WELCOME

AT A GLANCE

Summoning Cthulhu, live from Alexandra Palace, bring your own robes

FIRST TURN DAVID TURCZI

The mind behind Anachrony and The Defence of Procyon III on how he accidentally became a designer with 2014’s [redacted]

10 OF THE BEST CAMPAIGN GAMES

A campaign game can be the biggest, meatiest experience we can have on our tabletops (short of an actual roast dinner). These games are here to immerse you into their worlds, and give you a story you can dive deep into. Here our choices for the best ones to take over your gaming table for months

ROLE CALL

We’ve got a whole pile of revolutionary new RPG books inbound this month, ranging from sci-fimysteries through to post-mortem adventures

HAVE YOU PLAYED? MYSTERIUM

No one anticipates dying in mysterious circumstances, nor being stuck in Mysterium Manor in ghost form until you can be freed by a séance of mediums, but that’s where you stand with Mysterium

ALL THE JAHRES

James Wallis replays the winners of the Spiel des Jahres so you don’t have to

DON’T DUMB DOWN YOUR GAME FOR FAMILIES

Family gaming doesn’t have to be at the expense of anyone’s fun, argues Ellie Dix, author of The Board Game Family: Reclaim your Children from the Screen

INDEPENDENT SHELF: FAR AWAY

We get lost in space, where only those share a hex with you can hear you scream

TALKING TABLETOP: FAR AWAY

We talk to Alex Jerabek and Jake Breish about their indie loneliness-in-space simulator, Far Away

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 PLAYS: CHINA

In the very first outing of our trip around the

UNEARTHED ARTIFACTS: FALLOUT: WASTELAND WARFARE

When I started these transmissions, hijacking the signal your species

MY FAVOURITE GAME: ROSS ‘WOSSY’ GILBERT

The voice of competitive card game tournaments tells us why The Pokémon Trading Card Game really is the very best

THE GAME DEVELOPERS!

A WORK-FROM-HOME WEB-CONFERENCING LARP

TABLETOP TIME MACHINE

With Spanish the end Flu of pandemic WW1 and people

THE SHADOW OVER DUNSMOUTH

The nameless ones stir, taking forms that are familiar to us, but refracted through a lens different to the one we usually use. Welcome to the world of Mythos, which isn’t your usual Cthulhu

HOW WE MADE EVOLUTION

Dominic Crapuchettes takes us from the nebulous deep sea to a modern card game in less than six million years

5 DIGITAL BOARD GAMES TO PLAY DURING LOCKDOWN

Sometimes rigging a series of cameras to play games with friends can be frustrating in these isolated times. Instead, take a look at a few of the digital options out there for our favourite analogue titles

GROSS

Edmund McMillen has making gross games for a while now, and he joins us as we explore the guts of his latest gross-cute card game, Tapeworm

ROAD TRIP

The end of the world doesn’t need to all be creeping darkness and earth-shaking doom. Instead, it can be the rip-roaring high adventure of the open road. We talk to Marc Langworthy about vehicular violence in the post-apocalypse in the new Devil’s Run RPG

HERE COMES THE FLOOD

A solo dice game by James Wallis

THE HUNGER GAMES

We talk to Andre Novoa, the founder of weird minimalist RPG publisher, Games Omnivorous, about what he’s got a taste for

MYTHOS THE HIDDEN ONES

We dip our brush into the deep and get stuck into a colour palette to lose our minds over

DUNGEON MASTER'S GUIDE TO ROLEPLAYING – IT’S ALL IN THE MIND

Maps and minis, or a world of words? We talk chewing the scenery of the theatre of the mind

SCYTHE

Many games, no matter how enjoyable they were when you

YETI IN THE HOUSE

The lockdown, which is ongoing as I write and probably

D-DAY DICE SECOND EDITION

Many games put you in the general's seat, ordering countless

ALHAMBRA

If you’re looking for a family-friendly European-style game, there are

VIDEO VORTEX

The world of VHS rentals is one not consigned mostly

DISHONORED RPG

With its whalebone charms, masked assassins and Victoriana steampunk aesthetics,

HERO MASTER: AN EPIC GAME OF EPIC FAILS

With art and game design by Jamie Noble-Frier, Hero Master:

FUJI KORO

Fuji Koro tells a tale of shogun heroes escaping from

JUDGE DREDD: HELTER SKELTER – DARK JUDGES

With the Dark Judges expansion, we get to see Judge

HIPPO

Oink games proved some time ago that games in small

AIRBORNE IN YOUR POCKET

Starting as a pocket-sized printand-play game, Airborne in Your Pocket

MECHANICA

The future is spotless, we are told by a subtly

THE LIBERATION OF RIETBURG

Smaller recreations of bigger tabletop experiences can often fall flat

POSTHUMAN SAGA: RESISTANCE EXPANSION

Posthuman Saga challenges players to survive the post-apocalyptic wasteland crawling

ROLLING RANCH

When Dorothy and Toto got swept out of Kansas and

KAREKARE

Karekare is a deceptive game. Set in Aotearoa (New Zealand)

LABYRINTH: THE ADVENTURE GAME

Caught somewhere between an RPG and a choose-your-ownadventure book, Labyrinth:

TALKING TABLETOP: LABYRINTH: THE ADVENTURE GAME

We chat to Ben Milton about puzzle solving in a maze. Plus, advice for fledgling Goblin Kings

IRONSWORN

While Ironsworn can be played like a regular role-playing game

TALKING TABLETOP: IRONSWORN

We talk to Shawn Tomkin, creator of Ironsworn about his first published tabletop RPG, why solo gaming is so good

KRAKEN ATTACK

Designing a great kids’ game is a tricky proposition. Ideally,

CHRONO CORSAIRS

If I had to be trapped in a time vortex

DRAGON KEEPERS

‘Wow, ’ I thought, ‘that cover looks like it could

THE CASTLES OF BURGUNDY

Ravensburger's recent makeover of Stefan Feld's game of dice rolling

THE ELDER SCROLLS: CALL TO ARMS

For adventurers that have taken an arrow to the knee,

THE SECRETS OF SHRIEKWIND

Hired by the College of Winterhold to retrieve an artefact