New Year is a great time for making promises we won’t keep by February, but it can also be a great motivator especially when it helps you to focus on something you love such as board games!
My Resolutions
- Start a blog (killing it)
- Play more of our games, clear that shelf of shame!
- Spend less money on new board games
- Get healthier, lose weight and do some damn exercise (see 5…)
- Try a new cheese every month
A lot of board gamers set a 10×10 challenge in January for the year. Challenges are good for those of us who tend to play a game once and move on to the next newness because we buy too many games (you know who you are). When you really dive into a game and play it multiple times I think the experience is that much more rewarding and enjoyable. Sometime it feels like all I do is read rule books and learn games but very rarely do I feel like I master a game anymore, especially the big ones!
So this is something I really want to focus on this year and using a challenge will really help! Here’s my chosen 10. Wish me luck!
If only Monopoly money was an acceptable form of currency…
Last year we set a board game budget each month and stuck to it for about 6 months, then we were buying a house and all that goes along with that so we naturally slowed down a little anyway. But I found having a budget helped me really think about what games I wanted, not just buying one cos there were only 4 copies left. You know what I’m talking about.
So this year we are continuing in that vein but making ourselves work for it!
Using board games as a reward…
Daniel and I both want to be healthier, lose some weight, do more exercise, yadda yadda yadda. So I have devised a system where we are rewarded with board games for making positive changes. Every week we lose weight, we gain credits. Every time we work out, we gain credits. Hit a big weightloss target? Have some bonus credits! And to help motivate us to clear that shelf of shame, we also get 1 credit for playing an unplayed game (pre-christmas haul, cos we havn’t had those games long enough to feel the shame).
Once we have amassed enough credits we can then unlock the funds from our budget to buy games, everyone wins!
Did you make any gaming resolutions this year? Or cheese related ones even? I’m now off to bench press Mechs vs. Minions so I can earn enough credits for the new Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle expansion!
Board Geek Girl 
Ah, the board game budget. We struggle with it, too. We did SO much better in 2017 than we did in 2016, though. This year we are cutting Gen Con out of our board game related expenses, which will help A LOT. Only doing one convention this year: Geekway to the West!
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If I had access to Gen Con I’d be so broke 😆 let alone the cost of getting there! I’ve toyed with the idea of making part of our honeymoon if we ever got married but I’d probably spend more there than on the wedding!
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Some great resolutions there! I wish you all the best with yours!
I’m also doing a 10×10 challenge, though my collection is only around 30 games, and my wife and I have played a lot of the games we have (at least the ones she likes!). So I’m letting the BG Stats app auto-fill the list for me based on what I play most. It’s just about general replayability and value for money spent that is important to me.
I also set a 365 in a year challenge, or the equivalent of a game a day. This is about finding more regular spaces and times for gaming, maybe join or start a regular group and meet new people, etc. We have two sons under 3yrs, so this is more challenging than it might sound.
My wife is much better at the whole fitness thing and has convinced me to do a 30-day challenge of 50 burpees a day… it’s KILLING me! But the results are amazing, so I’m glad we’re making exercise part of our daily routine. It also gives us both a great feeling of accomplishment and also gives us a little energy boost, along with making it easier to sleep, so hopefully that means more energy and motivation to play games together! 😊
I don’t really have a budget for board games, but generally my wife will encourage me to sell off old games that we no longer play before buying new ones, so aside from that, I pretty much will have to wait for my birthday around the middle of the year and Christmas! Or a really good deal on something on my wishlist, but that’s a hard sell! I’m pretty happy with the small collection I have, but maybe just want to fill a couple of gaps, like a good worker placement and a good area control game!
Hope you have a great 2018!
– iain
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Sorry, I need to get better at checking these comments!
Board games are a slippery slope, I envy your self control! Our problem is neither me or my partner have any… so we just encourage each other 😂 I think it’s great to make sure you’re getting value for money from your games and it’s absolutely something I need to work on! Currently my shelf of shame is around 40 😱
The 365 plays challenge sounds good. We once did a game a day challenge for a month which we managed but it was tough! Luckily we work in the same office so we could play some games at lunch every now and then.
I think i’m going to use this blog to document my challenges maybe every month, see how i’m doing and keep me accountable!
Good luck with your goals and have a great year also!
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