Tumbles 2026

Tumbles is a tabletop mashup of lawn bowls, curling, and many other "boules" game. Players take on the roles of "Winds" trying to push their Tumbles along to the last drop of Water and help them thrive.

A Tumble is a small, plastic spheroid designed with a specific bias. This allows them to always lean in one particular direction when rolled and creates some interesting tactical opportunities. The Water is a marble that rests in the middle of the playing surface, which should be something like a desk mat or very long mousepad. Players alternate turns trying to get their Tumbles closest to the Water. After all eight of both players' Tumbles are rolled, whoever is closest scores 1 point for each of their Tumbles that are closer. After four or eight ends, whichever player has more points wins. As in curling, the player who doesn't score in the previous end "has the hammer" and goes second in the following end, a major advantage.

This game is also a small experiment in open source games. All the files to 3D print the components are freely available. Customization, experimentation, and modification are not only allowed, but highly encouraged. The likelihood of any two sets coming out exactly the same is small, which means playing around with different materials is part of the fun.

—description from the designer