Magazine Madness 42: Senet Issue 17

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

—oOo—

Senet is a print magazine about the craft, creativity, and community of board gaming. Bearing the tagline of “Board games are beautiful”, it is about the play and the experience of board games, it is about the creative thoughts and processes which go into each and every board game, and it is about board games as both artistry and art form. Published by Senet Magazine Limited, each issue promises previews of forthcoming, interesting titles, features which explore how and why we play, interviews with those involved in the process of creating a game, and reviews of the latest and most interesting releases. Senet is also one of the very few magazines about games to actually be available for sale on the high street.

Senet Issue 17 was published in was published in the winter of 2024 and if the cover stands out for its singular look and stark simplicity which makes it stand out on the newsstand, it should be no surprise that the editorial talks about the importance of a good cover. The cover itself is an illustration taken from the board game Emberleaf and the editorial applies that importance to board games as much as its own cover. Which gives space to highlight the artist interviewed in the issue, ‘The Mico’, and the rich detail of his covers that ensure the games that he illustrates standout on the shelves.

As usual, ‘Behold’ begins the issue proper, highlighting some of the then forthcoming games with a preview and a hint or two of what to expect. The releases of note here Emberleaf, from which the issue’s front cover comes, a game about restoring a forest after it has been attacked by a villainous overlord; A Nice Cuppa, a mini-game about relaxing with a nice hot cup of tea amongst today’s travails; and A Wayfarer’s Tale: The Journey Begins, a roll-and-write game about exploring and charting new islands. The other opening sections of the magazine continue to underwhelm the reader, but for different reasons. The regular column of readers’ letters, ‘Points’, continues to be constrained to a single page, waiting for room to expand build into something more, but in this issue, the letters continue to show that the audience for magazine is wider than letters in previous issues have suggested, with letters from older readers and highlight the benefits of playing board games. With ‘For Love of the Game’ the journey of the designer Tristian Hall continues towards the completion and publication of his Gloom of Kilforth—and beyond. By now, very beyond. In ‘The Art of Success’ he asks how you can measure success when it comes to publishing board games. As he makes clear, it is not money, but rather bringing a project that he loves to the market and hopefully, successfully so. Besides comparing the process of creating board games to creating art, and whilst that is not a bad comparison, nothing is added to the conversation about games and the process of their design that has not be said before.

Every issue consists of two interviews, one with an artist and one with a designer, plus an article about a theme in games and an article about a mechanic in games, and of course, Senet Issue 16 is no exception. The tried and tested formula begins with ‘The Wolf Man’, Matt Thrower’s interview with designer and publisher, Ted Alspach. Through his company, Bézier Games, he is best known for titles such as Castles of Mad King Ludwig and One Night Ultimate Werewolf. The interview charts him from shifting from player to designer via expansions for the highly regarded railway game, Age of Steam, and then the Werewolf games. One interesting fact revealed in the interview is that Castles of Mad King Ludwig was actually inspired by the designer drawing maps as a Dungeon Master for Dungeons & Dragons and wanting originally to apply that theme. It is clear that Alspach is enthusiastic about his own games and seeing other playing them. It is an engaging affair as is the second interview in the issue by Alexandra Sonechkina, which is with the North Macedonian artist known as The Micah. ‘Monster Mash’ showcases his artwork with space given for him to discuss the origins and inspirations for the numerous illustrations he has supplied to innumerable board game designs. The monster illustrations for Monster Lands 2 are amazing, whilst despite his not liking drawing buildings, his cover to the board game Merchants Cove is rich in detail and really could have been benefitted from being larger so the reader could have better seen some of that detail. As with the best of the artwork shown off in the pages of Senet, the illustrations serve as mini-portfolio for the artist, intriguing for the reader to want to look at the games they are for.

Between the two interviews is Tim Clare’s ‘Boards and Borders’ which explores the contentious theme of immigration in board games. The article notes that immigration has actually been a means of spreading the play and popularity of board games, such as that of Mancala across India and the adoption of Mahjong by middle-class Jewish women in the twenties and thirties, but also points out although the subject matter for some board games would historically involve immigrants, the board games themselves do not address this, for example the building of the railways in the United States in almost any train game. However, other board games do focus on immigrants and the immigrant experience, more often than not in the USA, since the country experienced notable influxes of immigrants in relatively recent times. For example, Alea’s Chinatown explores the growth of the Chinese population in Manhattan in the late sixties following the relaxation in immigration laws, whilst Pandasaurus Games’ Tammany Hall sees the immigrant groups being used as bargaining chips and the means to garner votes and thus power by corrupt politicians in the late nineteenth century and again in Manhattan. Manhattan is major location for immigrant-themed board games since it was the key entry point for immigrants coming to the USA. The article does not shy away from challenging nature of the subject matter and highlights the artwork for later versions of Chinatown for perpetuating stereotypes. This is an interesting look at a theme that appears not be commonly explored in board games.

The mechanic is ‘pick-up-and-deliver’, one that is very much more commonly used in board games. ‘Delivering the Goods’ is the double-meaning title of Dan Thurot’s article about games in which the players pick up goods or passengers and transport them to specific locations. Mayfair Games’ Empire Builder series is the first series of board games to make use of this mechanic, but Lancashire Railways from Winsome Games followed by Age of Steam from Warfrog Games, both by designer Martin Wallace have continued and expanded its use. All of them see players not only laying routes between locations, but picking up goods or passengers and delivering them elsewhere. The structure has spread far beyond the romance of the railways to other modes of transport, such as sailing ships in Merchants & Marauders from Z-Man Games and starships in Xia: Legends of a Drift System from Lavka Games though. Oddly, no canals, though. However, what the article shows is that the further designers gets away from the simple elegance of the ‘pick-up-and-deliver’ seen in Age of Steam, the more complex their designs get, even up to the point where mathematics and mass-thrust ratios need to be considered in the early days of space exploration board game, Leaving Earth from The Lumenaris Group, Inc.

Senet’s reviews section, ‘Unboxed’, covers a wide array of titles as usual. They are led by a review of Undaunted 2200: Callisto, the Science Fiction version of the highly praised Undaunted series from Osprey Games. However, whereas titles in the Undaunted series have been awarded ‘Senet’s Top Choice’ in previous issues, not so here, though it gets a big review. Instead, the award goes to CMYK’s game of warehouse organisation, memory, and imagination, Wilmot’s Warehouse, which is bright, breezy, and very colourful, and sound a lot of fun. The oddest choice reviewed is Blackwell Games’ For Small Creatures Such As We, a solo journaling game in which the player controls and tells the story of a crew of a spaceship. It is odd because it strays into the roleplaying space rather than board games and thus feels out of place. This is not the only time that the issue strays into the realm of roleplaying though.

As per usual, the last two columns in Senet Issue 16 are ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. In ‘When board gaming meets therapy’, therapist Alex Roberts explores ways in which board games can be used as part of therapy, as vehicles via which patients can be tell their stories. This is a fascinating subject and consequently, a fascinating article, but again oddly, it uses not a board game to illustrate the possibility of organised play the author suggests, but a storytelling game, a roleplaying game. This is For the Queen, which is not a board game. Simply, there is a disconnect here between the title of the article and the content.

Lastly, the team behind Knightmare Live pull a game from their ‘Shelf of Shame’. This is Blood Rage from Cool Mini Or Not in which the players lead clans of Vikings in battles against monsters during Ragnarök to earn a place in Valhalla. They come away having enjoyed the game, describing as fun, but not in their top ten.

Physically, Senet Issue 17 is shows off the board games it previews and reviews to great effect, just as you would expect. The most interesting article in the issue is ‘Boards and Borders’ because of the difficult subject, but the issue is treated fairly, showing where it has been used to best effect and where it has been poorly handled in board game designs of recent years. Elsewhere, the missteps in roleplaying feel out of place, but otherwise, an enjoyable, if serviceable read.

Magazine Madness 41: Senet Issue 16

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

—oOo—

Senet is a print magazine about the craft, creativity, and community of board gaming. Bearing the tagline of “Board games are beautiful”, it is about the play and the experience of board games, it is about the creative thoughts and processes which go into each and every board game, and it is about board games as both artistry and art form. Published by Senet Magazine Limited, each issue promises previews of forthcoming, interesting titles, features which explore how and why we play, interviews with those involved in the process of creating a game, and reviews of the latest and most interesting releases. Senet is also one of the very few magazines about games to actually be available for sale on the high street.

Senet Issue 16 was published in the autumn of 2024 and what the covers hints at—if, that is, the reader recognises the style of illustrator Kyle Ferrin—what the focus of the issue is, and that is, a big interview with Cole Wehrle, the designer of several popular, and critically acclaimed board games, including Root, Oath, and Arcs. If not, then the cover is not giving away very much, but then that is what the editorial is there for, and indeed it explains all. As well as the interview with Cole Wehrle, the editorial highlights the issue’s game play and theme articles. The former is that of solo play, once that the editor admits having enjoyed with a series of games, whilst the latter is all about witches and witchcraft. Not only appropriate for the time of year when the issue was published, but coincidentally, appropriate for the time of year when this review is being written (even if, unfortunately, a year late!).

As expected, ‘Behold’ begins the issue proper, highlighting some of the then forthcoming games with a preview and a hint or two of what to expect. The notable titles include Ada’s Dream and Tenby. The first is a complex game about Ada Lovelace and her program designs for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, involving as it does dice, character cards, and a rondel. The preview is clear about the complexity of Ada’s Dream, but the subject is fascinating enough to warrant a closer look. The second is simpler, a tableau game about laying out the fronts of houses in the Welsh coastal resort of the same name, in part based on their colour, a common feature of Welsh towns with their pastel-coloured buildings. ‘Points’, the regular column of readers’ letters, contains a mix of praise for the magazine and a discussion of gaming culture. It still feels limited at just a single page and it is clear from the letters that the magazine is well liked, so it seems a shame that it cannot be expanded to build a community around the magazine via the letters page. Hopefully, this will change in the future when the page count for the magazine is increased. Similarly, ‘For Love of the Game’ continues the journey of the designer Tristian Hall towards the completion and publication of his Gloom of Kilforth—and beyond. By now, very beyond. In ‘Time to Play’ he explores what he does in in downtime away from designing and publishing games, which surprisingly, is playing games, running counter to the idea that you should never take your day job home with you by working on other projects. This though is a variety of games, including roleplaying games and games from other designers. Much of it is to spur his creativity, but he cannot avoid doing a little market research too. By this point though, the column has left its remit way behind, and it would be interesting to see another designer share his diary.

The sixteenth issue of the magazine keeps to its tried and tested format of two interviews, one with a designer and one with an artist, and two articles about games, one about specific type or game or mechanic and the other about a theme. As mentioned previously, the interview with the designer is with Cole Wehrle in Dan Thurot’s dubiously titled ‘Give It A Wehrle’. Wehrle is the designer of some very high profile titles, mostly from Leder Games, including Root, Oath, and Arcs, but also some more controversial, but arguably more interesting titles like John Company and Molly House from the company he shares with his brother, Wehrlegig Games. Here he discusses the development of Root, and then Arcs, in particular how it differs from typical Science Fiction civilisation board games that adhere to the 4X format—eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. Surprisingly, the focus is less on Arcs, at the time his latest game, than still on Root. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating interview, one which also examines the differences between how Wehrle designs for Leder Games and his own company. It does feel as if it could have been a longer interview looking at his other designs in greater depth. Perhaps in a later issue?

The other interview is with the artist, Joan Guardiet. In ‘The Explorer’, Dan Jolin talks to him about the games he has illustrated and the varied approach he takes to each. Senet always gives the space to showcase an artist’s work and this is no exception, enabling the reader to look at the different styles across several games. For example, Mazescape series of solo map exploration titles from Devir, are inspired by MC Escher and the computer game, Monument Valley, and have an angular look, whilst La Viña, also from Devir, has a delicate, intentionally ethereal look in its depiction of its various grapes and vines. Across the six games depicted it is almost a surprise to see they are all illustrated by the same artist.

In between the interviews, ‘Game of Crones’ by Alexandra Sonechkina explores the role of the witch has in board games, tracking her role as villain from early titles like Hexenhaus from 1952 and Milton Bradley Games’ Which Witch? from the seventies to more positive depictions in games such as the 2015 Kennerspiel des Jahres Winner Broom Service from Alea and KOSMOS’ Techno Witches from 2005. Common themes in witch-based games include broom races, potion making, and spell casting, but the most common is that of witches on trial, which of course, has a strong historical precedent. The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 figure strongly, as in games like Façade Games’ social deduction game, Salem 1692, but Septima from Mindclash Games counters this by having the players working to solve the problem that the witches are accused of and are on trial for. Lastly, the article points out that the subject is controversial because perceptions of witchcraft differ, but suggests that more positive depictions might counter this controversy.

Matt Thrower’s ‘Party of One’ examines a style of play that has become increasingly common over the last few years as an increasing number of publishers offer extra rules for their games that allow them to be played solo. The article lists the Mage Knight Board Game, Wingspan, Dune: Imperium, Cascadia, and the Imperium series as all possessing good solo variants to what are well regarded games, but notes that the origins of solo play in board games lies in card games and puzzles which do not offer the narrative possibility that a solo board game can. Even playing board games solo can offer this as well as the means to learn the rules, and that is before you get to games that are deigned to be played solo. Here there is possibility to tell stories and have play experiences that other board games with more players would not. Overall, this is an interesting article, but it could have better highlighted games designed to be played solo rather than games with solo variants.

‘Unboxed’, Senet’s reviews section covers a wide range of games, top of which is Arcs, designed by the issue’s star interviewee, Cole Wehrle, and here awarded ‘Senet’s Top Choice’. The game is given a very good review, and it does look like a terrific game. Elsewhere there is courtly theme to the reviews with a look at both For the Queen from Darrington Press and Courtesans from Catch Up Games, but one of the more interesting titles reviewed is Hollandspiele’s Striking Flint, a game about the General Motors strike of 1936 to 1937 in Flint. Michigan. The game involves placing workers to stop actions being done and so resist the police and other strike breakers, so is described as an ‘anti-worker placement game’. The issue does not ignore more commercial fare with a review of Disney Lorcana: Gateway from Ravensburger.

As is traditional, Senet Issue 16 comes to a close with the regular end columns, ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. For ‘How to Play’, ‘How to be a Games Guru’ by Will Brasher, talks about his role as a games guru working at the games café, Chance & Counters, in Birmingham. This provides the reader with an interesting and quite detailed perspective of actually providing recommendations and helping people play games. Lastly, Banzainator of Board Games Anonymous, pulls Everdell for her ‘Shelf of Shame’. The reason why she has not played is because it was too light for her and this proves to be the case with some caveats. She would only play it again with two players rather than more.

Physically, Senet Issue 16 is shows off the board games it previews and reviews to great effect, just as you would expect. The highlight of the issue is the interview with Cole Wehrle, which definitely feels as if should be longer, but the article on witches and witchcraft as a theme is also good. This is another good issue providing solid and informative discussion of board games and their culture.

Magazine Madness 38: Senet Issue 15

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

—oOo—

Senet is a print magazine about the craft, creativity, and community of board gaming. Bearing the tagline of “Board games are beautiful”, it is about the play and the experience of board games, it is about the creative thoughts and processes which go into each and every board game, and it is about board games as both artistry and art form. Published by Senet Magazine Limited, each issue promises previews of forthcoming, interesting titles, features which explore how and why we play, interviews with those involved in the process of creating a game, and reviews of the latest and most interesting releases. Senet is also one of the very few magazines about games to actually be available for sale on the high street.

Senet Issue 15 was published in the summer of 2024 and as its cover hints, the issue includes an article exploring Ancient Rome as a theme in board games. The theme is also linked to the issue’s exploration of a gaming mechanic, that of dice rolling, as well as highlighting a joke reference in the article about Ancient Rome that is very obvious. It is surprising to see a pair of roleplaying games advertised in the issue, but this not worry the regular reader. Senet is still very much about board games.

The issue proper begins with highlighting some of the forthcoming games with its regular preview, ‘Behold’. Highlights here include Power Vacuum, a game about power and power in a government of power household appliances after their dear leader, a vacuum cleaner (hence the title, a glorious pun), has died; Final Cut, a card game about making horror films; and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. There is a filmic theme running through several of these previews, both in terms of inspiration and title. ‘Points’, the regular column of readers’ letters, contains a mix of praise for the magazine and a discussion of gaming culture. It still feels limited at just a single page and it is clear from the letters that the magazine is well liked, so it seems a shame that it cannot be expanded to build a community around the magazine via the letters page. ‘For Love of the Game’, continuing the journey of the designer Tristian Hall towards the completion and publication of his Gloom of Kilforth—and beyond. By now, very beyond. In this issue, he focuses on the joys of being a solo designer as well as the pitfalls of working with others. Of course, he cannot name names, but the lack of details or examples means that there is no important advice to learn or dangers to warn about, and the article is simplistic and obvious.

The tried and tested format of the magazine continues in Senet Issue 15: Two interviews, one with a designer, one with an artist, and one article exploring a game mechanic whilst another looks at a game theme. It is a format that works well since it throws a light on different aspects of the hobby and its creators. The first interview is with Bruno Cathala, a designer whose output is often eclipsed by other designers. His notable designs include Shadows Over Camelot with the late Serge Laget, which was an early co-operative design with the innovative addition of a traitor mechanic—later reimplemented in Battlestar Galactica, the Spiel des Jahres-winning Kingdomino, and the delightful Sea Salt & Paper. Cathala talks about his most notable successes and their development, often leading the reader to realise that they have played more of his games than they had realised. It closes with a list of just some of the stats related to his games—numbers, popularity on BoardGameGeek.com and some of the themes he has explored and some of Senet’s own picks of the best. It would have been interesting to expand on the latter as to why the magazine staff liked those games.

The second interview is with the artist, Cinyee Chiu, whose dream-like depictions of nature can be seen in games such as Harvest Island and Dragon Castle. Just three games are highlighted, so the interview does not feel as expansive as other interviews with artists in previous issues.

Dan Thurot’s ‘Roll Playing’ examines dice as a mechanic in board games. They have the longest history as a mechanic, going all the back to knucklebones of sheep, or astragaloi, used as dice. At their most basic they are rolled in ‘roll and move’ games and they are used in gambling games too. Pointing out that dice add tension and suspense, the looks at a number of different games and ways in which dice are used. The primary means is to generate a result, or ‘output randomness’, but the opposite of that is ‘Input randomness’, where the dice results are used to decide actions. In addition, because they have different numbers on their faces, these can be manipulated, the example cited being Roll Player, the board game of creating fantasy roleplaying game characters. Dice Realms, a game of improving medieval realms, goes even further, by allowing players to actually chance the numbers on the faces of their dice. There could have been a list of other mechanics involving dice that Senet has covered in previous issues, but this is an interesting overview of dice and their use beyond simple ‘roll and ‘move’.

The issue’s theme is Ancient Rome and ‘Empire Building’ by Alexandra Sonechkina starts with the Monty Python reference promised by the editor. The article points out that with a thousand years of history and culture, Ancient Rome has much that can inspire board game design. In board game history, it starts with the many wars and battles fought by the Roman Empire, but there is the gladiatorial arena and chariot racing, the ruthless politics, and ultimately, the construction of Rome itself. From Avalon Hill’s mammoth The Republic of Rome to Matt Leacock’s Pandemic: Fall of Rome, which organises the last defence of Rome as a tower defence game using the Pandemic engine, the article highlights a wide range of games. Magna Roma and Foundations of Rome both deal with the construction of Rome, (though sadly not Glory to Rome), Chariots of Rome and Chariot Race both deal with chariot races, and Gladitores: Blood for Roses, is a crowd-pleasing, blood and guts treatment of gladiators in the arena. So, lots of history and multiple themes in article which could have been much longer. The only issue are the illustrations which focus too tightly on parts of the games rather than the whole games themselves.

‘Unboxed’, Senet’s reviews section covers a wide range of games. The most notable of which is Osprey Games’ Sankoré: The Pride of Mansa Musa, a big, heavyweight Eurogame of rival North African school teachers at the University of Timbuktu is awarded ‘Senet’s Top Choice’, whilst the reviews actually start with big review of small games such as Rafter Five and Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs. Another heavy game reviewed is Wyrmspan, the draconic sequel to the highly regarded Wingspan, which has been the subject of previous issues of the magazine. Overall, a pleasing selection of games reviewed.

As is traditional, Senet Issue 15 comes to a close with the regular end columns, ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. For ‘How to Play’, ‘How to serve up a great game night’ by Meeple Lady, suggests a recipe to creating and running a game night, which is quite common within the board game hobby. It is good advice, though hosts are likely to swap out the suggested games for ones that they prefer. If the article is surprising that has taken so long for the magazine to talk about hosting a game night. Lastly, Calvin Wong Tze Loon pulls Lands of Galzyr for his ‘Shelf of Shame’. What is interesting is that this a game that he and his partner worked on during the Lockdown, so coming back to it was a kind of rediscovery for him and the strange adventures that the game takes the players on. The article is a change of focus in that the subject is a game designer rather than a reviewer.

Physically, Senet Issue 15 is shows off the board games it previews and reviews to great effect, just as you would expect. It contains a good mix of interesting and informative articles, but the illustrations in ‘Empire Building’ are not as clearly handled as they could have been. There is a sense that Senet is beginning to outgrow its page count at this point. Some of the articles feel as if they should have been longer, ‘Empire Building’ and the regular ‘For Love of the Game’ being examples. Nevertheless, Senet Issue 15 continues the showcase that the magazine has been for the boardgame hobby with very readable content and pleasingly sharp design.

Magazine Madness 37: Senet Issue 14

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

—oOo—

Senet is a print magazine about the craft, creativity, and community of board gaming. Bearing the tagline of “Board games are beautiful”, it is about the play and the experience of board games, it is about the creative thoughts and processes which go into each and every board game, and it is about board games as both artistry and art form. Published by Senet Magazine Limited, each issue promises previews of forthcoming, interesting titles, features which explore how and why we play, interviews with those involved in the process of creating a game, and reviews of the latest and most interesting releases. Senet is also one of the very few magazines about games to actually be available for sale on the high street.

Senet Issue 14 was published in the spring of 2024 and is physically notable for its four-part, split cover inspired by the game Art Society and some classic pieces of artwork from around the world. The editorial highlights the fact that 2024 marked the fiftieth anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons and that as well as being the first and most successful roleplaying game, it has had its own influence upon boardgames, the editor noting that the first Eurogame inspired by Dungeons & Dragons—2012’s Lords of Waterdeep—was the editor’s first Eurogame. Which means that the editor has been playing Euro-style games for less time than you would think and playing roleplaying games for longer than you would think! Plus the article is a bit of nostalgia upon his part.

The issue proper begins with highlighting some of the forthcoming games with its regular preview, ‘Behold’. There is an unintended theme running through the previewed games, the board game Nature exploring evolution through a series of modules; players finding undiscovered animals on an unexplored mythical island and establishing nature reserves for them in Wondrous Creatures; and critters living in ice floe villages fighting monsters in FLOE, and that is animals and creatures of various kinds. The combat continues in Tibetana, but this is a game in which the aim is to grow by spreading cultures rather than being a game about war without confrontation. It is the most intriguing of titles previewed in the issue, though perhaps not as quite as intriguing as in previous issues of the magazine. ‘Points’, the regular column of readers’ letters, contains a mix of praise for the magazine and a discussion of gaming culture, including suggestions of how to interact with other gamers by focusing on them rather than oneself and a quick report on board game display at the Young Victoria & Albert museum in London. It shoehorns in more letters in than normal, rising from four to five, but as with the previous issues, there is scope here for expansion of this letters page to give space to more voices and readers of Senet, and so build a community. ‘For Love of the Game’, continuing the journey of the designer Tristian Hall towards the completion and publication of his Gloom of Kilforth—and beyond. Here he looks at what to do after the game has been fulfilled via Kickstarter and what the options are if a designer wants to keep the momentum going for his game. As Hall points out, the designer is in sales now. The question is, how more life is there in this journey and should space be made for other voices?

The tried and tested format of the magazine continues in Senet Issue 14: Two interviews, one with a designer, one with an artist, and one article exploring a game mechanic whilst another looks at a game theme. It is a format that works well since it throws a light on different aspects of the hobby and its creators. The mechanic in the issue is ‘Conflict of Interest’. Dan Thurot examines the prisoner’s dilemma, the classic scenario in game theory that shows why two rational individuals might not cooperate, even if it is in their best interest to do so. It begins with its historical origins and development by the RAND Corporation and sees how it has been extended into board game design. In doing so, it hits some classic board game designs from the last seventy years. Most notably, Diplomacy, but also Cosmic Encounter from EON and its subsequent reimplementation, Avalon Hill’s Dune. The article looks at the balance between self-interest and the needs of the group, often expressed as the semi-co-operative style of play, and what becomes clear is that the mechanic is used to explore some really interesting themes. In Cosmic Encounter, Dune, and Diplomacy, this was the balance of power, but in games like We’re Sinking! A Pirate’s Dilemma and HMS Dolores, it is about the division of loot, and in the very recent Molly House, from Wehrlegig Games, this is between the need to maintain a group lifestyle and being forced to inform.

Dan Jolin also conducts the issue’s first interview in ‘Larger Than Life’. This is with Brazilian board-game illustrator Weberson Santiago. His artwork was first seen in the international version of Coup, but his art, which he describes as possessing personality, has been seen since in The Bloody Inn, a game of murderous innkeepers from 2015; Avalon: Big Box, a re-implementation of The Resistance: Avalon, the Arthurian version of The Resistance, set in the same universe as Coup; and Kelp, the octopus versus shark game previewed in the previous issue of the magazine. The style is varied, but there is a theatricality and a little of the gothic to much of the artwork on show here. What is always enjoyable about these interviews is that they give an artist the chance to talk about his inspirations and how he interpreted a project.

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the world’s first roleplaying game, Senet Issue 14 does not sidestep into the world of roleplaying, but explores how the world’s first roleplaying game has sidestepped into board games. In ‘The Advance of D&D’, Matt Thrower goes all the back to the first Dungeons & Dragons-inspired, but not an actual official Dungeons & Dragons board game, Dungeon!, before looking at more modern implementations. It points out how Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition was more board game like with its grid-based play, annoying some of the roleplaying game’s players, but attracting board game players in its board game implementation, starting off with Castle Ravenloft. Many of the Dungeons & Dragons-inspired board games are battle rather than dungeon-based, so Lords of Waterdeep is one of the most radical designs to be based on the roleplaying game. This has interesting history, having been developed during lunch hours, but to date, the application of Dungeons & Dragons in board games has mainly been on battles rather than subtler conflicts as in Lords of Waterdeep. The article also suggests some other board games inspired by roleplaying games, but the inclusion of a trading card game like Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, feels like a stretch. Overall, an interesting read that explores Dungeons & Dragons-inspired board games which do more than simulate roleplaying or offer very light roleplaying.

The issue’s designer interview is with David Thompson. In ‘The Good Soldier’, Alexandra Sonechkina interviews the co-designer of Undaunted, the squad-level infantry wargame set in Normandy. The notable feature of his designs, nearly all of them with other designers, is how they focus on the individual. He talks about how the original design came about and then how the Science Fiction version of the Undaunted series, Undaunted 2200: Callisto, was developed. Another good interview which really piques the interest in the designer’s titles.

‘Unboxed’, Senet’s reviews section covers a wide range of games. The most notable are of Le Scorpion Masqué’s Sky Team, the two-player, limited communication board game of landing passenger aeroplanes and of the ecology and climate control-themed, 2024 Kennerspiel des Jahres Winner from CMYK and co-designer, Matt Leacock, Daybreak, and it is the latter that is ‘Senet’s Top Choice’. The inspiration for the issue’s cover, Art Society, is reviewed too, as The Fox Experiment, the new game from Elizabeth Hargreaves, the designer of the highly regarded Wingspan. The review strays into roleplaying a little with Acturus’ Endless Destinies: The Clockwork City, but with a card rather than dice mechanic, but its inclusion reflects another cross section of interesting games put under the lens.

As is traditional, Senet Issue 14 comes to a close with the regular end columns, ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. For ‘How to Play’, ‘Lord of the flies: how to win at Hive’ by Joe Schulz, in which he explains how he switched from judo following a shoulder injury to the two-player game Hive in 2015 and has since been world champion four times. Lastly, Pasan Fernando and Damian Armitage, the duo behind Meeples Abroad, pull out Merv: The Heart of Silk for their ‘Shelf of Shame’ and discover a strategic, city-building game and the wealth of options it offers.

Physically, Senet Issue 14 is shows off the board games it previews and reviews to great effect, just as you would expect. It contains a good mix of interesting and informative articles, ‘Conflict of Interest’ showing off a surprising mix of games that the prisoner’s dilemma has been applied to and ‘The Advance of D&D’ explores another side of the roleplaying game in its anniversary year. This is all backed up by some informative reviews. Senet Issue 14 is another good issue with a wide rage of content in a well presented package.

[Free RPG Day 2025] Laurel’s Canopy

Now in its eighteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2025 took place on Saturday, June 21st. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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Published by Magpie Games, Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game is a roleplaying game based on the award-winning Root: A Game of Woodland Might & Right board game, about conflict and power, featuring struggles between cats, birds, mice, and more. The Woodland consists of dense forest interspersed by ‘Clearings’ where its many inhabitants—dominated by foxes, mice, rabbits, and birds live, work, and trade from their villages. Birds can also be found spread out in the canopy throughout the forest. Recently, the Woodland was thrown into chaos when the ruling Eyrie Dynasties tore themselves apart in a civil war and left power vacuums throughout the Woodland. With no single governing power, the many Clearings of the Woodland have coped as best they can—or not at all, but many fell under the sway or the occupation of the forces of the Marquise de Cat, leader of an industrious empire from far away. More recently, the civil war between the Eyrie Dynasties has ended and is regroupings its forces to retake its ancestral domains, whilst other denizens of the Woodland, wanting to be free of both the Marquisate and the Eyrie Dynasties, have formed the Woodland Alliance and secretly foment for independence.

Between the Clearings and the Paths which connect them, creatures, individuals, and bands live in the dense, often dangerous forest. Amongst these are the Vagabonds—exiles, outcasts, strangers, oddities, idealists, rebels, criminals, freethinkers. They are hardened to the toughness of life in the forest, but whilst some turn to crime and banditry, others come to Clearings to trade, work, and sometimes take jobs that no other upstanding citizens of any Clearing would do—or have the skill to undertake. Of course, in Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game, Vagabonds are the Player Characters.

Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game is ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’, the mechanics based on the award-winning post-apocalyptic roleplaying game, Apocalypse World, published by Lumpley Games in 2010. At the heart of these mechanics are Playbooks and their sets of Moves. Now, Playbooks are really Player Characters and their character sheets, and Moves are actions, skills, and knowledges, and every Playbook is a collection of Moves. Some of these Moves are generic in nature, such as ‘Persuade an NPC’ or ‘Attempt a Roguish Feat’, and every Player Character or Vagabond can attempt them. Others are particular to a Playbook, for example, ‘Silent Paws’ for a Ranger Vagabond or ‘Arsonist’ for the Scoundrel Vagabond.

To undertake an action or Move in a ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’ roleplaying game—or Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game, a character’s player rolls two six-sided dice and adds the value of an attribute such as Charm, Cunning, Finesse, Luck, or Might, or Reputation, to the result. A full success is achieved on a result of ten or more; a partial success is achieved with a cost, complication, or consequence on a result of seven, eight, or nine; and a failure is scored on a result of six or less. Essentially, this generates results of ‘yes’, ‘yes, but…’ with consequences, and ‘no’. Notably though, the Game Master does not roll in ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’ roleplaying game—or Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game.

So for example, if a Player Character wants to ‘Read a Tense Situation’, his player is rolling to have his character learn the answers to questions such as ‘What’s my best way out/in/through?’, ‘Who or what is the biggest threat?’, ‘Who or what is most vulnerable to me?’, ‘What should I be on the lookout for?’, or ‘Who is in control here?’. To make the Move, the player rolls the dice and his character’s Cunning to the result. On a result of ten or more, the player can ask three of these questions, whilst on a result of seven, eight, or nine, he only gets to ask one.

Moves particular to a Playbook can add to an attribute, such as ‘Master Thief’, which adds one to a character’s Finesse or allow another attribute to be substituted for a particular Move, for example, ‘Threatening Visage’, which enables a Player Character to use his Might instead of Charm when using open threats or naked steel on attempts to ‘Persuade an NPC’. Others are fully detailed Moves, such as ‘Grab and Smash’. When a Player Character wants to smash through some scenery to reach someone or something, his player rolls the character’s Might in a test. The Move enables the character to reach the target on a hit. However, this is not without its consequences. This can the character hurting himself and the player marking an injury, break an important part of his surroundings, or damage or leave behind a piece of gear. One a roll of 10+, the character suffers one of these consequences; on a roll of 7-9, he suffers two; and on a miss, he smashes but is left totally vulnerable on the other side.

Root: Laurel’s Canopy Quickstart is the Free RPG Day 2025 from Magpie Games for Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game. It includes an explanation of the core rules, six pre-generated Player Characters or Vagabonds and their Playbooks, and a complete setting or Clearing for them to explore. From the overview of the game and an explanation of the characters to playing the game and its many Moves, the introduction to the Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game in Root: Laurel’s Canopy Quickstart is well-written. The publisher is well practised when it comes to presenting these Root quick-starts. It is notable that all of the Vagabonds are essentially roguish in nature, so in addition to the Basic Moves, such as ‘Figure Someone Out’, ‘Persuade an NPC’, ‘Trick an NPC’, ‘Trust Fate’, and ‘Wreck Something’, they can ‘Attempt a Roguish Feat’. This covers Acrobatics, Blindside, Counterfeit, Disable Device, Hide, Pick Lock, Pick Pocket, Sleight of Hand, and Sneak. Each of these requires an associated Feat to attempt, and each of the six pregenerated Vagabonds has one, two, or more of the Feats depending just how roguish they are. Otherwise, a Vagabond’s player rolls the ‘Trust to Fate’ Move.

The six pre-generated Vagabonds include Nimble the Thief, a stealthy raccoon burglar and pickpocket looking to prove his skill; Saga the Chronicler, a possum and fearlessly inquisitive scholar; Lucasta the Raconteur, a weasel storyteller and singer who wants to hold truth to power in her performances; Keilee the Tinker, a messy, but adept beaver who advocates freethinking and is hunting her enemy, Minuet de León; Laeliana the Arbiter, a mole mercenary looking to defend those who cannot defend themselves; and Umberto the Raider, a mouse who loves the fight and being adored as a hero. All six of these Vagabonds have links to the given Clearing and its NPCs in Root: Laurel’s Canopy Quickstart, and all six are complete with Natures and Drives, stats, backgrounds, Moves, Feats, and equipment. All a player has to do is decide on a couple of connections and each Playbook is ready to play.

As its title suggests, the given Clearing in Root: Laurel’s Canopy Quickstart is Laurel’s Canopy. Its description comes with an overarching issue and conflicts within the Clearing, important NPCs, places to go, and more. The situation in Laurel’s Canopy is different to that of most Clearings, dominated as it is by the diktats of power from before the Grand Civil War. It is part of the Eyrie Dynasty, led by Nanit Osprey, whose uncle, Pandion, instituted a set of Decrees that ensured stability in the Clearing. However, in the wake of Grand Civil War, the strict interpretation of the decrees has led to famine with fish left rotting the warehouses, over foraging in the surrounding forest, and a standoff between Nanit Osprey and the Clerkdom which enforces the Decrees. Meanwhile, Corvid Conspiracy Leader Ambrosius Conroy campaigns for fairer representation of all, whilst seeking to undermine Nanit Osprey’s rule and Silver Sally leads a rebellion which gives her cover for her own objectives. Lastly, the mouse scholar, Theodore Twitchwhisker has been accused of plagiarism by Mister Stubby, a lizard who runs the Lost Tail Bakery. He contends that the mouse’s Book of Twin Dragons, an inflammatory description of the Lizard cult orthodoxy, was based on a work of fiction of his own, for which the manuscript is missing. This has led to the bakery being picketed, the relationship between the lizards and non-avian citizens of Laurel’s Canopy becoming strained.

These four Conflicts make up the plots to be explored and developed in the Clearing and each is fully detailed and includes notes on what happens if the vagabonds do not get involved and leave the Conflict to develop on its own. For the Game Master there is a good overview of the Clearing and notes of where to begin when running the Root: Laurel’s Canopy Quickstart and getting the Vagabonds involved. This is enhanced by each Vagabond having a link to and thus a motivation for visiting Laurel’s Canopy. There are suggestions also as to how escalate the situation for each of the Vagabonds to draw them further into the ongoing events in Laurel’s Canopy. Some of the conflicts are a little subtle too, often with NPCs attempting to achieve the same quite personal aim, so the Game Master will need to read them more closely to understand them and be able to impart them to her players.

Physically, Root: Laurel’s Canopy Quickstart is a fantastic looking booklet, done in full colour and printed on heavy paper stock. It is well written and the artwork, taken from or inspired by the Root: A Game of Woodland Might & Right board game, is bright and breezy, and really attractive. Even cute. Simply, just as Root: The Pellenicky Glade Quickstart was for Free RPG Day 2020, Root: The Bertram’s Cove Quickstart was for Free RPG Day 2021, the Root: Talon Hill Quickstart for Free RPG 2022, and the Root: Hacksaw Dell Quickstart for Free RPG Day 2023, Root: Laurel’s Canopy Quickstart is physically one of the most impressive of all the releases for Free RPG Day 2023.

If there is an issue with Root: Laurel’s Canopy Quickstart it is that it looks busy and it looks complex—something that often besets ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’ roleplaying games. Not only do players need their Vagabond’s Playbooks, but also reference sheets for all of the game’s Basic Moves and Weapon Moves—and that is a lot of information. However, it means that a player has all of the information he needs to play his Vagabond to hand, he does not need to refer to the rules for explanations of the rules or his Vagabond’s Moves. That also means that there is some preparation required to make sure that each player has the lists of Moves his Vagabond needs. Another issue is that the relative complexity and the density of the information in Root: Laurel’s Canopy Quickstart means that it is not a beginner’s game and the Game Master will need a bit of experience to run Laurel’s Canopy and its conflicts.

Ultimately, the Root: Laurel’s Canopy Quickstart comes with everything necessary to play and keep the attention of a playing group for probably three or four sessions, possibly more. Although it needs a careful read through and preparation by the Game Master, Root: Laurel’s Canopy Quickstart is a very good introduction to the rules, the setting, and conflicts in Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game—and it looks damned good too. For the Game Master who is already running a Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game campaign, the Root: Laurel’s Canopy Quickstart provides another Clearing that she can add to her campaign with the others available in the proper quick-start for the roleplaying game as well as releases for previous Free RPG Days.

Magazine Madness 35: Senet Issue 13

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

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Senet is a print magazine about the craft, creativity, and community of board gaming. Bearing the tagline of “Board games are beautiful”, it is about the play and the experience of board games, it is about the creative thoughts and processes which go into each and every board game, and it is about board games as both artistry and art form. Published by Senet Magazine Limited, each issue promises previews of forthcoming, interesting titles, features which explore how and why we play, interviews with those involved in the process of creating a game, and reviews of the latest and most interesting releases. Senet is also one of the very few magazines about games to actually be available for sale on the high street.

Senet Issue 13 was published in the winter of 2023 and it comes with a seasonally appropriate theme, at least for one article. This is highlighted in the editorial, which asks the question, “Why aren’t there more board games about Christmas?”, before discussing the other contents and finishing with, “Please remember that a board game is for life, not just for Christmas.” Even putting aside its somewhat hackneyed, even hacked about a bit, nature, is that really true? Perhaps it is until you run out of room on your shelves and have to sell it on eBay or put it in the ‘Bring ‘n’ Buy’ at UK Games Expo… That might come sooner if the Christmas game turns out to be not very good, a distinct possibly that some designers are attempting to remedy.

The issue proper begins with highlighting some of the forthcoming games with its regular preview, ‘Behold’. The most intriguing title here is Kelp: Shark vs. Octopus, an asymmetrical game in which an octopus hides from a shark that is hunting for it. The Octopus player uses cards to move blocks it can move behind, whilst the shark player rolls dice to find the blocks and then reveal whether there is its prey behind it. ‘Points’, the regular column of readers’ letters, contains a mix of praise for the magazine and a discussion of gaming culture, including representation in the hobby and the appeal of co-operative games. Again, at just four letters, it really does not seem enough. As with the previous issues, there is scope here for expansion of this letters page to give space to more voices and readers of Senet. One way of doing that is perhaps to expand it when ‘For Love of the Game’ comes to end. This regular column continues the journey of the designer Tristian Hall towards the completion and publication of his Gloom of Kilforth. By this entry of his column, he has long moved past this and is more looking at the travails of being a game designer. This time, he discusses how to be an effective designer and representative of the company online. The advice he gives is solid and to the point, far more so than in the column in the previous issue, so is surprisingly useful.

By this the thirteenth issue, the format of Senet is well and truly tried and tested. Two interviews, one with a designer, one with an artist, and one article exploring a game mechanic whilst another looks at a game theme. It is a format that works well since it throws a light on different aspects of the hobby and its creators. However, Senet Issue 13 does strays ever slightly, in a tiny fashion if you will, from this format. Instead of looking at a game theme, it instead looks at a game format. This is the ‘microgame’, a game that has relatively few components packed into a pocket-friendly box and is relatively budget friendly as well. Matt Kelly’s ‘Small Worlds’ explores the history of microgame from Steve Jackson Games’ Ogre all the way to here and now with the superlative Scout, noting that there was a lengthy extensive interregnum between original heyday with Metagaming, Task Force Games, and even TSR, Inc., and their rebirth with what the article calls a ‘micro wave’, really beginning with Love Letter in 2012 from Alderac Entertainment Group, followed by a multitude of mini-games from Oink. This gives the article a pleasing balance with space aplenty given to both the past and the contemporary. It also explores the drive to make games as small as possible and still be playable. Overall, this is a good overview of the history of, and the phenomena that is, the microgame, though it feels all too short and it would have been fascinating to explore some of the titles published during the six years when they were first popular.

The issue’s first interview is with Polish designer, Adam Kwapiński. In ‘The Taskmaster’, he talks to Alexandra Sonechkina about his designs like Terracotta Army and Frostpunk: The Board Game, and the strong theming and difficulty of their play. Also discussed is his book about board game design, Board Games on my Mind. It would have been interesting to see the latter reviewed in the issue, but it is not. It is solid, interesting interview, as is the artist interview by Dan Jolin, which is with Alex Crispin. In ‘Blackout’, he explores the design, and specifically, the look of Escape the Dark Castle: The Game of Atmospheric Adventure and Escape the Dark Sector: The Game of Deep Space Adventure, amongst other games, including the forthcoming title from Themeborne Games based on the television series, The Last of Us. His is a distinctive, grim and scratchy style that also stands out because it is in black and white, and it is interesting to see the style develop into something more subtle with The Last of Us: Escape the Dark.

Matt Thrower examines the issue’s theme, included to catch the winter period when Senet Issue 13 was published, in ‘Christmas Play’. Despite the editor’s joy at the inclusion of the cut out and play game, ‘Sleigh Wars’, which appeared in White Dwarf #72 (December 1985), the theme provides rather paltry pickings and the author has to work hard to make the article interesting. Christmas is often seen as a time to play games, but not necessarily Christmas games. Instead, games like Monopoly are common—and everyone knows that such games are anything other than good. Similarly, the early Christmas-themed board games are all race games and it is not until games like Hen House Games’ Ugly Christmas Sweaters from 2020 and 25th Century Games’ Holly Jolly from 2021, that Christmas games appear to match theme and play. The article even includes a list of other holiday-themed games, so ultimately there is an air of desperation to the piece.

‘Unboxed’, Senet’s reviews section covers a wide range of games. This includes Cosmoctopus from Paper Fort Games, which not only continues the cephaloid theme from the earlier Kelp: Shark vs. Octopus, but also receives ‘Senet’s top choice’! Other titles reviewed include Stonemaier Games’ Expeditions, set in the same world as the publisher’s highly regarded Scythe; the odd Obey the Clay, a clay-moulding game designed by Aardman Animations and published by Big Potato Games; Call of Kilforth from Hall or Nothing, whose designer writes the ‘For Love of the Game’ column in the magazine; and even, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Slaughterhouse from Funko Games. The range of games reviewed is quite diverse and shows off a wide range of different games for different tastes and play styles in just a few pages. The magazine could easily expand this section or do a whole separate publication of reviews of this quality.

As is traditional, Senet Issue 13 comes to a close with the regular end columns, ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. For ‘How to Play’, ‘Growing Roots: lessons for parents in play’ by John Ankers looks at aspect of the board gaming hobby that has become increasingly common over the years—parents teaching their children to play board games. In his case, it is with the board game, Root, and how parent and child learned to play together and what they learned from it. It is a nicely enjoyable piece about forging memories as much it is lessons. Lastly, Rozie Powell of Cozy Boardgames pulls Moon Adventure for her ‘Shelf of Shame’ and discovers a counterpart Deep Sea Adventure—thus continuing the issue’s theme of microgames—that she would play again, but with a different group of players.

Physically, Senet Issue 13 is shows off the board games it previews and reviews to great effect. There are some entertaining articles in the issue, ‘Small Worlds’, in particular, stands out, as does ‘Christmas Play’, though more for the effort that the author has to put into it! Overall, Senet Issue 13 maintains the magazine’s high standards and is a good read.

Unseasonal Activities: Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game

It is not Christmas until Hans Gruber has fallen from the executive floor of Nakatomi Plaza to his death on the ground below. In Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game, you do not only get to make sure that Hans Gruber falls from the executive floor of Nakatomi Plaza to his death on the ground below every Christmas, but also very time you play Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game. Published by The Op Games, Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game is the board game adaptation of the 1988 anti-heist thriller directed by John McTiernan and starring Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Alexander Godunov, Bonnie Bedelia, and Reginald VelJohnson. Designed for two to four players, aged fifteen and over, and playable in sixty to ninety minutes, Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game is an asymmetrical board game in which one player takes the role of New York detective John McClane and up to three other players take the role of the Thieves attempting to rob the Nakatomi corporation of $640 million in bearer bonds. For the players who control the Thieves, the game is co-operative. The game is played in three acts on three different sections of the board, the board unfolding to reflect this, and both John McClane and the Thieves having different objectives to achieve in each act. In general, John McClane is trying to achieve his objectives to get to the next floor and the Thieves are not only trying to stop him, but also working together to unlock the vault holding the bearer bonds. John McClane wins if he get to Act III and kill Hans Gruber, but the Thieves win at any time if John McClane dies—by running out of Action Cards, or they break into the vault.

Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game comes with a double-sided board game, eighty Action Cards for John McClane, forty Action Cards for the Thieves, twenty-five Lock cards, a John McClane Player Board, Lock Tracker Card, figures for John McClane, Hans Gruber, and seven Thieves, a Combat Die, and then various cubes, tokens, and tiles, plus the rulebook. The board depicts three different floors of Nakatomi Plaza, one for each act. Each floor is marked with spots where Objective Tokens can be found for both John McClane and the Thieves. Both will have to search for these in order to complete objectives which vary from act to act. In Act I, John McClane must ‘Find the Machine Gun’, ‘Find the Radio’, and ‘Acquire the Shoes (that don’t fit)’. In Act II, he must ‘Find the Detonators and Explosives’, ‘Drop the Detonators and Explosives down the Elevator Shaft’, and ‘Kill a Thief, and throw him out a window’. In Act III, he must ‘Scare the Hostages off of the Roof’, ‘Swing on the Fire Hose’, and of course, ‘Kill Hans Gruber’. Complete the objectives in each act and John McClane and the game can progress to the next.

Whereas the Thieves have one objective that does not vary from act to act and then objectives that do. The ‘Draw Blood’ objective does not vary from act to act, the Thieves constantly attempting to punch or shoot John McClane. In Act I, their other objectives are to ‘Track McClane’ and ‘Capture 3 Hostages’. In Act II, they ‘Shoot the Glass’ and ‘Fire the Rocket’. In Act III, they are ‘Open the Sixth Lock’ and ‘Trigger the Roof Explosion’. Most of John McClane’s objectives will grant him specific bonuses, whereas the Thieves’ objectives grant extra attempts to unlock the Vault. All of the objectives match things that happen in the film, whether done by John McClane or by the Thieves.

The John McClane player receives a deck of Action Cards per act, but the cards he plays are carried over into the next act, whereas those he discards are not. Thus, he needs to be doubly careful in what cards he decides to play, whether for effect in the current act or subsequent acts. An Action card will give him options to Move, Sneak, Punch, Shoot, Support, Shove, and Recover. All movement and attacks are orthogonal, not diagonal; any damage done to a Thief kills him, whilst John McClane loses an Action Card and further fulfils the Thieves’ ‘Draw Blood’ action; Shove lets John McClane push a Thief; Recover allows the John McClane player to draw from the discard pile; and Support lets John McClane talk to Sergeant Powell to further fill the ‘Find Radio’ objective, granting a combat bonus when completely filled up. An Action will give John McClane one or more actions, and these can be done in any order. In a round, the John McClane will draw five Action Cards, play three of them and discard the other two. In addition, John McClane can freely use the vents to move around each floor.

The Thief players draw from a shared deck of Action Cards and have five Actions. These are Lock, Move, Punch, Shoot, and Reinforcements. The Reinforcements Action enables the Thief players to return a Thief figure to play if one has been killed. However, this is at the loss of all other actions and it hinders the Thieves’ action to unlock the vault. The Lock Action enables a Thief to cover up a numbered space on the current Vault Lock. The Vault Lock is represented by a series of Lock Vault Cards. Each Lock Vault Card shows a row of four numbers, these being the odd numbers from one to nine. These are arranged in a series of grids, which get increasingly larger as the Thieves crack each Lock, from two-by-four all the way up to four-by-four for the sixth and final Lock.

Each turn, the Thief players will be working together to try and crack the code on each Lock. To do this they try and match the numbers on their played Action Cards to the numbers on the grid. This is done with the highest and lowest on the Action Cards they collectively play to not only match the numbers on the current Lock Vault Cards, but do so for adjacent numbers. These can be horizontal or vertical, but they have to be orthogonal. How they do this plays slightly differently depending on the number of players. With one Thief player, he will draw a separate Action Card, look at its number and place the card face down before playing an Action Card from his hand, also face down, and then turn it over to reveal whether he has a solved part of the Lock Vault Code. With multiple Thief players, the Thief players take in turns to be lead thief. If two Thieves, the lead Thief player will draw an Action Card from the Action deck and show it to the other player before placing it face down. They both then play cards from their hand alongside the face down card. If there are three Thieves, the lead Thief player selects a card from his hand, shows it to the other two Thieves, and then play cards from their hands alongside the face down card. The key here is that the beyond the lead Thief showing the other Thieves the first Action, none of the Thief players communicate with each other. When the cards are revealed, the highest and lowest numbers on the cards are hopefully matched on the Lock Vault Code, whilst the card with the middle value is used to determine the actions for the Thieves that turn.

Breaking open the vault is key for the Thieves to win and whilst it is mainly going on in the background of the film, in Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game, it is moved to fore. It becomes central to play with the secret, semi-co-operative aspect of its play as the Thief players try to communicate effectively with each other using the Action Cards, emphasising how disruptive John McClane becomes in upsetting their plans and distracting them. At the same time, they want to be working towards their own objectives for the bonuses they grant and attempting to stop John McClane from achieving his as well as inflicting as much damage on him as possible.

Meanwhile, as the game progresses, John McClane goes from New York cop in the dark to action-hero-in-the-know as he works out what is going on and gains more and better Action Cards with each subsequent act after the first. At the same time, John McClane’s player needs to be aware of how many Action Cards he has still to play. Lose them all and he will be killed and the Thieves will win.

Physically, Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game is well presented. However, despite being a licensed board game, that only extends to the intellectual property and not the images of the actors. This means that the John McClane, Hans Gruber, and Thief figures are bland in addition to being small, and the artist has had to illustrate the Action Cards in greyscale with lots of silhouettes in black and grey shadows. Yet this works surprisingly well, making Die Hard a black and white film instead of colour and giving it film noir atmosphere. The rulebook is large, but not lengthy, explains everything well and gives good advice as to what both the John McClane and the Thief players have to do.

There is a lot to like about the Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game. It actually feels like you are playing Die Hard with John McClane having to find the radio and talk to Sergeant Powell and feeling better for doing so; the Thieves being able to shoot out the glass in Act II, making it difficult for John McClane to move around because of his lack of shoes, which he has to find (and will be too small); finding a machine gun; and lastly, shoot, punch, and shove Hans Gruber off the roof! On the other side, the Thief players constantly have to think about stopping John McClane at the same time as breaking open the vault and the rules for the latter add further uncertainty because they cannot communicate with each other as effectively as they would like. This comes to the fore with three players as the Thieves and ideally Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game should be played with all three.

Yet as much as the Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game feels like you are playing film it is based on; it feels too much like you are playing the film it is based on. There is no variation in the game from one playthrough to the next. The objectives are always the same and once you have played through it once as John McClane and won and then played through it as the Thieves and won, it becomes less of a game and more of a puzzle because of that lack of variability. Ultimately, despite the incredible theming in Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game which is going to get you cheering as John McClane succeeds and groaning as one more film quote is made, this is a board game you probably only want to play at Christmas.

Friday Filler: Souvenirs from Venice

The last two weeks you have spent in the city of Venice have been amazing. You have visited the Doge’s Palace, St. Mark's Basilica, and the Bridge of Sighs, as well as taken a gondola ride on the Grand Canal, explored the Rialto Market, and taken a day trip to the island of Murano to discover its unique glassblowing tradition. The food and wine have been good too, but now your holiday is nearly over. Your flight home leaves tomorrow, but you have one left one last thing you have to do to the last minute—gifts to take home for your friends and family. In fact, you are not really sure that you have enough time to search the shops for right gifts and get to Marco Polo International Airport for your flight home. It is not helped by the fact that the three friends you are buying for, hate it when they are not treated equally, but you have hired a gondola and you are going to search high and low for the right gifts for the right people—or miss your flight trying!

This is the set-up for Souvenirs from Venice, another game from Oink Games, the Japanese publisher best known for Scout. It is a set-collecting game designed for two to five players, aged eight and up, that can be played in thirty minutes, and it is from the same designers who did Deep Sea Adventure. The aim of the game is three sets of matching souvenirs and get to the airport. At the end of the game, each matching set of souvenirs will score points, whilst souvenirs that do not match will lose a player points. The players have to find the right souvenirs, make sure they do not have wrong souvenirs in their hands, and get to the airport. Only a player who gets to the airport in time will have a chance of being the winner.

Besides the rules in French, German, and Spanish as well as English, Souvenirs from Venice consists of forty-eight Souvenir Tiles, thirty Money Tokens, five Summary Cards, an Airport Card, a single die, and five Gondolas. The Souvenir Tiles range in value from five to ten and in turn depict Venetian Glass, Venetian Masks, Leather Goods, Gondolier Shirts, Squid Ink Pasta, and Fridge Magnets. Each Souvenir Tile is actually a shop and items are the goods they sell. Two depict the ‘Pigeon’ and ‘The Pigeon Feed Seller’. The die is marked one, two, and three, rather than one to six, and the gondolas are done in brightly coloured wood. The Summary Cards are reference cards for the play of the game.

Game set-up is simple. Each player receives a gondola, six Money Tokens, and a Sun. The Souvenir Tiles are laid out in a seven-by-seven grid, or five-by-five if two players, all face down, whilst the Airport Card is placed in one corner instead of a Souvenir Tile. The grid is open as the spaces in between represent the canals of Venice where players’ gondolas will travel, moving from intersection to intersection. All of the gondolas are placed on the Airport Card where they start play.

On his turn, each player must do three things in strict order. These are ‘Research’, ‘Move’, and ‘Buying or Selling’. In the ‘Research’ step, the player flips over any tile face down so that everyone can see it. In the ‘Move’, the player rolls the die and moves his gondola that exact number of spaces, hopping over any other player’s gondola in the way. ‘Buying or Selling’ gives a player two options. If he buys, it can be done in secret, looking at a Souvenir Tile adjacent to his gondola, but keeping it hidden from the other players, or he can buy any face up tile. Either way, he replaces it with Money Token. If he sells, he places a Souvenir Tile in his hand on the table face down, replacing a Money Token which he takes.

If the ‘Pigeon’ and ‘The Pigeon Feed Seller’ are both revealed—and they have to be revealed face up when discovered, they force each player to pass a Souvenir Tiles (or a Money Token if they have no Souvenir Tile) to the player on his left. This can mix things up, forcing a player to scramble to find matching Souvenir Tiles with the ones he has in his hand. However, this really comes into play later in the game rather than earlier, as the earlier it happens, the lower the chance it has of mucking up a player’s hand.

Souvenirs from Venice is a primarily a push-your-luck game, although it does have a memory element in that a player may need to remember the Souvenir Tiles he has looked at and where they are. However, what a player is mostly doing is pushing his luck to three sets of Souvenir Tiles, ideally of a higher rather than lower value. Of course, there are more of the latter than the former. Thankfully, a player can choose to sell to get rid of a poor value Souvenir Tile if he knows where one with a better value is or if he simply wants it out of his hand. The latter may be necessary because the other push-your-luck element of game is the timer element. Once all of the Souvenir Tiles have been bought or flipped over and face up, the flight leaves the airport. Anyone not at the airport by then, cannot score any points for the Souvenir Tile sets they have collected and automatically lose. Any player with sets of Souvenir Tiles at the airport gets to score, and the player with highest score wins.

Souvenirs from Venice is decently presented, if as with every Oink Games title, packed tightly into its little box. The quality of the components is good and the rules are clearly written.

Souvenirs from Venice is a solid, satisfying little game. It is a light game, better suited to family audiences and has a surprisingly decent theme that matches that lightness.

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Oink Games will be at UK Games Expo which takes place on Friday, May 30th to Sunday June 1st, 2025.