It’s time for a new series of reviews from Unboxed the Board Game Blog. I’ve been struggling to write reviews now for several years because the market place is so saturated with reviews that I feel like all I do is add my voice to the never ending chorus, repeating, mostly, what all other reviewers have already said.
Amongst my group of close friends I have one gamer friend, with whom I play games most weeks. However, in November of last year, I accidentally ended up organising a Game Night for my birthday with a group of my non-gamer friends. I panicked and worried, I spent days writing lists of games I thought would work with non-gamers. I truly thought everyone would have a horrible time and would sit there staring at me and hating me for making them play games.
However, everyone was very polite and the gaming went on into the early hours, much food was consumed and even some alcohol was enjoyed in moderation and at the end of it all I thought to myself, “That was nice, maybe we’ll do it again next year.”
Well, Christmas rolled around and out of the blue, my friends said, let’s get together and play some of the games we didn’t get to play last time. I couldn’t believe it. I packed a handful of short games, believing at this point that we’d mostly just be celebrating the festive period and that really my friends were just suggesting bringing some games to humour me. However, once again, we broke out the games and we played into the early hours and much fun was had by all.
I realised at this point that I could probably take this success and capitalise on it, that if I acted quickly I could turn these impromptu gatherings into an ongoing, regular game night. I could transform my non-gamer friends into gamers!
The plan came together quickly and soon I had sent out the invites to our first Game Night. I felt sure that I’d overstepped, that I had flown too close to the sun, that I’d become that pushy guy who tries to force his hobbies on other people, you know, that guy you avoid at parties. But, to my eternal surprise they said yes, all of them!
So, this series of reviews then is going to focus on the games we’ve played at Games Night, my reasons for choosing them and how I feel they worked with non-gamers. Here are some of the reviews you can expect over the coming months.
Wits & Wagers
Saboteur
King of Tokyo
Braggart
Timeline
Travel Blog
Codenames
Mysterium
Pandemic
Flash Point Fire Rescue
Fauna
Ticket to Ride
Settlers of Catan
Carcassonne
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Forbidden Island
The Resistance
Sushi Go
Dwarf King
T.I.M.E Stories
It is worth noting that the Game Group varies between 4 and 6 players which limits the scope of the games we play and has led to some interesting challenges when striking a balance between fun, complexity and player counts.
Check back soon for my first Game Night Review and until then, have fun gaming.
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