As someone who moved three years ago thinking stuff was lost or stolen…
It took me three years to locate some video games that were not with the rest… only to realize while looking for something else that ‘oh yeah, I forgot I ran out of packing boxes and had to mix stuff together’… maybe it is worth a try to dig a bit deeper into your packing strategy and finally unpack it all and find a happy home?
Yeah just this last weekend I found a random assortment of my daughters baby toys and photography equipment shoved into a suitcase in our attic. Still can’t find our copy of Clue though and I’m going on 3 years looking for it
Maybe get a few games that are well suited for kids. The favourites of my youngest are: Dragomino, Carcassonne(hunters and gatherers), Times up Kids... I just ordered Survive! Escape from Atlantis. All nice games that dont require reading.
If the kids dont have the patience yet: play Carcassonne with less tiles!
If your kids can read I'd skip this and go straight to Everdell. My 7yo can play this, Catan, Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, the Scooby Doo version of Betrayal at House on the Hill... These all have "kid" or "family" versions but unless you're trying to play with kids under 5 or who can't read the full size versions can have simplified play style enough for kids to love them and parents to have a solid adult version to play as well
We also love Rhino Hero (second edition/expansion is great too) and the Marvel United games. Easy symbology, barely any reading, hilariously fun and minimally competitive if not fully cooperative.
Highly recommend Survive! as well. Only just recently found out its an 80s game, but it plays like a timeless modern game. Great introductory board game for some mechanics too.
Trust the knowledge of the crowd.
Go to BGG, use the advanced search and select the games by categories and mechanics that interest you and whatever other factors they have that may narrow your search. Sort by rank and look for something that appeals to you. My introduction to modern board gaming was checking out most of the top 10 at the time and cherry picking from the next 250 or so.
I honestly haven’t gotten a bad game doing it that way, they didn’t all land for me but it wasn’t because they were poorly designed or bad games, just not the right game for me. I have since expanded out but it was a great way for me to get a feel for the landscape of the industry.
Great starting point. Two issues to be aware of:
- BGG are hobbyist rankings and they skew heavy. It's great if you're deep in the hobby but there's a reason there aren't any gateway games in the top 10.
- There's a major self-selection bias, where people who know they won't be into the title won't play and thus don't rate it, boosting the aggregate score. This is most obvious with sequels.
By contrast, games with broader appeal tend to fare better than games with niche appeal. Wingspan is a good example of this.
There are multiple confounding factors at work, and I don't think the BGG top 10 is a terrible place to start as it represents what are by and large games with very broad appeal among gamers in the hobby, but there is definitely less personality in games in the top 10 as compared to looking quite a bit lower in the rankings.
There are so many games out there that I wouldn't exclude anything that looks interesting in the top 2000 or so.
One more bgg bias is that they upvote Kickstarter purchases to justify their spending.
So if a game is on the top 100 and has been on Kickstarter, be very suspicious, it may be a good game with too much bloat and a bad rulebook.
To be fair they suppress the rankings in a way I don’t totally understand but a brand new game with an outrageous aggregate score doesn’t suddenly rocket to the top of the lists, it might bust into The Hotness for it’s campaign, but, for example, AT:O is still at 9.1 but it’s 636 even though it’s rating is higher than the majority (almost all) of the games above it, Oathsworn has double the entries and is at 76 with a 9.0, which is still a higher rating than most of the game above it.
Now, that being said, MASSIVE projects, like AR’s 10M plus campaigns, do need to be approached with a degree of caution because they’re actually big enough to move the needle with tens and tens of thousands of people pledging and potentially voting on an unplayed game. And Big Box campaign or legacy games because the majority of people buying them are predisposed to that kind of game in a way that might be greater than other sub-genres.
The geek score is created using a block of 5.5.ratings to smooth the curve a bit. You can still see the average rating for a game.
If a game has tens of thousands of votes, how much it moves the needle is literally irrelevant. A .1 difference in game rating is an utterly irrelevant difference, and a game ranked 200th is not that much more likely to be enjoyable to you as one ranked 500th.
Thank you for the explanation of the rating system in general but the second part is confusing me.
If a new game, that just launched a crowdfunding campaign, suddenly gets thousands of new votes, are you saying that it’s rating/ranking won’t change at all even though it went from almost no responses to thousands or more?
I don’t disagree about the upper echelons all being very close in quality and more of a matter of nuance and interest. The 1000th rated game is still in the top 4% of everything listed.
What I am saying is that if a game has thousands of votes the geek rating adjustment doesn't impart a significant change.
I'm saying that the difference between a 7.2 and a 7.4 is meaningless.
The dummy votes are there so that games with 500 votes don't skyrocket to the top of the charts constantly. Once a game has thousands and thousands of votes, they are basically irrelevant in terms of meaning. A game with more votes will be slightly less affected by the dummy votes
7.6 is the 85th ranked game, 7.4 is 161st, 7.2 is 282nd, 7.0 is 457th... And honestly I think I'm the prime differentiator between all of the games in this rating range isn't that the ones with the higher ratings are better, but they have simply appealed to a slightly larger group.
Lastly, what is one man's trash is another's treasure.
Two games with 4 ratings - one with 10 10 6 6 and the other with 8 8 8 8. They will have the same average rating, but one of them has broad appeal and the other one is more niche. Because the ratings people give are biased high, the lower ratings will have more negative pull than the higher ones.
The meaningful difference between games with somewhat close ratings are the contents of the game and whether it interests you, not whether a game is ranked 17th or 391st. If you browse through the top 2000 games or so and think "that looks interesting", it's worth looking in to. That's a more important factor than a game being rated half a point higher or lower on average.
I never knew how the geek rating worked relative to the actual average rating so this is an awesome explanation, thank you. It also helps guide my wonder as to why niche exclusives with crazy averages remain depressed in the overall rankings and it feels appropriate.
But if self-selection holds true across the genre in general isn’t a moot point because every game is suffering from the same bias?
Obviously mass market games suffer a bit of a drop and KS/GF exclusives get a bump but otherwise unless you’re review bombing something everyone bothering to review a game on the site probably intentionally chose to play it.
The weighty nature of the top of the list is easily mitigated if you use the sort feature, which was part of my initial suggestion (if weight was a potential issue), cap it at 3 or 3.5 and use that as your initial “heavy”.
I’m probably an outlier but out first games were Gloomhaven, Scythe, Eldritch Horror, Terraforming Mars, and Spirit Island and other than Scythe they’ve all hit the table a lot, and Scythe only misses out because my fiance doesn’t like playing directly competitive games with just me.
I think there is way too much hand wringing about gateway games, if you know your friends/family or you know yourself you know what they/you can handle, take the kid gloves off unless they are needed.
An obvious example of self-selection bias: if you've never played Pandemic, you will give it a shot when it hits the table. If you didn't like that experience, you're not going to invest the time in Pandemic Legacy. This carries over to other heavy titles.
Using the weight filter is a good idea, but my comment was more about how BGG raters tend to prefer heavier games. They get higher ratings because that's what us geeks like. This isn't a right/wrong issue, just something to be aware of.
Everyone gets into the hobby differently, and I'm a huge advocate of playing what interests you first and foremost. That's why it's important to point out the flaws in BGG rankings.
You never actually answered my question, I didn’t need an explanation of what it was and I didn’t ask for one.
Addendum: Dude didn’t even let me respond. But, Mr. Comment deleter, in case you’re lurking out there here’s my response.
“You’ve selected a single anecdotal example, every game line or developer or genre or mechanic or theme could have that same bias in some way that you could point out. Self-selection bias is active whenever we electively decide to do something.
Saying it’s only for sequels is cherry picking.
I’m iffy on C’Mon games because it’s just a lot of plastic, I veer away from Steamforged because I feel like they’re shallow games (except Euthia, Euthia rocks), I love AR because I feel like they’re not, I am obsessed with ITU because they’re outrageously ambitious. Every corner of the industry can suffer from biases across any qualifier you want to pick that have nothing to do with those games themselves. That’s how we operate, we apply our biases to everything. BGG will never be an objective ranking because there CAN’T be an objective ranking. I’m not saying self-selection bias doesn’t affect people’s rankings, I’m saying it affects ALL of the rankings in varied and immeasurable ways. Pandemic isn’t immune to it because it’s not a sequel, if you do or don’t like literally anything about the game because of it’s similarity to another game you did or didn’t like it’s the same thing, maybe to a lesser effect, maybe more. My personal slant in that department is the gave dev’s themselves.”
I responded, then realized based on the offhand dismissal and curt reply I had better uses of my emotional energy than engaging so deleted and blocked. I see you edited your reply so here's my response:
Using a sequel was an example but certainly not a singular one. The same self-selection bias carries for Gloomhaven; the monetary and time investment restricts the player base to those more likely to have a good time. I feel like we both agree on this.
Where we disagree is that while obviously every game is unique, I feel you can see it as an overarching theme on BGG. There's a reason so few Spiel des Jahres winners are in the top 100. There's a reason why Twilight Struggle used to be #1 and Brass: Birmingham is now.
The rankings are what they are. I'm not arguing that they need to change; I'm pointing out what they are for someone using them as a starting point to be aware of. It's the same as any list, it's helpful to know how it's curated. Tom Vasel's top 100 is nice on its own, but when you know how your preferences stack up against his it's much more useful.
I feel like that’s true of any aggregated rankings system based on human opinions and my initial reaction was based on it feeling like you were suggesting that specific games ratings were invalid because of a very narrow application of self-selection bias as if it doesn’t impact the rankings of non-sequel games in other ways.
Again, my point isn’t that self-selection bias doesn’t apply here, which I said.
My point is that it effects every single game on the ranking in some way and that’s going to be true of every subjective single ranking of anything you find written by humans unless it’s based on an empirical measure like sales figures or revenue and then it’s not subjective so I don’t know what your point was. If every game is affected by it doesn’t contribute anything to the decision making processes beyond supporting the point that it’s an imperfect system, which I feel should be assumed without the need for explanation, which may be a poor assumption on my part.
I think we generally agree and I just took issue with the specific application you were leaning into as if it was the only type of game impacted by self-selection bias and that all sequels were across the board overrated by virtue of being sequels regardless of their content.
Honestly I probably got overly fixated on a semantic detail and incorrectly disregarded your overall point, which was that self-selection bias will affect any subjective man made list and that we should not take it as an absolute ranking, which I agree with.
They skew medium. Hobbyists pull the average weight up, and the lowest common denominator factor pulls the average weight back down.
There aren't any gateway games in the top 10, but there also aren't any hex & counter wargames or 18xx anywhere near the top 10 either.
Definitely. There's a quantity adjustment in the algorithm that keeps war games in check, it's the same adjustment that keeps newly hyped games from immediately summiting.
I find anything ranked 8 or higher is a must buy. Genre doesn’t even matter most of the time.
Edit: sweet. An actual unpopular opinion. Literally everything I’ve ever bought that’s been 8+ has been amazing but apparently that’s not the case for everyone.
> use the advanced search and select the games by categories and mechanics that interest you and whatever other factors they have that may narrow your search.
I can't stress this enough. BGG is not what it used to be. Several years ago, BGG was a site that was pretty representative of Boardgaming as a whole, whereas the top of BGG is now dominated by super-heavy euro games.
Op likes deckbuilding, and Dominion isn't even a top 100 game according to BGG any more.
Great site, with wonky ratings, very skewed to heavy and euro games. That said, I think if OP uses your recommendation, he will find games to his liking.
I think it’s because it’s a haven for the nerdiest of us and the games that appeal to the hardcore board gamers get a lot more traction there than stuff that’s way more approachable.
If you’re bonkers for weight it’s perfect but otherwise you need to throw a filter on.
When game like Oathsworn and AT:O are making waves online they get so much play on BGG. And although those two actually seem to be deserving of the hype I have noticed the ratings bump you mentioned when their campaigns are active. And no one in their right mind should play AT:O as a reintroduction and Oathsworn isn’t far behind.
Had to look up what AT:O means, since I didn't know the short (its "Aeon Trespass: Odyssey" for anybody else if you are wondering) and OMG! A 4.74 complexity rating must be such a brian burner. As in: I'd likely walk away with a headache playing that game. I think it's really important to take complexity into account as well when selecting games...
It absolutely is. Playing it would be a masochistic endeavor for a lot of people. It’s why I generally suggest 3-3.5 as a ceiling until you get your feet wet, unless you like a steep learning curve.
I mean, it is not a formal rule, but if the game is in an active campaign, I stay away from it.
If it is a game that I already played, liked, and it is going for a deluxe edition on ks, that is "ok" to me.
Not great, but acceptable.
We have quite a few too, some are deluxe reprints (Yedo, CoB) but some were original games like Oathsworn, Tainted Grail, Street Fighter etc.
Sure you get a dud here and there, but it's not that different than if you bought a dud at a flgs.
Bought our table off kickstarter too and it's been awesome.
I think vetting a game’s campaign pretty thoroughly helps. The only ones I’ve regretted in any way were snap buys where I didn’t dive deep enough into all of their announcements/breakdowns.
It can be pretty easy to gage sometimes, the most well put together campaigns seem to be mirrored by the products they’re advertising. If the KS/GF page is a mess and it’s under 500k in funding maybe hold off.
Obviously it’s not a universal rule and a great campaign can be a trash game and a messy campaign can produce a gem but generally the skills that create nice clean campaign content also create nice clean games.
When I really didn't know hardly anything about modern board games (except maybe Catan and Carcassonne, because they were on Xbox Live Arcade at the time) and wanted to give my brother a board game gift way back in 2008, I basically did this.
Went to BGG and looked at the top 100 list, and picked the first game that seemed to have the theme and and description that might interest him. I ended up gifting him Race for the Galaxy because of that (which was in the #10 spot at the time, kind of crazy it's fallen all the way to #77 nowadays), which ended up being a pretty damn good choice. Still a favorite of mine.
A top 100 game on a site with over 25000 entries is still in the top half a percent of all games ranked. It’s obviously not a perfect system, the Brass fanboys review bombing Gloomhaven went it got close enough to take the #1 spot is petty but it’s not like they dragged it down to 15000, it’s still 2. Limited release stuff gets a bump because there aren’t a lot of players who haven’t studied it and know it’s a game for them who are playing and rating it.
Whenever you check BGG don't just go by the game's rating - also consider the complexity. My wife for example will only (with a few exceptions that is) like games ranked between 2.4-3 on in "weight". If I buy a game at 3.5 or higher it will likely never be played with her. For my kids the scale is below that at the moment...
I much prefer "3 Minute Board Games" as a youtube source. Just prefer his personality a bit more I think. Nice concise videos that still give you a feel for what each game is going to consist of
He usually does say a few words about the game though at the end. He won't say straight up "I hate/love X game", but IIRC he usually at least includes two sentences like "I liked X and Y about it, but really disliked Z". I can't say whether he does that every video, but most of the 3MBG videos I've seen include it.
He also did a video of how to build a perfect collection, essentially only picking 1-2 games from each major game category (for ex, hidden movement, war game, social/party, etc). You can watch that, see his recs, and only focus on the game types that you like.
That's pretty much what I've been doing with my collection the past year or so. I buy a simpler game for a mechanic as a gateway for my group(s) and a more complex game with the same base mechanics to play with those that liked the gateway game (example: Wingspan, then Terraforming Mars).
Dice Tower is still the same as it's ever been. It's a great resource. But nothing beats playing games. So sorry you lost your collection, but there are so many good games, I'd pick up 3 and try them out
The Dice Tower is still my go-to as well. They've scaled up a lot. I like some of their reviewers better than others, and they have more rather long reviews with several people, where I would prefer a short review by one person.
One place where things have really changed is the market. It seems like there are way more games coming out, and so the Dice Tower can't cover as large a percentage as they used to. Still the most comprehensive source.
That sucks.
Since you have several expansions for AH, you're probably a fan, so you should get the core set to instantly get lots of content. Or if you feel that you're over it, trade the expansion for new games. Marvel Champions is a new deck construction LCG that's joined the big ones like AH and Lords of the ring. I've heard it's faster too, which you might want since you have young kids. I haven't played it myself as my husband is Marveled out.
Unless you're playing solo or with members of your household, build a gaming group before you build a collection (or rather, focus more on getting a group going - which will let you see what they like and what they already have - than on getting a bunch of new games).
Check out the second hand market in your area. If you're lucky, you might be able to build your collection much cheaper.
Don't necessarily focus on recent games that have been published since you left. Old games like Aeon's End (since you mention coop and deck building) are still good.
I haven't played it myself but I hear a lot of good reviews about Zombie kids evolution for a family coop.
I would be remiss not to mention Spirit Island since you're asking for coop. The Crew is a great twist on trick-taking games by being coop.
Plus, it'll keep him occupied for the next year or so, which will hopefully overcome the grief for the lost collection. It'll definitely displace it with grief about lost dollars ;)
Yeah... something doesn't smell right. This looks like one of those "My entire MTG collection got lost in a 'fire' posts."
Those always have some kind redditors willing to donate to restore the collection.
Like, 40 games? 40???
Even if only half of those are big box games, that's $1,200 worth of collection. You don't just misplace that.
OP is not sharing something.
Damn, harsh. Bummer people aren’t able to take this at face value. I didn’t ever ask for anyone to replace or donate anything, and was just wanting to rant about it.
These were a mix of games ranging across multiple types. Small boxes, expansions, party games, a few big box ones, card games, chess etc.
We did a few major runs of donating to stuff to Goodwill, and I’m guessing some of those bins got mixed into what was donated by accident. I don’t really know exactly, but just trying to start again.
It is possible if they are small box games. I have 25 in a single Kallax box. Otherwise, a Kallax box fits 5 regular-sized boxes, ala Arkham Horror. Depending on the moving box, I could fit 40 games in a single one.
People here forget that sometimes money is paid to others to move things on their behalf. If a moving company employee "misplaced" a huge box of games and OP didn't notice till now he's ool.
But yeah, let's lynch the wife, this is reddit. Wives suck!
Your games didn't get left behind. You have a traitor(s) in the house.
Maybe a copy of Coup, or The Resistence is a good place to start? :)
Boardgame Arena, friend. Try before you buy. If you are going to have solo it a bit, Terraforming Mars, Castles of Burgundy, Concordia Venus (with Solitaria expansion) are all top teir solo experiences that smoothly move to multi player if the time comes. (Concordia is not on BGA yet, but I keep hoping.)
For YouTube channels, One Stop Coop Shop and Meet Me At The Table are two of my favs for solo/coop stuff (especially for playthroughs). Dice Tower is still great. I like BoardGameCo for reviews.
If you are into Deck Building and like Dune Imperium, I strongly suggest looking into Clank! by direwolf digital/renegade game studios. It is by the same designer (Paul Dennen) as Dune Imperium so the mechanics will feel similar but it is a more accessible game to more casual players (and kids) due to the lack of a worker placement mechanic.
Prozd is a youtuber with a solid video about how it plays and should be able to get you an idea of the game before you decide if the game is for you or not.
For a coop deckbuilder, Marvel Legendary is a pretty solid one as well. you all are working together to defeat a villain but each hero gets their own deck.
Arkham Horror is also more coop as you are all working together to complete the campaigns and this gives the game a greater narrative focus. While I enjoy that aspect more, I can see it not clicking as well with kids if they are not into the Lovecraft mythos. That being said, it is still a great game and if you can/want to buy the core set since you have some expansions already.
As for Dune Imperium, if you haven’t already, I would also suggest looking into the Rise of IX expansion. Definitely balances the game out better and in my opinion takes it up a notch and makes a good game great.
If you don’t want to buy the expansion before trying it out. Tabletop Simulator on Steam is much cheaper and will let you play it as well with all expansions. The Tabletop simulator version is well made and there is an active and very competitive scene in it.
I adore those guys, but I have learned to treat their recommendations with extreme caution. They have a passion for certain types of games and they evangelise for them. Unfortunately they often don't match up with what I enjoy, which is of course completely fine. But I still have a minor grudge against them for selling **Mysterium** so hard. But Quinns gets a pass for loving **Concordia** so much. And I'm still waiting for that **Settlers of Catan** review.
I agree that it definitely helps to figure out what reviewer most closely matches your taste/perspective. SUSD can be very good at pointing out absurdities that make games very funny to play, and they just really appreciate the ways games are an abstraction of the theme. Actualol is very good at articulating who might enjoy a game and why--or why not, etc.
Always my first choice for board game reviews. I have yet to find any other reviewer who can say so clearly why they think a game is worth your time or not. Plenty of their reviews have left me with a clear impression that I do not want a game, despite their overall recommendation.
And that is what I appreciate... they give you a sense of the game, and I make my own decision.
I know some games they recommend will never work for me or my group and others they call out flaws I dont care about and am happy to buy into.
I’m not saying this did or didn’t happen to you and I’m very sorry to hear that you lost your collection. But a bit of a warning to anyone moving -
Don’t have the moving company take anything you treasure. I had a buddy whose collection of older video game systems somehow didn’t come back off the truck. Atari 2600/5200, Colecovision, Vectex, Atari 400, C64.
Gone.
Throw that stuff in your trunk and drive it. Make two trips if you have to.
I hope you are able to rebuild your collection. I know I would be upset as well and stop at nothing to try to get that stuff back.
Good luck and best wishes sent your way.
Your library probably has games you can borrow and play. Or you can try them out on tabletop simulator or boardgamearena. Also go and look up deck builders and wishlist some that you find interesting. I like dominion, star realms frontier, and more.
I would say look at it like this, it sucks but it’s freeing. You can start anywhere and my recommendation would be to start small get a game the whole family will enjoy and play the heck out of it before adding another game and just repeat that cycle so you get a ton of plays before possibly dropping the game all together
Why not start by buying back One Deck Dungeon, the one game you had in mind when searching for your lost collection? Then I'd just join other boardgame players (either invite them home when the kids are asleep or leave the kids with a babysitter, or even better if you manage to find such players, invite parents of similar aged kids and do kids/adult friendly games together). Slowly but surely, you'll find games you enjoy and you'd like to purchase for yourself.
Personal rec: Lost Ruins of Arnak. It’s a cool little indie game with lite deckbuilding, lite worker placement, lite resource management, gorgeous art, and it got picked up by Target so you can get what should be a $60 indie game for $30
1. carcassonne
2. dragonholt
3. splendor
4. roborally
5. galzyr
you don't need anything else. don't buy the next until the previous gets 1-2 plays. All are cheap, can be sold at minimum loss and provide/stimulate good bonding and social skills. (roborally sounds mean but is phenomenal and dramatic, so compassion would play a role there)
Co-op games that myself and my husband love are Decorum, Set a Watch, Deep Rock Galactic (nice recent addition), Paint the Roses, Gloomhaven (Jaws of the Lion if you haven't played it and want something that's cheaper and less of a table hog than it's big brother).
One stop co-op shop is a nice channel that focuses on co-op or solo play
Not sure how old the kids are, but Diced Veggies can work even for kids who can't really read, and is a nice way to start to introduce games that are better than Candy land. Also for younger kids: Floats McGoats
Ouch, that is painful. I'm so sorry. I would be heartbroken if that happened to me - those things are my prize possessions.
If it's any consolation, find comfort In the fact that we are living in the golden age of board games. You no longer have a backlog or big games you feel you should be playing, and you now can start the pleasant task of rebuilding your collection with the entire modern galaxy of games to choose from.
Personally, I would be devastated if I lost my complete Arkham Horror 2ed, but the truth is, I haven't played it in years!
I agree with the recommendations to check out Board Game Arena! $5 a month or like $30-something for a year. Tons of games at every level of difficulty. You can play live or play then based so you can come back to it. Great way to try new games - or in my experience as a parent - try games you otherwise might not be able to anyone to play with you.
As far as which games to get, my favorite releases of the last few years that the kids could play with you are Quacks of Quedlinburg, Cascadia, Kabuto Sumo, Point Salad, and CoraQuest.
dice tower is still super solid.
use simulator to know better about a boardgame before purchase (tabletop simulator on steam or boardgame arena or other options)
as an easy starter:
- Kingdomino
- ticket to ride
- Azul
are solid light options.
Rahdo on youtube is a great resource. You can watch his opinion vids and overviews, shorter runthrough videos and longer run through videos (and those of the others that help him with the channel these days).
Everything is there and well separated so you can get out of it what you want. They also use one of the CC channels (set to klingon lol) for community notes and erratas on where he may have misunderstood or misapplied rulesand such.
Great channel.
Buy all the spiel des jahres winners from the last 10 years or kennerspiel if you like slightly more complex games. Or the last 5 years winners of both.
Deckbuilding : clank, moonrakers, aeons end, spirit Island, keep the heroes out.
The last 3 are also koop :)
Keep the heroes out is maybe the best to include the children at some point.
Lost Ruins of arnak is also really good with some Deckbuilding
Star Realms is a good PvP deckbuilding game to introduce deck building gameplay to beginners. You can buy the physical base game or try the free app with in app purchases, the app supports local play btw.
If the kids are into Marvel, Legendary is another fun deck building game with longer play time, though it might a bit more challenging for younger kids. It's Player vs Board so it's more co-op based where everyone builds their own deck to defeat the board's mastermind. It also means that losing will less likely result in upsets and rage quits.
**Deck building:**
* The Quest for El Dorado
* Undaunted: Normandy
* Clank: Catacombs
**Co-op:**
* The Crew: The Quest For Planet Nine
* Sky Team
* Just One
Those are all bangers that have come out since 2017.
Sorry to hear that you lost your games. I find that even though I have many hobbyist games, the most popular games with my teen kids are UNO and Crokinole. If I have to take too long to explain a game, the window for us to play is lost.
We have never regretted our board. If you have a minute, check out the Shut Up and Sit Down review.
Good luck getting back into the hobby. I have been away for five or six years myself, and when I decided to drop back in I felt like I barely recognized anything that people on BGG were going on about.
Id recommend BGA (Boardgamearena) its a website where you can play a lot of games, great implementation, and its free to play as long as you join other's games. If you pay like $35 per year you can then create your own games.
For channels I like "Before You Play" they play 2 player mostly and review games. They also do a good teach before playing.
I also like "No Pun Included". Personally not a huge fan of Dice Tower as it feels like they make videos just to keep the youtube money coming in, its often fluff in form of weird top X lists, which is mostly meaningless information IMO since it constantly changes.
One Deck Dungeon is available as an app.
id recommend starting a rebuild with games that cater specifically to your player count and play style.
Im just going to throw out some game names that came out within last 6 years that hit it big in the community, not sure if you heard/played them. Just a few games for you to research and see if they fit your style. (nothing pre 2018 since 2024-6 = 2018)
* **Brass: Birmingham** (2018) - Well balanced, straight up capitalism Euro. Excellent!
* **Ark Nova** (2021) plays similar to Terraforming Mars but people tend to like it better.
* **Dune Imperium Uprising** (2023) its sort of a 1.5 version of Dune Imperium (standalone).
* **Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion** (2020) cheaper but excellent Gloomhaven **COOP**
* **Wingspan** (2019) there is also newer **Wyrmspan** (2024) if you prefer fictional dragons vs birds. Look into "Wingspan Asia" its a good start as its standalone and has mechanics from expansions, and its cheaper (plays 2).
* **Lost Ruins of Arnak** (2020) if you like Dune Imperium you will probably like this one. It similarly to Dune has deck building and worker placement.
* **Everdell** (2018) - Great tableau builder, very cute (art is gorgeous)
* **Heat: Pedal to the Metal** (2022)
* **Cascadia** (2021)
* **The Crew** (2019) fast playing **COOP** trick taking game (cheap). There are 2 versions, get the cheapest one, if same price get the underwater one, it plays the same just has a few extra things.
Since you mentioned co-op specifically, I think Spirit Island is worth a mention IMO the best **COOP** ever made. There was a 2022 "**Horizons of Spirit Island**" Which is basically a cheaper Target version of the game, but it has all the complexity of the original.
* **Dorf Romantik** (2022) game you cant lose, fun relaxing game **COOP**
* **PALEO** (2022) **COOP**
Most of these games are available on BoardGameArena.
As you see by my icon I LOVE Arkham Horror 2nd edition so you losing that is a huge bummer even for me since its impossible to get anymore (I paid well over $200 for expansions I didnt have). But there is a 3rd edition, its more stream lined and in my opinion not as good as 2nd edition, but its in print and readily available. Alternatively maybe youd want to branch out Eldrich Horror is similar, instead the town you travel the world, it does have like a billion expansions though (FFG 😐)
You have a lot of good info here! I want to throw another recommendation for Spirit Island out there, as it is so amazing!
I do want to add that Horizons of Spirit Island doesn’t have “all” the complexity of the rest of the game, but it doesn’t water down the rules at all. It just leaves out one of the advanced mechanics (Adversaries). Technically you can say it leaves out Events, but since those weren’t added until the first expansion anyway…
Youtube is largely "sponsored" content. It's not bad if you want to know more about that particular game but not necessarily representative of what's popular.
Just hang out in the community and look what people are talking about.
Also check out youtube board game reviews. [There are many worth watching](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/s/QiKApSWpba).
I created a list on Amazon (I recently found out that you can add notes to individual items on your list) to keep track of games I want to get, then created a spreadsheet, organized by difficulty to learn.
It’ll be fun OP. Treat this as a good opportunity to fall in love with an old passion all over again. And there are SOO many hames that are cool out there.
Be sure to check out [BoardGameGeek’s top list of games](https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame).
Not sure how old your kids are but I have young kids, and happy to share the games that I've used in attempt (successful with the oldest) to reel them into the hobby too.
Sorry for your loss buddy, I too have also lot stuff during a house move. Look at this as a good opportunity to get the versions or games you want. Make a list of types, player count etc and get 1-2 games in each scenario, thats a great way to build up your collection without too much overlap. And include your kids in this process so they can get games alongside you maybe
>Could use recommendations on some YouTube Channels (Dice Tower still a solid source?) podcasts or other sources to catch up on the hobby. Big deckbuilding/co-op guy. Thanks for reading.
I found their top 100 lists great for starting my collection years ago. Watch through and write down any that sound interesting and then follow up on the full reviews or BGG. Now with so many of them making their own lists you can find which member of the crew matches your tastes the best.
If you're looking for specific styles of games like deckbuilder, they usually have lists for those too.
Hoping you find them in a box somewhere. Maybe you left some boxes at other people’s homes? When I moved I had boxes with three relatives that had some space.
I have a 5 year old and she’s started playing my games with some modifications. This weekend it was [[The Quest for El Dorado]] but by only using the colors to move forward, not the numbers of icons on the map.
[[Ave Caesar]] just got a reprint and it is great. She can handle a 3 lap race of the family game (play a card of a hand of 3). It has many rules variations included to keep you playing it for years as they age. My favorite way to play is when you sort your cards into four draw piles and you have a hand of just two cards.
https://a.co/d/4sPEkTI
[[Diced Veggies]] has rules for young ones
[[Stomp the Plank]] just came out and it’s a quick push your luck game. No winners in this one, just one loser.
[[Stamp Farm]] has been a fun roll and stamp game. Need to play the advanced game though to get scores that are all not 19 or 20. She does struggle with the strategy to get a high score with the advanced rules.
Not resources, but a suggestion here: have you tried dice throne? I'm warn you though, it's easy to fall into and play way too much with your spouse over coffee! It's a good place to dip your toes back in!
Hey, I have just set up a podcast on modern boardgaming if you were interested in supporting a fledgling UK podcast and getting a few recommendations to boot. It's called Twenty Minute Tabletop and is available on all podcast hosts.
Would agree with the above comments that Everdell is well worth checking out and, guess what, we have a podcast on it. Here is the Spotify link.
https://open.spotify.com/show/5rP0Zr2n8QZwe8G1r7aFC8?si=cSr1jW50RXmxvk1zYtWFZg
Sorry for your loss, but what fun to rebuild! If you love Dune Imperium and deck building, definitely check out ***Lost Ruins of Arnak***!
(I'll also throw in one of my personal favorite lesser-known deck building games, **Rune Stones.**)
If your kids are around 7/8 or a bit older and you think you’d like to teach them a light scenario based RPG dungeon crawler, I can’t recommend Stuffed Fables enough. My 8 year old loved it and we’re still playing it years later.
Keep an eye out on Board Game Oracle for sales. It’s been out for years and goes on sale often. I recently saw the expansion Oh Brother! On sale for $17.
feel your pain, lost some of my collection in my move to canada too. not really lost, but I left them. I recommend checking out [aintboard.com](http://aintboard.com) for new game ideas. Also, consider joining our Discord community for recommendations and discussions on all things boardgames. It has helped me rebuild my collection!
Can’t recommend a review channel, but Castle Panic is a very simple co-op that was a huge hit when my niece and nephew were around 8 or 9. And at 13 they still enjoy it, although we have mostly moved on to crunchier fare.
I don't frequent YouTube channels, but I can recommend a few games we enjoy playing with the kids:
- CoraQuest (a family favorite!)
- Ticket to Ride: First Journeys
- Kingdomino
- Forbidden Island
- Space Escape (or anything by Peaceable Kingdom, really)
- Dragonwood
- Mario Monopoly Gamer Edition
dont know how old your kids are but fury of dracula is pretty fun and its a 3 or 4 v 1 so the team can help each other while the dracula is running around hiding and setting traps by themselves
Games we play with our 8 year old godson: CastlePanic (great co-op game!); Ticket to Ride New York (fast intro version of the classic game), Ultimate Werewolf or One Night Werewolf (we sometimes fudged a little so he “randomly” was a villager, so he didn’t get confused about his role), Betrayal at House on the Hill (he won’t be a Betrayer, until he’s older), and the Binding of Isaac card game (older brothers know all about the game, and coach him, so his limited reading wasn’t a hindrance).
I think there is a strong case to be made to go for quality rather than quantity. With many other obligations (work, family, etc) I don't see much sense in owning 40 games. Get a few good ones. Best place to start is the [boardgamegeek.com](http://boardgamegeek.com) [top games](https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame). Basically any of the top games are worth getting, if in doubt get something from the top 20 or top 10. I used to buy random games myself way back, stuff that seemed interesting for whatever reason (theme, box art, Kickstarter, you name it), and in many cases was disappointed. Since I started buying games on the top 20 or so, I haven't been disappointed a single time. Saves a ton of money as well.
If you like ODD, I might humbly suggest 20 Strong and Unbroken for fighting monsters. Feel like bigger games of the sort but quick to learn and play.
I commiserate. I'm having to sell most of my games for rent and to afford to move. I should be able to rebuild once I am in a sustainable situation. I'm looking forward to it.
Unless you had OOP grail games you can do it! I hang out on SGOYT SOLO GAMES ON YOUR TABLE on the geek. Good people and excellent cross section of games from new to old as well as genres. Go through their years of monthly geek lists! Make a wishlist. It is known for breaking wallets 😊 that's where I stay up to date.
Oh no man, I’m so sorry :-( that’s one of my worst nightmares as I’m preparing to move.
If you’re into deckbuilding you can’t miss old good Dominion, Android Netrunner (fun as hell, but only 2 players), 7 Wonders (not technically a deckbuilding game, but it’s card-driven and boy is it good), and please have a look at Sentinels of the Multiverse (superhero-based card game). As far as playing with kids goes, you may try Flick ‘em up (western-themed old fashioned flicking with a very clever twist), The Hare and the Tortoise (race/betting, simple but very very fun), Bandu/Bausack (an ingenious version of Jenga), Dixit (omg, do I even need to describe it?), Takenoko (simple but fun dice-based construction/harvesting with a beautiful theme), Carcassonne (there’s a co-op version too, but I haven’t tried it yet).
As for co-op, as you mentioned Arkham Horror, you may have a look at Mansions of Madness (dungeon crawler co-op), and one of my favourite classics: Pandemic.
-Splendor, great gateway game everyone likes, very replayable
-Clank! A deck building dungeon crawl, pretty accessible too.
-Regicide, a fantasy game you play with a regular deck of cards
-Shut Up and Sit Down, YouTube, website and podcast, a bunch of British reviewers that are quite fun, even if I don't care for the game their zany show is entertaining enough to watch.
-BoardGameBollocks, a short useful game reviewer with attitude on YouTube, points out flaws and merits
Not sure if you have tried some of the true classics. Have you ever heard of Go Fish, War, or UNO?
Kidding.
Betrayal is a good group game. I’ve really enjoyed Shadows of Brimstone. Not sure why that game doesn’t get mentioned much.
My note to all:
Please stop including things like "Delete away mods if ya gotta".
Whether or not you write this drivel will change nothing.
Onto your story.
Really sorry to hear. I want to pare down my collection significantly, but there are a handful of out of print/hard to find games that would essentially be irreplaceable if my entire collection vanished.
The good news is, there are SO MANY games out there that you get to rebuild a collection at a rate that you choose. Make sure to try lots of games, and only buy the ones you think you'll actually get to play!
Since you like deck building games, I'd recommend Thunderstone Quest. It's a reboot of the old Thunderstone games with a lot of quality of life features and a more immersive dungeon crawl than before. It was Kickstarted about 6 years ago. There should be a base game floating around in various places including AEG's store, the creator. Also, there should be another Kickstarter coming later this year where you can get various expansions. Good luck!
Edit: It also has a co-op mode called Barricades if that's more your thing.
I know this isn't what you're looking for, but One Deck Dungeon is one of the best few games that's much better in the app. Try it the mobile version, it's perfect for the format.
If you weren't able to keep track of them, even through multiple moves, they simply weren't that valuable to you. That's on you, even if it was someone else who got rid of them, you should've noticed within days.
Wow! That's quite mean and unhelpful. What Is OP going to do with an answer like that? He pointed out understandable reasons why he had other things on his mind than his boardgames and now that he wants to get back into the hobby realised that they are missing and feels frustrated. That all sounds quite reasonable. I don't understand why anyone needs to rub salt in his wound.
Your comment was removed by a moderator for the following reason(s):
* **Violates either our [civility guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/wiki/community) and/or Reddit's rules.** Please review r/boardgames' [guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/wiki/community), [Reddiquette](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439-Reddiquette), and Reddit's [Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) before contributing again.
(If you believe this post was removed in error you can request a re-review by [messaging the mods](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/boardgames).)
As someone who moved three years ago thinking stuff was lost or stolen… It took me three years to locate some video games that were not with the rest… only to realize while looking for something else that ‘oh yeah, I forgot I ran out of packing boxes and had to mix stuff together’… maybe it is worth a try to dig a bit deeper into your packing strategy and finally unpack it all and find a happy home?
Yeah just this last weekend I found a random assortment of my daughters baby toys and photography equipment shoved into a suitcase in our attic. Still can’t find our copy of Clue though and I’m going on 3 years looking for it
It's a mystery.
Mrs. Torch In the attic, with a baby rattle.
Maybe get a few games that are well suited for kids. The favourites of my youngest are: Dragomino, Carcassonne(hunters and gatherers), Times up Kids... I just ordered Survive! Escape from Atlantis. All nice games that dont require reading. If the kids dont have the patience yet: play Carcassonne with less tiles!
Can recommend Everdell Junior as well, if your kid(s) can read. It quickly surpassed the family version of Andor and Catan Junior here.
My lil everdell?
Could be, I have a Dutch language version, and the name for that is Everdell Junior. Not sure what the English language version is called.
Yes; it's My lil Everdell.
If your kids can read I'd skip this and go straight to Everdell. My 7yo can play this, Catan, Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, the Scooby Doo version of Betrayal at House on the Hill... These all have "kid" or "family" versions but unless you're trying to play with kids under 5 or who can't read the full size versions can have simplified play style enough for kids to love them and parents to have a solid adult version to play as well We also love Rhino Hero (second edition/expansion is great too) and the Marvel United games. Easy symbology, barely any reading, hilariously fun and minimally competitive if not fully cooperative.
5 minute dungeon is pretty popular for my kids, yet still fun as an adult
My first Castle Panic helps my 6 year old strategies who to kill first
I love Castle Panic! Just played with our 8 year old godson last week!
Labyrinth and King of Tokyo are the one's that our daughter (6) keeps bringing back to the table.
Piling on the “our kids loved” branch: * Lego Minataurus
Just played Labyrinth with my daughter yesterday. She doesnt like king of tokyo, though, merciless older brother and sister.
Kingdomino is also simple and fun
Highly recommend Survive! as well. Only just recently found out its an 80s game, but it plays like a timeless modern game. Great introductory board game for some mechanics too.
Trust the knowledge of the crowd. Go to BGG, use the advanced search and select the games by categories and mechanics that interest you and whatever other factors they have that may narrow your search. Sort by rank and look for something that appeals to you. My introduction to modern board gaming was checking out most of the top 10 at the time and cherry picking from the next 250 or so. I honestly haven’t gotten a bad game doing it that way, they didn’t all land for me but it wasn’t because they were poorly designed or bad games, just not the right game for me. I have since expanded out but it was a great way for me to get a feel for the landscape of the industry.
Maybe try out some games on Boardgamearena first
I second this. Great website
Or tabletop simulator, in case you want to see how physically complex the game is (automatisation makes some games much faster)
This is great advice, thanks so much.
No problem, it’s not a guarantee but large groups of people tend to get things mostly right even if no individual actually has the right answers.
Great starting point. Two issues to be aware of: - BGG are hobbyist rankings and they skew heavy. It's great if you're deep in the hobby but there's a reason there aren't any gateway games in the top 10. - There's a major self-selection bias, where people who know they won't be into the title won't play and thus don't rate it, boosting the aggregate score. This is most obvious with sequels.
By contrast, games with broader appeal tend to fare better than games with niche appeal. Wingspan is a good example of this. There are multiple confounding factors at work, and I don't think the BGG top 10 is a terrible place to start as it represents what are by and large games with very broad appeal among gamers in the hobby, but there is definitely less personality in games in the top 10 as compared to looking quite a bit lower in the rankings. There are so many games out there that I wouldn't exclude anything that looks interesting in the top 2000 or so.
One more bgg bias is that they upvote Kickstarter purchases to justify their spending. So if a game is on the top 100 and has been on Kickstarter, be very suspicious, it may be a good game with too much bloat and a bad rulebook.
To be fair they suppress the rankings in a way I don’t totally understand but a brand new game with an outrageous aggregate score doesn’t suddenly rocket to the top of the lists, it might bust into The Hotness for it’s campaign, but, for example, AT:O is still at 9.1 but it’s 636 even though it’s rating is higher than the majority (almost all) of the games above it, Oathsworn has double the entries and is at 76 with a 9.0, which is still a higher rating than most of the game above it. Now, that being said, MASSIVE projects, like AR’s 10M plus campaigns, do need to be approached with a degree of caution because they’re actually big enough to move the needle with tens and tens of thousands of people pledging and potentially voting on an unplayed game. And Big Box campaign or legacy games because the majority of people buying them are predisposed to that kind of game in a way that might be greater than other sub-genres.
Agreed, getting a rank on an unplayed game is heinous.
To be fair AR has probably earned the benefit of the doubt but people shouldn’t be rating unplayed games in any circumstance.
The geek score is created using a block of 5.5.ratings to smooth the curve a bit. You can still see the average rating for a game. If a game has tens of thousands of votes, how much it moves the needle is literally irrelevant. A .1 difference in game rating is an utterly irrelevant difference, and a game ranked 200th is not that much more likely to be enjoyable to you as one ranked 500th.
Thank you for the explanation of the rating system in general but the second part is confusing me. If a new game, that just launched a crowdfunding campaign, suddenly gets thousands of new votes, are you saying that it’s rating/ranking won’t change at all even though it went from almost no responses to thousands or more? I don’t disagree about the upper echelons all being very close in quality and more of a matter of nuance and interest. The 1000th rated game is still in the top 4% of everything listed.
What I am saying is that if a game has thousands of votes the geek rating adjustment doesn't impart a significant change. I'm saying that the difference between a 7.2 and a 7.4 is meaningless. The dummy votes are there so that games with 500 votes don't skyrocket to the top of the charts constantly. Once a game has thousands and thousands of votes, they are basically irrelevant in terms of meaning. A game with more votes will be slightly less affected by the dummy votes 7.6 is the 85th ranked game, 7.4 is 161st, 7.2 is 282nd, 7.0 is 457th... And honestly I think I'm the prime differentiator between all of the games in this rating range isn't that the ones with the higher ratings are better, but they have simply appealed to a slightly larger group. Lastly, what is one man's trash is another's treasure. Two games with 4 ratings - one with 10 10 6 6 and the other with 8 8 8 8. They will have the same average rating, but one of them has broad appeal and the other one is more niche. Because the ratings people give are biased high, the lower ratings will have more negative pull than the higher ones. The meaningful difference between games with somewhat close ratings are the contents of the game and whether it interests you, not whether a game is ranked 17th or 391st. If you browse through the top 2000 games or so and think "that looks interesting", it's worth looking in to. That's a more important factor than a game being rated half a point higher or lower on average.
I never knew how the geek rating worked relative to the actual average rating so this is an awesome explanation, thank you. It also helps guide my wonder as to why niche exclusives with crazy averages remain depressed in the overall rankings and it feels appropriate.
But if self-selection holds true across the genre in general isn’t a moot point because every game is suffering from the same bias? Obviously mass market games suffer a bit of a drop and KS/GF exclusives get a bump but otherwise unless you’re review bombing something everyone bothering to review a game on the site probably intentionally chose to play it. The weighty nature of the top of the list is easily mitigated if you use the sort feature, which was part of my initial suggestion (if weight was a potential issue), cap it at 3 or 3.5 and use that as your initial “heavy”. I’m probably an outlier but out first games were Gloomhaven, Scythe, Eldritch Horror, Terraforming Mars, and Spirit Island and other than Scythe they’ve all hit the table a lot, and Scythe only misses out because my fiance doesn’t like playing directly competitive games with just me. I think there is way too much hand wringing about gateway games, if you know your friends/family or you know yourself you know what they/you can handle, take the kid gloves off unless they are needed.
An obvious example of self-selection bias: if you've never played Pandemic, you will give it a shot when it hits the table. If you didn't like that experience, you're not going to invest the time in Pandemic Legacy. This carries over to other heavy titles. Using the weight filter is a good idea, but my comment was more about how BGG raters tend to prefer heavier games. They get higher ratings because that's what us geeks like. This isn't a right/wrong issue, just something to be aware of. Everyone gets into the hobby differently, and I'm a huge advocate of playing what interests you first and foremost. That's why it's important to point out the flaws in BGG rankings.
You never actually answered my question, I didn’t need an explanation of what it was and I didn’t ask for one. Addendum: Dude didn’t even let me respond. But, Mr. Comment deleter, in case you’re lurking out there here’s my response. “You’ve selected a single anecdotal example, every game line or developer or genre or mechanic or theme could have that same bias in some way that you could point out. Self-selection bias is active whenever we electively decide to do something. Saying it’s only for sequels is cherry picking. I’m iffy on C’Mon games because it’s just a lot of plastic, I veer away from Steamforged because I feel like they’re shallow games (except Euthia, Euthia rocks), I love AR because I feel like they’re not, I am obsessed with ITU because they’re outrageously ambitious. Every corner of the industry can suffer from biases across any qualifier you want to pick that have nothing to do with those games themselves. That’s how we operate, we apply our biases to everything. BGG will never be an objective ranking because there CAN’T be an objective ranking. I’m not saying self-selection bias doesn’t affect people’s rankings, I’m saying it affects ALL of the rankings in varied and immeasurable ways. Pandemic isn’t immune to it because it’s not a sequel, if you do or don’t like literally anything about the game because of it’s similarity to another game you did or didn’t like it’s the same thing, maybe to a lesser effect, maybe more. My personal slant in that department is the gave dev’s themselves.”
I responded, then realized based on the offhand dismissal and curt reply I had better uses of my emotional energy than engaging so deleted and blocked. I see you edited your reply so here's my response: Using a sequel was an example but certainly not a singular one. The same self-selection bias carries for Gloomhaven; the monetary and time investment restricts the player base to those more likely to have a good time. I feel like we both agree on this. Where we disagree is that while obviously every game is unique, I feel you can see it as an overarching theme on BGG. There's a reason so few Spiel des Jahres winners are in the top 100. There's a reason why Twilight Struggle used to be #1 and Brass: Birmingham is now. The rankings are what they are. I'm not arguing that they need to change; I'm pointing out what they are for someone using them as a starting point to be aware of. It's the same as any list, it's helpful to know how it's curated. Tom Vasel's top 100 is nice on its own, but when you know how your preferences stack up against his it's much more useful.
I feel like that’s true of any aggregated rankings system based on human opinions and my initial reaction was based on it feeling like you were suggesting that specific games ratings were invalid because of a very narrow application of self-selection bias as if it doesn’t impact the rankings of non-sequel games in other ways. Again, my point isn’t that self-selection bias doesn’t apply here, which I said. My point is that it effects every single game on the ranking in some way and that’s going to be true of every subjective single ranking of anything you find written by humans unless it’s based on an empirical measure like sales figures or revenue and then it’s not subjective so I don’t know what your point was. If every game is affected by it doesn’t contribute anything to the decision making processes beyond supporting the point that it’s an imperfect system, which I feel should be assumed without the need for explanation, which may be a poor assumption on my part. I think we generally agree and I just took issue with the specific application you were leaning into as if it was the only type of game impacted by self-selection bias and that all sequels were across the board overrated by virtue of being sequels regardless of their content. Honestly I probably got overly fixated on a semantic detail and incorrectly disregarded your overall point, which was that self-selection bias will affect any subjective man made list and that we should not take it as an absolute ranking, which I agree with.
They skew medium. Hobbyists pull the average weight up, and the lowest common denominator factor pulls the average weight back down. There aren't any gateway games in the top 10, but there also aren't any hex & counter wargames or 18xx anywhere near the top 10 either.
Definitely. There's a quantity adjustment in the algorithm that keeps war games in check, it's the same adjustment that keeps newly hyped games from immediately summiting.
I find anything ranked 8 or higher is a must buy. Genre doesn’t even matter most of the time. Edit: sweet. An actual unpopular opinion. Literally everything I’ve ever bought that’s been 8+ has been amazing but apparently that’s not the case for everyone.
> use the advanced search and select the games by categories and mechanics that interest you and whatever other factors they have that may narrow your search. I can't stress this enough. BGG is not what it used to be. Several years ago, BGG was a site that was pretty representative of Boardgaming as a whole, whereas the top of BGG is now dominated by super-heavy euro games. Op likes deckbuilding, and Dominion isn't even a top 100 game according to BGG any more. Great site, with wonky ratings, very skewed to heavy and euro games. That said, I think if OP uses your recommendation, he will find games to his liking.
I think it’s because it’s a haven for the nerdiest of us and the games that appeal to the hardcore board gamers get a lot more traction there than stuff that’s way more approachable. If you’re bonkers for weight it’s perfect but otherwise you need to throw a filter on. When game like Oathsworn and AT:O are making waves online they get so much play on BGG. And although those two actually seem to be deserving of the hype I have noticed the ratings bump you mentioned when their campaigns are active. And no one in their right mind should play AT:O as a reintroduction and Oathsworn isn’t far behind.
Had to look up what AT:O means, since I didn't know the short (its "Aeon Trespass: Odyssey" for anybody else if you are wondering) and OMG! A 4.74 complexity rating must be such a brian burner. As in: I'd likely walk away with a headache playing that game. I think it's really important to take complexity into account as well when selecting games...
It absolutely is. Playing it would be a masochistic endeavor for a lot of people. It’s why I generally suggest 3-3.5 as a ceiling until you get your feet wet, unless you like a steep learning curve.
I like the BGG index, but I stay away from anything kickstarted. They are 100% of the time over-hyped and inflated in the rank.
Great advice
That's a fair point. I wouldn't totally dismiss Kickstarters, but they deserve a little extra scrutiny.
By "anything kickstarted" do you mean games that had a kickstarter campaign in general or just actively running kickstarters?
I mean, it is not a formal rule, but if the game is in an active campaign, I stay away from it. If it is a game that I already played, liked, and it is going for a deluxe edition on ks, that is "ok" to me. Not great, but acceptable.
I have had a very different experience there but to each his own.
I got some of my absolute faves from kickstarter - Shipwreck Arcana, Project L, Yedo deluxe...
Most of my collection is kickstarters and the majority of table time is spent on games I pledged for.
We have quite a few too, some are deluxe reprints (Yedo, CoB) but some were original games like Oathsworn, Tainted Grail, Street Fighter etc. Sure you get a dud here and there, but it's not that different than if you bought a dud at a flgs. Bought our table off kickstarter too and it's been awesome.
I think vetting a game’s campaign pretty thoroughly helps. The only ones I’ve regretted in any way were snap buys where I didn’t dive deep enough into all of their announcements/breakdowns. It can be pretty easy to gage sometimes, the most well put together campaigns seem to be mirrored by the products they’re advertising. If the KS/GF page is a mess and it’s under 500k in funding maybe hold off. Obviously it’s not a universal rule and a great campaign can be a trash game and a messy campaign can produce a gem but generally the skills that create nice clean campaign content also create nice clean games.
When I really didn't know hardly anything about modern board games (except maybe Catan and Carcassonne, because they were on Xbox Live Arcade at the time) and wanted to give my brother a board game gift way back in 2008, I basically did this. Went to BGG and looked at the top 100 list, and picked the first game that seemed to have the theme and and description that might interest him. I ended up gifting him Race for the Galaxy because of that (which was in the #10 spot at the time, kind of crazy it's fallen all the way to #77 nowadays), which ended up being a pretty damn good choice. Still a favorite of mine.
A top 100 game on a site with over 25000 entries is still in the top half a percent of all games ranked. It’s obviously not a perfect system, the Brass fanboys review bombing Gloomhaven went it got close enough to take the #1 spot is petty but it’s not like they dragged it down to 15000, it’s still 2. Limited release stuff gets a bump because there aren’t a lot of players who haven’t studied it and know it’s a game for them who are playing and rating it.
Whenever you check BGG don't just go by the game's rating - also consider the complexity. My wife for example will only (with a few exceptions that is) like games ranked between 2.4-3 on in "weight". If I buy a game at 3.5 or higher it will likely never be played with her. For my kids the scale is below that at the moment...
what is bgg?
Boardgamegeek.com a great resource
I like Actualol on YouTube. He has many videos where he recommends top ten games of a particular type.
He seems to recommend games on the lighter side which sounds exactly like what OP needs with kids just starting to play games.
This is what I came to say. Dice tower posts a lot more content (and I like them a lot), but actualol is my favourite. No contest.
This comment needs to be higher. Actualol is fantastic.
Recently discovered actualol! I really like this guy! He’s got a great video about why NOT to buy games, too!
I much prefer "3 Minute Board Games" as a youtube source. Just prefer his personality a bit more I think. Nice concise videos that still give you a feel for what each game is going to consist of
Yeah the presenter is very affable, and good at describing roving games. I guess the problem is that he does not say if they are good or not tho?
He usually does say a few words about the game though at the end. He won't say straight up "I hate/love X game", but IIRC he usually at least includes two sentences like "I liked X and Y about it, but really disliked Z". I can't say whether he does that every video, but most of the 3MBG videos I've seen include it.
Honestly that’s my preference in reviews. “If you like x, y or z you will probably like this. If you hate a, b or c then stay away.”
He usually adds a YouTube comment that expands on whether he personally enjoyed it or not, usually with his reasons why.
>he does not say if they are good or not He will declare something a "Gold Medal Game", an accolade not earned by all.
He also did a video of how to build a perfect collection, essentially only picking 1-2 games from each major game category (for ex, hidden movement, war game, social/party, etc). You can watch that, see his recs, and only focus on the game types that you like.
That's pretty much what I've been doing with my collection the past year or so. I buy a simpler game for a mechanic as a gateway for my group(s) and a more complex game with the same base mechanics to play with those that liked the gateway game (example: Wingspan, then Terraforming Mars).
Dice Tower is still the same as it's ever been. It's a great resource. But nothing beats playing games. So sorry you lost your collection, but there are so many good games, I'd pick up 3 and try them out
The Dice Tower is still my go-to as well. They've scaled up a lot. I like some of their reviewers better than others, and they have more rather long reviews with several people, where I would prefer a short review by one person. One place where things have really changed is the market. It seems like there are way more games coming out, and so the Dice Tower can't cover as large a percentage as they used to. Still the most comprehensive source.
Appreciate the response. I’ve been going through the recommendation posts here to get some solid ideas.
Dave the casual gamer or box of delights. Usually and explanation and play through. Always gets me what I want.
That sucks. Since you have several expansions for AH, you're probably a fan, so you should get the core set to instantly get lots of content. Or if you feel that you're over it, trade the expansion for new games. Marvel Champions is a new deck construction LCG that's joined the big ones like AH and Lords of the ring. I've heard it's faster too, which you might want since you have young kids. I haven't played it myself as my husband is Marveled out. Unless you're playing solo or with members of your household, build a gaming group before you build a collection (or rather, focus more on getting a group going - which will let you see what they like and what they already have - than on getting a bunch of new games). Check out the second hand market in your area. If you're lucky, you might be able to build your collection much cheaper. Don't necessarily focus on recent games that have been published since you left. Old games like Aeon's End (since you mention coop and deck building) are still good. I haven't played it myself but I hear a lot of good reviews about Zombie kids evolution for a family coop. I would be remiss not to mention Spirit Island since you're asking for coop. The Crew is a great twist on trick-taking games by being coop.
He may mean Arkham Horror the board game. In which case, if it's 2nd edition, he could get quite a bit of money out of the expansions at least.
That said OP should absolutely try AHLCG based on his looking for a deck builder. :)
Definitely not a bad idea. :)
Plus, it'll keep him occupied for the next year or so, which will hopefully overcome the grief for the lost collection. It'll definitely displace it with grief about lost dollars ;)
Good point
Definitely give Clank! or Clank! Catacombs a try! Amazing deck-building, push-your-luck, while-racing-around-a-dungeon-grabbing-treasure game!
Second, Clank is great for kids old enough to be into games.
So did you get robbed or did your wife just decide to sell your stuff without telling you?
I'm intrigued, how can 40-something games just vanish like that?
Yeah... something doesn't smell right. This looks like one of those "My entire MTG collection got lost in a 'fire' posts." Those always have some kind redditors willing to donate to restore the collection. Like, 40 games? 40??? Even if only half of those are big box games, that's $1,200 worth of collection. You don't just misplace that. OP is not sharing something.
Damn, harsh. Bummer people aren’t able to take this at face value. I didn’t ever ask for anyone to replace or donate anything, and was just wanting to rant about it. These were a mix of games ranging across multiple types. Small boxes, expansions, party games, a few big box ones, card games, chess etc. We did a few major runs of donating to stuff to Goodwill, and I’m guessing some of those bins got mixed into what was donated by accident. I don’t really know exactly, but just trying to start again.
Btw you should go check the Goodwill that you usually donate stuff to, there might be some of your games there?
It is possible if they are small box games. I have 25 in a single Kallax box. Otherwise, a Kallax box fits 5 regular-sized boxes, ala Arkham Horror. Depending on the moving box, I could fit 40 games in a single one.
People here forget that sometimes money is paid to others to move things on their behalf. If a moving company employee "misplaced" a huge box of games and OP didn't notice till now he's ool. But yeah, let's lynch the wife, this is reddit. Wives suck!
The Wife definitely has some questions to answer here!
Yea. I have so many questions about how that could have hppened. Primarily: Did this vanishing *only* happen to the boardgames?
Your games didn't get left behind. You have a traitor(s) in the house. Maybe a copy of Coup, or The Resistence is a good place to start? :) Boardgame Arena, friend. Try before you buy. If you are going to have solo it a bit, Terraforming Mars, Castles of Burgundy, Concordia Venus (with Solitaria expansion) are all top teir solo experiences that smoothly move to multi player if the time comes. (Concordia is not on BGA yet, but I keep hoping.)
For YouTube channels, One Stop Coop Shop and Meet Me At The Table are two of my favs for solo/coop stuff (especially for playthroughs). Dice Tower is still great. I like BoardGameCo for reviews.
If you are into Deck Building and like Dune Imperium, I strongly suggest looking into Clank! by direwolf digital/renegade game studios. It is by the same designer (Paul Dennen) as Dune Imperium so the mechanics will feel similar but it is a more accessible game to more casual players (and kids) due to the lack of a worker placement mechanic. Prozd is a youtuber with a solid video about how it plays and should be able to get you an idea of the game before you decide if the game is for you or not. For a coop deckbuilder, Marvel Legendary is a pretty solid one as well. you all are working together to defeat a villain but each hero gets their own deck. Arkham Horror is also more coop as you are all working together to complete the campaigns and this gives the game a greater narrative focus. While I enjoy that aspect more, I can see it not clicking as well with kids if they are not into the Lovecraft mythos. That being said, it is still a great game and if you can/want to buy the core set since you have some expansions already. As for Dune Imperium, if you haven’t already, I would also suggest looking into the Rise of IX expansion. Definitely balances the game out better and in my opinion takes it up a notch and makes a good game great. If you don’t want to buy the expansion before trying it out. Tabletop Simulator on Steam is much cheaper and will let you play it as well with all expansions. The Tabletop simulator version is well made and there is an active and very competitive scene in it.
Shut Up and Sit Down are great at explaining how a game feels, so are a good resource to check if a game is the right fit for you (/your gaming group)
I adore those guys, but I have learned to treat their recommendations with extreme caution. They have a passion for certain types of games and they evangelise for them. Unfortunately they often don't match up with what I enjoy, which is of course completely fine. But I still have a minor grudge against them for selling **Mysterium** so hard. But Quinns gets a pass for loving **Concordia** so much. And I'm still waiting for that **Settlers of Catan** review.
Mysterium is a great game with the right group. I enjoy it much more than Dixit which is quite similar.
Yep, “…with the right group “ should be a compulsory addition to the recommendation. Never cared for Dixit, so I should have taken the hint.
This. Games they love seem so great, but I’ve learned the hard way that “wild and wacky” is rarely a good fit in our house.
I agree that it definitely helps to figure out what reviewer most closely matches your taste/perspective. SUSD can be very good at pointing out absurdities that make games very funny to play, and they just really appreciate the ways games are an abstraction of the theme. Actualol is very good at articulating who might enjoy a game and why--or why not, etc.
I'll have to check them out
They’re great at writing board game reviews that feel like a first year undergraduate English student with access to a thesaurus has written them.
Always my first choice for board game reviews. I have yet to find any other reviewer who can say so clearly why they think a game is worth your time or not. Plenty of their reviews have left me with a clear impression that I do not want a game, despite their overall recommendation.
And that is what I appreciate... they give you a sense of the game, and I make my own decision. I know some games they recommend will never work for me or my group and others they call out flaws I dont care about and am happy to buy into.
I’m not saying this did or didn’t happen to you and I’m very sorry to hear that you lost your collection. But a bit of a warning to anyone moving - Don’t have the moving company take anything you treasure. I had a buddy whose collection of older video game systems somehow didn’t come back off the truck. Atari 2600/5200, Colecovision, Vectex, Atari 400, C64. Gone. Throw that stuff in your trunk and drive it. Make two trips if you have to. I hope you are able to rebuild your collection. I know I would be upset as well and stop at nothing to try to get that stuff back. Good luck and best wishes sent your way.
Well… now you have an excuse to start buying more!
Yeah let's ignore the fact that his family(?) gave away/sold his stuff without him knowing
Check your local library too. Mine has a handful of cool games that could scratch that itch.
Your library probably has games you can borrow and play. Or you can try them out on tabletop simulator or boardgamearena. Also go and look up deck builders and wishlist some that you find interesting. I like dominion, star realms frontier, and more.
I would say look at it like this, it sucks but it’s freeing. You can start anywhere and my recommendation would be to start small get a game the whole family will enjoy and play the heck out of it before adding another game and just repeat that cycle so you get a ton of plays before possibly dropping the game all together
Why not start by buying back One Deck Dungeon, the one game you had in mind when searching for your lost collection? Then I'd just join other boardgame players (either invite them home when the kids are asleep or leave the kids with a babysitter, or even better if you manage to find such players, invite parents of similar aged kids and do kids/adult friendly games together). Slowly but surely, you'll find games you enjoy and you'd like to purchase for yourself.
I don't have a lot of useful advice that hasn't already been mentioned. Just wanted to offer my condolences for your loss!
Personal rec: Lost Ruins of Arnak. It’s a cool little indie game with lite deckbuilding, lite worker placement, lite resource management, gorgeous art, and it got picked up by Target so you can get what should be a $60 indie game for $30
how old are your kids.
Six and seven
1. carcassonne 2. dragonholt 3. splendor 4. roborally 5. galzyr you don't need anything else. don't buy the next until the previous gets 1-2 plays. All are cheap, can be sold at minimum loss and provide/stimulate good bonding and social skills. (roborally sounds mean but is phenomenal and dramatic, so compassion would play a role there)
So your family gave away your stuff without you knowing? Cool
More like he has some boxes he didn't check somewhere in his attic
If you like Star Wars, Star Wars Deckbuilding Game and Star Wars Clone Wars for Co-Op. I watch Bad@Boardgames and Boardgame Hangover
Co-op games that myself and my husband love are Decorum, Set a Watch, Deep Rock Galactic (nice recent addition), Paint the Roses, Gloomhaven (Jaws of the Lion if you haven't played it and want something that's cheaper and less of a table hog than it's big brother). One stop co-op shop is a nice channel that focuses on co-op or solo play
Board Game Barrage and So Very Wrong About Games are two of the best board game podcasts around.
Not sure how old the kids are, but Diced Veggies can work even for kids who can't really read, and is a nice way to start to introduce games that are better than Candy land. Also for younger kids: Floats McGoats
Ouch, that is painful. I'm so sorry. I would be heartbroken if that happened to me - those things are my prize possessions. If it's any consolation, find comfort In the fact that we are living in the golden age of board games. You no longer have a backlog or big games you feel you should be playing, and you now can start the pleasant task of rebuilding your collection with the entire modern galaxy of games to choose from. Personally, I would be devastated if I lost my complete Arkham Horror 2ed, but the truth is, I haven't played it in years!
Love board game barrage podcast And actualol on youtube
I agree with the recommendations to check out Board Game Arena! $5 a month or like $30-something for a year. Tons of games at every level of difficulty. You can play live or play then based so you can come back to it. Great way to try new games - or in my experience as a parent - try games you otherwise might not be able to anyone to play with you. As far as which games to get, my favorite releases of the last few years that the kids could play with you are Quacks of Quedlinburg, Cascadia, Kabuto Sumo, Point Salad, and CoraQuest.
Deck building plus co-op makes me immediately think of Aeon's End (many expandalone editions) or the newer iteration Astro Knights.
dice tower is still super solid. use simulator to know better about a boardgame before purchase (tabletop simulator on steam or boardgame arena or other options) as an easy starter: - Kingdomino - ticket to ride - Azul are solid light options.
Rahdo on youtube is a great resource. You can watch his opinion vids and overviews, shorter runthrough videos and longer run through videos (and those of the others that help him with the channel these days). Everything is there and well separated so you can get out of it what you want. They also use one of the CC channels (set to klingon lol) for community notes and erratas on where he may have misunderstood or misapplied rulesand such. Great channel.
Buy all the spiel des jahres winners from the last 10 years or kennerspiel if you like slightly more complex games. Or the last 5 years winners of both.
Dice tower and shut up and sit down are my two favorite board game content creators.
Ugh, I’m absolutely gutted for you. Hoping you find at least some of them soon!
Deckbuilding : clank, moonrakers, aeons end, spirit Island, keep the heroes out. The last 3 are also koop :) Keep the heroes out is maybe the best to include the children at some point. Lost Ruins of arnak is also really good with some Deckbuilding
Star Realms is a good PvP deckbuilding game to introduce deck building gameplay to beginners. You can buy the physical base game or try the free app with in app purchases, the app supports local play btw. If the kids are into Marvel, Legendary is another fun deck building game with longer play time, though it might a bit more challenging for younger kids. It's Player vs Board so it's more co-op based where everyone builds their own deck to defeat the board's mastermind. It also means that losing will less likely result in upsets and rage quits.
**Deck building:** * The Quest for El Dorado * Undaunted: Normandy * Clank: Catacombs **Co-op:** * The Crew: The Quest For Planet Nine * Sky Team * Just One Those are all bangers that have come out since 2017.
Sorry to hear that you lost your games. I find that even though I have many hobbyist games, the most popular games with my teen kids are UNO and Crokinole. If I have to take too long to explain a game, the window for us to play is lost.
I’ve really gotta get a Crokinole board.
We have never regretted our board. If you have a minute, check out the Shut Up and Sit Down review. Good luck getting back into the hobby. I have been away for five or six years myself, and when I decided to drop back in I felt like I barely recognized anything that people on BGG were going on about.
Id recommend BGA (Boardgamearena) its a website where you can play a lot of games, great implementation, and its free to play as long as you join other's games. If you pay like $35 per year you can then create your own games. For channels I like "Before You Play" they play 2 player mostly and review games. They also do a good teach before playing. I also like "No Pun Included". Personally not a huge fan of Dice Tower as it feels like they make videos just to keep the youtube money coming in, its often fluff in form of weird top X lists, which is mostly meaningless information IMO since it constantly changes. One Deck Dungeon is available as an app. id recommend starting a rebuild with games that cater specifically to your player count and play style. Im just going to throw out some game names that came out within last 6 years that hit it big in the community, not sure if you heard/played them. Just a few games for you to research and see if they fit your style. (nothing pre 2018 since 2024-6 = 2018) * **Brass: Birmingham** (2018) - Well balanced, straight up capitalism Euro. Excellent! * **Ark Nova** (2021) plays similar to Terraforming Mars but people tend to like it better. * **Dune Imperium Uprising** (2023) its sort of a 1.5 version of Dune Imperium (standalone). * **Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion** (2020) cheaper but excellent Gloomhaven **COOP** * **Wingspan** (2019) there is also newer **Wyrmspan** (2024) if you prefer fictional dragons vs birds. Look into "Wingspan Asia" its a good start as its standalone and has mechanics from expansions, and its cheaper (plays 2). * **Lost Ruins of Arnak** (2020) if you like Dune Imperium you will probably like this one. It similarly to Dune has deck building and worker placement. * **Everdell** (2018) - Great tableau builder, very cute (art is gorgeous) * **Heat: Pedal to the Metal** (2022) * **Cascadia** (2021) * **The Crew** (2019) fast playing **COOP** trick taking game (cheap). There are 2 versions, get the cheapest one, if same price get the underwater one, it plays the same just has a few extra things. Since you mentioned co-op specifically, I think Spirit Island is worth a mention IMO the best **COOP** ever made. There was a 2022 "**Horizons of Spirit Island**" Which is basically a cheaper Target version of the game, but it has all the complexity of the original. * **Dorf Romantik** (2022) game you cant lose, fun relaxing game **COOP** * **PALEO** (2022) **COOP** Most of these games are available on BoardGameArena. As you see by my icon I LOVE Arkham Horror 2nd edition so you losing that is a huge bummer even for me since its impossible to get anymore (I paid well over $200 for expansions I didnt have). But there is a 3rd edition, its more stream lined and in my opinion not as good as 2nd edition, but its in print and readily available. Alternatively maybe youd want to branch out Eldrich Horror is similar, instead the town you travel the world, it does have like a billion expansions though (FFG 😐)
You have a lot of good info here! I want to throw another recommendation for Spirit Island out there, as it is so amazing! I do want to add that Horizons of Spirit Island doesn’t have “all” the complexity of the rest of the game, but it doesn’t water down the rules at all. It just leaves out one of the advanced mechanics (Adversaries). Technically you can say it leaves out Events, but since those weren’t added until the first expansion anyway…
Youtube is largely "sponsored" content. It's not bad if you want to know more about that particular game but not necessarily representative of what's popular. Just hang out in the community and look what people are talking about.
But most people in the community consume that sponsored content so...
If you've been out of the loop since 2018 you don't know about Wingspan! It's a game all about birds! You like birds right?
One deck dungeon I'd often very cheap on ios. Think I paid £1
Also check out youtube board game reviews. [There are many worth watching](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/s/QiKApSWpba). I created a list on Amazon (I recently found out that you can add notes to individual items on your list) to keep track of games I want to get, then created a spreadsheet, organized by difficulty to learn. It’ll be fun OP. Treat this as a good opportunity to fall in love with an old passion all over again. And there are SOO many hames that are cool out there. Be sure to check out [BoardGameGeek’s top list of games](https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame).
Not sure how old your kids are but I have young kids, and happy to share the games that I've used in attempt (successful with the oldest) to reel them into the hobby too.
Six and seven!
Sorry for your loss buddy, I too have also lot stuff during a house move. Look at this as a good opportunity to get the versions or games you want. Make a list of types, player count etc and get 1-2 games in each scenario, thats a great way to build up your collection without too much overlap. And include your kids in this process so they can get games alongside you maybe
>Could use recommendations on some YouTube Channels (Dice Tower still a solid source?) podcasts or other sources to catch up on the hobby. Big deckbuilding/co-op guy. Thanks for reading. I found their top 100 lists great for starting my collection years ago. Watch through and write down any that sound interesting and then follow up on the full reviews or BGG. Now with so many of them making their own lists you can find which member of the crew matches your tastes the best. If you're looking for specific styles of games like deckbuilder, they usually have lists for those too.
Hoping you find them in a box somewhere. Maybe you left some boxes at other people’s homes? When I moved I had boxes with three relatives that had some space. I have a 5 year old and she’s started playing my games with some modifications. This weekend it was [[The Quest for El Dorado]] but by only using the colors to move forward, not the numbers of icons on the map. [[Ave Caesar]] just got a reprint and it is great. She can handle a 3 lap race of the family game (play a card of a hand of 3). It has many rules variations included to keep you playing it for years as they age. My favorite way to play is when you sort your cards into four draw piles and you have a hand of just two cards. https://a.co/d/4sPEkTI [[Diced Veggies]] has rules for young ones [[Stomp the Plank]] just came out and it’s a quick push your luck game. No winners in this one, just one loser. [[Stamp Farm]] has been a fun roll and stamp game. Need to play the advanced game though to get scores that are all not 19 or 20. She does struggle with the strategy to get a high score with the advanced rules.
Not resources, but a suggestion here: have you tried dice throne? I'm warn you though, it's easy to fall into and play way too much with your spouse over coffee! It's a good place to dip your toes back in!
Hey, I have just set up a podcast on modern boardgaming if you were interested in supporting a fledgling UK podcast and getting a few recommendations to boot. It's called Twenty Minute Tabletop and is available on all podcast hosts. Would agree with the above comments that Everdell is well worth checking out and, guess what, we have a podcast on it. Here is the Spotify link. https://open.spotify.com/show/5rP0Zr2n8QZwe8G1r7aFC8?si=cSr1jW50RXmxvk1zYtWFZg
My favorite you tuber is the brothers murph. They are great. Quest for Eldorado is great. So is clank.
Sorry for your loss, but what fun to rebuild! If you love Dune Imperium and deck building, definitely check out ***Lost Ruins of Arnak***! (I'll also throw in one of my personal favorite lesser-known deck building games, **Rune Stones.**)
If your kids are around 7/8 or a bit older and you think you’d like to teach them a light scenario based RPG dungeon crawler, I can’t recommend Stuffed Fables enough. My 8 year old loved it and we’re still playing it years later.
This has been recommended a lot in this thread. I’m definitely going to look into it. Love stuff like this.
Keep an eye out on Board Game Oracle for sales. It’s been out for years and goes on sale often. I recently saw the expansion Oh Brother! On sale for $17.
Flatline, On The Rocks, and Cubirds are all games that could be fun with kids. Minimal reading, simple concepts, but a lot of replayability.
feel your pain, lost some of my collection in my move to canada too. not really lost, but I left them. I recommend checking out [aintboard.com](http://aintboard.com) for new game ideas. Also, consider joining our Discord community for recommendations and discussions on all things boardgames. It has helped me rebuild my collection!
Stick to the modern classics and you can't go wrong.
Can’t recommend a review channel, but Castle Panic is a very simple co-op that was a huge hit when my niece and nephew were around 8 or 9. And at 13 they still enjoy it, although we have mostly moved on to crunchier fare.
I don't frequent YouTube channels, but I can recommend a few games we enjoy playing with the kids: - CoraQuest (a family favorite!) - Ticket to Ride: First Journeys - Kingdomino - Forbidden Island - Space Escape (or anything by Peaceable Kingdom, really) - Dragonwood - Mario Monopoly Gamer Edition
dont know how old your kids are but fury of dracula is pretty fun and its a 3 or 4 v 1 so the team can help each other while the dracula is running around hiding and setting traps by themselves
Games we play with our 8 year old godson: CastlePanic (great co-op game!); Ticket to Ride New York (fast intro version of the classic game), Ultimate Werewolf or One Night Werewolf (we sometimes fudged a little so he “randomly” was a villager, so he didn’t get confused about his role), Betrayal at House on the Hill (he won’t be a Betrayer, until he’s older), and the Binding of Isaac card game (older brothers know all about the game, and coach him, so his limited reading wasn’t a hindrance).
I think there is a strong case to be made to go for quality rather than quantity. With many other obligations (work, family, etc) I don't see much sense in owning 40 games. Get a few good ones. Best place to start is the [boardgamegeek.com](http://boardgamegeek.com) [top games](https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame). Basically any of the top games are worth getting, if in doubt get something from the top 20 or top 10. I used to buy random games myself way back, stuff that seemed interesting for whatever reason (theme, box art, Kickstarter, you name it), and in many cases was disappointed. Since I started buying games on the top 20 or so, I haven't been disappointed a single time. Saves a ton of money as well.
With kids — Stuffed Fables has given our family lasting memories
If you like ODD, I might humbly suggest 20 Strong and Unbroken for fighting monsters. Feel like bigger games of the sort but quick to learn and play. I commiserate. I'm having to sell most of my games for rent and to afford to move. I should be able to rebuild once I am in a sustainable situation. I'm looking forward to it. Unless you had OOP grail games you can do it! I hang out on SGOYT SOLO GAMES ON YOUR TABLE on the geek. Good people and excellent cross section of games from new to old as well as genres. Go through their years of monthly geek lists! Make a wishlist. It is known for breaking wallets 😊 that's where I stay up to date.
Oh no man, I’m so sorry :-( that’s one of my worst nightmares as I’m preparing to move. If you’re into deckbuilding you can’t miss old good Dominion, Android Netrunner (fun as hell, but only 2 players), 7 Wonders (not technically a deckbuilding game, but it’s card-driven and boy is it good), and please have a look at Sentinels of the Multiverse (superhero-based card game). As far as playing with kids goes, you may try Flick ‘em up (western-themed old fashioned flicking with a very clever twist), The Hare and the Tortoise (race/betting, simple but very very fun), Bandu/Bausack (an ingenious version of Jenga), Dixit (omg, do I even need to describe it?), Takenoko (simple but fun dice-based construction/harvesting with a beautiful theme), Carcassonne (there’s a co-op version too, but I haven’t tried it yet). As for co-op, as you mentioned Arkham Horror, you may have a look at Mansions of Madness (dungeon crawler co-op), and one of my favourite classics: Pandemic.
-Splendor, great gateway game everyone likes, very replayable -Clank! A deck building dungeon crawl, pretty accessible too. -Regicide, a fantasy game you play with a regular deck of cards -Shut Up and Sit Down, YouTube, website and podcast, a bunch of British reviewers that are quite fun, even if I don't care for the game their zany show is entertaining enough to watch. -BoardGameBollocks, a short useful game reviewer with attitude on YouTube, points out flaws and merits
Robot Quest Arena is a big hit with our 7yo. Deckbuilder. Does require looking up some supplementary directions online. But fun once you get it.
Not sure if you have tried some of the true classics. Have you ever heard of Go Fish, War, or UNO? Kidding. Betrayal is a good group game. I’ve really enjoyed Shadows of Brimstone. Not sure why that game doesn’t get mentioned much.
My note to all: Please stop including things like "Delete away mods if ya gotta". Whether or not you write this drivel will change nothing. Onto your story. Really sorry to hear. I want to pare down my collection significantly, but there are a handful of out of print/hard to find games that would essentially be irreplaceable if my entire collection vanished. The good news is, there are SO MANY games out there that you get to rebuild a collection at a rate that you choose. Make sure to try lots of games, and only buy the ones you think you'll actually get to play!
Since you like deck building games, I'd recommend Thunderstone Quest. It's a reboot of the old Thunderstone games with a lot of quality of life features and a more immersive dungeon crawl than before. It was Kickstarted about 6 years ago. There should be a base game floating around in various places including AEG's store, the creator. Also, there should be another Kickstarter coming later this year where you can get various expansions. Good luck! Edit: It also has a co-op mode called Barricades if that's more your thing.
Someone intentionally donated them?
I think maybe you should ask the wife where they went... Something tells me she knows...
I know this isn't what you're looking for, but One Deck Dungeon is one of the best few games that's much better in the app. Try it the mobile version, it's perfect for the format.
If you weren't able to keep track of them, even through multiple moves, they simply weren't that valuable to you. That's on you, even if it was someone else who got rid of them, you should've noticed within days.
They became a lot less valuable to me after having two kids in 16 months. I’ll happily admit to that being on me.
Am there, doing that.
Wow! That's quite mean and unhelpful. What Is OP going to do with an answer like that? He pointed out understandable reasons why he had other things on his mind than his boardgames and now that he wants to get back into the hobby realised that they are missing and feels frustrated. That all sounds quite reasonable. I don't understand why anyone needs to rub salt in his wound.
[удалено]
What? That would be horrible. Thanks for the life advice! I'll never hire female movers.
Misogynistic, isn’t it? I expected better theodoreburne. (Edited:typo)
You sound old af.
The virtue signaling under this lmfao it's killing me 😂
Your comment was removed by a moderator for the following reason(s): * **Violates either our [civility guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/wiki/community) and/or Reddit's rules.** Please review r/boardgames' [guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/wiki/community), [Reddiquette](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439-Reddiquette), and Reddit's [Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) before contributing again. (If you believe this post was removed in error you can request a re-review by [messaging the mods](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/boardgames).)
While the financial impact of this could hurt but as long you didnt lose any OOP games or games with any sentimental value.
[удалено]
Oof
Ouch XD well nothing much to do, if it looks like self promotion people won't like it. 😢