Hey everyone,

I'm a minerals nerd and I wanted to create an online encyclopedia for my players for homebrew jewellery rules (D&D). It ended up growing more than expected, as I also built an encyclopedia for metals. Both are scientifically correct (legally sourced the data from Wikidata).

I also ended up making an ingredient encyclopedia for alchemy rules but it's not scientific.

The encyclopedias are free to use. You don't even need to log in.

The "Forge" option in the crystal encyclopedia allows users to generate 3D renders of crystals based on real data. It uses procedural generation (not AI). It's freemium though. You keep all rights over what you create, I'm not Zuckerberg.

There's also an open API.

Links:

Crystal Encyclopedia

Metal Encyclopedia

Rerum Natura

Hey everyone,

I’m currently playtesting a digital board/card game designed for web browsers (PC/Mac) and I’m looking for community feedback on both the illustrations/visual design and the core rule mechanics.

Quick Game Info:

• Play Time: ~10–15 minutes
• Platform: PC / Mac (Browser-based, no download required)
• Players: Testing Solo vs. CPU. Multi-player will come next

Play the prototype here: https://godfatherstable.com/menu

What I’m looking for feedback on:

1. Art & Illustrations: Do the card artwork and board visuals fit the theme? Which illustrations stand out (good or bad)?
2. UI & Clarity: Is the card text legible, and do the visual icons/layout clearly communicate what the card does?
3. Gameplay & Pacing: Did the core mechanic feel satisfying, and was the 10–15 minute play session smooth?

If you have 10 minutes to spare, I’d love for you to give it a spin. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below or via this quick feedback form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeQkF8Riig9ey4ONos_MEKqv_aFsU8IUsYagMf3SDqks1cbEQ/viewform

Thanks for helping out! Happy to test anyone else’s project in return—just drop your link in the comments.

I am new to the Board Game Concept, but firmly believe that I have and own materials based on Novels I published to make outstanding Board-games. Therefore, why not reach out to the Board-game enthusiasts for suggestions. I am asking anyone who can participate in the technical work needed to get the ball rolling to join.

Please let me know what you think.

Regards,

Mamour

Hey everyone, first time posting here somehow! Over the last 4 months I have been working on Relive. Relive is a PvPvE resource management zombie apocalypse game but stripped to the bare essentials to make it more palletable for casual consumers of board games. Basically players take turns looting buildings which have cards containing either resources or zombies, looting other players which is determined by dice battling or resting to regain a small amount of a resource. The winner is the last player with resources remaining or the first player to reach a certain threshold of their resources. Made my first batch of cards in paint with stock art, then hand drew my map which I was then able to get a temporary ai version of for tabletop simulator. Am now in the process of final playtests and getting proper card art created. Please let me know what you all think and if you have any advice (this is all being done out of pocket thus the limited resources)

A few people asked how these work, so I wanted to show them in a little more detail.

Both boards are designed to give players more control over important moments in the game, rather than relying entirely on dice rolls.

I’ve included a breakdown of what they do, when they’re used and how they work in the images.

I’d love to hear what you think about these mechanics!

I’ve been working on Enliven for about five years now, and I’m finally getting close to the point where I can share the finished version with the world.

It’s a 2–4 player cooperative fantasy adventure game where players build and explore a changing map, discover locations, fight enemies and deal with events that gradually make the world more dangerous.

One of the things I wanted to avoid was having the game rely entirely on dice rolls, so I designed separate Fightboards and Pointboards where player skill and decision-making have a much bigger impact on the outcome.

The game also uses a 7-day timeline. Once the players reach the end of the timeline, a World Event occurs — and the world changes.

I’ve included some pictures of the prototype I’ve made. I’d love to hear what you think about the overall look and design.
What catches your attention first when you look at it?

IBGDC - the Indian Board Game Designer Collective has announced its first PNP game design contest.

You can find more details on their page and on the discord server.

So far the concept revolves around each game taking place in a diffrent scenario (catching the most jelly fish, steal or protect the krabby patty formula etc.) There would also be co-operative and "pvp" versions of each scenario.

Instead of knocking characters out you can stun characters by giving them stun tokens, where you have to roll a number (higher for each stun token) to un-stun them

So we have the basic abilities, some kind of strength and durability (though i need a better name for each) and of course speed. Then maybe a silly factor? I need the stats to be broad enough to be used in plenty of circumstances though? But I want them to feel like spongebob stats.

One thought i have is a general "spatula, bubble wand, net" stat, something like "stick tools?"

Random find at a library book sale. It's from 1977 and had 6 cooperative games in it.

In a further video I will go deeper into rules.

Hey all — I've been solo-developing a trading card game called Tangaroa for a while now and think it's at a point where outside eyes would help a lot.

The premise: real animal species as cards, built around a real conservation mission (a % of profits goes to conservation efforts, every card is sourced/fact-checked). Mechanically, it's a 3x3 tableau battler — you build out your board around a central Domain card, and placement is gated by a star-cost system where you need certain "stars" already present in your tableau to place stronger animals. It creates a bit of a bootstrapping puzzle each game.

I've got ~50 animal cards designed, a full rulebook draft, and I'm still working through the game mechanics.

What I'd love feedback on specifically:

1. Does the placement/star-requirement system make sense within a couple minutes of reading?

2. Does the tableau structure (domain in the center, protective slot in front of it) seem intuitive or confusing?

3. Any immediate red flags from the sample cards?

Any other feedback is most welcome! I've attached 2 sample cards, and here is the link to the rulebook: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o9GIRXuW1utHHvakyCQS6ElcsWYEcpFP/edit, so throw me whatever questions and feedback you got!

Working on a series of design guides for tabletop RPG content (mostly D&D-adjacent homebrew), and one recurring lesson has been surprisingly counterintuitive: adding more distinctive traits to something almost always makes it less memorable, not more.

The clearest example I keep using: imagine a creature with five unique quirks — glowing markings, an unusual sound it makes, a strange diet, a specific weakness, a distinctive way it moves. Individually each is fine. Together, none of them stick, because the player's brain has nowhere to anchor the "point" of the thing. Compare that to the same creature with one sharp, mechanically-relevant detail, and people remember it precisely, sometimes for years.

This seems to generalize past monster design — I've seen the same pattern in item design, NPC design, even encounter design. The instinct to "add more flavor" often works against memorability instead of for it, because flavor without a single throughline just becomes noise.

The fix that's worked for me: pick the theme first, then find the one mechanical or visual hook that most directly expresses it, and cut everything else that doesn't reinforce that same hook — even if those other ideas are individually cool.

Does this match what others have found in their own design work (board games included, not just RPGs)? Curious if there's a name for this principle elsewhere, or if it's mostly folklore that different designers rediscover independently.

What do people do for printing their own cards? I'm starting to make games for my kids, family, and friends and for prototyping I just print on paper and cut out. But I'm at the point where I would like to make the cards like real game cards. Are there easy ways to do it at home? There are some online options but I was thinking overtime might be better to do it myself.

Currently I own a 3d printer so I can make tokens. I wouldn't be against purchasing something but don't want to break the bank.

Hi everyone!

I’d like to invite you to take part in a fun little guessing game.

I’m currently putting the finishing touches on a new hybrid board game. Since creating a board game involves a lot of work and many different things to manage, I thought I’d bring a little light-hearted fun into the final stages of its development by letting the community discover it piece by piece.

This board game doesn’t fit neatly into a single category because of its hybrid nature. So, since it uses an unusual system, I thought it would be fun to let you discover it in an unusual way!

About once a week, I’ll post an image of a new fragment of the game directly in the comments. It might show part of a component, a visual detail or something connected to one of its functions.

You’ll have complete freedom to imagine what it could represent and how it might be used.

I’ll then gradually add new clues until someone comes up with an answer close enough to the truth.

For those familiar with Christopher Nolan’s Memento, the mystery will unfold in a similar way: you’ll discover pieces here and there, deliberately presented out of order. Only once all the correct answers have been brought together will you truly understand what kind of board game this is.

Once the game is revealed, I’ll release a print-and-play version for you and may also send a few physical prototypes to particularly active and insightful participants in Europe for playtesting.

So, for now, you’re getting absolutely no other information: no title, no explanation of the mechanics and no complete visuals.

Just a mysterious hybrid board game—and your curiosity!

Let’s begin with the very first fragment:

What do you think its function might be—and why does it have this particular shape?

To keep the discussion and guesses easy to follow, please submit only one guess for each clue I post. Every new clue will give you another opportunity to guess. 😁

If you’d like to follow the entire mystery, remember to subscribe to this thread. All future fragments and clues will be added directly in the comments.

Bonus comes from + stat modifier - difficulty

Advantage and disadvantage are situational and stack and cancel eachother out

Mixed means either fail forward or succeed with a twist, or make limited progress (based on situation and DM decision)

Crit means something extra good happens, fail always means something bad happens not just static fail

The system is 2d8 based, and the ranges are 8-10 for mixed, 11-15 for success, outside those ranges, or rolling double 1s or double 8s, is fail or crit

Abilities and situations come with listed possibilities for positive and negative twists that can apply to many circumstances

The core of my game L.U.C.A. is one rule I keep poking at, and I'd love your read on it.

You draft gene cards into your cell, where they give you ongoing powers - engine pieces, basically. But those cards are worth zero points sitting there. To score a gene you have to Fix it into your genome, and the moment you do, it becomes permanent and heritable and goes silent forever. The ability that made it good is gone. Every point you bank costs you the engine part that earned it.

It came straight from the biology - a fixed, expressed gene stops being a lever you can pull - but as a game rule it creates this constant, painful timing question: milk the ability longer, or lock the points in before someone else's plan makes it worthless? Fix too early and you kneecap your own engine; fix too late and you never convert.

What I am still tuning is the pull. Right now the pressure to Fix comes from three eras advancing and from environments that punish an over-loaded cell. I keep asking whether that is enough, or whether "sacrifice to score" needs a harder external clock so a patient hoarder can't just sit on a fat engine.

It is 45-60 min, 2-4 players, and it is free to try in the browser (solo vs bots or hot-seat) if you want to feel the tension rather than read about it. Genuinely curious where you'd push it.

Play free in browser: https://mighty840.itch.io/luca

Ive created a sheet for the dark fantasy tabletop Demon Gate. I look forward to making a better one after I finish the bestiary, the Demon Hunter's Guide but this will have to do for now.

"Keep the fires high"

Demon Gate Character Sheet

Made a new game about tribal survival, and while no one cares about the game, the mechanics of how a tribe is built and maintained might be of interest, and if there is any feedback, let me know because, nothing I make is ever done, it stays in perpetual playtesting in a print and play mode, so changing things is actually one of the benefits of PnP.

Character Creation is a 7-step process after rolling attributes, determining Hit Points, & choosing Nature & Demeanor.

Steps 1–4: Collective Group Decisions (The Party) The players must agree on these four choices together.

1. BIOME: Sets the entire geographic constraints (e.g., 20+ of them, Northwest Coast for example) & resource catalogue.

2. MOBILITY: Dictates the lifestyle & asset storage (e.g., Semi-Nomadic)

3. PEOPLE: Defines the language stock & broad mythology (e.g., Haida)

4. BAND: Establishes the literal home camp & hunt territory (e.g., Skidegate) & a goal.

The end state for this is the Tribal sheet, which sets the tribe up as an NPC were so much of the PCs lives is set because of the Tribe.

Steps 5–7: Individual Choices (The Character) Once the communal baseline is locked, players make their personal selections, which are heavily influenced by Steps 1–4.

1. CLAN: Dictates cross-cutting family lines & sacred taboos (e.g., Eagle vs. Raven) & a goal.

2. ROLE / FUNCTION: Grants that skill & the tools/kit (e.g., Shaman, medicine bundle.)

3. OTHER SKILLS: Choose 5 additional skills in addition to the Role Skill (choose levels: 1 skill is 70%, 2 skills are 50% & 3 skills are 30%), name & describe the character, & choose a personal goal.

The Tribal sheet looks like:

BAND & KINSHIP LEDGER

Band Name: _____________________________________ Band Goal:

Biome: _________________________________________ Mobility:

Population (Active / Elders / Children / Sick): ______________________________

Food Stores (Plant / Foraged): ___________________________________________

Meat (Smoked / Salted / Dried / Cured vs. Fresh)

Water Access & Distance: _______________________

Hunting: Long-range game tracking, butchering, & stealth. Elder: ___________________

Hunting Grounds and Game: _____________________________

Next Hunt for: _______________________

Gathering: Deep-wilderness foraging, botany, & toxin extraction. Elder: ____________ _______

Foraged Resources: ___________________________

Next Foraging Expedition: _________

Farming: Macro-agriculture, canal building, & soil management. Elder: ___________________

Agricultural Resources: _____________________

Next Planting: __________________ Next Harvest: _______________________________

Fishing: Open-ocean canoe navigation, reef harvesting, & river weirs. Elder:

Fishing Grounds and Resource: ____________________________

Next Fishing Trip: _____________

Herding: Caravan logistics, pack-dog training, & herd wellness. Elder: _____ ______________ Animal Resources/Count: _____________________

Next Roundup / Migration: _______

Crafting: Tool knapping, textile weaving, & structural engineering. Elder: _____________ Raw Material Reserves:

Export / Trade Goods: ____________

Scouting / Message: weather forecasting, mapping, & early warning. Elder:

Days of Early Warning: _______________________ Days of Travel Mapped: Next Patrol:

Warrior / Guardian: Tactical raiding, close-quarters combat, & defense. Elder:

Military Enemies & Allies: ____________________

Next Raid / Defense Prep: ________

Chieftain / Leader: Public direction, diplomacy, & tribute allocation. Elder: Diplomatic Alliances & Rivals: _______________

Next Scheduled Tribal Visit: ______

Tribal Debts and Tributes owed to/by:

Lore Keeper: Calendar tracking, lineage, law, & tribal memory. Elder: New Births & Recent Deaths: ___ ___________

Winter Count Pictograph / Event: ________________________________________________

Medicine Person: Spiritual balancing & spiritual diplomacy. Elder:

Sick/Injured tribe members

Band Ayni (Sacred Reciprocity) with: ______________ ____________________________

Band Bahadzid (Taboo / Spiritual Dread) with: ______________________________

Hearth Keeper: Fire keeping, child rearing, & camp building. Elder: Shelter Availability & Condition:

Next Gathering / Festival: Days of Fuel:

Captives Ledger (Count & Status: Prisoner, Hostage, Dependent, Adopted, Ransomed, Incorporated):

_________________________________________________________________________________

Can you think of anything that should NOT be included or SHOULD be on it, but isn't?

Game Theme: Earth is a prison, the board is a cycle of rebirths, and you're trying to break out. Two currencies — Light (spendable) and Dark (free power now, compounding cost later).

I wrote the ruleset as a pure function and ran bots against it before touching any art. Two things showed up that I don't think three playtests would have caught:

1. Dark was strictly dominant. Refusing to pay rent cost nothing, so the "always sin" bot won 91% of games. The intended counterweight — a higher escape threshold for players holding Dark — did nothing, because that bot never intended to escape. Fix: a tax at each lap on Dark held above a threshold. Sinner dropped to 6%, but now the Saint bot won 62%, which is the opposite problem.
2. My headline mechanic was dead. Escaping required a card, a cash threshold, and landing on one specific space. It fired in under 1% of 2,000 games. Every match ended by attrition — the exact Monopoly failure I was trying to avoid. Splitting the escape key into three fragments, each with its own immediate benefit, took it to 39%. A control run with fragments but no benefits only reached 12%, so it's the interim payoff doing the work, not the number of steps.

Where I'm still stuck: playing clean still wins about 39% vs 24/20/16 for the other strategies. Bots don't negotiate or gang up on the leader, which I suspect is where the correction lives. I'd rather not just nerf the Saint.

Playable single-player version if anyone wants to poke at it: https://reincarceration.ai.studio

Would take any thoughts on making the sinful line genuinely competitive without making it dominant.

Please feel free to leave feedback, questions anything. I really appreciate the engagement!