An Unexpected Game Day

Border Board Games took the show on the road as we combined forces with the Goodrich Memorial Library in downtown Newport. The celebration of National Game Day on November 13 was, in my opinion, a success for both our game group as well as the library. My expectation was that the members of our group would converge and have an extra session of gaming. While I had hoped for a few people to show up, we actually attracted a lot of new faces.

The library brought out a fairly substantial selection of traditional board games as well as a Nintendo Wii system on which to run a Mario Kart tournament. In the spirit of the day the tournament was largely self-governing with various children taking turns or combining for four-player races. We brought along a Big Frakkin' Bag of goodness including a few of our newest acquisitions.

Hoping to attract game enthusiasts who might not be terribly familiar withEuro games, we started off easy with a game of Settlers of Catan. One fellow said that the game was something he had tried on a virtual platform and enjoyed quite a bit. Having a chance to play face to face with a physical game board sounded like fun. And he was right. The game also proved immensely popular with a pair of brothers, one of whom caught the tail-end of our inaugural game. Having watched us for a few rounds, he quickly picked up on the concept and decided he wanted to try it out for himself. Though he played it in 2-player mode (I should have told him it is based on a 3-player minimum), the boys liked it quite a lot and had so much fun they played two games in a row.

Meanwhile Beth guided a couple of other young fellows in a game of Power Grid. Personally I found it interesting that a couple of teens would have taken interest in a game based on operating an electric utility, even more so considering the lack-lustre box art. Seriously, does a dude in a lab coat looking at dials and buttons scream "play me some more." Heck, though disingenuous, even Atari made Super Breakout look fun by putting astronauts on the cover. Beth remarked that the boys had fun playing and certainly began to appreciate the levels of strategy and management necessary to win the game.

Our friend Rob came by with his kids and Homer, Alexis and Josh also stopped in for gaming mayhem. We introduced Rob's friend to Race for the Galaxy and Ave Caesar and then dived headlong into an eight-player Bang! showdown (with our Carnage acquired Dodge City expansion). We were so caught up in the moment that I almost forgot to check in with some of the folks to see how their games of Magic: The Gathering went as well as get some general feedback on National Game Day in general. Before we knew it the library was closing down around us and we had to get going.

It turns out that half a day of gaming wasn't going to be enough. So we retired to The Lair (Beth always wanted a Lair) for a continuation of the day's festivities. Homer, Alexis, Josh and new Josh came by that evening for a game of Cyclades and several rounds of Bang! Having two Joshes in the group is proving slightly confusing. Especially when someone declares "I'm shooting Josh." We've tossed around some thoughts on how to qualify the two: Original Josh or OJ or Josh 2, Jay-2, J-Roc or some derivative to distinguish between them. I'm sure if we apply ourselves to the task we can reach an alternative that makes everyone happy.

It also appears that we may have picked up one or two new players for our mponthly D&D game. Jeff is interested in joining the crew and DM Rob ex[pressed a willingness to add a new face to the mix. Jeff's daughter may also be joining in the fun. I guess we'll need to consider putting in both leaves for the table on the 27th.....