r/boardgamescirclejerk

I was having a discussion with some of my buddies while attending a meet-up at our FLGS. One of the shop attendants walked past our table and asked me to "practice personal hygiene" and "please wear deodorant".

This got me thinking about what could be some other curious little turns of phrase in our hobby that would seem strange to outsiders

I found a used copy of TTR at the thrift store. Even though I already own it and all the expansions, I couldn’t pass up the chance to experience buying it for $5. Anyway, when I got it home, I noticed that the cards had been used. This is unacceptable. The slight yellowing of age and use at the edges makes me sick and reminds me that I one day will die and within only a couple of centuries at most all traces of me ever having existed will be annihilated, like a little air bubble in dough stretched and kneaded away. Tips?

I discovered that game a few days ago and liked it, but a few things felt wrong.

After thinking, I realized it came from the gaming material:

1. The box is too big. This is not an expert game, this is a light game. For people wanting to play 45min-1h without any pretention. So the game goes in the "box should not be too big" category (like sky team).

This also explains why I had to build a 4m x 3m x 1m homemade box for Patchwork in my backyard, Patchwork being the most expert game to ever exist.

2. The player board feels too cardboardy. The color is not the same as the rest of the game. The player board is FLAT! A flat board, can you imagine?

This also explains the homemade woodcarved (to add volume) and knitted patchwork pieces in my living room that my wife's boyfriend keep mistaking for carpets.

3. Tokens, tokens, tokens. I like manipulating stuffs (like shrinkwrapped boxes), but this is too much. Tokens should be replaced with tracks. Considering tracks, also refer to my universal first player track on kickstarter. Every player set it to 0, except the first player who sets it to 1. Much more efficient and visually pleasing than a first player token, with the added benefit of eliminating the unneeded player interaction when giving the token to someone else. Also check my special "Patchwork edition" for each 2000$ pledge.

/uj: almost direct translation from a french post I read, I just added the parts in italics. The box part was just so fun to read.

We somehow managed to turn Pictionary into a screaming match.

Need new games for a small social meetup this Sunday.

What’s one game that gets way more competitive than it should?

I'm pretty frustrated! I feel kind of cheated. We have a couple gaming groups. One hops around to different games quite a bit, but still keeps it kind of tight, but one friend prefers to pick a game and grind on it for a while. The last game we did this with was Age of Innovation.

My wife and I have been excited to introduce him to Barrage. So, we got it to the table with him and he really liked it. After the first play he says, "Is this on BGA?". I said yes and was glad he liked it enough to check it out there. And I'm curious if you already have a guess of where this is going.

We played a few more times and he started stomping us. He says, that's kind of expected, I've probably played about 60 games on BGA. I had no problem with that at all. I'm fine getting stomped and learning from it. I figured, great, he loves it and I went out and bought some of the extra content for the game for more variety.

The 9th time we played, I had a great game (by my mediocre standards) and won by maybe 15-20 points. He says "I wouldn't mind trying it here and there a couple more times, but I'm kind of starting to be over this game. I'm not even playing it on BGA anymore." Two things miffed me: I went and checked his plays on BGA... 220 times! Of course he's getting a bit bored of it! We played 9 together, he has gone off and played 220 times. Second, he doesn't love losing and I think it hit his ego when he got beat after having play 211 times more than me.

So, I'm kind of bummed and annoyed that I'll probably have to pack this game up and put it back on the shelf, possibly to never be played again. He was our only chance of getting a significant amount of plays on this.

Solution: The next game we introduce him to is not going to be on BGA. Was wanting to do Ark Nova, but nope!

are you guys out here eating cardboard?

I'm curious, where is your limit when it comes to let the other people leave the house? Especially in RPG campaign-inspired games, where early leavers can break out of character and sully the mood.

What amount of time, for you, seems like the perfect spot? Are there any games that literally scare you because of how long they take to beat (like for example Patchwork Legacy)? Or maybe you think about it more like a RPG/D&D campaign, which for sure is going to take weeks or months to finish.

Long board games also require the same group of people, so it's an important element to coordinate in order to finish the game. At least with my wife's boyfriend moving in, we have a player for the long run.

Anyway, what do you think? Share your thoughts :>

Help, my friends and I are so sweaty we’ve completely drenched all my games. I’m already preparing several “is this mold?” posts as a follow up.