A board game built from the ground up around a Cherokee worldview just beat the field at one of the hobby's oldest award shows. Winter Rabbit, from Cherokee-owned studio Absurdist Productions, has won Light Strategy Game of the Year at the 2026 Origins Awards.
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See how it worksDesigned by Cherokee Nation citizen Will Thompson, Winter Rabbit is a semi-cooperative game of hidden worker placement for 2 to 6 players. You play animals of a village racing to gather enough supplies before a brutal winter arrives. The twist is Rabbit, the trickster of Cherokee animal stories, who would rather hoard resources for himself than pitch in for the village. The whole village wins or loses together on whether it stockpiles enough, but if you survive the winter, it is the player with the highest score who takes the victory. The art comes from Cherokee artists Kindra Swafford and Jonni Ketcher, and the box ships with both English and Cherokee-language components.
Indigenous-designed games are a small but growing corner of the hobby, and this is one of the most visible wins yet. Winter Rabbit took second prize at the 2021 Zenobia Awards, and the Origins recognition should put it in front of a far wider audience. If you like co-operative play with a competitive edge and a story you will not have heard at the table before, it is well worth seeking out. Find your people and get it on the table.
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Set up your group for freeSources: Tabletop Sentinel | FAMstore | Cherokee Phoenix
