Your collection

Build your collection by adding games directly, or link a BoardGameGeek account to import your owned games. Either way, the Collection page is the heart of deshelved — filter, explore, and look up rules without leaving the table.

Adding & removing games

Tap Add and search the BoardGameGeek database to add any game — no BGG account required; remove a game with the 🗑 button on its card. If you link a BGG account, Deshelved imports your owned games one-way (BGG → Deshelved): due to a BoardGameGeek restriction, changes you make here don't sync back, so we show Add on BGG / Remove on BGG links to do it there. A game removed here that's still owned on BGG will re-appear on the next sync unless removed on BGG too.

Search looks through a local copy of BoardGameGeek's published game list, so it can find a game nobody here owns yet — including recent releases. Results show the year and mark expansions, so you don't add Azul: Crystal Mosaic when you meant Azul. Box art appears once you add the game; in the results list a game we haven't fetched yet shows a plain grey square. If a game seems missing, try fewer words. Game data comes from BoardGameGeek.

Filtering & sorting

Use the controls at the top of the Collection page to narrow down your games:

Player count — filter to games that support a specific number of players. Choose Best to show only games rated ideal for that count by the BGG community, or Recommended for the broader supported range.
Category & mechanic — filter by game type (e.g. deck-building, co-operative) or mechanic (e.g. worker placement, tile laying).
Complexity — sort light to heavy or heavy to light using BGG community weight ratings.
Your sort order is remembered on this device, so a shelf you prefer to see by complexity or rating stays that way. Filters are not remembered — they reset each visit, so you never arrive at a collection that looks half-empty because of a filter you had forgotten.

Finding a game quickly

A long shelf takes a lot of scrolling — especially on a phone, where the scrollbar fades away as soon as you stop. Once there is enough to scroll through, a jump strip appears:

Jump strip — a thin strip runs down the right-hand edge. Drag it to jump through the shelf; a label follows your finger so you can see where you will land before you let go. Matching headings appear between the rows of cards.

What the strip shows follows the sort you have chosen, so it is always something you can aim at: sorted by Title it shows A, B, C …; by Complexity, 1 to 5; by Play time, under 30m, 30–60m, 1–2h and 2h+; by Rating, 9+, 8, 7, 6 and under 6. Games the sort cannot rank — no complexity, rating or play time recorded — gather in a final – band at the end.

To get back to the top, drag the strip all the way up. The strip does not appear on a short collection, since there is nothing to skip past, and it works the same way on a shared collection you have opened from someone else's link.

Game cards

Each game is shown as a card with its box art, title, player count range, complexity rating, and how many times you've logged it on BGG. Player count badges show whether the BGG community rates a given count as Best or Recommended for that game.

The name a game is shown under

BoardGameGeek gives every game one canonical title, and it is not always the one you know — a game listed as Morels is sold as Fungi in much of Europe. Tap the 🏷 button on a game's card and pick from the list of names BoardGameGeek publishes for it; the canonical title is the first option, so choosing it puts the game back the way it was. Search finds the game under either name, and everyone sees the name chosen by whoever owns that copy — so a game on an event shortlist reads the same for every guest.

Card backs — rulebooks, cheat sheets & chat

On desktop, click the green triangle in the bottom-right corner of a card to flip it. On mobile, drag the card sideways. The back face gives you four things:

Rulebook — attach a PDF so it's always at hand. You have two options:
- Upload PDF — pick a file from your computer. The file must be a text-based PDF (not a scanned image) so the rules can be read.
- Find PDF — tap to search the web for an official publisher-hosted rulebook automatically. Works well for most popular titles. If a search comes back empty we remember that for 24 hours, so tapping again shortly afterwards will say we looked recently rather than repeat the same search — you can always upload a PDF manually in the meantime. There is also a monthly search limit; if it's reached the button will report nothing found.
Cheat sheet — once a rulebook is attached, deshelved reads the rules and produces a concise quick-reference card: setup, turn order, key rules, end game, and quick tips. You can edit the cheat sheet and save your changes if anything needs correcting.
Rulebook chat — a 💬 icon appears in the card back header once a PDF is attached. Tap it to ask rules questions directly. The AI reads the PDF and answers from that text only — it won't guess or draw on general knowledge. If the answer isn't in the rulebook it says so. You can ask it to add a rule to the cheat sheet; it validates the information against the PDF before saving. Chat history clears when you flip the card back to the front.
BoardGameGeek — a direct link to the game's BGG page for ratings, forums, and variants.

Scanned rulebooks saved as images inside a PDF cannot be read and will be rejected. If your scan is declined, look for the publisher's official digital edition — these are almost always text-based.

Expansions you own

If your BoardGameGeek collection includes expansions for a game you own, the card back gains a row of tabs: Base plus one tab per owned expansion, in alphabetical order. Tap a tab to switch — each expansion gets its own rulebook, cheat sheet, and rules chat, so you can look up an expansion's rules without wading through the base game's.

Expansions come from your BGG collection sync, so they appear once a sync has run and only for base games you also own. Expansions usually come in their own box with their own rules, so it's well worth tapping Find PDF on an expansion tab — the Find PDF and Upload PDF buttons work exactly as they do for a base game. Nothing is searched for until you tap Find PDF.

Sharing your collection

Your Collection page has a Share button. It opens a share sheet with your public link — anyone can open it, no BoardGameGeek account needed and no account needed to browse it. Tap Share to hand the link to your phone's own share menu (WhatsApp, Messages, email), or Copy link on a device that doesn't offer one; the link is shown in the sheet either way. It contains a short code we generate, not your name or your BoardGameGeek username. Older links built from a BGG username no longer work — ask their owner for a new one from the Share button on their Collection page.

Pasted into a chat, the link shows a card with your name and how many games you own — your game titles are never listed on it.

New link replaces your collection link. Use it if you shared one somewhere you'd rather it wasn't — but be aware it breaks every collection link you have ever shared, including one a friend has saved or pinned in a chat. There is only one link, and replacing it retires the old one for everybody. We confirm before it happens, and it cannot be undone, so you will need to send the new link to the people you do want to have it.

Viewing someone else's collection

Opening a shared collection link shows that person's games with the same filters available. If you're signed in, you can flip cards, upload or find rulebook PDFs, edit cheat sheets, and use the rulebook chat — the game database and rulebooks are shared across all users, so anything you add benefits everyone.

Borrowing a crew member's collection

Prefer to see a household member's shelf as your own? Go to Settings → Shared collection and choose whose collection to use. Your Collection page and events then draw from their library — including games they added directly in Deshelved, not just their BoardGameGeek ones. While borrowing, the view is read-only: the Add and remove controls are hidden, since it isn't your own library. Switch back to your own any time to manage your own games.

Crew works both ways

Adding someone who has a Deshelved account now adds you to their crew as well, under your own name. A crew entry is what lets you borrow that person's collection, so the person you add can borrow yours — and, more to the point, can see the entry and remove it. Previously they were never told and had nothing to remove.

Your own play history is not shared just by being added. That still needs the other person to have added you themselves. Nor does adding somebody hand them yours. Play-history sharing needs both people to have added the other themselves — being put in somebody's crew is not consent, and it isn't treated as any.

Removing someone from your crew removes your entry only. It does not remove you from theirs — that one is theirs to remove, for exactly the same reason. Crew members who have never signed up have no crew list of their own, so nothing is added for them.

Your crew link

Rather than typing someone's email or BoardGameGeek username, you can send them a link. The Share button at the top of the Crew page opens a share sheet with a link that says who you are — send it straight from your phone's share menu, or copy it. Whoever opens it can add you to their crew in one tap, and you get them in yours. In a chat it shows a card with your name and an explanation of what tapping it does; it never shows your collection or your email address.

The link only ever creates a connection: it never hands over your account, and it does not share your play history — that still needs you to add the other person yourself. It does put you in each other's crew, and a crew member can choose to browse your collection, so send it to people you would be happy sharing a shelf with. If you would rather it stopped working, New link in the share sheet replaces it: the old one dies immediately and everyone already in your crew stays exactly as they are.

Other help articles: Hosting an event · Joining as a guest · Why sign up? · Voting & results · Availability & dates · BoardGameGeek sync · Passwords & security · Play log · FAQ · Sharing a shelf · Households · Mobile apps