Review: Wandering Towers - Dude, Where's My Wizard?

We first played Wandering Towers, from Capstone Games, in December 2024 at our local tabletop convention, and I instantly fell in love with it. It perfectly balances strategy and luck, while being quick to learn and relatively quick to play to offer a very smooth and well designed experience for 1 to 6 players.

The board itself is unique in that it comprises a circular ring that the players will move their wizards and towers around. The towers are lovely, 3D folded card models that look intriguing and are great fun to play with.

The central premise of Wandering Towers is that players are attempting to get all of their wizards into a tower named Ravenskeep and fill all of their potion bottles while doing so. As soon as one player satisfies both of these win conditions the game comes to an end. The way in which players move their wizards around the board is by playing action cards that either move their wizard meeples, or the towers they stand upon. When towers land on the same space they stack on top of each other in a very satisfying way. This stacking of towers not only allows players to steal mana from wizards and therefore fill potion bottles, but it also provides an additional difficulty and is becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of where all of your wizards are, in the classic "ball under a cup" style. Whenever a wizard finds their way to Ravenskeep, it moves around the board, creating an almost constantly moving target. This element of chaos keeps all players on their toes and never lets anyone get too comfortable with their strategy.

The gameplay is smooth with very little downtime. Each turn, players will play two action cards, or discard their entire hand and move a tower of their choice, clockwise around the board. As they begin to fill their potion bottles there is a risk-reward mechanic where these can be spent to cast spells that unlock further opportunities to move wizards and towers clockwise or anti-clockwise around the board. These spells are chosen at random at the start of the game from those available in the box, and the instructions indicate that the more spells you make available, the more strategic the game becomes. However, I would suggest that rather than strategy, these spells inject a satisfying amount of chaos as it becomes harder to predict what each player is able to do on their turn.

While the theme of the game is charming, the core mechanic and purpose is abstract enough that the theme never gets in the way if magic and wizards are not your thing. You could easily strip the wizarding theme from the game entirely and it wouldn't lose anything from the enjoyment. That being said, the artwork is charming and definitely draws the eye.

Since first playing it at the tabletop convention, I have since picked up a copy of the game and it has made it to the table a number of times and never fails to entertain. Designers Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer have delivered to us a real tabletop staple that deserves as much space as other modern classics.

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.

Arctic Anarchy and the Arctic Quest

Following our review of Arctic Anarchy, Hand Limit was lucky enough to have a chance to speak to the creators, Rick and Lydia Vadgama about their game and the exciting story of Arctic Quest 2026.

Arctic Quest 2026

Readers of the blog will know that Arctic Anarchy, the fun card game about saving polar animals, was created with the intention of raising money and awareness for a Kent Scouts expedition to the arctic circle in 2026. Rick and Lydia run a Kent-based scouting group and are part of the team of leaders across Kent who will be leading this expedition of 10 young people (aged 16-25) and 10 leaders, to retrace the footsteps of explorer Frank Worsley in 1926, 100 years prior.

Worsley set out on a voyage to the arctic with co-leader Grettir Algarsson on his ship The Island, setting sail from Liverpool in June 1925. However, the ship was damaged by an ice-floe not long into the voyage, forcing Worsley to continue on the journey by sail in what he later described as "sail's last unaided battle with the polar pack". He wrote extensively about his voyage published under the title "Under Sail in the Frozen North".

Following in Worsley's efforts, Kent Scouts will also be making this journey under power of sail and sailing to Svalbard on the schooner, the Noordlicht (pictured below) to "easily" navigate the icy arctic waters. The ship will be crewed by experienced sailors but the young people taking part will be expected to have a hands-on role in sailing the ship, there can be no passive passengers on a voyage so physically, emotionally, and mentally challenging. A key element to their trip is the focus on having a positive environmental focus and the chance to raise awareness about a part of our world that is shrinking rapidly.

"This is more than just voluntourism."

The expedition has 4 proposed objectives:

• Voyage - An adventurous expedition 'Under sail in the Frozen North'
• Projects - Undertake group and personal projects and present the results
• Worsley - Celebrate the achievements of Frank Worsley
• Outreach - Share the experience with thousands of young people

This trip is really about pushing boundaries for those lucky enough to be participating. However, it does not come easily. Regardless of how grueling the journey will be, the journey to the journey will be no walk in the park either. Before anything else, these young people and leaders need to raise the required funds and with a group target of just over £133,000 this will be no mean feat. Many of the scouts who will be going on the expedition will be working to raise this money while also fighting their way through academic milestones such as GCSEs and A-Levels.

Arctic Anarchy

This is where one of our favourite card games of the year comes in. Rick and Lydia are both keen board gamers, so it stands to reason that when presented with a problem, like so many other fans of the hobby, the answer seems to be through playing games.

As it happens, Rick and Lydia were already sitting on an idea for a board game that came about a year or so before. Of course it had quite a different theme that I won't go into here (all I'll say is it was set in a pub rather than the frozen north!), but the mechanics of the game translated perfectly to what they wanted to achieve. Work began on refining the concept and a few sample cards were printed off on a home printer and presented to players at the board game club they run. 

Following the success of this home-made version, Rick and Lydia set out to attend UK Games Expo where they received valuable insight into games production and yet more positive feedback on the game. Pretty soon, Rick was the recipient of 7,500 professionally printed cards that all required counting, checking, and sorting into decks.

"I would always say yes to a game of Catan" - Lydia

"Simplicity was the key to the game," Rick says. "The biggest inspiration was Bounty Hunters." This drive for simplicity in the artwork, game mechanics, and rules can really be seen in the current iteration of the game with its smooth game play and rules that have been condensed to fit on a couple of playing cards within the box. Lydia added that in certain respects the game can be played more like Ticket to Ride. However, they wanted to make the game feel like a unique experience. In this respect they were successful.

Arctic Legacy

When asked what their future hopes for the game would be, Rick and Lydia were both keen for it to remain a source of funding for future Scout expeditions and to continue to raise awareness for young people, providing a link to what is happening environmentally elsewhere in the world.

"An expansion [to the game] would be good but we need feedback on what people would like to see," says Lydia. For an expansion they are keen to know what they are expanding and what this would hope to achieve with the game and its wider environmental message.

Furthermore, they want to take the lessons they've learned in bringing their game to life and share this with other scouting groups, with the hope to create more games to help promote further messages and raise money for future trips. 

"[We're] not looking for profit" - Rick

During our conversation, Lydia brought up a potential future version of the game that could be used to raise awareness and tackle poaching in Kenya. As soon as this was brought up, I admit my head was filled with Kenyan wildlife and the bright colour palette in Rick's geometric designs. Specifically, Lydia was keen for a future game to support the charity Harambee for Kenya, which focusses on "putting poor people on their feet again to rekindle burnt out lives with fresh hope, restoring dignity and respect to their lives." 

So where can people find out more and grab a copy of the game? Currently there are no official outlets, so it's best to get yourself over to the Arctic Anarchy Facebook page and message Lydia and Rick. Alternatively, head on over to their weekly board game club in Hollingbourne, Kent where they will be happy to sell you a copy.

Also, keep an eye out for future editions of Games On Location to see how well Arctic Anarchy fairs being played in the Arctic Circle!

Review: Stay At Home - A little shared trauma as a treat

The other day I found myself looking at the release date of a game on my shelf and came to the shock realisation that 2020 wasn't just a year or two ago. It's been four years since the world was plunged into a pandemic and the chaotic response as various governments tried desperately to ignore deal with the socio/political/economic ramifications of entire countries trying to isolate themselves nationally and internationally. It feels as though many of us have struggled to move on from this global event and the way this has manifested is the shared delusion that this all somehow happened more recently than it actually did. 

Stay At Home - Three ominous words

Despite that odd symptom, I have come to realise quite how much my brain had chosen to forget through the game we played last night, Stay At Home.

"A card game that's nostalgic for all the wrong reasons"

First of all, I would like to send my thanks to the creator of this game who kindly gifted me a copy for review!

Stay At Home is a simple card game by Fizzgig Games in which 2-4 players strategically take and play cards to try and end the game with the largest proportion of their household "Out", meaning not stuck in isolation. This is done through humorous cards that allow one or more of your household of 4 to leave the house on errands such as "drug run", "toilet paper quest", and a very disgruntled looking "key worker" (round of applause anyone?). However, working against you are regular government announcements and stop cards which work to complicate play or send members of your household home again. There are also stockpile cards which work against you during play by clogging up your hand, but are valuable in the event of a tie-break at the end of the game.

The winning player is the one who has the most "out" cards in front of them at the end and a decent supply of stockpile cards in the event of a draw. 

While the game was quick to play and learn, I felt there was decent replay value through the luck of the draw. Sadly on our first play through we seemed to draw almost all the government announcement cards at the start of the game so there was little effect (we hadn't had a chance to get many people out of our houses yet!), but despite this there was fun to be had in fighting each other and sending people home.

During the game we found ourselves reminiscing about the weird and confusing times, which was fun in a gallows-humour way and it was an easy game to play while also holding conversation. I also really enjoyed the mechanic of the four house cards in front of each player that flipped over as members of the household are allowed out. I'm not sure I've come across something similar in other card games of the like.

I think it would be a fair comparison to liken this to games such as Fluxx and Exploding Kittens; an easy and accessible game to play with family (depending on how raw feelings still are about that turbulent period). 

It would be interesting to see how the game changed with a greater number of green cards that enabled house holds to go out, would this also increase the underhanded actions of players as they vie for top place? Furthermore, I feel the game would re-skin well to cover a different theme, something along the lines of medieval plagues would be a fun redesign.

Overall, this is an enjoyable game to bring out at family gatherings and the humour sticks the landing, without feeling contrived. 

Preview: Arctic Anarchy - Far from a frosty reception

Courtesy of Ricky Vadgama©

Last night I was lucky enough to attend a play test event for Arctic Anarchy, a new indie card game. The game is the brain child of two Scout Leaders and avid board gamers, Ricky and Lydia Vadgama. In 2026 they will be joining a team of fellow leaders and young people from Scouts on an expedition to the Arctic Circle. Their objective is to undertake polar research and conservation projects. The game has been designed with the purpose of raising money to fund this expedition and you can keep up to date on their progress here.

Arctic Anarchy sees 2-4 players take turns collecting or discarding cards showing different arctic animals in an attempt to make a hand that will score points, before banking this for tallying up at the end of the game. However, Ricky and Lydia Vadgama have injected a little bit of chaos into this simple premise with the "event" cards that are pulled whenever a player banks a good hand for scoring. These events range from all players discarding a certain type of animal, to handing over the game-winning hand you thought you had just safely stowed away, to the player on your right. While this might sound like the goal-post changing mechanics of games like Fluxx, it plays very well with the careful and balanced style of the rest of the game. Players will carefully draw animals onto their rafts (as the play areas are called), planning several moves ahead, only to have an event force them to discard all their polar bears. Arctic Anarchy tests how well its players can adapt and react to the changing whims of the arctic.

Further rules for games of 3-4 players also introduce the opportunity to swap cards with others around the table (all players' hands are kept in the open), which can introduce an extra social element to the game as allies and enemies are made. Another player and I took delight in using this mechanic to mutual benefit, and what is an action that I am sure could cause more than one table-flip, turned out to be charming and full of goodwill. Though, I suppose that will come down to who you choose to play with!

Courtesy of Ricky Vadgama©

Overall, the game played incredibly well. It was taught in a matter of minutes and was easily played within a half hour. The game-play was smooth and felt well polished, with next to no rules-checking needed for the entire time. The player who I joined had already played 2 games before my arrival, and then when I brought a copy back to Hand Limit Tower, we played 2 games back to back. I can foresee this small deck taking a similar spot to Love Letter in the "let's just play a quick round" genre. Sporting pleasing geometric animal designs in a cool colour palette, the game shows product quality that matches some of the bigger names in the industry. Although still technically in its play-testing stage, the game plays and looks like a finished product. 

With the expected retail price of £18 (approx.) this game is comparable to the series of games being released by the well established Oink Games, but considering this has been put together by a team of two independent developers at their own cost, and that it is being sold to fund such a wholesome cause, I feel it is well worth that price.

My only worry is that since we launched our Games On Location series, we might need to ship out with them to get this one on the list. Perhaps we will be able to persuade them to take a deck for us?

Review: Paper App Dungeon - A Pencil Mightier Than The Sword

Regular readers will know that I'm a fan of any board game that can provide a solo experience. These are perfect for when your social battery is low or if you've got some time on a lunch break and need something with just the right amount of crunch to keep your mind off work. As such, games that are designed as a solo experience entirely and also fit neatly into a pocket, tend to get me excited. So you can imagine the thrill I felt when I slipped and fell into my Friendly Local Gaming Store (FLGS) and discovered Paper App Dungeon by Tom Brinton, published by Lucky Duck Games.

Paper App Dungeons, or PAD if you will (because it's like a note pad...), is a solo experience that puts one in mind of classic PC desktop, time-filler games. It has a charming retro style, simple colour palette, and comes with a pencil designed to act in place of a D6 (P6), which truly makes this one of the most portable and space-friendly games I own, beaten only by Regicide.

The aim of the game is ingeniously simple. Roll the P6 (one of my few criticisms of the game is that P6 is unpleasant to say out loud) and move through the dungeon that number of spaces. Diagonal on odd numbers and orthogonally on even numbers. The only catch is that you cannot change direction until you have moved the full number of spaces or you collide with an obstacle. Retracing steps is discouraged but not technically against the rules. In this fashion you work your way through each layer of the dungeon, looting chests, fighting monsters, and regaining health. Every so often there are "shops" where you can trade hard-earned coin for boosts, extra health, and other useful items to use in the coming levels.

This is where I get to my first major criticism of the format. The pages in each note pad are unique due to random generation so no two dungeons will look the same. This is fantastic in one sense as it allows for a high replay value if you choose to purchase multiple pads (though it is a shame they are essentially single use unless you want to go through and erase all your pencil markings, which is entirely possible). However, I found on my first playthrough that there is no clear difficulty curve. Hard levels were just as common as easy ones.

When playing, you carry health and coins over to the next level, unless you are killed, in which case you tally a death on the tombstone at the end of the book, and start the next level with full health and no coin. Sadly, what this inevitably translated to was my character dying right before I found my way to every shop location so I never had any money to spend on fancy upgrades. This left me feeling like I didn't really get to experience everything the game had to offer.

This frustration was compounded by what I would consider my second criticism, the lack of player autonomy. Although the player can choose the direction of travel, the limitation of travelling diagonally or orthogonally based on the result, coupled with the often tight spaces and the encouragement not to retrace steps, in practice doesn't leave much choice for the player. To be favourable, this does help in what I would call the game's "smooth brain" appeal, but there is a lingering feeling at points of the game playing itself, which the player gets to watch.

These points aside, I would still recommend this game to anyone who has ever used minesweeper or pinball desktop games to pass a scant amount of time. Each level takes no more than 5 minutes to complete, unless you are very unlucky and get trapped in a small corner, constantly rolling the wrong numbers of pinging off walls, which is quite funny to watch really. Plus the premise is so straightforward, it's a very age-accessible game.

The game comes in at under £10 in most retailers and I would say it certainly gives that back in entertainment value.

As a final note I would like to admit that I don't really understand why it's called Paper App Dungeon (OK I understand the first and third words, just not the second), so if anyone can enlighten me, I would appreciate it.

Have you played the game? Am I being too harsh in my criticism? Let me know in the comments down below.

Chaos is a (Snakes and) Ladder: 5 chaotic games for all you lil' goblins

Last year Oxford English Dictionary declared Goblin Mode as Word of the Year. This, on the face of it, was a joyous occasion for all the Lil' Goblins out there. Until the OED stated what their chosen definition of the phrase was:

Goblin Mode (Noun): The behaviour of someone who wants to feel comfortable and do and eat whatever they want, not caring about trying to be clean, healthy or attractive, or about pleasing or impressing other people.

As an honorary member of the Goblin Contingent of the Hand Limit board game group, I can only begin to describe the frustration of my goblin comrades at this unworthy definition. Sure goblins may occasionally shun hygiene standards, sure they might survive for days on a diet of cereal and gummy worms, and sure they might sometimes present themselves in a way that doesn't comply with society's standards of beauty, but this is all part of a wider shunning of societal expectations and pressures in favour of running wildly off into the woods to worship an interesting looking mushroom, or eat a loaf of bread right out of the bag. It is so much more than the desire for comfort!

Goblins are emerging from the desire for chaos to replace late-stage capitalism. We all have an inherent desire to rid ourselves of the shackles of oppressive standards and embrace the chaos of the natural world. 

So, for all you Lil' Goblins out there, here's 5 table top games that will help you embrace the chaos and unleash your inner goblin.

Happy Salmon, Ken Gruhl et al. Exploding Kittens

3-6 Players (3-12 with 2 sets). 2 minutes.

When considering chaos, Happy Salmon is a force to be reckoned with. I find it hard to believe this was something that someone designed, rather than being discovered as a forgotten artefact of the big bang itself, forged from pure chaos.

It's a chaotic game, is what I'm getting at here.

This turn-less card game gives the simple objective of being the first one to rid yourself of all your cards, like Uno. Unlike Uno however, the only way to discard a card is to complete one of 5 possible actions that the cards show (pound it, high-five, switcheroo, or Happy Salmon), with someone else around the table who is also trying to complete the same action.

All players talk over each other with increasing volume and speed, arms flail wildly, cards are thrown aside, then someone slams the table to announce they've depleted their deck mere seconds before anyone else. This all happens within the space of about 30 seconds to a minute.

As party games go, it is the most adrenaline I have ever experienced from one deck of cards, and for a very reasonable price it is a must have to anyone looking for an energetic and age-accessible game. A single pack will allow up to 6 players but buying both colour variations can allow up to 12, though a game of that size may need to come with a health warning.

If you are lucky enough to get your hands on an original version of the game it comes in a neoprene, fish-shaped bag. It's worth the money.

Cheating Moth, Emely Brand & Lukas Brand. Drei Magier Spiel.

3-5 Players. 30 minutes.

What could be more chaotic than a game that encourages, neigh requires, cheating to win?

At it's base level, Cheating Moth is another simple card game in the vein of Uno. First person to rid themselves of all their cards wins. Players take it in turns to play numerical cards into a central pile that value one higher or lower than the last card played. There are also cards that trigger certain effects, like the spider card that allows a player to give one of their cards to another, or the mosquito that punishes the last player to slap it with more cards into their hand.

Oh and did I mention that it's totally fine if you want to just ditch cards beneath the table, up your sleeve, or maybe into a friend's packet of crisps?

Here we see the cheating of cheating moth. Within certain parameters, players are allowed to dispose of cards however they see fit provided they can get away without being seen by the "Guard Bug", a random player who may not cheat but must keep an eye out for players who are. If they successfully catch a player cheating, the cheater becomes the Guard Bug, until someone manages to spirit away their entire hand.

Cheating is essential. The eponymous Cheating Moth card may only be removed from your hand through cheating. It cannot be played legally. 

This is another incredibly simple game that is filled with chaos as cards are slipped into pot plants, spun across the room right beneath an unsuspecting Guard Bug's nose, or someone stands up at the end of the game to reveal quite how many cards they were hiding up their top.

When you realise quite how sleight your friends' sleight-of-hand can be, you'll find it hard to look at them the same way again!

Wiz-Nerds - TTRPG, Michael Whelan. Available on itch.io.

1+ Players, 1 GM. 2-3 Hours (chaos depending).

We've all been there. You've just joined a Wizarding School but within 30 minutes of your first day everything goes wrong. Maybe the school is invaded by goblins? Perhaps a time-hole has opened up in the third floor corridor and dinosaurs are getting all over everything? Or maybe something much better? However it plays out, it is up to the gang of plucky first-years to save the day, armed only with their introductory text books which they, of course, have not even opened yet.

Wiz-Nerds is a rules-light TTRPG that is perfectly designed for a one-shot, chaotic adventure. Each player is provided with a sheet of magical words with no explanation or translation. Through trial and error and different combinations of words, they might start to figure them out well enough to use them to their advantage and save the day. Or, as one player managed when we played, turn a fellow student inside-out and explode them...

The GM, naturally, knows what all the words do but will never explicitly tell the players. They will need to learn through the effects of their random spells. This game requires very little set up as, trust me, it will take players considerably longer to solve simple problems when they can't control their own powers. The game is a pleasure to GM and a riot to play.

I don't want to say too much about this game because it would be better if you just gave it a go! Michael Whelan has done an excellent job of creating a set of rules that make chaos inevitable. There is no way to get through the game without something melting, going on fire, or someone meeting their end in an explosive way. 

Blood Bowl Sevens, Games Workshop.

2 Players. 45-90 minutes.

How could I have a list of games for lil' goblins and not include a game that involves actual lil' goblins?

Blood Bowl is wargaming for those who don't wargame and it's sport for those who don't sport. As Games Workshop like to put it, it's Fantasy football (or hand-egg, if you're so inclined). Imagine a world in which the vast armies of orcs, dwarves, elves, and the like, lay down their arms (well... sort of) and take up blood sport to resolve their differences. The sport in question is styled like American Football but actually plays a bit more like rugby, if such a distinction matters to you.

Blood Bowl is a frankly chaotic game because of the sheer amount of chance involved. Almost every action your players take involves a dice roll, the consequences of which range from success, to failure, to failure so bad your player dies...

Aside from the sheer amount of customisation of your team that this game allows, it provides a fantastic environment for story telling. There is nothing more hilarious than having a player pass a ball an improbably distance, avoiding interception, executing a perfect catch, having the receiving player dodge through the grasp of the other team, push themselves to get to that end-zone, only to fail the final roll, slip over... and die from their injuries. Or, as a recent game played out, be within spitting distance of a touch down only to have players repeatedly fail to pick up the ball, leaving them all scrabbling around like idiots as the ball bounces around the pitch.

It's this kind of unpredictability that will have players recounting tales from the table for a weeks after a game.

Our list specifies Blood Bowl Sevens, rather than the full game, and there is an important distinction as to why we have chosen this. While the main game is awesome, Blood Bowl Sevens is designed to be a shorter and easier to digest experience, with only 7 players per side rather than the usual 11. It makes the rules slightly easier to learn and the games last closer to 1 hour than the 3+ hours needed for the full game. 

The way Games Workshop has built this into the fiction is through dressing Sevens up as more like the College Football leagues rather than the NFL. As such the players are underfunded, less well trained, and prone to far more significant injuries. These minor tweaks only serve to enhance the chaotic nature of the game whilst also making it more accessible to new players.

Don't want to invest in a whole team before trying the game? Find someone who already plays, I guarantee they will have multiple teams painted and ready to go.

Camel Up (2nd Edition), Steffen Bogen. Eggertspiele.

3-8 Players. 45 minutes.

What's more chaotic than a game where none of the players are actually controlling the pieces on the board? In Camel Up 2nd Edition players take the roles of pundits at a camel race, placing bets on camels in the hope of ending the game with the most money.

However, working out form and probability is nigh on impossible when the camels move at random speeds (sometimes not at all), hitch rides on each other's backs, or simple run the wrong way around the course carrying any hapless camels with them.

Races are separated into Legs, which each carry their own smaller bets and allow for players' fortunes to rise and fall throughout the game. Someone getting off to an early lead might lose everything when the camel they were betting on gets carried to the back of the pack by the pair of wild camels that run the wrong way round the track each race. 

This is an accessible game for almost the whole family (younger children might get a bit lost with the betting mechanics but will still enjoy making the dice roll out of the 3D plastic pyramid) and differs from the others on this list in that players are not actively participating in the chaos. Instead you can sit back, sip a mint julep, and enjoy the unfolding shambles.

Special Mention: Colt Express, Christophe Raimbault. Ludonaute.

2-6 Players. 45 minutes.

I can't in all good conscience have a list about chaos and not mention one of my favourite games of all time. Colt Express injects chaos into the game by taking your carefully thought out plans and filling them with more holes and a prospector's union suit!

For our full thoughts on this game, see our list 5 Board Games To Get You Started.

Is there a game that should have appeared on this list? What's your most chaotic table top tale you have (within the realms of the rules - no table flipping)? We'd love to hear what you think in the comments section below.

5 Board Games To Get You Started

Mainstream board gaming titles really dominate most shelves in your average high-street shops (Waterstones, and the like), meaning it can be difficult for people getting into the hobby to find new games that aren't intimidating.

Or perhaps you need a gift that goes beyond yet another version of Monopoly or Cluedo (I'm looking at you Monopoly: Bass Fishing Edition). To help we have compiled a list of board games that are well priced, accessible, and can be found easily online or on the high-street.

Review: OK Play! - a quick, portable and family-friendly game

 

I saw a video about this game on Tiktok and thought it looked like a good game to have in our inventory: simple (good for me), child-friendly (good for the small human), portable (good for Skullen as they cannot go anywhere without taking at least one game) and aesthetically interesting (good for all of us - carabiners, things that go click-click and bright colours!)