CMON’s Teburu is a high-tech ‘board gaming console’ with a digital GM, smart dice and new Zombicide game

Zombicide and Blood Rage maker CMON has revealed Teburu, a futuristic ‘board gaming console’ system loaded with digital technology that it claims will improve the experience of playing physical games. We’re certain that won’t spark any arguments in the tabletop community.

Teburu – which is Japanese for ‘table’ – has been developed with Xplored, a company that specialises in what it calls ‘phygital’ (urgh) games. Other games from the studio include Runimalz, an upcoming toys-to-life mobile game played using toy cars on a tablet-connected base, and several games for the browser-based ‘online video game console’ AirConsole.

Teburu is maybe easiest described as a smart playmat. Players can place map tiles, cards and miniatures on the surface, which then relay information to a companion app running on a tablet or PC.

The app can then provide features such as real-time audio (the noise of a door opening when a door piece is turned to its open side, for example), interactive storytelling through cutscenes and branching narrative decisions, and a game master-like control of the game’s rules, events and AI enemy behaviour.

Multiple devices can be hooked up with the central ‘Gamemaster App’, with players able to manage their character’s inventory, check stats and trade items using a digital dashboard on their own smartphone.

The magic in the system are ID tag sensors built into the bases of the miniatures which track where which figure is placed where on the board. The first preview of Teburu also shows off its smart dice, which sense what you’ve rolled and pass the result back to the app.

Teburu will be launched on Kickstarter sometime in 2020, with the first announced hybrid game for the system a new instalment in CMON’s Zombiide series, Zombicide Evolution – Las Vegas.

Evolution – Las Vegas is described by its creators as being “the game millions of Zombicide players the world over know and love, but evolved – faster, enhanced, and with a great campaign full of meaningful choices that will carry over a series of gaming sessions”.

The Teburu isn’t the first attempt to bring together tech and board games; the similar ‘board game console’ SquareOne, which uses a touchscreen to track physical pieces, was unveiled at the start of the year and touted for a release this summer.