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?

3 comments

3 Comments

mia70016h ago

the dread of organizing all those components is real, specially for games like Terraforming Mars where every card and tile has a specific spot. what nobody talks about though is the social pressure of being the one who owns the game. if its your copy youre the one stuck sorting everything while everyone else is chatting and grabbing snacks. i started telling my group hey whoever helps me tear down gets first pick of snacks next time and it cut our cleanup time in half just having a second set of hands.

cora51815h ago

I bribed my group with pizza once and it worked so well I started making it a regular thing. Whoever helps with the big cleanup gets first dibs on whatever I order, plus they get to pick the next game. It turned into a pretty good system where nobody feels stuck with all the sorting while everyone else is hanging out. Now people actually volunteer and we get done way faster, plus we're all still talking and laughing through it instead of someone being grumpy in the corner with a pile of cards.

elliot_gibson2711h ago

Make them earn the snacks, smart move.