tabletopgaming.co.uk 33publisher’s database, it was just so long! It was
like rough the Ages: e Dice Game: e
Bronze Age or something like that, it was just
way too long. So I’m happy that the name has
gone on a bit of a diet.”
TIME ROLLS ON
Leacock and his games have come a long way
since Roll rough the Ages rst landed on
tables, but despite his stardom in the decade
since the designer is keen to keep his feet on
the ground.
“We haven’t released this one, so I’m trying to
take it one at a time,” he comments carefully when
discussing the future of the Era series. “I really
want to learn and see: how does this one go?”
He compares the measured approach
to Pandemic Legacy, the hugely innovative
episodic spin on his other 2008 release co-
created with Rob Daviau that helped cement
Leacock’s celebrity presence on the tabletop.
“We had the rst one out and we had a good
start on the second one, but we learned a lot
from the community as they enjoyed the rst
one that we could then roll those insights into
the second,” he says. “I don’t want to get too
far ahead of myself before we see what people
think of Medieval.”
Speaking of legacy games, Leacock is quick
to dismiss any notion of feeling pressured into
transforming more of his earlier projects – or
their later successors, for that matter – into the
grand, story-focused format.
“ ose things are really big undertakings,
so I don’t take them lightly,” he laughs.
“I’m happy to work on lighter games in-
between. It’s fun; you can bring them to a
really high level of quality because you can
really obsess about every single little detail
where in a legacy game you’re pouring your
obsession into the story and the longer-term
arc elements. With these smaller games,you can really just try to polish them up like
little gems.”
With no less ambition to be ahead of
the curve ten years on (among projects
mentioned in passing is a dexterity game he’s
been “hacking away at” – “I’ve really been
trying – those are di cult!” he laughs – as well
as his current fascination with playing with
“dimensionality” and “physicality”), Leacock
re ects on his own journey through the ages
into a new era.
“I just feel a little bit more con dent when
I come to designing these things,” he says. “I
have more of a process, so I think I can watch
people play a little bit more objectively and am
a little bit more in tune with what I’m feeling
when I’m playing the games. But nothing
dramatic; more of just, y’know, you get some
more experience and you can apply that to the
next project and, each one, you feel a little bit
more con dent.”Medieval Age’s
‘roll-and-build’
gameplay
features players
building up a 3D
city on their board