5 Pocket-Sized Games for Taking Out and About

 OK I want to get ahead of this and start with a definition of "Pocket Sized". It's term thrown around a lot and to be honest is rarely used literally. For the purposes of this article, we're going to be using the term pocket sized to mean anything that will either fit in a generous pocket or fit easily into a handbag without taking up all the space.

1. Regicide

Regicide is quite literally pocket-sized as it requires nothing more than a deck of ordinary playing cards (which have the bonus of also allowing for a large number of other games), and yet it manages to be a significant game with a solid theme.

Players will work together to attempt to overthrow the royal dictators, represented by the Jacks, Queens, and Kings in the deck. Taking it in turns, players play cards from their hands, dealing damage equal to the card's value and resolving effects dictated by the suit. Together they will slowly work their way through the picture cards, defeating their oppressors, and hoping they don't run out of cards in the draw pile. Should that happen, support from the people has failed and the game is up.

Regicide is a fantastic, well-thought-out game that manages to capture a theme perfectly with only a single deck of cards. The rules are available as PDF so can be easily checked on a phone, making this the most pocket-sized of games.

2. Gloomhaven: Buttons and Bugs

Typically Gloomhaven means table-filling boards, hundreds of components, and a rulebook that could technically be classed as a novella. Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion, the prequel released in 2020, went some way to condensing this but still remained a meaty game. Then in 2024 Gloomhaven: Buttons and Bugs hit shelves and we had to take a moment to check whether the game was genuinely as small as it looked, or just very far away.

Gloomhaven: Buttons and Bugs is a purely solo experience that amazingly manages to capture the feel of its older siblings perfectly with a fraction of the play-space. This is done through a mixture of making assets as small as feasibly possible (the miniatures are so small I am wary of sneezing near them), and streamlining the game-play to take off every millimeter of fat. 

Even the theme has been downsized. Gloomhaven is a vast role-playing board game that spans an entire nameless realm, Buttons and Bugs takes place mostly within the walls of a single building as your adventurer has been shrunk to the size of a small bug.

In classic Gloomhaven style, the game is still turn based and adventurers play cards to complete actions with an aim to completing objectives before exhaustion sets in or HP is reduced to zero. It effectively captures the feeling of a much larger game despite the board being the size of a single playing card.

While technically not pocket-sized (the box maintains similar dimensions to the huge original but is scaled down) it is definitely small enough to fit easily in a small bag. This game is an must-have, pocket-sized, solo experience.

3. Zombie Dice

Another true-pocket game, Zombie Dice is a push-your-luck dice-rolling game in which players take on the role of zombies searching for tasty human brains without getting shot. The game consists of 13 dice, each showing symbols for brains, footprints, and gunshots, and a dice cup (though we swapped the dice cup for a velvet bag to make it even more compact). Players take it in turns to pull 3 dice from the cup, roll them and resolve the effects. They can then choose whether to pull 3 more dice and keep going, or bank the brains they have and pass play to the next players. The catch is that if a player ever rolls a cumulative 3 gunshots during their turn, they lose all the brains they rolled and their turn ends.

The dice are colour coded to indicate how heavily they are weighted to gunshots or brains, which allows players to make an educated guess regarding their chances on future rolls.

The first player to achieve a total of 13 brains wins the game, which does mean that it is possible for a player to win on their first turn. While this might sound disappointing, the excitement of seeing someone win in this way is worth it!

Zombie Dice is an exciting game and perfect to fill a few minutes of waiting time or even act as a palette cleanser between larger games. The dice feel good quality and the entertainment far exceeds the affordable price tag, which is usually in the region of, you guessed it, £13. 

4. Micro Dojo

Micro Dojo is an adorable worker-placement game in which two players compete to enhance their small town through the purchasing of buildings and completing objectives.

While the gameplay is fairly basic, on your turn you move a meeple one space orthogonally and resolve the action on the space it now occupies, it has a very enjoyable flow and feels suitably low-stakes; perfect for playing at a small cafe table.

While the format doesn’t provide for a lot of player agency, there is room for strategy and planning in blocking your opponent from taking key actions. Furthermore, the game has an automated player 2 for solo play that effectively captures the feeling of playing with a human.

This is a game that easily provides more entertainment than it’s low price tag betrays and would make a good addition to anyone’s collection.

5. Kinoko

Kinoko is a fantastic set-building card game where players work to assemble a set of three mushrooms of the same colour by swapping between players and sets of face-down cards on the table. The one catch? Players cannot look at their own cards, instead they have them facing outwards so that all other players can see them. Using a mixture of deduction, probability, and memory, players assemble sets in their hand, other players hands, or on the table, but as soon as a player feels they have completed their set they announce it to the group and their assumptions are checked.

Quick to play and small to carry, this game is the very definition of a pocket-sized game. Furthermore, set up and game time are both quite fast so it's perfect for when you are out and about. With a cute visual style and simple rules, this game is a must-have for anyone who enjoys a good mushroom.

5 Reasons Why You Should Be Playing Tabletop Games

We like games, that much is obvious, but we also think there are a lot of people out there who would love games as much as us but aren't sure about getting into the hobby. Just in case you are undecided, we've put together this list of 5 reasons why you should be playing table top games

1. Mental Wellbeing

We've written fairly extensively in the past about the positive mental benefits of playing table top games, but did you know that games involving puzzle-like and problem-solving elements can help create more brain neurons, which can slow cognitive decline and memory related dementia?

Eleesha Lockett, writing for healthline, states that "Games are among the many activities that can keep the human mind entertained and engaged. But more importantly, games can help stimulate our brains."

A 2019 study exploring the effects of 16 weeks of combined physical and cognitive training involving games, found that working memory and executive function significantly improved. A further paper published in 2020, A Review on Serious Games for Dementia Care in Ageing Societies, explored the use of board and video games and their benefits. Board games were found to help with cognitive functions such as memory, communication, and emotional regulation. The review found that when early and middle stage patients with dementia used "serious" games, they improved on a wide variety of cognitive abilities.

2. Enhances Playfulness in Adults

We recently wrote [insert link here] about the benefits of playfulness in adults and how, among it's many benefits, adult play can boost creativity, sharpen our sense of humour, and help with stress coping mechanisms. Playfulness is defined by Proyer and Ruch in 2011 as "the predisposition to frame (or re-frame) a situation in such a way as to provide oneself (and possible others) with amusement, humour, and/or entertainment." Adults who participate in playful activities display 5 types of playful behaviours; spontaneous, expressive, creative, fun, and silly, and those who displayed higher levels of these characteristics were also recorded as having higher creativity, better ability to appreciate beauty, a greater sense of hope, and lower stress among others.

If you are looking to enhance your positive playful characteristics, and feel the benefits of the related positive link to well-being and life satisfaction, taking up table top gaming as a hobby is a surefire way to get started.

3. It's a Social Activity

There are games to fit any level of social interaction. Playing a game with another person or a group of people provides ideal structure to an evening. It allows a shared activity for conversation to grow around like vines, but with enough to focus on that there's reduced pressure to be overly communicative if you are feeling confident. Sometimes there is nothing more relaxing than allowing a conversation to fall into a gentle lull, while everyone around the table becomes absorbed in what's unfolding in the game before them.

On top of this, playing games, either competitive or cooperative, provides the perfect backdrop to get to know new people. Strangers can sit around a table together and get to know each other on a much deeper level than mere conversation would usually allow. Through play, we get to see someone's inner morality, how do they behave towards other players when winning or losing? How do they support new players to a game? Do they compete in good faith? These actions all reflect deeper aspects to someone's personality and sometimes when meeting new people, it's good to learn these things up front.

4. We're in a Golden Age of Games

It's so easy to say that something is the Golden Age of a particular thing. Margaret Hofer described the period of 1880s-1920s as "The Golden Age" of board gaming in America, but at that point they'd never played Catan or Gloomhaven so how can we trust her? However, with a pinch of salt we could feasibly consider the current boom in the table top industry a sign that we truly are living in its Golden Age. In 2022 the global board game market was worth $18.93 billion and is expected to reach almost $40 billion by 2028.

Thanks to this explosion of choice in recent years, not just for the Big Names such as Ticket to Ride and Wingspan but also independent developers, there is now a board game for almost everyone. No matter what your tastes are or what kind of experience you are after from a game, there is almost certainly something on the shelves of your local Board Game Cafe for Friendly Local Gaming Store (FLGS) that will have you a keen gamer in no time.

5. Less Focus on Digital Entertainment

Nicolas Pickaerts, chief executive of the online design store Abask raisese the "tangible aspect of playing games, which serves as an antidote to the overwhelm of the digital world... you get to enjoy the physicality of holding a beautifully crafted piece in your hand that has been thoughtfully designed".

There is no doubt that we live in a world that is becoming exponentially digital and with this the amount of time each of us physically spend in the company of our friends, family, and even colleagues is reducing. Dr. Charlotte Russell, a clinical psychologist working in mental health, rates the human need for connection as a "primary need" and that "If we lack human connection this can have a negative impact on our well-being very quickly."

Most FLGSs and Board Game Cafes will be able to recommend gaming groups for people seeking them out. There are also many online communities that can help arrange in-person meet ups for those interested in table top gaming. Our digital world is important for societal progress, it is essential that people do not become less connected as a result and still value the fundamental need for in-person contact.

The final and most important reason to take up table top gaming as a hobby is quite simply that it is fun, and why would you deny yourself a fun time?

What other reasons can you think of that should be included in this list? Or perhaps this article has giving you encouragement to give board games a try? If so, why not check out our article on board games to get you started in the hobby.

Horrified and Indigenous Cultures

We are big fans of the Horrified series of games by Ravensburger and have been since the first edition; Universal Monsters. Since then we have enjoyed the American Monsters (cryptids) and the Greek Monsters (from the pantheon of legends) games. However, we recently got hold of the new Horrified: World of Monsters and while it is another fun game in the series, something didn't sit right with me.

Each Horrified iteration so far has had a clearly defined theme, from the classic Universal Studios monsters like Dracula and the Wolf Man, to the Greek mythological monsters like the chimera and basilisk. World of Monsters initially seems like a perfect entry into this collection with monsters from folklore from around the world, the Jiangshi (or hopping vampire), the Sphinx, and the Yeti. This was a perfect opportunity for Ravensburger to highlight the incredibly rich folklore of indigenous cultures from around the world, but then they went and spoiled it all by doing something stupid like Cthulhu.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Cthulhu mythos and have long said that it would make for a great Horrified but it's inclusion in World of Monsters not only cheapens the impact, but also detracts from the importance of the other monsters to their native cultures. It is almost insulting to draw a comparison between the vast history of folkloric tales of Jiangshi and Cthulhu, the fictional creation of a xenophobic recluse writing in the early 20th century. In terms of their cultural importance, I don't believe there can be a comparison. It would be like including both Baba Yaga and Edward Cullen.

The game attempts to justify the mixing of mythologies and modern fiction through some fairly flimsy pretext explaining that a rift between realities is causing monsters to wonder into our world, along with fantastical steampunk technologies. Fine. As a premise goes, I think that's OK. But I still feel like the inclusion of historical folklore from other cultures should be handled with a little more care than this clumsy introduction. 

There is a lot of fantastic writing done about the unsettling trend of colonialism in board games and how they discretely act to lessen the importance of indigenous cultures. I highly recommend checking our the two articles on this topic from the Daily Worker Placement. As such I won't go into too much detail in this blog as I would only be rehashing something that another author has put so much more succinctly than I ever could.

However, I would like to take the opportunity to recognise that Horrified: World of Monsters seems to have been made somewhat backwards compatible with previous titles. Furthermore, they recently released an expansion to include the Krampus as a monster to go toe-to-toe with. What this could mean is that generally, they will be releasing further expansions for this latest core box, rather than looking to create more iterations of the same game. While I worry this model of content creation engenders laziness, it might offer some hope that future expansions will further explore some of the rich cultural offerings the world has to offer the genre.

What are your thoughts on this peculiar mashup? Could it have been achieved with more care?

Playfulness in Adults - An under represented field

I recently wrote about how I believe playing can be considered a rebellious act in a society that does not value playfulness in adults. Bizarrely, this received more backlash than I was expecting from people who did not appreciate me thinking more deeply about the sociology of playing games. While I firmly believe that choosing "unproductive" play in a society that favours productivity, is inherently rebellious, I am aware that some people prefer to focus on the inward-facing benefits of play. Or perhaps my attempt to look deeper into an activity they would rather just consider fun will also be met with resistance?

Saya Des Marais, writing for Psych Central ascertains that "playing is just as important for adults as it is for children. Among its many benefits, adult play can boost your creativity, sharpen your sense of humor (sic.), and help you cope better with stress". However, Proyer and Ruch, writing for SpringerOpen, claim that despite this, there has been comparatively little literature or research on playfulness in adults. I feel that this lack of research into playfulness and the benefits of play in adults supports my believe that western society does not value play in adults in the same way as it might in children. 

Proyer and Ruch found that the results of their own research indicated that "playfulness in adults relates to positive psychological functioning". They highlighted the need for further studies to illuminate the contribution of playfulness to well-being in adults. Furthermore, a 2013 study in the European Journal of Humour Research, also by researcher Proyer, found that a predisposition to play in adults was positively linked to well-being and life satisfaction.

So what exactly are the benefits of adults playing games aside from just being enjoyable on a surface level?

Playfulness can be defined as "the predisposition to frame (or re-frame) a situation in such a way as to provide oneself (and possibly others) with amusement, humour, and/or entertainment". Framed the context of this article, playfulness links with table top games in their ability to frame specific themes, subjects, or actions in an entertaining way. Patchwork by Uwe Rosenberg is a perfect example of how the act of making a patchwork quilt can be reframed to make it a less arduous, more competitive, and potentially a more entertaining task. 

Adults who participated in playful activities display five types of playful behaviours outlined by Proyer and Ruch: spontaneous, expressive, creative, fun, and silly. Leading on from this, people who scored higher in these characteristics were also recorded as having higher creativity, a better ability to appreciate beauty, a greater sense of hope, lower stress, among others. As such, playfulness in adults can be directly linked to a boost in overall well-being.

These characteristics may feel like they are considered as some inherent aspect of someone's personality and as such might feel inaccessible to someone who does not necessarily consider themselves playful. However, Dr. Stuart Brown, researcher and founder of The National Institute for Play, has identified eight "play personalities". People who enjoy table top gaming will undoubtedly associate with multiple personalities and below I have taken the liberty of providing suggestions on how they translate to the hobby.

1. The Collector - you enjoy building collections. TCGs, Warhammer, Board games, they are all collections.
2. The Competitor - you enjoy playing (and winning) against others in games that have clearly defined rules.
3. The Creator - you enjoy making things. This could be miniature building and painting, or even creating our own TTRPGs.
4. The Director - what table top group doesn't have that one person who drives the play, learns the rules, schedules D&D sessions?
5. The Explorer - you play through discovering new things. Often linked with the Director, this is the person who will favour games not yet played to bring to the table.
6. The Joker - you play games that bring out the silly or foolish in all of us. Happy Salmon anyone?
7. The Kinesthete - you enjoy using your body to play. From Jenga to Junk Art, you rule at dexterity games.
8. The Storyteller - you play table top games for the opportunity to create stories and get lost in the collective imagination of the group.

As Saya Des Marais writes, "Playing is just as much about your mindset as it is about the activity you're doing", so for your own sake, have a think about how you play and how you might build this into your adult life. Dare I say, it will be a rebellious thing to do?

Preview: Grave Keeper

Become a Grave Keeper in a new print-and-play roll-and-write game by Martyn Hedges that has just launched on Kickstarter. The game, for one or more players, promises to transport you to Victorian England as a sickness "sweeps across the land, claiming rich and poor alike". Players will tend to the crypts of four noble families and vie to gain the highest reputation for their work buying the dead, maintaining the grave site, leading funeral processions, and fending off pesky grave robbers. 

The game has a charming, hand-drawn aesthetic that fits the morbid theme well. Players will roll dice to determine who will have died from the aforementioned families each turn, and then use these dice to determine what actions they will be completing each round of a six round game. These actions include burying the dead, installing monuments to increase prestige, leading funeral processions, and lighting lanterns to deter grave robbers. Of course, there is only so much you can do in a day and any corpses left untended during the day will rot and decay overnight, costing the player their reputation points.

Pre-release reviews have been overwhelmingly positive and some are comparing the game to The Bloody Inn, released in 2015 and already a fan favourite.

At the time of writing the Kickstarter has exceeded its funding goal by 500% with 13 days still to go. You can keep abreast of its progress here and back the project for the low, low price of only £3.00.