What Do We Really Want from a Sequel?

Дата публикации: 13-07-2026 13:39:32

Taking a note from Hollywood, the tabletop game industry has been enamored with sequels for the last decade. It makes sense: If people already like X game, a way to serve that audience is to make X2. I’m specifically talking about sequels, not new editions, spinoffs, or duel versions. Different game with the same core […]

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Taking a note from Hollywood, the tabletop game industry has been enamored with sequels for the last decade. It makes sense: If people already like X game, a way to serve that audience is to make X2.

I’m specifically talking about sequels, not new editions, spinoffs, or duel versions. Different game with the same core mechanisms and core theme. There’s a blurry, debatable line between sequels and spinoffs, but here’s a potential guidepost: I consider Wingspan Pocket a sequel to Wingspan, but I consider Wyrmspan and Finspan to be spinoffs.

Here are a few well-known sequels:

• Frosthaven is a sequel to Gloomhaven
• The 7th Citadel is a sequel to The 7th Continent
• The Queen’s Dilemma is a sequel to The King’s Dilemma
• Dune Imperium: Uprising is a sequel to Dune Imperium
• Great Western Trail: New Zealand is a sequel to Great Western Trail
• Age of Innovation is a sequel to Terra Mystica (as are, arguably, Gaia Project and Terra Nova)
• Azul Summer Pavilion is a sequel to Azul
• Ticket to Ride Europe is a sequel to Ticket to Ride
• Mysterium Park is a sequel to Mysterium
• Between Two Castles is a sequel to Between Two Cities
• The Isle of Penguins is a sequel to The Isle of Cats

I could go on and on. There are way more new games than sequels, but there are still plenty of sequel examples to draw from.

This leads me to two questions:

1. How does a publisher/designer know which games to select for sequels?
2. What do people really want from a sequel?

How does a publisher/designer know which games to select for sequels?

I think there are a few overlapping factors here. One is the customer response to the original game. If your game brings joy to thousands of tabletops and those customers are still asking for more, that’s a good sign. Of course, you still have a choice between a sequel, a spinoff, or an expansion.

That’s where the second factor enters play: What are you excited to make, if anything? If you’re completely done with a game after creating it, that’s perfectly fine. Or maybe you’re only excited to make an expansion. Or perhaps you want to explore the same world but with new mechanisms (e.g., Expeditions as a spinoff of Scythe). You are the driving force behind this creation, and I think it’s worth listening to what you’re excited to make.

What do people want from a sequel?

This is the question I’m puzzling over the most, and I’ll say this up front: I don’t have a clear answer other than “it depends on the game.” A big reason for this uncertainty is the impact of the original game’s popularity on the data available for the sequel. In fact, I’m not aware of any sequels that have higher ownership stats on BoardGameGeek than the original game. Higher ratings offer some guidance, but I’m unsure as to how much weight to put on them. I’m interested in what people are actually playing time after time.

Here’s my experience: I’ve found in most cases that the sequels I play that offer bigger gameplay end up getting to the table much less than the original game. Rather, it’s the sequels with similar or streamlined gameplay that I enjoy time after time (and that don’t replace the original game).

I think there might be a tendency for designers to think they need to go big if they make a sequel. Going back to the first question, if you have more fun designing a bigger game, go for it. But please don’t overlook the option to offer a sequel of similar weight (as that’s what people gravitated towards in the first place) or even a lighter weight sequel (since the original weight already exists).

I’d love to hear what you think. What are a few of your favorite sequels that you actually play more frequently than the original games? And what’s one game you love for which you really want a sequel (and what do you want from that sequel)?

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Also read: The Precarious Balance Between Past Successes and Future Experiments and 10 Brand Extension Strategies for Tabletop Games

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