Tabletop Games Blog · September 29, 2026 · 16 min
Reality Realisation - how board games represent reality (Topic Discussion)
Board games that represent real historical events face a problem that fiction can largely avoid. The designer can't start with a blank page. Players are going to expect that the game somehow mirrors what actually happened in the past. Yet, a board game can't faithfully reproduce an entire historical period. The designer has to select and simplify, turning the subject into rules and mechanisms. A historical board game can't ever be completely accurate. The question really is how designers decide which parts of reality belong in the game, which can be abstracted, and which should be left out. In this article, I look at this question from the perspectives of five designers, each with a different answer to the problem. Read the full article here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2026/09/29/reality-realisation-how-board-games-represent-reality-topic-discussion/ Useful Links Votes for Women review: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2024/02/10/votes-for-women-digital-eyes/ Pax Pamir 2e review: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2022/08/27/pax-pamir-second-edition-saturday-review/ Sebastian Bae , "Designing Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacific , a professional educational wargame": https://sdhist.com/designing-littoral-commander-indo-pacific-a-professional-educational-wargame/ Mark Herman , "Empire of the Sun: Monograph on U.S. Air Operations versus Japanese Fleet Bases - Truk example": https://medium.com/%40markherman54/empire-of-the-sun-ca2287fe3eff The Players' Aid interview with Tory Brown , Designer of Votes for Women from Fort Circle Games : https://theplayersaid.com/2020/09/07/interview-with-tory-brown-designer-of-votes-for-women-from-fort-circle-games-currently-on-kickstarter/ Game Design Deep Dive interview with Cole Wehrle : https://www.buzzsprout.com/1993070/episodes/12096335 SDHistCon , "Designer roundtable: Gaming the unpleasant": https://sdhist.com/designer-roundtable-gaming-the-unpleasant/ Amabel Holland, "Theme & Mechanisms": https://hollandspiele.com/blogs/hollandazed-thoughts-ideas-and-miscellany/theme-mechanisms Music Intro Music: Bomber (Sting) by Riot ( https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/ ) Music: "I Want To Go Out" from the soundtrack to SILO: Season 1 by Atli Örvarsson, copyright by Apple Video Programming LLC Music: "Fate", "Fragile Hope" and "Our World" by AShamaluevMusic.Website: https://www.ashamaluevmusic.com Support If you want to support this podcast financially, please check out the links below: Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/TabletopGamesBlog Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tabletopgamesblog Website: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/support/ (Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash)