Panda has expanded its production operation outside of China for the first time by launching a joint venture in Brazil, as unpredictability over US tariffs continues to weigh on the tabletop industry.

Panda has manufactured more than 70 million board games from China since it was launched in 2007, for companies ranging from Asmodee, Stonemaier and Leder Games to first-time creators launching their projects on Kickstarter or Gamefound.

We'll start off with Catan at 4 and hopefully hit Terra Mystica by 8 🙏

Obviously! From the makers of Strategy

I learned about postmark games a couple years ago, found the print and play format quite interesting and wanted to try something. But it looks like all their games are competitive, which I often don't enjoy.

Mostly I really like talking about the game while playing, so I wouldn't mind a game that's mostly luck-based or where there's little player interaction.

Please recommend me some print-and-play games if possible! I'd love to know if any other publishers do this too

I’ve been working on this concept for 16 years, and just launched a playable MVP it’s called JuryNow, and I’d love your take on it.

The idea: You ask any personal dilemma or life choice (serious or silly) and get a snap verdict from 12 real people from around the world, anonymously, within 3 minutes.

But here's the game loop: 💡 To get your verdict, you "pay" with ** Jury Duty** answering other people’s questions for a 3 minutes. The questions can be on any topic from a fashion dilemma to a workplace problem, to a big life decision or a mini political poll.It’s fast, instinctive, and weirdly addictive.

There is no commentary, discussion or debate...it's just a binary choice powered by human collective intelligence. It gives you a global perspective on a decision if you are stuck, and if you aren't! JuryNow plays like a global social deduction/party game, where objectivity, empathy, and instinct matter more than logic or debate.

You can ask questions like:

"Is Atlas more of a girl name or a boy name?"

"Celery vs. broccoli/ which is more hated by kids?"

"Someone keeps ripping down my LGBTQ activism stickers off of lightposts. Should I super glue them or give up?"

It’s kind of like Wavelength, Cards Against Humanity, or The Resistance, but... micro-sized and real-time.

🎮 Play it here: https://www.jurynow.app/

Would love your honest feedback as board game fans ...what works, what doesn’t, how you’d explain it to others, or whether this could ever make sense as an app or even a table top version one day?

Thank you! 🙏 Just to clarify up front: JuryNow® is trademarked and not open source and not designed for self-hosting. It’s a live, centralized platform I’ve built over many years, and I’m sharing it here and would love feedback from board ganers! (not to release the code or architecture.)

For anyone interested in checking this game out, but daunted by the very large card pool, this article is pretty good. The goal is to give people suggestions without triggering FOMO over stuff that's out of print or way too expensive.

I think it does a good job. Maybe too good: there is still a big wall of text. The core recommendations, which are accompanied by a lot of additional explanation and alternatives, are the following.

1. There is not a single [expansion] for this game that you NEED to enjoy what is available. Even if you never lay your hands on [some particular expansions], you will still be able to have a great experience. Your cardpool will be excellent and you will be able to play great campaigns.

2. You do need a Revised Core Set; the box labeled FFGAHC60, from 2021. That box has everything you need to play the game and see if it's for you. Many of the cards in that box are still regularly used by experienced players---the core set is very good.

3. First investigator expansions: Edge of the Earth or Drowned City, or [other discussion].

4. First campaign expansions: Drowned City or Innsmouth Conspiracy, or [other discussion].

5. Is this game for you!? This is a good question, and there is some discussion of it at the end of the article.

A buddy’s been hosting a board game birthday for ten years now and I wanted to bring some fun printed stuff. Have trophies for the most and second most wins, plus the green one for him as it’s his favorite color, and one for whomever plays the most games that day. Also printing out assorted little meeple with the ten/X on them.

Major points:

• Price increases are coming.
• They will pause producing most games except for cheap to manufacture, card-only games.
• For games with app adaptations, upcoming expansions will get a digital release before physical.
• They will design, develop, and prepare future games to hit the ground running when tariffs come down.

To be clear: They are joining an existing lawsuit for businesses that are being impacted by the tariffs

Darrell Louder confirmed in a pasted screenshot

cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/157533

Less than two weeks after the Trump administration’s announcement of historically high tariffs on virtually all goods imported into the United States, the board game industry appears set for an unexpected reckoning. An ad hoc industry survey conducted by Cardboard Edison reveals that nearly a quarter of publishers polled will simply stop making board games. A majority believe that prices for board games that do get published will go up, and that the size and complexity of those games will go down. It’s a dismal state of affairs for what was once a blossoming part of the larger tabletop games industry, one that has for decades generated hundreds of millions of dollars for the United States economy.

Cardboard Edison is a small publisher best known for its annual game design awards. Its survey, conducted April 9-11, collected responses from 62 publishers. The company claims that “about 90%” of respondents said they expect consumer prices on board games will go up because of tariffs, and “about two-thirds” of publishers said print runs for those games will be smaller. 62% of publishers said they plan to sign fewer new games to their catalogs, meaning fewer opportunities for tabletop designers who traditionally operate as independent contractors. Most tragically, the group says 23% — nearly a quarter — of respondents said they’ll just stop making board games altogether.

The biggest red flag in the survey, however, is that those publishers who want to try and stay in the board game business are actively seeking ways to cut distributors and retailers out of the equation. As margins fall due to the cost of tariffs, which are a tax, selling games at retail using traditional logistics simply won’t be an option. Brick and mortar stores, including thousands of independent local game stores all around the country, likely won’t have as many board games to put on their shelves going forward.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

I played Undergrove for the first time today and it was really fun. It's developed by the same person who designed Wingspan. I really like the natural world themes she uses in the games.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/376740/undergrove

#boardgames #undergrove #wingspan @boardgames

Just wanted to let everyone know that there's a campaign going on for one of my favorite games, Dragons of Etchinstone, it's one of those 18 card games that you can play without a table, like Palm Island, so you can play on the bus or train on your way to work.

I really like that you can take a couple of fast turns here and there and whenever you wanna stop, you just chuck all the cards in your pocket and you're good to go.

I have no relation with the guys that created it, but I really like several of the games this designer has made, like Gloomhaven Buttons and Bugs and other micro games, so I wanted to give a shout out.

SPOILERS AHEAD SO READ NO FURTHER IF IT MATTERS FOR YOU . . . . . .

So we've played through the Dunwich, and Path to Carcosa campaigns and had a grand time all the way through them. Then we started on the third campaign The Forgotten Age.

Things were definitely trickier with the new explore mechanic but manageable for the first two scenarios. We definitely felt a large step up in difficulty.

Then we got the Boundary Beyond and just got like totally smashed with almost no headway towards finishing the second act. Like we retried it twice but the results were nearly the same we got one maybe 2.5 locations cleared out before our situation became obviously hopeless.

The costs to explore each location are just so punishing and leaves you with no gas to handle the mythos that ultimately ushers us to our doom.

It's really soured our group on the game in general and I'm not sure they'll want to continue at this point. Is there something we're doing wrong?

The last 5-10 years have seen an uptick in the trend of games having nicer and shinier bits and pieces. In my mind, the trend is best exemplified by Wingspan, which to me was a fairly average game wrapped in a beautiful package of glossy Cadbury eggs and pretty birds. I'm personally in favour of getting nicer bits and pieces for my games, but they are undeniably having an impact on prices (how much of an impact is something I'd find really interesting, let me know if any publisher has discussed the issue).

What do you think of this trend? Are you in favour of moving back to 100% cardboard chits, or do you like the newer, prettier boardgames?

(Link to the discussion that prompted this post)