KINGDOM

A game about communities by Ben Robbins, creator of Microscope. Do you change the Kingdom or does the Kingdom change you?

Kingdom is the term used in the game to refer to a community or organisation that the players characters all belong to. At the start of play, the group gets together and builds the Kingdom together and then, through their characters, they explore what the Kingdom is about and what its future holds.

The game has a very minimalist design style, with no real artwork to speak of - even the cover is a simple drawing of a pair of chess pieces - which may feel dry for some, but ultimately I like the straightforward, no-frills approach taken with this book.

Every step of gameplay is laid out plainly, clearly and in order of relevance. One readthrough of the book should be enough to get you started playing, and the way it's written makes it easy enough to flick through to the page you need if any rules questions arise in play. There are also short portions of the book meant to be read out loud in turn by players to help them understand the game's themes and the roles they will play.