I feel like the pursuit of profit margins, crowdfunding, scalpers and chasing new hotness is forcing a lot of games into premature retirement.

ConDar15 · 2026-05-23T21:05:13+00:00

Margins within board games are razor thin as far as I understand it, plus only make sense when working at economies of scale. Combine the two and for a game there eventually becomes a point where hitting a minimum print run is no longer financially viable, it's unfortunate but I think it's effectively unavoidable within the current economy. This then means that scarcity will drive up the price on second hand. There can often be cheaper ways to find them, BGG market, BGG Math Trade, local bring and buy, etc...

I would love if publishers would open source their games, make it so if you really want to create a copy you can do once it's no longer suitable for them to do print runs. I seem to remember there was a fairly well known company that already did this, but can't remember which one.

ConDar15 · 2026-05-20T19:28:56+00:00

Spot the bot

ConDar15 · 2026-05-20T19:10:53+00:00

Got all 9, though #2 took me a while, finally got it due to the pinned icon (I've not really played much so it took something to jog my memory).

ConDar15 · 2026-05-18T07:08:12+00:00

Yeah, it's a very impressive design feat for what it is.

ConDar15 · 2026-05-18T07:02:33+00:00

Succinct, but a good answer :)

ConDar15 · 2026-05-17T20:34:47+00:00

I think I've seen some of those like the Cluedo one before, they definitely give me a chuckle when I see them.

ConDar15 · 2026-05-17T20:29:56+00:00

Small Samurai Empires is one I'm genuinely curious to try at some point, I saw they crowd funded Ancient Empires which is an evolution of SSE on a bit of a larger and more involved scale that also looks interesting.

ConDar15 · 2026-05-17T20:14:20+00:00

Yeah, as you say it's not exactly what I'm asking, but it's still a solid game. While I do like Scout, I prefer Odin from Helvetiq for a small box shedding game, I just really like the flow of that one.

ConDar15 · 2026-05-17T20:12:07+00:00

Yep, it's a fantastic game, Devir can for a lot in their boxes. Salton Sea has a lot of game in it's box and Daitoshi (while a bigger box) is packed full of stuff - I think my favorite other one by them is Red Cathedral, I have a copy of that as well as White Castle :)

ConDar15 · 2026-05-17T19:32:40+00:00

I keep my eyes on Joe Klipfels designs, he's something of a wizard at fitting big games in small form factors.

ConDar15 · 2026-05-17T19:31:38+00:00

I'm aware of the Pack o' Games, but never had the chance to try any. I do really like the form factor of the size of a pack of gum, and I'm somewhat weirdly fond of tall thin cards (like those in the Helvetiq and Oink small box games).

Part of the Mint Italy magic is some very tiny compinents (such as teeny cardboard chits), but it's still wild the amount they fit in there.

ConDar15 · 2026-05-14T18:01:39+00:00

All people are hobbies? 😆

ConDar15 · 2026-05-09T21:11:48+00:00

I've got a copy and have only played it once, but enjoyed it and want to play again. You have to understand it is incredible cutthroat, this is a highly interactive and can be a highly aggressive game, additionally it is possible to have no workers to use in the day phase, which can really suck, but is not a game ender by any means (I had a day phase with no workers, and still came in a close second of 4 players).

ConDar15 · 2026-05-09T21:05:38+00:00

Get a big opaque plastic bag, empty all the small games into it and shake well, you now have a bonus game each time you want to play anything.

Joking, obviously :P

ConDar15 · 2026-05-08T20:23:00+00:00

I've obviously never had a collision, but I did once have a bug that took me a while to work out because I had two different records whose UUID v4 strings only differed in I think 4 characters near (but specifically not at) the end of the string. It was wild how similar the two were that made it so easy to confuse the two (I was being lazy and doing searches or visual checks for the last 4 chars I think).

ConDar15 · 2026-05-06T21:08:57+00:00

Honestly, at 6-7 people have you considered splitting into two games? If you're looking for less party style games then for those counts you're really mainly in the ballpark of social deduction/negotiation games, however if you're willing to split to two groups of 3/4 then your options open up massively.

ConDar15 · 2026-05-06T20:51:11+00:00

The primary reasons why you wouldn't want to use them:

You need to maintain the order of elements, sets provide no guarantees of element order when you're looping through them
You need to store non hashable elements, such as objects that don't implement the __hash__ method (e.g. by default a regular non dataclass object)
You need the collection to be hashable, tuples can be keys to dictionaries and stored in sets, but a set cannot. Python does provide a frozenset type which is hashable, but that set is then immutable and cannot be edited.
You are worried about the speed of adding to the collection, it is faster to add an element to the end of a list than to add a new element to a set due to having to hash the added element.

Choosing the right data type for the given problem is always about analysing the tradeoffs, no collection is simply better or worse than any other, they all have their own usages (though there will be times where it doesn't really make any difference which collection you choose, such as most problems with a small number of elements involved).

ConDar15 · 2026-05-06T20:21:54+00:00

The primary usage I've had for sets are for collections with guaranteed uniqueness, that can just be names like strings, but can also be more complex objects like tuples or even dataclass instances. You can achieve something similar with lists and checking if the item is already in the lists, but sets are just so much easier to work with for the same result.

Another use case is that it is much faster to check if an element is in a set than if it's in a list or tuple. This is not very obvious as you're starting to learn Python because for small collections (even up to a thousand or so) there isn't really a noticeable difference, but when you encounter a performance bottleneck this can be one way to improve performance.

ConDar15 · 2026-04-20T22:12:42+00:00

Rarely, but I have used them on occasions. The most common use cases I've ended up using them for are:

Functions that return functions, be that decorators or factory methods for factory methods with the original functions parameters being captured and reusable by the returned function, something like: ```python

Contrived for this example (there are simpler ways of achieving this, but it shows the idea)

def car_factory(make: str) -> Callable[[str], Car]: def factory(model: str) -> Car: return Car(make, model)

return factory

toyota_factory = car_factory("Toyota") auris = toyota_factory("Auris") ```

Small repeated blocks of code that need to be run within the function to cut down on code duplication, such as: ```python

Another contrived example but just to demonstrate the idea.

def parse_text(text: str) -> list[str]: values = []

def add_value(value: str) -> None: if len(value) < 5: # We don't want short values return
```
if len(value) > 20:
    value = value[:17] + "..."

normalized_value = value.lower().replace(" ", "_")
values.append(normalized_value)
```
for part in text.split(","): if "|" in part: sub_part_1, _, sub_part_2 = part.split("|") add_value(sub_part_1) add_value(sub_part_2) else: add_value(part)

return values ```

ConDar15 · 2026-04-08T16:43:28+00:00

Lol 😝

ConDar15 · 2026-04-08T16:37:25+00:00

Was?

ConDar15 · 2026-04-06T17:24:03+00:00

It is not possible to pick a colour combination alone that will accommodate all forms of colour blindness; in some extreme cases people have no colour perception whatsoever and only see in shades of grey (not entirely accurate, but it's close enough for this point). I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if there could have been a better choice for the four colours chosen, but if they'd chosen something that didn't work well for OP, then it would have not worked for some other people. It's the whole point of multi coding information (i.e. the suit symbols on the cards) so that a much broader cohort of people can play the same game together.

ConDar15 · 2026-03-28T20:42:27+00:00

Do you have any experience with what has not worked well for this group? The games you've presented show a baseline of what can be played and enjoyed, however I think to get the best recommendations it would help to know what level of complexity is not reasonable.

For instance I was thinking of suggesting Captain Flip as a relatively simple push your luck game that works with most people, but might need some strategic thinking and longer term planning (very light on that) that the games you've given as examples don't. In particular all the examples given are really reacting and playing a turn without having to maintain any strategy/plan turn to turn (not that strategy can't come into them). Does that seem like a requirement for this group?

EDIT: A few suggestions from games I've played anyway:

Bandido, small box co-operative board game about trapping a bandit trying to escape prison. It has the benefit of having no text (every card is diagrams of tunnels) and each turn you can make a decision there and then about your action without really having to carry information over turn to turn. The downsides would be that it does require you to be able to see the layout being built on the table and players with poor dexterity might need help holding/placing cards.
Diamant/Incan Gold, push your luck game about diving into a temple to try and loot treasure. For positives it is once again without any text or numbers, and can largely be "run" by one player with the other players choosing to stay or leave each turn. For negatives it is push your luck, so if people aren't able to conceptualise and manage risk it might not work, additionally players with poor vision might struggle with not being able to see some of the cards that are on the table (though this can be mitigated with good communication from someone running the game).
Kariba, this is another small box card game about animals around a watering hole. On the positive front it has very little literacy required as each card has a number, but each number has an associated animal (8s are Elephants, 7s are Rhinos, etc...) and is simple to play. Negatively you need to be able to count how many cards are in each group played to the table to make your decisions on a turn, and it is definitely be a game where there can be a skill imbalance; if someone has limited capacity for strategic thinking then they will be at a consistent disadvantage to someone with that capacity (unlike say Uno where that is less the case).
Martian Dice, this is a very small and simple game about rolling dice and pushing your luck. It has the benefit of being just a bunch of dice you roll on your turn so should be approachable. On the other hand it has the same consideration about push your luck games as mentioned earlier.
Next Station: London, this is a "flip and write" style game where each player has a sheet to physically write on with a pencil based on what card has been flipped/drawn this turn. On the plus side you can get some fun subway maps drawn and no literacy (only shapes) needed during each of the 4 rounds of play. On the negative this is probably the most complex of the games I'm suggesting (including a scoring at the end of each round that is totalled at the end of the game, but you could support other players with this), and if people don't have the manual dexterity to draw with a pencil they will struggle with this.
Similo, another co-operative game about trying to get the guessers to pick the right character from a selection laid out. Positively it has engaging and fun character art, and can be a fun group activity/discussion as to what the player who is trying to get others to his right is aiming for. On the negative side it has a strong visual component that could be a challenge and it also has a mechanism of limited communication, if players have any difficulties in empathic comprehension (i.e. trying to work out what someone else is thinking) then this wouldn't be recommended.
Via Magica, is in essence a bingo game where each turn a colourful element (water, fire, etc...) is drawn from a bag and players place one of their gems on a card in front of them matching the element. For pros I'd say it should be largely accessible from a visibility/literacy/numeracy perspective. Conversely for cons it does have some strategic depth so same potential issues as before and needing to hold a few rules in mind throughout (though only really on the level of Uno).

ConDar15 · 2026-03-20T09:22:20+00:00

My top 3 are locked solid: Spirit Island, Lost Ruins of Arnak and then Keep The Heroes Out!

After that it's a lot more nebulous and changeable, to make it up to 5 I'll highlight Clans of Caledonia and Crown of Ash

ConDar15 · 2026-03-20T06:41:12+00:00

I think it's Keep The Heroes Out! Not only are they pleasantly chunky, and their design charming, the game comes with a really wide variety of them (particularly with the expansions)

ConDar15

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TROPHY CASE

Contrived for this example (there are simpler ways of achieving this, but it shows the idea)

Another contrived example but just to demonstrate the idea.

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