The Teburu Gaming System
- Aaron Baillio
- Jun 16
- 4 min read
Today I want to talk about the Teburu system and the games I’ve played on it so far. Most recently, I dug into The Bad Karmas and The Curse of Cthulhu. The other one I’ve played is Vampire: The Masquerade — Milan Uprising. Both lean on Teburu’s digital tabletop platform, and both gave me a pretty good sense of what this thing can do.
If you’re unfamiliar with Teburu, imagine a smart game board underlay that plugs into power and reads what’s happening on the table. The physical board sits on top of it, and the system tracks where characters are, which way they’re facing, and what pieces are in play. There’s also an NFC reader for scanning characters in and out, plus electronic dice that charge right on the unit.
Teburu describes itself as a system that blends the physical and digital worlds, letting players stay focused on the board while the app handles rules, enemy behavior, and story events.
Based on my experience, that’s mostly accurate. So let’s break down how well it works in practice.
The Bad Karmas and The Curse of Cthulhu is the second entry in the Bad Karmas line. You control four heroes in a Lovecraftian setup, but don’t expect a mystery to unravel. This is a straight-up boss battler. You’ve got the classics: an investigator, an explorer, a gangster, and a mystic, all squaring off against three big nightmares across three locations.
Each round, you set the lineup, decide each hero’s stance, and then start resolving turns. Stances determine how characters act or react, usually granting an immunity or special move. The heroes themselves feel distinct: the gangster brings the punchy attacks, while the mystic is more about keeping everyone alive.
After your heroes act, the monster gets its turn. It moves, messes with the terrain, and potentially tries to ruin your whole evening. The monsters sit on a Bluetooth-enabled base that tracks facing and weak spots, which is honestly very cool. Meanwhile, the app provides music, background audio, sound effects, animations, maps, and a running history of what’s happened.
And that’s the loop: play round to round until you take down the monster or collapse under a pile of ailments, up to and including good old-fashioned Lovecraftian insanity.
Here’s What I Like
For solo gamers especially, digital support can be a gift from the board game gods. No shuffling piles of cards. No resetting a dozen tokens. No pausing the fun to babysit the board state like it’s one of my kids who swears they “already brushed their teeth.” Teburu handles a lot of that behind the scenes, and it does it well. The app manages the story, remembers choices, layers in effects, and keeps things moving.
I also love the sensor tech. It knows when I move, whether the move is legal, which side of the monster I’m facing, whose turn it is, and what actions are still available. Figures can enter or leave the game through the reader or with an NPC token. It’s slick, and when it’s humming, the whole thing makes the story feel more alive.
The minis are solid too. The heroes are small, but detailed, color-coded, and functional. The monsters, though, are the stars. They’re four or five times larger than the heroes, look imposing on the board, and have enough detail that they practically beg for paint. They’re almost toy-like in the best possible way.
The digital dice are neat, but they might be the weakest part of the hybrid setup. When you roll, the die sends the result to the app, and it’s accurate most of the time. I’d put it around 95%. But sometimes the app misses the roll, and once in a while it reads the wrong face. You learn to roll with a little more intent, like you’re trying to convince the die you mean business. It’s close, and I’m sure more tuning could get it there, but it’s not completely foolproof yet.
Another big plus: the play options. You can play solo on one device, multiplayer on one device, multiplayer across multiple devices, or even remote multiplayer with multiple devices. I tried the multi-device setup, and it works. Each player controls their character from their device while the shared story updates for everyone. As a solo gamer dad, I also love the idea of tossing on headphones, using one phone or tablet, and just disappearing into the game after the house finally gets quiet.
Where Teburu Stumbles
The biggest hurdle is the price. The barrier to entry is not small. The Teburu hardware alone was 100 euros, or about $120, through the Gamefound campaign. Retail or aftermarket pricing will likely climb even higher, and that’s before you start talking about the games themselves. I saw a listing on Amazon for the hardware at $180 but on Zatu.com for under $100. IDK (shrug).
The other issue is availability. There isn’t really a Teburu storefront. Missing die? You can’t just buy one. Want an extra miniature base? Nope. Want to pick up an expansion you skipped? Not unless another crowdfunding campaign opens or you hunt it down aftermarket. That makes the ecosystem feel more all-or-nothing than it should.
My biggest hope comes from the team behind Teburu. XPLORED has worked with names like Hasbro, Bandai Namco, Ravensburger, and 505 Games, and they’ve published a lot of games. So yes, I think there’s a real chance they eventually land a hit. I love the idea of blending analog and digital play. I want this to work. There are still bugs to iron out, and the lack of a storefront hurts the brand and word of mouth, but I’ve enjoyed both Vampire: The Masquerade and The Bad Karmas. I’m looking forward to more plays, and I’m especially curious to see what Sword & Sorcery brings to the table.
You can find their next campaign, HOXFALL, here: https://gamefound.com/en/projects/xplored/hoxfall
Want to learn more about the Teburu system? Check it out here: https://teburu.com/#banner
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