Table Top Day

Table Top Day! Let me tell you about some games.

If you haven't heard April 11th is International Table Top Day. In honour of that I am hoping to have a few friends over and play cheesy board-games. Why cheesy?? Because the cheesier the better!

So I thought we'd go through some of the Games I've played or would like to play.

As most kids in the '90's, who's a little on the geeky/alternative side, we played some sort of Table Top RPG. A lot of people I know started with DnD but I never played DnD until I got into University. Our high school go to game (aside for Euchre) was Vampire the Masquerade.

Pic from Amazon

What I love with Vampire (Or Dnd, or any other of these style games) is that people always try to play something they aren't. If they aren't very artistic they want to play an artist. If they are a sweat passive doll they want to play a bruiser. What I often see happens (table top or LARP) are they characters slowly become more THEM. If the person playing the character isn't a true "actor" then in time they make decisions and do actions that they would do. I also find that characters are played with a specific idea even though they don't have to be played like that. For some reason all Toreador's (the supposed artists of the clan) end up being slutty... or snotty characters. I actually managed to play one character in a table top that was a shy Art Curator. She didn't dress provocative. She didn't try and sleep with all the other characters. Surprise surprise, I had a bit of grief from others in the "clan" but it worked for me. Most artists I know are not portrayed accurately by Toreador Players, but I digress. I have not managed to play a game of Vampire in more than 10 years. Partially because getting older means you don't have the same amount of free time, but also because to play a good game I feel you need a few dedicated players that can meet fairly frequently and someone who wants to be the storyteller.

Being we haven't had either (with kids and stuff a dedicated Story Teller and Group are hard to find) we have been playing more Table Top. One shot games.

After watching my fair share of Table Top with Wil Wheaton. (I'm a bad geek and totally haven't managed to watch many this season) My friends and I have started buying games we watched. One of the first ones I've bought was Small World.

PIC from HERE

I like small world because even the most inexperienced player can usually figure it out. It's one of those games that has A TON of pieces, and may seem a little daunting. What I love about it is the replay-ability of the game. I have played this game a dozen or so times and each time we get different combinations of characters and attributes. This means that you don't have people groaning (like RISK) when they see us pull it out. I also like the fact that it has a bunch of expansions and alternate boards. (The board changes depending on the number of players). So if you are looking for something that is kinda like a Risk but very much isn't Risk (I only survive for 20 minutes at most with Risk then sit in the corner and watch the others) then this one's for you!

One that we like to play, which isn't too long, but takes some imagination is Once Upon a Time. This game is lots of fun with a variety of Ages. Every character gets an Ending, which you are trying to gear the story towards. You are, however, limited by cards in your hand on how to get there. The goal: Get the story to your ending with no cards left in your hand. The Problem: As you are telling the story if you reference items/words/etc that others have in their hand they can "steal" the story and bring it to their own Ending. All in all it's a game that most kids can play and all adults. A few friends and I played it for almost 2 weeks straight and we still enjoy it because ever new person and new scenario creates interesting twisted stories.

The most recent game that we are playing in our circle is Marvel: Legendary.

This game is a considered a deck building game but it's self contained. All the cards come with the game, it's kind of like Munchkin where you can get expansions and such to add new characters. I love that it's marvel based so you can choose to have characters that wouldn't necessarily work together in the deck. You can either play against the board or each other or a little bit of both. Within my group of friends we mainly play to beat the board. It is a card based game where there are scenarios and villains and a variety of villain groups that different heroes have advantages and disadvantages too. All in all it's a lot of fun. Although at first glance it may seem hard, I have managed to teach even my lease game capable friend to play and they I haven't had someone not like it.

I hope you all dust off the games and get a chance to play some today.
Let me know what games you play... do you like imaginative games, War games, or fast card games like Flux? Either way leave a comment and maybe we can swap board game referrals.

Until next time.
Keep on, Geekin' on.
Angie