If you have ever wished a board game would just teach itself, Korpi is worth a look. It is a co-operative game about Finnish folklore that ditches the rulebook entirely. Instead, you tap its cards and pieces against your phone, and a companion app handles the stories, events and bookkeeping for you.
Looking for board gamers near you? Browse local communities and find your next game night.
Find events near youThe game comes from a small team of friends in Northern Finland, working under the studio Hiirosoft, who wanted to see whether near-field communication (the same tap-to-pay tech in your bank card) could pull its weight at the table rather than feel like a gimmick. In Korpi, every piece and card carries an NFC tag. Tap one and the app reads it, then unfolds the next beat of the story. The app runs offline, and you only need a single phone for the whole group, so nobody is glued to a screen.
Play splits into Adventure phases, where you roam the forests and make choices that shape your bond with nature, and Battle phases that build towards a showdown against the tale's villains. There are several stories to pick from, each leaning on Finnish myth and old-world atmosphere rather than trying to be a history lesson.
Got a regular group? Create a private community, poll for the best date, vote on games, and let your friends RSVP in one place.
Set up your group for freeKorpi showed up as a prototype at UK Games Expo 2026. App-and-tech gimmicks can fall flat at the table, but the pitch here, an offline app that quietly does the admin so you can stay in the story, is at least aimed at a real annoyance. There is no firm release date yet, and the team says the official box art is still coming together during 2026, so this is one for the radar rather than the shopping list.
If app-and-NFC co-ops sound like your group's thing, it might be worth finding some folks to test it with when it lands.
Sources: Korpi | Tabletop Games Blog
