And if you want to know the criteria that I’m using, or the conversation starting point, you can read that article here.

What Party Games Do I Own?

Let’s go through and make a list of everything, keep in mind this list is split into two parts. The first part is party games I’ve owned and played and the second part I still need to play. And also, let’s see what Board Game Geek calls party games.

• Deception Murder in Hong Kong
• Sushi Go Party
• Skull
• Just One
• Take 5/6 Nimmt
• Wits & Wagers
• PitchCar
• Spot It
• Flip 7
• Ready Set Bet
• Zombie Dice
• Scattergories
• So Clover!
• Tumblin’ Dice
• Letter Jam
• The Gang
• Cross Clues
• Medium
• Green Team Wins
• Fun Facts
• Blank Slate
• Doodle Dash
• The Table is Lava
• Beat the 8 Ball
• Plakks
• Dungeon Party

And now for the ones that I haven’t played.

• Boy Band Builder
• Mutton Bustin
• Mojo
• TAGS
• Crash Octopus
• Wavelength
• Cockroach Poker
• Master Word
• Draft’d
• Ito

Just as a reminder, I am generally going to keep the ones that I haven’t played. Why, because I want to give them a try, so they get a free pass.

The Played Games

So now we need to look at the games on that list and you can break them down into some different categories. There are push your luck games like Flip 7 and Beat the 8 Ball. There are the more classic write something down or trivia style. And then there is a hidden role game on the list because I like Deception: Murder in Hong Kong and dislike basically all the rest of them. And then dexterity games.

Classic Party Games

Let’s really stick to talking about the classic party games here. I think some of the others will show up at other times. And there is not a ton of overlap with them. But that classic write something down or do trivia games, let’s talk about them and see which ones should stick around.

Let’s just put that list together. We have Just One, Wits & Wagers, Scattergories, So Clover!, Medium, Fun Facts, Green Team Wins, Blank Slate, Cross Clues, and Doodle Dash.

The Cooperative Classic Party Games

Then I want to look for where there is overlap. And there is pretty light overlap. But I also want to look for ones that have that element of fun factor that I keep on wanting to come back to as well. Does it feel different and unique enough. Games like Just One and So Clover are always a hit, so even though they are cooperative they both are going to stick around. However, I feel like Cross Clues, another cooperative party game, is a lot of fun, but I like those two cooperative ones better.

The Competitive Classic Party Games

Looking at that list it leaves us quite a number more. One question I think needs to get answered in the long term is do I need both Ito and Fun Facts. Both of those seem like they hit kind of the same thing, even Wavelength also seems to fall into that category. But I haven’t played Ito and Wavelength yet. Green Team Wins is also kind of in this category, and it feels like the loser of the group.

There we have to look at the word based games, Medium and Blank Slate both offer that matching words. But I like both enough that I plan to keep both of them. Scattergories is also in this category ,and I think it’s leaving finally. It stuck around because it was solid as a remote game, I could show the sheet on camera. But there are websites that do that just as easily and we play in person mainly.

Doodle Dash and Wits & Wagers are both kind of different in the group, but still have that classic party feel. Doodle Dash is speed drawing which is a blast, I need to play it again. And then Wits & Wagers is number based trivia with betting. It is one that has been a hit a good number of times, but it hasn’t come off the shelf in a few years at this point, so it is going to leave because while I like it, it just isn’t getting played.

What Party Games are Leaving

So let’s talk about the ones that are leaving here to just recap it. Cross Clues, a fun cooperative party game but won’t get played over So Clover! or Just One. Green Team Wins, kind of that same get to you know you type of game like Fun Facts and Ito, so it is the odd one out. And then Wits & Wagers just because it hasn’t gotten played. And Scattergories is a classic, but I think it’s finally hit end of life for me.

Would you make a different decision than I did? And what are some party games that you own that you know you’ll never get rid of.

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Why Organize Your Board Game Collection?

Maybe that’s the first big question to get answered. Why would one organize their board game collection? And for a lot of people it won’t be needed. I know a lot of people own the handful of games, or even twenty, that they really love. Well, twenty games fits into a closet and you can see them all.

For myself, and looking at my stats on Board Game Geek, I own about 500 different board games. To go along with that, I own about 250 different expansions. I don’t always keep my expansion boxes, when I can combine I do. But that is still probably 600 to 650 unique boxes that I need to think about and know where they all are. And as I sell and buy games, that changes where things are. A new game comes in and it gets shoved into a pile or onto a shelf with some random games.

So for me, I organize to know where my games are. And I’ll get to how I do that later. Right now, immediately after organizing, I do not know where all of them are.

Ways to Organize

So let’s talk about how people might organize. And let’s start with the most space efficient way. I think that some people just organize to maximize how much they can fit in to a space. Not a bad way of doing it, it’s simple, but then nothing logically flows to a given location on your shelf. You need a way to know where a game is and where it goes back to, once you’re done playing it.

On the flip side, I think that some people don’t organize for another reason. It’s tricky to organize, and like I found out, when you do organize, it’s a maintenance project to get things back to their right spot. As you add new games, you need a cubby to place it in or a shelf to place it on. If you don’t have that, you often just stack them randomly.

So what are some other methods? I think there are three that a lot of people will consider and pick from.

Mechanisms

The first is mechanisms in a game. If I own 10 deck building games, I think I do, all ten go to the same spot or area of my game collection storage. That way, I know when I when I want to play a game of a certain style, I go to that are and I can look at all of them. This makes it easy to pick a game of a given style around the mechanisms in the game.

The downside is that a lot of games use different and multiple mechanisms. I own several deck builders that have things like campaign or push your luck in them. So which do they go with? I think that deck building is the main mechanism. But if someone were to come in and look for a game, well, that mechanism might be secondary to them.

That said, this is an element that I do use for sorting. Not all the time, but often, and I generally keep it to broader things. So roll and writes, all in one section. Trick-Taking games, all in a single section. And campaign or story games (even this one blends some) all in a single section.

Theme

Next up you might sort by theme. This is another fun method to do it because it lets you know what type of game you are getting into. All the fantasy games go in one spot and all the sci-fi go in another. There are now a ton of nature games, so they go in another area.

But like mechanisms, you get games that have multiple themes. Something might be fantasy and horror, so which does it go in. There are games that are horror without fantasy and vice-a-versa. So it’s a judgement decision as to where they go.

That said, if you sort it well enough you can figure out a lot of that so it makes sense. And I think that theme is one of those areas where you might look at it and say, what mood am I in, and by that you mean theme more often than, say, mechanism.

Right now, I don’t think I have anything sorted around the genre sort of theme. I think my story and adventure games being together almost counts for that, but not quite. That is the closest area though that the sorting makes sense for that.

Weight

Finally, I think of the weight of the game. Now, depending on how you anchor your shelves to the wall, it might be actual weight, put your heaviest games on the bottom. But what I want to talk about is the complexity rating of a game. Board Game Geek has a number assigned to this that people vote on. Let me quickly disclaimer that number, the more you play games, the easier games are to learn. So take that number with a grain of salt.

But sorting by weight is what I did a fair amount of as well. I sorted my more mid to light games into one area, my heavy games into another, with then my exceptions, like my story and campaign games, roll and writes, ana few others split into specific ways.

Why did I do that? Well, because some areas of games are harder to sort. And a lot of that is when you get into those games of if they are heavier or not. So sorting by weight lets me know what section to look at for a game night. When I do my big game night, party games, roll and writes, but also those lighter weight games, those work the best.

How Do You Know Where They Are?

So obviously, I own a ton of games. I own more games than most people do and less games than a good number of people do. But how do I know where my games are. Some of that is just guessing, I know it’s a lighter game, I look in those mid to light wait games.

But I also know that I own enough that I might never pull a game off the shelf if I don’t know where it is. So it’s a work in progress, but I’m trying to go through and document where everything is. Some of that is because while sorting how I did, I also tried to optimize for space. I did a solid job, not too many piles of games left on the floor. That said, it is now causing me to not know where games are as much.

So I could do a book, and I might even print off a book/binder for when people I play with are looking for a game. But I am currently creating a spreadsheet. I know the games I own. So I don’t need a picture or description, though, once in a while that might be handy. But with my shelf set-up, I can number shelves and then everything is grid based. So right now a game might be on shelf one, cubby A4.

Final Thoughts on Organizing a Board Game Collection

Obviously, this isn’t needed, and there isn’t a right way. The Brother’s Murph did a fun video one time where they organized them all into color, so it was a board game rainbow across their collection. That is a fun way to do it as well. I’d definitely need a spreadsheet to know where everything was then.

So organize how it makes sense to you. I think even when people do own twenty games, they often organize them in ways that make sense to them. It’s just that twenty games is a whole lot easier to keep track of than 500.

I also want to say, I think that it was a kind of therapeutic experience. I think I know most to all of the games that I own. So it isn’t a situation where I need to figure out what I own. But it is a good reminder to move stuff around and see games. Some of it is seeing games that I forgot where they were that I really love, or maybe weren’t in the forefront of my mind. But that might just be a me thing for a nice relaxing project.

How do you sort your games?

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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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I started this process last week, so you can catch up here.

Which Board Games Are Leaving?

So this is going to be a bit of a Point of Sale as well, now in these articles. Mainly because I think that those leaving are the most interesting to talk about. Mainly because I don’t consider a lot of the games to be bad games that are leaving my collection.

I am also going to catch up this time on the ones from last time as well that are leaving. Mainly because I decided to talk about culling games last time.

Arkham Horror 3rd Edition

This is one that I am mainly getting rid of because I have other Lovecraftian games. And Arkham Horror has been sitting on my shelf for a while. If I have a bigger group to play with, I’m likely going to pull out Mansions of Madness, or Cthulhu: Death May Die. If I’m playing solo, I want to play Arkham Horror LCG (Living Card Game). Arkham Horror 3rd Edition just kind of falls into the category of a game I should play but it’s leaving.

Arkham Horror LCG Packs

Now, I just said that I am keeping Arkham Horror LCG, so then why is it here? These are just the plastic packs, basically little bits of story to add onto the main big boxes. I have several of those big boxes and I can play through those without the extra story. And I do need to do that. Plus Fantasy Flight just changed their model from monthly plastic packs to releasing all the extra content in a big box. It’s a one time hit, so when I’m ready for one, I can grab that.

First Martian

First Martian is a game that I actually enjoy quite well. But it falls into the category of a game I enjoy, but one that isn’t hard to get back. And one that I believe a friend still has, so I can play their copy. But this is a space Robinson Crusoe style game, tied in with the book the Martian for a lot of the feel. So a hard survival game. It is fun, there is a campaign that I want to play. But I can get it back when I’m actually ready to do that.

Heroes of Terrinoth

This one, you got to see me pick between it and the game it is based on, Warhammer Quest. And I went with Warhammer Quest. Mainly, the setting is more interesting for me, and I definitely don’t need both in my collection. This does look like a solid solo game, but also can be gotten back for not that much.

Lord of the Rings: Sauron Expansion

Yup, I’m getting rid of an expansion. Though, now I’m wondering if I could fit it all into the base box. If I can, then maybe I won’t get rid of it. The reason that I am planning on getting rid of it isn’t that it’s not a good expansion, it is, but it takes a cooperative game and turns it into a one versus all. And the one is playing a different game in some ways. I want or generally like one versus all games that are easy to pass around who is the one. I feel like this expansion it wouldn’t be as easy, especially considering I haven’t played it in a long time.

The Drink

So last night I tried Orange Jameson for the first time. It is a very orange forward whiskey, so at least the name doesn’t lie. But it’s only okay as a sipping drink. I think compared to normal Jameson, which is also only okay for sipping, so much of the whiskey flavor is lost. Some of that is how strong the orange flavor is, but I’m not sure, it seems like they tweaked it so that the whiskey flavor is lost.

I do want to try it again tonight, and to mix it with cream soda. Basically creating an orange creamsicle because that sounds amazing and a better use for the whiskey. What other cocktails or mixed drinks do you think would work well with Orange Jameson?

Upcoming Streams

So my original plan for these “Should It Stay or Should It Go” streams was every other Monday. I think that might be changing to every Monday now, or shooting for that a bit more. I do think it’ll be determine week by week if I stream on Mondays but I’m having a lot of fun with these streams and it gives me good things to think about with my collection.

But Wednesdays are going to be consistent for sure. So this week and next week I will be playing some one off games. I might try and learn a new game to stream on Wednesday, though, I do want to try out the solo mode for a few games, and I have a few roll and write games that I can show off. Let me know what you’d like to see, some smaller card games, or some roll and writes.

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Culling Board Games

The premise is pretty simple, what games are in my collection that are taking up space which I don’t like or I know I’m not going to play again. The execution is harder. I like board games a lot. For me, I like to keep a collection that has a lot of games in it. I have the shelf space, but that shelf space is filling up and as I talk about at the start, I have games from crowdfunding that are coming in. So I need to find more shelf space.

So what made me decide to stream some of this. Firstly, it is more content on the channel, and I hope that seeing what I have in my collection gives you an idea of what I like in gaming. To go along with that, it keeps me motivated to go through my collection. It would be easy for me to just skim it and find a few games. Going through Kallax cubby by Kallax cubby I now am forced to look at each game. Plus there are a few other content creators who talk about it a lot.

I mention them but Max from Tablenauts has a saying of ABC, Always Be Culling. And because of that and the games I have coming, it is time for more. I need to go through my collection and cull. Plus Alex from BoardGameCo does a video showing what is leaving his collection. I wanted to be different and go through my whole collection.

The Drink

So last nights drink was finishing off a bottle of Suntory Whiskey. It’s a Japanese whiskey and an enjoyable one. I didn’t talk about it too much, but it is part of my goal to drink through/clear up room in my liquor cabinet. I’d like to get less stuff in there, since some of the alcohol has been sitting there for a while. It was something I drank more before having a kid, stuff for mixed drinks really stand out, and now, I lean towards just sipping drinks.

Upcoming Streams

So next upcoming stream is on Wednesday with a start time around 8 PM Central. I’ll try and get the video up a bit sooner than I did with this one so you know it is coming. But what will I be streaming? I am going to do a play of Spire’s End. It is a story driven game, kind of a campaign game, but one I can generally play in a single sitting.

The next few weeks on Wednesday it won’t be a campaign game. I want to get through some other games that can be played solo. I also want to create more time for just chatting as I play. Campaign games tend to be harder to chat while playing. Mainly, they tend to have a whole lot more going on in them. So expect a few roll and write games and smaller games to get played. Any you think that I really need to try?

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Malts and Meeples Videos

Firstly, I want to start with the quality of my videos. They are solid, but not always where I want them to be, and that is something that I want to improve upon. Plus sometimes technology acts up and I miss it, see Sleeping Gods Part 5, I believe, for how that went wrong and the audio got messed up. That is somewhat on me. But this is going to be where I ask you to subscribe, give videos thumbs up, and consider the Patreon, which you can find here.

The reason I am making a push for this is that I’d like to do a few things, eventually, to improve my streaming quality. And Patreon plus growing the channel so I can do more previews or reviews of Kickstarter games coming up, means that I’ll be able to do that eventually. I’d like to be able to get a gaming table. That would make it easier for me to keep a campaign game set-up and keep getting it to the table for streaming. I would also like to improve the quality of my game camera, get something that is a bit better on the focus.

New Content

Next up, I want talk about the different types of new content I am considering doing. Because I do have some ideas for upcoming series. And I want to ask if people want me to do board game reviews in video format? I do written reviews, and those won’t go away. But should I do video reviews as well?

But while you ponder that question, let’s look at some series I’m considering doing:

Collection or Cull

This would be a series where I go through my collection and talk about if I am going to cull them – sell them – or keep them in my collection. Plus it’ll be a fun way to talk about the games that are in my collection. I know a number of channels do this sort of thing already, I generally like those videos if they aren’t about – “Look how much I’m getting rid of, I’m so awesome for it.”. But I think it’d be a smart thing to do to take stock of what I have, what might not be getting played, and what might be leaving. This would probably be my biweekly Monday chat.

Video Game Streaming

I want to keep these new ideas a bit more simple. Mainly, without a gaming table, it make it trickier and more work to set-up a board game every single time I want to stream. So I want to try some things like video games as well. And with Elden Ring just coming out, I am really tempted to pick it up and stream that. I also have the digital version of Gloomhaven I could stream. Or Slay the Spire and Inscryption. Though, Inscryption right now is less interesting. And Outer Wilds is another one that really seems intriguing to me. Let me know what you’d want to see streamed.

A little bit about each game:

1. Elden Ring – This is an open world game kind of in the style of a Dark Souls, but way more open world than that. It’s new, looks really cool, but also does still have a few bugs. But if you want to see my hack and slash and die, this could be awesome. Plus the graphics are amazing.
2. Gloomhaven Digital – Gloomhaven the board game but digital. I think it would be fun to go through, I believe you need to control four characters which is a downside. Plus it’s more board game coverage, which isn’t a bad thing.
3. Slay the Spire – This is board game adjacent because there is a board game version coming eventually, maybe, hopefully, to crowdfunding. But it is a rogue-like deck building game. The nice thing is that a run isn’t that long.
4. Outer Wilds – A space game where a sun explodes and the world resets every 22 minutes, I believe. This is going to be a game of exploring mysteries of why it’s happening and maybe figure out how to break out of the loop, I really don’t know.
5. Other – let me know if there is one that you think would be interesting to watch? Maybe something more story and choice driven?

Digital Board Games

So, technically Gloomhaven Digital could fall into this category. But more likely I’d use this to preview upcoming games or more for games that are a one off. So stuff like my Rogue Angels play through on TTS. The idea would be that I want to cover more upcoming games so you know if they are right for you.

Recorded Game Plays

So, unlike most of this other content, this would be recorded. The upside to that is that it means I don’t need to set it up at a specific time. The downside is that they might be more sporadic. But if you liked the Aldarra game play, and that was a massive game, then maybe do some more recorded game plays. I could also do them when I just feel like playing a one off solo game and leave campaigns more for the Wednesday live stream.

Top Tens

Board game top ten lists are always fun. I would consider doing these just by myself as I have before. But I’d also like to start bringing in a few friends on them as well. Or reach out to some content creators to see if they’d want to collaborate. There are a lot of creators that do top tens, but I’m okay adding to that because I like doing them as well. You can see in my Top 100 videos how excited I get making them and talking about games.

Final Thoughts

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for watching. I really appreciate the people who join it live and check it out later. And I do want feedback on what works well, what maybe doesn’t and I could improve upon, things like that. Let me know what you want to see more of or less of. You can use the information in the bottom to let me know on Facebook, Twitter, or email.

And I really want to grow Malts and Meeples this year. But for those who prefer the written content, I will not be getting away from that. Nerdologists.com is going to still be a focus on what I do and something that I want to grow as well. But part of that is growing the brand as a whole and that means if Malts and Meeples does better, hopefully more people will find Nerdologists.com as well.

And help me pick my next board game to stream as well.

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My Experience

Now, I’ll start off by saying, I am not the only person I know who owns board games that I play with. I have friends who own other games and different games. I don’t try and repeat games that they have too often. Though there are some, Root for example, that I want my own copy of but I do own a lot of the games that we play.

For me, I don’t consider this to be a bad thing. If “Friend X” owns a game and I want to play it but they aren’t around to play it, or I want to introduce it to a different group, I can’t if they own it. Now this isn’t a problem too often, but something like Mysterium which I think would be great around Halloween and I wouldn’t have minded playing last game night, I couldn’t because I don’t own it. I’d be introducing it to a new group but I couldn’t because I don’t own it.

I also don’t mind because I have the space to store the games. Granted, that space is filling up a fair amount, but there is still space for some more and I rotate games in and out because, that makes sense. If I were a collector, I’d have to reconsider what I was doing, but I’m a gamer first and a collector second when it comes to board games.

The Disadvantages

This isn’t to say that being the main game buyer doesn’t have some disadvantages, it does. Mainly the space and money involved. Like I said, I rotate games out of my collection, this generally lets me buy new games. And that’s a lot of fun to be adding new games into my collection, but I also make the decisions, generally, on what leaves.

When I look at a game in my collection, I ask myself, will I play it, but more so, will I pull it off of the shelf to play. There are some games that I look at and I know I won’t. Will I pick to play Splendor, the answer is no. But as the owner of that game and the owner of games for my group do I need to keep it around? That one stays around because my wife likes it, otherwise I’d have gotten rid of it.

But what if it’s someone who I only game with sometimes. If it is their favorite game am I going to keep it in my collection for the two times a year that I might play with them and that they’d request that I take it off the shelf? It is using up real estate in my collection. Often one thing that I do is if I am going to get rid of a game that someone else might like, I’ll offer to sell it to them, give them first crack at it. Yes, it means they need to bring it, but it means I have more funds and space to get more games.

It also means that you’re lugging more games around. If you’re the only one with a big collection in your group, you need to bring a variety of games to the game nigh, or host. And if you don’t have a specific theme or focus for what game you want to play, you can lug around a whole lot of games that you don’t end up playing. That sounds like not that big a deal, but if you don’t know what big game you might play, it is a lot.

The Advantages

You always have the game to play whenever you want is the biggest one. You don’t need to ask someone to bring something, you already have it. Now, that means that people ask you to bring things, but I don’t consider that a disadvantage, in fact it can help you know what games are likely to get played so you don’t need to bring as many.

I also like it because it means that I always have games to introduce people to. Now, I might have my go to games that I use, but I don’t always have to use the same ones. If a person likes a certain theme, I can pick out that theme to play with them. I have the variety of games always at hand for whenever I want to play.

And really for me the sharing the hobby part is the biggest thing. If I have a game for most any and every occasion, it means that the hobby can continue to grow. It means that I’ll have new people to play games with. That means that the other more complex games or different games that I want to play will get played more often. This is really the case with campaign games as well. If I have a campaign and I can get new people into gaming, I have more people to play those games with. And if I don’t have the games I can’t do that.

How To Balance Board Game Buying

One issue is that people can expect you to have everything. Or they will want you to keep that one game that they like or get more like it. Obviously that’s not really feasible, so how do you keep from just having stacks of games around that people might want to play?

The first big thing is to rotate your collection. Now, maybe you are a collector and you just want to keep stuff. I don’t think that everyone needs to be a collector though. I have around 300 board games. Do I need to add another 300, it doesn’t make sense. If I have 600 board games I won’t play all of them. In fact in my challenge this year, I’ve played around 70, so that’s not that huge a percentage.

I could have 600 games but I’d still probably only play 70-100 of them a year, that means, assuming no overlap it’s going to be 6 years to get through all of them. That’s unreasonably long. I most likely won’t be playing only unique games. Most likely I’ll be playing the same 70 to 100 games most years.

Next, ask for help in buying games. When Frosthaven came to Kickstarter, I knew it was a campaign game that I wanted to play. I also had a specific group I played Gloomhaven with. Those people will be who I play Frosthaven with as well. So I asked them to chip in a little money. When I got Charterstone to play with a group, we decided to split the cost. The same thing happened with Risk: Legacy.

For getting something like the newest version of Ticket to Ride, I wouldn’t ask. But a campaign game, and extended shared experience with a specific group, ask. People might say no, and then you have to decide if it’s worth it. Or they might say yes and gladly help.

Are you the game owner/buyer in your group? Is there someone in your group who is?

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What is Completionism or Being a Completionist?

I think it’s best that we start by nailing down our premise. Completionism is the desire or drive to have everything of something. Growing up, I tried to complete sets of baseball cards, people need complete series of books or movies, or all of a television show. For board games, some people want all the games by a certain designer or in a certain series of games. For example, Marvel Champions, people get everything for that.

Is Being a Completionist Good or Bad?

I’m going to give a bit of a non-answer here. The answer can be that it’s good sometimes and bad other times. Having all of Marvel Champions, for example, isn’t extremely expensive and it brings me joy. Having all of the Dresden Files books means that I can easily read them whenever I want. Having all of the Star Wars movies means that I can suffer through the prequels if I really want, but more so, it means that I can watch the whole series whenever I want. Having all of Marvel Champions or Dice Throne means that I can play with whatever characters I want.

However, there can be bad sides of this as well. For Marvel Champions, I have all of the base material for it. However, there are promos for it that I don’t have. And for me, I do not care that I don’t have them. But other people to truly complete their collection will go out of their way to pick them up at a premium. When a board game YouTube channel runs a Kickstarter for future years and has a promo for Dice Throne in it, Man Vs Meeple had one, people will back promos they don’t need. For books, people will need all of their Harry Potter, Dresden Files or other series to all be identical. So there can be an obsessive side of being a completionist that is not as good.

How Do You Balance It?

And I really do think this is what people need to think about if they are a completionist, how do you balance it. You can’t ever have a complete collection or books or board games or movies, there are too many different ones in the world. And some things are extremely hard to find There are board games that are rare that might be part of a series or certain promo cards or game editions that might be hard to find that will cost hundreds of dollars if not more. Books can be even worse if someone has started a collection of first editions for a book series.

I try and take the approach of collecting all of a few things. For example, I talked about Dresden Files. I have all the books in that series and I have all the Harry Potter books and all of the Stormlight Archive thus far. Those book series, one of which is completed, are the series that I want all of, and I know that. However, I want all of them, I do not need them all to be the same. I have two different types of paperbacks for The Dresden Files and some of them in hardback as well. For Marvel Champions, I have all the regular cards for it, and that’s enough of a complete collection. I say that I have the complete game play collection for it, I don’t have all the extra fancy pieces. With those as well, I’ve read all of the Dresden Files books I own at least twice, and I’ve played Marvel Champions six or seven times. I want my collections that I am completing to be things I actually use.

What To Ask Yourself

So, to wrap this up here, I think that being a completionist is fine, as long as it doesn’t have to be for everything. I have 3 Ascension games/expansions, I don’t need all twenty of them or however many there are, because while I like the game a lot and I might get more, I will never need or use it all. So ask yourself a few questions as you find yourself having the urge to complete a collection.

Will I use it? I touched on this in the other section, but I’ve read all of Harry Potter and The Dresden Files multiple times from the copies that I own. I have played Marvel Champions a handful of times, sure there’s lots I haven’t played in it, but I’m still using it.

Am I fine with it not being perfect? This is I think the bigger danger zone than the other question, but I think that one is still important. I have complete collections of things, like I mentioned as well, but they aren’t perfect collections. I don’t have all the promo cards for Dice Throne or Marvel Champions, my book series don’t all look identical. And that is 100% fine with me. I will be concerned, for myself, if I start to have certain standards for how the collection must be complete.

I am curious, do you find yourself being a completionist? Do you have to have it be perfect or what are your standards? What do you find yourself needing or wanting to have all of?

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The Collection

Numbers

A’s – B’s – C’s – D’s – E and F’s – G and H’s – I, J and K’s – L’s – M’s – N, O, and P’s – Q and R’s – S’s

T’s

T.I.M.E. Stories (and Expansions)

I love this game, it is really well made in what I’ve played through of the expansions with each different scenario pack feeling it it’s something new. I’ve heard that some aren’t as strong as others, but through four of them it’s been really interesting. This reminds me of Assassin’s Creed in some ways, though depending on the scenario, less about fighting. And they have done a lot of weird things, from dragons to ancient Egypt to zombies.

Status: Played

The Table is Lava

We all know the rules of the floor is lava, don’t touch the floor. But with this, you have meeples and you are flicking cards. You flick them onto the table, and if you hit someone else’s meeples you can knock them over or knock them onto the table, which is lava, of course. But you get points if your meeples are standing up and less if they are laying down, so you have a lot of different ways to score, but also some strategy in how or where you toss your cards, because you could go to knockdowns or you could try and keep it separate so you are less likely to have meeples knocked off. It seems like silly fun.

Status: To Be Played

Tainted Grail

I love my Awaken Realms games. Tainted Grail is a massive grim dark Arthurian legend and it’s really hard. I like the fact that it’s hard, I like that the combat has you running away fairly often and that you are fighting for survival, what they advertised the game as. The story in this game is really good, and I’ve played through the first chapter multiple times and I always find something new that I haven’t done before and places that I’d love to get to, except for the time that we have left on the Menhir. I’m excited to get back to this after Christmas.

Status: Played

Takenoko

Sometimes you want a game that is just a fun time, and Takenoko with it’s fat bamboo eating panda definitely is that. This game looks family weight but has a little bit more going on as you are putting out tiles, growing bamboo, eating bamboo and more. It has some random elements with the dice, but overall is a really fun time with a lot of good decisions to make. When do you want to water a spot so it starts to grow, does it help you more than the other players by doing that, when you want to move the panda and do you want to get more panda, gardener, or tile scoring cards?

Status: Played

The Terrifying Girl Disorder

Japanime Games makes weird games that definitely have a bit of an anime feel to them even if they aren’t about an actual anime, and this is one of those games. I picked it up because it was on a sale and it looked weird. From what I remember about it, you are picking cards, almost drafting them, to get sets for the girl that you have, but that can change who you have. It is a weird game and sounds like it either will be an interesting game for some people, or that it might be a bit too much game for how small it is.

Status: To Be Played

That’s Pretty Clever

Roll and write, you know the drill. But this roll and write has the distinction of being the one that really started the roll and write craze we’re in now. Ganz Schon Clever, as it’s known in German, is a good comboing roll and write game that has a lot of interesting scoring to it. The sequels then use that and build upon it, but they are their own separate games. That’s Pretty Clever introduces one of the best ideas that I’ve seen, of foxes, these are points where if you can get them can score you a lot of points, but they only score the lowest point total of another section, so if I don’t do well, let’s say in the yellow section and get zero points, foxes are worth nothing. This forces you to diversify as you go.

Status: Played

This War of Mine

Probably better known as a video game, this war of mine is another Awaken Realms game, one of the earliest ones that they did. It is based off of the IP of the video game, and is about trying to survive in a war torn world. From what I know of the game, it’s extremely dark, depressing and hard to in. Now, not all Awaken Realms are like that, but I always expect that an Awaken Realms game will have some elements to it that are punishing. This one I want to try solo and just play in short bits because of the darkness of the theme.

Status: To Be Played

Ticket to Ride

It’s a classic gateway game for a lot of people. This one is all about collecting cards, putting down trains and completing routes. What makes this work so well as a gateway game is that you do one of a few things on your turn. You either take train cards, play down trains, or you take routes. That’s it, you don’t do more than one of those things on a turn. It makes the game easy to teach an very accessible. The game also is based around connecting those routes which is an idea that is really easy to grasp, because we’re all familiar with a road trip of going from point A to point B, with Ticket to Ride it’s just about how you get there.

Status: Played

Tiny Towns

This game has been a pretty popular one this year from AEG and last year. It is a simple cube placement game with a bit more depth than it’d first seem. What makes this really interesting for me is the picking of the resource and how I can use that to my advantage at times or to hurt someone else. Now, I don’t think that hate picking is a viable strategy, but if I see that my next opponent has a brick and wood for building a house, or straw, whatever it is, and I just have a wood, I might pick brick so that they are likely to pick straw and we both get houses, but now they have an extra brick they have to work with. And there are a ton of combinations or buildings that are really fun to work with.

Status: Played

Titan Race

Another fun filler type game is Titan Race. This one is again really easy with dice drafting and racing either across the same board three times or across three different boards once each. The game is fast and easy to learn, and each racer having their own powers is fun. What I also like about the game is that even when you are knocked down to 0, you just lose a turn and you get going again. But what is the most fun is knocking people around, being able to drop a trap right in front or someone or push them into lava, it’s great. And even though there is the take that feel to the game, since it’s so fast and so silly, people aren’t likely to have their feeling hurt.

Status: Played

Tofu Kingdom

I bet you didn’t know tofu had a kingdom. This is a bluffing game where players can either lie or tell the truth depending on what cards they have in their hand and the person who is Prince Mochi is has to try and guess who has Princess Tofu in their hand. It seems like one of those silly little games, almost social deduction, with a little bit of deduction thrown in. What is nice is that it plays a pretty large number of players. I’m curious to get it to the tale once we have people playing in person again, because it seems best at a higher player count.

Status: To Be Played

Tokyo Highway

Dexterity games are a ton of fun for me. I like them because late in a game night, you might not want to sit down and play something too meaty. Instead, you can grab out a game and try, in your tired state, to balance roads and place cars on them. Tokyo Highways is one of the most aesthetically pleasing games to see played. When you wrap it up, it’s almost a piece of artwork, which is crazy to say for a board game. And the rules are simple enough, if your road crossed over or under another road, you get to put a car on your road, the first person to get all their cars out is the winner. But you only have a limited number of discs to raise or lower your road, and without special discs you can’t raise or lower than more by one. It’s a lot of fun and tense, but so pretty that it’s calming.

Status: Played

Tsuro

This is another of the high player count but not a party game games. It’s actually one of the most played in that category for me. Tsuro, the way of the path, is about using your tiles to keep yourself on the paths as long as you can, and outlast everyone else. I think this game plays best at the higher player counts where you can knock out a game or two fast and then move onto something bigger. I’m a little bit played out of this game which is why I’ve added more games of similar player counts to my collection, but it’s still a good one when you need something fast.

Status: Played

Twice as Clever

The follow up to Ganz Schon Clever (That’s So Clever), this game takes the foundation that you get in That’s So Clever and builds upon it. Twice as Clever is by far, I’d say, the most challenging of the three games to play. You have to think a lot about all the sections because the scoring is quite different. I do like pieces of it though, the pink track is great, the grey/silver area is really interesting to think about. The yellow area is hard to rock, but if you can, you can get a lot of points and some good bonuses. It, like That’s So Clever, is all about getting as many combos as possible and getting to those foxes so you can score the most points off of them, but not forgetting to get points in every area.

Status: Played

That’s it for the T’s, definitely less than there were of the S’s, but that’s fine, I have a lot of games as it is. What is your favorite game that begins wit the Letter T? Is there any that I’m missing from my collection that you’d think I’d like?

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The Collection

Numbers

A’s – B’s – C’s – D’s – E and F’s – G and H’s – I, J and K’s – L’s

M’s

Mage Knight Board Game

This is one of the most popular solo board games out there, which is why I picked it up when I could used. This is not the ultimate edition that has all the expansions, just the base game. From what I know of it, it’s a quite heavy game made even heavier by a fairly poorly written rule book and a tutorial that kind of tries to teach you the game but doesn’t do a great job at it, but it was a lot of things that I like, Deck building being one of them and it is said to have an RPG like feel as well. It’s one that I need to spend some time learning and get to the table.

Status: To Be Played

Magic: The Gathering

This was one of the games that kind of got me into modern board gaming again, or helped me diversify my gaming because the group that I joined in with. Magic is a good deck construction game that I don’t get to play all that often anymore. In fact, I sold off the majority of my cards, but I still had to keep a few decks around because I know that eventually I’ll play it again, especially Commander. I think I kept three or four commander decks around because that style of playing can be expensive, but you only need one of each card in the deck. And it allows you to deck build in more interesting ways.

Status: Played

Mansions of Madness: Second Edition

I like my Arkham games from Fantasy Flight, but Mansions of Madness: Second Edition is my favorite. The game play is really enjoyable as you are playing through an app guided scenario. Since it’s app guided, it means that the game will be different each time that you play it, or could be, which is a lot of fun as well. And the scenarios are really different, some have just trying to stop a summoning in a mansion while others have you running around trying to escape a town that’s been already taken over, and there’s a scenario with time travel as well. Fantasy Flight has done a lot of things with the game which gives it a lot of replayability.

Status: Played

Mariposas

Last years big hit of a game was Wingspan from Elizabeth Hargrave, and she followed it up this year with Mariposas. Mariposas is a game about butterflies and their migratory patterns, which doesn’t sound that interesting, but the game play itself looks very interesting. You push as far north as you can all while sill needing, in the last season, to get all the way down to warm weather again to score more points. So it’s a push and pull of which objectives you want to get and which ones might be worth passing on because of how you’re set-up. It seems like clever game play and is an interesting theme, though not the only butterfly themed game that I have.

Status: To Be Played

Marrying Mr. Darcy

Sometimes you just want to play a light filler game about finding your ideal suitor in Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice. And sometimes you mix in the undead expansion if you want to play Pride, Prejudice and Zombies. This game is one that my wife actually picked up on Kickstarter, and it’s been a hit at the table. The game, I will say overstays it’s welcome a little bit considering how simple it is, but it does always provide good laughs as you try and set-up your best match and hope not to end up an old maid. The humor in the game is solid as well, it is just a bit too long for what it is.

Status: Played

Marvel Battleworld

Marvel Battleworld is kind a game. In a lot of ways it is more collectible than anything else, but not really being collectible. You are rolling dice to defeat enough locations before Thanos gets them. But the game is mainly about these Thanos Stones, something made up for the game, which are basically just a blind bid pack. You crack them open when you beat a Thanos Stone location and you have a new hero that you can play with. The heroes do look great, and the game play is meant for kids, so it’s not a knock on it, it’s about getting you to buy more packs for the kids in hopes that they get their favorite character, like frog Thor or cat Captain America. And there are rarer packs to sucker in the adults. But it’s a fun five minute little game thing, which is what it looks like.

Status: Played

Marvel Champions

Continuing the run on Marvel games we have the game that if I split it up into expansions as well, it could have been it’s own post. Marvel Champions is a deck construction card game where you are taking a hero up against a villain in a scenario, or multiple heroes in multiplayer. This is another Fantasy Flight game and is a living card game, which means that they are releasing new things for it all the time. I have 11 expansions for it, but you don’t need them all, or really any, there is a lot to play with in the base box, and after that you can just pick and choose your favorite heroes to get. What I really like about this game is that you go back and forth between your hero and alter-ego side, so Spider-Man and Peter Parker, for example. If you are in the Peter Parker form, the bad guy won’t attack because they don’t know who you are, instead they’ll scheme a way. But on the flip side, they attack and scheme less, so you need to balance it out so that you can beat them.

Status: Played

Marvel United

The final Marvel game on my list, this one is a simple cooperative game (all the Marvel games are cooperative). But Marvel United has amazing Chibi figures. This game has a ton more expansions coming with it sometimes in 2021, but just the base game is enough to get started with. This is a very straight forward game of dealing with a bad guy who is scheming away. But it has a really cool twist. On your turn you play down a card and use it’s actions and the ones from the card played before you. So it is that super hero team-up feel that people think of from the Avengers films.

Status: To Be Played

The Mind

The Mind was everywhere last year. It was a simple game that showed up and was very polarizing. Some people consider it less a game and more of an activity while other people say it’s a great game. For me, it’s an okay little bit of filler. In the game you play down cards in ascending order, not that tricky. But you can’t speak, so you have to be in everyone else’s head trying to guess what they have and wait it out before you play. I’ve only played The Mind a little bit, and I don’t need to play it that often. It’s an okay sitting around and drinking game, but overall just an okay time and it will fall flat at times.

Status: Played

Munchkin: Zombies

If you asked a lot of people what some of their first games to get into board gaming were, I’d expect a lot of people to say some version of Munchkin. I played base Munchkin first, but the version I got was Zombies. In Munchkin, you are kicking down doors and fighting monsters while everyone one else is trying mess you up. The game is very much a take that game and for that reason isn’t going to be for everyone and really isn’t even for me anymore. I keep it on the shelf because it is a good introductory weight game, and nostalgia at this point.

Status: Played

Alright, that’s all of the games that I own which start with M. There are a number of them, though not as many as starting with L. What is your favorite game that starts with the Letter M? What game should I add to my collection starting with M?

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