The Board Game Book 2019

The Board Game Book 2019

Your essential guide to the best new games

The Board Game Book 2019 Kickstarter Preview

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ELLO, and thanks for taking a look at this preview of The Board Game Book 2019.

In recent years the tabletop gaming hobby has grown at an astounding rate, and it isn’t hard to see why. A global community of talented designers is creating new, innovative gameplay experiences. Brilliant artists are imbuing games with the kind of visual flair found in high-end graphic novels and animated films.

And in an age when so much of our entertainment is solitary and screen-based, analogue games offer fans a sociable alternative to smartphones and consoles.

As games authors and journalists, we’re thrilled with the way gaming has grown from a niche pastime into a genuine cultural force. We’ve marvelled at the quality and variety of games hitting store shelves every year. And we’ve been delighted by the intelligent, inclusive, welcoming community that’s grown around the hobby.

This book is a celebration of an incredible year in tabletop gaming. At its heart is a guide to more than 100 of the year’s best games, with clear, concise and insightful criticism of releases from across the spectrum of the hobby. We cover everything from quick, simple family games to brain-burning strategy titles, digging into what makes them tick, the ideas and influences they explore, and the atmosphere and social interactions they foster around the table.

We also have behind-the-scenes interviews with game designers, from industry titans to up-and-coming talents. Getting a creator’s perspective on their work can be absolutely fascinating; think of every great interview you’ve read with your favourite bands or authors. We want to recognise game designers’ work in the same way, and to give readers a new insight into the creative processes behind their favourite games.

Finally, we have beautiful studio photography of all of the games featured in the book. A game’s visual appeal can be one of its strongest points, and we’ve aimed to capture the character and personality of the year’s most exciting releases.

We think it’s a pretty compelling combination, and we hope The Board Game Book will appeal to gamers of all kinds. We’d love to publish a new edition every year, and to continue to delve into the fun, challenge and creativity at the heart of our incredible hobby.

Writing, editing, designing, printing and distributing a book isn’t easy. It takes time, skill, hard work and money. In bringing this project to Kickstarter, we’re hoping that the gaming community will be as enthusiastic about it as we are. Your support is vital to making this idea a reality, and we’re beyond grateful for your help.

Owen, Matt, Teri and Richard

Artwork: Sakura/Osprey Games/Kevin Hong

Please note: this preview contains work-in-progress material.

Some pages include placeholder text. This will not appear in the finished product.

Get into Gaming 4

With thousands of new releases hitting shop shelves every year, getting into board games can be a daunting prospect. Luckily, there are some tried-and-tested games which combine simple rules and rewarding gameplay, making them perfect for anyone dipping their toe into the hobby for the first time. If you’re new to the tabletop world and don’t know where to start, these ‘gateway games’ could be just what you’re looking for.

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Ticket to Ride 2004 2 - 5 players, 30 - 60 minutes, ages 8+ Designer: Alan R. Moon £38.99 / $49.99

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ITH its charming artwork and cute plastic trains, you’d be forgiven for thinking Ticket to Ride was a gentle game of steam-powered railway adventure. But beneath its amiable exterior, it’s a ruthlessly competitive beast. You and your opponents play travellers criss-crossing North America by rail. You’ll lay coloured trains on the

map to mark your progress, earning points for connecting pairs of cities shown on secret objective cards.

What makes things interesting, though, is that once you’ve claimed a stretch of track, it’s off-limits to your opponents. You’ll be able to mercilessly block their paths, and it means that the fight over routes gets increas-

ingly desperate as the game goes on. What starts out as a wide open continent quickly becomes a cramped battlefield with players scrabbling to secure the links they need to seize victory.

If you enjoy the original game, you might also want to try the follow-up, Ticket to Ride: Europe, which comes with a new map

Machi Koro 2012 2 - 4 players, 25 - 30 minutes, ages 10+ Designer: Masao Suganuma £24.99 / $29.99

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GAME of small-town mayors with big aspirations, Machi Koro challenges you and your friends to grow your tiny villages into thriving cities. Starting with only a wheat field and a bakery, you’ll aim to put your town on the map, raking in cash, purchasing new buildings and constructing a set of prestigious landmarks.

On your turn you’ll roll dice, with different buildings providing rewards depending on the result. You might focus on small, dependable businesses like cafés and convenience stores, or costlier but potentially more lucrative ones, such as skyscrapers and stadiums. You could aim for variety, with a wide assortment of buildings covering commerce,

industry and entertainment, or you could specialise in one area, dominating the market in retail or factories.

It’s a quick, slick and intuitive approach to city-building, and you won’t need to concern yourself with tax rates, zoning codes or trifling annoyances like elections. Instead you’ll be able to focus on customising your Artwork: Rising Sun/ CMON/Adrian Smith

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Dixit

Splendor

Pandemic

2008 3 - 6 players, 25 – 30 minutes, ages 8+ Designer: Jean-Louis Roubira £29.99 / $34.99

2014 2 – 4 players, 20 – 30 minutes, ages 10+ Designer: Marc André £26.99 / $39.99

2008 2 - 4 players, 45 – 60 minutes, ages 8+ Designer: Matt Leacock £36.99 / $39.99

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GAME of subtlety and imagination, Dixit revolves around beautifully illustrated cards, all showing strange, dreamlike scenes: a boy holding a candle inside a giant lightbulb; a towering castle lifted into the air by a huge balloon; a ship’s anchor lying abandoned in the middle of a bone-dry desert.

On your turn, you’ll choose a card from your hand, placing it face-down on the table and vaguely describing it to the rest of the group. Your opponents then look at the cards in their hands and choose the one they think most closely matches your clue. You’ll shuffle the chosen cards together, then reveal them to your fellow players, who’ll try to decide which was the original card you played.

You’ll only score points if some, but not all of your rivals successfully guess your card, and it means that you’ll need to think carefully about the clues you give. Rather than minutely describing the scene you’ve chosen, you might hint at its mood or colour, or say that it reminds you of a book or a song.

It’s a tricky balancing act. Be too ambiguous, and there’s a chance that no one will guess correctly. Be too precise, and there’s a risk everyone will. In either case, you won’t get any points for your efforts, and getting it right takes real nuance and creativity.

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HIS game of renaissance jewel merchants sees players battling for wealth and prestige. You’ll invest in mines, secure shipping routes, open glitzy showrooms and attract Europe’s wealthiest nobles to marvel at your collection of diamonds, emeralds and rubies.

If that sounds like a tall order, don’t worry. Splendor is a brilliantly simple game that takes minutes to learn, but still manages to offer interesting decisions at every turn. As you play you’ll choose between acquiring

jewels, or using them to pay for upgrades to your growing business empire. You’ll grow steadily richer and more powerful, with the action becoming increasingly frantic as players race for points to claim victory.

To stand a chance of winning, you’ll need to keep a close eye on your opponents, disrupting their plans while advancing your own. It takes some sharp analytical thinking, and Splendor squeezes every possible drop of tactical challenge out of its elegant, minimalist set of rules.

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The Resistance 2009 5 – 10 players, 30 – 40 minutes, ages 10+ Designer: Don Eskridge £18.99 / $ 19.99

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Kingdom Builder 2011. 2 – 4 players, 30 – 45 minutes, ages 8+. Designer: Dominic X Vaccarino. £39.99 / $59.99

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HIS game of rival rulers casts players as monarchs looking to expand their kingdoms. Starting with a tiny cluster of houses, you’ll draw cards on every round which let you colonise different types of terrain - fields, forests, deserts, canyons - steadily building an empire that stretches across the board.

There’s more to wearing a crown than simple expansionism, though: you’ll also have to pay attention to the demands of your subjects. Miners want to be near mountains.

Fishermen want to be next to water. Merchants demand roads between connected lo-

cations. Hermits want to be left alone on isolated spots on the map. You’ll find yourself with a different set of citizens to placate each time you play, and managing their often-conflicting desires takes some real thought.

You’ll aim to work out which spots on the board are most prized by your populace, seizing them before your opponents can.

To help you on your quest, you’ll be able to use a variety of special abilities to claim extra spaces or rearrange buildings you’ve already placed on the map. And with a modular board that offers a variety of setups, you’ll face a new challenge with every game.

ET in a dystopian future, The Resistance is a gloriously sneaky game of deception, deduction, manipulation and bluffing. Players find themselves on one of two teams: a group of rebels fighting to overthrow a totalitarian regime, or a ring of undercover spies working to keep it in power.

The game plays out over a series of rounds, with rebel commanders choosing players to dispatch on missions to destroy imperial bases. But with the spies’ identities kept secret, the revolutionaries have no idea who’s really on their side, or who might stab them in the back. The result is a storm of confusion, betrayal and accusation as the villains attempt to pass themselves off as good guys, shifting suspicion onto innocent players and undermining the rebels’ faith in their teammates.

To win you’ll need a world-class poker face, a razor-sharp ability to spot deception, and the cold, calm nerve to keep a straight face while lying to your friends.

And if you’re looking for a similarly underhand game with a little more depth, try The Resistance: Avalon, which swaps the original game’s cyberpunk setting for the mists of Arthurian legend, introducing a collection of characters like Merlin, Oberon and Morgana, all with their own special abilities that add new layers of intrigue and confusion to the mix.

NE of the most influential titles in modern gaming, Pandemic revolves around a group of medics fighting to save humanity from deadly diseases. And where most games pit players against one another as adversaries, this cooperative release puts everyone on the same side, working together to research cures and fight infections.

Each round of the game sees disease strains spread around the world, jumping from city to city across a web of transport links. Your intrepid team will fly to far-flung locations to treat the sick, capture research samples and

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develop vaccines before civilisation collapses.

It’s not going to be easy. You’ll face unpredictable outbreaks that can suddenly turn a manageable situation into a terrifying crisis.

But you’ll also have an assortment of special abilities - a different one for each player - to help you react to the unfolding global disaster.

With its expertly engineered atmosphere of mounting tension, Pandemic has remained one of the most popular games in the hobby ever since its release.

King of Tokyo 2011. 2 – 6 players, 30 – 40 minutes, ages 8+. Designer: Richard Garfield. £33.99 / $39.99.

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ASED on classic kaiju monster movies, King of Tokyo hands players control of oversized creatures competing to bring chaos to the Japanese capital. You’ll play as a fifty-foot lizard, hideously tentacled sea monster or three-eyed alien invader, striving to inflict as much damage as possible on both the city and your rivals.

The game plays similarly to the classic Yahtzee. On your turn you’ll roll a handful of chunky dice, earning points or damaging your opponents depending on the results. But while dice-chucking action is at the heart of

the game, it’s not the only thing you’ll have to consider.

Monsters begin on the outskirts of Tokyo, and only one can occupy the city at any time.

Smash your way into the centre and you’ll be able to rack up bonus points for the destruction you cause. But you’ll also become the target for everyone else’s attacks, meaning you could find yourself beaten to a pulp and unceremoniously dumped out of the game.

There’s also a selection of power-up cards, which give your monster new traits and abilities like armoured skin, wings or fiery breath.

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Carcassonne

Star Realms

Kingdomino

2000 2 - 5 players, 30 - 45 minutes, ages 8+ Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede

2014 2 players, 15 - 20 minutes, ages 12+ Designers: Robert Dougherty & Darwin Kastle

2008 2 - 4 players, 45 – 60 minutes, ages 8+ Designer: Matt Leacock £36.99 / $39.99

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AILED by fans as a modern classic, tile-laying game Carcassonne casts players as medieval barons in an ever-expanding landscape of cities, roads and farmland. You and your opponents will take turns to play tiles from, forming a map that grows gradually bigger over the course of the game.

Building is only one half of your job, though. You’ll also be able to deploy workers to collect tolls, tithes and taxes from your subjects. Placing them on roads or cities under construction gains you points once

they’re completed, but it also puts you in a vulnerable position, because you won’t be able to use them again until the structures you’ve assigned them to are built.

It means you’ll face dilemmas on every turn about how to use your limited pool of wooden pawns. And if you’re particularly cunning you might also be able to swoop in on structures already under construction, letting your opponents do the hard work of building them, then snatching the resulting points from under their noses.

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HIS head-to-head card game challenges players to build fleets of mighty starships before throwing them into deadly deep-space combat. A stripped-down, streamlined example of a class of games known as deckbuilders, it sees you and your opponent playing cards to attack one another, or to buy a variety of new, more powerful spacecraft. As your fleet grows, you’ll open up new tactical options that can reduce your enemy’s once-proud navy to a sad, floating cluster of space junk.

It’s an easy game to grasp, but it’ll take practice to master the art of spotting synergies between different cards, balancing defense and aggression, and culling ships you no longer need to ensure that your deck remains a hyper-efficient killing machine.

Fast-paced, tactically challenging and massively replayable, Star Realms packs a lot of fun into a tiny box.

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NSPIRED by the traditional game of dominoes, this family-friendly tile-laying game sees players become monarchs vying to expand their domains. On each round you’ll choose from a selection of tiles, all showing different kinds of territory to add to your empire. You’ll lay down a new patch of land on every turn, growing your kingdom and earning points by connecting areas of the same type.

Some tiles net you more points than others, but taking a less valuable one means you’ll get to choose before your opponents on the

following round. It means you’ll constantly ask yourself whether you’re better off taking the biggest, shiniest prize on the table, or hanging back and grabbing something even better on a subsequent turn. It’s not always an easy decision, and with new tiles drawn from a randomly shuffled stack, you’ll need to constantly reevaluate your plans as you play.

With three or four players, Kingdomino is a tight and elegant. There’s also a more challenging two-player variant that sees you and your opponent building bigger kingdoms.

Junk Art 2016. 2 - 6 players, 15 - 30 minutes, ages 8+ Designers: Jay Cormier & Sen-Foong Lim £52.99 / $69.99

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HIS family-friendly but bitterly competitive game of squabbling penguins sees players stranded on a floating iceberg, fighting over tasty fish while the ground beneath them crumbles into the sea.

On each round you’ll move your gang of penguins around a board made of hexagonal tokens. Each space you land on awards you a different number of fish, and you’ll aim to finish the game with more than your rivals. But whenever a penguin leaves a patch of ice, it’s removed from the game, melting away into the ocean. It means that the board

gets smaller as the game goes on, with competition over the remaining food supply intensifying with every turn.

You’ll aim to block your opponents’ penguins, stopping them from reaching the spaces they most want to get to. It’s even possible to set rivals adrift, leaving them marooned on a tiny patch of ice floating away from the rest of the board.

With genuine tactical decisions, rules that take less than a minute to explain and toylike plastic figures, this is an ideal game for parents to play with kids.

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SNAZZIER and more creative spin on stacking games like Jenga, Junk Art casts players as internationally renowned artists creating sculptures out of piles of scrap metal. You’ll use colourful wooden blocks to build precarious structures and prove yourself the greatest visionary in modern art.

The game comes with a collection of different modes, all representing cities where you and your opponents can exhibit your work.

In Indianapolis you’ll try to complete your sculpture before anyone else, inspired by the city’s famous Indy 500 motor race. In New York you’ll build until the police turn up, a nod to the historic culture of graffiti art. In

Sushi Go 2013 2 - 5 players, 10 - 15 minutes, ages 8+ Designer: Phil Walker-Harding

Hey That’s My Fish!

2003 2 - 4 players, 15 - 20 minutes, ages 8+ Designers: Günter Cornett & Alvydas Jakeliunas £11.99 / $12.95

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Pisa you’ll pay tribute to the Leaning Tower, collaborating with your fellow artists to build a single structure that becomes less stable as it grows. With so many different ways to play, there’s plenty to keep you coming back to the table.

Junk Art’s pieces come in a variety of odd shapes - some easier to stack than others.

There are rings, cuboids, half-spheres and cylinders, and getting them to balance on top of one another takes some real skill. But the results are genuinely pleasing to look at one-off abstract creations with arrangements of shape and colour that wouldn’t look out of place in a swanky gallery.

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NSPIRED by high-tech restaurants where diners select their favourite sushi from a constantly moving conveyor belt, Sushi Go sees players passing cards around a table, all representing different delicious dishes from Japanese cuisine.

You’ll start the game with a hand of randomly drawn cards showing different varieties of maki, wasabi and nigiri. On each turn you’ll choose a card to place in front of you before passing the rest to the person to your left or right. It means that sets of snacks make their way around the table, with each player picking their favourites until none are left.

At the end of each round you’ll work out your score, with different types of cards earning you different numbers of points. You’ll aim to collect high-scoring sets, but you’ll also need to keep an eye on your opponents and try to avoid passing them the cards they need. It’s light, quick, and it comes with impossibly charming artwork, with servings of sushi that look almost too cute to eat.

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Reiner Knizia on Sakura BGB: Sakura isn’t your first game set in ancient Japan. Is there something about that setting that strongly appeals to you?

Reiner Knizia: I love history. It’s a very rich universe of experiences and fascinating themes and events. It’s also very easy to communicate, because when you see a game with a certain cover or a certain title, you get an instant idea of what it’s about.

If I set a game in a fantasy kingdom then I have to write pages of detail on this world and the people who live in it. But if I say: “I’m in feudal Japan,” then I know where I am. If I say that I’m in ancient Egypt, then I know there’s a pharaoh, I know there are pyramids, I don’t need to explain.

For this game the starting point was the central mechanism rather than the theme. I wanted this idea of getting close to something, but not too close. Then I asked myself where that could happen, and Japan had this concept where the Emperor was in front, you had to be very polite and keep your distance, and it just seemed to fit.

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Sakura Category: Light Strategy Designer: Reiner Knizia Artists: Kevin Hong Players: 2 - 6

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AMED for the delicate cherry blossoms that burst into bloom every year across Japan, Sakura is one of the prettiest releases of 2018. Its luscious artwork takes inspiration from films like Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle - and appropriately enough, it’s all about artists.

The game casts players as painters clamouring to capture portraits of the Emperor as he admires his palace garden. You’ll push past your rivals as you try to get close to your ruler, but you’ll also have to avoid accidentally touching him as you fight your way through the crowd, a massive faux-pas that will bring disgrace to your name.

The action revolves around a simple card-based system. You’ll choose one from your hand to play on each round, moving your artist along a twisting garden path as it dictates. But each card comes with multiple effects: some let you jostle opponents out of your way, others let you move the Emperor himself.

It quickly leads to a riotous shoving match where you can never be sure what’s likely to happen on any given round, and it’s all-too-easy to run headlong into the Emperor, losing precious points in the process. What seems like a safe, sensible move can turn out to be a disastrous mistake, but only once it’s far too late to do anything about it. If you’re particularly mean, it’s even possible to nudge your opponents into the Emperor’s path, and Sakura comes with a ruthless streak that rewards cold hearts and sharp elbows.

Playing time: 20 - 30 minutes Ages: 10+ RRP (UK): £21.99 MSRP (US): $30.00 It’s a fast-playing blend of chaos and control, but it loses some of its anarchic quality with smaller groups of players. It’s at its best with a thronging crowd of artists flailing and fighting their way across the board. With fewer players jostling for position, there’s less potential for confusion and collisions, and the game feels a little flat as a result.

Then there’s the fact that underneath its gorgeous outer shell, this is an undeniably abstract game. It values mechanical elegance over immersion in its theme - something that’s long been a hallmark of Reiner Knizia’s designs - and while it’s not so much a flaw as a matter of personal taste, if you’re looking for any sense of story or character as you play, you’ll be better off looking elsewhere.

It’s also unfortunate that many of the cards in the game recycle the same pieces of artwork. It’d be nice to see more of artist Kevin Hong’s knockout visuals.

But what’s impressive about Sakura is the way it uses a streamlined, efficient, orderly set of rules to generate such chaos. At times it feels less like feudal Japan than a paparazzi feeding frenzy around a celebrity leaving a modern-day nightclub. With any kind of long-term planning impossible, the fleeting moments of control where you can claw your way in front of rivals or shove another player under the bus become all-important, and it deftly packs a succession of momentary triumphs and stomach-churning setbacks into a hectic half-hour of gameplay.

There’s the potential to make what you think is quite a safe move, but then to find you’ve made a terrible mistake once you see your opponents’ cards.

What kind of atmosphere were you trying to create for players?

That’s exactly the point. You never know what’s going to happen. If you’re too careful then you’re not going to get close to the Emperor and you’re not going to score any points, but if you get too adventurous and push your luck too much then the other players can stitch you up.

Because everyone’s playing at the same time, you’re always involved. It’s a quick game, and there are always some big surprises when the cards come down.

You have this very simple, orderly set of rules, but they generate such chaos.

How did you try to emphasise that element of the game?

That is done via the cards, and that was the main focus of my playtesting. If the cards are too random, too luck-based, then people get dissatisfied. And if the cards don’t affect the game in powerful ways then people get bored.

So it’s a real balancing act.

In some ways, is it harder to design a small, simple game than a bigger, more complex one?

I think it’s difficult to compare. They’re just different designs. If you do a game for kids aged four to six then you have to approach it very differently. It’s a much simpler game, but it’s not easier to design it. And if you do a much bigger, more complex game that plays in 90 minutes, it’s not necessarily harder to design, it’s just that there are different requirements.

For me there’s a nice mixture, because I work on some simpler games, some more complex games, and sometimes you don’t even know where a game is going to go. You start with a complex game, you take things away and suddenly it’s much simpler, or vice-versa.

I was really impressed visually by the game. What did you think of the illustrations?

You want to stand out from all the other new releases that are out there. I think Sakura’s artwork really does that, it really differentiates the game, and a lot of people really seem to like it.

Artwork is very, very important because the first thing you see is the cover and the graphics. It’s the same as if I open a book and I just see letters, letters, letters. It’s not as exciting as seeing structure and pictures. If I get a good first impression then I might buy the book, and it’s just the same with games.

You’ve designed a huge number of games. Is there a secret to producing that kind of volume of work?

My personality is that I like to work. I like to focus on one thing in my life and do it really properly. It’s very rewarding to bring enjoyment to people, and my whole life is organised around creating good games.

It doesn’t mean I spend all of my time in the studio, but I’m an early bird, and I’m here at four o’clock in the morning. I have lots of people who playtest. We discuss games a lot, and ideas flow from the group. Today I’ll sit here with one group and playtest, and then tomorrow I’ll sit with another group and play the same game. I see how different groups react, and the game takes big steps forward because so many people are involved.

With more than 600 published designs to his credit, Reiner Knizia may be the most prolific creator in gaming. His work includes Through the Desert, Lord of the Rings, Lost Cities, Modern Art, Ra, Tigris & Euphrates and High Society - all considered classics of the hobby.

Known for his abstract, elegant approach to design, he has established a reputation for mechanical minimalism, using simple rules to create engaging and challenging gameplay.

You’ll aim to fight through the scrum to get closer to the emperor than your opponents.

Sakura comes in a small box, but it packs a respectable dose of chaos and confusion.

Artist Kevin Hong’s illustrations are packed with character, like stills from a gorgeous animated film.

I set a game in ‘aIffantasy kingdom then I have to write pages of detail on this world and the people who live in it. But if I say: “I’m in feudal Japan,” then I know where I am.

’

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Marc André on Majesty: For the Realm BGB: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit mi nostra, lectus nullam sagittis odio neque feugiat Marc André: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit mi nostra, lectus nullam sagittis odio neque feugiat consequat condimentum litora, fringilla cum elementum pretium magna vestibulum libero non.

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Majesty: For the Realm Category: Light Strategy Designer: Marc André Artists: Anne Heidsieck Players: 2 - 4

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AUNCHED in 2014, Splendor is a hit game of renaissance jewel merchants, and its elegant, brainy gameplay has won it countless fans. Now its creator has returned with another release that combines simple rules with a head-scratching challenge but can it hope for the same kind of glittering reception?

Majesty: For The Realm casts players as medieval mayors vying to attract citizens to their growing towns. You’ll aim to recruit workers, nobles and soldiers, swelling your population and turning your unassuming backwater into a bustling, prosperous city.

You’ll compete to snap up characters represented by a shifting row of cards in the centre of the table. Each comes with its own special effect: gaining you gold, defending your town or attacking opponents.

You’ll aim to build your workforce and generate more money than your rivals. But you’ll have to think carefully, because the cards you choose can have knock-on effects on other players.

Hire a brewer, for instance, and you’ll increase the demand for grain, granting a bonus to anyone with a miller in their city. Recruit an innkeeper, and you’ll cause a spike in the market for beer, earning a few coins for anyone with a brewer. It’s a simple system, but it gives the sense of an interconnected economy, with different trades relying on one another for business. It also means you’ll constantly weigh the point-scoring potential of cards against the advantages they hand to your opponents.

Time: 20 - 40 minutes Ages: 8+ RRP (UK): £36.99 MSRP (US): $39.99 Things get more complicated towards the end of the game. You’ll gain bonuses for the citizens you’ve accumulated, scoring points for having a diverse mix in your city, but also for collecting sets of the same types of workers. They’re two contradictory goals, and focussing too closely on one means you’re likely to neglect the other.

It adds a touch of long-term planning to the game, but it also nudges up its level of complexity, and while Majesty is far from convoluted, it isn’t anything like as intuitive as Splendor. There are card synergies to get your head around. There’s more interaction between players.

There’s an element of aggression, with opponents raiding each other’s towns and sending one another’s citizens to the infirmary. And its scoring system requires just a little bit of maths to determine who’s actually won.

None of this is to say that it’s bloated or sluggish. With games playing out in just 12 rounds, it has a snappy pace and each of your actions feels genuinely important. One disappointment, though, is the lack of diversity in the game’s art. There isn’t a single non-white character, and it’s a jarring oversight.

But Majesty is fast, thoughtful fun. It may not have the kind of pick-up-and-play simplicity that’s made Splendor such an enduring favourite, but it’s an engaging game in its own right, and with an advanced mode that lets you explore new strategies once you’ve got to grips with the basics, it promises to stay fresh after repeat plays.

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You’ll populate your growing city with guards, millers, nobles and other citizens.

Adding cards to your city can earn you gold, but it can also offer advantages to your rivals.

You’ll need to recruit a diverse mix of characters in order to maximise your score.

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Crystal Clans Category: Medium Strategy Designers: Andrea Mezzotero, Colby Dauch, J. Arthur Ellis Artist: Martin Abel Players: 2

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he first thing that strikes you about Crystal Clans is its vibrant cartoon artwork. A fantasy-themed card game, it casts players as generals commanding armies of fearless soldiers and dangerous creatures, and it paints its world in shades of flame red, neon pink and electric blue.

It looks like a modern-day answer to He-Man or Thundercats, with forces of brave knights, shape-shifting merfolk and villainous necromancers. Once you’ve finished drooling over its illustrations, though, you’ll notice another distinguishing feature.

Where most card-battlers like Magic: The Gathering revolve purely around players’ carefully crafted decks, Crystal Clans comes with a board - a physical battlefield for you and your opponent to fight over. As you play you’ll carefully maneuver your troops between regions, seizing territory, defending your base and launching merciless attacks against your rival.

You’ll need to constantly read the battlefield, reacting to your opponent’s threats and exploiting their weaknesses. It’s a real tactical challenge, but you’ll be able to use your units’ array of special powers to help you in the fight. Some boost allies’ strength in combat, or reduce enemies’ defences. Others fly high above the field, speeding to the places where they’re most needed, or pin down your opponent’s forces, keeping them out of the fray.

Each of the game’s factions comes with its own set of abilities. The Blood Clan swamps its enemies with huge hordes of warriors. The Skull Clan uses dark magic to raise fallen fighters from the dead.

The Flower Clan controls and incapacitates its foes rather than facing them head-on in combat. Mastering these distinct play styles takes practice, and it makes for some varied and exciting clashes between different combinations of clans.

There’s more to the game’s strategy, though, and one of its most intriguing elements is the way it lets players combine their units into squads by stacking their cards one on top of another. It means they’ll move and fight as a group, amplifying the danger they pose to anyone who strays into their path.

Whenever units collide, combat ensues, and it’s one of Crystal Clans’ high points. Before determining the result, you and your opponent will secretly choose cards from your hands that can tilt the tide of battle in your favour. It adds a poker-like element to proceedings, and you’ll lock eyes like cowboys in an Old-West saloon as you simultaneously flip your cards to reveal who’s come out on top. It means you’ll be able to squeeze some narrow and unexpected victories out of what look to be horribly one-sided fights, and you’ll never be able to mount an attack without at least a little bit of trepidation about the outcome.

It all combines to make for some slick and brain-teasing contests.

But what’s most impressive about Crystal Clans is its initiative system. Where card games like Magic or Hearthstone use resources like mana or gold to determine what players can do at any given time, Clans comes with a numbered track along the edge of its board. Each action you take pushes a blue gemstone marker towards your opponent’s side, giving them the opportunity to respond to your moves with equally powerful plays of their own. It makes for a frantic seesaw contest with a constantly ramping sense of action and drama.

At this early stage, the game’s biggest flaw is its lack of support for customisation. It comes with six pre-constructed decks, with other

Playing time: 30 - 60 minutes Ages: 14+ RRP (UK): £36.99 MSRP (US): $39.95

clans set to join the lineup in a series of expansions. If you want to build your own decks, you’ll have to wait for a rules update from the publisher.

Until then, though, there are enough clever ideas in this box to keep any commander occupied.

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Jerry Hawthorne on Stuffed Fables

Stuffed Fables sees players become a heroic band of toys, sworn to protect a sleeping girl from a villain who stalks her nightmares.

BGB: Stuffed Fables’ plot is a long way from common gaming themes like sci-fi and fantasy. How did you come up with it?

Jerry Hawthorne: I wanted to design a cooperative family adventure game which was easy to learn. My original idea came about after watching the Pixar movie Inside Out. I thought the way it dealt with different emotions would be interesting to represent in a game, but I wanted to create an original story.

I decided on stuffed animals as the protagonists because they’re easy for anyone to relate to. Each animal in the game reflects a different facet of a little girl’s personality, and each of them is good at dealing with different kinds of situations.

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Stuffed Fables Category: Kids & Family Designer: Jerry Hawthorne Artists: Kristen Pauline and Regis Demy Players: 2 – 4

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NCE upon a time, there was a board game called Mice & Mystics. A family-friendly fantasy title, it cast players as a group of adventurers magically transformed into mice. Over a series of perilous missions, they faced dangers including venomous spiders, ruthless rats and a ravenous, sharp-clawed cat.

The game garnered a loyal fan base. Now its designer is back with spiritual sequel Stuffed Fables. Where Mice & Mystics revolved around courageous rodents, this latest release sees you and your friends play as animated cuddly toys. It might sound like kids’ stuff, but even cynical grown-ups will find it hard not to fall in love with Lumpy: a nervous plushie elephant armed with a meat tenderiser.

You and your fellow playthings will fight to protect a little girl from Crepitus, the Nightmare King - a terrifying villain who haunts the dreams of sleeping children. It brings a dark overtone to the game, and on first inspection it seems as if it might be a little too mature for its target audience. Then there are the rules: not hugely complicated, but too complex for the suggested age of eight plus.

But the penny drops when you get to the end of the first adventure and find a moral discussion point for the players. This isn’t a kids’ game, it’s a family game in the literal sense of the phrase: a game best enjoyed between grown-ups and their children.

If that limits its appeal, it’s a shame, because Stuffed Fables has some very clever innovations to show off. Its centrepiece is a printed

Time: 20 - 30 minutes Ages: 8+ RRP (UK): £64.99 MSRP (US): $69.95 storybook, where each pair of pages represents one scenario in its ongoing campaign. Each features a map - the actual board - on one page and a bunch of text on the other, some to be read aloud to set the scene, the rest describing events that unfold when players trigger them by taking certain in-game actions.

It provides colossal variety. So much so that, like a choose your own adventure book, there are seve paths through each story. You can play twice and have a totally different experience each time.

The game runs on a dice-drafting mechanism, where dice of different colours allow you to attempt different actions. It’s accessible for younger players and offers just enough purchase to retain the interest of more experienced hobbyists.

Sometimes, though, the pages throw the players a curveball. The rules change and the dice are used in different ways. It’s impressively creative and injects extra variety, but it also means you’ll have to ingest and explain these rules on the fly. There’s a risk of either getting them wrong, or deflating the atmosphere like a sad balloon as you try to work out exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.

Stuffed Fables is a charming game, though, and it should go down a storm among gamers with families. For everyone else, it feels a bit like a semi-successful design experiment crammed with half-brilliant ideas. It’s probably a safe bet that we’ll be seeing a lot of them resurfacing, refined, in future releases.

There are some quite dark elements in the game. Was it hard to create a sense of threat without making it too scary for younger kids?

Yes, it was very difficult. When making a product intended to be shared with kids, you have a certain responsibility. I take that very seriously. But kids also enjoy the thrill and tension that spooky things create. I call the tone of Stuffed Fables ‘creepy cute’.

I think Harry Potter does a good job of getting the balance right. I also remember reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when I was a kid, and I found it really exhilarating.

Do you think there’s an untapped audience for more family-oriented games? And what are some of the benefits of parents playing games with their kids?

Grown-up gamers are the engine that fuels our industry, but I feel there are a lot of

The game’s plastic miniatures look like something from a hit Pixar movie - although some are a little scary for younger children.

I think Harry Potter ‘does a good job of getting the balance right. I also remember reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when I was a kid, and I found it really exhilarating.

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gamers with children who are just begging for games designed to bring everybody to the table.

Games can teach things like numbers and reading, but story games are unique in that they can teach kids morals as well. The story’s subject and the events that transpire in the game can spark some interesting discussions, and you can learn a lot about people through gaming.

I think any age-appropriate game has the ability to forge family bonds. I remember learning to play chess against my dad. My brothers and I played Star Fleet Battles.

Later, we got sucked into Dungeons & Dragons.

Our family played a lot of canasta, and I still remember the falsely competitive culture we created around that game with trash talk and secret team strategies. We cheated openly and pretended to hide it, and the laughter would have our bellies aching by the end of the night. It’s the gathering of loved ones and friends that make the

Jerry Hawthorne is a professional game designer for Plaid Hat Games. His career in the gaming industry began after he contributed to a fan site for the fantasy battle game Heroscape, eventually leading him to work for the game’s publisher, Hasbro. He is the designer of the family adventure game Mice and Mystics as well as Tail Feathers, a miniature battle game set in a world of anthropomorphic animals.

experience. Games are just the excuse to make that happen.

Are there any other games that you think do storytelling well?

My favourite games are story-driven. The ones that come to my mind are games like Mansions of Madness, Above and Below, Near and Far, or Legacy of Dragonholt.

Having the players control the heroes’ actions and decisions is pretty profound if you think about it. You have to allow for players’ choices to affect the story either profoundly or in small ways. You can deliver a message more thoroughly through direct engagement, or illustrate a point by allowing the players to see the outcomes of their choices, both positive and negative.

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As you play you’ll encounter a succession of new scenarios, dangers and enemies to overcome.

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Fog of Love sees players create characters, using cards to assemble collections of personality traits and attributes.

Fog of Love Category: Storytelling Designer: Jacob Jaskov Artists: Mike Højgaard & Lotte M. Klixbüll Jaskov 96

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AKE a look at any game store shelf and you’ll find an array of dungeon-crawlers, sci-fi shooters and bloody battle games.

If you’re looking to hack, slash, blast and bludgeon your way through waves of hapless foes, the tabletop hobby has you spoiled for choice. But all of this aggression raises an interesting question: why are there so many games about killing people, and so few about kissing them?

Enter Fog of Love. Billed as ‘romantic comedy as a board game,’ it steers clear of familiar tropes like zombies, orcs and dragons. Instead it takes its inspiration from films like Notting Hill and Sleepless in Seattle, with players attempting to navigate the ups and downs of a turbulent love affair.

Before you begin you’ll each create a character, choosing from a random selection of cards to build the protagonists in your unfolding love story. You’ll give yourself a job and a collection of personality traits, and it makes for some unlikely pairings: a fun-loving parking attendant falling for a macho florist; a perfectionist police officer captivated by a permanently stoned musician; a flirtatious celebrity hooking up with a hairy, tattooed farmer.

It means you’ll instantly start seeing the potential for interesting interactions and points of conflict. But these characteristics are more than just thematic set-dressing: they determine exactly what you want out of the relationship, and they’re integral to the way you play. If

Players: 2 Playing time: 60 - 120 minutes Ages: 17+ RRP (UK): £47.99 MSRP (US): $49.97 you’re a nurturing type, you’ll favour cooperation and understanding.

If you’re adventurous, you’ll seek out excitement and new experiences. If you’re ambitious, you’ll value hard work and organisation - perhaps even to the detriment of your love life.

It makes for personality clashes that can be heated, hilarious or both.

But what makes things really interesting is that these fundamental building blocks of your character remain a secret to your partner. Neither of you will have any idea about the other’s true motivations, and you’ll try to discern each other’s intentions as you play. Ultimately, you’ll both have to decide whether you’re lifelong soulmates, or better off going your separate ways.

Throughout the game you’ll play scene cards, short snippets of text describing a situation and prompting you to react. Some are unremarkable: conversations about who’ll do the dishes or where you’d like to go on holiday. Others are much more dramatic: you come across suspicious texts on your partner’s phone, or discover a sex tape they made with an ex.

How you respond to each scene - both individually and as a couple - will have a profound effect on the game. Acting in ways that reflect your personality will leave you feeling happier and more secure, but often your decisions can have a knock-on effect on your relationship.

If you’ve picked the intense trait, then you might cause an awkward scene with an emotional outburst. If you’re playing a narrow-minded

By taking actions that fit with your character’s personality, you’ll be able to boost their happiness.

But it can lead to clashes with your partner.

character, then your judgemental nature might spark arguments. If you’re painfully shy then your social awkwardness might see you sidelined from your partner’s circle of friends.

It means you’ll constantly face choices about whether to act in your own best interest, or to do what’s right for your relationship. Just like in real life, it’s not always a clear-cut decision, and the game creates a running treadmill of thorny dilemmas.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Fog of Love, though, is the way it encourages you to view these difficult choices from your character’s perspective. To get the most out of the game, you’ll have to adopt an approach that’s almost akin to method acting, immersing yourself completely in your in-game persona. It turns the whole experience into what’s effectively a two-player roleplaying game, and while in theory the process of reading and reacting to scenes could take seconds, you’ll pad things out with improvised dialogue, turning the game into an intimate, personal kind of performance.

For some players, that’s likely to be off-putting. If the idea of this kind of improv drama doesn’t appeal to you, you’re unlikely to have a good time. The game is far more about emotional involvement than tactical choices, and even its idea of what constitutes ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ is hazily defined. You might stay happily together, but walking away from a relationship that’s turned sour is an equally valid outcome for your story.

As you play, you’ll track the effects of your experiences on your character, giving a feeling of emotional development.

That lack of a clear goal might be frustrating for some, but if you’re drawn to games with a narrative-first approach, there’s a huge amount to like about Fog of Love.

There’s its slick tutorial mode, which teaches you the game without forcing you to work through its rulebook. There’s its inclusive approach to same-sex relationships, with players free to choose the gender of their characters. There’s its mature attitude to sex, which avoids falling into either prudishness or cheap titillation. And there’s the fact that even when the same scenes come up repeatedly across multiple game sessions, you’ll view them through the lens of a completely new personality every time, leading to stories with wildly different moods, events and endings.

It’s a game that understands individual psychology, depicting characters’ personalities with nuance and subtlety. It brilliantly models the dynamics of a relationship: a delicate balance of vulnerability and trust. And it builds storytelling right into the heart of its design, with the level of drama and emotional investment ramping up steadily as you play.

It claims to be a romantic comedy, but the laughs are entirely optional. Your stories can be poignant, playful, happy or heartbreaking depending on how you choose to play them, and it’s likely they’ll be a mix of all. It’s a powerful achievement: a bold, original, imaginative game that’s wonderfully easy to fall in love with.

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Jacob Jaskov on Fog of Love

Jacob Jaskov is a Danish game designer whose first self-published release, Fog of Love, explores the ups and downs of romantic relationships.

A lifelong gamer, he played tabletop roleplaying games from an early age and has been deeply involved

BGB: What made you want to make a game based on romantic comedy films?

Jacob Jaskov: I wanted to make a game that could appeal to my wife, as I wanted to play games with her more. She’s turned off by most games, so I searched for an alternative theme that might interest her. She loves romantic comedies, so I proposed making a game about them - about wooing a partner and making a relationship work. Luckily, she loved the idea and I went with it.

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What kind of research did you do to understand the feel of rom-coms?

How did you try to incorporate elements of those films into the game?

To make a game about something you need to understand its underlying structures and dynamics, otherwise the theme will only be pasted-on. So I read a lot about how the genre works: the conventions and tropes, the types of visible and invisible conflicts and how the stories typically evolve.

As the game structure grew, my wife and I listed all the key romantic and dramatic scenes from movies and other media that we could find. We searched for fun and interesting material that could become scenes in the game. My wife had a lot to say about what kind of content would be enjoyable. I couldn’t have done this without her. .

Why do you think the themes of love and romance have so rarely been explored in gaming?

Games have systems of interaction that don’t lend themselves well to dramas of the heart.

Romance is not about competition, direct conflict or optimization. So even if you want to make a game about love, it’s difficult using the traditional toolbox of game interactions.

Besides this deeper structural challenge, it’s clear that most designers don’t even consider this genre, as it’s not part of traditional ‘geekdom.’

That’s slowly changing, and board games are reaching out to new audiences. It has been happening in computer games for quite some time through titles like The Sims, and it’s bound to happen in our domain as well.

in the Danish RPG community. He worked for a number of years as an innovation consultant for businesses and government institutions before successfully crowdfunding Fog of Love and embarking on a full-time career in games design and development.

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I read a lot about how the genre works: the conventions and tropes, the types of visible and invisible conflicts and how the stories typically evolve.

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It’s possible to create some very interesting characters with different combinations of traits and features.

Have you come across any that you found particularly memorable?

I mostly remember the stories that evolve and the characters’ role in them. I still laugh inside when I think about my playtesters playing a sweet princess who ended up exploiting her psychologist partner. The psychologist did everything right, but couldn’t impress her royal parents or make her commit to him for real. It was a surprising story that was fun to watch.

I also love the story I played of the successful and manipulative female manager who dated a dominant televangelist. After almost ruining their relationship, the televangelist converted her to become spiritual and then he became sincere rather than dominant. They were so close to failure but in the end they succeeded in living happily ever after.

These are stories that are three years old, but still live with me. .

Players can ‘win’ the game in lots of different ways, some of which include breaking their partner’s heart. Why did you want to include that as a possibility?

I wanted the drama to be real. If there’s no risk, then the payoff for doing things right isn’t strong enough. The risk of heartbreak makes the stories much more fun and interesting.

It means that the game is about creating

trust in a dramatic story and not just about coordinating predictably with your partner.

The game is very LGBT-inclusive.

Was it important to you to represent a diverse range of relationships?

This was essential for me. The game is about love and love comes in many forms.

It was important but also a bit difficult as this genre is quite conservative. Very few rom-coms represent LGBT couples.

Sadly the genre conventions still impacted how we made the cover. It’s beautiful, but it’s also stereotypical. This is something I’m thinking a lot about and want to do something about in the future. The box should be more inclusive as well.

In general, gaming has been very shy of entering this territory. Most games ignore love and especially ignore varieties of love.

It’s a real shame, as this obviously means a lot to us as human beings. Several recent games are changing this, but it’s still a minority.

Even though the focus is squarely on the story, there’s also a tactical element. Players can try to sway the plot in directions that further their goals and benefit their character. What kinds of decisions were you trying to throw in their path?

There are two levels of decisions. On the micro-level I wanted to mimic the economy of a relationship, where there is give and take. You always need to consider whether you help yourself or your partner – or whether you can do something that helps both. On the deeper level I wanted to emulate more existential choices: Where do I want this relationship to go? Do I trust my partner? Do I change to accommodate them? The two levels of decision making, and the subtle economy help make the story feel real. The choices you make have consequences in the game.

Do you think people play the game differently with their spouses or partners than when they play it with their friends? If so, why do you think that is?

In my numerous playtests there wasn’t much difference. The most important thing

You’ll track your characters’ attachment to the relationship: sharing meaningful events can bring you closer, but disagreements can push you apart.

Players can choose their characters’ gender, and the game’s event cards include scenes with particular resonance in same-sex relationships.

You’ll face a series of decisions as you play, and agreeing with your partner often leads to more harmonious outcomes.

is the willingness to loosen up and engage in a roller coaster story. Some find this easier to do with friends, some feel more at ease with their partners, and for most it didn’t make much difference.

Sex is obviously an element of the game. It’s not graphic or explicit, but you don’t shy away from discussing it. Was that a difficult balance to get right? Did you worry that it might be off-putting for some players?

Ha! No other genre of storytelling is so asexual as board games. So yes, I worried a lot about this initially. Then I found that nobody reacted negatively, not a single playtester! I even had adults play the game with people in their teens. I had imagined this would be awkward, but they took it lightly. Most people are much more mature than we give them credit for. Other media handle sex much more naturally - just think about some young adult novels.

There’s a big element of expression and inhabiting your character. What advice would you give to someone who finds that kind of performance aspect intimidating?

Just take it in small steps. The game works even if you just tell the story through the cards you play. The game is gentle in how it nudges players to come up with small creative comments and contributions here and there. So there’s no need to worry if you feel uncomfortable with roleplaying. You don’t need to do much. Slowly most players learn to engage in the roleplaying and find it adds to the fun.

There have been quite a few games recently which put storytelling at the core of their design. Do you think this could be the start of a trend in the hobby?

Yes! Stories are important for how we orient ourselves in the world. They help us make

The game’s minimalist graphic design leaves plenty of room for players’ imaginations to fill in the details of their unfolding romance.

meaning and create strong experiences.

Since games are about experience, it’s obvious that story-rich games will have an important role to play You have some expansions planned with new scenarios for the game.

What can players expect to see in the future?

The first expansion is about a blind date gone wrong. It changes a lot of the dynamics that players expect. It’s great for players who want to make the game more difficult and dramatic.

The next expansion is about your inlaws, where you need to decide whether you accommodate your awful parents, or whether you stick together as a couple. It’s challenging and adds even more depth to the stories played. It’s also hilarious.

Luckily there is room for a ton of great romance and love stories. I want to include as many good ones as I can.

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