Seth Donnelly's board game and book reviews plus personal essays — a small, plain-spoken personal site, no review copies.https://theshelfgoblin.com/en-UShttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/sleeping-gods/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/sleeping-gods/A gorgeous exploration game that ships its default difficulty way too hot, and asks you to sail back to port so often it starts to feel like a chore between the good parts.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTBoard GamesSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/the-cyberiad/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/the-cyberiad/A robot builds a machine that can make anything starting with the letter N, someone asks it for Nothing, and the universe nearly ends over a joke, which tells you exactly what kind of book this is.Tue, 18 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTBooksSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/why-i-read-the-rulebook-twice/https://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/why-i-read-the-rulebook-twice/Once to understand it, once to catch what I skimmed past the first time thinking it didn't matter yet.Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTPersonalSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/permutation-city/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/permutation-city/I spent more time reading Wikipedia articles trying to actually understand Dust Theory than I spent reading the chapters explaining it, which is either the book's biggest flaw or its whole point.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTBooksSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/star-realms/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/star-realms/A tiny box that turns into a shelf commitment the moment you buy one expansion, but the actual attacking-your-opponent deckbuilding underneath is still some of the fastest fun I own.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTBoard GamesSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/kemet-blood-and-sand/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/kemet-blood-and-sand/Streamlined and mean in the best way for the first two thirds, then the endgame at four or five players runs long enough that everyone's running on fumes by the time somebody actually wins.Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTBoard GamesSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/supersizing-the-mind/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/supersizing-the-mind/The idea that your mind isn't just in your skull, that your notebook or your phone can be a real extension of your cognition, is a genuinely great one buried in a book that spends too long arguing with people who aren't in the room.Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTBooksSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/his-masters-voice/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/his-masters-voice/Contact's evil twin, basically, a first contact story where the whole point is that first contact fails, written by a mathematician who breaks the fourth wall on page 31 to warn you not to expect thrills.Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTBooksSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/the-ticket-queue-and-the-shelf-look-the-same-lately/https://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/the-ticket-queue-and-the-shelf-look-the-same-lately/Fixing a login issue for the third floor archivist and thinking about deckbuilders is not a healthy sign, but here we are.Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTPersonalSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/magical-athlete/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/magical-athlete/Drafting the weird little athletes is the whole game, the actual races are just watching dice roll while you hope your screwage power triggers at the right moment.Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTBoard GamesSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/the-night-maras-apartment-finally-ran-out-of-table/https://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/the-night-maras-apartment-finally-ran-out-of-table/Seven people, one Kemet box, and a kitchen table built for four. Something had to give, and it wasn't the game.Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTPersonalSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/use-of-weapons/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/use-of-weapons/One timeline runs forward, one runs backward toward the same ending, and I had to read the plot on Wikipedia after finishing just to confirm I'd actually understood what the last chapter did to me.Thu, 11 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTBooksSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/rebuilding-the-spreadsheet-from-memory/https://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/rebuilding-the-spreadsheet-from-memory/My laptop died with half my ratings history on it, and trying to reconstruct three years of opinions from memory taught me something uncomfortable about how much I actually remember.Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTPersonalSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/what-lake-effect-snow-does-to-a-reading-pace/https://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/what-lake-effect-snow-does-to-a-reading-pace/Rochester winters aren't dramatic, they're just long, and long turns out to be exactly what a backlog needs.Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTPersonalSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/the-hunger-games/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/the-hunger-games/Read it in a single sitting, hated myself a little for how fast the pages turned, and still noticed the constant hunger reminders getting repetitive by the back third.Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTBooksSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/i-was-wrong-about-the-dice-in-buttons-and-bugs/https://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/i-was-wrong-about-the-dice-in-buttons-and-bugs/I wrote that swapping cards for dice was a real design regression. Fifteen more plays later, I don't think that anymore, and I'm still figuring out what changed.Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTPersonalSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/guards-of-atlantis-ii/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/guards-of-atlantis-ii/The closest a tabletop game has gotten to actual MOBA lane play for me, though the one-action-per-turn structure doesn't quite capture what a cooldown ability feels like on a screen.Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTBoard GamesSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/rising-sun/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/rising-sun/The monster miniatures are the reason half the table backed this on Kickstarter, and they're also, strategically, almost always the wrong thing to actually play.Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTBoard GamesSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/discipline-and-punish/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/discipline-and-punish/Opens with an execution so brutal it reads like horror fiction, then spends three hundred pages walking calmly toward the much quieter, much scarier idea that the prison never really left.Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTBooksSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/where-shelf-goblin-actually-came-from/https://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/where-shelf-goblin-actually-came-from/Colby said it as an insult while we were moving my stuff out of our old place. I liked it too much to be offended.Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTPersonalSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/gloomhaven-buttons-and-bugs/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/gloomhaven-buttons-and-bugs/Tiny box, tiny minis, and a swap from Gloomhaven's card-based attack modifiers to plain dice that makes the whole puzzle noticeably swingier than the original.Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTBoard GamesSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/the-lord-of-the-rings/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/the-lord-of-the-rings/The films had colored my memory of the books more than I realized, and rereading it as an adult meant rediscovering entire stretches, and entire characters, the movies just quietly cut.Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTBooksSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/elder-scrolls-betrayal-of-the-second-era/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/elder-scrolls-betrayal-of-the-second-era/Chip Theory's dice-and-chip combat finally clicks all the way, once you get past a rulebook that explains the five round soft turn limit like it's optional information.Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTBoard GamesSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/solaris/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/solaris/The ocean on Solaris is basically a 3D printer for your worst memories, decades before anyone had a word for 3D printing, and that idea alone earns the slow stretches around it.Sun, 11 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTBooksSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/why-im-done-with-deluxe-kickstarter-pledges/https://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/why-im-done-with-deluxe-kickstarter-pledges/The acrylic upgrade rarely makes the game better and it always makes the shelf heavier.Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTPersonalSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/priya-broke-star-realms-in-four-turns/https://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/priya-broke-star-realms-in-four-turns/I taught her the rules fifteen minutes ago and she's already found the line I've been missing for two years.Sat, 13 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTPersonalSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/cyclades/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/cyclades/Bidding for gods is the best part of the box, then one of our group found the Zeus-into-Pegasus loop and now it's a running joke at the table instead of a real strategic decision.Sat, 06 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTBoard GamesSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/the-long-game-cut-its-thursday-hours/https://theshelfgoblin.com/essays/the-long-game-cut-its-thursday-hours/My local shop closes two hours earlier now, and I've been doing the math on what that actually means for a habit I didn't realize was load-bearing.Thu, 04 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTPersonalSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/castles-of-burgundy-special-edition/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/castles-of-burgundy-special-edition/The acrylic hexes look incredible on the table and also, somehow, forgot to keep the little printed reminder text the cardboard ones had, so now new players are lost.Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTBoard GamesSeth Donnellyhttps://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/the-study-of-instinct/https://theshelfgoblin.com/reviews/the-study-of-instinct/A founding text of ethology that absolutely shows its age in places, and is somehow still one of the more captivating science books I've read this year anyway.Mon, 17 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTBooksSeth Donnelly