Well, here's the thing. My two fans will know that I've said from day one (or almost day one) that if this blog comes to a point it will, in fact, turn into a pumpkin. And since I did actually get off my arse this morning and take a photo that has something to do with the topic, that's dangerously close to pumpkinhood.
I've done it on rare occasions before, though, so I think we might be safe.
Maybe.
Anyway, topic. Since I have one and all. Today is Tabletop Day, so it's time to get to a board game cafe or haul down the old game boxes and play an actual, physical game instead of plugging into a game system or staring at your phone. It was started by Wil Wheaton (yes, he of Star Trek TNG fame, and hero of the internet) and has been embraced by nerds -- and board game companies -- everywhere.
Me? Well, it's been years... and I didn't even know that there was such a thing as a board game cafe until a couple of days ago. I did once teach a friend how to play crib in a funky little coffee shop, though. Does that count?
When I was growing up, however, we were pretty big on board games.Yes, there were the endless games of Monopoly, but also a bunch of short-lived things that I'm sure hardly anyone's heard of now. Good thing I can't remember their names. Oh, and there were also The Game of Life, Sorry!, and Mousetrap. I'd forgotten about those. We hardly ever played Mousetrap as a game; just set up the Rube Goldberg machine and tried (and generally failed) to get it to work the whole way. And I kind of hated Sorry. As boring as Ludo, but with the obnoxious sooory you were supposed to say every time you knocked someone's piece back.
Not quite on the board game band wagon, but another thing that I really hated when I was a kid was any game that made loud sounds. To this day I'm very noise sensitive, but it was even more so back then. I'm probably the only kid out there who enjoyed putting the sticks into the Kerplunk cylinder more than playing the game. It wasn't the chance of getting all the marbles; it was the sound that they made when they came down. By far the worst for that was a game called Bang Box. I don't know whose idea it was to hide balloons under a box and then pound (plastic) nails into it until a balloon popped, but that game was an absolute nightmare for me.
But back to board games.
And now (drumroll please), the game in the pumpkiny picture above. I'd figured that there were tons of games still around this house, so it'd be no problem to grab one and take a quick shot. Um, no. First, I'd forgotten that Dad (on my suggestion, to be honest) had donated a bunch to a charity garage sale a while ago. Then I thought of taking a photo of the Trivial Pursuit stuff (the original, of which there's probably only two or three million around now) that we still have. Not sure why I didn't go with that. I loved Trivial Pursuit. It was right up my alley, being a trivia natural without trying to be. Comes with the short attention span, I guess. Anyway, then I realised that there were still games in the storeroom. Then I opened the storeroom door and realised that there was no way in hell that I was going to be able to get to them. So then I found the Pente board.
We've never played this.
In fact, I don't think this particular board has ever been used. According to the tags on the storage cylinder, it was bought on sale from a local drug store and then... put away? It certainly seems that way.
Just as well. It looks like the sort of game that I absolutely suck at. Scanning the rules, it seems very like a game I have as part of a set for the 3DS, and even on the easiest setting I generally win... oh, let's be generous and say maybe one out of three games. I just don't have the brain for strategy stuff, or may I don't have the patience to think that way. Whichever, if you want to frustrate me in a hurry just sit me down and make me play games like this.
I promise that I'll pout when I lose.
Some things about me and board games just don't change, I suppose.
Happy Tabletop Day, nerds (and I say that with affection) everywhere.
1 comment:
Funny my granddaughter is five but loves board games. They started her with Hungry Hungry Hippo. I recently bought her Whose behind the Door. It is a game based on the Disney movie Monsters. Each player has a monster showing on his side of the door. The object is to guess which monster your player has by asking questions and covering up and eliminating certain monsters by the answers. Such as, Does your monster have horns. Is your monster a girl. Well, I started noticing that Felicity would get me distracting during game talking to me and subtly try and move into position to see my side of the door. Boy, five years old and already cheating. ha ha. She will play well for about half an hour and then she begins to make up her own rules and get silly. But still I love that even more.
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