Top games of the week: Abstract Playing Cards, Trailblazers & Pocket Hex

Looking for fall tabletop games? Check out this week's board game roundup. From Trailblazers to Halls of Hegra, these games make you want to hunker down and play.

We love the look of these Abstract cards

Fall is just around the corner. So now’s the perfect time to stock up on games to play once the chilly weather moves in. Yes, these exciting games are ideal for playing in front of a roaring fire or on a fall hike—if you’re playing Trailblazers.

Whether you love card games, RPGs, or puzzle-based games, today’s selection will get you pumped. So grab yourself a cup of coffee and an oatmeal cookie, and let’s break down these games.

Abstract Playing Cards

Are your game nights more about poker than fantasy RPGs? Then you’ll appreciate Abstract Playing Cards. A revamp of the traditional card deck, the black suits are a blue hue while special cards are abstract renditions of themselves.

The King, Queen, Joker, Back, and Jack have a completely new look. They use only the primary shapes—circles, rectangles, squares, and triangles. Meanwhile, the high-quality 310 gsm German black core linen card stock is a joy to play with.

Preorder Abstract Playing Cards for about $14 on Kickstarter.

Trailblazers

If you spend your weekends hiking or biking in the mountains, Trailblazers is for you. Billed as a biking, hiking, and kayaking game that you can take with you on these adventures, it takes 30 minutes to play and is suitable for ages 8+. Players love the easy-to-teach rules, puzzley gameplay, and waterproof cards.

The third spatial puzzle game by award-winning designer Ryan Courtney, Trailblazers is different from its predecessors due to its simple rules, quick playtime, waterproof PVC cards, solo mode, and more, making it one of the most exciting tabletop games on Kickstarter this week.

Pledge $10 for the print-and-play option.

Doomensions

A great game for Halloween is Doomensions. This immersive pop-up mystery manor is designed for 1–4 players, ages 14+. It takes 5–10 hours to play.

Here’s the premise: a mysterious package company and strange correspondence invite you and your friends to enter and investigate a mystery manor full of puzzles, escape experiences, and ghostly haunts.

No assembly is required for the 3D manor, but you will need to repeatedly explore it to answer questions and gather clues.

Preorder it for about $62 on Kickstarter

Pocket Hex

Satisfy your RPG cravings for the week with Pocket Hex. This unique set of 3 pocketmods let you play an RPG adventure as a solo player across a hex map.

Created to give you the opportunity to play a small RPG at any time and for shorter intervals, this game has great replay potential, making it one of the most exciting tabletop games of the week.

The gameplay involves playing against a dice-based time function through a series of d6s, where you rotate the dice down by 1 starting from 6. Each day of gameplay includes a series of procedures you can follow.

If you don’t have your dice or you forgot to bring them, you can play the diceless system. Designed for convenient RPG play, Pocket Hex can also serve as a journaling game.

Want to play Pocket Hex? A $4 pledge on Kickstarter gets you a printed version.

Halls of Hegra

Indulge in your love for historical games with Halls of Hegra. Created in the same style as This War of Mind and Dead of Winter, this solo game places you in an abandoned fortress in the mountains, commanding a group of Norwegian volunteers at the start of WWII.

Outnumbered by the German army, you and your group need to defend the nearby village fortress as you prepare for the siege. Can you endure bombings and attacks while keeping up morale?

The suspense and clever mechanics of Halls of Hegra make it one of the most exciting tabletop games on Kickstarter this week.

Preorder the digital copy of Halls of Hegra for about $7 on Kickstarter.

Transitioning to cooler weather will be a breeze this fall with these cool board games in your game cupboard. Do you have any titles to recommend? Let us know!