BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO ATTENDING ESSEN SPIEL

Welcome

Welcome back to our exciting new issue of

A VERY MERRY BIRTHDAY

Disney Lorcana is celebrating its birthday, and we’re bringing out the cake and party hats with an inter view with designer Ryan Miller

DISNEY LORCANA

The latest updates in Disney Lorcana

HOW TO READ A TRADING CARD

New to the TCG world? Here’s how to instantly analyse the cards in your hand

WAIT, THAT GOT A TRADING CARD GAME!?

We’ve been reminiscing the golden years of trading card games, where if a franchise breathed too loudly, it would be turned into a trading card game (TCG). How many do you recognise?

WHAT IS TRADING CARD GRADING ALL ABOUT?

Breaking down the card grading process for when you pull an exciting card

STICK TO THE BASICS

On a journey to start playing trading card games? We’ve got some tips and explanations to help you along the way

FAMILIAR CHARACTERS NEW GAME

Ever tried a franchise-led TCG? We have the lowdown on some standouts from tabletop history

ON THE CARDS

We look ahead at some of the biggest trading card game news of the month and discover what’s on the cards…

SOLFORGE: FUSION

What happens when you mix a Magic: the Gathering Champion and game designer with the creator of Magic: the Gathering? SolForge: Fusion!

COMMUNITY WINS

What happens when support for a card game happens when ends, but its fans don’t give up?

CROUCHING TIGERS AND HIDDEN BLADES IN AMSTERDAM

Time for Flesh and Blood players to Traverse the Universe and end up at Pro Tour: Amsterdam where the best of the best fight to see who will come out on top

AN ODE TO FAMILY DISNEY LORCANA

Why Disney Lorcana makes sense for the family

TCG CUBES 101

Who knew trading card games could be cheap and competitive?

YOUR WORLD YOUR RULES

Every month, we focus on the topic of the issue, and find ways to craft narratives that can be applied to any RPG title you may be playing. We’re currently talking about trading card and card games, the tropes of which can connect amazingly to the world of RPGs. Remember, you can always alter this base to suit the game you’re playing. It’s your campaign, after all

tabletop Glossary

Welcome adventurers, to the tabletop – where deck building has nothing to do with the patio, and worker placement isn’t part of a recruitment agency. If the terminology used to describe the games we know and love can feel like trying to learn a new language, let our glossary demystify the terminology, and have you speaking tabletop in no time at all

GETTING STARTED WITH DECKBUILDING

Star Realms is a gateway to the galaxy of games that keep getting better

10 OF THE BEST CARD GAMES

Card games are often some of the first games we truly learn to play on our own, whether that’s a thousand games of “Snap!” as a four year old, or the first cheeky games of Pontoon at school for buttons or lunch money. Yet sometimes we get waylaid as grown-ups and think we need to play “proper” games, with boards and pieces and multiple-hour play-times. Here are a few great entries from the world of great card games.

A TABLETOP TIMELINE: DISNEY’S GOLDEN YEARS

Diving into the archives of Disney’s tabletop releases

ATTRITION IN GAMES

Wizard needs food badly

GAMES OF THE YEAR, YEAH? YEAH!

All the Jahres

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Today, we’re off to the United Arab Emirates;

MYCELIA

The fun guy of family games

CAUTION SIGNS

Under-pressure creativity = guaranteed hilarity

SPARK RIDERS 3000

An app-driven space adventure

AKROPOLIS

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but Greece can be in 20 minutes

BELRATTI

Don’t get caught in the rat trap!

EXPEDITIONS: AROUND THE WORLD

Around the world in 45 minutes

UNDAUNTED 2200: CALLISTO

Deckbuilding and Skirmishing and Mechs, oh my!

SFYNX

Devilish traps and cunningng logic

LUNAR RUSH

An extraterrestrial gold rush

MEDICI

Can you pick the perfect price to profit?

GALACTIC RENAISSANCE

How many diplomats does it take to change a galaxy?

PYRAMIDICE

Dice, Gods, and Ancient Egypt

EXPLODING KITTENS: GOOD VS EVIL

This time, it’s Armageddon

WAVE

High tides and good times!

GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS

Trick-taking is a straightforward and elegant mechanism: all

CRITICAL: FOUNDATION - SEASON 1

Lightning-fast sci-fi roleplay with literally zero prep?

BORDER REIVERS

Stealing a march

PORT ARTHUR

Naval gazing brilliance

64 MILESTONES

Milestones board. Photo by Jon Linney, from https://jonlinney.co.uk/games/milestones/