For a franchise that makes its money selling books, Dungeons & Dragons has a habit of putting up an awful lot of free content on its website. Just last week it dropped something special; a 33- page, fully produced supplement for the venerable role-playing game. But this isn’t just any sourcebook. It’s a crossover guide that ports your game of D&D into the latest setting of the wildly successful collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. Plane Shift: Kaladesh is written by James Wyatt, who was an integral part of the Wizards of the Coast D&D team dating back to 2000. In April last year, Wyatt moved over to the Magic team, where he’s been helping beef up their lore. The results have been phenomenal. Chris Rallis/Wizards of the Coast Ryan...

Tabletop publisher Asmodee has a hot hand going into 2017. This year, it hopes to further fortify their brand in the digital space. Philippe Dao, chief marketing officer for Asmodee Digital, told us that his team could have as many as 20 new games on iOS and Android this year. In the past few years, Asmodee has made aggressive moves to acquire several large publishers and developers. That includes Minneapolis-based Fantasy Flight Games, known for licensed titles such as A Game of Thrones The Board Game and Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game. In October, Asmodee also acquired F2Z Entertainment, which owns the Pandemic and Dead of Winter line of board games. It even snatched up North American rights to the Catan brand, making it a one-stop-shop for some of the industry’s biggest...

This article is absolutely NSFW. On my kitchen table was the ass end of a giant demon bird. I was inspecting its empty orifice, comparing it to a photo on my iPad. The directions said that I had to glue a tiny lump of human hands, less than a half inch across, into the beast’s cloaca. I’ve stuck a lot of things to a lot of other things in my time playing tabletop games, but this was a first for me. I read the directions over again. I compared the photos to the parts in front of me. I looked up the definition of “cloaca” while I trimmed off some flashing to adjust the fit. Then I gently pressed some super glue out of the tube, applied a firm, even pressure and counted to ten while the cyanoacrylate got a good bond inside its hole. I held the model up to the light to admire my handiwork,...

Over the past few years, I’ve seen a lot of online tabletop solutions come and go. Some, like Tabletop Simulator, are popular but open the door to copyright infringement. Who wouldn’t want to click a button and download hundreds of dollars worth of Fantasy Flight Games’ X-Wing miniatures? Others, like the Vassal system, are opaque and unwieldy. But today there’s a new player in town, and it’s called Tabletopia. I’ve been trading emails with the team at Tabletopia for a little while now, and over the past few years, they’ve been creating a tremendous, stable platform. But they’ve also been getting buy-in from some of the tabletop industry’s best minds. And, starting today, Tabletopia is available as a free-to-play game on Steam. Here’s how it works. Tabletopia isn’t a traditional digital...

The holiday shopping season is upon us, and that means the children in your life are about to be inundated with new toys. For parents, that means work. Time to clean out the toy bin and, in the dark of night, squirrel away the bottom few layers into a garbage bag for a mid-day trip to Goodwill. But while you’re making space in the playroom, why not clear off a shelf in the closet for these fantastic board games. I promise that you’ll have a ton of fun with them as well. Catan GmbH Catan: Junior Catan Junior I don’t really like Catan. I find it tedious, with a lot of dead time between turns. My dislike could also have to do with the fact that every time I sit down to play I get stomped. So bear that in mind when I say that my number one recommendation for...