Board Games seem to go towards extremes. Not all of them, but there are a number that are either extremely big or extremely small. And I’m just talking about the size of a board game, not the complexity, or everything it has in the game. There are extremes that are being gone to for a board game to make it as big as possible or as small as possible. All in an effort to stand out and I don’t know that it’s a good thing.

Why Make It Big?

These next two sections could just really start out with, so that the game stands out. A bigger game, it stands out among others. 1000+ cards, 200 minis, 500 tokens, weighs 300 lbs., all of those things stand out. It stands out on a shelf because it dominates the presence over other games. It stands out because you see it and all the stuff it comes with and it makes it more tempting.

But there are other reasons to make a game bigger. Firstly, it can lend itself to being more immersive. Hero minis fighting monster minis in a dungeon crawl, more immersive than just playing with tokens or a meeple or pawn. And you can’t really fit 200+ pages of story into that small a box. So it’s about creating that space for that immersive and epic storytelling.

Because that’s the other thing, it is more immersive and it’s more epic in nature. Again, those minis are going to make it feel that way.

But not all big games have a ton of minis, Gloomhaven for example has a few, Roll Player Adventures has one. These games are big for the story reason. But also because they offer things like, rolling a fist full of dice in Roll Player Adventures. Or 17 character classes you can play in Gloomhaven. So it isn’t just minis but it’s about the game play components as well.

Why Make it Small?

Making it small, you want it to stand out because it’s a smaller game than others. We have the Button Shy Wallet Games or the Tiny Epic game series. Those are about getting a game to be a small size, at least in a box to stand out as different from other games that way. How much game can you pack into small package.

But beyond that there are some other reasons you might go small. Portability is one of the biggest for them. It allows you to have that game that will get tossed into a backpack or suitcase on a trip. Easy enough to fly with, or even with some of the smaller ones, Orchard, Grove, For Northwood, or the Button Shy games. those can fit into a pocket and just be with you.

Besides that, I think most of the time the reasoning for making a small game or making sure it’s a small game, because some games are naturally small, is to show off that you can do it. Not a great reason, but I understand why some designers like to do that as a challenge.

Thoughts on Board Game Size

But what size is right? And I think that this is an interesting question. I think that both the massive game and the tiny game are used to extremes often for their detriment.

Let’s take The Isofarian Guard, for example. I removed two trays and now it fits, just barely, on my game table. And I don’t have a small game table. It is a game that is massive in size, and thus far, I think that it could have been scaled down, just a little bit, to make it fit better. The whole thing is done for the epic nature of the game, and it’ll make it easier to see and read. But it’s just big and bulky in areas for little reason other than to be big a bulky.

At the same time, there are games, Tiny Epic games are notoriously bad for this, that cram so much into a little box. When you start to put stuff back into the box you realize that you need a masters degree in packing logistics just to fit everything back in. It’s a constraint that then becomes a bad thing. And the flip can be true with big games. You get too much space and now what could be two boxes is size boxes.

Focal Point

The issue with either big or small, like I said, is when that becomes the focal point of the game. It reminds me of stories I’ve read or heard about. There the author writing a piece of fiction has a point they are trying to make. It starts to beat the reader across the head and become preaching a point versus telling a story.

Big and small games are like that, when they become about being big or being small. They beat you across the head with that versus being a good game. If your great game lends itself to being in a tiny package. That is great. If it needs three boxes of minis, that’s great. But it is about the game finding its size versus a size being put upon it.

What’s your favorite game that is tiny? And what is your favorite game that is massive?

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