Magazine Madness 36: Senet Issue 15

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

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Senet is a print magazine about the craft, creativity, and community of board gaming. Bearing the tagline of “Board games are beautiful”, it is about the play and the experience of board games, it is about the creative thoughts and processes which go into each and every board game, and it is about board games as both artistry and art form. Published by Senet Magazine Limited, each issue promises previews of forthcoming, interesting titles, features which explore how and why we play, interviews with those involved in the process of creating a game, and reviews of the latest and most interesting releases. Senet is also one of the very few magazines about games to actually be available for sale on the high street.

Senet Issue 15 was published in the summer of 2024 and as its cover hints, the issue includes an article exploring Ancient Rome as a theme in board games. The theme is also linked to the issue’s exploration of a gaming mechanic, that of dice rolling, as well as highlighting a joke reference in the article about Ancient Rome that is very obvious. It is surprising to see a pair of roleplaying games advertised in the issue, but this not worry the regular reader. Senet is still very much about board games.

The issue proper begins with highlighting some of the forthcoming games with its regular preview, ‘Behold’. Highlights here include Power Vacuum, a game about power and power in a government of power household appliances after their dear leader, a vacuum cleaner (hence the title, a glorious pun), has died; Final Cut, a card game about making horror films; and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. There is a filmic theme running through several of these previews, both in terms of inspiration and title. ‘Points’, the regular column of readers’ letters, contains a mix of praise for the magazine and a discussion of gaming culture. It still feels limited at just a single page and it is clear from the letters that the magazine is well liked, so it seems a shame that it cannot be expanded to build a community around the magazine via the letters page. ‘For Love of the Game’, continuing the journey of the designer Tristian Hall towards the completion and publication of his Gloom of Kilforth—and beyond. By now, very beyond. In this issue, he focuses on the joys of being a solo designer as well as the pitfalls of working with others. Of course, he cannot name names, but the lack of details or examples means that there is no important advice to learn or dangers to warn about, and the article is simplistic and obvious.

The tried and tested format of the magazine continues in Senet Issue 15: Two interviews, one with a designer, one with an artist, and one article exploring a game mechanic whilst another looks at a game theme. It is a format that works well since it throws a light on different aspects of the hobby and its creators. The first interview is with Bruno Cathala, a designer whose output is often eclipsed by other designers. His notable designs include Shadows Over Camelot with the late Serge Laget, which was an early co-operative design with the innovative addition of a traitor mechanic—later reimplemented in Battlestar Galactica, the Spiel des Jahres-winning Kingdomino, and the delightful Sea Salt & Paper. Cathala talks about his most notable successes and their development, often leading the reader to realise that they have played more of his games than they had realised. It closes with a list of just some of the stats related to his games—numbers, popularity on BoardGameGeek.com and some of the themes he has explored and some of Senet’s own picks of the best. It would have been interesting to expand on the latter as to why the magazine staff liked those games.

The second interview is with the artist, Cinyee Chiu, whose dream-like depictions of nature can be seen in games such as Harvest Island and Dragon Castle. Just three games are highlighted, so the interview does not feel as expansive as other interviews with artists in previous issues.

Dan Thurot’s ‘Roll Playing’ examines dice as a mechanic in board games. They have the longest history as a mechanic, going all the back to knucklebones of sheep, or astragaloi, used as dice. At their most basic they are rolled in ‘roll and move’ games and they are used in gambling games too. Pointing out that dice add tension and suspense, the looks at a number of different games and ways in which dice are used. The primary means is to generate a result, or ‘output randomness’, but the opposite of that is ‘Input randomness’, where the dice results are used to decide actions. In addition, because they have different numbers on their faces, these can be manipulated, the example cited being Roll Player, the board game of creating fantasy roleplaying game characters. Dice Realms, a game of improving medieval realms, goes even further, by allowing players to actually chance the numbers on the faces of their dice. There could have been a list of other mechanics involving dice that Senet has covered in previous issues, but this is an interesting overview of dice and their use beyond simple ‘roll and ‘move’.

The issue’s theme is Ancient Rome and ‘Empire Building’ by Alexandra Sonechkina starts with the Monty Python reference promised by the editor. The article points out that with a thousand years of history and culture, Ancient Rome has much that can inspire board game design. In board game history, it starts with the many wars and battles fought by the Roman Empire, but there is the gladiatorial arena and chariot racing, the ruthless politics, and ultimately, the construction of Rome itself. From Avalon Hill’s mammoth The Republic of Rome to Matt Leacock’s Pandemic: Fall of Rome, which organises the last defence of Rome as a tower defence game using the Pandemic engine, the article highlights a wide range of games. Magna Roma and Foundations of Rome both deal with the construction of Rome, (though sadly not Glory to Rome), Chariots of Rome and Chariot Race both deal with chariot races, and Gladitores: Blood for Roses, is a crowd-pleasing, blood and guts treatment of gladiators in the arena. So, lots of history and multiple themes in article which could have been much longer. The only issue are the illustrations which focus too tightly on parts of the games rather than the whole games themselves.

‘Unboxed’, Senet’s reviews section covers a wide range of games. The most notable are of Osprey Games’ Sankoré: The Pride of Mansa Musa, a big, heavyweight Eurogame of rival North African school teachers at the University of Timbuktu is awarded ‘Senet’s Top Choice’, whilst the reviews actually start with big review of small games such as Rafter Five and Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs. Another heavy game reviewed is Wyrmspan, the draconic sequel to the highly regarded Wyrmspan, which has been the subject of previous issues of the magazine. Overall, a pleasing selection of games reviewed.

As is traditional, Senet Issue 15 comes to a close with the regular end columns, ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. For ‘How to Play’, ‘How to serve up a great game night’ by Meeple Lady, suggests a recipe to creating and running a game night, which is quite common within the board game hobby. It is good advice, though hosts are likely to swap out the suggested games for ones that they prefer. If the article is surprising that has taken so long for the magazine to talk about hosting a game night. Lastly, Calvin Wong Tze Loon pulls Lands of Galzyr for his ‘Shelf of Shame’. What is interesting is that this a game that he and his partner worked on during the Lockdown, so coming back to it was a kind of rediscovery for him and the strange adventures that the game takes the players on. The article is a change of focus in that the subject is a game designer rather than a reviewer.

Physically, Senet Issue 15 is shows off the board games it previews and reviews to great effect, just as you would expect. It contains a good mix of interesting and informative articles, but the illustrations in ‘Empire Building’ are not as clearly handled as they could have been. There is a sense that Senet is beginning to outgrow its page count at this point. Some of the articles feel as if they should have been longer, ‘Empire Building’ and the regular ‘For Love of the Game’ being examples. Nevertheless, Senet Issue 15 continues the showcase that the magazine has been for the boardgame hobby with very readable content and pleasingly sharp design.