I found Ryan Graham’s post on BGG about the Magic Number (a term coined on his Out of Game podcast) quite motivating personally as I have been buying new games faster than I can get them to the table for the past couple of years. In a nutshell your Magic Number (MN) is the number of games that you own and have yet to play.
There are a few exclusions however:
- Games where you played someone else’s copy instead of your own
- Expansions (only count base games); I suppose you could include expansions on the list or even have a separate magic number just for expansions
- Games you picked up to trade away, sell or otherwise have no intention of playing (such as a special collector’s edition)
I like the idea of starting each year with a list of the games that comprise your magic number followed by monthly updates of games played (reducing the number) and games added (increasing the number). While I am a major stats geek I don’t think I will go to the extreme of creating a graph of monthly progress, mostly because I anticipate changes of less than 2-3 games per month.
Below is my personal MN list for 2017 as of March 1st at 20 entries, here is the Geeklist on BGG. I will post live updates in the comments there and add/remove games from the list; I will only be posting monthly updates here.
I am hoping that by quantifying my “excess inventory” if you will that I can at least keep the number stable without having to go on a game buying freeze for the rest of the year. (I had intended to post this here in March but blew it.)
Rick’s Magic Number List February 2017
The Adventurers: the Pyramid of Horus
Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small
Alien Frontiers
Anachronism
Artifacts, Inc.
Bootleggers
Bring Out Yer Dead
Cthulhu Gloom
Dragon Master
Eaten By Zombies!: In Cahoots
Hawken: Real-Time Card Game – Sharpshooter vs. Bruiser
Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King
MegaCorps
Redshirts
The Rivals for Catan
Rivet Wars: Eastern Front
Star Trek Deck Building Game: The Next Generation – The Next Phase
The Swarm
Wings of War: Famous Aces
