Mashup? Remix? It’s hard to put a finger on what I would call the new Ravensburger title Carcassonne Labyrinth, because three plays in, I’m still amused that someone behind the scenes was sitting in the Ravensburger design lab one day and had some version of the following conversation.

“Here’s what I’m thinking,” Sally said. “We reach out to the guy who designed Carcassonne, Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, and see if he would be willing to put a new spin on our game Labyrinth by working with that game’s designer, Max Kobbert.”

“Sally, that’s ridiculous. Who’s looking for a game that takes the tile-laying magic of Carcassonne and smashes it into the tile-pushing, luck-driven treasure-hunting mechanic we already have with Labyrinth?” responded Teddy.

“And what’s the market for that?” screamed Hal. “Are people looking for another version of titles that have sold well for 20–”

“--I think you mean 30–”

“--actually, 40 straight years???”

The three imaginary design lab techs probably looked at each other at that point. “Wait,” they must have all thought, “this idea is bulletproof, because a new version of Carcassonne comes out almost every year, and we’ve been slapping popular licenses on Labyrinth for decades. That clown from Meeple Mountain even wrote about the one we did with Nintendo!!”

From this conversation—or something very, very similar—Carcassonne Labyrinth was…

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Around these parts I'm known as the RPG guy for my love of different systems and the opportunity to immerse myself in the theme of a game. Accidental Heroes, an upcoming app-driven adventure game designed by Wojciech Grajkowski and published by Lucky Duck Games, puts your hero on a topsy-turvy joyride through an ever-changing world bursting with familiar references. Let's hop on the tracks and see how it plays.

Accidental Heroes: The World is Your Oyster

I'll preface my discussion of Accidental Heroes by acknowledging that my experiences are based on a prototype copy that was limited in scope compared to what's expected in the complete game. At first I thought that the lack of content would be disappointing, but instead I was surprised by how many branching paths were available to my heroes as I played.

In Accidental Heroes, players assume the role of an "hero", a term surrounded by quotation marks because whether or not you live up to the moniker is up for you to decide. The object of the game is to pass two difficult Tests associated with Final Missions, acquiring a pair of Dragon Eggs before any other player is able to do so.

Heroes have three main attributes: brain, body, and combat. Each of these attributes is represented in an 'exquisite corpse' fashion…

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Mini Rogue: The Council (2026, Nuts! Publishing) is a dream come true for rogue-like video game fans like me. Sometimes, I just want a quick-playing challenge to table by myself, and I now see why the Mini Rogue series (first released in 2016 as Mini Rogue: A Roguelike Microgame) is so popular with tabletop players who also love rogue-like video games.

I was recently musing about my love affair of rogue-like video games such as Dead Cells, Balatro, Brotato, and The Binding of Isaac in an article on BoardGameGeek. Around the same time, I cracked open my review copy of Mini Rogue: The Council and was instantly hooked. That’s because gameplay in Mini Rogue is so easy to parse.

Players take on the role of one of the four included adventurers: Rat Catcher, Plague Doc, Alchemist, and the Flagellant. A series of rooms (laid out as a 3x3 grid of room cards), an enemy hit point (HP) tracker, and a personal play area that tracks player HP, food, spells, gold, and experience points (XP) are all you need to get rolling.

Across four floors, players must navigate 2-3 “areas” per floor, with each area represented by the 3x3 grid. Starting in the upper left corner, players must first complete that corner room before moving orthogonally from room to…

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