c/board-game-geeks

The guy who brings Catan to game night every single time

I've been going to a weekly meetup at a place called Dice Tower Gaming in Tulsa for about 3 years now. There's this one dude who shows up every week with his copy of Catan and tries to get a game going, even when half the room is playing something else. Last week he got three of us to play for 45 minutes before someone pulled out Arnak and we all bailed. Is this normal for every game group or did I just get the one true missionary?

Spent $120 on a deluxe insert organizer for Terraforming Mars and I'm still not sure it was worth it

I dropped $120 on a wooden insert system for Terraforming Mars last month. The idea was to cut down setup and tear down time which was taking like 15 minutes each. The organizer does work OK, everything has a spot. But honestly the box is now twice as heavy and the lid doesn't sit flush. My friend says organizers are a waste of money and just use baggies. Another buddy swears by them and says it makes game night way smoother. Who is right here? Has anyone else paid big money for an organizer and regretted it or loved it?

My 3 year old niece taught me a new way to sort game pieces

Last month, I was sorting through the bits for Scythe and my niece walked over and started grouping them by color gradient instead of type. She had all the green meeple-like tokens in a perfect rainbow order, it was oddly satisfying. Has anyone else found weird sorting methods that actually work better?

Watch out for that Kickstarter from 'Lunar Forge Games'

I backed a game called 'Dungeon Draft' last March that was supposed to ship in June, and now the creator has gone completely silent for 6 weeks with no updates. Has anyone else gotten burned by that company or know what's going on?

Appreciation post: a rules clarification that fixed a 3-year grudge with my group

I played Terra Mystica with the same friends every month for 3 years, and I always thought the cult track scoring happened at the end of each round. Turns out I was reading the timing wrong - it only happens after specific round bonuses trigger it. A guy at my local shop in Portland spotted my confusion and showed me the exact paragraph I'd been skipping. Once we fixed it, our whole game pace changed and the competition got way more balanced. Has anyone else had a single rule misread change how they felt about a game?

Pro tip: I found out my favorite game had a misprint in the rulebook this whole time

I was reading through the BGG forums for Terraforming Mars last night and someone pointed out that the "Tharsis Republic" corporation card has a misprint in the 2nd edition. The text says you get 2 MC for each city tile, but the official FAQ says it should be 3 MC. I have played this game over 40 times wrong! Has anyone else discovered hidden rulebook errors in their collection?

My buddy said I should sleeve my cards before a game night crash - he was right about that $20 deck

A few weeks ago my friend Dave told me to spend $8 on sleeves for my copy of Gloomhaven. I thought he was being extra. Then someone spilled a soda right on the table during a big scenario. The sleeves got sticky but the cards underneath were fine. Now I sleeve everything over $30. Has anyone else had a close call like that?

Stopped by my old game store and saw a whole aisle for solo board games

I walked into The Dice Den over in Portland last weekend for the first time in maybe 5 years. They used to have one small shelf of solo games like Friday and Onirim, now it's a whole aisle from roll and writes to full campaign boxes. I remember when playing board games alone felt weird to admit, now it's basically a whole genre. Did anyone else see this shift happen slowly or did it hit all at once at your local shop?

That guy Dan at the game store was right about sleeving cards

He told me to sleeve my Dominion cards before my first game and I laughed it off, but after 3 plays the edges are all frayed and 2 cards have visible wear. Anyone else have a friend who gave advice you brushed off and then regretted it?

My buddy's dad called Catan 'the new bridge' and it hit me hard

Was at a game night last week at my friend's place in Denver. His dad walked in, saw us setting up Catan, and just laughed. Said 'you kids and your hexagons, this is what bridge was for us.' He sat down and watched for 20 minutes. Started asking about trading rules, settlement placement, the robber. At first I thought he was making fun. But then he said the thing that got me - 'every generation needs a game where you can talk trash the whole time.' He was right. My dad had his poker nights, his dad had bridge. We got Catan and Wingspan and all this euro stuff. Same table energy though. Same arguments over trades. Same inside jokes that last years. Makes me wonder what my kids will be playing. Probably something on a screen where you don't even need to be in the same room. That part bums me out a little. Anyone else have an older relative who made you see your hobby differently?

The guy who brought a 15-page house rule sheet to Catan night.

Last Friday at a meetup in Austin a dude showed up with a binder full of custom rules for Catan. Took us 40 minutes just to explain the resource tax on harbors before we ditched him and played base game.

That one friend who said 'just play it by ear' for game night setup was dead wrong

My buddy Mark insisted we didn't need to pick a game beforehand for our 6 person group last Friday. He said we could just riff on what people felt like when they got there. Ended up spending 45 minutes arguing while folks scrolled their phones, and we finally just played Catan for the 100th time. Does anyone else have a firm rule about pre-selecting games before people show up, or is going with the flow fine?

That guy who takes 20 minutes to explain a single rule at game night needs to be stopped.

Last week at Mox Boarding House in Seattle, this dude spent half an hour going over the rulebook for The Crew while we all just wanted to deal cards and play. Has anyone else had to cut someone off mid-lecture just to get the game started?

Hit my 500th game logged on BGG last night and I'm still shook

I've been tracking plays for about three years now, not super serious just a log here and there. Last night I added my 500th unique game and it hit me how many evenings and weekends that actually represents. That number is way higher than I would have guessed, I thought I was maybe at 350 tops. It made me stop and think about the friends I've played with and the ones I never got back to the table. Has anyone else been surprised by their own play count when they finally checked?

Warning: I grabbed the 'deluxe' edition over the base game and now I'm regretting every penny

Last month I finally bought that big fantasy board game everyone talks about. I had to choose between the standard version for $45 and the deluxe with all the miniatures for $90. I went deluxe because the boxes looked so cool online, but man... the extra pieces barely fit in the box and we've played five times without touching half of them. Has anyone else found that the fancy versions just add clutter more than fun?

Kickstarter board games are my financial kryptonite

I just tallied up my Kickstarter pledges from last year and realized I dropped $620 on board games I barely touched. That includes a $148 deluxe version of a game I played once because the rulebook was a nightmare. Anyone else have a pile of unplayed Kickstarter boxes collecting dust?

A stranger at a con taught me the stolen dice trick and it saved a game night

Finally figured out why my board game nights were dragging

I always used a stopwatch for turns in our group thinky games like Gaia Project, but last week I swapped to a 30-second chess clock per action and wow, the whole 4 player game finished in 90 minutes instead of 3 hours lol. Has anyone else tried time limits per action instead of per turn?

TIL setting up a game night with 8 people and 3 different expansions was a disaster I barely survived

I organized a game of Eldritch Horror at my local cafe last Saturday and after 20 minutes of rules arguing and a missing component we called it quits, has anyone else had a game night fall apart that fast?

Spent 2 hours sorting my meeple collection by color and it actually sped up game setup.

I got tired of digging through a bag every time we played Carcassonne, so I bought a cheap plastic tackle box with 24 compartments and now setup takes under a minute instead of five, has anyone else found a simple storage fix that cut down their game night prep time?

That moment when the game night timer cost me the whole evening

I was hosting a weekly board game session at my place in Austin last Friday, and I had this fancy digital timer app set up for turn limits. It glitched out 20 minutes into a 4-player game of Scythe, resetting everyone's timer to zero without warning. We spent 45 minutes arguing about who lost how much time before finally just ditching the rule. I ended up grabbing an old analog kitchen timer from the drawer and it worked way better for the rest of the night. Has anyone else had a tech fail completely wreck a game session like that?

My buddy Steve swore by using a weighted dice tray to stop dice from flying off the table

He was right, I got one for $20 last month and now I don't spend half the game hunting for runaway d20s under the couch, anyone else have a cheap hack that just works?

I visited the FLGS in Portland last month and it was messy chaos

Everyone always raves about Guardian Games out in Portland but I finally went there last month and honestly I was disappointed. The place was huge yeah but the aisles were so tight you couldn't pass anyone and there were stacks of boxes just sitting on the floor. I tripped over a Dominion expansion near the RPG section that someone clearly just dumped there. The staff seemed nice but they were all behind the counter on their phones instead of helping customers or organizing anything. I get that big game stores are supposed to have that cluttered feel but this was just messy and hard to shop in. Does anyone else prefer smaller tidy shops over these hyped up warehouse style stores?

Debate: is a game night host supposed to teach the rules or just referee?

I had a chat last week with a guy named Dave at the local game store. He said the host should know every rule cold and teach it fast so nobody gets bored. But I told him I think that puts too much pressure on one person and kills the fun if they mess up. The other side is letting everyone learn as they go, but then you get people who tune out or argue about edge cases. We were stuck on this for like 20 minutes while flipping through a copy of Dune Imperium. It hit different because Dave runs a tight ship and I'm more laid back, and neither approach seemed wrong. So which is better for a group of 4 or 5 people meeting for the first time in months: a host who teaches everything upfront or one who lets the group figure it out together? Has anyone else had this argument with their regular crew?

Remember when we had to read rulebooks cover to cover?

Honestly, back in 2005 when I first got into the hobby with my group in Austin, we'd spend a whole evening just reading the rulebook for something like Twilight Imperium before even touching the pieces. Now I just watch a 20 minute how-to-play video on YouTube and we're setting up in 10 minutes. The videos explain things way better than the written stuff ever did, especially for complex games. Anyone else skip the book and go straight to the video guides now?