CO E X

IN NT TRA
tabletopgaming.co.uk March 2022

SI EN
DE T

B O A R D G A M E S | C A R D G A M E S | M I N I AT U R E S | R P G s

DARK SOULS RPG

Prepare to die, again
PLUS Your Fifth Edition questions HOW TO PLAY A
answered
HARRY POTTER RPG
...without an official
game, our guide

POCKET
DUNGEONS
Discover solo GOLEM
dungeon delves Finding the
magic behind the
Essen hit

THE ONE RING

REVIEW WHY WE THINK THIS LORD OF THE
RINGS RPG IS A MUST-PLAY
PLUS 26 REVIEWS
INCLUDING... DOLLARS TO DONUTS | CORAQUEST
THE ONE RING | MICKY’S FOOD FIGHT | RUINATION
Display until 25/03/22

03
£5.99

CAPER: EUROPE | ROOT RPG | LIVING FOREST

CUPHEAD: FAST ROLLING DICE GAME | NEOVILLE 9 772059 050015 >
 Welcome
EDITORIAL
EDITOR
Christopher John Eggett
01778 392 400
christopher.eggett@warnersgroup.co.uk

ONLINE EDITOR

W
Charlie Pettit elcome home ashen one. Or at least, to
01778 395 018 this very Dark Souls edition of Tabletop
charlie.pettit@warnersgroup.co.uk
Gaming magazine. We’ve got the
CONTRIBUTORS story on Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game from
Anna Blackwell, Simon Castle, Ellie
Dix, Richard Jansen-Parkes, Dan
Steamforged. We not only delve into what this
Jolin, Andy Leighton, Ben Maddox, dark and dying world will offer us around the table,
David Parlett, Alex Sonechkina, but also get your questions about the use of Fifth
Charlie Theel, Matthew Vernall, Edition as the core system answered.
Chad Wilkinson
If you’d prefer to read about an ash-made-wand, then
HEAD OF DESIGN & PRODUCTION we suggest dropping by our ‘How to play a Harry Potter
Lynn Wright
RPG without an official Harry Potter RPG’ feature. (I am
DESIGN reliably informed that Ron Weasley’s first wand was an
Mike Carr
NOW ash wand, which is initially why he’s rubbish at magic,
COVER IMAGE PLAYING... but later, once replaced, he’s mainly rubbish at magic
The One Ring, from Free League Hellapagos because he’s a bit of an idiot).
ADVERTISING We’ve also got our guide to some of the best board
TO ADVERTISE PLEASE CALL game podcasts, a glance at heraldry making with Blazon,
SALES MANAGER
Murdo MacLeod 01778 391 129
and a look at a new spooky-but-fun games studio that’s
murdo.macleod@warnersgroup.co.uk entering the hobby with Trick or Treat Studios.
And for those looking for something on the heavier
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Nicola Glossop 01778 392 420 side, we check in with the designs of Golem, which
nicola.glossop@warnersgroup.co.uk was the star of last year’s Essen. We talk about
the folklore that inspired the game and the weighty
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Charlotte Bamford 01778 395081
Get in touch choices they ask you to make. Plus, we’ve got a big
charlotte.bamford@warnersgroup.co.uk tabletopgaming.co.uk bundle of reviews including The One Ring, Ruination,
MARKETING
and CoraQuest.
tabletopmag
MARKETING MANAGER
Katherine Brown 01778 395 092 tabletopgamingmagazine
katherine.brown@warnersgroup.co.uk
tabletop_gaming_magazine
MARKETING EXECUTIVE
Luke Hider 01778 395085
luke.hider@warnersgroup.co.uk
tabletopgamingmag
Christopher John Eggett Editor
PUBLISHED BY
PUBLISHER Claire Ingram
claire.ingram@warnersgroup.co.uk
Q U I C K S TA R T
Warners Group Publications PLC Golem is the Death Most people
The Maltings, West Street, Bourne,
Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH most complex teaches don’t realize
01778 391 000
warnersgroup.co.uk and richest game you about your heraldry has its
NEWSTRADE DISTRIBUTION
Warners Group Publications PLC
we have ever character own vocabulary,
01778 391 150 created grammar, and
PRINTING syntax
This publication is
printed by Warners
01778 395111

The views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those Virginio Gigli on Golem, Richard August on Dark Souls: Dave Conklin on Blazon,
of the publishers. Every care is taken to ensure that the content
of this magazine is accurate, but we assume no responsibility for
p38 The Roleplaying Game, p26 p42
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 tabletopgaming.co.uk 3
to regulate the content of advertisements. Tel: 020 7429 2222
© Warners Group Publications Plc, 2021
 In this issue
06 AT A GLANCE 24 AROUND THE WORLD IN 46 THE BEST BOARD GAMES
80 PLAYS PODCASTS
09 FIRST TURN This month, Morocco A rundown of our favourite shows
With Gil Hova
26 DARK SOULS: THE 50 ENCAPSULATE: 2003
ROLEPLAYING GAME
10 TEN OF THE BEST We decide whether we want to link the 52 STUDIO PROFILE: TRICK
We will survive with these ten survival first flame… OR TREAT
games We hunt down this new studio’s best work
32 STEEL COLOSSEUM
13 ROLE CALL Zatu’s first published game smashes on 57 PLAYED
to our tabletops Looking for what to play next? Read on…
Our RPG release round-up

34 CARDBOARD MANIFESTO 85 PAINTING GUIDE

14 HAVE YOU PLAYED? Why your favourite show wouldn’t make a
This month, we take on the goblins of
Silly space haulage sim, Galaxy Trucker Moonstone
good RPG

16 THE SOLOIST 36 THE INDEPENDENT SHELF 92 RAINY DAY GAMES

Join us for what might be the world’s first
We pocket a dungeon for the road The amusingly titled GoCaine Tornado Crawl

19 MY FAVOURITE GAME 38 GOLEM 94 DUNGEON MASTER’S

With Jack Caesar We get down to earth with the Essen hit GUIDE TO ROLEPLAYING
This month, failing forward
42 BLAZON
20 HARRY POTTER We get to grips with this heraldry puzzler 96 SHOP SPOTLIGHT
ROLEPLAYING
Or, how to play a Harry Potter RPG 44 LUDOLOGICAL 98 TABLETOP TIME
without an official game… LAMENTATIONS MACHINE

SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE UP TO 10%. PLUS RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE BENEFITS See page 25 for more details

4 March 2022
14 20

THE GAMES
Caper: Europe 76
CoraQuest 67
42 Creature Feature 52
Dark Souls 26
Dead of Winter 10
Doctor Who RPG 34
Dollars to Donuts 66
Galaxy Truckers 14
GoCaine 36
Golem 38
Hellapagos 10
Kids on Brooms 20
Legends Untold 16
Living forest 61
Magic: The Gathering 50
Maximum Apocalypse 10
Miniquest Adventures 16
Moonstone 86
Nemesis 10
Posthuman Saga 10
Prolix 9
85 Robinson Crusoe 10
Rocky Mountain Man 10
Root RPG 78
Ruination 74
Spirit Island 44
Steel Colosseum 32
Strixhaven 20
The Came From
Camp Murder Lake 13
The One Ring 58
The Path of the
Adventurers 16
This War of Mine 10
Troll Fest 52
World League Z 52
52 85 Zombicide 10

tabletopgaming.co.uk 5
 AT A GLANCE

RAVENSBURGER
INVEST IN
AWAKEN REALMS’
GAMEFOUND
Ravensburger, the publisher of Villainous,
Horrified, and Jaws family tabletop games,
have joined Awaken Realms, the creator of
huge minis laden games like Tainted Grail
and Nemesis, as an investor in the latter’s
crowdfunding platform.
“This investment will enable the Gamefound
team to quickly grow and develop new functions
bringing the platform to the next level. We are
extremely excited to start working with our
community on the future of crowdfunding.”
reads a statement from Marcin Świerkot of
Awaken Realms.
Gamefound is a dedicated tabletop gaming
crowdfunding platform, with specialist tools for
those in the hobby.

THE THING THE BOARD GAME

Ares Games has announced that the board game adaptation of John Carpenter’s film will
be available at retail from April 2022. The game was originally created and produced by
Pendragon Games Studios. Based on the 1982 movie, the 1-8 player game is, as you’d
expect, one of hidden roles. One player infected as ‘the thing’ will attempt to infect others and
prevent survivors from escaping – so for those who are still human it’s a case of not knowing
who to trust. If the humans can work together and detect the thing, there’s a chance of
survival. At retail launch the Norwegian Outpost expansion will be available, as well as various
sets of miniatures.

KNOW YOUR NUMBERS

3 20
10

2022
Books in the new D&D
Gift set, including the
new Monsters of the
Years since Libertalia,
with Stonemaier
confirming a new version
This summer
will see the
launch of Pokemon GO related
years since the Lord
of the Rings Film and
the games that
Multiverse for this year Pokémon Trading Cards followed
255

cards in
the hard
to find Ark
150+ RPGs
launched for Zine Month
2000+
games available now on
$9 MILLION
million raised for Marvel
5E
Souls: The
confirmed
for Dark 3 camps to
destroy in
newly released
Nova from indie creators Tabletopia Zombies on Kickstarter Roleplaying Game Radlands

BUY THE BEST

GAMES OF 2021
Revisit the best board games, card games and roleplaying
games of 2021 in this huge, bumper issue of Tabletop
6 January 2018
Gaming Magazine. In 196 pages we bring you the best the
year had to offer.
 For the latest news from the world of gaming visit
tabletopgaming.co.uk/news
We asked...
It’s not unheard of for
someone to bring a surprise
game to game night, nor
for it never to reach the
table again. But we asked
this month what the most
ZINE MONTH ENDS obscure game you’ve ever
played was, and importantly
As you read this, Zine Month will be drawing to
a close, and with it a successful month for indie – how was it?
RPG creators. Replacing the usual annual Zine
Quest, hosted by Kickstarter as a way to bring attention to smaller creative works, but this year delayed until
August, Zine Month participants split their work across a number of platforms, including Kickstarter, Itch.io, and
You said...
The Bird Told Me To Do It by Carl
Indigogo to name but a few. New this year included a number based on the Mothership RPG system, and the
Chudyk.
usual varied and quirky topics, from the opportunity to play as death metal viking cats earning their place in the
drinking halls of Valhalla (in 9 Lives to Valhalla from Gem Room Games), to a psychedelic-xerox adventure that Mottainai = Amazing.
traps you 50 meters underwater in the dark (in Thousand Empty Light by Valley of Alfred). At the time of writing Glory to Rome = Phenomenal.
the alternative event has reportedly raised over $400,000 in funding, with 88 of 128 launched projects making Innovation = Criminally underrated.
their funding target, not bad for a first time event. The bird game… Not so much. 3/10
is being nice.
Scott Christley

TABLETOP GAMING SECTOR Foreign Exchange… no it was

dreadful.
SEES BIG PROFITS No fun, very dull in fact.
Both Wizards of the Coast and The Pokémon Company have reported Unless you are a financier or a
impressive increases in profits within the last year. Wizards of the Coast student of International money
reportedly took $952 million in tabletop game sales in 2021, which markets…it had zero merit.
when combined with digital gaming revenues saw takings reach over Kevin Marriott
$1 billion for the first time. In addition, The Pokémon Company reported
increases in sales across Europe, with its highest annual position in the UK I own Europa: 1944-2030, the
representing a 78% growth. Given the celebration of its 25th Anniversary game in which you compete to
and subsequent sets, it now looks to Brilliant Stars, released on 25th convince countries to join the EU.
February, to continue the trend. It’s surprisingly good for a game with
such earnest convictions. Plus, I’ve
played a few playtests.
@DrIanMcDonald
TOYFAIR 2022
Whilst cancelled in other locations, Toyfair UK took place in London, offering a glimpse at some Vampire Radar. It’s the only good
of the upcoming gaming opportunities. Who will you play as in the newest Villainous expansion, hidden movement game.
Lotso, Syndrome, or Madam Mim from Ravensburger? Will you be able to land the perfect Ben Maddox
shot in Chicken vs Hotdog, a bottle-flip-game-made-real from Big Potato Games? (Spoiler alert,
the TTG team were woefully unable to do this). Or perhaps you’ve already backed Hand to Hand Consentacle. It is so good
Wombat from Exploding Kittens. Whether these are on your Must-Play list or not, there’s looking, and I love how it explores
certainly a lot to look forward to. communication and cooperation.
Cory Loshney

THE TABLETOP GAMING PODCAST Get in touch

G E T A N E A R F U L O F T O P TA B L E T O P TA L K ! tabletopmag
DOWNLOAD NOW FROM TTGAMI.NG/TTGPODCAST
tabletopgamingmagazine
tabletop_gaming_magazine

tabletopgamingmag

Get it delivered directly

to your door for FREE
when buying from us
tabletopgaming.co.uk 7
To find out more go to: www.ttgami.ng/bgo22
 pe
ghost
Severus Sna

.
Severus Snape’s loyalty
rts. Harry often questions
and Potions Master at Hogwa
Head of Slytherin house

Rubeus Hagrid

SIM_HP_CA
Half-giant, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. He has a fondness for magical creatures.

RD_FRO
Albus Dumbled

NT_ENG.ind
ore

d
The aged and
wise Headma
ster of Hogwar
ts. Known to be
the only wiza
rd of whom Lord
Voldemort is
frightened.
Minerva McGonagall

FIND OUT THE SECRET CHARACTER!

Very strict and clever.
teaches Transfiguration.
, Minerva McGonagall
Head of Gryffindor house

© & ™ WBEI. Publishing Rights © JKR. (s22)

 FIRST TURN
GILL HOVA
The creator of High Rise and
difficult 2010 debut, Prolix
Interview by Dan Jolin
BACKGROUND
“I was a sound editor in film – my big claim to fame
was the first two Pokémon movies – but I’d always
wanted to design video games. So I started trying
to learn how to program. At some point I realised I
should learn how to make a game and thought, ‘Why
don’t I learn to make a board game first?’ As a kid I’d
played some pretty interesting games – Can’t Stop, Car
Wars, BattleTech, OGRE – and I started back up with
Munchkin (I didn’t really like it) and Settlers, but Puerto
Rico was the first one that made me go: ‘Oh, wait a
second. There’s something here.’ Eventually I realised I
like board games more than I like video games.”
COMPONENTS
“Prolix was probably the fifth or sixth game I tried
designing. I was at a local convention in 2008 and lots
of people were playing a word game (I won’t disclose
the name), and it was one of the worst games I’ve ever
played. It was like a card-game version of Scrabble,
very unfocused. I thought, ‘If this is where the bar is for
word games, can I make a better one?’”
OBJECTIVE
“I was too raw a designer to consider the kinds of
people who would play it. My view on games were that
they were a collection of mechanisms bound together
by a theme. But games are so much more than what
their mechanisms are. One of the shortcomings of
Prolix was that I was looking at it from an entirely
mechanical point of view. I was just like, ‘Do I enjoy
this? Do my playtesters enjoy it? Cool. It must be a
good game.’ I didn’t ever think, ‘We’ve got to step way
back, because I don’t think the person who would buy
this kind of game would enjoy this.’”
SETUP
“There were a few challenges I had to overcome. I did
one playtest with a player who was known for analysis
paralysis, and the game took about two hours! It was
brutal. I tried a timer. Nobody liked a timer. It was just
miserable. So I came up with this bizarre system called
March 2022
the interrupt system, where
you could sort of steal another
player’s turn. Mechanically,
it worked. But experientially,
it was really bad. It’s the kind
of mechanism that would have
worked great in a strategy game, but
not a word game.”
HOW TO PLAY
“Prolix is a word game for people It’s
who like longer words. You get eight
consonants on the board and you’re trying to always
create the best word out of those eight letters. You
can add any letters you want. The challenge is, it might a little
be your turn, but another player can interrupt it if they
see a word that they really like. But they’ve got to make
weird for
sure it’s worth it.”
me talking
END OF THE GAME
“The reviews were actually pretty solid, and it was
about Prolix.
published by Z-Man, but it did not sell that well.
It’s just not a great game. I feel like Prolix was too
It’s dead
complicated for its own good. So after the rights were
reverted to me, I made another game that I feel fixes
to me, and
its flaws, and that game is Wordsy, which came out
in 2017. Honestly, Wordsy is the better version of
it’s been
Prolix. It’s faster, it’s far easier to explain, everyone autopsied
understands what they’re doing. It makes a lot more
sense. So it’s always a little weird for me talking about
Prolix. It’s dead to me, and it’s been autopsied.”
STRATEGY TIPS
“Start with what your game is about. And your game
is not necessarily about its mechanism. It’s about
something else. Look for the feeling, the moment. I
want players to feel really smart. I want players feel
pressure. I want players to tell a really amazing story.
I want players to laugh. So look for that core. How
do you want players to interact with the game? Once
you find that, everything in the game needs to work
towards that.” *
tabletopgaming.co.uk 9
1 THIS WAR OF MINE
The reason survival games
are so endearing to us is
because they pose us tough
questions about the extent
of our humanity. It’s very easy to be
kind in a world of plenty, but when a
choice to help or hinder someone in
2 HELLAPAGOS
Come for the weird
wooden ball counters with
little fish on them, stay for
the sense of backstabbing
joy of being stranded on a desert island. The
tagline of this game explains everything you
need to know “a cooperative game… until
a war torn city might result in bad the food is gone!” Players spend their turns
news for you – how far does your will deciding whether to explore the sunken
to help your fellow man extend? This ship for bonus items, go fishing for food,
tabletop outing for the hit videogame collect water, or help build the raft that will
introduces us to a bit of classic allow them to escape the island. If there’s
base-building and defending, while also giving us interesting characters to not enough food or water for everyone, it all
interact with. A good one to take to the bunker with you. goes a bit lord of the flies.

OF THE BEST

10 SURVIVAL
BOARD GAMES
For solo and cooperative games, there’s nothing more motivating that survival.
It’s a simple desire that helps you makes choices on the board and around the
table. It encourages thematic and dramatic choices, and when your group is
defeated, it’ll only make you stronger next time. With all that going for it, here’s our
favourite survival games…
Words by Christopher John Eggett

MAXIMUM APOCALYPSE
3 The tile-exploring end-of-the-world game that is, as the designer Mike Gnade says,
“the most apocalypse you can have at once.” Not only is it the end of the world then,
it’s all of them. Players explore face down tiles, one at a time, balancing the threat
of pushing too far ahead with the danger of staying still. The core of the game is not
having your deck discarded away (as if that happens, you’re done) by the aliens and monsters you’ll
run into on your adventures. Excellent solo and cooperative, it’s got that classic ‘we’ll only make it if we
work together’ feel to it.

ZOMBICIDE
4 While not every survival game needs zombies, nearly every zombie game is about survival.
In this CMON classic (in any of its flavours, including the upcoming Marvel and recently
released Night of the Living Dead) you’ll be playing as a group survivors (so far anyway) with
a handful of powers and a chance of making it out of the scenario alive if you work together.
The general rule is there will always be more zombies than there are bullets, and you’ll
need to move around the modular-tiled city in the most efficient way to end up out-thinking
the brainless corpses shuffling after you. A classic brains-splattering experience.

10 March 2022
5 ROBINSON
CRUSOE:
ADVENTURES ON
A CURSED ISLAND
More shipwrecked adventure, this time in the Ignacy Trzewiczek
classic, Robinson Crusoe
Crusoe. You’ll need to build shelter, find food, and keep
wild beasts from mucking up your
shipwreck-chic feng-shui. A crunchy
Eurogame heart sits at the centre of
this adventure played out over several
weeks, which will encourage you to take
risks to find the pirate treasure – or
what can be found in a cursed temple.
For those looking for a big, satisfying
game of balancing your character’s
needs against your desire to explore,
there’s worse places to wash up.
6 DEAD OF WINTER
So not only are
there zombies
in a post-
apocalyptic world
in this survival game, but also, it’s
really cold. Dead of Winter has
the powerful ‘lets sort of work
together’ mechanic seen in many
of these games. While players
have one single goal between
them, they also hold a personal
goal they need to achieve to win
the game. The overwhelming
number of zombies building up
throughout the game creates a
real motivation to work together despite the potential for betrayal. The
game’s aesthetic of snow-storm static goes a long way to set the tone
of tough choices where you’ll have to consider what’s good for you and
what’s good for the colony.

7 NEMESIS
Survival is the only way to have a chance of winning the
game in this much loved ‘alien but not alien’ game. Keep
yourself alive until the end, and, assuming you don’t have
something living
inside you, and someone hasn’t
put the ship on a different course,
and nothing explodes, then you’re
8 POSTHUMAN
SAGA
It’s still the post-
apocalypse, as it
tends to be in these games, and this
time we’ve got genetic mutations
instead. In Posthuman Saga you’ve
a winner. As with many in this list, already found a kind of safety in the
this offers semi-cooperative play, generically named Fortress of the
with a touch of backstabbing here game world, and now spend your
and there. The risk reward comes days adventuring out to explore
not in exerting yourself too much and hopefully expand into forgotten
and starving, but instead, pushing outposts. The game expands on the classic sandbox style of the first
too far and getting your head Posthuman game, and instead offers hundreds of small stories to play
bitten off. Still, it ends in much a through as you explore and help to tame the wasteland. There’s always a
similar way. chance of failure however, so make your moves cautiously.

9 THE 7TH
CONTINENT
Look, we have to face facts. Most people
cheat when they play this game and give
their characters a certain number of lives to explore the
furthest reaches of the island. However, if you play it with
the survival spirit in mind, you’ll only have one shot – just
10 ROCKY MOUNTAIN
MAN
A magazine game from
Emperors of Eternal
Evil (Sea Evil) sees players exploring the rocky
mountains and attempting to survive the wilds
and, most importantly, the weather. And as
like in real life – to find everything you you’re using only the gear available to your
want to during the game. expedition in the 1800s, you’ve got a lower
While there’s plenty chance of survival than you’d think. The game
of ways to not survive offers a sandbox feel with a core of exploration
in The 7th Continent and interaction with whatever the hills will offer
the joys of perfectly you. A raw, solo experience, not for the faint
navigating your way of heart.
through the strange Read more about Rocky Mountain Man in
and unreasonable world the last issue of Tabletop Gaming.
cannot be underrated.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 11
 H A A KO N H O E L G A A R D E R

GNER OF VILLAGERS
AN URBAN TILE-LAYING GAME FOR 1-5 PLAYERS, FROM THE DESIG

AVAILABLE FROM HOBBY GAME RETAILERS, AND WWW.SINISTERFISH.COM

PRODUCT CODE: SIF00050
Role Call
It’s a supplemental kind of month here at ROLE CALL, but just because we’re light
on new rules doesn’t mean we’re light on awesome books Words by Richard Jansen-Parkes

THEY CAME DOCTOR WHO:

FROM CAMP THE ROLEPLAYING
MURDER LAKE! WARHAMMER DISHONORED TRAVELERS & GAME SECOND
An early contender for FANTASY RPG: THE GAMEMASTER OUTSIDERS EDITION —
best-named supplement IMPERIAL ZOO TOOLKIT The first supplement for STARTER SET
of 2022, They Came Half bestiary, half narrative A brand new supplement the delightfully stabby Starter boxes are some of
from Camp Murder tale about exploring for the tabletop take Root RPG, Travelers & the best ways to get into
Lake! looks to add classic the wilds and wastes of on Dishonored, this Outsiders promises to an RPG, and this latest
slasher options to Onyx Warhammer Fantasy’s gamesmaster’s toolkit bring a whole pile of release from Cubicle 7
Path’s They Came from Empire, The Imperial Zoo is a promises to make running options to the newly promises to ease players
Beyond the Grave! system. unique sort of book. As well the game as smooth as released main game. This into the world of Doctor
This means murderous as a solid read, it’s packed possible. It comes with includes a half-dozen new Who. It comes with pre-
clowns, knife-wielding with dragons and ogres an advice booklet, a mat vagabond playbooks, four generated characters
hitchhikers and new rules other high-powered beasties covered with key rules new factions and optional and a super-basic rules
for introducing a dramatic designed to reduce your reminders and areas to rules on integrating the reference, as well as a pile
slasher-inspired twist to average party of ruffians to track chaos points, as well original boardgame into of tokens, dice and other
your game. a quivering mess. as a pile of tokens. the RPG. bits and bobs.
Onyx Path | £14.75 Cubicle 7 | £29.99 Modiphius | £24.99 Magpie Games | £32.00 Cubicle 7 | £22.99

March 2022 tabletopgaming.co.uk 13

 H AV E Y O U P L AY E D ?

GALAXY
TRUCKER
With the second edition of Galaxy Trucker recently busting through our
atmosphere, there’s no better time to return to this junk-rummaging
asteroid-dodging classic
Words by Christopher John Eggett

he future, as seen on TV and film, WHAT IS IT? they want ‘as many X as possible’ – as instructed

T is always a little bit too clean

looking. We all know that the
future, especially in space, will
be a grubby affair at best. Which
is why this accurate simulation is appearing
in these pages. Space Truckers sees you,
the lowest bidders, attempting to cobble
together a spaceship out of pipes that will not
only get you to your destination, but also do
the excellent job of delivering said pipes to
wherever you’re going. Assuming you get there
of course.
Galaxy Truckers is a very silly game. To that end,
it probably has one of the best, most humorously
written rulebooks we’ve ever read. Apart from
being a pleasure to read, it makes teaching the
game very easy. If you have players around your
gaming table that like to ask questions before
you’ve finished explaining anything, using the
tone of the book really helps. To the question
‘what’s this?’ you might explain, as the rulebook
does, that it’s a cannon, and that you want ‘as
many cannons as possible’. When they ask about
a different piece of ship, you will also reply that,
by the rulebook.
Which is to say, there’s not enough room to
build everything you want in a spaceship. And
there’s a time limit. So don’t take it too seriously.
Players start by pouring all of the tiles on to the
table, and flipping them all face down. Then you
grab a little spaceship board depending on how
long the mission is, set up some event decks, and
most importantly, place up the sand timers.
Then you flip the timer, shout “GO!” and
everyone gets to the important act of flipping
over a tile, looking at it, deciding it’s not what

14 March 2022
they want, and putting it back face down. All at
the same time and as quickly as possible. When
the time runs out, any player can flip it on to the
next space, running the time out again. Equally,
you could decide to not do this, and give
everyone, yourself included, a bit more time.
Flipping the timer when you’re nearly done,
or think you’re going to be, can cause all sort
of noises around the table, again, even for you,
when you’ve misjudged how hard it is to find a
final rocket booster.
After that, it’s a simple case of making your
way through some event cards and… okay,
so it’s not simple, the player at the front of the
space race flips a card and tells everyone exactly
what sort of trouble they’re in. Being at the
front has its advantages, mostly down to having
first choice of picking up cargo, or deserting
spacemen (or aliens). The downside is that if
smugglers decide to attack your ship, you’re first
in the queue – and it’s only if they defeat you that
others get a chance to be shot at.
WHY SHOULD YOU PLAY IT?
The chaos of building a completely janky ship
that might just be good enough to get you
through the plethora of
meteor swarms that the journey cards throw at
you is frankly brilliant. The way that connectors
work in the game mean that you can’t attach
single pipes to double pipe, but can connect
double and single pipes to the triple pipe
connectors – so you’re often picking up the
right piece, with the wrong connection. Add in
the balance of trying to, say, build a fast ship
with lots of options for boosting speed with
batteries, or one with tons of guns, and the
pressure of not enough places to put them all,
or time forcing you to feel like you need to just
close of those exposed pipes.
And then there’s aesthetics. Exposed pipes
are unsightly, and prone to doing damage
to your ship if they’re hit. There are points at
the end (not judged by a panel of your fellow
truckers sadly) based on how scruffy your ship
is. In a world of games about placing tiles in
front of you to make a pretty garden, or a castle,
or some other benign configuration, the art of
making a really crappy spaceship that looks
good is very pleasing. Even better, if you make
a handsome ship that then goes on to actually
work, you’ve got more out of it than any point-
accumulating garden. This is your Millennium
Falcon now. Until you break it for
parts for the next game anyway.
Throw in the way that combat and meteor
showers work – rolling some dice to arrange
for which area of the grid of your ship the
fragments or projectiles land in. If it’s an
exposed piece of ship, you’re going to lose a
chunk – added to your discard pile. These will
be docked from your pay (points) at the other
end of the journey, after all, you’ve just lost
a load of product. For combat zones, you’ll
be heading down the list of actions on the
card – usually with an option to make some
manoeuvres (i.e. running away if you need to).
It’s a light mix of clever choices based on your
position, and some fairly slapstick randomness.
Playing Galaxy Truckers is the kind of silly
fun that a lot of games just can’t offer – after
all it’s rare that you get a party game style start
to create a Eurogame engine, which you then
take on an adventure game style event-based
excursion. If you want to introduce a new group
to a whole host of gaming potential, there’s few
better ways to trick people into caring about
little cubes than this weird amalgamation.
With an expansion coming soon from Czech
Games Edition, there’s never been a better time
to get into the trucking game. *
tabletopgaming.co.uk 15
 COMPACT QUESTING We explore the world of solo gaming one move at a time.
This month: solo pocket dungeon delvers
Words by Debbie Brown

ometimes I think I must be crazy get these mammoths out, and definitely not • Keep an at-a-glance summary of key data

S as I heft another 8kg box onto the

table and set about organising
things for a marathon dungeon
crawling session – all those area
tiles to order, enemy miniatures or standees to
line up with their AI cards, instruction books,
quick reference cards and quest books to be
worth contemplating unless I have the time to
complete several quests in a row. With limited
playing space and limited memory capacity,
I’ve learnt to get as organized as possible
before taking my three, four or five characters
out for a spin. Here are some quick wins for
getting the big boxes to the table:
for each character – movement, carry load,
max hp
• Use dice to track values and durations
• Use cubes to measure out limited actions

The germ of this article however was born

handily placed, not to mention arranging all
the skills and equipment for each of the party
members. I really enjoy Gloomhaven, Sword
& Sorcery, Folklore, Middara, and Dungeon
Universalis but it’s always a bit daunting to
• Use card holders for infrequently used decks
• Use containers for small tokens
• Return all passive character skills or
attributes to the box to reduce clutter on the
table
when I first played played Legends Untold. In
another life I often used to work away from
home and would have loved to have this to
hand.
The three games discussed here take up
around the space of a sponge bag in luggage

THREE GREAT SOLO

COMPACT QUESTING GAMES
THE PATH OF THE MINIQUEST ADVENTURES
ADVENTURERS Choose one of each type of hero
Select 2-4 predefined characters (from making a party of four. Determine
seven) and place them on the village. how long you want the game to
Cards representing new locations such as be, and roll a D6 to select the first
a castle, forest or crypt are set out on all room. Populate the room as shown,
sides, and an enemy encounter is placed and determine initiative order,
face down on each. There are four levels alternating hero and enemy. Your
of enemy encounters and the party may first hero enters, hopefully a tough
retreat from danger. The locations also character, but it won’t always be.
determine the battle formation – four Move and attack, activate first
abreast, two times two, or, in the case of enemy, enter second hero, repeat,
a gorge, a single column. Initiative order
is established and battle commences.
If successful, the group obtains high
level loot, cash and a new skill for each
member. The second time a location is
drawn, a tougher enemy is encountered,
and finally the third occurrence brings
the boss arrival. Levelling up is fast
and the main consideration is skill
acquisition and usage.

16 March 2022
and yet offer pleasing depth. They take
completely different approaches.
Path of the Adventurers is a strategic RPG.
Each character has a dice pool consisting
of red, blue and green dice equal to their
strength, dexterity and intelligence. These dice
are rolled for attack, defence and skills, with
the key proviso that skill rolls generate fatigue,
which is only reduced gradually. Therefore you
are always juggling the benefits of a particular
skill with the cost of having fewer dice
available in future combat rounds. New skills
are obtained after each encounter and there
is considerable scope for customisation – the
dwarf could be a healer tank, or a damage
dealer with a poisonous crossbow. Magic
types can damage, buff and de-buff. An archer
can mark enemies for extra damage. However,
not all skills will be useful in all situations,
depending on the battlefield layout and
initiative order.
Miniquest Adventures absolutely nails
the experience of a fast paced ‘enter, move
and attack’ style dungeon crawl, presented
in a colourful cheesy style and occupying
a desktop. Dungeon rooms, of various
configurations, are bound into a spiral book
and in each round five are completed with
the final one containing an elite or boss
encounter. Line of sight and difficult
terrain are accommodated. Combat is
rapid and sees you selecting one die from
two with armour needing to be destroyed
before health is reduced. Enemies start
out as simple ranged or melee trash, but
critical hits at 200% damage are a serious
hazard, and with no mitigation of enemy rolls
randomness is high. Fortunately, loot drops
after each encounter provide new weapons,
armour and spells. Attributes such as
piercing damage, backstabbing and inflicting
knock-down, stun or burn are gained,
providing a layer of tactical depth.
Legends Untold sees you guiding a party
through a series of sewers or caves, muted in
palette and grounded in grimy atmospheric
reality. Party members are not elves and
dwarves but farm hands, blacksmiths,
students and nobles. There is no magic. They
have no great combat skill or weaponry, only
individual talents which help a little. Time
is of the essence, eventually running out
completely, and light is a key element. Each
exit and entrance has a lighting level and a
scouting roll made on entering each new
area will determine the party’s susceptibility
to traps, and which side has the advantage
of surprise in enemy encounters. Skills are
used to overcome
obstructions and
barriers, perhaps by
swimming, climbing, leaping
or mending faulty equipment.
Entities encountered may be charmed or
coerced – so skill test rolls are a key element.
Failure leads to the loss of health or time, or
increased carelessness. Individual scenarios
have a variety of objectives, and there is also a
linked campaign at two difficulty levels. New
equipment and talents between scenarios
improve skill rolls marginally.
Alternatively, consider Bag of Dungeon,
Awakening Lair, Escape from the Dark Castle,
or for a slightly less portable, but very
novice friendly, experience, Gloomhaven;
Jaws of the Lion. *

and within seconds the room is LEGENDS UNTOLD

cleared. Curiously a slug drops a set
of piercing claws – ‘this is all too easy’,
you think. Unfortunately, elites and
bosses lurking in the depths have
special skills and are not so easily
dismissed. Tentacles, teeth, claws,
spitting, grabbing, vomiting are
employed, some have treats such as
Mark of Death or Auto-destruction.
Play another round, and the trash get
tougher, but the loot deck also awaits.
Select any number of characters to form the party, choosing a scout and guard, and give them
each a basic weapon and three talents. Prepare the map and adventure decks for the scenario.
Move from area to area overcoming traps and obstacles, fighting enemies and making decisions
regarding optional exploration. Is it worth taking time to carefully search that barrel, or do we risk a
booby trap? Could we overcome the bat colony to reach an enticing campfire? Or should we simply
move on? If we encounter an enemy, there is an exchange of ranged fire followed by our melee
fighters running in swinging, but it’s tough, we are amateurs, and we will often be hurt. We won’t
find magic potions or gold in these depths either, only discarded food, candles or a broken crate.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 17
my favourite game
JACK
CAESAR
The writer for River Horse’s The Dark Crystal
Adventure Game, offers us a mechanical tune-up
on Android: Netrunner
y favourite games – the games that
M really stick with me – are those
that manage to tell a story through
their mechanics, that’s why I play
an unhealthy amount of RPGs.
My favourite game isn’t an RPG, though – it’s a card
game. For me there is no game that marries theme and
mechanics better than Android: Netrunner.
Netrunner was an ambitious sell in both the
boardroom and to the end customer – a completely
asymmetric living card game that requires players to
learn two sets of cards, rules, and tactics in order to
play. In a world where simplicity is key, Netrunner had a
compelling reason to choose its unique gameplay style
(well, unique if you discount the gloriously 90’s original).
This reason can be summed up in a single word – scale.
The game put one player in the seat of a plucky
hacker (the runner) and the other behind the synth-
mahogany desk of a shady corporate executive (the
corp). While both have access to similar resources in
credits and cards, the game made clear there was a vast
difference in the scale represented by these elements.
When the runner needed cash, they would cheat
at high-stakes poker or sell some hardware at the
local pawnshop. When the corp needed capital, they
would open a multinational advertising campaign or
withdraw millions from a hedge fund.
The corp sought victory in fulfilling off massive
government contracts, discovering entirely new fields of
science, and building installations on Mars. The runner
got their points simply by exposing these ambitious
projects to the corp’s competitors and the world at large.
The runner might pick up an unregistered gun to
deal with a problem executive. The corp needs only to
learn where the runner lives to demolish their entire
apartment block.
That difference in scale helped to reinforce the
common theme underlying a lot of cyberpunk literature
– that the corporation has already won. Oh, the corp
might lose a game of agendas and points, maybe even
March 2022
be forced to shut down a division due
to the runner’s meddling, but ultimately
that division’s destruction was accounted for. Who
accounted for the runner when corporate thugs
smashed their face into a keyboard seventeen times?
Android: Netrunner used every opportunity to
broadcast its thematic gameplay, from anarchist
runners throwing caution to the wind and sacrificing
their own deck to destroy the corporation’s toys, to
a media conglomerate utilising their information
network to peek at the runner’s cards. It was a
masterpiece, and while I could spend the rest of
my limited words gushing over the tightness of its It
mechanics or the stories that its gameplay allowed me
to tell, I think the final reason I loved Netrunner is also
reinforces
the reason I talk about it in the past tense.
Netrunner caught me at the perfect time in my
the
life. I found it fairly early in its lifespan and I became
engrossed. It was the first living card game I ever got into
common
and I explored it with a close friend; in many ways, for
me the game is tied up with that friendship. We had a
theme
vicious two-person meta that evolved as new cards were
released and we learned each other’s habits. Netrunner
underlying a
was a second language, and many a game would change lot of
from casual conversation to intense debate when one
player put down a rarely used card, prompting the cyberpunk
question, “What trick are they up to here?”
Before I had even begun my current career, literature
Netrunner imparted a crucial lesson in game design –
that games are a unique form of communication. The – that the
best ones are not only a presentation delivered from
author to player, but also an active conversation taking corporation
place between the players, made possible by closely
tied, smoothly interlocked themes and mechanics.
has already
To me, Netrunner was not only a dystopian tale of
cyberpunk oppression, nor merely a shrewd piece of
won
game design. It was both of these things, and more:
the living, breathing embodiment of friendship,
competitive spirit, and discovery wrapped up in a
world I loved. *
tabletopgaming.co.uk 19
 CRE AT ING YOUR OW N H ARRY P OT T ER RP G
MAG C SCHOOL
There may not be an official Harry Potter RPG, but we’ll use Gamp’s Law
to transfigure something else into something close. Here’s our guide to playing
Harry Potter without an official RPG Words by Charlie Pettit
he year is 1997, and in pre-
T millennium glory, suddenly
everyone knows the name of a
certain bespectacled young wizard.
From Privet Drive to the magical
school of Hogwarts, from homework to a
genocidal maniac with a non-redeeming
respect for his enemies schooling (the only
real explanation for the combat always
conveniently taking place in summer), the
subsequent books took the world by storm,
becoming not only bestsellers, but spawning
films, events, theatre shows and exhibits. It’s
not too much of a stretch to call to mind the
plethora of merchandise at the time, of varying
20 March 2022
degrees of quality, from the surprisingly Similarly, we’ll soon see the release of an
good Harry Potter Trading Card Game, to the
awkward gobstones attempt, and yet… never
an RPG.
There’s nothing to say the market didn’t
exist for it. Children and adults alike were
constantly wanting opportunities to dive
into the wizarding world. Certainly, it
open world digital RPG in Hogwarts Legacy.
Proof, surely, that we’re wanting to immerse
ourselves in its world?
The internet is swimming with comments
on it. Many claim to have pitched to unknown
entities, but never got particularly far with
their endeavours. Could it be a lack of
formed the foundation of things like familiarity with TTRPGs? A dislike of
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter them? Something missing from their
in Universal Studios Orlando, where propositions?
you can walk through the streets of
Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, buy
your own wand and robe, and pick
up wizarding food and drink.
 Perhaps we’ll never know, but that won’t
stop many of us from wanting to live our best
Hermione Granger-esque lives in tabletop
form, leaving it down to us to look at some of
the alternative options that pull on that tug
of magical longing, and potentially offer us
something extra for our tabletop. Whether you
want to distance yourself from the franchise
and go your own way, or are just nostalgic
for that magical adventure, we’ve three
recommendations to be used independently,
or together, that’ll have you knowing your
Buckbeak from your Witherwings in no time.

KIDS ON BROOMS
This is easily the closest to walking the
hallways of Hogwarts, memorising where
the trick step is, and avoiding Filch at every
opportunity that we’ll get. Kids on Brooms
offers us a full
system to use
that arguably
simplifies and
streamlines
unusual encounters,

allowing us to get on with the good stuff.
You begin by crafting your own school,
creating rumours and history around it,
before reminding players that ultimately, this
is a school. Pick your subjects and receive
increases at the end of the year as a result, but
be sure not to miss too much schooling while
you’re off on an adventure – you’re here for
your education, after all.
There are even suggestions for sports, as
those who have brooms are wont to do, but you
can lean pretty heavily and pretty comfortably
into your existing wizarding knowledge to fill
in any imagination gaps. It also plays without
being overly confrontational, giving examples
of how to prevent or manage the more
aggressive playstyles you may see, keeping you
along the (to borrow the term) good alignment,
or at worst, merely neutral.
All of this sits within the Kids on Bikes
system, that is straightforward enough to leave
the maximum space for roleplaying. Instead
of spending forever trying to calculate the best
stats for your new character, you simply apply
one of the six polyhedral dice standard for an
RPG (removing the D%) to one of the six stats:
Brains, Brawn, Flight, Fight, Grit, and Charm.
When called to roll for them, you must beat the
difficulty level set by the GM (ie, roll over an
8 to succeed in this). There are extra bonuses
to be had, and factors that make failure more
appetising, but you’ll need only the shortest of
explanations to begin your journey into magic.
Perhaps the biggest downside is also one of
its biggest strengths too, in that arguably, the
game plays a little young. When you fail a dice
roll, you’re given an adversary token, and you
can share these with other players, making
it sometimes a little too easy to overcome
obstacles. It’s perfect for galivanting through
the halls as young teenagers, but adults playing
eleven year olds run the risk of growing tired
of child-like motivations. However, a good GM
should take steps to balance this, and equally,
it’s easily inclusive enough for all ages to play,
making it perfect for introducing your Harry
Potter loving child into the world of RPGs (or
vice versa, as the case may be).
ADVENTURES & ACADEMIA
Adventures & Academia isn’t strictly a system,
or even a book, as the others in this list are.
It’s more of a springboard for ideas that makes
Home Brewing that little bit easier. Having

tabletopgaming.co.uk 21
 CRE AT ING YOUR OW N H ARRY P OT T ER RP G
recently been successfully funded through
Kickstarter, it does offer a one-shot adventure,
but frankly it’s the miniatures and lore
suggestion that you’ll take from this, and be
able to reapply Hogwarts logic to.
Adventures & Academia is a Steamforged
project, made by those who created Animal
Adventure. Animal Adventures: Dungeons &
Doggies, and Cats and Catacombs – and indeed,
Epic Adventures – offer a starting point for
making great RPGs on your tabletop, offering
you everything you need to get going. All come
with some quite impressively sculptured minis,
and Adventures & Academia is no different.
The offering is a collection of magical college
characters for the game, and whilst its prebuilt
character sheets offer you 5E, there’s no reason
you couldn’t adapt the style of character to
other game systems, and use the miniatures
as you wish. For example, there’s a rather
endearing wizards hat wearing basset hound,
that would work perfectly as a teacher of some
discipline (you could even offer him the name
of Mr Fluffy for an interesting backstory, as well
as some Cerberus turned domestic style lore).
Whilst you could make them as close to what
we know of Harry Potter as you like, each of
them looks like they could roam the halls of a
different magic school, or a different era, or a
different planet, without any real effort.
Of course, it will also offer you Houses
depending on your personality and drives,
though these come under House Arcane
(Warlock, Sorcerer, Wizard), House Cunning
(Rogue, Ranger, Bard), House Divine (Druid,
Cleric, Paladin), and House Might (Fighter,
Barbarian, Monk). We’ll leave you to work out
which parallels they might run with…
Does it offer you a Harry Potter RPG in
22 March 2022
a nutshell? No, and certainly not like the
other two in the list. However, it’s a great
inspiration point for those comfortable with
homebrewing, and a visual element to share
across the tabletop. Use it in conjunction with
the aforementioned Kids on Brooms, and
upcoming Strixhaven, for maximum effect.
STRIXHAVEN: CURRICULUM
OF CHAOS
One of the newest D&D books available, and
surprisingly based on Magic: The Gathering
rather than Hogwarts post-18-education-sector,
Strixhaven is at its simplest, Magic University.
Where Kids on Brooms pitches to the lower aged
audience, Strixhaven anticipates you are grown-
ups. Considering aspects such as necromancy
style college that you can pick in your second
year, this is perhaps for the generation who
wanted to ask what happens after you do well
on your NEWTs (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding
Tests, for those muggles out there).
Set on the plane of Arcavios (or wherever
is most convenient for the DM – Scotland,
anyone?), students attend Strixhaven, before
specialising in one of five colleges founded by
dragons, from math focussed Quantrix, to the
art focussed Prismari. The setting teaches about
magic itself, rather than requiring you to have
magical abilities, but in a setting such as this,
why wouldn’t you?
Strixhaven is also perhaps the most guided
of our Harry Potter recommendations, whilst
also being best for a confident DM. Strixhaven
contains four adventures to span the four years
of college, and whilst those have received mixed
reviews in terms of excitement and adventure,
with a little magic loving license there’s plenty
to take from it. There’s plenty of considerations
to be made to flesh out your character, events to
take part in, peril to worry over, all whilst having
you avoid sinister plots at the same time. Plus,
it does a remarkable job of capturing Campus
life, meaning even if you want to relive or try out
some of the glory days whilst combining a love
of magical mischief, you’re in the right place.
Essentially, if you want the vibe of Harry Potter,
without placing yourself within its actual halls,
this is a good place to start.
If you’re already a player of D&D, this makes
life particularly simple, because your mechanics
remain as you’d expect, and there’s no significant
changes to magic wielding as a result. There are
no wands to be had, no sorting hat or cauldron
needed, but where an undetectable extension
charm on a pink beaded bag can be converted
simply to a bag of holding, it’s a short leap from
Strixhaven to Wizarding World. *
CHOOSE YOUR
RPG HOUSE
Use our roleplaying sorting hat
to find the right RPG for you to
begin your wizarding journey.
BRAVE
For the impulsive and
courageous, if you want to
hurtle head first into adventure
with a bravery that overrides
the “Let’s think about this first”
voice, Dungeons & Dragons is perhaps the
most readily available to delve into without
further thought. Brave adventurers will create
their characters around their house traits,
but there’s no better moment to be had than
being told to Roll for Initiative when you’re in the
perfect combat position.
LOYAL
Those of loyalty and fairness
would likely enjoy the tranquillity
and considerations made in
Inspirisles. A game in which your
magic wielding can be linked to
shapes – which are in turn, motions of sign
language you make as you learn your way
through the game – as well as hints and tips on
running an exclusive game at its core – make
it a perfect option. Plus, it’ll appeal to the finder
instinct, as you’re off to a hidden land.
LEARNING
In a system that uses a lot of
numbers, and a lot of options
– more than once referred to
as the Excel sheet version of a
roleplaying game, though not with
any malice – Call of Cthulhu is a great option
for those motivated by learning and a desire
to find out more. You could substitute in any
investigatory style RPG (Vaesen could easily
be another consideration), but the draw of the
unknown mythos is just right for the bookworm
out in the wild.
CUNNING
It may be the bad guy archetype
that brings us to Blades in the
Dark, but when in a practically
lawless town, do as the
practically lawless do – but better.
Blades in the Dark is under no illusions that
you’re a criminal, but it’s up to you to be self-
preserving and thoughtful enough to call forth
flashbacks to justify your sudden win, without
becoming one for whom the bell tolls.
 around the world in 80 plays
MOROCCO
Words by Chad Wilkinson
his month we are exploring the
T lands of Morocco on the northern
tip of Africa. In relatively recent
times, Morocco enticed and
ensconced hordes of writers
and artists, intoxicated by the allure of
cosmopolitan freedom, inspiration, and
relaxation. But does this attraction extend to
us curious gamers?
Certainly, Morocco holds some level
of tabletop prestige, mostly attributable to
a number of enduringly popular traditional
games – including the two player strategy
game Felli. Derived from the Middle Eastern
game of Alquerque as well as western
Draughts, Felli’s abstract gameplay focuses
on leaping over and capturing opposing
pieces. Where Felli deviates from these
more widespread designs though, is in the
vastly different board size and shape. As the
smallest of the Alquerque type games, Felli
contains only thirteen intersection points on
which to place each player’s six pieces.
More interesting is the game’s ‘hourglass’
shape – an attributing factor to the game’s
small size and limited strategic possibilities.
A similar board is used elsewhere in Africa for
Mozambique’s aptly named Butterfly, whilst
in India, the game of Lau Kati Kati expands
the number of intersections to nineteen.
To make for a more complex game, rules
are occasionally implemented allowing for
the promotion of pieces to ‘Mullahs’ once
reaching the opposing player’s first rank.
Similar to ‘Kings’ in International Draughts,
‘Mullahs’ can move through any number
of empty spaces and capture across greater
distances following the usual rules.
A more traditional Alquerque type game
is also played in Morocco under the name of
Fetaix or Qireq. The only notable difference in
rules is the prohibiting of backwards moves
until a piece has been promoted to ‘Mullah’.
Both Felli and Fetaix display various forms
of production, including intricately crafted
wooden sets to extremely portable and
cheap ‘peg boards’ sold in the labyrinthine
markets of Marrakech and Tangier. In the
24 March 2022
southern region
of Morocco, the TOP: The hourglass shaped abstract
Sahrawi people game Felli, photo by Erhan Cubukcuoglu
will often simply draw ABOVE: The card game Ronda, photo
boards in the sand. by Justus Pang
The cosy cafes of
Morocco’s towns and cities aren’t only home
to players of Felli but also the Ludo-esque to Marrakech’s residents and tourists.
Pachisi and several card games. Whilst there Despite its popularity, Mapa Mundi sadly
are several games in the country utilising closed its doors in 2020. Fortunately, there
the humble deck of cards – including Sotta, are a small number of toy stores offering
Ch’kamba, Nouffi, and El Bazga – the most enthusiasts the opportunity to purchase
popular is the two player ‘fishing’ style game many of the hobby’s most popular titles,
of Ronda. although titles from regional designers or
Ronda was first described to the western publishers are apparently lacking.
world by Xavier Lecureul in the 1908 issue of Morocco may not be the most
‘Revue du Monde Musulman’ (Muslim World noteworthy stop on our journey in regard
Review). His rather frankly titled ‘Quelques to contemporary games output, but the
jeux au Maroc’ (Some Games in Morocco) longevity and nationwide popularity of
details a game using a forty card Spanish deck traditional games such as Felli and Ronda,
whereby players attempt to match cards in demonstrate that the act of ‘play’ continues to
their hand with those in a central display. hold both social and cultural importance. *
Bonus points can be scored whenever a player
possesses a pair (Ronda) or three of a
kind (Tringa) after each deal.
Perhaps due to the playing of
traditional board and card games
being commonplace in the streets and
cafes of Morocco, dedicated gaming
cafes in the country are scarce. One
notable exception though is the
Mapa Mundi Cafe in Marrakech.
First opened in 2017, Morocco’s first
gaming cafe brought modern gaming
 S U B S C R I B E T O TA B L E T O P G A M I N G

YOUR SUBSCRIPTION,
YOUR WAY
Pick the rate that suits you and your budget!
With offers starting from as
little as £16.99 a quarter,
subscribing really is the
cheapest and easiest way to
receive the paper magazine
to your door every month!
Save money every issue
SAVE
UP TO* Quarterly, annual or one-off
10% options available

To view our latest subscription offers go to

TTGAMI.NG/TTG-MYSUB22
or call 01778 392034 and quote TTG/MYSUB22

READ ON ANY DEVICE,

ANYWHERE, ANYTIME!
Read about all the latest game reviews throughout 2022 with a subscription
to Tabletop Gaming. PLUS, inside the digital edition extra content is available
including exclusive images, videos, podcasts and more!
www.pktmags.com/ttg-subs22
*Saving is based on UK annual Direct Debit rate and is correct as of print 28.01.2022. For overseas subscription pricing visit ttgami.ng/ttg-mysub22.
ttgami.ng/ttg-mysub22
 DARK SOUL S: T HE ROLEPL AYING GAME

26 March 2022
 TO LINK
THE FIRST
We answer your questions about
how the real Dark Souls begins
Words by Christopher John Eggett
Images Copyright Bandai Namco Entertainment, Inc/FromSoft, Inc
ark Souls is maybe the most loved
D game series in existence. While
there are many more video game
series that offer a larger number of
players, or greater range of people
playing it, Dark Souls fans are intensely interested
in their subject. And that’s for good reason. The
dark and dying worlds of the series offer players
the chance to ‘git gud’ (‘get good’ but ruined
by being written on the internet) at the game
through its arrangement of timing and tactical
based systems. To beat the game, you do get
better at it, and that learning curve is satisfying to
many players. Beyond that, you also internalise
the whole world – it’s a game that many players
could probably navigate with their eyes closed.
The very landscapes and castles are etched into
the souls of players making their tenth run back to
the boss they’re currently stuck on.
And then there’s the lore. Told in what might
be the most obtuse way possible, the lore of
the game is constructed from the items and
objects found within it. Sometimes these will be
the item description themselves, you’ll be told
who owned this ring at the bottom of a sewer,
for example, other times there will simply be
a corpse with an item next to it, which you’re
meant to piece together.
Dark Souls 3, in what could be the final
instalment of the series, lives and dies (okay,
mostly dies) on these meta stories. Unlike the
nearly entirely separate world of Dark Souls
2, the third game is about the meta-folding of
the universe into itself – it suggests, at its heart,
that the cycles of power and extinction that
appear in previous games are weakening forces,
that something else has to come after – if only
the human world would let the flames go out.
Here there are reworks of old locations, like the
darkened and defiled Anor Londo of the first
game, or the folded Earthen Peak ruins of the
second. You’ll find characters from the first game
dead in these places, but without ceremony. It’s
very much that if you know, you know. And the
fans of Dark Souls do know, they know a lot. The
digital game series has maybe one of the most
amusing wikis in existence, where new players
will have their minds blown repeatedly.
This depth of knowledge and perfect recall of
locations makes the game’s surrounding culture
tabletopgaming.co.uk 27
 DARK SOUL S: T HE ROLEPL AYING GAME
THE JAPANESE DARK SOULS RPG
There has already been one Dark Souls roleplaying game
released, but in Japanese only. While there’s no intention of
creating an official translation of the game, there have been
a few fan translations and reports which occasionally pop up
online.
There’s little discussion of the lore implementations here,
suggesting instead that the game uses a very generic dungeon
delving system. Instead, these discussions in English are
around the mechanics of the game. Similar to the Steamforged
Fifth Edition adaptation with Position, there is a dice pool
mechanic that allows players to spend their rolled dice to
perform different actions. For example swinging a sword might
cost you five on one or more dice, and additional dice can be
added from your pool for more damage. Something you’ll want
to do to get over the enemy’s defence threshold. As your
pool is also your defence – you spend dice either against your
shield to reduce damage, or your weight load, to roll (or fat roll) out of the way. As for the
world at large, most players report an abstracted world rather than a directly physically
represented one – with the assumption that everyone is “in range” unless they’re in a
“safe zone”. The latter part here is a kind of escape ramp that’s consumed after use.
Add in the ‘Malice Chart’ for hollowing and world effects for party wipes or returning
to the bonfire and you’re pretty much there. While we’re unlikely to see an official
translation, this Japanese version of the tabletop game will remain an interesting mark
on the hobby, and Dark Souls fandom.
Read More from Blog of Arcane Secrets here: ttgami.ng/34tLCeS
what it is. So then, how would anyone be able to
Death, approach the creation of a tabletop roleplaying game
based on Dark Souls 3, without going a bit mad? We’re
in the about to find out with Steamforged’s Richard August,
the game’s designer.
tabletop
PREPARE TO DIE FIFTH EDITION
RPG, Richard August is a RPG designer and writer of note.
teaches you Not only is he the driving force behind Steamforged’s
roleplaying games arm in the form of the Epic
about your Encounters range (a Dungeons & Dragons scenario
with a few, sometimes huge, minis boxed up together
character neatly) and Animal Adventures (if you wanted to trick
people into playing an RPG without knowing it, here’s
how), he’s also worked extensively on Modiphius titles
like Dune: Adventures in the Imperium and Conan.
The roleplaying game, in the handsome pre-proof
copy waved towards me over a videocall, is a beast. A
huge tome that, we hope contains the multitudes that
adventuring in Dark Souls requires.
“It’s a tabletop roleplaying game for two to five players,
where you get to build your own Dark Souls roleplaying
world,” says August, “it uses the 5E chassis but we’ve
really hacked it quite a lot in order to more accurately
evoke the Dark Souls experience. And it’s fun and deadly.”
Which is what we want to hear.
“Obviously there’s that great kind of Dark Souls video
where a person thinks they’re going to be great at Dark
Souls. Then they walk out they’re immediately killed
because they don’t understand stamina. And then
28 March 2022
they don’t understand the parry system and timing.
And while it would’ve been great to build a dexterity
element into a roleplaying game, I can’t see us really
managing it,” laughs August, “So what we did was we
looked at how could we make mastering your use of
abilities an equivalent to the mastering of timing and
precision in, in Dark Souls.”
“What we’ve even essentially come up with is
‘Position’,” says August, a name that could be translated
to ‘poise’ in any of the meta systems of the Dark Souls
video games.
“It’s this quasi-amalgam of health and stamina. It
gives you a resource which you generate – you have a
base stat, your base position – and then each time you
get into an encounter, you randomly generate it and
you roll. It’s kind of like hit dice – you roll them, and
that gives you your pool for that fight.”
“The learning curve is based around when you
spend it, and when you hoard it,” says August, “and
that filters through every aspect of the game.”
“Every weapon, even every shield has an associated
ability, which is linked to spending position. You have
to spend position to use some abilities or you can use
it to augment or improve them. Same with spells,”
continues August, “so it’s about ‘How much do I
spend? When do I spend it? And what is the potential
cost of that?’ In the same way that you have to learn an
enemy’s attack patterns, the kind of damage they’re
going to do, you are going to have to do that here, but
it’s going to be about ‘if I spend this, am I going to kill
this monster in one here?’ – or are you going to leave
yourself open to be completely eviscerated because
I’ve spent so much trying to kill it in a single blow.”
This system of powerful weapons and armour with a
special ability feels direct from the ‘special arts’ of Dark
Souls 3. August offers us some examples, “for instance,
the Alva armour gives you an AC of 18. But you have
disadvantage on wisdom saving throw, because it ties
to the lore surrounding it.”
The lore here is about a dark secret within the
armour, which might cost you when you wear it. “The
wisdom check is ‘why would you wear a suit of armour
which carries such a dark secret? Well, you know, it’s
because it gives you AC of 18. The Catarina armour, this
was my particular joke, was that you have -1 charisma
– as no one looks good in that set.”
Other example that players will recognise are the
Lothric Knight Shield providing you lightning protection,
ideal for facing down bosses like the Unnamed King.
UNKINDLED ONES
Naturally, the ten classes of Dark Souls 3 match fairly
well to those of Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition.
Players can even pick the Deprived class, which is the
‘blank slate’ class – which is useful in the video game
for creating specific builds because of the stat spend.
Here players get to pick things up from a variety of
classes.
 While the characters are fairly
straightforward – their deaths aren’t. Going
hollow, the act of becoming less human the
more you die, is baked into the game too.
The souls you collect during an adventure
will disappear when you die, souls that
are useful for levelling up, buying new
weapons from merchants. If half your
party wipes, you all get returned to the
bonfire – tying your party together, and
avoiding you playing a grimdark version
of lemmings when you take turns dying
and running back. Equally, there are
no death saves, if you hit zero hp, you’re
done. But with the endlessly regenerative
power of the Bonfire, what does death
teach us in terms of the tabletop
roleplaying game?
“It teaches you about your character. It
teaches you about what you are going to
lose,” says August, “in the beginning, when
you are building your character there’s a
few tables and options to create a fuller
backstory than you might expect. You get
a memory – your last memory before you woke up as
an unkindled – you get a drive, the thing that’s pushing
you onwards, you get fragments of your life before. And
these give you little mechanical benefits – you are able
to say to the GM, ‘well, I’m drawing on my backstory.
I’m suddenly seized by this memory of my past life,’
and you gain a
mechanical benefit
of a specific kind for
each part of your
past.”
“When you die
you have to succeed
on a wisdom save,
and if you fail, you
roll on the hollowing
table,” says August.
Most of these effects are negative, as you
hollow you’re at risk of losing elements of
yourself that make you human – beyond
your fragments of memory.
“It’s about what does it mean to lose?
Maybe you lose your voice – some of these
have negative mechanical qualities. Some
of them are purely story focused. How does
losing change your relationship with your
drive and wanting desire to go on? And that’s the only
true end state for the game,” says August, “that you
could become a complete husk and at that point you
are just a hollow – you’re basically an NPC.”

tabletopgaming.co.uk 29
 DARK SOULS: THE ROLEPL AYING GAME

With the very real and chilling threat of becoming

an NPC hanging over the player’s heads, we move on
to another GM controlled character, those of bosses.
The game series is known for its intense and dramatic
boss battles – it’s one of the main gating mechanics
– here they take on a ferocious aspect of being
something of an avatar for the GM.
“Bosses are nasty,” says August, “they get the
bloodied ability, which means when they hit 50%
hit points, they get new abilities. Most of these
are additional actions and cool stuff they can
do. A couple of them are negative for the boss,
but mostly they get stronger and they get new
ways of altering and alternating their attack
powers.”
“They also get to spend Position like
players do,” says August, “Position can be
spent to change a dice roll, which means
that even dice luck might not save you. While
you might want to go all in and wear them down
quickly, thinking the boss has rolled a one – Yhorm
the Giant might easily turn that one into a 20.”
Boss battles then are about hoarding position until
the time is right, it’s a real confrontation with the
GM, something that August addresses in the GMing
section of the book, “it’s a difficult balance, I can’t
pretend it’s not.” On the plus side, there doesn’t have
to be fog gates in front of them unless you want
there to be “I decided to leave fog gates out. They’re
the kind of feature which is fine in a video game,
but abolishes player agency at the tabletop in a
way that I think players bridle against. That being
said, there’s absolutely nothing stopping a GM
bringing them in.” This latter comment suggests
a world where the bosses from the game aren’t
waiting for you – they may instead roam more
freely through whatever versions of the popular
locations you create for your players. The idea
of the Old Demon King attempting to make
his way out of the catacombs in a misguided
attempt at a comeback, or tracking down Pontif
Sulyvahn – maybe discovering him visiting the bodies
of old archdeacon friends, begins to set in motion the
kind of worlds players will be facing. elements of the lore behind
the player class choices.
WHY FIFTH EDITION? Others cite the loneliness
There’s been a great rumbling at the heart of the of the digital games
roleplaying game community (by which we mean, being crucial, and having
tweets) about the disappointment that this game uses swashbuckling adventures is
the Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition core ruleset. what Fifth Edition does best.
Many cite the obviousness of using the system, and the Most negative noise about the
fact that a Dark Souls TTRPG exists in Japan already. choice however comes down to
There’s a general criticism of Fifth Edition that it only a kind of meta-argument about
does one thing, which is let players hit things. This is how D&D is perceived as the all
further compounded by this criticism which implies and only of roleplaying experiences.
Dungeons & Dragons is also the best way to hit things in Here the question really is, ‘didn’t
a roleplaying game. Other comments swirl around some Dark Souls, of all things, deserve a
of the released class information, which omits some custom system?’

30 March 2022
 We put these questions to August so they could be
addressed directly.
“There’s a lot to unpack here. Firstly, I’ve looked at
the Japanese Dark Souls RPG, and it looks wonderful.
But I have no idea what the rights situation of that
game would be. Getting those rights, translating it,
I can’t think of anything more nightmarish frankly.
Licensing, at the best of times is a minefield that you’re
shoved into blindfolded with a load of rakes tied to
you. It’s a difficult thing,” says August, in characteristic
good humour, “in terms of building a new system,
that’s something we considered. We went through a lot
of back and forth. And parts of that system did make
it in here – certain elements. But for me at least, Dark
Souls is a game about exploring and killing things – to
boil it down to its core activities. There aren’t many
games, in my opinion, better at that than Dungeons &
Dragons.”
“I am aware of some of the discourse around the
game, it’s hard not to be. And I think some of it is
entirely reasonable scepticism, but I find some of
suggestions that D&D is entirely the wrong system for
it a little odd,” adds August. We go on to talk about the
very real, but quite dull, commercial factors of using
Fifth Edition – which are obvious. Using the system
from the most popular roleplaying game in the world
is always going to be offering a game into a supportive
eco-system of players who know how it should work.
LORE OF THE LAND
Making adventures for Dark Souls: The Roleplaying
Game seems almost counter intuitive. The world
exists so solidly in the minds of the players. August
explains that we need to free ourselves of hundreds of
playthroughs of the game calcifying out the idea of the
place, and look instead to creating our own adventures
using the same building blocks.
“The lore chapter was one of the harder chapters to
write in many ways,” he says, “I was very careful not
to tell players what they should be doing in a location.
Instead, I wanted to give them an overarching view
of it, to give them some NPCs, some random events
tables, so they can create their own versions of these
iconic locations.”
“I think in any licensed RPG, a lot of it is about
giving the players and GM permission to play in there
and distend things to make it work for them. To let
people proceed with and pursue their own ideas about
the setting,” says August. While there’s no official
adventure in the book, there’s plenty of advice for
building them.
August is keen to point out that the team at
Steamforged aren’t creating lore here. When asked
specifically on questions about the Dark Sign (a kind
of cursed path to nothingness related to the people of
Londor – a place never seen in the digital game), and
whether we’ll get any answers, he says: “no, we don’t
touch the lore in that way. Doing so risks inventing
SIX DARK SOULS
ADVENTURE HOOKS
Here are six quick adventure hooks of our own
devising (or lifted from fan theories), that might get
you started in planning your own adventure…
1 Catarina Crusade. The Onion Knights of Caterina have decided to wage a
crusade against The Deep. You and your party have to shepherd them through
the world on their way to confront Aldritch. Naturally, they’re very good natured,
but easily tricked by other characters. A classic ‘herding cats’ adventure.
2 Orphanage Breakout. Set before the sludge-slugification of Aldritch, when he
is having fresh people ferried to the Cathedral of the Deep. Players hear of the
raiding of an Orphanage and attempt to break into the Cathedral before it was
fallen, and stop the grotesque consumption – possibly saving Anri and Horace
from their childhood horrors.
3 Overdue. In the Undead Settlement players find a powerful spell book in the
boarded-up house of a reclusive hermit, along with his body. A final note left by the
wizard laments that they never returned the book they borrowed from the Grand
Archives. Can the players make it into the archive, and can they return the book
without incurring any deadly late fees?
4 A Box is a Box. Ludleth, the only remaining Lord of Cinder not driven mad,
loves an experiment. While he yearns for the Transposing Kiln, he also has other
ideas – mimic experiments. Can the players collect and transport three Mimic
chests back to Ludleth so he can perform his strange experiments, without
losing their heads?
5 Snappy Reunion. The swamps near the Crucifixion Woods have become
impassable because of the giant crabs. They’ve gone completely wild. On closer
inspection, they appear to be looking for one of their offspring. Can the players find
the baby crab in the Catacombs and return it to its parents?
6 Greirat Rescue Squad. The thief has gone missing on his most recent mission
to Lothric Castle, you suspect he is being held, once again, in a cell somewhere deep
in the castle dungeons. Can you find him before it’s too late?
our own canon – and that’s the job of either From
Software or players at their table. In a sense, we’re the
middlemen, translating Dark Souls to the tabletop, and
while the act of translation always results in changes
reflecting the translator’s ideas and biases, we tried to
keep those to a minimum. I hope players explore their
own ideas around the Dark Sign and the truth of the
curse, though. And I hope they share their theories
everywhere.”
And maybe this is what’s at the heart of creating a
new Dark Souls RPG, just another excuse for us all to
dive deeper into the lore.
The game will be available for pre-order from the
16th February, with a limited run of special edition sets
also available. Until then, we’re just going to have to
wait by the bonfire. *
tabletopgaming.co.uk 31
 S T EEL C OLOS SEUM
ROBOT WARS
Bigger and badder, we talk to designer James Hewitt about Steel Colosseum
Words by Charlie Pettit
t might age us rather specifically, but for
I those among us who grew up watching
Robot Wars, there’s something about
fighting automations that harks back both
to nostalgia, and that competitive side
of ourselves. What cool gadgets will emerge
from their shells? Who will win, in a no-harm-
to-living-things battle to the death? That
enjoyment is something that will seemingly
be tapped into by Steel Colosseum, heading to
Kickstarter in April.
“Steel Colosseum is a scrapyard arena
combat game,” James Hewitt, the designer
tells us. Co-founder of Needy Cat Games, and
recognisable from his design work on the likes
of Hellboy: The Board Game, Devil May Cry: The
Bloody Palace, or even those from Blitz Bowl
to Adeptus Titanicus, the designer is back in a
familiar miniatures arena once again.
“Each team controls
a pair of customised
fighting robots, using
simultaneous card
selection – from
an ever-dwindling
Control Deck – to
plan their attacks
and outmanoeuvre
32 March 2022
their opponents,” explains Hewitt. As the game
progresses, robots may take enough damage to
be deactivated, but that’s not the end. With new
armour plates hastily welded, the robot pit stop
gives you time to add in a few upgrades, and
then it all begins again.
“It’s a game that draws a crowd, because it’s
genuinely exciting to watch,” he says, “there are
lots of tense, cinematic moments, and we’ve
had several test sessions where there are literal
cheers of excitement. I love the idea that some
time down the line we might see little leagues
and tournaments cropping up around the place.”
OLD SCHOOL TECH
If you’ve got a sense of déjà vu, you’re not wrong.
The keen eyed amongst us may remember a
similar game from 2020, under the perhaps less
dramatic, but no less descriptive name of Robot
Fight Club.
“Well spotted,” Hewitt laughs, “our original
plan was to really make this an indie production.
Keep it small and achievable, work within our
means. In hindsight I think we got a bit over-
excited – and the scope gradually crept up. When
the game hit Kickstarter in early 2020, I think
we’d really stretched our meagre budget beyond
breaking point, so although we had a wonderful,
enthusiastic team of artists and graphic
designers working with us, I think we fell short
of what our existing followers – who knew us
from our collaborations with studios like Mantic,
Steamforged and Games Workshop – wanted to
see. And then, to top it all off, less than a week
into the campaign, the UK went into lockdown.”
It’s a familiar story for games at that time,
Hewitt explains feeling uncomfortable asking for
money from backers at such a precarious time
for all involved, and cancelling the campaign
before it really got off the ground. Plans were
tentatively made to return to the project when
things settled down and time was available, but
within that time Zatu Games reached out.
“They’d heard about us and were looking to
move into publishing. We had several back-
and-forth emails followed by some really
encouraging meetings, and before we knew it,
we had a publishing partner. Robot Fight Club
was coming back.”
That makes Steel Colosseum a first foray
not only for Needy Cat Games on their own,
but also for Zatu Games, who you may know
better as game retailers, “they’ve been great,”
Hewitt says, when we bring this up, “they’re
always open to discussion, keen to include
their own ideas but massively respectful of our
 Indeed, where Robot Fight Club had a 1950s Club’s standees. This
‘retro futuristic style’, Steel Colosseum has was something that
more of a 90’s vibe, with CRT displays, neon people were crying
green glow effects, and chunky circuit boards, out for when we ran
that Hewitt describes the work of Chris Neal- the Kickstarter in 2020.
Knight and Tom Hutchings as bringing the There have been some
setting to life. changes under the
“They came up with loads of background bonnet, as well. First
ideas that aren’t in the finished game, but up, Zatu were really
which inform everything and bring sense of keen to increase the maximum player count
internal logic to the robot designs. I can’t wait for from two to four, to make the game appeal
people to get their hands on a copy, and spend to more types of gaming groups. It took a fair
time poring over the components, spotting bit of work – we were really keen to keep the
sly references on crowd signs and advertising core engine as close to the original as possible,
boards, or matching the various graffiti tags to because we’d spent so much time testing and
the Operators responsible for them,” says Hewitt. developing it – but it was really worth it, and it
“We’ve also been able to include a set of added a whole new dynamic which brings a lot
detailed miniatures in place of Robot Fight to the experience. I love games that feature co-
operation but with limited communication – in
Steel Colosseum, you can’t show your teammate
the cards in your hand, so you can’t share any
information without also letting
the other team know.”
“While we were at it, we
took the opportunity to
go through the game and
rebalance all of the robots and
upgrades, and generally give
everything a solid rework. By the
time we were done, the game had
a whole new identity, and felt like
a total reboot – so it was only fitting
to give it a brand-new name. Robot
Fight Club will always live on in our
hearts, but Steel Colosseum is a game
with so much more going on,” enthuses
Hewitt.
wishes as the game’s designers. I think it’s been And, whilst it seems presumptive
a learning process for them – an awful lot of to ask a designer about their next plans
legwork goes into getting a game manufactured before their project has yet launched,
and marketed, and running a crowdfunding with Needy Cat Games energy and enthusiasm
campaign, but they’ve put in a huge amount of it’s no surprise to hear there’s a great deal
effort to figure it out and bring their resources in the pipeline. Whilst many are covered by
and connections to bear. I like to think it’s been confidentiality agreements, we can at least
a bit of a two-way process, with us sharing look forward to “a cosy tile laying game about
advice based on our own industry experience, running a community garden,” in Our Garden,
and they’ve always been open to our input.” which you can playtest on Screentop now.
And the result of their influence and the extra Steel Colosseum will be available to
time has brought big changes to the game. crowdfund on Kickstarter in April, with a
core box including
UPGRADING THE PARTS six robots, four
“The first thing that people will notice is that operators, and a
the production values are way higher. Zatu host of upgrades,
helped us secure the services of an incredible alongside a small
artist, graphic designer and sculptor, who expansion offering an
immediately set to work fleshing out the game additional game play
world and coming up with a striking visual feature, and a shiny
identity for the game.” set of stretch goals. *

tabletopgaming.co.uk 33
 CARDBOARD MANIFESTO
LEFT The Doctor Who RPG is one of the
few TV adaptations that solves the ‘who
gets to be the hero?’ question

not really because everyone heard the GM say it

and can’t be bothered to listen to you repeat it.”
A solution is, of course, to use a pre-written
adventure and lead the players through,
directing them on the right path and producing
pre-written information for them to read out as it
comes to light but that can feel too scripted and
stifling for some groups.
“The Avatar must master the four elements
which will take till at least level 16.”
Then there’s the second issue, one that many
RPGs based on established shows must face –
who gets to be the main character? Who gets to
play The Doctor, Sherlock, The Avatar, Captain

YOUR FAVE

SUCKS
AN
(AS AN RPG, ANYWAY)
Anna Blackwell argues that your favourite TV shows
shouldn’t be asked to make the leap to
Kirk (or Picard if you’re boring)? The Doctor Who
RPG has a system in place wherein everyone
gets control of The Doctor in a nice form of
psychological-communism that sort of mimics
the writing of the show where different writers
write each episode.
The Doctor Who RPG also suggests playing
without the eponymous Doctor which
could work for some… if they wanted to play
Torchwood. But then who gets to play Captain
Jack?
“You clearly don’t know who you’re talking
to, so let me clue you in. I am not in danger,
Skyler. I am the danger. A guy opens his door
and gets shot, and you think that of me? No! I
am the one who knocks!”
“Okay, roll for Intimidation.”
Lastly, unlike Critical Role, most players are
not actors. The improvisational single-take
nature of RPGs means that epic and impactful
dialogue like Walter White’s quote above
are incredibly rare and can sometimes be
roleplaying games Words by Anna Blackwell completely undermined by the mechanics of
the game. And that’s alright cause when the dice

“A
h, dear Watson, you see
but you do not observe.
You should multiclass
into detective after this
adventure so that you can
get a bonus to Deduction.”
Recently I’ve been running an Avatar
campaign with the idea of structuring it in
seasons or ‘books’ like the show. Fuelling
up the main villain of the season with juicy
wisdom and metaphors and providing lots of
opportunities for the players to engage with
the themes of that season in a way that would
all coalesce into a life-changing lesson for their
characters. The more experienced (or cynical)
GMs may already see where this is going but for
once, I’m not going to place the blame at the
feet of those jabbering mind vampires we call
players.
“Roll to make it so”
Then what’s the problem? Well, there are a
few parts, the first being that unlike film and
television, RPGs are written linearly as the
characters experience them which means they
can’t know what’s going to come next and every
action has the potential for failure. This makes
it incredibly difficult to play characters like
Sherlock Holmes as the whole searching for
clues and making brilliant deductions becomes
“roll a dice and repeat what the GM tells you but
fall just right after a bit of wonderful roleplaying
it can feel more electrifying than any other
medium. Just don’t hold out for it to happen at
the right moment or in the right way as trying to
pin down the story of an RPG is like wrestling a
firehose in a snake pit.
When you watch a tv show, you are the
audience. When you play an RPG, you are the
writers and the actors, heck the whole studio
creating a story together as you play and there’s
no way of knowing where it’s going to go or
even where it should go. So, embrace that and
don’t worry about trying to perfectly recreate
Sherlock’s deductions or The Sopranos cut-to-
black total party kill. *

34 March 2022
 the independent shelf
We see if we can make the big score with this abstract drug-running simulator
oCaine is a bit silly. As
G hinted by its title, this design
combines the ancient game of
Go with a cocaine trafficking
setting that is both weird and
enthralling. It’s half abstract conflict with
heady token placement to establish your
cartel cells, and half economic management
as you build up infrastructure and turn your
large swathes of cash into coke so that you
may later turn it back into even larger piles
of money.
First time designer Richard Nguyen-
Marshall self-published this design in 2021.
It’s an odd melding of traditional, almost
old-school elements with a seemingly fresh
product that eschews the new normal of
crowdfunding and overproduced glitz.
There’s a real spark of creative energy here
that is expressed through play.
The goal is to race to one billion US
dollars. You start with a modest sum which
is used to build up your capabilities as
well as to procure drugs. You can buy or
sell cocaine cubes at each location on the
map, with the price being lower the farther
South you head, all the way to Bolivia. The
cost is of course higher the farther North
you go. This leads to a natural trafficking
pipeline of buying low and then shipping
drugs to Canada and the US in order to sell
for higher prices.
To move your shipments you must have
pieces in intervening regions. The map is
a bit garish and blocky, but it’s very easy
36 March 2022
GOCAINE
Words by Charlie Theel
to tell the distinct areas from one another.
This mechanism incentivizes you to spread
a little thin, dropping a piece in a series of
neighboring regions so you can ship efficiently
and sell for increased profits. But this exposes
you to the portion of the game utilizing Go.
The challenge is protecting yourself. If
one or more of your cells is completely
surrounded, all of your pieces are lost. This
can be devastating. In one play, I saw my
extremely profitable syndicate get taken down
at the knees, severing my connection to South
America and forcing a mid-game rebuild. It
was brutal.
Even more interesting is that this game
excels at higher player counts. In fact, I
wouldn’t play it with less than four as the
map is too open and the game lack’s teeth
with fewer participants. At 4-6 it’s much more
confrontational and wild. This is because
multiple players can gang up to surround
opponents. Turning Go into a multiplayer
affair is pretty radical and results in
unexpected power moves and frequent
negotiation. You could spend a turn
placing a piece, and then each of your five
opponents could then place one of theirs,
immediately capturing you. This requires a
tenuous dance of politicking and attempting
to appear a minor threat.
There’s also this wonderful thematic
element highlighting the futility of the
war on drugs. Players can occasionally
interdict, forcing the authorities to attempt
seizures. This relies on a roll of dice, adding
an element of randomness that heightens
tension but also undercuts the more
thoughtful and careful strategy at play. This
mechanism is necessary, however, as it
provides the primary influence for causing
players to weigh risk and reward in keeping
shipments smaller in size versus just
shipping huge fleets of cocaine.
The trade-off for all of this interaction and
conflict is a steep time commitment. While
you could certainly play to a lower threshold
than one billion dollars, the default format
will regularly require three hours of play.
Turns move quickly and there’s not a lot
of downtime, but the experience can grow
repetitive when stretched to its limit.
GoCaine is a gnarly design. It offers a
tabletop experience unlike anything else I’ve
seen. It may occasionally consternate and
it asks for quite a bit of a commitment in
terms of time, but it’s worth a contemplative
exploration due to its eccentric nature. *
tabletopgaming.co.uk
 GOLEM

TO LIFE
We discover the magic words powering the Essen
’21 hit, Golem
he golem is one of the most We last spoke to Virginio Gigli and Flamina

T enduring creatures of myth

Words by Christopher John Eggett
Photography by Henk Rolleman
and fantasy – with hundreds
if not thousands of different
interpretations, reimaginings,
and stories about the mud monster spread
throughout culture – it’s was only so long
before a board game would take the theme
and return to the source. While most uses of
the golem in media and literature are only
tangentially related – linking in to the core
concepts of a collective, protective, earth-or-
stone robot, powered by some form of holy
programming, but little else – today we’re
heading back to the Golem of Prague as
the spark point, for the big hit of Essen ’21,
Golem.
Brasini in 2020 about their huge hunter-
gatherer worker placement game Terramara
(with Antonio Tinto and Stefano Luperto under
the group name Acchittocca). Gigli had recently
gone full time as a board game designer, and
Brasini is working with board games as part of
educational exhibitions and lessons. The couple
have been together 21 years and making games
since 2001. This time however they’re joined
by Simone Luciani, probably best known for
collaborations with Daniele Tascini on Tzolk’in:
The Mayan Calendar and The Grand Austria
Hotel with Gigli, is now the lead designer of
Craino Creations. We got in touch with the
designers to talk about the magic words inside
their very own Golem.

38 March 2022
EASY COME, EASY GOLEM
“Golem is the most complex and richest game
we have ever created,” say the designers “it’s a
Eurogame based on the legend of the Prague
Golem of the 16th century. The players play as
Rabbis who create Golems to work for them.”
The story of the Golem of Prague – the most
noted version of the story – a Rabbi created
the creature from the clay of the river Vltava
and gave the creature life through Hebrew
incantations, giving it a piece of paper with
God’s name written on it, a shem. Apart from
being an early form of programming, the
golem was designed to protect the Jews of
Prague – who were persecuted by the Holy
Roman Empire.
“But the golems are not mere workers – the
more powerful they become, performing
ever stronger actions, the more difficult it is
to keep them under control, so often they
are forced to destroy them,” they continue.
Stories of golems going ‘haywire’ (as they are,
after all, proto-robots – early science fiction,
much like Shelly’s Frankenstein) come from
the original story too. The Rabbi intended to
remove the shem each Friday evening, for the
Golem to rest on the Sabbath. From there the
golem goes on a rampage, for a number of
reasons, before the shem is forcibly removed
from its jaw.
the development of the laboratory that
allows the creation of customized artifacts,
and the collection of arcane books and the
development of one’s own knowledge. The
different strategies are strongly intertwined
each other and it is possible to pursue them in
many different ways from game to game.”
Like previous entries from these designers
there’s an element of ‘commitment
to a plan’ – you’ve got to
work out the most
efficient way for
you to use
The board for Golem, is
reminiscent of a race track –
with different lanes to manage
throughout the game. Players have
golems on the board, as well as
students. When golems are ahead of
students, representing them getting out of
control, there’s a cost for the players.
The core strategies of the game are
explained by the designers, and for those
familiar with Grand Austria Hotel there’s a
simple starting point, “the action selection
mechanics are reminiscent of Grand Austria
Hotel, integrated with a choice per round
of an exclusive special action. It’s about
creating golems and their specialization,
tabletopgaming.co.uk 39
 GOLEM
...the game, like the legend, tells of
humanity’s attempt to control
and manage matter and reality...
your golems, students, and rabbi without the
cost being unreasonable. It’s designed to create
multiple interesting points of friction for players
through its multi-layered action system.
It’s is a complex and rewarding game.
Players use marble selection to take actions –
firstly this choice will advance students along
the same tracks as the golems, indicating
the potential earnings depending on how far
down they row they are. Next, the marbles will
indicate an action printed next to them on the
board – this might also suggest a reward, like
gold, equal to the number of marbles in the
row before the action was taken. There’s an
option to pass here too giving you additional
turns at the end of the action round, after the
marbles are re-rolled in the synagogue roller.
Those marbles are also used to match the
global bonus action colours, and all of this
happens in the context of a shifting action
board that you can place your rabbi meeple
on. It’s less a game of planning, but being able
to interface
This is all to say, there’s a lot going on in
the designers’ attempts to make the central
metaphor of the game gel, “the game, like the
legend, tells of humanity’s attempt to control
and manage matter and reality, clashing with
the difficulty of not being overwhelmed by
what we ourselves create,” say the designers,
“it was not easy to render this element in the
mechanics, as you can see from how many
factors regulate the movement of the golems,
but we are very satisfied with the final result.”
40 March 2022
Satisfaction also comes with the
physical rendering of the game, “marbles
have a different ‘material appeal’ from dice,”
say the designers, “as they are stones which
are also used for the Golem eyes on the board.
They also allowed us to choose the ideal
quantity of actions – five instead of six – and to
represent the synagogue.”
One of the threats the game has for players
is that Golems will lose control, and then have
to be dealt with. There’s really only a couple
of ways to do that, and one involves a hammer.
“If the golems reach excessive ‘power’, the
rabbis risk losing their control. In this case
they can try to manage them, momentarily,
through an expenditure of arcane knowledge
or they can find the way to kill them. If they
fail to do so in any of these ways, the golems
go mad and cause the owner to lose several
victory points,” say the designers, “during
development we tried different forms of
damage that the Golems could cause, but
the risk that a player in difficulty would be
punished even more by losing resources
or part of his structure, led us to opt for a
solution that, while reducing the possibilities
of victory, does not act on the tactical and
strategic possibilities for the rest of the game.”
Which is lucky for players – as building
structures is fundamental to winning the
game, the previous version would simply be
too brutal.
“The structure that players build grows
a lot in the game, so much that we decided
stick to four rounds, which may seem few in
the first games, when you would like to do
more, but by acquiring more knowledge of
the mechanics, the overall development of the
engine is correct with this time.”
Adding books, for scholarship, creates a
little tableau where previously collected books
also activate when the last one is added.
Golems can be built on your player board,
this is an expensive action, but gives them
new abilities. Artifacts on the other hand offer
similar customisation at a lower cost.
All of this comes together in what might be
one of the most anticipated “heavy Euros” of
the year.
WHAT’S NEXT?
With Essen now a distant memory, with Golem
releasing later in the year, we turn to the
horizon. For Gigli, a new, charming sounding
game from Pegasus Spiele (with Gabriele
Ausiello) is taking off, “it’s a family game in
which the players command gangs of rats that
try to build a rocket to reach the moon, which,
as it is known, is made of cheese…”
With Acchittocca, a new game from Sinister
Fish brings an exciting look at the ‘commitment
conundrum’ found at the heart of many of their
games. Wizards & Co is a game of attempting
to claim the best treasures in a dungeon (or
selection of dungeon rooms) using majority
rule and occasional bad manners.
For Simone Luciani, the next big release is
Anunnaki, “it’s a game that I designed with
Danilo Sabia (Wendake), and it’s my first
exploration into the world of 4X. It’s a really big
game, with miniatures, epic theme, exploration
and fight, but with a strong Euro core.”
Beyond this, Luciani returns to a design
partnership with Daniele Tascini for
Tiletum, a renaissance-age dice drafting and
management game. *
One new venue, two days
and hundreds of games!

A CELEBRATION OF BOARD GAMES, RPGS, CARD

GAMES AND MINIATURES ALL UNDER ONE ROOF!

BUY TICKETS AND

FIND OUT MORE HERE:
ttgami.ng/ttgl2022
Sponsored by
 BL A ZON
BADGE OF
HON UR
We remix heraldry in the curious puzzler that is… Blazon
eraldry is a core part of the
H allure of the smudged time
period of the knightly middle
ages. Nobles and knights
would have a crest that
somehow depicts their family, their values,
their deeds. It might be added to over the
years, or burned from all but the most lost
history books when a new king took favour.
Or so we imagine anyway. The truth about
these ‘fancy shields for knights’ is probably
much less romantic.
Blazon, a new game coming to store in
autumn this year after funding to the tune of
$70,000 on Kickstarter, is a game that dives
directly into the fascinating world of making
blazons – the real name for the fancy shields
mentioned above. Dave Conklin is the first-
time games designer behind the project being
published by 25th Century Games.
“I’ve been an active gamer since I was
young and have always wanted to publish one
of my own creations. I am so excited to get
this game into people’s hands. You probably
have never heard of me, but hopefully that will
change after this game,” says Conklin by way of
introducing himself.
Blazon is a card-drafting, tableau building
game with a puzzly heart, “what makes
it unique is the theme of heraldry. For
those who don’t know, heraldry is an art
and science developed during the Middle
Ages by which coats of arms are devised,
described, and regulated,” explains Conklin,
“even in modern times, you see the impact
of heraldry everywhere you look. Businesses,
municipalities, heads of state, and private
citizens can all display a coat of arms.”
42 March 2022
Heraldry is its own language, the
designer explains, “most people don’t
realize heraldry has its own vocabulary,
grammar, and syntax.”
Conklin’s own introduction to the hobby
of heraldry was through his children’s
homework, “I first discovered it years ago
when we did a unit study on Medieval times
with our kids. We studied heraldry, armory,
chivalry, genealogy, and other related topics.
I kept pretty extensive notes and found myself
researching and learning more about heraldry
over the years until it dawned on me that I
could make a game about it.”
Words by Christopher John Eggett
“It has been a challenge and a constant
give-and-take to find the right balance of
being true to the source material while also
providing a fun gaming experience,” says the
designer. The game has resulted in a light and
ultimately charming format that plays with the
fundamental building blocks of heraldry.
“The gameplay is very straightforward. Each
turn you are either taking an ‘acquire’ action
to collect cards or a ‘blazon’ action to place
the cards on your shield board,” explains the
designer, “what makes it a challenging puzzle
are the constraints around card placement
and the resulting decisions about what cards
to ‘pay to play’. There are many ways to score
points by either playing high point cards,
claiming public goals, racing to be the first
to milestones, or end-game set collection
majority bonuses. Throw in some rule
breaking actions and catchup mechanisms
and you have quite a few fun decisions to
make each turn.”
Winning is a matter of scoring the most
points for your card placements, “the end
game is triggered in a few different ways,” says
Conklin, “either someone fills all the spots on
their shield, passes 50 points, or claims their
final Distinction – which is a ‘public goal’. After
that, all other players have one more turn
and then final bonus points are tallied. Even
though the one person with the most points
is the winner, everybody walks away with a
unique creation. So really, everyone wins.”
BLAZON GLORY
Most players will, when they get the game
to the table, spend the first five minutes
just mucking about with the cards,
 attempting to make a blazon that
appeals to them. But how do we do that in the
constraints of the game?
“The core thematic idea is that the cards
you are placing on your shield board are
building a ‘blazon’ which is the verbal
description of a coat of arms,” explains
Conklin, “each card has its name on the
card and when you read the names top-to-
bottom, left-to-right, you technically have a
legitimate blazon.”
“If you want, this can be drawn –
emblazoned – to become an actual visual
coat of arms. During the game, you may not
be thinking of the aesthetics of your shield
since you’re focusing on scoring points, but
it is nice to admire your achievement at the
end and you may just decide to use it as a
starting place for creating your own
personal arms.”
We asked the designer whether anyone was in
danger of learning something about heraldry.
“I hope so,” he
says, “this has been a
labour of love to merge
my two favourite hobbies
of game design and heraldry. This is not a
‘pasted on’ theme, but instead a quick yet
accurate introduction to the discipline. The
rulebook has several sidebars with historical
context and additional material to explain
the terminology. By the end of your first
game you’ll have been exposed to a lot
of material and will be using words and
understanding concepts you wouldn’t have
just 45 minutes earlier.
“My hope is that some people who play
it will be inspired to investigate further
and discover a whole new world on this
fascinating topic.”
The lightness
of the game places
it alongside some
downright classics – that
appealing space just beyond
gateway and family-weight games.
“Some folks have described it as
‘Sagrada with cards’ so if you like tableau
builders, I think this will fit in nicely
with your collection,” says Conklin,
“I would describe it as ‘gateway plus’
as far as its weight, but anyone should be
able to understand and enjoy it with a brief
walkthrough so it would fit nicely in a casual
collection as well.”
Conklin is partial to the ‘gameschooling’
movement, where parents and educators use
games as part of the curriculum and daily
learning activities, so there’s a natural fit with
the historical context of Blazon. With that,
we’re already looking forward to history class
later this year. *
tabletopgaming.co.uk 43
 ALPHA ANTAGONIST
DESERVES A BETRAYAL
Each month our in-house agony aunt, Ben Maddox,
answers your ludological lamentations
Words by Ben Maddox
Q. Oh Great Sage,
I am not inquisitive by nature. It has been proven again and
again that asking too many questions gets you in trouble. I am
blissfully ignorant of most things and content in my ignorance.
Still, I feel compelled to ask one thing of you.
What is the purpose of this society?
Are we simply beasts of the savannah? Devouring those that
are weaker than ourselves and being devoured in turn by those
that are stronger? Or have we constructed the great edifice of our
society to protect those that are weaker
so that the intellect and the delicate
spirit of the artist can flourish? I ask
this because I subscribe to the latter. I
see civilisation as a bulwark against the
caprices of nature where meritocracy
can burgeon safe from the tyranny of
will alone.
Try arguing that in my game group
though and see where it gets you. We
are, by in large, an amiable lot. Rotund,
middle aged and replete with the joys
that only mature cheese and craft ales can
bestow. We have settled on the downward
slope of life, content and happy that we have found each other.
Unless Derek brings a bloody co-op.
Derek is a delightful little man with a winning smile and a
pate so shiny that on a sunny day he’s a danger to shipping but
put down a co-op in front of him he transforms.
Like a werewolf bathed in the rays of the moon, when the box
of a co-op is cracked this meek, middle manager is transmogrified
into a slavering beast.
It is pure Spielanthropy.
He grabs people’s pieces. He does their turns for them. He
barracks and complains. He mumbles under his breath and turns
his eyes to the heavens. And the advice! The endless ‘friendly’
advice. He once told me that, “if you don’t want to look like a
stupid moron,” I should do exactly what he said.
People have started to throw sickies when it’s Derek’s turn
to pick a game and the lower numbers just give Derek a greater
opportunity to be controlling.
Please help me before our mid-life ludological idyll is shattered
and I’m forced to watch sodding Tipping Point on a Thursday night.
Yours,
Frazzled in Colchester
44 March 2022
A. Dearest Frazzled,
Oh! How your evocation of the savannah has turned my thoughts
to nature and how impotent we are against its magisterial power. So
much so I rearranged all of the tins in my weekend bunker so their
labels look like a rainbow!
There are those whose lives are ones of subjugation and
frustration. Who are forced to smile when they should cry and laugh
when they should scream. It is only when they feel truly comfortable
that they are able to be themselves.
You should take Derek’s behaviour as a compliment. He must
feel able to be himself around you. Though I understand how
frustrating this must be.
I would recommend taking one of the following two options.
Your first option is to take Derek’s fragile ego into your
hornéd hands and mercilessly crush it.
Simply prorogue his choosing privileges until he promises to
be a good boy and shut his mouth. Put him firmly in his place and
turn game night into an extension of his office.
Or you could choose a more humane tactic.
Point him in the direction of games that seek
to obscure the alpha issue.
Spirit Island is a game of such depth and
complexity that he will be far too engrossed
in his own player board to tell others what
to do.
Betrayal Legacy is a co-op with a twist.
Players start off cooperating but one of
you will turn traitor halfway through. No doubt
Derek will have no desire to feather the nest of his
potential enemies and so will restrain the advice.
Me? I would rip off my shirt Hulk Hogan style an intimidate
him with a show of strength as soon as he walks through the door
but, as most don’t possess my leonine fortitude, I would go with the
second option.
With ludological love.
Seeking guidance?
Have you got a gaming problem? Want Ben to dish out some
ludological wisdom in your direction? Get in touch. Contact
with Ben on Twitter @5games4doomsday or email the editor at
christopher.eggett@warnersgroup.co.uk and we’ll publish, and
answer, the most amusing problems.
tabletopgaming.co.uk
The journey continues...

Colt Super Express

Horses & Stagecoach expansion

Colt Express Big Box

Available at Your Friendly Local Board Game Store

 BOARD GAMES F OR YOUR E ARS
D N’T TOUCH
Words by Christopher John Eggett
odcasts remain one of the
P defining mediums of the age.
While everyone has been down
a YouTube rabbit hole, usually to
nowhere good, podcasts inhabit
the parts of our lives when we’re doing
something else. Running, driving, cooking
are the usual settings – and we do this
because we hope that we can just squeeze a
little bit more of what we love into our daily
lives. With that, here’s our favourites…
TABLETOP GAMING
MAGAZINE PODCAST
Look, we couldn’t avoid mentioning
ourselves. With new episodes released
every other week we talk to the designers
you love about their games, and get
into the weeds on the strangest parts of
gaming culture. We usually take a deep
dive into a subject with a designer or
hobby luminary, and then get their top
five games on the subject. Otherwise
we talk about our favourite games from
upcoming issues of the magazine.
Tune in.
ttgami.ng/Podcast
46 March 2022
FIVE GAMES FOR
DOOMSDAY
It’s the end of the world, and in your attempt to
flee to the cabin in the woods, you’re only able
to grab five of your favourite games – but which
are they? Ben Maddox, our very own agony
aunt, talks to designers about their favourite
games, and gets their gaming life story through
the games that they love. Plus, there’s battle
reports and solo actual plays of indie solo RPGs
– the latter especially entertaining as Ben puts
his professional acting skills into play.
fivegamesfordoomsday.com/
SHUT UP & SIT DOWN
PODCAST
If you know the crew from Shut Up & Sit Down
mostly from their YouTube videos, then this
is like getting to see all the B-roll. Or maybe
DVD extras and director’s commentary.
Entertaining and witty as ever, there’s space
for bigger discussions here as members of
the team come together to talk about recently
played games. This also allows for enough
space to talk about smaller games and find
interesting points of discussion between the
hosts.
www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/
POLYHEDRON COLLIDER
Very much the official ‘board gaming lads’
podcast. Once the DIY and recent trips to
Dunelm are covered, the discussion moves
on to recent plays and recently backed games
(usually at the ‘all in’ level). Incisive as it is
hilarious, the crew talk frankly about their
board games experiences – usually from a
position of having played something to death.
For truly excellent recommendations and
straightforward dismissals there’s fewer clear-
cut podcasts out there. Equally, if you enjoy
exploring the minutiae of hobby staples like
awful box design, or bad rulebooks, there’s
plenty of that too.
www.polyhedroncollider.com/
BRAINWAVES (FROM THE
GIANT BRAIN)
Our favourite news and gossip podcast in
the hobby. With high production values and
a straight-talking approach to the news of
the day, this is a great way to get your fill of
the stories and scandals from the hobby.
Iain and Jamie offer amusing insight in a
THAT DIAL
We round up our
favourite board games
podcasts from across
the world

THE LOST BAY idea fully interrogated, this is the podcast for
Iko provides us with incisive interviews you. The show is personal and intimate in its
with indie roleplaying game designers and narrated style, with only the most key parts of
strikes out at the heart of the community the conversation served up for your listening
around zines, small press games, and other pleasure. Each episode is only around 20
ephemera. If you, like me, enjoy being ‘sold’ minutes long, an ideal coffee-break listens.
on an RPG by hearing a one-line pitch of a thelostbayrpg.blogspot.com/
searingly brilliant idea – and then have that
PRODUCING FUN
James Naylor, designer of the boom and bust
property speculation game Magnate, gives us
an insight into the weird world of board game
production through a series of interviews with
key players at the coalface of the industry.
Turning his knowledge of product management
no-holds barred apparoach to some of the into a key to unlock important question in the
worst excesses that the hobby throws up – and industry. Want to know how minis get made?
sometimes there’s even good news. On top Adding solo modes to already existing games?
of this there’s the odd game overview to keep Or running a games café? Naylor leaps in to find
things nicely rounded. We highly recommend the threads which hold the industry together.
the discord too, if you like to keep abreast of anchor.fm/naylorgames
the latest twitter meltdowns and suspicious
corporate moves.
giantbrain.co.uk/podcast/

ACTUAL PLAY PODCASTS

While there’s plenty of scope to hear groups of hobbyists talking about their favourite games, sometimes
it’s best just to hear people play. Here’s a few stand-out actual play roleplaying game podcasts.
HOW WE ROLL DIMENSION 20 THE LOST MOUNTAINS
After many years of playing Dimension 20 sees a cast of intrepid While currently on hiatus, the
Call of Cthulhu and Dungeons heroes led by game master Brennan ladies-only Vaesen podcast
& Dragons, we’ve grown to Lee Mulligan in an actual play series. offers a dramatic and humorous
consider the international cast You might decide to drop into Fantasy High, look at trying to not get
of the show’s character’s good friends. The with students heading to Aguefort Adventuring mislead by the various mythical
most recent set of Call of Cthulhu scenarios Academy and investigating missing students. creatures of the north. A
from the Flotsam & Jetsam are the perfect Perhaps you’d prefer the Unsleeping City, a Neil surprisingly deep and affecting story is told
mix of chaos and laughs that How We Roll are Gaimen-esque adventure mixing magic into the by GM Ellinor Dilorenzo, Sydney Amanuel
best at delivering (including a standout Canadian everyday in modern day New York (where of and Annie Richmond which will have you
Grandma performance from Camille Brouad). course, Sondheim couldn’t be kept away). With a rooting for a handful of dice unlike almost
GM’d in good humour by Scott Dorwood and paid subscription, you can even then watch more anything else. For those looking for a flavour
with running jokes including the protagonists GMs in more settings, from Hogwartsesque of what Vaesen can offer in both silliness and
asking people if they’ve heard of their magazine adventuring (GOAT HOUSE, anyone?), to monster emotional depth there’s no better storyline to
(who knows why I identify with this so much…) colleges, to hearing from the original seven jump into.
there’s little better for a bit of cosy madness. kidnapped in series one, and more. lostmountainsaga.com/
howwerollpodcast.com/ ttgami.ng/35WShyl

tabletopgaming.co.uk 47
COMING IN MARCH
© 2018 Realms Distribution, all rights reserved.
 E N C A P S U L AT E 2 0 0 3

2003
03
As we edge closer
and closer to the
MARK
ROSEWATER
BECOMES HEAD
OF MAGIC
Second Golden Age It’s impossible to deny
of Board Games, we that outside of the game’s
creator Richard Garfield,
remember those there’s no other person
who’s done more for Magic:
pioneers that made it The Gathering than Mark
Rosewater.
possible. After joining the company
in 1996, designing cards and
Words by Matthew Vernall helping establish the “pro
tour” competitive scene, it
e’re now a third of made perfect sense for him

W the way through

our journey and
it’s amazing
to see how far
tabletop gaming has come! Yes, there
were even more CCGs clamouring
for attention in 2003, but we also had
major releases across various genres,
showing the rapid increase in games
being designed ensured that everyone
would find something new and
exciting to enjoy.
to take over as head designer
when Bill Rose was promoted
to vice-president of Wizards
of the Coast.
With the longest tenure
of anyone as Head Magic
Designer, Rosewater has
played a role in developing
and releasing some of the
most popular sets ever
released, including the
original Ravnica, Zendikar
and Innistrad sets to name
a few. In addition to a very
impressive list of credits,
Rosewater is also well
known for being highly
communicative with fans,
from his weekly Making
Magic web articles to his
Tumblr Q&A Blogatog, which
currently stands at over
8700 pages with over 10,000
questions answered.
Out of the countless
millions of players who’ve
ever tapped lands to cast
spells, it’s hard to find anyone
who loves and cares about
this game more than MaRo
himself.
GAME OF
THRONES
BOARD
GAME
With the book series
riding high on its
award-winning
third instalment and
Fantasy Flight Games also in the midst of success from a run
of well received new titles, their combination created one of
the most notorious war games in all of tabletop gaming.
Designed by company founder Christian T. Petersen and
designer Kevin Wilson, the game is set during the events
of the 2nd and 3rd books, as Westeros explodes into war
with everyone attempting to snatch the Iron Throne. The
game puts players in charge of a noble house, spending
each round secretly placing an order token in every region
they control, letting players set up surprise invasions and
insidious betrayals. Combats are fast and brutal, with each
faction having their own unique cast of characters that can
influence the battle.
For fans of the books it was a superb way to recreate the
events in how they see fit, letting players see how well they
could survive in the duplicitous landscape of Westeros,
though the game has garnered a reputation for infuriating
players caught on the wrong side of a betrayal. The game
swept the Origins Awards for that year and received several
expansions, as well as a second edition release in 2011.

50 March 2022

HEY,
THAT’S MY
FISH!
From a complicated wargame for
experienced players to a wildly fast
and frantic game for families and
first timers, Hey, That’s My Fish!
is a whimsical game of penguins
sliding across ice to grab fish and
avoid taking a splash.
Each turn players will choose
a hex found in a straight line
from any direction based on their
current position, removing the
hex they leave to score points. If
in a later turn a penguin cannot
reach a hex without going over a
gap, they fall into the icy depths. As
each player possesses a posse of
penguins, success comes to those
who not only slide around for the
greatest bounties of fish, but who
can position their penguins to block
off opponents and slowly whittle
down their waddling options.
In some ways the game feels like
a 21st century refresh of Ludo, with
its randomized hexagonal board
and dice-less play complimenting
the original’s delight in managing to
inadvertently (or wholly calculated)
sabotaging opponents as your force
their penguins off the board.
Still available today (now being
published by Fantasy Flight,
complete with dinky plastic
penguin miniatures), nominated
for Spiel Des Jahres 2006 and with
fans across the globe, sometimes
snatching sardines away whilst
your friend slides off into the drink
is all a games needs to be.
We’ve had a few major releases in the early years of the 21st Century, but 2004 is when we see the biggest explosion of classics yet! All aboard!
ALHAMBRA
After Carcassonne’s success at
reinventing tile-laying games
and Puerto Rico’s superb trade
commodity system, we have Spiel
Des Jaheres winner Alhambra,
a game that delivers an fantastic
gaming fusion of both.
Created by German game
designer Dirk Henn, Alhambra tasks
players with building the eponymous
palace, which each player aiming to
have the most buildings in any of the
six colours, with each colour scoring
different points.
Players take one of three actions
on a turn to either collect money,
buy buildings or swap buildings
from their reserve or structure,
with the challenge coming from
not only assembling your palace
but making sure you have the right
currency to buy what you want.
This “pick from a few actions”
structure would become massively
influential in gaming, which was
certainly popularised by this
game’s success. To date, Alhambra
has had five expansions, two
spiritual sequels titled “Granada”
and “New York” as well as a spin-
off roll and write game, whilst the
game’s title and imagery were used
to remaster a previously released
card game about fiddling for
exact change “Stimmt so!” (or as
it roughly translates, “the amount
is correct like that,” so can’t fault
them for making a snappier title.)
WARMACHINE
The rise of the miniature gaming scene saw another
competitor throw its hat into the ring, as the RPG company
Privateer Press released the ingenious steampunk wargame
system, Warmachine.
Set in the same Iron Kingdoms setting created for the
company’s first release, the D20 system campaign “The
Witchfire Trilogy,” Warmachine see’s players fielding an
elite warrior-wizard known as a Warcaster, who’s capable of
manipulating huge mechanical machines called Warjacks,
used for fighting and defeating other Warcasters. The object
of the game is to eliminate the opponent’s Warcaster, making
them similar to the King in chess, with players alternating
turns to move, shoot and melee their way through the enemy.
Each Warcaster can gather focus, magical energy used
to cast spells and empower allies, with careful attention
needed to make sure focus is used effectively. Unlike its RPG
predecessor, the game uses a D6 system similar to other
miniature wargames, with many comparisons between
this system and those of Game Workshop’s Warhammer
franchises being drawn. However, instead of charging players
hundreds of pounds to field swathes of models for standard
play, Warmachine armies are comparatively svelte, with a
single Warjack capable of taking a pummelling that would
wipe out a squad of Space Marines, tracked using the game’s
wipeable damage grids and tracks, which are also used to
track things such as damaged weapons systems.
The game launched with four playable factions, adding
a fifth in 2009, as well as an entire game system for fielding
monstrous creatures called Hordes in 2006, with both
systems designed to work with one another.
The system was awarded by Origins Awards for “Best
Fantasy Miniatures Game” in 2003 and won “Game of the
Year” in 2005. Now in its 19th year, the system continues
to be supported, with thousands of Warcasters around the
world still battling for supremacy in the Iron Kingdoms.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 51
 S T UDIO PROFILE: T RICK OR T RE AT S T UDIOS

ALL HALLOWS
EVE t’s Halloween. The
We talk to a studio making almost exclusively spooky
themed games and ask – who is that behind the mask?
Words by Christopher John Eggett

I doorbell rings. And then,

depending on which side
of the Atlantic you’re on,
you do one of two things.
If you’re in the US you go
to the door and provide the
children who have made it
through your front lawn – now
a suburban plastic graveyard
– with a huge amount of sugar
and comment on how good the
costumes are. In the UK, you say
something like “oh no, we forgot,”
and quickly turn the lights off, pretending you’re
not home.
Okay, it’s not that cut and dried, but
the frivolities of the American Halloween
Experience™, as brought to you by TV at least,
seem like an exciting event that we’ve just
not invited ourselves to this side of the pond.
Which is why a company like Trick or Treat
studios couldn’t have the same incredible

52 March 2022
ALL
THE TIME
success in the same way here. A company that
started out in the, frankly unsettling, world of
Halloween masks wouldn’t be able to make
the full-bodied leap into the world of hobby
gaming. We sat down with Chris Zephro – one
of the co-founders of Trick or Treat studios –
to discuss the company, and their bright and
gory future in the hobby.
Like many great stories, it starts with a URL,
“Trick or Treat Studios?” says Zephro, when
we ask about the company’s name, “Justin
and I just thought it was a cool name for our
company, which in the beginning had a very
strong focus on Halloween and to our shock
and amazement, the URL was available.”
WHEN THE RUBBER HITS
THE ROAD
“We wanted to start with masks because both
Justin and I were huge fans of monsters and
masks growing up as kids and we felt that
the mask industry was in a really sad state,”
says Zephro, “all of our favourite
mask companies were either out of
business or they moved all production
and design to China and the quality
and design integrity was terrible.
There was a big underground market
for masks and we thought that
the timing was good for a mask
company to offer masks to
the masses that focused on
quality and design.”
A quick visit to the
company’s website
takes you through
a whole world
of eerily real
horror creatures
and faces from
TV and film.
Michael Myers from go was
Halloween, the Pig written from
from Amityville and, the beginning and
we haven’t deviated from that plan.”
We asked what the weirdest thing the studio
sells, “that depends what you consider weird,
believe me, our definition is very different
from others,” says Zephro, “in terms of
introducing new horror based products that
have never been publicly available before, I’d
probably say our soap and wrapping paper
collections. Others would probably say the
one-to-one scale Dolls from the Child’s Play
franchise and Annabelle. The one to one scale
Freddy Gloves are pretty weird as well.”
er, We ask about how these surprisingly
Alice Cooper realistic masks are made, “they are 100%
happily line up in handmade from sculpt to paint. Latex masks
wonderful, rubbery cannot be made from machines, so everything
glory. is done with human hands and incredibly
“We started in latex talented artists who sculpt, cut, paint and hair
masks, that is for sure,” says all of our masks,” says Zephro, giving us a little
Zephro, “but now we consider insight into the craft of their products.
ourselves a Costumes and Which leads us back to gaming, with their
Collectables/Gaming lifelike Dungeons & Dragons masks, “we have
Company. The road map the license for both the game and the cartoon
for where we wanted to from the 80s,” says Zephro, “we started with
tabletopgaming.co.uk 53
 S T UDIO PROFILE: T RICK OR T RE AT S T UDIOS
the Beholder, the Mind Flayer and
Venger. We’re working on Drizzt now
and we’ll start on some classics from
the Monster Manual shortly like the Pit
Fiend and other classic monsters.” It’s
certainly an unexpected prop to bring
out the next time you’re running a Fifth
Edition game.
MASK OFF
“Tabletop games were always on plan,”
explains Zephro – a lifelong gamer with
a collection that is, recognisably for many
of us in the hobby “totally out of control.”
Once the path was set, it was simply a case
of making the most of a hobby that the team at
Trick or Treat Studios already loved.
“I attend GenCon virtually every year and
know the players and the industry inside and
out, so when the time was right, I reached out
to my favourite Designers and away we went,”
says Zephro.
Naturally these games are, in some way,
based on horror or horror-movie-adjacent
themes – but what makes the cut for Zephro?
“They absolutely have to be games that my
game group loves,” he says, “my group has been
the same group of folks for almost 45 years – we
know what’s good and what will sell.”
This sense of what’s good, also comes from
retail-savvy members of the group, “Mel Nash
and Frank Kaehler have and currently own
games stores for almost 50 years. As far as
themes, yes, we like a good horror, film noir
and monster-based fantasy game and that will
be consistent across what we offer for sure.”
You can see this in the announced games
from the studio. Blood Orders (reviewed p63)
sees you play disgraced vampires in a bluffing
and action programming game in the search
for fresh blood. Troll Fest is a Bruno Faidutti
designed fantasy rock band simulator with
card drafting, and the upcoming Creature
Feature from Richard Garfield sees you play
the agents of famous movie monsters in a
golden age trick taking game. These are, you
may have notices, not small names and with a
clear design focus.
What is the ‘manifesto’ of the studio, we
ask, “bring cool monster focused games to
the market that feature amazing artists and
my favourite game developers. Just like Trick
or Treat Studios, if we wouldn’t have it in our
personal collections, we won’t make it,” says
Zephro.
SIDE ORDER OF BLOOD
Blood Orders is the first game released from
54 March 2022
the studio, we asked
about how it came
about, “it was
designed by my
friend and fellow
game group
member Nick
Badagliacca,” explains
Zephro, “we tested and
played it to death, hence it made
sense for it to be our first game out of
the gate. It features incredible artwork
by my friend and artist, David Hartman.
David’s sideshow monkey art is some of my
favourite and I’m not alone. Rob Zombie used
David in a ton of his projects including the
music videos for ‘American Witch’ and ‘Lords
of Salem’.”
Another title coming from the studio is the
amusing dexterity flicker World Z League, “I
asked David Gregg if he had any games he’d
like to publish and he mentioned a rubber
band game that had a Western theme. After
playing it, I thought retheming it to a post-
apocalyptic zombie theme would be cool as
well. David agreed and World Z League was
born. It was a huge hit at GenCon. And it
was great to see my favourite game reviewer
Tom Vassel having a blast with it,” says
Zephro, “who doesn’t want to fire rubber
bands at Zombies?”
The game is very much as it sounds, flick
rubber bands at zombies and try to survive.
It’s the kind of game that’ll see hard rotation
on some kitchen tables.
“I’m a big fan of David, he made a
wonderful deck
builder called
Night Fall. In
fact, every
time I played
it, I thought the
Universal Classic
Monsters would be a
great theme for the game, so
I reached out to David and
asked him if he would do a
game based on his Chainmaster
mechanic if I got the license to the
Universal Classic Monster,” says Zephro,
“The answer was yes and that game should be
coming out in towards the end of 2022 with
artwork by Daniel Horne”
In addition to all this, there’s a hidden
movement game coming from the studio, as
well as some other surprising entries.
The hidden movement game is
being designed by the great Emerson
Matsuuchi, and is based on the 1978
Halloween film.
“Banana Chan (Betrayal at Mystery
Mansion) is doing a Cooperative
Game based on the Child’s Play
Franchise and Happy Death
Day. And Scott Rogers (recently
of Alien: Fate of the Nostromo) is
doing a cooperative game based
on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,”
continues Zephro, “by the way, I’d
be remiss if I didn’t mention a game
we’re doing based on an original IP,
LA-1 by Richard Launius. Think Arkham
 away. And like all of our games, we feature
artists who are legends in the horror world,
but have never done tabletop games before.”
For a fledgling company (in terms of
releases, if not their own engament) we had to
ask, how did they get so many big names on
so quickly.
“You’d be surprised how many designers
will come on board if you just ask,” says
Zephro, “I’m sure it didn’t hurt that we had
the engine of Trick or Treat Studios behind
us and that we offered a very generous
designer agreement. We always take care of
our artists, sculptors and designers, as they
are the lifeblood of our company. Also, our
licensed games are really good and the IP are
key elements of the designs, not just pasted
on themes.”
We ask, as always, what’s next – to which
Zephro replies, “we’ve only just begun!” **
Horror meets Blade Runner. It’s everything
I wanted Arkham Horror to be and in a very
cool dark post nuclear setting.”
If this dazzling list of designer names
doesn’t do it for you, then the upcoming
Reiner Knizia title should cement the
company as serious players in board game
publishing. We asked about the single
game, and were told there were two Knizia
games coming, “yes, two of them in fact. A
really fun family game with a sort of yahtzee
based mechanic called Zombie Mania and
a reskinning of a classic movie making
game called Nightmare Productions. The
art on both of these games is going
to blow people
TRICK OR TREAT
PARADE
Some of the upcoming titles from
the new horror-movie-themed
studio
BLOOD ORDERS
Two to four players battle it out in a
bluffing-meets-action programming
game (with a bit of light deck
building). Take control of locations,
turn new victims and collect
influence and – unsurprisingly – blood
to build your empire. With stunning vampire art
across the game this is a great place to start.
TROLL FEST
What if you did School of Rock, but
everyone was a fantasy monster?
Well, nearly everyone. Some
are fantasy people too. Manage
your rock band, hold concers and
arrange light shows in this Bruno
Faidutti game. Players will be collecting cards
so their performance is in perfect shape for the
festival at the end of the game.
CREATURE FEATURE
Richard Garfield of Magic: The
Gathering fame brings us a set
collection game, with a poker twist.
The game sees you play as the agent
of gold age movie monsters. Bluff your
way to landing the perfect lead role.
A straightforward game of collecting
Frankenstein’s monsters and making sure it
pays off for you.
WORLD Z LEAGUE
A party game night shoe-in,
although, as it’s a zombie game
there might be a decomposing leg
in that shoe. Flick elastic bands at
zombies in a hope to survive, or at
least bag enough to win the top prize
in the Zombie Shooting Association’s league.
As simple as it sounds, it’s very much one worth a
pop-shot.
ZOMBIE MANIA
Reinier Knizia arms us with dice
in the hope that this is all we need
to hold back the tide of zombies
pouring from the graveyard. In
a classic ‘reroll or stick’ system
players will be pushing their luck with the
undead. Get rid of the zombies first and you win,
while getting to keep your brains.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 55
PLAYED
58

67 72 78
58 THE ONE RING 70 MERCHANT’S COVE
59 WISE GUYS 71 NEOVILLE
60 GHOSTBUSTERS X MEN IN BLACK:
72 CHRONICLES OF AVEL
ECTO-TERRESTRIAL INVASION
61 LIVING FOREST 73 MICKEY’S FOOD FIGHT
62 THE DRAGON PRINCE: 74 RUINATION
BATTLECHARGED
75 SHINKANSEN: ZERO KEI
63 BLOOD ORDERS
76 CAPER: EUROPE
64 IN SEARCH OF PLANET X
65 CAESAR’S EMPIRE 77 WITCHSTONE
65 EXODUS 78 ROOT: THE ROLEPLAYING GAME
66 DOLLARS TO DONUTS 79 SHELFIE STACKER
67 CORAQUEST
80 NO HONOR AMONG THIEVES
68 CONQUEST OF PLANET EARTH
81 MISTBORN: HOUSE WAR
69 CUPHEAD: FAST ROLLING DICE
GAME 82 CURATORS

S H O U L D Y O U P L AY I T ? M U S T - P L AY | Y E S | M AY B E | N O

March 2022 tabletopgaming.co.uk 57

 P L AY E D
THE ONE RING:
SECOND EDITION
Rising heroes meet rising shadows
Designer: Francesco Nepitello | Publisher: Free League
apturing the spirit of Middle-
C earth in the confines of a
tabletop RPG was never going
to be an easy prospect but, though
some might stumble over its densely
packed rulings, Free League’s revised
version of The One Ring is perhaps the
best we’ve ever seen.
Much of this isn’t a simple matter
of good rules and pretty art – though
it has those in spades. Rather, it’s a
question of feel. Every turn of the page,
every roll of the die and every swing of
a blade feels distinctly Tolkein-esque.
In practical terms, this means that
the game is dense with lore and packed
with danger. There’s heavy emphasis
on journeying with new allies and
seeking council with the wise. Combat
is fast-paced but distinctly dangerous.
Magic lingers throughout the world but
its impact is subtle and slight.
The game throws its players into the
leather boots, elven slippers, and bare,
curly-haired feet of heroes in the land
of Eriador – a stretch of Shire-adjacent
wilderness stuffed with the legacy of
ancient kingdoms. Over the course
of a campaign, they’ll range far and
wide, uncovering new wonders and
battling lurking threats.
All these elements are handled by
a web of rules that lean to the more
complex side of middle-weight. Even
the core mechanic requires two
different types of custom dice, and
though the maths involved in working
58 March 2022
237 11+ £40
out target numbers and bonuses is
simple… it’s still maths. Things only
get more involved as you delve into
the various systems that handle the
heavy lifting.
Combat, for example, requires you
to keep track of combat proficiencies
and the protection rating of your
armour, and pick from four possible
battle stances each round. Traveling
involves assigning roles at camp,
tracking progress across a hex map,
and naming your baggage ponies.
This all combines to make a game
that requires a degree of thought
and contemplation to enjoy. It flows
beautifully once you get the hang
of it, but there’s certainly a learning
curve to overcome. Anyone expecting
to leap right in and pull off heroic
feats or indulge in fantastical comedy
shenanigans will be disappointed.
Where the first edition of The One
Ring was set in the optimistic times
just after the death of the great dragon
Smaug, this new version takes place a
couple of decades later. It is the time
just before the start of The Lord of the
Rings, at the twilight of the third age.
There is an underlying sense of
melancholy running throughout the
game. Evil is always rising and danger
is always just around the corner.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED FORBIDDEN LANDS
If you loved the art and style of Forbidden Lands but wanted slightly less
depraved murder, The One Ring might be up your alley
Even the heroes themselves are shot
through with desperation and dread,
and every calling – the closest thing the
game has to traditional classes – has
its own “shadow path” awaiting them
if they step from the light. Champions
might be called by vengeance, treasure
hunters by dragon-sickness.
This uneasy feeling is supported
by the rules themselves. The way that
the numbers fall means that new,
fresh-out-of-the-box heroes seriously
struggle with checks that fall out of
their wheelhouse. An elven archer
who has neglected their push-ups may
be physically incapable of passing an
athletics check without the aid of a
lucky critical or crucial Hope Points.
Still, The One Ring is still far from
being a moody, old-school, don’t-
name-your-character-’til-level-three
affair. You are still playing as heroes
after all, and rules assigning shadow
points for any dark deeds should keep
most parties from descending into
murderous mercenary tropes.
Rather, it’s a thoughtful, measured
game. It’s a game where you can’t
charge into legions of foes and expect
movie logic to kick in. It wants players
who can find joy in planning and
executing journeys. Ones where good
rolls are more likely to reward you with
a beautiful view of dawn dancing across
a forest than a pile of magical weapons.
Really, what this means is that – to
nobody’s real surprise – The One Ring
is likely to be enjoyed by the folks who
enjoy The Lord of the Rings. If you’ve
read The Silmarillion, you’ll love it.
If you’re still on the fence, it’s worth
noting that The One Ring is a beautiful
book. Some of this is thanks to the art;
delivered in simple black and white
sketches. The most important factor,
though, is the quality of the paper
and the heft of the book itself. The
One Ring is one of the few RPG books
that you can describe as a “tome”
without the barest shred of irony. For
some, this may be enough to make a
purchase worthwhile all by itself.
RICHARD JANSENPARKES
❚ PLAY IT? M U S T - P L A Y
A staggeringly beautiful adaptation of
Middle-earth
WISE GUYS
Gin, guns, and glamour
Designer: Phil Yates | Publisher: Gale Force Nine 90m 3-4 14+ £36

“I
’ve never seen so much cash
in my life.” Those were the
words I depressingly uttered
as my three year old son popped out
the hundred dollar tokens from the
punchboard. Indeed, my life is a far
cry from the romanticised drama and
excess of Chicago’s roaring twenties,
but at least Gale Force Nine are giving
me the opportunity to play out this
era of guns, glamour, and gangsters on
the tabletop.
on locations to hopefully reap their dangerous game of bluffing ensues,
benefits. More often than not though, as players clench an untold number WHAT’S IN
players will have to compete for of firearms within their fists before THE BOX?
control of a location before exploiting simultaneously revealing. Not ◗ 4 Clubhouse cards
its abilities. surprisingly, sneaking guns in to a fist- ◗ 4 Asset blinds
◗ 24 Location tiles
The whole system is driven by fight has consequences; regardless of
◗ 40 Roaring 20s
the use of action tokens, a number who wins or loses, each gun will land cards
of which being assigned each turn a member straight in the emergency ◗ Roaring 20s tile
depending on which particular gang room as well as lowering their ◗ 40 Gang member
it is and the number of members. standing at the black market. tokens
Aside from spending them on moving, A simple but integral part of Wise ◗ 33 Order tokens
exploiting locations, and initiating Guys’ genius are the Roaring Twenties ◗ 4 Clout tokens
◗ 189 Asset tokens
◗ Black market card
◗ 4 Dice

Wise Guys is an exciting new 2022
release for Gale Force Nine. Not only is
it a reworking of the oft overlooked but
nonetheless popular Sons of Anarchy:
Men of Mayhem, but it is also the
publisher’s debut non-licensed game.
Historically rooted in prohibition-era
Chicago, players will each control one
out of the four notorious rival gangs
vying for dominance across the city.
As they travel between often contested
locations, players will be trying to
secure the best deals for guns and liquor
before cashing in on the black market,
hoping to rake in the most dough after
the game’s six rounds.
Much like Sons of Anarchy, Wise
Guys is a masterful cross between area
control and worker placement. Each
gang will have a number of Made Men
and Associates, with more employable
along the way, who will be placed
fights, players can also choose to
activate gang specific abilities, employ
more Associates or upgrade them to
the more powerful Made Men. In a
nice change from Sons of Anarchy, the
strengths of individual gang members
can differ, with some excelling at
‘slugging’ and others boasting more
impressive stats when engaging with
the new ‘talking’ fights.
Despite boiling down to a simple
case of rolling a die and adding a
gang’s strength, combat evokes a
great amount tension through its
structure. Firstly, additional Orders
can be spent calling backup from
other locations, putting pressure
on the player initiating the fight to
observe exactly where the remainder
of their opponents’ members are
residing, and how many Order
tokens have been held back. Next, a
cards. These events can range from
having immediate or ongoing effects for
the round, to even providing temporary
additional locations. Brilliantly, these
cards do more than add a little flavour TRY THIS IF
to the game, introducing challenges, YOU LIKED
opportunities, and twists of fate that SONS OF
make each round feel unique and ANARCHY:
distinct like scenes from a film. MEN OF
Overall, Wise Guys is an excellent MAYHEM
revamping of a great system. Fans of For those not drawn
to the original’s
the original may lament on the use
license, Wise Guys’
of cardboard over cute plastic tokens broader theming
- but I sense a niche gap filling in the could prove ideal.
Etsy market as I write.
CHAD WILKINSON
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
A thrillingly interactive area control
game which succeeds at interspersing
moments of Ameritrash drama between
its more euro-styled strategic interludes.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 59
 P L AY E D
GHOSTBUSTERS X MEN IN BLACK:
ECTO-TERRESTRIAL INVASTION
Crossing of Streams
Designer: Jonathan Phillips-Bradford | Publisher: IDW Game
hen alien pirates crash-
W land in New York City and
steal psychokinetic energy
to transform people into deadly ecto-
terrestrials… who you gonna call?
Ghostbusters! And Men in Black! In a
team-up crossover we didn’t know
we needed, with the added cuteness
of being in a chibi-from, Men in Black
Agents and Ghostbusters are here to
save the city. It is a semi-cooperative
game, where each player selects one
member from each team to fight E.T.s
in either a campaign or skirmish
mode. All players will need to work
together to succeed in the scenario,
and similarly they will lose together
if they fail, but each individual team
also scores points based on how many
E.T.s they defeat or how well they
progress through scenario objectives,
earning the overachiever an employee
of the month badge.
In gameplay terms Ghostbusters
x Men in Black is, perhaps, the most
reminiscent of Zombicide. Players
navigate the gridded modular game
board, offering both exterior and
interior environments, fight the
ever-spawning E.T.s and interact
with various tokens on the map
to complete objectives. Unlike
Zombicide, where you can be
overwhelmed by the number of
zombies, rather than their individual
strengths, E.T.s are not so easily
dispatched. Even the non-boss E.T.s
can take a couple of hits and will
attack players if you get within their
range. To attack E.T.s, players will
60 March 2022
75m 1-4 14+ £125
WHAT’S IN need to spend batteries to charge their their plans constantly. The events
THE BOX? weapons and roll dice corresponding deck – the Hot Sheets – are full of
◗ 4 Ghostbusters to their weapon stats. If they roll (mostly) bad news and more E.T.s
character minis a symbol that matches the type of are always spawning from the
◗ 4 Men in Black E.T. they are attacking, they deal Ghostbusters’ headquarters. This is
character minis
one damage. For a potentially more the component that is the heart of the
◗ 28 Enemy minis
◗ 3 Boss minis fruitful attack, players can forgo all game: a dice tower that is made to
◗ 1 Firehouse dice other actions and perform a double- look like the Ghostbusters Firehouse
tower attack, called ‘Crossing the Streams’, or with horizontal pieces, representing
◗ 16 Tower dice team-up with other players (that is if the alien’s ship, slotted into it to hold
◗ 8 Hero dice they agree to help). dice in place. Every time a piece is
◗ 4 Player dashboards removed during the game (or the
◗ 1 Hot sheets / PKE tower is shaken, even if accidently by
levels dashboard
◗ 9 Double sided
game tiles
◗ 8 Hero cards
players bumping the table) some dice
are bound to roll out causing more
E.T.s to spawn, based on the die faces.
◗ 3 Boss cards The Firehouse, along with
◗ 5 Reference cards the artwork, character designs,
◗ 32 Gadget cards components and even a storybook
◗ 32 Hot sheets cards that is purely in the game to explain
+ 6 disastrous hot the beginning of the story, all do
sheets cards an amazing job of setting up the
◗ 8 Starting weapon mood. Unfortunately, Ghostbusters
cards
x Men in Black still suffers from the
◗ 30 Weapon cards
◗ 45 Equipment cards component clumsiness associated
◗ 252 Different tokens with games of this elk: there will be a
◗ 8 Base clips myriad of small cardboard pieces to
◗ 1 Story book E.T.s are constantly spawning and fiddle with and the damage markers
◗ 1 Slimer mini & getting in players’ way of completing are still annoyingly stacked next to
character card the objectives. Moreover, players can the enemy figures.
◗ 1 Louis Tully mini & also sabotage each other’s efforts – they These annoyances, however, do not
character card are competing after all – by playing manage to overwhelm the charm of
◗ 1 Janine Melnitz mini
special gadget cards. They, for example, the game. It is completely adorable,
& character card
◗ 1 Frank mini & can steal someone else’s batteries, perfectly hitting all the nostalgia notes
character card which can be especially frustrating that will make it a must-buy for the
◗ 1 Jeebs mini & since without them players can’t attack fans of either franchise. Ghostbusters
character card and, in all likelihood, will have to spend x Men in Black, however, has failed
◗ 1 The Worm Guys their next turn resting. That, as well as to iterate in any significant way from
mini & character card having to wait for other players’ turn the Zombicide formula, leaving those
◗ 1 Giant Staypuft of four actions, then events phase looking for exciting and innovative
Boss mini and then the E.T.s phase, sets a slow, gameplay searching still.
◗ 1 Giant Edgar the
plodding pace for the game. There are ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
Roach boss mini
◗ 6 Starting weapon opportunities to strategise and discuss
that can improve the passing of time,
cards
◗ 10 Boss deck cards but that only happens if players decide ❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
Adorable in its chibi form,
to work together. Ghostbusters x Men in Black delivers
Whether working together or not, a tough gameplay that feels too
players will need to be adapting reminiscent of other similar games.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED ZOMBICIDE
Ghostbusters x Men in Black is a bit more Zombicide, wrapped in humour of the
much beloved franchises.
 WHAT’S IN
THE BOX?
◗ 1 Circle of spirits
central board
◗ 4 Forest individual
boards
◗ 56 Starting
guardian animal
cards
◗ 51 Guardian animal
LIVING FOREST cards
◗ 23 Fire varan cards
◗ 4 Spirit of nature
Battle forest fires with the dead-eyed standees
stare of a porpoise ◗ Sacred tree standee
◗ 4 Starting
Designer: Aske Christiansen | Publisher: Ludonaute 40m 2-4 10+ £23 protective tree tiles
◗ 2 Protective tree
dispensers
or a lot of us, forests provide that to add to their deck, purchase and flexibility within its gameplay. In one

F
perfect place to escape from the
noise, stress, and claustrophobia
of urban modernity. Ancient,
mysterious, yet accessible to most,
these spots of wildness are the salve to
life’s more organised chaos – that is,
unless, they’re on fire.
Living Forest confidently thrusts
us within this devastating pairing of
fire and foliage, casting players as
Spirits of Nature willing to repel the
destructive flames of Onibi and save
the forest. Yet, despite a common
goal, only one spirit will succeed at
becoming Grand Protector.
There’s a fair bit of setup required
here for what, at first, seems like a
light, breezy game - particularly when
acknowledging the game’s enticingly
low price and approachable aesthetic.
Consequently though, Living Forest
presents an engrossing amalgamation
of push-your-luck and deck-building
that is perhaps more navigable for
players with some familiarity with
these mechanics.
Players will begin each game
with their own personal boards and
identical starting decks before blazing
on toward one of three game ending
win conditions – planting twelve
Protective Trees, collecting twelve
Sacred Flowers, or extinguishing
twelve fires. Along the way they will
enlist the help of Guardian Animals
place tree tiles on their board, and
gain bonus actions by manoeuvring
their spirit standee around the central
Circle of Spirits.
Unlike traditional deck builders,
Living Forest doesn’t restrict the
number of cards drawn each turn.
Instead, players will draw as many
cards as they please – forming what
is amusingly known as the Guardian
Animal Help Line – and are only
forced to stop once the third card
displaying a Solitary symbol is drawn.
There is a smart use of push-your-luck
here as stopping before that third
symbol is drawn rewards players with
two actions in the next phase instead
of the usual one.
The actions themselves are
dictated by the Help Line, with
players tallying up the totals of one
of the five symbols on their cards
and performing the relevant action.
Having a total of nine sun symbols for
example, will permit a player to buy
additional cards from the display up
to the value of nine, whilst six sapling
symbols allows for the purchase of
a single Protective Tree tile of value
six or less. Trees already planted
will also add their symbols to every
subsequent Help Line.
Living Forest spices up the often
repetitive process of deck-building
thanks to a refreshing sense of
◗ 58 Fire tiles
play-through I started out gearing ◗ 20 Fragment tiles
my deck toward a firefighting team ◗ 12 Victory tiles
of tortoises, beavers, and flamingos, ◗ Guardian animal
propped up by the irrigational powers board
◗ Fire varan board
of a few select trees. Soon though, I
◗ 39 Protective tree
realised I had propagated a canopy tiles
diverse enough to push me towards
an alternative win condition.
Furthermore, Living Forest’s
elements of deck-building never feel
overly solitary thanks to a clever system
that ties the number of cards taken
from the display directly to the amount
of fire added to the board each turn.
This simple design choice enhances
interaction and adds a touch of threat
and tension on top of the usual ‘Oh.
You took the card I wanted.’
Aside from the intelligent design
and engaging gameplay it has to be
noted that Apolline Etienne’s artwork
and particularly the card illustrations
are wonderful, falling under the same
TRY THIS IF
YOU LIKED
aesthetic – which I’ve personally EVERDELL
coined as ‘eco-whimsy’ – that Living Forest should
charmed players of Everdell, Meadow, scratch that same
and Photosynthesis. Although, and this nemophilist itch.
may just be me, I do find the glazed
and glowing eyes of each Guardian
Animal amusingly sinister.
CHAD WILKINSON
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
A gorgeous game and a clever design,
packed with engaging decisions.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 61
 P L AY E D
THE DRAGON PRINCE:
BATTLECHARGED
Xadia’s epic battles beckon
Designer: Johnny O’Neal | Publisher: Brotherwise Games
he epic fantasy world of Netflix’s
T The Dragon Prince animated
series tightly packs into a
neat box for a miniature skirmish
battle game, The Dragon Prince:
Battlecharged. This is not a game
that will remunerate on any plot
points or lore of the series, but simply
focus on some of the key characters
coming together for a good fight. In
a two-player game, each opponent
will choose two characters to play.
Whereas in larger games, some
players will play as teams while
controlling one or two characters.
The combat is entirely card based
(the dice included in the game are
only used as markers), with each
deck being uniquely specific to
the character it belongs to. Fans
of the show will instantly spot the
characters’ identifying traits and
stories captured in the cards’ abilities,
strengths, handicaps and even magic
uses. Each character plays very
differently and even though there are
only 16 cards in each deck, learning
how to best utilise their tool kit
will take a bit of practice. That only
exacerbates when you must mix the
decks of two characters together, as
you will have to learn two playstyles at
the same time and attempt to discover
62 March 2022
15-30m 2-6 10+ £40
ways in which the two decks could
synergise with each other.
The decks, despite their unique
nature, are quite flexible. They will
generally contain a couple of cards
that are very specific to the character
they belong to. These will have
abilities that may need a turn or so
WHAT’S IN to set up but will result in a satisfying
THE BOX? powerful move. There will also be
◗ 8 Hero miniatures some situation cards that several
◗ 6 Base rings characters could take advantage of, for
◗ 128 Action cards example if they use magic of the same
◗ 6 Energy dice type. Finally, there are some generic,
◗ 8 Hero cards all-purpose moves. While you will
◗ 3 Double-sided
always have something to do on your
battle maps
◗ 48 Health tokens turn, it may not be exactly the move
◗ 7 Victory tokens you hoped for. There are very limited
abilities to cycle through your deck, so
in most cases you must deal with what
you get. Sometimes that simply means
a less efficient turn, other times that
you can’t block incoming damage and
may be knocked out.
The luck of the draw can be quite
frustrating, especially when the rest of
the game is so geared towards strategy.
Positioning, for example, is another
key element of battle. The game comes
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED UNMATCHED
Just like Unmatched, The Dragon Prince offers an epic face-off between the
characters with unique cards and abilities.
with six different map environments.
Some are quite open allowing
characters to roam free, while others
offer tight spaces and obstacles, giving
players an opportunity to use range
and line of signs to their advantage.
The game also comes with optional
advanced rules for zone control and
line of sight if players want another
layer of challenge.
It is pretty impressive that for such
a compact game, The Dragon Prince:
Battlecharged actually packs a lot of
depth. You could spend quite a lot of
time trying out different combinations
of characters, testing them on
different maps and against different
opponents until you find that ultimate
combo that suits your playstyle.
At the same time, unless you are
a The Dragon Prince fan, this game
doesn’t offer anything that makes it
immediately stand out. Unmatched, for
example, covers a lot more franchises
while delivering a similar type of
gameplay. BattleCON or a UFS game
offer you more refined asymmetrical
character card combat. While The
Dragon Prince: Battlecharged has a
lot of potential, right now it feels like
it occupies a middle ground of being
an entirely functional card game but
with nothing, beyond its theme, that
immediately catches your eye. Maybe
with new characters or even new cards,
this can be changed.
ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
With surprising (for its size) deep
asymmetrical combat, The Dragon
Prince: Battlecharged does a great job
capturing the characters in the card
play, even if the overall gameplay lacks
some polish.
BLOOD ORDERS
Invite this one in
Designer: Nick Badagliacca | Publisher: Trick or Treat Studios 60-120m 2-4 13+ £55

lood Orders has no right to be you pay for (which is added to the risk more where you think you might

B as enjoyable as it is. The first

release from a studio only just
entering the hobby (p52 for more
about that), with a background only
tangentially related to ‘geek stuff’
doesn’t always go well. You’d expect
a cash in, but what we have here is
the first steps towards something that
might end up being great.
You and your fellow vampires are
disgraced, forced out of the ancient
fang club you once belonged to, and
are now starting anew in a fresh city.
You’ll be attempting to take control of
2 2
0
1 3
2
final column), and the final night slot
allows you to take the victim, and all
the accumulated influence and blood
have to contest a space with other
players. It’s got a slight giddiness to all
its interactions, while none of them WHAT’S IN
THE BOX?
tokens. This last column can only feel truly mean to any other players.
◗ Game board
be used by one player, which means The artwork of the game is a little ◗ 4 Player boards
the number of vampires bid earlier mixed, the board design is bold, ◗ 4 Player screens
matters. Players can also gain new but slightly utilitarian, whereas the ◗ 12 Order tokens
basic cards, or discard vampires from vampire design by David Hartman is ◗ 36 Location cards
their hand to buy rituals – which offer excellent – like a more active looking ◗ 36 Ritual cards
ongoing effects. Bloody Inn. This is the only kind of ◗ 114 Victim cards
After all that, the delicious decision complaint you’ll have throughout the ◗ 92 Blood tokens
of paying blood to retain vampires in game, the oddly ordered rulebook, ◗ 91 Influence tokens
◗ 56 Victory point
your hand, or having to discard them, but the actually really good rules, the
tokens
lack of variety of token cards, but the ◗ 4 Fear tracking
tokens
◗ 4 Fear tracking dice
NEW RECRUITS ◗ 1 Day/act marker
◗ 1 Start player
3 marker
1

THE MANSION

THE VAGRANT
CHOOSE A VICTIM IN ANY CITY
1 QUARTER BESIDES THIS ONE
TO GAIN 3 .
locations, scoop up victory points and
improve your coterie with new meat.
The board is a grid representing
three time periods, dawn, dusk and
night, and a number of locations.
Player secretly select the location
they want to try and activate behind
their screens, committing the number
of vampire cards in their hand that
match the required costs of the card
on the board. These are then revealed
and played out in a kind of action
programming, being added and
stacked in order in each section of
the city, with later tokens placed on
top. These are then resolved in that
reversed order, locations give you
bonus effects, humans have powers
I PLANNING PHASE, YOU MAY ADD A
I PLACING AN ORDER TOKEN.
adds another balancing act to what is,
already a series of interlocked gothic
see-saws. We’ve not even touched
on the fact that your cost for using a
card in each row is based on the fear
score of the location and victims in it,
or that there’s three acts of separate
cards, improving in power. All of this
comes together to give you a pleasing
power curve where not only can you
make big moves, you’re also having to
ONCE PER DAY, AT THE START OF THE
BLEEDER TO YOUR HAND WITHOUT
I TRY THIS IF
YOU LIKED
VAMPIRE: THE
surprising quality of humans to turn, MASQUERADE
the appearance of being easy, before
– RIVALS…
While Blood Orders
offering really hard choices. has nowhere near
At two players the game works, but the complexity of
it’s at higher player counts that it begins Rivals, the core loop
to really shine. The mix of programming of ‘grab humans
and bidding, with what amounts to a and block your
stacked ‘worker placement’ mechanic, opponents’ will
offers a really good mix of player appeal…
interactions and working on your own
plans. As such it’s a game worthy of
entry into most collections, if you can
gather enough undead.
CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
A strange beast that should be invited
in, given the chance.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 63
 P L AY E D
THE SEARCH FOR PLANET X
…Is there a finder’s fee?
Designer: Ben Rosset & Matthew O’Malley | Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
ne of the first things you see
O on opening a new copy of
The Search for Planet X is a
leaflet for the Planetary Society – a
non-profit organisation aimed at
“empowering the world’s citizens
to advance space science and
exploration”. Whether or not you’re
interested in visiting the website
listed, one thing is very clear: this is a
game that takes its theme seriously.
That theme is of the real-world
research into the hypothesised but
as-yet undetected Planet X on the
edge of our solar system, presented
as a competitive race between
players. You’ll be discovering this
potential planet (which is guaranteed
to exist in the game, if not reality)
using an app which provides the
results of your investigations and
your own logical deductions.
Since Planet X cannot be observed
directly, you must survey regions of
space for objects that can be seen,
such as asteroids and dwarf planets,
or research information from other
astrophysicists, represented as
additional logic rules. The only way to
finally pinpoint it is via applying the
logic rules of the game to the objects
you have found, emulating the idea of
64 March 2022
astrophysicists identifying an unseen
object through its gravitational impact
on other things nearby.
The game’s attachment to the
real subject continues into its
components, with player markers
provided as charming plastic minis
of real-life observatories, and the
WHAT’S IN player screens used to hide your
THE BOX? notes and deductions depicting
◗ Solar system board those observatories as well as a
◗ Earth board couple of data points about them.
◗ Wooden sun disc Unfortunately, the components also
◗ Pad of note sheets
relate to the first minor mark against
◗ 4 Player miniatures
◗ 4 Player screens the game – which is that there’s fairly
◗ 4 Expert mode few of them for the RRP of the game.
cards While the cost obviously covers the
◗ 48 Theory tokens app as well, it makes The Search for
◗ 8 Target tokens Planet X a little harder to recommend.
But components aren’t everything;
the real question is – how is it to play?
If you’re getting your deduction skills
warmed up already, the rating at
the end of this page will have been a
useful clue: it’s good, with caveats. The
logic puzzle is a challenging, satisfying
one to solve – especially when playing
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED … CLUEDO
The Search for Planet X ditches the classic’s dull roll-and-move elements while
rediscovering the pleasure of a deduction game where you see all the questions
but not all the answers.
60-75m 1-4 32+ £40
on the Expert side, which increases
the number of sectors the sky is split
into from 12 to 18 – and is driven by
smart logical steps fuelled by a little
luck in surveying the right sectors.
There’s also some pleasing player
interaction in the game as every action
you take is publicly announced, with
only the app’s answers kept secret.
Combined with the opportunity for
players to make claims on the non-
Planet X objects they think they’ve
found – sharing knowledge with
other players for VP – this can lead to
interesting second-level deductions,
guesswork, and bluffing. However, it’s
a subtle, optional form of interaction,
meaning the game doesn’t feel all that
different whether you play with three
others or the challenging-but-fair AI
opponent inbuilt in the app.
The app also offers the useful
option of providing players with
different amounts of starting
info, allowing for the option of a
handicap system if some players are
more experienced than others. But
experience can come with another
peril than just game balance: despite
the fact each game will have a fresh
setup to solve, doing so feels much the
same every time. With limited ways
to glean information, replayability
is dependent on enjoying solving
variants of that same puzzle.
Some may therefore feel that
after finding Planet X once or twice,
they don’t need to keep looking. For
players with a penchant for puzzle-
solving, though, it’ll be a delight to
immediately misplace it and begin
searching again.
SIMON CASTLE
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
A smart, surprisingly interactive puzzle
with lovely production values, although
a little pricy for what’s in the box and
the complexity of the app.
CAESER’S EMPIRE
Designer: Matthieu Podevin | Publisher: Holy Grail Games 30m 2-5 10+ £55

ll roads must lead to Rome, a city with gold gets taken the route

A and that’s our job here – we’re

laying tarmac across Europe
in the hope of appeasing Caeser’s
desire to put be able to walk be-
sandaled anywhere in his empire. Or
something. This is a classic network
builder where we take turns claiming
new cities for their hidden point
allocation, their treasure, and scoring
the route back to Rome.
It’s a light and quick game, even at
three players it only just clocks in at 20
minutes for a learning game – which
is to say that there’s not much to do
on the surface. Connect a new city
and count back the number of roads
(amusing looking marching romans
straight out of Asterix and Obelix),
and give points to everyone who
contributed part of the way back.
The treasure tokens go on to a
personal map, where they are scored
for the number of the same type, and
also the number of individual sets.
Gold gets its own track, and when
back to Rome gets double points
– even for your competitors. The
scoring feels like it should be more
meaningful because of the way the
board is laid out.
The main tactical fun of the game
comes from short circuiting others’
routes. As the scoring for a road must
always take the shortest route back to
Rome, adding in an annoying junction
can mean another player’s expansion
can be cut short, and redirected.
Equally, swooping in and taking the
treasure, which previously had the
potential of netting your opponent
a bunch of extra points for adding to
their set, is another kind of pleasing
interruption.
The scoring at the end can feel a bit
arbitrary, if only for the fact that the
city points can feel a bit random. It
does nothing for those of us who are might be a good way in.
quite used to network builders, but CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
for those who are maybe introducing
younger players to the hobby, then it ❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E

EXODUS
Designer: Jack Ford Morgan | Publisher: Monster Games 5-60m 1-5 8+ £29

mbition is an admirable thing To its credit, Exodus tries to Return to Card 1 to explore

A in any creative project but it

can just as often see a good
idea reach too far and end up falling
provide a choose-your-own-
adventure style game that spans
several planets in the midst of a war
flat as is the case in Exodus. between two alien factions and while
the back of the box presents the idea
that you and your friends will be
playing for an hour, truth is you will
more than definitely run into an end
in just a few minutes.
See, the issue with a branching
CYOA narrative is that you can’t let
the player run in any direction for
too long before you’d need a whole
separate game just to deal with those
choices and that’s exactly what Half
Monster Games’ ambition has set
up for themselves. Within twenty
odd minutes of playing, we had
discovered five endings that said
“Congratulations, you’ve reached
the end of this storyline! It will be
continued in a future expansion.
alternate realities.” Which is
disappointing because as soon as you
feel like you’re getting momentum,
the game stops and not in a definite
“oh you died” or “oh you found a
definite, spelled out, interesting
ending” but in a fizzling “we didn’t
have enough budget to finish
this part” which just makes it feel
unfinished.
Maybe it’ll all come together
when the expansions are released
as the writing is quite good, the
worldbuilding is interesting (especially
for fans of their Xenohunters universe)
and the art is well used but as it stands
Exodus feels like paying for a free trial
to a sci-fi MMORPG that kicks you out
after your first quest.
ANNA BLACKWELL
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E

tabletopgaming.co.uk 65
 P L AY E D

DOLLARS TO DONUTS
Fresh Fun
Designer: Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin, Shawn Stankewich | Publisher: Crafty Games 30-45m 1-4 8+ £45

here are fewer things in tabletop

T gaming more frustrating than

when you draw a game tile that
doesn’t match up. Be it digging through
the tower of tiles in Carcassonne for that
final city section or hoping for just one
matching crown symbol in Kingdomino
that will finally make use of your empty
fields, it’s always maddening to be
unable to match up perfectly. What if I
told you about a tile laying game, where
even if you mismatch, it can still lead
to a bounty of points, as well as a
game with one of the most
charming themes I’ve
seen in months?
Dollars to Donuts is a
tile-laying donut-making game
for 1-4 players. Each turn
players will add a rectangular
tile to their game board, with
the goal of creating as many donuts
as they can by lining up halves. Each
matching pair will create that type of
donut for players to score or sell to
customers for even more points, whilst
mismatched pairs generate money
tiles used to buy tiles or to be placed on
the board (as money tiles either have
donut halves or donut holes, two of the
latter scoring as the same type of donut
at the end.)
Successful players will find the
balance between placing tiles for
points or cash, as without the latter
your choices become restricted and
harder for you to make satisfying
placements, but without the former
you’ll quickly fall behind as players
start slinging out their wares to
hungry customers.
Customers can provide bonus
points if you cater to one particular
district as well as if you manage to
serve people from all three, but as you
can only serve customers once, you’ll
want to save up your donuts to score
the most possible points, but save too
long and the customer will be snatched
away, leaving you at the mercy of the
deck for another perfect customer.
The game is very forgiving to
players who, like myself, have always
struggled to colour in within the
lines, as players can have tiles overlap
off their game board to be partially
placed instead, potentially earning
WHAT’S IN them one more donut than they
THE BOX? otherwise would’ve accomplished
◗ Instructions (however, pairs made off the board
◗ Specials game board do not count, as no-one should eat
◗ Starter player token donuts off the floor.)
◗ Cloth bag
The game is also an explosion of
◗ 4 Player mats
◗ 16 Starter tiles colour. From the cascade of counters
◗ 61 Donut tiles so players can stack up their donuts
◗ 100 Donut victory like pastry poker chips to the rainbow
tokens of customer designs, it’s clear that a
◗ 4 Reference cards lot of love went into both designing
◗ 2 Solo mode cards and fundraising this game. I also
◗ 39 Customer cards appreciate the solo mode, which is
◗ 60 Dollar tiles a great head scratcher that will keep
you amused for many evenings.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED AZUL
Both of these games reward clever tile selection and placement, whilst Dollars
to Donuts is a lot more forgiving, it also has a lot more random elements that
puzzle purists may not like
Whilst the graphics are bright
and cheerful, the core mechanics
reward perfect placement and
resource expenditure, meaning
that some players may expect
a more relaxed experience but
instead become frozen with analysis
paralysis on every turn. If your play
group has a range of experiences
playing tile-laying games, you may
find that the most experienced can
crush their opponents, especially
when it comes to taking tiles that
may only help them a little, but are
desperately needed for a playing
trailing behind.
For those who enjoy challenging
their friends who want a game that
will look fantastic and speed along
nicely, Dollars to Donuts is a purchase
you can make with confidence.
MATTHEW VERNALL
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
A bright game in both graphical and
mechanical design, if you enjoy cobbling
together a master plan this game is
top dollar quality oozing with charm.

66 March 2022
CORAQUEST
Toybox dungeon
Designer: Dan Hughes, Cora Hughes | Publisher: Bright Eye Games
t wouldn’t be far from the truth
I to say that I saw fatherhood as
an opportunity to introduce a
convenient third player to the family
unit. Alas, for the first year of my
son’s life he was nothing more than a
glorified first player marker. Now, at
the age of three, we’re ready to take
things up a notch. Enter CoraQuest – a
fully fledged dungeon crawler aimed
at the younger tabletop crowd and the
adults in their life.
What started out as a lockdown
homeschooling project for designer
Dan Hughes and his daughter
Cora, soon morphed into a hugely
successful Kickstarter campaign,
garnering over 5000 followers and a
devoted community of fans and art
contributors. Through the application
of a slick and simple ruleset and an
art direction based on the illustrative
work of children across the world,
CoraQuest quickly succeeded at
bringing a youthful edge to the
crowded dungeon-crawl genre.
Gameplay will see one to four players
exploring the dungeons of Hoodezfield,
rescuing curious gnomes, and battling
gremlins, orcs, and the intimidatingly
cuddly Thunder McScruggins.
Combat is kept simple, with the
chunky dice displaying just one type
of success symbol. Later though, as
players progress through the quests,
the occasional RPG-esque skill test
pops up – and in one case, some quirky
dexterity rules – adding a layer of depth
to the overall simplicity of the system.
And whilst there’s no overwhelming
stacks of various cards and tokens
here, the game becomes enticingly
sprawling as the dungeon expands.
45-60m 1-4 6+ £25
Despite its familiar format, CoraQuest in the adventure by playing things out
does offer some novel mechanics. The in a natural, logical way, unobstructed
Countdown track in particular serves by strict, mechanical boundaries. In
two purposes, firstly as a cool-down a sense, it‘s not too far removed from
tracker – indicating when heroes can how children engage with toys during
activate their special abilities again – imaginative, independent play.
and also as timer, with the Threat token Even clever little mechanics such as
tracking if, and when, the bothersome flipping heroes to their ’determined’
Spiders will ascend upon the dungeon. side after a fumbled roll is easily grasped WHAT’S IN
This neat mechanic not only teaches the by younger players. By associating their THE BOX?
value of patience but also recognises the own frustrations with the visual cues ◗ 29 Standees and
their bases
importance of tension. As the dreaded present on their hero‘s ’determined’
Threat token only advances down the
track on rounds where the dungeon
hasn’t been explored, there is a level of
faces, a correlation emerges, rooting the
ability to add an extra die to their next
roll firmly in their minds.
◗ 17 Dungeon cards
◗ 18 Story dungeon
cards
◗ 4 Red dice
drama and momentum which ensures All of this highlights a key focus on ◗ 7 White dice
players reach each of the integral Story immersion, an attribute expanded ◗ 8 Hero cards
Tiles seeded before each game. upon with a punk-like, DIY attitude ◗ 11 Enemy cards
Crucially, CoraQuest’s design through the freely available tools for ◗ 4 Hero health dials
supports not only how a child wants to character and quest creation, not to ◗ Big Boss health dial
◗ 33 Treasure cards
play, but crucially how we want to play mention narration.
◗ 12 Treasure chest
with them. An avoidance of niggling, Ultimately though, CoraQuest tokens
restrictive factors in mechanics should be recognised as one of our ◗ 18 Special item
such as movement and exploration industry‘s best Kickstarter enabled cards
permeates the design – want to move? success stories, and its existence is ◗ 12 Starting
Orthogonally or diagonally is fine, a testament to the tabletop hobby‘s equipment cards
same with attacking. How about passionate and creative community. ◗ 8 Spider tokens
flipping new dungeon tiles? It’s a free CHAD WILKINSON ◗ 4 Poison/quest
action, as is using items. tokens
◗ 12 Damage tokens
Having that added freedom to break
up your movement between attacking,
❚ PLAY IT? M U S T - P L A Y ◗ Explore marker
An ideal entry-level dungeon crawl, ◗ Second-wind token
exploring, and looting treasure is also packed with wit, charm, and respect ◗ 2 Countdown tracks
fantastic. Kids want to feel immersed for its audience. ◗ 8 Hero countdown
tokens
◗ Threat token
◗ 4 Rules summary
cards
◗ Quest book
◗ Customisation guide
TRY THIS IF
YOU LIKED
HEROQUEST
Revisit your
childhood with a
new generation of
gamers.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 67
 P L AY E D

CONQUEST OF PLANET EARTH:

THE SPACE ALIEN GAME
Compact discs and flying saucers
Designer: Jason C Hill | Publisher: Flying Frog Productions 60-90m 1-4 12+ £46

ow, I’m not saying that I feel a die roll. Special abilities and Event media: the Compact Disc. Comprised

N short-changed for missing

out on the era of Cold War
paranoia, but the TV I grew up with
cards add a touch more depth, but part
of Conquest’s charm is its simplicity.
Flying Frog Productions are
of eleven keyboard-heavy tracks,
ranging from the fidgety techno of
‘Vile Vyborian Arbiters’ to the creepy
wasn’t particularly populated with probably the ideal candidates for a waltz of ‘We Are the Trun’, this bonkers
50s B-Movie reruns. In fact, I mostly boisterous B-Movie board game, with soundtrack adds heaps of fun to game
engaged with my extraterrestrial other early titles such as Last Night night and is indicative of the passion
fascination through books – grainy, on Earth championing a schlocky tied up with Flying Frog’s work.
monochrome snaps of saucers above WHAT’S IN and firmly tongue in cheek tone. Of the two gameplay modes it’s
Nevada, mysterious excerpts on THE BOX? Back at its initial release though, hard to pinpoint which works best.
Area 51, and unimaginative sketches ◗ Rulebook Conquest marked a departure for the Where competitive is ideal for a dose
◗ 5 Game Board
of oval-eyed humanoids. Today team as they strayed from their usual of cruel, chaotic antics, cooperative is
Sections
though, this fascination can play ◗ 20 Plastic photographic aesthetic style to make a touch more strategic.
out across the tabletop, with Flying Miniatures full use of With some simple and
Frog Productions’ Conquest of Planet ◗ 70 Event Cards illustrations.
Earth: The Space Alien Game. ◗ 35 Resistance
First released way back in 2010, Cards
Conquest is an area influence game ◗ 25 Space Stuff
where players take on the role of Cards
invading 50s sci-fi era aliens. Players ◗ 35 Location Cards
◗ 6 Human Tech
will each control a quartet of saucers
Cards
belonging to one of ten wacky alien ◗ Double-sided
races, as they wreak havoc across the Objective Location
planet and face off against the puny Card
human resistance either competitively ◗ 10 Alien Race
or cooperatively. Ultimately though, Sheets
the goal is to conquer enough ◗ Resistance Phase
locations to eradicate humanity by Sheet
meeting the required number of ◗ 4 Reference Cards
◗ 8 White Dice
Terror Points
◗ 8 Red Dice
Play revolves around the use ◗ CD Soundtrack manageable
of action points which are either ◗ First Player Token The artwork here by Mark Morgaine tweaks to
allocated randomly with a die roll or ◗ 28 Alien Menace is one of the game’s high points, gameplay
chosen from players’ depleting pool of Tokens with its quirky, comic book pop, involving
numbered tokens. Actions will mainly ◗ 40 Conquest and bursts of nostalgia, creativity, moving Resistance
be used to move around the board’s Markers and humour commanding players’ tokens, the game morphs into a
different regions, each one made up of ◗ 24 Command attention and complementing smooth, cerebral, and engaging co-op
either empty spaces or cards acting as Counters Conquest’s snappy and unpredictable experience. Ultimately, it will be down
◗ 12 Demolished
Locations. Players also hold a number gameplay. Unfortunately, the cards to your game group as to what works
Markers
of Event cards as dictated by their ◗ 32 Resistance themselves have an odd, plastic feel to best, but having both options be so
race, with many of these requiring Counters them, making them prone to sticking well executed is a pleasant surprise.
action points when used. ◗ Tech Track Marker together and tricky to shuffle. On the CHAD WILKINSON
Terror Points are won by winning ◗ 8 Bio Hazard other hand, they’ll probably hold up
Battles at Locations. Naturally, small Counters against the odd spillage of beer or
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
A light and shamelessly gaudy dice-
towns and power plants put up less alien goo. chucker with an effortlessly fun theme
of a fight than military bases and Similarly quirky is the inclusion plastered across two excellent modes
cities, but many Locations feature of an ancient, almost alien form of of play.
game changing effects which can
dramatically change the outcome. TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED LAST NIGHT ON EARTH: THE
Combat is simply a case of drawing ZOMBIE GAME
Resistance cards and comparing Essential if you’re after a continuation of Flying Frog’s pulpy, cinematic
strength values before facing off with gameplay… and another soundtrack!

68 March 2022
 WHAT’S IN
CUPHEAD: THE BOX?
◗ 4 Player boards

FAST ROLLING DICE GAME ◗ 1 Center board

◗ 1 Boss health
tracker
The Devil’s in the Roll ◗ 24 Six-sided dice
◗ 20 Wallop cards
Designer: Publisher: 30-45m 1-4 12+ £50 ◗ 16 Health tokens
◗ 12 Parry tokens
uphead was an instant video sheer sense of panic of facing each fastest dice-roller in the world, rolling ◗ 40 Coins

C game darling due to its winning

mix of instantly endearing
rubber hose style animation and jazz
soundtrack mixed with infamously
challenging run-and-gun platforming
gameplay. When transitioning to the
tabletop in the form of Cuphead: Fast
Rolling Dice Game, the game retained
a lot of elements that were already
very successful. The classic animation
art style has only been made slicker
with simple yet beautifully made
components, like boxes for each
boss level, great quality cards and
custom dice. Even the music makes
re-appearance through a free app that
acts primarily as a timer but is also
essential for mood setting. The main
characters are also here – the titular
Cuphead, his brother Magnum, Ms.
Chalice and Elder Kettle – along with
many bosses from the game. We won’t
spoil which bosses though, because
opening a box after beating one boss
to discover who your next challenge is
all part of the fun.
Re-imagining the chaos of the
bullet-hell gameplay in a tabletop
top format was a much more difficult
challenge and the one that Cuphead:
Fast Rolling Dice Game found only
half a solution to. It easily nails the
boss, as players only have 20 seconds
(or less depending on the difficulty
setting) to roll dice to match symbols
of the boss attack cards. Each card
must be addressed in order because
- as they would in the video game –
players must dodge or parry the first
attack before addressing the next.
Each attack sequence may consist
of three or four cards with one or
two symbols on each. So, if you are
unlucky, you may need to precisely
roll to match all six symbols, but in
a less challenging attack, you would
only need to match three symbols.
The latter not only offers a millisecond
of relief, but an opportunity to attack
back by using extra dice.
At the same time, Cuphead: Fast
Rolling Dice Game suffers from the
Dark Souls syndrome. Like Dark
Souls, Cuphead is a video game of
skill. Players need to react quickly
to attack patterns, moving precisely
to jump, dodge and parry in order
to beat the boss. It may be tough
knowing you have only yourself to
blame for failing a level, but that
is also what makes winning so
exhilarating: your fate lies in your
hands. The luck of the dice roll,
however, is not. Even if you are the
the wrong symbol three times in a row
will cost precious seconds that this
game does not offer. Cuphead: Fast
◗ 5 Time tokens
◗ 8 Boss decks (25-
40 cards each)
◗ 1 Results tracker
Rolling Dice Game at its very core is a ◗ 1 Pad of save sheets
game of luck.
Yet if you don’t go looking for exact
replication of the video game as a
board game, Cuphead: Fast Rolling
TRY THIS IF
YOU LIKED
Dice Game still has a lot to offer. Each GALAXY
boss plays differently, introducing TRUCKER
new mechanics, environments and If there is such
challenges. Weapons and items thing as an
change the flow of the game, some enjoyable stress,
offering more powerful attacks that then frenzied
in return are harder to set up, while searching of tiles
others even have abilities to mitigate to build the ship in
Galaxy Trucker and
the luck of the roll somewhat.
panicked rolling
Just like the video game, this is a to dodge attacks
tough, at times demanding game, in Cuphead: Fast
that has you lose more times than Rolling Dice Game
win. Yet its incredible sense of style, definitely qualify.
ease of set up and play and, most
importantly, engrossing fast-paced
gameplay makes it a challenge worth
attempting, again and again.
ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
Perhaps, this is not the Cuphead board
game that the fans were looking for,
but still a great game that recaptures
the video game’s sense of style and
chaotic gameplay.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 69
 P L AY E D
MERCHANT'S COVE
A trading game that goes a bit overboard
Designer: Carl Van Ostrand, Jonny Pac, Drake Villareal | Publisher: Final Frontier Games
ometimes a game can just be
S a bit too much. So much that
even the most enthusiastic
tabletop hobbyist would take one
look at it and start to feel tired. For all
its ambition to capture asymmetric
variety in a single box, and for all
its impressive production value
(featuring numerous 3D elements
and some fantastic artwork from
The Mico), Merchant’s Cove is one of
those games. A table-hogger. A shelf-
creaker. A rules monster.
Where to begin? Well, in all
honesty, it is not essentially that
complex a game. We are not talking
Vital Lacerda levels of mind-
tenderising crunch. The hub of
the action is a big ol’ board which
impressively depicts the cove of
the title. Here, in the role of fantasy
merchants, players will fill lovely 3D
boats up with meeple adventurers
(warriors, wizards, nobles, rogues),
and bring them in to one of
three different piers to sell them
appropriate, colour-matched wares.
Players will also recruit townsfolk
to work in their stores, curry favour
with the different guilds, and manage
their time-costly turns via a clock-like
track. It is, as the title suggests, a very
Euro economics game of creating
supply and meeting ever-shifting
demand.
70 March 2022
But there’s more. Like Root, each
player is effectively given their own,
individual mini-game to play, with its
own rulebook, board, components
and product-creating mechanisms.
The Alchemist tinkers around with
WHAT’S IN marbles in a Potion Explosion-y
THE BOX?
◗ 1 Main board style. The Blacksmith forges weapons
◗ 1 Adventurer bag and armour using a dice-placement
◗ 52 Adventurer system. The Captain sends ships
meeples around a map to fish and find
◗ 6 3D cardboard treasure, using a spinner to determine
boats their moves. And the Chronomancer
◗ 12 Plastic gems strategically places and moves tiles
◗ 5 Merchant banners to create a timestream of portals,
and standees
through which he and his halfling
◗ 36 Townsfolk cards
◗ 3 Rogue cards assistant can grab artifacts.
◗ 4 Merchant cards If your table is big enough to fit
◗ 60 Corruption cards all these elements (five boards plus
◗ 2 Wooden mouse trimmings), it is pretty amazing to
counters behold. But unlike Root – admittedly
◗ 1 Wooden market a tough act for any asymmetrical title
phase indicator to follow – it doesn’t all snap together
◗ 5 Gold trackers as smoothly as you’d hope. The
◗ 5 Timepieces
balance feels a bit off. For example,
◗ 2 Double-sided
with that spinny thing, The Captain
Adventurer tokens
◗ 1 Solo-mode is far more dependent upon luck
“Peddler” board than the other three characters, and
◗ 4 Player boards, each in our plays always lost by quite
with many, many a wide margin. Meanwhile, the
more components Chronomancer enjoys an action-cost
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED ROOT…
Another game in which each player has their own mini-game to master, but Root
does it so much more elegantly.
60-90m 1-4 14+ £79
reducing flexibility the other
characters will crave, meaning they
won more times than anyone else.
Furthermore, where Root
keeps your attention focused on
its central board, where all the real
action happens, Merchants Cove
tugs you away to your own patch
on the periphery, doing your own
thing in your mechanistically distinct
silo. The central, shared board, feels
like a secondary consideration
which offers a relatively limited
amount of interaction.
There is a lot to like: the chance
to replay with totally different
characters, the quality of the
components, the lively thematic
backdrop. But with all the required
setting up/breaking down and
multiple rule-books to consume, you
have to seriously ask yourself whether
in such a crowded market it’s really,
truly, worth all the effort.
DAN JOLIN
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
It’s big and impressive, with a lot going
on. But it’s tough to teach and tricky to
learn, while its asymmetrical elements
detract from the interaction and feel in
need of fine-honing.
NEOVILLE
The Captain Planet School of City Design
Designer: Phi Walker-Harding | Publisher: Blue Orange
hil Walker-Harding games
P have their very own feeling
about them. A light, enjoyable
engagement, a cute concept, a tiny
bit of friction, a warm and satisfying
feeling. Like freshly baked bread, or
a new duvet cover. Recent outings
had left us a little cold however, with
Llama Land being perfectly fine, but
lacking in focus.
So with Neoville, a town building,
tile laying game, we weren’t ready
for what turns out to be one of our
favourite little puzzles of the year.
Players get a starting tile, set up
a market of tiles and then a few
draw piles. Two of the modular
‘utility’ types are chosen, randomly
chucked next to the board with the
appropriate towers, and you’re away
and building a new elementally-
themed empire of your own. Each
turn players place a tile in their own
city, and then choose to place a
tower or a utility. The towers are all
based on ‘organic architecture’ – i.e.
rocks, forests, waterfalls, and dirt
(or earth as it’s probably meant to
be called) – and these can only be
placed in matching biome types. The
size of the biome when you place
the tower doesn’t matter until you
get to end game scoring, where you
have to have an equal (or higher)
number of dirt squares in your dirt
biome for your dirt tower. If you don’t
you get that many points taken away
from you. Equally, there are special
requirements for the utilities, having
a specifically shaped biome for
example, or a number of parks in the
row and column that it’s in.
And that’s it, you could probably
play the game now – and then again
straight after, and then probably again
for the decider, mixing up the utility
standees each time. It’s that kind of
game – especially at two players. Its
simplicity is a little bit ‘solvable’ in the
sense there’s few surprises once you
get going. But the real game occurs
between players taking the tiles you
want, or you committing to a big
tower early, despite not being sure if
45m 2-4 10+ £28
WHAT’S IN
THE BOX?
◗ 74 Terrain tiles
◗ 4 Equity starter tiles
◗ 28 Skyscraper tile
standees
◗ 36 Utility standees
you’ll complete it. When to go in for
certain tiles, or when to grab a tower,
or attempt a utility strategy, is all
played out in peaceful conflict – only
the odd grunt of annoyance when one
of your opponents snatches a tile you
wanted. As an aside, there’s no reason
this couldn’t be played solo with a
little rules nudge, and it’s a wonder
that over the three pages of rules they
couldn’t have added a line to contain
a simple set up for solo play.
If we had to make any complaints,
it’s just on the theme and art work
– which is totally serviceable – but
a little bland. We could just put this
down to all utopias being boring
(which they are), but it’s probably
because it didn’t really matter what TRY THIS IF
the theme was in the end – and it YOU LIKED
certainly won’t matter to you as PHOTO-
much as choosing the right tower SYNTHESIS…
placement. Photosynthesis is
That aside, if you’ve got the right a crunchy game
kind of family game set up, or you just that pretends to be
want the equivalent of really comfy about something
extremely relaxing.
chair on a Sunday afternoon, this
Neoville is that
could see some hard rotation on your relaxed nature-
gaming table. builder you wanted.
CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
Modular and replayable, if a little bit
solvable feeling for more seasoned
gamers, this is the platonic ideal of a
Phil Walker-Harding tile laying game.
Wonderful.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 71
 P L AY E D
CHRONICLES OF AVEL
Inventory magnificent
Designer: Przemek Wojtkowiak | Publisher: Rebel Studios
very tabletop fantasy world
E comes with a backstory to
ignore, and this game is no
exception. It is, however, a stunning
introduction to the world of tower
defence games. The Beast is coming,
and you’ve got to prepare the realm
and yourself for this onslaught. This
of course means building defences,
upgrading your own equipment,
and making sure the monster that
are already wandering the world are
under control.
Each player gets a lovingly designed
player board, with a cut-out insert
that goes on top. This is used to
hold the piece of paper that displays
the character’s name and portrait
(which you’re encouraged to colour
in) in place. This also creates the
boundaries of your bag. If you want
to equip something, you slot it in over
your character drawing, if you want
to carry something around, it’s got to
fit inside the bag. This piece of game
engineering is frankly, brilliant, and
solves the adventurer’s problem of
‘inventory management is boring’.
Equally, grabbing random equipment
from the loot bag is very kind, as each
piece has somewhat distinct shapes.
And even if you pick up something
you don’t want – you can always pass
it on to another player when you share
a hex.
72 March 2022
60m 1-4 8+ £43
Preparing for The Beast is a case
of exploring (flipping over) hexes
and fighting monster (three rounds
of dice rolling, your pool against
theirs). Aside from this, it’s a worker-
WHAT’S IN place-yourself game, in the sense
THE BOX? that certain tiles have useful actions
◗ 15 location tiles like upgrading equipment (more
◗ Moon track
dice for you) or building
◗ Turn marker
◗ 27 Coin tokens fortifications, but you’re going to
◗ 8 Heroic dice have to expend some movement
◗ 4 Character boards actions getting anywhere.
(top and bottom) The random placement of tiles
◗ Character drawing makes for a three act structure, the
booklet first set of turns see you explore out to
◗ 4 Character meeples try and find the tiles you need to get
◗ Beast health tracker better, while trying to hold back the
◗ 3 Crater tokens
baddies. Next, you rush about trying
◗ 3 Wall meeples
◗ 25 Equipment tiles to optimize for the incoming Beast,
(double sided) and finally, you face the cardboard
◗ 31 Monster tokens creature when it pops out of its crater.
◗ Beast standee This is all tracked on the moon cycle
◗ 5 Monster dice board, which at certain points will cut
◗ Constellation maps off your chances to build defences or
(for character names) trap – reorientating you towards the
◗ Equipment back conflict to come.
◗ 12 Used markers
You may have laid traps, fortified
◗ 4 Action tokens
(solo mode) the castle, and sharpened your
◗ 20 Toughness blades, but combat comes down
markers to rolling the dice. There’s a bit of
randomness here – but because
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED LEGENDS OF ANDOR…
If you like the pressure of Andor but wanted to dodge the set-up time, Chronicles
of Avel will suit you perfectly.
some monsters are weak to certain
dice colours, you can choose your
battles. Unless they’re on the verge
of entering the castle, in which case,
you’ve just got to get on with it. This
choice of optimal actions versus what
you’ve just got to deal with is at the
heart of the game and what drives its
dramatic moments.
There’s a solo mode that ups
your number of actions rather than
the standard ‘just use two’, which
is refreshing, and the difficulty can
be turned up in a number of ways.
While we don’t entirely love the mix
of chibi and classic fantasy styles, it
is all produced with such clear love
and affection it’s instantly forgivable.
A wonderful addition to any younger
gamer’s collection, especially if you
like working together as a family.
Who knows, maybe the lore is good
too?
CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
A delightful, light co-op, that can
challenge as much as it can be kind.
A great introduction to the ‘tower
defence’ genre for smaller gamers.
Lovely.
MICKEY AND FRIENDS: FOOD FIGHT
Clean plate club
Designer: Kami Mandell | Publisher: The Op
t’s not often you can call a game
I fully family friendly, and in such
a way it might appeal to the
niche side of board gaming, but
Mickey and Friends: Food Fight
does it rather nicely. It’s a game
that benefits significantly from its
theme – a mixture of nostalgia for
Mickey Mouse, and the associated
professional art style that comes with
it – that elevates it into a surprisingly
fun game.
Simply, you select a tray based on
your character, where you hold food.
You’ll then roll dice, which will allow
you to fling (or place, depending
on how adult you’re feeling), the
relevant food pieces in the quantity
and direction confirmed on the dice
themselves. You’re aiming to have
no food left on your plate, by passing
it to your fellow players, in order to
win. There’s no tactics to be had, it’s
simply about how the dice roll, but the
satisfaction of clearing your plate first
can’t be ignored.
The game is themed around the ‘No
Service’ Mickey Mouse short – which
descends into a food fight, but is
actually around Mickey and Donald
failing to meet the dress code (by
being fully dressed, as neither are),
and arguing amongst themselves
in the hope at least one of them can
collect enough from the others to get
food. Whilst that element doesn’t
come up, instead the game utilises the
artwork of it, a modern yet retro style
that’s been controversial amongst
Disney fans, but is inarguably bright,
clean, and expressive. The subsequent
components are of decent enough
quality for a game of its price, holding
its own without overly standing out.
It’s nice to have a game that can
reliably be played with younger family
members with little to no adjustment
(ours was merely a left and right
sticky note to nudge which side was
which when the L or R came up on the
dice). Perhaps the only other Disney
themed game that regularly makes it
to the table is Villainous, but that has
a recommended age rating of 10+.
Others available fall straight into the
children’s game market, as opposed to
the hobbyist.
There’s plenty of opportunities to
play the game differently, as listed in
the rulebook. Once you’ve played the
standard version, you might prefer
their pot-luck version, where a certain
combination of dice sees you passing
your tray on to your fellow players,
leaving you with theirs – whilst trying
to still get rid of all food on your
tray. Alternatively, you can play the
collecting version, where you poach
food from others trays to complete the
set, using the same rules in reverse.
10-20m 3-5 6+ £20
These were an enjoyable change, and
a welcome opportunity for something
a little different once we’d played the
standard rules a few times. WHAT’S IN
Whilst these alone are certainly THE BOX?
sufficient to recommend it for families ◗ 5 Player Mats
to play together, given a low barrier to ◗ Central Playing Mat
entry, good fun to be had, and general ◗ 60 Food Pieces
competitiveness, the game really steps ◗ 10 Scoring Tokens
up when you add a timer into the mix. ◗ 15 Dice
It’s not a rulebook recommendation,
but became our homebrew rule quite
quickly. The game plays in around
fifteen minutes most of the time, but
should we set a ten-minute timer,
(or less if feeling particularly mean),
the dice rolling becomes a lot more
frantic, the movements faster, and the
frenetic energy of a food fight much
closer to the theme. It has a little more
of that urgency you get from games like
Escape: The Curse of the Temple, as well
as the delight of repeatedly throwing TRY THIS IF
dice within a time limit, all whilst YOU LIKED
exaggerating the fun parts of Food Fight. ESCAPE: THE
With this, the game came down CURSE OF THE
from the shelf more often than needed
TEMPLE
Frantic dice rolling,
for the review, and indeed its short but without the food
playtime meant that it could be used for thought.
as a quick palette cleanser between
other games – or a great distraction for
disgruntled little ones.
CHARLIE PETTIT
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
Oh boy, a fun family game getting
everyone involved (and learning their
left and right!).
tabletopgaming.co.uk 73
 P L AY E D
RUINATION
The world ending never looked so good
Designer: Travis R. Chance | Publisher: Kolossal Games
ight off the bat, Ruination faces
R steep competition. In the realm
of ‘dudes-on-the-map games’, it
has to contend with the godly presence
of Ankh: God of Egypt and Mezo, not
to mention the everlasting rule of Risk.
The post-apocalyptic theme has been
usurped by Mad Max associations,
while games like Posthuman Saga or
Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl vividly
paint the picture of the world after the
end in all drab but bloody colours. But
Ruination will not be a game that is lost
in the wasteland.
In part, this is due to incredible
artwork by Roland’s Revenge. It is
colourful, energetic, and captivating
but also distinctly end of the world-ly.
It consistently sets the scene through
every part of the game, whether it is
the board design or character art. The
exile units are a particular stand out.
They may be wearing the assortment
of random items they scavenged in the
wild with make-shift weapons, but they
all have unique style and personality.
Whether they are simply wielding a
giant mallet or riding an actual bear, all
of them have a distinct air of coolness
around them. This attention to detail
carries through to the faction minis
where each set has their own design.
When you have your army on the
board fighting alongside your exile
units and facing equally impressive
opponents’ forces, the whole setting
looks appropriately epic.
The gameplay is equally impressive.
Sure, a lot of it follows the standard
area-control format. The board is
divided into areas which all players
are fighting to take control of. Each
area produces a certain type of
resource, which, when scavenged, can
be used to buy the aforementioned
exiles or advantage cards that offer
in-battle and end of game bonuses.
Players can take three simple actions:
recruit more unit, move to an adjacent
territory or scavenge to get some
resources, again nothing novel.
However, it is how these actions are
performed that sets Ruination apart.
Each action is tied to a deck with
74 March 2022
1-2h 2-4 14+ £85
cards that offers a main action plus a
couple of bonuses. This means that on
a turn you typically will do two or three
things at the same time. Depending
on the cards on offer, you could, for
example, recruit normal units, move
WHAT’S IN and then recruit an exile. This will
THE BOX? then allow you to set up or bolster
◗ 42 Action cards your positions on the map, so on your
◗ 24 Advantage cards
next turn you could make a push for these values based on additional
◗ 24 Blessing tokens
◗ 14 Bastion tokens a victory point-giving bastion. The actions that players take. The game
◗ 12 Battle dice gameplay becomes incredibly dynamic also rewards more for taking on
◗ 12 Exile reference as you chain several of the actions bigger armies, which leads to some
cards together, which don’t take too long to impressive epic battles.
◗ 12 Exile miniatures resolve and don’t stagnate the turns of Somehow Ruination strikes a golden
◗ 2 Nomad battle other players. balance with all its mechanisms. It
board markers The post-apocalyptic world of takes simple actions - move, scavenge,
◗ 1 Battle board Ruination is violent, so a lot of the recruit – and adds more layers to the
◗ 1 Death Wurm die
game’s action is focused on combat. barebones of these mechanisms to
◗ 1 Favour die
◗ 1 First player Players can fight against neutral make the gameplay more exciting. On
standee units – nomads – to earn some quick the other hand, it takes combat that
◗ 1 Game board bonuses and, of course, each other. can be quite complex and creates tools
◗ 1 Khan’s fury token The largest army is still the likeliest to make it resolve quicker and without
◗ 32 Grunt miniatures to win but players have many tools any mental gymnastics. It takes a lot of
◗ 20 Horde tokens to change the tide of the fight, like, the staples of area control games but
◗ 16 Resource tokens for example advantage cards or exile gives them a fresh spin and a new point
◗ 12 Brute miniatures units that have special stats and of view. And when it is painted with the
◗ 12 Raider
abilities. There are some dice rolling masterful hand of Roland’s Revenge,
miniatures
◗ 4 Horde boards elements to the combat, but they can well, immersing into this world, ending
be almost always mitigated through or not, becomes hard to resist.
other tools, so the fighting always feels ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
fair, and a win deserved. The whole
combat phase is tracked on a separate
❚ PLAY IT? M U S T - P L A Y
Beautifully illustrated and mechanically
board which makes it very easy to suburb, Ruination proves that there
calculate the strengths of all armies, is still a way to stand out in the area
the number of casualties and adjust control genre.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED ANKH: GODS OF EGYPT
If you are looking for another stylish area control game with great miniature
design, like Ankh: Gods of Egypt, but prefer the wastelands, then Ruination is a
great alternative.
 WHAT’S IN
THE BOX?
◗ Board
◗ Turn order tile
◗ 12 Olympic venue
tiles
◗ 4 used card tokens
◗ 38 Engine and
carriage cards
◗ 18 event cards
◗ Track cost counter
◗ 12 Stations
◗ 3 Station value
counters
◗ 5 Action tokens
◗ 12 track tokens
◗ 36 Yen coins

SHINKANSEN: ZERO KEI ◗ Solo mode board

◗ 4 Turn order otkens
◗ 4 Score counters
Minding the gap is the first step… ◗ 28 Flame Cauldrons
◗ 3 Solo mode closed
Designer: Isra C & Shei S | Publisher: Ludonova 60m 1-4 12+ £29 venue tokens

ast year’s smash hit The Red tracks, building stations, adding an commented that they ‘could get

L Cathedral from Isra C & Shei

S was a perfect example of
what happens when you restrict a
Eurogame down to its most fun parts,
and allow the machine you’ve created
to run really hot.
Shinkansen: Zero Kei does not
achieve the heady heights of the
design pair’s previous offering, but
does contain something of the same
core promise. The only issue is that
getting to the core part of the game
is like pushing through a busy train
station where they’re having some
maintenance done.
The 1964 Japan Olympics are just
around the corner, and you and your
competitors are trying to get as much
of the line built as possible. Well, at
least the bits that would be profitable
to you anyway. Players are building
a kind of tableau of train carriages in
front of them, each of which has an
action you can perform. Each round
the players are given a numbers
of actions to take for the round,
including breaking ground, building
Olympic torch to a venue or buying
another card from the discard pile.
Before that you get to buy a card
from the market, which will be added
to the end of your train – which in
itself will be a bit of a puzzle as you’re
trying to create a run of cities and
stations on the board that match
those in your carriages. You’re also
managing the gold, white and black
tokens on the board which go to offer
points in a first, second and third
kind of way later in the game. You can
also, if you like, use your competitor’s
carriages and track resources, as long
as you pay them for the privilege. The
cost and points awarded for track
building will change each round too
– although all of the event cards are
visible so you van plan ahead. I can
only explain all of this as I’ve waded
through one of the toughest rulebooks
I’ve seen in some time.
With many moving parts, and lots
of potentially delicious planning and
payoff movements available, there
is a game to love here. Our group
really good at this with enough time’
– which is the kind of backhanded
compliment this review attempts
to emulate. If this game is a satire
on privatized train services, and
the confusion chaos that brings, it’s
absolutely hit a homerun. If not, the
theme hangs a little too loose on
the mechanics (why can I use the TRY THIS IF
track you’ve broken ground with and YOU LIKED
placed on your train, but not change THE RED
the order of my carriages?). CATHEDRAL…
If you can wade through the game’s There is no doubt
that Isra C & Shei S
odd instructions, there is a good time
are great designers,
waiting at the other end of the tunnel. but play this roundel-
After a few plays at least. If you’ve not based cathedral
got the bus instead. You would have to builder instead.
be more dedicated to trains than I am
however.
CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
A confusing rulebook and mechanics
that don’t marry well to the theme
make it a pain to break into and find
the game. But if you can find the
destination, there may be something
rewarding within.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 75
 P L AY E D
CAPER: EUROPE
A perfect heist?
Designer: Unai Rubio | Publisher: Keymaster Games
nsurprisingly, Caper: Europe
U is a beautiful game in all of
its aspects – the card art,
the pieces, the green felt effect
GameTrayz – all of it. This is the team
that brought us the incredible looking
Parks after all. This time however,
we’re hoping to Ocean’s 11 our way
into the most desirable locations in
Europe and nab us some sweet loot.
(Although it’s more like Ocean’s 9, as
there’s only so many slots for thieves
on the board.)
Caper: Europe mixes card drafting,
set collection, and area control to
interesting effect. Three locations are
drawn from the deck and added to
shared board, each of these can be
fought over using the caper track next
to each – certain cards will drag the
little thief-mask-meeple towards you,
showing your ownership. Players then
start playing thieves into each location
– itself its own little tableau for effects
– when you can then add gear and
other useful items to gain points, steal
good from the location, or move the
caper tracker towards you. All of this is
sorted out by a pick-and-pass drafting
mechanic at the beginning of each
round.
76 March 2022
30m 2 10+ £35
And it’s pretty magical really.
For a game with nearly no hidden
information – after all, you know
which cards you didn’t pick – there’s
so many minor touchpoints for
conflict. While controlling a location
is great, you can score points for
matching colours within a crew, and
WHAT’S IN their gear – each which can (for some
THE BOX? cards) be triggered when added to
◗ Board the tableau. Your choices, like how
◗ 2 Player aids to spend your money, and which
◗ Round tracker locations are dead to you now that
◗ 3 Caper trackers
the opponent has them locked down,
◗ 10 Coins
◗ 113 Cards or picking a stolen good to take, are
◗ 12 Stolen goods all micro tug-of-wars. For those that
tokens like a game to have the essence of
◗ Score pad that kind of Olympic wrestling or
martial art where combatants apply
pressure to one another in a series of
imperceptible moves, until the last
one, Caper: Europe is perfect for you.
There is a certain amount of fiddliness
in the learning of the game, but that’s
because to get good at Caper: Europe
you need to see it as its fullest picture,
not as its parts.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED VILLAGERS…
While naturally more confrontational, the building up of a crew for your next big
steal is reminiscent of Villager’s tableau building.
The part of the game which makes
this Europe is the location cards and
decks, which are shuffled into the
shared deck at the start of the game.
Each location comes with an extra set
of rules. London for example, offers
bonus points for collecting coins
– making spending them a harder
choice. Rome on the other hand
gives you points for the cards you’ve
discarded of certain types. These minor
twists on the core mechanic make each
location an entirely new kind of game.
And despite these variable set-ups, it’s
a game that cries out for repeat plays
over a long period of time. It’s a deep
game that rewards respecting that
depth – whether you buy it knowing
it’s going to be a sleeper hit, or whether
you want to sleeve the cards straight
away. We think Keymaster Games have
got away with it again.
CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
As two player heist-offs go, there’s little
better than this.
WITCHSTONE
A mixed cauldron
Designer: Martino Chiacchiera & Reiner Knizia | Publisher: Huch!
puzzle-y monstrosity (I say
A with some level of affection),
Witchstone is a game that
uses its pretty colours to disarm the
concerns of your strategic brain into
thinking this will be a straightforward
affair, before offering choice after
choice of options and point scoring
opportunities. In fact, you could argue
that the game is a collection of mini
games, with small links to each other,
and precariously held together with
the magical theme. That sounds rather
like a disparagement of the game,
where instead it’s quite impressive to
have done so lightly.
To rewind a moment for context,
Witchstone is a Reiner Knizia game,
designed with Martino Chiaccheiera
– but if his name wasn’t on the front,
I wouldn’t immediately assume
it’s a Knizia game, as it feels rather
different. You play as a witch, trying
to regenerate the energy field of the
Witchstone, and are trying to gain
as many points to prove yourself
Master of the Witchstone, essentially
multitasking to the best of your
ability, pulling points from a vast
range of opportunities. Each turn, you
take moves that vary wildly, creating
set ups to bank you the most
points.
And sure, the first game is fun,
even the second, but by the time
you’ve weaved every point builder
you can think of into an elaborate
web for turn eleven (and the end of
the game), the satisfaction is unreal.
From the domino like placement on
the cauldron that offers you control,
to the route building of the crystal
ball in the centre, you’re going to
have to be constantly aware of what’s
going on everywhere as much as you
can, and try to plan several outcomes
for three moves ahead. That also
includes playing on the main board,
whilst using your own cauldron
board, and hiding your tokens
behind a mini screen. Overall, it’s a
fun game for gamers (perhaps not
for the uninitiated), but is it perfect?
Well, no.
Whilst it’s fun ultimately to build
so many points, with some really
effective combo builders that are
incredibly satisfying to execute,
there are some aspects of the game
that are frustrating, ones which the
game makes no apologies for. Firstly,
60-90m 2-4 12+ £45
with so many options available
to you, it initially feels incredibly
overwhelming. Each turn offers
six action types, but each of those
WHAT’S IN
THE BOX?
◗ 4 Position markers
◗ 28 Crystals
actions taken might influence one of
the other or subsequent actions you ◗ 80 Energy units
◗ Player aid
can take and you’ll need to manage
◗ 4 Magic cauldrons
each of those differing point builders ◗ 60 Hex tiles
from the beginning. The rulebook, ◗ 4 Screens
though smaller than it first dauntingly ◗ 44 Witch and
appears due to containing a number Wizard figures
of languages, is okay – it gives you ◗ 21 Magic chips
the information you need, but makes ◗ 4 Big witch figures
no concessions to try to help you ◗ 40 Scrolls
understand any priorities. ◗ Game board
◗ 10 Owl tiles
Once you’ve got your head around
◗ 15 Special hex tiles
what it is that you can do, even if ◗ 12 Owl counters
you’re perfectly prepared for your turn
and take no thinking time at all, your
turns can get pretty long, a side effect
of being able to stack combinations
so effectively. When you do add in
the inevitable thinking time you can
find yourself waiting on others for a
period of time that has you zoning
out a bit – the last thing you want to
do when you’ve got to remember
the combinations you’ve planned to
enact upon your turn. For this reason,
my preference became a two player
count, simply to be able to enjoy and
be impressed by the combinations,
rather than begrudging of how
PLAY THIS IF
long they take to get through over YOU LIKE…
the course of eleven turns BARRAGE
at four players. If juggling a ton of
This is a game you’ll different options
need to go into with your while maintaining
eyes open. If you’re on a network is what
the fence about this style works for you, then
of game, stay away from it, Witchstone might
be the fantasy
but if you’re a fan, you’ll get
upgrade you’re
a whole lot of satisfaction looking for.
and enjoyment from it. I
called it at the beginning a
puzzling monstrosity,
and it is exactly that,
but an enjoyable one
nonetheless.
CHARLIE PETTIT
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
It might feel like an uphill climb, but the
view from the top is worth it.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 77
 P L AY E D
ROOT:
THE ROLEPLAYING GAME
If You go Down to the Woods Today…
Designer: Brendan Conway & Mark Diaz Truman | Publisher: Magpie Games
s with the boardgame that
A inspired it, Root : The RPG
hides sharp teeth beneath
its cutesy trappings. It uses a simple
ruleset to weave sandbox-ey stories of
woodland warfare that blend heroism
and despair, where wandering
vagabonds clash and cooperate with
powerful factions.
The starting premise of the RPG
is identical to that of the strategy-
focused boardgame. Both are set
in the Woodland - a randomly
rolled stretch of forest inhabited by
humanoid animals. Think Disney’s
Robin Hood mixed with the Redwall
books. Or, possibly, a heavily armed
branch of the Sylvanean Families.
In any case, not all is well in the
Woodland. Several factions, including
the birds of the Eyrie Dynasties and
the armies of the Marquise de Cat, are
looking to seize control of the forest.
On-and-off battles rage in clearings
and trails, while revolution ferments
in twee little settlements. Nobody
is happy, and – at the start of the
campaign, anyway – nobody is sure
what’s going to happen next.
Into this mess of factions and
violence stride the Vagabonds. A band
of wanderers and misfits, rogues and
criminals that don’t owe allegiance to
anybody in particular. In other words,
ideal vessels for players.
Over the course of the campaign,
these Vagabonds – who lose their
player character status if they leave
78 March 2022
256 11+ £32
the wandering life behind – explore
the Woodland as they look to make a
living on the fringes of the war. Some
groups might look to forge some
sliver of heroism and hope amidst the
messy politics. Others might just look
out for themselves, and buddy up to
whichever party is looking to come
out on top.
The blend of grey morality and
primary colour cuteness can be a bit of
a hurdle to overcome at first, but once
you get into the groove it works well.
If the bubbling war was being fought
between starkly realistic humans and
the rulebook was painted in greys,
browns, and crimsons, it would be a
very different game. The ever-present
art style allows groups to explore some
deeply murky stories without anything
ever seeming too nasty.
A focus on storytelling lies at the
core of the game. This is reflected by
Magpie Games’ decision to base Root:
The RPG’s rulest upon the Powered by
the Apocalypse (PbtA) system, used
in dozens of story-led titles including
Monster of the Week to Dungeon World.
Broadly, this means that it’s a
system that looks to place narrative at
the heart of the gameplay. Characters
have loosely-defined “moves” rather
than skill tests, and every possible roll
of the dice pushes the story forward.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED ROOT
It’s an obvious pick, but if you enjoyed the politics and backstabbing of the
boardgame, you’ll dig the RPG too
It’s towards the more complex end of
the PbtA scale, with plenty of moves
to use in combat and little boxes for
tracking armour damage. However,
it’s still comparatively easy to play.
On the player-facing side of things,
this is helped by the use of playbooks
rather than standard character sheets.
Rather than making their wandering
badger, fox or hedgehog from scratch,
they piece together a Vagabond
by picking choices from a broad
archetype.
Players might choose to make a
crafty tinker, who can fix up gear and
rig traps, for example. Or, they could
pick a heavily-armed ronin – a warrior
who’s abandoned their former master
for mysterious reasons.
The simple rules make it easy to get
the mechanics of a character out of
the way nice and quickly, and instead
focus on fleshing out their personality
and past. One of the joys of Root: The
RPG is turning up at the table with a
new character and getting to know the
rest of the party.
Running the game as a GM is
slightly more complex. There’s a
reasonably detailed set of rules for
things like traveling and handling
reputation with the myriad factions.
However, the deeply open-ended,
free-form nature of the stories you
weave makes it a delight to helm.
As you might expect from a game
with heroes are called ‘Vagabonds’,
Root: The RPG lends itself to
wandering rather than tightly plotted
adventures. Its stories are founded
upon random encounters and quaint
little towns in need of aid. The whim
of the dice can see the Woodland’s
war shift in a matter of moments and
with it the story.
This makes it an ideal game for
groups looking to explore a freeform
sort of RPG without having to worry
about all the behind-the-scenes
plotting needed to make it work in a
more traditional fantasy game.
RICHARD JANSENPARKES
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
Story-driven sandbox adventures that
muddy politics with bright, cutesy
trappings.
SHELFIE STACKER
Designer: Shem Phillips | Publisher: Arkus
hen he isn’t creating neat,
W epic historical board
games, Kiwi designer
Shem Phillips likes to make smaller
games that involve lots of dice that
you never roll. In 2019, he created
Noctiluca, a gorgeous, more-ish
abstract dice-collection title, in which
each die represents a bioluminescent
micro-organism. Now, with Shelfie
Stacker, each cube represents a pile
of board-games that must be loaded
up on Kallax-style shelves in the most
pleasing manner possible.
It’s a neat, meta twist that is
engineered to appeal to anyone serious
about the hobby (but not too serious
about themselves), and thanks to
publisher Arkus, it’s also a game that
comes with top-quality components
(those dice are fantastic) and an
engaging art style. However, what isn’t
so engaging is the actual game play.
Each round each player chooses
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!
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
www.justgamesgsy.co.uk
30m 1-4 13+ £52
three dice, which they’re not allowed
to turn, and must place them on their
shelf so they are arranged in increasing
value from bottom to top, in columns of
matching colours. Any you can’t place
have to go on your point-negating Shelf
of Shame. That, essentially, is pretty
much it.
Sure, you each have a hand of
character cards, which you can play to
give you some rule-bending flex, and
there are also some shared, extra-point-
scoring ‘mission’ cards to add some
challenge, but none of that really lifts
you from the fundamental reality of the
experience: that you’re arranging dice in
an honestly not-massively-inspiring way.
It is light and, thanks to its self-
referential theme, mildly diverting, so is
unlikely to offend anyone if you pull it
out as a game-night warm up. However,
from such an accomplished designer as
Phillips, it is a little disappointing.
DAN JOLIN ❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
PUSH-YOUR-LUCK
MYSTERY BOX
The table is set. All you need is
one good throw of the dice
Luck based games | Entire box
contents worth over £85
ttgami.ng/push-your-luck
 P L AY E D
NO HONOR AMONG
THIEVES
Dastardly Dealings in the Dark
Designer: Adam A. Watts | Publisher: Carpe Omnis Games
ometimes, it’s fun to be the
S bad guy. Some games let
you revel in villainy, with the
biggest consequence being someone
walking off in a huff. This game let’s
you be so bad, your table is in danger
of being flipped.
No Honor Among Thieves is a
card tableau heist game for 3-6
players. Each player is aiming to be
the wealthiest criminal gang in the
kingdom, as players gather up thugs,
pickpockets and gadabouts in order to
steal the riches of the upper crust.
Players have up to three actions on
a turn, which can be used to recruit or
rest characters, draw or play scheme
cards and most importantly, go on a
heist. Whilst trying to break into jail
to gain a new rogue might be a simple
enough task (though not entirely
without risk) it’s the larger heist tasks
which often require two or three
players working together to succeed.
Every heist objective will have
defences, either printed on the
80 March 2022
90-120m 3-6 13+ £49
obstacle or drawn from a deck. Most
defences have multiple options, such
as a locked door that can be overcome
with a lot of strength, or a single
point in tinker, ensuring that various
character combinations are possible.
WHAT’S IN As each player can commit up to two
THE BOX? characters to a defence but are limited
◗ 14 Objective mats to four characters at most, it’s vital
◗ Jail/Graveyard mat to ask for assistance, offering a cut
◗ 65 coin tokens
of the loot to whoever helps. Making
◗ 2 Dagger dice
◗ 5 Reference cards things harder are scheme cards,
◗ 194 Game cards ways to tweak the difficulty in and
out of your favour, as such its vital to
prepare for inevitable spanners in the
works, either by bribing others to not
interfere or keeping counteractions to
thwart them.
Once the dust settles and players
have stopped slinging cards at one
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED SURVIVE: ESCAPE FROM
ATLANTIS!
Both games balance negotiating and lying with little time between betrayals,
Survive may be a quicker to complete but No Honor uses it’s longer time frame
for a greater build-up of tension.
another, if the heist team is still capable
of defeating every defence, there is
a “the moment a truth,” where each
player in the heist must choose one
card from their hand. If one or more
players to reveal a Betrayal card, they
snatch gold before it’s shared out as
agreed, plunging the game into a “no
honour” state. This unlocks nefarious
abilities on characters that allow
players to steal from one another or
even murder characters outright.
This is a game of tension and
backstabbing throughout. Money is all
that matters, but given that everyone
also has two hidden agenda cards
that score bonus coins at the end,
it’s impossible to know exactly who’s
winning. No-one can be trusted and
you have to hope that your threats or
bargaining skills were enough. Betray
too early and you put a target on your
back, don’t betray at all and you may
find a game-winning pot being snuck
away by someone you thought was
your ally.
What surprised me most when
playing is how often it pays to be
reliable. If you stand by your promises
(be them good or bad) then players
build a grudging respect, which only
builds the anticipation for whenever
the first betrayal card will get played.
Unlike a lot of “gotcha!” mechanics
in other games, it’s possible to
prepare and foresee a lot of what can
happen; if you went on a heist without
fortifying your hand with responses,
you’ve only yourself to blame.
Still, it cannot be denied that this
style of game is very much an acquired
taste. If players still hold grudges for
past losses or get upset when their plans
are squashed utterly, this game will
bring you nothing but heartbreak. For
those relish in those actions, No Honor
Among Thieves may prove a popular
choice for an evening of dark deeds.
MATTHEW VERNALL
❚ PLAY IT? Y E S
If your play group likes to get cutthroat
and backstabby, few other games
deliver on this theme better. A great
night of tension and betrayal awaits.
MISTBORN: HOUSE WAR
Corruption eruption
Designer: Kevin Wilson | Publisher: Crafty Games 60-120m 3-5 13+ £55

he grip of the all-powerful Lord is the antithesis of a cooperative but in reality actively trying to collapse

T Ruler is becoming tenuous.

Troubles are multiplying and
threatening the delicate fabric of
your dystopian society. It falls on the
shoulders of you, the favoured heads
of house, to overcome the obstacles,
defeat the heroes and uphold the
empire. Sharpen your talons, this is
going to get nasty. Mwah ha ha!
Mistborn: House War is set in
the world of Brendan Saunderson’s
Mistborn trilogy. Anyone can play the
game, but you need to cooperate
and form agreements to solve
problems. Alliances will be forged
the empire means refusing to negotiate
in order to trigger eruptions and
thereby absenting yourself from much
WHAT’S IN
THE BOX?
◗ Game board
◗ 12 House cards
and then decimated; players will of the action. It’s more likely that as it
◗ 85 Personality
be wooed, manipulated or bribed, becomes clear that the Lord Ruler’s
cards
then stabbed in the back a moment reign will fail, players change tactics ◗ 56 Problem cards
later. You can bargain with resources, in order to reduce their points in the ◗ 68 Resource tokens
points, cards… anything, in fact. You final turns. But points are hidden, so ◗ 120 Disgrace and
can promise to do the washing up trying to control your score in relation favour tokens
for a week in order to land a deal, to others feels like shooting in the ◗ 13 Ruin tokens
though you are, of course, inherently dark. In fact, it’s very easy to become ◗ 2 Unpainted
untrustworthy. Players who excel at completely ambivalent about the miniatures

game, but fans of the books are the
real audience. Players must attempt
to solve a series of problems, each
shown on a single card. Cards are
placed in four columns on the board,
with the left-most column containing
the least concerning problems and
the right-most the most urgent.
Every turn, current problems worsen
(by moving to the right) and new
problems are added. If a problem
remains unresolved for too long, it
will erupt, triggering an effect, such as
disgrace (negative victory points) for a
player or an increase in unrest.
It’s rare that a problem can be
solved by one player alone; instead
each one requires negotiation
between players in order to amass
the necessary resources. In fact,
while there is a little bit of card and
resource management, this is really a
game of pure negotiation. Mistborn
manipulation
and relish in being mean will love this
game.
Personality cards can be played
to reduce or increase the resources
required to solve a problem. But
beware the sweetly generous and
eminently reasonable player who
wishes to help without getting much
in return… their innocent smile will
morph into a crafty smirk as they
brandish a destructive card and swipe
all the favour or shower you with
disgrace. Personality cards can be
very powerful, giving the game huge
and unpredictable swings.
Play is erratic and it’s hard to feel in
control of your own destiny. There are
diametrically opposed win conditions.
If the empire holds, the player with the
highest points wins, but if the empire
falls, the player with the fewest points
is victorious. This sounds interesting,
outcome, particularly towards the end
of the game.
You can determine the length
PLAY THIS IF
YOU LIKED:
of play by how you construct the CHINATOWN
problem deck, but even the short Both games have
game is still too long, and with higher negotiation at
player counts there’s even more their heart, though
negotiation, slowing the game down Chinatown’s tile
further. It’s repetitive: each turn is placement and area
dominated by similar negotiations control are more
and identical personality cards. far interesting than
Mistborn’s plain
There’s too much text on the cards
points grab.
and it’s really hard to get a sense of the
board at a glance because of this.
ELLIE DIX
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
If you enjoy heated discussions,
blatant exploitation and more than a
little uncertainty, you’ll probably enjoy
Mistborn: House War. But this is a
game that relies on a single mechanic
and if negotiation isn’t your thing, stay
well away.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 81
 P L AY E D
CURATORS: COLLECTION CONUNDRUM
An all-new museum piece
Designer: Jacob Westerlund | Publisher: Worldshapers
ne of the joys of tile-laying
O games is the act of creation
they often involve, whether
that’s building a medieval French
landscape (Carcassonne), a
Northwestern American wilderness
(Cascadia), or a mad king’s castle
(The Castles of Mad King Ludwig).
Curators, from first-time designer
Jacob Westerlund, tasks its players
with erecting their own museum,
filling it with exhibits, attracting
visitors and, as you’d expect from
a typical Euro title, fulfilling secret
contracts to score extra points.
It is a solid game with a lot of
likeable touches, but truth be told its
tile-laying component feels a little
lacklustre. Each tile is a boxy wing,
containing plain, square rooms of up
to three different colours, on which
fiddly little counters of the same
colour must be placed, representing
objects that must be excavated or
purchased to create exhibits. The
theme is muted by the demands of
the mechanism, and you become so
focused on matching the sometimes
confusing patterns on your contract
cards you never really have the strong
sense of building something, as you
do with the games mentioned above.
It is more functional than fun.
82 March 2022
Still, as we said, there are some nice
touches. Obtaining and placing a wing
is just one of several actions you’ll
take on your quick-moving turns, with
five different employees to allocate.
The archaeologist adds objects to your
storeroom and the auction house.
The collection manager buys objects
WHAT’S IN from the auction house. The financial
THE BOX? manager allows you to collect money
◗ 4 Museum entrance (how much depends on how many
boards visitor tokens you have in your foyer).
◗ 1 Auction house The restorer moves objects from
board
your storeroom to your wings, with
◗ 1 End game token
◗ 1 Starting player completed wings adding visitors to
token your foyer. And the carpenter is the
◗ 4 Sets of five one who gets you those tiles.
employee chips Each employee is represented
◗ 26 Wing tiles on one side of two different chips;
◗ 70 Object tokens whenever you select and use them,
◗ 36 Visitor tokens you flip the chip, showing another
◗ 50 Money tokens employee. Sometimes, you’ll have
◗ 28 Contract cards
two of the same employee showing.
◗ 4 Advanced rules
cards This will allow you a double action,
increasing your yield. So this
mechanism becomes a little puzzle
in itself – one that winds up being
more satisfying than the museum-
building itself, as you start planning
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED CASTLES OF MAD KING LUDWIG…
It’s hardly Castles’ equal, but its mix of room-placement and contract fulfilment
locates it in the same neighbourhood.
45m 1-4 14+ £50
out your future moves based on the
double-action opportunities they
might create, or the employees they’ll
free up.
There is a lot to think about –
especially as progress on the foyer’s
visitor track throws you further
pattern-building contracts to contend
with – but it is a game with a light
touch and a rule set that is blissfully
easy to absorb (albeit one that would
benefit from a few clarifications in any
future editions). And, while the cheery
vibe sidesteps any thorny questions
of cultural property theft – the British
Museum and its dodgy colonial legacy
are notably absent from the real-
world flavour content – the artwork
is impressively inclusive. This should
encourage a good breadth of appeal,
even if tile-laying fans will find it a
lesser entry to the genre.
DAN JOLIN
❚ PLAY IT? M A Y B E
A tile-placement title where the tile
placement is least enjoyable thing
about it. However, it is uplifted by its
other, light-but-absorbing mechanisms.
IN ISSUE 65 ON SALE 25 MARCH 2022

TALES FROM
THE LOOP PLUS
20 years of Yu-Gi-Oh!

Cohorts of Cthulhu
THE BOARD GAME Ten of the Best Family Games
Returning to the 80s Unfathomable Painting Guide
that never was

SUBSCRIBE NOW
SO YOU DON’T MISS OUT!
ttgami.ng/print_sub21 tabletopgaming.co.uk 83
THE GOBLINS
OF MOONSTONE
We dig deep in this one while painting the goblins of Moonstone
Words and photographs by Andy Leighton

PAINTS & TECHNIQUES

» Paints you will need: » Kakophoni Purple » Steel Legion Drab Each model is split up into 4 stages, Stage 2 is layering. This stage raised areas and edges. A line highlight
» Abaddon Black » Karak Stone » Stirland Mud each with a list of colours and the involves applying a layer of a lighter involves applying a thin line of paint to
corresponding paint that was used colour, leaving the recesses, such the raised areas and straight edges
» Alaitoc Blue » Khorne Red » Tau Light Ochre
for it. Each stage uses a different as the folds in cloth, the darker of the area. An edge highlight is very
» Baharroth Blue » Loren Forest » Teclis Blue technique to achieve a similar effect basecoat colour. Sometimes we will similar, except that it is only applied to
» Blue Horror » Lothern Blue » Temple Guard Blue on each element but with different apply a thinned layer. This involves the hard edges.
» Caledor Sky » Mephiston Red » Thunderhawk Blue colours. Normally we would start adding a thinner, most commonly
with an undercoat using a spray but water or Lahmian Medium, to the Stage 4 is for final details and
» Celestra Grey » Mournfang Brown » Ulthuan Grey these minis come primed and ready paint. This is then applied over highlights. This stage involves adding
» Corax White » Orruk Flesh » Ushabti Bone to paint. several coats, gradually building a the finishing touches, sometimes just
» Dawnstone » Pallid Wych Flesh » Waaagh! Flesh gradient between the basecoat and small details like the eyes, or adding
Stage 1 is basecoating. Base the layer. small highlights to increase definition.
» Dryad Bark » Russ Grey » White Scar
colours are applied using flat, solid
» Evil Sunz Scarlet » Skavenblight Dinge » Wild Rider Red colours covering an area completely. Stage 3 is highlighting. We use If you find yourself unsure of where to
» Fenrisian Grey » Skrag Brown » Yriel Yellow Sometimes this can take 2-3 coats several methods to highlight, including apply the highlights or spot highlights,
» Gauss Blaster Green » Slaanesh Grey » Zandri Dust to achieve that flat, solid colour. Make a layered highlight, line and edge. A look over the images alongside the
sure to apply several thin coats, rather layered highlight is very similar to the guide and compare that stage to
» Incubi Darkness » Sotek Green than one thick coat. thinned layer, but is only applied to the the last.

March 2022 tabletopgaming.co.uk 85

 MOONSTONE

PREP THE GOBLINS

DOUG THE FLATULENT

STAGE 1
Once the models are built
and attached to the base,
use a small amount of
modelling putty to fill any
gaps. STAGE 1
Karak Stone: Apply a basecoat to the pug and
the goblins teeth.
Abaddon Black: Apply a thinned layer to the ears,
nose, mouth, feet and eyes of the pug.
Steel Legion Drab: Apply a basecoat to the
handle of the lance, saddle and straps.
Aliotoc Blue: Apply a basecoat to the banner.
Thunderhawk Blue: Apply a basecoat to the
armour and metals.
Waaagh! Flesh: Apply a basecoat to the skin.
BEAKY BOBBY

STAGE 2
Stirland Mud: Apply a layer
across the base.

STAGE 1
Waaagh! Flesh: Apply a basecoat to the skin.
Incubi Darkness: Apply a basecoat to the mask,
boots and feathers.
Skavenblight Dinge: Apply a basecoat to the
metals.
Mournfang Brown: Apply a basecoat to the
jacket, loin cloth and straps.
Celestra Grey: Apply a basecoat to the vials
STAGE 3 and jars.
Khorne Red: Apply a basecoat to the mask
Undercoat the models black
lenses.
ready for painting.

86 March 2022
 STAGE 2
Ushabti Bone: Apply a layer to the pug’s skin and
the goblins teeth.
Skavenblight Dinge: Apply a layer to the ears,
nose, mouth, and feet of the pug.
Corax White: Apply a layer to the pug’s eyes.
Zandri Dust: Apply a layer to the handle of the
lance, saddle and straps.
Lothern Blue: Apply a layer to the banner.
Russ Grey: Apply a layer to the armour and
metals.
Loren Forest: Apply a layer to the skin.
STAGE 2
Loren Forest: Apply a layer to the skin.
Thunderhawk Blue: Apply a layer to the mask,
boots and feathers.
Russ Grey: Apply a layer to the metals.
Steel Legion Drab: Apply a layer to the jacket,
loin cloth and straps.
Caledor Sky/Mephiston Red: Apply a layer to
the bottom half of the vials.
Ulthuan Grey: Apply a layer to the top half of
the vials.
Mephiston Red: Apply a layer to the lenses and
staff gem.
STAGE 3
Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a thinned layer to the
pug’s skin, and a layer to the teeth and claws.
Dawnstone: Apply a line highlight to the ears,
nose, mouth and feet of the pug.
Skrag Brown: Apply a circle to the pugs eyes,
these were applied a little off centre.
Karak Stone: Apply a line highlight to the lance,
saddle and straps.
Blue Horror: Apply a line highlight to the armour,
metals and banner.
Orruk Flesh: Apply a line highlight to the skin.
STAGE 3
Orruk Flesh: Apply a thinned layer to the skin.
Russ Grey: Apply a line highlight to the mask,
boots and feathers.
Blue Horror: Apply a line highlight to the metals.
Karak Stone: Apply a line highlight to the jacket,
loin cloth and straps.
Teclis Blue/Evil Sunz Scarlet: Apply a layer to
the top of the liquid in the vials.
White Scar: Apply a line highlight to the tops
of the vials.
Evil Sunz Scarlet: Apply a line highlight to the
lenses and staff gem.
STAGE 4
Corax White: Apply a spot highlight to the pug’s
skin and claws, as well as the goblins teeth and
armour.
Celestra Grey: Apply a spot highlight to the ears,
nose, mouth and feet of the pug.
Abaddon Black: Apply a circle within the eye,
leaving the brown showing around the edges.
Gauss Blaster Green: Apply a spot highlight to
the goblins skin.
STAGE 4
Gauss Blaster Green: Apply a line highlight to
the skin.
Fenrisian Grey: Apply a spot highlight to the
mask, boots and feathers.
Corax White: Apply a spot highlight to the
metals.
Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a spot highlight to the
jacket, loin cloth and straps.
Baharroth Blue/Wild Rider Red: Apply a line
highlight across the tops of the liquid.
Wild Rider Red: Apply a spot highlight to the
lenses and staff gem.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 87
 MOONSTONE

THE GOBLINS
VICIOUS MIDGET

STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3

Skavenblight Dinge: Apply a basecoat to the
armour.
Thunderhawk Blue: Apply a basecoat to the
sword blade.
Waaagh! flesh: Apply a basecoat to the skin.
Alaitoc Blue: Apply a basecoat to the cloth and
feather.
GRUB
Russ Grey: Apply a layer to the armour and the
sword blade.
Loren Forest: Apply a layer to the skin.
White Scar: Apply a layer to the eyes.
Lothern Blue: Apply a layer to the cloth and
feather.
Blue Horror: Apply a line highlight to the armour,
sword, cloth and feather.
Orruk Flesh: Apply a thinned layer to the skin.
Mephiston Red: Apply a dot to the centre of
the eyes.

STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3

Kakophoni Purple: Apply a basecoat to the skin.
Incubi Darkness: Apply a basecoat to the hat
and back carapace.
Skrag Brown: Apply a basecoat to the eyes.
Skavenblight Dinge: Apply a basecoat to the
knife and bug spray.
Mephiston Red: Apply a basecoat to the bug
spray canister.
Lothern Blue: Apply a basecoat to the wings.
Slaanesh Grey: Apply a layer to the skin.
Sotek Green: Apply a thinned layer to the hat
and carapace.
Tau Light Ochre: Apply a layer of the eyes.
Russ Grey: Apply a layer to the knife and bug
spray.
Evil Sunz Scarlet: Apply a layer to the bug spray
canister.
Blue Horror: Apply a layer of the wings.
Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a line highlight to the
skin.
Temple Guard Blue: Apply a line highlight to the
hat and carapace.
Yriel Yellow: Apply a layer to the eyes.
Blue Horror: Apply a line highlight to the knife
and bug spray.
Corax White: Apply a line highlight to the wings.

88 March 2022
 BASES

STAGE 4 STAGE 2
Dryad Bark: Apply a basecoat. Mournfang Brown: Apply a heavy drybrush.

STAGE 4
Corax White: Apply a spot highlight to the
armour, sword, cloth and feather.
Gauss Blaster Green: Apply a spot highlight to
the skin.

STAGE 3 STAGE 4
Steel Legion Drab: Apply a drybrush. Karak Stone: Apply a light drybrush.
Abaddon Black: Apply a layer to the base rim.

STAGE 4
Corax White: Apply a spot highlight to the skin,
knife and bug spray.
Fenrisian Grey: Apply a spot highlight to the hat
and carapace.
Abaddon Black: Apply a dash to each eye.

STAGE 5 STAGE 6
Galeforce 9 - Straw Static Grass: Use PVA to Basecrafts - Natural Leaves: Use PVA to attach
attach in small patches. in small patches.
Basecrafts - Light Green Flock: Use PVA to
attach in small patches.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 89
 STOUNDING NEW NOVELS
A OF SUPER HERO ADVENTURE

AVENGERS, X-MEN, ASGARD & MORE

INCREDIBLE STORIES OUT NOW EVERYWHERE!
ACONYTEBOOKS.COM V i s i t M a rv e l .co m
© 2022 MARVEL.
The Aconyte name and logo are registered or unregistered trademarks of Asmodee Entertainment Limited.
A GAME OF MONEY, GUNS, AND BOOZE SET IN PROHIBITION ERA CHICAGO

£
40
ORDER
3-4 Players TODAY!
For more information visit
90+ Mins. www.GF9Games.com

© Gale Force Nine 2021

 WEATHER
We bring you a smorgasbord of roleplaying tools and ephemera,
this month: weather
Who Made This? Rainy Day Games are a collective of indie games designers comprising of Anna Blackwell (DELVE, Apothecaria),
Chris Bissette (The Wretched, Treasures of the Troll King), Jack Harrison (Artefact, Orbital), and Matt Sanders (Sealed Library, Have You Heard About The Beast?)

TWENTY KINDS OF WET WE’RE GOING ON A

From rain-slick streets to snow-thick peaks, every environment TORNADOCRAWL
can be enriched with a little liquid meteorology. Just add water. So, it finally happened, a big ol’ tornado
ripped through the farm and is running away
1. A cold, miserable drizzle that makes you yearn for home. with everything that weren’t nailed down
2. A life-affirming downpour that washes away bad memories. well enough. Be a brave adventurer, make
3. A driving, horizontal rain that slows your progress to a crawl. your way up through the tornado and rescue
4. A gusty storm that steals your coat before drenching you. Granny Withirsmish.
5. A warm shower, heady with the scent of rose blooms. Whenever the party completes an area,
6. A thick, unceasing deluge that soaks you to your bones. roll 2D6 and switch the positions of those
7. An intermittent shower that has you constantly fussing with areas. Once all the areas are complete,
your hood. the players are automatically moved to
8. A soupy, indistinct drizzle that sneaks into your boots without number 6 and can make an attempt to grab Granny Withirsmish.
you noticing.
9. A barrage of craggy ice crystals the size of your fist. COWS! – Three dozen cows whip around the tornado here providing just
10. A haze of roiling ash that whispers laments of lost souls. enough footing to leap from one to the other. Maisy, the leader of the herd,
11. A dense pillar of furious sleet concentrated on a single is at the far end. If the party can get her golden bell, the herd will follow.
forlorn soul.
12. A sudden squall followed by a grisly downpour of colourful, Windmill – The blades of the old windmill whirr like a buzzsaw while
lifeless frogs. Farmer Haggit’s screams can be heard from within. Getting in is
13. A flurry of snowflakes, each identically shaped in an difficult, defeating the Wind Elemental inside is even harder.
ominous emblem.
14. A hissing mist of acid rain that boils your skin and eats Barn – The sturdiest barn this side of the county. Made with dwarven
through metal. nails, it’ll take more than a tornado to break this barn apart. Any cows
15. A violent thunderstorm, replete with flashes of crimson or people inside’ll be kept safe from the inevitable fall.
lightning.
16. The Heavens literally open, flooding the land below with their Cart – The poor mailboy Briant and his cart! As luck would have it, he
brilliant holy waters. has some rope, arrows, an anvil, and some medical supplies.
17. Great whirling eddies of wet rats, grasping desperately at
anything that offers an The Coop – Frantic chickens cluck and holler but not because of the
escape. tornado, no, even worse; there’s a Werefox in the coop with them.
18. An iridescent downpour
of magical energy that Withirsmish House – The once cosy home of Granny Withirsmish and
transforms everything it her family. Inside is full of memories from a lifetime of adventuring
soaks. before settling down. Hidden somewhere in the house is an arrow that
19. A hail of bloody knives, all can kill a Tornado.
screaming the same name.
20. A hulking beast, perched Granny Withirsmish – Whenever the players are at area 6 (whatever
upon the highest that is at the time), they can attempt to grab Granny. Jumping high,
structure, its unceasing riding the winds, lassoing her, making a tower of cows, let them be
tears flooding the streets imaginative but make it difficult.
below.
If the players kill the Tornado before getting the cows or NPCs into
the Barn… well, I’m sure you can guess.

92 March 2022
I FEEL IT IN MY BONES
The old folk have seen more winters than most can count. They
read wind and skies and spout fantastic folklore. Most young folk
ignore it as fairytales. You know it’s true, maybe. Partially? Here’s
two tables to get you started…

CURRENT WEATHER
D6 Weather Folklore
Scorching Sun “someone round ere’s
done wrong and this is our
1
punishment. A wee preview of
the hell yous gets for stealing.”
Overcast “clouds like that be the breath of
dragons duelling in the heavens.
Teeth and scales sometimes fall
2
to earth. Killed Whistling Jim
four score ago did one of the
teeth”
Unexpected Hail “The ice giants are on the move.
3 Let’s hope our little village
doesn’t arouse their curiosity”
Thunder and Lightning “The stirring of a sleeping god.
Let’s hope when they awaken
4
it’s one of the less wrathful
ones”
Thick Fog “BOLT YOUR DOORS and gird
your loins for the ghost elk sidle
5
forth. Pray they don’t knock on
your door this evening.”
Torrential Rain “‘eavy rains! The river fairies will
6 be out dragging away boats, and
young uns given the chance”

SEASONAL SIGNS
D6 Weather Folklore
Early shooting plants The dryads are restless.
1 Literally pushing the plants up
from underneath.
Early frost Ain’t natural this. There’s a
frostblin abroad. Sheep’ll turn
2
up dead and frozen soon, mark
my words.
Giant crops Seems good now but wait till
pumpkins are bursting in the
3
fields and showering us with
pulp.
The river runs dry Last time this happened it
4 were a thirsty ogre what hired
gnomes to build a dam for him.
Unending Humidity Breeding season for great
swarms of bloodsucking flies!
5
I’ve seen them drain a cow to
dry in under a minute.
A solar eclipse It cannot be. Soon the winged
6 demons shall descend, as they
did in the days of our founders.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 93
 WHEN ALL ELSE
FAILS...
We explore failing forward
Words by Richard Jansen-Parkes
mong the many advantages
A roleplaying games hold over reality
is that when you fail in an RPG, at
least you usually know it. When
you roll a natural one, there’s very
little doubt that things are about to go south.
There isn’t that awkward period when you’re
walking around in blissful ignorance of the
disaster waiting just around the corner.
On top of this, there’s the fact that failing
in real life sucks. Failing in games… well, it
can still suck. But it also works to add spice to
the story you’re telling. Not only does it allow
the successes you roll to shine even brighter,
failure can spit out much more interesting
stories than unalloyed perfection.
What happens when the bad guy gets away?
Or when the cocky fighter gets humiliated by
a novice with luck on her side? I don’t know,
but it’s probably pretty interesting. At the very
least, I’d be shocked if it wasn’t a damn sight
more thrilling than the adventures of The
Heroes Who Always Got Everything Right And
Never Flubbed A Skill Check, Part II.
As important as they are, and as common as
they are, however, failures can often be hard
to handle. Harder than success, even – and
not just for the players. GMs can also run into
roadblocks wherever the dice come up low (or,
possibly, high, if you’re playing Call of Cthulhu
94 March 2022
or one of its misguided roll-under brethren).
Sometimes it’s a case of managing player
expectations. Sometimes it’s thinking of
sufficient penalties for a seriously botched
action. Sometimes it’s the sudden, crushing
realisation that you really shouldn’t have
asked them to roll in the first place, and now
you have to explain quite how the hero fails to
climb an ordinary set of stairs.
TRY, TRY AGAIN
One of the important things about managing
failure is making it meaningful. This isn’t to
say that it has to have a major impact on the
characters or the world, but rather that it should
have some real meaning.
Let’s say you have a group of adventurers
who are trying to toss a length of rope up and
over a tree branch, to make the eventual climb
a little easier. This is something they can easily
mess up. The throw might go wide, or they
might not get enough rope over the branch,
or any one of a dozen other issues. So, it feels
natural to call for some sort of check.
But what happens if they fail that check? If all
that happens is that the role flops to the forest
floor, what’s to stop them from just having
another crack at it? Sooner or later the player is
going to get lucky, and the rope is going to snap
into place. The entire process feels pointless.
Okay, in this particular situation, the correct
advice is probably to simply not call for a check
in the first place. Just let them stick the rope in
the tree and push through to more interesting
content. It still makes a good point about why
failure should be meaningful, though.
Just as a good roll changes the world, so
too should a bad one. Failure should push
the story forward in the same way that
success does.
Take, for example, picking a locked door. If all
that happens on a failed check is that the door
remains closed, that’s kind of boring. It’s much
more exciting for the botched attempt to have
attracted attention from some guards in the
room beyond, or for the attempt to take long
enough for a wandering monster to pass by and
sniff the alluring scent of treasure wafting from
their packs.
You don’t even need to be that dramatic
about it. It’s perfectly acceptable to rule that
the unhappy dice simply mean that the rogue/
hacker/lock-picking robot is now
fairly confident that this lock is simply beyond
them. The reality of the world hasn’t changed –
the door’s still shut – but the
story has. Now, the party needs to work out how
to open the locked door with the lock still in
place, and you get to think about where to stash
a convenient supply of sledgehammers.
SOFTLOCKED DOOR
Having no real penalty for failure can be a
waste of everybody’s time. However, it’s also a
bad idea to take things too far in the opposite
direction.
Imposing huge downsides for fairly
innocuous checks, for example, is probably
not going to help your game run smoothly. If
your party gets the impression that being run
out of town is a likely consequence of trying
to sweet-talk the innkeeper into a discount,
expect the bard to be suddenly gun shy when
it comes to using their abilities.
Beyond simple mechanical or practical
penalties, however, you also need to be wary
of completely derailing the game as a result of
poor rolling.
This actually happens a lot more than you
might think, as it comes from a good piece
of GMing instinct. After all, players like it
when they get to use their skills and their
dice to do something useful. Something vital.
So, naturally, we GMs like to engineer these
situations.
We’ll let the rogue with the utterly absurd
lockpicking bonus bust the party out of jail
using only a hairpin and the barbarian’s lucky
tooth. We’ll give the engineer a chance to show
off their technobabble by making the mission
hinge on a faulty starship core.
When we insert these moments into our
games, however, we need to remember the
possibility of failure.
If that rogue rolls a natural one, and then
somehow rolls yet another one after their
inevitable free re-roll, how the hell do they
get out of jail? If the engineer utterly flubs
her engineering test, how are the crew going
to unravel the puzzle? Are they all just stuck
there, unable to progress?
In video game jargon, this kind of thing is
called a softlock. You’re not dead, but you’re
unable to make any progress. Of course,
rather than resetting the console, RPG-ers
can usually just rely on a convenient deus ex
machina, but the principle is the same.
You should never find yourself in a
situation where a failed roll – or even a
series of failed rolls – completely derails
a campaign. Every room needs multiple
entrances. Every mystery needs multiple
clues. And if they somehow manage to
screw every possible opportunity up… well,
maybe check they’re rolling the right kind
of dice. Or, perhaps, if they’ve recently been
cursed.
FAILING FORWARD
There’s a fairly well-established GMing
concept known as ‘failing forward’.
Exactly what the phrase means varies a little
depending on who you talk to. Some folks will
swear blind that failing forward means that
you never really fail to do something outright,
but rather succeed at a cost. You persuade the
king to help you, but his aid comes at a cost.
That kind of thing.
Others maintain that it’s a little more basic
than that, and that it simply means that events
should still proceed when you fail, rather than
staying flat and static. This is where the idea
of having a wandering monster show up while
you fail to pick a lock, or having the noise
attract a guard, comes from.
Personally, I like to flit between the two
depending on the circumstances, and the
system I’m running. I find that games with a
heavy narrative focus tend to lend themselves
to the first idea, while those that are a little
crunchier – and with a more precise definition
of what failure entails – work better with the
second.
Regardless of which stance you take,
however, the basic idea is the same. Failure
shouldn’t stop the game, but rather divert it
in a different direction. It should throw up
problems for the players to deal with, rather
than simply leave them with fewer options.
Failure can be devastating, funny and
dangerous. But it shouldn’t be boring. *
tabletopgaming.co.uk 95
 SHOP SPOTLIGHT
ORCS NEST
Opening in 1987, this game shop in the West End has
been a staple for many over the years. We chat to Peter
about how it came about.
Interview by Charlie Pettit
Can you tell us a little bit about how the store
first got started, and where it is now?
In the late 1970s and the early 80s I was a
guitarist in an almost famous punk rock band
but eventually the record contract ran out
and the gigs started to dry up. I tried a few
jobs doing things like selling shoes down the
Portobello Road and working in the fashion
industry but nothing seemed to last. In the
meantime, myself and Simon “Snakke” Ellis,
who had been the singer in the band, started
playing Dungeons & Dragons and historical
wargames to pass the days.
I figured it would be a better idea to start a
games shop rather than get deeper involved in
the pitfalls of the fashion industry. It took us
two years to get it together, as nobody would
trust a couple of punk rockers with exploding
heads with a business loan back then, but we
finally opened the shop in Earlham Street in
April of 1987.
A few years later, Simon moved on to
pastures new, but now, 35 years later, I am
still running the shop and, Covid permitting,
looking forward to the future. The bass player
in the band, Charles “Chas Chaos” Ellis joined
in as a Saturday boy way back in late eighties
and he still fills that role today.
96 March 2022
What’s it like being a FLGS in your area?
Running a retail shop in the West End,
particularly a small, specialist one, is
completely different to other parts of the
country and as things get harder there are
fewer and fewer of them.
The majority of our customers are visitors
and not many of them actually live within
about 10 miles of the shop. That means that
we aren’t so local as most of the other games
shops but we do try to be a friendly one.
You have massive overheads and a lot of
casual browsers and probably the two hardest
things to find in the West End are space and
time, so we don’t have room for tournaments
and in-shop play. We try to make up for that
by being as welcoming to everyone as we can
and not just the preserve of a select group of
hardcore players.
I think a lot of people bought their first ever
DnD set or their first Catan game from us
and I hope that they have all gone on to enjoy
gaming with their friends and families for the
rest of their lives.
How has it been through COVID-19?
Absolutely terrible. As a face-to-face retail
shop who depend on customers coming into
the shop to talk to us, lockdowns and stay
at home advice means that we can’t really
operate.
Around 50% of our customers were visitors
from other countries and around 30% were
people who worked locally and would come
in after work and in their lunch break. With no
tourists and nearly everybody working from
home we have lost a lot of our trade.
There did seem to be some light at the end
of the tunnel around the end of October last
year but Omicron seems to have pushed us
right back to where we were again.
What’re your plans for the coming year?
Hopefully we will be able to tough it out until
the Omicron wave is over, keep cheerful, and
then concentrate on getting back to the tried
and tested methods that have served us well
for the past 35 years. *
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?
Orcs Nest
6 Earlham St,
London
WC2H 9RY
https://www.orcsnest.com/
 Powerful vampires are
descending upon an unsuspecting city,
looking to build a new underground
kingdom from the ground up.

Control a continuously evolving hand

of vampire cards that will let you visit
locations, perform rituals, bewitch
victims, and recruit new vampires.
However, as your power grows, so does
fear within the city, making your quest
increasingly difficult as the days go by.

It’s every immortal

0 for themselves!
1
1

TELEPORTATION 2
UNHOLY FAVOR THE HU
4 NTING
ELDER 3 3 LODGE
CANNOT COM
PLETE RITU 2
ALS.
, RETURN
1 4 GAIN
POR. INSTEAD
ARD TO TOR OF THE ELDER DECK. 3 ELDER FO
DO NOT DISC
THIS CARD
TO THE TOP 2 1 IN YOUR R EACH
HAND.
2 1
II
1

TURN, YOU
THE HOUS ONCE PER DAY, ON YOUR
MAY MOVE AN ORDER ER TO ANOTHTH
TOKEN YOU HAVE E

gunp wder
EKEEPER ER PHARMACI
PLACED IN A CITY QUART E. I ST
2 CHOOSE
DECREASEANY CITY QUARTER
QUARTER OF YOUR CHOIC
ITS DIE
BY 2.
AND GAIN 1 ELDE
R, 1 BLEEDE I
II AND R,

studios

AVAILABLE Q1 2022
BOARD GAMES TrickorTreatstudios.com/games

THERE BE DRAGONS!
gunpowderstudios.co.uk
 12
1 11
2

10
9
3

8
4

5 7
6

ZOHN AHL
ohn Ahl is typical of many stick-dice race

Z games played by first-nation Americans.

Stick dice are sticks split down the middle
to produce a flat and a rounded side, the
flat side often decorated and coloured.
Three or more may be cast on the ground and the
binary number so produced dictates how fast a player’s
token advances along the trick from start to home. N
sticks can yield n+1 different results.
This race game of the plains Indians was first
described by American ethnologist Stewart Culin in
Games of the North American Indians (1907). Culin
quotes a first-hand but somewhat garbled description
by one Col. H L Scott of a game he calls Zohn Ahl (zohn
= creek ; ahl = wood), or the Ahl game. It was played by
women and children, never men.
The ‘board’, whether a cloth or marks or objects on
the ground, is a circular track of 40 spaces. The south
and north points are called creeks, east and west ‘dry
branches’. Each of two players or teams, sitting on
opposite sides, starts with four counters, places their
token at the south creek and moves it around the track, TOP LEFT: Zohn Ahl layout
one side clockwise and the other anti-clockwise, till it
reaches south again, thus ending a lap. If a token lands TOP RIGHT: Lizzie Magie’s
exactly on the north creek it is said to have ‘fallen into ‘Landlords’ prototype
the creek’ and must then start again, with a forfeit of
one counter to the opponents. If it lands on the east ABOVE: Kiowa stick dice
or west point (a dry branch) its side pays a counter counters (or the majority, if ended prematurely) wins
and loses a turn. A token landing on the same space the game. ABOVE LEFT: Havasupai
as the opponents’ sends it back to start again, losing a Zohn Ahl resembles many cross-and-circle games girls playing “Hue-ta-
counter in the process. in other parts of the world, such as the Korean Yunnori queech-e-ka,” (photo
Casts are made by holding the four sticks and (Nyout). In Yunnori the moving counters are referred G Wharton, c.1898)
forcefully bouncing them point first against the flat ‘ahl to as horses, but as horses were not introduced to University of Southern
stone’ placed in the centre. If all fall with ungrooved North America before the 16th century one can only California
sides uppermost the throw is ‘white’ and counts 10; assume the pattern reflects a sort of universal ludic
if with grooved sides uppermost it is ‘red’, and counts archetype. As it was played mainly by women it seems
5. These throws (only) entitle the team to another likely that the ‘journey’ depicted was more in the David Parlett is a games
throw. Otherwise the number of grooved side falling nature of gathering than hunting. Games historian inventor and historian,
uppermost counts as many steps forward. The side Phil Winkelman suggests that Lizzie Magie may have author of The Oxford
completing a lap first wins one counter of the other, been influenced by Zohn Ahl in the design of her History of Card Games and
and if there is enough to take it to the creek the surplus Landlords (Monopoly) prototype (illustrated above) by its sequel on board games,
is added to the next round; that is, the creek is jumped, having seen one on display at the World’s Columbian and a visiting professor
and the token put beyond it as many points as may Exposition in 1893. of games design at the
University of Suffolk.
be over. Play continues, and the side winning all the But that’s another story. *

98 March 2022 tabletopgaming.co.uk

NEW RELEASE – BOXERS!
TH E D R AG O N WA K E S !

China 1899. A populist movement secretly supported

by the Empress Dowager has risen up to expel all
foreigners from Chinese soil. Called the Yihequan
(Fists of Harmony and Justice) but “Boxers” by
foreigners because their members practiced martial
arts, they attacked both foreign residents of China
and Chinese who had converted to Christianity.

The uprising culminated in the siege of Peking

(Beijing) with the small forces of the foreign Legations
surrounded and besieged. A relief force was quickly
cobbled together by the Eight Nation Alliance made
up of Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Austo-
Hungary, Italy, and the United States. After brutal
fighting the Legation Quarter was liberated in August
1900.

This hard plastic box set allows you to build up to

30 warriors with options to create the famed Kansu
(Gansu) Braves and Tigermen. This box can also
be used for other periods like the Opium Wars, the
Taiping Rebellion, the First Sino-Japanese War, and
into the 20th century.

30-figure box set

$34.95/£25
facebook.com/wargamesatlantic DESIGNED ON BOTH SIDES OF THE POND

VISIT US AT WWW.WARGAMESATLANTIC.COM
 Read more from us…
If you have enjoyed Tabletop Gaming here’s six more magazines from us to try.
tabletopgaming.co.uk tabletopgaming.co.uk

VOLUME TWO

GAME
GAME
MASTER’S
MASTER’S GUIDE
GUIDE
VOLUME ONE

TO ROLEPLAYING
GAME
MASTER’S GUIDE
2015 2016 TO ROLEPLAYING

£9.991
tabletopgaming.co.uk

tabletopgaming.co.uk tabletopgaming.co.uk

2017 2018 FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF

FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF

Miniature Wargames The Best Games of… Game Master’s

Covering all forms of miniature Our definitive reviews of all the must- Guide to Roleplaying
wargaming, including historical play board games, card games, RPGs, Covering a huge range of RPGs, this
scenarios and how to transfer famous miniature games and tabletop titles contains features, interviews, reviews
battles to the tabletop. since 2015. and tops for your next RPG.

Practical Fishkeeping Your Dog Your Cat

The UK’s top title for all things aquatic, The perfect go-to guide for all loving The must-have magazine for all cat
whether a beginner to the highly dog owners filled with advice and expert lovers and cat owners alike.
specialised fishkeeper. tips.

Leave us a review If you have enjoyed this magazine then do the next thing to shouting it from the rooftops
and leave us a review instead! We all like to know when something is good and if
★★★★★ 5/5 something has been rated highly by others. Leave us a review to let new customers know
what you think to Tabletop Gaming.

KB000484 moreFromUs digi FP TTG.indd 1 23/10/2020 14:57

 GAMES
STORE
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 !

tabletopgaming.co.uk/games
gamesStore.indd 1 18/02/2020 15:20