The Ultimate Online Board Game Playtesting Guide This Autumn
Support these Indie Game Developers by heading over to Tabletop Simulator to playtest all 20 of these new and exciting games!
Games Playtesting on Tabletop Simulator
| Game Name | Game Theme & Type |
|---|---|
| 1. Veil of Ruin: Progressive Deckbuilding RPG | A fantasy, RPG, strategy, card game. |
| 2. PaleoVet | A card and dice game where you are a veterinarian for dinosaurs. |
| 3. Reviver Knights | A fantasy, strategy, Co-op game with simple RPG elements. |
| 4. SpoonBrokers | A stocks-based board game with cats. |
| 5. Goblin Cave | A fantasy, team-based, tactics game. |
| 6. Stellar Expedition | A science fiction, strategy game. |
| 7. Yarr! Stranded Scoundrels | A pirate-themed, party, card game. |
| 8. Armor Break DCG | A fantasy card game with mythical creatures. |
| 9. Titanomachina | A Tabletop war game featuring Giant Robots. |
| 10. The Big Pig Game | A cute, cooperative board game centering around animals and food. |
| 11. Robot Boxing League | A robot, boxing, arena fighting, deck builder game. |
| 12. Pigskin Pantheon | A zany American football card game. |
| 13. Mad 4 Totem | An ancient, animal building & strategy game with 3D components. |
| 14. Drop Bears | A horror/ survival tabletop game set in Australia. |
| 15. Treasure 'N Mutiny | Rum, Guns, Treasure and Gold RPG, card, war game. |
| 16. Pirate Parley | Pirates and Merchant Ships in a negotiation, hidden roles, asymmetrical game. |
| 17. NEXUM: GALAXY | A space, strategy 3x/4x game. |
1. Veil of Ruin: Progressive Deckbuilding RPG
About: Inspired by tabletop classics like Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, Veil of Ruin is a progressive deckbuilding RPG. Veil of Ruin is an immersive gaming experience designed to give you hours of unique and ever-changing enjoyment. Thanks to Veil of Ruin’s quick setup and simple, yet intricate combat and dungeon crawling systems, you and your friends can go from opening the box to slaying monsters within minutes. Venture into the dangerous, dying jungles of Orman, taking on the persona of one of our six unique Heroes as they fight their way through a myriad of Enemies.
Gameplay: Veil of Ruin features three modes, Skirmish, Into the Jungle, and PVP. Skirmish games are a cooperative one-time experience for 1-4 players that take between 45 minutes and 2 hours. Select the difficulty, pick the monsters you are fighting, draft your deck, get some equipment and then fight! A more intense experience is our Into the Jungle mode, a roguelike adventure designed with replayability in mind. Each cooperative session for between 1-4 players takes between 2 and 5 hours, players draft cards, gain items, and other loot as they progress through the jungles of Orman. PVP is best played once you have a good understanding of the flow of gameplay. With a few tweaks of the rules, 2-4 players can battle one another to determine who is the champion of the jungle.
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: We generally have dev's doing playtesting daily
Type: RPG, strategy, card game
Theme: Fantasy
Number of Players: 1-4 players
Age: 14+
Time To Play: total game time is 45 mins+
Where To Sign Up: Join their Discord to set up games with the designers
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest Veil of Ruin Now On TTS!
Official Website: projectdarkwater.com
2. PaleoVet
About: The world’s first dinosaur park ended in tragedy and was closed for safety concerns. The dinosaurs, however, still roam the abandoned island. Now considered an international treasure, this lost world faces an unanticipated threat: modern microbes. Without genetic immunity to today’s diseases, it is up to brave paleo-veterinarians to venture onto the island to study and treat these dangerous and mysterious beasts. Expeditions to the island are expensive, so dinosaur protection organizations only fund the most proficient paleo-veterinarians. Every trip to the island becomes a competition between veterinarians to treat the most dinosaurs.
In PaleoVet, you roll custom dice and use matching symbols for a variety of effects. Tranquilizer darts allow you to move dinosaur cards into your hospital. Match treatment symbols on dice to icons on dino cards to cure sick and injured dinosaurs, scoring points. You can also use matching symbols to buy more dice, hospital upgrades, and wild DNA tokens. PaleoVet is an easy-to-learn game with a surprising amount of strategy.
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: Any between now and September 28th
Type: Card and dice game
Theme: You are a veterinarian for dinosaurs
Number of Players: 2-4 players
Age: 14+
Time To Play: 10 minutes per player
Where To Sign Up: Sign up sheet
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest PaleoVet Now On TTS!
Kickstarter: Kickstarter Launch September 28th
Official Website: absurdistproductions.com
3. Reviver Knights
About: Simple objective: players must team up to find 'special weapons/items' hidden with the game so they can gain access to the castle and defeat the Forsaken King. Players start the game with 3 powerup items (treasures), pulled randomly from the treasure deck. They navigate through a tile-based map. There are different types of tiles.
Monster tiles: when a player lands here, they must draw a card from the monster deck and do battle. Battle points are made up of dice rolls plus the treasure items in the player inventory. If a player defeats a monster, the tile is flipped which then reveals either more treasure or one of the 'special items'. Coins are also earned from defeating monsters. Merchant tiles: players can spend coins to power up their players’ stats (attack, speed, magic, bravery). Boulders: stops players from moving through this tile. Portal tiles: allows players quick access across the board. Revive mechanic: if a player dies in battle, they must revive back at their starting space. They can then choose the same or a different path.
PHASES: A phase consists of each player taking their turn. At the end of a phase a 'King event' occurs. King events consist of reviving monsters, laying down boulders, closing portals etc...things which make traveling harder for the player. If too many events occur, the game ends. Once each player finds their 'special item', they can then battle the King to win the game.
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Mod coming soon! Look out for it in December 2021/ January 2022!
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: January 2022
Type: Strategy, co-op, Simple RPG elements
Theme: Fantasy
Number of Players: 1-4 players
Age: 12+
Time To Play: 60- 90 minutes
Where To Sign Up: Email the team at- reviverknight@gmail.com
Official Website: Reviver Knights Instagram
4. SpoonBrokers
About: Inspired by the ever-volatile stock market, classic board games, and a pandemic cat named Spoon, SpoonBrokers is a multiplayer board game involving buying and selling shares of four companies.
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: October 9 and 24
Type: Stocks-based board game
Theme: Stock market, cats, animal, money, classic
Number of Players: 2-5 players
Age: 12+
Time To Play: 1-2 hours
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest SpoonBrokers Now On TTS!
Official Website: spoonbrokers.com
5. Goblin Cave
About: Goblin Cave is an asymmetrical team-based tactics game featuring strategic, card-based combat driven by unique character abilities and player decisions. Each player takes control of two unique characters, drawing cards with powerful abilities and moving freely around the board. Players will control tactical locations, place traps, launch fireballs, destroy walls, teleport across pits, climb ledges, sling arrows, swing great-axes, steal relics, and much, much more!
Each team of players has their own win conditions and will go toe-to-toe with their opponents to achieve them through fast-paced strategy-fueled combat. Adventurers traverse the Goblins’ cave in order to steal Relics—objects of great arcane power. Goblins must defend their homes from the greedy invaders who are trying to steal their relics, navigating the cave through tunnels only they can use! Each team is comprised of unique characters with rich lore and powerful specialized abilities, not unlike a board game version of a MOBA (like League of Legends) or hero shooter (like Overwatch or Apex Legends).
Players control two characters simultaneously. On a player’s turn, they draw an ability card from each character's ability deck, roll a die for each character’s movement, then move and use an ability card for each character, in any order they wish. The game ends either when all characters on a team are incapacitated when the Adventurers escape with a relic, or when 10 rounds have passed. With 10 playable characters, multiple cave maps, and several planned expansions, Goblin Cave offers a great deal of replayability and long-term support.
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: 8/20-10/1
Type: Team-based tactics game
Theme: Fantasy
Number of Players: 2-4 players
Age: 13+
Time To Play: 60-120 minutes
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest Goblin Cave Now On TTS!
Kickstarter: Kickstarter coming in 2022
Official Website: actionfiction.com
6. Stellar Expedition
About: Expedition is a 2-4 players Science-Fiction board game. You and your opponents travel to an unknown region of space and explore it together. Establish embassies on alien locations, recruit the locals and assemble the best crew in the galaxy to complete your missions.
During the game you will have many different encounters, which you can overcome with the skills of your crew member. You will collect resources, which you can use to build more embassies, recruit new crew members and upgrade your ship. There are a total of 44 locations that you can discover and 88 different crew members that you can recruit. Solve as many of the 45 missions available and endure the 50 different encounter cards.
Game Info:
Type: Strategy game
Theme: Science fiction
Number of Players: 2-4
Age: Adults/ 14+
Time To Play: 90 - 120 minutes
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest Stellar Expedition Now On TTS!
Kickstarter: Kickstarter April 2022
Official Website: playstellarexpedition.com
7. Yarr! Stranded Scoundrels
About: You're pirates and you're shipwrecked on a cursed island where you get hungrier and hungrier each night. Escape, don't starve, and most importantly, create uneasy alliances backstab!
Yarr! has the players collect 4 resources from decks in the middle of the table. Gold is victory points, wood lets you build a raft and escape, weapons let you attack other players, and food is vital for eating every night. Players must work together and strategically choose when or if to betray other players for the betterment of their game.
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: Now until December
Type: Social game/party game/card game
Theme: Pirates
Number of Players: 3-6
Age: 12+
Time To Play: 30-90 mins
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest Yarr! Stranded Scoundrels Now On TTS!
Official Website: Yarr! Stranded Scoundrels Twitter
8. Armor Break DCG
About: Equip your character with armors and play monsters to try and break your opponent's armor. However, when armors break, players become more powerful and gain access to powerful spells and effects that make the game faster and faster. Once the final armor breaks, the game is over and that player loses.
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: Whenever possible!
Type: Card game
Theme: Fantasy, animal, mythical creatures
Number of Players: 2-4
Age: 12+
Time To Play: Average game is 5-10 minutes, but a best of 3 can be 20-30. Custom deck building can add more time as well.
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest Armor Break DCG Now On TTS!
Official Website: Armor Break DCG Twitter
9. Titanomachina
About: A 2-4 player giant robot brawl where players fight to control their robot, their city, and the fight itself. Play as the Titans, vast avatars of the sentient corporations of the future, each 100m tall and loaded with city-crushing weaponry. The Titans have decided, as rational, sentient corporate persons to set their scores and territorial disputes in the most violent, ostentatious, and violently ostentatious way possible: War by Titanic Machines!
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: September 1, 2021 to November 1st, 2021
Type: Tabletop war game
Theme: Giant robots
Number of Players: 2-4
Age: 12+
Time To Play: 75-90 minutes
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest Titanomachina Now On TTS!
Official Website: armourpiercingpi.blogspot.com
10. The Big Pig Game
About: Welcome to the world of Big Pig! Here a bunch of cute and hungry critters live in a house with their family. The family has left for the day. This is the perfect chance to raid the kitchen! Help Big Pig and friends eat all of the delicious food! If the family comes back before the food is eaten, they’ll surely stop the feast. Got to make it quick!
On your turn, choose one of your characters actions and perform it, such as munching food! Pick off the food tiles off of the food board. Use those tiles to "boost" your cards later for bigger effects. If the team of players removes every food tile off of the food board before the family comes home, the players win!
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: Dates are pretty open
Type: Cooperative board game
Theme: Animals, food, cute
Number of Players: 1-4
Age: 10+
Time To Play: 45-60 minutes
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest The Big Pig Game Now On TTS!
Kickstarter: Kickstarter launches October 5th
Official Website: evansgames.com
11. Robot Boxing League
About: Choose your robot and enter the ring using cards from your hand to attack, block, or move around the arena. Gain titles to earn money then use that money in between rounds to add cards to your deck or buy upgrades. If you go down each robot can reboot and continue the fight at a cost!
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: Usually Tuesday and Thursday nights after 6 pm est
Sign Up To Playtest: You can sign up through dm, discord, Instagram, or Facebook
Type: Arena fighting deck builder
Theme: Robot, boxing, sport
Number of Players: 2
Age: 14+
Time To Play: 90-minute total playtime
Where To Sign Up: Discord, Instagram DM, & Facebook DM
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest Robot Boxing League Now On TTS!
Official Website: Linktree
12. Pigskin Pantheon
About: As an owner of your own football team, compete against other franchises to build the ultimate roster of players! Equip them with gear to maximize their potential and sign lucrative endorsement deals to bring prestige to your team! Pigskin Pantheon is a drafting card game with an emphasis on humor.
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: Whenever!
Type: Card game
Theme: Zany, American football
Number of Players: 2-4
Age: 8+
Time To Play: 30-40 mins
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest Pigskin Pantheon Now On TTS!
Kickstarter: Kickstarting Coming Fall 2022
Official Website: oddfellowgames.com
13. Mad 4 Totem
About: Mad 4 Totem is a strategic area-control game equipped with 3D totem pieces. The overlord of the Totem Island has passed away… and has led to a fierce war fighting over the control of the island. As the leaders of the rising tribes, players must summon the ancient Gods' power by building totems. Gain the most Glory Points to become the next ruler of the Totem Island!
There are 4 phases in each round: Blessing, Logging, Day, and Night. Different blessings sharpen different aspects of your tribe. The tribe with the highest Level of Devotion can receive a blessing from respective gods. Attract their attention in the Day Phase! During the Day Phase, tribe leaders can perform one of the 4 actions: - Build different totems to gain Devotion Points, so that the gods will reward and share their power with the tribes. A wise totem combination is the key. - Ancient spell tablets are scattered around the island. You can also develop your tribe’s special set of spells to create combo actions. - Waging war against other villages is another way to strengthen your tribe’s influence. - Worshipping one of the gods to receive immediate assistance and rewards.
Night falls. You and your people dance next to a campfire along the drums’ rhythm. You are waiting for the Great Descent, when the gods reward devoted tribes with spell feathers, magic woods, superior warriors and guardians. You will gain and be able to rearrange your resources in the Night Phase.
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: Playtest session every Friday & Saturday
Type: Strategy game, 3D components, building game
Theme: Building, ancient, animal
Number of Players: 2-4
Age: 12+
Time To Play: 45-90 minutes
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest The Game Now Called Mushroom Sorcerer On TTS!
Kickstarter: Kickstarter launch by the end of 2021
Official Website: headblownstudio.com
14. Drop Bears
About: The Australian Bush is a dangerous place at night. And as if spiders and snakes weren't enough, another horror is on the loose: Drop Bears infest the dark - Hideous koala-like beasts dropping from gum trees, eager to consume human flesh.
This is where the game drops you in, an inexperienced group of tourist campers ventured into the night. Your objective: Survive until dawn. Drop Bears is a cooperative game where the Campers have to carefully choose actions every turn to stay alive, while the whole Australian Bush is on a hunt for them. The group can choose several different options such as: Explore and Run, allowing the Campers to place new map tiles and attempt to keep the lurking hunger beasts at arm's length (at bay, a distance). Definitely, they will need to Rest and Heal, which will give them a chance to patch up and recoup their most essential resources. Finally, Search and Endeavour will hopefully lead them to find much-needed survival resources. All these are tools to ensure as many campers as possible survive until dawn. While doing so, the game drops the hideous creatures right on them, attacking and terrorizing the Campers in every turn.
Even the very landscape and environment will batter the poor Campers – They can become severely wounded; this will surely hamper their chance for survival. Each time a camper is eaten, that player will select another camper from those available, but every death brings the Drop Bears closer to victory, so don't let your humans die in vain. With no weapons, campers must band together, scavenge gear and use their wits if they ever hope to survive until dawn.
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: Most Fridays by appointment
Type: Tabletop survival game
Theme: Survival/horror - Australian setting
Number of Players: 1-4
Age: 15+
Time To Play: 30-45 minutes
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest Drop Bears Now On TTS!
Kickstarter: Kickstarter Coming May 2022
Official Website: platypusindustries.com
15. Treasure 'N Mutiny
About: A 1-12 Player High Sea Adventure by Star Captain Dread Players command 1-4 Pirates and their Galleon in a Sandbox Pirate Style Roll & Play War Card Game! Multiple End Game Scenarios, including custom options, provide countless hours of adventure in this Mutinous High Sea Tale! Use High Sea Curses to disrupt your Enemies! Enhance your Friends and Foes with High Sea Fortunes! Quest for Legendary Treasure! Capture Islands, Build Pirate Harbors and Conquer the High Seas!
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: Available publicly for all players
Type: RPG, card game, war game, adventure game
Theme: Rum, guns, treasure, and gold... Yarr! (piracy)
Number of Players: 1-12
Age: Teens & adults
Time To Play: 1.5 - 3+hrs
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest Treasure 'N Mutiny Now On TTS!
Kickstarter: Kickstarter Launch End of 2021/ Early 2022
Official Website: starport420.online
16. Pirate Parley
About: The Queen requires resources for her country! She enlists the aid of merchants to bring the riches from far away lands to her kingdom. As usual in business, not all is clear. The merchants also operate mercenary ships to aid in their ventures. Set sail, evade the Queen and escape with the riches of the sea in Pirate Parley. Choose to play as the Queen or a Merchant player.
As the Queen: Negotiate contracts with Merchants, capture Pirates with your Navy, observe ship movements and reveal the hidden identity of the secret pirates. Make the thieving Merchants walk the plank! As the Merchant: Collect gems, negotiate contracts for coins, bribe the Queen's Navy for their protection and become a Pirate by Night to steal gems while the Queen sleeps. Evade the Queen's attention to take the loot!
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: Wednesdays @ 6PM EST, also upon request on weekday nights or weekends
Type: Asymmetrical, negotiation, hidden roles
Theme: Pirates, merchants, ships
Number of Players: 4-6 Players
Age: 10+
Time To Play: 30 - 60 minutes depending on player count
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest Pirate Parley Now On TTS!
Official Website: lastslicegames.wixsite.com
17. NEXUM: GALAXY
About: Nexum Galaxy is a game for 1 to 4 players aged 12+, in which you fight against other Civilizations in epic interplanetary battles to dominate the Galaxy.
With simple and intuitive rules and a high tactical component, Nexum Galaxy brings 3 of the "X's" of this type of game, as you eXpand your control, eXploit Sector resources, and eXterminate your enemies. Fewer rules, less time, more strategy, more gaming modes. Manage your energy to expand your empire and get the Technological Relics
Game Info:
Playtesting Times: Fridays 17:00 CET - 22:00 CET
Type: Strategy 3x/4x
Theme: Space
Number of Players: 1-4
Age: 12+
Time To Play: 15 minutes x players
Tabletop Simulator Mod: Playtest Nexum Galaxy Now On Tabletop Simulator!
Kickstarter: Kickstarter Taking Late Pledges
Official Website: eclipseeditorial.com
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