c/board-game-geeks

Was I playing wrong all along? The old way of learning rules vs. the new way

My buddy's game night group went from 8 people to 2 in six months

I used to envy my friend Mike's game night crew. Back in January they had 8 regulars showing up to his place every Friday for stuff like Scythe and Gloomhaven. By June it was just him and one other guy. The reason? He started crowing about this new campaign game he was running and got super pushy about everyone learning the rules before they showed up. He forgot that half the fun for people is just showing up and messing around. Has anyone else watched a group shrink because the host got too serious about the hobby?

My first board game night with strangers crashed hard

I finally got the courage to host a board game night at a local cafe here in Austin last Saturday. I picked out like 5 games I thought were pretty beginner friendly, stuff like Ticket to Ride and Codenames. But about 20 minutes in, I realized I picked totally wrong. One guy kept zoning out during Ticket to Ride because it was too slow for him, and another girl got overwhelmed trying to explain Codenames to her friend who never played before. I basically had to scrap my whole plan and just pull out a deck of cards to salvage the night. We ended up playing Spades which everyone actually knew, but I felt dumb for not checking the group better beforehand. Has anyone else had their game night plan totally backfire like that?

That awkward moment when a board game night gets derailed by a rules lawyer

So I hosted a game night last Tuesday at my place in Denver, we had 6 people ready to play Root. I've owned the game for like 3 years but only played it twice. One guy, Mark, kept interrupting every turn to point out tiny rule details from the manual. He spent 15 minutes arguing about movement restrictions in the clearings. By the time we finished setup and first round, an hour and a half had gone by. Two people left early saying they had work the next day. I was so frustrated because I just wanted everyone to have fun. Has anyone else dealt with a player who takes the fun out of the game by being too strict with rules? How do you handle that without being rude?

Fought with a broken rulebook for 45 minutes before realizing I was reading a misprint

I spent nearly an hour trying to figure out why my game setup didn't match the instructions, until I noticed the rulebook had a page where pictures and text didn't line up at all. Has anyone else run into a rulebook that was just flat-out wrong, or am I the only one unlucky enough to get a defective copy?

Pro tip: Dont buy deluxe editions of Kickstarter board games blind

I dropped $120 on a deluxe version of a space exploration game last July because the miniatures looked SO cool in the pictures. When it finally showed up in December, the rulebook was a mess and the game took 4 hours for a 2-player round that was supposed to be 45 minutes. Has anyone else gotten burned by a flashy Kickstarter campaign that didnt deliver on the actual gameplay?

Last Saturday my game night group hit a perfect 8 player session and it was magic

I usually host board game nights at my place in Portland, and we have a solid group of 4 or 5 regulars. But last Saturday, somehow everyone showed up at once - all 8 of us. I thought it was going to be a mess, you know, too many cooks in the kitchen. But we pulled out a copy of Captain Sonar (the real time submarine game) and it was incredible. Each person had a clear role - someone on navigation, someone on weapons, two people managing systems. The energy in the room was nuts, people shouting coordinates and laughing when we blew ourselves up by accident. We ended up playing 4 rounds in a row, which never happens with my usual group. Has anyone else had a game night where the player count just clicked perfectly like that?

Sleeved my whole deck upside down at a gaming cafe in Austin

I was at Emerald Tavern in Austin last month, sleeves flying everywhere, and I realized after 45 minutes that I'd put every card in my Dominion set facing the wrong way. The plastic flaps were on the bottom instead of the top, so shuffling felt terrible. My buddy laughed and showed me how to flip them all in one quick motion by sliding a stack against the table edge. Anyone else have a sleeving disaster that made you feel silly?

I swear game nights got worse when everyone started bringing their own tablet for scoring

Three years back at a monthly meetup in Portland, someone pulled out a tablet to track points instead of paper, and now half the group shows up with devices open for house rules lookups. Has anyone else seen this kill the casual vibe at their local gatherings?

My 10 year old cousin asked why I play board games alone and it hit me

He said 'aren't games for playing with people?' and I realized I spend more time sorting and organizing my collection than actually sitting down with friends. Has anyone else found themselves treating their shelf like a hobby instead of the games themselves?

Spent $45 on a foam core insert for Terraforming Mars and my setup time went from 20 minutes to 5

Bought a $40 foam core cutter and it changed my insert game completely

I was so tired of my Kingdom Death box being a mess of minis and cards, so I grabbed one of those Olfa rotary cutters from a craft store in Minneapolis. Spent like 3 hours cutting foam and my organized box fits perfectly now, no more rattling. Has anyone else tried making custom inserts or am I just obsessed with efficiency? lol

I finally realized I was shuffling my deck wrong for 15 years

Last game night a buddy watched me do my usual overhand shuffle and laughed, then showed me how a proper riffle shuffle actually randomizes the cards. After trying it for 3 rounds of Catan, I noticed way fewer weird clumps of resources, has anyone else found out they were doing a basic thing totally backwards?

The night my regular group fell apart at Dice House Games.

We had our standing Tuesday night game session at Dice House Games for over two years, and then suddenly three of the six people just stopped showing up without saying anything. Did your regular group ever just dissolve like that without any drama or discussion?

Thought Betrayal at House on the Hill was all hype until I played it 3 times last weekend

A buddy forced me into a 6 player game and I figured it would be random chaos. Turned out the way the rooms build out actually creates some tense moments, like when I got trapped in the attic alone with the ghost. Anyone else find a game they wrote off that surprised them?

Two guys at a game night argued for 20 minutes about whether Catan is a gateway game or a trap

One said it hooks new players because the trading feels natural, the other said it ruins them because they expect every game to let them negotiate like that, which side do you land on?

Rant: That guy who "corrects" every rule at game night

Was playing Dune Imperium with my group last night and this one dude kept stopping the game to quote the rulebook verbatim over minor stuff like turn order on a combat card. Like bro, we all agreed on how it works just let us play lol. Has anyone else dealt with that one person who turns every game into a lecture?

Got a tip from a guy at Mox Boarding House in Seattle

Was playing a 4 hour game of Eclipse and the table was a mess. Guy next to us said get a lazy susan for your board. Keeps all your tiles and tokens in easy reach. Anyone else use one for big space games?

Overheard a guy at a game cafe say 'Catan is just Monopoly for nerds' and it got me thinking

I was at a local board game cafe in Denver last Friday waiting for a table. A guy in his 20s said that to his friend while pointing at a copy of Catan on the shelf. It made me wonder if he's ever actually played either game past the first 20 minutes. Catan has trading and resource management, sure, but the victory points and randomization make it a totally different animal. Has anyone else run into folks who lump all board games into the same 'roll and move' category?

That time my Catan game got flipped by a 2 year old

I had my best Settlers of Catan setup going last Saturday at my buddy's place in Portland, 8 points and a road to victory. My friend's toddler grabbed the edge of the table and sent cities, roads, and resource cards flying everywhere in about 2 seconds flat. How do you rebuild a strategy game with a little kid around without just locking everything in a closet?

That moment I realized my game group was skipping rules wrong for years

Last Tuesday at Tim's house, we were halfway through a 4-player game of Terraforming Mars when someone flipped the rulebook to settle a debate. Turns out we had been skipping the entire phase where players trade cards with each other. I had to stop the game and admit to everyone that I'd been teaching it wrong for the 2 years I've owned the copy. Has anyone else discovered a rules mistake that completely changed how a game played?

I told my weekly game group that Catan is overrated and they nearly kicked me out last Tuesday

Three years ago I played my 50th game of Catan and realized the dice luck completely decides who wins, but when I said that at the meetup last week, the guy who ALWAYS wins got SUPER defensive and demanded I leave, so has anyone else gotten heat for calling out a sacred cow game?

Hit 500 plays on my board game collection tracker app and it caught me off guard

I logged into BGStats last night and saw my total plays crossed 500... I started tracking back in 2020 just to see how often Scythe actually hit the table. Turns out I have played Wingspan 47 times alone, mostly solo against the automa. Did anyone else hit a random milestone like this and realize they play way more than they thought?

TIL my usual approach to teaching new players is totally backwards

For years I'd just hand someone like 5 tribes of the 7 Wonders cards and explain everything at once. Last week my buddy Joe's eyes just glazed over after 2 minutes. So I tried something different - I only gave him the first age cards and explained as we played. We finished the whole game in 45 minutes and he actually got the strategy by the end. Has anyone else figured out that less info upfront is the way to go?

Shoutout to the guy who says all deck builders need a timer

I keep seeing people at the local game store in Portland open a new deck builder and take 45 minutes per turn. Everyone acts like slow play is fine, but it kills the game for the rest of us. A 30-minute timer per player is plenty for something like Dominion, and my group has been using one for 6 months now. Has anyone else tried setting time limits at their table?