Tabletop

The latest in the War Birds series featuring women fighting on the frontlines of history, Rosenstrasse is a tabletop role-playing scenario exploring the experiences of Jewish-Aryan couples in Berlin between 1933 and 1943, informed by the stories of real people and culminating in the historical Rosenstrasse protest. Presented by co-creator Moyra Turkington.

One of the most celebrated games of last year, Root is an asymmetric board game of woodland creatures battling for control of a vast wilderness. With The Underworld, new factions and battlefields take players underground in an expansion that raised over $1.7M on Kickstarter. Presented by designer Patrick Leder and illustrator Kyle Ferrin.

In Resonym’s unique strategic board game Mechanica, players race opponents to build factories to manufacture an army of Tidybots, ambitious vacuum robots intent on cleaning up the world, buying puzzle piece-shaped machines and slotting them together to form the perfect factory. Presented by co-designer Max Seidman.

A telepathic party game from the creators of The Mind and Monikers, Wavelength is a social guessing game where two teams compete to read each other's minds, raising over $320k from 8,600 backers on Kickstarter. Co-designers Alex Hague and Justin Vickers will be at XOXO to show it off.

With a unique set of mixed-reality glasses, Tilt Five aims to bring tabletop games to life in a shared holographic space that blends physical and virtual worlds. Co-founder and electronics pioneer Jeri Ellsworth returns to XOXO along with Amy Herndon, to show off their latest prototype.

In 1001 Odysseys, you take on the role of the bridge crew of the starship Odyssey, leading humanity's journey into the exciting unknown. Your choices drive the story, drawing from a 400-page storybook of options, deciding how the great adventure unfolds. Presented by creator and lead writer Julia Urquhart and Asmadi Games owner Chris Cieslik.

When we heard our friends Jenn Ellis and Keith Baker at Twogether Studios were developing a tabletop game with The McElroys based on The Adventure Zone, their ridiculously popular podcast and NYT bestselling graphic novels, we freaked out. They agreed to conduct a special early playtest for XOXO, but only if you can keep a secret!

The Reigns series of mobile games makes the leap to tabletop with Reigns: The Council, an asymmetric party game for 3-6 people about a monarch seeking the harmony of their realm, and their advisors vying to influence them for their own goals. Artist/illustrator Arnaud de Bock (PikuNiku) joins us from London to share their prototype, coming to Kickstarter later this year.

Like past years, we asked festival friend and GeekDad senior editor Jonathan Liu to share his favorite games from his extensive tabletop library. They're available any time for you to borrow and play, inside Show Bar or in the park. Just bring them back when you're done!