Board Game Memories: Childhood

Throughout my life, board games have always been present. Of course, there are periods where life has its own plans and you end up veering towards different interests. Some of these get left behind, never to be revisited, while others flourish, accompanying us for the rest of our journeys. As you can guess, for me, board gaming is one of the latter ones.

Writing is another one of those interests which I keep coming back to. When I found out about the Zatu Blogger program, I thought it would be the perfect pairing for both of my hobbies.

It took me a couple of emails and a few weeks to decide whether to sign up, with the major hurdle being what to write about first. The answer seems quite obvious now: this.

As my first article, or series of articles, my intention is to take a trip down memory lane, from my childhood to today, documenting my journey through the world of tabletop gaming. I hope this series will provide some context for my future reviews and a few recommendations for all ages along the way.

A Hero’s Quest

Since, as far as my memory can reach, my father has always been an avid fan of miniature painting and war games. Back then, chances were that if Games Workshop was involved in a game, he would buy it, even if it was just for the miniatures. Nowadays is a bit more difficult to keep up with their releases.

A miniature game that I vividly remember playing was HeroQuest. My parents and I often gathered around a round table in the dining room of our old rented apartment. On the table rested the iconic HeroQuest board, two character sheets and portraits and the Zargon screen, used to hide all the miniatures and tokens which are part of the current scenario. Behind it, my father was reviewing the rules of the game, many of them printed on the other side of the screen. Nowadays, I wonder whether he was actually checking the rules or just playing with the miniatures while our heroes were getting ready. Even today, if there is a miniature within his grasp, he fiddles with it.

While everything was being prepared, my mum and I were reading our hero boards. Or should I say contemplating? Because the character boards are quite simplistic, with almost no text apart from a brief history of your character and a few ‘stats’: Attack, Defend, Move, Mind and Body. The first three depict the number and type of dice to roll when performing the action and the last two are a wisdom-like stat and your character’s Health Points, respectively.

After a bit of preparation, the adventure began!

At the start, the board is only populated by the stairs from where the heroes entered the dungeon and, at least, a door. Opening that door will be your first step in discovering what the scenario hides: rooms full of chests, traps and, most probably, vicious enemies to slay.

I love the progression system. It captures the wonder of exploration, never too sure what you are going to discover behind each closed door.

Gameplay is simple and streamlined. This is not a game to satisfy your most hardcore gaming needs, but a game that anyone can enjoy and build memories together.

After many years of waiting for a reprint, our pledges were heard (although not before getting cancelled) and HeroQuest has been back in active development since 2021. If you would like to learn more about HeroQuest, you can read a full review by clicking here.

Survival of the Meanest

Until the mid-90s, we lived fairly close to my grandparents’ house, so I got to visit them often. I am only mentioning this because, as you can expect, we used to play board games with them as well. While sometimes we played some more traditional playing cards or luck based board games, like pachisi, they also owned a few more complex board games. From those, one of our favourites was Escape from Atlantis.

The game revolves around the mythical island of Atlantis, represented by a set of plastic terrain pieces set up in a set of concentric circles on a hexagonal board. You play as the leader of one of the many tribes inhabiting Atlantis, each of them depicted by a set of coloured pawns and a Coral island on each corner of the board. Your tribe is living a happy and plentiful life until a minor setback occurs: the island is flooding!

Your goal is to help the Atlanteans stuck on the island reach your completely safe Coral island.

Today, this would be the perfect setting for a cooperative board game. However, I assume that fully cooperative board games were not a thing in 1986 because the game’s win condition is to save more Atlanteans than the rest of the players. Overall, a noble cause, if not slightly self-centred. The illusion begins to blur when the players have the choice to send horrific creatures after the already desperate Atlanteans, resulting in them being devoured not only by the sea, but by sharks, octopi and monsters.

I am fairly certain I was not aware of this dichotomy when I was five or six years old. Quite the contrary, there was nothing more satisfying than sending a Sea Monster after a boat full of hopeful Atlanteans about to being saved by one of my opponents. I do not know whether I used to pair this with an evil laugh, but I would like to think I did.

While there are a few strategical choices to make, the game complexity is very low, which helps bring it to the table in a social setting like a family meeting or a chatty, relaxed environment. That is why it was one of our most preferred games when visiting my grandparents.

Luckily for us, but not so much for future generations of Atlanteans, the game has been reprinted multiple times. The latest reprint is Survive the Island.

The Magic of Social Gatherings

It was a day in 1995 at school when, during recess, I spotted two older kids playing an extremely intriguing card game. Until then, I was not aware of card games other than playing card games. Immediately, I was enthralled by the art on the cards and very intrigued by its gameplay. It seemed very complex, which only added to its appeal, so I politely asked about it. In return, I got worlds like mana, tapping and artifacts (yes, word processor, ‘i’ not ‘e’, stop giving me grief about it!).

That was my first point of contact with Magic the Gathering and into the social world of going to hobby shops and socialising on my own while my mum and dad were waiting for me perusing the comic section. I began my journey with Ice Age and the last booster pack I got was Ravnica. However, this was an on-and-off journey given the expensive entry barrier. I was just happy getting a booster or a deck from time to time while getting utterly destroyed when playing with other kids. Also, I am pretty confident that, at the start, we were not playing the game correctly. After all, I was an 8-year-old playing with other kids my age or slightly older.

One thing is clear, Magic the Gathering’s gameplay cemented my love for card games while also fuelling my disdain for TCGs. Mainly, because it made me understand the unfortunate relationship between the chances of winning and one’s acquisitive power.

Sadly, it was not until my late teen years, when I was introduced to the Booster Draft format. In this variant, decks are created on the spot by opening multiple booster packs.

Chances are that you are aware of the existence of Magic the Gathering. In the case you don’t or, like me, you revisit the game from time to time and want to know more about its current state, you can find plenty of articles in Zatu’s blog.

Find out more about Magic The Gathering!

Be Kind, Rewind

As you can probably imagine, these were not the only games I used to play, but some that have heavily influenced my board game preferences today.

Now it is time to bid farewell to this first stage of my journey, a peek into my youngest years. Next, I will reminisce about my teens.

I feel old.

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