The evening usually goes the same way: everyone stands at the shelf, somebody suggests the game they always suggest, somebody else has never played it, and half an hour later you're setting up something nobody quite chose. Most of that time is spent answering four questions. Answer them first and the choice is small.
1. Four questions before the shelf
- How many of you? Count yourself. A game's box says what it allows; what it plays well at is often narrower, so a five-player game at five may be a long wait between turns.
- How long have you got? Take the longer end of the box's time, and add the teach for anyone new. A “60 minute” game with three first-timers is an evening.
- How heavy? After work on a Tuesday is not the night for the three-hour economic game, however good it is. BGG's weight (1 light, 5 heavy) is a fair guide: under 2.5 suits most mixed tables.
- Who can teach it? The host doesn't have to. A game somebody else already knows is often the better pick.
2. Then look at every shelf, not just yours
The best game for tonight may be on a friend's shelf and just needs bringing. In GameChest's Game night, you tick who's here (the count is the player filter) and say how long and how heavy, and it answers from your shelf and the shelves of the friends you ticked, saying whose box each game is:
- Games that fit: the ones someone here has marked “want to play” first, then the rest, those best at your count first.
- Games it couldn't judge, listed separately with what's missing (“playtime unknown”), rather than quietly left out.
- Expansions you own for each game, so you know what can come out with it.
- “Pick one for us” picks one of the games best at your headcount by BGG's player poll, or anything that fits when none is, favouring what someone wants to play. It leaves out anything you've lent, and anything marked missing pieces unless someone here has another copy. “Pick again” if not.
You can also just ask, in plain words: “something for five, under an hour, that we haven't played in a while”. The answer only names games on the shelves.
3. At the table, let the app hold the evening
Once people are in the room, nobody wants a planner. From the same screen:
- A game's card says who brings it and who here has played it, and opens your own notes and the rules on BoardGameGeek, so the teach starts from something.
- We're playing this pins it under Playing now; “Who goes first” shuffles the seats; when the box closes, Log the play keeps the date, who was there and how it went, in one tap.
- On the way out, Lend it notes who took your copy home.
Who was at the table stays on your shelf: the people you name on a play are never shown to anyone else, and the pinned games live on your phone, not on a server.
4. Small rules that save the evening
- Offer three, not twelve. More than that and the table splits; fewer and it isn't a choice. “Pick one for us” is there for when even three is too many.
- Pick the teacher with the game. If nobody can teach it, it's a learning night, and that's fine, but say so.
- Have a short game ready. Someone is always late; twenty minutes of something light is better than waiting.
- Write down what you played. Next time, “we haven't played that since May” is a good argument. GameChest keeps plays private to your shelf.
What it isn't
It isn't a recommendation engine for games you don't own, and it won't tell you a game is good. It works from what's actually on the shelves in the room, which is the question you have at seven o'clock on a Friday.