Something For My Eyes And Hands

Tabletop games have had a renaissance period starting in the late 2000s, and never really went away. This has been helped along by the emergence of online media like Geek & Sundry, The Dice Tower, etc. and Real Play TTRPG series like Critical Role, Dimension 20, Not Another D&D Podcast, Dungeons and Daddies, etc., with entire communities popping up with BoardGameGeek (BGG) that have a comprehensive listing and review system of every board game ever released. Don’t quote me on that, but I’m fairly certain it’s true.

Now is a better time than ever to be playing Role Playing Games. Wizards of the Coast have humbled themselves with their recent attempts to monetize Dungeons and Dragons, leading to the wider community putting their collective foot down over unethical policy creation in Wizard’s latest attempt at an Open Game License. Piazo Publishing, the people behind Pathfinder, committed to enabling community creativity by making a truly perpetual and irrevocable system agnostic version of the OGL, called the Open RPG Creative license, which will allow any publisher of RPG content to use the ORC to fairly create and distribute game content.

The rise of Kickstarter has given board game creators a way to crowd source the funding for the production of board games, leading to some games that would have traditionally been not commercially viable for publishers, due to mechanics or settings being too esoteric (read Consentacles) for mass audiences or the production would be so massive (read Gloomhaven/Frosthaven) that most publishers wouldn’t have dared untaken a project that massive. Kickstarter has also given board game creators the option to make some truly bling’ed out releases for games that might have only had a single production release if sold at big box stores or board game retailers, meaning that players are getting higher quality end products than would have been traditionally available.

Kickstarter is a double edged sword though, for every Gloomhaven or Zombicide, there is a lemon. A Kickstarter campaign where the game producer took the money from the campaign, might have made a token effort at making the game they promised, before running away with the remaining cash. There have been a few fairly high profile examples of this, but I am lucky that I have not backed one yet.

If any of the above sounds like it could be fun, I implore you to find your a board game club/community near you. There might even be a board game convention put together in your area. I personally attend two board game specific conventions, OzBunnyCon at Easter and MeepleCon toward the end of the year, run by Melbourne Meeples. They’re always great events to go to, to play games with people and see what is new in the world of Board Games.

The other big convention I go to each year (except the Plague Years) is PAX. Penny Arcade Expo Aus specifically is the largest gaming convention in the Southern Hemisphere. They have the gamut of gaming covered, from the latest PC, Console and Hand-Held Video Games with a BYOC and Console Free-Play area, to TTRPGs, to Collectible Card Games, War Games and Board Games. They hire out the entirety of building 1 and 2 at Jeff’s Shed (read Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre) and put on a hell of a show over the first full weekend in October. I’ll be there, running around Expo Hall as an [E]nforcer, collecting Pinny Arcade pins and hanging out with my friends.

I hope to see and hear from people who are also into tabletop! You’ll probably see a few posts about TT related topics on my blog.