Tabletop Engine — Handbook

Tabletop Engine — Handbook

The complete guide to the Tabletop game engine: how it’s built, how to play, and how to ship a new game on top of it.

Contents

  1. Overview & Quick Start
  2. Architecture
  3. Engine Concepts — game lifecycle, state model, action/event model
  4. Card System
  5. Board System
  6. Assets & Themes
  7. Firebase Multiplayer & Offline Mode
  8. Creating Games — card, board, hybrid; adding assets & themes
  9. Testing Guide
  10. Accessibility Guide
  11. Performance Guide
  12. Troubleshooting
  13. Roadmap
  14. API Reference

The one-paragraph version

The engine core (src/engine/) is pure TypeScript: it owns players, turns, phases, a deterministic RNG, serialization and undo/redo. A GameDefinition describes a game with a setup and a pure reducer; the engine’s single applyAction function is the deterministic transition every move flows through — local, hot-seat, AI or networked. The React layer (src/ui/) renders it with themeable SVG assets, and a SyncAdapter (src/net/) handles online rooms with a local cross-tab backend by default and an optional Firebase one. Three demo games prove it’s reusable. Add your own by registering a definition plus a view — no engine changes required.