Nick Dubs
Nick plays and reviews board games to kill time while it cultivates the requisite mystique to become a cryptid that warns small towns of impending doom.




I’m absolutely obsessed with economic games. Turns out, as much as capitalism is a deeply flawed system that humanity will either abandon or be destroyed by, it’s a great foundation for a collection of cardboard with no stakes. Problem is, most of them live in the hellscape of
by Nick Dubs
I’m garbage at baking. It probably doesn’t help that I never dabbled until I lived at altitude, making the learning curve that much steeper, but as much as I’m enchanted by the idea of expanding my cooking skills, my style is more going with my gut and
by Nick Dubs
I have rather stringent rules for when I choose to sleeve one of my games, and as a result, I can count on one hand the number of games in my 80+ game collection that are sleeved. Pretty much, a game’s got to require a lot of shuffling decks
by Nick Dubs
Making a dungeon crawler that both appeals to and is actually viable for everyone is the game design philosopher’s stone: a hypothetical ideal to strive for, accepting you’ll probably never attain. Of course, I’m not suggesting that Chip Theory’s Elder Scrolls has attained that mark; at
by Nick Dubs
Convention season was very intense in 2024, with GamingTrend attending more tabletop cons than any other year prior. In fact, we went to so many conventions this year we still have content to publish on our Youtube channel from Origins and Gen Con (so keep your eyes peeled!). Needless to
by Mike Dunn & Chris Hinkes & Chris Wyman & Mike Case & Mark Julian & Nick Dubs & Eric Deutsch
You know how sometimes you sit down to a new game not expecting too much, only to be blown away by every little thing put in front of you? That was my experience with Keith Piggott’s River of Gold, a surprise masterpiece of delivering resources, sailing down, and building
by Nick Dubs
To me, “thematic” is a borderline dirty word. Playing too many early American designs that favored turning you into the DiCaprio pointing meme over fun or interesting gameplay has given me cardboard PTSD, so I generally shy away from games that are labeled as such. Harrow County, based on the
by Nick Dubs
It used to be that asymmetrical wargames were a niche part of the hobby, a subcategory of weird kids right next to those that played 18xx train games. To some extent that’s still the case, but on the other hand, one of the heaviest games you can find in
by Nick Dubs