Category: Topic Discussions

Victory Conditions other than Victory Points (Topic Discussion)

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Victory points (VP) are so common in modern board games, along with the condition that the player at the end of the game with the most VP is declared the winner. Sometimes it is called influence, sometimes just points or it may be money or some other resource or currency. But it is all essentially the same thing. So, we’re going to dive into some other fun and interesting ways that players can win a game, along with examples of each.

Co-operative loss (Topic Discussion)

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A large number of board games are about winning and losing. Sure, for many of us, it doesn't really matter whether we win or lose, as long as we have a good time, either with friends, family or alone. In co-operative games, you play against the game itself and either you win or the game does. The same goes for solo games, of course, which are basically co-operative games, but with a single player. In this article, I want to look at the different win and loss conditions you can find in co-operative or solo games.

What Could Go Wrong: An Abridged Almanac of Production Pitfalls (Topic Discussion)

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Hi! My name is Lewis Shaw, and I run Braincrack Games, a UK-based tabletop games publisher that’s been bouncing around the scene since 2016. After my recent interview with Heavy Cardboard, and a post on our own blog where I listed some of the reasons I don’t think people should rush to start their own board game publishers, Oliver was kind enough to invite me to guest post on Tabletop Games Blog and talk more about the challenges the industry has thrown us in recent years – a brave choice, considering I could easily clear a room this way!

Variable replayability (Topic Discussion)

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The idea that variability and replayability in board games have the same meaning is understandable, but of course, even though the two terms are related, they are independent of each other. Just because there is a lot of variability in a game doesn't mean that you'll want to play it over and over again and that it will feel different every time. Similarly, a game that is highly replayable, offering a different and interesting experience every time you play it, doesn't require it to be highly variable as well - but let me explain...

Implicit conventions (Topic Discussion)

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The longer you have been part of the board game hobby, the more you are used to various terminology and conventions. You will also have become more accustomed to the way rulebooks describe games and how to read them to get the most out of them. However, if you're still new to the hobby then some things may not be obvious. In this article, I want to look at some of these terms and conventions that won't be familiar to people new to our hobby and also touch on whether rulebooks should be expected to describe them in more detail.

I go first (Topic Discussion)

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After setting up a board game and explaining the rules, if necessary, the next step usually is to decide who starts. Different games decide this differently, so in this article, I want to discuss the various ways in which board games choose the first player and I will also touch on games where the first player changes from round to round.

Board games for everyone (Topic Discussion)

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Sometimes I get asked to recommend games for someone to play. As you can imagine, that's never easy and my first question tends to be what other games they have already played. If they're completely new to the hobby, I usually ask how many people they intend to play with, whether they're a competitive group, how long they're happy to play for. It's also sometimes good to find out what sort of films, TV shows or activities they like, because many board games have a setting that might fit. So, in this article, I want to give you a list of different types of games that I tend to suggest to people.

Teaching games – teach-as-you-go (Topic Discussion)

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I have mentioned it on this blog before, but my favourite way of being taught a new game is by diving right in. Teach me only the absolute minimum, just so I roughly know what sort of game we're playing and get an outline of what I'm trying to achieve and then let me start taking my turn. It's the sort of style of teaching that Paul Grogan of Gaming Rules advocates and it's probably the best option for demoing a game at a convention as well.

Teaching games – learn yourself (Topic Discussion)

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I want to continue my series on how to teach board games to others by talking about how you can learn the game yourself or ask others to learn it for themselves. After all, you can't teach others until you know how to play it yourself and you're a better teacher if you've actually played the game yourself. Also, sometimes it's actually fun to learn a game and not always a big onus to expect others to learn a new game for themselves before you all meet up to play it.

Looking ahead at 2022 (Topic Discussion)

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Let me start by wishing you a Happy New Year. We all somehow made it into 2022, probably a little worse for wear, but we made it nonetheless. The world has changed a lot, but there are still many moments of positivity and hope. I don't want to make predictions about what might happen to us all in the future, but instead, I want to focus on the Tabletop Games Blog and maybe talk about a couple of things that I hope for in our hobby.