I started a board game club in my home community when we moved in a few years back. The Shadow Creek Ranch Social Game Club was meant to be a way for people who enjoyed playing a variety of games to come together in a relaxed, social environment and play a few games. The club found about a dozen members pretty quick, and we have formed the basis of the club going forward. We meet once a month, at a members house, and play whatever games people have along. We have a lot of kids running around, mostly toddlers, and do a fair bit of chatting. It is a very social day.
I am finding that with this being my primary gaming time, I am missing more of the hard core gaming. When I was living in the Dallas area, and played games with the Dallas gamers group at borders every Tuesday night we would chat a little, but the focus was on playing as many games as we could between 6 and 10. There was not a lot of debate about which game to play next, you pulled a game out of a box, found a couple of players and played.
Many of the games I remember from Dallas, like Goa and Nautilus and Amun Re don’t go over well with the new group. We are typically looking for games that play 6 or more players, and we are looking for games that are a bit more universally interesting, more play and less think. I mentioned my indecision about 2 player games yesterday, and I notice that many of the fun 2 player games like Memoir or Battlelore (or any Command & Colors game) don’t make it out on game day because it is hard for 2 people to go off and play a game in this setting. Even four player games can be tough to get to the table.
I also really want to get back into miniatures gaming more, but at home. I really don’t want to have to pack things off to the game store every time I want to play a game. The stores are to loud, and filled with kids shouting various obscenities. I would rather play at home, especially since most of the new crop of pre-painted miniatures games don’t require a huge 4×8 table to play.
I think it is time to host a game day focused on some of these other games. Just need to find the right day and time to do it. I think maybe a regular weekly game night is in order. Just a couple of people, maybe on Sunday evening, for a couple of hours.