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Tag: The Board Soul

The Board Soul

Let’s Get Physical

By Jeremy Signor • May 24th, 2018

Catacombs may be a game about flicking discs, but it brings the action of dungeon crawling to life in surprising, intuitive ways.

The Board Soul

You Can’t Go Home Again

By Jeremy Signor • April 30th, 2018

Something built on nostalgia doesn’t have to be stuck in the past as long as it keeps an eye on the future, too.

The Board Soul

Choices

By Jeremy Signor • March 8th, 2018

Painful choices are what makes games interesting. Fact or Fiction embodies this philosophy.

The Board Soul
The board game Downforce, the box, with the set behind.

Nonsense

By Jeremy Signor • February 19th, 2018

Not every board game’s mechanics have to make thematic sense to be a ton of fun.

The Board Soul
Three questing adventures, a human knight, a dark elf and a dwarf stand poised on the edge of a orange city. This is the cover art for the Lords of Waterdeep.

Pieces

By Jeremy Signor • February 8th, 2018

Game pieces are supposed to represent something specific, transcending their forms and letting us manipulate representations of objects and people. But what happens when a cube is just a cube?

The Board Soul
A series of green board games spread over a brown tabletop. This is a picture of the game Kabura.

Together Alone

By Jeremy Signor • February 1st, 2018

Even a little player interaction goes a long way towards making a game feel dynamic and exciting. Karuba shows what happens when you take all those things away.

The Board Soul
A green hill with a zeppelin cutting across, big text that reads "Charterstone"

What Keeps You Going

By Jeremy Signor • January 16th, 2018

Is the thrill of opening up a game more and more enough to carry a game? In Charterstone’s case, it isn’t.

The Board Soul
Two characters that resemble D&D party members climbing up a mountain with a large red dragon coming up behind them.

The Board Soul – Focus

By Jeremy Signor • December 7th, 2017

Deck building games usually focus on the murky, random world of building up your own deck. Clank shifts that focus to something more tangible and communal.

The Board Soul
A board for Settlers of Catan.

Fuck Colonialism

By Jeremy Signor • November 16th, 2017

Board gaming’s obsession with romanticizing colonialism is harmful and holding the medium back.

The Board Soul
red haired man with blue skin and white hair. This is the cover art for the game Sentient.

Manipulate Fate

By Jeremy Signor • November 9th, 2017

Giving luck the finger never felt so good.

The Board Soul
The box for Food Chain Magnate shown over a board of the game being played.

Food Wars

By Jeremy Signor • November 2nd, 2017

Board games can be obsessed with war, but some themes are just as cutthroat.

The Board Soul
Queen Elizabeth 1 looking very serious and stern.

Heavier Things

By Jeremy Signor • October 26th, 2017

Heavy asymmetric wargames can be intimidating, but exploring their many layers can be extremely rewarding.

The Board Soul
A woman with yellow hair and a typical spy get up, with the word "Secrets" in big letters next to her outstretched gun.

The Old Shell Game

By Jeremy Signor • October 20th, 2017

Sometimes not knowing is half the fun.

The Board Soul

Alone Together

By Jeremy Signor • October 12th, 2017

Direct interaction isn’t the only way we affect each other in games.

The Board Soul

Heroes’ Folly

By Jeremy Signor • October 6th, 2017

Sometimes something in a game can feel like it doesn’t belong, an orphan lost within the tight clockwork of a game’s rules.

The Board Soul
The cover art for the game Twilight Imperium.

Twilight’s Legend

By Jeremy Signor • September 28th, 2017

Twilight Imperium is the stuff that legends are made of.

The Board Soul
A woman looking straight towards the camear with a tree like crown around her face.

The Magic of Commander

By Jeremy Signor • September 21st, 2017

When a game connects with us, we want to inhabit it completely. When a game recognizes this desire, the result is pure magic.

The Board Soul
A man in a round hat and a gun fighting off a large kraken like creature. This is part of the box art for the Arkham HOrror Card game

The Gathering

By Jeremy Signor • September 14th, 2017

The Arkham Horror Card Game throws you head first into a strange, ghoul-filled story that’s one of the most immersive experiences for your tabletop.

The Board Soul
A series of steampunky figures standing in a heroic formation above a indistinct background. This is promotional art for the game Mission: Red Planet.

Action/Reaction

By Jeremy Signor • September 7th, 2017

What would you do if you knew your opponents’ moves before they executed them?

The Board Soul
two large mechs, this is the cover art for the game Adrenaline

Between Two Worlds

By Jeremy Signor • September 4th, 2017

Board and video games are from very different worlds. But what happens when the two intermingle?

The Board Soul
detailed paintings depicting stories from the Arabian Nights, center most is a genie escaping from a lamp. This is the cover art for the game Tales of the Arabian Nights.

Your Story

By Jeremy Signor • August 24th, 2017

We know how play can shape narratives in games, but what happens when the game itself makes you part of its story?

The Board Soul
A series of small pieces and a board with a planet in the center. This is the board game Terraforming Mars.

Terraforming Mars Together

By Jeremy Signor • August 17th, 2017

Just because you’re competing doesn’t mean you’re not also collaborating.

The Board Soul
A menagerie of Tolkien-esque figures, including wizards and trolls and halflings do battle across a muted brown landscape. This is the cover art from the board game Ethnos.

Little Earthquakes

By Jeremy Signor • August 10th, 2017

What happens when you tweak one little rule in a board game? The results can be subtle but magical.

The Board Soul

Breaking the Rules

By Jeremy Signor • August 3rd, 2017

Rules are the foundation on which board games are built, but how much can a game bend its own rules until it breaks?

The Board Soul
A grizzled man with a beard looks down at a vaguely humanoid toy face near a leaded glass window. This is the card art for the Magic the Gathering Card Feldon.

Can a Card Game Make You Cry?

By Jeremy Signor • July 27th, 2017

We’ve already hashed this tired question out in video games, but can tabletop game mechanics move us in the same way?

The Board Soul
Two people looking away in a watercolor. This is a still from the cover of the board game Scythe.

Kill Your Darlings

By Jeremy Signor • July 21st, 2017

Are the old standards in board game design worth keeping? Scythe succeeds by brilliantly contradicting them.

The Board Soul

The Serene Adventures of Above and Below

By Jeremy Signor • July 14th, 2017

Where does the soul of a board game reside? For Above and Below, it’s in its charming world.

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