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A look at the origins of Deck Building – Returning to Dominion

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Dominion is known as the grandfather of Deck Building, one of the most popular game mechanics out there.

I first reviewed Dominion back in 2010, when it was still The New Hotness. I think it's time we take a look at that review as part of #ThrowbackThursday.
Below you will find my original review,  with only very minor editing. I'm trying to keep the feel and tone of the original post. I will, at times, insert comments or corrections, and you will find these in [square brackets]. After the original post, you can find my current thoughts on the game reviewed. [ READ MORE ]

Cities and Knights of Catan 12 Years Later

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A question about Settlers of Catan was the first question I ever answered here on the blog. Our first ever podcast episode was all about Catan and the various editions and expansions.  You could almost say The Tabletop Bellhop started with Catan.

That's why I'm bringing back this classic review of Cities & Knights of Catan for #ThrowbackThursday.
Below you will find my original review,  with only very minor editing. I'm trying to keep the feel and tone of the original post. I will, at times, insert comments or corrections, and you will find these in [square brackets]. After the original post, you can find my current thoughts on the game reviewed. [ READ MORE ]

A Round Table on my game table – A look back at Shadows Over Camelot

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Everyone that reads this blog or tunes into our show should know my feelings on hidden role and social deduction games. It's interesting to know that I didn't always feel that way. Like back in 2006 when I reviewed Shadows Over Camelot and through it was the best cooperative game I'd ever played.

Let's take a trip back in time for #ThrowBackThursday and check out that happier time in my life.
Below you will find my original review with only very minor editing. I'm trying to keep the feel and tone of the original post. I've kept any pictures I used in the initial review as well. I will, at times, insert comments and you will find these in [square brackets]. After the original post, you can find my current thoughts on the game reviewed. [ READ MORE ]

Back on the farm – Another look at Agricola

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Last week I took a look at Power Grid. Which at one time was #1 on BoardGameGeek. This week I take a look at another game that was once the number one game in the world. That game is Agricola.

Each #ThrowbackThursday I'm taking a trip back in time, bringing back a review I wrote many years ago.
Below you will find an original review with only very minor editing. I'm trying to keep the feel and tone of the original post. I've kept any pictures I used in the initial review as well. I will, at times, insert comments, you will find these in [square brackets]. At the end of the original content, I will follow up with some current thoughts on the topic. [ READ MORE ]

A return to Eternia – The Masters of the Universe Role Playing Game from FASA

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By The Power of Grayskull! I resurrect an actual play review of The Masters of The Universe Role Playing Game by FASA that I wrote back on July 5th, 2013.

Welcome back to #ThrowbackThursday.
Each week I plan to bring back an original review with only minor editing, keeping the feel and tone of the original post. At the end of the original article, I will follow up with my current thoughts on whatever it is I was reviewing. [ READ MORE ]

Never Unprepared – Classic RPG book review revisited.

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This week I'm looking back, way back, to December 2012 when I reviewed an excellent book for roleplaying game Game Masters called Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep.

Welcome to #ThrowbackThursday, a regular feature here at Tabletop Bellhop where I'm going to dig up something I wrote in the past and re-publish it. We're practicing review necromancy.
My plan is to repost the original review with only minor editing. I want to keep the feel and tone of the original post. I will also try to include any original photos (though in this case, the only image in the original review was the book cover). I will, at times, insert comments, you will find these in [square brackets]. At the end of the original content, I will follow up with some current thoughts on the topic. [ READ MORE ]

Eclipse from Asmodee – a classic game review revisited

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For my first foray into the past, I present you with my initial play review of the sci-fi 4x board game Eclipse. What did I initially think and has Eclipse stood the test of time? The original review was first published on the Windsor Gaming Resource blog on November 4th 2012.

This going to be a new feature here at Tabletop Bellhop. During #ThrowbackThursday, I'm going to dig up something I wrote in the past and re-publish it. I've written a lot of gaming content over the years on forums, blogs, RPGgeek and Google+ and I think it's worth revisiting some of that content.
My plan is to repost the original with only minor editing. I want to keep the feel and tone of the original post. I will also try to include any original photos. I will, at times, insert comments, you will find these in [square brackets]. At the end of the original content, I will follow up with some of my current thoughts on the topic. [ READ MORE ]

License to Slay – Review and Giveaway

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A few weeks back I was contacted on Google+ by John Feldman. He saw my first Gamer Gift Guide and wanted to talk to me about The Bureau of Dragons and something they offer called the Licence to Slay.

I took a look at their website and thought that the Licence to Slay seemed like a pretty cool bit of gamer bling. After a bit of back and forth, I agreed to write up a review of the License as long as John was also willing to give one away to one of you, our fans.
So here we have my review of the License to Slay and our first ever Tabletop Bellhop giveaway! [ READ MORE ]

Some of the worst tabletop games I’ve played – Ask The Bellhop

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Shadzar, who can frequently be found in our Tabletop Bellhop Live lobby, asks,

Has tabletop games got so saturated that there is nothing left to make and they will turn anything into a tabletop game? Is there a list of worst tabletop games, or ones that should never exist like this new one released by Mattel [Flushing Frenzy].
Thanks for the question Shadzar, and thanks for joining our twitch stream week after week.
I honestly don't think we've hit the saturation point yet. There are a crazy number of new games coming out every year and they all find some way to do something new. That doesn't mean there aren't some bad games out there.
I've already told everyone what my favorite game mechanics are and last week I even listed off my top 20 games. I guess it just makes sense to go on from there and talk about the games that I really do not like. [ READ MORE ]

My initial thoughts on Gaia Project

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I've been planning to do a nice full detailed review of Gaia Project for about a month now. One of the main things stopping me has been the fact that I don't own the game.

The main reason I don't own it is that it's not a cheap game and I'm not actually sure I need to own it. Gaia Project is a remake of Terra Mystica. I already own Terra Mystica, do I really need a copy of Gaia Project as well?
I finally got a chance to try Gaia Project last Saturday and I thought it would be worth sharing my initial thoughts. Note that everything here is based on one play and one play only. This is not a small simple game and I'm certain there is more to be learned over multiple plays, which I haven't gotten under my belt, yet. [ READ MORE ]