The Vault...

Lets face it, if you read this blog, and or familiar with the boardgamegeek, or comsimworld websites then chances are you are probably certifiable when it comes to buying and well hoarding games. Now if you are single and live on your own you can allow these prized collections to just sit about on whatever horizontal surface will support them. However, if you somehow like me managed convince a member of the opposite sex to marry you, then your ability to use boardgames as home decor are probably limited. Not to mention that if you somehow managed to spawn with the aforementioned member of the opposite sex then you have to consider the destructive properties of your litter when storing games.

Now I consider myself lucky, my wife is somewhat reasonable. She granted me sole possession of a small room 10' x 10' or so in the basement. complete with a lockable door. (If you look closely you may be able to see the infamous crotch jewelry)

I am in complete control of what goes on inside what I refer to, in my best Dr. Evil Voice, as "my lair'. A place my wife convinces herself doesn't exist on the same plain of existence as she does, and a place my children believe holds within all the wonders their little heads can imagine.

The cold Truth is that my obsession hardly fits inside these walls. Between my many hobbies, yes board games are but one of too many distractions, I have filled this space nearly to the point where it ceases to be useful.

Big Gun RC Warship Combat is cool, but requires space.

My problem is that I am not content to just store the games in a safe fashion. They must be displayed in a way that is both useful for finding, and aesthetically pleasing to me. (Perhaps also to a few of you. ) Lets face facts here, regardless of how much one loves and plays any one game, these objects of our obsession spend the vast majority of their lives sitting on a shelf. My thoughts are that they should be a site for all to see, unfortunately aside from a select few games that are for some reason interesting enough to be kept on the family room built-ins, my spouse disagrees. But I am not so easily defeated, even though the lions share of my collection is kept in its own secluded sanctuary, I strive to make the place impressive to even the most uninitiated bloke who wanders in.

This is the main set of shelves

Now I know that my collection is modest (about 200 games) by some peoples standards, but even at this number I have more things than I really can ever play on a regular basis. I have these dreams of my kids getting older and wanting to play Europe Engulfed or War of the Ring... but more on that later. Still there is an overflow section.

Overflow

So thats the state of my game room. I have designs on expanding to the entire basement. These have actually started in that I have furnished the "Play Room" with plenty of shelves. What would we gamers do without IKEA? Currently games nights are allowed upstairs, mostly due to their relative infrequency, we enjoy playing games in light and open spaces like my sunroom. If they ever become more regular then my guess is we will be banished to the darker, damper recesses of my home. When that happens I will have to expand "my lair".

Feel free to post comments about how it is you like to store games, or the negotiations required to get that closet under the steps away from your spouse's wicker basket collection.

Until next time... have some fun gaming, drink some good beer and enjoy life.

-M

This is a copy of an article originally published on the old F:AT blog. Read original comments.