The future of tabletop board games

Illustrations: Lianne HazendonkPolygon

2011 was the 8th Season of Dragons’ DenThe Canadian TV show, ‘The Founder of? Shark Tank, Kevin O’Leary did something remarkable. Instead of investing in DaytraderHe set ablaze the game board he had pitched just a few years earlier. He said that board games are a wasteful of talent and time, and the world would be better without them. Everyone knows today how wrong Mr. One of the most fascinating corners of pop culture was Wonderful, which is still true today.

Tabletop gaming is gaining popularity rapidly over the past decade. You can see the evidence in your local big-box retailer’s board games aisle. The mainstays are MonopolyAnd The Game of Life are still there, of course, but so too are dozensAnd dozens of titles that simply didn’t exist a decade ago. We now know that Wizards of the Coast brings in the lion’s share of Hasbro’s profits through sales of Dungeons & Dragons and The Gathering is MagicThese games contribute more than one million dollars annually to their business units. Meanwhile, tabletop games bring in more than one third of Kickstarter’s total revenue from crowdfunding annually. And yes, even venture capitalists and investors like O’Leary are pouring money into the space, hoping to jumpstart the next generation of transmedia hits.

But the future of tabletop gaming isn’t in the hands of speculators or disgruntled celebrity investors. It’s in the hands of an incredible cohort of talented artists and designers — and the fans who make up one of the most welcoming communities in modern gaming.

We are all celebrating tabletop gaming’s future, and focusing this week on the subjects and creators who will see it to the top in the next decade. Even if you’ve never rolled a 20-sided die in anger, there’s something here for you to learn about and maybe fall in love with. Welcome to Polygon’s future of tabletop week. You are invited to take a seat.