I’m back at a topic that I touched on not too long ago. It was part of my Crowdfunding Conundrum article where I talked about how I consider what group I’d play a game with before I’d buy it. But this is a topic that I saw someone struggling with yesterday on a Discord Channel that I’m on. I gave some advice and shared that article on how I handle it with my board games, but I think it’s a topic worth diving into.

The advice in this article, hopefully, will help people be able to decide what to buy in a more responsible manner but also decide what to keep. As when I cull games, I often consider what group I’ll be playing it with as well as other factors.

The Premise

I talk about this from time to time about how I have multiple board game groups. I play with a game night group. There are times I just play with one or two people. I play with a board game club group and a campaign group. And, I play board games solo. Plus, I often play games with my family as well. So I play games with six different groups, counting solo.

Not every game I own works with every group. I wouldn’t pull out Gloomhaven and try and make that work at a board game night. First off, 8 people can’t play Gloomhaven at once, at least not well. You’d be sharing duties on a character or house ruling everything. On the flip side, I can’t play Codenames Pictures with myself. But, both games are in my collection, because they work for groups I play with.

What Are Your Groups?

So when buying, or selling, a board game, I think it’s useful to think about first what your groups are. Do you play games mainly solo and with a significant other, except for holidays? Do you have a regular gaming group? Or is playing at parties and get together how you mainly game?

By defining the group(s) that you play with, you can start to define what types of games that you might want to get or keep. Now, there is something to be said for groups growing and dynamics changing over time, but that doesn’t mean buy everything and wait for that to happen so you can play those games. Most games will be available to some extent for a long time, whether it’s new or cycling through used. So start by defining your groups.

Let me demonstrate:

• Board Game Night Group – party games, bigger group games, sometimes light to medium games if we split into groups to game
• One or Two People Group – generally games that can be played a few times in a night, a chance to pull more off of the shelf that I don’t normally
• Board Game Club Group – big thematic games, generally not campaigns but heavier ones that don’t get played during game nights, also longer games
• Campaign Group – campaign games that’ll be played over multiple sessions
• Family Group – light games, card games, and party games
• Solo Group (aka me) – campaign/thematic games, and smaller games with solo modes

Using That Information

Once you define your groups, you can start using it to decide what games to buy. You can see some things, light games on the list twice, campaign games and thematic games show up, group games and party games show up. So when I go out do I look for those types of games in particular?

Well, kind of. I won’t ignore any game when I am searching because what groups I game with isn’t everything. But when I look at a game, let’s say I were to pick up Gloomhaven off the shelf knowing nothing about it. I’d look at it and see that it is a big campaign game. So I’d ask myself, will my campaign group get to this any time soon, will I get to it solo anytime, should I put this giant box down while I think about this? And it might be that my campaign group and I won’t get to it for two years, and I still might pick it up.

Or, let’s give another example, Isle of Cats. That game is fairly light, but not light enough for family gaming. But the theme is a lot of fun So I picked that one up because I love cats, I can maybe play it with the board game club or the board game night groups, but for sure can with the small group when those happen. But that’s only one of my groups, so is the value there for me? Well, because I love cats and because I can get it played once in a while, yes.

Not Using That Information

There also are times where I don’t use that information. Tannhauser which I picked up recently is a great example. That is a complex game that is going to take some work to get to the table. I don’t know that I have a great group for that right now, or I have one person who would probably want to sit down and learn it with me. But it’s a game that I really want to play, so I grabbed it when I could.

The question to ask yourself then is, am I willing to put the work into finding a group? Do I want to try and track people down to play this game. That is going to require work on my behalf and am I willing to do it. There are going to be some games, like if I can find Battlestar Galactica at the right time and right price. I probably have a few people who I can play it with, but to get a group together will be effort.

Really, what I would be doing is creating a new gaming group. It would be a group that I could add to the list. Those people who like one day epic games. Some overlap maybe with the Board Game Club Group, but not fully. And everyone likely has a grail game that they want to get. And those games, especially, I don’t think need to fit into a group.

Right or Wrong

So I bring this up that this isn’t a hard and fast rule. Some of this question came up because the person who was asking has a game that they love but they don’t have a group for. It might not be the right time for a game, so get it and keep it if you want. And it also might not be the right time to try and make a new group for gaming that would play it.

But, for a lot of gamers who really like to buy games and try new games. I think it can be a useful exercise to think about your groups. I said use it for buying, but I’ve used it for selling as well. Cosmic Encounter just this week is one that I sold not because I didn’t like the game, I do, but because I don’t have a group. So when looking at your shelf, consider the groups you have.

I’m actually going to do an exercise, as I go through and organize my board games again soon, and put in my notes on Board Game Geek what group the games are for. That is more for me, so if I find one that doesn’t have a group and I’m not that excited about, it can be one to sell.

Do you consider who you play with when you buy board games or sell them?

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