Let me be clear: there is one way to play Stealing Santa. Seeing as how Santa’s not real,1 you don’t need to pretend to be nice during Christmas. And being naughty is so much more fun. So for some light-hearted, mean-spirited, present re-distribution that indulges the kleptomanic amongst us, you should play Stealing Santa. Maybe with your family, […]
If there’s a game that every board game designer wants to turn into cardboard, it would have to be the best-selling video game of all time: Tetris. Games featuring tetrominoes (shapes made out of 4 squares), pentominoes (shapes made out of 5 squares) and all of the various other permutations (called polyominoes) have been around for […]
Board games without boards aren’t exactly novel. And yet, board game geeks are sharpening their pencils and competitively scribbling on pieces of paper in bars and lounge rooms across the world. Bingo didn’t suddenly become sexy again. It’s the new craze: the golden age of “Roll and Write” games. Because I am a nerd, I made […]
Mr. Card Game is a loving homage, a novel deck-building game, a Kickstarter debacle, and a cautionary tale about crowdfunding. It’s also a story about me winning and losing a t-shirt (not the one I was wearing), and paying too much for the privilege. Let me tell you the story. It all begins with The Kingdom of […]
One of the best things about board gaming is gaming with other people in real life. One of the hardest things about board gaming can be finding other gamers in real life. Thankfully, the internet is here to help. Aussie board gamer and Northside Gamers legend, Craig Somerton, recently put together a neat little thing […]
Everyone needs a good party-game which involves you ruthlessly lying and backstabbing your friends. Here’s the why and the how of playing Resistance. Sure, you could play Secret Hitler or One Night Ultimate Werewolf, or Coup, or Battlestar Galactica. (You should not play Mafia, or Werewolf, for reasons.) But there is no other game with the purity, the intensity, the logic and the tactics of Resistance. My […]
I spent the better part of a decade with my head deep in Magic: The Gathering. I spent all my spare money on M:TG cards, I went to tournaments, I crafted decks, and I woke up in the middle of the night with ideas about possible combos. I never did particularly well. Although I’m a competent player, I […]
Welcome to 2018’s edition of Overthrow-a-Prime-Minister Day, the day when ordinary Australians are reminded to change their smoke alarm batteries and tweet about #auspol helplessly from the sidelines. In case you missed it, there’s been some Turnbull-ence in Australian politics in the past few weeks. There just Dutton seem to be an end to political […]
Not long from now, Donald X. Vaccarino’s Dominion will hit it’s 10th anniversary. It’s sold more than 2.9 million copies worldwide, generated eleven expansions, amassed a stack of awards including the 2009 German Spiel des Jahres, generating a new award category in the process.* In the process, it created an entire genre of board games known as […]
“At long last… it’s over.” We’ve torn up all the cards in the world. The game is finished. We saved the world, although it was a close-run thing. My wife, always environmentally conscious, suggests putting the empty box and the torn-up cardboards in the recycling. But that would be like burning baby photos. This game, […]
