The hardest part of this game is convincing your friends to play.

I know this is just a hypothetical situation, but let's say some rampant disease was preventing you from being able to play board games with your friends. Well, Tabletop Simulator would be your hero.

I have been highly sceptical of TTS for a long time.

I'm an avid IRL table top gamer and - having played a few board games online (web based) - I felt that clicking on a screen cannot compare in the slightest to sitting around a table moving cards, tokens, and rolling dice, hanging around with friends. "Thanks but no thanks!" I thought.

Boy, I was wrong.

Wen the corona crisis came and I was forced into TTS to keep playing with my mates, I realised how TTS is not what I thought it was. It is not a collection of games whose rules have been coded in an algorithm, it is a physics simulator for the top of a table. The fact you use that table to play games on it is almost incidental.

That means that playing in TTS feels a lot like playing IRL, you still get to roll dice, shuffle cards, moving tokens around... all while chatting merrily with your friends.

So, this brings me to the top 3 pros of this game for me:
1. It retains 83% of what makes a board games night with friends IRL a great experience.
2. The fact some games are scripted cuts down on the tedious tasks (e.g.: setup, cleanup, scoring...)
3. The availability of thousands of games allow you to get to know a lot more games than you'd discover if you had to purchase them IRL.

Moreover for the last point: I was worried that playing games for free online would have disincentivised me from buying the physical ones the game designers get their livelihood from.

I was wrong on that account too.

While I played some games that I did not like and would not buy IRL, I discovered many more games that I fell in love with and of which I have now ordered the physical copy (that I would have never bought of my own accord otherwise).

So I feel like to endorse TTS completely.

On a side note: I am also very grateful the devs chose to release the linux version too, as that is the only computing platform I use.

10/10 It lets me play a certain tabletop wargame without spending 1000 dollars.

i can play warhammer and pay child support

Perfect for when you're in a COVID-19 quarantine, but still crave board games.

Don't make the mistake I made of getting it with no one to play with

*Warning Wall-o-text Incoming!*

I recently got back into Tabletop Simulator, making it my "main game" of sorts. I had taken a pretty big hiatus from most other games because It kind of lacked fulfillment, getting tired of grinding on a lot of MMO's. I distinctly remember someone in the old group saying "oh yeah, Tabletop Simulator. I bought it, flipped the table over and over, and threw stuff around, then closed it out after 30 minutes or so."

I'm writing this because anyone who has played this "game" knows how heartbreaking that above line of text is, and how anyone considering buying this needs to know this isn't just a physics sandbox. This game alone has made me realize how much tabletop gaming has come, and how much it has evolved from "My cousin always beats me in Monopoly, UNO, etc.."

When you first boot the game up and try to join a multiplayer lobby, MOST of the games will be locked. You won't know how to play most games, and most public games will be simple things like Uno or Blackjack. If there is one thing I could fault the game on, I feel the community as a whole should allow a lot more spectating of advanced games.

However, this is the only nitpick I would have. The real magic of this game is made apparent once you visit the workshop. You have virtually every single board and card game at your disposal.

• Want to play ANY game you currently have on your shelf? It's here.
  
• Want to play an old classic from your childhood you don't have anymore? It's here
  
• Want to try new games people have talked about like Catan, Twilight Emperium, Ticket to Ride? It's here
  
• Do you play a CCG, like Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic: The Gathering? Every single card in existence is yours..
  
• The statement"Damn.. that game costs $80.. I'm not dropping that much on something I don't know" now turns into "Let me download this on Tabletop to see if it's WORTH that $80"

As of writing, I have about 70 different board and card games, games back from the 80's, 90's, and up to games released merely months ago.

• If you have ANY interest in board or card games, you NEED this.
  
• If you have a group of friends and crave those nights growing up playing classics, you NEED this.
  
• If you have interest in learning about even ONE board or card game, you NEED this
  
• If you don't have anyone who plays board games with, join this game's discord, and find others. If you enter with an open mind and willingness to learn new games, I promise you will not be disappointed.

you can do a jigsaw puzzle of saul goodman

Have you ever used a table? It's like that