c/board-game-geeks

My favorite game token tray cracked during a session last night

Was playing a 4 hour game of Dinosaur Island with my group at Jake's place in Portland, and right in the middle of the second round, this wooden token tray I've had for about 5 years just split down the middle. I grabbed some wood glue and clamped it together, but now I'm worried it'll happen again mid-game. Anyone had luck repairing these things or should I just buy a new one from Etsy?

Why does nobody talk about how much time setup and teardown takes in board games

I was playing Terraforming Mars with my gaming group last Saturday and my friend Dave pointed out that we spent almost 30 minutes just sorting tiles and shuffling decks before we even started. It hit me that half the reason I avoid heavier games is not the complexity, it's the dread of organizing all those components afterward. Has anyone else found that a good insert or storage system can actually make you play a game more often?

That guy at Gen Con who called out my storage system

I was at Gen Con last year in Indy unloading my board games for a meetup and this older dude watches me pull out a stack of boxes from a plastic tote. He says "you're gonna bust those corners" and hands me a tattered Crown Royal bag to use instead for the smaller games. Anyone else had a random stranger fix a dumb habit on the spot?

Overheard someone call Monopoly a 'strategy game' and had to walk away

I was at a coffee shop last Saturday and this guy seriously said Monopoly is all about strategic property trading, which made me realize how many people still don't see the difference between luck-heavy classics and actual modern board games - has anyone else had to stop themselves from jumping into a conversation about that?

Walked into a board game cafe in Portland and changed my mind about party games

Saw a group of 8 people crying laughing over Wavelength. I always thought party games were shallow filler. Has anyone else had their opinion flipped by watching strangers play something?

The moment I realized heavy board games aren't the only deep ones

I spent 2 years avoiding light games because I thought only 4+ hour euros had strategic depth. Then I played The Crew with my cousin's group in Chicago last month and realized a 20 minute trick-taking game can have more tough decisions than half my collection. Has anyone else had their mind changed by a short game that punched way above its weight?

Swapped my game night house rules for BGG's recommended variants and cut our play time by 40 minutes

Spent $85 on a foam core cutter and it burned me hard

I dropped 85 bucks on a fancy foam core cutter for making custom board game inserts. Thought it would save me time compared to a utility knife. First try, it tore the foam instead of cutting clean, totally ruined a $12 sheet of black foam core. Then the blade locked up after 10 cuts and I had to pry it apart with pliers. My cheap $3 box cutter from the hardware store does a better job with a straight edge. Has anyone else tried those specialty cutters and just gone back to basic tools?

Wasted 6 hours shuffling my BGG collection by rating before I figured out sort by board game weight is way more useful for picking games with the right crowd.

It clicked when I brought a heavy Lacerda game to a casual meetup in Denver and everyone just stared at the rulebook for 20 minutes.

TIL hosting game night with a timer beats playing slow any day

I always thought letting people take all the time they wanted was the friendly move. Then last month I ran a Settlers of Catan night with a 90 second turn timer and holy cow it was way better. People actually planned ahead instead of waiting until their turn to start thinking. We finished three games in one night instead of dragging one game out for 4 hours. The guy who usually takes forever complained for like 10 minutes then ended up winning twice. Has anyone else tried a timer with their regular group or is that too pushy for your table?

A 12 year old at game night changed how I teach rules now

My buddy brought his nephew to our monthly game night last Saturday. Kid is quiet, sits through maybe 20 minutes of me explaining Settlers of Catan before he says "can we just start and I'll figure it out?" I almost said no because I wanted him to get the rules right. But we went ahead. He asked maybe 3 questions total the whole game. Finished second. Now I'm wondering if I spend way too much time on rule explanations. Has anyone else tried just letting people learn as they go?

Had to pick between a co-op and competitive game for game night, and it split the group

Last Friday I brought both Pandemic and Catan to our weekly meetup at the library, thinking people could just choose. But 8 people showed up, 4 wanted to work together against the virus and 4 wanted to trade sheep and brick for 45 minutes. We ended up splitting into two tables, but half the group looked bored and the other half were whispering about switching. Has anyone else had a group get divided over co-op versus competitive, and how did you fix it without ruining the night?

Rule book said 2-4 players, we made it work with 7 at a potluck

Last Saturday at my buddy's place in Tacoma, we cracked open a party game I'd brought and the box clearly said 2-4 players. But there were 7 of us sitting around the table after dinner, so we just started making up house rules on the fly like passing cards around or having two teams. It got so chaotic that someone knocked over a whole bowl of chips on the board, and we had to stop to fish out the pieces. Has anyone else totally ignored player limits and just gone for it?

Found out the average board game has 87 pieces...

I was reading through a geeklist on BoardGameGeek last night where someone actually counted the components in 50 random games from their shelf. Turns out the average is 87 pieces per game, which blew my mind... I counted my copy of Castles of Burgundy just to check and it came out to 164 tiles alone. The guy who made the list said he spent 14 hours total sorting and counting everything from dice to wooden bits. Made me wonder how many pieces I've lost over the years without even noticing... Has anyone else ever actually inventoried their game collection like this?

Found a hack for sorting board game pieces at a flea market in Portland

Tbh I was at a flea market in Portland last month and saw this guy sorting a huge pile of game pieces into ziploc bags by color, not by game. He said it saves him hours when setting up games like Carcassonne or Ticket to Ride because you just grab the bag for that color instead of hunting through a box. I tried it on my game shelf when I got home and honestly it cut my setup time in half. Has anyone else tried grouping pieces by color instead of keeping them with their game?

Dropped $80 on a deluxe card shuffler that jammed after 10 games

I bought a fancy automatic card shuffler for our weekly game nights, thinking it would save time. It worked fine for about three rounds of Uno, then it chewed up two cards and completely stopped. Has anyone else had a board game accessory that just was not worth what you paid for it?

Lost a bid last night because my player count math was off by one

I was hosting a game night at my place in Denver last Thursday and had 7 people confirmed. I set up a 6 player game of Cosmic Encounter and figured one person would just watch or we could rotate. Turns out nobody wanted to sit out and suddenly I had 7 annoyed friends standing around my dining table. I ended up grabbing a copy of 7 Wonders from my shelf that I hadn't touched in 2 years. Everyone calmed down after we started drafting but the energy was weird for the first 20 minutes. How do you guys handle unexpected player counts when someone shows up last minute?

Tried two different board game storage methods last weekend

I compared stacking games flat vs standing them up like books. My friend Dave said standing them up ruins boxes. After 6 hours of reorganizing 40+ games I gotta say standing up is way better. Can pull out Ticket to Ride without toppling a whole column. Anyone else given up on flat stacking?

That guy who corrected my dice roll at a con still makes me mad

At Gen Con last year I was playing a heavy euro game and rolled a 5 for a resource. Some random guy leaned over and said actually the rulebook says it's a 4 because of a corner thing. He was right but the way he said it with this smirk just killed the whole vibe for my group. Has anyone else had a rules lawyer kill a good session for no reason?

I finally figured out why my game pieces kept sticking together

I have this old copy of Settlers of Catan that I've had since like 2016. The plastic pieces started getting this weird tacky feel to them and they'd stick to each other in the box. Took me about 3 hours over two days to figure out it was from storing it in my garage where the temperature swings got bad. Anyone else deal with weird storage issues ruining their game components?

Warning: That last game night almost turned into a disaster with dice

I was running a D&D session at Dave's apartment last Saturday and one player knocked over a full soda onto the character sheets while rolling for initiative - water damage on three sheets and a soaked battle map. I had to quickly photocopy the important stats from my phone while everyone yelled, and now I keep all papers in plastic sleeves.

Spent 3 hours setting up a game only to realize the instructions were wrong

I finally got my hands on a copy of War of the Whispers, a game a buddy recommended. I spent a solid 3 hours unboxing, sorting tokens, and reading the rulebook before I realized page 12 had the turn order completely backwards. Had to re-read every scenario from scratch, and my group was already over for game night. Anyone else run into a rulebook that straight up lied to you?

My $120 organizer tray turned into a board game storage nightmare

I bought this fancy wooden insert for Splendor last month from a shop on Etsy. It was supposed to keep all the chips sorted but the slots were too tight. Ended up scratching half my tokens trying to get them out. Anyone else had custom inserts that just made things worse?

That one guy at the con who ruined Catan for me

I was at PAX Unplugged in Philly last year and sat down for a 4 player game of Catan. This dude named Mike spent the whole game telling everyone exactly what to do on their turns, even grabbing for their pieces. After I lost because he convinced the other guys to block me, I just got up and left. Has anyone else had a stranger at a board game event just completely take over the fun?

Can we talk about how long it actually took me to figure out one board game rule?

I picked up a copy of Root from my local shop in Denver a few months back and thought I had the rules down after one read. Then I brought it to game night with three friends and we spent almost 45 minutes just trying to figure out how the Woodland Alliance actually scores points. Turns out I missed a whole paragraph about sympathy tokens and how they spread. Everyone was getting frustrated and one guy literally said "this is like homework." After that night I went home and watched a 20 minute video on it, then realized the rulebook just buries important stuff in weird spots. Now I always do a solo test run of a new game before dragging anyone else into it. Has anyone else wasted a full evening because of one dumb rule you skipped over?