About Cardboard Season

A small independent journal about board games, the people who design them and what happens once a box gets opened.

Cardboard Season started because most writing about board games is either a review or a rules summary, and there did not seem to be much in between. The interesting questions are usually the ones underneath: why a mechanic works, why a rulebook fails, why a games night that should have gone well did not.

What gets covered

Three broad areas. At the Table is about play itself, including the parts that are social rather than mechanical. The Long Game takes a longer view, historical and otherwise. How They're Made looks at design, development and production.

Who writes it

Everything here is written by Rowan Mabey, who has been playing badly and reading rulebooks carefully for a long time. There is no review scoring system and there are no sponsored posts.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, it is worth telling us so it can be fixed. The contact page has the details.