Board Games

I’ve written a number of posts over the years about role playing games, but I’ve not written much about board games. I have a lot of them, and I’ve even played a few of the ones I own!

Until about twenty years ago, I wasn’t much of a board game player. I had the obligatory games: Monopoly, Life, Guess Who, and the like. I had chess, checkers, and Scrabble. And Uno, which isn’t a board game but I’ll include in this context. I played Axis & Allies in college a lot, but never owned a copy. Then, about twenty years ago, I met Michael and Martina, a lovely young couple from Germany who came to Ohio so that Michael could work at OCLC as manager of the Dewey Decimal System (which remains one of the best job titles I’ve ever heard!). Michael brought with him an enormous board game collection, and he was eager to play them all.

I can’t remember the first game we played with him, exactly; but he introduced me to the concept of the eurogame. This was a revelation to me, and I really enjoyed the games we played where one could win without directly antagonizing the other players. I didn’t need to buy any games at this time, because Michael had them all! Notable favorites at the time were Race for the Galaxy, Modern Art, 6 nimnt! (also not a board game), and more that I can no longer recall.

Around this time, Owen also started telling me about games. He introduced me to Blink!, and a host of others. He was keen at the time on smaller, portable games he could take with him while traveling and could quickly play with most anyone, any where.

Owen still likes such games, and is a big fan and supporter of Button Shy gamnes, makers of slim wallet card games. The absolute best of these is In Vino Morte which recreates the battle of wits from the film The Princess Bride. In Vino Morte has become something of bellweather for me to evaluate other people’s gaming tastes: if you like In Vino Morte then I’m willing to try to play other games with you; but if you dislike In Vino Morte then we’re probably not going to have much fun playing games together.

Owen introduced me to the Penny Arcade Expo: Unplugged, which is a gigantic expo for all things board games. I’ve attended several years in a row now, and have vastly expanded my board game knowledge. Worker placement, area control, deck building, engine building, social deduction, and more are now regular components of my gaming lexicon. And of course my game collection has expanded as a result of attending PAX Unplugged. It’s hard not to get swept away in the joy of playing new games, surrounded by people at an event dedicated to enjoying playing new games!

It can be hard to evaluate a game just from the box, or even the manual. An event like PAX Unplugged is great because you often get the chance to play a game with one or more of the people who created it. This can be a mixed bag, of course: just because you developed a fun game doesn’t mean you’re the most personable person to demonstrate that game. But generally speaking, designers are really eager and happy to show off their work, and the number of fun demos far outweighs the number of duds. Some of my favorite games were purchased because I demoed the game at PAX Unplugged: Side Effects is fun, and the creators were super friendly when presenting the game to us. Same for Stir Fry Eighteen and That’s Not Lemonade. And Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza and Outlawed! were also huge wins, both at the convention and at home.

As mentioned, the vibe at something like PAX Unplugged can be infectious. The fun I’m having with a designer who really loves their game can cloud my judgement, or make me forget with whom I might be playing that game later. Mental Blocks was a game that I thoroughly enjoyed playing at the expo, and eagerly purchased to play at home. My family hated this game. It felt like work to them, not an inspiring challenge. This, and a few others, taught me to second guess my excitement and think about who else might play any game with me.

Kickstarter is another avenue for great games. I backed Mini Rogue and Tiny Epic Dungeons, both of which are fun. Drama Mayhem proved to be a fun little party game, as did Party Freud. The two best games I’ve backed on Kickstarter, though, were definitely Monikers and Wavelength. Of all the games I own, we’ve played these probably more than any other. We usually end up playing for fun, without teams or score keeping, just because both are so entertaining. Wavelength, particularly, is a game that sparks surprising creativity and conversation. Highly recommended. I also backed Tak which is a fun game, but I’ve only ever played with Owen!

Within the last year, though, I’ve finally developed some self control – both at PAX Unplugged and on Kickstarter. I’ve learned a couple of important things that help me avoid buying new games. First, I’m pretty fussy about games I want to play. I dislike games with many, many pieces. If a game takes 10 or more minutes to set up or put away, I’m immediately turned off. Second, my family doesn’t like to play many of the games I might like to play. My family prefer games they can play casually, which don’t involve long turn sequences or deep thought to choose the best course of action. And third, as a result of the second item, I don’t have a consistent group of folks with which to play games! My friend group is mostly people like me: adult men with families and obligations, making free time precious and often better spent doing something other than setting up a game, cogitating for long turns, and then putting the game away.

Despite an aversion to many game pieces, I’ve still collected a number of games with this feature and some of them can be genuinely fun to play. Examples include Zombiecide, Eschaton, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Betrayal at the House on the Hill, Elder Signs, and Arkham Horror. Another game with many pieces is Mountains of Madness. It presents as a serious Cthulhu Mythos-inspired investigation and escape game, but it has a number of random conditions that affect players which are downright silly: one player may have to hold a finger under their nose like a moustache, another may have to agree with everything said, and another may have to look away from the game board whenever anyone is looking at them. It’s actually an absurdly fun game with the right group!

We still play a lot of 6 nimnt!, thanks to Michael. We also enjoy Codenames a lot. Scout, In a Grove, and Insider from Oink Games are all fun, and we play Insider a lot when taking vacations.

Sequence gets some play with the family, as does Tokaido. Tokaido is a great eurogame with beautiful art and a leisurely pace, which is perfect for my family. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Magic Maze, a game we might play once a year because it induces heart palpitations as we play! It’s zany fun, but it takes a level of preparation and committment we don’t often have.

One of the most energetic games I own is called Gimme That!. It’s simple: everyone gets a piece of paper on which they are to write the numbers one through fifty. There is only one pencil, so only one person can write at a time. A die is rolled, and the symbol revealed instructs the players not writing what to do. Most of their actions are designed to distract or disrupt the person writing numbers. One of the die faces is a pencil: when revealed the person who rolled it yells “gimme that!” and yanks the pencil away from whoever has it. They begin writing numbers. First person to write “50” on their paper wins. It’s a frenetic, chaotic game that always involves a lot of shouting and laughing. Games take about 2 minutes, and each game almost always results in people wanting to play again for their chance to win. Highly recommended!

Games I own but have yet to play include Fall of Magic, Revolt!, and The Witchborn: Enter Perdition. Owen gave me a copy of Massive Darkness (because he bought two? I forget!), which I’ve yet to play, too.

I know a couple of poeple – Owen included in their number – who own hundreds of big box games. One even maintains a complete spreadsheet of games owned, times played, relative scoring for fun, and other stats. I’m not nearly that organized. I have a shelf full of games, randomly assorted. Maybe some day I’ll get to play them all!