Board game expansions come in two different types. Well, really, they comes in way more types than just that. But sometimes an expansion is great and other times the expansions aren’t so great. So let’s talk about what can make a good or a bad board game expansion. Plus, why are some things expansions and others sometimes called expandalones. We’ll dive into all of that today.

What Are Expansions?

Let’s start out firstly with what an expansion is. I think that we probably have a general idea, but I want to make it clear. Expansions are separate boxes/purchases that you make for a board game that adds in additional content to that game. They are separate from being a module that comes in the box, so if something says solo player rules in the box for a game that isn’t “solo” that’s a module for that game, or special rules, not an expansion.

Good vs Bad Expansions

Expansions can be both good for a game and bad for a game. I’ll go into detail on some of the common types of expansions for games and if they are good or bad for a game. But let’s talk about why that could be and mainly why an expansion could be bad.

Bad expansions are sometimes used in crowdfunding to keep part of the game behind a paywall. The company looks at a game and splits it into two parts, something playable and something good. This also happens after the fact. If a game is not properly playtested through the whole game experience you end up with a game that is broken when it is printed, the first expansion then fixes the game. But not people have purchased multiple things.

Good expansions are going to take what people already love about a game and enhance it or add more to it. It’s not going to fix that flaw in a game. But now that we have a basis here, let’s talk about some of the different types of expansions.

Different Expansion Types

More Content

Let’s start off with this expansion as this one is generally a good expansion type for a game. When you make an expansion with more content generally you aren’t adding to the rules and complexity of the game that much. It, instead, is just giving the players more of what they want.

Now, not all more content expansions are perfect. The big thing with a more content expansion is that it should be easy to integrate with the existing game. Sometimes the more content is play with some cards of the expansion and then remove some cards from the base game, for example. But then you can play with the other cards in the expansion, but if you do, not the first group of cards. So you need to make that simple to differentiate between those two otherwise it causes overhead and makes the game harder to play.

More Players

This one is a very hit or miss expansion type. The prime example of this is Catan which you can get a 5-6 player expansion for the base game and every expansion that they have. The more players in a game like Catan, the longer that game is going to take. Now, Catan does balance that some by getting resources on other players turns, so you have potential to get more. But a lot oft he time the more player expansions are just going to add in more time as well as players.

The risk with adding in more time is that it can take a 90 minute game to over two hours, or maybe a 30 minute filler to an hour long game. So it needs to balance that out. But for other games it doesn’t matter. Guild of Merchant Explorers, for example, plays at 4 out of the base box. But everyone plays at the same time. So the expansion that adds in a few more cards and 4 more players won’t add much time because the speed is always the speed of the slowest player in the group.

New or More Mechanisms

This is another one that is risky. And I think that New or More Mechanisms is often a spot where the fixing the game falls into. But, like the more players, this can cause issues, or even the more content it can cause issues. With adding in something new like a new mechanism these expansions are fundamentally changing how the game is played.

Sometimes that can be a fun little addition to the game. Other times it changes what is a game that people like into one that people don’t like. Or, it becomes difficult to play without it if you want because that is now integrated into cards in the main box. An example of that would be Roll Player which adds in new things with expansions, but it’s all cards so very hard to remove it if you want to teach the simpler base game.

On the flip side, you have a game like Lost Ruins of Arnak. I love that game and I love it even more with the expedition leaders. This added in minor new mechanisms for each player to have in the game. But you only need to know your mechanism for that game. That improves a good game already and is simple and light to add into the game. And easy to not play with if you want.

Prelude

Prelude expansions are generally good expansions. But I’d also say generally bad expansions because I think this is often something that should just be in the box to start the game. What is a prelude expansion? This sort of expansion is going to reduce some of the grind at the start of the game. If a game takes 2-3 turns to get going and get engines up and running these expansions are going to offer a way to bypass that. The most obvious example of this is Terraforming Mars Prelude.

This is often going to shorten up a longer game. But the biggest benefit is that it gets rid of those dud turns. An example of not an expansion but a rules option for this would be in Space Base. And it’s the one I’m most familiar with. But that one lets you draw some cards and then spend to get them into your engine before the game starts. So when you start rolling the dice to get money and points, you already have something unique to start. And you get money and get moving faster.

Big Box

The final one I want to talk about are big box expansions. These expansions come out after a game already has a number of expansions. Often times one of the downsides of an expansion is that you have spot to store everything. So expansions are going to give you five boxes to lug around if you want to take it all with you. Thus the big box was born.

A big box is often good, but very often poorly done. When you make a big box expansion there are two things that I think are a must. It can’t just be a box. There are companies who sometimes just release a big box and all that comes with it is a box and they charge you $40 for it. Yes, that is how much it costs to ship and get over here carefully because it’s an empty box, but that’s lousy value for the consumer. So put in some small expansion, whether it’s just more cards, or in the case of Arnak some more research tracks. Make it worthwhile.

The other thing is that a big box shouldn’t be empty in terms of storage either. Lost Ruins of Arnak gives you a way to make it faster to get to the table. Versus Roll Player which gave you a big empty box. All the stuff fits but now it’s a pain to get to the table because there’s not organizing everything. So a big box expansion must have a way to organize everything to be good, or at least instructions for how to take organizers from the other boxes and use them.

Expansion vs Expandalone

Finally I want to talk about an odd distinction here that is kind of only a thing in board games. I can’t think of many or any video game expansions that fall into this category. But what in the world is an expandalone? An expandalone is something that is an expansion but also can be played standalone.

I have two major examples for this, Aeon’s End and Dice Throne. In Aeon’s End, each box comes with mages to play as and nemesis to fight. So each box is a separate game that you can play on it’s own. But, all the mages and nemesis are also compatible with all the other versions of Aeon’s End. So if you want to mix one from the core box with Aeon’s End War Eternal Expandalone, you can do that.

The same can be said for Dice Throne. You can take any two of the characters and battle them against each other. If you want to get the Santa Claus vs Krampus box and the Dice Throne Season 1 box, you can do that and battle Santa Claus and Krampus one time and then the Pyromancer versus Krampus another time.

So expandalones fall into that expansion category of more content for a game. But they give you enough to still be able to play the game without anything else.

What are your favorite expansions for board games?

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