Boardgamer's Toolbox - A Questionnaire

Boardgames
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  • play games (table, floor, internet, playmat, dicetray are all fine answers… just to give you some ideas)

public areas. We usually talk to the person in charge if we can have a secluded space, and we buy stuff in exchange consistently every week. That and the local public libraries where we signed up as volunteers to host these events

  • store games (obviously there is only one correct answer to this, what’s yours?)

I have two 2x4 Kallax and a small shelf as overflow, but will get rid of this one eventually.

  • improve your games (blinged components? inserts? sleeves? playing them lots of times…)

print out player aids and other helpful stuff from BGG. Sleeves as I often play in public areas. I rarely bling. I do use Scythe metal coins or poker chips for ease of use.

  • find new games

BGG and I bookmark (BGG has its own bookmark system) designers that I follow. I take a look on what they are up to every now and then. Often, I see a game entry registered and the publisher haven’t even announced it yet. Podcasts are the other big one.

  • rank your games

BGG??

  • track the games you own (eyes are a fine tool for those with a small collection)

BGG. My reverse Kondo list is on a Google spreadsheet (No. You can’t look)

  • track the games you want

I use the wishlist URL: www . boardgamegeek . com/wishlist/–usernamehere–
The wishlist URL neatly arranges the tiers nicely.

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play games
I have a heavy but very sturdy 3’x5’ table that extends to 3’x7’ that I have insisted we keep even though it fills the living room a bit. I use that for all the gaming at our apartment.
And I have a mat from boardgametables that I love and take everywhere for games.
Other than that I don’t use any trays or bowls because I’ve never really enjoyed them and with the mat little piles of components look quite nice.
Also I don’t play anything online. I’ve just never enjoyed digital implementations of games, not that I’ve tried too many.

store games
I know this is probably sacrilege but I actually don’t really like Kallaxs that much and I sold mine. They are very OCD satisfying when all your games fit nicely but that’s the thing your boxes will not all fit nicely if you have anything other than the standard box. I found it actually made my collection bug me more when using them.
So now I still use Ikea shelves but I use the Billy bookcases. They are less deep which can be annoying but they’re much taller which lets me optimize my storage better. That and the adjustable shelves makes them work great for my games. I also do one shelf on them large enough so I can stand up the games I’ve been playing recently so I can show off the box art.

improve your games
Tactility absolutely matters so I do try to get the deluxe components for things when I can but I’m starting to be more selective in what games get them and not deluxifying games I haven’t play much.
I do love inserts though, probably too much, and I have 3d printed a fair few. Recently though I have discovered folded space inserts and think I might switch to using those more because it takes much less time and effort than researching, adjusting, printing and reprinting 3d inserts and are pretty close in cost too.

find new games
Here, BGG and the hotness list, SUSD, NPI, So Very Wrong about Games, Boardgame Barrage, Meeples and Milkshakes, and unfortunately Kickstarter is where I find new games. I love SUSD but I find my tastes vary wildly from theirs so I try to get a second opinion on everything. Even with all these sources I don’t 100% align with anyone’s tastes so I often take a chance on games I think look interesting. It is honestly remarkable how subjective tastes in games are.

rank your games
Every year at the end of the year I go through and rerank my games. I throw them in a spreadsheet and rate them on several different factors, using the PubMeeple ranking engine for each. Once I have all the scores for the catagories I have a ranking that feels … more official somehow? It’s unnecessarily complex but this system does a decent job of tying numbers to my very subjective feelings and I quite enjoy the process.

track the games you own
I use BGG for tracking my collection

track the games you want
I have a list in keep notes in my phone. I add new things I want to the bottom and when I have the money I check the top of the list and if I still want the thing I buy it. This helps combat hype and filter out impulse purchases.

track what you play
I use BG Stats to track plays and keep scores. I would highly recommend it.

talk about games
tekeli.li even if most of the time I’m more of a lurker.
I also have a podcast (The Meeple in a Gamestack Podcast) that is on hiatus and I’m not sure if I’m going to keep making

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Play games: I have a cheap table from Argos that’s 3’ by 5’ when unfolded. Though it’s mostly used for jigsaws as my partner’s anxiety, etc means we don’t often have people over.

So usually I play at a friend’s house or somewhere public. Either a pub with decent sized tables or (now that my friend’s game cafe closed and we’re avoiding the franchise cafe/store) a place that we’ve started going to that’s just a general nerd shop (the kind of place that sells used video games + consoles, board games, RPG stuff, trading cards, collectibles, some comics, etc).

Used BGA a bit during the more locked down times.

Store games: Previously I had crap Argos shelves stuck in a wardrobe. Now I have my glorious 5x5 Kallax. And yet our lounge still seems far too big.

Improve your games: I generally don’t go in for fancy bits and I hate sleeving cards. I’ve got a couple of Folded Space inserts (Mysterium and Altiplano) to make expansions fit. A generic card game insert for Ashes (where I have sleeved the Phoenixborn cards, but only so they work as dividers and so I could add stickers indicating the dice they need).

Oh, and my one self-made insert: Celestia.

Find new games: Generally through stuff like SU&SD/NPI/etc, just discussions from board game people I follow on Twitter, or them being mentioned on here. Or sometimes browsing a sale selection and looking up anything that catches my eye.

Rank your games: Sometimes vaguely in my head.

Track the games you own: Minimally on BGG. Basically just if I own it or used to own it.

Track the games you want: BGG wishlist occasionally synced to the wishlist on boardgameprices.co.uk if I want to check prices/see if there’s anything I want to add to offset shipping.

Track what you play: Again just minimally on BGG. Just the number of times I’ve played them and on what date. And only base games - I don’t bother tracking expansions separately.

Talk about games: Just here and occasionally whatever social media they get mentioned on. I’m in a “trading and chat” group on FB, but I largely ignore the chat side. Hell, I haven’t even done much trading there …

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We have a nice hardwood 120x120 table made by a local carpenter for gaming.

I converted Dominion from cards to wooden tokens, and Blood Bowl from miniatures to cubes with player data on, and Glory to Rome to the nicer Polish artwork. Obviously the best answer is simply playing a game dozens or hundreds of times.

The main way I find and talk about games these days seems to be Discord and discourse chatter. Lots of people I have some familiarity with who all play games before I do.

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All right, let’s see… Cracks knuckles

  • Play games: Kitchen table. It’s a six-seater, so there’s plenty of room. We do have a couple of games that’ll take most of the space, but by and large, it’s plenty sufficient.

  • Store games: The basement of our house used to be an apartment that my wife rented out (it’s originally her house, I moved in a couple of years ago). Now that we actually use the basement ourselves (like, my home office is there), the kitchen cabinets were unused, so the games found their home! There’s lots of room in there, although a custom solution could be fun at some point.

  • Improve games: Outside of the occasional house rule to fix some things that may not have landed perfectly with us (not necessarily rules issues, just minor tweaks to make it more fun), games go unmodded here. I used to sleeve my cards when i played the old L5R CCG years ago, but I gave up the practice.

  • Find new games: Watching YouTube channels (SU&SD and No Rolls Barred), the SU&SD podcast, lurking BGG, talking to friends who play board games, advice from FLGS staff, and there have been quite a few blind buys (not so much now that I know how to research).

  • Rank our games: We’ll occasionally discuss where a new game fits in our personal favourites, or how our feelings about an old classic have changed with time and more exposure to different games. I don’t actually give out ratings, though.

  • Track the games we own: On my phone, I have a Note document open with every title we own in alphabetical order, with a small symbol indicating if our copy is in English only and another one for the games we’ve taken to my wife’s parents’ family farm (mainly party games like Telestrations for family gatherings, although we’ll likely take all our games that don’t play very well with 2 there).

  • Track the games we want: The above Note document also has a list of games I want jotted down as I think of them. A few have a symbol next to them indicating I’ve ordered them from my FLGS or asked them to give me a ring when they come in.

  • Track what we play: I don’t. If we own it, we play it (usually). The number of plays doesn’t matter to us, just that the game gets played. Some extreme examples do stick out though, like we must have at least 100 plays of Patchwork and Pandemic at this point, but Ankh’Or got to the table once and never again. We played Mandala five times in a row at the board game café we tried it, bought it, and played it all of once. No idea why. We want to play it again, it’s a GREAT game, we just… Don’t.

  • Talk about games: Here, of course. I also have a few friends who are BIG into board games and we’ll often have long conversations about them.

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We have a very small table, only about 1000x500, which we’re in the process of converting to a gaming table. We’re making the lid removable, adding an extra bottom to it and looking it with felt, probably speed felt, depending on the price. For most board games, this is all we use. I expect them to come with the correct components and not need anything else! There’s a few exceptions, one being Battle for Rokugan, where I’ve added extra bags. Dipping into an opaque bag is both more satisfying and easier to use, as well as being easier to setup and put away, than putting tokens facedown on the table.

For Netrunner specifically we each have playmats, (my partner’s is Saisentan, and I have a variety, my current being Mimic. We each have different styles of tokens, mostly translucent acrylic, though I have some wooden 2-sided tokens that can be flipped depending on which side they’re used for, and then there’s a few dice. Spindown D20’s from MTG (blasphemy!) and I have a single casino die because I’m a total mark. My partner users a fishing tackle/sowing bits box to keep their stuff in. We both have our own deck boxes. Mine is a sturdy plastic thing that all snaps closed on a very satisfying way. The lid, which has a transgender heart sticker on it, comes off to reveal the decks, and this section itself acts as a kid to a tray underneath for the tokens.

Our decks consist of some pretty unique promo cards, including some fan made alt arts, and our IDs are also unique. My corp ID, again, translucent acrylic that has the artwork and game text engraved into it with a laser. My partner has a similar process done to a piece of shiny mirrored acrylic, and the text on the piece is mirrored. (The ID is called Mirrormorph, making it a “Mirrored Mirror Mirrormorph”.) My Runner ID is a full art promo with the signature of the most recent world champion printed in gold lettering on it. As you can probably tell, most of our gaming time is actually spent playing Netrunner.

Beyond all that! We have a fake kalax that we got as part of a big furniture purchase. A bunch of it had small knocks of damage, nothing too major and as we found more and more kept emailing the company. They gave us small refunds we were happy with until eventually they refunded the full amount, so we got it for free. Nice. There’s an older one that is next to it which is ever so slightly smaller. None of our games fit into it in a satisfying manner. I need better solutions. They will be coming at a later date though.

We do keep saying we’re going to rank our games, figure out what we need to play more. I literally posted a message to this effect yesterday. We may never actually do this. :upside_down_face: I attempt not to find new games. I listen to the podcast and watch the YouTube videos, but don’t engage in many things being SUASD. I fear for what would happen if I did. I started watching a lovely couple on YouTube recently who’s videos were sadly not the format I wanted. Every video was like 90+ minutes with a rules walkthrough, full play, then review. I really liked them both, but that’s just so much. They did a video where they talked about Uwe Rosenberg’s games and mentioned there was a Halloween edition of Patchwork coming out, which I then bought for my partner’s birthday! (We have yet to play it, obviously. Because we are dunces.)

As for talking about games, we mostly discuss between ourselves here at home, and I’m in a few streamer discords (as well as my own) and Netrunner places where we talk about board games and stuff. I would say here, but I’ve been absent for a while so maybe not! :sweat_smile:

EDIT: HECK that’s a lot of words!

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I know. Part of the inspiration for making this thread :slight_smile:
Netrunner sounds like it’s more of a lifestyle–but so was M:tG for me back then…

Also, I am amazed by all the answers everyone has posted. They are more varied than I thought. Goes to show how important it is to look up every once in a while. Thanks everyone.

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Play games: dinning table, works well and is extendable table if we need more space or are rahter a lot people. “Life hack”: if you buy an extendable table, make sure the feed move too, otherwise you can’t seat freely.

Store games: On an old couch table close to the dinning table (Ah yes, I live alone) On one hand it’s great to have it close, so even non boardgamers might ask what kind of game that nice box is. Besides I only own about 50 games. One thing, the couch table is one of the first furnitures my dad bought when coming to this country, and I am happy to found good use for it for a hobby I like and bringing people together at the table.

Improve games: Every now an than I tweak a rule, otherwise I have bags for token. I also rather get rid of inserts than buy/make new ones.

Find games: Internet and the board game meet up group. There are some reviewers, but I like to give a shoutout to the crew of Game Night: watching people playing isn’t usually fun, but their reactions during the game and talk afterwards are very insightful for me.

Rank games: On BGG, I don’t have a strict rule about it tough.

Track games/plays: BG Stats synced with BGG: I started to useBG Stats just to see how much I play my owned games, but with all the stuff you can do, I basically put all information in (location, winner, points, length etc.

talk about games: a lot in WhatApp, when we play and I really like it, when my very casual- non boardgamers ask me for advice.

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Play games: Usually our kitchen table, which is large enough for most any game, probably 5’ x 3’. It really needs the surface refinished, as it’s got a few scratches and rough patches. Though I have played Marvel Champions and Arkham Horror TCG solo on the couch or floor so I could be closer to my wife while she watched television.

Store games: All over the place. We have a hallway closet with some upper shelves that are full of games. Then there’s a bookshelf and 2x4 Kallax unit in the garage, both stuffed full of games. The rest are kind of piled around there. Oh, and my X-Wing collection is in my bedroom closet.

Improve games: I really don’t bother with this, for the most part, unless you count painting miniatures, and even then I am WAY behind on such things. My wife did purchase and stitch new bags for Quacks of Quedlinburg that are not as scratchy as those which came with the game, and stitched the corners closed to prevent tokens from getting stuck there. That’s about it though.

Find new games: mostly through reviews or podcasts from SU&SD, but the occasional bit from NPI or other sources may pique my interest. And all you fine folks here at tekeli.li, of course.

Rank games: when I rank, I do it on BGG, but I have only ranked a handful of my games.

Track owned games: BGG

Track wanted games: Typically just keep a list in my head, though I very recently made a wishlist on BGG for the Secret Santa exchange.

Track plays: I do this on BGG as well.

Talk about games: pretty much just here, or sometimes with friends. I have written the occasional review on other forums, even though they don’t focus on board games. One that was a video game site which was branching out a little. My Sheriff of Nottingham one even got published to the main page of that one.

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What I use to:

  • play games: mostly our dining table. It is a 6 seater that can be expanded to 10 seater (at a push). Sometimes, I use our small coffee table (very rarely) and I have used our folding tables (6 seater)
  • store games (sigh) right now I have a lot of them (90%) boxed away awaiting for shelf space to free. A few of them are in a fabric shopping bag (that I took to our last weekend break at the end of October)
  • improve your games: I only have painted the grey meeples from my copy of Raiders of the North Sea as under our rental house lights it was tricky to tell them apart. Other than that… baggies, I guess?
  • find new games: everywhere. Come onnn, Quinns said it, they pop up everywhere.
  • rank your games: BGG
  • track the games you own: BGG, I guess?? I still find every now and then an old game that surprises me
  • track the games you want: nowhere until recently, I am using the BGG wish list a bit more.
  • track what you play: BGG
  • talk about games: here, and in my gaming group Facebook page.
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Haha! I’m glad I could inspire you! :wink:

I’ve always had a lifestyle game to go alongside my other hobbies, and it’s pretty much always been a card game. Pokemon → Fullmetal Alchemist → Magic the Gathering → Netrunner. Ebbed and flowed in how healthy an obsession it was. Much better these days. >.<

Very jealous of all these people with big ol-tables. We tried playing Kemet with 4 recently and it simply didn’t fit.

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I have a custom built 4’x4’ table with a custom playmat sat in it for board gaming, it’s really luxurious except for the rims not being thick enough for forearm comfort and it’s on trestles. This proved handy for pandemic times out door games. I also have a 4’x4’ extension to make an 8’x4’.

3 2x4 cubed kallax shelves. They also store my uni books and one cube has some added shelves to store my game gubbinz…

I rarely improve individual games, some cards get sleeved, mainly deckbuilders. I spent a ton on Quacks snazzy bits and the BGG Food Chain wipe boards and card accordion. Other than that I have a selection of extras that are useful in and around gaming. A set of poker chips being the main one. I now rarely use any supplied money. I also have 2 dice tray octagons, the BGG bits bowls in big and small, BGG card holders, a box of dice, various pens, pencils and erasers. To complete the extras I have some speakers in the game room for atmospherics.

Here, SVWAG, bgg occaisionally from people here irl too (@RogerBW, turns out there was more Lemminge in Zagreb…) and friends from outside of this cosy bubble.

Just thoughts and feelings in my consciousness.

I keep a list on bgg

I don’t keep any written lists. It leads to extra purchases. Things are probably in my memory on this.

I used to log my plays on BGG but this lead me to picking games based on stuff around my play count, so now a game gets 1 play logged first time I play my copy, after that it’s left to the fuzziness of my recollection.

discussion.tekli.li is secondary. Sadly I still use what’sapp to talk games as @lalunaverde hasn’t installed signal, mainly I use signal and wherever I’m currently playing games.

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The rims are thin enough that I just lean into the playing area. :slight_smile: Actually I think this works very well; they’re tall enough to stop bits from pinging around the room (most of the time), but not so huge as to take up a significant part of the available area you have to put a table in.

We should talk about the wondrousness that is mpd.

BGG mmoonbird?

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What kind of wondrousness is this?

Yep, exactly

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  • play games (table, floor, internet, playmat, dicetray are all fine answers… just to give you some ideas)

We play on our carpet since lockdown as the main table is full of computers now.

  • store games (obviously there is only one correct answer to this, what’s yours?)

I use a kallax for my top games, a small other ikea for some small games, a shelf in our house and safe storage for non-played/to be charity shopped games.

  • improve your games (blinged components? inserts? sleeves? playing them lots of times…)

Any time I’ve sleeved or added inserts or something it’s usually because I like the game but usually this also means i do the stuff too late and any blinging is never seen again. The exception to this was when I preemptively sleeved Blue moon rising and got rid of it because it was boring for us.

  • find new games

Contsantly grazing youtube videos and only pay attention to something that feels like it’s missing a current gap in my feelings. I pay particular heed to WEM and SpaceBiff for whatever they cover.

  • rank your games

nope.

  • track the games you own (eyes are a fine tool for those with a small collection)

I keep a small working selection.

  • track the games you want

95 percent of games I think I pre-order because they seem to sell out fast and comeback way later than my interest.

  • track what you play

I don’t bother with this

  • talk about games (note: if you don’t put down tekeli.li here you’re reading this from a wrong angle)

Just here really.

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- find new games

Youtube. Lots of youtube.

SUSD
Dice Tower
NPI
ThinkerThemer
BeforeYouPlay
3 minute boardgames
Board games in a minute
Board Gaming Ramblings
TheGameBoyGeek
Watch It Played
Rahdo I guess
Roll for Crit
Cardboard Rhino
Quackalope
All you can board (especially good for Marvel Champions)
Team Covenant (same)
Heavy Cardboard…

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play games
Mostly on our dining table, but we made a very low-budget table topper out of a big piece of plywood and some felt, for bigger games:

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I play regularly online on BGA, and occasionally on Yucata and boiteajeux. Even more occasionally on board game core for Food Chain Magnate. I also have a variety of board game apps on my phone and Steam, and play on Tabletop Simulator sometimes as well as PBF games here.

store games
1 4x4 Kallax and 2 2x4 Kallaxes, which are rapidly reaching capacity…

improve your games

Mostly inserts (folded space, but I need to make my own for Pipeline). I have the tokens from Quacks in coin capsules, for more satisfying bag rummaging, and a couple of games with metal coins.

find new games

Here, podcasts (SUSD, NPI, SVWAG), usually by playing new games at conventions, and recently by playing games on BGA.

rank your games

BGG

track the games you own, track the games you want, track what you play

BGG and boardgame stats app

talk about games

Here, discord, and with IRL gaming friends

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What you use to:
-Play games

I bought a cheap card table on Amazon, and it’s been ideal for standing OVER some boxes in my room and giving me a dedicated gaming space. Nice slightly-rubbery surface for picking up cards / components, weighs nothing and the only footprint is the tiny thin legs.

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Play games (table, floor, internet, playmat, dicetray are all fine answers… just to give you some ideas)

Mostly TTS at this point. Mostly because of the pandemic, though not technically directly since my entire house is vaccinated and I could be having more in-person game nights.

Because my work went to full remote work, I decided I needed a better desk setup, so bought a larger Ikea table, but because they were low on the legs, I had to steal two of them from one of my tables, leaving me down to the one in the kitchen, which is always covered with stuff and my life is exhausting enough I rarely have the energy to clean it off to play games.

When I do play in person, I play on the 56" Ikea LINNMON, which apparently has been replaced by a new table top. It’s a bit wobbly, but was cheap, and a decent size. And because it was cheap, and the legs could be unscrewed, I had two, initially just to bring out for the bigger games – 2 of them work reasonably well for 6p TI:4 provided you have a playmat – though, one eventually became our kitchen table.

Eventually I’d like to upgrade to something nice, so might do that sometime next year.

I do use playmats for some games:

  • Twilight Imperium 4th Edition
  • Aeon’s End
  • A.E.G.I.S.

Store games (obviously there is only one correct answer to this, what’s yours?)

Kallax. I’ve looked into some of the fancier solutions, but I find them to all be too expensive. The Kallax isn’t perfect, but it’s a great combo of price and functionality.

I did back the LaxRax Kickstarter, though. It’s a little pricey for what is essentially a 3D printed piece of plastic and some dowels, but it looks like it will basically make the Kallax perfect for storing games, so being able to store and pull my games out easier was worth the price of basically another Kallax to me.

Improve your games (blinged components? inserts? sleeves? playing them lots of times…)

I love a good organizer. Even though some of them can cost as much as a game, if it’s a game that’s particularly annoying to take out and put away, if the organizer means I’ll play it more, it’s worth it.

I usually just buy them, a mix of foamcore ones and the lazer etched wood ones. But for some games, like Gloomhaven and TI:4 I put my own together using a combination of Plano boxes, deck boxes, and for TI:4 some cheap crayon and pencil boxes from a craft store.

Find new games

Mostly SU&SD – but more the Podcast these days than the videos – and by reading posts here. Sometimes by friends posting talking about them, or posting links in a Discord. Occasionally on Kickstarter, but that’s usually RPGs and not board games. And sometimes just by trying something on BGA, though haven’t played there much lately.

Rank your games

I used to rate them on BGG, but at this point I don’t really rank them unless I do the Top 10 post here (or on the old SU&SD forums). I find ranking to be a very hard thing to do, because it really depends on mood for me.

Except for TI:4 it’s been my clear cut No. 1 since it came out. I love that game, much to my wife’s chagrin. She can’t stand all the arguing and posturing. Haha.

Track the games you own (eyes are a fine tool for those with a small collection)

Every few months I’ll update BGG.

Track the games you want

I usually put a game I’m interested in on my BGG Wishilst and a couple times a year – usually around my birthday and Christmas, since my family has the link to the list – I’ll look through and move stuff around – or remove it entirely – generally by asking “Will this actually get to the table?”. Some games I keep on there even if it’s a “no” just because there’s a chance I might be able to do it.

Track what you play

I use Notion to track my weekly split-session TTS TI:4 game I play with my friends. Other than that, I don’t track.

For a bit, I was tracking my plays of Aeon’s End with Notion too, but then I got lazy.

Talk about games (note: if you don’t put down tekeli.li here you’re reading this from a wrong angle)

Here. On a couple Discords I’m in with friends, both in voice and text. With friends in person. Rarely on the comments on SU&SD posts.

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That is some dedication to the cause of galactic infighting!

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