Tabletop Gaming

NOW PLAYING… Apawthecaria Welcome to our very hobbity issue of Tabletop Gaming. We’ve got a huge celebration of Middle-earth, Tolkien and everything it’s given us on the tabletop. There’s been few writers that have contributed so much to a single genre as Tolkien has to fantasy, and there’s few genres better represented across decades of cardboard and dice than fantasy gaming. It’s even possible we wouldn’t have Dungeons & Dragons (in quite the same way) without it. We check in on War of the Ring on its 10th birthday, send a love letter to the newly re-released Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, and round up a timeline of (nearly) every Tolkien-adjacent game ever. And we’ve even got a Shire themed Rainy Day Games – for all of your…

FIND NEW FAVOURITES AND INDIE GEMS AT TABLETOP GAMING LIVE 2022 With less than 100 days until Tabletop Gaming Live 2022 kicks off at Manchester’s historic Victoria Warehouse it’s time to talk about the indie gems you might pick up at the show. With tons of smaller publishers and retailers set to attend, offering you the chance to pick up games you might never have known existed. Rook’s Press, Sealed Library and Loot The Room will be offering a range of indie RPGs, hot off the presses and full of adventure. Blackwell Games will be showing off the beautiful Apawthecaria, while Leyline Press will be in attendance with their rules light, mech heavy game, Salvage Union. Board game fans will be pleased to hear the Surprised Stare Games will be…

There’s a good reason why origin stories continue to be so popular. We’re all fascinated by what makes people who they are, and what specific circumstances led them to their current vocation, whether they’re Average Joes/Janes imbued with improbable super-abilities in the latest Marvel blockbuster, Dungeons & Dragons characters arriving fresh at the table, or just someone you’ve met who has a really cool job… Like being a tabletop game designer. That’s why I started this magazine’s First Turn feature all the way back in Issue 8. I wanted to dig into the creative process that transforms somebody from, say, a banker (Reiner Knizia), chemistry teacher (Jacob Fryxelius) or hotel receptionist (Inka Brand) into a professional game creator. And along the way, of course, discover what kinds of games –…

1 QUORIDOR To be honest, this list could very nearly just be a catalogue of Gigamic games (see issue 66) every home should house one of their iconic abstract strategy puzzles. Quorridor is arguably one of their best, a race from one side of the board to the other, with only thin wooden barriers to block your opponent. Sounds simple, right? The catch, of course, is that the wooden walls blocking their way also block yours. What ensues is an infuriating battle of frustrated movement, and the inevitable realisation that your nine year old is simply cleverer than you. Again. 2 PATHAGON Less well-known than many on this list, Pathagon is a two player game centred around building paths across a board whilst simultaneously trapping your opponent. Solid wood construction…

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: SPELLJAMMER: ADVENTURES IN SPACE Have you ever wanted your D&D campaign to be a little more sci-fi? Well, the three-book boxed set that is Adventures in Space promises to deliver just that by introducing you to oceans of Wildspace – the silvery void between worlds where all the weirdest stuff in the multiverse seems to congregate. Wizards of the Coast | £52 THE ONE RING: STRIDER MODE Fellowship? Hah! Everyone knows that real rangers travel alone… Well, at least they can with this nifty little supplement for playing The One Ring as a solo adventurer. The book comes with modified rules that help you manage your lone-wolf adventure, as well as random tables to keep your journeys flowing. Free League | £4 RUINS OF SYMBAROUM Symbaroum has…

This 1983 winner of the Spiel des Jahres takes you on a rollercoaster when it comes to your expectations. The name promises a detective game, the contents of the box includes a cardboard ‘visor’ (previous editions provided an actual baseball cap with Mr. X embroidered on it) which hints at prop-based nonsense, and the age on the box and the general presentation suggests it will be extremely family friendly. And it’s not really any of these things. Let’s unravel the mystery of what’s actually in this box. WHAT IS IT? The city of London lies before you, all of its roads connecting to nodes and points. And it is along these routes that the detectives and policemen of Scotland Yard are attempting to track Mister X – ideally to corner…