James Wallis will be a familiar name to many British gamers, especially those of a certain age. Having cut his teeth writing for White Dwarf in the 1980s, he set up Hogshead Publishing in the 90s, and kept the Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play flame alive at a time when Games Workshop were uninterested, released his own RPGs such as the innovative proto-story game The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen and co-founded the Diana Jones Award.

In Everybody Wins however Wallis turns his attention away from RPGs and instead towards the world of board games, using Germany’s prestigious Spiel des Jahres award to guide us through four decades of tabletop history and game design. For those unaware the Spiel des Jahres (literally Game of the Year) is an annual award decided by a jury of German games critics that is presented at the annual, unfathomably massive, Essen Spiel gaming convention. With Germany being a country that takes both fun and boardgames incredibly seriously the awards are pretty much the Oscars of the board game world and, as Wallis shows, a decent snapshot of how they have both evolved and thrived over the years.

Starting with 1979’s unlikely inaugural winner, David Parlett’s Hare and Tortoise, the book diligently works its way through the decades taking us right up to last year’s triumphant Cascadia. Along the way we learn about not just the games that have won but how they've reflected the state of the industry and discover the personal histories and rivalries of the, usually neatly bearded, designers behind them, rock stars of the board game world such as Wolfgang Kramer, Klaus Teuber and Reiner Knizia.

Of course for all its importance the Spiel des Jahres is just one award and one that is heavily slanted to a particular school of game design. As Wallis notes there are no Warhammers, Pokemons or Trivial Pursuits to be found amongst its laureled winners. No, the Spiel des Jahres is very much a celebration of the Eurogame, a style of tabletop game that, generally speaking, ‘involves little direct conflict between players and less luck than traditional board games, with a central theme reflected in the game’s premise and visual presentation.’ 

Still, despite its narrow focus it's undeniable that many of its winners, huge selling titles such as 1995’s CATAN or 2018’s Azul, have set the family friendly, gold standard we look to in much modern board game design. These are the kind of titles that even those who might consider themselves allergic to cardboard chits, meeples and dice could be coaxed in to playing after a beer or particularly satisfying lunch, and that broadsheet newspapers will hail every six to twelve months with a wide eyed feature on the paradoxically never ending, yet somehow always just starting, board game revival.

Wallis is an engaging writer, he both clearly knows a lot about and loves his subject and beyond just providing an in depth description of each game also provides invaluable context. Each and every winner is placed within the wider gaming landscape of their day, showing how they were either representative of the current zeitgeist or, as in the case something like Donald X Vaccarino’s deck building 2009 winner Dominion, kickstarted an entirely new wave of games. 

Wallis also doesn't just take the juries word for it and casts his own judicious eye over each entry, appraising whether they really were worthy winners at the time and if they still stand up to scrutiny today. He even takes the time to briefly surmise each year’s runner ups, so even if you’re just looking to fill your gaming shelf you’ll find enough recommendations here to keep you busy for years.

Beyond just being an interesting history of boardgames, Everybody Wins is also a fabulous resource for those interested in game design itself. Throughout the book Wallis introduces and explains, in much clearer terms than many rulebooks, the gaming mechanics that have been developed and refined over the years by some of the most serious looking people in the business.

Too often game designers seem content to silo themselves off into their own little worlds, many RPG or wargame designers often blithely unaware of what is happening within a slightly different part of their own scene let alone what neatly bearded Germans might be doing with rondels. And yet, as we see with RPGs like Dread or The Wretched that have adopted the use of Jenga towers to wonderful effect, there is a lot of mileage in peering over the fence for inspiration.

More than just an expansive eBay wishlist Everybody Wins is as much a delight to read as many of these games are to play and a wonderful overview of what, for all the worries about the impact of computer games, has been a remarkably successful and inventive four decades for tabletop games. A worthy tribute then to these award winning games and the great minds (and (perhaps too) often neatly trimmed beards) behind them.

Author: James Wallis
Published by Aconyte Books

This feature originally appeared in Wyrd Science Vol.1, Issue 4 (April '23)

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