Week 1
Learn it cold
Rules read end to end, table set, players briefed. The log and the clock both start before the first turn does.
The room behind the briefs — where every game is played to a finish, logged hand by hand, and argued into print. No scores, no ads, no rush.
5chairs at one deskWhere games come apart.
38plays logged per verdict
Walk the six weeks
Six weeks, step by step.
The mandate “We call a brief done only when the game has shown us how it doesn’t want to be played.”
Every brief makes the same crossing from the table to the page. Tap a week to see what actually happens that stretch.
Week 2
Table it for real
Full sessions at real player counts — no solo proxies, no rules-as-written guesses. The game as it actually lands.
Week 3
Push the edges
We stress the system — corner cases, runaway leaders, the exact turn where it threatens to fall apart.
Week 4
Cold-read
A writer who hasn’t touched it reads our notes blind and plays from them alone. Every gap shows up fast.
Week 5
Argue it out
The desk disagrees on purpose. Every claim about depth or tempo has to survive the room before it earns a line.
Week 6
Ship it whole
Written in full, caveats and all, and published when it’s done — not because the calendar says Tuesday.
Four rules we don’t bend.
Everything else on the desk is up for argument. These four come with numbers attached, and the numbers don’t move.
Play before we write
At least a dozen finished sessions before a single line ships. No second-hand impressions, no rulebook skims, no “first look”.
12finished sessions, minimum
No scores, only structure
We never rate a game out of ten. We describe what the system asks of you and what it gives back.
0scores out of ten, ever
Slow on purpose
Six weeks a brief, three drafts, one cold-read. We publish when it’s right, never on a schedule.
6weeks a brief
3drafts and a cold-read
Letters on a real chair
Every email lands in front of a person at the desk and gets a reply. Corrections jump the queue and get dated in the open.
14days, the longest wait for a reply
The line everyone repeats, and ours.
Tap a card for how we actually read the take that gets parroted in every rules thread.
Five chairs, one desk.
A brief passes every chair before it prints — tempo, interaction, decision space and the letters, then the editor signs it off.
Suki Tan
Tempo & turn-flowCharts how fast each table loops, and flags exactly where the pace sags.
Bram Hollis
Interaction densityRuns the interaction logs — who is really in whose business, turn by turn.
Cleo Marsh
Editor-in-chief · mechanicsOwns the turn-flow charts and signs off every brief before it ships to print.
Errol Vance
Decision spaceMaps the live choices a turn offers — and the ones the board quietly makes for you.
Joon Park
Letters & communityReads every letter that lands at the desk and answers within a fortnight.What we don’t do.
The shortcuts that turn most game coverage into noise — and what we run instead.
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Scores out of tenStructure, not a number.
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Sponsored postsNo advertorials, ever.
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Review-copy rushSix weeks, every time.
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Top-ten listiclesOne game, fully argued.
Got a game that deserves six weeks?
Send it to the desk. Tips start most briefs, corrections keep them honest, and a good argument is the fastest way onto next fortnight’s bench.
4briefs in print
5chairs reading the mail
14days, longest reply
