One Light, One Medium, One Heavy

Restaurants figured out pacing a long time ago. You don't open with the ribeye. Game nights benefit from the same thinking, which is why this site deals three courses instead of one suggestion.

A concrete example from a real collection at four players: Cartographers as the opener, Battlestar Galactica as the main event, Arkham Horror waiting as the heavy option. The opener works while people trickle in, because a latecomer can watch a round of Cartographers and join the next one. Nobody joins Battlestar Galactica halfway through, and nobody should try.

The courses map to BGG weight bands. Light games rate under 2.0, mediums run 2.0 to 3.5, and heavies sit above 3.5. Most collections are shaped like a hill, thin on either end and thick in the middle, so the medium main course usually has the deepest pool to draw from.

You are not obligated to eat all three courses. Some nights the light game catches fire and gets played four times, and that was the game night. Other nights everyone shows up caffeinated and you skip straight to the heavy. The menu's job is to make the options visible, not to enforce a schedule.

If your collection is missing a whole band, the site borrows from the nearest one rather than leaving a course empty. A collection with no true heavies gets its biggest medium as the chef's special. If that bothers you, BGG's community would be happy to recommend a purchase. They're helpful like that.