Canadian classic
Crokinole and the geometry of flicking
A dexterity game with deep Canadian roots, where the board's scoring rings turn a flick of the finger into a question of angle and weight.
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Board game design · Tabletop strategy
How tabletop games are built, balanced, and played.
Tatorrami reads board games as designed objects. Each piece examines rule structures, balance choices, and the decisions players make at the table, with examples drawn from Canadian tabletop traditions.
How a game is read here
Three layers we look at in every design.
A board game can be examined the way a process can: as a sequence of stages, each with its own questions. These labels organize how the articles approach a design.
Concept
Rules
Balance
Playtest
Release
Rule structure
How turn order, actions, and constraints fit together, and where a single rule quietly carries most of the weight.
Balance
Whether strategies stay viable across a game, and how starting positions or randomness are kept from deciding the result alone.
Decision-making
The texture of choices a player faces: open information, hidden information, and the trade-offs that make a turn interesting.
Articles
Reading three games up close.
Design
Designing balanced rule systems
What keeps a rule set fair as games scale in length and player count, using long-lived abstract games as reference points.
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Strategy
Decision-making and randomness
How dice, draws, and hidden information shape choices, and where chance supports a game rather than overwhelming it.
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Contact
Send a note about a topic or correction.
Reader questions about a rule reading or a balance argument are welcome. This form runs entirely in the browser and does not transmit data.
Editorial details
- Focus
- Board game design and tabletop strategy.
- Region
- Written from Canada, with attention to local play traditions.
- Image sources
- All photographs are from Wikimedia Commons under their respective licenses.
- Languages
- English.