Not Variability in Setup!
So this list is a bit of a fun one and is based off of a conversation that I had with Sarah after playing a game of Clank! In! Space!: A Deck-Building Adventure. She noted that every time that I set up the game, I had the board sitting in a different orientation and that I had changed where I had put all the pieces. She jokingly noted that I should write a post about it after we cleaned up the game and I took that idea to heart.
As I started thinking about why I do it, I realized that part of it comes from wanting to stretch my brain in ways that I don't get used to having the board in a specific setup and then develop strategies based on how it's laid out. An interesting phenomena that I learned while doing martial arts is that the brain can associate specific steps with a direction or landmarks to be lazy. When a person faces a different direction, they can often forget the steps of whatever they're doing as the brain doesn't have the right orientation and it then doesn't have the "correct" input to help the person remember the steps needed.
That's partially why I change up the way that I set up board games, to challenge myself to think differently and not associate a certain direction with certain steps. It stretches my brain and makes me think differently without settling into a pattern.
Another reason could be that the game itself doesn't fit well on our table and I'm looking for new ways to accommodate the game. I have a table topper that spans 4'x6' which is about 2/3 of our table. I like to have most of the components on the table topper, but until we get a board game table (which we are currently saving up for), we will be using the topper for the time being. With some larger games, like ones I note below, they don't always fit well on the table topper and I have to adjust them on setup to ensure that it all fits on the topper. It's a pain, but something that I've come to accept and I roll with it.
Other times, I'm just feeling feisty and I am attempting to change up the feel of the game, so I'll set it up differently on the table. No other reason than to make it feel different for when we play the game. Or if there's a larger number of players, I'll try to set up the game so it accommodates every player rather than just the two on either end of the table. There's a ton of factors that go into my decisions and often, it's a spur of the moment, "I should probably set it up this way" decision.
On that note, here is a list of the top 10 games that each time I play it, I vary how I set up it on the table. Be it how the orientation of the board sits, or putting components in alternative locations, or doing something different with player boards, these games always see me changing things up with how I set them up on the table (much to Sarah's chagrin).
This is a weird topic, so have fun in the comments below and let me know how crazy you think I am for changing up how I set up each game...
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How I Change Setup: This is one that really depends on how many people are playing the game. We haven't tried to play it on our dining room table yet with more than two people, but with how everything is set up with the Collector's Edition of the game, the massive scoring board and components fit wildly differently based on how I set it up. One side of the board is longer in length, but shorter in height and works better with multiple players. The other side is thinner in width, but takes up extra height to make up for it, being much better suited for a two-player game.
I try to set up the game with the potential for the most room for everyone playing to build out their epic castles, but it also depends on my mood. Sometimes I say, "width be damned" and set up the wider track for a two player game because I like the theme of that side better. It's really a toss up on how it all gets set up, but fortunately, that's mainly the scoring board since the player areas grow as the castle is built and can modulate as needed.
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How I Change Setup: I have the Big Box version of Quacks of Quedlinburg and let me tell you, after all is said and done and if we're playing with multiple people, it can be a bit of a bear to ensure that everyone has access to all the components and space for their cauldrons. I try to set up the game so that the different books showing the ingredients are available to see, but with them being placed on the table, that can get a bit tricky. I'm hoping to add some containers that hold the bits (like the GeekUp Bits and Containers in the BGG Store) for all to see, but for now, I do my best to place them in an area that everyone can access and see, which often results in the game being set up in different ways each time.
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How I Change Setup: This one is more based on what is included in the game from the expansions. With the Complete Collection for Everdell, there's multiple separate expansions that could be added to the base game that then affect how I set up the game on the table. It's one of those awkward size games that barely fits on the table topper when we add in the player boards, but I do my best to accommodate it fitting. We absolutely love the game and try to play it as much as possible, but with all the various setups for the game, it often ends up looking different based on what we're including, resulting in a different setup each time. And with the amazing wooden Evertree that we play with, that has to be placed at the far end of the table to ensure it doesn't block any of the other components, so that always is a bit tricky to set up.
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How I Change Setup: While Expeditions might be a bit newer to me, I have been experimenting with how I set up the orientation of the hexes and player boards, both with multiplayer and solo play. With multiplayer, I want to set up the game so it's within reach of everyone at the table and that the orientation doesn't throw everyone off. Obviously, with the way the game is set up when ready, in a four player game with each player sitting at cardinal directions at the table, that results in one player seeing everything upside-down, but I do what I can to prevent that from happening.
In a solo game, I'm a bit more flexible, but I'm still experimenting with what works best and where I place my mat and the automa mat and cards. I haven't figured out a good solution yet, so I'm testing a few different setups before I find what I like. If I'm being honest, I doubt I'll ever settle on a specific setup since I like to change things around a bunch.
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How I Change Setup: Dungeonology is one of those games that really doesn't have a specific setup that is needed. With the various bosses that I have faced in the game, that often results in me setting up where I'm placing my player board in a different location. Based on the boss abilities, the solo mode opponent and the card draws as well as how the dungeon is built, I find myself putting the components in different locations every time I play. I've got a bit of a rhythm as to where I set things, but overall, it's more of a chaotic mess whenever I set up this game.
It's a good thing that all but one of my games of this have been solo, otherwise I'm pretty sure that my opponent(s) would hate me.
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How I Change Setup: Another game that is completely dependent upon player count. I like to have the cards set up so that everyone at the table can access them and that often changes based on where the game is set up. Sometimes I put the cards on one end of the table so they sit in the middle of three players, or other times I try to place them in the middle of everyone. It's really dependent upon how long people's arms are and that's the biggest factor on how I set up the game.
Overall, this is more of a "where are people sitting" issue rather than a preference issue, but it still ends up on this list for that reason.
How I Change Setup: I thought about setting this one as the first game, but as you'll soon read, the number one pick is that for a specific reason. Clank!: Catacombs is on this list because every time I've played, I've tried to find the optimal setup for the game to allow for the largest growth of the catacombs in every direction to not make it feel awkward for the players. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a setup that does this well and I'm still experimenting with best placement of the dungeon card row, the boss bag, and other components that are separate from the main board that's being built.
It also doesn't help that the game is different each time we play, so there's no guarantee that the setup that I put out will be accommodating to the way that the board is built. I absolutely love the randomization and setup for Catacombs, but my biggest frustration with it would have to be how there's no way to guarantee a good setup once the game gets going. It's for that reason alone that I'm probably going to be setting it up differently every single time I play.
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How I Change Setup: I love the boards for Heat: Pedal to the Metal, but they are absolutely massive. With the table that I have, I often have to get a bit creative with how I'm setting the game up. Depending on the race that I'm setting up for us to play, the player boards are the ones that move on the table and it can be on either side of the main board, although I have experimented with them on bottom. Either way, the setup for the game often varies, much to Sarah's chagrin and I end up with different places that I put everything each time we play.
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How I Change Setup: This is a more recent one that I've been experimenting with the setup for the game to see if that helps reduce the table space. Since I've been playing this game a bunch of times for my 10x10 Challenge this year, I've experimented quite a bit with the setup for the game.
It's a total table hog and I spent much of my time looking for ways to reduce the setup time and table presence. As I started playing more and more games, I began reducing the size by getting rid of the main islands and keeping the tiles just straight on the playmat I use. I also didn't remove all the meeples from the baggie and kept dinos in the baggy too. By the end of the challenge, I had removed all but the essential components, further reducing the table presence. I'll probably screw around with setup further, but I don't think this will ever stop changing from game to game.
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How I Change Setup: Ok, with an introduction like that, how was this not going to be my #1 pick?
I don't know why I do this to be honest, but I just can't find a comfortable spot for this game on our table. The game is a bit too long to feasibly fit on our table between Sarah and I, and with the inclusion of the various setups that it has with some of the expansions I own for it, it just doesn't feel right to have it facing towards one player every single game. Based on what expansion we're playing with, what modules there are on the table, and a series of numerous other factors often result in me choosing the dungeon row above or below the board, or with the board facing a different direction. This has ended up with the game being set up in a different manner almost every single time we play, thus prompting Sarah's joke about writing a post about it and here we are at the end of the list!
Final Thoughts
This was a really fun topic to write on as it made me look at which games end up being set up differently every time. With most games that have a game board, I end up placing the components in relatively the same locations each time for ease of use, but with those that don't have a specific board, that often gets changed around. Although that's not a hard and fast rule, as I noted with Heat, since that can really depend on what the board contains.
I will say that my setup for Clank! A Deck-Building Adventurehas gotten pretty standard and I know where everything will go, even in a multiplayer game. There are a few other games here and there that have the same setup each time I play them and that is generally due to the nature of the game that is being played. Flamecraft for example has a long, neoprene mat that acts as the board so it always is set up in the middle of my table to accommodate the board.
I think that this also might be a bit of my ADHD kicking in when it comes to game setup as that allows me to have that "new and exciting" feel, even when playing the same game over and over again. If I trick my brain into thinking that the game is different because it's facing a new direction, it will seem new and interesting despite being the same game that I've played over and over again.
This drives Sarah nuts though, so I try to limit it as much as I possibly can.
Give Me Your Thoughts:Do you find that your board games get set up in much the same way each time you play them, or do you change up the way that you set up your boards? With games that have variable setup or randomized tiles that you build out (a la Clank!: Catacombs), do you try to set it up in the same way every time? Does your gaming space require you to set games up in a certain way to accommodate their size, or do you add extra room/tables for higher player counts?
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