Features Archive
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Nova RPG creator on bringing Destiny and Overwatch-inspired 'looter shooter' action to the tabletop
Designer Spencer Campbell talks insights, inspirations and washing his hands of gamers.
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Once you’ve done your research.
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GMs shouldn’t always break the rules in tabletop RPGs
Tend the rules.
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Once More Into the Void tells emotionally fraught RPG stories in a Mass Effect 2, Picard framework
The duo behind the upcoming game talk translation, betrayal and the joy of being a Renegade.
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One of board gaming’s first celebrities reflects on designers’ rising recognition.
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New RPG book ARCON is ready to leave tired ideas about cyberpunk settings in the past
Building a better dystopian sandbox.
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Feature: Roleplaying games were around hundreds of years before Dungeons & Dragons
The seminal tabletop RPG drew from generations of wargaming, storytelling and parlour games.
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Magic: The Gathering is more ban-happy than ever, and it’s holding MTG Arena back
Getting the banned back together.
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“When including more diverse representation, disabled people continue to be excluded at alarming rates.”
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Shawn Tomkin has reached the stars with Ironsworn: Starforged, but he couldn't do it alone
The designer talks influences, making a good thing even better and the importance of community feedback.
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The greatest board game stories are told around the tabletop, not on it
Playing with your tale.
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Isaac Vega and Lindsey Rode discuss launching Rose Gauntlet Entertainment and the label’s debut release.
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Unmatched is the Avengers Assemble of board games - it successfully unites a team of unlikely heroes
Kneel before this excellent tabletop series.
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What appeared to be a Kickstarter darling and fast-growing company was a carefully projected illusion.
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One More Multiverse co-founder on helping give tabletop RPGs a ‘good nudge into the mainstream’
Sara Alfageeh talks focusing on indies first, helping designers make a living and giving players customisability.
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As thrilling as it is simple, Pack Wars is one of Magic: The Gathering’s best overlooked formats
Here’s how - and why - to play.
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The character’s version of representation frustrates AAPI fans.
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Lines and veils, and other RPG safety tools, open up tabletop roleplaying for everyone
Ensuring comfortable, collaborative creativity around the table.
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Call of Cthulhu’s epic Masks of Nyarlathotep shows the perfect way to run a RPG campaign over years
Into the Months of Madness.
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Is Strixhaven a good entry point for the Magic: The Gathering newcomers? Well, it’s complicated.
For the cardboard curious.
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“A really big thing is having an arena where you feel like you have some control over the stories that are told.”
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Disability representation in tabletop gaming matters - here are the games doing it right
Recent years have seen stories and characters that avoid ableist tropes, though there’s still work to be done.
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Big tabletop events are likely to return this year, but they might look very different.
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How publishers are adopting eco-friendly practices to help the planet.
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Feature: Weekend Play Report - Ex Novo, and the joy of mapmaking games
Routing to recreation.
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It stands heads, shoulders and horns above the disastrous Dark Souls.
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Dead of Winter bridges the intimidating gap between casual and complex board games
Gravely underappreciated.
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Exploring one of the titles in Jewish roleplaying anthology Doikayt.
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Feature: Cancelled Warframe-inspired RPG highlights the destructive toxicity of online fandom
“This is a demonstration of a vocal minority of angry trolls getting what they wanted.”
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The multiverse is the perfect home for The Lord of the Rings, Warhammer and more - if handled correctly.
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Magic: The Gathering is at its best with more people - here’s why
All hands on decks.
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Feature: Queer players find more than a game in Dungeons & Dragons - they find a safe space
“We are here to play whoever we want to.”
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How Dungeons & Dragons helped me discover my gender identity
I was playing a man in real life - why not a woman in my escapist hobbies?
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Feature: Good Old Plays: The throwback RPGs giving modern roleplaying “a breath of fresh air”
OSR designers are reviving the genre’s roots with compact rules, player-led storytelling and creativity in abundance.
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6 things the new Dungeons & Dragons movie needs to do to become a critical hit
Not including a cameo from Jeremy Irons.
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Less Harry Potter than high school.
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Public libraries are using D&D to forge friendships and build community
No Knowledge (Arcana) check required.
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Feature: Indie RPGs show roleplaying can - and should - be far more than Dungeons & Dragons
The tabletop games and designers taking players from fantasy stories to real-world change.
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Root’s show-don’t-tell storytelling makes its world feel alive
Eyrie-lly want to go back there.
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Feature: D&D's answer to American Idol changed the RPG - and its winner's life - forever
You could say it was open to ‘Ebberyone’.
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How logging your board game plays can curate your collection - and save you money
Stats the way I like it.
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“We like people to make difficult choices that are also fun choices.”
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The Chess Effect: How The Queen’s Gambit turned me into a chess obsessive
What a feeling, when we’re castling on the ceiling.
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Together, they hope to overcome national restrictions and find a deserving audience.
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Warhammer looks expensive, but the truth is more complicated
Model behaviour.
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Games of the Year 2020: Matt on Pandemic Legacy: Season 0
A fond farewell.
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Games of the Year 2020: Johnny on The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
More like cloud nine.
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Games of the Year 2020: Meehan on deckbuilding delight Fort
The kids are alright.
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Games of the Year 2020: Junk Art co-designer Sen-Foong Lim
Making maps, committing crimes and finding friends.
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Games of the Year 2020: Alice is Missing and Icarus creator Spenser Starke
Dark labyrinths, train travel and shelf stacking.
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Plus why you should play The Wretched and The Artefact.
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The co-founders of design studio Needy Cat Games run through their top two-player picks.
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Games of the Year 2020: Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall co-creator Banana Chan
From games about a magician's dog to RPGS about eroticism, here are Banana Chan's favourite Games of this year.
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Feature: d007: How the all-but-forgotten James Bond RPG changed roleplaying
Tomorrow Never Dice.
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Community’s resilience during lockdown undermined by divisive design and controversial business decisions.
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A D&D film was promised to rival Star Wars, but its cinematic debut ended up a box-office bomb. What happened?
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Life one quarter of a hack at a time.
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Boldly Action/Bonus/Moving where no one has gone before.
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Lead designer Ryan Verniere talks team building and trusting vision to others.
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Feature: Board games are expensive, so we tried to make our own for a tenner
It went about as well as you’d expect.
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Feature: 10 Catan house rules that make the classic board game even more fun
Don’t settle for less.
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X-Wing’s thrilling space combat is the perfect tabletop answer to Star Wars: Squadrons
I’m not such a bad pilot myself.
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Board game café owners and retailers on the impact of lockdown and social distancing.
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Designers on Mat Hart and Sherwin Matthews on taking inspiration from classics for an RPG board game that doesn't skimp on the roleplaying.
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Senior producer talks next year's 5E adaptation of Power Rangers, Renegade’s plans for original games and the potential of a Clank! RPG.
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‘Broken’ board games are better than boring ones
For balance.
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Co-creators Miguel Lopez and Tom Parkinson-Morgan on drawing from classic sci-fi and moving away from D&D’s “old racist shit”.
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Feature: Here are some of the best tabletop sessions from PAX Online x EGX Digital 2020
Queue up some of the best videos you might’ve missed at the online convention.
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The mind behind Riot’s latest tabletop release on designing a traditional game, relying on memory and the potential for a League of Legends roll-and-write.
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Feature: 7 board games to check out at PAX Online x EGX Digital
Get onboard with these tabletop titles.
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Exploring the Dungeons & Dragons cosplay community, how to start and why it’s worth doing.
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Feature: The fatigue and loneliness of playing tabletop RPGs online in a pandemic
For players used to the intimacy of face-to-face sessions, taking games such as Dungeons & Dragons onto the internet can be exhausting and alienating.
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Like chess? Here's why you’ll love its Japanese cousin, shogi
Generals interest.