So I think we can all agree that the original Terraforming Mars player boards are an absolute work of art. Immaculate in design and practicality, I actually have one framed pride of place in my living room.

What? You don't agree?

It's the worst player board in all of boardgaming history?

Whoa whoa whoa, that's a bit far... maybe… 😉

Jokes aside, I don't think I'm saying anything too controversial here: the original paper-thin boards leave a lot to be desired. A single bumped table or accidental hand swipe sending resource cubes skittling millimeters away… completely ruining the game that's so finely balanced on the exact amounts.

There are a plethora of fantastic third-party dual-layer boards out there that fix the table-bump issue. But I wanted to take things a step or two further to address the rest of the game's tactile experience.

THE PROBLEMS & THE FIXES

1. The Resource Admin & Constant Cube Juggling

Even with dual-layer boards, you’re constantly reaching into a shared bowl, grabbing loose metallic cubes, converting production into physical tokens every single generation, and swapping 1s, 5s, and 10s back and forth. It breaks the flow of actually running your corporation.

On a personal level, I'm autistic and find these situations very difficult. When is it my turn to get cubes? I always end up last and having to make do with what's left. Cue a couple dozen bronze cubes for me 😅

THE FIX: I completely eliminated the resource cubes from the player board entirely. Instead of collecting and swapping piles of cubes, you simply rotate a dial, slide a track, or flick a tactile switch! The between-round production phase becomes a 5-second (and very fun!) process using your personal control console.

1. Thematic Disconnect

A game about engineering an entire planet and commanding a megacorporation should feel like you're operating high-tech hardware. Placing shiny plastic cubes on cardboard never quite captured that space-age immersion for me.

THE FIX: My background is in architecture. To me, theme and concept drive every design detail. Instead of just dual-layer wood, I designed these as spaceship consoles and Mission Control panels (drawing heavy inspiration from aviation cockpits and mechanical watch aesthetics like Bell & Ross).

The switches flip, the dials click, and the sliders track smoothly. The satisfaction of managing your megacorporation like you’re sitting at NASA Mission Control completely changes the tactile experience of playing the game.

We know the global parameters being on individual player boards is a bit controversial and may not suit everyone for lots of reasons! However, from a design perspective we love what we've produced and as a couple of neurodivergent gamers, having a board in front of us rather than a central main board has been game changing! Also, if we're honest there's something very fun about flicking the switches and turning those dials 😄

Hello again Gallery Owners!

Our Kickstarter is over 170% funded and we are now in the final leg of the campaign. To celebrate this success, we’d love to give away our Highest Pledge Tier ($259): Gallery Gambit Deluxe and ALL OUR FUTURE GAMES.

Also, a super big shoutout to our artist Julia July, who made all 54 unique pieces of art.

WHAT YOU’LL WIN:

• Gallery Gambit Deluxe
• All our future games(!!)

Worldwide shipping included for Gallery Gambit.

ABOUT THE GAME

In Gallery Gambit, you are starting a gallery, and so is everyone else at the table. Draft from a shared market of 54 original paintings across four art movements: Pop-Art, Cubism, Fauvism and Bauhaus. Fill your three walls with the most exquisite art pieces. But also make sure not to fall behind your rivals. Succeed and become the finest gallery in town.

It plays with 2 to 5 people and takes around 20 minutes.

For more information about the game you can check out the Kickstarter page!
Please give it a follow while you’re there.

GIVEAWAY RULES:

• Comment on this post to enter. (Replies to other comments do not count.)
• In your comment, tell us which what is a cool thing hanging on your wall right now? Is it a painting, a print, a vinyl, a sword, or a lamp or something else? Let us know! (This is just for fun and is not a requirement beyond making a comment.)
• Only one entry per person. (Account must be at least 10 days old.)
• This giveaway is worldwide!
• The contest will remain open for 48 hours. We will randomly select one winner and contact them through Reddit. We will also post their username here.
• The winner will receive Gallery Gambit immediately.

And if you wouldn’t mind, please give this post an upvote so more folks can see it and enter!

Thank you, and we can't wait to hear all about the cool things on your walls from your comments :-)

Made for my brother’s 40th birthday. It is sadly too big to fit in the box, but i think it looks good, and it works.

Hello.

I bought this on an impulse, as I am a fan of the pc-game!

How do I paint the figures, and which paint would be best?

(manual brush, airbrush, tamiya, citadel, etc.)

TiA

lived in Japan for awhile now, never knew this was a thing so made my way today. spent a bit, but hopefully got some good ones

This round was super fun! Although I came in way last haha. What’s your favorite ingredient books to use that make Quacks less luck based (or swingy I should say) and more strategic? This time around I was behind by like 20 VP points and the one in first place was well ahead of the others.

Rolling and placing dice to fight against the space invaders!

I played Under Falling Skies, which is one of the most popular games in the genre of solo games. I finally understand why it’s a solo classic and recommended all the time. Setting? A defense base where Earth people use their energy and weapons to defeat the alien invasion.

You roll dice and place them in spaces for actions you can do but there are some conditions: a) You can only place one die per column, b) the space ships will move down the same number of spaces as the die in their column (you strengthen yourself but also your enemies move), and c) you’re limited to choose only a certain level of actions unless you upgrade your base.

There’s also a resource economy. You have to produce energy to activate weapons to destroy the alien ships coming at your base but you also need energy to move upwards in the research track and win the game before you’re defeated by the invaders.

This is a game where all the systems are so nicely interwoven that I somehow end up satisfied even if I lose. It’s a game where you have to make calculated sacrifices but also engage in push-your-luck tactics to get a good result. Sometimes you can bait the enemy ships into the target zones and if everything goes right, you can perform a nice killer combo and live another day.

As you can see in the picture, I was one turn away from defeat by mothership invasion and two turns away from defeat by base damage. If the mothership or the red cube reach the skulls on the right side of the board, you lose. If you reach the top of the green reserach track on the left, you win. A race against the aliens: Two ways to lose, one way to win. Also, I like how the mothership descends each turn and despair begins to form because you don’t know if you can succeed. It creates a feeling of dread despite being a ‘puzzly‘ game.

I like the fact that the alien ships are made of plastic and the earthling dice are made of wood. It makes the ‘us vs them‘ distinction really stand out. Kind of like in Spirit Island and Ironwood where different sides/factions use different materials for their components.

Maybe it’s just a phase but I’m really enjoying my time with it so far and I can’t wait to explore the remaining content of the box since I’ve only played the base game but not the multiple scenarios of the campaign (the box is heavier than expected!).

Conclusion: This is a fun game, really well designed, fun decisions, puzzly nature, ‘aha’ moments. Score? I’m bad at giving scores, but I’d say, in its genre (solo games), I’d give it like an 8/10 for creativity and enjoyment. Recommended if you want a relatively simple solo game and love dice games. Let me know if you know similar games I could like.

10.17-18

Makuhari Messe, Chiba Japan

Oink, Itten, Gotta2, Epoch, GP, Sashi, Playte, Yellow Submarine, Bookoff, Nanawari, Mandoo, and thousands authors...

This game is just chaos, you never really know how it’s going to end and you really can’t assume anyone is out. Today we played with 2 lore cards making things even more chaotic. I found myself pretty fortunate getting the Rebel Leader and being able to draft galactic rifle and repair drones, thought it was a great pairing for a leader who lacked in movement.

This is not a game that you just play with anyone and not a game I go around recommending. It takes a dedicated group with an acquired taste, that can laugh off the frustration, and there’s plenty of laughter.

For anyone who’s played, have you found an interesting pairing between the leaders and lore? I’d love to hear them.

I finally got around to unboxing and playing around with the components of A Dream of Splendor in Song Dynasty: Travel Edition from Yaofish, and I'm so happy with the tiny shop houses. This is basically the budget, cheaper version of their full game. Afaik, the gameplay is the same. Everything is just smaller.

They're so itty bitty and adorable! The game comes with sticker sheets, that you're supposed to diy with all the different storefronts. It took me a while to get everything set up, especially with my little helpers, who somehow manage to create more work the harder they try to help.

The little shops are so beautiful! I haven't had enough time with the game to form any proper gameplay opinions yet, but I can already tell the cloth gameboard is going to be a pain. It gets all over the place when I pick up cards from it. I wish it was a more solid game mat, but it has to fit into the travel pack and it is a budget version so I get it. The container to put all the cards are just perfect though. Makes me happy to see everything fit in it's proper place.

Another thing I'm worried about is the language barrier. The instruction booklet and all the shop names are in Chinese, and I'm going to have to figure out how to identify what the customers want when I'm playing. I kind of wish the customer-demand icons were also printed on the shops themselves for easier identification, rather than having to rely on the Chinese names. With components this tiny, I can already imagine myself squinting at everything!

I actually emailed Yaofish after purchasing the game to ask whether they had English instructions, and they were really nice about responding. Unfortunately, the instructions they sent were linked through WeChat, which I don't have. Thankfully, I managed to find the English rules on BoardGameGeek, so that's one problem solved!

Yaofish will be at SPIEL Essen, but I'm not entirely sure whether they'll be bringing this particular game. They also make a regular (more expensive) boxed version of A Dream of Splendor, and from what I've seen, the components are even prettier with metal coins and even fancier shop houses.

Yaofish seems to make quite a few children's games, and they also translate some English-language games into Chinese, which is pretty cool. They translated zombie kidz, wandering towers, and modern art! Their version of modern art is so pretty!

Anyway, I'm mostly here to gush over these adorable little shops. I really hope I can get past the language barrier and enjoy the actual game as much as I enjoy looking at the components.

Has anyone here played this edition? I'd love to hear what you think of the gameplay or if you've played anything else by Yaofish. They have a lot of beautifully made games with lovely components.

I went to trade school for woodworking, I haven't done a project in a few years due to lack of workshop space access. But recently have some again. I want to make a gaming table as my biggest hobby in the last few years has been a mix of TTRPGs and board games.

What are the features you use the most if you have a table? What are the ones you look at the most if you don't?

I'm trying to put a lot of forward planning into this to make it as cool as can be

Just played Quacks for the first time last week and LOVED it. I bought my own copy and would like some 3D printed inserts for all the game pieces.

I found an amazing looking file for the All In edition here, but I think there are a few pieces too many since the Deluxe version I bought doesn’t include the expansion like the All In does.

Does anyone have a recommended file for a similar quality of 3D printed insert for the Deluxe version of Quacks specifically?

I’m not 3D printer savvy at all, and don’t own my own printer, I was hoping to pay a friend to print this for me or try and print some of this at the local library.

Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated!

Made a magnetic catan board for both EU and US

After many questions i now made a version for the US as well! Free on makerworld and also on etsy @3DCreationsRE

I’m curious how many people played Lotería as kids. I took it for granted that this was a common game but realize now it was more common for Hispanic families. Has anyone played later in life to learn Spanish? I’m also curious if anyone actually played with the person calling cards doing it the traditional way. Instead of just calling out the card (ex. El sol / the sun), did you ever make a little rhyme or joke with the word? Let’s share our lotería stories!

Ran the game with some friends today, and we encountered two rare coincidence that we weren't quite sure how to interpret the situation.

1. Player A got caught by the webs. Player B activated Mystic Slides at the Basement, and Player A happened to be the player on the right side. Will Player A fell through the slide?

We decided not to let him slide today cuz webs should prevent him from moving anywhere. We basically imagined that "okay, so a mystic slide suddenly appeared in this room, but you got caught by the webs, so you're hanging in the air, and below you is a slide🤣"

1. The traitor owned the revolver and the ring. He insisted to use both so that he could attack with Sanity as a distant attack.

We spent about half an hour trying to find the answer to it, and we found this:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1383611/revolver-making-might-attack-while-in-line-of-sigh
Which kind of convinced him, but not really cuz he later expressed that he's still not convinced.

His theory is that the description says "You can use the revolver to attack with Speed instead of Might." means "you can choose to do it or not" while the others thought that it means "you can choose to use the revolver and attack with Speed or not use the revolver and attack with Might."

That didn't convince him at all, even after I said, logically, the use of a revolver requires speed. If you use might to use a revolver, you can only hit someone with the revolver itself instead of shooting the bullet.

So I wonder if anyone has encountered these situations before?

Hello guys, I'm working on a card game called Titan Duel Seekers, which is free to play. Inspired by 2000 TCG slow-paced duels where duels move around Boss cards. The game already has a multiplayer function active and a single-player practice mode. Join my Discord for more info on how to participate, or dm me https://discord.gg/my9V33yt9

Is Boktor just... Zombicide lite?

I actually don't mean that strictly as a criticism. I love Zombicide, but I have a hard time getting it to the table sometimes because of how much table space it requires, and setup can be a bit cumbersome. Once you get rolling with it, gameplay is silky smooth... but it can be daunting when we just want to get something out fast and start having fun.

Boktor seems to have some interesting differences:

• Simultaneous movement, which allows players to better adapt to quickly-changing circumstances
• Tile-by-tile exploration
• Kind of a boss battler dungeon crawl like One Deck Dungeon, instead of a mission-based scenario like Zombicide
• Ability to store energy from turn-to-turn, which creates more fun 'power turns'

And a big one for me: it seems to use less table space?

But even still, at the end of the day, I wonder if this will feel a bit redundant with Zombicide. What are your initial impressions, for anyone who has spent some time researching/reading or even playing both games?

I've seen an instagram post about chemistry mahjong that would be an excellent fit for my students.

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DIx3NU-vo1h/

However, I can't seem to find it anywhere.I've checked numerous pages and all seem to be out of stock.

Does anyone know where one could find this game? Or, as an alternative, could anyone provide pictures of the game tiles? If the game is no longer in print, I guess I could try and make a print and play version of it, or print the symbols on stickers and put it over a regular mahjong set.

Thanks in advance.

I recently got into trick taking games and liked a lot - so I went ahead and played a lot of them and purchased some too - so far I liked

Nokosu Dice the best

Second is Power Vacuum

I have these in my collection right now and planning to get more -

Fishing

Fishing 2

Onstage

What's your favourite and recommend some as well---

Update :

Based on most of the suggestions I got the LoTr games

I am still skimming through the entire list I prepared but most of them are not available in my area :(

I will try some secondhand/preloved markets tomorrow and see if I can squeeze in something for the weekend.