January 10, 2025: What's In The Box?

Our household has a game collection that goes back decades (and encompasses a before-times era when we were two households). It's always an interesting time-capsule treat to open a boxed game from bygone years and discover something else in there: promo pieces from past Gen Cons, bits of ephemera, scraps of house rules or clarifications . . . every so often, we come across dot-matrix printouts of errata or homemade record sheets. It's especially fun to see penciled notes. "Whose handwriting is that?!" we'll muse as we pass the paper around like careless archeologists.

In that way, I love game boxes because there's always a sense of not knowing what you'll find in there. However, if it's a game I haven't played in a really long time, having extra bits in the box messes with my compulsive need to inventory . . .

If you have any anecdotes of some blast from your personal past that you've found in a game box, I'd love to hear about it on the forums.

-- Steven Marsh