Board Game Breakfast: Episode 42 - Set up and Tear Down

Tom Vasel takes a look at the news, joined by a host of friends!

[njshaw]

"Bruno Cthulhu", haha, so funny, I'm still laughing at that.  Nicely done.

[robertmoffitt]

Funny thing, watching the Capt.; to which first off I would like to wish him and all the troops deployed a safe and speedy return home; but it made me remember something about Desert Shield/Desert Storm. A lot of people had decks of cards over there, back then. In my younger days, I didn't have a deck of cards, so I grabbed two decks of cards from a game by Dan Verssen Games (well, at least I think that's who owns the game now, not so sure about back then) called Modern Naval Battles. Stuck it in a baggie and jammed it in a duffle bag. After the shooting stopped, and we were waiting to rotate out of theater, and that big plane trip back home, I discoverd the little baggie with the cards in the bottom of my duffle bag, and there were 3-4 times when we had the opportunity to relax for a few hours; and it got played. I think some of us got tired of cards real quick, and MNB was something different, and if I recall, we played in larger groups, I think it played at least up to eight. Easy game, fun, compact components, and easy to take along to those federally funded sandy field trips. My only gaffe was; was it really appropriate to take a light wargame to an actual war. Unfortuantely, I'm sad to say, I've done dumber things.

Anyway, Capt., please be careful and take care. The same goes for all deployed.

Definately more of a quick tear down guy here. If it's my game, I'll straighten it out later, but if it's someone elses game, it's also a definate must to help put it away, whether it's a quick put away, or a detailed one.

PS- I love Nick's kick starter update, the Descriminating Gamer bits, the bits by Snakes & Lattes, Chaz, Suzanne & Iean. I'm missing the Ivory Dice Tower lately though. In short, the whole damn show is terrific; love it.

Depends on who is making the recomendation as to whether I will check out a game, and I can't wait for this weeks Top Ten I wonder what Sam's number one will Actually, I am really interested to see what is on Zee's list, as the topic seems to be out of his wheelhouse a bit. How will Bart, Greg & Judd respond???? Could be the start of a turf war...You gotta admit, they do have good theme music, and one helluva nice kitchen.

[lnightg]

Careful with components, you? You´re the guy dropping everything of every game brutally on the table in EVERY episode of the dice tower! 

[rbrandneuroth]

HAH! Sam's classic. Great to have him as a guest in the Q&A.  He's spot on.

[lordcactuar]

I share anyone's anguish with people who don't help pack up, but then it's almost one of those unspoken things. More importantly, why don't Fantasy Flight publish games with plastic inserts?

[RyanGraham]

Lol, they should put this on the back of the box:

"If you like to pay a whole lot of money so that you can put together miniatures to play a game that's pretty much the same as games that cost less money and have just as cool miniatures, then buy Space Hulk." -Tom Vasel

[Jonezy]

I am in the pack up neatly camp, so next setup is a bliss. In my groups everyone help with the clean-up and it turns into the reflecting phase as well, where we discuss the game and how it went. Love to be able to setup quickly.

[Salixalba]

Love the show, I think this is the only show I have to watch every week!!  Drives the wife nuts every Monday morning. 

[kirkbauer]

If a game has a ton of pieces it will will be less total time to organize it when putting it away rather than dumping it all into the box. This is because the game is somewhat organized during play so you can take advantage of that when putting the games away. For example, if you had Arkham Horror and the cards were all thrown into the box, it would take you 10 minutes to go through and sort them and flip them the right way. But when putting the game away the vast majority of the cards are already in their correct decks.

Secondly, I like using Plano and other similar plastic cases during play. You open the case, play the game, put the pieces back in, etc. Now the game is mostly put away when you are done and it is easy to toss the rest of the pieces into the correct slots.

One final advantage of cleanly sorting/storing your game is if the box is ever dropped or otherwise spills, contents in baggies or cases are less likely to be lost. 

With that being said, for brand new games I usually toss it all in and the sort it out later.

[bistronomics]

Since my playtime with friends is limited, I tend to sort my games at home for a quick setup, and have everyone just throw stuff back into the box (within reason), then just go through it myself sometime after game night.  I actually enjoy going through my game boxes and sorting things out, and I do it while watching TV at home.

[rabbmacc]

That wee kid steals the show for me so funny

[Diogmetes]

I like the look of those FoxTower dice towers.  Inexpensive, lightweight and functional.  I have a beautiful tower made for me by a friend, and I love it at home, but it weighs a ton as it's huge and made of wood and plexiglass.  Lugging it around is grueling and it takes up a ton of space in my Gaming bag.  Amazon here i come.  Thanks for bringing them to my attention, Tom!

[yannblondaux]

My players normally pick up the zip bags and try to put everything back into the box. It only takes 2 minutes if you have 4-5 people helping out. If it comes to the worst, like somebody asking me if the cards he just mixed together had to be sorted, I tell him to forget about it and I pick that up once I'm home. If we play a game like Descent, each hero will put all his hero-related stuff into his asoociated zip-bag, which allows us to quickly setup the next session.

[KAMa]

Board Game Breakfast makes Monday mornings more tolerable.

[thesnakescast]

I like to take a nice long time to put the game away, because it gives everyone a good bit of time to talk about the game we just played before moving on to the next one. Mister Scott Nicholson has expounded before on the value of reflection, and I think he's right. Taking time to reflect on a game you've just played can be really rewarding.

[supercheee]

Putting away the game is 1/2 the fun!!! I usually play games with my wife and brothers (sometimes a few friends) and they know when it's time to put the game away they can go to the bathroom, chat about the game, get a snack, maybe decide on the one to play next because I ALWAYS put them away. There's something so satisfying about everything being in its proper place. Which is why I HATE companies who give you garbage inserts!!! SERIOUSLY FANTASY FLIGHT GET IT TOGETHER!!!

[brettn]

Suzanne,  Food Fight! is great, I'm so glad that you chose to feature it.

I've been a fan of this game ever since I first got to play it at PAX East a few years back.

I pulled out my phone and bought it right on the show floor after we finished our demo. Finding online matches and/or getting people to play them through to completion can be a bit of a bear. Hopefully Playdek will revisit this one and add the multiplayer system and game timers used in a number of their other titles. 

Unfortunately I don't think it's found enough of an audience (yet) to drive these changes or the addition of the Snack Attack expansion, but one can hope.

[azraelswrd]

Ordered when the game is open, ordered when it is done.  Big reason for that are the boxes have to be organized to fit everything back in.  For my games, I put labels on the bags to help guide people on where stuff goes.  We usually play one game multiple times, so tearing down to play another thing isn't a big problem.  

[kevinpage]

We Always set up together and put it away together unless someone is needs to leave because we ran over and they need to get home but for the most part everyone helps.  We also separate everything with bags nice and organized.

[TimJennette]

Small games I just put away, but larger games (such as Dead of Winter) everyone usually helps put cards back into deck boxes and components into plano boxes / bags.  I usually end up putting everything back into the box though because I put them on the shelf on their side, I don't want stuff getting crushed.