On Tabletopia

Tabletopia is so very, very impressive.

Not long ago i'd built Tribes of Korash as a mod in Tabletop Simulator (said mod is here), an app that lets you play big-name board games with friends (or strangers, or by yourself) online, and to build your own designs and release them to the public.

The finished results where good - it's a powerful program. The problem lay in getting people to play it.

Yes, there is a reasonably strong following for Tabletop Simulator within the dedicated board gaming community - ask anyone on Board Game Geek and chances are good they'll know all about it.

But of those users, not all own Tabletop Simulator. Amongst my own playtesting base, very few had even heard of it. And by the time i'd told them about it, where to get it, how much they would pay for it, that they'd have to install the program and then find and subscribe to the Tribes of Korash mod on Steam, their eyes had glazed over and their enthusiasm to play during Covid had tanked.

Enter Tabletopia.

First, it's free (at least with the most basic account, which is still very adequate for playing & creating). As it turns out, this is massive when trying to get people to playtest with you.

Second, it's entirely in-browser. This means that once you've got a design into a playable state, you can simply give someone a URL and (after creating an account) they'll be able to play your design.

What was a struggle to get people to play ToK during Covid became *easy*. I've played half a dozen multiplayer games with people already, with the previous barriers to getting people to play (buying TTS, installing the program, downloading the mod) dissolved. It turns out that when the only steps to playing a design are clicking on a link and signing up, people are often more than happy to do so.

The current Tribes of Korash alpha build (0.03) on Tabletopia is here, with a few screenshots below - I am really happy with how it's turned out.

- Eskalat