tabletopgaming.co.

uk July 2018

Back to the mythological RPG

that reinvented roleplaying

MAGIC
THE GATHERING
10 PAGES! Designers, artists and fans
celebrate the world’s biggest card game

PLAYED
CENTURY: EASTERN WONDERS | HISTORY OF THE WORLD
D&D: TOME OF FOES | IMAGINARIUM | A SONG OF ICE & FIRE Display until 30/7/18

SHARDS OF INFINIT Y | THE MIND | DECRYPTO | FAE + MORE £5.25

 2-6
PLAYERS

20-40
MINUTES
PLAY TIME

Every year the Emperor walks through the Imperial

Gardens to greet the spring, every year he stops
beneath the sakura trees, and every year you try to
paint his picture. This will be your year!

Sakura is a light tactical game of pushing your

luck and pushing your friends. Each player will
simultaneously decide how far to move both their

“
character and the Emperor. The player closest to
“
Jostle to the front of the crowd ready
for your opportunity to shine, or keep
yourself in the background only to
leap forward at the right moment.
the Emperor when the cherry blossoms are reached
will gain a huge amount of prestige, but if you
push too far you risk bumping into the Emperor and
walking away in disgrace.

But beware! The emperor has a mind

of his own.
TIPS FROM CREATOR REINER KNIZIA

It’s the turn of the century, and it’s time to

live large!

Reiner Knizia’s classic auction game returns

in a new edition from Osprey Games!
Players must out-bid one another in an
effort to acquire the social status to
surpass their peers, whilst avoiding

“
scandals which will ruin their

“
Life offers many temptations and
aspiring to reach the echelons
of high society comes at a price.
reputation. The player who achieves
the highest status without going broke
will be crowned the winner!

3-5 20
Spend your money wisely, but keep
some reserves for the challenging
MINUTES
days ahead! PLAYERS PLAY TIME
TIPS FROM CREATOR REINER KNIZIA

BROWSE OUR FULL RANGE OF GAMES AT WWW.OSPREYGAMES.CO.UK

 EDITORIAL
EDITOR Matt Jarvis

Welcome
01778 392 400
matt.jarvis@warnersgroup.co.uk

CONTRIBUTORS Sam Desatoff,

John Dodd, Owen Duffy, Robert
Florence, JR Goldberg, Holly
Gramazio, Sam Illingworth, Richard
Jansen-Parkes, Dan Jolin, Andy

I
Leighton, Josher Lumpkin, Phil
Robinson, Alex Sonechkina, Charlie
Theel, Paul Wake, James Wallis t’s hard to imagine my childhood without TCGs: hours spent
swapping Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in the playground,
HEAD OF DESIGN & PRODUCTION hundreds of pocket-money pounds spent on rares and
Lynn Wright
shinies, binders full of complete collections (and stacks of
DESIGNER Richard Hallam dupes). It’s just as tough to consider what gaming today would
look like without the first collectible card game, Magic: The
COVER IMAGE FROM MAGIC:
THE GATHERING CORE SET 2019 Gathering, which turns 25 years old this month. A quarter-
Illustration by Magali Villeneuve century on, though, and Magic’s gameplay and universe feels
Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast as fresh as ever – as our massive 10-page celebration of
ADVERTISING the game alongside its creators and fans shows.
TO ADVERTISE PLEASE CALL Also marking a birthday this month is RuneQuest, the
GROUP ADVERTISING MANAGER
Claire Ingram 01778 391 179
Now Playing... influential fantasy RPG that 40 years ago rewrote what an
claire.ingram@warnersgroup.co.uk The Mind immersive roleplaying world could be, as Greg Stafford and
Steve Perrin reminisce in our exclusive interview. The latest
GROUP TELESALES EXECUTIVE edition continues this legacy of invention and imagination –
Ben Jackson 01778 391 129
you’ll be able to read our full thoughts in the Played section.
Get in touch
ben.jackson@warnersgroup.co.uk
There’s plenty more crammed into this issue, including
ADVERTISING DESIGN reviews of the next Century game, this year’s controversial
AND PRODUCTION tabletopgaming.co.uk
Nicola Lock 01778 392 420
Spiel des Jahres hopeful The Mind and the A Song of Ice
nicola.lock@warnersgroup.co.uk tabletopmag & Fire miniatures game – plus a look at the previously top
secret games developed by the CIA to train agents.
MARKETING tabletopgamingmagazine
Plus, don’t forget to check the latest announcements
MARKETING BRAND MANAGER
Nicola Lumb tabletop_gaming_magazine for Tabletop Gaming Live on page 6 to see why there’s no
place more exciting for gamers to be this September.

Matt
PUBLISHED BY
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Claire Ingram
Warners Group Publications PLC
The Maltings, West Street, Matt Jarvis Editor
Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH matt.jarvis@warnersgroup.co.uk | @liquidmatt
01778 391 000
www.warnersgroup.co.uk
Q U I C K S TA R T
NEWSTRADE DISTRIBUTION
Warners Group Publications PLC I thought That is my It’s a long
01778 391 150
that a game favourite high journey, I
PRINTING
where every – better than all just keep driving
This publication is
printed by Warners card broke the the drugs I have and the stories
01778 395111
rules would be so cheerfully keep writing
The views expressed by contributors are not necessarily
those of the publishers. Every care is taken to ensure that
like magic. poisoned themselves.
the content of this magazine is accurate, but we assume no
responsibility for any effect from errors or omissions. While
every care is taken with unsolicited material submitted for
myself with.
publication, we cannot be responsible for loss or damage. Richard Garfield revisits the origins Greg Stafford is hooked on RuneQuest’s The 30-year saga of sci-fi wrestling
While every care is taken when accepting advertisements, we of Magic: The Gathering, p18 spiritual world of Glorantha, p28 game Champions of the Galaxy, p58
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 to regulate the
content of advertisements. Tel: 020 7429 2222
© Warners Group Publications Plc, 2018
tabletopgaming.co.uk 3
 In this issue
THE GAMES
Arkwright 54
Art Deck 37
Barker’s Row 79
Big Trouble in Little 75
China: The Game 06 AT A GLANCE 37 KICKSTARTING FROM SCRATCH
Catan 74
Century: 64
08 FIRST TURN 38 HOW WE MADE
First Martians’ Ignacy Trzewiczek looks back on Machina Turning Fudge into the flexible roleplaying of Fate Core
Eastern Wonders
Champions of 58 10 10 OF THE BEST 43 THE INDEPENDENT SHELF
the Galaxy
Chess 53 13 ROLE CALL 46 OGRE
Civilization 10 Steve Jackson hops back in the driving seat of his titantic wargame
14 ALL THE JAHRES
Collection Deck 50
Back to the game that changed everything: Settlers of Catan 48 THROUGH THE AGES
Cosmic Encounter 34
Decrypto 68 17 MY FAVOURITE GAME 49 SPY GAMES
Wordsy creator Gil Hova hooks up with the electrifying Power Grid We play the board games created to train real CIA agents
Drop It 72
Dungeons 70, 88
ON THE COVER 53 PLAY IT SMART
& Dragons
Fae 78
18 MAGIC: THE GATHERING 54 CAPSTONE GAMES
Fantastiqa: Rival Realms 80 25TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL Meet the man on a mission to bring heavyweights to the masses
The people who made Magic – and the fans enchanted by it
Fate Core 38
– join us to celebrate a quarter-century of the card game 57 UNEARTHED ARTEFACTS
First Martians 09
Flamme Rouge 53 28 RUNEQUEST 58 CHAMPIONS OF THE GALAXY
As Glorantha returns, Greg Stafford and Steve Perrin The story of the sci-fi wrestling game 30 years in the making
Gloomhaven 48
reveal how they crafted a fantasy world like no other
Helionox 77 63 PLAYED
Hexpanse 81 34 HAVE YOU PLAYED? This month’s unmissable new releases, reviewed!
History of the World 73
83 PAINTING GUIDE
Imaginarium 69 Tips on turning Stuffed Fables into a tabletop dream
Kero 71
Kingpin: The Hunt 49 88 DM’S GUIDE TO ROLEPLAYING
for El Chapo Finding the right words to bring your world alive
Machina 08
91 EVENT REPORT
Magic: The Gathering 18
Mechs vs Minions 10 92 CLUB DIRECTORY
The Mind 66
95 SHOP SPOTLIGHT
The Networks 17
Newsdesk 37 98 TABLETOP TIME MACHINE
Ogre 46 Ring, ring! Newsdesk here. Give us the scoop!
Pandemic
Power Grid
48
17
28
The Ruhr 54
RuneQuest 28, 67
Settlers of Catan 74 18
Shards of Infinity 76
A Song of Ice and Fire: 65
Tabletop Miniatures Game
Space Base 74
Stuffed Fables 83
Techno Bowl 43
Unlock! 80
Wild West Exodus 05
Wildcatters 54
Wildlife Safari 57 58 38

4 July 2018
 HOW TO BUILD AND PAINT YOUR FREE
WILD WEST EXODUS K9 ATTACK DOG
A S S E M B LY

ATTACK DOG 1 2 ATTACK DOG 2 2

1 3 1 3

2 2
PAIN T ING

BODIES GLOW

A ZINE
STAGE 1 STAGE 1
Doombull Brown:
M AG
Bloodletter: Apply

PRINT G . C O . U K
Apply a coat over several glazes
the whole model
T H E over and around

W I TH P G A M I N
and base. the area you

S F RE E would like the glow

K DOG T T A B L E T O
to originate from.

T TAC
S K9 A I S S U E A
STAGE 2 STAGE 2

D U
Leadbelcher: Troll Slayer Orange:

XO
EST E E L A T E S T
Apply a light Mix one part

W
drybrush over water and one

W I L D the dog. part Lahmian

R TH
Medium. Apply a

O R D E small amount to
and around the
glowing area.
STAGE 3 STAGE 3 BASING
Drakenhof Fire Dragon Baneblade
Nightshade: Bright: Make a Brown: Apply
Apply a light wash mix with one part a fairly heavy
over the dog. water and apply drybrush to
a small amount the sand.
to the centre of Agrellan Earth:
the glow. Apply a generous
coat to the areas
of the base with
STAGE 4 STAGE 4
no sand.
Runefang Steel: Lugganath Orange:
Karak Stone:
Apply an edge Water down
Apply a light
highlight to slightly and apply
drybrush to the
the dog. a dot/dash to the
sand and an
centre of the glow.
edge highlight to
Apply a very fine
the cracks.
edge highlight to
any hard edges.
Painting guide and pictures by Andy Leighton
COMPETITION

For a chance to win, simply submit your image to tabletopcomp@warnersgroup.co.uk with the subject line
"Wild West Comp" along with your full name and telephone number before midday on Monday July 30th 2018
For full terms and conditions, visit tabletopgaming.co.uk/competitions
 AT A GLANCE

KING OF TOKYO, SUSHI GO!, KINGDOMINO, SUB TERRA AND THE

CHAMELEON CREATORS BRINGING AWARD-WINNING FAMILY
FAVOURITES AND PARTY HITS TO TABLETOP GAMING LIVE
Big Potato, Blue Orange, Iello, Inside the Box, North Star and more join dozens of studios showing their latest games

This year’s Tabletop Gaming Live line-up
continues to grow with the addition of some of
the most exciting games studios in the world.
Joining already announced board game,
RPG and miniatures studios such as Fantasy
Flight, Days of Wonder, Catan Studio, Mantic,
Cubicle 7, Warlord Games and many more is a
fresh slew of creators behind smash-hit family
favourites and crowd-pleasing party games.
These include Blue Orange, the family
publisher behind Kingdomino – last year’s winner
of the Spiel des Jahres – Queendomino and
Photosynthesis, as well as many other games.
Also on the show floor will be Iello, the team
responsible for games including dice-rolling
smash hits King of Tokyo and King of New York.York
Joining them is Big Potato, the British party
game makers of The Chameleon, Obama Llama,
Truth Bombs, Scrawl and Bucket of Doom.
Meanwhile, fellow Brit studio Inside the Box
will bring along its hit co-op game Sub Terra,
plus hot fresh title NewSpeak, to the show.
You’ll also find Sushi Go! and Forbidden
Desert creator Gamewright, plus Dice Hospital
studio Alley Cat Games and North Star, which
will have its Happy Planet series – including the
hilarious Happy Salmon and upcoming dancing
game Funky Chicken, new for this year.
The number of miniatures specialists
continues to grow, too, with Titan Wargames,
Pendraken Miniatures and more adding to an
already extensive line-up.
Tabletop Gaming Live will take place in
London’s Alexandra Palace this September
29th and 30th, and will include participation
games, live seminars and an open gaming area.
Tickets are on sale now from just £10, with
family and weekend bundles available. Visit The
Ticket Factory and search “Tabletop Gaming Live”.

KNOW YOUR NUMBERS

15 4 22
The final chapter of Uwe
THREE

Rosenberg’s puzzle trilogy, Knizia’s couples favourite Lost Cities

after Cottage Garden and will invite twice the players along on its
Indian Summer, will be costly expeditions in spin-off Rivals

2 42
Spring Meadow
Ticket to Ride: New Cosmic Encounter
Crime caper Innovative ‘90s storytelling
York is a dinky celebrates a birthday
RPG Fiasco game City of Chaos is
version of the train and Douglas Adams’ wit
is plotting a being resurrected, two
game that plays in a in its upcoming 42nd
second edition decades after it debuted
quarter of an hour Anniversary Edition

REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE

• SAVE UP TO 10% PER YEAR

• GUARANTEE YOUR FREE GIFT EVERY MONTH
• DON’T MISS OUT IF THE SHOPS SELL OUT
6 January 2018

NO MORE RUNNING
Android: Netrunner is ending this October after six years
It’s maybe the most shocking
gaming news of the year: Android:
Netrunner is coming to an end.
Fantasy Flight has confirmed
that the termination of the hugely
influential and acclaimed living card
game will take place on October
22nd 2018, with upcoming
expansion Reign and Reverie now
Netrunner’s swansong.
The announcement comes as
a particular surprise following the
DREAM NIGHTMARE
Rob Daviau, Eric Lang and H.P. Lovecraft unite
What happens when two of the
tabletop’s hottest designers meet one
of gaming’s most popular universes?
The answer is Cthulhu: Death
May Die, a new Lovecraftian
adventure from Eric M. Lang –
known, of course, for Blood Rage
and Rising Sun – and Rob Daviau,
the legacy game pioneer behind
Pandemic Legacy, SeaFall and more.
Death May Die is described as a
mix of “narrative, theme and action”
THE BEST OF UK GAMES EXPO 2018
Listen to round-ups from all three days on The Tabletop Gaming Podcast
DOWNLOAD NOW FROM TTGAMI.NG/TTGPODCAST
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D I G I TA L F R O M J U S T
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tabletopgaming.co.uk/subscribe
For the latest news from the world of gaming visit
tabletopgaming.co.uk/news
recent release of a revised core
set for the tournament favourite
earlier this year. The last Android:
Netrunner world championships will
bring its organised play schedule to
an end this September, as part of
the wider Android: Magnum Opus
event celebrating the universe.
The decision to unplug the game
comes as the result of original
Netrunner publisher Wizards of the
Coast opting not to renew its licensing
along the lines of Eldritch
Horror. This time, players are
controlling investigators who
are already insane and have
no choice but to prepare
for – and then confront – an
impending cosmic horror
across a two-act structure.
We’ll see if it manages
to breathe new life into
the familiar theme when it
arrives on Kickstarter.
agreement for the game with
Fantasy Flight, which relaunched
Richard Garfield’s original ‘90s
CCG as an LCG six years ago.
Fantasy Flight added that
although it wouldn’t be able to
continue Netrunner, it still has
plans for other games set in its
cyber-dystopian setting, which
includes the original Android
murder-mystery board game and
economic spin-off New Angeles.
“Just because we won’t be
printing it anymore doesn’t
suddenly turn it into a game that’s
not worth playing,” said studio
head Andrew Navaro. “About 20
years ago the Netrunner CCG was
discontinued – after a much shorter
run than the LCG enjoyed – and
fans continued to play that version
of the game for years without any
official support from its publisher.
“I hold out hope that one day Netrunner
will return, and that our part in its
history will be regarded as a significant
chapter of its much longer journey.”
S TA R WA R S : L E G I O N
PAINTS USED
Abaddon Black
Agrax Earthshade
Blue Horror
Ceramite White
Dark Reaper
Dawnstone
Cadian Fleshtone Deathclaw Brown
Caledor Sky Eshin Grey
Celestra Grey Incubi Darkness
REBEL TROOPERS
BASE COLOURS
XV-88: Apply several coats until you have
a strong, flat colour on the bulk of the
fatigues to start the midtone brown.
Mournfang Brown: Apply a basecoat to
the helmet rim and select areas of clothing
to begin the dark brown.
Karak Stone: Apply a basecoat to
undershirts and small areas of clothing to
begin the light brown.
Cadian Fleshtone: Apply a basecoat to
the skin.
Incubi Darkness: Apply a basecoat to the
boots, straps and backpacks.
Abaddon Black: Apply a basecoat to
the blasters.
84 June 2018
We asked…
What travel games do you
take on trips to maximise
holiday packing space?
You said…
7 Wonders: Duel. Patchwork. Also,
this is why God invented iPads
and 20,000mA power packs. I
prioritise iPad versions of games
with big boxes.
@thedicemechanic
As there are two of us in a caravan,
Jaipur is perfect.
Jan Mura
Howzat, Top Trumps, Khan of
Khans, Rory’s Story Cubes.
@DissectingWrlds
Tiny Epic Galaxies and Celestia.
@ArmchairPimp
The Mind, Jaipur and Star Realms!
@competitiveduo
Usually something quick and easy
to set up, also handy for travel.
Star Realms and Boss Monster
spring to mind.
Kevin Ogilvie
Patchwork on iPad is awesome,
and takes up so much less
table space!
Ruth Arnold
We often go to France so
Carcassonne and Castles of
Burgundy are a must.
Bad Cat Games
Get in touch
tabletopmag
tabletopgamingmagazine
tabletop_gaming_magazine
Karak Stone
Kislev Flesh
Mephiston Red
Russ Grey
Screaming Skull
Skrag Brown
Thunderhawk Blue
XV-88
Zamesi Desert
DUROS
Mournfang Brown Tallarn Sand
Pallid Wych Flesh Temple Guard Blue
Rhinox Hide Thousand Sons Blue
STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4
Thousand Sons Blue: Apply a basecoat Agrax Earthshade: Apply a wash over Dark Reaper: Apply a layer over the head, Temple Guard Blue: Apply a line highlight, focusing
to the head. the head. leaving the recesses the original colour. on the centre of the face and the top edges.
Mephiston Red: Apply a layer over the eyes.
AT-RT & T-47 AIRSPEEDER HULLS
The pilot of the AT-RT was painted separately from the actual vehicle. They were painted in the same manner as the rest of the Rebel troopers.
Both the T-47 and the AT-RT were painted in the same manner. While this guide is great for them, it should also work just as well for any future Rebel vehicles.
SHADING HIGHLIGHTING FINAL DETAILS
Agrax Earthshade: Apply a coat over the Tallarn Sand: Apply a layer over the midtone Karak Stone: Apply a line highlight to the
entire model. brown areas of the fatigues, leaving only the midtone brown, focusing only on the hard
recesses the original colour. edges and ridges.
Screaming Skull: Apply a layer over the Russ Grey: Apply a line highlight to the
light brown areas, leaving only the recesses boots, straps and backpacks, leaving a little
the original colour. of the previous coat showing at the edges.
Kislev Flesh: Apply a highlight to the skin, Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a line highlight to
focusing toward the centre of the face. both the light browns and the skin.
Skrag Brown: Apply a highlight to the dark Deathclaw Brown: Apply an edge highlight
brown areas of the fatigues, focusing on the to the dark brown areas.
10 RPGs YOU MUST PLAY IN 2018!
raised edges and ridges. Abaddon Black & Ceramite White: Begin
Dark Reaper: Apply a line highlight to the the eyes by painting an oval of Abaddon
BASE COLOURS SHADING & LAYERING HIGHLIGHTING
straps, boots and backpacks Black. Follow this with a slightly smaller oval of
Dawnstone & Doombull Brown: Apply a Ceramite White in the centre. Finally, add a XV-88: Apply a basecoat over the entire vehicle. Tallarn Sand: Apply a fairly heavy drybrush Karak Stone: Apply a light drybrush to the lighter areas of the hull, focusing on the front/
line highlight of Dawnstone to the blasters. small dot of Abaddon Black for the pupil. Mournfang Brown: Apply a basecoat to select areas across the lighter areas of the armour. top and the hard edges. Once complete, appy an edge highlight to the front/top edges.
Apply a basecoat of either Dawnstone or Celestra Grey & Deathclaw Brown: Apply of the hulls, such as the cockpit on the T-47. Skrag Brown: Apply a drybrush over the dark Deathclaw Brown: Apply a light drybrush to the darker brown areas, focusing on the hard edges
Doombull Brown to the facial hair. a spot highlight to the blasters. Apply a spot
P L U S ODark
Incubi Darkness: Apply a basecoat to the
UReaper:
R Apply
brown areas.
R Ea drybrush
V I EoverW
and towards the top of the model. Once complete, apply an edge highlight to the front/top edges.
OF D
highlight to the beards depending on the mechanical areas of the model, such as the the
U toNtheGfront/top
E Oedges.NS & DRAGONS’ NEW E
Russ Grey: Apply a light drybrush to the darker areas. Once complete, apply an edge
XPANSION
base colour. engines and grills on the T-47. dark areas. highlight
T-47 COCKPIT GLASS
A perfect method to painting any glass and windows, this method was also used for the goggles on the troopers.
January 2018 tabletopgaming.co.uk
FALLOUT: WASTELAND WARFARE |
STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3 STAGE 4 BOGUS
Incubi Darkness: Apply a basecoat over
the glass.
Caledor Sky: Apply a layer from the bottom
of the windows fading to around halfway up.
Apply with only a tiny, thinned amount on the
Temple Guard Blue: Using the same
method as the last stage, apply a layer
over the bottom quarter of the windows.
Blue Horror: Apply a fine line to the
bottom of the window, as well as dashes to
the top corner to represent reflections.
BOARD GAMES
Do you own
brush and work up over several layers.
a fake?
tabletopgaming.co.uk 85
STUFFED FABLES | FAKE BOARD
LEARNING
EVOLVED
Games aren’t
just
help you boost fun – they can also
GAMES
your brainpower.
Professors and
students tell us
the cranium-cram about
Darwinian delight ming benefits of
Evolution
FALLOUT
Words by Anna
Blackwell
Wasteland warfare
Nuclear PHWOAR! We go behind the
the action-packed post-apocalyptic scenes of
JANUARY 2018
minis game
STUFFED FABLES | CIVILIZATION:
THE MAKING OF DOMINION | A NEW DAWN | VENGEANCE |
AZUL
STAR SAGA PAINTING TIPS | PHOTOSYNTHESIS | MASSIVE DARKNESS
Display until 29/1/18
HNEFATAFL: THE VIKING BOARD
£5.25
HUNT FOR THE RING | TABLETOP
LIVESTEAMERS | RAXXON | AND GAME
MORE
tabletopgaming.co.uk 44 February 2018
7
 FIRST TURN
IGNACY
TRZEWICZEK
Before stranding us as Robinson Crusoe or those First Martians,
Poland’s top designer bashed together a silly party game
named Machina that accidentally changed his life
Interview by Dan Jolin
BACKGROUND
“My career is pretty crazy. In 1999 I announced to my
parents that I was dropping out of college, that I didn’t
want to become an engineer, and I wanted to publish
roleplaying games. They accepted my decision and I
founded my Portal Games company. For a few years we
were doing a magazine about roleplaying games, I was
writing articles and releasing one small roleplaying game
after another, but we didn’t make hardly any money.
Then, in 2002, we published Machina, our first board
game, which came out of nowhere and completely
changed our perception of what we could achieve.”
COMPONENTS
“Until 2002 my whole life was roleplaying games:
Warhammer, Call of Cthulhu. I had no clue about board
games. Then one day I was browsing through a video
games magazine, and I saw a picture of a video game – I
don’t even remember what it was – and suddenly I felt like,
‘Oh, that would be a cool board game.’ I made it as a joke,
to take to my office and play with my fellow employees.”
OBJECT
“Machina is a party game, and the best metaphor for
today’s times is that it was like a Munchkin-style game:
super mean, lots of jokes, a lot of funny fluff on the cards.
A lot of brutal and mean interaction between players.
Only instead of being a dungeon-crawler, it involved
building a crazy device in Communism times.”
SETUP
“I drew pictures of these super, super stupid devices
and cut them out with scissors. It was just me trying to
make something funny without any knowledge of how
to approach a board game. I made a first prototype to
impress the dudes in the office, and of course the game
wasn’t working at all, but it was very fun. So we took it
to the biggest Polish convention, put it in an envelope
named something like ‘Surprise!’ and left it somewhere.
Somebody found it, somebody played it and, suddenly,
without the internet, without Twitter, without Snapchat,
it went viral in this convention. People actually wanted
to buy this thing! We were a roleplaying game company
and yet we had customers who wanted this stupid joke
July 2018
We
about crazy engineers creating devices. So we thought:
‘Maybe it’s something more than just a joke.’ And we
were
decided to publish it.”
HOW TO PLAY
a roleplaying
“You are an engineer in Communism times in Poland,
game
and each player has to create a machina – a device that
will change the whole world – from small parts. The
company
purpose of the game is to grab the parts somehow and
then connect them. But you have no money to buy your
and yet
parts, so you have to steal them. You don’t have money
to pay employees, so you have to bribe them. There
we had
are all these jokes about how bad it was working in
Communism times. And the first player who builds their
customers
machina yells ‘I did it!’ and wins the game.”
END OF THE GAME
who wanted
“Even though the game had rules that were not working
this stupid
at all, it sold out in six weeks. Everybody was laughing,
everybody had a great time. And there were no competitors,
joke.
because back then the market in Poland was dominated
by roleplaying and miniature games. What started as a joke
was the most profitable thing we did for the past four years.
Then I started learning about board games, buying them
and coming up with other designs, and at some point Portal
Games was no longer a roleplaying games publisher. In
2009, I published my first design for worldwide, and it was
Stronghold:: a super-serious, big, epic game. Before that in
Poland I was perceived as this funny dude who created
party games. People wondered, ‘What’s happening
with Ignacy? Why’s he so serious now?’ Now nobody
remembers Machina.. It is this mysterious, forgotten
game from the old times. But I still have it in my
heart. It changed my whole life.”
STRATEGY TIPS
“I run lots of seminars and designer workshops at
conventions, and one of the most important pieces
of advice I give is, if you want to design board
games, educate yourself. Play Puerto Rico,, play
Catan, understand why Catan is a very good game.
And yet, me myself, I created a board game having
no clue what I was doing! It was an accident. A
super, super lucky event for me.”
tabletopgaming.co.uk 9
 1 MECHS VS MINIONS
Set in the universe of the ridiculously popular League of Legends,
Mechs vs Minions doesn’t even try to copy the inimitable
gameplay of the multiplayer online battle arena game. Instead,
it takes the team-based format as a leaping-off point for an
electrifying series of co-op scenarios that see the powerful
mechs fending off scores of the minions, with players programming their
robots with series of command cards, Robo Rally-style. It looks great,
plays beautifully and deserves a place not just among the best video

2
games on the tabletop, but board games as a whole.

SID MEIER’S
CIVILIZATION:
A NEW DAWN
Sid Meier’s long-running series of computer strategy games
was originally inspired by tabletop classic Civilization, so its own
transformation into board games was a homecoming of sorts. The latest
effort based on the epic history-spanning series decided to go its own way
with impressively streamlined card-driven gameplay and a play time that
can be measured in minutes rather than hours. It’s not quite as grand
or deep as past Civilization games, but A New Dawn may very well be the

10
best of the bunch – it’s certainly the easiest to squeeze into an evening.

OF THE BEST
VIDEO GAME
ADAPTATIONS
Unplug and give those square eyes a rest: plenty of digital games have made
the leap into the analogue world, but the results can be varied. If you’re looking
for a high score, though, you won’t go wrong by getting the download on these
Chosen by Matt Jarvis

3 BLOODBORNE:
THE CARD GAME
Although not quite as high-profile as the board game based on
its spiritual predecessor Dark Souls, Bloodborne: The Card Game
is arguably the best tabletop take on the Souls series to date –
little surprise given it’s a design
from Blood Rage master Eric
4
MEGA
Lang. Set in the nightmarish city
of Yharnam, Bloodborne sees MAN PIXEL
players’ hunters competing
to satiate their bloodlust
by killing horrific monsters.
TACTICS
The original Pixel Tactics is full of
The players have to work references to retro games, so it
together to take down was little surprise when one of video
the powerful beasts, but gaming’s icons made the leap into
are competing to collect the head-to-head card-battler. Players have identical decks, but the
the most blood. If they push card they select as their leader drastically changes how the rest
their luck too far (or suffer of their cards function, opening the game up for plenty of strategic
a betrayal) and die, they moves and tense matches. The turn-based battles are a far cry
lose it all. Dark, intense from Mega Man’s platforming, but Pixel Tactics’ core gameplay
and challenging, it’s a remains a joy and the ability to combine the sets together makes it
bloody good time. a worthy contender.

10 July 2018
5
DOOM: THE
BOARD GAME
Just as the gore-splattered shooter recently
returned with a bang on-screen, the tabletop
revival of its so-so 2004 board game
adaptation refused to be ignored. One player
takes control of the very forces of Hell, with
the rest blasting their way through a series of
6 ELITE:
DANGEROUS
RPG
Set in the universe of the innovative sci-fi
sandbox, the Elite: Dangerous RPG does a
fantastic job of embracing the open-world
nature of its digital cousin, allowing players
missions as a team of hardened marines. Like to blast off into the galaxy and explore,
the video game, it’s not exactly the deepest fight or whatever as they please. A flexible
experience in the world – but you won’t character creation system and huge
care as you rip and tear. diversity of options make up for a slightly
loose set of rules, with a simple resolution
system – driven by a single d10 – making it
easy for first-time roleplayers to jump onto
the tabletop.

7 8
XCOM: THE BOSS MONSTER
BOARD GAME
Bridging the gap between the digital and analogue worlds
While not based on a single classic video game, Boss
Monster channels the spirit of hundreds of retro
games in its light dungeon-building cardplay. Instead
with its companion app, XCOM pits its human players of crawling the dungeons yourself, you’re trying to
against both the alien threat and the clock, with a ticking dispatch hapless adventurers attempting to steal
timer driving the real-time tension. It focuses more on the management your treasure by creating ever more elaborate traps
aspects of the PC classic than its turn-based combat, but still manages to and monsters. You need more treasure to attract
capture the excitement of deploying planes to intercept and shoot down the would-be heroes to your dungeon rather than
UFOs, researching advanced tech, and assigning soldiers to missions. If those of your rivals, but must be sure that they won’t
you were unsure before, after a playthrough you’ll want to believe. survive and deal your big baddie a wound. Video
gamers will get a particular kick out of the boxes
that the game and its expansions come in too, which
parody iconic video game packages.

10 FALLOUT
Post-apocalypses aren’t hard to find in games,
but the nuclear-scarred wasteland of the

9
Fallout roleplaying games remains a uniquely
enticing end of the world to venture across,
discovering hidden vaults, mutated creatures
and fellow survivors who may or may not be trusted. The board game
boils down the RPG elements into an entertaining couple of hours,
with a clever deck of story cards allowing actions and decisions to
have a real impact on future events during each playthrough. The
competitive rules are a little iffy, but if you’re happy to just explore a
radiated landscape, few board games have done it better.

THIS WAR OF MINE:

THE BOARD GAME
Grim, distressing and unforgiving. This War of Mine: The Board Game is a faithful
recreation of its virtual sibling and effectively delivers the same gut-punching
oppressive atmosphere. Set during the Bosnian War’s Siege of Sarajevo, it’s an
essential playing experience that shows that games can be more than just ‘fun’ –
they can tackle tough subjects to tell real, important stories.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 11
Role Call
Ninjas, superspies, Middle-earth and a journey to the far wilds of Venus
Words by John Dodd
ADVENTURES IN
MIDDLE-EARTH:
ERIADOR ADVENTURES
A follow up to the Rivendell
sourceook, this contains six
adventures newly converted for
the OGL system. From a journey
to the lair of the Witch-king of
Angmar to the ruins of Fornost
and the cairns of the Barrow-
downs, these adventures can be
linked together to form a campaign
that spans years of the characters
lives. If they live that long.
Cubicle 7 | £27
July 2018
GENESYS: REALMS
OF TERRINOTH
A setting book for the flexible
roleplaying system, this contains
everything you need to play in the
land of Terrinoth shared by the
Runebound and Runewars board
and miniatures games. Its history
spans from the fall of the elves
to the arrival of the dragonlords,
with new character creation
options and careers, magic, and
details on how to craft unique
items also included.
Fantasy Flight Games | £39
N.O.W. THE MODERN
ACTION RPG
A new core rulebook for the WOIN
(What’s Old Is New) system,
this covers the rules and setting
details for modern campaigns.
With character types ranging
from mutants to cyborgs, ninjas
to superspies, and a full list of
equipment and gadgets that all
good agents will find use for, as well
as guidelines for how to build your
own game in the modern era, this
has everything an agent needs.
EN Publishing | $20
SPACE 1889: VENUS
This book details the world of
Venus for the Victorian-era
spacefaring RPG, charting its
history from first contact, where
bold explorers found a world like
that of Earth’s primordial past, to
the world that now has hundreds
of colonists and more arriving
every day to seek treasure and
territory to build their own empire.
Contains full details on the four
nations of Venus and secrets
hitherto unknown.
Clockwork Publishing | £14
tabletopgaming.co.uk 13

Replaying the winners of the Spiel des Jahres so you don’t have to
THE SETTLERS OF CATAN
I
t’s hard to describe the impact of The
Settlers of Catan today (declared the old
man, relaxing into his leather armchair
and calling for another glass of cognac), and
even harder to explain it. It wasn’t a lightning
bolt. It didn’t send a shockwave across the
industry but was something more like a
slow-spreading infection: taking months or
years, leaving entire communities changed
in its wake, bearing the mark of those who
had joined the Catanistas.
I didn’t play Settlers in 1995. I wasn’t even
particularly aware of it. Word travelled slowly
back then, in those days when the internet
went bing-bong-crrrsh and charged by the
minute. But I remember taking a copy of
the very brown English-language edition,
lukewarm off the presses, to Gaelcon in 1996,
where I was an industry guest. I and the other
guests, people who’d designed games for
Games Workshop and FASA, spent the whole
convention sat round a table playing it over
and over again. Gaelcon is a great event filled
with stuff to do, but playing Settlers absorbed
us for the entire weekend.
So then: Klaus Teuber’s masterwork, the
game that changed everything. That’s not
hyperbole. Settlers was the game that made
the UK and America sit up and pay attention
to the Eurogame phenomenon and it didn’t do
it with advertising or celebrity endorsements
or being right-game-right-time; it did it by
being really, really good. And, on its coat tails,
people around the world also started to notice
that the Spiel des Jahres award was also worth
paying attention to.
There’s nothing terribly original in The
Settlers of Catan. We’d seen modular hex
boards before (Magic Realm had used one in
1979), we’d seen games played on borders not
14 July 2018
All the
Jahres
Words by James Wallis | Pictures by Ozzy Beck
As I continue to evolve as a games designer,
Year of win: 1995 I think less and less about interesting
Designer: Klaus Teuber mechanics and more and more about the
Number of players: 2-4 way that games interact with our minds
Playing time: 90 minutes to give us pleasure. Settlers is pleasurable.
Worthy winner? Holy moly yes Its engagement and cognitive loading are
Worth playing now? See ‘worthy winner’ perfectly pitched, the strategies are at a sweet
Availability: On the continent you can buy it spot between being discernable to beginners
in supermarkets and rewarding to experienced players,
Price: £45 and, although there’s a lot of
dice rolling, it rarely feels
as if you’re at the mercy
spaces (Go) and we’d certainly seen trading of randomness.
games and games where you spent resources It’s satisfying to play. It
to build or upgrade facilities which then let fills the mind
you gather more resources. What we hadn’t and rewards
seen was a game that mixed them in such a your activity
perfect combination. If games mechanics are
like ingredients in a recipe, then The Settlers
of Catan was the best and most moreish
Black Forest gateau you’ve ever eaten.
You know the gameplay by now – or, at
least, you should. Players are tribes settling
the island of Catan. They build settlements
and roads along the edges of
numbered hexes. Each turn, a
dice roll shows which hexes
produce one of five resources
(wood, brick, stone, grain
and wool) that can be traded
or used to build more roads or
settlements, expand settlements
into more productive cities, or
buy development cards that yield
victory points or one-off abilities.
First to ten points wins. Also: there
is a bandit, and at some point
someone must say they have wood
for sheep.
And it’s lovely.
   1995 marked a divide in the history
of hobby games as clear as
the division between BC and AD.
with a sense of growth and achievement.
Crucially, you finish each game knowing
what mistakes you made, and knowing you
can do better next time. Plus, back in the late
‘90s, it was most people’s first exposure to the
core values of Eurogames: no direct conflict,
co-operating to gain advantage and nobody
getting knocked out. Commonplace now, but
a novelty back then.
While it’s not a cut-throat battle of
tactics, it’s certainly not the warm,
feel-good pastime that some sceptics
claim. People describe The Settlers
of Catan as a resource management
and trading game, and it isn’t; it’s an
area-control game. You play by trading
resources and building things, but you
win by using roads to block your
opponents’ ability to expand.
Once you’ve realised that, this
gentle game of co-operative
competition suddenly becomes
a brutal struggle.
Is it the perfect über-game?
No. The setup is fiddly, the
balance between the
trade goods is slightly off
(something that wouldn’t
be rectified until the Seafarers expansion),
and the endgame can often be rushed
and unsatisfying as it’s hard to track who’s
concealing cards with extra victory points. But
Monopoly isn’t perfect either, and yet more
people will enjoy playing it this year than every
Eurogame you can name put together.
There are people who boast of never having
played it, and that feels like boasting about never
having seen Star Wars. You can’t understand
modern cinema without knowing Star Wars,
just as you can’t properly understand modern
Eurogames without knowing where they came
from, and mostly that was from Klaus Teuber’s
brain. Settlers is not the perfect game, it’s not
for everybody, but as an ambassador for the
modern hobby it has done an amazing job.
Whether you like or loathe The Settlers of
Catan, it is impossible to deny that 1995 marked
a divide in the history of hobby games as clear
as the division between BC and AD. From this
point onwards everything was After Catan, and
board games would never be the same. From
now on, we all had wood for sheep.
Next month: We go large with El Grande,
Wolfgang Kramer’s return to the winner’s circle
tabletopgaming.co.uk 15
 ealed p roducts
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my favourite game
GIL HOVA
The Wordsy designer, ferret fan and channel-surfer
behind The Networks recalls how he went from being
shocked to electrified by the messiness of Power Grid
I
n the mid-2000s, I was a budding designer
who subscribed to the notion that elegance
in a game was king. This was the era of
Knizia, where games were a series of
mathematical mazes with a somewhat-
related theme stuck on top, more for grounding
than immersion.
In the middle of this, I encountered Friedemann
Friese’s Power Grid. And I was immediately
enchanted, because this game wasn’t just riveting
and compelling. It was untidy. It was messy, weird
and was good because of that, not in spite of it.
Power Grid has rough edges and corner cases.
Have you remembered to discard the highest
power plant in the auction to the bottom of the
deck? Have you noticed if the number of the lowest
power plant in the auction equals the number of
cities on the board? Quick, what’s 16 + 27 + 18?
July 2018
Power Grid
was a lesson
to me in
And yet, the game achieves a kind of how a game
could have a
elegance. It’s really not a terribly difficult game
in terms of rules complexity. The challenge of
certain kind
knowing when to hold back and when to charge
forward is vital. And everything makes so much
of fiddliness
darn sense.
The game had some issues, of course. It got
and
a lot better when Friedemann released an
alternate set of power plants that tried to make
messiness,
the mid-game auction more interesting. And
the constant flow of maps is excellent, although
and still be
I haven’t played as many of them as I want.
Power Grid was a lesson to me in how a
extraordinary.
game could have a certain kind of fiddliness
and messiness, and still be extraordinary.
Many neater and more elegant games have
come and gone, but I will never say no to a
game of Power Grid.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 17
 UNDER
THE SPELL
The world’s biggest card game remains just as enchanting and
utterly engrossing a quarter-century on. Designers, artists and
fans join us to celebrate the ultimate creature comfort
Artwork courtesy of Wizards of the Coast

18 July 2018
tabletopgaming.co.uk 19
 25
YEARS OF
MAGIC
MAGIC MASTER
25 years ago, Richard Garfield changed gaming forever with a
groundbreaking card game that turned into a cultural sensation.
In his own words, he tells the story of Magic: The Gathering’s early years
Words and photographs by Richard Garfield | Artwork courtesy of Wizards of the Coast
I was ending my first year and
about to start my last year
teaching math at Whitman
College in Eastern Washington.
Magic: The Gathering was
launched that summer, and it
turned my life upside down.
The core concept for Magic was a game where the
players had different components. The idea hit me
all at once and I was swept away with excitement
for the possibilities that opened up. But at the same
time, I didn’t even know if you could make such a
game any good. I remember telling Peter Adkison,
the head of Wizards of the Coast, that poker, bridge,
or chess wouldn’t be good if players could choose
your own components – so it wasn’t obvious to me
how to make a good game with that characteristic.
I tried a few possibilities before settling on
a framework I had been tinkering with for
perhaps nine years. The game I started working
with was a magic-themed game I called Five
Magics. This game was inspired by Cosmic
Encounter, a game in which all players could
break the rules in one or more ways. I was taken
by how different each game of Cosmic was from
each other – and how the interaction of the
special powers lead to often unexpected results.
I thought that a game where every card broke
the rules in some way would lead to a chaotic
world which was barely predictable. I thought
that would be like magic – and so I started down
that path.
20 July 2018
Magic was also a good theme because
it let me get away with anything. Draw
cards? That’s a ‘Braingeyser’. Gain energy?
Well of course – that’s a ‘Dark Ritual’.
My game design constantly starts and stops,
and often crossbreeds with other designs.
That is why it is hard to say when I began the
design of Magic – was it in 1982 with my first
magical-themed card games, or in 1991 with my
first prototype that looked like modern Magic?
Certainly my earlier designs made the final
design richer, since I had already put thought
into the different colours of Magic and the
relationship they had to each other.
That first prototype – I called it Alpha
Magic – was 120 cards that I split
randomly between the two
players.My first opponent,
Barry Reich, and I played
all night long with these
completely untuned
five colour decks. I
am sure by today’s
standards it
would be painful
watching us play. Sometimes we would wait
and wait for a land that we might not even have
in our deck – but we had a blast.
After that was Beta Magic – where my
playtesters were given a random selection
of maybe 60 cards. The cards were shuffled
in trash bags and given out… land and all.
Players quickly learned they could improve
their performance a lot by focusing on two or
three colours. Some players even traded down
to one colour.
The next version was Gamma Magic, and it
was very close to what was finally published in
1993. During Gamma the playtesters started
developing their own methods of play, which
included drafts and leagues with various rules.
Drafts in those days were more like drafting
baseball players – with all the cards available for
selection at any round of the draft.
It is telling that the largest number of cards
a playtester got at any point was, if memory
serves, four decks of 60 cards – which they were
not allowed to mix with their other cards. That
was the most I could really imagine players
getting in real life – there would have been no
point, in my mind, to test as if all cards were
available to all players – which is the most
common way playtests are done today. The
play balance was designed for these limited
environments rather than the rich ones that
quickly evolved.
One of the changes over the course of these
early playtests was the abandonment of
cards that changed ownership of cards
during the game. For example, there
were pixies which, when they hit
the opponent, would swap two
random cards between their
hands. I wanted these sorts of
cards in the game because I
felt that circulating the cards would make the
game more dynamic, and I didn’t trust trading
to be the entire driver of that card circulation.
Quickly, however, it became apparent that
some players were not playing to win, but were
playing just to improve their card resources.
That didn’t seem healthy for the game, I
couldn’t think of any way that wouldn’t happen,
so I removed those cards.
An exception to that was ante, and ante cards.
When first released, the game officially called
for players to wager a random card from their
deck, and some cards did interfere with the
ante in a variety of ways. I left this in because,
again, I wanted some way within the game
for cards to circulate, and ante didn’t on the
surface of it encourage people not to care about
winning. It did encourage players to play with
more common cards – but I regarded that as
something to balance the values of the cards;
increasing the risk of playing a card in general
hurts rarer cards more than common cards.
That isn’t to say that rare cards were, as a rule,
more powerful than common cards. One of the
design insights I had which I am happiest with
was that the common cards should be solid
parts of any deck. If players were allowed to
choose their own cards, the player who bought
more would always be at an advantage, since
they had more options. But you could make
that effect much smaller if the commons were
good. I tried to make the rares interesting and
specialised, while commons were simpler and
broad. For many years after Magic was released
people on the design team would enjoy going
to card shops and conventions beating the
local champions with all-common decks – a
testament both to how inexperienced players
were back then and how underrated common
cards were.
TIME TO EXPAND
One of the earliest questions facing Magic was
how it was going to expand. My initial concept
was that Magic was a standalone experience – it
could be reprinted but, like most games that
preceded it, Magic wouldn’t change significantly
with future printings. Instead, new versions would
be released – Magic: Ice Age and Magic: Menagerie
(later Mirage) were being designed even as the
first set was being released. These were intended
to provide new standalone experiences for the
player. I saw each as giant distinct games in which
players could buy a hand.
Immediately though, the hunger for new
content was immense. Peter asked me to do an
expansion that could be mixed into the base game,
and I quickly put together the first expansion,
Arabian Nights. This was really exciting in some
ways – I was rapidly growing in design skill for
Magic and there always seemed to be more room
to explore. However, I had two serious misgivings
about the project. First, not having years to playtest
the new cards was going to lower the quality and,
second, I didn’t want players to feel pressured to
buy the new cards, since I expected some players
wouldn’t care for the new cards and no-one likes to
be strong-armed. My solution to this was to make
the new cards a different card back; Jesper Myrfors
– our art director – came up with some handsome
purple backs. My thought was that this bold
distinction would make it clear that the cards were
optional, and different than the base set. People
would easily see if their opponent was playing with
Arabian Nights, and could accept that or ask them
not to. If the new set was bad, the overall game
wouldn’t be poisoned.
The response of the customers on the forums,
and many of my playtesters, was strongly
negative to this plan. I was committed to this
solution, and in the face of protests Peter was
tabletopgaming.co.uk 21
 25
YEARS OF
MAGIC
expressing his worry, but was also clear
that he would support the decision. At
the eleventh hour, I believe I was on the
phone to Peter who was on the phone to
our printer in Belgium who was just about
to start printing, I reversed myself and told
him to use the same card back.
It is clear this was the right decision,
but it did contain the seeds of many
challenges that would face us down the
road. For example, a steadily growing pool
of cards would mean that each set was less
interesting than the previous one, since it had
to compete with all the previous cards. This risk
was well illustrated by a review of Ice Age, which
claimed there were two usable cards. Ice Age was
a complete game which had been developed even
longer than the original Magic – with designers
who were designing far less in the dark than I was
– and some players saw the entire value boiled
down to two cards.
On the surface of it, a reasonable solution
to this problem was to grow the power of each
successive set of cards. I am never a fan of power
creep, but it isn’t even a sustainable strategy
in a game like Magic. Perhaps it is a hidden
blessing that the original Magic was designed
for more limited play – a consequence of which
was that the fully constructed environment was
degenerate: there were plenty of first turn kill
decks. There was one early tournament where
the best decks were determined by which got the
most consecutive first turn wins. Even if these
cards were controlled, a power creep would tend
to bring us back to that state, and people within
the company that might not have been averse to
the idea of a regular power creep could see that it
wouldn’t lead anywhere good.
The solution to this, and many other problems,
was the introduction of a standard form of play
that only allowed sets from the previous two years.
In many ways this is a compromise between
my original idea that each set stands alone, and
the other extreme which was that all sets can
be played with each other. Of course, you can’t
stop players from playing their old cards in any
combination they please – and I wouldn’t want
to. Private playgroups could play by the rules and
limitations they want to – but Wizards was going
to focus on the quality of play in standard, and run
tournaments in that format.
22 July 2018
CARD CRASH
When Magic was published we couldn’t print
enough to satisfy the demand. This jumpstarted
a speculator bubble which threatened the
survival of the game.
Boosters would hit the shelves and immediately
be marked up to $20 (£15). Speculators were
buying up all the product a store had. There were
many that thought it was intentional, a tactic to
make the game hotter. It was not, although there
were a lot of people in Wizards that were delighted
by the prices the game was commanding.
It doesn’t take a genius to see that wasn’t good
for any long-term prospects for the game, and I
still harbour some anger at those in Wizards that
wanted to cultivate Magic as a collectable rather
than a game. It showed no faith in the game as
a game – no-one was going to play Magic at the
prices it was being sold at. Their attitude was
that of someone who thought it was a fad, and
reasoned that you may as well make it as big as
possible in its short lifetime. Good games are
evergreen – they last forever, and, in fact, they
usually get better the more you know them.
There is no reason for them to burn out.
At first we were printing the amount that stores
were asking for and then, inevitably, the demand
was higher once the product was available, and we
had to proportion what the stores were allotted.
Then they started to play games, asking for much
more than they wanted so that when they were
scaled back they might get what they actually
wanted. This put us in the position of having to
guess what the real demand was – and since the
speculators were buying everything up anyway,
the real demand was always simply bigger than
was printed. There really was no correct answer.
This lead to an intentional overprinting of
the expansion Fallen Empires. We knew the
numbers the retailers were asking for were
grossly exaggerated, but we used them anyway,
and we managed to get the speculators out of
Magic. I remember a lot of clamour that Magic
was done for – that the fad was over. I remember
a mixture of confidence and fear: confidence in
Magic as a game and fear that the speculators
had already pushed out too many players, and
that the poison they spewed over the crash
would keep the players out.
It quickly became apparent that Magic
was going to survive this, and the playing
community grew in a much healthier way with
access to plenty of cards. One lasting legacy
of this time is Fallen Empires’ undeserved
reputation as a poorly-designed set – it might
have been the best-designed expansion up to
that point, or at least the best after Antiquities.
Magic will sometimes be called a trading
card game, a TCG. More often it is called a
collectible card came, a CCG. This time in my
life has made me a staunch advocate of the
term TCG, which emphasises these as games
and not as a collectable.
READY TO DUEL
I have always been fascinated by serious game
play. I have read strategy books on chess, Go, poker,
Scrabble, backgammon, and Dots and Boxes – to
name a few, not to become a premier player, but
because I love reading about players’ exploration
and analysis of games. I had a hope that some level
of serious play would be engaged in with Magic.
That came about in large part due to Skaff Elias,
who advocated starting a circuit of tournaments
which paid enough prize money to allow people
to be professional Magic players – the Magic Pro
Tour. This was controversial within the company
for many reasons. Some people thought it would
make the game too serious. Some thought that it
was offensive to give that much money to Magic
players – rather than, for example, giving Wizards
employees extra bonuses.
As far as taking the game too seriously, I was
certain this wouldn’t be an issue. We used the
NBA as an example – would there be more or less
casual play without the NBA? The answer seems
obvious – even though the vast majority of players
don’t harbour dreams of being professional
basketball players, the existence of the NBA
increases the number of casual players along with
the number of serious players. The professional
community acts as an anchor point around which
a large and diverse community can build.
As far as giving a lot of money to Magic players
being offensive – I think it betrayed a widespread
contempt for the players, and gamers in general,
among many employees at Wizards. This bias
is illustrated well by a board meeting I was at in
which we were discussing how to increase our
connection with the customer. I suggested we hire
Magic players to departments outside R&D and it
was laughed at – many on the board thought I was
making a joke. The idea of hiring someone into
marketing who was a Magic player was, apparently
literally, laughable. Laughable, I believe, in the
same way it was laughable to talk about giving
players money for winning tournaments.
OPPOSITE TOP Some
of the original playtest
cards created for
Magic: The Gathering...
RIGHT ...and the same
cards in their published
forms from the game’s
first released set, Alpha
The Pro Tour changed things fast. I would
guess that almost immediately the best players
in the world no longer worked for Wizards
R&D. The level of understanding of the game
exploded, both within Wizards and without.
Soon Wizards was hiring pro players and the
development of Magic sets – previously a highly
specialised job – was now something that could
be done by many people.
The way players saw the game changed. Before
the Pro Tour you had lots of voices crediting wins
on luck or number of rare cards owned; after, there
were people in every community that were playing
in serious tournaments – the game was being
seen as one of skill, both skill in play and deck
construction – and it was standing up to that test.
Good players began to command some respect.
One story a friend told me illustrated how this
helped legitimise his hobby. Before the Pro Tour
he shied away from telling his co-workers he
played Magic. Afterwards, he found the derision
he sensed on the topic would fade away when he
would say he won $500 (£374) at the weekend.
Suddenly the hobby sounded kind of exciting.
The influence on the community was far
broader than just among the players who competed
for money. One easy example of that was the large
network of judges and tournament organisers that
came into being. Players who loved the game but
didn’t want to compete in this way had a path to
being a part of it in a different way – one that gave a
sense of belonging that wasn’t attached to just their
quality of play. Becoming a judge, or qualifying
to run official tournaments, wasn’t always easy
and could give a sense of accomplishment. They
became representatives of Magic.
Ultimately it is hard to separate the effect of
the Pro Tour from the general mainstreaming of
games that has been happening over the last 20
years. I believe, though, that the biggest credit for
legitimising Magic in the long run, and making a
sustainable community, goes to the Pro Tour.
BEYOND MAGIC
As I look back now, I sometimes find myself
surprised that there was a time when I wasn’t
sure a trading card game could be designed,
or that there was a time when putting lots of
money on a tournament was radical – esports
do it all the time now.
Very early on, I opened the doors to new
designers and let them make their own designs,
while I advised and invested myself in designing
other games. I figured that Magic could consume
my life if I let it – and that it was such a big game
that it couldn’t reach its potential if it had to be
squeezed through one designer.
I left Wizards of the Coast in 2000, and don’t
really know about the trials they have faced
in the intervening 18 years. But whatever
they are, they seem to have overcome them
– I return every few years to put some time in
with the designers and developers of Magic;
most recently for the 25th anniversary with
Dominaria. It is always fun to get back into the
game and see where they have taken it.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 23
 25
YEARS OF
MAGIC

A LIFE OF MAGIC
said he had faith in me and that I just had to
try something different. I did, and it ended up
being a set I’m really proud of.”
The designer was even honoured with
a creature card inspired by his nickname,
When Magic: The Gathering was released, he was a ‘Maro’, that appeared in the 1996 Mirage set –
twentysomething working in a hobby store. Today, Mark Rosewater calls the card his “personal favourite”,
despite not actually creating it himself.
Rosewater is the head designer for the game that became “It’s amazing to be part of the game I love,”
he says. “As far as the one I’m most proud of
his lifelong obsession – and he’s far from finished

I
designing, I’d say Doubling Season [a card that
doubles the number of tokens created by effects,
Words by Matt Jarvis | Images courtesy of Wizards of the Coast originally from 2005’s Ravnica: City of Guilds].
It’s the kind of card that does something cool
n the summer of 1993, Mark Rosewater was create a product that can continually wow and and there’s so many ways to use it.”
a 26-year-old jobbing television writer excite our players because we’re learned how to As well as influencing the direction of the game
working part-time in a game shop. He had get really good at making Magic.” itself, Rosewater was one of the first advocates
never heard of Magic: The Gathering, the Rosewater has been responsible for at least one for the Pro Tour, Magic’s worldwide series of
game that would change his life. card in every Magic set since 1996’s Alliances, and tournaments that have run regularly since 1996
“People kept coming in and asking was the sole creator of Unglued, the first in the and now award tens of thousands of dollars to the
about ‘this Magic game,’” he recalls. “We hugely popular, rule-breaking, non-tournament- game’s highest-ranked players. The Pro Tour is the
didn’t carry it, but I was intrigued by the legal series of ‘Un’ sets that continued with 2004’s pinnacle of the game’s competitive scene, which
descriptions of it, so I tracked it down at a local Unhinged and last year’s Unstable. spans from the yearly invitation-only team World
game convention. I bought some Alpha – the “Which of my babies is my favourite?” he Cup (the replacement of the World Championship
very first set – and was instantly smitten. I’ve asks. “If I must answer, I’ll name the two more abolished in 2011) to Grand Prix weekenders
been playing Magic ever since.” recent products that I’m very proud of: Unstable that anyone can participate in with the hope of
Hooked by the collectible card game, Rosewater and Dominaria. Both sets were a blast to make ascending to the next level of professional play.
eventually got in touch with publisher Wizards and I think both were home runs. “I think the thing that has changed the most
of the Coast. In 1994, he began contributing to “Probably the most difficult time I had was is the breadth of opportunities to both play
Magic: The Gathering as a freelancer, creating working on a set called Scars of Mirrodin. The competitive Magic and to spectate it,” Rosewater
puzzles and writing articles on playing strategies original concept just wasn’t working and I had says. “If you’re excited to test yourself against
for in-house magazine The Duelist. He joined gotten very lost. What got me out of it was an the best – and note there are a lot of ways to play
the studio’s research and development division inspiring pep talk from my vice president who Magic that don’t do this, this is opt-in – we have
full-time the following year, working on cards
for future expansions. In 2003, a decade after
he had first encountered the game, Rosewater
became Magic: The Gathering’s head designer. It’s
a position he has held since, serving as the game’s
most prominent figurehead for the last 15 years.
“Back then, the internet was young and
information spread much slower,” he reflects. “Also,
while there were a few communities, they were
smaller than the online communities of today.
One of the cool things has been watching the
community grow and evolve as both the game, and
the means by which they communicated, changed.
“As for the game, one of the big plusses of
making Magic many times a year every year for
25 years is that we keep learning and improving.
Game design is naturally about iteration and
Magic has had the ability to be constantly
iterating for 25 years. The result is we’re able to

24 July 2018
 Magic: The Gathering keeps
reinventing itself, so you
never get bored of it.
a huge organised play system at stores around
the world to let you do so. Odds are you can go
to the local store you buy your Magic cards at
and play in a tournament on any Friday night,
at something we call Friday Night Magic. Once
you dip your toe in, you can learn all about
everything we offer including a multi-million-
dollar Pro Tour system. And if you’re interested
in seeing others do that regardless if you want
to do it yourself, we have televised Magic events
almost every weekend on Twitch.
“As far as what the future holds for competitive
Magic, I think the sky’s the limit. We’re constantly
evolving what we do and the discussions I’ve
heard about the future are exciting.”
Whereas most tabletop designers will produce
multiple games a year, sometimes returning to
past creations for updated editions or sequels,
Rosewater has spent his entire designing career
– and almost half of his life – dedicated to Magic:
The Gathering. It’s a commitment about which he
has no regrets.
“It’s the best game ever made,” he insists.
“No, really. I’m a gamer and I’ve played
hundreds and hundreds of games over the
years, and nothing has pulled me in like Magic.
ABOVE Palladia-Mors, the Ruiner, from
Magic’s new Core 2019 set
OPPOSITE Another of the new cards from
the latest release, Ursine Champion
It keeps reinventing itself, so you never get
bored of it. Also, we have top-notch people
working on making all aspects of Magic, and I
think we’re currently at the top of our game.”
25 years, dozens of sets and thousands of
cards on, having helped take Magic from a niche
card game he had never heard of to a worldwide
sensation played by millions, Rosewater insists
he’s still full of ideas as to where the game and
its universe could go next. And you can bet that
he’ll be leading the way.
“Most games don’t last 25 years,” he says.
“Magic has not only done that, but it is thriving.
If you’ve ever thought about trying Magic, now’s
a great time to start. There are so many ways to
play and so many different communities and so
many ways to interact with the game through
whatever social media platform you prefer, it’s a
wonderful time to jump in and give it a try.
“I have a whole bunch of ideas I want to
explore. That’s why I have no plans of retiring
anytime soon. Whenever I look back, I’m always
amazed at all the things we’ve done that I
wouldn’t have predicted years ago. That has taught
me that I don’t know exactly what the future
holds, but I know it’s going to be exciting.”
tabletopgaming.co.uk 25
 25
FROM THE ART
Illustrator Randy ‘rk’ Post
opens up about bringing
Magic’s universe to life
YEARS OF
MAGIC

MAGIC MEMORIES
Artists, cosplayers, personalities and more reminisce about their
favourite cards, characters and moments from 25 years of playing
Interviews by Matt Jarvis

TREE HUGGER cards together and seeing what THALLIN IN LOVE maybe Leonin Arbiter, which
“I played a good interactions I can get. I “I have is the same deck.”
deck once try to pick the worst card from a Thalia Vincent ‘PleasantKenobi’ Kenobi,
that had a set and try and build around play mat, I YouTuber and Twitch streamer
50-odd lands. that. When people want to have Thalia
It was a build decks themselves, a lot on my wall LIGHTNING SHOCK
strange deck of people are on budgets, so at home. Podcaster and
that revolved around forests. building with unpopular cards I play the Death and Taxes commentator
It was a crazy, crazy deck just that work can help people out. deck in Legacy, Modern Rich Hagon
built around one card that They don’t want to spend £1,000 and in Vintage. I’m trying to recalls
when a combat came in you or £2,000 on a deck.” convince my wife to call my the most
play a forest. That was quite a Matt ‘TOTALmtg’ Ashby, first daughter Thalia, but she’s electrifying
fun deck. I just love putting the YouTuber and streamer not too keen. So, Thalia, or card turn in competitive Magic:

DRESSING PLANE well-known card – but I just really love her. I

Cosplayer Nadine Grendelmeier reveals
how she turns cards into costumes
When did you first discover Magic?
It was about three years ago. It was at the
same time I got into cosplay. The two things
stick together for me because when I started
playing Magic my brother opened this very cool
card called Nissa, Worldwaker. I just loved the
design, I loved the look of her – a free-spirited
elf kind of vibe. At the same time I wanted to
start building my own cosplay so I just started
with Nissa, Worldwaker. Ever since, I stuck to
Magic: The Gathering. I really love it. I play a lot.
I go to a lot of GPs and play main events. I try to
play as much as I can.
think she also represents the vibes of the set.
The looks of the set, the Egyptian kinda thing, I
think she represents it really well even though
she’s not that well-known.
What do you look for in a character when
you start putting a costume together?
I’m always open to a challenge, but when I look
at the characters I try to pick something that
I think really represents the set or the plane,
or just something that players will recognise
because I walk a lot around GPs and stuff so
I like to represent the plane where they’re at
right now. It’s a little bit hard to show, so I can
just represent that specific time they’re in. I
always try to pick something that I like and that
I think other people are going to like.
me – I’m going to try to help out as much as
I can on how I do stuff and what materials I’d
recommend, because I’ve worked with a lot of
materials and can probably recommend a lot.
I’m always trying to find new stuff. I don’t work
with just one material; I try to put everything
together and use everything as best for the
thing it’s best for and not use just one material.
On YouTube there’s a lot of things
and on social media if you
find some cosplayers don’t
hesitate to just ask, I’m sure
they’ll be happy to help.

Do you ever dress as non-planeswalkers?
The only non-planeswalker cards I’ve done are
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, which is a legendary
angel from Avacyn Restored, and Shadowstorm
Vizier from Amonkhet. I just really love their
design and there weren’t any other characters
in that set that really stuck out to me. I really
loved her. She’s an uncommon – not that a
Where should people start if they want
to get into Magic and cosplay?
The internet is a great place to get
to know how to do cosplay. There’s
a lot of tutorials and books you
can order online. You can always
talk to cosplayers. If anyone
wants to know anything, just PM

26 July 2018
How long have you been
illustrating Magic cards?
18, 19 years. I started with the
last expansion of the Tempest
block, Exodus. It’s a long time.
Were you a player before?
No, but I was aware of the game. I
did work for TSR doing Dungeons
& Dragons and did submit a
portfolio to Wizards, it never went
anywhere – which is fine, I wasn’t
quite ready at the time. No hard
feelings whatsoever. Wizards of
the Coast bought TSR and I came
along for the ride because I was a
staff employee.
What’s your process like?
There have been times in the past
where you could go carte blanche
but you had to make it fit within
the look and feel of the set. You
will get guidelines and a style guide
and the set has a particular look
and feel, certain characters and
Craig Jones’ shock win against
Olivier Ruel in 2006...
“There are some famous
coverage moments, certainly.
Probably 15 to 20 of those that
people will quote you. The
most famous is Randy Buehler:
‘What’s on the top of the
deck? The Lightning Helix!’
Craig Jones was top-decking a
Lightning Helix, which is the
card that won in the semi-final
of a Pro Tour, which gave us the
most exciting moment in Magic
history on coverage.”
BLOCK PARTY
“I started
working at a
wargaming
store when
I moved up
to Sheffield.
Somebody mentioned they
played Magic and started
bringing in decks. We played a
little bit, and then I convinced
the storeowner to start stocking
Magic. We managed to get hold
of some Modern Masters boxes
and we hid them in the back
until Origins released. On the
release of Origins, we bought lots
of booster boxes, we didn’t have
anything else. We just started
Magic and had like 40
running Magic,
people just turn up, all wanting
Magic It was insane.”
to play Magic.
Abbie Deleval, content creator
and founder of Master of Magics
landscapes look a certain way.
With that in mind, you’d do a
sketch, submit and they tell you
what changes need to be made.
Do you have any particular
inspirations when coming up
with new cards?
I’ll admit I like painting ladies.
There you go! And creepy things,
too. Ladies and creepy things.
Have you changed your methods
over the years to account for
more diversity in the game?
I wouldn’t necessarily say [that].
Magic has always been reasonably
diverse. I’ve painted some black
characters for Magic cards. Men,
women. Magic has been pretty
smart about it as a whole. The game
started near Seattle and Seattle
is pretty liberal and open-minded.
A little bit of that thought went into
it – or lack of thought, because it
just seems natural anyway.
THE JOY OF JANK
“I’m not into
competitive –
I’m not going to
enter Pro Tours
or come Top
Eight in GPs.
It’s about the fun of it. What really
interests me is different cards – what
some might call ‘jank’ – but you I feel
could make them work. I try to build
decks around themes, so I’m quite
into Tribal Magic. I built a pirate
deck and a dinosaur deck out of
Ixalan. Some of those have alternate
win conditions – there’s a pirate one
where you’ve got a card called Revel
in Riches and you just have to get a
certain amount of treasure to win
the game. It’s the different, alternate
cards like that that I really like.”
Tim ‘Dijital Llama’ Walker, YouTuber
LIVING THE DREAM
“I started working
for Magic around
January 2009, so
my first card was
released in 2010.
It took me five
years to get there; it’s not easy to get
this kind of job. Amonkhet was really
cool to do: a lot of weird creatures,
Egyptian imagery. Ixalan, with the
dinosaurs, was very interesting to do.
Sometimes they tell me to paint weird
mushrooms walking through the
forest, which is fun. Working for Magic
has always been my dream job.”
Tomasz ‘Morano’ Jedruszek, artist
PLANESWALKER PRODIGY
Dana Fischer is only seven years old, but she’s been playing
Magic for half her life – and competing in tournaments has
already taught her some things that school hasn’t. We meet
the young pro and her dad, former ace Adam
How did you start playing Magic?
Dana: Before me and my sister
were born, my dad told my mum
he couldn’t wait to teach us Magic.
When I was three and a half,
my dad just showed me the
cards and read them to me and
explained what they did and I had
to memorise them in order to play
because I couldn’t read yet. He
showed me one format at a time
step-by-step.
When I was five, he said: ‘Do
you wanna go to a GP?’ And I was
like: ‘Sure!’ Now I’ve been playing
half my life!
Adam: Somebody noted in Twitch
during GP Las Vegas when Dana
had her first feature match that
some of the cards Dana was
playing with were three times
older than she was! Last year
what she wanted to do for her
birthday was–
Dana: Play Magic! Play Magic!
Play Magic!
That’s not much of a surprise!
Dana: Magic is my favourite thing
to do.
Did you introduce any of your
friends to the game?
Dana: Yes, I did. Last summer, at
camp, one of my friends asked:
‘Can you teach me Magic?’ and I
said: ‘Sure!’
Has playing Magic helped you
learn new things for school?
Dana: I hadn’t learned multiplication
[when I started playing]. I am
going to this year... but I’m not
going to, because I already know.
It helps me get better at math,
strategic thinking, reading and
being confident. My teachers
know how educational it is so they
don’t get upset when I miss a bit
of school to go to tournaments.
Adam: [Dana’s teacher] knows
enough to know that it’s educational,
just she doesn’t know the process
of playing.
Dana, you told me one of the
reasons you wanted to learn how
to read was what?
Dana: To play Magic!
Do you have a favourite story or
world from Magic?
Dana: No, not really.
Adam: But you like the characters!
Dana: My favourite card is Nissa,
Steward of Elements because I
thought the art was the best and
it’s who I cosplay as.
Adam: We haven’t done a ton of the
backstories yet. Even though Dana’s
been playing since she was three
and a half, it was pretty slow going.
Do you play against your dad much?
Dana: I love playing against my
dad – and usually I beat him!
Adam: She does beat me a lot!
Dana: I’m almost as good as my dad!
Adam: I look forward to the time
when she is absolutely better than
me, because she will be at some
point, for sure. Maybe that’s not far
in the future, but that’s definitely the
idea and she has so much time ahead
of her which is great – over five
years before she’s even a teenager!
You’ve said your ultimate goal is
to be the youngest player ever
to get to Day Two of a GP. Why
does it mean so much to you?
Dana: Because it’s something
unique that I set my mind to
and I have been working really
hard at, and it would mean I’ve
accomplished one of my goals
despite being very young. That is
something special I can look back
at and be proud of as an adult.
Why do you find Magic so fun?
Dana: Because I get to go to these
tournaments and meet new people!
tabletopgaming.co.uk 27
 THE LAND OF GODS
Greg Stafford turned his teenage spiritual soul-searching into a
remarkable fantasy world. When he found Steve Perrin, the result
was a D&D-rivalling RPG that would change roleplaying forever
“
I
Words by Matt Jarvis | Artwork courtesy of Chaosium
was a troubled youth, frankly, trying to fix
myself through any means.”
As a teenager growing up in the mid-sixties,
Greg Stafford turned to classic tales of gods
and legends to discover the answers he sought.
“First I read books of stories, then books
about the stories – and then the books I
found in the footnotes of books about books
of stories,” he says. “I pushed myself into adventures,
some of them absolutely wonderful – being a hippy at
age 18 to 20 was a very colourful and mind-bending
experience. Some stuff was crazy, some dangerous, some
stupid – okay, a lot stupid, some suicidal. But all of it was
a search and, when I discovered people experimenting
with magical and spiritual stuff, I dove in headfirst.”
As his fascination with mythology deepened, Stafford
began writing his own stories to help him better
comprehend his increasingly spiritual outlook. In 1966,
while a freshman at Beloit College in Wisconsin, he
spontaneously penned – “out of nothing” – a single-
page excerpt from a lifeboat’s log. It was followed by a
fragment of a short story about a hero named Snodal
arriving on the continent of Altinela. This grew into a
longer story, charting the region of Fronela. From the
pieces, a new world had been formed.
“One beautiful afternoon chatting with friends I looked
out into space and thought of Glorantha – actually called
Acos at that time – and the whole world opened up before
me, a huge and wide vista without a lot of detail but vast
breadth and depth,” Stafford recalls. “I was struck with
awe and knew I’d be writing more about the place.”
The world of Glorantha would pass through its first
age while Stafford was still at college, as he continued to
write. A second age coincided with his later employment
and recovery from hepatitis. The universe was evolving,
but in private; it would be several years before the setting
first appeared in print, in sci-fi, horror and fantasy fanzine
Space and Time, which published some of Stafford’s earliest
fiction. A letter of rejection for another short story would
spur the writer to become a designer, eventually deciding
to set a planned fantasy board game in Glorantha. Stafford
would ultimately release 1975’s White Bear and Red Moon
himself under the newly-founded Chaosium label after
struggling to find a publisher willing to take on the project.
A third age of Glorantha followed White Bear and Red
Moon, as did a second board game set in a neighbouring
28 July 2018
region of the fantasy land: Nomad Gods. A third instalment
in the Dragon Pass series – named after the early 1980s
rechristening of Stafford’s debut game – was planned, but
never completed. After a few unsuccessful attempts to adapt
Glorantha for the burgeoning roleplaying genre, Stafford
contacted Steve Perrin, the creator of a set of alternative
rules for Dungeons & Dragons and Chaosium-published
All the World’s Monsters supplements, to give it a go.
“The decision to have a roleplaying game was Greg’s, he
just asked me to supply the actual game,” Perrin recalls. “In
the creation of the world, Greg supplied the background
and population to provide a rich roleplaying environment.
White Bear and Red Moon, along with Nomad Gods
and Dragon Pass, provided a wealth of creatures and
situations that begged for roleplaying investigation.”
“I didn’t really have to make a lot of change for the
genre, although I did adapt things to co-ordinate with
the authors’ creative input,” Stafford adds.
RUNE TO GROW
The result of the collaboration was 1978’s RuneQuest, a fantasy
RPG released just a handful of years after D&D that recast
the molten roleplaying format into a new shape. In place of
D&D’s reliance on d20 dice was a percentile-based system
that required players to roll a value from zero to 100 under
their level in a skill to succeed at various tasks. The framework
would later be released as the generic Basic Roleplaying
ruleset, as well as providing the foundation of many of
Chaosium’s subsequent games, including Call of Cthulhu.
“Mainly the d100 under-roll system is more intuitive,”
Perrin offers by way of comparison to D&D. “If you tell
someone they have a 14 in a skill you are just begging the
question of ‘14 what?’ Saying someone has 70% in a skill
is a much better indicator of just how good they are.”
Just as revolutionary was a move away from the character
classes and level-driven progression of RPGs such as
D&D in favour of a skill-based advancement system.
“Players can develop their character as they have played her
– rather than have the character develop according to some
abstract template in the rules book,” says Jeff Richard, project
lead for this year’s new edition of RuneQuest. “Your character
ends up being a unique individual. Your character might have
started play trained as a scribe but, thanks to adventuring,
she becomes a skilled at axe fighting and moving quietly.”
“The main benefit of skill-based progression is the
feeling of verisimilitude,” adds Perrin. “The challenge is that
tabletopgaming.co.uk 29
 RUNEQUEST
it can lead to parties where everyone has about the same
ABOVE The striking cover abilities – it is hard to have a niche-based character who
artwork for RuneQuest’s is the only one in the party able to specialise. However,
second edition this allows characters to develop into specialists naturally,
as they find areas they want to concentrate on or the
OPPOSITE RuneQuest character seems to always make experience rolls in one
co-designers Steve direction. Also, as a character gets more advanced in a
Perrin (left) and Greg particular cult, they automatically become more and
Stafford (right) more of an embodiment of the particular god. Yet a
warrior still has the chance of pulling a magical trick out
of a helmet when it is needed, when in other games she
would be the least likely character to have that ability.”
Combined with the innovative skill system was an
equally groundbreaking way of dealing with combat,
30 July 2018
Glorantha is a world
in which the gods are
not only real but palpable
and knowable. Their
influence has a major effect
on everyday life.
influenced by Perrin’s decade of activity with the
Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval study and
recreation group.
“This put an emphasis on one-to-one combat and the
effect of damage on locations, rather than generalised
hit points,” Perrin explains. “The combat system has
pretty much been the same from the git-go, with
variations on the effects of damage on overall health,
and the effects of damage on weapons and armor. The
attack and parry mechanic has remained much the
same, just as it has on the tourney fields of the SCA.
“I am pleased to have essentially pioneered skill-
based RPGing and developed a game that gives a
‘realistic’ feel to ancient/medieval adventuring.”
FOR GODS’ SAKE
RuneQuest’s inventive gameplay immediately marked it
as a landmark in roleplaying. It would take the application
of Stafford’s years of muscular worldbuilding to Perrin’s
mechanical skeleton to complete its vision.
Glorantha was a fantasy setting like no other. Dungeons
& Dragons had begun as a set of modified wargaming
rules that a world gradually formed around, new patches
of lore sewn in as the gameplay necessitated. Glorantha,
meanwhile, arrived as a fully-realised creation, its
geography and inhabitants carefully woven together by
years of Stafford’s detailed writing and imagination.
“When I am writing I enter into a trance of creativity
that I love,” Stafford says. “When searching through the
anther of conception and innovation and discovery ideas
flow through me with excitement and reveal themselves
to me without conscious thought. I get to watch the world
draw itself out and form itself into contests and dances,
into panoramas and tiny moments of passion, into
expressions of affection and conflict that drive themselves
into story. So that is my favourite high – better than all the
drugs I have so cheerfully poisoned myself with.”
Central to Stafford’s cosmos was a dedication to
what he describes as “mythological reality”, with the
logic of the universe defined by the existence of deities,
rather than science. The surface world of humans is
sandwiched between a bowl-like sky and bottomless sea,
with an underworld below. Even without the scientific
reality of factors such as gravity and physics, Glorantha
appears to operate in the same way as our own world.
“The mythical reality demands multiple pantheons
of deities independent of each other, but with a mystical
underpinning that is not quite understandable by human
beings,” Stafford explains. “For instance, there is one
single sun in the world, but there are multiple deities
of that celestial body. It has a long mythical history
preceding human existence, based in part on the actions
of the pantheons on local conditions and of the various
pantheons upon each other and the whole. Finally, despite
the immense power of the deities and their existence
defining the world, humans and other mortal races are the
free agents of the cosmos and determine its changes as
they work in harmony or dissonance with the immortals.”
“It is a world in which the gods are not only real but
palpable and knowable,” Perrin adds. “While they are
obligated to refrain from interfering directly in the affairs
of the many races living on the world, their influence
has a major effect on the everyday life of the world. The
world is more ancient in atmosphere than medieval,
though some areas have chivalric elements.”
“It has a vivid Bronze Age feel, when mortals were closer
to the gods, and one’s allegiance is to tribe, city and cult,
not to abstract alignments or ideologies,” agrees Richard.
“It is mythological rather than material – mythology is no
mere euhemeristic explanation of an objective material
world; in Glorantha, mythology is the source of the world!”
Despite Glorantha’s spiritual origins being a defining
aspect of the world, players initially struggled to come to
terms with the scope of Stafford’s vision.
“After first-edition RuneQuest a lot of people apparently
felt that there were enough gods – there were three,” he
recalls. “Then [supplement] Cults of Prax added more, which
was plenty, but then with Storm Tribe some people felt
overwhelmed. To say nothing of the number of deities
tabletopgaming.co.uk 31
 RUNEQUEST
added in Esrolia and History of the Heortling Peoples. I
hope that people began to understand the multitudinous
complexity is a feature, not a bug. Mythology just isn’t
a nice neat package of 12 major and a bunch of minor
deities. There is a certain pick-and-choose aspect to it,
depending on what task is at hand.”
Even RuneQuest’s early designers took some time to get to
grips with the complexity of the world and its celestial nature.
“They had to adapt to my inclusion of shamans and the
mythological concepts in general, which was the most
difficult part since they were entering new territory for them,”
Stafford says. “I actually rewrote all the cults for the first
several years to make them conform to my understanding.”
MYTH GANGBUSTERS
Today, mythology has permeated popular culture, from the
ongoing surge of interest in the godlike cosmic beings of H.P.
Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos and the reimagining of cultural
deities in games such as Blood Rage and Rising Sun to the
blockbuster success of superhero films, starring characters
both directly and indirectly indebted to traditional legends.
“A few of those sources are very well known and popular,
but generally most others are derivative of them and just
echo the misconceptions,” Stafford says of the modern
treatment of mythical elements. “Such a misinterpretation
is entirely understandable since polytheism and spirituality
32 July 2018
are not practised through most of the world, and people have
been exposed to the most obvious and superficial aspects of
mythology, mistaking them for the whole of the subject. As
a result we get superheroes instead of deities, without the
organic and integral depth of how deities were considered
to be. Mind you, I am not saying that superhero-like entities
are wrong, but they are superficial and incomplete.
“I am most proud for opening the door to mythology
and making the deities much, much more than
superheroes as they are usually portrayed.”
Combined with the resurgence of interest in tabletop
gaming and roleplaying, it seems that Glorantha is returning
to an unprecedented level of fascination with mythology that
it helped set in motion four decades ago. At the same time, the
setting must now compete with more immersive, expansive
fictional universes demanding fans’ investment than ever
before across film, TV, video games and the tabletop.
“I don’t think the broader spread of stories drawn
from myth has especially diminished immersion, but the
indiscriminate intermixing of worlds has,” Stafford suggests.
“The mashing together of diverse sources is a very American
and very modern thing. D&D and the Marvel universe are
fine examples of it. The tendency is to throw everything
in together, establish a rough baseline of equality among
entities, and go for it! Glorantha itself has this quality with
its many pantheons based roughly on various cultures, but

LEFT Glorantha is a world
full of deities and cults that
provide special magic and
powers to their worshippers
BELOW William Church’s
iconic map of Prax from
RuneQuest: Second Edition
Glorantha doesn’t generally use sources directly – it derives
from them. The indiscriminate mixing of Norse, Greek and
other mythologies with science-fiction and conspiracy
nuttiness destroys the subtly and differences of the sources.”
LOSS OF FAITH
Having redefined roleplaying with its first edition – it was
second only to D&D in sales at its peak – RuneQuest was
quickly followed with a second edition in 1980. The RPG
rode high on the back of several acclaimed adventures
as a third edition, published by major label Avalon Hill in
an attempt to grow the game’s audience, was developed.
When Third Edition was released in the mid-eighties,
however, it made the once embedded world of Glorantha
an optional setting for the game, now tweaked to serve as
a more flexible set of rules for other worlds. Avalon Hill’s
proposed fourth edition of RuneQuest would be shelved a
decade later by an unimpressed Stafford.
“With perfect hindsight, I think the decision to make
the third edition ‘generic’ rather than root it in Glorantha
was a mistake,” Richard comments.
Meanwhile, Stafford developed a roleplaying game based
on the legend of King Arthur, 1985’s acclaimed Pendragon.
Similarly rooted in myth, Pendragon pioneered several new
gameplay aspects that the designer had originally considered
for RuneQuest, including passions and personality traits.
The mechanics are only now being included in RuneQuest –
multiple decades, editions and lessons learned later.
“Between the third edition and the upcoming edition, there
have been several changes that have disappeared again because
the overwhelming consensus of players is that the RuneQuest
of the second edition – with additions from third such as sorcery
– is the proper realisation of the system,” Perrin says. “The biggest
change has been an emphasis on the influence of the runes of
Glorantha, and a ‘passions’ system that originated in the game
of Pendragon. The new game is, initially, going to emphasise the
world of Glorantha, with much less emphasis on generic fantasy
environments – though these are not going to be entirely ignored.”
“What we are most proud to bring to the game are the
defining elements of the newest edition: runes as integral parts
of the character, rune points rather than one-use rune spells and
passions,” says Richard of the 2018 edition, subtitled Roleplaying
in Glorantha. “That, plus an immersive character creation
process that teaches the setting through character creation.”
STILL QUESTING
This July marks exactly 40 years since RuneQuest made its
debut. 2018 also sees the release of the game’s latest iteration,
built off the framework off the second edition rather than
revising the third edition or the subsequent fourth and
fifth variants released by Mongoose a decade ago. (A sixth
edition, published in 2012, once again experimented with
separating Gloranthan content from the ruleset.) It will be
compatible with the updated second edition, reprinted via
Kickstarter in 2016 and now known as RuneQuest Classic.
“I think RuneQuest has a good future as an RPG that
emphasises realistic combat effects and a fascinating world that
can be explored for 40 years of gaming to come,” Perrin predicts.
“As for Glorantha itself, there is a lot of world with regions that
have at best a two-line description. That’s a lot of world to
explore. I’m working on a proposal I call Glorantha 2020, which
takes Glorantha to the Fourth Age, the age of superheroes...”
Stafford, meanwhile, expresses no loss of enthusiasm for
realising the ambition and scope of his imagined world.
“More fiction. More of everything,” he replies, when asked what
he sees as the future of storytelling in Glorantha. “Direct brain-to-
brain transmission games. I’m hoping to see it as a MMORPG.
Way before home computers were a thing I had a vision of some
kind of massive epic, continental- and cosmos-spanning game
with thousands of players moving and shaking the world. I’m
hoping that some of the big guys in the computer biz who grew up
on RuneQuest make the move! And would love to see a movie.”
Still, even with his aspirations seemingly as sky-high
as they were that day he stared out into space in 1966,
the creator appears somewhat satisfied.
“After years, my vision has come true.”
tabletopgaming.co.uk 33
 H AV E Y O U P L AY E D ?
COSMIC ENCOUNTER
The sci-fi favourite takes place in a universe full to the brim with alien races, but it’s
the game’s human elements that have kept it just as electrifying – and hilarious – for
more than four decades. That’s just about the only thing not open to negotiation...

F
Words by Matt Jarvis

irst released in 1977, before
appearing in new forms in the ‘80s
and ‘90s, and ultimately ending
up in the hands of mega-publisher
Fantasy Flight just over ten years
ago, Cosmic Encounter is a marvel of social
and asymmetrical game design. More than
that, it’s just ridiculously fun to play.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?
Cosmic Encounter casts players as a galactic
menagerie of aliens trying to spread their
civilisation to planets in other species’ systems.
You start with five planets, each with your own
ships parked on them, but you’ll quickly be
sending your sci-fi transporters through the
game’s hyperspace gate in an attempt to settle
them in your neighbours’ galaxies.
Not everyone is happy to find your
particular aliens moving in next door, though,
so the approaching player and the owner of
their targeted planetary system will need to
work out whether each attempted encounter
will be a peaceful or antagonistic one. Once
a player manages to settle their ships on five
planets outside their own galaxy, they win – so
getting your friends to help you settle in other
galaxies while stopping your enemies landing
in yours is at the heart of the action. The
problem? Those friends and enemies are the
same people.
HOW DO YOU PLAY?
Gameplay is simple: each turn, players flip
over a card to randomly dictate who they
must ‘encounter’ that round. This encounter
consists of the current player selecting one of
that opponent’s five planets to send between
one and four of their spaceships to. Once

34 July 2018
that’s decided, the floor opens for the two
players to discuss whether they’re going to
duke it out in an interstellar fistfight or try to
talk things through.
Combat is resolved by simultaneously
revealing attack cards picked from each
player’s hand, which add their value to the
number of ships on each side of the battle.
The losing side is completely destroyed – if the
winner was attempting to land on a planet,
they settle their ships on the now-vacant world.
Instead of fighting, both players can
instead both play negotiate cards, which
triggers discussions for calmly trading cards
and peacefully allowing planet settlement.
(If they fail to come to an agreement within
one minute, everyone’s ships are destroyed
as punishment for failing to find a middle
ground.) Except that if one player is all smiles
and convinces their opponent to negotiate,
they can instead reveal an attack card, which
automatically wins. It’s not all bad: the
betrayed player had the good sense to insure
their space fleet, so they’ll be able to claim
compensation in the form of cards or ships for
their friend being a two-faced traitor.
OPPOSITE Cosmic Encounter blows out a simple core mechanic with huge variety
“Oh, that’s easy,” you say. “It benefits
both of us equally to always negotiate.” But
ABOVE 50 unique alien races come in the box, each with a completely different play style
the trick is that you won’t always have that
choice, because you can only do what the
BELOW Players attempt to land their ships in neighbouring galaxies, sometimes with a little help
cards in your hand allow, and they are only
refreshed when you run out or by claiming
compensation for your destroyed fleet. So They range from the completely outlandish, It’s rare to find a game that serves both as an
it takes some smooth talking to lure your such as granting instant victory after a certain interesting strategy game and an uproarious
opponent into negotiating when that’s all amount of time or literally granting players party game: Cosmic Encounter is that game. It
you can do or your attack cards have all the permission to cheat, to those that rewire the has the fluid alliances and ‘oh no you didn’t!’
interplanetary strength of a cheese sandwich. way encounters play out, injecting an extra backstabbery of something like Diplomacy or
The other option is to throw a party in layer of strategy into discussions with players Twilight Struggle, but with the ability to make
hyperspace and invite all your friends along, that win battles when they lose (and vice- you laugh like almost nothing else. The rules
asking other players to throw their ships in versa) or attain victory with the lowest, rather are simple yet, because it relies on human
with yours to form an unstoppable planet- than highest, attack value. With dozens of nature and just a dash of luck, it’s endlessly
conquering cocktail or fend off unwanted these brilliant and bonkers abilities available entertaining to play and watch. Nothing has
colonisation attempts. Their ships are put on to bounce off each other in game after game, really come close to serving up an entire
the line like yours, but being on the winning Cosmic Encounter is never, ever boring. universe of weird and wonderful aliens for
side can reap extra rewards between their own Optional variant modes ramp up the chaotic players to embody and either form unexpected
turns – and, of course, someone might always entertainment and let balance and fairness friendships or acidic rivalries (or both with
help you out later if you help them now. Then get sucked out the window by making players’ the very same players, as the case often is) for
again, they might not. abilities hidden until revealed or granting each a couple of hours with such gleeful abandon,
person two powers, while the game’s many like an interstellar reality show.
WHY SHOULD YOU PLAY IT? expansions add extra play options, including Give Cosmic Encounter a chance, and it’ll
While its core gameplay makes for an interesting team modes and more random events to keep more than reward you – it’s your friends you’ll
enough discussion-driven game, Cosmic things spinning like a centrifuge. want to keep an eye on.
Encounter would have been surpassed in the
four-plus decades since it was first released if it
wasn’t for the game’s aliens. With 50 completely
different aliens in the box (the expansions each
add another 20 or so), each with unique rule-
bending abilities, Cosmic Encounter’s sheer
variety continues to put other asymmetric
games to shame.
These aliens are the weird, throbbing,
probably blue or green heart(s) of the game.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 35
 TM

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Renaissance Italy
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establish influence over the many prosperous
regions of Italy. Strategically command the
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battle or save them to strike when your opponent is most
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TM

TM & © 2018 Z-Man Games.

ZM008 | $29.99 | Condottiere ZManGames.com

 KICKSTARTING
F R O M S C R A T C H
With Art Deck’s campaign underway, Holly Gramazio takes
us through the anxiety and excitement of the first 24 hours of
W
launching a project... once you finally manage to press ‘GO’
ell, we finally launched.
We had I now have one piece of
Kickstarter advice and it is
friends this: don’t just tell people what
day you’re gonna launch – tell
poised to them exactly what time as well. If you don’t have
a strict deadline then I don’t know how you’ll ever
back us, so bring yourself to push that huge terrifying LAUNCH
PROJECT button.
we never We told everyone we were launching at 1pm on
May 30th. Even so, it was more like 1:08 by the time we
had to finished reading everything over another frantic five
times, and then another few minutes before we could
stare at a force ourselves to press the button.
And then we pressed it. And we waited.
page that We had a few friends poised to back us as soon as
we went live, which was amazing – it helped us to feel
said ‘£0 like we had some momentum, and it meant we never
had to stare at a page that said “£0 pledged”. More
pledged’. importantly, it meant our potential backers didn’t have
to look at a page with no supporters.
So that was the first two minutes, maybe the first
three. And looking back and seeing the number get
higher every time felt pretty good.
July 2018
But after that initial flurry of close friends had
died down, it was time for – well, the stuff that
everyone talks about when they talk about running
a Kickstarter, right? Tweeting about the game.
Posting about it to Facebook. Emailing all the people
we’d spoken to who had made vague, “Oh, yes, that
sounds interesting, let me know when you launch”
sounds, on the off-chance that one of them might
have meant it. Sending reminders to all the events
we’ve run the game at whose organisers said they’d
tweet about it.
And refreshing the Kickstarter page over and over,
of course – even though you don’t need to refresh the
page! It auto-updates constantly! But, you know. Might
as well refresh anyway. Just in case.
A lot of our first backers were people that we knew,
but by half an hour in a few names had popped up that
weren’t familiar, and as time went on more and more
of our supporters were people who had happened
across the game and just thought it sounded neat.
It’s that broader audience that we have to try to
reach from now on. Our friends know about the game.
If they want it, they’ve probably already backed it. So
it’s time to make sure that strangers find out about it
as well.
A lot of that will depend on the work we’ve done in
advance. We’ve written about it. We’ve posted work-in-
progress pictures. I mean, I’ve even been documenting
our progress here for a year, after all – that’s probably
helped the game’s name recognition some!
As I write this, we’re about 24 hours into our
campaign and we’ve had a first day that we’re
really happy with. We aren’t one of those runaway
successes you occasionally see that funds fully in
five hours, and leaves everyone staring and going,
“Wait. What, why, how do I do that?” But, you know:
statistically, hardly anyone is, right? The only reason
you see those games so often is precisely because
they’re so anomalous.
But within the range of ‘normal’, we’re doing well.
We’re over halfway, which is really great – the received
wisdom is that to be sure of success you want to get at
least 25 to 35% of the way in the first day, so making it
to almost double that is a really good sign.
But only time will tell.
29 days to go.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 37
 HOW WE MADE

FATE CORE
The flexible RPG system put no limits on
creativity and let players take their story into
their own hands, leading to some of the most
imaginative roleplaying experiences out there
Words by Owen Duffy
T
he world of roleplaying offers a
vast array of experiences, from
the monster-infested caverns
of Dungeons & Dragons to the
hostile universe of Traveller and
the mind-warping horror of Call of Cthulhu.
For decades, RPGs have transported players
to weird and wonderful settings using only
dice, pencils and the power of imagination.

38 July 2018
 But while most roleplaying releases focus
on a particular fictional backdrop, others have
bigger things in mind. Released in 2013, Fate
Core doesn’t attempt to cater to any individual
genre. Instead, it hands players a toolkit to
build their own worlds, creating characters
and locations from scratch and telling any
kind of stories they can conceive of.
It’s a bold, narrative-driven approach, and
over the years it’s won the game a
legion of loyal fans. We spoke to its
creators to learn about its origins,
and how what started as a personal
project released for free online
grew into a thriving and respected
indie games studio.
READY TO ROLE
Like many roleplayers, Fate Core co-
creator Fred Hicks traces his roots in gaming
to Dungeons & Dragons.
“I first got into RPGs through a kid called
Eamon in third grade,” he explains. “He was
in school, tinkering with the D&D Red Box
in plain sight. I remember I was absolutely
fascinated by all of the dice.
“Right from the get-go I started hacking
and house-ruling my own games. But I didn’t
really have friends I could play them with until
I got into high school and college. Over those
years I played a ton of games like Champions,
GURPS and Amber.”
It was a diverse mix of games, and it
exposed Hicks to some of the vastly different
approaches creators had adopted to RPG
design. Champions was a tabletop take on
superhero comics, casting players as spandex-
clad avengers battling twisted and dangerous
foes. GURPS was a versatile but mechanically
complex game that let players explore a huge
range of fictional and historical settings.
Amber Diceless Roleplaying pioneered a more
story-focused approach, eliminating dice
altogether in favour of careful plot progression
and character development.
Each had an effect on Hicks, but one game
in particular was to have a significant impact
not just on his gaming life, but on his career.
Fudge, released in 1992 by designer Steffan
O’Sullivan, was a flexible roleplaying system
designed to be used in any type of game, from
MAIN IMAGE Fate Core hands players the tools to create their own world to roleplay in
ABOVE The game’s systems have been harnessed by plenty of official spin-offs, too
RIGHT The definitive Fate ruleset made over $430,000 on Kickstarter
fantasy adventure to
cyberpunk spy thriller.
At its heart was a system
known as ‘the Ladder’.
Rather than the numerical
skill ratings commonly found in other RPGs,
Fudge characters ranked their abilities using a
set of descriptive adjectives. A character with
low combat ability might be ranked as “poor”,
while their better-developed skills in arcane
research might be rated as “good” or “great.”
Whenever they encountered challenging
situations, players would roll special dice
marked with plus and minus symbols, using
their position on the Ladder as a starting
point and letting the dice dictate whether they
performed better or worse than their natural
abilities might suggest.
What particularly attracted Hicks to the
game was the ability it handed players to
modify its core mechanisms to suit their own
needs. Eventually, though, he began to feel that
elements of the game could be improved.
“I was drawn to Fudge because I was a
constant system tinkerer,” Hicks says. “But
over the years, I came to feel that while Fudge
gave me a full toolbox, it didn’t give me a lot of
good pre-built parts to work with.”
Fortunately for Hicks, Fudge
had been released under
an open licence, allowing other
designers to change and redistribute
it however they wanted. He teamed up
with gaming friend Rob Donoghue to
develop its barebones framework into a
more fully-featured RPG. They clarified
the system for character creation, with
players building protagonists with an
array of skills, backgrounds and personal
connections. They developed a system for
collaborative worldbuilding, letting players
work as a group to create the setting for their
adventures. But perhaps most importantly,
they shared responsibility for the game’s
narrative development between the game
master and players.
Where Fudge had given players the ability
to tweak plot elements or alter dice rolls, Hicks
and Donoghue elaborated on the concept.
They granted players ‘fate points’ for effectively
roleplaying their characters in ways that
introduced drama, danger and excitement
to their games – a move that distributed
storytelling opportunities around the table and
rewarded players for acting in the best interest
tabletopgaming.co.uk 39
 HOW WE MADE F A T E C O R E
ABOVE Fate hands control of the narrative to its players, rather than just the GM
RIGHT The rules can support everything from fantasy questing to sci-fi thrillers
OPPOSITE Fate grew out of another customisable RPG, Fudge
of the plot rather than focusing solely on their
own character. It was a markedly different
approach from most other roleplaying systems,
which put overall authority for the story
squarely in the hands of the game master. It
was also a method that seemed to carry the
possibility of players derailing the game – but
Hicks argues it’s less of a concern than players
of other RPGs might assume.
“It’s a bit like being worried about a knife
without taking the whole kitchen and all the
cooks into account,” he says. “Yes, that knife
could absolutely cut someone if it’s handled
incorrectly. But a knife is more than its
danger; it’s a tool. And for a kitchen to run well
it’s every chef’s responsibility to make sure
that folks are using the tools properly.
“Is it a problem to ensure that players
behave in a way that upholds the table’s
consensus of what the game and story is
about? Well, yes. But when that happens the
problem isn’t the rule; the problem is that not
everyone who sat down to the table was on the
same page.
“Any time you choose to give players
power over the story, you’re running the risk
of someone committing a foul rather than
simply throwing a curveball. Sure, maybe toss
celery into that peanut butter instead of the
40 July 2018
“Rob and I established Evil Hat as a
publishing company in 2005 on the back of
getting the offer from Jim Butcher,” Hicks
explains. “But we had zero publishing
experience. We’d gotten onto the radar
because we’d put out the rules for Fate and
gathered a community of interested gamers
around them.
“Looking at that lack of experience, I started
charting a course that would get us to it. I
severely underestimated the time involved,
but we did cross it eventually. Early on, in
2006, we leveraged the early rise of affordable
print-on-demand services to release our first
two games: Don’t Rest Your Head and Spirit of
the Century.”
The company’s games met with
praise for their narrative-first
approach, and eventually
the team decided to release
a definitive version of the
Fate system. To fund its
publication, they turned to the
crowdfunding website
Kickstarter and, while
they’d established
chocolate folks were expecting, but don’t
dose it with rat poison.”
“Okay,” he adds, “I may have a problem
with my overuse of metaphors.”
TEMPTING FATE
Hicks and Donoghue made some major
alterations to Fudge’s foundations and
named their new game Fate, releasing it
online as a free download. But, while they’d
been pleased with how their system had
worked in their own games, they weren’t
prepared for the enthusiasm it met from
other players. One fan in particular
became instrumental in the game’s
evolution from a homebrew system to a
professionally-published RPG.
Author Jim Butcher, the creator of a
series of novels starring the supernatural
detective Harry Dresden, knew Hicks
through online roleplaying games. He
offered the Fate team the chance to create
a licensed game based on the series, and
game designer Leonard Balsera built the Fate
concepts into a new standalone game: The
Dresden Files. While the game took years to
develop, Hicks and Donoghue were buoyed by
the opportunity, deciding to dive into games
publishing as a full-time business.

a sizable community of players behind the
game, they were stunned when players
pledged over $430,000 to support the project.
“We didn’t expect it at all,” says Evil Hat’s
vice president Chris Hanrahan. “And what
blew us away even more was the number of
people who backed the project. After all this
time, we are still number three on the list of
most backers of all time. That skyrocketed our
reach and growth.”
MAKE IT YOUR OWN
Since its Kickstarter success, the line of
Fate Core books has grown to include the
Fate System Toolkit, a guide to hacking
and modifying the game to suit a variety of
different play styles. It’s also gained the Fate
Adversary Toolkit, helping game masters to
come up with opposition and antagonists for
their stories. But what may be most impressive
about the game’s growth is the community of
designers who’ve tweaked and reworked the
game to their own ends.
Sophie Lagacé is one such creator.
After releasing several fan-made Fate
hacks, she was signed up by its publisher
as a project manager. Her work includes
War of Ashes: Fate of Agaptus, an
RPG adaptation of an indie miniature
“I don’t see any big changes coming,
particularly to the core rules,” she says.
“Because it’s a toolbox system, we already
have a plethora of variations that include using
skills, approaches, stress tracks, consequences,
conditions and all sorts of extras. These are
custom tools that can be tweaked infinitely to
fit a particular genre or setting. In other words,
I don’t expect a new edition will be needed for
a long while, but custom implementations will
continue to flourish.”
But while the basic rules may be firmly
established, Lagacé says there’s plenty for fans
to get excited about in upcoming releases.
“I expect to see a generation of releases
connected through settings, campaigns and
arcs that share worlds,” she says. “We’re
already seeing something like this in the
recent Kickstarter campaign for the Uprising:
Dystopian Universe RPG [based in the
world of social deduction games Coup and
The Resistance], and the ongoing one for
of science-fiction supplement Tachyon
Squadron. We’ve released a lot of great settings
– now I think it’s time to show how they can
really shine.”
Any time you choose to give
players power over the story,
you’re running the risk of someone
committing a foul rather than
simply throwing a curveball.
wargame. She argues Fate is ideally
suited for adaptation to multiple genres.
“My process starts by deciding what
features and qualities of a setting I want to
include,” she explains. “Then I examine the
system toolbox to pick the mechanics which
best accomplish this. My rule of thumb is to
stick to the simplest solution. For example,
doing more with existing aspects is more
appealing to me than adding a new type of
character ability.”
Lagacé sees a bright future for the game
and, at a time when industry-leading titles
like Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder
are renovating their games with high-
profile new editions, she predicts Fate’s
immediate future will be considerably
more stable.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 41
 HOW WE MADE F A T E C O R E
TWISTS OF FATE
Fate’s flexible approach to roleplaying has given rise to a huge number of add-ons letting players explore
a host of exotic settings. While many are published by studio Evil Hat itself, there’s also a thriving
community of independent designers developing standalone games and new material for the system
BULLDOGS!
Bulldogs! casts players
as dropouts and fugitives
battling to eke out an
existence in the furthest
reaches of the galaxy. Far
from civilised space, you’ll
find clients willing to overlook
your shady past and provide
you with a steady source
of income – as long as you
don’t mind the risks.
DRESDEN FILES
This game, based on the
series of supernatural
detective novels, lets players
enter a world of hardboiled
occult mysteries. Filled with
characters and settings
from the books, the RPG
lets players interact with
the original stories in new
and immersive ways.
42 July 2018
SPIRIT OF
THE CENTURY
A pacey pulp adventure,
Spirit of the Century is
packed with colossal airships,
biplane dogfights, mad
scientists and murderous
villains. Like a chaotic mash-
up of Indiana Jones and
Justice League, the game
puts its focus squarely on
action and drama.
THE SECRETS
OF CATS
This imaginative setting sees
players become pet felines,
harnessing their wisdom,
bravery and magical prowess
to confront an ancient threat.
Your human owners may not
know it, but you’re all that
stands between them and
the grasping darkness.
EAGLE EYES
The streets, forums and
back-alley drinking dens of
ancient Rome are seething
with violence, intrigue
and ambition. Eagle Eyes
combines the setting of the
world’s most powerful empire
with film noir sensibilities,
casting players as private
investigators solving murders
and unravelling conspiracies.
ROMANCE IN
THE AIR
Romance in the Air casts
players as travellers
on a voyage around an
alternate Europe, where
great airships amble
across the skies and
personal and political
vendettas can quickly
turn deadly.
MASTERS
OF UMDAAR
A tabletop tribute to the
likes of He-Man and the
Masters of the Universe
and ThunderCats,
Masters of Umdaar
drops players into a
technicolour world
of savage beasts,
intelligent robots and
deadly laser blasters.
THE MINISTRY
It’s 1958, and the Earth
has been invaded by aliens.
This Fate setting sees
players become members
of the ministry tasked with
fighting the otherworldly
threat in a setting that
merges John Wyndham,
Quatermass and Invasion
of the Body Snatchers.
JADEPUNK:
TALES FROM
KAUSAO CITY
A combination of steampunk
stylings and Chinese
wuxia martial arts films,
Jadepunk casts players as
warriors battling against
an oppressive council of
rulers using a blend of
deadly fighting prowess
and advanced technology.
MINDJAMMER
This game of grand-scale
space opera takes place in
the second age of human
expansion into the universe.
Technological advancements
have redefined what it
means to be human, and
the gulf between the stars
offers adventure, glory and
unimaginable dangers.
 the independent shelf
If you spent hours playing retro sports games, this fast and fluid
American football star will have you cheering in no time
O
ne of the hidden mass-
market gems early in this
millennium was Milton
Bradley’s appropriately titled
Battleball. It was a simple miniatures game
on a board with wild drama and free-
wheeling manoeuvring. It was fantastic and
unsurpassed when it comes to American
football games. That is, until now.
Bombshell Games’ Techno Bowl from
designer Brent Spivey is Battleball
harnessing the core resolution system of
Vincent Baker’s exceptional RPG Apocalypse
World. It all hangs together with a design
philosophy uniquely Spivey’s, clearly
influenced by tabletop miniatures games
and his own eclectic gaming background.
Your first contact with Techno Bowl
will be via your smiling eyes as they soak
in that 8-bit visage. For those who put
bruises on their palms playing hours
and hours of Tecmo Bowl on the NES,
you’ll immediately be hit by the shoulder
of nostalgia being driven into your gut.
From pixellated players to a wonderfully
TECHNO BOWL
Words and pictures by Charlie Theel
illustrated board, Techno Bowl knows exactly
where to aim – and delivers.
The core system beneath that playful surface
is surprisingly daunting. This is a moderately
heavy game for those card-carrying members
of the hobby. There are ruled layers with
different modes and optional rules, and
even a completely insane recently released
legacy league supplement that allows you
to run franchises over multiple seasons. The
commitment from a design and support
perspective is enormous – you can feel Spivey’s
creative force on every inch of turf.
The magic of Techno Bowl is two-fold. It
utilises a freeform play structure where you
program character activations. The beauty
here is that you’re not straightjacketed to
decisions, as you can adapt and alter plans on
the fly. It’s just enough structure to force you
to commit to some kind of approach, yet it
fosters creative problem-solving and a sense of
unwinding chaos that’s enthralling.
Your team of seven players is not wedded
to specific positions. Their jersey numbers
denote their speed and physicality (in
The game pays
clear homage to
retro video games
such as Tecmo
Bowl, with 8-bit
visuals and a card
bench mimicking
a NES controller
spectrum opposites), and you can utilise
them in scratch-built formations as you
wish. Resolving actions relies on that
Apocalypse World 2d6 system, where
you will often succeed but need to offer
concessions to your opponent. This results
in you achieving your intent but your
opponent may be allowed a half action if
you don’t roll extremely well.
The mechanism of your own actions
allowing the opponent to react mid-turn
gives the game a distinct feel of dynamism.
The pitch assumes this state of constant
motion as players are constantly fighting
for ground and dashing through openings.
It’s fascinating because it injects a high
velocity and nuanced feel into the heart of
a turn-based tabletop design.
Techno Bowl is infectious. It’s the kind
of board game you will be thinking about
days after your last play. The strategy space
and rules options are so vast that your
group can get lost in this game for months
on end. Those seeking a refined tactical
experience need suit up immediately.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 43
THE LONDON SHOW YOU

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 TANKS FOR
THE MEMORIES
One massive armoured robot tank against an entire army. 30 years on,
the battle is still raging. Steve Jackson looks back at his monster creation
Words by Matt Jarvis
T
oday, Steve Jackson is best known as
the man behind Munchkin. But three
decades ago, he made his debut with a
titanic design that couldn’t be further
from his light, RPG-spoofing card game.
Ogre was a wargame that stood apart. Where
other games gave both players comparable
armies of miniatures, Ogre tipped the scales
completely one way. One player sat in the
driving seat of the titular tank, an enormous
robotic machine that would plough its way
across a hex-based map, attempting to destroy
a command post. In their way was an army of
tanks, hovercraft and soldiers controlled by their
opponent, who would try to take down the beast
using their combined strength. The winner
was unsure. Mass slaughter was inevitable.
“It does owe a debt to the games that came
before it,” Jackson considers today. “I had
been playing SPI and Avalon Hill’s games for
years and years and years, and was really fully
immersed in the world of hex-based wargames,
so I knew what I wanted this one to be like.
“Some of the old hex games were extremely
asymmetrical. You had classics like Borodino,
for instance, the Napoleonic wargame.
The forces had very different strengths and
weaknesses, and one is retreating from an
entrenched position and the other is pressing
the attack. But the idea that one side has only
one unit really takes the asymmetry to the
ultimate. As far as I know, Ogre was the first
one to do that.”
Just as singular was the way in which Ogre
was released. Despite its gameplay featuring
a gigantic tank with metre-thick armour and
scores of defenders, the original 1977
edition of the game cost just $2.95
(£2.19) – equivalent to just under a tenner
today. It was among the first micro games,
popularising the style adopted by modern
pocket-sized hits like Love Letter and Hanabi.
46 July 2018
“It was not my idea,” admits Jackson. “I “[Did I know] that they were going to bring us
didn’t object in the least, but remember my age a million dollars?” he says. “No. I had no idea.
and experience at the time. I was a complete I thought that it was going to succeed, because
beginner and was going along with what the I read my mail, I know that the fandom is out
publisher wanted. The publisher had the idea there and has always been out there. But I was
– I think it was a very good idea – that a small just blown away by how much of it [there was].”
game should have the same footprint as a The Designer’s Edition would later be
paperback book, because then the bookstores trimmed back down and serve as the chassis
would display them in their paperback of Ogre’s sixth edition, although
racks. That didn’t work out at all, but the the original game’s simplicity
format itself was very, very popular. So it means that later iterations have
was a good idea – not just for the reasons consisted largely of minor changes.
that they thought it would be.” “Really it was more down to putting
out the game again every few years and
ON A ROLL doing every little incremental thing that
Despite its modest beginnings, Ogre we could to make it better at the time,”
quickly grew. A sequel that featured Jackson says. “It was not Warhammer-
a hovertank with greater movement style editions where they
variety, G.E.V., was released the following just don’t play together;
year. It would eventually be recombined each edition you would
with Ogre in a single box.
“[G.E.V.] plays well but the Ogre unit
and the Ogre’s single-minded mission
to destroy the command post bring a
certain amount of charisma, something
unique, to it,” Jackson says.
Most significant was the Designer’s
Edition of Ogre, a mammoth collection
weighing over 11kg and costing $100
(“It should’ve sold for two or three
times that much,” Jackson insists) that
raised close to a million dollars on
Kickstarter in 2012. Its creator confesses
even he was surprised by the response
to the campaign.
recognise the same game very clearly, just
a few words might be changed or moved
around to clarify the meaning but to
clarify the meaning of scenarios as
they always were.”

THE BEAST IS BACK

Ogre has also been adapted
as a computer game twice: in
1986 and last year, as the result of
a stretch goal for the Designer’s Edition
Kickstarter. Jackson reveals that he is currently
working to revive the game’s miniatures game
spin-off, first released in 1992, with ambitions
to explore the setting even further.
“The universe is set in our world, or
something very like our world, 50 or more
years from now,” he explains. “We assume
that artificial intelligence is already being “The hex-based movement and combat
developed and they’re just not telling us. It’s result table resolution are definitely old-
Ogre is severely
fully matured and being used in autonomous school, but they still work,” the designer
asymmetric, and a
war machines by the time that Ogre takes place. enthuses. “There’s a lot of nostalgia for that
whole load of fun
“I’ve always thought that it would be particular really simple resolution system. I
fascinating to try to sponsor a fiction collection. get people telling me: ‘Look, we’re coming
It’s just a thing we’ve never done – yet.” back to hexes! Hexes work!’
While his debut game may no longer be the “It’s still a little bit hard to believe that
first thing that people think of when they hear his something that was done that long ago and
name, it’s clear that Jackson – and thousands of on that small a budget and with that little
fans, new and old – are unwilling to see Ogre rust. experience worked out.”

 
It’s hard to believe that
something done on that
small a budget and with that
little experience worked out.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 47
 THROUGH THE AGES
CO-OP GAMES
Games are better together, and teaming up with friends serves as the basis of some
of the tabletop’s very best experiences: from cracking crimes to fighting evil
Words by Sam Desatoff
G
ames have long been a competitive
matter, but thanks to 2008’s mega
hit Pandemic, co-operative games
seem to be crawling out of the
woodwork, ready to force you to collaborate
with friends and family. The elite status of
the co-op game was cemented in 2015 when
Pandemic Legacy: Season One rocketed up the
BoardGameGeek rankings. But Pandemic was
hardly the first game to see players sitting on
the same side of the table.
An obvious place to start is with pen-
and-paper RPGs. Dungeons & Dragons,
released in the mid-1970s, sees players
working together to combat the trials of
their dungeon master. Table talk and co-
operation are very much central to the D&D
experience; the game had a massive impact
on not only future co-operative games, but
popular culture as a whole.
While combat was a large part of D&D’s
gameplay, the element of storytelling was
just as important in influencing future co-op
games. Titles like Sherlock Holmes: Consulting
Detective (1991) and Fog of Love (2017) take
the narrative parts of D&D and run with them,
giving players the agency to tell interesting
tales together.
Scotland Yard, released sometime in the
early 1980s, dropped players into the shoes of
detectives seeking a criminal on the loose in
London. Players travel from district to district
1983 1987
48 July 2018
looking for clues and assembling a shared
checklist of evidence that is then used to finger
the culprit. It’s a familiar concept if you’ve
played Cluedo. There’s since been a slew of
re-releases and reskins: 221B Baker Street: The
Master Detective Game (1975), 221B Baker St.:
Sherlock Holmes & the Time Machine (1996),
Police 07 (1986), N.Y. Chse (1999), Mister X
(2009), Scotland Yard Master (2013), Scotland
Yard Junior (2015).
In 1987, co-op games turned their gaze to
the nightmarish world of H.P. Lovecraft with
Arkham Horror. Players once again took on
the role of detectives but, rather than chasing
a small-time criminal, they were tasked
with repelling an invasion of otherworldly
horrors. Facing these creatures, as you might
expect, was rather straining on the human
mind; to represent the psychological damage
the Old Ones could inflict, sanity was used
as a resource. If the team took on too much
insanity, they lost and Cthulhu wreaked its
havoc on the world.
Like Scotland Yard, Arkham Horror has
been reimplemented several times. The 2005
reboot of the game by Fantasy Flight remains
an all-time classic, and the streamlined
Eldritch Horror from 2013 sits comfortably
in gaming’s upper echelons. In 2016, Fantasy
Flight released another co-op take on the
formula, scenario-driven living card game
Arkham Horror: The Card Game.
1987 2000
Released in the same year as Arkham Horror,
The Fury of Dracula took the mechanics of
Scotland Yard, slapped a vampire theme on
top of them, then added rules for combat and
a traitor mechanic where one player secretly
controls Dracula himself. This game saw
implementations in 2005 and 2015.
In 2000, with the board game renaissance
well underway and the market ripe for
influence, illustrious designer Reiner Knizia
released Lord of the Rings. Based on Tolkien’s
original novels rather than Peter Jackson’s
films, players seek to destroy the One Ring
while avoiding the corruption of Sauron.
More recently, Gloomhaven has shaken up
the co-op scene. Taking place in a persistent
world, players embark on dangerous quests
in a series of scenarios that call for teamwork
and co-operation. The world changes session
after session, making each game feel personal
and unique.
There’s a rich history of working together
in tabletop games and recent releases have
only strengthened the genre, to the point
that co-op games are some of the most
revered in the hobby. Humble beginnings
have begotten elite entries in a genre that
continue to rewrite the script on what
board games can be. Co-operation is no
longer an exception, but the preferred way
of playing for millions of gamers around
the world.
2008 2017
 TOP SECRET 001963
When the CIA revealed it was
using board games to train its agents,
no-one expected them to ever see the
light of day. Then, suddenly, the tabletop
secrets were out there for all to play
Words by James Wallis

S
XSW is an annual gathering of cultural and technological tribes
in Austin, Texas, halfway between a conference and a festival.
Its original roots were firmly in alt-culture but these days
anyone who wants to show off their cool and groundbreaking
ideas will present there, from avant-garde filmmakers and noisemakers
to hackers, crackers, jammers – and even secretive government agencies.
If you’d studied the programme for SXSW 2017 you might have
spotted an entry for ‘Cloaks, Daggers and Dice: How the CIA Uses
Games’, a panel by four CIA officers including David Clopper, a senior
collection analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. This turned out to
be a talk on a number of tabletop games the CIA had developed to train
its agents and enhance intelligence gathering techniques, and what
they’d learned from the experience. There was also an opportunity for a
select few to play three of the games.
A brief flurry of articles reported the panel, SXSW ended, Clopper
and the games went back to the CIA facility from which they’d
emerged, and everyone assumed that was the last we’d hear of
them. Everyone except for two people: Mitchell Kotler and Douglas
A. Palmer, both enthusiasts of the US Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA). Under section 105 of the US Copyright Act any works created
by federal government employees, from the White House to NASA, are
automatically in the public domain unless classified as secret. Both
Kotler and Palmer separately put in FOIA requests for all information
relating to the various games that had been shown or referenced at
SXSW, using the website Muckrock. It seemed worth a try.
It was. At the time of writing the CIA has released all its materials on
four of the five requested games. They’re free for anyone to download
from the internet.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 49
 CIA GAMES
The big surprise wasn’t that these games existed, or that a couple
of them were recognisably derived from systems in existing tabletop
games like Pandemic, Magic and Munchkin. The big surprise – at least to
anyone who wasn’t already a well-informed wargamer – was that Volko
Ruhnke, one of the lead designers at GMT Games and the creator of the
legendary COIN (COunterINsurgencies) game system, was the man
behind the biggest of them: Kingpin: The Hunt for El Chapo.
It turns out that Ruhnke’s day job is at the CIA, where his title is
Intelligence Educator. He had, in fact, been on the panel at SXSW.
Games Without Frontiers
Using games as a tool for teaching or training is nothing new: in fact, it
goes back almost a millennium. In the Icelandic story ‘Frithiof’s Saga’
the hero advises his foster father on military strategy by referring to
moves in the game hnefatafl. The medieval game rithmomachia was
used to teach a particular type of number theory, and the first true
wargame, Kriegsspiel, was devised to educate German and Prussian
officers in tactics and strategy in the early 19th century. But for the CIA
to reveal that it was using tabletop simulations in training was literally
a game-changer.
The underlying reasons for using games in training make a lot of
sense. We learn better by experiencing something firsthand, whether
that’s complex data sets, techniques for analysis or how to plan and
execute strategies. Games give us a safe space to try out new things, to
fail and to learn from that failure.
“People playing a game, together they’re experiencing the designers’
mental model of insurgency in Afghanistan and sharing that model,”
Ruhnke told Ars Technica last year after the SXSW panel. “They are
learning it, very quickly, because they’re inside, operating in it. Pushing
levers, pulling cords, seeing what happens. Stories are very sticky, and
they’ll remember their own stories.”
However, there are important differences between games designed
TOP SECRET 001964
for education and training, and games intended for a consumer
audience who want to have a good time. Training games can be fun,
but that’s not the primary reason for their existence. They’re tightly
structured, often with a facilitator to keep them on track and make sure
the participants are getting the right messages, and they usually finish
with a debriefing session.
Intelligence Collection
The CIA games released so far are Collection Deck, a card-based exercise
in devising strategies for gathering different types of intelligence in a
50 July 2018
wide range of situations; the confusingly closely-named Collections: The
Board Game, which is a co-op game where the players, each a different
type of analyst, are trying to gather enough intel on various global
crises to cool them down before they explode; the incomplete Satellite
Construction Kit, where players design a constellation of intelligence-
gathering orbital platforms; and the jewel in the pack, Kingpin: The Hunt
for El Chapo, an asymmetric game of tracing and tracking a fugitive
Mexican drug lord through his network of operations and lackeys.
Only one of the FOIA requests has gone unfulfilled. Douglas Palmer’s
request for information on Afghanistan Sustainability: COIN Dynamics
was deemed to be “currently and properly classified, and must be
denied in its entirety”.
Each of the released PDFs contains all of the information the CIA
has on each game. It has to, by law, but that means that the documents
include multiple versions, planning notes, handwritten playtest notes,
correspondence relating to the game and more. It’s all in grainy black
and white, and some of it is obscured because pieces of information
are still classified. There are multiple versions of the rules, some with
handwritten annotations. The pages are not in any particular order, and
sometimes it’s not apparent what information belongs to which game.
Many bear stamps reading ‘SECRET’ or ‘TOP SECRET’, which someone
has painstakingly crossed out in pen. The document for Collection Deck
contains the entire PowerPoint presentation that the CIA team gave at
SXSW, including the speakers’ notes.
Nevertheless, this is an absolute treasure trove of information if
you’re into either the minutiae of how an intelligence agency trains
its operatives or the thought processes of games designers working to
develop educational simulations in a unique environment. What you
won’t find are complete, playable games.
The game that’s closest to being table-ready is Collection Deck. It
sits somewhere in a middle ground between Magic: The Gathering
and Munchkin, though with additional narrative elements. A
selection of ‘intelligence problem’ cards (the ‘field’) are face-up on
the table – on their turn, each player chooses one and uses a selection
of ‘collection technique’ and ‘reality check’ cards from their hand to
solve it, using matching intelligence aspects and numerical range.
The other players can use reality check cards from their hands to
disrupt the plan.
Unfortunately, some of the cards have been redacted for reasons of
national security. Having important information [REDACTED] in the
middle of a sentence was a joke we used extensively in last year’s reboot
of Paranoia. I never expected to see it in an actual game.
The most interesting game is, unsurprisingly, the one by the famous
game designer. Kingpin: The Hunt for El Chapo is a fascinating contest
between two teams; ‘The Cartel’ control the titular El Chapo and his
minions, whom they move around the board to avoid ‘The Hunters’,
an intra-agency team tasked with catching them by identifying parts
of the operation and exploiting them to get closer to the leader. It’s a
large-scale battle of wits, with a detailed room setup, maps for each
team and at least one facilitator. Only a few of the game elements have
been redacted but, all the same, it would take a lot of effort to create a
playable version from these notes – and even more effort to actually run
it. On the other hand, it’s a free Volko Ruhnke game.
The Private Sector
After the PDFs were released, a number of companies saw a business
opportunity. The games were, after all, free of copyright and there for
the taking.
 First off the blocks was Aretskin-Hariton Games, which in April WHERE CAN
released a version of David Clopper’s Collection Deck through The I FIND THE

 
Game Crafter in the USA. This edition tidies up the graphic design and CIA’S GAMES?
The fills in the holes left by the official redactions, but leaves most of the
design unchanged. The new designer recommends you try it if you like All the material that the
game Dominion – which is, frankly, a stretch.
Collection Deck is interesting but it hews closely to the CIA original,
CIA released under the
Freedom of Information Act
that’s closest including the elements designed to help agents develop their
intelligence-gathering techniques. In particular, if someone plays
is available online through
the Muckrock website at

to being a ‘collection manager challenge’ against the combination of cards

you’re using to solve an intelligence problem, you have to explain
muckrock.com, and you
don’t need to be a US

table-ready how you’d actually use that combination of elements to solve in the
field. If you don’t know your OSINT from your HUMINT, this may
citizen to download it. Just
search for the terms ‘CIA’
and ‘game’ to bring up all
is Collection end up as an exercise in frustration. But if you’re willing to give it a
go, everything you need can be downloaded as a print-and-play or
the relevant listings.
The Aretskin-Hariton
Deck. It sits bought in physical form.
Later the same month, Diegetic Games, working with the website
Games version of
Collection Deck has been
somewhere Techdirt, launched a Kickstarter for CIA: Collect It All, a more
streamlined version of Collection Deck with nicer graphics and a slicker
released under a Creative
Commons licence and

in a middle ruleset better suited to recreational play. The collection manager

challenge cards are gone, replaced by a more accessible storytelling
can be downloaded as a
print-and-play PDF from

ground
the Game Crafter website:
variant set of rules. thegamecrafter.com/
The Kickstarter closed at the end of May having raised over games/collection-deck1.
between $150,000 from almost 4,500 backers. This isn’t simple old-fashioned
American profiteering: the campaign was run as a fundraiser for
Or you can buy a printed
version for $26.99 – plus
Magic: The Techdirt. CIA: Collect It All is due to ship to backers in November this
year, and there may be an opportunity to order copies even if you
international shipping,
which will not be cheap.

Gathering missed the crowdfunding.

There’s no word on whether anyone else is working on revised,
The Kickstarter page
for the Techdirt/Diegetic

and releasable versions of Collection: The Board Game and Kingpin: The
Hunt for El Chapo. The former would be interesting but the latter, in the
Games version is at
kickstarter.com/projects/
mmasnick/cia-collect-it-all,
Munchkin. hands of a skilled redesigner, could be a commercial project with an
incredible pedigree, not quite like anything that’s currently out there.
but if you missed out on that
you can pre-order a copy
Should you be contemplating such a design challenge, it’s probably best at the Techdirt website:
not to ask Volko Ruhnke to get involved. He’s almost certainly busy. techdirt.com/ciagame.

OPPOSITE TOP
The games are
based on the role
requirements of
real-life CIA agents

LEFT The CIA’s

response to the
FOIA request and
some of the PDFs

tabletopgaming.co.uk 51
m2+y
y2+z3
c
cc 180
∏r 2
Play it smart
As tabletop tournaments grow in prestige and popularity, could we see games stand
alongside athletics on the world stage? Our professors give it a sporting chance
Sam Illi ngw orth
Doctors Paul Wake and
O
ne of the sure signs that summer is
approaching is the prevalence of
major sporting events. This summer, coin toss, or the effect that a sudden rainstorm can
showcase events such as the Tour
de France, FIFA World Cup and US
Opens in both tennis and golf will dominate the
news, moving from the back pages to the front (or
their digital equivalents). With all of this going on,
we find ourselves asking: what is the difference
between sports and games?
The Global Association of International
Sports Federations, the umbrella organisation
for all international sports federations, defines a
sport as an activity that “includes an element of
competition”, “does not rely on any element of
‘luck’ specifically integrated into the sport”, “is
not judged to pose an undue risk to the health
and safety of its athletes or participants”, “is no
way harmful to any living creature” and “does not
rely on equipment provided by a single supplier”.
According to these definitions, could tabletop
games be considered as sports?
√z
a+b
Es
All tabletop games involve competition
(even solitaire games pit the player against
either themselves, a scoreboard, the game’s
AI or a timer), to our knowledge none of them
are deliberately harmful to living creatures
and while they do often come from a single
supplier this is arguably more a factor in
managing international competition than it is
in defining sporting activity. This leaves luck
as the limiting factor; however, many classic
tabletop games such as chess and Go have
almost no luck element to them at all, the
advantage of going first countered by either
playing several games or, in Go, through
the use of komi, points added to the score
of the player who takes their turn second.
Arguably, the outcomes of modern games such
as Diplomacy, BattleCON and Puerto Rico are less
dependent on chance than sports such as cricket,
where the advantage of batting first is decided by a
have on the outcome of a football match. It would
seem, then, that there’s nothing in the GAISF
definition that precludes many tabletop games
from being considered as sports.
Let us take a recent example from the world of
tabletop gaming to demonstrate this point. Asger
Harding Granerud’s Flamme Rouge is a two- to
four-player cycling game, which takes its name
from the red flag displayed a kilometre out from
a race’s finish line. Each player gets two riders: a
rouleur (an endurance cyclist) and a sprinteur (a
sprint specialist). As in a real-life race, the idea
is to conserve as much of the sprinteur’s energy
as possible ahead of the final push to the line.
Slipstreaming and exhaustion rules combine to
encourage a racing pack to stay together – making
a breakaway hard, though not impossible. The
game does a great job of capturing the mechanics
and aesthetics of road racing, but is it a sport?
(a) 2
+
6 (b)
Y
P
La
Ga
Am
Let’s turn to the GAISF’s list. Does it include an
element of competition? Yes. Pose no undue risk
to the health and safety of its participants? Yes.
Cause no harm to any living creature? Yes. Rely on
equipment that is provided by a single supplier?
Okay, yes, but we’ve decided that’s a red herring
anyway. Finally, is it reliant on any element of
luck? Not really – over the course of a game the
drawing mechanic is far more reliant on tactical
decisions than pure luck. So, is Flamme Rouge a
sport? Well, according to those criteria: yes. But
let’s be honest, we all know instinctively that it
won’t make it into the Olympics any time soon.
Chess, on the other hand, perfectly fits
the GAISF’s definition, and the World Chess
Federation has been recognised by the
International Olympic Committee since 1999. Yet,
despite there being a chess exhibition at the 2000
Sydney Olympics, the IOC has repeatedly rejected
claims for its inclusion as an Olympic sport; chess
officials have even gone so far as to state that
chess pieces could be made out of ice to conform
to the Olympic Charter language for winter
sports. It’s tempting to contrast the Olympic
future of chess with that of esports, which are
likely to be included in the 2022 Asian Games
and look to be a possible Olympic contender.
In considering the difference between a sport
and a game, it will be interesting to see how the
dialogue between the IOC and lobbyists from
the field of esports develops, especially given the
promise of huge viewing figures and revenue. If
esports get the nod over chess, then we might be
able to make a distinction between sports and
games based on the monetisation of spectating.
Paul Wake and Sam Illingworth are
Manchester Metropolitan University
academics and co-directors of the
Games Research Network
Cycling board game
fits all the official criteria of a ‘sport’
tabletopgaming.co.uk 53
 HEAVY DUTY
When Clay Ross found himself craving meatier
board games, he started up his own label to resurrect
tabletop heavyweights. Now Capstone is diving fully
into the deep end with its first original design
Words by Josher Lumpkin
G
ateway games are great and all but,
like any other addiction, there is
often a tendency for enthusiasts to
start to crave the hard stuff after a
while. Catan, Pandemic and Ticket to Ride are
enough to get you hooked, but it won’t be long
before they don’t get you off anymore.
“I wanted more,” says heavy game junkie Clay
Ross. “I wanted more strategy. I wanted more
depth. I just wanted more. I wanted to tax my brain.”
Ross got started on the typical fare: Catan
and the like. But soon, he was dipping his toe in
the deep end, dabbling in titles like Puerto Rico.
“That was the first game that made me say,
‘Wow! That really was intricate!’” he recalls. “I
was so invested in the actual game. I wanted
more and more of that.”
In 2016, Ross started Capstone Games to
publish new editions of out-of-print heavy
Eurogames. The first title on Capstone’s
agenda was the massive economic simulation
Arkwright, designed by Stefan Risthaus.
54 July 2018
Capstone’s edition of Arkwright comes
with three rulebooks and hundreds of pieces
– enough to play several different variants of
the game. BoardGameGeek rates the game’s
‘weight’, or complexity, at a meaty 4.53 out
of a possible five. Still, though Arkwright is
definitely heavy, its masterful design makes
the gameplay intuitive and elegant.
“A lot of people expect this overwhelming
ruleset and then, when they figure out how
to play the game, they realise it’s not that
complicated of an experience,” Ross says. “I
personally like games that are deep, but don’t
have an intricate ruleset. I don’t like games where
it’s like, ‘Ah! I gotta go reference the rulebook
because I wanna buy this card, but because it’s
this type of card, I gotta make sure that I have this
qualification met, and maybe because this event
is in play, I can’t actually buy the card.’ All those
rules on top of rules. I don’t like that, personally.”
Capstone’s upcoming title, Pipeline, has
a similar appeal. The game will be the first
original design from the publisher. In the
game, players will build a tableau of different
colours of pipe. While trying to build routes
in their preferred colour, players will face a
Tetris-like challenge. However, Pipeline will
also feature a strong economic element, where
players buy and refine oil in coluors matching
their pipes.
“Pipeline was designed by Ryan Courtney,
a guy out of the United States,” says Ross. “His
game is one of the most complex games I’ve
ever played, but the rules are only going to
be around 12 pages. That’s the type of game
that I appreciate: where you don’t really
need to reference the rulebook when you
play, because everything that you can do
is straightforward. But the challenge that is
presented for the players to win is incredible.”
SIMPLE BUT SMART
Though Capstone’s games are completely
immersive in their design and mechanics, Ross
says some gamers have trouble getting past
the games’ historical themes. In a hobby world
overflowing with zombie miniatures, movie and
television tie-ins, and exciting dungeon crawlers,
it can be tough trying to sell games about the
shipping of coal, like Capstone’s The Ruhr.
“I get it,” says Ross. “Theme is a big,
important thing, especially for some crowds.
What I find with our games is, although the
theme is not the most sexy thing out there,
once you play, you’ll want to learn more about
the subject. And I think that’s really cool.”
Last year, Ross launched the Simply
Complex line. Like Capstone, Simply Complex
republishes new versions of games long gone.
However, the purpose of this new imprint is
to make available a different kind of game.
Titles from this line feature colourful wooden
components, not a lot of rules and play in
under an hour. Simply Complex’s reprint of
The Climbers was a huge success. The Estates
comes out later this year.
Capstone’s latest release is called Carthago,
and it’s a card-driven race to become the
greatest merchant in the ancient city of
Carthage. Ross promises that players can
expect an exciting game, where no-one knows
who’s going to win until the final rounds.
“The cards in Carthage are multi-use.
They’re the money, they represent goods, and
they also have actions on them. So there’s a
bunch of different ways that you can use the
cards,” he explains. “And it’s very tight. You
are going to feel some serious pressure about
three or four turns into the game. There are and people that have been in the hobby for a “Every single game I’ve made, I’m
only 15 turns. It’s a lot of fun.” long time have higher expectations for a game. absolutely in love with,” Ross confesses. “A lot
They want a better experience. Otherwise, of people ask me my top ten favourite games,
GET HOOKED they’re just going to settle for something that’s and it’s really hard to hold back and not just
Ross says he’s not alone in his quest to find already out there. People are gravitating toward say ten games that I’ve published. I’ve done
intensifying potency in his doses of his the more complex mechanisms in games, so much work on them and I just know all of
favorite pastime. which is good because I’m a big fan of that.” their ins and outs. And I just love them. We are
“Personally, I see a lot of people wanting Board gamers can expect Capstone to keep going to continue doing this thing: bringing
more and more out of their games. There’s putting out deep and exciting titles. After all, good games to people and making them more
a lot of offerings out there right now, that’s Clay Ross’s drug of choice. aware of the designs that are out there.”

MAIN Wildcatters

TOP The Ruhr:

can coal be cool?
 
Although the theme isn’t the
most sexy thing out there,
you’ll want to learn more
RIGHT Clay Ross
with Capstone’s about the subject.
debut, Arkwright
(Larry Peck)

tabletopgaming.co.uk 55
NEW GAMES
 <UNEARTHED ARTEFACTS>://
WILDLIFE SAFARI
++YEAR 3122++INCOMING TRANSMISSION++
found sector n4: pastime x17 – board game –
“wildlife_safari”
Message intercepted by Robert Florence
T
he human race is extinct. But the
human race was not alone on
this world Earth. Our research
team heard rumour of a Late
Oil Humanity board game somewhere in
Sector N4 – a sector that represented a
true challenge for our Retrieval Units, as
we understood it to be overrun by Gast
Walkers. It was a daring raid that brought
the board game “Wildlife Safari” into our
hands, and I am delighted to say that the
expenditure of re-housing so many units
was worthwhile.
Wildlife Safari is a game about assigning
value to animals – the very animals that
walked the earth during the LOH period.
All of these animals we assume to be
historically factual. We do know that
“Lions” once existed – glorious beasts that
have much in common with today’s beloved
Cats. The “Zebra”, presented in this game,
is a bizarre striped wonder that bears a
resemblance to a donkey. The “Rhinoceros”
July 2018
is also new to us, and it brings to mind LOH’s
fictional unicorn, except much fatter, more
grey and sillier overall.
The game itself has players dealt a hand of
cards, each of these cards displaying an animal
and a numerical value. In turn, players play
cards into stacks, one stack for each animal.
With every card played, the players change the
value of the animal; if one unit plays a 3 Lion
and the next unit plays a 5 Lion, then the Lions
are now worth five points.
Every time a card is played, the player must
take an animal into their collection – not
necessarily the animal from the card you
just laid down. This is a thrilling element
worth visiting the Historical Facility to see for
yourself – the animals that you take are small
toy animals made out of plastic. The game
ends when any animal card stack contains
six cards, and then collections are assessed
according to the final values of each animal.
Here, then, is a brilliant, small game that
provides a great deal of fun. But it’s also
a game that highlights the beauty of the
research we are doing here. From this
small box we learn about the animals that
existed in Late Oil Humanity’s time, and we
learn a great deal about the human attitude
towards animals. Wildlife Safari is a game
about attaching value to animals, and we
can see here how the people of LOH were
comfortable attaching zero value to an
animal if it might lead to some personal gain.
How else do we explain the mass extinctions
that LOH was responsible for?
There is also something telling about
the use of plastics inside this game (and
indeed, inside many games found since this
study started). The plastics in this game are
entirely unnecessary. They could have been
replaced by biodegradable cardboard. But
LOH loved luxury and elaborate toys more
than life itself, it seems. The plastic animals
are charming, and you can see how the
human animal, not gifted with the reason
we are blessed with, could be seduced into
demanding such plastics for each and every
game they played.
Still, it is troubling as we look upon these
plastic animals under the facility lights. The
true animals, the living creatures, are dead.
The plastic remains, everywhere. We drag it
from the seas and pull it from the breathing
chambers of our pets. Within board games,
human beings seemed to be able to logically
assess value and adopt winning long-term
strategies. It is the mystery of why they could
not apply any of this to their actual existence
that drives our researchers forward.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 57
 E
ven through the phone,
Tom Filsinger’s earnestness
comes through.
“I’m always very sincere,”
he says, before frenetically
launching in to another
anecdote about creativity, his
life and the game he has spent
over 30 years publishing: Champions of the Galaxy.
Champions, which will see its newest release
later this month at GalactiCon – a fan-run
convention based purely around the game – is an
ever-evolving “endless novel” that has the same
quaint origins of so many other games.
“I was bored in my high school classes, and I
created a wrestling game just to get through the
school day,” Filsinger admits, laughing, the irony
not lost on him that he is now a college professor,
often left to wonder if his students are themselves
keeping extracurricularly entertained.
As a bored and creative teen, obsessed with
science-fiction and Silver Age comic books,
Filsinger created a simple dice game that he
could play by himself to pass the time and help
him daydream during arithmetic. It wasn’t until
years later, when he made cards for then-current
pro wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and Don Muraco
in order to have a rainy-day activity with his
brother, that it dawned on him: the game might
be fun for other people, too.
From there, the journey of Champions of
the Galaxy is a mix of dogged determination
and serendipitous meetings. After some initial
conversations and interest in the mid-1980s,
Filsinger pitched the game to the World Wrestling

SPACE
Federation – now WWE – directly as a sort of
wrestling simulation game using their own roster.
When they eventually passed, he went back to
his first love: the sci-fi world that got him through
high school. With characters both endearing and
enduring, a deftly-crafted world, and a web of
interpersonal drama that would make George R.R.

ODYSSEY
Martin jealous, Champions launched to the public
as a labour of love in 1986. Within three years, the
first convention devoted to it would be held.

For most of his life, Tom Filsinger has been
working on his dream project: a sci-fi wrestling
card game inspired by comic-book legends.
Meet the Champions of the Galaxy
Words by JR Goldberg
TAG TEAM
While Filsinger is upfront about his creative drive
behind the game, he is always quick to give
credit for the success of the early sets to others,
most notably original artist Chuck Carter.
“Very few people can draw unique human
faces like Chuck Carter could,” Filsinger is quick
to add when discussing the early days. “I thought
that’s what made it connect with people.”
While the art of the game has evolved over
the years, seeing its early pictures – heavily
evocative of the halcyon days of 1970s and ‘80s

58 July 2018
cosmic space opera – it is easy to see why so
many people gravitated toward it. And truthfully,
Filsinger says, it is those supporters that initially
played and bought the game that deserve much
of the credit for its success. Beyond the fan-run
conventions and message boards that help drive
interest in the game, the designer encourages his
followers to become de facto continuity editors
for him – and has even brought on many of them
in a professional capacity to help make sure
the newer sets fit within the world he has spent
decades creating.
“I have my outstanding crew of long-time fans
that work for me now,” he says. “Once I give them
OPPOSITE Champions of the Galaxy powerhouse Monolith
ABOVE (LEFT TO RIGHT) Chuck Carter’s distinctive
artwork for Star Warrior, Thantos and Wolf
RIGHT Tom Filsinger (Don Hill Photography)
I try to do
my own
homework, but
the fans always
know more
than I do.
the first drafts of everything, they’re the ones who
look at it and say: ‘Wait a minute, Val [an early
Champions of the Galaxy character] did this in the
year 2118, and you have him doing this. You need
to account for that to make sure the continuity is
accurate.’ I mean, I work very hard at that; I try
to do my own homework, but they always know
more than I do.”
Despite Filsinger’s eagerness to give credit
to the Champions community and his artistic
partners, it is he that has remained the singular
constant throughout the game’s existence.
Shockingly, although Filsinger has changed
immensely as a person over this time period
– with multiple careers, homes and an ever-
expanding family – he is forthright in his assertion
that his creative process has remained roughly the
same as it did when he first started developing the
earliest characters. The secret, he says, is solitude.
“I think creativity is a process that comes from
a kind of transcendent source, and therefore
whatever you’re doing temporally at the time is not
as important,” the designer muses with a surety
that suggests he has thought about this process
many times over. “What was very important to me
in my process is that I can get away and be alone
and have free time where I can let those ideas
ferment in my mind without interruption.”
ALL DUE RESPECT
Beyond that, Filsinger is open about being
sure to wear his influences on his sleeve.
While many young creators try desperately
to find their niche and create something
wholly unique, Filsinger has always been
comfortable paying homage to the people he
grew up idolising, including Marvel luminary
Stan Lee, and the creators he came to admire
later as an adult, such as comic book artist
and writer Jim Starlin.
“That’s one of the things that is very
important to me as a creator: to be stimulated
by reading creative things,” he says. “I think
I’m deliberately reading even more than that
now because the stuff I’m writing right now
– really I’ve been writing it for several years
now – has got these kind of cosmic overtones
to them. Epic, sort of.”
tabletopgaming.co.uk 59
 CHAMPIONS OF THE GALAXY
A theme that Filsinger routinely returns to
during his discussion of the creative process
is the idea of working without a true goal in
mind. In fact, aside from a brief flirtation with
ending Champions of the Galaxy altogether,
Filsinger admits he has almost no idea where
each set might go when he starts out.
“It takes months when I write the first draft
of the handbook,” he confesses, opening up
slightly about the how each new set comes
to fruition. From there, he returns to the
completed first draft after letting it settle,
hopefully for a long enough period to no longer
be married to any of the ideas. This allows
Filsinger to look at his work multiple ways at
once: as both an objective editor and someone
with three full decades of experience that allow
him to know what works and what doesn’t.
Having such an inspiration-based creative
process is not without its struggles. At the
end of the day, no matter how compelling the
overall narrative and how detailed the art,
if Champions’ newest cards are mechanical
failures, the community will be disappointed.
“I have the same problem that they do in
Magic and any other game: that of power
creep,” Filsinger observes.
60 July 2018
He cites a character he recently published
named Monolith, who came in as a fresh face
and had to make an immediate impact in the
story. If the card didn’t reflect how dominant
a performer he was, it would have been a
failure. But, as the game goes along, someone
will inevitably debut to stand toe-to-toe with
Monolith. It is a precarious balancing act,
and one that Filsinger must always remain
cognisant of. In order to combat this, he makes
sure to package newer star performers in sets
with cards he knows are weaker, in order to
help create the effect of dominance while
preventing old favourites from being rendered
permanently obsolete.
Interestingly, Filsinger manages to create this
effect of balance without any sort of arithmetic
formula or even playtesting. While multiple
members of the community have created
various ways to determine the overall strength
of each character based on their manoeuvres
and power levels, Filsinger eschews them all in
favour of trusting his gut.
“Yeah, I never test them,” he says with a bit
of a laugh. He goes back to Monolith as an
explanation: “Let’s say it was Monolith when
I was creating him and I think, ‘Okay, I’m
going to play him five, 10 matches.’ You know,
that’s not enough. People get hot and people
get cold.”
While it’s easy to make a joke about not
playtesting at all, it is uncanny how many of the
cards manage to feel balanced and unique just
from Filsinger picking at them and adjusting
on the fly. In some ways, he was forced to learn
how to make these adjustments and make the
cards work. Because of the order of his process
– the overall story comes first, followed by the
players’ book, followed by the art, followed
by the card creation – there have been many
characters that Filsinger has been tasked with
making work any way he can.
“If I’ve got a finished drawing that I like
and a character’s story that I like, then I’ve got
to,” he states frankly. “I just figure out a way,
usually. I’m not very good at looking back.”
THE ROAD AHEAD
It is this idea of not looking back and pressing
ever forward that remains at the heart of
Champions of the Galaxy and Filsinger’s
creative process as a whole.
“I’ve studied the psychology of creativity
and I’ve studied some people like Stan Lee and
Stephen King and J.K. Rowling, and it’s just
the same for them,” he says. “They’re always
looking ahead to the next thing.”
For the game designer, that next thing always
happens to be the latest chapter in his magnum
opus, but he is steadfast in his belief that the
advice is sound for any creator.
“I consider creativity to be a process of
discovery. When people say ‘Where do you
get your ideas?’, they think you’re thinking
them through and you’re arriving at them
almost logically or something, and it’s just the
opposite. It’s that ideas come to you – and that’s
why I call it a process of discovery, because if
you contemplate the situation or scenario long
enough, it will write itself.”
While Filsinger could speak on his ideas
about the creative process for hours, when
asked directly if he has advice for other game
creators, his focus instead turns toward the
business side of things.
“You can’t wait for a community to build
around your game; you’ve got to help build it,”
he says, careful to clarify that his advice isn’t
necessarily about branding or marketing, but
instead about passion. While Champions’ art
and story drew in players, Filsinger believes
it was his willingness to embrace others who
wanted to be part of his community, and his
almost incessant desire to show new people
his creation, that helped make the game what
it is today. He speaks wistfully of things like
newsletters he wrote in the mid-1980s to help
keep new players engaged, and moments
at conventions that shine through as small
turning points.
Just before our interview, Filsinger found
himself setting up a small table at an open
gaming day in his local store. While he spoke
briefly about the game and walked people
through the simple rules, he found a new young
boy, enchanted by the original black-and-white
set from 1986. He begged his mother for it – a
nice reminder for the creator that the heroes he
created then can still resonate today.
When trying to parse how he got from those
first monochrome cards to a major convention
and release schedule, Filsinger uses the
metaphor of a road trip to help explain how
everything came together.
“It’s like driving at night; all you can see
ahead of you is as far as the headlights, but
you can make a whole journey that way. That’s
exactly what Champions of the Galaxy is: it’s a
ABOVE Champions of the Galaxy was
originally designed as a wrestling simulation
starring real-life superstars such as Hulk
Hogan, but after failing to attract interest
from the WWF, Filsinger opted to set it in a
sci-fi universe he had been imagining since
he was a teenager
long journey, I just keep driving and the stories
keep writing themselves.”
He has no plans to stop writing any time soon.
For Filsinger, who so steadfastly doesn’t look
backward, moments like these ground him and
help him stay in the present. While discussing
his plans for the newest set, the ominously titled
Kingdom Come 2134, Filsinger is tightlipped,
explaining that the community around the game
has shunned spoilers, preferring to open each new
set completely blind. For the designer, it’s perfect –
and a subtle representation of how he works.
“I’m very comfortable with ambiguity,” he
jokes. “In fact, I thrive on it.”
tabletopgaming.co.uk 61
 Is there
www.UpToFourPlayers.com

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Art by

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PLAYED
64

65 66 70

64 CENTURY: EASTERN WONDERS 73 HISTORY OF THE WORLD

65 A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE: 74 SPACE BASE
TABLETOP MINIATURES GAME
75 BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA:
66 THE MIND THE GAME
67 RUNEQUEST: ROLEPLAYING 76 SHARDS OF INFINITY
IN GLORANTHA
77 HELIONOX: DELUXE EDITION
68 DECRYPTO
78 FAE
69 IMAGINARIUM
79 BARKER'S ROW
70 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS:
MORDENKAINEN'S TOME OF FOES 80 UNLOCK! SECRET ADVENTURES
71 KERO 80 FANTASTIQA: RIVAL REALMS
72 DROP IT 81 HEXPANSE

July 2018 tabletopgaming.co.uk 63

 P L AY E D

CENTURY: EASTERN WONDERS

A sequel/expansion that proves that spice is the variety of life
Designer: Emerson Matsuuchi | Artist: Chris Quilliams, Atha Kanaani 30-45m 2-4 8+ £35

CE
ED
IT
O R'S C H OI

C
entury: Spice Road
was one of last year’s
most delicious gaming treats.
Emerson Matsuuchi’s spice-trading
card game was simple to learn, easy
to love and hard to tire of. It was also
a joy to handle, with those big, tarot-
sized cards, the wooden ‘spice’ cubes
that you scoop from and drop into
textured plastic bowls, and its shiny
metal reward coins.
Which means its sequel (the
second game in a promised trilogy)
has a lot to live up to. Set further
along in the history of spice trading,
it shifts location to the Spice Islands
of Indonesia. And genre, also – to a
Catan-like modular-board on which
players must move from idyllically-
depicted market to idyllically-depicted
market, establishing island outposts
to access unique trading actions.
However, despite the absence
of Spice Road’s cards and coins,
many elements remain the same.
Those bowls and colour-coded
cubes (ranked from cheap yellow to
valuable brown), for a start. Similar
to the merchant cards, each island
tile offers a chance to trade up your
cubes for others in a wide variety of
combinations. Or, if you just want
to generate a couple of yellow (now
representing ginger) cubes, you can
take the simple ‘harvest’ action, just
as if you’d played one of Spice Road’s
starting cards.
The more cubes you have, the
better – not only to form combos
that will earn you precious VP at one
of the game’s four ports, but also to
allow you to travel further, as you have
to spend one cube per tile after the
first has been traversed. Be careful,
though: those spent cubes stay on the
map, and can be snapped up by other
players if they’re fast enough.
It’s a quick, smooth system, with
player turns rotating swiftly, while
offering many different potential
synergies. Especially as the tactical
removal of outposts from your player
board to the central map opens up the
chance to grab bonuses that can give
you the edge over your opponents;
for example, granting an extra free
boat move or a bonus red (chilli) cube
when you harvest.
The game also serves as an
elaborate expansion to Spice Road
itself (or vice versa). Add in that game’s
starting cards and merchant deck,
and follow the alternate ‘From Sand
to Sea’ rules, and you have a third-way
experience which combines both
Centuries as neatly as the cover art
joins up when you place the boxes side
by side. In truth, it’s not quite as fun as
the two other games played separately
– there’s some attention-tension
created by combining the similar-
functioning cards and tiles – but given
it’s an entirely optional addition, who
WHAT’S IN could possibly complain?
THE BOX? As for Eastern Wonders itself, it is
◗ Four double-sided indeed a wonderful complement to
player boards Spice Road. It may not be superior to its
◗ Four plastic
predecessor, but is certainly its equal,
spice bowls
◗ 80 spice cubes (20
applying far greater play variety to
of each colour) the same theme in a deeply satisfying
◗ Four player boat way. It’s so good, we’re already getting
tokens (one of impatient for 2019’s final, spicy
each colour) instalment: Century: A New World…
◗ 80 player outpost DAN JOLIN
tokens (20 of
each colour)
◗ Four port tiles
WE SAY
◗ Four sea tiles A whole new dish, and yet very much
◗ 24 market tiles of the same flavour as Spice Road,
◗ 26 VP tiles Eastern Wonders is as likely to impress
◗ Port Closed tile those who loved the first Century as it
◗ 20 bonus tiles is to earn Matsuuchi fresh fans.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED…
FIVE TRIBES
It’s a simpler, lighter game than Bruno
Cathala’s oasis-hopping classic, but
Eastern Wonders shares its vivid,
exotic aesthetic, modular set-up and
component-seeding elements.

64 July 2018

A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE:
TABLETOP MINIATURES
GAME – STARK VS
LANNISTER STARTER SET
All minis must die
Designer: Eric M. Lang, Michael Shinall | Artist: Various
W
esteros is no stranger
to death, but it’s rarely
been depicted with such
intensity and scale on the tabletop as in
this sweeping rank-and-file wargame.
While it may be more interested in the
direct spilling of blood than its plotting
and scheming board game counterparts,
though, the A Song of Ice and Fire
miniatures game doesn’t forget about the
characters that give the world its pulse.
There’s plenty of bloodshed to be had
here, too. Even with close to the starter
box’s full throng of 103 figures on the
table, battles never end up feeling like,
well, the wait for a new George R.R.
Martin novel. A single round of combat
can leave piles of plastic corpses, with
the brutality of fights bookended by a
simple morale system that can swiftly
lead to cascading numbers of losses.
The designers’ non-miniatures
experience is clear: although you’ll
measure distances with a ruler, the
combination of dice and card action
otherwise has the speed and sheen of
a board game, wrapping up in a tight
hour or so. Even the miniatures arrive
pre-assembled and colour-coded to
the two factions, looking fantastic (and
decidedly not bendy) – if not quite up
to par with build-them-yourself figures.
A selection of game modes – each
named after one of Martin's books
45-60m 2 14+ £135
WHAT’S IN – support everything from objective-
THE BOX? based sparring across the map to a
◗ 103 miniatures castle siege out of the box, making the
◗ Seven infantry set feel even more pleasingly substantial
movement trays as a self-contained experience.
◗ Cavalry movement tray
The trays of models are cleverly woven
◗ Solo movement tray
◗ 98 game cards into the gameplay, with the number of
◗ 62 tokens troop ranks remaining used to effortlessly
◗ 10 dice determine how many dice you throw with
◗ Two measuring sticks each assault, giving a palpable feeling of
◗ Tactics board desperation as squads shrink. In other
cases, this is turned on its head in ways
that keep the battles feeling wonderfully
cinematic: for instance, Umber berserkers
gain dice as their numbers diminish,
making even a single survivor a potentially
deadly foe. Terrain effects, flanking bonuses
and various conditions are all present and
correct, but have been streamlined in a way
that avoids wearisome rule-checking while
adding depth and strategy to the battlefield.
Using the game’s approachable
army-building framework, Westeros’
most accomplished fighters can slot into
a unit’s frontline, lending their particular
special talents to open up more options
in each skirmish. True to the unforgiving
universe, even the most beloved heroes
are often as fragile as their fellow John
Does, but their individuality can be
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… WARHAMMER: AGE OF SIGMAR
A Song of Ice and Fire will still have you throwing plenty of dice, with an
added layer of Westeros’ scheming taking place beyond the field.
felt: The Mountain and his men will
tear through scores of soldiers with
ease, but can be outmanoeuvred by
nimble fighters. Direwolf Grey Wind,
accompanying Robb Stark, is fast and
aggressive, but weak when cornered.
The acts of moving and fighting have
been polished to the point where
they’re essentially invisible, allowing the
personality of each unit type and more
(in)famous combatants to deliver on the
character-centric drama of the universe.
With its gameplay familiar to anyone
with at least a passing acquaintance with
throwing handfuls of d6s, it’s in these
characters that ASOIF finds more of its
own voice as a game. Each army is lead by
a commander, who modifies a faction-
specific deck of action cards with their own
abilities. It’s an admittedly light amount
of customisation, yet it does make your
army feel less like a scattering of soldiers
and more like a structured house with its
own approach to conflict, be it through
undermining the enemy’s morale with
subterfuge behind the scenes or boosting
your own troops’ traits via courage on the
frontlines. After all, Westeros would be little
without its signature political manipulation;
here, it’s condensed into a shared board of
tactical options selected by non-combat
units working outside of the battlefield, such
as Tyrion and Sansa, who can nevertheless
provide crucial strategic opportunities,
triggering unique powers as they vie
with their rivals for control of the spaces.
Like the swords that make up its iconic
seat of power, ASOIF manages to fuse
together robust gameplay on the battlefield
and the thematic presence of its characters
to give a new perspective on Westeros’
violent clash of kings. It’s not as strategically
sharp as the titans of wargaming or utterly
captivating as the more socially ruthless
Game of Thrones board games, yet ASOIF
manages to find a snug seat in-between
the two without sacrificing its own
individuality. You might be surprised at
how comfortable the Iron Throne can be.
MATT JARVIS
WE SAY
The impact of characters both on and
off the battlefield manages to elevate
solid and slick – if familiar – miniatures
gameplay in a promising fresh take on
the fantasy world.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 65
 P L AY E D

THE MIND
It’s the year’s most controversial game, and it’s mental
Designer: Wolfgang Warsch | Artist: O. Freudenreich 20m 2-4 8+ £14

T
he Mind is that rare thing: a
game unlike almost anything
you’ve played before. It’s too
early to tell if it’s the harbinger of a
new style of gaming or a one-off curio.
And it divides people: some love it,
and some refuse to admit it’s a game
at all.
It sprang from the mind of newly-
crowned wunderkind designer
Wolfgang Warsch, who landed an
unprecedented three Spiel des Jahres
nominations this year, and small
publisher NSV, best known for 2015
nominee The Game – not the ‘You just
lost the Game' The Game, The Game
that’s 100 cards that must be played in
order. (You just lost the Game.)
Like The Game, The Mind is also 100
cards that must be played in order.
It’s a co-op with 12 rounds. In round
one the players each get one card
and, working as a team, they have to
put them on the table in order: low
to high. If you screw up you lose one
of three lives; if you don’t screw up
you move to round two, now with two
cards each, and so on. But you can’t
confer or show the others your cards
before you play them.
That’s it. That’s the whole game:
trying to work out when to play
your cards.
“And that,” you are asking, “got a
Spiel des Jahres nomination?”
Listen, my friend. I was like you. I
was a sceptic. Then I tried it.
The Mind is extraordinary.
It’s not like any other game. It
has similarities to The Game and to
Antoine Bausa’s brilliant Hanabi, but
it’s so stripped back and rules-light
that it’s an utterly pure experience.
It’s all about trying to read the other
players and gauging whether a long
pause means that nobody is holding a
card between the 51 on the table and
the 68 in your hand. There’s almost no
strategy; instead it demands abilities
that feel almost psychic. And the more
you play, the more in tune your group WHAT’S IN
becomes. Play speeds up. Confidence THE BOX?
grows. Something strange happens. ◗ 100 number cards
Because the style of play is so ◗ 12 level cards
◗ Five life cards
simple, the highs and lows are
◗ Three shuriken cards
amplified. Playing a single card in
the right place feels like a victory.
Finishing a round is a triumph.
Completing all 12 stages of the game
is… I’ll let you know when we finally
do it. And hearing someone shout
“Stop!”, meaning they hold a card
lower than the one you just played, is
a punch in the guts.
It’s a unique experience, but is it
a good game? That depends where
the boundaries of your definition of
‘game’ lie. In his 1938 book Homo
Ludens Johann Huizinga, the first
WE SAY
person to seriously study games
and play, laid out the theory of the There’s a little bit of
magic circle: a temporary space for magic in The Mind.
rituals or play “within which special It’s the simplest and
rules obtain… dedicated to the freshest idea for
a game you’ll see
performance of an act apart”. Most
this year. It’s not for
games take place within the magic everyone, and we’re
circle, but only a few contain magic. If not convinced of its
Huizinga could have played The Mind, longevity, but it will
he would have wet himself. show you abilities you
JAMES WALLIS didn’t know you had.

TRY THIS IF
YOU LIKED…
HANABI
Hanabi is another
co-op game of
playing number
CE
ED

IT cards in order,
O R'S C H OI but is more thinky
and less based on
gut instinct. It’s
extraordinary and
wonderful in its own
right, and the two
games sit together
like siblings.

66 July 2018
RUNEQUEST:
ROLEPLAYING IN GLORANTHA
Adventure in a Bronze-Age world of magic and mysticism
Designer: Greg Stafford, Steve Perrin, Jeff Richard, Jason Durall et al. | Artist: Various
the background to RuneQuest since
the first edition made its way onto
shelves in 1978, but the latest iteration
is so closely woven in with the game
system itself that separating the two
seems like a near-impossible task.
This brings a whole stack of benefits,
as you can virtually guarantee that
every character at the table will have
some kind of solid tie to the game
world once you run through the
creation process, but it also makes a
truly homebrewed world tricky to run
without substantial effort from the GM.
For better or for worse, if you want to
get the full experience you’re probably
going to be playing in Glorantha.
The tight relationship between the
game and the world becomes clear
when you create a character. This is a
lengthy process that not only builds up
the character’s stats and abilities, but
also links them to major events in recent
history, provides them with passions
and hatreds that can influence future
dice rolls, and ties them into a cult that
demands tithes and sacrifices in return
for power and aid.
I
Simply making a character with
n a market stuffed to the gills with someone will probably be enough
fantasy RPGs, RuneQuest offers to decide whether or not RuneQuest
something a little different from is the game for them. On top of the
the heroic norm – something a little commitment to setting and creating
deadlier, rooted in a time of bronze a hero at least somewhat grounded in
and barbarians, where historic reality – you’re unlikely to be running
realism mixes with raw, primitive into any lone-wolf half-vampires with
magic that hangs in the air like early a mysterious past – it prepares them
morning mist. for dealing with the ruleset.
This creates a weird and wonderful In both cases, while there’s nothing
mix of simulation and wild fantasy particularly complex to work out,
that captures the feeling of ancient there is an awful lot to keep track of
myths and legends. Virtually every and understand. The core mechanic
hero draws at least some power is incredibly simple, with percentage-
from arcane runes, but none of based skills that will be instantly
them are so mighty that they can familiar to anyone who has played
shrug off a determined hack with a Call of Cthulhu or any one of the other
broadsword. One moment a shaman Basic Roleplaying games drawn from
will be communing with a spirit; Chaosium’s catalogue, but simplicity
the next, the heroes will be forming doesn’t always mean straightforward.
themselves into a phalanx.
As the subtitle suggests, the setting TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… MYTHRAS
is an utterly vital part of the game. The relationship between Mythras and RuneQuest is a long and complicated
The world of Glorantha has served as one, but if you’ve enjoyed one you’re likely to get a kick out of the other.
445 13+ £21
In character creations this
translates to a specific choice of clan
providing a 35% bonus to the llama-
riding skill, while in combat it means
tracking how badly your spear was
damaged by a parry or determining
if the wind is strong enough to
reduce the accuracy of the arrow
you just fired. No individual part
of the game is particularly difficult
to grasp, but the sheer breadth of
systems that span from maimed
limbs to the results of the annual
harvest can be overwhelming.
Sometimes it feels as through
RuneQuest relies on not only having
a GM that that is incredibly familiar
with the book, but also one that is
confident enough to know when to
ignore it and simply handwave minor
rules issues.
The character creation process,
for example, relies on rolled stats
and, while the book suggests a few
situations where it’s acceptable
to re-roll bad results, it’s unclear
whether these are actually rules
or simply guidelines, leaving the
decision squarely in the GM’s
lap. There’s nothing wrong with
giving confident GMs the power
to make decisions in the interest
of having fun, but relying on it can
be dangerous.
Ultimately, RuneQuest succeeds in
carving out a powerful niche in the
crowded world of fantasy roleplaying,
building something that is truly
unique. The world of Glorantha won’t
be for everybody, but those who
give it a chance may find its blend of
earthy realism and heady mysticism
utterly intoxicating.
RICHARD JANSENPARKES
WE SAY
A game steeped in both real-world and
fictional history, where wild myths meld
with a realistic approach to rules.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 67
 P L AY E D
DECRYPTO
A cracking game of inevitable miscommunication
Designer: Thomas Dagenais-Lespérance | Artist: Fabien Fulchiron, Nicolas ‘Nils’ Rivet, Manuel Sanchez
T
he first thing you’ll need to
decode in Decrypto are the rules.
In essence, it’s a word-guessing
game no more complicated than
Codenames, but with an ingenious
interactive hook that makes it far, far
more than an imitator – unfortunately,
this has the side effect of making it
harder to explain than play. It’s worth
the little bit of effort, though, because
it’s a truly outstanding party game once
you’re speaking its language.
Here we go: one person on each
team describes a code relating to
four words that only their team can
see. This numbered code (eg. 1.4.3)
is described with words or phrases
related to those words. So if your
words are oven, hospital, scarecrow
and robot, the clues might be “bake,
android, straw”. But your team doesn’t
get a point for getting it right – they
just avoid losing a life and pass the
round over to the other team, who do
the same. So, how do you go about
winning? Well, by intercepting your
opponents’ code, of course! You see,
you’re writing down your opponents’
68 July 2018
ED
IT
O R'S C H OI
clues and the numbers to which they
relate. Eventually, you have enough
connected words to try and predict
their code before they do. Two correct
interceptions and you’ve won.
This means that you never actually
have to guess the words on the
rival team’s screen – you only have
to keep track of the words they’re
saying. This results in increasingly
desperate attempts to get your own
team to read between the widening
lines as you hope they remember
that Worzel Gummidge was the first
book published by Puffin, in the hope
of throwing your listeners-in off the
scent. Not only is this hilarious and
frustrating – but in that really good,
entertaining way – it also feels like real,
honest-to-goodness code cracking,
the kind of grey matter-busting puzzle
you’ll want to stay up into the early
hours solving with friends.
Clues have never mattered so much
in a word game; not just the current
clue, but everything that came before,
too. The constant awareness that
your opponents will be trying to join
30m 3-8 12+ £17
the dots forces consistently inventive
hinting – and the feeling that you’ve
worked out the opposing side’s code
is a genuine rush. The best parts of
Codenames are where you manage to
guess a handful of words linked to a
single clue, yet those moments tend
to be spread among a dozen small
CE
successes of identifying one or two
answers. Decrypto tunes out the noise
and allows a longer build-up for just
a couple of moments where it all pays
off, but when they come around they
land with such an unbelievable burst
of joy and satisfaction. When it comes
to feeling that sense of reward for
nailing the answer, Decrypto may even
have Codenames beat.
Helping Decrypto’s feel-good
mood is an art style that embraces
the switch-flicking, retro nostalgia of
scan-lined screens and twiddly knobs.
Revealing the scrambled word cards by
slotting them behind each panel’s red-
filmed windows verges on the edge of
gimmicky, but the clean, technophile
WHAT’S IN look pushes so many of our buttons it’s
THE BOX? impossible not to fall in love with it.
◗ Two screens The last few years have brought a
◗ 48 code cards bountiful harvest of excellent word
◗ 110 keyword cards games. Decrypto sits right near the very
◗ Four interception
top of them. It is an ingenious, inventive
tokens
◗ Four miscommunication
spin on word puzzles on a technical
tokens level, but – despite how it might sound
◗ Sand timer at first – the most impressive thing is
◗ 50 note sheets how much fun it makes a idea that
never feels too clever for its own good.
Honestly, we’re lost for words.
MATT JARVIS
WE SAY
Decrypto takes a brilliantly clever spin
on word-guessing and makes it a hugely
fun and rewarding party game. It’s too
unique to be a direct Codenames-killer,
but it absolutely deserves a spot right
alongside it.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED…
CODENAMES
They’re not the same by any means,
but you won’t go wrong with either if
you’re after an engaging, team-based
word game.
 WHAT’S IN
THE BOX?
◗ Central board, aka
the 'Bric-a-brac'
◗ 130 resource
cubes (wood,
copper and crystal)
◗ 10 resource x5 tokens
◗ 70 charcolium gems
◗ Five charcolium
x5 tokens
◗ Storage box for
resources, aka
the 'reserve'
◗ Five player screens
◗ Five player boards,
aka 'workshops'
◗ Five player
‘Handymen’ models
◗ 65 victory point tokens

IMAGINARIUM:
◗ 30 project
completion tokens

THE DREAM FACTORY

◗ 61 machine cards
◗ 13 assistant cards
◗ 14 project tiles

Construct your own contrabulous fabtraptions

in a steampunk fantasy plant
Designer: Bruno Cathala, Florian Sirieix | Artist: Felideus Bubastis 90m 2-5 14+ £40

B WE SAY
runo Cathala has been on a roll
for the past few years. Going from
the djinn-summoning joys of Five
Tribes, to his ingeniously addictive Duel
remix of Antoine Bauza’s 7 Wonders,
to the elegantly simple Spiel de Jahres
winner Kingdomino, the French designer
has proven himself a bona fide A-Lister
of the Eurogaming world. Which perhaps
puts unfair pressure on any of his new
titles, in terms of inflating expectation
to a point where, should anything fall
below his usual high benchmark, your
disappointment is only compounded.
This, sadly, is the case with
Imaginarium: The Dream Factory, which
Cathala co-designed with Florian Sirieix
(Oh Captain!). It is, admittedly, a highly
impressive production, realised with true
visual novelty. On a fantastical factory
floor, two-to-five eccentric ‘handymen’
compete to construct a set of synergising
contraptions in order to meet the
demands of various, VP-earning projects.
Artist Felideus Bubastis (who also lends
his name to one of the handymen) uses
surreal collage techniques to mash up
animal imagery, clockwork mechanisms
and smoke-spewing industrial elements,
creating a visually busy play area
that feels like a cross between Heath
Robinson and Terry Gilliam.
The components are beautifully
rendered, with baroque plastic busts
representing each player’s handyman
(two of whom are women), a central
storage box to allow for easy access
to the game’s resource cubes and
appealingly lumpy-textured currency
‘charcoalium’, and chunky player boards
which allow you to track your two-per-
turn action selections via a double-
handed dial. Slap it all on a gaming table
and it’s sure to elicit coos of approval.
But once you actually start playing…
Imaginarium is an engine-builder
which is literally about building engines.
But for all the gorgeous steampunk
flourishes, the actual gameplay
mechanisms suffer too many small
moving parts, making it slow to absorb
and frustrating to learn. One of the
hardest things to get new players’ heads
around is the machine-combination
system, essential to success and
represented by alphanumeric codes on
each machine card.
At least each player’s screen (designed
to hide your resources, but all too easy
to knock over) has a crib sheet to help.
However, the graphical representations
of the assistant card effects (which grant
bonus abilities), workshop actions and
project tile requirements are tough to
decipher, meaning you’ll spend much of
the first few sessions parsing the rulebook.
Imaginarium is a
In terms of play time Imaginarium visually impressive but
outstays its welcome, and could have complex machine that
benefitted from a quick-play mode takes time to warm up
(though of course you can cut the 20 and could have done
VP end-game threshold to whatever with a little more oiling.
you like). It is also better appreciated as
a three-to-five player experience, the
two-player mode adding in a ‘saboteur’
element that doesn’t quite gel. Plus,
with each player using their machines, TRY THIS IF
then picking up a new machine, then
YOU LIKED…
POWER GRID
carrying out two actions on their turn, With an industrial
it allows rather too much downtime theme and a rule
between goes – especially with all that system that takes
decryption and deciphering going on. time to settle into,
Once you’ve reached a stage where fans of Friedemann
everyone’s finally familiar with the rules Friese’s network-
and clicked into the knotty mechanisms, builder will likely
the satisfaction level will dramatically get the most out of
Cathala and Sirieix’s
increase. There is, to Imaginarium’s
engine-builder.
credit, a lot of depth and an incredible
amount of tactical variety that will reward
those willing to invest the hours and
effort. But with so many great titles out
there vying for your precious attention –
many of which are Cathala’s own brilliant
creations – you may not want to spend
all the time required to get a proper
handle on this fiddly contrivance.
DAN JOLIN

tabletopgaming.co.uk 69
 P L AY E D
D&D: MORDENKAINEN’S TOME OF FOES
Devils and demons for your Dungeons & Dragons
Designer: Wizards of the Coast team | Artist: Various
I
t can be quite hard to describe what
the latest addition to D&D: Fifth
Edition’s line-up actually is. There
are plenty of new monsters to use and
vast swathes of lore and setting detail,
but isn’t quite a new bestiary, nor is it a
sourcebook. The only way to really sum
it up is that it brings more to the table:
more creatures, more background,
more player options, more everything.
In that way, you could perhaps view
it as a companion piece to last year’s
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything but,
where that book was primarily aimed at
players, Tome of Foes is mostly here for
the person sitting behind the DM screen.
It helps them to expand their game, both
with new rules and mechanics, and
storytelling hooks and wild ideas that
can spark the imagination and propel a
campaign from scuffles with local threats
into a journey across the planes.
The section that will probably get the
most use, however, is the one containing
new monster statistics. This accounts for
70 July 2018
around half of the book’s page count on
its own and is packed with all manner
of nasty creatures that can spice up
adventures and ruin heroes’ days in
equal measure.
While a long list of modifiers and
attacks may seem a little dry, the sheer
imagination on display is infectious,
and most DMs out there won’t be able
to keep a smile from creeping across
their face as plans for using these
horrible new tools spring into their
mind. Some of the standout creatures
on display could easily form the heart
of an adventure all on their own, with
the memory-stealing oozes known as
‘oblex’ an instant classic in the making.
Beyond that, Tome of Foes has clearly
been designed with high-level play
in mind, and the monsters on display
average out as being around twice
as challenging as those found in the
original Monster Manual. This includes
everything from Lovecraftian star
spawn to powerful elder elementals,
as well as an entire pantheon of evil
archdevils and demon lords that could
easily take on an entire party of well-
armed adventurers single-handed.
This feeds in to a major theme of
the setting information that accounts
for the first few chapters, detailing the
differences between the superficially
similar demons and devils as well
as their endless battles over which
strain of fiendish evil is best suited for
universal domination.
While these make for an enjoyable
read that helps to set up the wider
world and provide ideas that could
potentially be woven into stories and
campaigns, ultimately it seems a little
lacking in hooks for getting players
directly involved in the conflict. This
limits its actual use out of very specific
campaigns and adventures and feels
as though it’s being planted to set up
another product further down the line.
Something much more likely to
actually crop up at most tables are
the chapters spelling out a little more
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… VOLO’S GUIDE TO MONSTERS
Where Volo provided guides to some of the more terrestrial creatures in the
D&D multiverse, Mordenkainen takes things to a new place – often quite literally.
252 13+ £30
information on the major non-human
player races included in the game, such
as elves, dwarves, halflings and gnomes.
These are great reads that go into detail
on each race’s culture and religion,
with a focus on why some of them leave
the safety of home and wander off to
become heroes, making them useful for
both players and DMs alike.
All these are peppered with a handful
of new options for players, most of which
are focused on alternate takes on existing
races, such as the Shader-kai – gloomy
cousins to elves – and the sinister ashen-
skinned dwarves known as Duergar.
If it sounds as though there’s a lot
packed into the pages of Tome of Foes,
that’s because there is. It feels as though
the designers have made a deliberate
step away from pitching one book at
players and another at DMs, and rather
just mixed it all together so that every
new purchase gives a little something to
the gaming group as a whole.
The biggest downside to the book
as a whole is that the first half is
less useful for groups who play in
extensively homebrewed worlds, but
even then there’s plenty of information
that can be modified or twisted to fit.
Beyond that, the initial run of books
has been hit by a few production issues
including typos and occasional errors,
while a large number of books arrived
with scratched or damaged covers
– something that is hard enough to
ignore from small RPG publishers, let
alone the biggest name in the industry.
Ultimately though, this really is an
instant pick-up for long-term D&D fans,
especially those who are interested in
taking games to a higher power level.
Just try to resist the temptation to try out
that new astral dreadnaught on your
third-level party, okay?
RICHARD JANSENPARKES
WE SAY
New monsters, new lore and a few
new player options make this a great
addition to the Fifth Edition line-up.
KERO
Get your fill in this frantic dice-chucker
Designer: Prospero Hall | Artist: Pierô
I
’m refueling my truck in the
wasteland, watching the sand
trickle slowly back into the tank.
My opponent rolls again. Another two
flames burst from the pool. I pray I can
hold on for just a few more precious
seconds. They throw the dice once
more. “Stop.” That’s it. I hope it’s enough.
This is Kero, a one-on-one dice-
chucker that’s as slick and glossy as
the puddle of oil that might drip from
one of its Mad Max-ian trucks. It’s far
from the first post-apocalyptic world
to put the scarcity of fuel at its centre,
but it is perhaps one of the most purely
effective realisations of the panic and
desperation of watching your vehicle’s
gas run low that the tabletop’s seen in
a good long time.
Central to the stress and tension of
managing your limited reserves are the
game’s sand timers, moulded within two
opposing plastic trucks that are tipped
this way or that to expend the kerosene or
refill. As the grains tick away, a handful of
dice are thrown, either to gain resources or
to cut your refueling short. Flame results
lock dice, creating a hectic push-your-
luck situation where you can choose to
frantically re-roll as much as you like while
the sand still flows to gain the resources
you need, but risk diminishing your overall
supply. Jerrycans, gained through rolling,
can be spent on refueling or special dice,
making them particularly prized – is
more time or more dice more valuable?
Resources are used to buy cards
from a market, granting abilities and
victory points. These cards are ‘burnt’
by too many flame results, potentially
speeding the game’s runtime along
and triggering its periodic scoring
rounds faster, which can be used for
tactical advantage. Or you can spend
supplies to send explorer tokens to
four territories, claiming extra points
WHAT’S IN and bonuses if you hold the majority.
THE BOX? There are enough options to give
◗ Five white dice players control over the dice rolls and
◗ Three coloured offer up interesting decisions about how
special dice and where to cash in your results; tokens
◗ Two sand timer trucks representing the helpful native Tuareks
◗ Territory tiles
provide the chance to manipulate your
◗ Three claim cards
own results and impede the gathering
◗ 12 Start cards
◗ 24 Kero cards of your opponent, leaning on the
◗ Tuarek tiles competitive head-to-head atmosphere
◗ 10 permanent without feeling punishing.
ability tiles The engine in the middle purrs
◗ 27 jerrycan tokens along beautifully, never spluttering
◗ 14 explorer markers on frustrating bad luck or slowed by
◗ First Player marker unnecessary gameplay complexity.
Beyond a few glances at the back of
the rulebook during your first game,
there’s not even a need for a player
reference card – the board’s superb
artwork also does a first-rate job of
reminding you what everything costs
and its effects.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… SPACE CADETS: DICE DUEL
Love the tension of rolling in real-time, but prefer a tighter
head-to-head competition? Kero is a trip you’ll want to take.
30m 2 8+ £32
Even with the wider cardplay and
resource management giving its
lightweight chassis a bit of necessary
heft, it’s impressive just how thrilling
Kero’s core conceit remains. Each
miniscule grain of your truck’s fuel
feels genuinely precious; watching
your rival snatch up and toss a handful
of dice again and again, gradually
counting the growing number of
flames put to the side, is a nerve-
wracking experience when you’re on
your final jerrycan. When it becomes
time to burn that fuel it’s just as
exciting, where every half-second
spent considering whether to try again
for one extra recruit or take the wheat
and run has a real, tangible cost.
Fuelled by an endless supply of
exhilarating moments like these, Kero
itself never needs to stop and take a
break. Hop on and come for the ride –
you won’t regret it.
MATT JARVIS
WE SAY
Kero bolts a satisfying amount of
interesting strategy onto a lightweight
chassis without needing to slow down.
Its thrilling, tense real-time resource
management makes you feel the price
of every grain of fuel.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 71
 P L AY E D
DROP IT
It’s Tetris meets Connect Four - but
its rulebook drops the ball
Designer: Bernhard Lach, Uwe Rapp | Artist: Fiore GmbH
A
t first glance, Drop It looks like
a double-barrelled blast of
pure nostalgia. With its upright
plastic game board, it bears a striking
resemblance to the old family favourite
Connect Four. And, while it doesn’t use
the same iconic blocky polyominoes,
its emphasis on strategically dropping
shapes into high-scoring positions is
enough to leave you with the theme
tune from Tetris inescapably embedded
in your brain.
At its core, the game’s premise is pretty
simple. You and your opponent(s) take
turns to drop a collection of wooden
shapes into the slot at the top of its plastic
casing: squares, triangles, circles and
diamonds. You’ll score points based on
where they land, with higher positions
netting you greater rewards. Shapes have
a tendency to bounce, slide and roll off of
one another, and it takes some finesse to
expertly slot your pieces into the best spots.
To make things more challenging,
you’ll also have some restrictions to
deal with. You won’t score anything for
pieces that land touching others of the
same shape or colour, which means
72 July 2018
you’ll have to think carefully about
where your plummeting wooden bits
might come to rest – and whether you
might inadvertently leave juicy scoring
opportunities open for your rivals.
Drop It adds a little more complexity
to the mix in the form of areas denoted
by symbols on the edges of the play area
that limit the types of pieces you’re able to
play in them. Drop a shape into a position
where it touches a forbidden edge of the
board, and you won’t score any points
even if it’s an otherwise legal spot.
It leads to some chin-stroking
situations where you’ll get up and
examine the game from all sorts of
angles, looking for places where you can
precisely drop a piece to avoid trespassing
on the wrong bits of the board. There are
some gut-wrenching moments where
a perfectly positioned shape wobbles,
totters and tips over in exactly the wrong
direction, negating all your best efforts.
It’s incredibly poorly explained in the
game’s rulebook, though. In our first few
games, our interpretation of the rules left
us with few viable ways to score points.
A look at reactions to the game online
WHAT’S IN
THE BOX?
15-30m 1-4 8+ £34 ◗ Vertical game board
◗ Four sets of shape tiles
reveals that almost everyone who’s ◗ Score board
played it has run afoul of its ambiguous ◗ Score markers
◗ Variant scoring
manual, playing with far more restrictive
mode cards
rules than the designers intended.
◗ Variant placement
Getting past this confusion greatly rule markers
improves the experience, but at times it
still feels like the rules are getting in the
way of the fun. The game even comes
with a variant mode, giving players cards
they can use to ignore the placement
requirements and score points for pieces
that would otherwise be invalid. It’s
as if the designers themselves realised
that the scoring system was dulling TRY THIS IF
players’ enjoyment – in the end, Drop It’s YOU LIKED…
combination of old-school toy appeal TETRIS DUAL
and gravity-based spatial challenge Drop shapes, score
doesn’t quite stack up. points and frustrate
your opponents.
OWEN DUFFY
Although maybe
you’d be better off
WE SAY just playing Tetris?
Drop It’s colourful, toy-like appearance
promises accessible fun, but its
confusing rulebook will leave many
players feeling frustrated. There are
some satisfying moments to be had
once you’ve worked out how to play it
correctly, but it’s still hit-and-miss.
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The rise and fall of empires ascends to new heights
Designer: Gary Dicken, Steve Kendall, Phil Kendall et al. | Artist: Mateusz Leinert, Antonio Mainez
A
tabletop chronicle of human
civilisation from its emergence
to the modern day, History of
the World has itself become a piece
of history. This latest restoration, a
remastering and revamping of the
27-year-old game, proves that it won’t
be consigned to the annals just yet.
This is a game full of striking
features. Among the most immediate
is the central map, a distorted
reimagining that resizes and even
completely relocates regions to create
an almost fisheye-style abstraction
of the globe. A little jarring at first,
the magnificent illustration begins to
make perfect sense as you play, with
geographical accuracy surrendered
in favour of easing along the world-
sweeping jostling for control of
territories and avoiding a cluttered
board. Just as eye-catching is the
first player marker – a 3D catapult
that doubles as a way of tracking
tokens spent during sieges. It’s a little
unnecessary and unwieldy, sure, but
it captures the joyful spirit that soaks
through the rest of the game.
History of the World gleefully
subverts the classic civilisation
format, presenting a buffet of empires
for players to pick and choose from
at the start of each round, rather
than chewing on a single faction for
thousands of years; you might begin
with a starter course of Sumerians,
WHAT’S IN moving on to the meaty military of
THE BOX? the Romans and finishing off with the
◗ Game board
ocean-crossing imperialism of the
◗ 150 armies
◗ 24 capitols/cities British. Although you move on, your
◗ 20 monuments retired armies don’t, continuing to
◗ 14 forts rack up points and trouble invading
◗ Catapult neighbours over the ages – although
◗ 40 empire cards each empire feels individual, modelled
◗ 40 event cards loosely on their real-life counterparts,
◗ Four dice
◗ 32 region tokens
being able to chain together differing
philosophies through the centuries
◗ Six score markers
leaves the paths to victory feeling
◗ Six fleet/caravan
markers constantly numerous and the
◗ 15 siege tokens gameplay options consistently juicy.
It’s an especially breezy tour
through civilisation this time
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… CIVILIZATION
Simplicity lies at the heart of these engrossing millennia-spanning epics.
2-3h 3-6 14+ £70
around, too, as the original
game’s marathon length has been
compressed from seven epochs
into just five. A playthrough can still
stretch to a couple of hours, but the
tight turn structure and impressively
trim gameplay means that you
barely feel the millennia passing.
That said, the separation of turns –
factions even score separately after
their actions, rather than together
at the end of each round – can leave
inactive players twiddling their
thumbs for a few minutes, especially
with bigger groups.
Happily, this subsides in later
rounds as the board fills up and clashes
between settled armies occur more
regularly, resolved with a swift rolling of
dice that peppers in some light terrain
and structure modifiers – as well as the
costly option to invest precious troops
in a result-boosting siege – to great
effect. Battles are over in seconds with
little taxing of brains, the luck element
carefully restrained to inject some
welcome surprises without trivalising
the central strategy offered by the
selection of cards and area control.
Playful without feeling frivolous,
History of the World is enormous fun.
Composing your personal medley
of history’s greatest hits through the
ages remains a joyous alternative to
more sedentary civilisation games,
effortlessly linked by an graceful flow
of watching empires rise, fall and rise
again, all while leaving their mark on
future ages. As the latest edition of
this classic proves, this is a game that’s
sure to leave its mark, too.
MATT JARVIS
WE SAY
Why play one empire, when you can
play them all? History of the World’s
entertaining civilisation-hopping
twist on the grand strategy genre is
complemented by beautifully stripped-back
gameplay in this stunning restoration.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 73
 P L AY E D
SPACE BASE
Too much base in your face?
Designer: John D. Clair | Artist: Chris Walton
R
ulebooks. Every game has to
have one, from three-card
wonders like Win, Lose, or
Banana to legendary monsters like
Campaign for North Africa. And
yet it is universally acknowledged
that the worst way to learn a game
is from its rulebook. Partly because
we’re social animals and games are
a social medium – we respond and
comprehend better when faced with
someone we can interact with, who
can point at pieces and show you stuff
– and partly because writing a good,
clear rulebook is really hard; I’ve
been doing this a long time and I can
point at maybe five games that have a
rulebook I’d read for pleasure – and I
wrote one of them.
Space Base, on the other hand,
simply isn’t trying.
I had a hard time getting Space
Base to the table, because I made the
mistake of pointing my players at the
PDF of the rules, and it put them off.
It’s a 28-page book. The description of
74 July 2018
how to set the game up doesn’t start
until page 8.
Rule number one of the meta-
rulebook on how to write rules: don’t
confuse the players. Rule two: don’t bore
them. By the time I got to Space Base’s
‘How to Play’ (page 10) I was both.
Here’s the thing: when you get to
the heart of it, Space Base is a sleek,
clever little dice-placement game that
comes on hard like Machi Koro in
space. You each play a commodore in
the space fleet of Never Actually Made
Clear, trying to do the best job so you
get promoted to admiral.
And its core rules are five pages
long. Four if you take out examples
of play. It’s not complicated in itself;
the complexity comes from the
combinations of cards you’ll put
together as you build out your fleet.
Here’s how it works: each player has
a board with 12 spaces, representing
the sector they’re patrolling. You roll
two dice and use the numbers to
activate whatever’s in those sectors
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… MACHI KORO
Space Base may seem like Machi Koro in orbit. It’s absolutely not that, but it
feels like Machi Koro in orbit – and that’s much the same thing.
60m 2-5 14+ £39
– so two and nine could be sector two
WHAT’S IN
and sector nine, or sector 11 – and THE BOX?
everyone gains the rewards from ◗ Five command
those sectors on their own boards. console boards
Then you can buy new ships or ◗ 60 starting ship cards
colonies, and really that’s it. ◗ 132 ship cards
Combined with clever half-width ◗ 12 colony cards
cards for the ships and colonies, ◗ Two dice
designed so you can still read their ◗ 30 charge cube tokens
◗ Five credit
key information when they’re stacked,
counter cubes
you’ve got a nice intelligent engine- ◗ Five income
builder – although there's not a lot of counter cubes
inter-player dynamics, not enough ◗ Start Player card
opportunities to engage each other’s
fleets or sabotage a deployment,
and it slows down badly with more WE SAY
players. It has a strong Machi Koro
vibe, but I’d say that this is better We recommend you
game (which is not the same as being take Space Base for a
a better experience) and I also got trial flight, but learn it
from someone else or
a faint aftertaste of Catan, in a good
from an internet video.
way. But if the first thing I’d seen had It’s a complex game
been the rulebook I’d probably have with a simple core,
given it a miss, and that would have stifled by pages and
been a shame. pages of unnecessary
JAMES WALLIS rules explanation.
BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA: THE GAME
This retro trip to the ‘80s is style over substance
Designer: Christopher Batarlis, Boris Polonski | Artist: Hennig Ludvigson, Boris Polonski
T
he gaming industry is obsessed
with the 1980s. From Ghostbusters
to The Terminator and Back to
the Future, publishers are lining up to
tap into Gen X and millennial nostalgia.
Now another of the decade’s cult film
favourites has made the leap to the
tabletop with Big Trouble in Little China, a
co-operative adventure based on the 1986
movie by director John Carpenter.
The original film is very much a
product of its time, which is a diplomatic
way of saying that it’s tinged with
unthinking racism. It drew criticism
on its release for its stereotypical
portrayal of Chinese gangsters and its Fu
Manchu-style villain, who leered from
promotional posters like something from
a 1930s pulp novel. Thankfully, while the
game remains true to the ‘80s aesthetic of
its source material, it dials back on some
of the more troubling elements.
Big Trouble throws players into a battle
between good and evil in San Francisco’s
Chinatown. As you play you’ll visit a
variety of locations, battling hatchet-
wielding thugs and monstrous creatures
before eventually confronting their boss,
the malevolent sorcerer Lo Pan.
The game revolves around a dice-
rolling system, with players assigning
body, mind and spirit symbols to
different types of actions. Each character
excels at particular tasks, and the main
challenge is finding the most efficient
way to spend your dice on every turn.
Most often, that means roving around
the board kicking bad guys in the face.
There’s also a storytelling element, and
each character comes with their own set
of quests to fulfil, broken into a series of
WHAT’S IN chapters with a branching succession of
THE BOX? decisions to make. Do you confront the
◗ Double-sided board demons yourself, or send your martial
◗ Story book arts students to take care of them? Do
◗ 40 plastic hero and
you pursue the robbers who’ve ransacked
villain miniatures
the local shrine, or stop to tend to the
◗ 38 custom dice
◗ Six player boards wounded monk they’ve left in their wake?
◗ Five boss villain boards It feels a lot like the 2014 horror game
◗ Fate tracker board Dead of Winter. But it lacks the elements
◗ Objective, object and of mistrust, manipulation and paranoia
stat-tracking tokens which made that game such an effective
take on the zombie survival genre. Big
Trouble has a tendency to hand one
player responsibility for driving the
narrative, while the rest of the group
performs the repetitive, mechanical
work of fighting off baddies.
It’s not the game’s only rough
edge. Die in combat and you’ll be
reanimated with a hell card, imposing
restrictions on your character’s actions.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… ZOMBICIDE
It’s another miniatures-heavy co-op with a pronounced element
of urban exploration and hordes of enemies to defeat.
120m 1-4 14+ £85
To get rid of it, you’ll need to visit a
temple at the edge of the board, taking
you off on a dull administrative errand.
Above all, though, this is just a painfully
overblown design. It’s full of custom dice,
stat trackers, cards, chips, tokens and
minis. It piles rules and subsystems one
on top of another, but they never quite
converge in a way that feels compelling
or coherent. And once you’ve defeated
Lo Pan’s army of grunts, you’ll have to flip
the board over to reveal his lair – a whole
new environment to battle through, which
makes the first half of the game feel like a
preamble to grind past in order to level-
up your characters for the final boss fight.
Ultimately it’s inelegant and
overambitious and, even if you’re a
die-hard fan of the film, there’s not
much here to recommend.
OWEN DUFFY
WE SAY
Big Trouble in Little China aims to
capture the original movie’s action in
a big-box board game. But it’s a long,
disjointed, undisciplined design that
doesn’t distribute the interesting bits
equally among players.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 75
 P L AY E D

SHARDS OF INFINITY
To Infinity and beyond deckbuilding
Designer: Gary Arant, Justin Gary | Artist: Aaron Nakahara 30m 2-4 10+ £19

WHAT’S IN
THE BOX?
◗ Four oversized
character cards
with health and
mastery trackers
◗ 128 cards (88
centre deck cards, 40
starting deck cards)

T WE SAY
he latest newcomer to jostle
itself into the arena filled with
tight competitive deckbuilders in
small boxes, Shards of Infinity doesn’t
reinvent the genre – but don’t mistake
it for one of the crowd.
If you’ve played a deckbuilder before,
you’ll be in home territory (the rulebook
encourages fans of the format to dive
straight in after just a couple of pages):
a central marketplace offers up cards
that players purchase to build up a
personalised roster of creatures and
abilities, juggling currency income
(here, crystals) and attack power to
efficiently deplete their rivals’ health.
While Shards of Infinity doesn’t
dare to colour outside the lines, what’s
within the familiar template offers up
some interesting new hues of gameplay
that stop it simply feeling hackneyed.
Mercenary cards break with the
deckbuilding tradition of forward
planning, widening the game’s room for
competitive strategy and keeping the
action breathless throughout each half-
hour match. The cards can be recruited
into a player’s personal discard pile like
normal allies – forcing them to wait until
they resurface before deploying them –
or hired just for that turn, returning to
the centre deck after using their ability
immediately. This presents the chance
for rapid jabs at a vulnerable opponent
and mitigates the luck of the draw –
albeit at a cost. This chewy but digestible
risk-reward decision-making is made
juicier by the ability of some shielded
cards to defend against rival attacks –
without having to discard them, keeping
the gameplay flowing – so a permanent
acquisition can be well worth the wait.
Behind the cards, players generate
‘mastery’, a simplified but effective system
of levelling-up that makes Shards feel
surprisingly deep and multifaceted for
a short, small-box game. Mastery can
be ticked up by spending a spare crystal
or using card abilities, and gradually
ramps up the power of certain cards,
from generating additional crystals to
increasing attack values. This makes the
stakes of each match rise over time, with
maximum mastery literally enabling
infinite power and instant victory: a neat
built-in timer with a boiling-kettle tension.
It also allows players to bide their time and
unleash devastating later-game blows,
or rapidly chip away their opponents’
health throughout. Completely ignoring
one of the various balls in the air can be
disastrous, but Shards does a fantastic
job of letting players juggle its mechanics
in their own way.
The game’s sci-fi dressing is relatively
shallow, but effective enough – its
designers’ Magic: The Gathering legacy
(co-creator Justin Gary is a former Magic
pro) is clear. While not quite on that level –
what is? – Shards’ consistent artwork and
Its clever gameplay
flavour text manage to get across the feel
means there’s far
of the four core factions, be it the shadowy more below the
energy-wielding Wraethe, mechanical surface than it might
Homodeus, floral Undergrowth or seem at first; Shards
digitally-connected Order. This amplifies of Infinity may be a
the races’ general gameplay distinctions refinement of what’s
(healing, deck cycling, damage combos, come before, but it’s a
resource harvesting), with plenty of seriously accomplished
interaction options for playing cards refinement nevertheless.
from a single faction together.
The main characters that players take
control of are allied with each of the
factions, but there’s no gameplay impact,
serving only as an extra morsel of theme.
The characters are identical in their
‘focus’ ability (spend one crystal for one
mastery), making the oversized health
and mastery tracker dials unnecessarily
big and awkward. Fortunately, these TRY THIS IF
physical components are the only element YOU LIKED…
that feels bloated: Shards is otherwise a
ASCENSION
Shards of Infinity
lean, mean showdown that never drags. is a worthy sci-fi
On its surface, Shards of Infinity lacks successor to
originality. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll co-designer Justin
find a game that is quietly ambitious, Gary’s fantasy
hiding innovative gameplay and a wealth deckbuilder, keeping
of well-executed ideas inside the familiar the competitive filler
deckbuilding form. Ultimately, its fresh and fast.
adherence to convention makes it more
of a refinement than a revolution – but
as a polished gem it’s hard to resist.
MATT JARVIS

76 July 2018
HELIONOX: DELUXE EDITION
Space, the final dominion
Designer: Taran Lewis Kratz | Artist: Luke Green
I
f Star Realms and Dominion had a
baby they would name it Helionox:
a sci-fi deckbuilder that, while not
reinventing the wheel, brings some
fresh ideas to the table.
Creating a deck by buying new
cards, then watching their abilities
chain off each other so you can buy
more shiny things and construct even
better combos, has always been a core
enjoyment of deckbuilders. Helionox
takes a brave step by diverting
the players’ attention away from
deckbuilding by introducing locations
to visit, embassies to build and events
to overcome. Thankfully, it does so
without sacrificing the range of abilities
on offer. Locations have unique
abilities, building embassies unlocks
more powerful versions and events
can shut them down, encouraging
players to resolve events so they can be
accessed once again. So, even without
prioritising purchasing better cards,
strategic players can find a way to use
their circumstances and surroundings
to their advantage.
With the Mercury Protocol
expansion, included in the deluxe
version of the game, the opposite
is true. It adds a mechanic around
25-90m 1-4 9+ £50
cargo delivery that takes up more proves to be the most enjoyable. This
resources from players but provides comes at the price of scouring the
an unexciting payoff. Players also have poorly-organised rulebook for setup
the option to pick ‘illegal tech’ cards and clarifications, and spending time WHAT’S IN
– but, while these offer interesting sorting out all the decks. THE BOX?
abilities, they continuously give While it is nice to have a big box ◗ Game Board
players negative points and overall with lots of cards and variants, the best ◗ 20 material
have a higher chance of damaging version of Helionox is the core game asset cards
than helping. The expansion is further that takes inspiration from Dominion’s ◗ 12 sentinel
prototype cards
hindered by events that affect all of the two-resource economy, mixing it with
◗ Eight faction
locations, essentially shutting them a great space theme and adding its starting cards
down completely, making players own twist by giving players a greater ◗ 16 prime
unable to use their powers or pick up presence on the game board. The assist cards
and deliver cargo. Unless these events more layers of additional mechanics ◗ 76 event cards
are dealt with almost immediately, and complexity are added, the more ◗ 98 faction
cargo missions become impossible to Helionox unravels in the way some market cards
complete. More importantly, at the end Kickstarter games tend to, where ◗ 10 location cards
of the game one is left wondering if the bonuses feel tacked on for the benefit ◗ 15 architect cards
◗ Nine mission cards
cargo elements needed to be there at of backers, rather than the game itself.
◗ 40 request cards
all. It brings very little to the game, but Putting expansions to one side, ◗ 20 illegal tech cards
the cascading effect of its mechanics Helionox presents itself as a competent ◗ 10 card dividers
makes the rest of the play frustrating. deckbuilder. While it is unlikely to ◗ Four player mats
Helionox’s saving grace is varied dethrone some of the giants of the ◗ 14 defense tokens
customisation that allows you to avoid genre, like Dominion or Legendary, it ◗ 25 credit tokens
playing with the expansion completely, brings enough interesting twists and ◗ 16 cryo counters
accommodating modes – such as ideas to the table to make it worth ◗ 120 influence tokens
single-player, competitive and co-op exploring – although it may be worth ◗ 60 infamy tokens
◗ Five garrison tokens
playthroughs – that have become more looking out for the base version of the
◗ 20 cargo tokens
prevalent in recent years. While you game, and leaving the deluxe version ◗ 10 credit tokens
can use bonus missions for an added drifting in space. ◗ 10 defense tokens
challenge, the base version of the game ALEX SONECHKINA ◗ 20 embassy tokens
◗ Four ship tokens
WE SAY
Dragged down by its
deluxe edition's bonus
features, Helionox TRY THIS IF
remains a better game YOU LIKED…
in its purest, most DOMINION
distilled form. Even at its Even under a thick
simplest, it has enough coat of sci-fi paint,
strategic depth to make Helionox retains
the game challenging. some of the
basic elements of
deckbuilding, but
spices them up with
more objective-
driven gameplay.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 77
 P L AY E D
FAE
A simple surface hides a game with plenty of spirit
Designer: Leo Colovini | Artist: Atha Kanaani, Bree Lindsoe
F
ae – named after the word for a
fairy-like spirit being – is a bit
like its title: short and simple at
first glance, but with enough mystery
and magic to draw you in deeper.
Soon enough, you’ll be under its spell.
In that way, it’s perhaps a more
fitting moniker than Clans, the rather
plain name that the Spiel des Jahres-
nominated game was originally
published under back in 2002, with
similarly uninspiring wooden huts
and rural terrain on its board. Fae
makes no changes to Clans’ gameplay,
but gives its theme and visuals a
modern overhaul in an effort to bring
a new wave of players to the game.
It deserves the attention, too. When
you first open the box, you might be
surprised at how few pieces it actually
contains: the board, a handful of
cards, some markers and dozens of
hooded plastic druids. Fae’s strength
lies in how much fun and interesting
gameplay it conjures up from such a
modest pile of ingredients.
On the surface, it’s a straightforward
game of points-scoring. Players move
groups of druids between neighbouring
areas, clustering the initially lone
worshippers into increasingly bigger
crowds – though if they grow too large,
they’re unable to move. Once a group is
isolated, it performs a ritual and scores
points based on how many druids
78 July 2018
are present and the combination of
colours. There are very few rules to
actually moving the pieces around,
so turns fly by quickly, with a growing
momentum as the pieces magnetise
together in certain spots.
Alone, this would be functional
but dull. What injects it with a shot
of excitement is the hidden identity
of each player, who has an allegiance
with a certain colour of druid (even
with the max four players, one colour
is neutral). Rushing to score only your
own druids will encourage players to
ostracise your followers on later turns,
so you’ll have to hand your opponents
points to keep your identity obscured
until you’re ready to try and make
a break for the winning score. It’s
delightfully passive-aggressive, with 'all
for one' until that ‘one’ seems like they
might actually win instead of you.
The entertaining competition
bubbling away below the surface is
heated further by the scoring cards,
which increase the value of rituals
performed on certain terrain types
and completely void those performed
on others. These change over the
course of the game, forcing a dynamic
flow of druids around the board and
presenting uproarious moments
for players to stick the knife in and
disrupt the plans of their opponents.
It’s all great fun, with the very simple
20m 1-4 10+ £37
gameplay hiding a surprisingly
complex amount of strategy and
social interaction.
Fae had no need to make any
changes to Clans’ gameplay, so it
didn’t. The modernised art style –
which can be a touch overwrought in
places, but never slows the fast flow –
will likely divide those who favour the
functional clarity of its predecessor
WHAT’S IN but, if the new look allows more
THE BOX? people to discover the hidden
◗ Game board pleasures of this unassuming treat,
◗ 60 druids a return in whatever form it takes is
◗ Five scoring markers worth celebrating.
◗ 12 ritual cards MATT JARVIS
◗ Five spirit cards
WE SAY
Fae’s humble looks hide a really
engaging combination of hidden
identities, strategic scoring and the
chance to upset your opponents’ best-
laid plans. There’s no need to pick it up
if you already own Clans – for everyone
else, it’s a great chance to discover a
game worth celebrating.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED…
HEIMLICH & CO.
Hidden identities started in the
‘80s with Wolfgang Kramer’s roll-
and-move classic, but its modern
successors have taken the ideas
to new heights.
BARKER’S ROW
Step right up and try your luck!
Designer: Steven Aramini | Artist: Andrea Olgiati
L
adies and gentlemen, children
of all ages, step right up into the
Barker’s Row to witness terrifying
feats, bizarre oddities, ghastly horrors
and indescribable freaks! You will be
amused and entertained – although
some of you might want to look away
or keep walking right by.
The feeling of playing Barker’s Row,
appropriately, falls right in line with its
theme. You will either be entertained
by the strange and extraordinary things
you see on your casual walk through
the attraction – leaving slightly amused
but otherwise unaffected – or you will
be frustrated by the bad costumes and
the poorly-hidden breathing straw of
the merman imposter. Ultimately, the
best approach is to just enjoy the show
without looking too close or thinking
too deeply about what’s going on –
then you'll have a good time.
In Barker’s Row, players compete
to be the first to attract 13 'rubes' to
the stand of their attraction. In a slight
twist on collecting sets, players turn
over barker cards, hoping to get a
specific value of the suit corresponding
to one of the three attractions in their
hand, which they can play to entice the
audience to their grandstand.
The start of the game drags along as
players turn cards one by one, hoping
to get the right total number. They don’t
know what type of suits other players are
looking for – therefore, with every turn
of the card, they could unknowingly be
helping their opponents, without any
payoff for themselves.
In a matter of just a few turns, this
issue almost dissipates completely
– or, at least, gets alleviated by the
game’s quite clever, yet simple, catch-
up mechanic. Every time a player
scores an attraction, the total value of
barker cards needed for the next one
increases, meaning that those who
were less lucky in the card draw can
always catch up. This mean it's less
likely to create a runaway winner and,
until the very end, all players are very
much on par with each other.
Despite the predominant luck-based
gameplay and the uncertainty that
every new card drawn creates, victory
in Baker’s Row comes from tactical
use of attraction powers. These can
only be used once an attraction has
been scored, so it takes at least a turn
before they come into play. Being able
to activate the right power at the most
opportune time can push a player over
the winning line, spicing up otherwise
quite repetitive gameplay.
Even still, going into Barker’s
Row players will need to let go of
25-45m 2-4 13+ £37
the need to be in control – and even
competitiveness, to a certain extent.
You will often be setting up a certain
set of cards to find them stolen right
from under you, through no fault of
your own. Sometimes, the deck layout
will be helpful; other times, the suit
you want will not come out for ages.
Undeniably, Barker’s Row has its
own distinct character that partly WHAT’S IN
surfaces through its components. The THE BOX?
rubes are beautifully and playfully ◗ Four grandstands
illustrated, positioned on cardboard ◗ Four tower markers
grandstands that are unessential to the ◗ Strongman tower
gameplay but look great on the table. ◗ 40 attraction cards
◗ 52 meeples (‘rubes’)
Every creature or oddity has a unique
◗ 36 barker cards
look and design on the taro-sized
attraction cards. The strongman’s tower WE SAY
(used to track the value needed to score
an attraction) is the only letdown, as it Barker’s Row has a
is fiddly to use, its edges crease almost unique fun theme and
lighthearted easy-to-
instantly from constantly slotting in
pick-up gameplay, but
markers and it has a wobbly stand. it may prove to be
If you let go and prepare for carefree frustrating to players
gameplay, Baker’s Row will be a who prefer being in
wonderful lighthearted experience, control of their game.
complemented by imaginative tongue-
in-cheek artwork and mostly great
component design. It is easy to forgive
some of the game's misgivings when
it doesn't overstay its welcome or take
itself too seriously.
ALEX SONECHKINA
TRY THIS IF
YOU LIKED…
STEAM PARK
If you enjoyed the
dramatic playful
style of Steam
Park, you may
find that Barker’s
Row scratches a
similar itch.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 79
 P L AY E D
UNLOCK!
SECRET ADVENTURES
Designers: Lewis Cheshire, Arch Stanton, Thomas Cauët | Artist: Legruth, Arnaud Demaegd, Mahulda Jelly
U
nlock! Secret Adventures is
the third installment of the
card-based puzzle game series
from Space Cowboys. They’re often
lumped in with the escape-room-
in-a-box category, which is unfair
because they’re more of a narrative
experience using numbered cards to
tell a story, interspersed with puzzles
that yield answers that tell you which
card to look at next. There’s also an
app, which deals with puzzles, special
codes, hints if you get stuck and also
timekeeping, because each case lasts
an hour.
Secret Adventures contains three
cases: a cartoony romp to defeat an
evil villain, a Wild West adventure
set on a train and a version of The
FANTASTIQA: RIVAL REALMS
Designer: Alf Seegert | Artist: Caspar David Friedrich, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, John William Waterhouse
R
ival Realms is a lot of magic in a
very little box.
A pocket-sized reimagining
of Alf Seegert’s deckbuilder Fantastiqa,
Rival Realms puts the discovery of the
designer’s whimsical fantasy world at
its heart. Players’ misplaced magicians
begin with matching realms into which
they must summon landscape cards,
before setting off on journeys across
the landscape, using their cards and
collected artefacts to explore each
new region.
Like any good magic trick, what
appears simple on the surface is far from
being so underneath. Key to racking
up victory points and completing
quests is the ability to pull off masterful
combos during exploration actions,
laying down series of cards and tokens
to travel your adventurer through
multiple connecting valleys and around
mountains, sometimes employing
the more magical items you collect to
pull off even more impressive feats.
Any cards you spend are offered up
to your opponent to obtain on their
turn and quests can only be achieved
once, leading to a pacey and taut battle
across the table.
80 July 2018
60m 1-6 10+ £27
Wizard of Oz. The art and production with that attitude. It also contains a
are top-notch, as you’d expect, but silly and unnecessary dexterity game.
some of the puzzles leave something The third one, The Wizard of Oz,
to be desired. Many are variants of is a clever adaption of a well-known
hidden-object games, needing close story to a puzzle-game format – and
examination of the cards to solve. was the only one we managed to solve
Others are fine as puzzles but feel within the time limit – but one of
shoehorned into the narrative: when the observation clues required such
was the last time anyone agreed to do minute attention to tiny detail that we
you a favour if you could guess their felt cheated by it.
favourite number? The Unlock! games are decent, they
The first case is fun, requiring pass the time and you don’t destroy
some clever applications of logic. The any components as you go. The system
second we found deeply unsatisfying. is mechanically smart but not always
At its heart it’s a spot-clues-identify- satisfying in play. A game like this
crook mystery – we got the final big should make you feel clever, but instead
question wrong, and the game didn’t Unlock! makes you feel how clever the
tell us what the right answer was. game is – and that’s not enough.
Agatha Christie wouldn’t have got far JAMES WALLIS
20-30m 1-2 10+ £15
There’s a good deal of brain-
burning decision-making to be had,
with the need to play landscape cards
in ascending numerical order, bonus
points awarded for certain layouts of
cards and a number of objectives to
race for from the off.
The standard mode can be livened
up further by optional events and
setup variants, though even without
the trimmings the tight cardplay
and spatial control aspects make for
an enchanting mixture. Pulling off
a successful sweep of exploration
across your tableau is enormously
rewarding and can potentially swing
a match, encouraging highly strategic
play and careful thought about
the opportunities you hand your
opponent – sometimes deliberately.
Lavishly illustrated with paintings
by Monet and van Gogh, among
others, Rival Realms fully looks the
part: this is a highly elegant creation,
carefully refined and endlessly
fascinating to watch play out, with its
secrets never fully revealed. That’s a
spell most magicians can only wish
to cast.
MATT JARVIS

HEXPANSE
A future not to look forward to
Designer: Gabor Toldi | Artist: Gyula Pozsgay
H
expanse is an example of the
game that on paper entices
with strategic gameplay and
slick components, but then falls
apart on the table due to badly-tested
balancing, leaving players longing for
the game it could have been.
Initially, the game ticks all the boxes
of sci-fi bingo: colonisation of a new
planet; spaceships; different factions,
with unique abilities that are reflected
in the gameplay; beautifully detailed
artwork that provides glimpses into the
game’s lore. Unfortunately, it doesn't
take long to notice the cracks in this
intricately-painted universe.
Least offensive are the bad, almost-
photoshopped faces of Kickstarter
backers that blatantly stand out from
the otherwise gorgeous artwork. The
more you look, however, the more
disenchanted you become with
this version of the future, where all
humanoids are either robots, aliens or
white, with only one piece of artwork
containing a person of colour. What’s
more, the only flag represented in
the game bears a suspiciously strong
resemblance to the Confederate flag.
If you are able to move past this,
we come to the gameplay that, again,
seemingly has everything one could
hope for in a strategy game. There are
several game modes to accommodate
beginners and experienced
60m 2-4 10+ £46
players, and even teams. Players
can customise their initial setup by
choosing a faction that better suits
their play style, going even further by
adding minor factions to complement
it. Market cards carry a wide range of
abilities to suit any situation on the
board and are easy to purchase, due to
WHAT’S IN the game’s lenient economy. Whatever
THE BOX? you want to do on your turn, there is
◗ Double-sided
game board usually a move or a combination of
◗ Eight income markers moves that will help you achieve it.
◗ 11 minor faction mats Even while lagging behind, a useful
◗ Four faction boards card can easily level a playing field in a
◗ Four d12 dice matter of a single turn.
◗ 20 plastic frames for While such freedom can be exciting,
unit tokens on the other hand it also leads to the
◗ 12 minor faction biggest problem of Hexpanse: it can be
unit tokens
impossible to finish.
◗ Four warlord
unit tokens Hexpanse can be won by either
◗ Four elite unit tokens creating a specific pattern (that is
◗ 27 mercenary revealed at the start of the game)
unit tokens with player’s units or by destroying
◗ 48 normal unit tokens opponents’ warlords, the heads of
◗ Four player guides their chosen factions. Eliminating
◗ Market board
players from the game can already
◗ Recovery ship board be problematic. It works in quick
◗ 15 mission cards
games, like King of Tokyo, because,
◗ 50 market cards
if removed, a player doesn’t have
to hang around long to wait for
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… TWILIGHT IMPERIUM
Although Hexpanse shudders under the impressive shadow of Twilight
Imperium, its attempt to bundle a whole new universe with quicker,
more streamlined gameplay can still be appreciated.
others to finish. In Hexpanse, the
wait time is much longer and can
vary significantly.
That is, if you manage to eliminate
anyone at all. In fact, the highest
chance of killing the warlord is if
everyone decides to team up against
one player. Being ganged up on never
translates to enjoyable time playing
and also feels cheap on the side of the
attackers. Knowing how vulnerable
warlords can be, most players prefer
to keep them safe on their spaceships,
away from the fight, making them
impossible to attack except with
specific market cards, of which there
are too few in the deck. Even so,
players have enough of an arsenal
at their disposal, either through the
same market cards or special units, to
heal their warlords on their turn.
Having come to a fighting
stalemate, players turn to their last
resort: forming the pattern needed
to win the game. Even this proves
almost impossible because, as
soon as someone starts building
something even remotely resembling
that arrangement on the board,
other players attack them before
they can complete it. With a simpler
pattern, using a combination of cards
and powers from minor factions,
a player could possibly sneak in a
win. But the more complicated the
pattern, the more impossible it is to
complete uninterrupted.
A 60-minute game stretched into
two hours, and my gaming group felt
like they were going in circles. None of
us were any closer to completing the
pattern; all warlords were fat, happy
and healthy; and we were exhausted
from a fight that never seemed to end.
So we packed beautifully-illustrated
cards and carefully-designed
components back into the box, and
put Hexpanse back on the shelf,
where, I fear, it will remain.
ALEX SONECHKINA
WE SAY
Although it has the beginnings of a
deep and challenging strategy game,
Hexpanse fails to provide a satisfying
payoff or even a conclusion.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 81
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Shelves heaving
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the tabletop, year for
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all year round
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Sam Illingworth, Words by
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26 December 2017

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STUFFED FABLES
Dive into the dreamy domain of Jerry Hawthorne’s family-friendly fantasy
adventure by giving its squad of huggable heroes a colourful makeover
Words and photographs by Andy Leighton

T
his month we enter the fantastic
realm of soft toys come to life in Jerry
Hawthorne’s Stuffed Fables. The game
plays out in a real-life storybook, following
the adventures of a little girl’s favourite
stuffed animals, or Stuffies, as they protect
her dreams from all manner of nightmarish
creatures. As a result, it’s a distant departure
from the games we usually cover, as it’s
a great deal more optimistic and less
war-driven. This carries across into the
painting side, as I aimed for a bold, bright
colour scheme.
The game comes with six Stuffies,
alongside a handful of opponents and
bosses. Each sculpt is fairly simple, as you
would expect from something representing a
children’s toy, but they include enough little
details to add a certain amount of character
to each figure, from Theadora’s defiant
raised brow to Lumpy’s coy innocence. It’s a
testament to the sculptor that the personality
of the miniatures is reflected so well as a
result of these small details.
It’s a great selection of miniatures that
would be a great place for any beginner to
start painting, which adds to the appeal this
game already has for younger players – but
that’s not to say these aren’t a challenge for the
experienced hobbyist.

July 2018 tabletopgaming.co.uk 83

 STUFFED FABLES

PAINTS & TECHNIQUES

PAINTS YOU WILL NEED: STAGES
Agrax Earthshade Flash Gitz Yellow Screaming Skull Each model is split up into four stages, each Stage 3 is highlighting. This stage involves
Averland Sunset Fulgrim Pink Seraphim Sepia with a list of colours and the corresponding applying a line of your colour along the
Balor Brown Gauss Blaster Green Skavenblight Dinge paint that was used for it. Each stage uses a hard edges and ridges of the area. I would
Blue Horror Genestealer Purple Skrag Brown different technique to achieve a similar effect recommend using a fine brush and adding a
Celestra Grey Karak Stone Slaanesh Grey on each element but with different colours. tiny dash of water to your paints.
Ceramite White Krieg Khaki Temple Guard Blue Stage 1 is basecoating. Base colours are Stage 4 is for final details. This stage
Dawnstone Lugganath Orange Thunderhawk Blue applied using flat colours. This is usually applied involves adding the finishing touches,
Deathclaw Brown Mechanicus Standard Grey Wazdakka Red over several thin coats, to achieve a bold, flat sometimes just small details like the
Dechala Lilac Mephiston Red Xereus Purple colour that is evenly spread. eyes, or adding an extra highlight of
Doombull Brown Mournfang Brown XV-88 Stage 2 is layering. During this stage we increase definition.
Dorn Yellow Pallid Wych Flesh Yriel Yellow apply a flat even coat, generally a lighter If you find yourself unsure of where to apply
Emperor’s Children Pink Horror Zamesi Desert shade, over the basecoat. A thin line of the the highlights or spot highlights, look over the
Evil Suns Scarlet Rhinox Hide base colour is left in all of the recesses to images alongside the guide and compare that
Fenrisian Grey Russ Grey help simulate shadows. stage to the last.

THEADORA
BASECOATING
Mournfang Brown: Apply a basecoat all over the body.
Averland Sunset: Apply a basecoat to the belt.
Xereus Purple: Apply a basecoat to the scarf and the small patch
beside the heart.
XV-88: Apply a basecoat to the scabbard.
Dawnstone: Apply a basecoat to the sword.
Mephiston Red: Apply a basecoat to the heart patch.
Skavenblight Dinge: Apply a basecoat to the eyes, nose and mouth.
Karak Stone: Apply a basecoat to the stitches.

LAYERING
Skrag Brown: Apply a layer over the body, making sure
to miss the inner ear.
Genestealer Purple: Apply a layer over the scarf.
Yriel Yellow: Apply a layer to the belt.
Celestra Grey: Apply a layer to the sword.
Thunderhawk Blue: Apply a highlight to the top left of
both the eyes and the nose.
Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a layer over the stitches and
add a line highlight to the scabbard.
Evil Suns Scarlet: Apply a layer to the heart.

HIGHLIGHTING
Deathclaw Brown: Apply a highlight to the fur of the body. This
should be applied as an edge highlight on any hard edges, like the
ears and the brow, and a line highlight to the top edges of each
body ‘section’ – the body, head and arms. Also, add small sections
of cross-hatching to help simulate the texture of the fabric. These
can be achieved with two or three thin lines horizontally and then
two or three vertically.
Dechala Lilac: Apply an edge highlight to the scarf and a layer to the
tab on the edge of the heart. FINAL DETAILS
Dorn Yellow: Apply an edge highlight to the belt. Lugganath Orange: Apply a very fine highlight to the
Lugganath Orange: Apply an edge highlight to the heart. cross-hatching, leaving a little of the original colour
Fenrisian Grey: Apply a dot highlight of the top left of the eyes. around the edges.
Ceramite White: Apply a dot highlight of the top of the stitches and Ceramite White: Apply a dot highlight to the top left
an edge highlight to the sword. of the eye.

84 July 2018
STITCH

BASE COLOURS SHADING & HIGHLIGHTING

XV-88, Karak Stone, Rhinox Hide &
Mournfang Brown: Apply a basecoat to
the body, arms, head, cape and hat using
the different colours randomly across
the patches.
Doombull Brown: Apply a basecoat of the
cape and the sash.
Averland Sunset: Add a basecoat to
the pencil.
Karak Stone: Apply a basecoat over
the stitches.
Temple Guard Blue, Moot Green and
Averland Sunset: Apply a basecoat to
the buttons.
Pink Horror: Apply a basecoat to the eraser.
LAYERING Kreig Khaki: Apply a line highlight to
the patches.
Karak Stone, Skrag Brown & Mournfang
Brown: Apply a layer over the patchwork. Deathclaw Brown: Apply an edge
Flash Gitz Yellow: Apply a layer to the pencil highlight to the hat and cloak.
and an edge highlight to the yellow buttons. Fulgrim Pink: Apply an edge
Emperor’s Children: Apply a layer to the eraser. highlight of the eraser.
Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a layer to the stitches. Ceramite White: Apply a
Blue Horror: Apply a line highlight to the dot highlight to the top
blue buttons. edge of the stitches and
Gauss Blaster Green: Apply a line highlight the buttons.
to the green buttons. Dorn Yellow: Apply an
Averland Sunset: Mix one part paint with edge highlight to the pencil.
around five parts water and, with only a Skavenblight Dinge:
small amount on your brush, apply lines to Apply a layer to the end of
some of the lighter patches. the pencil.

PIGGLE

BASE SHADING & HIGHLIGHTING

COLOURS
Pink Horror: Apply a basecoat
across the body, head, arms, legs
and rattle.
Pallid Wych Flesh: Carefully apply
the lines around the rattle.
Xereus Purple: Apply a basecoat
to the shield.
Mechanicus Standard Grey:
Apply a basecoat to the trotters.
Skavenblight Dinge: Apply a
basecoat to the eyes, brows
and mouth.
LAYERING
Emperor’s Children: Apply a
layer over the pink, applying
only an edge highlight to
the snout.
Genestealer Purple: Apply a
layer to the Shield.
Dawnstone: Apply a line
highlight to the brows, mouth
and trotters.
Ceramite White: Apply a layer
to the handle and stripes of
the rattle.
Emperor’s Children: Apply an edge
highlight to all the hard edges,
like the ears, as well as around
the top edge of each section of
the model. Add cross-hatching
horizontally and vertically to
simulate the knitted fabric.
Dechala Lilac: Apply an edge
highlight to the shield. FINAL DETAILS
Celestra Grey: Apply an edge Ceramite White: Apply a dot highlight to the top left of the eye. Apply
highlight to the trotters, eyes a fine highlight to the cross-hatching, leaving a little of the original
and brows. colour at the edges. Add two lines down the head for the rattle.
Fenrisian Grey: Apply a dot highlight Xereus Purple, Genestealer Purple & Dechala Lilac: Paint the words
to the upper left of the eyes. ‘play clay’ onto the shield, building the highlights up from the base colour.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 85
 STUFFED FABLES

LUMPY

BASE COLOURS SHADING & HIGHLIGHTING

Russ Grey: Apply a basecoat over the
body, head, arms and legs.
Xereus Purple: Apply a basecoat to
the T-shirt.
XV-88: Apply a basecoat to the hammer.
Skavenblight Dinge: Apply a basecoat to
the eyes and stitches.
Slaanesh Grey: Apply a basecoat to the
inner ears.
LAYERING
Fenrisian Grey: Apply a layer to the body,
head, arms and legs.
Genestealer Purple: Apply a layer to
the T-shirt.
Agrax Earthshade: Apply a wash to
the hammer.
Dawnstone: Apply a line highlight to the
stitches, brow and mouth.
Blue Horror: Apply an edge highlight to the head, body,
arms and legs.
Dechala Lilac: Apply an edge highlight to the T-shirt.
Celestra Grey: Apply an edge highlight to the stitches,
brows and mouth.
Fenrisian Grey: Apply a dot highlight to the upper left of the eyes.
Zamesi Desert: Apply an edge highlight to the hammer.
Emperors Children: Apply a line highlight to the outer edge
of the inner ear.

LIONEL

BASE COLOURS SHADING & HIGHLIGHTING FINAL DETAILS

Zamesi Desert: Apply a basecoat
over the whole model.
XV-88: Apply a basecoat over the mane.
Rhinox Hide: Apply a coat to the nose.
Doombull Brown: Apply a basecoat
to the patch.
Skavenblight Dinge: Apply a basecoat
to the eyes and mouth.
Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a basecoat
to the teeth and claws.
Karak Stone: Apply a basecoat to
the stitches.
LAYERING Dorn Yellow: Apply an edge highlight
to the face, body, arms and legs.
Krieg Khaki: Apply a line highlight to the mane and tail.
Ceramite White: Apply a dot highlight to the top left
Agrax Earthshade: Apply a wash to
the mane and tail. Wazdakka Red: Apply several lines of the eye.
Seraphim Sepia: Apply a wash over over the patch.
the body and face. Ceramite White: Apply a dot highlight
Deathclaw Brown: Apply a layer to to the tops of the stitches.
the patch. Skrag Brown: Apply an edge highlight
Ceramite White: Apply a layer over to the mane, tail and nose.
the teeth and claws.
Mournfang Brown: Apply a layer over
the nose.

86 July 2018
 FLOPS
BASE COLOURS
Zamesi Desert: Apply a basecoat over the whole model.
Temple Guard Blue: Apply a basecoat to the quiver and
eye patch.
Doombull Brown: Apply a basecoat to the bow and fletching.
Screaming Skull: Apply a basecoat to the tummy, snout and tail.
Fulgrim Pink: Apply a layer to the nose.
Skavenblight Dinge: Apply a basecoat to the plunger, eyes
and brows.

SHADING & LAYERING

Seraphim Sepia: Apply a wash over the darker areas of the
body and the sash, bag and eye patch.
Skrag Brown: Apply a layer over the bow.
Wazdakka Red: Apply a layer to the fletching.
Dawnstone: Apply a layer to the brows, stitches and plunger.
Pallid Wych Flesh: Apply a layer to the tummy, nose and tail.

HIGHLIGHTING FINAL DETAILS

Balor Brown: Apply a layer over the main fur. Dorn Yellow: Apply an edge highlight to the
Ceramite White: Apply an edge highlight to the tummy, body, head, arms and legs.
snout and tail. Ceramite White: Apply a dot highlight to the
Temple Guard Blue: Apply a layer to the eye patch, bag top left of the eye.
and strap.
Celestra Grey: Apply an edge highlight to the plunger, brows
and stitches.
Lugganath Orange: Apply a dot highlight to the fletching.
Krieg Khaki: Apply a line highlight to the bow.

tabletopgaming.co.uk 87
 T H E D U N G E O N M A S T E R ’ S G U I D E T O R O L E P L AY I N G

FIGHTING TALK
A few sentences can give your world the delicious splash of flavour needed to bring
it to life in the minds of your players. But what should you say? And how do you
make sure it’s brevity rather than blathering? Here are a few choice words…
Words by Richard Jansen-Parkes | Image courtesy of Wizards of the Coast

A
hab Stormbringer wasn’t a
particularly traditional cleric.
His backstory was packed
with dark deeds on stormy
seas, and when he strode
into battle he did so with a jagged cutlass
clutched between his teeth and a tiny
draconic familiar perched on his shoulder.
One of the things that his comrades always
remembered – alongside his tirade of nautical
puns, of course – was the way that he used
his divine magic. For example, when he laid a
gnarled and weather-beaten hand on his foes
their body wasn’t simply wracked by radiant
light or even a dark warping of the soul. No,
when he cast his favourite spell their limbs
were suddenly worn and warped as though
they had spent years soaking in the salty
depths, torn by countless waves and tides.
They shrivelled back before him with rusted
armour and rotten rags where their clothes
once stood.
Even when he healed his friends and allies
the spell shook them with the feeling of a

88 July 2018
sudden dip in the frozen seas where he had
once plied his trade that left them gasping;
an effective move, but not a particularly
pleasant one…
The mechanical effect of all this was –
of course – zero. His withering spell still
dealt 3d10 damage, and the plunge-pool
healing was identical to the somewhat softer
ministrations of the druid. But it all went to
remind his allies – and the people playing
them – that while Ahab and his sea goddess
were powerful and generous allies, they
weren’t exactly nice.
And that’s why a little bit of mid-combat
flair can help to build a character.
BOUNCING OFF THE RULES
Rules are an important part of tabletop RPGs
– indeed, there are plenty of systems out
there that aren’t really anything but rulesets
with a little bit of guidance tacked on for
good measure – and this goes double when it
comes to combat.
Where many games play
Try to view every battle
it fairly loose when it comes
to social interactions or
as an opportunity to
exploration, and while there’s
often room for a little bit of ‘rule
build the world, as useful
of cool’ to bend things here and
there, combat is the point where
as any conversation or
everything becomes much more
codified. The rules say that you
paragraph of read-out text.
can only move so far, make so
many attacks and cast so many
spells at a time, no matter how
cool it would be if you took
out the entire army of foes
single-handed.
This is all part of creating a fair and
balanced game that isn’t too unwieldy, of
course, but this sudden shift to cast-iron
mechanics can sometimes reduce combat
– often the focus of a session – to a game
of numbers and dice rather than a tense
confrontation between brave adventurers and
foul monsters.
At one time or another, every GM out there
has fallen into the trap of having a battle shift
into pure mechanics. Players quote attack
values and damage, we deduct health and call
for rolls. And, suddenly, the exciting duel with
the rogue’s long-lost brother atop a burning
castle has been reduced to something with
the emotional weight of chopping wood for
the fire.
SIZZLE AND SORCERY
Narrating combat can be tricky, there’s no
doubt about that. After all, there are only
so many ways you can say “You swing your
sword” without reaching for the more obscure
parts of a thesaurus – and adding a lengthy
passage for every ebb and flow of a battle can
kill the pacing stone dead.
What can help, however, is trying to view
every battle as an opportunity to build the
world, as useful as any conversation or
paragraph of read-out text.
Do the town guards fight as a slick, cohesive
unit, or do they bumble about as though
plucked from an especially violent Laurel and
Hardy sketch? What does that say about the
training they had and how much tough the city
is on foolhardy adventurers who flout the law
within its walls?
Likewise, how do the weird, black-scaled
aliens react when one of their number is cut
down by an errant laser beam? What does it
mean if they react with berserk fury, or if the
seemingly monstrous foes show sorrow or
dread at the loss of an ally?
Every blow or exchange of fire needn’t come
with its own unique novella but, even then, it’s
always good to keep players aware of the fact
that the cultist hasn’t used the attack action
– they’ve taken a wild swing with a rusted
dagger, hissing a scattershot prayer of devotion
to their mad god as they do so.
Even the purely tactical, mechanical
abilities that the creatures under the GM’s
control use can alter how they feel and the
stories they tell.
One of the best examples of building
character through deeds rather than words
came in a campaign many years ago, when
the party’s wizard managed to successfully
counterspell the villainous archmage’s fireball
early on in the encounter. The arrogant old
mage took this as a personal insult and tore his
carefully-crafted plan to shreds in a bid to take
vengeance on the young upstart who dared
challenge his might.
By the end of the battle the heroes had
won a resounding victory and halted the
diabolical ritual before it could cause real
harm, but at the cost of their own wizard’s
life. The sneaky spellcaster had done the
traditional villain thing and teleported back
to a secretive lair after realising the danger
he faced, but by then he had established
himself as one of the most hated foes the
party ever encountered, all through his deeds
in combat.
MANY HANDS
There are more people involved in an RPG
than just the GM, of course, and keeping
the narrative flowing through combat isn’t
just one person’s responsibility. The players
themselves should also see their various
battles as a chance to tell a story and build on
character moments.
In many ways this can be even harder for
players than GMs. While it may get tricky to
add a bit of panache to the orcs’ spear thrusts
after five rounds of combat, at least you’ll
get to try it again with dryads or kobolds the
next week. The knight, on the other hand,
will still be swinging her familiar sword and
blocking with her familiar shield.
Despite this, there are still ways to inject
moments of drama into
every fight. This could mean
roleplaying out the horror that
consumes an investigator when
an alien being slithers from the
shadows, or simply narrating the
grateful nod that passes between
the ranger and cleric after a
healing spell seals up a gash in
their leg.
Asking the players to describe
the way in which they dispatch
an enemy that just hit zero hit
points is a particularly great way
to let their – occasionally slightly disturbing
– imaginations run wild without fear of
unbalancing things.
While most of us would place limits on
the damage that the heroes can inflict on
an enemy that’s still fighting, as allowing
them to pluck out eyes or sever limbs on
their first blow would run a little counter to
the rules, there are no such restrictions on
fallen foes. There’s a good reason why the
“How do you want to do this?” catchphrase
from Critical Role’s Matt Mercer has caught
on so successfully.
Ultimately, keeping the narrative up during
discussions of rules and mechanics is a tricky
task to handle. There’s certainly no shame in
realising that your table has fallen out of it
after a long night of rolling dice and looking
up rulings on grappling for the fifth time in as
many sessions, but it’s important that you’re
able to recognise when it happens – and to
have some idea of how best to drag things
back towards the realm of ‘roleplaying’, and
not just ‘gaming’.
tabletopgaming.co.uk 89
space fLeet battles
by Richard Borg

www.pscgames.co.uk

COMING
SOON ON

Live on

in July.

EVENT REPORT
CONTINUUM
Keary Birch runs us through the biannual
Leicester-based roleplaying meet-up that emerged
from one of the UK’s longest-running conventions
Interview by Matt Jarvis
What’s the history of Continuum?
Continuum is a biannual games
convention that grew from the ashes
of Convulsion. Convulsion was a
Chaosium-based convention started
back in the last millennium.
How has the event changed during the
20-plus years it’s been running?
We have moved away from being a
Chaosium-specific convention to a
more generic focus. We found the
Chaosium focus to be too restrictive,
even though it has a very vocal
and adoring fan base. Nowadays
we find that, although there is still
a large number of Call of Cthulhu
offerings, the number of other
Chaosium games – such as RuneQuest
– has been becoming less and less
prevalent. However, due to the changes
that have happened at Chaosium and
the release of Guide to Glorantha and
the new RuneQuest ruleset, I would
expect a resurgence of Chaosium
games this coming year.   full agenda of freeform games on offer! The
What’s new for 2018?
Nothing really new except the awesome
games and GMs that we are expecting,
some of whom will no doubt be new.
You hold the weekender in the
University of Leicester’s Halls of
Residence, where attendees can also
choose to stay during the weekend –
what does this add to the atmosphere
of the event?
July 2018
We feel that having an almost pure gamer
crowd around you does allow us to release
our inner geek to a greater extent.
What’s the gaming scene
like around Leicester – and
particularly at the university?
To be honest, we don’t have a lot of
connection with the locals except during
the con. That being said, I would like some
more students from the uni to attend
but maybe they see enough of the place
in term time and do not want to return
during their breaks.
What games are you expecting attendees
to play this year?
Anything and everything. There have been
so many new games out in the last couple of
years there could almost literally be anything
played this year. 
Other than gaming, what else is there to
see and do at the convention?
Other than tabletop games we have an almost
only time we do not have freeforms would be
Friday afternoon.
There is also a board games library in case
you get roleplayed out and, of course, a room
full of traders to tempt you to spend money.
What do you have planned for future
Continuum events?
Who knows? We will be responding to fan
suggestions and see what they want.
At the end of the day all we want is for people
to have fun. So let’s see what they ask for.
UPCOMING EVENTS
SUMMER STABCON
Friday July 6th to Sunday 8th
Britannia Hotel, Stockport
A bar set up specifically for attendees is just
one of the many perks of this long-running
bi-annual event focused on adult gamers.
stabcon.org.uk
LONGCON
Saturday July 7th to Sunday 8th
Garrison Hotel, Sheffield
If you’re looking to indulge yourself in a lengthy
roleplaying campaign, this is the place for you
– rather than defined sessions, there are no
limits to how long games can run.
thedodd.com/longcon-home
PAIZOCON UK
Friday July 20th to Sunday 22nd
Aston, Birmingham
The 10th such convention and largest
European gathering for the Pathfinder
Society, this event is dedicated to the fantasy
RPG and attracts fans from around the globe.
paizocon.co.uk
MANORCON
Friday July 20th to Monday 23rd
Stamford Court, University of Leicester
With a popular secondhand games sale and a
mixture of modern and classic games for old
fans and newcomers alike, it’s no surprise why
this show is now in its third decade of running.
manorcon.org.uk
TABLETOP SCOTLAND
September Saturday 1st to Sunday 2nd
Dewars Centre, Perth
A celebration of all types of gaming held in
the heart of Scotland, this show includes a
Dungeons & Dragons Epics adventure.
tabletopscotland.co.uk
HEREWARD WARGAMES SHOW
Sunday September 2nd
The Cresset, Peterborough
The wargaming show returns for a third year,
including a diverse mix of traders, as well as
participation games and tournaments.
hereward-wargames.co.uk
GNOMECON
Friday September 21th to Sunday 23rd
Holiday Inn Bolton Centre, Bolton
A large bring-and-buy and raffle add to the
gaming fun of this north-west event that
raises money for charity.
gnomeboardgamers.com/upcoming-events
TABLETOP GAMING LIVE
Saturday September 29th to Sunday 30th
Alexandra Palace, London
Our convention for everything tabletop will
feature the latest board games, RPGs,
miniatures and more – including new releases
from Gen Con and previews ahead of Essen –
for you to pick up and play! Set in the beautiful
Alexandra Palace, it’s the new London show
you won’t want to miss.
ttgami.ng/ttglive18
tabletopgaming.co.uk 91
 CLUB DIRECTORY

ABERDEENSHIRE ROLL WITH IT! THE DICE AND DAGGER EAST SUSSEX GREATER MANCHESTER HERTFORD BEER &
ABERDEEN WARGAMES CLUB Huntingdon, PE29 3TF GAMING CLUB 1066 WARGAMING CLUB TABLETOP MANCHESTER BOARDGAMES
Aberdeen, AB15 4YQ Bude, EX23 9BL St. Leonards-on-Sea, Cheadle Hulme, M15 4ST Hertford, SG14 1HH
THE CHATTERIS WARLORDS TN38 8BL
OLDMELDRUM WARGAMES GROUP GAMES CLUB WEDNESDAY NIGHT GAMING GWENT HITCHIN HERETICS
Inverurie, AB51 0AA Chatteris, PE16 6NA Redruth, TR15 3QY EASTBOURNE ELEMENTAL GWENT REAVERS TABLETOP Hitchin, SG5 1XL
Eastbourne, BN21 3XQ GAMING CLUB
ANGUS THE GAMES TABLE COUNTY TYRONE Abertillery, NP13 3DJ NORTH HERTFORDSHIRE
KIRRIEMUIR WARGAMES CLUB Cambridge, CB24 4RP OMAGH WARGAMES CLUB FAMOUS COLLECTABLES WARGAMES CLUB
Kirriemuir, DD8 4HN Omagh, BT78 1HL Bexhill-on-Sea, TN40 1DU GWYNEDD Hitchin, SG5 1XL
CARMARTHENSHIRE CONWY WARGAMES CLUB
AYRSHIRE CARMARTHEN OLD GUARD DERBYSHIRE UCKFIELD TABLETOP GAMERS Llandudno, LL30 3LB NORTH LONDON
NORTH AYRSHIRE Carmarthen, SA31 3AD CONSORTIUM GAMES Uckfield, TN22 5DT WARGAMES CLUB
WARGAMES CLUB CLUB @GHQ HAMPSHIRE Waltham Cross, EN8 9AJ
Irvine, KA12 0BA TOWY VALLEY TYRANTS (TVT) Chesterfield, S40 1JW EAST YORKSHIRE ARBBL
Carmarthen, SA31 2JE WOLDS WARGAMERS Andover, SP10 1DQ POTTERS BAR GAMES CLUB
BEDFORDSHIRE DERBY ON BOARD GAMES Driffield, YO25 6SS Potters Bar, EN6 5BT
BASEMENT GAMING CLUB CHESHIRE Derby, DE1 1QH BLACK HOLE WARGAMERS
Luton, LU3 3AN ALTRINCHAM ESSEX Petersfield, GU32 3HS ST. ALBANS BOARD GAME CLUB
WARGAMING CLUB GROWN UP’S GAMES NIGHT BASILDON WARBOYZ St. Albans, AL3 5PE
BEDFORD BOARD GAMING Altrincham, WA14 4PG Matlock, DE4 3FQ Basildon, SS16 4NW CHINEHAM BOARD GAMERS
Bedford, MK40 2SX Basingstoke, RG24 8LT THOR’S HAMMER GAMING CLUB
CHEADLE BOARD ROOM SUNDAY NIGHT BOARD GAMING COLCHESTER WARGAMES Borehamwood, WD6 5PR
BEDFORD GLADIATORS Cheadle, SK8 1DW AT THE OLD KINGS HEAD BELPER ASSOCIATION DARK WORLDS GAMING SOCIETY
Bedford, MK41 7TW Belper, DE56 1NP Colchester, CO3 5RH Fareham, PO15 6TL TRING WARGAMES CLUB
CHESHIRE GAMERS Tring, HP23 6BA
BOARD GAMES IN BEDFORD Crewe, CW1 2DF DEVON ESSEX WARRIORS FARNBOROUGH
Bedford, MK41 0TU BARNSTAPLE SLAYERS Chelmsford, CM1 3DU WARGAME SOCIETY WARLORDS WARGAMING
CONGLETON AND DISTRICT GAMING CLUB Farnborough, GU14 7LE ST. ALBANS
LEIGHTON BUZZARD LIGHT BOARD GAMES GROUP Barnstaple, EX32 8LS GBCON QUARTERLY St. Albans, AL3 4DJ
GAMING CLUB Congleton, CW12 1AH GAMING DAY FIRESTORM CARDS OPEN
Leighton Buzzard, LU7 1ES CULLOMPTON BOARD Loughton, IG10 4LF GAMING NIGHT WATFORD WARGAMES CLUB
ELEMENT GAMES NORTH GAMES GROUP Basingstoke, RG24 8FB Watford, WD17 4PN
SAXON GAMES & CRAFTS WEST GAMING CENTRE Cullompton, EX15 1JX LOUGHTON STRIKE FORCE
Bedford, MK40 4FU Stockport, SK2 6PT Loughton, IG10 1LH FORDINGBRIDGE GAMING CLUB WELWYN WARGAMERS
DARK STAR GAMING Fordingbridge, SP6 1AS Welwyn Garden City, AL8 6PS
BERKSHIRE GUARDIANS OF THE GAMES Plymouth, PL4 0AL SOUTHEND-ON-SEA
BROAD STREET GAMERS (TABLETOP GROUP) ROLEPLAYING SOCIETY GARY DONALDSON INVERNESS-SHIRE
Wokingham, RG40 3AQ Macclesfield, SK11 6UB EAST DEVON TABLETOP Southend-on-Sea, SS1 1BD Waterlooville, PO8 8RG INVERNESS TABLETOP GAMERS
& RPG GROUP Inverness, IV1 1LU
NEWBURY & READING MUG AND GAME Honiton, EX14 1HR THE HORNCHURCH PORTSMOUTH ON BOARD
WARGAMES ASSOCIATION Congleton, CW12 1PG WARGAMES CLUB Portsmouth, PO1 1PT ISLE OF MAN
Newbury, RG14 2RA EXMOUTH IMPERIAL Romford, RM3 9LB KB TABLETOP GAMING
POYNTON BOARD GAME DAY WARGAMES CLUB RINGWOOD ASSOCIATION - ISLE OF MAN
NEWBURY & READING Stockport, SK12 1RB Exmouth, EX8 4SW THE OVERLORDS OF WARGAMERS Isle of Man, IM4 4LA
WARGAMES ASSOCIATION Dagenham, RM8 2HQ Ringwood, BH24 1DW
Newbury, RG1 4PS VARIABLE MAGERS GAME NIGHT @ CARPE KENT
Stockport, SK4 3BS Plymouth, PL4 8EU THE PHOENIX GAMES CLUB SOLENT WARGAMERS CLUB ALL AROUND THE BOARD
THATCHAM TABLETOPS London, E13 0AD Portsmouth, PO1 1PT Westgate-on-Sea, CT8 8RE
Reading, RG7 6QH WARRINGTON BOARD NEO TIVERTON GAMING CLUB
GAMES CLUB Tiverton, EX16 5JJ FIFE SOUTHAMPTON SLUGGAZ ASHFORD (KENT)
WARFIELD BOARD GAMERS Warrington, WA1 2SX DUNFERMLINE WARGAMING Southampton, SO17 2JZ BOARDGAMES CLUB
Bracknell, RG42 2DD PLYMOUTH ASSOCIATION AND ROLEPLAYING FELLOWSHIP Ashford, TN24 9AJ
WINSFORD WARHAWKS OF WARGAMERS Dunfermline, KY12 7DS THE SOUTHAMPTON GUILD
WARGAMES ASSOCIATION WARGAMING CLUB Plymouth, PL3 5TB OF ROLEPLAYERS BEXLEY REAPERS
OF READING Winsford, CW7 4AT EAST NEUK TABLETOP GAMES Southampton, SO14 0LH WARGAMING CLUB
Wokingham, RG41 5DU TORQUAY BOARD GAME CLUB Anstruther, KY10 3DJ Bexley, DA5 1AA
CLEVELAND Torquay, TQ2 7AD THE THIRD COALITION
BIRMINGHAM HARTLEPOOL KIRKCALDY MEEPLE CLUB WARGAMES CLUB CANTERBURY CRUSADERS
BIRMINGHAM WARGAMES WARGAMES SOCIETY DORSET Kirkcaldy, KY2 6LF New Milton, BH25 5BT Canterbury, CT1 1RT
AND BOARDGAMES CLUB Hartlepool, TS24 7DH SOUTHBOURNE TABLETOP
AKA DRAGOON’S DEN & BOARDGAMERS FLINTSHIRE WATERLOO TABLE TOP GAMERS GRAVESHAM WARGAMING
Birmingham, B13 9EA REDCAR IRONBEARDS Bournemouth, BH6 3AA DEESIDE DEFENDERS Waterlooville, PO8 8RG AND TABLETOP GAMING CLUB
Redcar, TS10 1RH Chester, CH4 0DR Gravesend, DA11 9EU
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE WESSEX WYVERNS WESSEX WARGAMES
MILTON KEYNES CO ANTRIM WARGAMES CLUB FGC FLINTSHIRE GAMING CLUB WINCHESTER GREENWICH & BLACKHEATH
WARGAMES SOCIETY DRAGONSLAYERS Ferndown, BH22 9AN Mold, CH7 6SZ Winchester, SO22 4QB BOARD GAMES AND BEER CLUB
Milton Keynes, MK11 1JQ Belfast, BT7 1NN London, SE3 7JQ
WEYMOUTH LEVELLERS CLUB GLASGOW WESSEX WYVERNS GAMING CLUB
NEWPORT PAGNELL QUB DRAGONSLAYERS Weymouth, DT4 0AR ANTONINE BOARD GAMERS Ringwood, BH24 2NP MAIDSTONE WARGAMES SOCIETY
BOARD GAMES CLUB Belfast, BT7 1NN Glasgow, G64 4EN Maidstone, ME17 4AW
Newport Pagnell, MK16 8AN WORLDS AWAY HEREFORDSHIRE
CO CORK Bournemouth, BH2 5RQ GLASGOW GAMES ROOM DICE AND DECKS MEDWAY AREA BOARDGAMERS
WYCOMBE WARBAND BRETHREN WARGAMING CLUB Glasgow, G20 7QE Ross-on-Wye, HR9 5HR Maidstone, ME14 1ED
Beaconsfield, HP9 1LG West Cork, T23 F577 DUMFRIESSHIRE
ANNAN GAMING CLUB UNPLUGGED GAMES CLUB HEREFORDSHIRE BOARDGAMERS MERRYCHEST CAFE
CAITHNESS CO DURHAM Annan, DG12 6EF Glasgow, G41 3AB Hereford, HR4 9EA GAMING CLUB
NORTHERN KNIGHTS WARGAMES DARLINGTON’S Dartford, DA2 8AH
Thurso, KW14 8HN DOGS OF WAR THE FIVE ARCHES GLOUCESTERSHIRE HERTFORDSHIRE
Darlington, DL3 7LX GAMING CLUB GLOUCESTERSHIRE GAMES BUNKER BISHOP’S STORTFORD TABLETOP MILTON HUNDRED
CAMBRIDGESHIRE Dumfries, DG1 3JR Cheltenham, GL51 4XA Bishop’s Stortford, CM23 3BQ WARGAMES CLUB
2D6 LODGE DURHAM RAIDERS Sittingbourne, ME10 4BX
Cambridge, CB1 8NN Croxdale, DH6 5HJ DUNBARTONSHIRE IWARPUK BLACK WOLF WARGAMES CLUB
DUMBARTON WARGAMES CLUB Gloucester, GL2 9EB Hitchin, SG5 1XL SEVENOAKS & TONBRIDGE
FENLAND RPG CLUB GAMERS@HART Dumbarton, G82 1QQ ASSOCIATION OF
Ely, CB7 5NG Hartlepool, TS26 9DE LECHLADE BOARD GAMES CLUB CALAMITY COMICS HATFIELD GAMERS (STAG)
DURHAM Lechlade, GL7 3HA Hatfield, AL10 0JJ Sevenoaks, TN15 9HA
NEWMARKET KNIGHTS CO LONDONDERRY DWG
GAMES CLUB THE SIEGE BUNKER Durham, DH1 1QG LINCOMBE BARN FINCHLEY GAMES CLUB TUNBRIDGE WELLS
Ely, CB7 5HS Londonderry, BT48 7JL WARGAMES SOCIETY London, N12 7JE WARGAMES SOCIETY
DYFED Bristol, BS16 2RW Tunbridge Wells, TN3 0PR
PETERBOROUGH CORNWALL WELSH WEYR HEMEL HEMPSTEAD
WARGAMES CLUB SMIPHEES GAMES CLUB GAMING GROUP PORK CHOP GAMING WARGAMING CLUB WHITSTABLETOP
Peterborough, PE1 1NA Callington, PL17 7AN Ammanford, SA18 1DX Cheltenham, GL50 3HA Hemel Hempstead, HP1 1LD Whitstable, CT5 1DA

92 July 2018
 List your club for free and see full club details
tabletopgaming.co.uk/clubs
LANARKSHIRE GRANTHAM FRIENDLY GAMERS NORTH YORKSHIRE THE FROME BOARD GAMES CLUB WHITE EAGLES WARGAMES CLUB CRAWLEY GAMING CLUB
CARLUKE WARGAMES CLUB Grantham, NG31 6LJ SCARBOROUGH GAMES SOCIETY Frome, BA11 1PU Ipswich, IP2 0RG Crawley, RH10 5DF
Carluke, ML8 5JQ Scarborough, YO12 7BY
GRIMSBY WARGAMES SOCIETY TRINITY WARGAMING CLUB SURREY DUNGEON CRAWL-EY GAMES CLUB
LANARKSHIRE GAMERS Grimsby, DN32 9HT YORK GARRISON Taunton, TA1 3JG CROYDON BOARD GAMERS Crawley, RH11 7QG
Motherwell, ML1 1BS WARGAMING CLUB Croydon, CR0 1DP
LINCOLN BOARD GAME GROUP York, YO32 4AQ WARGAMING @ RADSTOCK MID SUSSEX MEEPLES
ML2 GAMERS Lincoln, LN1 3BJ Radstock, BA3 4BD EAGLE GAMING CLUB Burgess Hill, RH15 8DX
Hamilton, ML3 6BU NORTHAMPTONSHIRE London, SW18 2PT
LOUTH STRATEGY GAMES CLUB BATTLEFIELD HOBBIES WESTON WARGAMERS CLUB SOUTH DOWNS SIEGEBREAKERS
LANCASHIRE Louth, LN11 8DB Daventry, NN11 8RB Weston-super-Mare, HAMPTON COURT GAMES CLUB Pulborough, RH20 4DR
BLACK TOWER WARGAMING BS23 1NF East Molesey, KT8 0BT
Blackpool, FY4 4ND LONDON DESBOROUGH ROLEPLAYING WEST YORKSHIRE
CROSS GAMING CLUB AND WARGAMES CLUB WSM BOARD GAMING CLUB KINGSTON GAMES GROUP BOARD IN THE VILLAGE
BOLTON GNOME’S London, SE1 1DX Kettering, NN14 2NQ Weston-super-Mare, Kingston upon Thames, Bradford, BD14 6RE
Bolton, BL1 5QD BS22 8PD KT2 6LN
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Burnley, BB10 3LF SCUNTHORPE TABLETOP GAMERS Reigate, RH2 0NA
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Burnley, BB10 3EU Brackley, NN13 6LF SOUTH YORKSHIRE ASSOCIATION
THE ROLE PLAY HAVEN (STRATFORD) BROTHERHOOD OF THE DICE Egham, TW20 0QT KEIGHLEY TABLETOP COMBAT
DECKS & DICE London, E15 2HU THE PIT GAMING CLUB Barnsley, S75 1JR Keighley, BD20 6EB
Manchester, M25 1AY Wellingborough, NN9 5TU STAY ON TARGET
THE ROLE PLAY HAVEN (LEWISHAM) ROTHERHAM WARGAMES CLUB Woking, GU21 5BG OTLEY BOARD GAMERS
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Oldham, OL1 2DB K.I.A GAMES CLUB SURREY GIRL GAMERS
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Manchester, M1 7HL Wirral, CH63 6HD NOTTINGHAM BOARD & SUTTON GAMES CLUB AMESBURY WARGAMES CLUB
WARGAMES CLUB STEEL CITY WARGAMING Sutton, SM1 1DT Salisbury, SP4 7LN
ELWA: EAST LANCASHIRE LIVERPOOL LION Nottingham, NG2 1NB Sheffield, S13 7LL
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Blackburn, BB6 7DD Liverpool, L3 9NS THE CLUB WITH NO NAME ZONE OUT GAMES CLUB London, SE1 2TF Chippenham, SN15 3WL
Nottingham, NG2 1NB Doncaster, DN1 2PX
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Manchester, M1 1EL St. Helens, WA9 4TR Nottingham, NG10 5BD ALL ABOARD GAMING CLUB Devizes, SN10 5AD
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Accrington, BB5 3QW GAMES GROUP Newark, NG24 1ER CHASE WARGAMES CLUB Salisbury, SP1 3TA
Southport, PR8 1NH Burntwood, WS7 0JL TOLWORTH 1ST FOUNDING
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Blackpool, FY1 3QA ST. HELENS BOARDGAMES, ABINGDON WARGAMES CLUB LICHFIELD GAMERS AND RPG BROMSGROVE BOARD GAMERS
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Liverpool, L3 8HE London, N16 8BX BIG ORBIT GAMES Grangemouth, FK3 8QR Nuneaton, CV10 8LJ BEYOND MONOPOLY
SHREWSBURY York, YO24 1AQ
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CHARNWOOD ROLE London, NW1 2JU Stirling, FK8 1QJ ASSOCIATION HEADINGLEY GAMES CLUB
PLAYERS GAMING CLUB E-COLLECTICA GAMES Birmingham, B16 8SY Leeds, LS6 3HN
Loughborough, LE12 8DT MIDLOTHIAN Shrewsbury, SY1 2DT SUFFOLK
EDINBURGH LEAGUE OF GAMERS BURY ST. EDMUNDS SCIMITAR WARGAMES GROUP HOLMFIRTH GAMING CENTRE
LEICESTER ALL SCARS Edinburgh, EH7 5EA GAMES @THE BIRD BOARD GAMING GROUP Coventry, CV3 5GT Holmfirth, HD9 7HP
Leicester, LE1 3JR Shrewsbury, SY1 2DT Bury St. Edmunds, IP30 9LH
SOUTH EAST SCOTLAND WEST MIDLANDS HULL’S ANGELS
LEICESTER PHAT KATZ WARGAMES CLUB STAGS TELFORD HAVERHILL AREA BOARD BIRMINGHAM WARGAMES Hull, HU1 3HG
Leicester, LE3 0QY Edinburgh, EH7 4EW WARGAMING SOCIETY GAME GROUP AND BOARDGAMES CLUB
Telford, TF1 1LU Haverhill, CB9 8AU AKA DRAGOON’S DEN LEEDS GAMING
SECTION 31 Birmingham, B13 9EA Leeds, LS1 3DL
Leicester, LE1 1PA NORFOLK TELFORD BOARDGAMERS CLUB HAVERHILL WAR
AFTERMATH GAMING CLUB Telford, TF1 2BW GAMES CLUB PLAY MORE GAMES! LEEDS NIGHT OWLS
SONS OF SIMON Norwich, NR3 4HX Haverhill, CB9 9JE Solihull, B90 3GG Leeds, LS6 1LJ
DE MONTFORT SOMERSET
Loughborough, LE12 8TX KINGS LYNN RPG & BATH GAMING GROUP IPSWICH BOARD GAMERS WEST SUSSEX SHEFFIELD AND ROTHERHAM
WARGAMES CLUB Bath, BA2 6AA Ipswich, IP3 0FS BOGNOR REGIS WARGAMES CLUB
THE LEICESTER WARGAMES King’s Lynn, PE30 4DN GAMING ASSOCIATION Sheffield, S2 2TP
AND FANTASY GROUP MID SOMERSET IPSWICH COUNTY LIBRARY Bognor Regis, PO21 5EU
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Norwich, NR2 4AL Wells, BA5 2PU Ipswich, IP1 3DE BOGNOR REGIS MILITARY Sheffield, S3 7HG
LINCOLNSHIRE MODELLING AND
BOSTON TABLETOP GAMERS TAS GAMING CLUB PIGMAR WARGAMING CLUB MID SUFFOLK GAMING CLUB WARGAMING SOCIETY SHEFFIELD WARGAMES SOCIETY
Boston, PE21 6QQ King’s Lynn, PE34 4SJ Bath, BA1 6AB Stowmarket, IP14 4SH Bognor Regis, PO21 5SB Sheffield, S8 0PS

tabletopgaming.co.uk 93

SHOP SPOTLIGHT
UNBOXED
GAMING CAFÉ
Ross Bingham went from talking about games on a
podcast to running his own hobby café. He tells us
how he ended up turning his dream into a reality
Interview by Matt Jarvis
Could you tell us a little about Unboxed and what
makes it unique?
Unboxed is situated on the banks of the river Ayr, a
stone’s throw away from the Firth of Clyde.
It was an old pub previously and had been
fully refurbished a couple of years ago. However,
it still incorporates some brickwork of a
Cromwell-era citadel, known as Cromwell’s Fort.
When we got the lease, all we had to do was give
it a lick of paint and decorate it how we wanted.
I think what makes it unique is its atmosphere.
We always go out of our way to make sure the vibe of
our place is really chilled out and welcoming. As well
as that, we are as much a café and coffee shop as a
gaming venue/store; we love our coffee and we hope
to seriously expand our menu in the coming months.
You only opened your doors last spring. Why did
you decide to open a board game café, and how
has the café changed in the year and a bit since?
It was pretty spontaneous. My business partner,
Blair, had just quit his job in a pub last April and
I was sick of working 24-hour shifts as a carer.
So one night we were playing some games at
my house and I said I wanted to start my own
business “like a gaming cafe or something, that’d
be cool” and Blair said, “I’ll open a gaming cafe
with you dude...” A couple of days later we had a
‘meeting’ to discuss how, when, where and if we
were going to do it. It just snowballed from there.
I don’t think it’s changed that much other
than we kind of know what we’re doing now – in
July 2018
the beginning we had no clue about owning or
running a business.  The community of board game designers
You previously ran the Meeples Anonymous podcast.
What was most challenging or surprising about
shifting from being fans to hobby store/café owners?
When we were doing the podcast, we only had
to know about the games we were talking about;
now, we have to know about the industry. Some
of the podcast crew knew a lot anyway, but
being a part of the industry at this level has been
a learning curve on its own.
We absolutely love this hobby and to be
contributing to its ongoing success is thrilling. One
of the most surprising things has been the local
support for us; this is one of the first gaming cafés
in Ayrshire, so people who aren’t gamers are always
saying, “Oh, it’s a great idea, something different!”  about running weekend-long mini-conventions –
You’ve had a great selection of events going on,
from Friday Night Magic and D&D to Hearthstone
and general gaming. What’s a typical meet-up like?
It’s mostly been a case of getting a feel for what
our community wants. Magic: The Gathering
has a pretty big player base here so it was a no-
brainer for us to get membership to the Wizards
Play Network, and now we’ve got a regular
crowd that come here to play Magic.
D&D was a bit of a shock; for our first D&D
event I was going to DM myself, thinking about
five or six people would turn up, then almost
30 people showed up! Luckily a couple of them
were guys that could run games themselves so
we ended up with three games of nine players
apiece. It was nuts.
Food, drink and cardboard don’t always go
hand in hand. What makes for the right combo
of meals and games?
It’s true, at our house there is no food or drink at
the table – but that’s mostly because my brother-
in-law and I built a gaming table with a felted
tabletop so we didn’t want it to be spilled upon!
I think you just have to trust people to be
respectful of the games they can play in-store.
Most people know the value of these things
and treat them with due care. We haven’t had
any games ruined by coffee – yet. In general
we don’t serve greasy finger food, with the
exception of nachos – but that’s only on occasion.
What’s the local gaming scene like around Ayr?
I think it’s much the same as anywhere else,
really. There are pockets of people who are
into different things, whether it’s wargaming,
collectible/trading card gaming, RPGs or
straight-up board gaming. Most people who
are involved in these hobbies are pretty like-
minded, regardless of geography.
in Scotland is awesome. Through doing the
podcast we had the pleasure of meeting and even
befriending some Scottish designers like Bez,
Sarah Kennington, Mark McKinnon of Wreck and
Ruin fame and Justin Morgan Davies, who are all
awesome people and so supportive of each other,
it’s inspiring. A few of them even came to our
grand opening and demoed their games!
 
What are your future plans for 2018 and beyond?
From the very start of this venture we always
wanted to work with Scottish developers to
promote their games and, with their help, run
educational events like game design workshops
for the community. As well as that, we’ve spoken
although these might be down the road a bit, we’ve
definitely got big plans for Unboxed. We’ve
discussed starting another podcast too! 
tabletopgaming.co.uk 95
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NEWSDESK

Y
ou would think a board game about the
news would become out of date very
quickly but Newsdesk has managed to
hold its charm. It’s not really a game
about news events so much as a game
about being the editor of a newspaper and directing
your reporters around the world in pursuit of that next
big story. It’s a race to fill your front page with breaking
news stories before rival newspapers get there.
This game stands out in my childhood memories
due to the distinctive components used in the game.
The most obvious being the large, yellow, plastic telex
machine. For those too young to remember them, a
telex machine was a method of sending text via the
telephone lines between the 1940s and 1970s. It had a
keyboard, a telephone dial and a built-in printer. These
machines were replaced in the 1980s by fax machines.
The game makes great use of the telex device; it directs
the play with incoming messages determined by rolls
of the die. Most of these messages tell the editors
where the next big story is happening and they have to
get one of their reporters to that location.
The locations are major cities around the world
marked out on a large tri-fold board illustrated with
a rather plain world map. The board is divided into
squares and movement is in any direction except
diagonal. The aim is to collect story cards from the
cities you are sent to and place them in each of the four
empty spaces on your front page.
Each time a player reaches a city mentioned on the
telex machine they get to draw a story card – if they can
match the story type (art, economics, news-in-brief,
etc.) then they can place the card on their front page. they decided to use real stories from the time of their
Phil Robinson is a game
There’s also a ‘mission complete’ wild card that can stated publication (1973-1976). They’re full of stories
historian and the founder
instantly fill a space. The cards drawn can be negative about things like a pop star protesting against Spanish of the Museum of Gaming,
as there are five ‘write-off’ cards that will send your terrorists, a foiled IRA plot and the tragic death of an an organisation that
reporter home and end your turn. There are also eight Austrian ski champion caught in an avalanche. Words Phil and
explores Robinson
documents
special reporter cards that can be saved and used to Newsdesk was released worldwide with newspapers the history of gaming
counter negative effects. based on real local printed versions. The game was through its collections,
The newspaper front pages that you have to fill are known as Reporter in many regions and this title is exhibitions and research.
based on real newspapers: Daily Mirror, The Daily accidentally used in the rules. I think the game stands
Telegraph, Daily Express and The Guardian. The game’s up well today, having some interesting mechanics for
publishers could have decided to make up some its age. If you come across a copy I certainly think it’s
amusing stories for their front pages but interestingly worth adding to your collection.

98 July 2018 tabletopgaming.co.uk

IN AUGUST’S ISSUE O N S AL E JULY 3 1 S T

PATHFINDER
SECOND EDITION
A decade after it stepped out of D&D’s shadow,
the fantasy RPG is forging ahead with a spectacular
new vision. Its creators tell us what to expect

WESTERN
LEGENDS
Saddle up as we explore the
open-world Wild West sandbox

RED ALERT
Design legend Richard Borg
unveils his sci-fi successor to
Commands & Colors

MY LITTLE SCYTHE
Meet the father and daughter
behind the family-friendly
remake of the strategy hit

A GAMER’S
TRAVEL GUIDE
Everything you need to take
your hobby on a summer holiday

FREE EXCLUSIVE
GUILD BALL ART CARD
 available now!
As members of a team of Encryptors, it is your goal to transmit secret codes to your teammates without the opposing
team intercepting them. Communicate safely by giving only enough information to ensure you are understood by your
team, without your opponents decrypting it!