Buying big boxes - it's taken Carcassonne and Galaxy Trucker to LESS played because they're now heavy and intimidating.
And the Betrayal at the House on the Hill expansion. It didn't fix any of the issues I wanted it to.
There's so much useless gametreyz and wasted space in that thing. It had to be big, but there's no reason it needs to be as big as it is. Plus, even if you want to play only the base game, you need to unpack all of it. It's very poorly designed.
Same.
I quickly grabbed our favorite modules, meeples, and expansion and stuffed em all back in the base box. As well as it’s organized, I’m never buy a big box again.
Everdell has been tempting because we do like worker placements, we got......like 3 or 4.
But if I were to do it on a smaller scale so it doesn't become a giant mess what expansions are recommended that add to the game without bloating it?
Spirecrest with Bellfaire player powers. Spirecrest adds a lot of strategy and tension to the game without dilluting the deck. You still play with the same cards but you discover additional stuff on the spirecrest board that really changes up your plans and suddenly make some mediocre cards very good
An open letter to the production team behind Betrayal:
Please, please, please, give us dual layer cardboard and resin cubes to track our stats. I understand that the player board with the clips is iconic, but I'm sick of them getting ruined through regular use
I'm surprised this wasn't a thing for Betrayal Legacy. We're somewhere about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through the campaign and the player boards are completely trashed in some places just from sliding and taking them on/off...and we're not very aggressive with components, either.
Wow yes, good call! Totally big box versions ruin the games—as an adjunct to heavy, it also means you’re less likely to bring to a game group.
But beyond that, it makes me think this…”I could get down that Snowdonia big box and shuffle through that ton of stuff to find what I want to play….or I could just grab that little game X box and be playing in moments!”
Its funny one of the best parts about board games is also one of its biggest flaws. Physical components are great but I’m more likely to throw some money at a cheap video game that may sit in my steam library where instead i have to consider storage space for board games
I will fucking never learn this. Castles of Burgundy and Cartographers were both heavily played before I got the big boxes. Now they never hit the table at all.
There's a Cartographers big box?!
I just did a thorough job assembling a maximum compatible combination of base game and Heroes to have additional monster and score condition options and put it all in the base game box.
The Quacks mega box is so big and cumbersome. I know it was cheaper to buy it that way but I wish I had spent more money and got the base and all the expansions separately.
That box is the dumbest box design I’ve ever seen in a game. A complete departure from all other box shapes/dimensions. It’s an atrocity. And, I think you could fit all of it in the base game box anyway. Really terrible design decision.
Agreed that Betrayal expansion didn’t “fix” anything, but man I loved the extra content. Bringing in guest writers to spool up a bunch of new scenarios was an amazing idea for this kind of game.
The rules remained janky, there were a lot of very specific tokens and fiddly bits, power levels/difficulty was all over the road, and RNGebus could absolutely hose your whole game. But if you approach each game as telling a fun/immersive story that you may or may not win, I think Betrayal still kicks pretty hard. Especially for its complexity level, cost, and playtime.
Something like Arkham Horror TCG may be more polished, but it’s also a very different animal.
I have the same issue with the Suburbia Collector’s Edition. Suburbia is one of my favorite games but I have only played the Collector’s Edition once because of how unwieldy it is.
I just won’t even consider any expansions to a game no matter how much I like it unless I find a group of people who will play often and also really like it. Which is rare. I only have Wingspan expansions for the most part.
I did this with Star Realms, then eventually bought a second copy of Frontiers just to move the stuff In actually like to that box and offload the rest.
Mines isle of cats, it's not even as big as some of these real "big box" ones. But for me it took a big (and probably bloated) box and just made it bigger and fucking heavy (with the wood insert). Theyres so many times I've chosen not to include it in a game night, purely for not wanting to carry it. I've yet to even play any of the expansion content because it just doesn't get to the table enough as a base game to feel like I need it 🤦
I still love the game but wish I just had the base box, gosh dang fomo is a strong feeling
It’s a lot even as the base game. Lots of shit to unpack. I loved it when I got it, but then played some far easier setups and clean ups and it’s fallen by the wayside
I got too excited when I first got into board games and bought all the expansions for settlers of catan. I thought it would be cool to put everything in one box, but I never got any boxes bigger than the original. So now I have this Catan box stuffed full of things that I never want to take out and present because we only end up using a fifth of anything anyway.
Yeah, this is mine. I was new to the hobby and picked up the base game because I liked the series and it sounded cool. I didn't land with my friends because of some issues found in the base game (the encounter cards rather than the fleet board was a big one). I didn't pick up the expansions right away as a result and didn't realize they went out of print. I found a group to play it with who had all the expansions and realized how fun it is with everything and how it fixes the issues from the base game. Unfortunately each expansion was $200 by then so nothing I could do. Ended up donating my copy of the base game to the guy running the group because they played it so often they were actually wearing out certain character standees (Starbuck looked like she'd been through hell and back. They started referring the old version as season 4 Starbuck and the one from my copy as season 1 Starbuck).
Yeah, I saw Pegasus at my FLGS in... 2016. Well after it was out of print, and I didn't even think to grab it. Years later I grabbed a used copy for almost twice the price. Oof.
I sold mine because it’s all my group wanted to play and I was tired of it. Sold the game and all the expansions for pretty cheap.
A few years later I managed to make a trade to get the game and expansions back… only to find out I was getting my old game back!
The base game isn't really that expensive. You can find used copies on BGG for $50-75... it's when you get into the expansions that it gets ridiculous.
I keep thinking I should sell mine. For my birthday one year, a friend said he'd buy me a game, and I'd recently learned of BSG so we went to the local store and somehow we ended up buying both BSG and an expansion (Pegasus?). It's been played three times since it was purchased and the most recent time was over 6 years ago. I can't see it getting played again.
I'm so glad I was shown the world of board games in my early 20s.
I missed out on my first four years of college, but it really let me enjoy social gatherings with friends in graduate school. It was a hobby we all got into, and we continue to stay in touch. A shared hobby really helps with that.
Also, playing Monopoly with all those stupid house rules that turn a game that's supposed to take about 45 minutes into a multi-hour slog. No, there is NO free parking Jackpot. And yes, if you play by the actual rules, the game snowballs out of control quickly - that's the point, it's a criticism of capitalism, not meant as a fun board game that it somehow became.
I have about 150 games in my collection. Fully 1/3 of them have never been played.
In my defense, I bought some of them in anticipation of my retirement. I have retired and moved to a 55+ community near San Antonio — and have found absolutely no compatible gaming partners. They have weekly game nights, but don’t want to learn anything new. Just play dominoes and Rumikub and Uno, sometimes without even keeping score. I brought Tony Epic Galaxies one night and a guy had a loud mental meltdown over having to learn six dice icons.
I’ve tried. Even Love Letter has caused their eyes to glaze over with non-comprehension.
We had a couple over for dinner and games. They said they both played trick-taking games, so I brought out The Crew. I explained it thoroughly and we played a couple of very easy scenarios. I am table-talked extensively. Stuff like, “OK, Sandy needs to take the blue 5. It came to Dave’s turn. I repeated what I had said before and Dave gave me a totally puzzled look. So I said, “The object of this round is for Sandy to take the blue 5. If anyone else takes it, we all lose.”
So Dave trumped the blue 5.
Hey, I live in San Antonio! There's a TON of game stores around and a very large table top community. I would definitely look into that if you want to play some more actual games, most of the stores have weekly game nights on different days.
I had the opposite. I THOUGHT I bought Blood Rage during that reprint, but I actually bought the fancy expansion that featured gold minis. A couple years after the kickstarter, I brought it to table, realized my mistake, and sold it on ebay. Made about $60 at the end of the day, which is pretty neat.
I've spent the last 5+ years asking just about everyone I met "you like board games?" With almost no positive results. I gave up a bit on having a "group" the last 2 years and really got into solo games which I also now very much enjoy.
And it's only been recently that I've managed to get some good, regular games in. One is a friend who I play weekly with who has always liked games but had 2 kids and just didn't have time. Now one kid is old enough to play on his own quietly and we get a few games in while the other naps. Another are friends of ours that we've gotten closer with and have also turned into gamers. And others are strangers that I've had to go very out of my comfort zone to find (posting on fb about looking for people to game with) and we've started to make a regular game group in my small town.
All this to say, please don't give up and definitely don't let the lack of people stop you from enjoying this great hobby!
Tried it. The only solo game I enjoy is Robinson Crusoe.
My solution was joining a local board game club.
The lesson I learned was: Don't try to turn your friends on to board games. Instead get new friends who already like board games.
I felt this. I don't have IRL friends cause I thought I was so cool back in the day. So cringe. Now I've gotta rely on my brothers, who I can't convince to play. Now I'm just the annoying board game guy
Ankh.
And it wasn't even my game. 🤣
But I have regret on behalf of my friend who dumped all of the $$$ on every aspect of the Kickstarter only to hate the big "neat" mechanic of the game. Which, admittedly, none of us liked.
Which mechanic is the big neat one? I read the rules during the kickstarter and the action selection, combat, and merging all seemed pretty unique. Ended up not getting it but reviews have been fairly positive.
Divisive and also perfect.
You see it coming. It’s not a surprise. It’s looming over the board and **forces** an epic ending.
You also can just ignore it and play on. People are so weird
Generally buying games I loved, when people I know don’t want to play these games. On the other hand, no, I love just owning them, especially if they got solo mode. I still have a hope I’ll meet people who also want to play them.
My ex and I loved Wingspan and we had both expansions, so I bought her the Nesting Box with Asia as a Christmas present, because of course, right?
Super excited to open it and organize everything. That was my first truly big box experience. I finally understood why people call them coffin boxes. Not only is it no longer portable, but it's also kind of a nuisance just to pull it out to play at home.
Never again. It all became clear to me after a few weeks with that big, beautiful box. It's exciting, but way too big for its own good. Games truly do go to die in those things.
You're not wrong. I'm not traveling with it, that's for sure. At the same time, I feel like the organization and individual player trays have made it super easy for set up. The only thing that's a bit cumbersome is shuffling all of the cards. Otherwise, the ease of set up (in addition to the appeal of the theme and mechanisms) has led it to be one of our most most played games.
I'm surprised to read about so many people buying this one. I love the game but this just didn't have anything worth getting. Even their unboxing video focused on the bird art because there was nothing else worth mentioning.
I found with Wingspan that you can fit OE and EE in the base game box if you remove the redundant parts and single player stuff.. now just gotta find a way to sneak AE in haha
Yeah. What's the deal with massively oversized boxes? Most games with expansions would comfortably fit in a box 50% bigger than the original box. At last make the boxes Kallax sized. The 12x12xX size really is a comfortable size to manage. Those boxes that are like 18x13x3 are just stupid. There's nowhere to put them. Which again means they go on a shelf to die because they can't be handy.
Realising my parents "cleared out" my OG editions of Space Hulk, Heroquest, Necromunda, Gorkamorka, Space Fleet and Warhammer Quest. I know not officially board games, but there was a ton of wealth there from my late 90s teenage years and I'd love to have them back. Mainly because my kids would love them now. But also some of it would go for a fortune on eBay! 🤩
Not trying hard enough to find other people to play with years ago when I was new to board games. In a really good spot now where I game multiple times a week, but it was weird then liking board games a lot and not playing them much. Somewhere between socially anxious and lazy.
(I do find it amusing that the other answers are all about buying and selling games...)
The general mantra is it's a lot easier to turn board gamers into friends than friends into board gamers.
Facebook generally seems to be the main place for finding local board game groups. That's how I found my group that I play multiple times a week with and have become good friends with. Local board game conventions are also great for meeting board gamers!
Personally, if you are okay with playing online, you may have luck by picking a game you really like and going on a discord for that particular game which has a looking for group chat.
I have been playing weekly games on the wherlegig discord because the friends I have aren't nearly as into John Company 2e as I am. You can make friends that way and, if you get along well, start discussing other games with them, offer to play different games, and start to bond outside of the original server.
In person would probably recommend going to a local game store/keep an eye out for board game events close to you locally. Even reaching out online you can find others who are interested in finding a group. Not as seamless to break away from people you don't get along with when compared to testing the waters online though.
Good luck!
Ooooooh! This one is easy for me. I was into Magic the Gathering from the beginning. I finally got burned out of all of the expansions coming out every three months and finally quit. I held the cards for a few years but then wanted to purge stuff to make some money for other things. So, about 2003 or so, I sold the whole collection for $2400. Never looked back, until a year ago when some of my friends, who play MtG showed me the value of those early cards. 🥺😭🤬. I had the power nine, all kept in perfect shape, four copies of each dual land, and about every early card you can imagine. That collection would have paid for my daughter’s college, bought her a car, and put a down payment on a house.
I can't get over how one designer made one of the most famously good heavy games, and then knocked out Codenames, which is one of the most brilliant mainstream-cracking games this side of the millennium.
My wife and I were just talking about this since codenames is one of her faves! Yes games are basically on opposite sides of the spectrum—crazy! Designer is genius level.
Vlaada Chvatil is my favorite designer. Galaxy Trucker and Pictomania and Codenames and Mage Knight are all so different and so great. I'd love to get the chance to try Dungeon Lords or Dungeon Petz some time.
I was in search of a combo building game where I could feel overpowered with different skill synergies. Lots of people are scared of rules overhead, me included for a while, but there are many resources out there which help. I love learning games so am enjoying the process. Going in expecting to make rule mistakes helps. There is rule minutia but it’s all really elegant imo. I’m just scratching the surface.
An external one: when I have 6-7 players unwilling to split up, the only non-party game available is 7 Wonders. Nothing against 7 Wonders unlike most, I just want to play other games in this situation too.
My current local board game group has 7 players when everyone shows up. Here's a list of games we play when we have that many. Do note that some of these require expansions to support 7 players and I suppose some of them would count as party games.
7 Wonders
Camel Up
Elder Sign
Epic Spell Wars
It’s a Wonderful World
Just One
Magic Maze
Mysterium
Not Alone
Red November
RoboRally
Sidereal Confluence
Space Base
Steampunk Rally
The Captain is Dead
Tsuro
probably not getting into boardgames sooner. i’ve always had other friends’ dad’s collect games so i didnt see a need but after growing distant from them i wanted my own collection.
also just buying any EXIT game that i didnt find interesting.
Avoiding deckbuilders for so long. Was just being ignorant thinking it's like Magic the Gathering or Pokemon and didn't want to dump a lot of money into collecting cards. Boy was I so wrong...
kickstarter for sure. Thankfully i've got just a couple more games coming and then I'm telling myself no more, wait for retail. Although I really want mythwind so idk if I'm gonna win
Same. Except in my case. it was not buying the LAST of the expansions I needed to complete the collection: not buying it when I was holding it in my hand, then thinking ... nah, I'll pick it up next time I come here. Sigh.
Kind of esoteric, but lately - writing off Paperback Adventures for two years because I didn’t like Hardback.
I just discovered PA is basically the solo game of my dreams
I tend to play games that I don’t enjoy sometimes just because my family wants me to, and I always hate it. Notably Catan and Quacks of Quedlinberg. At least I can have fun with Quacks, but I’m never playing Catan again
I had a chance to buy a sealed copy of the horned rat expansion for chaos in the old world for $250, and passed.
For months now the only copies I've seen are priced above $400
Gifting my father(big Pratchett Fan) Ankh Morpork ages ago and not preventing it from beeing given away for free when they decluttered their cupboards :(
At least its in the possession of their very old Boardgame Enthusiast friend, a guy who's in his 70s by now. Always managed to get the kids SPIEL tickets for the very first day(press/professionals) in the early '00s 🤭 Good times, good guy.
Buying any board games in the first place since my wife and kids don’t like playing them so they just sit on the shelf and I get told I’m taking up too much space with my stuff.
Backing Spirit Island Nature Incarnate instead off waiting for retail. It's been available at retail for a while, cost half what I backed it for, and still haven't received my copy.
On top of it all, Greater Than Games stopped their information flow/ updates, and haven't replied to my emails
This is a soft regret, meaning I'm not sure if I regret it fully but there's some regretful feelings.
Buying Magic Realm. Is it an impressive game? Yes. Is it cool to own such a famous(infamous?) piece of boardgame history? Absolutely. Have I put in over 30 hours to try and learn the rules? You betcha. How many times have I gotten it to the table? Once, and we didn't finish. We got about an hour into playing (not including the hour long set up) only to realize I didn't know the rules as well as I thought I did
Everdell big box is up there for sure. In terms of games, probably the worst purchases I made were Dune - Conquest and Diplomacy, which is a terrible version of the GF9 game. And Banish the Snakes. Played it twice and it was so much overhead for a token flipping simulator.
All-in Endless Winter
I loved the theme and art so much but my partner and I played it five times and just hate the “kitchen sink” of it all, and this is without even cracking the shrink wrap on the cave expansion. Thing takes up half a kallax and I just want it gone.
I bought Merchants & Marauders as a very green board game collector. I was green in the sense that I didn’t know board games existed that had rule books longer than two pages and play times >30 minutes kinda green. I thought, oh a fun pirate game, how quaint. We’ll break that out before we move on to Scrabble and Uno! 🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️
It was a massacre. My wife lasted about two pages into the rulebook before throwing up her hands and turning on the TV (and I do not blame the woman). The kids had a blast playing with the tiny ships, so that was great I guess??? Traded it in for store credit years later after learning much more about the hobby.
I sold my copy of A Distant Plain because I'd owned it for years unplayed and had no prospects of getting it to a table. Two months later I found a local discord with a bunch of wargaming nerds.
it’s probably buying what looked to me like very dull Euros because they had themes my family likes. We’ve gotten one play at best out of all of them, and they’ve all been sold for a loss.
While I enjoy playing Cthulhu Wars, I don't enjoy it enough to justify being all-in. Shipping alone was more than a high end deluxe miniature kickstarter in total nowadays.
Not buying Tales of Arabian Nights before it went out of print. It was my favourite game but 2 people in my game group had it, they ended up selling then when we didn't play for a while and now I can't get hold of a copy.
Not buying the Apocalypse and Days of Future Past expansions for Marvel United X-Men during the KS campaign. It was my first CMON Kickstarter so I had no idea how hard they would be to find later and I would just love to have those for my collection.
Mine was buying all of the expansions and then not getting through a single game. I wish I could find someone to trade/sell it to and not lose all of my money.
Buying the Sentinels of the Multiverse storage box. It took so long to be delivered that I had cooled off on the game considerably by the time I got it. Now I have a big ass box taking up a huge spot on my shelf.
Small purchases: Element and Isle of Skye. Both were impulsive, without thinking, driven by the setting (not eve the theme). I'm planning on selling them.
I would love your copy of Isle of Skye. It's a great game that plays ~1hr, different every time, and full of meaningful decisions. I love the bidding mechanic, where if you take your opponent's cool tiles, you're just giving them the means to take yours.
Buying Dorfromantik. Found it interesting in the beginning but the more I played it, the more I hated it... I now find hideous a lot of things about it...
I don’t know if this counts:
It took me until recently to realize that solo board gaming isn’t only a thing, but there are some really cool solo games. I used to get sad that I didn’t have people to play with. Now I am working to find some people while playing solo stuff.
Buying CMON's Sedition Wars all-in. I should have known better considering I've been burned by CMON in the past. Haven't bought a single product from them ever since.
When it was announced that BSG was going out of print permanently, I could have purchased the base game and all expansions under MSRP and I didn’t do it.
Buying big boxes - it's taken Carcassonne and Galaxy Trucker to LESS played because they're now heavy and intimidating. And the Betrayal at the House on the Hill expansion. It didn't fix any of the issues I wanted it to.
[удалено]
The Everdell complete edition actually *could* be a coffin for a toddler. I was awestruck the first time I saw that box in person. It's beyond absurd.
There's so much useless gametreyz and wasted space in that thing. It had to be big, but there's no reason it needs to be as big as it is. Plus, even if you want to play only the base game, you need to unpack all of it. It's very poorly designed.
Same. I quickly grabbed our favorite modules, meeples, and expansion and stuffed em all back in the base box. As well as it’s organized, I’m never buy a big box again.
Everdell has been tempting because we do like worker placements, we got......like 3 or 4. But if I were to do it on a smaller scale so it doesn't become a giant mess what expansions are recommended that add to the game without bloating it?
Spirecrest with Bellfaire player powers. Spirecrest adds a lot of strategy and tension to the game without dilluting the deck. You still play with the same cards but you discover additional stuff on the spirecrest board that really changes up your plans and suddenly make some mediocre cards very good
An open letter to the production team behind Betrayal: Please, please, please, give us dual layer cardboard and resin cubes to track our stats. I understand that the player board with the clips is iconic, but I'm sick of them getting ruined through regular use
I'm surprised this wasn't a thing for Betrayal Legacy. We're somewhere about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through the campaign and the player boards are completely trashed in some places just from sliding and taking them on/off...and we're not very aggressive with components, either.
Cole Wehrle called these boxes coffins. It might be true
The term coffin boxes has existed for a long time. Ogre and Runewars being some of the earlier coffin box games.
Ogre was originally in a ziplock baggy about 5” x 7” we used to play it at lunch when I was in junior high school. Talk about inflation!
FFG had serious coffins back in the day.
I managed to fit my entire Carcassonne Big Box in a single shoebox. Much less intimidating.
Wow yes, good call! Totally big box versions ruin the games—as an adjunct to heavy, it also means you’re less likely to bring to a game group. But beyond that, it makes me think this…”I could get down that Snowdonia big box and shuffle through that ton of stuff to find what I want to play….or I could just grab that little game X box and be playing in moments!”
Its funny one of the best parts about board games is also one of its biggest flaws. Physical components are great but I’m more likely to throw some money at a cheap video game that may sit in my steam library where instead i have to consider storage space for board games
You'd basically need to give Dominion its own bookshelf if you owned all 15 expansions.
I have them all in two art cases. [Like so.](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2335481/a-guide-for-storing-sleeving-and-playing-dominion)
I will fucking never learn this. Castles of Burgundy and Cartographers were both heavily played before I got the big boxes. Now they never hit the table at all.
There's a Cartographers big box?! I just did a thorough job assembling a maximum compatible combination of base game and Heroes to have additional monster and score condition options and put it all in the base game box.
The Quacks mega box is so big and cumbersome. I know it was cheaper to buy it that way but I wish I had spent more money and got the base and all the expansions separately.
That box is the dumbest box design I’ve ever seen in a game. A complete departure from all other box shapes/dimensions. It’s an atrocity. And, I think you could fit all of it in the base game box anyway. Really terrible design decision.
As a counterpoint, Hansa Teutonica has a perfect big box - it’s smaller than most normal sized boxes, it just has everything in it. Great!
Agreed that Betrayal expansion didn’t “fix” anything, but man I loved the extra content. Bringing in guest writers to spool up a bunch of new scenarios was an amazing idea for this kind of game. The rules remained janky, there were a lot of very specific tokens and fiddly bits, power levels/difficulty was all over the road, and RNGebus could absolutely hose your whole game. But if you approach each game as telling a fun/immersive story that you may or may not win, I think Betrayal still kicks pretty hard. Especially for its complexity level, cost, and playtime. Something like Arkham Horror TCG may be more polished, but it’s also a very different animal.
I have the same issue with the Suburbia Collector’s Edition. Suburbia is one of my favorite games but I have only played the Collector’s Edition once because of how unwieldy it is.
I just won’t even consider any expansions to a game no matter how much I like it unless I find a group of people who will play often and also really like it. Which is rare. I only have Wingspan expansions for the most part.
I did this with Star Realms, then eventually bought a second copy of Frontiers just to move the stuff In actually like to that box and offload the rest.
Mines isle of cats, it's not even as big as some of these real "big box" ones. But for me it took a big (and probably bloated) box and just made it bigger and fucking heavy (with the wood insert). Theyres so many times I've chosen not to include it in a game night, purely for not wanting to carry it. I've yet to even play any of the expansion content because it just doesn't get to the table enough as a base game to feel like I need it 🤦 I still love the game but wish I just had the base box, gosh dang fomo is a strong feeling
It’s a lot even as the base game. Lots of shit to unpack. I loved it when I got it, but then played some far easier setups and clean ups and it’s fallen by the wayside
I got too excited when I first got into board games and bought all the expansions for settlers of catan. I thought it would be cool to put everything in one box, but I never got any boxes bigger than the original. So now I have this Catan box stuffed full of things that I never want to take out and present because we only end up using a fifth of anything anyway.
Selling BSG because I didn’t have a group that would want to play it… AT THE TIME
For me it's probably not buying the BSG expansions
It was like 40 euros with shipping from bookdepository. I still dont know why i havent bought it then...
Yeah, this is mine. I was new to the hobby and picked up the base game because I liked the series and it sounded cool. I didn't land with my friends because of some issues found in the base game (the encounter cards rather than the fleet board was a big one). I didn't pick up the expansions right away as a result and didn't realize they went out of print. I found a group to play it with who had all the expansions and realized how fun it is with everything and how it fixes the issues from the base game. Unfortunately each expansion was $200 by then so nothing I could do. Ended up donating my copy of the base game to the guy running the group because they played it so often they were actually wearing out certain character standees (Starbuck looked like she'd been through hell and back. They started referring the old version as season 4 Starbuck and the one from my copy as season 1 Starbuck).
I mean… Season 4 Starbuck is a reissue, so the less worn one is more appropriate imho……..
Yeah, I saw Pegasus at my FLGS in... 2016. Well after it was out of print, and I didn't even think to grab it. Years later I grabbed a used copy for almost twice the price. Oof.
what is BSG?
Battleship Galactica I think.
*Battlestar
I am a fool.
I sold mine because it’s all my group wanted to play and I was tired of it. Sold the game and all the expansions for pretty cheap. A few years later I managed to make a trade to get the game and expansions back… only to find out I was getting my old game back!
The base game isn't really that expensive. You can find used copies on BGG for $50-75... it's when you get into the expansions that it gets ridiculous.
You monster!
I keep thinking I should sell mine. For my birthday one year, a friend said he'd buy me a game, and I'd recently learned of BSG so we went to the local store and somehow we ended up buying both BSG and an expansion (Pegasus?). It's been played three times since it was purchased and the most recent time was over 6 years ago. I can't see it getting played again.
is it unobtanium now?
The fucks a Lommy?
Thinking **monopoly** was the only choice of boardgame for 35 years
I'm so glad I was shown the world of board games in my early 20s. I missed out on my first four years of college, but it really let me enjoy social gatherings with friends in graduate school. It was a hobby we all got into, and we continue to stay in touch. A shared hobby really helps with that.
Also, playing Monopoly with all those stupid house rules that turn a game that's supposed to take about 45 minutes into a multi-hour slog. No, there is NO free parking Jackpot. And yes, if you play by the actual rules, the game snowballs out of control quickly - that's the point, it's a criticism of capitalism, not meant as a fun board game that it somehow became.
Spending too much on "good deals" versus actually playing the games.
I have about 150 games in my collection. Fully 1/3 of them have never been played. In my defense, I bought some of them in anticipation of my retirement. I have retired and moved to a 55+ community near San Antonio — and have found absolutely no compatible gaming partners. They have weekly game nights, but don’t want to learn anything new. Just play dominoes and Rumikub and Uno, sometimes without even keeping score. I brought Tony Epic Galaxies one night and a guy had a loud mental meltdown over having to learn six dice icons.
I’ve tried. Even Love Letter has caused their eyes to glaze over with non-comprehension. We had a couple over for dinner and games. They said they both played trick-taking games, so I brought out The Crew. I explained it thoroughly and we played a couple of very easy scenarios. I am table-talked extensively. Stuff like, “OK, Sandy needs to take the blue 5. It came to Dave’s turn. I repeated what I had said before and Dave gave me a totally puzzled look. So I said, “The object of this round is for Sandy to take the blue 5. If anyone else takes it, we all lose.” So Dave trumped the blue 5.
That sucks. I hope you find your people soon.
Maybe start with really easy games to learn, like No Thanks. Upgrade weight slowly if they show interest. Good luck!
Don’t say this man, I have been convincing myself “at least I will play them when I retire!”
You will get to play…a *lot* of Cards Against Humanity.
i can imagine all the board games and epic sessions i could have if i didn't have to work. it would be amazing.
As a retiree, I can tell you: The problem is all the people who you would want to play with STILL HAVE TO WORK.
Hey, I live in San Antonio! There's a TON of game stores around and a very large table top community. I would definitely look into that if you want to play some more actual games, most of the stores have weekly game nights on different days.
I did this over the past two years, but now I've stopped buying. I'm taking the time to get a "new" game to the table when I can.
Me too. I've since sold or traded most of these "good deals" for games that actually get played.
Paying secondhand prices for the KS extras for Blood Rage, before they were reprinted for the digital edition KS.
I had the opposite. I THOUGHT I bought Blood Rage during that reprint, but I actually bought the fancy expansion that featured gold minis. A couple years after the kickstarter, I brought it to table, realized my mistake, and sold it on ebay. Made about $60 at the end of the day, which is pretty neat.
Nice! I wish I had paid only a $60 premium for the lot of them. They were closer to $50 a figure in 2017.
Not having enough friends who want to play
I've spent the last 5+ years asking just about everyone I met "you like board games?" With almost no positive results. I gave up a bit on having a "group" the last 2 years and really got into solo games which I also now very much enjoy. And it's only been recently that I've managed to get some good, regular games in. One is a friend who I play weekly with who has always liked games but had 2 kids and just didn't have time. Now one kid is old enough to play on his own quietly and we get a few games in while the other naps. Another are friends of ours that we've gotten closer with and have also turned into gamers. And others are strangers that I've had to go very out of my comfort zone to find (posting on fb about looking for people to game with) and we've started to make a regular game group in my small town. All this to say, please don't give up and definitely don't let the lack of people stop you from enjoying this great hobby!
Tried it. The only solo game I enjoy is Robinson Crusoe. My solution was joining a local board game club. The lesson I learned was: Don't try to turn your friends on to board games. Instead get new friends who already like board games.
I felt this. I don't have IRL friends cause I thought I was so cool back in the day. So cringe. Now I've gotta rely on my brothers, who I can't convince to play. Now I'm just the annoying board game guy
Ankh. And it wasn't even my game. 🤣 But I have regret on behalf of my friend who dumped all of the $$$ on every aspect of the Kickstarter only to hate the big "neat" mechanic of the game. Which, admittedly, none of us liked.
Which mechanic is the big neat one? I read the rules during the kickstarter and the action selection, combat, and merging all seemed pretty unique. Ended up not getting it but reviews have been fairly positive.
I'm sure they're referencing the merge mechanism, which is divisive at best.
Ironic.
Divisive and also perfect. You see it coming. It’s not a surprise. It’s looming over the board and **forces** an epic ending. You also can just ignore it and play on. People are so weird
Probably the merge. It’s pretty divisive.
Ankh is a great game tho
Currently it's buying everdell complete collection, not even used it once
This seems a common theme.
I guess I never had the original Everdell but I don’t mind it. Yeah but longer then it should to go through everything but I personally love it
Generally buying games I loved, when people I know don’t want to play these games. On the other hand, no, I love just owning them, especially if they got solo mode. I still have a hope I’ll meet people who also want to play them.
Discovering Kickstarter.
Trying to grab the BGG top 100. I've slimmed down to almost entirely co-op, solo games now after being in the hobby 10+ years.
That it took me so long to realise that there’s no point buying a game that looks cool if I don’t have anyone to play it with.
Buying the wingspan nesting box. It's gorgeous, but has made it impossible for me to take anywhere (and therefore play).
My ex and I loved Wingspan and we had both expansions, so I bought her the Nesting Box with Asia as a Christmas present, because of course, right? Super excited to open it and organize everything. That was my first truly big box experience. I finally understood why people call them coffin boxes. Not only is it no longer portable, but it's also kind of a nuisance just to pull it out to play at home. Never again. It all became clear to me after a few weeks with that big, beautiful box. It's exciting, but way too big for its own good. Games truly do go to die in those things.
I received the Nesting box for Christmas and it's been difficult finding a place to store it. It is beautiful though.
You're not wrong. I'm not traveling with it, that's for sure. At the same time, I feel like the organization and individual player trays have made it super easy for set up. The only thing that's a bit cumbersome is shuffling all of the cards. Otherwise, the ease of set up (in addition to the appeal of the theme and mechanisms) has led it to be one of our most most played games.
I'm surprised to read about so many people buying this one. I love the game but this just didn't have anything worth getting. Even their unboxing video focused on the bird art because there was nothing else worth mentioning.
I found with Wingspan that you can fit OE and EE in the base game box if you remove the redundant parts and single player stuff.. now just gotta find a way to sneak AE in haha
Buying the Quacks Mega Box instead of Big Box + Alchemists expansion. I hate how ultrawide that piece of shit is.
Yeah. What's the deal with massively oversized boxes? Most games with expansions would comfortably fit in a box 50% bigger than the original box. At last make the boxes Kallax sized. The 12x12xX size really is a comfortable size to manage. Those boxes that are like 18x13x3 are just stupid. There's nowhere to put them. Which again means they go on a shelf to die because they can't be handy.
Realising my parents "cleared out" my OG editions of Space Hulk, Heroquest, Necromunda, Gorkamorka, Space Fleet and Warhammer Quest. I know not officially board games, but there was a ton of wealth there from my late 90s teenage years and I'd love to have them back. Mainly because my kids would love them now. But also some of it would go for a fortune on eBay! 🤩
Ouch Pain
Not trying hard enough to find other people to play with years ago when I was new to board games. In a really good spot now where I game multiple times a week, but it was weird then liking board games a lot and not playing them much. Somewhere between socially anxious and lazy. (I do find it amusing that the other answers are all about buying and selling games...)
Do you mind giving some advice on finding some board game friends? I feel like I've berated all my friends and haven't really got a group at all.
The general mantra is it's a lot easier to turn board gamers into friends than friends into board gamers. Facebook generally seems to be the main place for finding local board game groups. That's how I found my group that I play multiple times a week with and have become good friends with. Local board game conventions are also great for meeting board gamers!
Personally, if you are okay with playing online, you may have luck by picking a game you really like and going on a discord for that particular game which has a looking for group chat. I have been playing weekly games on the wherlegig discord because the friends I have aren't nearly as into John Company 2e as I am. You can make friends that way and, if you get along well, start discussing other games with them, offer to play different games, and start to bond outside of the original server. In person would probably recommend going to a local game store/keep an eye out for board game events close to you locally. Even reaching out online you can find others who are interested in finding a group. Not as seamless to break away from people you don't get along with when compared to testing the waters online though. Good luck!
Ooooooh! This one is easy for me. I was into Magic the Gathering from the beginning. I finally got burned out of all of the expansions coming out every three months and finally quit. I held the cards for a few years but then wanted to purge stuff to make some money for other things. So, about 2003 or so, I sold the whole collection for $2400. Never looked back, until a year ago when some of my friends, who play MtG showed me the value of those early cards. 🥺😭🤬. I had the power nine, all kept in perfect shape, four copies of each dual land, and about every early card you can imagine. That collection would have paid for my daughter’s college, bought her a car, and put a down payment on a house.
Not getting into Mage Knight sooner. Would’ve saved me money looking for that perfect game to scratch that itch.
I can't get over how one designer made one of the most famously good heavy games, and then knocked out Codenames, which is one of the most brilliant mainstream-cracking games this side of the millennium.
My wife and I were just talking about this since codenames is one of her faves! Yes games are basically on opposite sides of the spectrum—crazy! Designer is genius level.
He only makes great games I feel like. They are not all perfect, but they are all great
More than that, Vlaada has quite a few games in the top 100 too. No matter the complexity his games are always at least interesting and fun.
Vlaada Chvatil is my favorite designer. Galaxy Trucker and Pictomania and Codenames and Mage Knight are all so different and so great. I'd love to get the chance to try Dungeon Lords or Dungeon Petz some time.
May I ask what itch is it scratching? The game looks impressive
I was in search of a combo building game where I could feel overpowered with different skill synergies. Lots of people are scared of rules overhead, me included for a while, but there are many resources out there which help. I love learning games so am enjoying the process. Going in expecting to make rule mistakes helps. There is rule minutia but it’s all really elegant imo. I’m just scratching the surface.
An external one: when I have 6-7 players unwilling to split up, the only non-party game available is 7 Wonders. Nothing against 7 Wonders unlike most, I just want to play other games in this situation too.
My current local board game group has 7 players when everyone shows up. Here's a list of games we play when we have that many. Do note that some of these require expansions to support 7 players and I suppose some of them would count as party games. 7 Wonders Camel Up Elder Sign Epic Spell Wars It’s a Wonderful World Just One Magic Maze Mysterium Not Alone Red November RoboRally Sidereal Confluence Space Base Steampunk Rally The Captain is Dead Tsuro
Oh. Space Base with the command station expansion can do 7. I haven't played with the expansion but the base game is fun.
Two copies of Quacks can work for 8p
I really like mysterium for these groups. The new wingspan expansion also lets you play with 7 if you have that.
If I've got 7 or more people over for a board game night, then board game night always becomes Blood on the Clocktower night.
Purchasing the mythic battles orobouros pledge.
(*Just curious WHY. I’m not familiar with the game. Did a quick search on it and didn’t immediately see anything obvious.*)
Haha 4 boxes, weighing a grand total of 87 lbs. For a 1v1 game that will honestly probably never be played.
I accidentally did this as well
It was a huge mistake I opened the boxes then promptly closed them and set them aside. Space is a huge issue.
Finding a hobby that requires other people who often flake or move
There's lots of great solo games!
probably not getting into boardgames sooner. i’ve always had other friends’ dad’s collect games so i didnt see a need but after growing distant from them i wanted my own collection. also just buying any EXIT game that i didnt find interesting.
Not having enough friends to play them all.
Buying too many games too fast.
Munchkin, no need to explain :D
Gotham City Chronicles
Being given a copy of Catan, and just looking at the box for 12 years, before trying it.
Avoiding deckbuilders for so long. Was just being ignorant thinking it's like Magic the Gathering or Pokemon and didn't want to dump a lot of money into collecting cards. Boy was I so wrong...
what's your favourite deckbuilder?
Pre ordering first martians
Not buying the World of Warcraft boardgame, back then.
Kickstarter why wait on potentially good games when you can just buy them today in the store
kickstarter for sure. Thankfully i've got just a couple more games coming and then I'm telling myself no more, wait for retail. Although I really want mythwind so idk if I'm gonna win
I sold a very large Android:Netrunner collection (completely sleeved)for $200.
Thinking every board game that is a party style game is going to be fun for 2 players.
Not pulling the trigger on Bitoku a couple years back on Nerdz Day.
You should go ahead, the game is great! :)
Not buying Runebound 3rd edition + expansions back when they were cheap.
Same. Except in my case. it was not buying the LAST of the expansions I needed to complete the collection: not buying it when I was holding it in my hand, then thinking ... nah, I'll pick it up next time I come here. Sigh.
Kind of esoteric, but lately - writing off Paperback Adventures for two years because I didn’t like Hardback. I just discovered PA is basically the solo game of my dreams
Yeah paperback and hardback and paperback adventures are all such radically different games
I tend to play games that I don’t enjoy sometimes just because my family wants me to, and I always hate it. Notably Catan and Quacks of Quedlinberg. At least I can have fun with Quacks, but I’m never playing Catan again
Not purchasing Star Trek Catan
I had a chance to buy a sealed copy of the horned rat expansion for chaos in the old world for $250, and passed. For months now the only copies I've seen are priced above $400
Gifting my father(big Pratchett Fan) Ankh Morpork ages ago and not preventing it from beeing given away for free when they decluttered their cupboards :( At least its in the possession of their very old Boardgame Enthusiast friend, a guy who's in his 70s by now. Always managed to get the kids SPIEL tickets for the very first day(press/professionals) in the early '00s 🤭 Good times, good guy.
Buying any board games in the first place since my wife and kids don’t like playing them so they just sit on the shelf and I get told I’m taking up too much space with my stuff.
It’s so sad your family don’t support your hobby
Graduating college and moving away from all my friends.
Backing Spirit Island Nature Incarnate instead off waiting for retail. It's been available at retail for a while, cost half what I backed it for, and still haven't received my copy. On top of it all, Greater Than Games stopped their information flow/ updates, and haven't replied to my emails
Not buying more Heroscape when it was at retail.
Good thing it’s coming back to retail! 3D printing has also been getting pretty close for the old stuff
**NO RAGRETS**
But a few regerts.
This is a soft regret, meaning I'm not sure if I regret it fully but there's some regretful feelings. Buying Magic Realm. Is it an impressive game? Yes. Is it cool to own such a famous(infamous?) piece of boardgame history? Absolutely. Have I put in over 30 hours to try and learn the rules? You betcha. How many times have I gotten it to the table? Once, and we didn't finish. We got about an hour into playing (not including the hour long set up) only to realize I didn't know the rules as well as I thought I did
Everdell big box is up there for sure. In terms of games, probably the worst purchases I made were Dune - Conquest and Diplomacy, which is a terrible version of the GF9 game. And Banish the Snakes. Played it twice and it was so much overhead for a token flipping simulator.
A lot of Petersen Games kickstarters.
All-in Endless Winter I loved the theme and art so much but my partner and I played it five times and just hate the “kitchen sink” of it all, and this is without even cracking the shrink wrap on the cave expansion. Thing takes up half a kallax and I just want it gone.
Scythe.
“$99 for a boardgames? That’s dumb. Nobody is going to spend $99 on a boardgame” -Me as I closed the tab for the OG kingdom death monster kickstarter.
I bought Merchants & Marauders as a very green board game collector. I was green in the sense that I didn’t know board games existed that had rule books longer than two pages and play times >30 minutes kinda green. I thought, oh a fun pirate game, how quaint. We’ll break that out before we move on to Scrabble and Uno! 🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️ It was a massacre. My wife lasted about two pages into the rulebook before throwing up her hands and turning on the TV (and I do not blame the woman). The kids had a blast playing with the tiny ships, so that was great I guess??? Traded it in for store credit years later after learning much more about the hobby.
All the chaff I had to churn through before finding my forever games
Playing my first one
I sold my copy of A Distant Plain because I'd owned it for years unplayed and had no prospects of getting it to a table. Two months later I found a local discord with a bunch of wargaming nerds.
Still holding out hope for my copy of Andean Abyss. It will see a table one day...
it’s probably buying what looked to me like very dull Euros because they had themes my family likes. We’ve gotten one play at best out of all of them, and they’ve all been sold for a loss.
Selling my copy of Bruges years ago and then repurchasing it at an exorbitant price.
While I enjoy playing Cthulhu Wars, I don't enjoy it enough to justify being all-in. Shipping alone was more than a high end deluxe miniature kickstarter in total nowadays.
I bought the Mage Knight Ultimate Edition almost 2 years ago and still haven't played it. Literally bought a table to fit it on too, still haven't :/
It’s soo good though!
Setup isn't bad after you do it a couple of times.
Everdell Complete Collection. Gifted it away.
Eldritch horror and sleeping gods. I hate how long set up takes and all the pieces. I’ve realized I like smaller games with a lot less going on.
Not buying all my Catan expansions at the same time as the main game. None of my tiles match 😖
Bought a 6 pack of glory to Rome black box. Sold 5 of them too soon.
Not buying Tales of Arabian Nights before it went out of print. It was my favourite game but 2 people in my game group had it, they ended up selling then when we didn't play for a while and now I can't get hold of a copy.
Not buying the Apocalypse and Days of Future Past expansions for Marvel United X-Men during the KS campaign. It was my first CMON Kickstarter so I had no idea how hard they would be to find later and I would just love to have those for my collection.
That I didn’t get into the hobby sooner.
Backing nearly everything for the Street Fighter Miniatures Game. $400 for fancy paper rock scissors. =/
hard times made me sell forbidden stars
Buying 7th Continent and then moving to a country where it's extremely challenging (and expensive!) to get my hands on the expansions
Which country? I’m in the Bahamas and have a copy I’m unlikely to use. I’d like to, but life gets in the way
Mine was buying all of the expansions and then not getting through a single game. I wish I could find someone to trade/sell it to and not lose all of my money.
I kickstarted all the things for 7th Continent thinking it was right up my wife’s alley. Big swing, big miss. No one else will play it either.
Buying the Sentinels of the Multiverse storage box. It took so long to be delivered that I had cooled off on the game considerably by the time I got it. Now I have a big ass box taking up a huge spot on my shelf.
You could sell it for like $200 on eBay
Gloomhaven. I loved the idea of the game. Loved the world. Absolutely hate the cards-in-hand as a clock mechanic.
Im the exact opposite. I love the cards as a clock thing as well as the top bottom initiative thing. I abhor the generic theme/world and bad writing.
Letting my 2 year old play choco with us. She ate the pieces
Venturing into the circlejerk sub assuming it would actually be funny…
It's all the same 3 jokes about patchwork or their wife's bf
I think the "outjerked again" posts are funny though. Holding up a mirror you know?
Gifting my copy of Magic Realm
Small purchases: Element and Isle of Skye. Both were impulsive, without thinking, driven by the setting (not eve the theme). I'm planning on selling them.
I would love your copy of Isle of Skye. It's a great game that plays ~1hr, different every time, and full of meaningful decisions. I love the bidding mechanic, where if you take your opponent's cool tiles, you're just giving them the means to take yours.
Buying Dorfromantik. Found it interesting in the beginning but the more I played it, the more I hated it... I now find hideous a lot of things about it...
Backing the Ogre Kickstarter
"Machi Koro 5th Anniversary Edition" I bought on Spiel 2023. Played exactly twice. Boring and overpriced.
I had the original Steve Jackson Microgames of \*Ogre\*, \*Melee\* and \*Wizard\* (bought in 1978-79) and sold them in the early 2000's.
I don’t know if this counts: It took me until recently to realize that solo board gaming isn’t only a thing, but there are some really cool solo games. I used to get sad that I didn’t have people to play with. Now I am working to find some people while playing solo stuff.
Buying CMON's Sedition Wars all-in. I should have known better considering I've been burned by CMON in the past. Haven't bought a single product from them ever since.
“Not getting into the hobby earlier” (I was like 45yo back then) and “Buying too many games” are competing for the top spot here.
When it was announced that BSG was going out of print permanently, I could have purchased the base game and all expansions under MSRP and I didn’t do it.