For the last time in 2023, Gamerlicious gathered for a board game night. The venue this time was Käuzchen, a change of scenery from the usual.
Now that we’ve wrapped up the last board game night of the year, we want to share our reflections and insights with you.
But first, let’s talk about the three games played that evening.
Skyjo, an introductory game for up to eight players, bridged the time until dinner. Quick to explain, even latecomers could join. Each player lays out 12 cards in a rectangle (3 rows * 4 columns) face down. Two cards per player are randomly selected and revealed.
Players in turn can either draw a card from the discard or draw pile. This card can then be exchanged with any of the 12 cards in front of them, with face-down cards being swapped with open ones.
The goal is to have the lowest point total at the end of the round (both face down and face up). The game continues until the first player has revealed all their cards.
Codenames, winner of the 2016 Game of the Year awards, is played in two groups. Each group appoints a game master who sits opposite their respective team. The game board consists of a 5 * 5 grid of cards, each printed with a word.
The game masters also see a secret plan identifying the cards as friendly or enemy agents. In turn, the game master must give clues to their team which cards (words) are their agents. Clever associations must be made to uncover multiple of their own agents each round without revealing any of the enemy agents. If an enemy agent is revealed, the other group takes their turn. The team that identifies all of its agents first wins.
What Do You Meme? a modern party game funded on Kickstarter and recommended for players 18 and older, provides great entertainment in larger groups with numerous participants. A game master is chosen in turns while the other players in the round act simultaneously.
At the start, all players receive seven cards with short sentences or descriptions. The game master selects a meme from a collection of images, and each player chooses the most fitting or funniest description from their seven cards, handing it to the game master face down. The remaining six cards are placed in a discard pile.
After everyone makes their selection, the chosen cards are shuffled briefly, and the game master reads each description aloud. The player whose card is selected by the game master as the funniest receives the meme image. The goal is to collect the most memes by the end of the game.
Retrospective on the board game nights in the first year of Gamerlicious Spielekulturverein
Firstly, we want to thank everyone who made our board game nights a success!
To all those who enthusiastically tried new games.
To everyone who brought games to introduce to the group. Thank you!
From the last three events and all the feedback, we’ve learned a lot and tried to improve each time. Following the PDCA method, our shared gaming sessions will continue to evolve.
We’d like to address five specific points as a review and outlook, providing insight into our thoughts and for transparency’s sake.
Boardgame AFTERNOONS!
Friday evening is not an ideal time for all participants. Therefore, next year, we will experiment with afternoon gaming sessions to attract a broader audience. This will initially take place on a Saturday and in a new location (see point 2).
More Light and Less Noise
Although Käuzchen was a step in the right direction for a board game night, some participants still struggled with the dim lighting and elevated noise levels. While this is desirable for a regular nightlife venue, it unfortunately means we haven’t found the perfect location for the ideal evening yet. Since we aim for an afternoon, and most bars are still closed around that time, there will be another change of venue, and we are actively searching for it.
More Games in Shorter Time
To give more players the opportunity to introduce their board games, we will pay attention to not playing individual games for too long in the future. The challenge here is to find a good balance between “we’re having so much fun with this game” and “we want to experience more games”. Unfortunately, it’s a fact that there are too many good board games and too little time to play them all.
Start with Simple Games
We quickly realized that besides playing, eating, and drinking, some structure needed to be brought to the chaos. To get everyone in the board game mindset, wait for latecomers, and fill the time for eating, we started with an easily explainable game that all players could quickly join and exit. No points and no long waits between rounds also allow us to fit in all preparations, greetings, and menu tastings in that time.
Representation
We are not only a group of friends playing board games on Friday evenings! We are the Gamerlicious Spielekulturverein.
A learning from the first board game night at the “Golden Harp” was that Gamerlicious also needs to be represented if we want to bring like-minded people into our club over time.
Therefore, we had table standees and business cards printed, which have already attracted more attention to our endeavors from the second game night onwards. Additionally, we plan to promote the game nights more on social media in 2024.
We enjoyed every board game night and look forward to playing games with you in 2024!
With that: until next time!
Alex, Marc, Michael & Sam