Too many choices for fidgeting

Last year, I got into what I’ve been calling parent break games or fidget gaming. Tiny little solitaire games that only take a couple of minutes to play, mental coffee breaks. Print and play games have been an essential part of the process since the cost per component is so much lower. Spending twenty dollars on a game that takes less than five minutes to play isn’t appealing. Less than a dollar on material costs makes a lot more sense to me.

However, as I have been slowly exploring entries in this year’s nine card contest and found some promising parent break games, I realized that I’ve reached the point of an embarrassment of riches :P

When I first started exploring fidget games, any game that was good for fidgeting basically got an extra star because of that. I wasn’t being very choosey. But now I’m found that the pool of possible fidget games is wide enough that it’s reasonable to be picky.

There are some games that have really stood up. Murderers Row, for instance, continues to not disappoint after months of play. However, a lot of them play themselves out pretty quickly.

For me personally, that’s not a big deal. At this point in my PnP life, one or two pages of cards is a low enough investment in materials and time that a lame duck project isn’t a big deal. If I can get at least five plays and learn something, it was worth it for me.

But there may be one or two folks out there who might actually consider making something I talk about. And there are games that I’ve played a bunch of times for fidgeting but I can’t in good conscious recommend to anyone. 

Still, it’s part of the journey. The world of PnP is chock full of interesting items and shining some light on any of them is good.