Dingo Bingo!

Dingo's Dream (or Dingo Bingo, as I like to call it) is a fun and simple tile placement game that can be adjusted in difficulty according to your desires. I am a bit late to play this little gem, but I finally had the chance to try it out at the new venue of The Dice Saloon in Brighton and bought it after one game. In this 2 - 4 player game Dingo and his pals have managed to get lost on walkabout, which is pretty easy to do in the outback so I don't judge them. As a player, you must visit the animals dreams and guide them back home from the fragmented dreamscape clues in their minds.

Players choose one of the four different animals, then they each set up 5x5 grids of their chosen tiles with the animal side down, but keeping the tile with their animals name to one side as this is used on the first turn. A Dream Card is revealed, and the aim of this game is to have your tiles animal side face-up and matching the Dream Card layout. One player is the Dingo Bingo dealer, turning the Walkabout cards to reveal the next tile to flip. The cards are identified by five different colours and five different landscapes, whichever tile corresponds with the card revealed by the dealer is then flipped over to reveal the animal side, then players slide the extra tile in their hand into the grid, pushing out a tile to use in their next turn and keeping the grid 5x5.

The introduction of hazard tokens stirs things up a little. Amongst the Dream Cards you will find a Hazard Card, with symbols showing various ways to set up hazards on the Dream Card. Using this as a guide, you can choose a layout and place the four brown tokens on one of the Dream Cards. In order to win this time, you must have none of your animal tiles on the hazard spaces on completion of your dreamscape. This also means that it is possible for both players to lose, so if that happens then you just play again. Interestingly, if there is a draw then there is no tie-breaker, everyone could be a winner in these dreams! Spiritual fulfilment and rites of passage will be celebrated.

Dingo's Dreams is compact, easy to set up and understand, quick to play and a great introduction to board gaming. The beautiful illustrations by Ryan Lakat really set the tone for this game, and after many plays I can happily say that this is a great and easy family game, and the advanced options can shake it up a bit. There are strategy and puzzle-solving aspects. Even though the tiles are randomly placed in the beginning, it is then your job to shift them around with each new clue called out. I first came across bingo elements in a modern game with Rise of Augustus, and even though I find normal bingo quite boring, I am just drawn to these kind of games. Beating your opponent to the finish and yelling your animal's name in victory is very satisfying, and the theme of sifting through the lost animal's deep dreams to help them find their way home tugs on my heartstrings, so give this game a go and see if you can get your critter back!    


Marisa     

The Mint Works

Mint Works is an amazing little game designed by Justin Blaske for one to four players. The game does exactly what it sets out to achieve. It is portable and plays under 15 minutes The turn pacing is fast paced and it doesn't leave you bored. It took me five minutes to learn and about ten to play our first game. The table space is small and makes for the ideal travel game. The theme is light and the game, despite being simple, has an element of depth to it. While at times the choices are obvious, most of the time there is more than one viable option for you to carry out in a turn, and certainly more than one way to achieve a victory. 

The only copy I have played came from the second Kickstarter campaign, which is larger than the original and everything fits inside perfectly (which is more than I can say for Mint Delivery). Like Mint Delivery this game also boasts a solo experience. It delivers but I couldn't imagine playing it more than a handful of times, while the A.I. is tough, the game mechanics and simplicity almost don't justify sitting there and playing it on your own. Although, that being said, I found it more rewarding than a game of solitaire.   

It certainly is better than most games that play under ten minutes out there and is a great way to introduce new gamers to the worker placement mechanic. We now use it as a Water Deep lite, to warm people up to the idea before cracking out a 45 minute far deeper version of the little game they just played. I love it and have already played it over twenty times in the space of no time at all. It is a great crowd pleaser. 

For months I was unable to secure a copy as it was sold out everywhere, I am pleased that I backed the second Kickstarter run and if you like light games or want a change from the typical social deduction or push your luck fillers, then this is for you.

Anna 

Skull

Skull (or Skull & Roses, as it is also known as) is the perfect bluffing game for parties, drinking, travel and just casual late night chats. We have mentioned it briefly before when this blog was first set up, and it is still a firm favourite in the household. I have played this game abroad, on trains, in restaurants and over dinner. It's portable, easy to teach and pick up and fast to play. I have even taught it to people using playing cards, just 3 hearts and a spade per player. 

In this 3+ player game, each player starts by playing a card face-down, then each player in turn adds one more card to their stack, unless they feel cocky enough to challenge. The challenge consists of the player saying how many roses they think they can reveal from what has been laid down on the table without revealing a skull. Other players can outbid them, aiming to reveal even more roses. The highest bidder must then turn over the coasters starting with their own stack first. If they reveal only roses they win, if they reveal a skull they lose, sacrificing one of their cards at random and putting it out of play. Two successful challenges will win you the game, or if you are the last player left with cards. 

The base set comes with six sets of coasters but it is possible to play with more if you buy extra sets. If you have played Liars Dice aka Perudo, then you will already be familiar with the set up, as both games tread similar territory. I highly recommend this, I truly believe it is a must-have for all households.

Anna

International Tabletop Day

I hope you all had a fantastic time celebrating International Tabletop Day! It is pretty good that we have a day dedicated to the fun of games and spreading the love of tabletop games, and hopefully it has attracted more people over to the crusade of tabletop gaming. 

This year I was unable to go to any events celebrating tabletop games, so we crafted our own marathon of games at home! It was quite a feat; sixteen different games, with some meaty games on the list too and a few that I had never played before. Here is the list of tabletop abundance: 

1. Boggle 

2. Blood Bowl Team Manager 

3. Shogun

4. Tokaido

5. Letters To Santa

6. Mit 3 Dabei

7. Brawl

8. Lost Cities

9. Eight Minute Empire

10. 7 Wonders Duel

11. Raptor

12. Bling Bling Gemstone

13. Zombie Dice

14. Pairs

15. Ticket To Ride: The Emerald City     

16, Noir

Most of the games played were old favourites or ones that had not been played in a while, but Blood Bowl Team Manager and Shogun were new games to me. They had been on my playlist for a while and International Tabletop Day seemed like the perfect occasion to give them a go. I thoroughly enjoyed both of these games, they looked daunting at first but the mechanics were fairly easy to grasp and, like most games, a deeper understanding of the strategy comes through with longer plays. Shogun really did remind me of a lengthier and more strategic Eight Minute Empire, which is one of my favourite games, so that went down very well. I do enjoy a bit of area control and resource management. Blood Bowl Team Manager is a great hand management and dice rolling game with a fun theme, I look forward to playing this a lot more and writing about it in the future. 

Officially, in the United Kingdom, International Tabletop Day is over. But in my home, it will never be over - bring on more games!

Have a great day

Marisa xx  

Interview with Brotherwise Games

In my early ventures into table top gaming last year I was introduced to Boss Monster; a dungeon-building card game that oozes references to 8-bit video games and other pop culture gems. Boss Monster was created by Brotherwise Games; an independent game publishers that was founded and brought to life by two brothers in the US, Chris and Johnny O'Neal. It was their mutual love of games that spurred them to their company and Boss Monster, perfecting it over time and then releasing it to be kickstarted back in 2013. I was fortunate enough to get my first interview for Tabletop Stop with the lovely guys at Brotherwise Games, and here it is! 

What were some of your first favourite board games?

We have very varied tastes, but we both got our start in gaming with D&D and some of the more fantasy-focused board games. Most of Chris's formative years were spent playing strategy games like Risk and Axis and Allies. Johnny was a big fan of HeroQuest and started playing Magic when he was in middle school.

What are some of your favourite games now?
 
Now we're quite partial to games like Seven Wonders, War of the Rings, Smallworld, and Ascension. But really we'll play just about anything. A friend recently introduced us to micro-games like Deep Sea Adventure. Loved 'em!


Your love of board games and video games led you both to creating Boss Monster. What things inspired you the most to create it?

Boss Monster evolved out of a very different game idea than what it currently looks like, so it had a LOT of influences. Originally a bidding game focused on popularity, it merged with another idea that used cards to build classic D&D-looking dungeon maps - thus the fantasy theme. After lots of play testing, and numerous failed attempts, Johnny finally hit on the bidding mechanic that currently drives the game: the construction of a dungeon with rooms that lure in particular heroes. As that game took form, Chris noticed the visual similarity to the old side-scrolling video games that we had loved so much as kids. After some more failed attempts at nailing the theme, Boss Monster morphed into its final form, a mix of retro gaming nostalgia and popular nerd culture. We could write a book listing all the nods and easter eggs in the game, but really it's more fun for our fans to find them on their own.

What did you find most challenging when setting up Brotherwise Games?

Setting up a gaming company is pretty easy, you just file with the Secretary of State and off you go. Getting a gaming company up and running is tough. The hardest thing was probably getting those first distributors to agree to carry Boss Monster and sell it to their retail customers. There was a lot of mistrust of Kickstarted games, and we had to offer a lot of reassurances and data suggesting that we were a good bet. After those first distributors got on board, the rest followed very quickly as stores began asking for Boss Monster.

The Kickstarter campaign for Boss Monster was a massive success, did you anticipate that it would be so popular?

Nope! We were very hopeful we'd make enough to produce a tiny print run of the game and be able to cross that particular goal off our bucket lists. We knew the game was fun and compelling, but we had no idea how big it would be, either on Kickstarter or in stores. We're so happy it was, however!


How important is Kickstarter in your business?

It's very possible that Boss Monster expansions going forward won't be launched on Kickstarter, but we absolutely have Kickstarter to thank for where we currently are as a business. Boss Monster NEVER would have happened without Kickstarter, and the same goes for Brotherwise Games. As family men who both had full-time jobs, we had put as much development money into Boss Monster as were able. We needed those Kickstarter backers to make our idea a reality. But the value of Kickstarter goes beyond those original starter funds. We also see the publicity boost that Kickstarter gives as a real boon to any game trying to get noticed on the market. For the new, non-Boss Monster titles that Brotherwise launches, Kickstarter (or some form of crowdfunding) is likely to be important tool in our toolkit.

Do you guys have a favourite Boss character in the game?

Chris is pretty partial to Cerebellus. Johnny loves the "cover" Bosses, King Croak and Porkus.

Brotherwise Games gives off the family unity vibe, do you believe that board games help bring families and friends together?

Without a doubt. In fact, we have to think that the huge growth that tabletop games have seen of the last five years reflects an overall tightness and comfort with the family unit. Families are playing together more than ever before. Different generations are hanging out more than they have in the last 20 years. Tabletop games offer a social experience like none other, certainly it's a far cry from the more anonymous virtual networks that video games create (not that that's bad, mind you). We LOVE hearing that families, partners, and friends are coming together over a night of Boss Monster.

Brotherwise Games

Torrance, CA

Thanks, guys! You can check out Brotherwise Games by clicking here

Thanks for reading!

Marisa xx

Eight Minute Empire: Legends

One of the first games I played at Thirsty Meeples was Eight Minute Empire: Legends, by Red Raven Games. This is a sequel to the original Eight Minute Empire, and it is a standalone game rather than an expansion. The game focuses on building an empire by gaining territory and using strategic moves, in a fast-paced fashion. Eight Minute Empire is one of my most played games at home. I picked it up at MCM London in May and I have played it an obscene amount of times. It is wonderful how the game is so compact, with so much to offer in eight minutes - possibly longer if you deliberate over your turns like I do at times. All of the dilemmas approach; which card to choose from the row, which block to move? Do I want to start amassing a small army abroad or produce more armies in the starting base? Oh, the choices!

Eight Minute Empire: Legends, like the original, is played on a modular board that gives you options in the set-up of your map. Once the board is assembled you may select which colour you wish to be. Each player gets a number of blocks and three cities, they place four of the blocks in a central area on the board. The blocks represent armies, that you will be sending out to seize land and populate the areas with. In the two player version I played, another colour is selected to act as a third player on the map and ten more blocks are placed in random places. At the start of the game, players bid to see who goes first using the coins they are allocated, the number of coins will depend on how many players are in the game. 

The deck of cards is shuffled and six cards are laid face up in a row, at the top of the board. The deck lies nearby, ready for the players to draw again and replenish the cards taken. Players take turns to select a card and carry out the action on it, it could be to add more armies, build a city, move armies, or destroy an opposing army block. When cards are taken, the rest are shifted to the left, and a new card is revealed from the deck and placed down. The first card in the row is free, then the rest can be bought using coins from your hand. Once shifted, the older cards become slightly more affordable and the new one is the most expensive. The Legends cards have special abilities that allow you to gain extra Victory Points. To win the game your armies must control the most territory, and your collected cards can help give you bonus points. 

If you get a card that allows you to build a city then you get to place the insanely cute castle on an area of the board where you have one of your armies, and then you can spawn armies from there in future turns. This is ideal if you have a rogue block across the sea, then you can dominate more territory.          

The game ends when each player has a certain amount of cards, again, this depends on how many people are playing as Legends is a 2 - 4 player game. At the end you score points based on how many regions and islands you control, and add up any extra points that your cards have added. This is a highly enjoyable game, it is brief but it gets very heated and after one game I always want another straight after. The board and the cards are beautifully illustrated by the designer, Ryan Laukat, with legendary creatures and mythical lands. The rich artwork, quick set-up and smooth game mechanics make this one a perfect choice, building an empire in 8 minutes or so never looked so good!

Thanks for reading.

Marisa xx

Get Lucky

A grey and wet Sunday in August means no outdoor skating or frolicking on the beach, it means indoor time, which means game time (although, any kind of weather forecast means game time at the moment!). Today's morning game was Get Lucky by Cheapass Games. Get Lucky is the card game adaptation of Kill Doctor Lucky, the classic board game and first game by Cheapass Games. You can still fully appreciate the card game even if you are yet to play the classic, and I think it is a nice way to introduce it to people. 

Doctor Lucky certainly lives up to his name, he has managed to sail through life angering everyone he has met along the way and has lived to a ripe old age...so far. Now it is time for his enemies to seek revenge, their lust for his blood has built up and one of them will be victorious tonight and succeed in killing him. We hope. 

Like most evenings that end in vengeful bloodshed, it begins with a dinner party. Doctor Lucky is hosting an elegant soiree at his mansion and has decided to invite every person who wants him dead. Every dinner guest has a reason for killing him, which is printed on the beautifully illustrated guest cards. The flavour text is witty and fun, all ending with the same reasoning: that Doctor Lucky must die!

The set up of the game is simple, I have been playing the two player version which involves an imaginary player called Howard, I shall elaborate on Howard later. Each player starts with three characters and a hand of 8 cards from the deck. Three additional characters are placed in the Drawing Room, laid out on the table in a row, with the main deck of upgrade cards face-down nearby and the other guest cards at the other end. Doctor Lucky is represented by the pawn, he moves from character to character on every turn, in numeric order. When he is on your character this signals it is your turn to play. I like to imagine him shmoozing around the room, drifting around party guests and leaving once he has delightfully insulted them enough.

On your turn you may equip a card to a character, draw a card from the deck, swap the character whose turn it is for one in the Drawing Room or make an attempt on Doctor Lucky's life. Luckily there is no hand limit in this game, which is great because if you play like me you may end up with quite a few cards! The upgrade cards in the deck are Weapon, Motive and Opportunity cards. There are also some dubious looking Spite cards in the deck that can be used to weaken your opponent's characters, but they can be used to weaken yours too so be prepared! You can equip the upgrade cards to your characters to make them more powerful and give them points that can be used to kill Doctor Lucky. The points to kill him are counteracted by luck points, these can also be found on the cards and will be used by your opponents when you make attempts to murder him. You do not want to let anyone beat you to the killing, your character wants to be the one to kill him because that is how you win the game!

There are specific upgrade cards for your character in the deck that share their name and number, if you equip these to your character then you get extra points, this helps build up your character's strength for the slaying and helps out if you are stung by a Spite card. Spite cards are used to stop a murder, they are worth one luck point and are attached to the murderer permanently, giving them -1 points. This is when the swapping of your characters with characters in the Drawing Room can come in handy, you may want to do that if one of your characters is bombarded with Spite cards. The swap also comes in handy if you have a nice stash of upgrade cards in your hand for someone in the Drawing Room and your current people are milling about with no weapon, motive or opportunity to kill. 

So, now I shall talk about Howard; the imaginary player. He comes into the game to help you out if your opponent makes an attempt on Doctor Lucky's life and you are running low on luck points to halt the murder. To counteract the murder attempt you produce luck points from your hand that correspond to the points the murderer has. If you use an upgrade card with their number on it then they immediately cease the attempt. You can also use any card that has luck points, depicted by lucky clovers on them. But when you do not have the relevant cards you must call upon Howard. He takes the reins and plays from the top of the deck, he may play up to the amount of luck that was passed to him. Any spite cards revealed are attached to the murderer whilst others are tossed onto the discard pile. Howard has been my saviour quite a few times in the past, it was rather like we were in sync, he knew the gravity of the situation and rushed to my aid like a gallant knight on his trustworthy steed, until this morning. He screwed me over big time, and our relationship will be forever strained; thanks for nothing, Howard!

Get Lucky creates a great atmosphere and is a wonderfully balanced game. The simplicity of the game play makes it appealing, and it still feels exciting even after multiple games. I find this is the case with a lot of games designed by James Ernest, such as Brawl and Button Men, which are two games that helped start my gaming obsession last year. I recommend giving Get Lucky a play soon, I think I will give it another play tonight to let Howard try to redeem himself.

Thanks for reading! I am off to Oxford tomorrow so wish me table top fun :)

Marisa xx            

    

    

                 

200 Games in One Month!

On a whim, I have set a personal goal of playing 200 different games this month. It is quite a feat, even though my household holds around 150 games. The collection includes a wide array of tabletop games, from brief and fast-paced games like Brawl and Button Men to more lengthy and heavier games such as Shogun and Zombicide. We are in the tenth day of the month and I have played eighty different games so far, that leaves 21 days to cram in 120 more games. This is achievable! On top of the challenge, I have still been playing my favourite games multiple times. Although they do not count as part of the 200, a girl can't limit herself.  

Visiting Draughts, Marquee Models and friend's houses for board gaming sessions has given me a plethora of new games to discover and indulge in. The games that have had the biggest impact on me so far have been Imperial Settlers and Mysterium. I raved about Imperial Settlers in my last blog post, since then it has been purchased and played profusely. I think I may be a bit obsessed. 

Mysterium's Box and Imperial Settlers in play.

Mysterium is a unique game, it is a co-operative game of deduction with a murder mystery and paranormal theme. One player acts as the silent ghost, using illustrated cards to help the other players who are acting as mediums. The cards allow the mediums to decipher who killed the ghost hundreds of years ago, how they killed them and discover the location of where the slaughter took place. The mediums may converse together and analyse the cards, it is a rather social game! To play this we gathered around a table like we were present for am actual seance, all we needed was the ambience of a darkened room with flickering candles and the wind howling outside. But, alas, it was the morning and a very fine sunny day with sunlight streaming in, and the only howling was my stomach as I had eaten an inadequate breakfast.  

Get Lucky, Hare and Tortise, Drakon (1st Edition) and Fast Flowing Forest Fellas:
Four of the games I have played so far today.

The 200 Games challenge is allowing me to access more games, break out of my comfort zone and learn lots of new strategies. I recommend setting yourselves a challenge such as this, blitz through your own collection, dust the cobwebs off of that ancient game you have lurking in the cabinet and give it some play!

Thanks for reading. If you would like to catch up on my crazy challenge more then follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/tabletopstop

Marisa xx

Cartagena

Who doesn't like a pirate themed game? I would choose pirates over zombies, any day. Cartagena is a game about groups of pirates racing each other through an underground passage, to escape the fortress prison they were held in and to reach the port where a sloop is waiting for them. This will transport the lucky pirates away to a land of rum and, probably, booty.

According to the rules sheet, the game Cartagena is themed on a pirate jailbreak in 1672. I did a little research into it and could not find any information on this jailbreak. It seems others also looked into it and found no actual record of this, but there is an imposing fortress in Cartagena that was built in the 16th Century to ward off pirates so perhaps there is some kind of legend surrounding it after all. Also, I am sure the internet does not know every single detail of history.

I love this game. I have played it on numerous occasions and taken a vicious beating, only tasting victory one sweet time. It is very strategic, planning ahead to get your pirates through the underground passage, but also hindering your opponents. You are navigating a path for your pirates, and making sure you do not run out of cards.

This game is for two - five players and there are two different versions of the game; the Jamaica version and the Tortuga version. In the Jamaica version the cards in your hand are concealed and the rest of the deck is placed face down, where all players pick new cards from. In the Tortuga version the players lay their hand face up for all to see, and twelve cards from the deck are dealt and placed face up in a row. The row is re-stocked once it has run out. I tend to favour the Jamaica version as I like the secrecy!

The board is in six segments, you can assemble them together in many different ways, as long as the passages connect either end. Each player is allocated six cards in their hand. The player who looks the most like a pirate may take the first turn. This has only been me once, after I had a particularly manic hair day. 

The cards have a piratical theme, with six different symbols. There is the skull and crossbones, the Captain's hat, a key, a dagger, a pistol and a glass bottle. You play a card to move one of your pirates to the nearest symbol that matches your card on the board. The aim is to get all six of your pirates across the passage but using a strategy that hinders your opponents. When you need more cards you must move one of your pirates backwards, to the nearest pirate behind you, regardless if it is your own or your opponents. If you move to a space with one pirate resting there, then you pick up one card. If you go back to a space with two pirates there then you may pick up two cards. There can only be a maximum of three pirates on one space, so this makes life rather difficult when you are running low on cards, but you can use it to your advantage when trying to stop your opponent from picking up new cards. 

The player who gets all six of their pirates across the passage and onto the sloop is the winner. When I first played this game I hastily sent all my pirates out on my first six turns, it seemed like a good idea but I had so many stragglers and did not want to leave any pirates behind! I became rather obsessed with this game a few months ago, trying to crack the secret to winning and not running out of cards so severely. It takes a lot of plotting, going backwards whenever you see a space occupied by two pirates within your reach, and holding fort by keeping three pirates on a space behind your opponent rather than advancing at times. I am still working on the formula. It is a rather brutal game, but great fun. I hunger for more victories, but I enjoy a challenge so I keep swashbuckling away.            

Sushi Dice

I thought I would start the morning off with a game that would awaken my senses and make me alert, Sushi Dice by Sit Down! Games is perfect for that. I picked up this game from Travelling Man at London MCM Expo in May, and it has become one of my favourite dice games. You are playing as a sushi chef, preparing delicious sushi platters in haste against your opponent. A deck of cards highlights the different sushi platters that need to be made, three cards are drawn from this deck before the game starts and are laid face up on the table. You and your opponent must try to create these dishes by rolling six dice each simultaneously and matching up the symbols on the dice to one of the cards. When the game begins you start rolling your dice like crazy to make the platters, setting aside the correct symbols and keeping on rolling the other dice until you match the dice to the card. When you have matched up the symbols you ding the service bell and take the card. That card is then replaced by a new one from the deck and play resumes!

 Sounds rather frantic? Well, the craziness is pushed even further to the extreme by the "Yuck" factor. On three of the dice in your hand there are little black skull symbols; the "Yuck" symbol. This means that your sushi dish you were slaving over went horribly wrong, one of the other chefs has tasted it and deemed it unsuitable for consumption. If you roll a "Yuck" and your opponent notices, they can say (or scream, as it often happens) "YUCK!" and that forces you to re-roll all of your precious dice. In a two player scenario, the first player to collect six cards is the winner, the victorious sushi chef from a cut-throat kitchen of critics. 

      

The star symbol on three of the dice is a wild card, it can count as any other symbol in order to help you complete a sushi platter. The star symbol is a life saver in most situations!

Sushi Dice is a fun and quick game, a great prelude to a gaming session and also quite addictive. It can be played with 2 -6 players and is suitable for ages 6+ so it is a good group game for families and friends. Even though the box says it takes 15 minutes, it could last all night, if you take the pressure of the kitchen. The frenzy of rolling your own dice to match the symbols, but also keeping a watchful eye over what your opponent rolls in case they should roll a "Yuck", is not for the faint-hearted!

The rain won't ruin my summer this year!

Every summer I have dreaded the rain coming, as it meant that I would not be able to skate outside or my pic-nic would be ruined. I was always desperate for glorious sunshine or I would become undone and sulk until the weather cleared up. But this summer I have finally found indoor activities to keep myself from despair. It is pouring down with rain today but I am not sad one little bit, as I have just joined a gym to release some energy and at home I am surrounded by fantastic games. My skates are sitting upstairs looking glum, but I will find a roller disco to give them a good roll. As for now, I have a very busy afternoon ahead of me...

I have set up a little conveyor of games to play. First up is the tile placing strategy game, Blokus, which was one of the first games I was introduced to last year that started me getting hooked. Then a spot of Famiglia, which is a deck building Mafia game I picked up at the UK Games Expo in May. after that we have M80, which is a great and tense card game I got on Kickstarter this year, I will be going into more detail on this game and others by the same games designer later next week. Last but by no means least, we have Coup on the table. This is another one of my favourite bluffing games, I hope I can claim victory in this round!

Wish me luck! :)

Marisa xx

Welcome to Tabletop Stop

Welcome to my blog; the experiences in tabletop gaming from the eyes of a rookie. Like a lot of people, the vast majority of my past experiences with board games had been the usual family games that you find lodged in corners of pubs and rental cottages. Although some were entertaining at the time, they could also be a bit tedious and I longed for something more. I rather liked the social aspect of board gaming and how we weren't staring at a screen in silence, we were interacting and thinking, sometimes working as a team and sometimes there was a bit of friendly competition.

Last year I was introduced into a whole new dimension of tabletop games that blew my mind. These games were engaging, they were fun, some were gorgeously designed - they were unlike any games I had encountered before. Now I am hooked; totally addicted to table top games and have started my own little collection too (which is growing steadily). I love the feel of the printed linen cards, the small components and counters, the custom designed dice and the attractive boards; all of these things are more precious to me than a pair of designer shoes and a handbag, which confuses my family!

In my new adventure into gaming I have noticed that there seems to be a game for everyone. Last week I found a card game about collecting and cooking up flavoursome wild mushrooms, a memory card game about identifying actor's masks in a Japanese theatre and a push-your-luck game where one of the players is essentially dared to go on a dungeon crawl. The sheer variety of games available is wonderful, from the long and strategic games to the short and frenzied games. Often, my mood dictates what kind of game I desire to play, so I am pleased to have an array to choose from.

I hope you enjoy following me on my journey into the tabletop games world. I will be posting about the games I am playing, writing about my experiences, what shops or events I am visiting and in the near future I will be talking to game creators and enthusiasts. Please tell me about your favourite games too, and tell me your recommendations, as I am always on the prowl for something to add to my collection. So far, I feel like this community is a warm and welcoming crowd, that want to get others involved and I cannot wait to wade further into this pool of dice and decks!

Thank you for following.

Marisa xx