Games on Location: Episode 3 - The Bloody Inn

Episode 3 of Games on Location is taking a morbid turn with Nicolas Robert's The Bloody Inn, published by Pearl Games. With Spooky Season fast approaching, where better to play a game of murder and robbery than one of Canterbury's oldest pubs with a dark local legend?

The Bishops Finger, dating back to the 16th Century, "stands out as one of Canterbury's most distinctive historical pubs." So states the website. "Whether you're looking for an exciting venue showing the football, or a cosy local to enjoy a romantic meal in, Bishops Finger is your pub."

What this introduction doesn't mention is the mysterious story of Ellen Blean, who local legend says haunts the pub and the nearby streets. It is said that Ellen Blean, wife to a local canon (some versions of the legend have her as his housekeeper but the blurring of lines between housekeeper and wife is a subject for another blog post), discovered that her husband was having an affair. To take her revenge she poisoned the canon and his lover with a meat pie. This is far from the most haunting part of the tale. Legend has it that Ellen disappeared after the murder only to be discovered shortly afterwards, walled up at a house nearby called Dark Entry, where she had evidently been buried alive. Locals state that every Friday night her ghost wanders the street and then manifests in the bar of The Bishops Finger, appearing as a plain faced, large woman in a long, wide skirt and mobcap.

So with this story fresh in our minds, we headed out to the pub to play a game of The Bloody Inn, in which players play as 18th Century tavern owners looking to make their fortune by murdering and robbing their unfortunate guests. 

"Whether or not their plan will work out, one thing is certain: Not every guest will leave this inn alive..."

The game, for 1-4 players, is stunningly simple with a high bar for strategy. Each round, players will get two turns to complete actions. These include, murder, bribery, burying a corpse, or laundering money. All fittingly dark actions for a morbid game such as this. Over the course of two seasons, any guests left alive during the first season will foolishly return during the next, giving players the opportunity to get that large paycheck they missed the first time around. Honestly, the game brings out the darkness in all of us.

The first player fills the inn, allocating guests to rooms, each of which is owned by a particular player. If a guest in a player's room survives the night they pay a small fee, so there is incentive to keep certain guests alive. Players then take it in turns to decide what they are going to do and weigh up how they're going to get away with it.

All actions are paid for with guest cards, that when in a player's hand are known as accomplices. Accomplices are obtain through bribery, which itself is paid for with guest cards. There is a constant balancing act of keeping enough accomplices in hand to be able to pay for each murder and body disposal, while not having too many that they cost too much money at the end of each round.

Murders must also be well timed, as if a law-enforcement card comes a-calling, and is still alive in the morning, they will be alerted to any dead bodies cluttering up the inn and the cost for disposal becomes crippling.

Bodies can only be looted and disposed off by building annexes to your inn and burying them beneath the buildings. This is costly in itself and it is easy to become stuck in a loop of murder without being able to dispose of the bodies. Another law enforcer turns up? Sometimes you just have to kill him to avoid him discovering the bodies. But then you have another body on your hands and nowhere to store it. In a grim way, it's very funny.

In many ways this is a tableau builder, as you construct buildings in front of you and gradually slide corpses beneath the cards. In other ways the game plays like a card drafter as you aim to get the guests who are most useful to you (each guest has a speciality that means they can be used multiple times for certain actions) and maximise their potential in your grim work. The game achieves both very well and it feels like a neat and concise experience. There's not an inch of fat on it, which translates to a smooth and intuitive game.

You've got to love a game where a player can say quite casually, "He's worth more money to you dead." It's quite thrilling to play as the bad guys for once.

At set up there is the option to play a shorter game, but in all honesty, it's worth opting for the longer version. The longer play time allows you to rack up more victims and it's fun at the end of the game to look back on your legacy of blood and murder. 

This game is perfect for a spooky games night with friends but also offers a solo experience, where you're looking to accumulate enough money to rank from Troubling Innkeeper to Demonic Innkeeper, without having any bodies remaining at the end of the game.

It would be remiss of us to not include some praise for the artwork by Weberson Santiago. The stricking graphical style really captures the dark and bloody nature of the game. I can't quite put my finger on what the box art puts me in mind of but it's something from my childhood, something that used to give me the creeps.

We hugely enjoyed this and agreed that it has the potential to become one of our regular games, especially as nights draw in and shadows grow large in the dark months of the year. 

Sadly we didn't experience any hauntings while we played at The Bishops Finger but it provided the perfect backdrop to a game as dark as this.

Board Games as Art and Culture

Introduction

For over 5000 years board games have been enjoyed by humans. The earliest known board game is Senet, of which evidence has been found linking back to 3500 BC. In recent years we have seen the industry explode like never before as hobby gaming moved closer to a mainstream pursuit. Games are no longer abstract like dice and chequers, and they are no longer limited to the realms of family or child-friendly entertainment. Games such as Daybreak exist, covering real-world problems like climate change and global warming. Molly House explores the themes of the underground LGBTQ+ culture in Victorian London. Spirit Island and others are starting to flip the script on traditional colonialist themes, reflecting more modern perceptions on imperialism and historical conquests.

For those who are in the hobby it feels as though there is little doubt that games are cultural artifacts and could even be considered their own art form. Yet is it fair to say that alongside high-end television, film, and literature, games are too often overlooked when consideration is given to artistic forms of expression?

A central belief of Hand Limit is that board games are more than just cultural assets, they are an art form. Looking beyond the graphical representation of art on the boxes and boards, board games convey meaning that the designer (read: artist) wishes to convey, and the player (read: audience) brings their own perspective to. This creates the same interaction found between author and reader, or director and audience. On one side you have the intent for meaning, and on the other you have the interpretation.
Of course, not all board games can be considered Art (with a capital A), in the same way that not every blob of paint on canvas can be considered Art. However, there must be an understanding that painting onto canvas is still an art form, even if the end product is not considered worthy of being considered Art. All board games are designed using the same art form, even if the end product is not deemed Art. 
All board games are cultural assets, the same as all television shows are, but not all board games are Art. What I have been considering is the potential that exists for art to be made through the medium of games. What I am hoping to achieve in this article is a succinct argument for table top games to be considered as legitimate forms of art and undeniable cultural artifacts.

Games as Cultural Artifacts

Tabletop games as a form of cultural artifact may seem like a fairly obvious statement to make. For almost as long as there has been civilisation, people have been sitting together to engage in recreational games. These games may have started out as abstract games like Go and Senet but as cultures have transformed, so have the games we play. 

Writing for Tabletop Games Blog, Oliver Kinne uses the German word Kulturgut, which describes items that have cultural value and therefore must be preserved. An example of Kulturgut would be literature. A British person, Kinne writes, "can easily see how the works of Shakespeare have a cultural value and require to be preserved. Yet, when it comes to [tabletop games], people don't necessarily think of modern board games as Kulturgut."

Kinne goes on to say that the Spiel des Jahres association is trying to bring tabletop games more into the limelight of the culturally important. The primary strength of this endeavor is the argument that table top games are no longer just for children. There are many modern games that cover real world issues and even attempt to tackle difficult subjects. Let's not forget the boom in popularity that the Pandemic series saw during the Covid-19 global pandemic. More recently we have seen games such as Molly House and John Company, both published by Wehrlegig Games, tackling historical events of huge social importance.

Games, like other forms of cultural assets such as films, reflect a certain cultural zeitgeist. Particularly the bestsellers, they can be seen as the embodiment of a trend or fashion of their time. We can see this in the rise in popularity of Legacy games, first popularised by Risk Legacy in 2011. Now there are many Legacy titles from some of the biggest names in the tabletop industry, from Pandemic to Ticket to Ride. The increase in games that use this long-form play style that reveals a narrative over consecutive plays, shows that as board games increased in popularity, people also craved this new narrative style and commitment to multiple play sessions with the same group of people. As a cultural artifacts, these games show us how tastes in entertainment have changed in recent years and in a wider context it reveals that people are more committed to the act of play in their spare time.

Furthermore, we can take a look at the actual subject of games to see a cultural shift. Board games have a long history of exploring the theme of colonialism, and not always in a culturally aware way. Writing about Catan for The Conversation, Biz Nijdam, Assistant Professor for the Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies at the University of British Columbia, writes "games that incorporate colonial histories and strategies into their narratives or game mechanic normalize these discourses through their status as a popular pastime".

Nijdam states that "since 1995, board games have continued to include themes of settler colonialism". Several of these games have even gone so far as to include Indigenous populations during and following their first contact with colonial powers.

"These features often merge or misrepresent Indigenous cultures and traditions in problematic ways... These games seek to create a compelling story at the expense of Indigenous traditional knowledge and contemporary lived experience."

 However, Nijdam highlights games developed by Indigenous designers and board game enthusiasts that introduce "counter discourses". We also have games such as Spirit Island from 2017 that actively seek to demonize the act of settler colonialism, with players taking the roles of mystical spirits bent on repelling the destructive invaders.

While there is still a long way to go in combating the reoccurring theme of destructive colonialism, particularly in instances where the native populations are portrayed as nothing but compliant wooden pieces on a cardboard board, games that show a shift away from this reveal a changing cultural awareness. In this way, board games are a fascinating cultural touchstone that show how tastes and values change in society.

Board Games as Art

Playing with Design: Gameboards, Art, and Culture is an art exhibition currently showing at the American Folk Art Museum in New York until 13th September (I wish I could have gone to that one). The show takes a close look at handmade boards from the United States between the mid 18th and early 19th centuries, with thematic sections exploring what these playful objects reveal about American culture, history, design and craftsmanship. The exhibition promises more than 100 boards including early examples of classic games of Parcheesi, checkers, and chess, as well as hand-painted examples of Monopoly and Chutes and Ladders (Snakes and Ladders for the UK audience). 

The American Folk Art Museum website advertises that the exhibition explores the shift toward modernism at the turn of the twentieth century, with some pieces giving shape to historical ideals, including morality, religion, patriotism, entrepreneurship and imagination.

There is perpetually a question of what is considered Art but one sure fire way of knowing is whether an art gallery or museum has an entire exhibition centered around it. Is this enough, however? As most objects, given a sufficient span of time could find their way into an art museum in some way. These objects on display are art because they speak of the cultural fabric at the time of their creation and how this contrasts with the modern day. What does this mean for board games in our current era? Are they only to be considered art once an historian is able to look back at them? Can the artistic merit of a board game go beyond the cover art?

In order to explore this we need to scratch a little deeper into what art actually is (don't worry, I will keep it brief). 

Art is our ability to express our thoughts, emotions, intuitions, and desires, writes Joseph Nieters contributing to Philosophynow.org's Question of the Month. But it runs deeper than this, in a more personal way, art is how we communicate our own unique experiences and perceptions of the world around us.

Here we meet the problem that not every painting is considered Art (with a capital A), but it remains the product of an artistic practice. The content instilled in the medium we choose is not inherently art, but the way in which that medium is used and the content expressed to others could be considered Art.

I think this neatly captures a definition of art that goes beyond the simple dictionary definition:

Art

noun

1. the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

Even taking this vanilla definition of art we are faced with the problem that table top games are arguably not appreciated for their beauty or emotional power. In fact I own at least one game that I would struggle to describe as beautiful (no I shall not say the exact one I'm thinking of because despite it's aesthetic shortcomings, I still love it dearly). It might be argued that games are designed primarily to be enjoyed as an entertaining diversion. However, I will return to this later.

At their most enjoyable, table top games become an act of collaborative storytelling. This is perhaps more noticeable in more thematic games, rather than abstract ones, but the story remains. With abstract games such as checkers or chess it falls to the individual taking part to assert their own imaginative narrative to the pieces in play, whereas the narrative of a game such as Horrified is right there on the box for all to see and agree on.

"Storytelling is the core of art". Or so says the Arete Gallery website. "The art of storytelling goes beyond just painting a picture or sculpting a form. It involves a deliberate effort to create a narrative that speaks to the human experience. Storytelling gives the artwork context, purpose, and meaning, which is what makes it relatable and impactful."

So going beyond the simple aesthetics of a game, we come to the core of what makes play great; telling a story. This, I believe, is the nugget of gold at the center of every well designed game. It taps into the human desire to tell stories, a desire that has been with us since the dawn of time. Storytelling creates a powerful connection between the storyteller and the audience, and when this is a collaborative tale, it creates strong bonds with everyone around the table.

"Story telling captures a moment in time", the Arete Gallery goes on to write. "It involves a conscious effort to create a visual narrative that freezes a particular moment in time, allowing the audience to experience it in a unique way". Therefore, when games designers put together their story, be it about agricultural practices, hunting North American cryptids, or murdering people in an 18th century French tavern, they are capturing a moment in time that can then be experienced by people around the world in their own unique way.

Moving beyond the idea that playing table top games is storytelling, and that storytelling is art, I was recently watching the Shut Up & Sit Down review of John Company Second Edition. In this video essay (it beautifully goes beyond a standard review) Tom Brewster discusses the thorny topic of John Company. Namely, the practices of the dreaded East India Trading Company. In this game the players must take the role of company directors and earn money through the many devastating and exploitative ways that are widely historically recorded. 

At face value, this topic is a big risk to be translated into the format of a board game, something that people are supposed to enjoy, laugh about, play. However, the designers of the game face this head on and make it clear that before anyone is invited to play, they must first consent to participate in the reenactment of the murder and exploitation of native people across the globe. This game, Tom Brewster, argues, is closer to performance art. It encourages people to engage in an immersive experience in which they must endure the discomfort of committing atrocities in the name of profit. In doing so, John Company uses the absurdity of play to satirise the historical power and highlight the extreme violence and manipulation that unchecked capitalism caused.

(If you've not watched the video yet, I highly recommend pausing your reading and watching it now. Or watch it after. The internet isn't going anywhere. In the video, Tom also discusses the Ad Reinhardt cartoon, How to Look at Abstract Art, which also perfectly encapsulates how board games can be considered art, provided the viewer brings the right understanding or representation to the table.)

All this considered, I believe that on many faces, board games can and should be considered art in ways that goes beyond their graphic design. 

A Case Against

Arguing that something is art is all well and good but we must also consider the antithesis. What makes something not art? 

David Dennan, Assistant Professor of Applied English at Chihlee University of Technology, makes a compelling argument that games are not, by and large, art. In his article he mainly discusses video games in relation to his theory, but early on makes that case that video games are in the same category as "Monopoly or poker, not Picasso's "Guernica" or Beethoven's Fifth Symphony." As such I feel it entirely appropriate to use his argument to apply to board and table top games.

"Videogames are games, and games are not a subcategory of art."

Dennan argues that while games may utilise aspects of art, such as graphics or music, this does not equate to making them art. But where does Dennan base this assertion that games cannot, and should not, be considered art?

Firstly, Dennan makes the case that in deciding whether something is art we must look at it from two perspectives; from the point of view of the creator, and the point of view of the user. "What was the person's intention in making it, and how do people actually use it?" He argues that art is something that its creator makes purely to be "apprehended from within what [he's] going to call the aesthetic attitude." Therefore, art is anything that the user apprehends from this "aesthetic attitude". 

The aesthetic attitude, Dennan explains, is to treat something as an experience in and of itself. This is in contrast to the "practical attitude... which treats objects as a means beyond themselves." As a result of this use of the definition, art is something made to be experienced as art, and is subsequently experienced thus by its audience. Should either ends of this transaction fall down, the object in question would cease to be art. 

But, I hear you ask, what if the designer of a board game has the intention of making it as art, and the user on the other end experiences it as an artistic artifact? Well to start with Dennan argues that we must consider how an object is typically used, rather than on a case by case basis. "Virtually anything else in existence, can be aestheticaly appreciated". However, the reason we don't call every shoe, or pile of leaves, art is because they are typically not created to be art. They are created to serve a practical purpose.

Secondly, Dennan raises the point that games are made not with the aesthetic attitude, but with what he calls the "ludic" attitude. Meaning that the game has a "goal and more-or-less explicit rules about how that goal can be achieved."

"The ludic attitude and the aesthetic attitude are mutually exclusive."

Dennan does make the case that the ludic and aesthetic attitudes do have something in common, which is the reason they are often confused. Both attitudes are distinct from, and opposed to, the practical attitude. Neither games nor art are directly related to survival.

The argument that games are not art is summed up by Dennan by stating that "Art is about a protected form of experience accompanied by a minimum of action. Games... are about a protected form of action accompanied by a fairly limited range of experience." 

Ultimately, Dennan argues that the ludic attitude and aesthetic attitude are too opposed to find sufficient commonality to allow for a cross over. That is not to say that he does not value games as important cultural assets. He makes it quite clear in his article that in order for them to be considered important to our lives, they don't need to be considered art. He suggests that the desire for games to be considered art is the product of academics in the field wanting their subject to be considered with more importance.

Conclusion

David Dennan uses comparison in his article that "when the average person thinks of art they think of a painter like Rembrant  [sic.] or a work like the "Mona Lisa". When the average person thinks of games they're apt to think of Candyland or tag or Super Mario Bros." The issue I have with this is that Dennan has chosen a poor comparison. Just as not all art is made the same, neither are all games. I think it would be fair to say that this comparison works the same as if I were to compare, say, Will Smith and Mozart. Both are musicians, music is a widely regarded form of art, but you'd think there was something wrong with me if I labelled them intellectual equals. Maybe Candyland isn't on the same level as the Mona Lisa, but you can't take the worst of one discipline and compare it to the best of another, to claim that the two disciplines are not alike.

The idea that something cannot be considered art because it is not typically made to be art, I feel is a narrow point of view that fails to grasp the breadth of artistic endeavor. Furthermore, the use of the ludic attitude to describe that games have a specific goal and rules in which they must be appreciated, I feel is short sighted. I would argue that all art has a specific goal and rules on how they are to be engaged with. These goals may not be written in a rulebook but when curating exhibitions, galleries are creating strict environments and boundaries in how the art is to be perceived and used by the audience. Guides and plaques offer the viewer insight into the artist's process and what they were hoping to convey with each piece of art. These indicate that even the aesthetic attitude has rules and a goal, even if they are often unspoken. A work of art, say a banana taped to a gallery wall, loses context and shifts meaning if it were to be taken out into the middle of the woods, for example. In order for the art to convey the intended meaning, it must be placed and viewed in the way the artist intended.

I think much of Dennan's argument comes undone when considering the space for immersive and performance art. My "real world" job brings me into contact with a lot of immersive art exhibitions using digital technology, and these are more akin to games than I feel Dennan realises. These are experiences that rely on audience interaction and participation in order to operate. As such they come with more explicit rules than the average exhibition. As advanced immersive technologies continue to find their place in artistic spaces, we are seeing a blurring of the lines between the ludic and the aesthetic attitudes. They are not as mutually exclusive as they may appear. If we view games as immersive art, even with the concession that we are aiming to achieve a goal within set boundaries, we can begin to recognise that board and table top games can be considered works of art. This of course, comes down to the intention of the creator and the user, but as with Ad Reinhardt's cartoon mentioned above, this is a two way street.

Robustly considered, board games are unarguably cultural artifacts that carry an imprint of the desires, morals, and attitudes of the time in which they were created. Sometimes these attitudes are placed in reference to an historical setting, such as Molly House or John Company, to satirise the events or educate the players. Furthermore, if all that defines art is the intent of production and the intent of the user, I feel that board games can and should be considered a form of art in the same way that literature is. Is every book art? Not by a long-shot. The same can be said of table top games, but I strongly believe that board games, and table top games as a whole, have the capacity to be a form of immersive artistic experience. 

Zombicide: Undead or Alive - As good as fluoxetine?

 

When it comes to matter of mental health, I believe that table top games can be a tremendous force for good. Will they completely fix any problems a person might have? Absolutely not, but if engaged with properly, they can be a powerful tool that can help people reconnect with each other and themselves.

When I first got into the hobby I found that playing board games really helped me achieve what those in the mindfulness industry call the "flow state"; a meditative state in which someone is focused on an activity and negative thoughts fade away. When in this flow state it's not uncommon for the individual to be unaware of the passage of time, so absorbed are they with the task they are undertaking. Meditation is a great way to achieve this, but that requires much practice and discipline. Board games are far easier to access, an let's face it, more fun to indulge in.

I am very open about my own lifetime of mental health struggles, and was formally (finally) diagnosed with Bipolar Type 2 back in 2024. This diagnosis changed my life. Not only was I able to access to support and medication that I needed, but so much of my life that I struggled to understand suddenly made a lot more sense. Thanks to the work of the medical professionals who helped me, I now feel what many would consider "normal", which is still a novel experience for me.

No amount of counselling or medication will ever make my bipolar disorder go away, however, and it is still a daily task for me to stay on top of my own mental health. Some days are easier than others and I am grateful for every good day that I have. As you can imagine, table top games are a frequently relied upon weapon in my arsenal. 

Recently I have been feeling another turn in the never ending cycle of my mood, which often hits at the changing of the seasons, and it's been feeling increasingly autumnal recently. I love the autumn but as the nights start drawing in and the weather turns ever more grey, I find my ever present depression does the same. It might be a shadow of it's former self, thanks to my brain medicine, but it can still take a few days or a week for me to move past.

The other day I was feeling particularly low and also spending the day by myself so I decided to turn to a session of solo-gaming to keep me occupied. Initially I pulled out Cartographers: Heroes, which is a fun and fairly simple flip-and-write in which you reveal cards and fill out spaces on a map based on the shape and land-type shown. Think Tetris but you're constructing a map and scoring points based on the configurations you put together.

It's a fun game and as a solo experience it was fairly meditative, but it wasn't doing the job I needed it to. I was going through the motions, and for want of a better word, I was enjoying myself but it wasn't pulling me out of the brain fog. It was a distraction while I played it but I was far from that flow state I desired.

After some lunch (noodles, my comfort food), I decided to clear the kitchen table and bring out the big guns, Zombicide: Undead or Alive. This game comes in a reassuringly weighty box, packed tightly with miniatures, cards, and tokens. I brewed some coffee as I slowly set up the next scenario in the booklet, laid out all the character boards, reviewed my objectives, and then got stuck in.

Zombicide: Undead or Alive is a Wild West take on the classic Zombicide formula (think Left 4 Dead - if video games are your thing) with some minor quality of life improvements, and thematically it more than sticks the landing. Everything about the game design screams both Yee and Haw with steam trains, gattling guns, and fanning the hammer of a six shooter into hordes of the undead. It's a tense ride and perfectly balances increasing the difficulty with the levelling up of characters to ensure you never feel entirely on top of any situation. A bad dice roll or an ill advised move is all it takes to become overwhelmed by the ever growing crowds of rotting corpses. 

I love a game that combines strategy with blind luck in the roll of some dice, and oh boy does this game deliver on that promise. It could be said that with dice rolling and drawing items from a deck there is slightly too much chance involved, some sessions feel doomed from the start if character fails to get kitted out effectively in the first couple of turns. This doesn't diminish the enjoyment I get from it though, as you need to go into this game with the frame of mind that it's not over until it's over. Just as a bad roll of the dice can spell the end for your luckless cowboys, a few good rolls can completely turn the tables and bring you back on top.

As it happens, I had a good run and almost beat the scenario, right up until one character failed a couple of rolls and was swarmed by runners (this game answers the eternal question of fast or slow zombies by having both of them). The game had my heart racing and my mind abuzz with strategies to eek out survival for just a little bit longer. Needless to say, I was definitely distracted from my previous spiral of negative thoughts for I don't know how long. 

It got me thinking about why Zombicide succeeded when Cartographers failed. Cartographers is a far more relaxed experience, which on the face of it seemed like a better fit for the low mood I was in, but what I realised was that I needed rules. I needed a juicy set of rules to get my brain computing without straying too far into the realms of a crunchy eurogame. I needed a theme that was exciting and just a little bit silly. Zombicide got the cogs in my brain turning and for a few hours (I assume, I still have no idea how long I was playing for) I was lost in the world of the game. How could I be anxious about the nebulous future when I had tangible little plastic zombies to direct my anxiety towards? How could I feel hopeless when a steam train came barreling down the tracks, promising a way out of the undead nightmare?

Board games give structure to a situation. I've written before about how they give structure to social situations and help us get to know each other better, but what I realised the other day was that the structure they provide can also be psychological. When my mind is messy and wandering to unhelpful places, games can provide a framework for me to build my thoughts around. They are tangible and interactive yet also activate the imagination, building worlds out of nothing more than a few bits of cardboard and plastic.

Did Zombicide cure my depressive mood? No. That remains something that I just have to ride out. But it did provide me with some respite during the game and for a good while afterwards. It gave me the distance from my negative thoughts that I needed to remind myself that as always, these episodes are only temporary. I've survived them before, I will survive them again. 

Table top gaming provided me with clarity and refuge from a storm and I think they have the power to help others in this same way. It's the driving force behind Hand Limit, to reach out to other people who might feel the benefit of play and provide them with the tools they need to help them overcome their own battles.

Finally Played: Uno

Continuing our current series of big name games that remarkably I've never played, we return with the classic card game and cause of family arguments everywhere, Uno!

It seems everyone I talk to has played Uno at least once so it's strange that I've gone this long and have never picked up a deck. If I'm totally honest from what I picked up about the game second-hand, there wasn't much of a draw to play it. It seemed like a very basic game without much going for it.

When I told my eleven year old daughter that I had never played it, however, she wanted to put that right straight away. As luck would have it I was gifted a set of Pokemon Uno cards last Christmas so I got the deck out and asked her to teach me how to play.

I went into the game with an open mind but there was a part of me that was expecting to dislike it. Try as I might though, I couldn't bring myself to form a negative opinion about the game. This wasn't due to the game itself, which on the face of it was on the boring side, but instead was thanks to the way in which I was taught.

It was clear from the start that Uno is a very special game for my daughter and it was a privilege to be taught by someone who cared so deeply for the game. It is the first time that my daughter has taught me the rules to anything so it made me quite emotional as she carefully lead me through the different rules and what actions the different cards did. It is a game that she was clearly passionate about and this was infectious, I found myself really enjoying our game despite it being far more basic than what I usually like.

As she was teaching me, she spoke at length about how this game was important to her as during the Covid-19 pandemic, when she was being home-schooled, she would play it most evenings with her mother. This was a difficult time for her, as it was for everyone, being separated from her friends and the routine of the school day, so it was really touching to hear her talk about Uno as something that gave her joy. It was a little bit of routine to her day that kept some feeling of normality during a deeply troubling time.

We played board games as a family during the lockdown but Uno was something my daughter had with just her mother and it was clear to me as she taught me how to play what a special place the game held for her. She talked at length about the rules that she and her mother used, and how these differed from the rules that each of her step siblings played, and that her step father had a different set of rules still. We laughed that these home-brewed rules didn't help them win at all and talked about how she felt the rules she played with her mum are the correct ones.

Regardless of how I feel about the core game of Uno, it occurred to me that this was the perfect example of how games can bring us closer together and how they are sometimes worth more than the sum of their parts. I don't often like giving bad reviews. I prefer to give recommendations for games than go into the negatives. However, this experience gave me a better appreciation that all games, no matter the objective quality, have the power to improve our bonds with each other and strengthen our community. Uno is a popular game, and it must be so for a reason.

Is it a game I would play with just anyone? No, probably not. Will I play it with my daughter again? Almost certainly.

Games on Location: Episode 2 - Anarchy in the Arctic

 It's been a hot minute since we wrote our last Games on Location article (we took Fungi out into the woods), but today we have an extra special edition. You may remember that last year we previewed the fantastic Arctic Anarchy and interviewed its creators Ricky Baker and Lydia Vadgama. Well, during this interview I suggested that they take a copy of their game with them to play while in the arctic circle to do a special Games on Location for us. At the end of June 2025, Ricky and Lydia voyaged to Iceland's capital Reykjavik and further north to Grundarfjörður, Ísafjörður and Akureyri. They then continued on to Alesund in Norway.

The rest of the article is provided to us by Ricky who made some notes on their experiences travelling north with a copy of Arctic Anarchy in their possession.

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Arctic Anarchy on location in Iceland and Norway

The route of our journey meant that we crossed the Arctic Circle when going around Iceland in a North easterly direction, and again when heading towards Norway going South easterly. Naturally it was only fitting that we brought our creation with us. Whilst we did this in the comfort of a cruise ship, our journey did in some ways help us scope out what we might encounter when we embark on our Arctic Quest voyage in Svalbard and give us inspiration for the possibility of an expansion to our game.

No nighttime and folklore inspire possibilities of expansions

Between May and July is known to those in Iceland and Norway as "Period of Midnight Sun", during which the sun does not truly set, but rather sits on the horizon only to rise again after a few short hours. At 6pm the position of the sun makes it seem like midday, and midnight seems like early evening time.

Icelandic and Norwegian folklore is filled with stories of trolls. Much of the landscape tell the stories of these trolls, including "Naustahvilft" (The Troll Seat) located in Ísafjörður.

Thinking about an expansion for Arctic Anarchy, we knew that we would want to introduce and additional dimension to game play for the more experienced board gamers to enjoy. The period of midnight sun and the legends of the Trolls have inspired the idea of adding a "Trolls" card to the events deck. When drawn, the sight of the trolls cause the animals on the iceberg to go into hiding. This manifests itself in the game play as the players having to turn over the animal cards on the iceberg so that the faces are hidden. Any future cards drawn to replace those taken from the iceberg must also be placed face down. As a result, players will be adding animals to their raft blind, until the next event or another troll card is played, (we are yet to decide how the troll card will be cancelled).

Rainbows in Rekjavik and Wildlife icons

Animal cards within Arctic Anarchy are based on native mammal species within the region of Svalbard. Currently the game comprises of Polar Bears (the symbol of Arctic Quest 26), Arctic Foxes, Reindeer, Arctic Hares, Seals, and Whales.

We were lucky enough to see two of these animals in their natural habitat, having spotted a harbour seal off the beaches in Grundarfjörður and a Whale fin whilst at sea.

Another Icelandic icon is the Puffin, with many tourist excursions available to see these in the wild. If that doesn't float your boat, you can visit "Rainbow Street" in Rekjavik, where the cobbles have been painted in stripes of rainbow colour. The street has been decorated in this way as a sign of joy and support for diversity. The initiative is organised by the city of Rekjavik in cooperation with Rekjavik Pride. The street has become an attraction for many visiting the city, and of course there are many shops along the way filled with all manner of puffin themed souvenirs. The puffin, with its colourful beak, seems right at home in this part of the city, and would be a welcomed addition as a new animal type in the Arctic Anarchy game.

For us as creators, the addition of a rainbow puffin card to our game would symbolise the inclusiveness that scouting strives to provide for all its members. It would also reflect our own personal morals and desire for Arctic Anarchy to be a game that can be played by all.

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Hand Limit loves Arctic Anarchy and strongly recommend checking it out  wherever and whenever you can. Get in touch with Ricky and Lydia via the Arctic Quest 26 website to pick up a copy or head over to the Gilwell Reunion 2025, Gilwell Park Campsite, London from 29th to 31st August. This is a festival for adults scouting volunteers, where the wider Arctic Quest team will be promoting and raising funds for their expedition.

Stay tuned for more updates on this fantastic game and the journey of the Arctic Quest 26 team.

Dungeons & Dragons and Drinking

On 1st August this year I will be one year sober, and while a lot of my own hard work has gone into this achievement, I also recognise the role table top gaming has played in helping me make the change.

I was once a prolific drinker and even more so at social gatherings. Having a drink while playing TTRPGs seemed like the most natural thing to me. Alcohol is a social lubricant, and in a situation where you were required to lower inhibitions and get into character, or many characters if you are the GM, drinking felt like the obvious choice. For a long time I felt like having a drink, or several, while playing, kept me loose and relaxed. It made me feel like I was better at getting into the flow of the game and unleashed my creative side on the fly when responding to the actions of the player characters.

I used to pair my drinks with the games I was playing, not just TTRPGs but board games too. A glass of wine for Horrified, a strong grog with Pirate Borg, and a pint of foaming ale with Dungeons & Dragons. Each game seemed to offer an opportunity to have a drink. Table top gaming was a relaxing pastime so why not share it with a relaxing drink?

I have always had a difficult relationship with drinking and have struggled to keep things in moderation. I always used to say that drinking was thirsty work. One drink would lead to the next and while I was happy and enjoying myself, through gaming I slowly started to realise that my drinking was more of a problem than I realised.

I have discussed before the importance of GMs to take time to decompress after TTRPG sessions, even if they are fairly relaxed. On top of this, there is always something to be gained from seeking some reassurance from your players that they had enjoyed what you had planned. However, when I was drinking, regardless of how much fun was had during the session, I had trouble decompressing and trusting the feedback I was being given from my players. My decompression time would become a spiral of negative emotions as I doubted any evidence before me that I had been entertaining enough. I focused on any and all negative points that my brain could give me. The session was too boring, or I was too intense (usually as a result of my drinking). I found the time I needed to decompress and adjust back to normal life increased the more I had been drinking. Sometimes days would pass and I would still not feel like I had entirely processed the experience.

This emotional hangover was difficult to deal with, often on top of your more traditional hangover. Of course, with hindsight I realise that the solution was simple, but at the time I internalised a lot of the emotions I was struggling with. The extended periods of recovery I needed after each session had me believing that I was not a good GM, that my players were just humouring me, that I should hand over the reigns to someone else. Despite all this I still was unable to come to the conclusion that drinking and DMing was affecting the whole experience for me in massively negative ways.

In the end, however, it was GMing that helped me recognise that my problem was not with the game, or my abilities, but with my drinking. I was getting too generous with magical items for my players and not remembering who I had given what. I was handing out game-breaking spells and magical artifacts that were completely throwing planned encounters. While I don't mind that my players probably enjoyed these boons, it made things very difficult in an almost entirely home-brewed world when I could barely remember what had happened each session. It really made me feel like I could be offering my players a much better experience if I avoided drinking while playing.

There are few better examples than that which transpired recently during a game of Pirate Borg we experienced a character death at the hands of a Sentient Fungus. The killing blow was made and the table fell silent as it became clear that there was no coming back from this for Luca the Zealot, the team's Glass Cannon. It was a truly sobering moment, which was only stopped when Luca played his Charon's Obol allowing him to return to life with 1HP. What troubled me was that I had absolutely no memory of awarding him this relic. The player informed me that I had handed it out many sessions ago when I had been drinking.

Don't get me wrong, it was still a fantastic moment of collaborative story-telling, but it really highlighted to me how much of a problem it was for me to not be remembering our sessions, or even to take notes. This all took place after I had quit drinking but stayed with me as a reminder that I was a better GM now that I had stopped. Drinking was making me sloppy.

Tabletop games didn't just help me realise that I had a problem with drinking, they helped me readjust my life to accommodate my sobriety. Gaming sessions began to revolve around coffee and cake rather than drinking, and our regular meet ups at Fruitworks Coffee Shop became a staple of my week. I found my life shifting away from the pub and towards bright, open cafes instead. Where I used to use alcohol as a social lubricant, table top games began to provide me with the relaxed atmosphere and aid to meet new people. 

During the week when I wasn't able to play with a group, I invested more time into solo board games as a means of unwinding and relaxing, rather than pouring myself a drink. The almost meditative nature of solo gaming was a cornerstone of my mental wellbeing. Through playing games I was able to enter a flow-state where I was completely unconcerned by the outside world and my inner demons. They gave me a rest from thoughts of drinking, as the structure and puzzle-like element of these games kept my mind satisfyingly occupied. 

It has been a journey for me but looking back I can really appreciate the role that table top gaming has played in helping me reach sobriety and providing me with a safe space to continue. This is a personal story for me and I am not using it as a way of saying others should do the same. Drinking is not inherently evil, and most people will never experience the same problems as I did. I just wanted to share my experiences so that if anyone happens to find themselves in a similar position to me, they might gain some encouragement to make the necessary changes. 

Hand Limit: Gaming In Real Life

Hand Limit is going through a lot of growth in recent weeks. We held our first in-person event, launched a Patreon, and announced our first steps into physical print with our new Hand Limit zine. 

We are also gearing up for some more input from the wider Hand Limit Collective. This will take the form of gaming-inspired artwork, articles covering cosy video-games, and reviews of TTRPG Actual Play podcasts. 

With all this exciting new material we put our heads together to come up with a suitable tagline for Hand Limit. We wanted something that clearly stated our intentions and incorporated our core values, but didn't take up a whole paragraph. That wouldn't make for a snappy tagline. If you want to read more about our core values, I recommend taking a moment to check out our About Us page.

Hand Limit stands for a lot of things; we believe in equality, equity, and inclusion, we believe trans rights are human rights, and black lives matter, and we believe in the rights of people with disabilities. We believe in making an inclusive space. We believe that engaging in the act of unproductive play as an adult in a capitalist society is an inherently rebellious act and is therefore political. Most prominently of all we believe in the power of tabletop games to improve mental health and promote community bonds, and a big part of this is the tangible nature of the hobby.

Considering this, we have decided that the tagline for Hand Limit should be "Gaming In Real Life". 

The University of Bath reports that "Loneliness is one of the most significant challenges faced by Western Societies in the 21st century... In the UK, surveys suggest that one in ten people are 'lonely', with loneliness being linked to ill health and premature mortality."

We are living in an increasingly digital age with more of our time than ever before spent consuming social media. However, the AMA Journal of Ethics states that "documented internet use patterns suggest that the internet increases loneliness." It cites an early study of the internet and psychological well-being found that greater use was linked to a decline in communication with family members, a decreasing social circle, and an increase in depression and loneliness. Loneliness, it states, "can be defined as the feeling we get when our need for rewarding social contact and relationships is not met."

While digital technology can "offer connectedness, companionship, and community membership", it cannot be ignored that problematic use of the internet, or internet addiction, is on the rise at the same time as loneliness. 

Tabletop games can offer a remedy to this by offering an opportunity for in-person interaction that has clearly defined parameters. Strangers occupying the same space and engaging in a shared activity, especially one that promotes playfulness, creates a space in which rewarding social contact can be achieved. Writing for meeplelikeus.co.uk, Michael Heron highlights that table top games provide "a healthy way for people to spend mindful time with each other." 

Heron goes on to say that "everything about a board game has a focus on the people around the table... games do it through a conduit that lessens social anxiety." Tabletop games provide a focal point, a common ground, to encourage the players around the table to interact with each other in ways that other social activities such as drinking in the pub or going to the cinema do not. 

Then there's the simple fact that play in both children and adults is a healing activity that allows growth of character. We explore the world around us through the act of play, which provides us with a testing ground for our own actions. It lifts the weight of responsibility, even for a short while, and allows us all to engage in the fantastic, rather than the mundane. This act builds social bonds between us in ways that others take much longer to do. I have already written about how playing board games with strangers offers you a much faster insight into the inner-workings of other people around the table than traditional small-talk enables. How someone acts around the table in both cooperative or competitive situations, provides us with a much better grasp of how someone is likely to behave outside of play. This takes away a great deal of anxiety that people may feel in situations where they are getting to know new people.

Aside from the real-life social element of tabletop games, there is the physicality of the actual games. While online gaming can still offer a sense of community and connectivity, the very real, tangible nature of board games provides a sensory experience that even the most advanced virtual reality cannot replicate. The tactile nature of most board games provides a connection to the real world that boosts a player's sense of wellbeing, and of being present in the moment. 

The digital world can all-to-often feel unreal and disconnected from reality, whereas tabletop games provide a connection to fantasy and imagination, while also being grounded in the physical world. Pieces can be touched, picked up, even tasted if you are so inclined and have the owner's permission. The realness of tabletop games, even theater-of-the-mind TTRPGs, connects players to each other, to their physical location, and to the game itself in ways the digital realm cannot. By being grounded in reality, tabletop games create a space for mindfulness, connectivity, and a sense or presence that boosts our mental health and tackles feelings of social isolation.

All this being considered, it feels pertinent that Hand Limit's tagline should be:

Gaming In Real Life

Hand Limit Print Edition Is Coming!

Following the success of our first Hand Limit event during Canterbury Pride, we have decided to increase our in person presence by branching out into print media through the creation of a zine. The talent pool of the Hand Limit Collective apparently knows no bounds.

The launch of the zine, which will be available at a few select outlets for free in the Canterbury city area, will coincide with the launch of our Patreon. We will never hide anything behind a paywall but we are getting to a point now in the growth of Hand Limit as an organisation where we are starting to incur costs related to events and printing, so we thought we would give people the chance to be able to help out if and when they can. This will enable us to continually develop our offer to best meet the needs of the community we serve.

We are very excited about the zine, which is being designed as graphic-heavy, text-light to represent the DIY/punk ethos. Our first issue will be out in Summer 2025 and future issues will be released when they are ready and when we have something that we want to write about. 

If you can't wait and want to support us, you can find our Patreon here.

5 Games That Take Up A Surprising Amount of Table Space

I know you can never judge a game by its box, but usually you can judge the scale of the game from the size of the box. Place a hefty Twilight Imperium or Gloomhaven down on a table and players will instantly brace themselves for a meaty game with lots of pieces, boards, tables, and figures. However, today we're looking at 5 games that come in deceptively small boxes but take up as much space on the table as a big box game.

Tiny Epic Dungeons - Gamelyn Games

We seem to always end up writing about the Tiny Epic series, but that's just because of how many boxes they seem to tick. In this case, Tiny Epic Dungeons ticks the box of being a table-filler. Arriving in a deceptively small box, you would be wise not to underestimate quite how much space this randomly generated dungeon crawl is.

In TE Dungeons, players race to find and battle a number of evil minions in the form of minotaurs, ogres, giant spiders, and more, to unlock the door to the boss' lair before their torchlight runs out and they are plunged into darkness. As Dungeon Crawls go the game is a perfect example of how the genre can be streamlined to just the basics and remain an engaging experience. The combat is satisfying, the loot rewarding, and the enemies deadly. The base game comes with a large number of different enemies to face and characters to play as, each with their own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. We've had a copy for a few years now and it is one of the more regularly played titles, but no two games have ever felt alike.

This is a table filler of a game, and as the dungeon expands it's likely you'll wish you sat at a bigger table.

Tranquility - James Emmerson

Tranquility by James Emmerson comes in a delightfully small box, with some truly gorgeous artwork, but, you guessed it, takes up a surprising amount of table space. The cards, each sharing a similar footprint to the box, are arranged into a 6x6 grid pattern over the course of the game. This space is marked out at the start with a border of artwork cards, essentially extending the table space required to 7x7 of the box size, which I think beats Gloomhaven, or any of the 'havens, in box-to-table ratio (no I haven't measured this exactly).

Tranquility deserves this level of table space, however, as it is a beautiful and mindful experience. Albiet a very tricky one to get right. Players take turns laying cards down to fill the aforementioned grid with island pictures as you guide a sailor peacefully back home. The catch is that all cards must be placed in ascending order, providing a bit of intuition and guess work to keep things interesting. The game guide also recommends playing the game in silence, or next to silence, to enhance the peaceful tones of the game.

Bandido

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Bandido is another tile placement game and it really feels like the theme for games that take up an unexpected amount of space require some form of tile placement. In this game, players cooperate to thwart the escape attempts of the titular Bandido as he tunnels his way out of prison. Players will place cards in turn, with limited communication, to guide the tunnels to dead ends, eventually closing off all open ends.

Because the tunnels are randomly generated, there is absolutely no way of knowing at the start of the game which direction it's likely to sprawl off in. Meaning that no matter where you place the starting tile, by about halfway through you'll be desperately trying to reconfigure the table to accommodate the chaotic tunnels.

The pocket-sized nature of this game could easily lull you into the false idea that it would be perfect for a quick game in a cafe. And while that is certainly possible, be prepared to panic when the drinks arrive and they have to be strategically placed around the table!

Lord of the Rings: Duel For Middle Earth

While the other games so far on this list have almost pocket-sized boxes, LOTR Duel is a little bigger from the start. However, we still feel like this game is surprising in the amount of space it takes up, and with good reason.

In LOTR Duel, 2 players take on the roles of the forces of Mordor and the free peoples of Middle Earth in a race for supremacy. Much like its older cousin 7 Wonders Duel, there are multiple ways to win this race. You can focus on uniting the various races, progressing the quest of the ring (or the Ring Wraiths if you are Mordor), or simple military might. It is a terrific game that has done amazingly in condensing the 3 different win conditions into a single game, where each one could have existed in its own right. 

The board itself is only about as large as the game box but the real table hog comes from the card drafting. Cards are laid out in each of the 3 chapters of the game in a configuration that restricts what cards can be drafted at any one time. In a layout that resembles a tarot reading, cards are laid over each other to form shapes that slowly diminish as cards are revealed and drafted.

LOTR Duel is a brilliant game that had us hooked from the beginning, but you'll definitely need more space than the box suggests.

Any TTRPG

Not all Table Top Role Playing Games are created equal. Some are like Lasers & Feelings, requiring little more than a notebook, a pen, some dice, snacks, drinks, fidget toys for those that need them, GM notes, maybe a GM screen. Others, like Dungeons & Dragons, require all that plus the many source books required for playing each scenario, battle maps, miniatures, etc.

Our years playing TTRPGs have taught us one thing, there is never quite enough room for everything that's needed. Players and their bits and bobs, like water, always seem to expand to fill the space they have. Why do you think character sheets always get stuff spilled on them?

Hand Limit 2025 Event: Canterbury Pride Board Game Club

On Saturday we held our first ever Hand Limit Event, Pride Board Game Club, and it was a huge success. We seated approximately 58 people playing games throughout the day, plus a further 22 who came in to browse our stalls. We had a lot of fun demoing games, making recommendations, and helping people get set up. The games played ranged from Molly House, to Fluxx, to Ghost Castle. It was particularly nice to meet some fans of the blog as well!

Now that the dust has settled and we've had a chance to take stock of everything that happened, we thought it would be good to share a few thoughts and highlights of the day.

Drawn and Quartered tattoo studio ran a stall selling art prints and temporary tattoos, which were very popular. It was great to see so many people from the alternative community come out and be board game nerds for the day.

Dice & Destiny, our Friendly Local Gaming Store (FLGS) came along to sell and demo some board games including Yogi and Bad Trevor, which were both received really well and were both prizes to be won at the charity tombola.

Kitsch Flamingo ran our tombola, which was hugely popular and had some truly awesome prizes, including tickets to an immersive Grease experience in London, a free aerial fitness course from Inspire Fitness, and a tattoo voucher for Drawn and Quartered, which were all claimed before the end of the day.

Fruitworks Coworking and Coffee Shop, the spiritual home of Hand Limit, was the perfect environment for the day. Their event space was the perfect size and many people enjoyed the fantastic coffee and cakes they offer.

Huge thanks are due to all of our sponsors and contributors. Needless to say we would not have been able to get this far without their support and they helped make the day truly unique.

Throwing this event was a learning curve for us and we have certainly come out the other side with some valuable lessons on what we can change to throw future events and offer the best possible experience to our guests. 

We asked all those attending to fill out a questionnaire giving us feedback and valuable data that will help us run future events. Some highlights of the data we have received so far indicate that 50% of the people attending heard about the event through word-of-mouth, 100% of replies stated that they would like to see more events like this one, 100% said that we had created a safe and inclusive space, and 85% of people said that their mood improved as a result of Pride Board Game Club (the other 15% indicated that their mood hadn't improved, but it hadn't worsened, which is a win as far as we're concerned!). This last point is particularly important to us, as Hand Limit is all about the promotion of tabletop gaming as an aid to positive mental health and community building. Also interesting is the largest group of people (35%) stated that Pride Board Game Club was the first time they had played table top games in a very long time. We will be going through all of the responses carefully and apply any learning to our future activities to make sure we continue to provide a service that is beneficial to the communities we hope to serve.

So where do we go from here? After such a successful first event, Hand Limit is certain to host more in the near future. We are already looking ahead to Pride next year and are starting talks with local community centres to arrange for smaller gaming events targeting specific communities. We want to use this momentum to grow and strengthen the Hand Limit brand and continue to help people by using board games to promote positive mental health and community building.

Finally, I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who came along on the day. It was all our lovely guests that made this event what it was.

Do you have an event or community group and would like to collaborate with Hand Limit? Please contact us using the Contact Us form on the website.