Narrative Games

Most board games have a theme. A few board games are their theme - where the mechanics do not illustrate the story but actually become it, where every design decision from the map layout to the card icons exists in service of a single coherent feeling. Sleeping Gods is one of those rare second cases. This is a game about being lost. Not just strategically lost - not the pleasant puzzle-solving kind of lost you feel in Wingspan or Brass. Genuinely, disorienting, where am I, what am I doing here lost. And the extraordinary thing is that this feeling is not an accident or a side effect. It is the entire design intention, and Ryan Laukat - who designed and illustrated the whole thing, solo - has constructed every mechanical layer to produce exactly that sensation. ...

There’s a moment in Sleeping Gods that hits differently when you’re playing alone. You’ve spent three sessions mapping this strange realm, building relationships with your crew, following a rumour across sea and jungle to a crumbling temple. You push open the encounter book to the right entry. You read a few paragraphs. Something unexpected happens. And there’s no one at the table to react to it with - just you and your journal and the atlas spread open before you. ...