Tabletop Game Day Jr.

[captain_slinky]

Last night we went to a Game Night hosted by Tia & Steve, where there were more kids in attendance than I think we've ever had since our very FIRST Game Day that we hosted at our place some 4 years ago. It was awesome BUT it also leads me to the conclusion that if we're to continue doing these things, a few things need to happen:

1) We need a venue that allows for separation of Kids and Adults

2) I need to teach Molly how to play more games

The venue thing is difficult. The perfect solution would be a giant house with two gaming areas upstairs and a basement that's been turned in to a kid-friendly rec room. A table in the rec room for two adults to play a game while the energy-filled kids go crazy, an upstairs Gaming Area One with a big table for the kids who want to play a game with some of the adults, and a Gaming Area Two designated for quieter, less chaotic "Adult" gaming. So the "Kids Area" will have games like Ascension, Magic: The Gathering... games for two or three players. Gaming Room One will be stuff like Ticket To Ride, Carcassone, Small World, Dominion and all the Big Box Euro-Games we all love. Gaming Room Two will be all of those plus stuff like Cards Against Humanity, and will be a designated area for adults and adult-minded teenagers to feel free to be inappropriate.

Probably won't *happen*, but it's nice to dream :)

The "Teaching Molly New Games" thing is a bit easier... today we're going to play Ticket To Ride and Carcassone! Gonna do it up proper with snacks and theme music and fun :)

Comments

[bjorker.livejournal.com]

There will be lots of gaming happening at my new house, and plenty of space and separation for the kids. You just have to drive to N Greenwood...

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Well THAT sounds DELIGHTFUL!

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

I should probably venture in to this with eyes wide open - what are The Folks like? Smoking/Drinking/Drugs? Right-wing religious fanatics? What are their views on scatalogical and gastro-intenstinal humor? I'd hate to get all pumped for this only to step in to some drunken "Jesus Hates Obama" Game Night where my Angry Fudge Turtle isn't welcome...

[bjorker.livejournal.com]

Light drinking, yes. The rest, ha-- no. These guys were already hosting gaming potlucks about every other week or so. The rule is that drinking is allowed, but it's also a kid-friendly gig and folks have to be reasonable and respectful of this or they would have to leave. Pretty sure they've never had a problem. Pretty much like game nights at my house before, but bigger. Nobody is going to be stumbling around drunk.

[bjorker.livejournal.com]

Poop jokes better be fine, or they'll be having a problem with me too...

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

The way I read this, it sounds like you're calling yourself a poop joke? THAT'S AWESOME!

They sound delightful! One of my big concerns is Steve, though... he really has trouble in a Chaotic, noisy environment :(

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

I believe my house fits the bill. Good sized area upstairs. Bigger area downstairs. We have 2 dining room sized tables, tons of kid and adult games, a Wii, and no neighbors to piss off with our loudness. We are always open to hosting board game nights.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Your house really *is* the perfect set-up! WOW! Thank you for offering! But I could never just spring this group of people on you and yours... we'll need to ease the groupings together - it's best to make sure that we can all get along before just leaping in to the fray!

You available to come to one of our Friday game nights any time soon?

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

My schedule will free up once school is out for the summer I think.

[aurora77]

We're considering doing a family/kid-friendly Game Night within the next couple of months as an experiment. No Cards Against Humanity, no alcohol allowed (not that people usually have anything anyway) and a language filter requested. We have a front room with TV and consoles (WiiU, NES/SNES combo, Atari 2600 and PS2) that can also fit a folding table for board games. That would likely be the kids area. There's a dining room with a big table and a back living room with one table already and it can easily fit another folding table, which we have. We'd have to put one of the cats in our bedroom for the evening because we don't trust him not to scratch the kids, and depending on the ages of kids coming, we'd double-check the kid-proofing, but I don't think there's really much they could get into trouble with unless they're toddlers and still shoving everything into their mouths as toddlers do.

We were considering May 4, 18 or 25, probably starting around 3PM. There would likely be some pizza, soda, and whatever snacks people bring. You could invite your usual group, because you seem to know cool people, and we like to expand our circle now and again.

Thoughts?

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm... possibly? The biggest problem with your place is that the majority of our group is North-End and/or West-Side. Being right off of Hwy 522 connects us to Lake City, Shorline and Mount Lake Terrace pretty nicely, and being right off of 405 makes for easy access to Mill Creek and Lynnwood. There have been attempts to do Southern East-Side locations before (Bellevue and Kent) and it's just never worked :(

[aquatwo.livejournal.com]

Very tempting... but difficult for me unless I brought a subset of kiddos. The 2 and 6 year olds are no-gos for anything. :(

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

The 2 and the 6 are no-goes?

[aquatwo.livejournal.com]

Behaviorally they'd be too distracting/destructive at Russel & Tiffany's place. They break an average of 2 items a week at Tia's place, especially the 6 year old, even after being told repeatedly to leave those exact things alone.

[aquatwo.livejournal.com]

Both are great, accessible games that you can slowly introduce rules to. I've done TTR w/o tickets at first, then introduce tickets. Then talk about how double routes can only be claimed by one person in 2-3p. Ditto for Carcassonne. Only play with cities and roads. Introduce cloisters. Then farms. Then slowly add 1 additional rule at a time (or sometimes 2 with similar things like robber & baron).

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Ooooooh, good thinking! Molly's inaugural TTR involved routes, but only one set of routes and they weren't kept secret. Seems to have worked, but she lost interest about half way through.

[aquatwo.livejournal.com]

I do similar things for most games when teaching children.