The Blog
Tabletop Games Blog is about all things board, card, dexterity and other modern hobby games, featuring reviews and thought pieces in written and audio format.
It started in May 2018, at first only publishing thought pieces. Reviews were introduced to the blog four months later.
The blog has stuck to a weekly schedule for almost 7 years, releasing a thought piece every Tuesday and a review every Saturday, but starting in 2025, there is no longer a fixed schedule. Now, articles are only published when they are good and ready, even though the days of the week are still fixed, meaning thought pieces will still only be released on Tuesdays and reviews on Saturdays.
Since July 2020, the blog also features the Let me illustrate podcast series, where board game artists answer a catalogue of 17 questions about themselves.
Writers for the Blog
Apart from me (see further down), there have been a number of other people who wrote guest posts on this blog. Of course, the opinions expressed in those articles are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of Tabletop Games Blog:
Dina Said So
Dina Said So is a marketing company founded by Dina Ramse that offers consultation, social media management, and crowdfunding marketing. Together with her colleagues Alexandra Yaverbaum (aka Sasha) and Caylie Sadin, they regularly post on LinkedIn and have kindly shared some of their articles here.
Michael Fox
Michael is the former producer and presenter of The Little Metal Dog Show, designer of Keep Running!, Holding On: The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr, MegaCity: Oceania among others and now releases games as Wayfinder Games.
Gavin Jones
Gavin has been writing reviews, alongside his wife Sarah-Jane, on their blog Keep Up With The Jones Family for many years now. You may also have seen him demo games at one of the big board game exhibitions.
Ellen Klein
Ellen is an editor who brings a unique perspective to her work. She believes in the power of planning for life’s unknowns, bringing her extensive experience to bear on business, family and relationship advice.
Filip Redelius
Filip is the designer of Fog of Adventures, a game created using AI with the goal of creating something new and interesting.
Lewis Shaw
Lewis is one of the founders of Braincrack Games, alongside Emily, and their journey into board games began when a friend introduced them to Takenoko, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Coup and more.
Joe Slack
Joe has been designing board games since 2014 and helped over 4,000 game designers through his books and teaching, including The Board Game Design Course.
Hope Thompson
Hope is a brand new board game reviewer and the daughter of David Thompson, the co-designer of the Undaunted series of games, designer of Pavlov’s House and many others.
Laurie Trueblood
Laurie founded Adventures of Authenticity in 2021 after facing a personal crisis as a way to share what she learned and to help others who were equally feeling lost in life.
Dennis Wesley
Dennis is an independent researcher who is passionate about science and art, which he talks about in his blog Science and Arts Education.
Sam Webb
Sam is an experienced news reporter and copywriter based in Oxfordshire who has written for a number of different publications including the MailOnline, Daily Mirror and The Sun.
Oliver Kinne (Me)
My name is Oliver Kinne. I am the owner and editor of Tabletop Games Blog, where I combine my passions for writing fiction and playing modern tabletop games. I live on the sunny south coast of the United Kingdom.
Alongside writing, I also work as a translator through my brand Make My Game Travel, specialising in English-German and German-English translations for the board game industry.
Contact, Support and Branding
If you want to find out what I’m up to, you can find me here:
If you like what you see, please find out how to support me.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please use the contact form.
If you want to use the Tabletop Games Blog logo and branding, then please check out our logo and branding page.
Industry Involvement
I am a member of the Brainwaves board game news podcast team.
I demoed for Asmodee UK at UK Games Expo 2023, 2024 and 2025, and Fog of Love at Essen Spiel 2019.
I was a judge and coach for the Board Game Workshop Design Contest 2019 and 2020.
I playtested a number of commercially released games:
- Empires of the Void II by Red Raven Games (see page 35 of the rulebook)
- Chai by Steeped Games (see box lid)
- Coral Islands by Alleycat Games (see page 16 of the rulebook)
Published Work
My reviews featured on a number of crowdfunding campaigns, including:
- Tranquility: The Descent from Wayfarer Games
- Loose in the Library and Library Labyrinth from Dissent Games
- Crimson Keep from Nick Warren:
- Malus Hortus from Atikin Games
- Biathlon Blast from carlMax
- Sakana Stack from Huff No More
- Hidden Agendas from Big Boom Games
- Puppy Pile from Thing 12 Games
- Crumbs! The Sandwich Filler Game and Swatch from Minerva Tabletop
- float downstream from Blood Moon Games
- Whimsical creatures, frantic gameplay, and root vegetables from Stuff by Bez
- One Card Wonder from Ape Games
- Six Greetings Card Games and Uranus! from The Dark Imp
- Pilfering Pandas and Sensor Ghosts from Wren Games
- Small Railroad Empires + mini expansion + playmat from Archona Games
- Curators from Worldshapers
- The Blessed Dark by Nathan Meunier
One of my articles was published in the UK Games Expo 2021 programme.
I was also a contributing author to The Tabletop Spirit digital magazine (issue #10, pages 39-49 and issue #9, pages 22-23).
Guest Appearances
I appeared on a number of podcasts as a guest, where you can find out a bit more about me:
- Der Brettspielpodcast, den die Welt nicht braucht episode 247 (German): https://derbrettspielepodcastdendieweltnichtbraucht.
home. blog/ 2024/ 06/ 30/ folge-274-possession/ https:/ / derbrettspielepodcastdendieweltnichtbraucht. home. blog/ 2024/ 06/ 30/ folge-274-possession/ - Die Spielträumer episode 54 (German): https://www.
spieltraeumer. de/ podcast/ the-spieltraeumers-54-deckbuilding-deathmatch/ - Die Brettagogen episode 144 (German): https://brettagoge.
de/ 144-von-voegeln-und-hudern-teamteaching/ - We’re Not Wizards: https://www.
werenotwizards. com/ e/ episode-320-oliver-kinne-tabletop-games-blog/ - I also appeared in one of Semi Co-Op‘s comics: https://www.
semicoop. com/ comic/ new-years-resolutions/ 
Thank you!