Who we are

We're a small group of friends who kept losing the first forty minutes of every game night to the question in this site's name. So we started writing down what actually worked, for four people on two phones, for twelve people around one table, for two people in two time zones.

Every page says what backs it. Human sessions carry a play count. If we use a controlled rules simulation, that label sits beside the verdict and we do not count it as a play. Verdicts are signed by the person who'll defend them. Nobody pays us for placement, and "skip it" stays on the menu. The goldfish is a long story.

The four of us

♣ einar: Wrangles the big nights. Learned the Storyteller role so nobody else has to, and has run six games of Clocktower without once calling it hosting.
♦ rosa: Keeps the two-time-zone game nights alive. Has watched every Gartic Phone prompt turn into a crime scene, and keeps the screenshots as evidence.
♠ sam: Owns the phones-on-the-table games. Seventeen Spaceteam runs in, and the reason the downstairs neighbor once texted to ask if everything was ok.
♥ maya: Reads the room, then escalates it. Forty-one games of Fishbowl and still puts things like the economy in the bowl to see what happens.

Editorial method

How a game earns a page

We show the evidence. Human sessions get play counts and table notes. A rules simulation gets that exact label and cannot support claims about table behavior.
One person signs the verdict. Their profile, evidence count, and last-updated date stay attached to it.
We write down the awkward parts. Downtime, confusing rules, wrong group sizes, and failed house rules are useful, so they do not get edited out.
Readers stay separate from editors. Player ratings appear as Player Takes; they never rewrite the signed editorial verdict.

Nobody pays for placement. If that ever changes, the relationship will be labeled on the page where it matters.

Photo credits

These photographs appear beside our guides and are used with thanks.

The two-color illustrations in our guides are generated images, made for this site. They are not photographs and nobody is credited for them.