As a board game, Sleeping Gods’ rules are fairly simple. Each turn, the active player moves a shared crew meeple to a new room aboard the ship, gaining bonuses such as cards and resources, before resolving an event card and taking two actions. These actions are the things you’d expect, like moving between spaces on the central map (a book serves as the game’s atlas board) and interacting with things you find around the world. Sounds pretty much like a board game so far, I’ll admit.

Your tablet, phone, or PC runs the enemy behavior, freeing up players to cooperate against the dungeon and pursue a lengthy multi-adventure narrative. Characters acquire new gear and abilities that allow them to grow in strength over time. The integration of an electronic device allows for ease of play while retaining some sophisticated effects, such as weapons that trigger various boons on a percentage chance. This is woven into the system in a very modern, video game-like way that produces a rich sense of discovery atop a very streamlined and efficient board game. Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies is a standalone sequel set in the world of Sleeping Gods. As in the original game, you and your friends trek through a vast landscape as you read branching storylines and meet vivid characters, but in this game you interact with the atlas on a deeper level — camping, exploring, overcoming obstacles, and searching for lost relics. The new action system allows you even greater agency while you travel and explore. Tabletop adaptations of video games are everywhere nowadays. From enormous open-world beasts like Elden Ring and intense shooters like Apex Legends to indie basically-a-board-game-already darlings such as Slay the Spire and Dorfromantik, it’s all but impossible to avoid the latest mountain of cardboard and miniatures based on a video game hot property. In Sleeping Gods, you and up to 3 friends become Captain Sofi Odessa and her crew, lost in a strange world in 1929 on your steamship, the Manticore. You must work together to survive, exploring exotic islands, meeting new characters, and seeking out the totems of the gods so that you can return home.That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because video game board games have also never been better! Gone are the days of generic cash-ins, replaced by thoughtful, faithful (sometimes to a fault) adaptations that aim to capture the atmosphere and mechanical depth of video games on the tabletop. Just look at the tense Sniper Elite board game, the gleefully stealthy Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice or A New Dawn’s inventive take on strategy classic Sid Meier’s Civilization. Even that once-terrible Dark Souls board game is sort of worth playing now. Still, even with video game adaptations finally hitting their stride, it turns out they’re often still no match for a properly immersive tabletop title that can beat them at their own (board) game.

Ryan Laukat’s Sleeping Gods is the crowning achievement of Red Raven Games. It’s an open world co-operative adventure best described as tabletop’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Players control a crew of sailors running a 1920s steamship that gets lost amid a cluster of unknown islands promising fortune and danger. The combination of whimsical presentation with serious mechanical underpinnings makes for a very gratifying 15-hour journey.Quests feel akin to spotting something enticing glinting in the distance in The Legend of Zelda, or spying a subtle puzzle clue in adventure classics like Myst. The third iteration of Fantasy Flight Games’ Descent series, Descent: Legends of the Dark is a stylish set of dungeon crawlers in the HeroQuest tradition. Legends of the Dark was one of the best board games of 2021, providing a touch of innovation by pairing the tabletop miniatures delving with a robust app. The combination offloads some of the procedural weight of play while also instilling a distinct sense of mystery. 3D components – such as multi-level dungeons atop pillars, lavish bookcases, and large spindly trees – provide oomph to the physical aspect of the game, ensuring the app never steals focus. The biggest surprise of 2021 was Michael Menzel’s The Adventures of Robin Hood. This oddity is a family weight game where players take on the roles of classic characters such as Robin Hood, Maid Marion, or Little John. Up to four participants work together to traverse a lovingly illustrated board depicting Nottingham and the surrounding forest. The goal is to avoid the Sheriff’s guards and accomplish various story-based objectives that parallel the classic tale.