In our first LGBTQ+ game designer article, we look at the apocalyptic, competitive, city-building card game of New Avernus!

The incredible thing about board games is how versatile they are. Board games can be vehicles of fantastical escapism. Board games can be painstaking reconstructions of real-world events. Board games can be instruments of learning, teaching, and growth. Board games can be expressions of identity and wonderful affirmative statements of self. After all, this is why we will always love the gaming hobby. Because, at the end of the day, board gaming is simply a blank canvas that is always ready to display whatever goal, identity, or idea creators and players want to bring to it. 

The LGBTQ+ community has used tabletop gaming as a platform for representation since the early days of the hobby’s proliferation. Members of the Queer community have created and shared board games that reflect their own unique experiences, serve as educational tools about the subject of queerness, stand as statements about the condition of the world, or simply add a new and unique perspective to the hobby as a whole. So, in celebration of the fantastic work of LGBTQ+ creators and the incredible representative potential of board games, Tabletop Simulator will be introducing a showcase of up-and-coming board games from Queer creators. In this inaugural issue, we will be taking a look at an apocalyptically exciting competitive city-building strategy game that’s sure to be your next game night staple!

In New Avernus, from Publishing Goblin Games, the world is ending…again….again….and again. When playing this strategic city builder you and your friends take on the role of an architect, tasked with constructing a metropolis that will survive an upcoming meteor strike as intact as possible. Through a combination of ruin exploration, resource gathering, and turn-based construction, each player competes to construct the most durable city, all while a meteor hangs menacingly overhead. Once it hits, each player tallies how many buildings are left standing and the architect with the highest score wins. Then, you set it back up and do it again!

The creator of New Avernus, Van Seven Pedersen, along with co-creator Asher Stuhlman and head of visual designs Emma Clinton, created this game from one of their 40 unique worlds that are sure to provide new, exciting game ideas for years to come! The particular world of New Avernus was designed to explore the hypothetical: what would someone do if all of their creation is destroyed in a moment? This question was the inspiration for this excitingly original game idea and also gives New Avernus a thought-provoking dimension that pairs perfectly with its intelligent gameplay. 

In addition to its philosophical elements, New Avernus also has personal roots for its creator, Van Seven Pedersen. Speaking of how unique life experiences shaped the game design, they said, “As a queer artist, I am always thinking about the human condition in a number of ways. Each of my games should explore human goals in all their paths. As a trans person especially, trying to build a body, or a city, that I believe will stand the test of time and catastrophe is a very real and personal experience.”

All of these inspirations and goals come together to make a truly one-of-a-kind tabletop experience that we know will become a game night staple. 

New Avernus is currently in the playtesting phase, so please sign up to help them tweak their game to apocalyptic perfection HERE!

Playtest New Avernus on Tabletop Simulator here!

Interested in being featured in the next LGBTQ+ game developer spotlight?