You know what your favorite board game is. Or maybe a few of your favorites, and you play them, and you think, I wish there was more. So you start to look around and you realize that yes, there is in fact more because a lot of games get expansions, stand alone new versions, or even new editions of the game. So you start getting everything, and you realize that there is a lot

How Much Can It Be?

Let’s take Catan for an example, how much could you get for Catan. Just doing the basic stuff that people know, off the top of my head, you have Catan, 5-6 player expansion, Seafarers, Seafarers 5-6 player expansion, Cities and Knights, and 5 to 6 player expansion. I likely could come up with more, but that’s just for basic Catan without going into different versions. But Game of Thrones Catan is out there as well and Star Trek Catan and Starfarers of Catan. Plus a big 3d tile version of Catan. That adds up fast. And if you look on Board Game Geek, there are over 175 results.

And you can do that with a lot of games, Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Marvel Champions, or any of the living card games from Fantasy Flight Games give you a ton of content. Or Aeon’s End, there are 6 big boxes for the game, all that are standalone, plus then, I think, it’s 11 small box expansions as well. Or Sword & Sorcery with three or four big boxes now, plus a lot of character boxes.

So, there can be a lot out there.

But I Want To Have Everything

This is a common sentiment that really drives the whole idea of buying everything for a board game or not buying anything at all. But that isn’t feasible with so many games. Or it means that you will limit the number of games that you can get.

If you think about, let’s say, all of Marvel Champions, Arkham Horror, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Android Netrunner, and I think that is all the Fantasy Flight Living Card Games, that is a ton of content just there. I just remembered that there is a Star Wars one as well. It would be nearly impossible to get all and nearly impossible to play all of that.

So do you really need everything. I get the idea of wanting to own it all. But I believe that an all or nothing approach is not ideal.

Why Might It Not Work For Every Board Game?

I have a few reasons why it might not work for every game. And I will finish up with that I don’t think it’s always bad. But I’ll explain more on that later.

Cost

Firstly, this is very expensive to get everything. I do have a few games that I own basically everything for or everything for. Aeon’s End, Deep Madness, and Marvel Champions. Plus some smaller games, but that tends to be something like Res Arcana which has two expansions. But doing it for every game, like I said, is that it is very expensive. So I can’t do it for every game, and most likely you can’t as well.

Ease of Play

It also can make it harder to get the game to the table. And this is one thing that I suspect a lot of gamers don’t think about. What sort of content are you adding in? Is it content that needs to be sorted in and out depending on if you want to play with it? If that is the case, then the game is going to be much harder to get to the table. If it is just stuff that you can add into the main decks of cards and main box, then it might not make it too difficult.

An example of it not being a big deal with Marvel United. That is basically grab and go for the game. You don’t mix in anything extra. On the flip side, there are games that add in modules, even something like Medium a party game, where you are supposed to sort it out each time.

Getting Through The Content

Finally, at least that I’m thinking of right now, you need to ask if you will get through all of the content. Marvel Champions has how many heroes and villains? Will you get through all the combos? Or will you just play your favorite hero against different villains? Because there’s no harm in that. But that does mean that you don’t need all the content.

I won’t lie, I shouldn’t own all the content currently. I do, and I do want to play it. But I own all of it because I love Marvel. Not because I think, for sure that I’ll get to all of it. Some of it I just want to own because of the theme and characters it has. Maybe I will get to it, but Marvel Champions, with the speed they add more content, is unlikely ever to be fully played.

So Never Get Everything?

No, I don’t want to say that you shouldn’t ever. Let’s be fair, I own everything for Marvel United, Marvel United X-Men, and Marvel Champions. I own everything for Aeons End and almost everything for Deep Madness. But I don’t need everything for all my games.

I own base Carcassonne and that is all that I need. The core box for Lord of the Rings The Card Game is on my shelf, and I don’t need more of that. I got rid of the Sauron expansion for the Lord of the Rings game because I didn’t need the extra content that added.

When buying everything for a game, ask yourself the question above. And also consider that you can probably always track down more later. With a rare exception of Marvel United and Marvel United X-Men all the games that I own everything for, I got it not all at once. Well, let me correct that, anything that has an expansion.

Final Thoughts on Owning Everything For A Board Game?

You don’t need to own everything for every game. You don’t even need to own everything for any game. But I also don’t want to discourage you, too much, if you do have games you want everything for. I certainly don’t need everything for Marvel United, but I own it and I don’t regret it.

I do think it is worth thinking, though, when you find yourself going down that path. When you look at a Kickstarter and think, I should go all in on this, even though you don’t care about some of the content, just in case you do later. eBay exists, so you can probably find it later. It might cost a bit more, but also doesn’t eat up space, isn’t something you have to sell, if you find you don’t want it.

What is a game that you want or own everything for? And what is a game that maybe has been harder to play or left your collection because you did own everything for it?

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