No measuring tape, no hexes, no masters

I’ve recently had the pleasure of playing the new Adventures of Robin Hood (Kosmos) board game. I covered it back in issue 55 for Tabletop Gaming magazine.

I interviewed Michael Menzel for the piece. You can watch the public version of that interview (which was quite early in the process) below.

The Good Idea here is that instead of using ‘spaces’ for your characters to move through, or asking players to get the measuring tape out to show how far Robin or Little John has moved on their turn, the designers provides five meeples for each character. Of these, there are three with elcongeded bases that reach out right behind them.

To move players place these end to end, and then place a standing meeple at the far end to show their final position. There’s also a ‘sprinting’ meeple for moving even further.

The Good Idea is that there’s no abstraction on the board. No need for a graphical layer over the beautiful art. If we play games (now) in part to avoid the digital world and the deluge of data someone has decided is necessary, then this is an example of leaning in to the physical facts of board games and making the most of them.

The Good Idea here is an extension of the rule: “no plus one swords”.

Flesh & Blood Trading Card Game | The Adventures of Robin Hood | The One Ring