DARK SECRET

WELCOME

It’s a brand new year – and that means plenty

WARLORD OF ALL

It’s been a busy couple of months for Warlord Games,

EURO DA CHAMP

If you’ve ever felt the urge to prove your superiority

DEATH TO KITTENS

Of course we don’t really mean that. What we mean

FORGOTTEN CLASSICS TO MAKE A COMEBACK

If you were going to bring back a game from

A MAD IDEA

One of the hottest names in tabletop design of the

BRITISH PUBLISHER TREEFROG CLOSES

Among a year of major losses in 2016, not even

DON’T BE GLOOMY

Gloomhaven is still months from release, but that hasn’t stopped

THE RESISTANCE CREATOR PREPARES TO ABANDON PLANET

The Resistance is one of our all-time favourite social deception

BOURNE TO GAME

With board game cafés becoming a more common sight in

BOARD RUNNER

Androids may or may not dream of electric sheep, but

TABLETOP TALKIES

Move over Jumanji reboot – you might have The Rock,

FIRST TURN ERIC M. LANG

The Toronto-based brain behind Blood Rage and XCOM: The Board Game flashes back to his first-ever published title: 1998’s Tarot-tweaking Mystick Domination

MY FAVOURITE GAME LESLIE SCOTT

The inventor of Jenga recalls how the atmospheric power of playing Cluedo with her family influenced her childhood growing up in Kenya

COUNTER VIEW BECKY OTTERY

Following the flurry of New Year bargains, Eclectic Games’ co-owner offers a brief primer on why, when and how retailers offer clearance sales

MOVIE AND TV SPIN-OFFS

For more than half a century, board games have found

ROLE CALL

With 2017 already well underway, we take a look at some of the most recent and upcoming roleplaying releases of the New Year

SCOTLAND YARD

James Wallis replays the winners of the Spiel des Jahres in order

GETTIN’ GROOVY

Comic book publisher Space Goat is breaking into the tabletop universe with its debut game – and it’s sure to swallow your soul. Evil Dead 2 designer Taylor Smith chainsaws open the bloody brilliant reimagining

DARK HORSE

Alessio Cavatore reveals how bringing Terminator, Labyrinth, My Little Pony and Hunger Games to the tabletop helped UK publisher River Horse discover its own unique voice

MAGIC: THE GATHERING

The first trading card game created remains the biggest and best entry in the genre, more than 20 years later. But if you’re a newcomer, how can you break into a title with more than 15,000 cards and decades of history?

MECHS VS MINIONS

Lead designer Chris Cantrell reveals how Riot Games brought the world’s most popular video game out of its digital universe

‘GAMES ARE A MIRROR OF OUR TIME’

Perhaps the most influential and certainly the most prolific designer of our time, Reiner Knizia sounds off about telling stories on the tabletop, the importance of authorship and why he will never describe any of his games as the best he’s ever made

THE SPICE OF TABLETOP LIFE

With diversity continuing to be a hotly-debated topic in and around gaming, we break down the efforts taken by two of the medium’s biggest franchises to welcome everyone into their worlds

THE ESSEN FACTOR

Just how crucial is appearing at the world’s biggest games fair to the launch of a brand new title? TTG follows the fortunes of arty card game Final Touch before, during and after Spiel 2016

THE GREEN DEATH

Hopelessness, suffering and a high body count abound in Lovecraftian roleplaying game Delta Green. Co-creator Dennis Detwiller recalls the Call of Cthulhu spin-off’s origins and tells some of his own tales

THE ULTIMATE DESIGNER

Ted Alspach takes a break from spending One Night with werewolves, vampires and aliens to talk about the thriving social deception genre

BOARDS OF EDUCATION

London’s V&A Museum of Childhood is running tabletop-focused exhibition Game Plan: Board Games Rediscovered until the end of April. TTG went along to meet curator Catherine Howell

BARBARIAN HACK

Fill a spare five minutes by defeating evil and rescuing a doomed prisoner in this warrior versus monsters dice-rolling title from the creator of Frostgrave, published exclusively in this issue of Tabletop Gaming

X-WING MINIATURES GAME

TTG heads to a galaxy far, far away to see whether the Force really is with the Rebel Alliance, or if the power of the dark side can clinch it for the Empire

A FRESH PERSPECTIVE

As Kickstarter continues to fill up with tabletop adaptations of

SEAFALL

The first fully original legacy game boldly sets sail, but does it triumphantly discover new lands or end up lost at sea?

AN UNCHARTED SEA

Mastermind of the legacy concept, Rob Daviau is following his lauded Pandemic spin-off with the first wholly original title built on the revolutionary design philosophy. Here, he reveals the challenges of going it alone and achieving lasting recognition with terminable creations

ARKHAM HORROR: THE CARD GAME

This horror hybrid of the LCG and RPG genres is a beautiful nightmare

FRESH HORROR

Fantasy Flight has finally applied its living card game format to one of the most iconic Lovecraftian board games of all time: Arkham Horror. Designer Matthew Newman offers some clues to the new nightmares

SCYTHE

Jamey Stegmaier’s sweeping strategy title set in a 1920s filled with robots is the perfect combination of style and substance

FINAL TOUCH

Is Mike Elliott’s art-based card game a brush with greatness?

BLOOD BOWL (2016)

Games Workshop’s beloved fantasy football miniatures title makes a return with a brand new edition. We discover whether it’s a golden goal

THERE WILL BE BLOOD

Games Workshop designer James Hewitt, part of the team behind Blood Bowl’s triumphant return, discusses reimagining a classic and balancing luck with creating moments to remember

CONAN

The legendary barbarian returns to the tabletop in this Kickstarted adaptation

SECRET HITLER

It’s a resounding ‘Ja!’ for this historical spin on deceiving your friends

STAR WARS: DESTINY

Like BB-8 across the deserts of Jakku, we’re rolling for our lives in this collectible dice game

PANDEMIC IBERIA

Matt Leacock’s disease-battling modern classic takes a trip back in time in this limited edition spin-off

SPYFALL 2

Does the undercover party sequel prove Diamonds Are Forever or is it a flat-out Dr. No?

SPY AND MIGHTY

As the sequel to his 2014 social deduction hit sneaks onto shelves, creator Alexandr Ushan considers his future plans for the franchise and why party games are the best tabletop therapy

JIM HENSON'S LABYRINTH: THE BOARD GAME

A miniature David Bowie, a chance to sing Magic Dance and a beloved cult movie – can this cinematic spin-off live up to its source material?

LEGENDARY ENCOUNTERS: AN ALIEN DECK BUILDING GAME EXPANSION

Is the first follow-up to the cinematic deckbuilder more of an Aliens or Prometheus?

GAME OF THRONES: THE IRON THRONE

We find out whether the Cosmic Encounter spin-off can stand up alone

MOB TOWN

Hire gangster animals to help you rule the city in this stylish card game

ADRENALINE

Filip Neduk captures the speed and style of first-person shooter video games on the tabletop

KHARNAGE

Pandemonium, mayhem and bloodshed: it’s all in a day’s work in this fast-paced card game

DREAM HOME

Is this lightweight property design title home sweet home or a building fright?

COLONY

Oh no, the nanopocalypse is here! Luckily, we’ve stashed this dice-driven deckbuilder in our fallout shelter

UNUSUAL SUSPECTS

Cranio Creations/CMON | £27.99 | Party | 3-16 players 20

NOT ALONE

Geek Attitude | £19.99 | Hand management | 2-7 players

SIDEWINDER 80+ DECK CASE

Storage specialist Ultimate Guard has done it again with a

DRAGON SHIELD CARD SLEEVES

If you’re looking to protect your trading cards, Dragon Shield’s

PAINTING GUIDE: JIM HENSON’S LABYRINTH: THE BOARD GAME

Bring some magic to the cult movie’s tabletop adaptation with these instructions to painting the included miniatures of its lead heroes and David Bowie’s goblin king Jareth

BUILDING AN RPG CAMPAIGN

Our new regular column will focus specifically on providing tips, guidance and advice to RPG Dungeon Masters as they create their own worlds in which to run campaigns. Some of the advice will be specific to the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but the majority of the concepts are applicable to any setting, game or ruleset that you prefer. In the first entry in the series, we take a look at high-level world-building

DRAGONMEET

Chris Birch, founder of Dragonmeet organiser Modiphius, discusses the growing diversity of London’s ‘friendliest gaming event’

LOADING BAR

Owner of London’s games watering holes, James Dance, divulges the hidden joys of Pop-Up Pirate and pitches some tabletop-inspired cocktail recipes

HALMA (1883)

Phil Robinson is a game historian and the founder of