Getting the most out of The Game Shelf

Adding games

Find it Collection tab → Add a game. Sync from my BGG collection, Fill in missing details from BGG, spreadsheet import and the CSV download are under Manage shelf next to it. You need to be signed in.

Add Game opens a form with BoardGameGeek search built right in. Start typing a title, pick the right edition, and most of the fields (players, playtime, designer, cover art) fill themselves in.

Sync from my BGG collection pulls your whole BoardGameGeek collection in one shot, by username. It asks once and remembers it after that. It only adds games you don't already have, so it's safe to run again any time you pick something new up.

Fill In From BGG goes back through games already on your shelf that are missing details and fills in whatever it can find.

The small barcode icon next to the Name field opens your camera and scans the box's barcode, then looks up the retail product name and runs the same BGG search, so you still pick the right match instead of typing the title out. Coverage isn't perfect (board games are a small slice of what that barcode database tracks), so if a scan comes up empty, just search by name instead.

If you try to add a game, or a wishlist item, that's already on your shelf (same BGG entry or same name), it asks before creating a second copy. Handy when you can't remember whether that convention pickup ever got entered.

Finding things

Find it Collection tab, the search box and filters just above the grid. To search the whole site, use the Search the shelf box at the top of any page (a magnifying glass on smaller screens), or Ctrl/Cmd+K.

Use the search box, the type filter, the player-count filter, or the A to Z jump bar along the top of the grid. Sort by name or by your own rating.

With a big shelf, the grid groups itself by type, Strategy, Party, and so on, into sections you can collapse and expand, so the page stays short instead of turning into one long scroll. The biggest group starts open and the rest start collapsed; click a section's header to open or close it. The moment you search, filter, or jump to a letter, grouping steps aside and you get a plain grid of just the matches, no extra clicks needed.

Ask a Rules Question

Find it Collection tab → click any game → Ask a Rules Question, near the bottom of its card.

Open any game's detail card and there's a small box for rules questions right there, "can you play an action card on someone else's turn?" and the like. It answers from what it already knows about that specific game, and it's built to say so plainly when it's not confident rather than guess, so treat it as a quick gut-check at the table, not a replacement for the actual rulebook on anything obscure or rules-lawyer-y.

Game DNA

Find it Plays tab → the Recaps buttons in the month card at the top → Game DNA.

A radar chart of your whole collection across six axes: complexity, playtime, party size, variety, how modern your shelf skews, and how much co-op you own. A quick way to actually see your own taste instead of just assuming you know it.

No account? Signed-out visitors get a form instead: type any public BoardGameGeek username and it draws that shelf's shape, shows their most played and highest rated games, and how many games you both own. A misspelled name or a private collection shows a clear message and lets you try again.

Game of the Month

Find it This week on the shelf, near the top of the page: swipe along the cards to the Game of the Month. Tap it to open the game.

One game is featured each month, with its cover, a short note, and how often it has hit the table this month. Log a play of it before the month ends and you earn that month's badge (October's is October Regular), which appears with your other achievements and stays unlocked. When no game is set for the month, the card hides itself.

Favorites

Find it The row of covers near the top of the Game Shelf page. To choose them: click a game on your own shelf → the heart on its card.

A row of the games you'd never part with, best-rated first, up to 12. Tap the heart on a game's card to add it to the row, tap again to take it off. Until you've picked any, the row shows your top-rated games instead, so it's never empty. Visitors see it as "The ones I'd never sell".

What kind of gamer are you?

Find it The Ask Silas card near the top of the page → the Not sure what to ask? Take the 60-second quiz link.

Three quick questions that end in a game suggestion from the shelf, for when you don't know what you're in the mood for.

You vs. the crowd

Find it Insights → taste vs. the crowd. Each game's card also shows the comparison.

Compares your own ratings against BoardGameGeek's community rating for the same games, surfacing your hidden gems (rated well above the crowd) and the games that just aren't your thing (rated well below).

Compare collections

Find it Collection tab → scroll down to Compare, type a BoardGameGeek username, and press Compare.

Enter any BoardGameGeek username, yours, a friend's, anyone's, to see the overlap between their BGG collection and your shelf. What you both own, and what they have that might be worth a look. Works with any username at all, not just people who've signed up here.

New here? Start with these

Find it Collection tab → the star button on a game's card (on your own shelf). Starred games show up in a row at the top of the Collection tab.

A star icon on any game's detail card marks it as a starter pick, and every game you've starred shows up as a small horizontal shelf right at the top of the Collection tab. Not the "best" games on the shelf, just the easiest on-ramps, hand-picked for whoever's never played anything here before.

Legacy & campaign tracking

Find it Collection tab → the campaign button next to the star on a game's card ("Track as a legacy/campaign game").

A second icon marks a game as a legacy or campaign title, one whose state carries over between plays instead of resetting each session. Once marked, its detail card gets a running Campaign Progress note, chapter number, party state, which story branches got taken, whatever's worth remembering before the next sitting.

Lending tracker

Find it Collection tab → click a game → the Lending section on its card. To see everything that's out: the Out on Loan button with the filters above the A to Z bar, or All sections → Shelf → Out on loan.

A game's detail card has a Lending section: log who you loaned it to, when, and an optional note, then mark it returned once it's back. Anything currently out shows a small "Loaned Out" badge on its collection card. Whenever something's out, an Out on Loan (2)-style button joins the filters above the grid; press it to show only the loaned games, and press it again for the whole shelf. Who has what only shows on your own shelf, so nothing quietly disappears without a record of where it went.

Score sheets

Find it Collection tab → click a game → the Score Sheet section on its card. Scan a Score Pad is inside the sheet builder.

For a game with scoring worth automating, build a score sheet once from a game's detail card, a plain number, a count multiplied by points each, or a formula pulled from other rows, and it becomes a calculator you can pull up at the table. Add as many player columns as you need, type in values, and every total updates live as you go instead of doing the arithmetic by hand.

Don't want to build the categories by hand? Scan a Score Pad reads a photo of the game's actual printed score pad or scoring track and proposes the categories for you, structure only, never numbers, which you can then adjust before saving. And once a sheet's in use, whoever's currently ahead gets a small trophy next to their total, so the table can tell who's leading at a glance.

Once a sheet exists for a game, anyone looking at that game's detail card can pull it up and use it, no sign-in required, same as the actual scorepad it's replacing. Building, editing, or deleting one still stays locked to the owner.

Game night notes & your copy

Find it Collection tab → the pencil on a game's card → Game night notes & your copy (click to open it). Teach mode: click the game → Teach this game, step by step.

Every game's edit form has a "Game night notes & your copy" section. How we teach it holds your own short teach, the order you explain things in and the rule everyone forgets. Our house rules is for the tweaks your table actually plays with. Both show on the game's detail card for anyone browsing your shelf.

Once a game has teach notes, its card gets a Teach this game, step by step button. It opens a full-screen view in big type, one step per screen, that you can hold up at the table: tap Next, swipe, or use the arrow keys. Write your notes with a blank line between steps, and start a step with a short title and a colon ("Scoring: count each habitat...") if you want it labeled. Your house rules come last, so they never get forgotten, and the final screen can start Live Score or the Log Session form with the game already filled in. While it's open, your phone's screen stays on. Guests can open the same view from the game's public page.

The same section keeps a few details about your physical copy, shelf location, condition, language, and whether it's sleeved, which only you can see. On Norman's own shelf there's also a One-line pitch, a single sentence on why a game is worth playing, which shows up on the public "best of" pages (more on those below).

Quick log (the + button)

Find it The round + button at the bottom right of every page, when you're signed in and on your own shelf.

The fast way to log at the table. Pick the game (tonight's games and your recent ones are one-tap buttons, or search), tap who played, tap the winner, and save. Scores are optional: add them and leave the winner blank, and the top score wins. You can also set where you played (at the table, BGA or online) and the date. After saving, Play again logs a rematch with the same game and players, and Different game keeps the players for the next one.

It remembers game night. For 12 hours after a play, the same group and "where" are filled in for you, so every game after the first is just the game and the winner. New plays still post to BGG, ping linked friends, and offer the belt trophy card, exactly like the full form. For expansions, notes, photos or a game that isn't on your shelf yet, the link at the bottom opens the full Log Session form with what you've picked carried over.

No signal? It still works. The site keeps your games and regular players on your device, so the panel opens offline. A play saved with no connection waits on the device: the + button shows how many are waiting, and the Plays tab shows a "waiting to sync" note with Sync now and Remove. They sync by themselves as soon as you're back online, and a sync that gets cut off halfway is finished rather than logged twice. Adding a new game, Scan Scorepad and photos need a connection. On iPhone, waiting plays sync the next time you open the site.

Log Session

Find it Plays tab → Full form (or Log a play for the quick version). You need to be signed in. The Where field sits next to the date.

Pick a date and game (or search BGG to log something you played but don't own), add every player who was there, mark who won, and optionally track scores. Free-text names work fine for anyone who isn't on the site, or tag a linked friend directly.

A Where field records whether you played at the table, on Board Game Arena, or somewhere else online. It remembers your last choice, and a roster of "BGA - 1"-style opponents is filed as a Board Game Arena game on its own. Online games get a small BGA or Online tag in your log, and Wrapped, the monthly recap, and game pages split your plays between the table and the screen.

Playing a team game? Each player row has an optional team tag, a small colored dot with six preset colors. It's purely visual, a way to see at a glance who was on which side when you look back at the session later. It doesn't touch who's marked as the winner or any of the stats, belts, or leaderboard math, which all still work off individual wins the same way they always have.

There's also an optional "What happened" note, a funny moment, a comeback, why the game dragged in the middle. It shows up right under that session in the log, in its own words, next to the scores.

Below that is a Private notes box, for things you want to remember but not publish: a rules mistake you made, who was in a mood, what to try differently next time. Only you ever see it, even when your collection is public.

Paste from BGA

Find it Plays tab → Full form → Paste from BGA, next to Scan Scorepad.

For games played on Board Game Arena: at the end of a game, select the final rankings (from "1st" down to the last player's score), copy, and paste them in. As soon as you paste, the form fills in the players, scores and winner, sets Where to Board Game Arena, and picks up the game's name if it was in what you copied. Enter your own BGA username once and your row always comes in as you. If your last few logged plays were on BGA, Full form opens with the paste box already waiting.

Each opponent then gets a small picker: log them under their BGA username, as a seat like BGA - 1, or as someone else. Your choice is remembered for that username, so next time they fill in automatically. It costs nothing to use; the text is read in your browser.

Import Plays from BGG

Find it Plays tab → the ⋯ menu next to Full form → Import plays from BGG.

If you already log plays on BoardGameGeek (or use BG Stats with its BGG sync on), Import Plays from BGG pulls that history in as sessions here, instead of retyping years of plays by hand. It checks every BGG play against what's already logged on this site by game and date first, so anything you've already logged by hand is skipped rather than duplicated, and only genuinely new plays get added. Each imported date comes straight from BGG's own record of when you actually played, never the day you happen to run the import. Everything one import adds shares a batch, so if anything about it looks off, Undo This Import removes exactly that run and nothing you logged by hand.

Scan Scorepad

Find it Plays tab → Full form → Scan Scorepad, just above the player rows.

Instead of typing in the roster by hand, photograph the actual scorepad from the table and it reads off the names, final scores, and the winner where that's clear, then drops them straight into the player rows below for you to check over before saving. It's built to leave out anything it can't read confidently rather than guess at rough handwriting, so it's still worth a quick glance before you hit save.

Quick-pick players & rematch

Find it The name chips sit above the player rows in the Log Session form. For a rematch: the circular-arrow button on any game under Latest plays at the top of the Plays tab, or Log tab → open a month → pick a game → the circular-arrow button on a play.

The player list remembers who you actually play with. One-tap chips above the player rows fill in your most frequent opponents, so you're not retyping the same three or four names every single session.

Already logged a session? Its entry in your history has a rematch button that reopens the form with the same game and the same roster, today's date, scores cleared. For the nights you end up playing the same thing twice in a row.

Parties

Find it Plays tab → Full form → Save as Party, or pick one from the Load a party list, above the player rows.

A step up from the quick-pick chips: build a roster in the player rows, then "Save as Party" to name and keep it, "Friday Night Crew," or whatever fits. Next time, "Load a party" fills in every row in one click instead of adding people one at a time. It only remembers who's in the group and any friend link, never scores or who won, since those change every night. Manage Parties lists everything you've saved with a one-click delete.

Session photos

Find it Plays tab → Log → open a month → pick a game → the camera button on a play.

Attach a handful of photos to any session as you log it, or add them later. They show up as a thumbnail strip on that session's entry, and click through to a full-size lightbox. A quick visual record of the actual night, not just the score.

Live Score

Find it All sections → Plays → Live score. Starting a scoreboard needs an account; joining one with a code or the QR code doesn't.

Live Score starts a shared scoreboard for one sitting at the table: pick a game and starting players, then share the code or QR code that comes up. Anyone who scans it or types the code joins instantly on their own phone, no account needed, and everyone can bump any player's score from wherever they're sitting, updating live on every joined screen. It's a scoreboard for the length of one game. When you press End Game, it offers to log the final scores as a play, so nothing has to be typed twice.

Starting a board is quicker now: tap names from Your regulars (tonight's group from quick log first, then the people you've played with most lately) instead of typing them, and the game box suggests games from your shelf as you type. During the game, the player in front is marked Leading and a line above the scores says who's ahead and by how much. The score buttons are bigger for tapping at the table.

What you get from it

Find it Plays tab → the Overview (totals, Most Played, Shelf of Shame), By game, Head-to-head and Activity tabs.

Most Played, a Shelf of Shame, a full play-activity heatmap, monthly charts, head-to-head records against specific people, and win rate by game. Open the Shelf of Shame card to switch between Never played (games you own but haven't logged) and Played, not owned (games you've played but don't have a copy of). Under the Recaps row, More views links to Shelf insights and the 10x10 challenge.

The time filter offers rolling windows (this week, this month, this year) plus specific calendar years and months, like 2026 or September 2026. The filters across the top (time period, game type, player) also include Where: Anywhere, At the table, Board Game Arena, or Other online. It applies to every stat on the tab, the heatmap and the month folders, and it remembers your choice. It only appears once some of your plays are recorded as online.

Skill ratings

Find it Plays tab → By game → Skill ratings. Also on each game's card (Best at this table) and on a player's card on the Players page (tap their name, then Highest rated at).

A chess-style rating for each game, built from your logged plays. Everyone starts every game at 1,000. After each result, players trade points: beating someone rated higher earns more than beating a newcomer, and in a multiplayer game you're compared against each other player at the table, using scores when you logged them and just the winner when you didn't. Co-op games are left out. A rating counts as settled after 5 plays of that game; before that it shows with a question mark.

The Skill ratings view shows each game as a short leaderboard, top three players with a bar and their rating, and it follows every filter at the top of the tab: pick September 2026 to see who was strongest that month, or a whole year. Game cards and player cards use your full history. Ratings also follow the Where filter. Set it to At the table for real ratings between you and your regular group, or Board Game Arena to see how you stack up against the BGA seats you log (marked as seats, since "BGA - 1" isn't one person). They need repeat plays with the same people to mean much, so they fill in over time.

Games Played by Month

Find it Plays tab → Log, the month-by-month folders. Click a month to open it.

Every play, grouped into collapsing month-by-month folders with a compact grid of what got played and how many times. This year's months stay right at the top; anything older folds into a single "Past Years" accordion, grouped by year, so a long history doesn't bury the months you actually care about right now.

Tonight's Pick

Find it Signed in: the Pick a Game for Tonight button at the top of the Game Shelf page. Visitors: Or let the shelf pick one at random, under the Ask Silas box.

Can't decide what to play? A slot-machine-style reel spins through your own collection and lands on one. Filter by player count first if you've got a specific-sized group, and set a minimum rating if you'd rather it only land on something you're genuinely high on, not just whatever happens to fit the headcount.

What should we bring?

Find it "What should we bring? Pack a bag" under Pick a Game for Tonight (signed in), the What should we bring? button on Discover → Play tonight, or Suggest a bag for the trip on a convention.

Where Pick a Game chooses one game, this packs a small bag for the night. Tap who's coming (tonight's quick-log group or your two most regular players start selected), how long you have, how many games fit in the bag (2 to 5) and, if you like, a mood: lighter, heavier or co-op. It only picks games that play at that player count, prefers ones that are best at it by BGG vote, and shapes the night: a short opener, mains that fit the time, and a quick closer, never two of the same kind. It leans on how this group plays each game, avoids one that a single person nearly always wins, and slips in favorites that haven't been out in months or games nobody there has played. Each pick has a one-line reason and a Swap this one button; Try another mix reshuffles, and Copy the list for the group puts it on your clipboard for the group chat.

Silas, the Game Steward

Find it The Ask Silas card at the top of the Game Shelf page. For visitors it sits right in the cover-wall header; signed in, it's the card just below it. The quiz link is underneath the box.

A little concierge sitting near the top of the Game Shelf. Describe the mood, quick game for two, big group and low complexity, co-op for date night, or just whatever's actually in your head, and it'll come back with exactly one real game off your own shelf, and why.

Not sure what to type? The "What kind of gamer are you?" quiz right beside it asks three quick questions and hands Silas the request for you. After the quiz, Silas also points you at one past Philosopher's Table week that suits the kind of gamer you said you are.

If Norman has written about the game Silas picks, the Philosopher's Table entry for it appears under his answer with a link to the week. Silas never writes or chooses the quotes himself; they're Norman's, word for word. Tap Something else? for a different game, with a dry remark from Silas about being asked twice. The same question about the same shelf gets the same answer for a day, so the example chips answer instantly and don't use up anyone's daily asks.

Who's playing tonight? On your own shelf there's a link under the box. Tap the regulars who are at the table (you're counted already) and add guests with + and −. Silas then picks for that many players, and from your play log he knows which games this group has played a lot in the last three months and which favorites with them haven't been out for two months or more. Only those game names and counts go to Silas, never anyone's name. The link stays on your choice until you clear it or reload the page.

Share: the Share button next to "Something else?" makes a picture of the pick (crest, your question, cover, the game, his reason) for the group chat. Phones get the share sheet; computers get a download.

Silas always reads the shelf you're looking at straight from the database, so his picks are always from that shelf as it is right now.

Norman can see what people ask Silas (the question and the pick only, never who asked) under Read → Blog → What people ask Silas.

Play Activity heatmap

Find it Plays tab → Activity.

A grid of the last 52 full weeks, one column per Sunday-to-Saturday week and one square per day. The darker and warmer the square, the more sessions you logged that day: none, 1, 2 to 3, 4 to 5, or 6 and up (the legend underneath shows the shades). Hover or tap a square for the exact date and count. It ignores the time, type and player filters so it always shows your real rhythm, but it does follow the Where filter when you've logged online plays.

At the top of the box, Year and Month buttons choose what to share. Year uses the heatmap above. Month adds a month picker (the last 24 months) and builds a calendar of that month with a shaded square per day and your top three games. Share my plays turns your choice into a picture: on a phone it opens the share sheet, and on a computer it downloads a PNG. If nothing was played in the period you picked, you'll get a short message instead of an empty image. See Plays image below for what each version contains.

Plays image

Find it Plays tab → Recaps → Plays image, or Share my plays on the Activity tab.

Makes a picture you can post or send. Choose Year for a 52-week heatmap with your session count, days at the table, longest weekly streak and most-played game, or Month (with a month picker) for a calendar of that month with your top three games. On a phone it opens the share sheet; on a computer it downloads a PNG.

Wrapped

Find it Plays tab → Recaps → Year in review. The monthly version and the About this shelf block at the bottom of any page also have it.

A personal recap tucked near the bottom of the page, in two sizes. See My Wrapped covers the year (all through January it shows the year that just ended, so the new one never opens empty), and See My [Month] Wrapped covers the month that just finished, whenever you logged plays in it.

Both tap through the same slides: sessions and days at the table compared with the period before, how many different games you played and how many were brand new to you, your most-played game, your most frequent opponent with your head-to-head record, your win rate and best winning streak, the player count and game type you played most, your biggest single game day, and your top-rated review. The last slide makes a shareable image you can download.

If you get the recap emails, the monthly one arrives on the 1st with a button straight into that month's Wrapped (see Sharing below).

Linking a friend

Find it Players page → the Friends panel.

Easiest: send them your invite link. In the Friends panel, tap Invite a friend with a link. On a phone it opens the share sheet; on a computer it copies the link. When they open it they see who invited them, and as soon as they sign up (or sign in, if they already have an account) the two of you are linked. No email addresses, nothing to accept. Your link stays the same, so you can send it to as many people as you like.

Or, if they already have an account, link by email:

1. Send the request. On the Players page, in the Friends panel, type the email address they signed up with and press Send request.
2. They accept it. The request shows up under the bell at the top of their page; they accept it there.
3. Tag them when you log a game. In the Log Session form, pick them from the friend list on their player row. That link is what unlocks belts, the leaderboard, rivalries, and everything else below.

Friend Activity

Find it Players page → Your table → Around the table (the swipeable row of friends' latest plays) and Friend Activity (the full feed) just under it.

Around the table shows your friends' latest plays, reviews and badges as a row of cards; tap one to open it and comment. Friend Activity is a running feed of recent plays and reviews from friends who've made their own collection public, plus any belt you've personally won or lost. It's the same "public or your own" rule as everywhere else on the site: a friend who hasn't gone public shows up here exactly like a stranger would, nothing more.

House Shows & Premium Events

Find it Players page → House Shows & Premium Events → + Create a Poll. Open an existing poll from the same panel.

Every game night starts as a poll: a link you can send around instead of a group chat argument, no account needed on the other end. When you create one, you pick an event type, since a regular Tuesday and a full convention weekend need to read differently at a glance:

1. House Show: a regular rotating night. This is the default, for most weeks.
2. Dark Match: a learning night, built around new games or new players at the table.
3. Premium Live Event: a convention trip or a full-day/weekend event.
4. Royal Rumble: a tournament night with a single champion at the end. These get a bracket builder: type in the entrants and it shuffles and seeds them, handles byes, and lets you click a name to move them on until a champion is called. For now the bracket lives on the host's side of the poll.

Whichever type you pick shows up as a badge on the poll card, so a glance down your list tells you which nights are routine and which ones are the big show.

On any poll with a guest list, next to "Still waiting on," there's a Copy a reminder link. It writes a ready-to-paste text naming just the people who haven't answered, with the poll link, so nudging them is one paste instead of a paragraph.

1. Open a poll. On the Players page, in the House Shows & Premium Events panel, start a poll for the night you're planning, and choose its event type. You'll set up one or more tables, since a night with enough people often splits into more than one game at once.
2. Share the link. Send it to whoever's coming. They don't need an account, they just open the link and vote on the games you've put up for each table.
3. Watch the responses come in. Back on your side, open the poll from the panel and click the response count to see how the votes are landing, table by table. There's also a checkbox to include yourself in the headcount and scheduling. It adds you as an all-night player rather than making you fill out your own poll response. Next to it is a date and time field defaulting to whenever the earliest respondent said they'd arrive, so your own window lands on the actual night rather than whatever day you happened to set the poll up, which is worth double-checking (or changing) if you're setting the poll up ahead of time.
4. Build a shortlist. For each table, shortlist whichever games came out ahead, or whatever you want to actually put in play regardless of the vote. It's your night to run. "Games that fit" only gates on headcount and playtime, so on a big shelf that can still mean hundreds of games. The box scrolls instead of stretching the page, and whichever weight the table actually asked for (light, medium, heavy) is sorted to the top, based on what people picked when they responded. The chips only ever pull from your own shelf, so if someone's bringing a game or you're borrowing one for the night, there's a small "Add a game that's not on your shelf" box right below them. Type the name and it goes onto the shortlist the same as any chip would.
5. Lay out the evening. Next to each shortlisted game is a time picker and an "Add to timeline" button. The suggested time is that game's own playtime plus a 30-minute cushion after whatever's already scheduled at that table, so there's room to breathe between games. Set a time and add it, and it flips to "On timeline." Everything you've scheduled for that table then shows up below in a Timeline section, sorted by time, with a Remove button if you change your mind.
6. See who's playing what, when. Once more than one table has something scheduled, a grid appears above the timelines: one column per table, with everyone's avatar under its header, and one row per time slot showing which game's up and at which table.
7. Send people the plan. The same link you shared for voting now also shows a "Tonight's Lineup" card at the top, read-only, grouped by table, once you've scheduled at least one game. Nothing shows there until something's on the timeline.

Belts

Find it Players page → The players → Belts.

For every game you've played against a linked friend, whoever won most recently holds the belt, a medallion that flips the moment the other person wins next. It moves. That's the whole point.

Right after a session where you beat a linked friend, you'll get an option to send them a shareable trophy card marking the win. Both of you end up with a copy.

Rivalry card

Find it Players page → tap a player's name to open their card → Share rivalry card.

The Players page lists everyone you've logged a game with as a compact row of names, with plays and record under each. Tap a name and their full card opens right underneath: sessions together, head-to-head with a win bar, most played game, highest rated at, and the buttons. Every player card, and the Rival panel under the names, has a "Share rivalry card" button, a downloadable image with the head-to-head score, sessions played together, and your most common game against that person. No need to be a linked friend for this one, it works off any name you've logged.

Gift Ideas

Find it Players page → Badges & gift ideas → Gift Ideas, or All sections → Shelf → Gift ideas.

Three things at once for whoever you're shopping for: their wishlist, which of their owned games have official BGG expansions they don't own yet, and a few BGG hot-list games that match what they already play.

Anyone can open it, no account needed. A visitor sees ideas for the shelf they're looking at, so a friend browsing Norman's shelf (or your public shelf) gets a ready-made gift list. Signed in on your own shelf, you can pick a linked friend from the list to shop for them, or choose "My shelf (what visitors see)" to check what others will find. Friends whose collection isn't public show in the list but can't be picked, since their wishlist and collection aren't readable.

Leaderboard

Find it Players page → The players → Leaderboard.

Ranks everyone you've linked as a friend by sessions played together or by your record against them, plus a "biggest upset" callout if a friend who's generally behind you overall still holds a belt at some specific game.

Achievements

Find it Players page → Badges & gift ideas → Your Achievements. It's a single line with your count; click it to open the medallions, then View All for the full set.

90 embossed medallions on the Players page, tracking real milestones: sessions logged, reviews written, games owned, and money spent (several with multiple tiers, from a first taste up to a serious milestone), but also the things unique to this site, like hosting a game night, matching up with a friend at the same convention, holding a head-to-head belt, posting a play to BoardGameGeek, or writing teach notes for a game. Each one sits locked and dull until you actually earn it, then it lights up for good and stays that way, even if the thing that earned it later stops being true. A new one doesn't interrupt you with a pop-up; it shows up once in the bell. A friend with a public collection can see your unlocks show up in their Activity Feed, the same way a session or a review does. The grid sorts your most-complete badges first and starts collapsed to about two rows, so the ones closest to unlocking are what you see right away instead of scrolling past everything still at zero; hit "View All" to expand the full set.

• First Blood: log your first session.
• First Win: win your first logged session.
• Warming Up: log 10 sessions.
• On a Roll: log 50 sessions.
• Century Club: log 100 sessions.
• Old Hand: log 250 sessions.
• Living Legend: log 500 sessions.
• First Impressions: write your first review.
• Critic: write 10 reviews.
• Prolific Critic: write 25 reviews.
• Voice of the Table: write 50 reviews.
• Getting Started: own 10 games.
• Collector: own 50 games.
• Hoarder: own 100 games.
• Vault Keeper: own 200 games.
• Completionist: play every game you currently own at least once.
• The Explorer: play 5 different game types.
• Getting Curious: own games across 3 different game types.
• Well-Rounded: own games across 6 different game types.
• Heavyweight Champion: own a game rated 4.5+ complexity.
• Social Butterfly: play with 5 different people.
• Big Spender: spend $500 total on games.
• High Roller: spend $1,000 total on games.
• Bargain Hunter: sell a game for more than you paid.
• Wish Granted: move a wishlist game into your collection.
• Chair Saved: host your first game night.
• Full House: every invitee RSVPs yes to a night you host.
• The Regular: host 5 game nights.
• Party Planner: host 15 game nights.
• Life of the Party: host 30 game nights.
• House Call: RSVP yes to a game night a friend hosts.
• On the Road: log your first convention.
• Con Veteran: log 5 conventions.
• Con Circuit: log 10 conventions.
• Found Each Other: a friend's convention attendance matches yours.
• Convention Buddy: match up with a friend at 3 different conventions.
• Royal Rumble: 3 or more friends turn up at the same convention as you.
• Photo Album: post photos across 3 different conventions.
• It Meant Enough: receive your first trophy card.
• Gracious Winner: win a trophy exchange with a linked friend.
• Belt Holder: hold a head-to-head belt against a friend.
• Three-Peat: hold belts against 3 different rivals at once.
• Grand Slam: hold belts against 5 different rivals at once.
• Belt Swap: lose a belt to a rival, then win it back from them.
• Rematch: play the same game against the same friend 5 times.
• Steel Cage Match: play the same game against the same friend 20 times.
• Nemesis: a friend holds a losing record over you, 3+ games.
• Minion: hold a dominant record over a friend, 3+ games.
• Champion: win more of one game than anyone else you've played it with.
• Ten Times In: finish a 10x10 Challenge game.
• On a Heater: log a session 4 weeks in a row.
• Iron Grip: log a session 8 weeks in a row.
• Standing Appointment: log a session 6 months in a row.
• Not Alone: link your first friend.
• Circle of Friends: link 5 friends.
• Community Builder: link 10 friends.

What should we play?

Find it Players page → tap a linked friend's name → What should we play? on their card.

A button on each linked friend's card that cross-references your collection against theirs and lists everything you both own, using the narrower of your two player-count ranges so whatever comes up will actually work for game night.

Notifications

Find it The bell at the top of the page, once you're signed in.

The bell in the nav bar tracks incoming friend requests, belt flips you haven't seen yet, new achievements, and comments on your plays (or on plays where you've commented). Open it to accept or decline requests inline, click a comment to open that play's thread and reply, or click a new badge to jump to the Players page. New achievements and belt flips are one-time notices: once you've opened the bell and seen them, they clear.

Profile photo

Find it Players page → Sharing → Change photo.

Also under Sharing: upload a photo to replace the plain initial circle next to your name. It follows you everywhere your name shows up to other people, Friends, the Leaderboard, and the Activity feed, and it's entirely optional.

Making your collection public

Find it Players page → Sharing → tick Make my collection public, then Copy my public link.

Under Sharing on the Players page, turn "Make my collection public" on, then use Copy My Public Link. Anyone with that link can browse your shelf, sessions, and reviews. Read-only. Nothing they can edit, and nothing shared until you flip that switch yourself.

Weekly recap & monthly Wrapped emails

Find it Players page → Sharing → tick Email me a weekly recap and a monthly Wrapped on the 1st.

Also under Sharing: "Email me a weekly recap and a monthly Wrapped on the 1st" turns on two emails. The Sunday recap covers your sessions and record, any belts won or lost, new friend connections, blog posts or reviews you published that week, and whatever's currently trending on BoardGameGeek.

On the morning of the 1st, the monthly Wrapped email covers the month just ended: sessions and days at the table compared with the month before, your most-played and brand-new games, your win record and best streak, and your most frequent opponent with your head-to-head score, plus a button that opens the full slide-by-slide Wrapped. It only comes if you logged plays that month. One unsubscribe link in either email turns both off.

Push notifications

Find it Players page → Sharing → tick Push notifications on this device (do it on each device).

Also under Sharing: "Push notifications on this device" turns on real-time alerts for the moments that need a quick response, a friend request, a trophy someone sent you, a game night invite, or an RSVP to a night you're hosting. Nothing else pings you, comments and reactions stay bell-only. It's per-device, so turn it on separately on your phone and your laptop if you want both.

One browser-specific quirk worth knowing: on Windows, Microsoft Edge routes notifications through its own delivery service, and on some machines that service just doesn't reliably deliver them, even though the toggle turns on successfully. Chrome, Firefox, and Safari don't have this issue. If push notifications don't seem to be arriving on Edge, try Chrome instead before assuming something's wrong with your account.

Discover and Find a Game

Find it All sections → Explore → Discover.

The page has three tabs: Play tonight, Trending on BGG and Crowdfunding. The tab you last used is remembered. Play tonight starts with a What should we bring? button for packing a bag of games (see What should we bring? under Logging sessions).

Play tonight opens on Overdue for the table: up to eight games rated 7 or higher that haven't been played in at least two months (or ever), with the best-rated and longest-waiting first. The filters above it search your whole shelf: pick a player count, a weight (light, medium or heavy), a play-time band (quick, up to 75 minutes, or longer), and optionally Not played yet. Each tile shows the rating, players, time, weight, and how many times you've played it. Surprise me opens a random game that matches your filters. Games missing player, weight or time data are left out only while a filter needs it, and the count under the filters says how many.

Trending on BGG is BoardGameGeek's hot list, with games already on your shelf marked, and Crowdfunding switches between Gamefound's hot and just-launched projects and Kickstarter's current tabletop campaigns.

Wishlist

Find it All sections → Shelf → Wishlist → + Add to Wishlist. Update price is under each item.

Track games you don't own yet. For inspiration, the Discover page (All sections → Explore) shows BoardGameGeek's current hot list and the crowdfunding projects getting attention, and any wishlist item can be moved straight into your collection once you pick it up.

Each wishlist item can carry a target price. Use "Update price" whenever you spot the current price, and the item gets a 🔽 flag once that price reaches your target. It's manual on purpose, since there's no honest free way to pull store prices automatically, but it means you'll know a good deal when you see one.

Under the title, a line counts what's on the list and how many items are at or below your target price; those cards also get a gold outline. Once there are four or more items you can sort by Newest, Waiting longest, Closest to target (when any item has a target price) or A–Z, and a search box appears at eight. Cards without a price show when the game was added, and long notes are trimmed to two lines. Visitors looking at someone else's wishlist get a link to that person's Gift ideas.

Above the list, a quiet callout looks at the mechanics and categories BGG has on file for everything you own and points out real gaps, "nothing here reads as deduction or trick-taking style." It's an honest pattern in what's on the shelf, not a recommendation to go fill every gap.

Buy and sell (Games In/Out)

Find it All sections → Tools → Buy and sell → + Game In or + Game Out. You need to be signed in.

A running ledger of what you've bought, sold, or traded, with prices. Useful if you ever want an honest answer to how much you've actually spent on this hobby (I didn't, for a long time).

When sorted by date, the ledger is grouped by year, each with a quick subtotal ("4 in · 1 out · $210 spent · $25 back"). When a game goes out after coming in, its card says how long you kept it and how much of the price came back, like "Kept 2 years 1 month · got back 63% of the $40.00 paid." Sync the collection from this history now lives under the More menu.

Conventions

Find it All sections → Explore → Conventions → + Add Convention. Find a Convention Near You is further down the same page.

Log conventions you've attended or have coming up, with notes. The list is split into Coming up (soonest first, each with a countdown like "In 26 days" or "Happening now") and one section per past year, newest first. A line under the title sums it up: how many you've attended since when, and what's next. Below your list, "Find a Convention Near You" searches live listings from Tabletop.Events. Use your location or type a city/ZIP, and it'll surface upcoming conventions within 300 miles, sorted by distance, each linking straight back to the real event page. Found one you want to go to? One click adds it to your list above, prefilled and ready to save.

At the table together. On each convention you're going to, the old "Games to bring" box is now a shared list. Add games with I'm bringing it or Want to play. Friends who logged the same convention see the same list with their own games in it, and each game is tagged: Match (someone is bringing what someone else wants), Bringing, In the library, or Nobody has it yet. If a friend wants something on your shelf, I'll bring it adds it to your bag in one tap.

The convention's game library. Type the BoardGameGeek username whose collection is the convention's library (or paste its BGG collection link) and the list marks games the library has. Under it, Library finds suggests library games on your wishlist and hot games nobody in your group owns. It knows what the library owns, not what's checked out, so go early for the popular ones. Suggest a bag for the trip opens the bag packer built around what your friends want to play, leaving home anything the library already has.

If a friend with a public collection has logged the same convention (same name, overlapping dates), you'll see them on the card too: "So-and-so is also going." Photos work the same way: add photos to a convention entry and anyone else attending it can see them right alongside yours, no separate album or sharing step needed.

Each upcoming convention also shows a days-away countdown and a packing checklist whose boxes remember what you've ticked.

10x10 Challenge

Find it All sections → Plays → 10x10 challenge → + Add Game.

Pick up to ten games from your collection and try to play each one ten times in a year. It's an old hobby tradition for actually working through your shelf instead of reaching for the same five games every time.

Under the progress ring, a line tells you whether you're ahead of or behind an even pace for the year, and roughly how many plays a week it takes to finish. Each game shows how many plays it still needs and when you last played it; games furthest along come first and finished ones move to the end. Empty slots show as dashed cards, and if you've already been playing games that aren't in the challenge, the first few slots suggest them ("Already 5 plays this year. Add it?"), one tap to add.

Insights

Find it All sections → Shelf → Insights, or the ⋯ menu on the Plays tab. Anyone can open it.

Your shelf, by the numbers, and what the numbers mean. It opens with four big figures (games on the shelf, how much of it has been played, hours at the table, average weight) and a few plain-English takeaways worked out from your own data, like how light or heavy the shelf leans or which game hits the table most. Switch between All time and This year, and Share this makes an image of it.

Below that, each card answers one question: Shelf health (played lately, played but not lately, never played, plus the games gathering the most dust), Underplayed favorites (rated 8 or higher, played twice or less), Does complexity predict plays? (every played game by weight and plays, with a trend line; hover or tap a dot), Best value (cost per play, from what you logged under Buy and sell), Where the shelf shines (which player counts the shelf supports, how often you actually play at each, and how many games BGG voters call best at each), Designers on the shelf, Hours at the table by month, games by decade, and taste vs. the crowd (your ratings against BoardGameGeek's). Click any game to open it.

It works on whichever shelf you're looking at, so visitors can open it on Norman's shelf or a friend's public one. Prices only ever show to the shelf's owner; everyone else sees Most played instead of Best value. At the bottom, What does your shelf say? takes any BoardGameGeek username and shows the page for that collection, no account needed (it reads the first 80 owned games; BGG has play counts but not dates, so the date-based cards sit that one out). Cards fill in as your collection data does, so Fill In From BGG helps.

Reviews

Find it All sections → Read → Reviews → + Write Review (signed in). To read them: the same page, or photos-and-fun.com/games/reviews.

Rate and write up any game on your shelf. These feed into your Wrapped recap and your public profile, if you've made your collection public.

The page opens with the newest review as a big spread: cover, score, the opening line as a pull quote, and proof of play ("reviewed after 6 plays · played 4 more since"), counted from the logged plays. Readers can tap Agree or Disagree, or open the review and rate the game themselves. Every review gets a one-word verdict: Must play (9+), Keeper (8+), Solid (7+), Situational (6+) or Pass.

Below it, every review sits in a cover grid (hover a cover for its pull quote). Filter chips narrow it down: Must plays, Hidden gems (rated well above BoardGameGeek's average), Hot takes (well below), Quick to learn, Great at 2 and Party size. Sort by newest or highest rated, or search. Then comes the Hall of Fame, everything on the shelf rated 9 or higher, and Review coming soon, the most-played games that don't have a review yet.

When writing a review, open Quick-read boxes under the text to add In one sentence, Who it's for, Skip it if and Best at. They show above the review, in the reader and on the review's own page.

Norman's reviews each get their own readable page (for example /games/review/space-base), listed together on the reviews page. Each one shows how often the game's actually been played here, links his earlier or later take if he's reviewed it twice, and ends with "If you like this, Norman also rates," a few games from his shelf that share its mechanics or type.

Blog

Find it Read, in the top menu (or All sections → Read → Blog).

Game-night recaps and longer posts of mine, published site-wide. This is the one section that's mine specifically rather than tied to your own account. Posts open in a reader over the page. Links inside a post are clickable, and a link to another post opens that post right in the reader. A shared post link lands straight in the reader too.

Chips above the posts narrow them down by series: What Hit the Table, Kickstarter & previews, Conventions and Game nights, worked out from each post's title and opening, so nothing needs tagging. There's a search box too, and a link to every Philosopher's Table. The Blog / Reviews switch at the top of both pages hops between the two halves of Read.

Look for a "What Hit the Table" post early each month: a look back at what got played the month before, built from the play log, with a few sentences of my own on each game. It's in the RSS feed along with everything else.

Start here

Find it All sections → Explore → Start here, the welcome card a first-time visitor sees, or photos-and-fun.com/games/start.

New to board games? Start here is its own page (no need to scroll past the whole shelf), the one to send a newcomer or a gift buyer: up to a dozen games Norman rates 7 or higher that are light to learn and done in about 45 minutes, each with player count, play time, ages, a line on why, and a buy link.

Below the picks, a "currently obsessed" line shows the two or three games Norman has played most in the last 30 days, so you can see what's actually hitting the table right now.

Best games by player count and type

Find it Links at the bottom of the Start here page and every pick list, or addresses like photos-and-fun.com/games/players/2-4.

Pages like best games for 1–2 players or party games open with a ranked list of picks instead of the whole shelf. The ranking starts from Norman's rating, then leans toward what BoardGameGeek voters call the best player count and how often a game has actually hit his table at that size. Each pick has one line on why: his own pitch if he's written one, a line from his review, or the plain facts from his play log. Everything else that fits is folded underneath.

Game pages

Find it Click a game's name on any pick list, or the link on its review.

Any game Norman has played, reviewed, or written notes for gets its own page, for example /games/game/space-base: the basics, his rating, how often and at what size it's been played here, how he teaches it, his house rules, his review if there is one, and a few similar games he rates. The game names on the pick lists link straight to them.

Guess the Game (daily puzzle)

Find it All sections → Explore → Daily puzzle, the daily puzzle link at the top of This week on the shelf, or photos-and-fun.com/games/daily.

A new puzzle every day at midnight Central: a tight, blurry crop of one cover from Norman's shelf. Each wrong guess zooms out and sharpens it, and you have six tries. Everyone gets the same game, your streak and stats are kept in your browser, and Share copies a spoiler-free result like "Game Shelf Daily #3 🟥🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜ 2/6" for a group chat. The answer links to Norman's review or game page. No account needed.

Stuck? From your second miss on, each miss also unlocks a clue: first the kind of game, then how many play it and for how long, then what Norman rates it and how heavy it is. None of them give the name away. Typing a guess now shows a short list of matching games under the box, which works much better on phones than the old suggestion list.

The Philosopher's Table

Find it The band just under the covers at the top of the Game Shelf, All sections → Read → The Philosopher's Table, the third button in the Blog / Reviews switch, or photos-and-fun.com/games/table for every past week. Norman writes them from Read → Blog → The Philosopher's Table.

Once a week, a line from a philosopher paired with a game from the shelf and a few sentences on why they belong together. The newest one sits on the Game Shelf, the archive at /games/table keeps them all, and each one also goes out in the RSS feed. The game name links to its page when it has one. Entries can be written ahead and dated for a later week; they stay hidden until that day.

The archive page now opens with this week's entry in full (the quote, the game and the start of the reflection), with the earlier weeks below. Once there are six or more earlier weeks, chips for the thinkers quoted more than once and a search box let you find a week by philosopher, game or any word in the quote or reflection.

The weekly question: when Norman adds a question to a week (the A question for the table box in the editor), the band on the Game Shelf shows it in place of the "Get it every week" line. Tap it to read the answers so far and add yours; you need to be signed in to answer, and you can edit or delete your own answer later. Answers show with your display name on that week's page, under the reflection, and the weekly email carries the question too.

Thinker pages: click a philosopher's name under any quote (on the archive or a week's page) to see every week they've been quoted, the games they were paired with, and the other thinkers at the table. The archive lists them all at the bottom. Address: /games/table/thinker/<name>, for example /games/table/thinker/seneca.

Around the site: a game's card and its public page have an At the Philosopher's Table section listing the weeks it was paired with, and its cover on the shelf gets an At the Table tag. Discover → Play tonight has an At the Philosopher's Table filter. When you log a play of one of those games, end its Live Score, or reach Ready to play in its teach, the quote shows up as something to talk about. To get each week as it comes, use the RSS feed or turn on the weekly email (Players → Sharing); the email opens with that week's entry.

Where to play in Memphis

Find it photos-and-fun.com/games/memphis, also linked from the bottom of the Start here page.

Where to play board games in Memphis pulls together the local stores from the Game Stores page, with maps, phone numbers and websites, plus the conventions coming up and the ones he's been to.

Game Stores

Find it All sections → Explore → Game Stores.

A curated list of local game stores I actually trust, plus a free "near me" search pulling from OpenStreetMap. Enter a location, or use where you already are, and it'll surface shops tagged nearby. Coverage depends entirely on how well a given area's been tagged, so think of it as a good starting point, not a complete directory.

On a computer the map and the list sit side by side, and the map stays put while you scroll. Each store with a pin gets a number that matches its pin; tap a store to fly the map to it, or tap a pin to highlight its store. Every store has buttons for Directions (opens Google Maps), Call and Website.

The curated list also appears on the public Memphis page, so you can send it to someone without them opening the app.

Install it on your phone or desktop

On Chrome, Edge, or Android, you'll see a banner offering to install the site as an app. One tap adds it to your home screen or app list, no app store involved. On iPhone, open the site in Safari, tap the Share icon, then "Add to Home Screen." That last part only works in Safari specifically, it won't show up in other iOS browsers.

Once you've opened the site while online, it keeps a copy of itself on your device, so it opens even with no signal (a convention hall, a basement game room) and the + button can still log plays. If the connection is just very slow, the saved copy opens after a few seconds instead of leaving you staring at a blank page. Your collection, stats and everything else still need a connection to show anything new.

Where it's genuinely ahead

The AI game-night concierge, a per-game AI rules-question box, an AI scorepad scanner that reads session results straight off a photo, a free local game-store finder, generated shareable content (trading cards, session recaps, a yearly Wrapped), a proactive weekly digest email, a six-panel BGG-metadata Insights dashboard, and a formal WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility audit. Nothing in the comparison set has any of these. On gamification specifically, it's not the highest badge count (see below), but it's the only tracker where achievements are tied to real relational moments, a game night hosted, a convention meetup with a friend, a rivalry won or lost, rather than pure play-count milestones.

Where competitors still lead

Board Games Tracker is the closest peer overall; achievement count is no longer a gap, with 90 medallions here against its 90+ across 10 categories. Comments on friends' logged results with a notification inbox now exist here too. Its Parties and Team Mode are no longer distinguishing. This site now has close equivalents of both. BGStats/NemeStats together have true two-way BGG sync for collection status and tags; this site now imports plays from BGG and posts plays to it, but collection status and tags still only come in from BGG, not go back. BoardGameGeek's sheer scale, forums, marketplace, millions of users, isn't a fair target for a personal site and was never the goal.

The ranking, by feature coverage

Scored across 17 comparable features (collection tracking, session logging, BGG sync, achievements, head-to-head/rivalry, push notifications, social features, photos, shareable content, an AI concierge, store discovery, a digest email, public profiles, installability, a BGG-metadata insights dashboard, and an accessibility audit), each worth full or half credit depending on how complete the feature is. Re-run against each site's current state (Board Games Tracker's features page, NemeStats' and BGStats' own sites) confirms none of the other ten have added a metadata-analytics dashboard of any kind, which is now this site's single clearest differentiator:

• 1. The Game Shelf: 97.1%
• 2. Board Games Tracker: 58.8%
• 3. NemeStats: 47.1%
• 4. Meeplay: 35.3%
• 5. BoardGameGeek: 25.0%
• 6. BGStats: 23.5%
• 7. iCollect Everything: 20.6%
• 7. BG Catalog: 20.6%
• 9. KallaX: 17.6%
• 10. BoardRecord: 11.8%
• 11. Meepster: 5.9%

This is a feature-count score, not a popularity or usability score. BoardGameGeek ranks low here specifically because most of these rows measure things a database-and-forum site was never trying to do. Every site's percentage shifted slightly down from the last pass simply because the denominator grew from 16 to 17 features when the Insights dashboard was added as its own scored row; only this site earns credit on that row. Take it as a snapshot from one comparison pass, not a permanent scoreboard; the landscape moves.