A to Z: Completing an Alphabetical Unplayed Games Challenge

Find out more about a journey to play more unplayed games with a challenge that spanned months and 28 new games.
Success! Earlier this year, I set out to play more of my unplayed solo games… The list is vast! To help with a little structure, I decided to make it an alphabetical challenge. Why not? Ha ha! Over the course of about 4 months, I made it through 28 total games and found both the best and worst in my collection. Now? Time to regroup and start all over!
The Parameters
Perhaps my biggest struggle with challenges are how they can feel like a chore. I’ve fallen into this realm before, and it’s certainly the furthest from fun I’ve ever experienced.
Yet prior to this challenge, I couldn’t decide which new games to get to my table. I kept returning to my favorites, never really finding a good moment for an unplayed game.
Enter geekgroup.app! With useful sorting tools, I looked at all of my unplayed games and set out to find a system.
Simple: Alphabetical! Believe it or not, I pretty much had the entire alphabet covered with unplayed games. Whoa!
Top Considerations
I knew I needed to spend time with these new games, so I did what some might consider to be odd… I didn’t put a time limit on this challenge. It could go on and on and on!
Essentially, I created a challenge that had its limitations with the order I played games, yet not with the timeframe.
It worked, though! I started on January 4th and completed this pass of 28 new games on May 14th. Slow for some, fast for others, and just right for my own schedule.
Most importantly, I learned the benefits of balancing limitations and open-ended criteria for my challenges.
A Look at the Ratings
For a very top-level analysis, below are all of ratings for these games. Why 28 games? I added in a game beginning with a number, and had an annual play of another!
The spread doesn’t surprise me all that much. Anything above a 70% is typically something I’ll hang onto and enjoy for awhile. I even found some pretty amazing ones!
Lower ratings came from a lot of games I didn’t expect to love, although there were some sad disappointments.
I often reevaluate games after every 10 plays, so these might change. Yet what a fun way to see what I played!
- Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North (Plus Japanese Islands) 92%
- Piepmatz 90%
- Tyrants of the Underdark 87%
- Gugong 86%
- Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile 86%
- Meadow 83%
- Valeria: Card Kingdoms (Plus Darksworn) 83%
- March of the Ants (Plus Empires of the Earth) 82%
- Dice Throne Adventures 81%
- Viscounts of the West Kingdom 79%
- Knot Dice Squared 78%
- HEXplore It: The Forests of Adrimon 77%
- Petrichor 77%
- Innovation 76%
- Rune 76%
- Unfair 73%
- Quill 71%
- Sorcerer City 70%
- The Ninth World: A Skillbuilding Game for Numenera 67%
- Agropolis 64%
- Eternal: Chronicles of the Throne 61%
- Lords of Hellas 59%
- Your Theme Park 59%
- By Stealth and Sea 58%
- Hold-Up 58%
- 7 Wonders 52%
- Funkoverse Strategy Game 52%
- Winterhaven Woods 33%
Special Notes About Some of the Lowest Scores
I don’t want to spend too much time analyzing every individual game, yet of all the games I tried that weren’t all that intriguing, several of them were designed more for a multiplayer experience. Despite those low ratings, some of these will hang around on the shelves for game nights. After all, solo isn’t possible with every game design out there!
My rating system is also inherently imperfect and flawed. Isn’t that almost always the case? Ha! My ratings make sense for me, although I’m sure they’re far from useful to others. That’s OK! High and low ratings open the door for discussion. Even for my least-liked game, finding someone who enjoys it is an awesome moment for me. Have fun!
the Award Goes to…
As I analyzed this experience, I decided that it would be the perfect time to hand out some very random awards!
Without a doubt, there were certain games I loved more than others. Yet a lot of them deserved some recognition for different things. Awards only I would give out. Ha ha!
I also kept things positive here, as awarding something to the worst game wasn’t all that nice. Nor would it help me.
So much fun! Playing through the challenge was interesting enough, but going back through to hand out awards made it all feel more worthwhile. To the winners!
Action-Packed Scene
The game with the most exciting gaming moment.
NOMINEES
- Dice Throne Adventures
- Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
- Valeria: Card Kingdoms
Winner
Dice Throne Adventures
Awesome card choices, dice rolls, and even foil cards made every turn interesting across a challenging campaign.
Freshly Hatched Box
The game with the most recent release and great experience.
NOMINEES
- Meadow
- Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
- Valeria: Card Kingdoms
Winner
Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
The ongoing narrative and gripping stories of the rise and fall of empires made a lasting impression on me.
It’s a Trap!
The game with the most additional content to want to play.
NOMINEES
- HEXplore It: The Forests of Adrimon
- Petrichor
- Valeria: Card Kingdoms
Winner
HEXplore It: The Forests of Adrimon
This demands some customization, yet with the right set of rules, the amount of available content is staggering.
Roses are Red
The game with the most unique and colorful components.
NOMINEES
- Dice Throne Adventures
- Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North
- Valeria: Card Kingdoms
Winner
Dice Throne Adventures
So many different characters, cards, dice, tokens, and more made this stand out with a unique table presence.
The Jeweled Crown
The game with the fanciest and highest-quality components.
NOMINEES
- Dice Throne Adventures
- Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
- Viscounts of the West Kingdom
Winner
Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
A neoprene playmat, screen-printed wooden meeples, and a plethora of unique artwork made this stand out.
Winner of All
The game with the best elements and most enjoyment.
NOMINEES
- Dice Throne Adventures
- Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
- Valeria: Card Kingdoms
Winner
Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
The combination of board game and RPG elements made for a lasting narrative that I can’t wait to return to!
At the End of the Day
I did it! To have been able to go through a small but decent selection of my unplayed games felt great. I found some hidden gems, and can now find homes for other games.
Even better? This was the motivation I needed to get more games to my table. There are dozens, even hundreds, of other unplayed games just calling out for their time.
I’m about to start all over again! A roughly alphabetical order sounds about right, so I’m excited to keep playing.
My old favorites will always be there, and I’ll return to them again. For now, it’s time to keep on exploring!
A FInal Word of Advice
Over the years, I’ve collected more games than I’ll ever be able to play in a reasonable amount of time. I didn’t know when I would ever get them to the table.
If you’re looking to start your own challenge, start small! Make sure you understand what you’re getting into, and never be afraid to modify the parameters just a bit.
Look at me: I tossed in an annual play of March of the Ants with a new expansion and bent the rules for some letters!
Board games are supposed to be fun, as are challenges to play them. Find out what works for you, and go with it!
Continue the Conversation
Have you ever participated in a board game challenge of this sorts before? What were some of your favorite moments from the experience? I boxed myself into a corner with some very strict challenges before, yet giving myself an order without any expectation on the time to reach the end worked wonders. This was so much fun to discover new games!
I love everything about what you have done here! What an innovative and inspirational way to get unplayed games off the shelf and onto the table. Your award categories are fantastic. I will definitely implement some form of this with my new-to-me-games that are sitting and waiting patiently.
Thanks so much for the kind words! I think the hardest part is getting started. There were a lot of challenges and ways I saw posted, but nothing really seemed to work. What I thought was a rather random but ordered way of going alphabetically as surprisingly great. I typically had around 2-4 choices for most letters, and could plan ahead accordingly. Pretty nice!
I should also note that if you want to set a challenge for yourself, don’t be afraid to start small or go as slowly as you need to. Make up your own rules, and know that if you share said challenge, you’ll get a lot of support! No one got on me for changing things up, slowing down, or choosing obscure games for some letters. It’s all about the fun!
Good luck when you try out some of your unplayed games, whenever that may be!
Your ratings can still be useful to me even if we disagree on nearly everything, if I know why you rated a game high or low: you hate mechanic X but I love it, or you like theme Y and so do I. Which is one of the reasons I read this blog!
(I have been known to process my BGG plays and look at games I haven’t played for a while when deciding what to try to get to the table…)
Thanks, Roger! I totally agree with you about disagreeing: I know some solo players who have almost opposite tastes in games than me. But when they point out that the narrative elements were what made the game fall flat, I know that it might be for me!
That’s also why I’ve started adding comments to my ratings on BGG. A number isn’t nearly as meaningful as the reason for that number. Someone giving a game or 9 or 10 is less useful to me than someone rating it a 6 or 7 with clear reasons why it worked in some ways, and didn’t in others.
Appreciate you reading and following along! I’m almost in the process of thinking about an overhaul of my ratings system, which will add some more detail to it… I hope. Hard to change it up, but I’m finding a few cases where I always award points and the things I’m considering don’t differ all that much. The whole structure will stay the same: I’m just looking at being more granular when it comes to awarding points per category. Fun with data!