Rant: That board game cafe in Portland I visited last Saturday had zero rulebooks on the shelves

I walked in ready to try some new games and every single box I picked up was missing the rule sheet, just had a QR code taped to the inside lid that took me to a dead link, which felt like a total setup for a bad experience with strangers at a table, has anyone else run into this lazy trend at game cafes?

4 comments

4 Comments

wilson.olivia2d ago

Make a big deal out of a missing rulebook and you're really just complaining about a 30 second Google search. I mean yeah the dead link is annoying but it's not exactly game breaking, you could have had the rules up on your phone before the first round started. Seems like people just like getting worked up over minor inconveniences these days.

gavin_kim3d ago

Friendly reminder from someone who used to work in a game cafe, those QR codes are often printed by the owner who lost the original rulebook years ago and never bothered to reprint it. Last place I worked at had a copy of Catan missing the robber piece, so they just used a loose wine cork instead. Dead link situation though, that's just lazy. Shoulda grabbed your phone and tried the BoardGameGeek app right there, most rulebooks are on that.

cole_murphy2d ago

Loose wine cork for the robber, that's got to be the most Catan thing I've ever heard. At least it adds to the "authentic" tabletop experience, right?

morganmartinez3d ago

Oh yeah, I've done that before! Just pulled up the BGG app at a board game night when nobody could remember the tiebreaker rules, it saved us from arguing over nothing.