Goodbye, Old Friends: The Board Game Cull à la Dunkirk
I will go to extreme lengths to avoid administrative burdens. I despise running the machinery of what most people think of as normal activities. If I even hear conversations about it, I’ll make an excuse to go home.
Problem: Estate Planning
For a time I did contract writing for a company in the retirement planning space. Some of the estate planning stuff got stuck in my head. I’m 56, after all. It’s foolish not to think about it. But what’s with all the forms and lawyers? I need to think and write and sell my house and find new income. I’m not taking on any new projects where my conversation with the universe is refereed by the state. I have to make a bunch of dramatic pivots and that means moving light and fast. I had to do a field amputation on a bunch of games and a past that’s become a hindrance to my wellbeing.
Solution: Don’t Have Anything
The beautiful collection of designs I mostly acquired in the 2010s deserved better than to be pawed over at a thrift store. 75% of my day is looking for work and the rest is doing what little work I have; I’m not shipping jack shit 38 times.
So yesterday evening my neighbor JoJo came and packed all this into his car:
Weep later. Move it now.
JoJo showed me Project L and Escape the Dark Sector, so I figured these games would have a better chance of being enjoyed in his care. He did me a service here: I don’t need to wallow in artifacts from lost friendships that ain’t coming back. Plus, as he reported, the addition of all these boxes to his apartment has made him reorganize his Godzilla figures. But if he ever breaks any of these out, he’ll realize the value of accommodating some of the early century’s best tabletop thinking.
Say Their Names
In case you’re curious, the departed are:
• Wingspan
• Formula D
• Escape: Curse of the Temple
• Small World: Underground
• Tesla vs. Edison
• Ca$h 'n Guns
• Android: Netrunner
• Seasons
• Dungeon Petz
• Castles of Mad King Ludwig
• Dead of Winter
• Spartacus and The Serpents and the Wolf Expansion Set
• King of Tokyo
• Sheriff of Nottingham
• Arkham Horror: The Card Game
• Red November
• Space Crusade: The Ultimate Encounter
• Dark Future: The Game of Highway Warriors
• Power Grid
• Snake Oil
• Patchwork Americana Edition Codenames
• Hadrian’s Wall
• The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
• Battlelands
• Cheaty Mages
• Castle Poker
• DustRunner
• Storm Above the Reich
• Dominant Species
• 1066, Tears to Many Mothers
• New York Slice
• Mouse Cheese Cat Cucumber
• Cockroach Poker
• Coup
• Never Bring a Knife
• The Bloody Inn
What Am I Keeping?
”Why would you give away all your board games?” JoJo texted me when I showed him the pic of his prospective adoptees. I thought I was demonstrating sober, adult foresight. He heard a suicide threat.
But I’m not giving everything away. I’m keeping a small pile that are:
• Simply too beautiful or unique to give away
• Welcoming to tabletop-curious friends I may yet find
• Stuff I got in the past few years that I know I’ll want to play solo every year; they’re laden with memories of fun instead of loss, and plus I still know how to play them, unlike half the stuff in the photo
So by virtue of preparing for either a house sale and/or some weird event that suddenly kills 56-year-old men, I’ve damn near got my Concrete Island collection. (Bonus reference for you J.G. Ballard readers out there.)
In a future post, I’m going to show you what I kept and why.
