Two Rex Makes #1 - I don’t know what I’m doing

Best to start as I mean to go on, I want to document the process of designing our first board game. And I want to be honest about it! I've played games in one form or another my whole life but settling down and having 2 little kids saw gaming take a back seat for almost a decade. As with many people the pandemic provided me time through enforced isolation, (after the kids were asleep!) stranded on the little island that is our house. That time re-connected me with board games and via the magic of zoom & the internet, I also re-connected with my oldest gaming buddy, my brother. He lives just outside of London, and I live 400 miles away in Scotland, so we don’t see each other as much as we’d like!

Diving back into the hobby revealed all the incredible modern games that I'd never experienced before. I wasn't conscious of it at first but somewhere in the back of my brain I was storing mechanisms, analysing why I thought this thing was fun or engaging or why this aspect wasn’t working for us. Then one day in February I had an idea for a game! After a run of campaign games, I'd been craving quicker experiences and seeking out well-rated roll & writes.

‘l could make one of these’

said my brain,

‘really?’

Said me.

‘At least give it a try or I'm not going to let you think about much else’

said my brain.

So I put pen to paper and jotted down my idea…