Bonding over their love of board games, Nguyen Thien Toan and Tran Ngoc Tue Man, both 26, have come together to develop their own Vietnamese culture-themed table top games in order to share their passion with the world.

In 2018, Toan and Man, then 24, were both working their ‘dream jobs’, spending their days working in a comfortable, air-conditioned office for a reputable company that offered hefty pay checks and great benefits. That quickly changed when the two young professionals decided to set out on their own, leaving their cushy jobs to sell clothing online. When that failed, they had nowhere else to turn except toward their long-time passion: board games. “There were some board games which featured Vietnam, but [they] were all about war,” Man said.

To fill the void, Man and Toan set up Ngu Hanh Games, a table game studio through which they design their own Vietnam-themed board games which they sell for affordable prices. Their slogan? “Bring culture to board games.” ‘Len Mam,’ which literally means ‘onto the tray,’ was inspired by the lunar year-end’s signature dishes, as Man and Toan both agreed that food is one of the best ways to represent Vietnamese culture.

Man shared with Tuoi Tre News that her studio recently sold more than 100 sets of the new edition of ‘Len Mam,’ complete with an updated rules book and an English translation, to a buyer in Taiwan. According to Toan, Ngu Hanh Games is currently focused on Vietnamese customers, though foreigners are able to buy a copyright for the games to produce their own.

Credit: Tuoi Tre News

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