Bi-weekly board game night at tretton37. We played two interesting games tonight, one of which I enjoyed so much that I’ve already ordered a copy for us at home, and another one to have at the office.

We’re a core group of maybe five people who are almost always there, and a bunch of others who sometimes come. I wouldn’t describe the core group as hard core gamers but we take the games reasonably seriously: we listen and pay attention when the rules are presented, and we’re focused during the game itself. Not to the exclusion of talking and having fun, though!

The occasional hangarounds on the other hand are mostly there for the social aspect of things, and for them the game is just the thing that brings us together. Which is a perfectly valid approach to board games – but it requires a different choice of games. We can’t spend 15 minutes going through the rules because their eyes will glaze over. And we can’t spend two or three hours on a single game. So I’m always on the lookout for games that aren’t pure party games but that are easy to get into, and are suitable for a larger group of players with mixed experience levels. (So many games are for two to four players only.)

I’m also on the lookout for new games for the family. Actually the two overlap quite a lot, because the best family games are also casual, social, fun games with uncomplicated rules, that are playable by people of different experience levels. The only thing that really differs is the number of players.

Today’s top hit was Dream On. Great fun! After playing a few rounds we realized we hadn’t read the rules; I took a quick glance at them and I think it will be even more fun if we actually follow the rules.

(The photo is not of Dream On but of Gloom, another storytelling game.)