Set Up works from a real BoardGameGeek collection: the host's shelf, how many people are at the table and how long you have. Until BoardGameGeek approves this site's API access, the program runs on this demo shelf instead — 63 games almost every game group has met, described only by what is printed on the box: name, year, player range and play time, plus one line on what the game is.
That is enough to show how it works — which games fit four players in an hour, a weighted roll, a bracket, the party wheel, the table helper — but not enough to rank them well. There are no ratings, no weights and no best-player-count polls here, and none are invented: the app says "no poll yet" and "unrated" wherever BoardGameGeek's numbers would go.
Open the demo shelf in Set Up →
Strategy (18) · Family (15) · Co-op (7) · Card game (7) · Party (5) · Bluffing (4) · Two-player (4) · Thematic (3) — our own coarse grouping, used only to pair games in the demo bracket.
| Game (year) | Players | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Wonders Duel (2015) | 2 | 30 min | Draft cards across three ages and win by science, by military or on points. |
| Agricola (2007) | 1–5 | 30–150 min | Farming families of the 1600s plough, sow and build while keeping everyone fed. |
| Ark Nova (2021) | 1–4 | 90–150 min | Plan and build a modern zoo and support conservation projects. |
| Azul (2017) | 2–4 | 30–45 min | Draft coloured tiles and arrange them to decorate a palace wall. |
| BANG! (2002) | 4–7 | 20–40 min | A Wild West card game of hidden roles: sheriff, deputies, outlaws and a renegade. |
| Betrayal at House on the Hill (2004) | 3–6 | 60 min | Explore a haunted house together until one player turns traitor partway through. |
| Bohnanza (1997) | 2–7 | 45 min | Plant, trade and harvest beans without ever rearranging your hand. |
| Brass: Birmingham (2018) | 2–4 | 60–120 min | Build canals, railways and industries across the Industrial Revolution's West Midlands. |
| Camel Up (2014) | 2–8 | 20–30 min | Bet on a chaotic camel race where camels stack up and carry each other. |
| Carcassonne (2000) | 2–5 | 30–45 min | Draw and place land tiles to build a medieval landscape, then claim its cities, roads and fields. |
| Cascadia (2021) | 1–4 | 30–45 min | Draft habitat tiles and wildlife tokens to build a Pacific Northwest landscape. |
| The Castles of Burgundy (2011) | 2–4 | 30–90 min | Roll dice to take and place estate tiles in 15th-century Burgundy. |
| Catan (1995) | 3–4 | 60–120 min | Trade and build settlements on an island of hex tiles; the dice decide who gets resources. |
| Century: Spice Road (2017) | 2–5 | 30–45 min | Trade and upgrade spices along caravan routes to claim point cards. |
| Citadels (2000) | 2–8 | 20–60 min | Choose secret character roles each round to collect gold and build districts. |
| Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure (2016) | 2–4 | 30–60 min | Sneak into a dragon's dungeon to steal treasure without making too much noise. |
| Cockroach Poker (2004) | 2–6 | 20 min | Pass critter cards face down and call — or dodge — the other players' bluffs. |
| Codenames (2015) | 2–8 | 15 min | Two teams race to find their agents from one-word clues given by their spymaster. |
| Concordia (2013) | 2–5 | 100 min | Traders spread across the Roman Empire by playing personality cards. |
| Coup (2012) | 2–6 | 15 min | Bluff about your hidden roles to strip the other players of their influence. |
| Decrypto (2018) | 3–8 | 15–45 min | Teams send coded messages with clue words while the other team tries to intercept them. |
| Diplomacy (1959) | 2–7 | 360 min | Negotiate alliances, then issue simultaneous orders to control Europe in 1901. |
| Dominion (2008) | 2–4 | 30 min | Build a deck of cards as you play, buying treasure, actions and victory points. |
| Dune: Imperium (2020) | 1–4 | 60–120 min | Deck-building and worker placement in a struggle for control of Arrakis. |
| Everdell (2018) | 1–4 | 40–80 min | Woodland critters gather resources to build a city of constructions and creatures. |
| Exploding Kittens (2015) | 2–5 | 15 min | Draw cards and avoid the exploding kitten — or defuse it. |
| Forbidden Island (2010) | 2–4 | 30 min | Adventurers work together to recover four treasures before the island sinks. |
| Gloomhaven (2017) | 1–4 | 60–120 min | A campaign of tactical, card-driven battles in a fantasy world that changes as you play. |
| Great Western Trail (2016) | 2–4 | 75–150 min | Drive cattle from Texas to Kansas City and ship them east by rail. |
| Hanabi (2010) | 2–5 | 25 min | Build fireworks together from cards you can see in everyone's hand except your own. |
| Heat: Pedal to the Metal (2022) | 1–6 | 30–60 min | Race 1960s cars by managing speed, heat and cooldown with a hand of cards. |
| Jaipur (2009) | 2 | 30 min | Trade goods and camels at the market to earn the most rupees. |
| Just One (2018) | 3–7 | 20 min | Everyone writes a one-word clue for the guesser; duplicate clues cancel each other out. |
| King of Tokyo (2011) | 2–6 | 30 min | Roll dice as giant monsters fighting to take and hold Tokyo. |
| Kingdomino (2016) | 2–4 | 15 min | Pick domino-style land tiles to build a five-by-five kingdom. |
| Lost Ruins of Arnak (2020) | 1–4 | 30–120 min | Explore an uncharted island's ruins with deck-building and worker placement. |
| Love Letter (2012) | 2–4 | 20 min | Sixteen cards: hold the highest one at the end of the round or knock your rivals out first. |
| Machi Koro (2012) | 2–4 | 30 min | Roll dice to earn income from the buildings of your growing city. |
| Mysterium (2015) | 2–7 | 42 min | A silent ghost sends dream-vision cards to help the mediums solve a murder. |
| Pandemic (2008) | 2–4 | 45 min | Work together to treat diseases spreading around the world and discover four cures. |
| Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 (2015) | 2–4 | 60 min | A year-long Pandemic campaign in which the board and the rules change permanently. |
| Patchwork (2014) | 2 | 15–30 min | Spend buttons and time on fabric patches to fill your quilt board. |
| Photosynthesis (2017) | 2–4 | 30–60 min | Grow trees through their life cycle while the sun moves around the forest. |
| Power Grid (2004) | 2–6 | 120 min | Bid on power plants, buy fuel and connect cities to your network. |
| The Quacks of Quedlinburg (2018) | 2–4 | 45 min | Draw ingredients from your bag to brew potions without letting the pot explode. |
| Qwirkle (2006) | 2–4 | 45 min | Lay wooden tiles in lines that share a colour or a shape. |
| Race for the Galaxy (2007) | 2–4 | 30–60 min | Build a galactic empire of worlds and developments through simultaneous role choices. |
| The Resistance: Avalon (2012) | 5–10 | 30 min | Arthur's loyal servants try to complete quests while hidden minions of Mordred sabotage them. |
| Root (2018) | 2–4 | 60–90 min | Woodland factions that each play by different rules fight for control of a forest. |
| Sagrada (2017) | 1–4 | 30–45 min | Draft coloured dice to build a stained-glass window under placement rules. |
| Santorini (2016) | 2–4 | 20 min | Move your builders and raise towers; step up onto a third level to win. |
| Scythe (2016) | 1–5 | 90–115 min | Lead a faction through an alternate-history 1920s Europe of farms, factories and mechs. |
| Small World (2009) | 2–5 | 40–80 min | Fantasy races with special powers conquer a map that is too small for all of them. |
| Spirit Island (2017) | 1–4 | 90–120 min | The spirits of an island work together to drive off colonising invaders. |
| Splendor (2014) | 2–4 | 30 min | Collect gem tokens to buy development cards and attract visiting nobles. |
| Stone Age (2008) | 2–4 | 60–90 min | Place workers to gather food and resources and grow a Stone Age village. |
| Sushi Go! (2013) | 2–5 | 15 min | Pick a card and pass the rest, collecting the best sushi combinations. |
| Telestrations (2009) | 4–8 | 30 min | Draw and guess your way down a chain of sketchbooks, like the telephone game. |
| Terraforming Mars (2016) | 1–5 | 120 min | Corporations play project cards to raise temperature, oxygen and oceans on Mars. |
| Ticket to Ride (2004) | 2–5 | 30–60 min | Collect coloured train cards and claim railway routes across North America. |
| Ticket to Ride: Europe (2005) | 2–5 | 30–60 min | Claim railway routes across Europe, with tunnels, ferries and train stations. |
| Twilight Struggle (2005) | 2 | 120–180 min | The Cold War as a card-driven contest for influence around the world. |
| Wingspan (2019) | 1–5 | 40–70 min | Attract birds to your wildlife preserves and chain their powers together. |
Box facts as printed by each publisher. Each game's BoardGameGeek id was checked against Wikidata's BoardGameGeek-ID property before it went on the shelf; games whose id or box facts could not be confirmed were left off. The same list is available as /demo/shelf.json.
Set Up is a free tool: type a BoardGameGeek username, say how many are playing and how long you have, and it ranks the games on that shelf that fit tonight — then a roll, a bracket or the wheel settles it. Game data from BoardGameGeek's XML API, displayed as BGG publishes it. Powered by BGG — not affiliated with or endorsed by BoardGameGeek. page updated 2026-09-23 · a Somebody Decide program. How it works · Legal & privacy · Demo shelf