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.
Features Archive
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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.
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Feature: ‘It was a mess’: The disappearance and return of legendary ’80s board game Dark Tower
In 1981, there was no game bigger. Then it vanished. What happened to Dark Tower, and why is there such hunger for it to come back?
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'Red was always kind of in development, but the video game really pushed it into overdrive.'
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The Pokémon Trading Card Game is a perfect evolution of the video games
It’s super effective.
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Reprints and rares both essential and exorbitant.
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“I would lie awake at night thinking how fun a dungeon crawl would be.”
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“There were a whole lot of people that thought it was an evil company.”
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Digital board games don’t match the physical experience - and that can be a good thing
Some tabletop games aren’t the same when you can’t touch their bits and pieces... or are they?
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Two halves make a whole lot of fun.
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And talks joining forces with his brother Drew for Wehrlegig Games.
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The designers discuss closure in Season 0, the trilogy’s influence and whether there’s a chance they’ll ever return.
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Black board games are key to the future of tabletop
New voices and perspectives at the table benefit everyone.
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Feature: How Magic: The Gathering’s biggest fan landed the role of a lifetime as its head designer
Mark Rosewater on discovering the card game, working with Richard Garfield and balancing his professional and personal passion.
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Oath could finally deliver on the exciting lost potential of legacy board games
All of the memories with none of the sacrifice.
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Railroading doesn’t have to be a dirty word in tabletop RPGs
Giving players just enough guidance can enhance, rather than diminish, their role in a story and world.
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Feature: Indie video game platform Itch.io has given tabletop RPG designers a new way to thrive
Through kindness and community.
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Feature: Critical Role’s Matthew Mercer on world-building in D&D and creating Wildemount
Plus, whether he’d rather live in the homeland of Vox Machina or the Mighty Nein.
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