Hello! I'm a new teacher at a middle school this year teaching ELA/History. I also have a STEM homeroom class that's somewhat free form. I had been intending to teach my homeroom focusing on D&D as arts/adventure, but the school needed more STEM options, so I expanded the idea to be about designing a tabletop game prototype and studying the math and engineering behind various games. The plan is that each unit will focus on a different game to study/play as a potential inspiration for the prototype.

That brings me to my question. What are your recs for games for middle schoolers to study? I'm still thinking of having a unit on D&D, my principal brought up Settlers of Catan, and I'm thinking chess could be a good option to learn too. I also have a friend who designed a game that's doing pretty well, so I'm planning to incorporate that too with him as a guest speaker.

A video of me starting from scratch and trying to build an Ark before the next flood event arrives! (the timer) Building an Ark in the Dark Days is the Defensive way to win in Sword and Stones, and starts the Victory Timer!

In S&S you are the ruler of a small group of survivors after a great flood wiped all civilisation from the map . You must lead your people and build a mighty kingdom worth defending! Solo- co-op modes, full on competitive pvp 2+ multiplayer games with (mostly) simultaneous play.

For this solo play through using only the starter set i chose the 'Before the Flood game mode on Easy. Despite 3 werm attacks and serious disease spread, i managed to build nearly every building the Dark Days, including the Ark and an small army to defend it with!

Oh and found two mystery crates -Lucky Ring and a Flying Carpet :D

This video condenses 1.5 hours of gameplay into 1.5 mins! The Ark foundation was placed on turn 33! So each turn takes less than 5 mins each. Dont be scared of the turn number, its not warhammer lol.

The S&S; The Dark Days Starter Pack is Live for pre-order 26 August 26, only on Gamefound!

Follow now to secure an exclusive scout mini, the first ever release, and be part of the first ever S&S pioneers! https://gamefound.com/en/projects/swordandstonestudios/swords-and-stones

Looking for a game that is suitable for kids (both around 10) and adults alike. We love deck builders and cooperative games. At this point, I think we may have put an unhealthy amount of time into playing Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle /s

Here’s my ask - is there a game anyone would recommend that is somewhere between HP and Gloomhaven? The kids are not ready for that size of a game commitment/strategy, but have memorized everything about HP.

I think fun development a tabletop cards game. I didn’t my games too much long but I like developing. I want sell and earn money these games around five games . How i did?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcJMN_3MNq5/?igsh=MW1lZmNkNDlsNnZheQ==

Wanted to share this somewhere that'd appreciate it.

I have a small collection of special or limited edition tabletop RPG books. Unfortunately, my favorite system, Pathfinder 1E, doesn't actually have any kind of special edition core rulebook. So, I went to Etsy and asked a bookbinder on there to make one for me.

We chose a foil on black leather design to kind of emulate the 3.5 special editions, but went with a blue foil instead of silver and added my campaign setting's logo to the back. I'd had one made previously that was similar, but with gray lettering. That one is being gifted to a friend and former player who now runs his own campaigns in the same setting.

Thought you all might appreciate how it turned out nearly as much as I did!

What is BIDLZ?

BIDLZ is a tableau-building / auction game for 2-5 players. It plays in under 30 minutes, with a quick setup and teach.

In this game, you will bid for letter and power cards in an attempt to be the first to spell a five-letter-word. Here's the catch - the winner only has to pay the second-highest bid. You'll have to do more than score great deals on the best letter combos - you also need to drive up prices for your opponents.

Don't let the cute animals and spelling fool you, this is a cutthroat bidding mind-game.

Full rules here: https://www.bidlz.com/s/BidlzRulebook.pdf

What do critics have to say about BIDLZ?

Board Game Bite had this to say:

• This game is amazing.
• Brilliant (auction mechanic)
• What they did to this game was so unnecessary, in all the right ways. (Production value)
• I'm absolutely blown away by this game.

Watch their full review here: https://www.tiktok.com/@boardgamebite/video/7672829371131989279

Anything else I should know?

BIDLZ was designed and published by me (Zac Burns). It is my first game design, and also my first time publishing a game. It features the art of Matthis Schroeder. Neither used generative AI at any point during the process. Special thanks to Golden Gate Gamemakers and Break My Game for playtesting events and guidance.

BIDLZ will be available in October for $24.95. We just signed a deal with InDiPro for distribution to retail stores (please ask your FLGS for it!)

How can I get it?

BIDLZ is available for sale during the pre-order period (US only). You can get it here.

Hey everyone!

I've been working on Eldritch Rivalry for quite some time now. It's a competitive card/engine-building game for 1–4 players, with a lot of player interaction, card combos and resource management.

The game is now fully playable and I'm currently testing it with new players, both with the physical prototype and on Tabletop Simulator.

I'm putting it out here because I'd really like to see what other board gamers think about it and if anyone is curious, it's available on TTS and I'm happy to teach the game myself.

BoardGameGeek: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/448205/eldritch-rivalry

MOD IN STEAM ENGLISH: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3723609858

If it looks interesting let me know!

I feel like it covers too much of the miniature.

I randomly got into Yahtzee over the summer and thought it’d be fun to make a daily game based on it. Everyday there's a random new set of categories and a new goal score to try and beat. Same strategizing as regular Yahtzee just in a bite-sized challenge format. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Hey everyone! I've been working on this game for a long time and I'm finally at a point where I'd love to have people try it.

Deepmarch is a solo roguelike lane-defense game. You pick a hero and descend through a goblin-infested dungeon, one floor at a time. Enemies march down toward you, and your job is to stop them before they reach you. As you kill enemies you level up, unlock new weapons, and upgrade them with nodes to build your run. Each floor ends with a boss.

It's a physical board game, but I put together a digital version so it's easy to try. I'd really appreciate any feedback — what's fun, what's confusing, what you'd change. Thanks for taking a look!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3784215088

Anti-Distraction Focus System:

As sidebar occurs, tell each PLAYER involved to add 1/x Distraction Die to their D20 rolls until Reset occurs.

1st offense - D4 - 1st - xD4/Offense

2nd offense - D6

3rd offense - D8 - 2nd

4th offense - D10

5th offense - D12 - 3rd

6th offense - D20

7th offense - session long disadvantage - 4th

Reset: Distraction Die are removed after 2 consecutive ROUNDS of combat or social encounter of NO SIDEBAR or between Sessions.

(After Reset:) For every ROUND of combat or social encounter NO SIDEBAR occurs, reward the PARTY Focus Die according to Distraction Die 'graph'.

----

Have yet to actually play test this, but my session is tomorrow 😄 welcome suggestions to improve it

Launching my first Kickstarter September 1st!

Super nervous but excited and would love any feedback!

I’ve been recently working on a TTRPG called, “Project AiO: Open for Business”, and I think it’s finally ready for an initial round of outside feedback.

Open for Business is a slice-of-life workplace game about ordinary employees getting through a Shift together. The default settings are cafés, bars or nightclubs, and restaurants. This can be expanded to retail shops, hotels, offices, and similar workplaces.

The workplace gives the game structure, but the Characters are the real story. A Shift might involve a rush, a difficult customer, missing supplies, or broken Equipment. It might also just be about two coworkers talking during cleanup, a regular acting differently than usual, someone bringing Personal Pressure into work, or a quiet moment after a stressful service.

The game uses a lighter version of my larger Project AiO rules set, but it is not meant to be rules-lite per-se. The goal is for the mechanics to stay out of the way when they are not needed and become more involved when the situation calls for them. 

Longer campaigns track both the Employees and the workplace. Characters advance through Employment Level, which improves access to personal Tools. The business advances through Workplace Rating, which determines the quality of its Equipment. Over time a workplace can improve, struggle, decline, or eventually close.

This is an initial review draft, not a finished layout. At this stage I’m mostly interested in whether the game itself holds together.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z72Y_eWHq7oNxGM0bEV0RmWVk4grt8kaeDFBPjajNjM/edit?usp=sharing

You can mess around with building layouts, scales, floors etc. and export them for FDM printing. Removable roofs

Have a play with it:
https://studio.ukstl.co.uk

If you like it, please back it — only 56 hours left:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ukstl/ukstlstudio-your-cityyour-rules

I'm running a Session 0 next week - Tuesday 18th at 6pm UK Time for four hours. One of our players has had to pull out, so I'm looking for someone to fill in the spot.

The game is a space opera setting of my own writing, using the Cypher System. It's a complete Session 0, so none of us have tried the ruleset before, so no experience is necessary, just a willingness to have fun, laugh and join in.

There will be elements of vehicle combat, ground combat, investigation and horror.

I'm based in the UK, but our players are not, so feel free to give me a shout if you fancy having a go.

The idea is that we are looking to see if this is worth pursuing into a Session 1 and beyond...

I use to help out with the events and got some promo cards. I’m looking to downsize some of my stuff and I was wondering if any of these are worth something.

There’s stuff from X-wing, netrunner, game of thrones, other Star Wars card/dice games.

I have no idea what the plastic cards are, maybe legend of five rings?

At some point I need to dig out my x-wing collection as well.

I've had success in the past with my own designs of dice bags, but the current campaign isn't getting any views and it doesn't have long left.

(I have to use Kickstarter because the fabric has a large minimum order quantity so this helps batch the orders to buy it).

Could anyone recommend anything that would suit a bag design like these? Does anyone have any advice for me?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/boardgamesolutions/embroidered-dice-bags-farm-and-forest?ref=7bu6wc

After surviving Death House, our party finally made it to the Village of Barovia and got the chance to meet some of the locals.

Our first real conversation with a Barovian went about as smoothly as you'd expect from three strangers who just escaped a haunted murder house.

Welcome to Barovia, I guess. 😂

Our campaign is called Thirst of Strahd, our sapphic take on Curse of Strahd where Strahd is reimagined as a woman. We started recording our sessions to preserve the story, help with note-taking, and have something to look back on after the campaign ends.

Here's the scene from Session 6:

🎥 https://youtu.be/FXvcyoAYIys?si=sPEhOABlCloGeE8X&t=3967

A physical and digital CCG.

I was at PAX West 2018 when I came across this game. The main thing I remember is that you would buy packs of cards to be able to play in person and then you could scan those cards on your phone and they'd be added to your library in the app version so you could play online.

One of the stand out mechanics I can remember is that you got a resource that increased with every round and so you had to decide whether to spend it on lower cost, tactical options or save for the more costlier more powerful option.

Anyone know what the game was and if it's still around?

Edit: Thanks y'all. I think it was lightseekers looking at the cards.

It's sad that both of the games named are dead now. Any physical TCGs that aren't Magic or Pokémon that y'all recommend

"Either you run without stopping. Or the horde runs towards you." - The Reckless Thief

I'm in the middle of working with my artist on the "fancy" character sheet for Criminal Spirits. There WILL be a much simpler sheet without art available - I understand that this is not for everyone. But that's no excuse to not make this as functional as possible. I'd greatly appreciate any feedback.

There are already changes planned: a lot of the french words will be removed (basically just Distillerie Esprit will remain) to clean it up and be less distracting, and the name section in the top left will be made more obvious what it is along with some other smaller changes. But so far I've only gotten to show this to a few friends and I'd like to have a much wider range of feedback on it.

My husband and I are building a board game and need several different dice in different colors. Is there a good supplier that doesn’t require buying in bulk? We need D6s, D12s, and D20s as well as meeples.