Review Fix Exclusive: Bebo Talks ‘The Everything Tabletop Games Book’

Review Fix chats with author Bebo, who discusses his new book, “The Everything Tabletop Games Book.”

About the Book:

The book features more than 100 of the best tabletop games, from Settlers of Catan to Dungeons & Dragons to Pandemic, and author Bebo, of Be Bold Games, breaks down the different genres, how to play each game, rules and strategies to help you win, and even where to play online.

Each entry offers crucial info including the game’s difficulty on a scale of one to five; recommended player age range; how many players are needed; how long it’ll take you to play; when it was released and who the publisher and designer are; and a description of what it’s like to play the game. The book sorts the 100+ games into helpful categories like Cooperative/Groupthink, Deck-building, Role-playing, Hidden Role, Luck-based, Direct Attack, War Games and more, making it easy to source games based on what your group is in the mood to play!

Review Fix: What inspired this book?

Bebo: I have been actively involved in the tabletop gaming community since I was just 3 years old. My grandmother introduced me to games like The Care Bear Care-a-lot game, Monopoly, Cribbage, Scrabble and more. She spent most of her career as a teacher and I was heavily influenced by all of my aunts who were also teachers to continue learning, reading and growing as a young child. With that said, I struggled with attentiveness in reading so tabletop gaming really helped me bridge the gap because they kept me engaged as someone who learns kinetically. 

Board games and card games were something I was fascinated with my entire life and now as an adult, I’ve made it my mission to help people find a game that really works for them. I wrote this book in an effort to help encourage and empower someone who might be interested in tabletop games but isn’t really sure where to start. I want to help make tabletop games more accessible for everyone and I hope that this book helps people find a game that is right for them.

Review Fix: Why do tabletop games still matter?

Bebo: Tabletop games have always been a fantastic tool in teaching adults and children alike but now more than ever, people are desperately looking for a way to disconnect. We go to work and a large majority of our work is online. We come home, we watch TV, we scroll through our Twitter, Facebook or Instagram feeds, we’re constantly being bombarded by the latest news. There’s so much information being thrown at us all the time but it’s so rare for people to be able to sit down at a table across from each other and craft a memorable experience where everyone in the room has a great time. If you’re working together or getting a little back-stabby in a board game, it doesn’t matter as long as you’re laughing and creating memories that everyone gets to walk away with. 

Review Fix: What was the research process like?
Bebo: Luckily for me, I had already played almost every single game in the book and the ones that I hadn’t played, I consulted friends about. I spent a LOT of time on boardgamegeek.com downloading rulebook to games that I didn’t have with me. I remember the funniest part was having to scroll through hundreds of pages in an effort to find where certain genres or games got their start. Scrolling all the way back to the 1600’s took me probably 30 minutes to find what I was looking for and while at times it was painstaking, I can’t help but be grateful that our community has access to such a vast wealth of information on a website like that. 

I also talked to people in my community a ton in an effort to make sure I was putting the right games in the right chapters and genres. I’m very grateful for my friends Daniel Newman, Katie Aidley, Eric Yurko and Jim Goff who gave me a ton of feedback and helps me craft this into something I can be proud of. I would consider them tabletop gaming experts and I can’t thank them enough for their contributions and assistance while writing this book.

I also had to play a bunch of board games I hadn’t played before and I have to thank my 9-year-old daughter Hailey for tolerating me teaching her all of these games. I think she’s played more board games in the last 12 months than most people do in their entire lives. 

Review Fix: Biggest challenge?
Bebo: For 6 weeks of writing this book I was traveling at Board Geek Con and Pax Unplugged for various board game conventions at which I’m a board game photographer and YouTuber.  This is also where I secure new clients for How to Play videos and photography gigs. The biggest challenge was probably buckling down and writing 3000 words a day no matter what, even if I hated what I wrote, I kept writing knowing that I could come back later and revise it. Sometimes I was writing on my laptop on an airplane to Dallas and other times I was writing on my cellphone while taking a train into New York City to visit Hex & Co, a board game cafe. The one thing that kept me going was surrounding myself with my community and games to remind me why I was doing this. To help our community grow and welcome new people into the magical imaginative world that is tabletop gaming.

Review Fix: Biggest reward?
Bebo: Obviously, my daughter is really proud of me for being a published author but the biggest reward here will absolutely be any time someone discovers a new game because they read my book. Growing up I wanted to be a writer, a singer or an actress. I was often times left feeling discouraged from these career paths because they were deemed unrealistic. I had my first poem published by the time I was 12 and I won a nationwide essay contest for Martin Luther King Day when I was 14 which actually gave my first computer and encouraged me heavily to continue writing. Honesty, writing an entire book for the little girl inside of me that always wanted to be a writer is pretty fulfilling.

Review Fix: What did you learn that you weren’t expecting?

Bebo: There was a time that I definitely believed that there were bad games out there. What I learned writing this book was that all games (doesn’t apply to harmful ones), like dogs, are good. Games are about connecting with people and sharing memories. Just because someone doesn’t like a game doesn’t mean it’s a bad game. It means that it’s not the right game for them. Gaming is a journey and I think it’s important that we remember that it’s not winning or losing that matters, its the memories we create along the way.

Review Fix: Bottom line, why must someone read it?

Bebo: This book is tailored to and created for people who haven’t played every single tabletop game on the market. I think a question I get from people on Twitter a ton is, “What game should my family play tonight?” or, “What game should we buy?!” and my answer is always the same, “Well, what games do you like!?”. This book is structured in a way that you can browse the table of contents and identify a game that you like and then you can dig through that chapter and find similar games that you might also enjoy! They’re also ordered in each chapter by difficulty so if you’re looking to start out easy and make your way to more challenging games, this is a great way to do that. It also makes a fantastic coffee table book as a gift because the chapters are broken down into 5-8 games per chapter so it’s easy to pick up and put down in bite-sized bits. 

Review Fix: What’s the next?
Bebo: Well, there sure are a lot of new games coming out every year! Hopefully, eventually, there will be a volume two? There was one game, called Just One that I was so upset I didn’t get to squeeze into the book because it was published after I finished writing it. 

I will continue making my 5-minute how to play videos on Be Bold Games which is my YouTube Channel in an effort to make tabletop gaming more accessible. I also help out with social media management, photography, copy editing and video editing and creation for various board gaming and tabletop gaming companies throughout the industry. 

Later this year I’ll be teaching games at Big Bad Con and Gen Con and then learning games at BoardGameGeek Con. While I travel more than I’d like it’s always worth it and I hope that I can start bringing my daughter to more conventions with me as she gets a bit older. She has recently decided to start playing Dungeons and Dragons with us so long as she can be the Dungeon Master. Robert from Wizards of the Coast was kind enough to give her a Dungeon Master’s Guide when we visited them last week and I can already tell she’s hungry for that power. 

I also always have new board game photography I’m posting on my Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Bebo: If you can, start your kids’ tabletop gaming early. I can honestly say that tabletop gaming shaped me into the person I am today with a never-ending hunger for learning. Finding one of many things I was passionate about in life really changed how I approached the world. Tabletop gaming helped me with critical thinking, basic and advanced math, social skills, problem-solving, confidence, and understanding social dynamics. There’s something new to learn in every game box and while I can’t really play them all, it doesn’t mean I can’t try!