This is going to be a list article, with all my unplayed games ranked. But before I dive into that, I want to talk about some of the terms that I just used. Mainly shelf of shame and shelf of opportunity. They are the same term phrased in different ways. Let’s dive into them and then the big list of games to play.

Shelf of Shame vs Shelf of Opportunity

This is a term that I’ve heard thrown around for a few years now. The idea that games on your shelf have this title. First off, I think this is kind of silly. Games that you haven’t played don’t have a special spot in existence. Now, maybe they do have a special spot on your shelf, but they aren’t held in any sort of light. They are just a board game.

But the first term I heard is Shelf of Shame. The idea behind this is that you feel bad since you haven’t played all your games. This is silly. I go back to my talk about collection versus a hobby. Know what you have on your shelf. For me, board games are a collection and a hobby. That means it’s fine to not get to every game quickly. They are part of my collection. But I play them, as they are part of my hobby as well, and hobbies get used or worked on.

Then came the term Shelf of Opportunity. Shelf of Shame is very negative, and opportunity sounds much better. But I, again, find this not much better. Yes, they are games that you play eventually. And yes, it spins it in a positive light. But both terms keep a focus on the fact the games aren’t played.

What Do I Call Them?

I call them what they are. Board games to be played. A board game is just an object. In labeling them either way, it places power on that object. Yes, one puts it in the light of a game being an opportunity for something new, and new exciting opportunities are good. But it leaves the pressure on actually playing the game.

Like I said, I play games. I buy games. Board Games are a collection and a hobby for me. I own games that might take a long time to get played. Campaign games where I play one at a time or two, and I am already playing two. Those wait for when I have time, and that is okay. I feel like the label places a cloud, no matter what label, over the games, and in the end of the day, games are just games.

If I never play a game in my collection and it collects dust for five years. I shouldn’t feel bad about leaving that opportunity out there. I most definitely shouldn’t feel shame. It is a game and I play games. So I play other games and not the game that is sitting there. I am still enjoying the hobby without playing every game I own.

So Why Write This Out?

I gave myself a challenge at the beginning of the year. Not because I feel guilt about games that I haven’t played. But because it is fun to play games. And I want to play games, I want to experience new games, and I want to cover new games.

For me, my challenge isn’t to get all the games off the shelf. It isn’t because I feel like I miss out on an opportunity. And I care not about shame from it. For me it’s about trying new things and almost making a game out of it. If I don’t make it by the end of the year, I don’t care. I play these for fun.

Unplayed Board Game List

Let’s Talk About the List

124 Games on it, and my goal is to get it down below 100 by the end of the year. You add in a bunch of Kickstarter games coming in, and you can see why it is a big list and also a challenge. And of course, then, there are campaign games on the list. If we look at campaign style games, I think we’re sitting at 14 on the list. And that is a lot of games to play through a campaign of, so that isn’t going to happen. Though, with Sleeping Gods coming off the list to start the year, it will some over on Malts and Meeples.

There are also some kids games on the list. Right now, I don’t think I will play those this year. Monza looks fun, but the toddler isn’t quite ready for it. But the toddler is also three, so who knows, maybe by the end of the year, we can play those games a bit more. But right now I’m not expecting to.

I also think it’s important to note that a lot of big games are at the top. Those are the ones that I’m most excited to play and cover. And some of them should be getting played soon. Probably after this weekend I’ll be lining up a time to get started playing Roll Player Adventures.

To go along with that, there are a lot of solo games as well. I could play, in the top 20, around 75% of them solo and some of them are solo only games. So I need to start knocking those out first, because they are high on my list. That won’t be how I get under 100, though.

Final Thoughts

I think that it is fine to challenge yourself to play your unplayed games. I think it is fine to limit how many unplayed games you own. When that becomes the focus or the obsession, I think that is when we start to lose the focus on what we are doing. Or when tie to it other emotions, like shame.

When I see people post about clearing their shelf of shame, I am sure it feels good for them. But on the flip side, in the comments, you see people feeling guilty about their unplayed games. I am not that way. I don’t feel guilt over that. And you shouldn’t either.

This is an odd article, I wanted to talk more about the games, and I will soon. But before I could do that, I think it is import to talk about the shame or guilt that can be thrown around in the hobby. Not always intentionally malicious but always harmful.

Also, let me know what game you think I need to try first. What is your favorite on the list that I have too low, or that you know I would like or should try?

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There are a lot of good games, and I could have pulled more off of my shelf. Reichbusters: Projekt Vril, 7th Continent, and Midarra were all honorable mentions that didn’t get mentioned in the video. And I even own more campaign games I could consider as well. But let’s talk about the ones that I did.

Six Board Game Options

HEXplore It: The Forests of Adrimon

This is an exploration and adventure game. It’s going to let you create a Dungeons and Dragons, in some ways, type character(s) to take through the world. You explore, shop, and fight along the way. This leads to a big battle in the end against the villain of the story. HEXplore It is ore of an adventure game, in some ways, than a true campaign style game. The setting is going to lean into a mechanical world with a Sorceress named Adrimon puppeting them all.

Under Falling Skies

This is a bit of a space invaders style game. There is a campaign to it as you play through some different cities. Each game goes pretty fast for this one. It is going to have less story than all the other games. But Under Falling Skies is going to give you dice manipulation as you try and keep waves of aliens away from you. I also runs off of a comic book(s) that tell you the story for each scenario.

Deep Madness

Another almost campaign type of game, like HEXplore It. Deep Madness is going to be a horror based game where you play through scenarios. The scenarios are loosely linked together. But in Deep Madness you and your team go down to a deep sea base. Something has happened, you have lost contact with them, and when you get there, things are much worse than expected.

Each scenario has you trying to survive to complete different objectives. They do form together to create a loose story. One time you might be trying to get the coms system up and working or restore life support before it fails fully, or get off the deep sea base. There just isn’t as much story between that ties them all together. This is one that is a bit of a longer game I think might be trickier to stream, but could be doable.

Sleeping Gods

Sleeping Gods from Red Raven games and Ryan Laukat is a game not set in the same world as his other games, Above and Below, Near and Far, and Now and Never, but still has to same amazing artwork. In this game you are transported to a world that you know nothing about. You aren’t even sure what you are trying to do. Except, you want to find a way home.

Sleeping Gods is a big exploration adventure game where a single play can take 10 hours or 15 hours. You complete quests and look for totems and clues. And there are a lot of different story elements you can find, so much that to win the game, you don’t need to do the same thing every time. That leaves a ton of the game available to explore again and again and again.

Folklore: The Affliction

Folklore: The Affliction is the most traditional in terms of a campaign game. This is a world that is full of vampires, werewolves, and other monsters. And as a monster hunter, you want to take them out. That, though, is easier said than done. Folklore is really an RPG board game. It gives you that feeling of rolling dice to see what happens and rolling D20’s even, I believe.

What interests me so much about this one is that RPG feel. You go from story moments and random encounters as you travel across the land. And then it drills down to a tighter picture and you get into combats against monsters. And you can even turn into a monster yourself if you aren’t careful.

Solomon Kane

Finally, we have Solomon Kane. This is a scenario but kind of campaign game. I say kind of campaign game because each story of Solomon Kane is it’s own campaign. Some of them can be played in a few hours. Some of them are much longer than that. Each scenario is going to have it’s own objective to try and complete.

It’s an interesting game, though, in that you aren’t playing as Solomon Kane. Instead you play as virtues who are aiding him along his way. In the books that the game is based off of, Solomon Kane is a good man with a particular set of skills. But he didn’t always use those skills for good. So the idea of the virtues is to keep him on the path and not fall into the temptations and darkness of his past.

Which Game Should I Play?

Vote and help me decide what game I should play. The voting is going to close on December 21st in the morning. That’s probably going to be one of the last daily articles I do that week. But I’ll dive more into the game then and probably ask some questions about what I should do, if there is anything to determine in the set-up.

But this is what I am going to stream to start the year. Don’t expect anymore streams in 2021 with Christmas and the week leading up to New Years. But for sure no stream next week, maybe one between Christmas and New Years. If that happens, I’ll try and give as much warning as possible.

Thanks everyone for watching and have a great holiday season. I hope that you get lots of great time with family and friends, and a lot of great gaming.

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Seafall

This is a game that I really wanted to love and that we kind of gave up on when we were playing through it. Now, I am not selling or doing anything with my half played copy. That a friend owns and I hope they don’t have around anymore. But I did get a copy from another friend that is in shrink still. I am selling that copy.

I had considered, for a while, using that copy of Seafall to make my own game. Why, because Seafall, I think, has some solid ideas it just runs into some problems. There isn’t a good story running through it. They attempted making a very broad story but it lacks depth or progression. The dice are too lucky, and the games take too long. Hopefully someone else will like it though.

Cyclades

I’ve heard amazing things about this game. But I had it for a few years and I never played it. I opened it up, learned the rules once, but I never even punched it. Why is that, well, because I don’t play that many area control games, and when I do, I want to play Blood Rage. This was the case with a game where I probably would like the game, but would I play it over other games.

Blood Rage gives me that more complex area control game. On the flip side, Small World gives me that really easy to get to the table area control. I just can’t see myself pulling out Cyclades over either of those, especially because I can teach both of those quite easily. My memory banks can only remember the rules to so many games.

Nemesis Terrain Pack

So, this is coming into my collection, one of two things. Nemesis is a game that I’m very confident that I’m going to like. Why, because it’s a space horror game, and I like that theme. It is a survival game, and I like that. And the terrain pack is just going to make the experience more immersive. I’d almost picked it up before, but when it was there again, I knew I was going to get it.

Detective: Season 1

So, I love Detective, I can’t say that enough. I’m not sure where, at the end of this month, start of next, this will end up, but I expect it’s going to be very high. I have the Vienna Connection, the base game, LA Crimes, Dig Deeper, and I already pre-ordered Dune: House Secrets from Portal Games. The one thing that I didn’t have was Season 1.

Season 1 didn’t interest me as much because it was one off games. What makes the base game so amazing is that you are playing through a series of tied together games. You are getting a full story in five chapters, I wasn’t sure if Season 1 would feel the same with one offs. But I had Dig Deeper and I got to play it last month. And that game holds up. Just as a one off it is still a lot of fun, so I’m now more excited for Season 1.

HEXplore It: The Forests of Adrimon

Now, I said I was just getting 2 games, and those are the two that I’ve ordered or have in hand. But at my FLGS, I had them set aside this for me, and an expansion. When I sell the two games at the top and Captain Sonar, I’m going to use that store credit to pick up this game. HEXplore It as a series of games has been on my radar for a while. I never got in on the Kickstarter because they cost a fair amount. But used, it wasn’t too bad.

I am very curious to try it because it is another dungeon crawl and exploration sort of game. The map level is higher than your standard dungeon crawl, but there are a lot of bad things that can happen to you. I also like the unique setting in this game, it feels different than some of the other HEXplore It games.

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