Celebrate Tabletop Gaming Magazine’s 11th Birthday with Former Editor Christopher John Eggett: An Epic Celebration

As Tabletop Gaming celebrates its 11th birthday, former Editor Christopher John Eggett reflects on his time with the magazine, from defining games and standout interviews to the moments that made his editorship unforgettable.

CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT

Issues 36-79

November 2019-June 2023

Do you have a favourite magazine cover from your time as Editor? 

The special-edition subscriber cover for Carcassonne’s 20th anniversary. We were able to fully recreate the box art and layout. Carcassonne is where hobby gaming started for me, so it really felt like coming home.

Who was your favourite interview at Tabletop Gaming?  

There’s so many. Cole Werhle (Oath) is someone who thinks about games in the same way as literature, and I resonated with that. Sean Aaberg’s (Dungeon Degenerates) art-punk roots are inspirational. Pelle Nilsson and Johan Nohr’s MÖRK BORG origin story (written in lunchbreaks) was a joy to report. But if it comes down to pure ‘would like to go for a pint with,’ it’s got to be David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin (Undaunted, War Chest) as a pair. And I should have let them get me into hex-and-counter wargames much earlier!

Is there a game you feel defined your era of the magazine?

There are two. The first is Oath: Chronicles of Exile and Empire – a game that is so good at aligning player position and intention that you can teach it by asking people what they want to do. You can really ‘compose’ a turn in it. It also has a kind of ‘memory’ where each time you play, you change the constitution of the world for the next game, so there’s a record of everyone who played.

It was a cap on the destructive legacy era, and an invitation to designers to add more ‘life’ to their games. MÖRK BORG is the second. It spawned a new and energetic wave of indie roleplaying games by being so open to graphic design fun, and there being plenty of obvious gaps for new supplements to fill. Seeing the huge community form around it felt like getting in on the ground floor of an exciting new movement.

Is there a game you always wanted to get involved with, but were too busy creating the magazine to sit down and play?

Yes, every huge campaign game! Sadly, assigning away things you really want to play is all part of the job.

Do you have a favourite game that you still play today?

Mausritter, which I regret only giving a half page at the time, is the TTRPG I play with my daughter the most. There’s nothing like being placed in the relatable-but-scaled-down-world of mouse adventuring for bringing out the surprising capacity for violence and ingenious trap-setting that lives inside a six-year-old girl.

Was there one standout event you went to that made you feel this job is special?

The AireCon before the world closed because of Covid had a very ‘trying to play Jenga on the Titanic’ feel about it. I made some good friends there under the strained circumstances.

What was the biggest change in gaming during your time in charge?

Covid changed the way games were designed and how they were designed to be played. Solo became a primary testing and playing feature, and remote collaboration meant that the social fizz of gaming took a backseat. The games that came out at the end of my time were smoother, more rounded experiences – but often lacked the intentionally created cross-table frustration. They felt like lovely machines or fairground rides. The upside is a lot of really good solo experiences, of course!

If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice at the start of your editorship, what would it be? 

Don’t take having fun quite so seriously.

Hear from the other magazine Editors from Tabletop Gaming’s 11-year history:

Rob Burman: Issues 1-6 (Summer 2015-Autumn 2016)

Matt Jarvis: Issues 7-35 (September 2016-October 2019)

Charlie Pettit: Issues 85-106 (December 2023-August 2025)

Matt Chapman: Issues 107+ (September 2025-Present Day)