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Climb Ev’ry (Other) Mountain

https://spacebiff.com/2025/02/04/solstis/

Published: February 4, 2025 19:06

Sigh. Solstis is a puzzle. Not in the game sense, where you’re trying to figure something out. More like it’s an actual puzzle that somebody handed to a pair of designers, Bruno Cathala and Corentin Lebrat, and said, “Please make a game around this…

Eternal Sunshine of the Trick-Taking Mind

https://spacebiff.com/2025/01/29/we-need-to-talk/

Published: January 29, 2025 19:38

Once, in high school, I embarrassed myself in front of a crush. Emerging from the school play’s pit orchestra, I was accosted by a friend with a cup of hot cocoa. He grabbed me by the front of my shirt, snagging my then-new chest hairs in the process. In…

Imperium: Kobayashi Maru

https://spacebiff.com/2025/01/28/star-trek-captains-chair/

Published: January 28, 2025 19:57

More than most fictional settings, Star Trek lends itself to what-ifs. Mirror universes, alternate dimensions, and time travel play a big role in making the final frontier ever more expansive, but we don’t even need to breach the time-space continuum to…

Chu-se Wisely

https://spacebiff.com/2025/01/27/chu-han/

Published: January 27, 2025 22:22

The time has come for Tom Lehmann to design a trick-taker. Okay, that’s not wholly accurate. Chu Han, set during the Chu-Han Contention, is strictly a ladder-climber and card-shedder, but the genres overlap to such a degree that most laymen couldn’t tell…

Unwitched

https://spacebiff.com/2025/01/22/unmatched-witcher/

Published: January 22, 2025 22:21

As much as I would prefer to cast off all longing and become immune to nostalgia, I will confess a squishy soft spot for The Witcher. No joke, my adventures with Geralt of Rivia helped me come to terms with becoming a father to a tiny screamy baby. And…

The River Mild

https://spacebiff.com/2025/01/21/roaring-river/

Published: January 22, 2025 06:12

So you’ve gone on a group river rafting trip without making a plan. It happens to everyone. Now everybody has their own idea how this trip ought to go. Even me! Last week, I reviewed Roaring River, the latest design by Joeri Hessels and Wouter Moons,…

Meet the Faceless Cusk

https://spacebiff.com/2025/01/17/finspan/

Published: January 17, 2025 16:11

We all know that one of the juvenile pleasures of Wingspan is calling out the birds that sound like human anatomical features. Abbott’s Boobie! American Woodcock! Truly, I will never age past thirteen. Finspan is the second spinoff of Elizabeth Hargrave’s…

Wrinkles in Space-Time

https://spacebiff.com/2025/01/16/ascending-empires-zenith-edition/

Published: January 16, 2025 16:46

I don’t know if time is a flat circle, but it does have a way of bringing us back around to where we started. Ascending Empires, Ian Cooper’s mashup of space exploration, empire building, and dexterity-based gameplay, was one of my first modern tabletop…

The River Mild

https://spacebiff.com/2025/01/14/roaring-river/

Published: January 15, 2025 02:51

So you’ve gone on a group river rafting trip without making a plan. It happens to everyone. But now everyone is paddling a different direction. Jane is a whitewater junkie. Jill wants a relaxing weekend. Bob? Bob just wants to see some deer. If I’ve…

Photograph of a Battlefield

https://spacebiff.com/2025/01/09/propaganda/

Published: January 9, 2025 19:36

Persistent readers will be well aware that I’ve been writing about some of the titles to come out of the recent Indie Games Night Market. Three of them, High Tide, Out of Sorts, and Torchlit, were among my favorite tabletop experiences of 2024. Chris…

Rebel Yowl

https://spacebiff.com/2025/01/07/isle-of-cats-duel/

Published: January 8, 2025 00:44

As much as I appreciated the spatial puzzle of Race to the Raft, Frank West’s follow-up to The Isle of Cats, I still have yet to try the original feline-placer. Instead, I’ve jumped straight to The Isle of Cats Duel, which is, I gather, a somewhat improved…