Valerie Putman:  It’s not the size of the box…..

I haven’t played many games this week.  Between a post-gathering cold and the end of the academic semester, I’ve been barely conscious.  But hubby and I did manage to try out a new game that he had acquired from the prize table—Dynasties.  The box is a mere 5â€? x 8â€? x 2â€? and since I didn’t know anything about the game, I expected a light card game.  I was surprised as I watched Tyler pull out a 15â€? x 9 ½â€? game board, wooden cubes, wooden pawns, chits, and two decks of cards.  That’s a lot of game for such a little box.  While it does involve card play, it is clearly an area control board game.  It’s not Lost Cities where the board is just a place to play your cards.  The card play is of the Princess Bride variety that I have described before, where I have to guess what you think I will play and then try to pick something else which you will inevitably thwart anyway by accident, so it’s not likely to become a favorite of mine any time soon.  The area control scoring reminded me of El Grande.  There are 9 turns, but the areas only score after the third, sixth, and ninth turns, so you must plan ahead.  The mechanism for changing area control, however, which is based on a comparison of the cards we simultaneously selected, is nothing like El Grande.  In all, the game had a pleasant big box feel for such a small box.

Does the size of the box really matter to me?  I also just received a copy of the Rio Grande reprint of Oltre Mare.  The original version was in a small box, about the size of the Dynasties box.  But now it is in a 14 ½â€? x 11â€? x 2â€? that fits perfectly with my Power Grid, Maharaja, and other big box games on my “good gamesâ€? shelf.  Dynasties, on the other hand, will likely end up on the hodge podge shelf in the corner with all the other smaller boxes that don’t stack up attractively enough to take center stage on our living room and dining room game shelves.  So big is good?  Yes.  But small can be nice too.  For example, I bought several games in Essen that I might not have tried if they had been in larger boxes because I had such limited luggage space.  I’ve also taken smaller games from the prize table because I was worried that a larger game wouldn’t make it home.  I often volunteer to bring games in smaller boxes when I travel to conventions in order to save space.

Maybe I ought to follow the example of some friends and learn to live without the commercial exterior of my games entirely.  I have seen several friends, particularly when they are traveling, ditch the game boxes entirely and store all of their games in freezer sized zip lock bags.  While I cringe to the core at this idea, I did try it once.  When I went to UberCon I had limited space so I just grabbed the game boards for Freya’s Folly and Caylus and put all of the game pieces in bags.  I then carried them around with me in my shoulder bag all weekend and didn’t play them once.  I mentioned I had them with me a few times, but I found that my fellow gamers and I were drawn to the pretty boxes scattered around the room with their commercial promises of “exciting adventures.â€?

So, call me shallow.  Call me girly.  I want a big box and I want it to be pretty.  I want it to be a standard size so that it displays nicely with my other games.  I want the name of the game on the side of the box to call to me from across the crowded convention ball room and I want everyone who walks by our table to know what we’re playing.  But go ahead and give Dynasties a try if you get a chance.  It’s actually a really good game, despite the small box.

I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman

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