Gather Round The Table, Friends and Enemies

By Marc Q.

As much as I would love to give advice on how to find people who play board games, there simply are no easy answers or social alchemy to perform reliably. Well, other than going to board game cafes and meeting people who are cool (Kitchener has a great one at The Adventurers Guild, and Waterloo has a few options in Games on Tap as well as Pair A Dice Cafe, both very close to the J&J Store!).

Cool people, it turns out, are almost always into board games. That’s just science. Let’s say you’ve accomplished the difficult task of gathering a few awesome people willing to play board games. Now the hard part is over, right? All you have to do is put the new, shiny game on the table and everything will just go perfectly. Right?

Right?

Okay, obviously I’m being a little facetious here. Many times that is more-or-less how things go. To ensure things go well, here are some tips that will make your game nights go consistently smoothly. If you haven’t done a lot of these events, please learn from my (extensive, frequent, many) mistakes! 

 1. Determine the scope of your event first! 

This may seem obvious, but your life will be far easier if you know how many people are coming, and how long they’ll want to play games for. You can have as much fun with a group of eight players who only have twenty minutes for games as you can with you and one buddy who wants to play something for five hours. However, you’ll need to have very different games prepped in both cases! 

 2. Figure out the complexity your group is looking for.

Board games can be as easy as Jenga, or have monstrous 50-page rule books like Twilight Imperium IVth.  In an ideal world, the group you’ve assembled will all be looking to tackle the same level of game, but the world is rarely so perfect. An easy rule of thumb is to find the player who is least comfortable with complicated games, and pick something that they will enjoy. It’s far easier to find simple games that everyone will enjoy than to try and push the rules comfort of the group to a new level. Try asking your players what the most complicated game each person has enjoyed, and find games around  the same rules weight so everyone has a great time!  

 3. Assemble options! 

Alrighty! You have your group of players, you know how long you have to play the game, and you know whether people are coming over for an epic session of Eclipse: Second Dawn For the Galaxy or for a quick game of Tsuro. Now you need to find options. Unless the group specifically declared that they are coming over to play one specific game (and, honestly, even then!), you’ll want to have 3-4 alternatives ready to go. Sometimes it helps to have an “opener” or “closer” that can be played in just a few minutes, something to help get everyone excited at the start or to help calm down at the end.  

And that brings us to… 

 4. LEARN THE RULES. 

I cannot stress this enough: Learn the rules yourself. Read the rulebook, watch Youtube videos (I recommend Watch It Played, featuring Canadian Rodney Smith, who does spectacular tutorial videos), set up a practice round and play by yourself a few turns; whatever you need to do to feel comfortable explaining the game to a group of enthusiastic people.  Do not, under any circumstance, leave the box sealed until people show up and assume you can just “learn it as we play.” No. Bad. Don’t do it. I know the temptation, but resist! Learn the rules, you must. This stands for each game you are going to suggest. You don’t need to have them memorized, but you should be comfortable teaching the game, which leads me into, potentially, the most controversial (Ian: optional) thing I can recommend: 

 5. Practice Teaching the Game. 

Look, I know. At this point we’re approaching work. But if you are introducing people to games, especially people who “don’t play games” or are looking to get into the hobby… gee golly, practicing teaching the game is something you could consider doing. At the very least, consider the order in which you describe win conditions, things you do on your turn, and general strategies. Having a plan helps “the teach” go smoothly, and should address questions players have along the way. 

It’s worth mentioning that there are people who have an aversion to learning games. Those people exist! Other than suggesting you make better friends (see above: “Cool people are into board games” for the science behind it), don’t try to teach anything complicated to them. There is a great video by Shut Up and Sit Down, one of the most venerable institutions in board gaming, that discusses some great tips. But at the core is practice.  

 6. Think about Food and Drink! 

Ensuring your players are hydrated and have some snacks will make your game session much more enjoyable for your guests. Everyone has different levels of comfort with food and drink at their gaming table. Some “serious” board gamers may ban food and drink altogether. I’m not saying everyone should be comfortable with big bags of dusty cheese chips, but maybe drinks at a reasonable distance from a not-super-expensive game is okay? For years we’ve set up a small fold-out table near the game space, and people could wander over between turns. Not everyone has access to such space, but if you’re not going to allow food at your table, make sure to schedule breaks! Alternatively, play games before or after a meal (Unless you’re playing Skull, which is a fantastic little bluffing game you can play almost anywhere, including during meals!).  

Ian: It also helps reduce your stress levels with food around if your games are sleeved. ;) 

 7. Debrief! 

Okay, this is probably a bridge too far for most people, but after decades of running board game evenings, one of the most important things I’ve learned is that there is no “perfect” way to run a game night. The best way to improve? Get feedback from your players on how the night could’ve been better. This will give you much better suggestions than reading my (admittedly, well-practiced and experienced) advice. So ask them! Take notes if that helps you, and try to keep an open mind; don’t try to “defend” what happened. Learn from your mistakes, and bring the changes next time! 

 8. Fun. 

Perhaps most importantly: have fun! I know it’s cliché, but if you’re not having a good time, then that should be the first thing to fix! 

Game on!