Imagine you have just put away a game of War of the Ring. Armies, characters, event cards, and that journey of the Fellowship that kept you from ever relaxing filled the entire evening.
Then someone brings out another game box. There is no Middle-earth map, no long background, only a board, dice, and some magnets that attract each other. Your task looks simple: put it down, and don't let the neighboring magnets suddenly touch.
Before your hand has even let go, a sound comes from the tabletop.
Behind these two very different kinds of tension, there is unexpectedly the same name: Roberto Di Meglio. The former was designed by him together with Marco Maggi and Francesco Nepitello; the latter, RattleSnake, is his solo work.
What I want to talk about today is not just how complex a war game someone can help design. What is more interesting is: how does a person who has long done editing, publishing, and production work find the moment when a game truly comes into being, between a grand world and the smallest tabletop action?
1. First Write About Games, Then Make Them
When looking back at the starting point of his career, what Roberto mentions is not some famous work.
In an interview, he turns time back to 1987: at that time, he began writing the game enthusiast publication Crom!. In 1991, he founded the game magazine Kaos; in 1993, he also took part in founding Nexus Editrice.
This is a very noteworthy order. First participating in enthusiast exchange, then running a magazine, and only afterward entering broader publishing work. Writing, selecting content, and organizing products are not exactly the same as designing games, yet they kept confronting him with the same reality: how can an idea that interests you actually connect with other people?
His life as a player began even earlier. In a 2024 interview with him, he talked about how as a child he and his brother Ugo made rules for toy soldiers, later encountered Avalon Hill's Caesar's Legions, and was also hooked on Dungeons & Dragons. Historical simulation and role-playing were not two unrelated camps in his experience.
On one side are situations and conflict; on the other is the feeling of entering a certain world. Put these interests together and look back at his works, and it is not hard to understand why "theme" always occupies such an important place.
But his professional identity did not immediately become that of a full-time designer. In an early interview, he admitted that he had made some small games for the magazine, but was occupied by a great deal of publishing work. It was not until he took part in War of the Ring that design gained an especially prominent place in his résumé.
There is no need here to add a legend about a genius finally being discovered. His path is more like that of many people in the cultural industry: always doing the work that makes works happen, and gradually finding his own creative space within it.
2. Not commanding from outside Middle-earth, but being constrained by it
The design credit for War of the Ring belongs to three people: Roberto Di Meglio, Marco Maggi, and Francesco Nepitello.
The experience and judgment the three brought in together constitute this game; writing it as the solo invention of one person would instead miss the most interesting part of collaborative design.
In an early joint interview, Roberto explained one starting point for the action dice: they wanted to limit the actions players could take, and to find their own way of expressing this limitation.
This observation sounds simple, but it hits the fascinating part of strategy games.
If you could do anything on every step, then of course it would be easy to make a complete plan. But the tabletop of War of the Ring constantly reminds you: having an army does not mean you can move it however you like at this moment. You have to deal with the action opportunities you get, and also judge whether the thing in front of you is really worth spending one on.
My interpretation as a reader and player is this: the limitations in the rules turn "what do I want to do" into "what am I now willing to give up." Theme therefore is not only printed on the map and character cards, but also enters the way players hesitate.
A grand world does not mean everything is handed over to your control. The more you care about the story, the more you may need to accept certain moments that are not arranged by you.
This also distinguishes his design pursuit from simply piling up content. For a world to come alive on the table, besides containing characters and events, it also needs to make players bear its pressure among choices.
3. Beyond the War Map: Tension at Your Fingertips
If you only know War of the Ring, it is easy to take it for granted and put Roberto into the fixed slot of a heavy thematic game designer.
RattleSnake gently pushes that slot open.
In an interview with him, he regarded this 2007 children's game as a node on his personal design path: previously he often created complex thematic games with partners, but this time he independently entered another field.
The Spiel des Jahres website describes it directly: after rolling the dice, place oval magnets on the board, and try to avoid their being attracted by magnets already placed. Once they come close, they collide with a crisp sound.
There are no long lines to announce danger; the danger is hidden between fingers and tabletop. There seems to be enough room, but when you actually put it down, the material may give another answer.
Here "not fully controllable" comes from magnetism. It does not need to be explained as an elaborate fictional world; the player's body has already understood it one step earlier.
I think that looking at this small game side by side with War of the Ring actually makes it easier to understand an author. The two differ in scale, audience, and way of learning, but both have a core that can be directly felt: you must act, and at the same time cannot guarantee that everything obeys your plan.
This is not to say that from the beginning he ruled all works with the same theory, but that different works allow us to see how similar interests find an outlet in completely different materials.
4. Who does Conan belong to, and how should the story continue?
In the Age of Conan strategy board game, the three design partners collaborated again. However, players do not each play one Conan.
In Ares' official introduction, players control different kingdoms of Hyboria and compete through armies, intrigue, and other means; Conan travels among them, his support may turn to different factions, while retaining his own adventure progress.
This choice is very meaningful. A famous protagonist’s name does not directly become an identity card in each player's hand. Keeping a distance between the character and the kingdoms instead makes players have to think about how to relate to this role that is not entirely their own.
And this work's later experience brings Roberto's identity as a publisher back to the foreground.
In an interview with him published by Ares, he recalled: the game was released in 2009 through Nexus and Fantasy Flight Games; the expansion already prepared was shelved with Nexus's bankruptcy. Later, the team tried to let the work continue through crowdfunding.
He also specifically explained that even though he was both a designer and working at Ares, the project still had to gain approval from the relevant parties before it could be restarted.
This is not a process that can be summed up with one sentence like "passion is enough." After a design is completed, it still has to go through licensing, publishing judgment, and actual production before it can truly reach players' hands.
Another expansion design diary even mentioned that they had ruled out a five- or six-player expansion plan that might delay the established schedule. For creators, continuing to add content is very tempting; deciding what not to do this time is likewise part of completing the work.
The Battle of the Five Armies shows another kind of continuation. It is still a collaboration of three people, follows the foundation of action dice and event cards, and at the same time uses a fate track to handle the arrival of reinforcements and special events. The scale of the story changes, and the rules must also rearrange attention, rather than merely replacing the old map with a new one.
5. The Designer’s Other Hand Must Handle Reality
When talking about his work at Ares in 2016, Roberto explained the task of the production manager: coordinating different links such as text, images, and miniatures, contacting internal and external collaborators, and also dealing with the suppliers who actually manufacture the games.
In 2024, he still introduced in an interview with him that he was responsible for production and development, and said design accounted for only a small part of his daily work. The Ares official team page also lists responsibilities such as Production and R&D.
Thus, there is a continuity in his story that is not often presented on the cover: from magazine to publishing house, from co-design to product production, he has always been doing the work of connecting imagination and physical objects.
What readers finally see is a finished game in its box. But before the box reaches the tabletop, the text must be understandable, the images must convey information, the components must work, and different people's results must also be combined into the same product.
This passage is my understanding derived from his career trajectory, not an inner monologue written on his behalf: the completeness of creation is sometimes reflected both in how big a world you dare to make and in how many concrete small matters you are willing to handle for it.
War of the Ring makes people remember the bond between armies and the Fellowship, RattleSnake makes people remember that little hesitation before setting down a magnet, and Age of Conan lets us see how a work seeks a chance to continue after publishing changes.
They do not have the same scale, but all require someone to push "this should be fun" forward to "others can finally sit down and play."
This is probably also the meaning of looking at designer names: a line of text on the side of the box does not always represent only one person who came up with an idea. Sometimes, it also represents the person willing to escort the idea all the way to the tabletop.
【chengcheng's interactive topic】
Which kind of tension do you remember more easily: a decision in a grand battle where you cannot have both, or a hesitation between your fingers when setting down a magnet? If you were to recommend a "small but powerful" game, which box would you choose?
I am chengcheng, see you next time in Designer Story!
#DesignerStory #RobertoDiMeglio #WarOfTheRing #RattleSnake #BoardGameDesign
Sources and further reading: Early joint interview: magazines, publishing, and action dice 2024 interview with the subject: player experience and development work Interview with the subject: personal works and career milestones Spiel des Jahres official website: Rattle Snake Ares: The world and player identity of Age of Conan Interview with the subject at Ares: Bringing Age of Conan back Expansion design diary: Deciding what goes into the product Ares: The systems and credits of The Battle of Five Armies 2016 interview with the subject: Production responsibilities Ares official team page