Volt

Welcome

It’s testament to the endless creativity and diversity

At a Glance

Board game café Ludoquist bringing hundreds of titles to London convention’s open gaming area

First Turn

The Australian designer behind Sushi Go!, Bärenpark and Gizmos digs deep into his gaming past to excavate 2007’s Archaeology

10 of the Best

Nearly all games give us a yarn to spin, but there are some that offer a carefully crafted narrative to discover as you play. Here’s a selection of tabletop tales, from spooky horror to epic fantasy, you won’t forget in a hurry

Role Call

Romance, dragons and mind-rending tentacle beasts – this month’s round-up of new releases has just about everything you could ever want from roleplaying!

All the Jahres

Replaying the winners of the Spiel des Jahres so you don’t have to

My Favourite Game

The Magic: The Gathering Hall of Famer and Star Realms co-creator remembers how he went from player to designer

Microgame of the Month

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

Have You Played?

The train game so innovative it spawned its own genre remains a complex and rewarding titan of track-laying and stock-trading decades on. Here’s why you should hop on board

The Independent Shelf

Pick a side and inflltrate your way to independence in this trust-nobody retelling of the US revolution

Around the World in 80 Plays

The second entry in our tabletop travel diary sees

Play it Smart

Spoilsports can ruin the fun of playing a game – but they can also become an essential part of making games better, as our experts find out

Through the Ages

We take a close look at the games that will leave you asking whether your friends are really who they say they are

Unearthed Artefacts

++YEAR 3132++INCOMING TRANSMISSION++ found sector d18: pastime x17 – board game - “break_the_safe”

Tabletop Time Machine

The game of Rota was played by the Romans during their

Res Arcana

After racing for the galaxy, Tom Lehmann’s next compact game hands players control of the very elements themselves – and manages to work its magic with just a handful of cards

Wingspan

Elizabeth Hargrave shakes off the down in her gorgeous board game debut, Wingspan. The designer and lead artist Natalia Rojas crack open the shell of their creation

Anomaly

Last year’s Decrypto announced Thomas Dagenais-Lespérance as the inventive designer of the moment. Now he’s following his brain-twisting word puzzler with the galaxy’s most high-stakes game of hide-and-seek

Designer Duos

From married couples to friends turned collaborators, designer duos tell us how they first started making games together and why two heads are often better than one

How We Made

John Yianni’s creepy-crawly strategy game is the smash success that almost never was, until a mixture of luck, faith and effort brought it out of the woodwork

Double L Games

Meet Lily Lockett: the 13-year-old designer who turned her school homework into a board game that might just change the world

Reichbusters

Blast Nazis, robots and zombies with friends in the most OTT vision of World War II to hit the tabletop yet. This is Reichbusters: Projekt Vril, and it’s taking no prisoners

Wargaming on a budget

Wargaming, what is it good for? Finding yourself out of pocket, if you’re not careful. Heed our penny-pinching advice and you’ll be able to save without sacrificing quality

Cubiko Games

For the last decade, Gavin Birnbaum has handcrafted a wooden game every single year. As his inventive auction game Q.E. expands its cult success, the designer tells us why his son is still the first person he needs to impress – and why he doesn’t consider himself a gamer

Gen7: A Crossroads Game

Don’t worry, you haven’t missed Gens 1 to 6

Pandemic: Fall of Rome

A spin-off that marches its way to the top

Forbidden Lands

Old-school roleplaying for a modern world

Alone

If you’re not afraid of the dark, you will be

Newton

The tabletop appliance of science

Western Legends

Card Fight at the O.K. Corral

AuZtralia

An outback tale of steam, sheep and shoggoths

Harry Potter Miniatures Adventure Game

Knut a lot of good

Gùgong

No bribes required to put this on the table

Judge Dredd: The Cursed earth

The Lost Expedition was one of the small-box gems of

Tokyo Highway

Designer: Naotaka Shimamoto, Yoshiaki Tomioka | Artist:

Shadows: Amsterdam

A little bit Dixit, a little bit Codenames, but a game all of its own

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Wrath & Glory

For the glory of the Emperor?

Talisman: Legendary Tales

It’s Talisman but, y’know, for kids

Passing Through Petra

Passing Through Petra certainly makes a statement.

Duelosaur Island

Dinosaur Island for just a pair-odactyl

Cerebria: The Inside World

Playing mind games with psychedelic psychology

Key Flow

Designer: Sebastian Bleasdale, Richard Breese, Ian

Hokkaido

Designer: Kalle Malmioja | Artist: Ossi Hiekkala, Jere

Painting guide

We emerge from our vault to give the survivors of the post-apocalyptic skirmish game a rad makeover

Dungeon Master’s Guide to Roleplaying

Some characters have already led an epic life before they arrive on the table; others only reveal their past over hours of gaming. Either way, rich backgrounds can often make for unforgettable stories

Event Report

Nick Livesey from the Nottingham show discusses throwing open the doors to all sorts of games in 2019

Shop Spotlight

We get on board with the one-of-a-kind London board game café that calls a double-decker bus its home