Innehållsförteckning för Issue 82 från Tabletop Gaming

NOW PLAYING… Amun-Re: 20th Anniversary Edition What did you do on your summer holidays? I managed to sneak away from the office for a few days to catch some… well, rain, but also see the lovely vistas in the south of England. It was by sheer chance that I also got to swing by the home of UK-based card game Achroma and complete my mission to fill in the missing gaps of my collection straight from the flagship store. I’ve been lucky to chat to a lot of great people this month: designers, judges and even a couple of champions. Getting to see our hobby through so many different viewpoints, chatting to people who each see tabletop gaming in a slightly varied way… it’s been wonderful, the sort of refreshing…

This month we’re off to Egypt; a country famed for its ancient curiosities - games included. Indeed, current evidence suggests that the ancient Egyptians are responsible for the very first games to exist. Thanks to archaeological discoveries – as well as ancient Egyptians’ conveniently documenting various facets of their lives through text and imagery - Senet reigns supreme as the most ancient of tabletop pastimes, dating back over five-thousand years. It may not have had the longevity of Backgammon, but its prevalence for around two and a half thousand years is nothing to be sneered at. Over time, our understanding of the game has changed from being a simple two-player duel to what is now interpreted as something with a more spiritual connection. Around seven-hundred years after its inception, tomb…

Designer: Inka and Markus Brand | Publisher: Super Meeple and Tiki Editions “I can’t see the grey block! I can see two yellows. Two yellows. TWO! We’ve only got 10 seconds. Where’s the white? The white! Can you see a white? I can’t see a white. Hide the white. I SAID TWO YELLOWS! Yes. Yes! It goes there. THERE! Done!” And that, folks, is a very typical exchange in Recto Verso - a tactile, block-building game that requires you and a partner to work together to arrange up to 11 chunky wooden blocks in a particular pattern while racing against the clock. The issue is that each of you can only see one side of the completed pattern, so you must communicate and (hopefully) explain where certain blocks have to…

Designer: Ramy Badie | Publisher: Unstable Games When I opened Casting Shadows, I had high hopes. The components are really high quality, the artwork is fantastic and the overall concept is cool. Each player takes the role of some kind of creature, duking it out with your opponents until only the winner is left standing. You roll dice to collect resources, then spend your action points moving, collecting and casting spells, hopefully evolving your creature into its Shadow Form to make it even more powerful. Sounds cool, right? How quickly its house of cards comes crashing down. I don’t want to turn this into a cardboard character assassination, but Casting Shadows has a lot of problems. Let’s start at the beginning: The tile your meeple is standing on gives you…

Designer: Trevor Benjamin & David Thompson | Publisher: Osprey Games Undaunted: Battle of Britain leaps to the skies in this fresh twist on the already classic series. Players battle it out as the Royal Air Force and Luftwaffe across 11 scenarios that depict the fall of France, the Battle of Britain and the beginning of the Blitz. For anyone unfamiliar with the series, Undaunted is a deckbuilding game that offers an accessible entry to the world of historical wargaming. Each turn you’ll play a hand of cards to control your units on the battlefield (or in this case, your aircraft in the skies). Combat cards control your aircraft on the board while communications cards represent ground control providing assistance via radio. As aircraft take hits, you’ll permanently lose cards from…

Designer: Carmen G Jiménez | Publisher: Devir Jerusalem, AD 33. Trouble is brewing. There’s a man down the chip shop who swears he’s the messiah, but the bigwigs say he’s just a very naughty boy. All you and your fellow followers care about is a seat at his next dinner party – preferably next to the man of the hour. Getting there will take ruthless patience in Ierusalem: Anno Domini, an engaging and neatly conceived debut about area control. The first step is moving followers off your individual playing board one at a time and onto the central board locations. The desert, mountain and lake offer resources – stone, bread, fish – that will buy you a seat. Get the most followers in a location and you can join the…

Designer: Łukasz Woźniak | Publisher: Go On Board, Cd Projekt Red Centuries before Geralt of Rivia stabbed his first nekker, mutagen-enhanced witchers roamed the Continent doing what they did best: hunting monsters, quaffing potions, having testy encounters with the locals, gambling in pubs and occasionally beating the crap out of each other. All this is precisely what you’ll get up to in The Witcher: Old World, which, despite being co-produced by CD Projekt, ignores The White Wolf and his chums entirely, serving up five of its own monster-botherers for you to choose from. Each witcher comes with their own player board and, in a nod to asymmetry, their own specialisation. You might be a School of the Wolf witcher, who excels in swordsmanship; or from the School of the Bear,…

Designer: Brad Pye | Publisher: Kolossal Games Lost Empires: War For The New Sun takes the player-vs-player card battler experience and squeezes it down into a single, compact box. Alien artifacts have been discovered on a distant planet and four factions are battling in the ruins of Earth for the chance to colonise this new planet. The race is to be the first to construct a Wormgate – a gigantic portal – through which to transport your troops and take control of the new planet. To do this, you’re going to seize control of objectives – key locations – and exploit the artifacts there to reconstruct the gate. There are four factions included in the box: The Feng, anti-corporate guerrilla fighters who favour a rush strategy; Terra Corps, an alliance of…

Designer: Rhiannon Swann-Price | Publisher: we evolve Every RPG needs to have its cool moment, ideally the sooner the better. That moment when you first land the final blow in D&D or roll a messy critical in Vampires: The Masquerade will forever engrain themselves in your mind. For Action Potential, my players were sold the moment they wrapped their persona into a new body during character creation. Action Potential is a ‘Forged in the Dark’ Sci-Fi system, rewriting the Blades in the Dark core rules to tell a story of outsiders in the far future, where Megacorps control the known universe and having a body is a privilege. The majority of denizens are fitted with a Jump Jack, a device that transfers their consciousness to another form known as a…

Designer: Jeffrey Talanian | Publisher: North Wind Adventures Hyperborea 3e is a frustrating beast. In many ways it’s the best and worst of the kind of thing that the OSR has to offer. It landed in my hands as two lavish hardbacks and a massive map book of the titular land beyond the west wind. The Player’s Manual gives you the core mechanics, essentially unchanged since the seventies and bound to be immediately familiar to the book’s target audience, while also offering enough character options to satisfy even the most spoiled of power gamers. And those 22 subclasses are at the same time familiar and inventive; the poem-wielding Runegraver or the horse riding Cataphract, each with one or two unique little abilities that set them apart from the also included…

GAME FRIGHT We look at what mechanics and modern developments can make us truly afraid whilst sitting around the table A DIFFERENT KIND OF ROSSA Find out more about the innovative augmented experience in Vampire: The Masquerade – Milan Uprising LIGHTS OUT We explore the many ways that roleplaying games have used the concept of darkness to heighten the horror BUY SINGLE ISSUE COPIES FROM www.ttgami.ng/single-issue SO YOU DON’T MISS OUT!…

I think all of us have probably had the same first solo game experience. We’ve all been stuck inside on a rainy day or cooped up on a long lonely journey, where you’ve reached for your trusty standard 52-card deck for that quick game of card stacking called Solitaire. It’s been a favourite of bored office workers for decades and continues to be the most played videogame on PC, with millions of games thought to be started every hour around the world. There’s something relaxing about it, bringing order to chaos and creating patterned lines only to sort them into piles of matching suits, keeping yourself concentrating just enough to be engaged without being too taxing. It was whilst I was commanding my fleet of cardboard space ships in Star…

The first thing I noticed as our video call began is the massive collection of games Martina has amassed in her years in the hobby. Twilight Imperium, every expansion of 7th Continent and Root, it’s a wonderful wave of wargames and heavy euros. “I’m on a short break from playing possible Spiel games,” says Martina. “so we’ve just started our campaign of Frosthaven. I love talking about these games as due to Spiel Des Jahres, I rarely get the chance!” We spoke about how Martina became involved in Spiel Des Jahres. “Before I was in the jury, I spent my time playing the huge dungeon crawlers and massive wargames. I created a podcast called “Fux & Bär” with my friend Björn to talk about these games, which I still do alongside…

Designer: Grégoire Largey, Frank Crittin and Sébastien Pauchon | Publisher: Repos Production This could have been a fun game. If there was some sort of actual player interaction where you were encouraged to discuss, argue or somehow convince the other players why one contestant would beat the other in the “zany” duels this game prides itself on, then it could have been good. As it stands however, it wouldn’t even make it past the qualifiers. Champions! is a voting game in which each player writes down a character and enters them into a tournament consisting of 7 “unusual” duels. These duels tend to be totally wacky things like “likes pineapple on their pizza” or “drools while sleeping.” You then reveal who the two player-made contestants are, which can be anything…

Designer: Reiner Knizia | Publisher: Kosmos I’ve said before that designer Dr Reiner Knizia is constitutionally incapable of making a duff game. This is almost certainly an exaggeration – he is legendarily prolific and nobody has a one hundred percent hit rate – but the somewhat less hyperbolic version of this statement is that he maintains an astonishing consistency across his output. If you pick up one of his games, you can be assured of a certain base rigour in the design and you’re probably in for a fun time. What you won’t know is what the game’s about, because with his prolific output has come a willingness to try all sorts of different mechanisms. There isn’t really a signature Knizia style or feel, except that, at their core, the…

Designer: Rodrigo Rego | Publisher: Devir Games There’s a saying which goes “Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail.” If you are one of the adorable critters who inhabit Savernake Forest with autumn disappearing and winter approaching, then you’d better have this above your bed, or at the very least on a t-shirt. Savernake Forest is a game about playing card tiles, building paths through the forest and gathering food to prepare for the end of the year. There’s a decent number of components and cards contained within. The palette here is of muted browns and reds and greens, all designed to put you in the gathering mood as you create a square of sixteen cards, trying to maximise your foraging and the points you gain for each animal that is…

Designer: German Tikhomirov | Publisher: CrowD Games Typically, expectations lead us to disappointment. City of the Great Machine is a rare case of the opposite: a game which I assumed the bare minimum, but instead I experienced one of the finest titles of 2023 so far. The setup is a dark portent of our own possible future: In an alternate steampunk reality, a clockwork artificial intelligence has seized so much power, it has enslaved the world that created it. One player assumes the role of The Great Machine, acting as the antagonist and attempting to push forward the doomsday clock to signal the end moment, when any possible shred of resistance is snuffed out. The rest of the players work together as a rebel cell, intent on convincing the controlled…

Designer: Terry Pettigrew-Rolapp, Tommy Wallach | Publisher: Arcane Wonders Geneva, June 1816. A group of lovers and friends take shelter in a storm-bashed villa, under a cosy blanket of wine and laudanum. Encircled by towering Swiss peaks and oppressive weather, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron tell ghost stories, with Byron ultimately proposing they each write their own. In this moment, ‘Frankenstein; Or The Modern Prometheus’ was born, with Mary its devoted mother. The Cotswolds, July 2023. A board game reviewer seeks respite from the cacophony of an extended-family holiday. Clutching a volume under his arm, he retires to a dimly lit corner, unfurls its contents and begins to read. Gradually, curious onlookers gather to decode the arcane miscellanea flooding the table. Soon, a story emerges. Mother of…

Designer: Paolo Mori | Publisher: Space Cowboys Some games struggle to find a way to combine beautiful visuals with an elegant straightforward mechanic, but then not all games are Archeos Society, an archaeology-themed set collection card game for 2-6 budding explorers. Across six continents (sorry Antarctica) are various historical sites, where you can send out expeditions to earn prestige. On your turn, you can either draw a card to find another member for a future expedition, or play a set of cards from your hand. All cards must either be the same colour or role with one card designated as your expedition leader. Each continent is split into multiple steps. To progress on each, you need to play an expedition led by someone with a matching colour and a minimum…

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Growing up isn’t really a thing you do in Galgenbeck. At best, you sort of, congeal. Get harder. Dirtier. You do what’s needed to hang on, to eke out a bit more life, trying not to think about the things you have to do to survive. Or the people you step on along the way. Personally speaking? I’m just gutterborn scum and I’ll happily gut you for thruppence. That’s what’s dumped us here. My gang-lost souls glued together by hatred and despair - are hunting for treasure. “Where there’s gold, there’s hope.” That’s what they used to yell at us when they cast us orphans out to beg. So, where do you find treasure? Dungeons, that’s where! The problem is where do you also find goblins, horrors and grisly, forsaken…

Designer: Don’t Panic Games | Publisher: Mana Project Studio Cowboy Bebop is one of the most beloved anime series of all time, known for its stylish visuals, smooth jazz soundtrack and motley crew of bounty hunters aboard the spaceship Bebop. This TTRPG captures the spirit and tone of the original series with a flavourful - if messy - ruleset that prioritises slick storytelling over simulation. Just like the show, Cowboy Bebop: The RPG is all about playing out the adventures of effortlessly cool bounty hunters in a setting created by blending a cyberpunk dystopia, spaghetti western and mob drama, then serving the resulting cocktail in a martini glass. It wants its players to put as much thought into their character’s clothes as their skills and operates on the assumption that…

Designer: Hankerin Ferinale | Publisher: Runehammer If you’re the sort of person to be taken in by a silly name, a bit of green foiling on a cover in a metal font and the promise of a good time, it’s probably already too late and you own this game for its good looks already. But sadly, despite its good looks, it misses the mark when it comes to actual gameplay. The vibes of Viking Death Squad are spot on. If you wanted a game that has the subtle and refined sensibilities of, say, demon-eviscerating-to-heavy-metal-music classic DOOM, then you’re in the right place. Urth, in the year 10,191, is besieged by the War Pig’s (a Black Sabbath reference) armies of borgs from above, while below Lucifer unleashes literal demons. You play…

Over the last fifteen years Mantic Games have had us battling across fantasy settings in Kings of War, dungeon crawling with Dungeon Saga and competing in future sports with Dreadball and Overdrive. They’ve always seemed to be drawn towards the darker and grittier intellectual properties, with the likes of The Walking Dead, Hellboy and soon to be released Invincible Dice Game. It came as something of a surprise when we learned that their latest project involves one of Team 17’s brightest, deadliest and most humorous franchises. I am of course talking about the iconic Worms series of turn-based, sensationally silly strategy games, slowly coming up to 18 years young and no more mature than when they first set off an exploding sheep. With their Kickstarter already underway and looking to…

1 VILLAINOUS An inevitable inclusion to the list, but still a fantastic game to play. Take on the role of your favourite Disney villain (and there’s enough expansions out now that they’re likely to be available somewhere) as you try to complete your diabolical plans before anyone else. Each villain has its own way of using a unique deck of cards to achieve victory, whilst also being able to hamper your opponents by forcing them to face heroes who will scupper their plot. A great game of ‘take that’ and combo creation, where you’ll be accusing everyone of being close to winning as you sneak ahead turn-by-turn. 2 DISNEY ANIMATED So many of these games focus on the varied fairy tales and original stories that Disney became famous through, which…

Last year I interviewed some players of Utagaruta, a Japanese poetry-based card game that plays like a cross between Snap and Sumo. When, after a long and relatively light-hearted chat, I asked what the game meant to them, several broke into tears. It had changed their sense of self, they told me – of who they are and what they can achieve. ‘It’s a life,’ said one. ‘I think… yes, it is a life.’ When you start pondering the purpose of games, very soon (and quite unintentionally) you run into the question’s titanic big brother, simultaneously the most interesting and most boring question in all philosophy: What is the purpose of life? What is a life well-lived? What should we do with it? After all, we can only really judge…

Sometimes, it can be easier to get one friend to sit down for a board game than two or three. Maybe you’re looking for a quiet night in with a loved one, or someone who knows about your interest in gaming has asked if you can show them something simple. Whilst it’s tempting to reach for the checkerboard a play a classic game of Draughts or Chess, both games can come with baggage: past experiences of overly competitive relatives, maybe there’s even an anxiety from not knowing all the rules but still being coerced into playing a game that they’d just lose at. Patchwork presents an opportunity to meet on equal ground. Like any good board game, it’s still possible to learn its many quirks and strategies, but the starting…

Designer: Cait Russell and Matt Tweed | Publisher: Sea Griffin Games Some games can evoke the simple pleasures in life. There’s a reason why toys of yesteryear like the diabolo have faded from the playrooms of today, but we will forever have our trusty building blocks to foster the next generation of construction workers or demolitionists. Dice Splice may not be the most thought-provoking game out there, but by goodness does it satisfy that part of our brains that likes to see something slowly build up before it comes crashing down. Dice Splice is a quick dexterity game for up to six players. You are pirates trying to stack up your stolen booty aboard ship, but are struggling to avoid causing a ‘Treasurelanche.’ Across the many different game modes, the…

Designer: Prospero Hall | Publisher: Funko Games This is the sort of game designed for cafés and conventions, one which any passers-by can’t help but stop and stare at the giant centrepiece sand timer. Once you tear your eyes away from the striking core prop, you’ll find a co-operative card game where players are trying to sequence a series of strikes against the various villains Indie and the gang faced in his first film, Raiders of the lost Ark. The game is split into three rounds, each divided into two phases. In the encounter phase, players will move from location to location, gathering cards and abilities or playing out said cards for benefits and beatings. Every round has a different villain to overcome, which is done by dishing out enough…

Designer: Funko Games | Publisher: Funko Games The ever-popular party game Cranium has expanded in its 25th anniversary edition, with more games, prompts and genuinely hilarious activities to take on. The overall look of the game has changed, with a plastic circular base (or the Cranium Capsule) to move around rather than a classic board. The capsule also contains all the cards and pieces required, including a mini white-board and drywipe marker for each team, so physically it’s a pretty sleek and modern upgrade. Similar to the original, you roll the die to determine which category of challenge your team will undertake, drawing a card to reveal the activity. You could become a team of Creative Cats, Word Worms, Star Performers, or Data Heads – but this edition has added…

Designer: Pablo Céspedes & Víctor Hugo Cisternas | Publisher: Devir/Iello Look, I understand why phone games exist. I rarely play them myself-probably out of some kind of self-righteous snobbishness and a hatred of the very idea of microtransactions - but I understand why they exist. They are solo-friendly, with instant setup and short, bite-sized play lengths. All things that board games often aren’t. Even when I’m in the mood for solo games, they are often a bit too fiddly for me; too many cardboard tokens and mechanical bits ‘n bobs to emulate the absent opposing players. Sometime I wish that there was an option closer to the mobile game phenomenon… and with Mazescape I think I’ve found it. Mazescape: Labýrinthos is a small box solo game from Iello and Devir…

Designer: Dane Beltrami | Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R.* is a co-operative in which friends and family join forces to take down a selection of bothersome nemeses. There are 10 heroes to choose from, each with two incarnations. This means, for example, if Black Panther T’Challa dies, Blank Panther Shuri slips into a vibranium-laced costume. Players also pick an aspect board from a list of six – such as Justice, Protection, Leadership – which offer specialised actions. The four nemeses (Red Skull, Loki, Thanos and Ultron) come with their own unique set of powers too. Mash these variables up and you have got yourself some high replayability. The gameplay is pretty familiar co-op stuff: 1. Achieve the overall objective (beat the nemesis). 2. Complete side missions (kill minion bad…

TIME AND RAPPERS DELIGHTING IN SUCCESS Magic the Gathering continues to showcase some of the most beloved Sci-fi and fantasy licenses this year with the reveal of Universes Beyond: Doctor Who. Due for release on October 13th, the set will feature Doctors, Companions and Foes from the entire run of Doctor Who, a series that dates back to November 1963. Wizards of the Coast have also revealed the themes behind the four Commander decks, featuring all 13 Doctors and some of their greatest villains, as well as Collector Boosters with Showcase frames, foils and all kinds of fun designs. In other Magic news, the 1/1 “The One Ring” card that was the real showpiece and talking point from the recent Lord of the Rings expansion was sold to American rapper…

Designer: Ryan Miller and Steve Warner | Publisher: Ravensburger This was always going to be noteworthy. The biggest media property on the planet making their first collectable card game, a system designed to tap into that primal gathering desire, was going to print money. But whilst hype will help you make headlines, without a solid game to back it up, it won’t sell a system. Fortunately for Lorcana, this first release manages to do both. The story goes that you are an Illumineer in the realm of Lorcana, who can channel your powerful imagination into the creation of Glimmers, versions of beloved Disney characters who add a treasure known as Lore to the realm. Together you race to gather lore, as threats loom on the horizon that might put this…

“You enter the cave, weaving through stalagmites as a heavy rotting smell wafts from deeper within. As you tread further into the darkness, a mass of mattered fur rises groggily to its feet. You look at the half-cleaved face of the zombie bear, as it roars gutturally. Roll for initiative!” If that last paragraph got you pumped for an evening of adventure, you’ve likely gained some experience with roleplaying games, which means you’ve also likely played some version of the first ever roleplaying game: Dungeons and Dragons. Designed in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Ameson, the game captured the imagination of millions by blurring the lines between wargames and improv to create a tabletop gaming experience like no other. The system has existed in some form or another for…

Designer: Charlie Menzies & Barney Menzies | Publisher: Parable Games Shiver is an RPG built specifically to let you act out your favourite horror movies and create some new ones. Shiver Gothic doubles down into the evocative genre of Gothic. If anything, it feels like a broader sweep, as it incorporates the rich world of Gothic literature too, an intentional homage to classics such as The Fall of the House of Usher and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Shiver Gothic: Secrets of Spireholm opens with an intriguing map of Spireholm, in bold blocky colours. The content comes in two parts: The Player’s Guide, with Gothic specific characters creation and playing tips, then Part Two: Secrets of Spireholm, a full setting and society, a campaign and an additional fully-featured one shot, all written…

Designer: Grant Howitt and Rollinkunz | Publisher: Rowan Rook & Decard ORC BORG is an RPG that never takes itself seriously; not even for a single moment. It’s a cheerful “Oi!” to the universe that revels in a whirling celebration of silliness. Coming from the same warped minds that brought us Goblin Quest and Spire, ORC BORG is based heavily on the mechanics of doom-metal MÖRK BORG; but also brings a unique narrative and aesthetic to the table. The choice of a limited colour palate here is masterful and hurts-your-eyes vibrant at the same time, a glaring mix of bright yellow, glowing pink and matte black. Coupled with Rollinkunz bold cartoon imagery, there’s absolutely nothing I own that comes close to making the same splash on a table. Taking it…

Designer: Evey Lockhart | Publisher: Melsonian Arts Council A classic of the ‘sad roleplaying’ genre, Wet Grandpa offers you a chance to explore a truly dark and personal southern gothic adventure location. It’s system agnostic, but expects you to be able to work out a constitution test or a roll against paralysis. Mostly you’ll work it out as you go, as really this isn’t about tests of strength, but your skills at navigating a bizarre situation. Written in a style that’s more like a novel than a regular adventure book, Wet Grandpa leads players through the world of a small and starving town, a group of river spirits and a drowned man who continues his work to look after his children. Functionally, the adventure involves a lot of nearly dying…

Many of us dream of having a collection half as large as the gloriously displayed array of titles that Ben has managed to collate in his years of tabletop gaming. Here he gives us the rundown on a hobby that became a lifestyle. How many games are in your collection? This is a difficult question to ask. Primarily because I haven’t counted them, but also because it’s very much a changeable number. Sometimes I look at my shelves and am struck by the beauty and variety of the games on them; sometimes I despair at the amount of stuff I have. I’ve moved house four times in the last three years and every time I drag my collection from van to flat, I curse my choices, but when they’re on…