Games and expansions: Part I. Board and Card Games

Expansions in games have been crossing my mind as of late, including board and card games, DLC for video games, and supplements for RPGs. I feel each one of these should be talked about as their own topic.

Card games.

I like to play a lot of card games. Normally they are fast and easy to learn, except in some cases when expansions are added in. Munchkin, I'm looking at you!

The basic set of Munchkin has 168 cards, now add in 9.5 major expansions with 784 cards for a total of 952 cards. That number alone makes the game unwieldy, but then you add in the new rules that come for those expansions. This causes delays to look to rules up, which I don't find fun at all.

Munchkin isn't the only game that has this problem. With some it's the number of cards and other its the expansion rules.

Board Games
The same complaint can be made with boardgames. Carcassonne, Catan, Arkham Horror just to name a few all have expansions. The same issues apply, more options and more rules add delays.

My Coda
My advice on expansions is before you purchase one and add it into your game night is, ask yourself "What does this add to my game?" and really think about it before you get it. If you are just getting the expansion because it looks cool but you never play the game, its a waste of your money,


Next time, DLCs