I love Game Night. Or even Game Day Lunch. We don’t have nearly enough of them, unfortunately. When we do, we are not always the host. That spawns the question: Where are we going to play? What games do we want to play? How are we going to transport them? Wait, that was actually three questions. 😉 Today I’m going to post about options I’ve tried for carrying games, other than this:
I’ve tried several different options for transporting games. When it’s only a few, I’ll just carry them naked, so to speak. The primary advantage is that this is a free solution! The disadvantage is that games can tend to slide around on the car seat, and in bad weather they’re exposed. I don’t like this option very much.
For the first few times I carried more than a few games I used a large cardboard apple box. Not only did that work well, but the game boxes smelled nicely of apple afterwards. 🙂 There’s still no weather protection, but the cost is right (still free).
Many people suggest using IKEA bags to transport games. Honestly I have not tried this, and probably won’t, because I ended up with this:
Tactical Cargo Bag
This bag is quite large! The dimensions are 24″ x 15″ x 12″ which is big enough for many standard-sized game boxes to fit either horizontally or vertically. If I want to go horizontal and carry the bag like a duffel I can get two stacks of boxes side-by-side. If I want to go vertical and carry the bag like a backpack, then I put in a stack of games and use the attached backpack style straps to carry the bag. It’s very flexible!
I can get a load of games into this bag. Keep in mind that games can be heavy!
Game Bag
And here’s the same group of games loaded for vertical carrying. The first time I loaded the bag I put my games in this way, but carried the bag like a duffel, with predictably results – game contents got very mixed up, and a couple of box lids came off.
Honestly, after a few tries I quit carrying my games this way. I prefer the flat mode shown earlier in this post. This does have an advantage, I guess, in that if you don’t fill the bag completely up the games will remain flat. Then again, the same thing can be said of the horizontal mode as well.
I have read plenty of posts on Board Game Geek or Facebook regarding using a certain type of drum bag to carry games, but I love this bag for both the versatility it brings as well as the durable fabric. This is one tough bag! The zipper is super heavy duty, and once it’s closed there is a flap that folds over and snaps down. I assume that’s primarily for weather protection. The bag is made of a heavy duty canvas that I expect will stand up to years of use.
I have an extra star field play mat (from X-Wing) that I use to play games on. The mat is just a bit too long to fit inside this bag, or I would have the perfect game day transportation system. Then again, if the bag were big enough to carry the mat, it could hold three stacks of games, and that would be way to heavy. So there you go.
There are other options. As mentioned there is a drum bag (look for “cajon” style) that holds a number of standard board game boxes. There are dedicated board game back packs and larger bags, but those can get quite expensive. I paid less than $30 for my bag, it can carry at least 10 standard sized board game boxes with additional smaller ones (more than enough to provide variety for a game night). It is versatile enough to carry as a duffel or a backpack. Not only that, but it can be used as regular luggage as well, should I ever need it for that.
I am quite happy with my choice. What do you use to transport your games? Let me know in the comments below.