Engine Building Board Games

Engine Building board games from Norman's personal collection on The Game Shelf.

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Game Shelf

Roll for fun, seriously.

Session recaps, convention trips, and a running record of every game played — now I can track how I waste both time and money!!

On the shelf

My Game Collection

The Game Steward
Silas
Good evening. What are we feeling like this evening?
Head to Head
Compare Collections

Enter a BoardGameGeek username to see the overlap with this shelf — what you both own, and what they have that's worth a look.

Buy & sell

Games In & Out

On the road

Conventions

Coming up

Find a Convention Near You

Search live convention listings via Tabletop.Events — results link straight back to the real event page, and any of them can be added to your list above with one click.

or
The record

Games Played

Games Played by Month

Head-to-head

Win % by game

Compare periods

Pick any year, or a year + month, on each side.
vs
Period A
Period B
In depth

Reviews

Want to buy

Wishlist

From BoardGameGeek

Trending Right Now

Your shelf, by the numbers

Insights

Cost per Play

Purchase price divided by sessions logged — lowest cost per play first.

Weight vs. Plays

Does complexity predict how often a game hits the table?

Weight Distribution

How your shelf spreads across BGG's 1–5 complexity scale.

Top Mechanics & Categories

The most common mechanics and categories across your collection.

Publication Timeline

When the games on your shelf were originally published, by decade.

Player-Count Coverage

How many owned games support each player count, versus how often you've actually played at that count.
Games that support itSessions actually played
Who's been at the table

Players

Your Achievements

Sharing

Shows next to your name in Friends, the Leaderboard, and the Activity feed.

Make your collection browsable by anyone with the link — sessions, reviews, and everything else you track stays visible read-only, exactly like Norman's public shelf.

Sessions, belts, and trophies from your week, sent once a week. Skipped automatically on a quiet week — no empty emails.

A friend request, a trophy, a game night invite, or an RSVP to a night you're hosting. Nothing else pings you.

Friends

Link an account so you can tag them directly in a session, instead of just typing their name.

Your friends
No friends linked yet — send a request to tag them in sessions and start a rivalry.

Belts

Who currently holds bragging rights at each game you've played against a linked friend.

Leaderboard

How you stack up against everyone you've linked as a friend.

Site

Visible to you alone.

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Registered users
Notes from the shelf

Blog

10 games · 10 plays each

10x10 Challenge

Support your FLGS

Game Stores

Anywhere else

Find Stores Near You

Free search via OpenStreetMap — coverage depends on how well a shop is tagged there, so it's a helpful complement to the picks above, not a complete directory.

or
Owner only

Piece ID

Photograph a game's component list to teach it, or photograph a stray piece to find out which game it's from. Runs through Claude, only visible when you're signed in.

Teach a game

What is this?

Comparing against the whole library

Games taught so far

Check the games that are actually out today to scope "What is this?" to just those — cheaper and faster than comparing against everything you've ever taught. Leave all unchecked to compare against the whole library.

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About this shelf

Hi, I'm Norman — this is my personal board game collection tracker: every game I own, every session I've logged, and honest reviews as I write them. I built it to keep an accurate record for myself, and to give other hobbyists something real to compare notes against.

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