Scratch Off Poster

Now, that sounds weird, what does that have to do with board games? Well, this was something that was big a year ago, I’d say and is still definitely doing well, but these are posters that you can scratch off and they’ll reveal an image when you’ve done something. For example, I have the Top 100 Board Games, from BGG’s (Board Game Geeks) 2019 rankings, so when I play one of the top 100, I can scratch off a spot for that given game. Almost all of these posters do something along those lines (and they aren’t just for board games, I just have one for that). I know that other posters will have things for when you complete a certain challenge, like play a game 10 times in a year, or something along those lines. They are something fun to display in a game room and pretty well designed.

Geek Up Bits

This is going to be specifically for what Board Game Geek sells, but you can find similar things on Etsy as well. And that is basically upgraded bits for your board games. So the example that is shown off most often is for Quacks of Quedlinberg, a bag building push your luck game where you put cardboard tokens in a bag, mix them up and then draw them out. The card board pieces are fine quality, but because you are handling them so much they can get beaten up, colors start to rub off, edges become dinged, so Board Game Geek sells plastic pieces to replace those in your game. Now, that’s a bunch of pieces and might not be cheap, but they also sell other ones, like more realistic looking resources for games. As you’ve probably noticed from some of my other lists, I like to suggest those kind of luxury items that people wouldn’t buy themselves.

Box Insert

Speaking of luxury items, box inserts are another one. There are a lot of great options out there for them, but why would you want them? A lot of games, Fantasy Flight is especially noticeable for this, don’t have great ways to store their games. It might be that there’s nothing in the box, so the handful of cards just slide around. Or there isn’t room for everything when it’s punched out, or in the case of something like Gloomhaven, there are just too many baggies that you’d have to use. So there are companies, Broken Token and Folded Space for two examples, that make inserts for these games. The Gloomhaven one that I have has spots for all the monsters, for the minis, for the tokens, and everything and they just fit in way more neatly than anything I could have done without it, and I tried and did kind of make something with out it, but I was carrying around 3 boxes then versus being able to get everything and the expansion into one box. Now, not all games need these, but they are a fun thing to put together and they can really help speed up the set-up for some games.

Paints

This one will depend a bit more on the person that you’re buying for, but if they like games that have a lot of minis and don’t have them painted, they might want to paint the minis. So you could get them a paint set for the holidays. There are a number of different companies, but I would go with something that says that it’s a beginner set if they aren’t already painting. If they are are already, probably skip this one. But painting minis can be a fun hobby to go along side board gaming for a lot of board gamers. As compared to something like the box insert or some geek up bits, paints are going to be a bit more of a commitment for a gamer, so make sure it’s something that they’ve shown at least some interest in, in the past.

Game Trayz

Now, kind of like I did with the Geek Up Bits from Board Game Geek, there are a lot of other options out there, but Game Trayz is one of the more recognized brands. Game Trayz are basically little plastic containers with sloped edges for holding game pieces while you play a game, though they have done a lot of custom ones for specific games that come with the game. Game Trayz are nice because you can just have some sitting around to hold tokens for when you are playing a game, or if you want, you can use them to store the pieces in the game box instead of a baggy so that the game would be even faster to set-up. Now, you don’t have to go with Game Trayz, there are other companies that make ones specifically for board games, or you could just get a bunch of little bowls if you aren’t storing the tokens in there, just using it on the table. But these are again those bling type items that someone might not get for themselves but would appreciate getting.

Now, I obviously skipped games, so many people get the games that they want that it’s hard to know what game to get, and just going on BGG’s Top 100 won’t help that much because it depends on the players tastes in games what they will or won’t like. If you know there taste well enough and really want to get a game, look for something that is new or hard to find. Kickstarters can also be a decent idea, but most kickstarters that you back now might be delivering around next Christmas.

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First off, though, let’s define what a stretch goal is. A stretch goal is a funding goal to get additional content or improvements added to a game. For example, in Marvel United, there are stretch goals to unlock additional characters for the game. Or there are some where it’s less game play focused or additional game play focused and it’ll be something like linen finish for the cards or a Game Trayz insert for the game. So something that is going to make the game feel more special or complete. Another example would be Tainted Grail, they did two expansions that were for added into the Kickstarter pledge but if it goes to retail, you’d have to buy them separately. Basically, they are to add extras into the game, sometimes for the Kickstarter backers only and sometimes for everyone. What is cool about stretch goals is what it can bring the community of board gamers into help something be fully realized. The downside is of course FOMO, that you might be missing out on a bit for the game because it wasn’t unlocked, or because something is exclusive to Kickstarter.

That is one of the toughest things about Kickstarter, the FOMO, not just from stretch goals. If you’re not familiar with the term, FOMO stands for “Fear of Missing Out”. Basically, it’s the idea that you need to do and get everything in order that you don’t miss out on something great. When it’s doing things, it can be a bit paralyzing, because you don’t know which thing is going to be the best or how you’re going to do everything. With buying a Kickstarter, it’s less paralyzing, because it’s money not your time, which isn’t a great thing. There are two ways that Kickstarters can create FOMO for users.

The first is what I mentioned above, Kickstarter exclusive things. Now, going back to Marvel United, a lot of the Marvel characters are going to be Kickstarter exclusive, it isn’t the main characters, but if you wanted Beta-Ray Bill or Spider-Ham, you need to get them through the Kickstarter. So while the game will likely be hitting retail, and I expect it to be pushed big in retail, you’re going to have a more limited number of things that you can get, and to track down those characters later could be spendy. So do you risk missing out on those exclusives? That’s how they get your FOMO going with Kickstarter exclusives.

The other way is technically not a Kickstarter exclusive, but it is pretty similar because it could just be that the game itself is exclusive or not hitting retail for sure. For example, Tainted Grail might not hit retail, and probably the expansions won’t even if the base game does. So do you risk it not hitting retail and having to find it on the secondary market, possibly costing a lot? And some games will only ever be on Kickstarter because they are too large and expensive to stock in stores, or because it is such a small indie project that the person doesn’t have connections to get it into stores. Those I think are easier, but the ones where it might go to retail, how do you handle that? Do you wait and hope that everything makes it to retail or that it isn’t a lesser retail version or do you still go in on the Kickstarter. Add in the fact that deservedly so Kickstarter backers who are making the project happen most of the time get their games first, do you want to wait the extra two months to a year to get the game in retail?

So, is there a good way to avoid FOMO with Kickstarter? I don’t really think that there is. At least nothing that you can do without treating FOMO as a whole. Kickstarter and sales in a brick and mortar store are all built around making you feel like you have to decide now and fast and that you’re going to miss out if you don’t decide fast. I can go into, maybe, in a future article about FOMO and how you can cope with FOMO, but Kickstarter is built to cause FOMO and without just avoiding Kickstarter, I think that FOMO is going to just be a part of it for a lot of people. So, if I were to have a few tips and tricks for helping deal with it with Kickstarter, I can think of a couple.

A lot of Kickstarters allow you to back for $1. You aren’t going to get a game just backing for $1, but it can give you access to the pledge manager quite often. In the pledge manager you basically can always get the same deals as you did on the Kickstarter. What that does is it allows you to consider it for a small amount of money. Get a regular coffee instead of a fancy coffee and you can do 2-3 $1 pledges. This allows you to feel not as rushed about making the decision. The Kickstarter will run for a month, fairly often, then it might be a month setting up the pledge manager and the pledge manager will stay open for another month. In that month between the Kickstarter campaign and the pledge manager, did you think about the game, if you don’t, you’ve just spent $1.

Similar to this, Kickstarter has a final 48 hour notification. That means that they send out an e-mail and notify you when a campaign is ending. I use this all the time. If I think something looks interesting, I save it, I get notified, and generally, if I haven’t backed it before then, I ignore it, because the FOMO wasn’t that strong. But it could be a good reminder or maybe I got some money for spending on games so I might consider it again at that point.

In both of the cases, it’s about seeing how much you actually think about it. In the games that I’ve been interested in and been all in on, I generally look at it, consider it and sleep on it, but if I’m still thinking about it the next day, I know if I’m going to back it, so I do right away. Otherwise, it’s probably isn’t one that I’d back. These can techniques buy you the time to decide that you might not feel like you have otherwise with a Kickstarter, and hopefully can help your budget and your FOMO.

Do you have FOMO with any games? Has it come back to bite you ever?

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(All games are Kickstarter games in images)