Bryan Bornmueller

The original Far Side Cow Tools Cartoon by Gary Larson. A cow stands on its hind legs behind a table, staring blankly at the viewer from behind its heavy brow ridge. On the table are four crudely made tools: a lump, a lump with an offset crooked handle, a long stick with hooked prongs at the end, and a crude handsaw with irregular teeth. In the background a barn sits on a hill. Caption reads, "Cow tools."

43 years ago today, readers the world over opened their newspapers and gazed upon cow tools for the first time. happy birthday cow tools. you look great.

1 please!

It’s a Souls-like.

Really amazing to see all of the demos and support for The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game here at Essen SPIEL. What a wonderful year it has been!

Green top border with text: Board Game Stats Picture of the BG Stats most popular new game award. Text: Most Popular new game 2025 Harmonies Played by 31,8% of the users since Spiel 2024 Runners-up - Flip 7 29,0% - Seti 22,6% - Castle Combo 21,4% - Lord of the Rings - Duel for Middle-Earth 20,9% Awarded to Johan Benvenuto Stats based on users using Cloud sync from October 7th, 2024 up to August 2025

We are very pleased to announce that Harmonies has won our Most Popular New Game Award 2025!

The fourth annual award was awarded to designer Johan Benvenuto!

Read more about this award here: www.bgstatsapp.com/2025/10/21/m...

#bgstats #Harmonies #boardgames #brettspiele #j2s

I hope we cross paths!

If people want to pitch Asmodee, they should send me a sell sheet!

bbornmueller@asmodee.com

A photo of a 1970s Japanese Menko card with an illustration of R2-D2, C3PO and Chewbacca from Star Trek

Ok, we can all call off the search I have just found the single greatest illustration of Chewbacca in the history of absolutely everything

Now can someone buy approximately 30 copies of our new issue in the next few hours so I can vaguely justify bidding on it

ebay.us/m/kBp6Bo

YouTube video by Nerd of the Rings PREVIEW: The Two Towers Trick Taking Game | Gen Con 2025

If you want to see me play the first few chapters of The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game with the amazing Krystal (from Office Dog) and Matt (from Nerd of the Rings), then I have good news for you!

youtu.be/NbP_H98PB7M?...

A display of Coyote & Crow, the roleplaying game, Wolves, the cooperative board game, Naasii, the Coyote & Crow Dice Game, and a set of custom dice for the RPG. All created by Cherokee Nation citizen, Kenna Alexander.

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day! Today we celebrate the heritage, beauty, and perseverance of hundreds of cultures and nations across North America that have thrived and endured here for thousands of years, and will be around for thousands more.
If you want to support this Native: bit.ly/3L67Yrs

The best version of Liars Dice!

I think so!

YouTube video by Nerd of the Rings PREVIEW: The Two Towers Trick Taking Game | Gen Con 2025

If you want to see me play the first few chapters of The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game with the amazing Krystal (from Office Dog) and Matt (from Nerd of the Rings), then I have good news for you!

youtu.be/NbP_H98PB7M?...

Great working with you. It came out so well!

YouTube video by kovray Top 10 Trick Taking Board Games

The conclusion! Top 10 Trick Taking Board Games: youtu.be/j-_gUSAilZo

It's been so fun diving into this genre, and we're so delighted to share some of our favorite trick-taking games with you!

It has a big baby!

Orthogonal

Congrats!

Anti-Fun There’s one word I try to never use when writing about board games. The F-word. No, not that one. “Fun.” There it is. My critical curse word. Today I want to talk about why “fun” isn’t an especiall…

For today's article, I'm just griping about why "fun" is a bad word for critics. spacebiff.com/2025/09/30/a...

The golden rule: do unto others as you’d have them do unto you, but if the rule on a card conflicts with this rule, follow the rules on the card

Photo of the U Bahn stop outside the Grugahalle in Essen Germany

I will be at SPIEL Essen next month.

Please send me an e-mail (bbornmueller@asmodee.com) with a sell sheet, video, or whatever details you can share about your game if you’d like to get time my calendar.

Please feel free to share this post with other game designers you may know!

Maybe the Walker?

What's it going to take to get this playing in the Twin Cities?

@alamodrafthouse.bsky.social? @trylon.org? Heights Theater? Riverview Theater?

I think about the retired folks who played bridge every Tuesday morning at the Borders books cafe I worked at in college and can’t wait to do the same but with my backlog.

1 copy please.

(Same as Office Dog, Krystal)

I believe Asmodee will have some at PAXU (sorry I don't have any more details than that). I official street date is January 16th 2026 (I year after Fellowship).

👀

We're back to spread the joy of trick-taking. youtu.be/vRlf-fASb8A

Today we're ranking ALL of our trick taking games, well... maybe not all. This is Part 1 after all...

Let us know what you think of this new format!