WELCOME

Where did the summer go? We’re already fast approaching

SPIEL LOVE

Kingdomino has scooped this year’s Spiel des Jahres

IT COULD BE ENNIE-BODY

If you’re looking for a list of the best RPGs of the

PLAY WITH YOUR ART

That settles it then: games are art. If you want definitive

A NEW KIND OF MAGIC

Magic: The Gathering turns 25 years old next year,

GENTLEMEN, YOU CAN’T FIGHT IN HERE!

You may not have heard of Larry Harris, but you’ve

INVISIBLE TOUCH (AC)

It’s been a bumper year for RPGs, so Fantasy Flight

BLOCKBUSTERS ON BOARD

It seems that every month there’s another big movie

FIRST TURN - BRUNO FAIDUTTI

The master-builder of Citadels looks back to his bruising, mid-’80s debut: the crazy, cartoonish biker-gang barroom-brawling simulator Baston

MY FAVOURITE GAME - JEFF TIDBALL

The seasoned roleplaying writer, Horus Heresy designer and Gameplaywright co-founder explains why there’s nowhere he’d rather be than on the Trail of Cthulhu

KICKSTARTING FROM SCRATCH

Holly Gramazio and her team prepare to bring their inventive drawing game Art Deck to Kickstarter, and find it’s not as simple as it seems

10 OF THE BEST… WORD GAMES (THAT AREN’T SCRABBLE)

Aren’t words great? After all, without them you wouldn’t

1 PAPERBACK

In Paperback players are elevated to the status of

2 LETTER TYCOON

A slightly different spin on the ‘letters as money’

3 BANANAGRAMS

Often called ‘Scrabble without a board’, Bananagrams

4 BARBAROSSA

An earlier game by Catan creator Klaus Teuber, this

5 ANOMIA

A brain-busting spin on Snap, Anomia hinges on your

6 WIBBELL++

Wibbell++ is not just one game; it’s a deck of two-letter

7 WORDSY

Solving the issue of never having the right letters

8 CODENAMES

The recent Spiel des Jahres winner and party favourite

9 WORD SLAM

Following in the wake of Codenames‘ success is Word

10 UNSPEAKABLE WORDS

Here’s something a little different: a word game that

ROLE CALL

With Star Trek and Lord of the Rings releases hitting the tabletop, plus Warhammer on the way, it’s a summer of RPGs to remember

SHERLOCK HOLMES: CONSULTING DETECTIVE

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

A PATH TO THE STARS

Fantasy RPG Pathfinder is headed to a new world – actually, dozens of them – with sci-fi sequel Starfinder. Creative director James Sutter shows us around the far reaches of the roleplaying universe

AWE OF THE RING

As The Hobbit turns 80, we look back on the tabletop legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy tour de force alongside some of the designers and creators who have brought the world of Middle-earth to life

FORBIDDEN ISLAND

Join us as we get stranded on Matt Leacock’s kid-friendly follow-up to Pandemic and explain why you should sink into its simple charms

HUNT A KILLER

Co-creators Ryan Hogan and Derrick Smith join us as we open the case on their ambitious live-action game, which challenges players to solve a murder mystery using clues they receive in the post

SWORDS, SEX & SCI-FI

Father-son design team Mike and Cody Pondsmith reveal the future of iconic RPG Cyberpunk and discuss swapping pixels for paper as they bring video game series The Witcher to the tabletop

WHAT WAR IS GOOD FOR

Fighting spirit and a passion for community go hand in hand. Fans and creators of Malifaux, Warhammer 40,000, Warmachine and Hordes tell us what wargamers are doing to support their hobby

PLAYING WITH YOURSELF

Designers of single-player-only games tell us why more and more people are choosing to enjoy their tabletop experiences alone

HOW ANALOGUE GAMING WENT DIGITAL

The makers of Carcassonne’s mobile version and new integrated app game Rising 5 tell us the right way to mix technology and tabletop gaming

REDISCOVERING THE DISC

Nearly 20 years after it was released, Discworld RPG author Phil Masters tells us about encouraging humour at the table and how you go about adapting a series as beloved as Sir Terry Pratchett’s modern fantasy classic

PLAY IT SMART

Manchester Metropolitan University academics and Games Research Network co-directors Paul Wake and Sam Illingworth reveal why studying board games is anything but boring

WHERE YOU THERE? PICTURE SPECIAL

More than 16,000 players roamed the NEC in June to check out the latest must-see titles headed to the tabletop. Whether you made it to Birmingham or not, here’s your guide to an unmissable weekend , plus some of our favourite games from the show

PLAYING WITH REALITY

Wrong as it may be, there’s little more exhilarating

STARFINDER

Pathfinder takes to the stars, but is its sci-fi sequel interstellar or lost in space?

SUB TERRA

Hold your breath as we go beneath the surface of the caving horror

GOING UNDERGROUND

After a barnstorming Kickstarter, Sub Terra is tunnelling onto the tabletop. Designer Tim Pinder and Peter Blenkharn from British publisher Inside the Box Board Games shine a light on the survival horror hit

CENTURY: SPICE ROAD

Cards, spice and everything nice fill this gorgeous Splendor-killer

SECRETS

The Cold War heats up tensions in this sneaky game of lying and deceit

WARHAMMER 40,000: DARK IMPERIUM

The legendary miniatures game trims the fat with a fantastic new edition

UNFAIR

We promise we’ll be fair – even if this theme park-building card game isn’t

ALL THE FUN OF THE (UN)FAIR

Australian designer Joel Finch takes us through the thrills and spills of creating his first game

SAGRADA

Dice have rarely looked as beauti ful as they do in this stained glass spectacle

THE CAPTAIN IS DEAD

Report to the bridge as we set phasers to fun (and promptly get killed)

BÄRENPARK

Let this adorable tile-arranger wrap you in its warm bear hug

BEAR WITH ME

After partying with the sea delicacies of Sushi Go, Phil Walker-Harding is getting cosy with grizzlies in zoologi cal delight Bärenpark

THE MANHATTAN PROJECT: ENERGY EMPIRE

No one game should have all this power

SALTLANDS

Sail along the Fury Road in this beautiful but flawed Mad Max-a-like

MAGIC: THE GATHERING: ARCHENEMY: NICOL BOLAS

Can’t we be archfrenemies instead?

WEREWORDS

We’ve got 20 Questions for this snappy game of word deduction

ETHNOS

Conquer the land using fantasy creatures in this intriguing title

DICE FORGE

Roll with the gods in this light and bright dice-crafter

THE CHAMELEON

Try to blend in with this mixture of Spyfall and Codenames

A FEAST FOR ODIN

Gorge yourself on Uwe Rosenberg’s Viking epic

CHIMERE

A frantic magical monster-builder that doesn’t quite add up to the sum of its beastly parts

THIS WAR OF MINE: THE BOARD GAME

The brutality of conflict has rarely felt so real on the tabletop

OUTLIVE

We head into the post-apocalypse to recover what we can from this mess

ESCAPE FROM 100 MILLION B.C.

Save Einstein from being eaten by dinosaurs in this rollicking adventure

PACK O GAME

Give these gum-sized games a deserving place in your pocket

WORD SLAM

Play. Word. Clue. Fun. Fast. Laugh. Laugh. Laugh.

ARCADIA QUEST: INFERNO

It’s a fast and furious race through Hell in this colourful dungeon-crawler

DOUGHNUT DRIVE-THRU

Grail Games | £16.99 | Dice-rolling 2-4 players | 25

BRUTAL KINGDOM

Kosmos | £13 | Social deception 3-4 players | 30 minutes

CENTURY: SPICE ROAD PLAYMAT

Century: Spice Road is a beautiful card game that’s

MK3 ADVANCED SERIES BRUSH SETS

Games & Gears | £27.99 (kolinsky), £23 (synthetic)

PAINTING GUIDE: WARHAMMER 40,000: DARK IMPERIUM

We celebrate the launch of the legendary sci-fi miniatures game’s eighth edition by tackling the Space Marine and Death Guard forces included in its latest starter box

BUILDING AN RPG CAMPAIGN (PART FOUR)

Our ongoing column focuses specifically on providing tips, guidance and advice to dungeon masters as they create their own worlds to run campaigns in. Some of the advice will be specific to the latest fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but the majority of the concepts are applicable to any setting, game or ruleset that you prefer. This is the fourth entry in the series and focuses on both creating dungeons from scratch and balancing them for your party’s size and skill level

RAIDERS OF THE GAME CUPBOARD

Paul Roberts recalls how the Burtonon- Trent gathering went from a chat in a pub to four conventions a year

CHAOS CARD

One of the UK’s biggest online games outlets is making a break for the High Street with a new shop in Kent. Co-director Anthony Skinner tells us why the real world is the place to be

MOUSE TRAP (1963)

Phil Robinson is a game historian and the founder of