The Game Mechanics

I recently had a chance to catch up with Mike Belsole and Grace Kendall the proprietors of the Tabletop Inn in Marion, North Carolina. The Tabletop Inn is a board game themed bed and breakfast. Mike and Grace live and breath board games! Mike is the General Manager of Well Played Board Game Cafe in Asheville NC. Both Grace and Mike have designed the game Smug Owls (Origins' 2024 Party Game of the Year). Mike Belsole and Grace Kendall What is the concept of Tabletop Inn? We a

The Holidays are upon us and its time to start shopping for our loved ones. I have put together my annual Holiday list of things I think would be great gifts. There are going to be a lot of good deals for black Friday and cyber Monday but I think you should first look at your Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) this year. Its been especially hard on the brick an mortar stores with all the uncertainty of tariffs. FLGSs are usually much more than a store they are a meeting place a

The Chicago Toy and game fair is the unofficial kick off to the Holiday shopping season here in Chicago. The Chicago Toy and Game fair features local toy and game vendors as well as big names like Lego that attend to show off their games and toys for the season. The Fair also hosted several famous game designers and board game influencers. There was also the Illinois state yo-yo competition and the young inventor challenge. Rail Cube This year there were some great highlights

As you might know I love space games. So this year inspiration struck along a very long boring stretch of i65 in Indiana on my way to GenCon. I was listening to the Game Brain Podcast. I have realized that the last couple of years there have been a lot of trick taking games that have come out. So my mind was there and one thing I love to do at GenCon is play miniatures games. So I combined trick-taking, miniatures, and space into one idea for a game.

Puppies or Poop was an instant hit at our house, our 5 year old picked it up right away and wanted to keep playing it. I think this game is good at 2 players and it really shines at three and four players. When playing with 3 and four players there is a lot more unknown information on the board and it makes the game more challenging. The two player version has a more strategic feel too it. Either way players can enjoy trying to bluff the others at any player count.

As you might know I love space games. So this year inspiration struck along a very long boring stretch of i65 in Indiana on my way to GenCon. I was listening to the Game Brain Podcast. I have realized that the last couple of years there have been a lot of trick taking games that have come out. So my mind was there and one thing I love to do at GenCon is play miniatures games. So I combined trick-taking, miniatures, and space into one idea for a game.

As you might know I love space games. So this year inspiration struck along a very long boring stretch of i65 in Indiana on my way to GenCon. I was listening to the Game Brain Podcast. I have realized that the last couple of years there have been a lot of trick taking games that have come out. So my mind was there and one thing I love to do at GenCon is play miniatures games. So I combined trick-taking, miniatures, and space into one idea for a game.

Your family has not been answering your calls. Finally your sister sends a message to explain that they have all joined a cult. Of course you and your family are personified marshmallows. But now the race is on to rescue your family before the ritual completes and they set themselves on fire. This is the setting for Marsh Hallow a flip and write game that will have players racing to rescue their marshmallow families by using polyominos to navigate through the Caddo Lake Campg

The movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is the only film by Stanley Kubrick to win an Oscar. He was nominated 13 times throughout his long career and 2001 won the award for Best Special Visual Effects. The movie is based on Arthur C Clark's The Sentinel (1951) a great short story if you have not read it its worth it. So here I am reviewing a game based on a movie that is based on a book.

This week I had the pleasure of being invited to see Dungeons and Dragons: The Twenty Sided Tavern. This is my first theatrical review...