Dark Venture is a radical adventure game born of hallucination from one-man-band Rob Lemon. I prodded this quirky design in 2019, writing about it in my monthly Independent Shelf series in Tabletop Gaming Magazine. I found this artifact so becoming that I even included it on my 2019 games of the year list. Well, this…
Plato’s theory of forms posits that there are abstract and unchanging ideals that exist in another realm. These are the non-physical beatific essences of all things. Imagine conceptually the ideal chair in size, shape, and beauty. That’s the form existing in its perfect state. Plato offers that objects in the material world are imitations of…
“Aren’t you the headless fellow that’s been getting around?“ Trying to model a Metroidvania platformer on the tabletop is a pointless endeavor. That’s why this quintet of designers didn’t attempt it. Instead of adapting Dead Cells the brutal twitch action game, they adapted Dead Cells the content-heavy roguelite progression game. The experience presented is one…
SAS: Rogue Regiment is one of those games that tickles my gizzard. It’s an indie flick, produced by designer Robert Butler and publisher World Forge Games. It’s also a hot blend of historical wargame and cinematic Hollywood World War Two thriller. The group takes on the role of British SAS agents infiltrating German lines and…
Listen up you sickos, I’m going to tell you about something magical. Back in the early aughts I went to college in a small town near Kansas City. I graduated with a Computer Science degree. I met my wife there. And I played heaps of Halo. Heaps. I didn’t spend a lot of time drinking…
I used to keep up with and cover the majority of Games Workshop’s lines, at least the milestone products such as new editions of 40K, Warcry, or Warhammer: The Old World. I’ve unfortunately had to let go of this for various reasons. That hasn’t changed the fact that I’m still an avid miniatures gamer. And…
It’s historically been a very difficult project marrying together Euro-style mechanisms with the more thematic adventure game format. Despite many attempts, Legends of Andor and Lost Valley: The Yukon Gold Rush are the only titles that really managed prosperity. Trail Story: America is making a push for that short list. This Dan Manfredini design leans…
Brett G. Murrell’s Worldspanner Factions is effectively Duel of Ages III. The genealogy of this system stretches back 21 years to the original set. From the beginning, this game featured wacky competitive adventure full of oddball moments like Robin Hood riding around on a motorcycle wielding an assault rifle. It’s as nutty as it sounds.…
There’s this thing called Mass Effect. It’s a video game franchise that is kind of a big deal. It’s not a big deal to me. I’ve never played it. There’s this other thing called Mass Effect: The Board Game – Priority: Hagalaz. The story here is brand new, but the gameplay seeks to adapt the…
Alien as a party game. As David St. Hubbins epitaph reads, “…and why not?” Arriving at a perfect time alongside the excellent Alien: Romulus, designer Ivan Turner’s This Game Is KILLER presents a brutal and humorous take on Ridley Scott’s classic science fiction film. It does so in a violent 15 minutes while supporting up…
Player Elimination 