its getting to a point where some people are genuinely getting upset with each other. like literally last night it like got BAD, like BAD BAD. we were playing blood on the clock tower and people were accusing some girl of being bad even though she was saying she want, ect ect. long story short, her boyfriend stepped in and took it too personally and three guys ended up like screaming at each other in the event space we were playing at. idk how to deal with this kinda situation, like i love my boardgame friends but its like idk this is crazy and stressful.
i know some people are going to say "just get new friends" or like "you should play with different people" and i would seriously but i live in a small town and i dont have anyone to play with, and when i play on tabletop simulator i never find english speakers. sorry rant, i just dont know what to do about this situation

3 of my friends are visiting me for about a week in Michigan. Two of them are from across the continent (one from Saskatchewan Canada and the other California. The other is local). Today we wanted to play a long epic game all day. They all three selected ElderScrolls one of if not my favorite. One has played with me before.

All set up and ready for an awesome long gaming session.

Played Sky Team with my daughter, and what a ride! Things started going pretty badly, and for a moment, we weren't sure we'd make it. But somehow, we managed to pull it together and land the plane successfully!

An absolutely amazing experience and such a fantastic game every single time! It's especially perfect when you don't have much time and want a quick, engaging game that delivers plenty of tension, teamwork, and memorable moments.

Highly recommended for anyone looking for a brilliant two-player board game!

They had it above the shelves behind the buyers desk and it had been price cut. Persons who owned it maybe opened it and played it once or twice and stored it away. Definitely gonna play it with my friends for the laughs.

(Img credit to Paddy and Steph Kemner on the BGG page for ICE:Second Edition)

Visually the game is brilliant, and the idea of a layered board that slowly reveals to the players is a unique mechanic that intrigued me.

However, it felt like the first 2 rounds were quite exciting, the upper snow tiles with their unique abilities made each turn feel impactful, and comboing actions together made players feel accomplished. But once players were trying to get the artefacts and going deeper, each turn now felt shallow and boiled down to Move to Tile, Excavate Tile.

The fourth and final round was the worst for this, as players got down to 1 or 2 EP and then felt like they couldn't do anything due to the board state. The worst place to be in a board game is having leftover actions, and not having anything impactful to do with them, makes players feel like they are giving up before the game actually ends.

Overall the game was... okay. But we left the table not 100% satisfied.

It will be my first time this year and the long list is quite overwhelming. I'm looking for inspiration, anything that has caught your eye?

I wanted to make an insert for the game, but I couldn’t find a simple and practical design. So I designed my own idea and collaborated with a self-employed 3D printing designer to bring it to life. I just wanted to show you the result! My first insert design. (Design in Creo Parametric)

So I’ve always kinda wanted lords of waterdeep with the expansion and with the reprint I was considering getting them . I do however already have a decent collection which includes dune imperium and lost ruins of Arnak ( which it always gets compared to ) would you say it’s still worth getting lords of waterdeep regardless or should I just admire it from a far.

Edit: Thanks for all the replies guys I appreciate all your info!!!

Just wanna make sure before i buy it as a gift.

Hi! I'm very new to the whole board game space. I have loved board games my whole life but now I'm really getting into it

Anyways, any recommendations for games that are competitive I could play with my boyfriend? I personally like games with stagy but apart from that I don't really know what else I like tbh.
Also if it has good artwork and fun playing mechanics that's a plus (and if it can also play more then 2 players)

ANYTHING HELPS!

Hello all, I’ll be attending Essen Spiel for the first time this year and doing it solo, what time would people recommend queuing up or just going during the day? I’ve watched just about every YouTube video about Essen Spiel but none really say when’s best to go etc.

Also any tips, tricks and must knows that’s worth thinking about?

Thank you

Was tired of the two discard piles sliding apart and allowing the pesky crab players to get a reminder of what's in the piles before choosing one.

Bought some shelves for my boardgames and promised my wife to stop buying any new games once these shelves are full. Welp, looks like I‘ve got to thin the herd a little as I‘m almost out of space.

With a couple Kickstarters still on their way -hopefully, CMON 👀- and Essen right around the corner, there’s some decisions to be made.

Nothing is organized as of now. I just crammed everything in there.

I usual put the little cardboard tokens and plastic pieces and stuff in Ziploc bags so I don't have to sort through a big mess whenever I open a game box, but I was just curious what other folks do. A few times when I've bought used games from eBay, the ziploc bags that the bits and bobs were in were like yellow and kind of tacky feeling so I'm wondering if that's not a great idea after all.

One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is what makes a board game work well with people who enjoy playing games socially but don’t necessarily play modern board games on a regular basis.
Some of my personal favourites are games like Inis, Dune: Imperium – Uprising and recently The Old King’s Crown.

What I enjoy about these games is the meaningful decisions, strategic depth and, perhaps most importantly, the interaction between players. I like games where you’re constantly reacting to what others are doing, negotiating the board state, and trying to outmanoeuvre your opponents rather than simply optimising your own engine.

The challenge is that these qualities don’t always translate particularly well to a casual game night with people who aren’t used to modern board games. A game can be relatively straightforward to learn but still demand a fair amount of experience to understand what makes it interesting. On the other hand, making everything too light can leave you with a game that feels a little too random or multiplayer-solitaire for my taste.

It makes me wonder what actually defines that sweet spot: games that are approachable enough to get to the table with a mixed group, but still offer meaningful strategic decisions and genuine interaction from the very first play.

I’m curious how others approach this. Do you think it’s primarily about simplifying the rules, shortening the playtime, reducing the number of mechanisms, or something else entirely? And do you find that certain types of player interaction are easier for newcomers to engage with than others?

I’d be particularly interested in hearing how others balance their own preference for deeper, more interactive games with the reality of playing with less experienced groups.

The game would have been from my early childhood, so a date of around 1990-1995 range. The game was not a traditional flat board but it had a mountain in the middle. I remember there being a snake wrapped around the mountain. The mountain could have been a volcano as well? I remember the goal was to climb up the mountain. The real gameplay was that there were there yellow treasure chests that had hooks on the end of them, sort of like barrel of monkeys. The idea was similar, you had to use a separate plastic hook to either remove them or place them on the board. I can't remember if you had to attach them to each other or to something on the game board ( I think one attached to the board and the rest to each other?) I seem to remember us buying the game at K-mart for whatever reason. It is entirely possible one or more of my points is off about the game, but I distinctly remember the yellow treasure chests and the hooks.

I have searched through wikipedia after wikipedia trying to track this down. Gone through old board game sites and even used AI. The game had a similar vibe to Fireball Island but the board was more vertical only. 99% sure it isn't that.

I recently picked up Everdell Duo because I can rarely play anything but games that play well with 2 players. From what I gather, it's identical to Everdell in many ways, minus elements that make it a longer game. That seemed like a fair way to test the waters of a game I've heard so much about. First impressions about 5 or 6 games:

Analysis paralysis easily sets in. So many possibilities and permutations of card play, maybe too many. I'm not a fan of long drawn out turns or anything that makes it feel like a solitaire game. I assume that will fade as we become familiar with all the cards, though.

Somewhat confusing rulebook. It's not a terrible rulebook, but it has a tendency to make simple mechanisms seem convoluted. Not what I would call beginner-friendly.

Colours are pointless. Referring to cards (e.g. purple cards) by their colour only makes it confusing for people with colour-deficient vision, and it's unnecessary since the cards are easily identified by their symbols. The "red" destination cards are not very red, so don't call them red.

Small cards. Bigger would be better. I'm an adult with adult-sized hands. Give me cards that I can hold. Make everything bigger. Small cards, while necessary to keep costs down, tend to make any game feel not as good.

Other than that, it's easy to see why it's such a popular game. I wouldn't recommend it for casual players. There's too much think about it. But the synergy between cards can be satisfying, and there are more than a few tense moments when the other player takes a cards that you were playing towards. At the moment, I don't love it but I like it.

I know that's not much of a review, but what do other fans of the game like about it? Any specific strategies or things to keep in mind that might increase my enjoyment of it as it learn the game?

I have seen people sharing their 3D printable organizers and inserts for board games here. I do have designs that I create and share for free (for non commercial purposes). I have been hesitating to share them on this sub because of the off topic rules “Apparel, Dice, and Accessories” — does a sharing or starting a conversation over a non-commercial, indie-made 3d printed insert or accessory for a board game violate this rule? Thank you for clarifying

If this is allowed, how do people feel about this? In case a non-mod replies with a comment — cheers

Hey everyone! The game is in Russian, but I still wanted to share my work with someone! 😁

I drew all of these during my work shifts, so I had to stick to a single color.

The most frustrating part? By the time I finished drawing them, I realized the game's mechanics weren't very good at all.

Oh well. Time to try something new!

Now I'm thinking of turning this into something more like Warcraft: building and upgrading structures on a shared map, commanding mercenary squads, and expanding your kingdom by capturing locations and gathering resources.

It's a pretty big change of direction, but that's part of the process, I guess!