Tabletop Games Blog

The irrigation system was ready, but there was still work to be done on the trellises. The windmill, cottage and tasting room were still just ruins and only the first third of the wine cellar was acc…

Complexity is a fairly vague term. The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as "the state of having many parts and being difficult to understand or find an answer to." Yet, it's not clear when parts are c…

The task in hand wasn't going to be simple, but the rewards were huge. You could become ruler of Naqala if you were able to influence the people of the land to help you reach your goal. You were hopi…

Marco Bucci is a freelance artist and his experience includes books, film, animation, and advertising. He has worked for Walt Disney Publishing Worldwide, LEGO, LucasArts, Mattel Toys, Fisher-Price, …

I have previously written about small box games in my article "Compressed collections" which can create a lot of gameplay with only a few components. However, even larger box, or big box, games are s…

"Hm. Deep Purple looks good. Life's A Peach is also very warm and rich. Oh, and of course, we want the Cactus Jack. That would be the perfect triad of colours." You step back and look at the colour s…

As many of you probably already know, I'm a very visual person. So it's no surprise that I am drawn in by great board game art, sculpts, luxurious components and overall visual appeal. Don't get me w…

Sparkling jewels, shiny gems and precious stones lay in front of you - but only a handful and not necessarily the best example. Your hope was to sell some them for enough profit to be able to buy sha…

Andrew Bosley has been a professional concept artist in the video game industry since 2006 and in 2013 became a freelance concept artist and illustrator. He has worked on games including Everdell, Ta…

As many of you probably know, I only have limited space for games. That's why I very much like small box games that have a lot of gameplay crammed into a small volume. It's also the reason why I have…

You were constantly tired from working endless hours day in and day out. You had very little time to think about the world and when you did, you didn't have the words to describe what you saw and fel…

The cost of tabletop games is a topic that keeps popping up. There is the question of whether games have now become "overproduced", in the sense that the game components have become more expensive, d…

"Bubble, bubble," the herb witch cackles. "Stir the pot - nice and slow," the miracle doctor says. "Slowly, add another ingredient... what will it be?" the quack surgeon asks, looking at you intently…

As we all know, plastics are the scourge of our planet and can now be found virtually everywhere - from the obvious places like landfill sites to the most unexpected such as in the Arctic. They have …

"So, let me illustrate. Imagine a line that represents time and at one point is 1985, to the left of it the past and to the right of it the future. If we travel back in time and make some small chang…

Different people buy games for different reasons, and many of us will have amassed a little, or not so little, collection that we have at home that we are proud of. Yet, sometimes we're not sure how …

A small queue of customers was waiting outside. It was our opening day. We had our tea ready and some bits in our pantry, but still had to buy the flavours, which we wanted to get fresh from the mark…

I often feel that we accept the written word as something that's a given and don't pay much attention to it. We feel that writing isn't hugely important and that it's fine to just jot anything down, …

It was time to build a better future and turn this city around. We knew we had to reduce our carbon output quickly. Our aim was to be carbon neutral. Yet, the road there would be difficult and tough …

If you like competitive games, then you're probably familiar with trying to gauge where in the ranking you currently are during the game. Some games offer score tracks, so it's immediately clear how …