Gen Con opens in Indianapolis on July 30 — one month from today — and for four days the Indiana Convention Center becomes the closest thing tabletop gaming has to a world capital. Last year drew a record 72,000 attendees. This year’s lineup gives them good reason to return. What Gen Con Is Gen Con … Read more
Smoothie Wars sets players up as rival smoothie entrepreneurs competing on a tropical island across a simulated week of business. The premise sounds light, but the economic structure underneath it is genuine. For the right group, it works considerably better than the cheerful packaging suggests. The game was designed by UK entrepreneur Dr Thom Van … Read more
At CONvergence 2025, the Talking Cardboard channel hosted a 45-minute panel with four working tabletop game designers: Jeremy and his collaborators from Sophisticated Cardboard, the studio behind horror game Stifling Dark; Liz, a designer and former public school teacher whose games include Night Witches and Queen of Spies; Adam, a former Fantasy Flight and Asmodee … Read more
The best board game apps share one quality: they disappear once you are using them properly. A good companion app reduces setup time, handles fiddly scorekeeping, or adds something genuinely impossible with physical components alone — and then gets out of the way so the game stays on the table rather than on a screen. … Read more
Daggerheart, the original tabletop RPG from Critical Role’s publishing arm Darrington Press, released on May 20, 2025 and immediately sold out worldwide. Business Insider reported the launch sold out in under a week, with the company’s chief operating officer noting that a year’s expected supply lasted just two weeks. More than a year later, the … Read more
Wingspan came out in 2019. It won the Kennerspiel des Jahres — the German award for complex hobby games — that year, sold 200,000 copies within twelve months, and spent the next several years being the game people pointed to when they wanted to explain what modern board gaming actually looks like to someone who … Read more
What to Buy First, How the Competitive Scene Works, and What It Actually Costs Pokémon TCG is the best-selling trading card game in the world. It has been for years, and in 2026 it is not close. As of Q1 2026, Pokémon TCG is the undisputed volume leader globally, ahead of Magic: The Gathering and … Read more
Getting into tabletop RPGs is easier than it has ever been. Free rules, digital tools, online communities, and platforms that connect players across time zones have removed most of the practical barriers that once made the hobby feel inaccessible. What remains is the learning curve — understanding what you need, where to find it, and … Read more
Board game conventions have outgrown their nerdy-basement reputation. The biggest events now draw hundreds of thousands of visitors, fill international exhibition halls, and serve as the primary launchpad for the year’s most anticipated new releases. Whether you want to play games you have never tried, meet designers, buy things that do not exist in your … Read more
Gaming podcasts cover a spectrum that runs from two friends talking about what they played this week all the way to professionally produced actual-play shows with original music and full casts. The quality range is enormous. This list focuses on shows with consistent output, clear formats, and genuine editorial value — organized by what type … Read more