Family Game Night #5 & Family Game Night #6

So I’ve decided to post about our last two game nights in one go.  Mostly this decision was made because we forgot to get pictures of our Family Game Night #5, oopsie!  Oh well, I’ll just post a bunch of picture from Family Game Night #6 to make up for it!

Poop!

For Family Game Night #5 we invited our buddies Dave, Leigh, and Lydia to come over for appetizers and games.  Unfortunately Leigh had to bow out but Dave and Lydia were able to come over.  Because of some rough days, we decided to play 7 Wonders which is a game we all know.  We ended up also playing eight hands of Poop: The Game closing out the evening.  This is a super-simple game where you are playing cards and trying to get rid of everything in your hand.  You want to play numbers to keep it under a certain number so you don’t clog the toilet.  Also, just to add to the silliness, you have to make random noises (such as fart sounds) when you play wild cards.  It is a silly game that is a great way to end a night.

Em chose to use this night as a Mediterranean-themed night.  She started off the thought process by finding a recipe for a Mediterranean 7-layer dip.  This recipe gave her the idea for the theme and she ran with it!  Another of the recipes she made was an original for a Tzatziki dip.  Then she found another recipe for a pretty classic Baba Ghanoush.  Lastly, for dessert, she made some mini Baklava cups.  As usual, everything went over well and we polished the food off pretty quickly.  You can find the original post at Em’s blog, http://www.tastymess.org/2014/09/in-love-with-dip-mediterranean-style.html.

Family Game Night #6 went in a slightly different direction than the past few.  We invited over a different group of people and ended up breaking out a game we hadn’t played in a while.  Em and I were joined at this game night by Sean, Jenn, and John.  All three of these friends are gamers.  Because of this, we chose to break out Munchkin.  This is a game that can best be described as a hand management game that is more party game than “serious” game.  We’ve always said, if you can’t just have fun playing Munchkin without being too serious about winning, don’t bother playing!  That being said, we had an absolute blast!

(L-R) Sean, Em, Me, Jenn & Jon

Munchkin is always a blast, but Dogfish  Head's Punkin Ale makes it even more fun!

I jumped out to a large lead in the first few turns but was unable to hold it as I had terrible cards in front of me!  Soon everyone had come back and we ended up completely tied at nine points.  Sean, due to some silly good cards, was able to eke out the win at the end of the game!  It was a great night and Em had a blast on the day before her birthday!  As a side note, Jenn and John got her a Doctor Who Yahtzee game as a birthday present!  Overall another great night!  Until next time, game on!

Sean, the triumphant (and slightly smug) winner!

Booooooo! (sore losers!)

In The Beginning...There Was Gaming

When most people think of tabletop games, they think of classics such as Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble, Life, Sorry, etc.  This was true for me until just about four years ago.  Around that time my wife, Em, and I found a card game called Munchkin at our local Barnes & Noble.  Munchkin is a super-fun card game put out by Steve Jackson Games.  How can you not be intrigued by a game that has a slogan, “Kill the monsters, steal the treasure, stab your buddy”?  The best way to explain this game is that it is a card game that takes role-playing clichés and somewhat makes fun of them.  I simply mention Munchkin because it is the first “designer game” that my wife and I bought and it really opened my eyes to the different types of tabletop and board games that are out there.

Lately I have become even more immersed in the world of tabletop gaming and much of that is due to Wil Wheaton’s fabulous Geek andSundry show simply entitled “Tabletop”.  In this show Wil Wheaton (of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Big BangTheory fame) brings together a bunch of his friends to play modern and designer tabletop games.  Ironically enough, one of the first games they play is Munchkin!  This show really amped up my interest in board games and the tabletop world in general.

I decided to create this blog to share my interest in the world of gaming.  It has become a new hobby and one that I hope to continue for as long as I have the mind to play.  Games really bring out the best and worst of people and I find them to be a very interesting look at humanity in general.   Em and I have decided to purposefully have an “unplugged” night each week to play games together and ignore our cell phones, Facebook accounts and the online world in general. 

Along with these personal game nights we also are starting to have game nights where we invite our friends over and just have fun playing together, focusing on introducing them to new tabletop games.  After these evenings I plan on making short posts about the night and I will include pictures as well.  I truly hope that I am able to spark an interest in others in the hobby as I think it can only benefit from more fans.  I also hope to show people that we are in the best generation of board gaming and that they aren’t just old boring time-sucks, but rather a rich tapestry of art in the form of entertainment.

My posts will include many different types.  I plan to post about all of our game nights, both mine and Em’s personal ones and our group game nights.  I will also do some reviews and previews of games that I am interested in but haven’t played, as well as those I have.  I plan to post lists and also give some general info regarding the hobby, including facts about designers and game companies.

All in all I hope that this becomes a fun journey and that others will join me.  Please feel free to comment below as I am absolutely interested to hear what others have to say about gaming and the blog.  If you have something you would like to know or a game you’d be interested in me finding out more about, comment!  I look forward to many more posts and many more years of a hobby that is becoming a very big part of my life.  Until next time, game on!