Tabletop Games Blog

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I reckon most of us have heard about toxic behaviour in our hobby. Some of us will have experienced it directly. Many of us can probably name at least one bad actor who is still present in our community. There are also publishers who still work with these people, despite there having been public outrage about the person's behaviour or actions and the person not showing any remorse or accepting any responsibility. As a reviewer, my initial reaction is not to review games from those publishers, let alone if a toxic person has worked on them in any capacity. However, as I want to discuss in this article, things aren't always that black and white.

Read the full article or listen to the audio version here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/09/12/reviews-bad-actors-and-consequentialism-reviewing-games-from-controversial-publishers-topic-discussion/

(Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash)

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It was the 5th century BCE and we, the Athenians, had been victorious over the Persians. The Delian League was now under our military control and the income generated by federation fees had made us prosperous. It was time for an ambitious building programme and the most talented architects in ancient Greece were ready. We were going to build housing, temples, markets, gardens and barracks. Our planning rules were going to create a harmonious community, enhanced by plazas. We would create new quarries to provide the stone to stretch our city towards the sky. We were going to build our high city, our ⁠Akropolis⁠ by Jules Messaud from ⁠Gigamic⁠.

Read the full review or listen to the audio version here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/09/09/akropolis-saturday-review/

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Now don't get me wrong. I don't mind long games. I happily play the same game for two to three hours, as long as it keeps me captivated. Even when a game requires a lot of focus and concentration, I usually have no problem sticking with it for a few hours. One of the ways in which a game can keep players invested is by reducing the amount of downtime, that is the time it takes for a turn to come back round to you. Something that helps in this respect is overlapping turns, which I want to look at more closely in this article.

Read the full article or listen to the audio version here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/09/05/speed-boost-overlapping-turns-in-board-games-topic-discussion/

(Photo by Ray Harrington on Unsplash)

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The living room floor was a mess, sort of anyway. Everything was neatly arranged in a grid pattern, but there was no order to it whatsoever. Books were next to plants, which were next to games, which were next to frames all while some of our cats were tiptoeing around everything. All of it was only temporary though. I just wanted to get everything lined up, before returning it all to My Shelfie by Matthew Dunstan and Phil Walker-Harding from Lucky Duck Games.

Read the full review or listen to the audio version here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/09/02/my-shelfie-saturday-review/

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The discussion about whether board game reviews should be paid for comes up regularly. Arguments can centre on the moral angle, come from a legal viewpoint or be purely personal opinions. More often than not, what is being debated is not well defined and the discourse starts to drift into different, seemingly opposing, directions. In this article, I want to try and untangle the topic and focus on maybe one or two specific areas.

Read the full article or listen to the audio version here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/08/29/reviews-kant-be-paid-a-look-at-paid-reviews-topic-discussion/

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Fungi have long been misclassified as plants. In reality, they are a whole kingdom of their own. What we call a mushroom is just a fungus's fruit that appears above ground, but a mushroom is just a tiny part of a fungus. It's their underground root system composed of dense masses of fine, thread-like filaments, called hyphae, that makes up the majority of a fungus. Yet, mushrooms are crucial in a fungus's propagation. Mushrooms send out spores, which are carried through the air to new locations. When they eventually germinate they create new ⁠Mycelia⁠ by J. J. Neville from ⁠Split Stone Games⁠.

Read the full review or listen to the audio version here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/08/26/mycelia-saturday-review/

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After talking to ⁠Gaiagames⁠ at ⁠Berlin Brettspiel Con⁠ this year, I was impressed by how much they focus on sustainability for their games, not just when it comes to the product itself, but also the gameplay experience. It spurned me on to write about the topic of our hobby's impact on the environment and how that manifests itself in so many different, faceted ways.

Read the full article or listen to the audio version here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/08/22/green-greener-greenest-sustainability-and-board-games-topic-discussion/

(Photo by kiki Wang on Unsplash)

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The first snow of winter had fallen. Underneath the cosy blanket of snow, new life was stirring. The land was coming alive with creatures trying to carve out a life. It wasn't long until the warm sun melted the snow atop the giant mountain overlooking this realm. A slow trickle soon turned into a stream, which grew and grew and threatened to flood the animals with a giant ⁠River Wild⁠ by Steven Aramini from ⁠Button Shy⁠. Read the full review or listen to the audio version here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/08/19/river-wild-saturday-review/

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Starting out in any hobby can be daunting. There is so much to learn and understand. The modern board game hobby is no different. There is terminology that will be unfamiliar to people who have not played much other than ⁠Monopoly⁠ or ⁠The Game of Life⁠. Even the idea that you do anything other than roll and move can be alien and lead to analysis paralysis. So in this article, I want to look at how you can introduce people to our hobby.

Read the full article or listen to the audio version here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/08/15/opening-gambit-where-to-begin-in-the-modern-hobby-topic-discussion/

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It was time for our annual harvest and for the Day of the Dead. We are all looking forward to seeing the souls of our dead loved ones again. There would be dancing, singing, drinking, eating and general merriment. It was going to be our chance to speak with our long-deceased family members again. This year it was going to be different though. We would make a bet with the dead. It would be a race. Whoever made it back to their world again first would control what happened in the other realm for a whole year. We were ready to say ⁠¡Adiós Calavera!⁠ by Martin Schlegel from ⁠Mücke Spiele⁠.

Read the full review or listen to the audio version here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/08/12/adios-calavera-saturday-review/

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The following article was written by Dennis Wesley.

Chess is one of our oldest games and as with most long-lasting entities, the game has undergone many changes over the years, influenced even by such factors as societal progress and politics. Chess has passed through different societies and cultures and the game has been played and perceived differently in different settings. Today, chess is one of very few board games accorded the status of sport in addition to also being promoted as a hobby that improves players' acuity.

Read the full article or listen to the audio version here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/08/08/chess-appeal-the-history-of-an-ancient-game-topic-discussion/

(Photo by Le Vu on Unsplash)

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The last batch of Spiel des Jahres game donations has gone to the wonderful Paul Lamprey from Mid Sussex Meeples, a board game group that is a safe space for everyone to enjoy our hobby. You have to read his story to see how wonderful he really is. 🙂👍 Find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/midsussexmeeples/

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ADVERT: Don't forget! You can still get a 10% DISCOUNT using coupon code TABLETOPGAMESBLOG when you buy any of the wooden escape room puzzles from EscapeWelt. Just follow this link: https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1K7gu

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It's lunchtime and the queue outside your cafe is rather long. Everyone wants you to hurry up and make them their favourite sandwich from your hugely popular menu. The pressure is on to line up slices of bread and pile them high with lettuce, tomatoes, eggs, tuna or ham. Some want theirs even toasted. Well… ⁠Crumbs!: The Sandwich Filler Game⁠ by J. Antscherl from ⁠Minerva Tabletop Games⁠.

Read the full review or listen to the audio version here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/08/05/crumbs-the-sandwich-filler-game-saturday-review/

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I always love going to board game conventions, shows, conferences or whatever you want to call them. Just walking into the halls and seeing lots of excited people who share the same hobby is invigorating. The prospect of catching up with friends whom I might not otherwise see is wonderful. Finally meeting the people I only know from social media face-to-face is fabulous. Board game events are always very much like a home from home. Yet, my visit to ⁠Berlin Brettspiel Con 2023⁠ and the ⁠Spiel des Jahres⁠ awards a few weeks ago took this to another level.

Read the full article or listen to the audio version here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/08/01/home-from-home-a-con-visit-with-a-difference-topic-discussion/

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Of the over 30 atolls and coral reefs in the Laccadive Sea, off the coast of Kerala, India, only 10 are inhabited. Of those, only a few are open to tourists. To visit the islands you need permission from the nearest customs office in Kochi, which is over 300 miles away. It helps strike the right balance between creating a good income stream for the islands, while also supporting sustainable tourism and preserving the fragile ecosystem of ⁠Lakshadweep⁠ by Sidhant Chand from ⁠Luma World⁠.

Read the full review here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/07/29/lakshadweep-saturday-review/

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Recently at work, we discussed how constantly going from one task to the next or changing from one tool to another is rather draining. This so-called context switching has been shown to reduce productivity. That's when it struck me that some board games suffer from exactly this problem. So in this article, I want to look at how research into the problems of context switching could potentially be applied to board game design.

Read the full article or listen to the audio version here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/07/25/context-switching-when-games-are-hard-work-topic-discussion/

(Photo by Leonel Fernandez on Unsplash)