So here’s the question: How do you choose what to bring or play for game night?
Some subtopics - are you usually the sommelier or do you show up and see what other people have brought?
Do you start in advance or choose at go time?
Is it structured, gut-based, or spontaneous?
Do you get a bit crazy about it?
For the most part, I’m the host of game days/nights, so I’m essentially the sommelier and my entire collection is available. Every once in a while our friends will bring something, and I try to make sure at least one game they bring gets played, as it’s kind of rude otherwise.
Typically I will just suggest a few games. I’ll often try to slip one or two new ones in there, but often people want to play things we’ve played before. Every once in a while we have chosen the game in advance, but usually we figure it out after lunch. Easiest method is for me to bring in five games and let everyone else choose one of them, and that’s what we play. But sometimes even those five choices I made are overruled 
When I’m travelling elsewhere for an event I generally bring a fair selection of games and see what the mood is.
Hosting an evening, I’ll get out some games I feel enthusiastic about.
Hosting a weekend thing, sometimes it’s like that, but sometimes I declare in advance that this will be for a particular game, so people who aren’t interested don’t turn up. (E.g. Star Trek Ascendancy, which is pretty much an all day game even for experienced players.)
Since I mostly play solo, I have to be extra cautious because the guy that usually attends is a bit demanding (and, between you and me, a bit of a jerk). He also talks to himself incessantly.
So, in general, it’s just whatever he wants to play.
But back when I actually did real game nights, I would usually have a selection of 3 or 4 options that I was prepared to teach (and, hopefully had refreshed myself within the last couple of days). On rare occasions, I’ve arranged specific game nights to accomplish a specific game – in those cases, the attendees were provided instructional videos/documents prior to the day-of.
Depends on the game night. Sometimes there’s only time for one long game, in which case try to choose that before the start.
If you’re going in unplanned, always pick lighter than you think you need. Pick games with the quickest start and lightest rules overhead - at least for the early games in the evening, let people have fun fast.
And always bring quite a few small 2-player games too, because if an unexpected number of players jump onto a bigger box, you don’t want 2 people left just watching for 1-2 hours.
How do I put this succinctly…
I overthink it.
And I generally start early to see how over I can get this time.
I wish game nights were happening.
Once a month I attend a daytime meetup, and I tried for years to use meetup and discord to arrange games beforehand, but since COVID and a bunch of people leaving, nothing has worked. So I just bring whatever and play whatever (rarely whatever I bring).
Well, I don’t have regular gamenights these days.
I usually bring/propose games for my 2-player opportunities. I know all my Mitspieler well and always try to cater to their tastes. Luckily, I have a good overlap with all of their tastes.
For the bigger events, when I manage to organize something it is usually here and I either directly propose a game or for NachSPIEL, I just introduce all my latest acquisitions to everyone and let them pick and choose since we usually play multiple tables.
Our semi-regular gamenight with friends is on hiatus. We are all so busy with work, life and stuff… when we meet we usually just chat all evening because there is so much to talk about and process together.
When we play… as their collection size rivals mine (well almost), and our overlap is significant but not “complete” we usually debate for a while what we are all up to playing from our respective collections. I sometimes bring games when we visit but often enough we play whatever we fancy in the moment. This is the one group where sometimes I get taught a game. Games we have played together include Ark Nova, 7 Wonders, Mischwald, Goldland, Kingsburg, Kingdom Builder, Terraforming Mars and tons more. We go way back… so far indeed we even played Catan together (he is the reason I don’t play anymore)
In most other scenarios I am the game bringer/proposer and teacher. It’s fine but prevents a quite a few games from ever hitting the multiplayer table as I revert to known quantities more often than not. Like
“They already know Planet Unknown and it plays 6. Let’s just do that.”
“They enjoyed Space Base last time…”
“I think after 100+ games I can teach Daybreak while asleep…”
If I am not confident teaching a game before the players arrive. It is not seeing the table.
2 player scenarios are easier for me to bring more complex games to the table as I am only teaching one person. This is how I get games like Spirit Island and Revive to the table. And Mottainai and hopefully soon Innovation.
Games that require 3 people… almost impossible to table for me these days. I have hopes that when my work gets a bit more routine, it will free gaming capacities…
We’re basically in COMaestro’s shoes, LOL. We usually host, and then our whole collection is available, though there’s a fair warning that for some games, I may need to read the manual first as it’s been so long.
The real process: I have a spreadsheet. I recognize it isn’t the best tool for the job, but the tool you know best generally becomes the best tool for you.
Like @Benkyo, game nights are a rare and precious thing - I’m meeting up tomorrow with some guys which is the first in-person event since last May. We all have kids and are strapped for time so we have to pick ahead so there’s no teach and no time lost waffling. Only two of us have any games and the other one’s library is about 50 strong so I tend to be the bringer.
Official process:
And then we get into extra innings, where a late night epiphany adds a few games to my mental list which somehow escaped the first process but now I wonder if it might be just perfect. And when my friend shrinks the list to two or three, I may spend a few days cycling through which to choose, until he tells me to chill out.
I get like this sometimes. I think, here, it’s because these nights are so rare and precious and I put a lot of pressure to make it the best it can be. As my other friend says, optimizing everything isn’t optimal.
For tomorrow night, it came down to Whistle Mountain or Cyclades, and the question will be slightly open in my brain until we sit down. I’ll likely have both in the car.
I do “imaginary” curation before game-nights before reverting to the “process” I described in my previous post (namely just picking something I know how to teach or the players already know).
For that my favorite tool has become geekgroup.app where I have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to tag and sort and query my collection for “all the occasions”.
Then I pull out stacks of games… reduce them to a managable amount and as the last step of the process take along Planet Unknown (see above).
have fun
My attempt to get a game of Robo Rally going this Sunday… seems to be falling flat. I only asked 2 weeks ahead of the date. Sometimes asking 2 days before is the best way to go. Other times nothing but a doodle (or nuudel if you are a bit more privacy minded) will do.
Has anyone used https://gamenightpicks.com/?
GameNightPicks was started as a mission to solve one problem: deciding what game to play next .
Collect game suggestions from your group and then vote on which ones to play next. Game Night Picks is an easy way to include everyone in your group in the game-selection process!
Depends a lot on the game night!
We go to two different clubs, which I tend to approach the same way:
So yesterday I tool Akropolis, Kingdomino, Pax Pamir, Flamme Rouge, and Schadenfreude. Ended up playing a couple of games of Akropolis and MLEM Space Agency. Next week I’m taking Skyrise because it was specifically requested.
For games with friends we normally have something big planned in advance (Europa Universalis, John Company) or we take it in turns to pick a game, with the understanding that everyone else has veto power if they really hate the game, are too tired, etc. I really prefer “everyone takes turns to pick” over “everyone collectively chooses” because 1. It’s quicker and 2. I stress way less about trying to pick games that other people want to play.
I find having a few challenges going helps pick games if I’m stuck, and I also like this feature on BG Stats:
I appear to have been wrong. For now we’re 4.5 people to play 
.5 doesn’t quite know yet if they can make it. So the strategy here was: throw out a date and a game (that I know people already enjoy) into our new-ish boardgame chat group and hope for the best.
That should be enough. Usually, I pick titles that I need to curate, or have been played recently to keep the streak going.
Oh, that’s an age-old question. Do I use this opportunity to check off some unplayed/need a second look game, to play what I love, which is why I’m here to begin with, or to evaluate the cusp/cull pile?
There’s no right answer.
Ideally, all of the above!
I usually play games where I’m the host. Sometimes if I’m really keen on something I’ll dictate a game choice. Sometimes @lalunaverde texts me in the week leading up and suggests something. For the other 2 regulars I try and get them to choose as well so everyone gets a shake at their favourite games or any whim satiated. It’s them choosing from my collection admittedly but we’d play a game if they were to bring one.
I have been through different phases. At one point I would select and push games to get 3 quarters of my game collection up to 10 plays. A target I set pretty arbitrarily. One year I asked for help to play every game in my collection at least once. That was tough as there a few ap prone players in the group at the time, one of whom was also a generally controlling type and decided they didn’t want to do it early on. Still made it and it really sped up me side lining them from games at mine. So a positive outcome of them revealing themselves for who they really are.
Early on I mainly went to a club to play miniature wargames I would just join in whichever game was on offer when I had downtime. At some point I started attending to play boardgames but was still just joining in. I’m interested to know how many of you had that route in of being an attendee and not often bringing a game that was played? if not what was your gateway?
Not boardgame clubs but generally during the 90s and 00s I was playing games other people had brought or just whatever was popular at the time (Catan, Carcassonne, …). I had some games of my own but not a whole lot. (But 3 iterations of Carcassonne)
The game that change this was Terra Mystica. Sadly, it came at a time where our time for games was already dwindling and so my partner had to be the one to play with me the most… and he got sick of it quickly. It is therefore also the game that started my solo-„career“
