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At a Glance

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First Turn

How the Finnish former website designer devised his 2015 deckbuilding debut, Dale of Merchants

Ten of the Best

The life of a property mogul can be a tough one, whether it’s annoying rules and regulations stopping you from bulldozing people’s houses to make way for your latest venture, or the bank/mafia wanting you to ‘pay back’ your loan. Here then are our favourite building and construction games – whether that’s cities or kingdoms

Role Call

It’s all gone a bit chilly this month, as our ROLE CALL scouts report back from the icy wastes of two different frozen norths

Have You Played?

What’s a curse or two between friends?

All the Jahres

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

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

Alone a post-apocalyptic dreamscape you search for the memories which will make the world whole, welcome to the fallen world of Kilforth

My Favourite Game

Abstract wargame specialist and one half of the duo behind the multiple Must-Play rated Undaunted series asks, what’s a A Few Acres of Snow between friends?

NEW DOGS, OLD TRICKS

Mark Heggen talks us through getting back into Magic: The Gathering, old favourites returning, and the triumph of dogs over hounds

Around the World in 80 Plays

Today we’re travelling just a mere stone’s throw of

BIG RED

Something spooky is happening and it’s time to investigate – but be careful, not everyone on your team is fireproof

SWING TURN

The clock is ticking, and there’s a swing turn incoming

Cardboard Manifesto

Anna Blackwell takes us through the world of system-agnostic RPGs, and why we should avoid crunch

THE CITY AND THE CITY

Treasure hunting in the Odd has never been so simple, Chris McDowell draws us a map through his roleplaying game designed for people who’ve never roleplayed before

MICROGAME OF THE MONTH

A FREE GAME FOR YOU TO PLAY INSIDE EVERY ISSUE OF TABLETOP GAMING!

the independent shelf

GRAPHIC NOVEL ADVENTURES

NEW BLOOD

We get caught between warring vampires with Matt Hyra and discuss making a card game with plenty of bite

Unearthed Artefacts

++YEAR 3158++INCOMING TRANSMISSION++ Found Sector D42: Pastime x17 – Board Game - seedGenerate: “MANCALA”

Shop Spotlight

Co-owner Nick Smith talks to us about the shop and its reopening under COVID-19 restrictions

Tabletop Time Machine

C 1800 MAH JONG

How We Made

We travel the desert in search of a two-player oasis between the mirages, and we find it, in Targi

KEYFORGE: MASS MUTATION STARTER SET

KeyForge has been known for its weirdly fun brokenness

KEYFORGE: MASS MUTATION

We talk to Danny Schaefer, Aaron Haltom and Tyler Parrott about the newest expansion to everyone’s favourite unique-deck card game

GENESYS - SECRETS OF THE CRUCIBLE

It’s a wild world out there

DIG DEEPER

The Detective Board Game from Portal Games really sticks

FORBIDDEN LANDS - THE BITTER REACH

If Forbidden Lands’ fog-shrouded aura of doom hasn’t

MEZO

War, what is it good for? Devotion, apparently.

TOP GUN STRATEGY GAME

Remember boys, no points for second place

COLT SUPER EXPRESS

The 2015 Spiel des Jahres-winning Colt Express put

AQUALIN

It’s hard not to love a satisfying clack of a tile

CARAVAN

Threading the needle

THE 7TH CONTINENT: CLASSIC EDITION

This is the new, smaller and somewhat trimmed version

BARKING KITTENS

Barking Kittens is the third expansion to the popular

FAIRY SEASON

It’s harvest time for the goblin kings - and what are

SHERLOCK HOLMES CONSULTING DETECTIVE: THE BAKER STREET IRREGULARS

25 years later, this game is still afoot

CORE CONNECTION: RISE OF ATLANTIS

The joy of mechs

UBONGO! TRAVEL EDITION

Ubongo! is a family friendly puzzle game, and in its

PLANETARIUM

A worldbuilding game. Literally.

MONSTROCITY

Rampaging monsters, leashed

TERRORS OF LONDON

Terrors of London is a deck builder, but spooky. Players

DECKSCAPE: ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ

An escape room game that’s actually about escaping

TRAINTOPIA

We like to think we’re not hard to please. Present

MUSICAL CHAIRS

At its core, Musical Chairs is a simple card game with

SENSOR GHOSTS

Sensor Ghosts comes to us from Wren Games, a wife and

INNER COMPASS

Abstract excellence, but it lacks feeling

POKÉMON TRADING CARD GAME: BATTLE ACADEMY

Want to be the very best, like no one ever was, but don’t know where to start?

QUEST

If you walked past a group playing Quest you’d be forgiven

DECKTECTIVE: THE GAZE OF THE GHOST

In the world of deck-based crime solving and room escaping

DECIPHER

The strange offspring of hangman and Mastermind

THOUSAND YEAR OLD VAMPIRE

There is a tendency among solo RPGs to delve into the

BERMUDA PIRATES

It’s hard not to be intrigued by magnets in a game

POTEMKIN EMPIRE

Fantastic fabrications

MOONFLIGHT

Moonflight feels like the kind of game that denizens

HERD MENTALITY

Continuing Big Potato’s tradition of taking simple

THE MAGNIFICENT

The theme is all an act

SUCCULENT

No need for a cutting remark…

CONQUEST: THE LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS

A returning conquest for Cavatore

Painting Guide

CONQUEST: THE LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS

THREE GREAT GAMING STORES

We continue our journey along nostalgia drive with Joe McCullough, the creator of Frostgrave. Join us on a trip through the US stores that formed him as a gamer

Dungeon Master’s Guide to Roleplaying

After any successful adventure, your heroes probably deserve some retail therapy, but how much? We haggle with Richard Jansen-Parkes to find out