In Episode 8 of the Gaming Moguls, Jake and I discussed our thoughts on traveling with board games. It’s easy to bring games when traveling by car and space is at a premium – but when traveling by plane the challenge goes up a notch.

My family loves to travel, and my family loves to game. When traveling, we often have time to relax in our AirBnB in the evening or have spare time while waiting in the airport. It’s a natural that we’d bring some games along to enjoy in our free time.

My first attempts at bringing games were as you’d expect – I’d stuff a few small box games into my suitcase or in my backpack. Invariably, it would end the same way – the boxes would get beat up and there would be components spilled or mixed up. After some research, I found there were a lot of discussions on Reddit and BoardGameGeek around making a gaming case for traveling. The common thread was curating a selection of games that provided maximum gaming in minimum space.

This turned out to be an awesome idea – I took the advice I found online and started assembling my first “Case of Holding” – a name I loosely borrowed from D&D’s “Bag of Holding” – the extra-dimensional space where you can fit too many things inside of a space.

For starters – you need a case. I went with the Caseling “Cards Against Humanity” carrying case since it was a great size and was very affordable. For only about $18 on Amazon, it measures 12x9x3 and holds up to 1650 cards. It has 6 padded dividers – but let’s be honest, those were the first things to go since they take up space that could be used for MORE GAMES.

Next – I’ve got a velvet-ish bag that I keep the rule books in. Since I put nothing but small box games in the “Case of Holding”, all the rule books fit in a small velvet bag that I keep under the lid. Something like this would do nicely: 6×9 Velvet Bags

Anything that includes a score sheet (roll & writes, Trick of the Rails, etc.) gets laminated and placed in the velvet bag along with a couple of dry erase markers. As a bonus, the backside of the sheets can be used for keeping score for other games.

Of course, what’s a game case without GAMES?!?!

I’ve had a lot of fun curating the contents to meet some simple goals:

• Include a nice variety of games – card, trick, dice, & board
• Be a reasonable length up to about an hour – but mostly around 15 minutes
• Fit in a reasonable space – like a cafe’ table.
• Be games with a short rule teach length

Since the contents of my case varies by the trip and what’s new – I’m going to list the collection of games that are typically in my case. You should be able to fit around 15 of these in the case that I listed. The fun part is that you can include games you love and omit games that you don’t.

• Mint Works – Justin Blaske (Five24 Labs) – an excellent mini worker placement game that plays in about 20 minutes. It’s an engine builder where it’s a sprint to the finish line.
• Mint Delivery – Justin Blaske (Five24 Labs) – A pick up and deliver sequel to Mint Works. Fun game – but if I had to pick one, I’d pick Mint Works.
• No Thanks – Thorsten Gimmler (AMIGO) – Either take a card and the points, or leave a token. If you don’t have a token, you have to take the card – and you get all the tokens. Bonus – consecutive cards only score for the lowest one, and leftover tokens are subtracted.
• 6 Nimmt – Wolfgang Kramer (AMIGO) – Another game of bad decisions. Play a card, put it in the row where it’s largest. If it’s the 6th card, take the whole row and all the points. Language independent and plays up to 10.
• Trick of the Rails – Hisashi Hayashi (OKAZU Brand) – Neat 18xx-flavored trick-taking game where the winner gets more shares and gets to extend train lines to improve or hurt stock values. Laminating the score sheet is a nice plus.
• Tichu – Urs Hostettler (Rio Grande Games) – My “King” of ladder-style trick taking games. A partners game where each person has to follow what is led – singles, pairs, run, etc. A BOMB (4-of-a-kind or straight flush) trumps everything. 5’s, 10’s and K’s score. Think you can go out first? Call “Tichu” and score high.
• Red 7 – Carl Chudyk (Asmadi) – multi-use cards where the only rule is that you have to be winning the game at the end of your turn. You can be winning either through playing a higher number OR by changing the rules of the game!
• Innovation – Carl Chudyk (Asmadi) – Play through 10 eras with every card being unique. Race to zany combos in this swingy follow-on to his masterpiece “Glory to Rome”. If you’ve got enough power in certain areas – follow an opponents action or force them to do hostile actions against their will.
• The Bottle Imp – Gunter Cornett (Stronghold) – Based on a 1891 short story by Robert Lewis Stevenson, you can use the power of the imp to help take a trick. If you do, you become the owner and you must get rid of it before the end of the round or you lose points.
• Port Royal – Alexander Pfister (Mayfair Games) – A push your luck game where you flip cards and raid ships to get the most money. Get a color the second time and you bust. Use that money to hire workers and get points.
• Oh My Goods – Alexander Pfister (Mayfair Games) – Pfister is a favorite of the gaming moguls – and this engine builder/resource management game to produce goods and build buildings is a lot of game in a small box. Be sure you play with the 2nd edition rules!
• Cockroach Poker – Jaques Zeimet – a pure bluffing and hand management game. If somebody believes you and they are wrong, they get your card. If they get too many cards of a certain type – they lose!
• Okey Dokey – Hisashi Hayashi (OKAZU Brand) – Play all fifty cards into their columns without communicating the cards and by giving only slight hints. Sounds a bit like the mind, doesn’t it?
• Love Letter / Hobbit Love Letter – Seiji Kanai (AEG) – Try to win the princess’ favor by playing a card to expose the other suitors. The most powerful card still standing at the end of the round gets their letter forwarded to the princess. You can fit two of these into one velvet bag.
• Oink(s) of Choice – Any of the Oink games (with the possible exception of Modern Art) will fit perfectly into this case. Two of the normal size boxes will fit on top of each other in the case. I typically have two of the following in my case: Deep Sea Adventure, Nine Tiles, Startups, Troika, and Twins
• Dice Fishing – Satoru Nakamura (Homosapiens Lab) – A fish appears with a condition involving a total number of pips plus an arrangement of pips. Each person bets a number of dice to try to make that condition – and the lowest gets to try first. The winner has the most valuable fish. Awesome dice game!

Some other ideas that would fit great in this case:

• Metro-X – best roll ‘n write on the market
• Flow of History (the non-Deluxified version)
• 18Lilliput (use a spreadsheet instead of money/chips)
• Shotten-Totten – two player “tug of war”
• Dutch Blitz – a favorite of my family
• Plain ol’ playing cards – add a cribbage app to keep score on your phone