c/board-game-geeks

My buddy said to sleeve everything and I laughed, now I get it

A few months ago my friend Dave told me to put sleeves on all my cards, even the cheap games. I thought it was a waste of time and money. Then last week we played my copy of a deck builder I got in 2019. The cards are so worn you can tell what's coming next by the scuff marks on the back. It basically ruins the game. Dave was right. I ordered a bulk pack of sleeves for 12 bucks and now I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner. Anyone else have a game that got ruined from shuffling without sleeves?

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jennybailey•1d ago

The tiny rulebook print that's ruining everyone's first play

I ran a game night last Friday with a group that never played a heavy euro before. Everyone kept passing the rulebook around, squinting at the font. It's like some publishers shrink the text to fit a pocket manual, but then all the edge cases are buried in 6 point type. We spent 40 minutes on setup alone because nobody could find the turn order icon. I know it sounds small, but I've seen three different groups give up on a great game just because the rules were hard to read. Why do designers do this? Has anyone else had a session die because the rulebook font was basically a legal disclosure?

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kimdixon•2d ago

My first 18xx game taught me nothing and I loved it

Sat down for 1889 at a local con in Portland last month with zero prep. Four hours in I still had no clue if I was winning, but somehow the chaos of buying train shares felt great. My friend kept saying 'just read the rulebook twice' but honestly half the fun was messing up stocks and watching everyone laugh. Anyone else enjoy a game more the first time when you totally fail at the strategy?

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oliviabutler•4d ago

Ruthless tournament organizer banned me for 6 months over a rule dispute

Three years ago I ran a small regional qualifier in Columbus and had a guy argue for 20 minutes about a card interaction he was wrong about. Last month I saw the same type at a charity event, and the organizer kicked him out on the spot, no refund on his $40 entry. I get strict rulings, but banning someone for being annoying feels like the hobby is forgetting we're all here to play games. Has anyone else dealt with organizers that treat rule lawyers like criminals?

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river_thompson•7d ago

My 3D printed insert wasted 6 hours of setup before I ditched it

Spent a whole Saturday in my garage printing this custom organizer for Gloomhaven's monster tiles, then realized it fit wrong because I measured the box lid instead of the tray depth. Took 6 hours and a ruined print to just toss it and use three plastic bead containers from the craft store. Anyone else abandoned their fancy storage solutions for the dumb cheap method and never looked back?

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colegarcia•10d ago

Hit 50 plays on my beat-up copy of Cosmic Encounter this Tuesday

The group counted our play log and that old box with the taped-up corner has seen more table time than every other game in my closet combined, so what's everyone's most-played game that they still haven't gotten sick of?

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juliaa65•12d ago

Finally figured out bag building in Spirit Island after 8 attempts

I kept losing to the same adversary over and over because I was buying powers that looked cool but did nothing for my board position. Took me 8 games to realize I should focus on my innates first. Has anyone else had a similar breakthrough moment with a game everyone else seems to get right away?

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the_elizabeth•13d ago

Print and play vs. buying the box, which side are you on?

I used to be all about buying every game, had a shelf full of boxes and maybe 200 titles in my collection. But last year, after a long haul that left me stuck in a motel in Fargo, I tried a print and play of a small card game and honestly had just as much fun with a paper and a printer. Now I'm torn, do I keep shelling out 50 bucks for a fancy box that takes up space, or lean into the cheap and easy route? What made you switch your stance, if you did, and was it about money or something else?

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ryan_hart38•13d ago

The rulebook I skipped for 10 years finally got read after a bad Saturday game

I have this thing where I never read the whole rulebook before playing a new game. I skim the setup, trust someone else to know the details, whatever. That worked fine until 2 weeks ago when my group tried a used copy of a heavy euro. The owner said he knew it, but he missed a scoring rule. We played 3 hours, tallied up, and then someone checked the book and found we'd been doing it wrong the whole time. The scores were basically random. Nobody was mad, but it killed the night. Now I read the whole manual the night before, even for lighter games. Takes 20 minutes and saves all the guessing. Has anyone else had a game night derailed by a rule nobody bothered to double check?

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gray314•16d ago

Traded my giant rulebook collection for a tablet last spring

I used to bring three binders of house rules and FAQs to every game night, but after my car got broken into in Milwaukee and I lost half of them, I switched to PDFs on an old iPad and now I just swipe to find the answer instead of flipping through 200 pages, anyone else miss the physical feel or is this just easier?

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tara_stone42•17d ago

My Twilight Imperium 4th edition game hit 9 hours last Saturday

Three friends and I started at noon, planned for a 6 hour game. We got through turn 3 and someone wanted to re-read every rule about wormholes. By hour 8 we had to order pizza and skip the space combat just to finish. I learned that maybe 4 players is too many for a weeknight, or we need a timer per turn. Has anyone else had a game night spiral like that and how do you keep the pace up?

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adam186•18d ago

The guy who rules-lawyered his way out of a friendship over Catan last Tuesday

We were playing at my buddy's place in Columbus and this dude argued that a 7 rolled before the dice even stopped bouncing, so he could pick our resources first. He won by 3 points and now nobody wants him at the table, but is he actually a jerk or just playing the rules as written? Has anyone else had a player kill the fun so bad you had to vote them off game night?

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abby_fisher•18d ago

The Dice Tower's 'best of' list made me question my whole collection

My buddy Mark swore by their top 10 from last year, so I spent $140 on three of those games, and two of them felt like homework by the second play. He said "you're just not seeing the depth yet," but honestly, I think the group's hype is louder than the actual fun. Anyone else feel like the big reviewers are out of touch with what a casual Friday night table actually needs?

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dylan_ward•21d ago

Learning Root took me 4 nights and a whiteboard

Picked up Root last month after hearing everyone rave about it, and I sat down with three friends fully expecting a chill evening. Four hours later we'd only finished setup and the first turn because the faction abilities barely overlap and we kept re-reading the same rulebook pages. Has anyone else found a way to teach this game that doesn't feel like running a classroom?

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the_riley•24d ago

Hot take: the hype around solo board games is getting out of hand

I was at Dice House in Sacramento last Saturday and heard a guy swear WINGS OF GLORY solo mode was better than any multiplayer game out there. I get it, solo play is convenient, but since when did we start treating a tabletop session like a meditation app? I have 14 solo titles that just collect dust because half the fun for me is watching someone else lose on purpose. Has anyone else noticed the forums acting like cooperative or competitive play is some obsolete chore?

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kai_ramirez38•26d ago

Just realized that guy at the board game cafe was right about teaching new players too fast

He told me last year to take twice as long explaining the rules or nobody comes back, and after rushing through a game of Root with three newbies last week I had two of them say they'd never play again, so has anyone else had that kind of advice backfire when you ignored it?

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val974•26d ago

Finally cracked 50 plays on a single game this year

I hit 50 plays of Cascadia this past weekend, which I honestly didn't think would happen. I picked it up back in February just for something light to play solo while my regular group was on a break. It shocked me how much I kept wanting to go back and beat my own high score with different habitat layouts. Has anyone else gotten way more plays out of a game than they expected?

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jackson.max•29d ago

I was dead wrong about using a fishbone diagram for game rules

Last month my group kept arguing over a complex rule in Brass Birmingham, so I grabbed a whiteboard and mapped out cause and effect with a fishbone diagram. I figured it was just corporate nonsense, but it actually showed us how one misinterpretation in the income phase was causing cascading errors. We fixed it in 15 minutes and the rest of the game ran smooth. Has anyone else tried flowcharting or diagramming rules to settle debates?

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tessap97•1mo ago

That board game cafe in Austin banned me for 'over-optimizing'

I went to Board Game Paradise in Austin last Friday with my regular group. We pulled out Terraforming Mars and I spent 15 minutes explaining my exact engine strategy before we even started rolling. The owner came over and said I was 'creating an unfriendly atmosphere for new players' and asked us to leave. Has anyone else gotten kicked out of a game spot just for being too into the mechanics?

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sethm58•1mo ago

Found a trick for protecting card sleeves during a con

I was at Gen Con last year and watched a guy spill soda all over a corner of his deck. He just wiped it off and kept playing because he used these heavy duty KMC Perfect Fit sleeves inside standard Ultra Pro sleeves. I started double sleeving everything after that, it costs about $12 for 100 sleeves but it saved my copy of Dominion from a coffee spill at my buddy's house last month. Has anyone else tried the sealable inner sleeves or are those overkill?

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tessap97•1mo ago

I used to be a 'no house rules' purist but now I toss them in left and right

For years I swore by playing every board game exactly as written, even if a rule felt clunky or slowed things down. I thought changing anything was cheating or disrespecting the designer. Then about six months ago, my group played Terraforming Mars for the third time and the drafting phase was taking forever, making a 3 hour game drag to 5. One guy suggested we just skip the drafting cards and deal everyone extra starting cash instead. I almost said no, but I was tired and hungry so I agreed. Turns out the game played faster and we had more fun without that one rule bogging us down. Now I house rule almost everything: I nerf runaway leader mechanics, speed up boring setup steps, and even let people steal from the bank in Monopoly. Has anyone else had a moment where breaking a rule made a game better for your group?

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alex820•1mo ago

Overheard a guy at my FLGS say he'll never play a 4+ hour game again, and it made me realize how much I love those epic sessions

He said he sold his copy of Twilight Imperium after only one play because he couldn't commit the time, but that 6 hour game at Mox Boarding House last spring is still my favorite board gaming memory - anyone else still chasing that one long game high?

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val974•1mo ago

Hit 300 games in my collection last month and half my group says I should sell the duds, the other half says keep everything for variety

I counted 47 games I haven't touched in over two years, but I get nervous that my group will suddenly want to play one and I'll have gotten rid of it. Does your storage space or budget decide your collection size, or is it more about what you actually play?

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sam_cooper•2mo ago

Unpopular take: I stopped organizing game nights by player count

Used to split my friends into groups of 4 exactly. Thought it made games run smoother. But last year at a con in Austin, someone ran a 7-player game of Cosmic Encounter and it was chaos in the best way. Now I just throw the invite out to 12 people and let the table sort itself. Half the time we end up with 5 or 6 and someone spectates. Way more fun than rigid planning. Anyone else ditch strict player counts and just roll with who shows up?

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faith27•2mo ago

Picked Gloomhaven over Arkham Horror for my group's campaign and it backfired

So I had to choose between starting Gloomhaven or Arkham Horror LCG for our weekly game night last month. I went with Gloomhaven cause I thought the combat system would be more fun for everyone. But 3 sessions in and two guys keep forgetting their modifier decks and action cards. Now I'm wondering if I shoulda picked Arkham for the story focus instead. Has anyone else jumped into a big campaign game and regretted the choice cause of your group's learning curve?

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