus, and trees, whereby nutrients, water, and even information are transmitted through stringy fungal threads beneath the earth. With Mycelia, designer J.J. Neville is offering me the opportunity to re-immerse myself in the ‘Wood-Wide-Web’ - this time on the tabletop. Mycelia is a strategic game of area-control and tableau-building, pitting up to four players against one another as fungal networks competing for space and resources. As they race to complete a tableau of five ‘decayed’ mushrooms, players will be exploring in search of nutrients, placing spores out on tiles, ‘fruiting’ and ‘decaying’ mushrooms, discovering new ones, and strategically…

25-40m 2-4 8+ £45 What’s better than a beloved game that has been condensed down into a fun and tense, two-player experience which can be learnt in fifteen minutes and takes less than an hour to play? Why, the same game with a nice chunky bit of IP spread across it of course! Seven Wonders beget Seven Wonders: Duel and that quickly lead to this Tolkeinised version. It’s not quite the same game, and the additions do a good job of pulling in as much of the fantasy franchise as possible. With one player representing the Fellowship (sort of) and the other, the forces of Mordor, they each take turns selecting a card from the oddly precise pattern you make of them for each of the three chapters of the…

45-60m 1-6 13+ £30 Deckbuilding, in this economy? There are a lot of deckbuilding games out there, and Shards of Infinity: Saga Collection is like a buffet of some of your favourite mechanics, cut with a handful of neat ideas of its own. Shards has been around for a while, and this product is a consolidation of the base games, expansions and promos all in one place. It contains a competitive mode, where new mechanics can be added from game to game, adding complexity each time, and a cooperative campaign where players band together to defeat increasingly difficult enemies. A game of Shards sees up to six players take their basic starting deck, playing cards to generate gems (for buying new cards from the market), damage (for defeating opponents) and…

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