2026 Board Gaming Resolutions

Man... 2025 really flew by, didn't it? I dropped the ball when it comes to board gaming this past year—I didn't play nearly as much as I wanted to outside the winter holiday period, and I even burned out on board games over the summer and fall. It could've been better.

I've never done "board gaming resolutions" before, but it sounds like an interesting thing to try to keep myself more "on track" this year. It's good to reflect every once in a while on what you want out of the hobby, and setting goals is a good way to turn those reflections into actionable steps!

Enough faffing around. Here are my board gaming resolutions for this year and what I'm hoping to get out of this hobby.

1. Start Hosting a Biweekly Game Night

My wife recently reconnected with a childhood friend and has been trying to hang out with her on a somewhat regular basis. Last month, we invited that friend over to play some simple games—and we all had a blast. "Why don't we make this a monthly thing?" my wife asked. "Or even biweekly?"

We're going to aim for that and see what happens. For the past few years, I've mostly just played board games with my wife except for the occasional large gatherings with family and/or friends, so it'll be nice to have consistent three-player sessions and possibly bring someone new into the hobby.

But most importantly, it's a way for my wife to maintain a close social relationship and for me to build a new friendship, and that's one of the things I love about the board gaming hobby.

2. Play Every Game I Didn't Play in 2025

As of this writing, I have 35 or so games in my collection that I didn't touch last year. I'm not in the business of keeping games I don't play, and if I'm not playing them, then I need to figure out why I'm not pulling them out. Do I not like them? Or have I forgotten how much I like them?

I'll make an effort to refresh my experience with every stale game on my shelf. Sometimes I come back to an old favorite and realize it's not as good as it once was. Or sometimes I break out a game I've been reluctant to revisit and remember why I liked it enough to keep it. How can I maintain a healthy collection if I'm not regularly refreshing my experiences?

To be fair, I know I won't even come close to completing this resolution—but the attempt is more important than the success here.

3. Play At Least Once Per Week

My board gaming tends to come and go in phases. There are months when a game comes out every night after dinner, and there are months where the nights are mostly filled with Netflix and Switch while board gaming takes a back seat. Is there anything wrong with that? Nope! But I do want to shake it up this year and try a new approach.

I want to be more consistent with my board gaming sessions. The biweekly game night from Resolution #1 above will certainly help with this, but I also want to be more intentional with my consistency. I'll try to play at least one game every week, whether with my wife or by myself, so it's more of a routine than a phase—and hopefully revisit old favorites while I'm at it!

4. Publish 35+ Board Game Reviews

In 2025, I only managed to review 24 board games. That's far short of my personal goal ever since I started Shelf Gamer, which has been to publish at least one review per week (so about 52 reviews per year). Coming in at less than half my goal is a bummer, but also a big chance to do better.

I'm aiming for at least 35 published board game reviews in 2026. While still quite short of my 52 ideal, it'd be a notable improvement on my 2025 performance and a big step in the right direction. My stretch goal for this will be to hit 52, which would honestly be stunning.

A small extra on top of this resolution will be to publish at least one non-review article every month and at least two Keepers over the year. I really enjoy writing non-review content, so maybe writing these other articles will keep me fueled up for the more time-consuming reviews.

5. Buy 12 Board Games or Fewer

If you peek at my Shelf Update for this past year, you might see that I bit off more than I could chew. I acquired 34 new games (a mixture of review copies and personal copies that I bought), which may not seem like a lot... but I wasn't even gaming for half the year due to burnout.

This coming year, I want to pull back on purchases. I'm limiting myself to 12 new games bought with my own money, which is an average of 1 new game per month. I'll need to be judicious about what I buy, and hopefully it'll encourage me to play the games I already have, especially the ones that have been collecting dust for a while (see Resolution #3 above). It also doesn't help that the US economy is struggling under the current administration, so it'll be good for me to spend less in general.

And that's about it. I'll check in at the end of the year to see how I do with all of these resolutions. My guess? I might hit two or three of them...