Bits and Pieces - Board Game Accessories

Is there a better card material? I feel like a game that DEMANDS constant shuffling should have cards with enhanced durability. Kinda like those acrylic gloom cards maybe.

Another high tactile game component are those GMT block games with all the stickers. A soothing few hours assembling armies is an odd value add to that series.

I sleeve all of my games. It's not for longevity. Maybe it started that way but I've let too many games go over the years to worry about that anymore. It's specifically because I like that the cards always look brand new. Just an aesthetic thing that I enjoy every time I play.

I get genuine aesthetic enjoyment from work cards. I don't go out of my way to make that happen of course, but there' something about an old box and scuffed cards that just speak to me. Of course there is an issue if cards are identifiable, but in truth that rarely matters in my situation - we don't go in for hundreds of plays of the one game - and if it did it's not hard to get work arounds (draw from the bottom of the deck instead of the top for example).

My copy of Cosmic Encounter is WORN. My game group and I have played dozens upon dozens of games and not one card sleeved. If you look at the side of the main deck you can tell which cards are the oldest due to slight yellowing, but no one is arsed enough to closely look when the deck is sitting there.

My favourite pre-owned copy of a game is Up Front (Avalon Hill) that I bought from an older gamer over ten years ago. It smelled of cigarette smoke and the rulebook was highlighted. He said he played the crap out of it was ready to let it go. I've played it close to 20 times and have never sleeved it.

Dr. Mabuse wrote: but no one is arsed enough to closely look when the deck is sitting there.

That’s been my observation as well.

I find that if you have quality sleeves games that require constant shuffling of small decks go smoother. I'm thinking of Journeys in Middle Earth where each player has a deck of 15-25 cards that they shuffle a dozen times each play. The base cards would get played every game, character cards only if that person is picked, and role cards depending on what part of the campaign you are in the base are added and advanced as you progress.

Apropos of this thread, I finally bought some sleeves for Spirit Island. We've had ~125 plays and our minor powers are marked up really bad and starting to get iffy structurally, we played a couple times this weekend and had a hard time shuffling. While I was there ordering sleeves for minor and major powers I went for just enough to sleeve up two arkham card game player decks.