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Sharing Your Passion With Your Family
One of the major upsides to lockdown is that I seem to have more free time. I am no longer doing a 2 hour per day commute, its now 8 steps from bed to desk. I’m also doing less socialising, which is not necessarily a good thing, but pandemics eh? So, with all this extra time, I have gone from an occasional gamer to being borderline obsessional about the hobby. I have bought SO MANY games from Zatu lately. I must be averaging at least 6 or 7 a month, maybe more!
This has meant I have been able to try out loads of new games, lots of new styles of game and I’ve being working on broadening my horizons a lot too. I’ve developed favourite vloggers both on Zatu and off too, so now I know a lot more about different games, other people’s opinions etc. It has become a passion, but unlike my passion for triathlon, I think it might well be one that my family may also enjoy.
Visiting Again
Just like everyone else, my family have been locked down, just my mum, dad and my youngest sister who spends much of her time upstairs in her room, watching tiktok videos and whiling away the days until she is allowed out again! So far no one has been murdered, but they are all getting a bit bored of vegetating in front of the TV.
So, when I was finally able to visit them this week, I thought I’d bring down some of my board game collection. My mum is a fiend at rummy and mancala, the two games that as a kid we played the absolute most. But she is not generally up for playing longer games, my dad mostly prefers to trawl Rightmove (although they have no intention of moving) and watch escape to the country even though no one else likes it, my sister is up for playing if she can’t think of anything better to do.
How to Share Your Hobby
Everyone seems to have an opinion on what good gateway games are, many say Ticket to Ride is the best one, I didn’t play that for a long time though, others says Pandemic, but given the current climate that particular game has been banished to the back of the cupboard. I will not be bringing that back out until I have forgotten what it feels like to have a unseen virus ravishing the world!
I already wrote about co-oping my way through lockdown which you can read here. It is important to take into account your audience, I know my family really well, so I thought I would try gateway style games that were either building on what they knew, or pretty enough and straight forward enough to learn to play in five or so minutes. Ones where you play with an open hand or at least can do so were preferred to secret strategy games too.
So, after much deliberation sat in front of the games cupboard, I decided to take down Monopoly Deal, Uno Flip, Jaipur, Stramash and Azul Summer Pavilion. Which were all speedy enough, and were either things they know or games that are like what they know.
Things They Know
Monopoly Deal is a vast improvement on what is in my opinion the most overrated game in the family weight category. In our house, monopoly is very much an absolute no go, I hate it, my sister hates it, we all end up cheating. It takes three years to finish and it is so not worth it. Monopoly Deal is a 15-minute cut-throat set collection card game where you need to collect three sets of properties to win. There are cards that let you steal properties from other players and the obligatory “It’s My Birthday!, give me money cards” as well.
Uno Flip is not that new, but I recently picked it up in the supermarket on offer and was a big fan of the new mechanism where you can flip the decks over to play with four new colours, this really messes up getting out and can prevent anyone from running away with the win. There are also added some rather nastier cards, the worst being keep drawing until you get the colour I’ve chosen, that can be utterly awful and have you picking up 20+ cards or just a single one.
Games That are Like What They Know
I know they will like the Ludo-esque nature of Stramash, but the fact there is no dice and you can move backwards will be a different slant on a familiar lightweight game. They really like games with lots of player interaction, and Stramash has lots of that, just like in ludo landing on the same space as an opponent’s piece sends them back to the start.
The wooden board that changes shape depending on player count and the beautiful marble counters add to a real luxurious feel. My parents love anything from The House of Marbles in Devon, so this was a definite winner looks wise. Stramash is an ideal game for anyone who wants a beautiful game to bring out that is timelessly suave.
Azul Summer Pavilion I took because I absolutely love it, its puzzle-y and the drafting mechanism is so smooth in this version (I know many say this is not the case with the other editions). The tiles look and feel similar to those in Rummikub which is another family favourite. The game itself is a bit more complicated than the others I brought, but it plays pretty quickly, especially with only two players, and it looks so beautiful on the table!
Summer Pavilion is by most accounts the best of the Azul range, the diamond pieces are beautiful and there is very little player interaction as you are focused on your own little puzzle piece and strategy. I think its ideal for a group where there are gamers and no- gamers as there can be so many levels of strategy to the game.
Wildcard
There is, just like in Dad’s favourite show Escape to the Country, always a need for a wildcard. For me the wildcard this time was Jaipur. A deceptively simple two player only game about trading camels for spice, gold and rubies and vying to be the trader to the maharaja. This card game is a simple set collection at its heart, and is always played as best of three.
A nice touch is that there is a male and a female side to the winner’s token so you can choose which you win. I love those little touches. Once you sell your goods at the market, you collect the highest available chits each of which have an unseen coin value. Person with the most money at the end wins. Jaipur is a game I would put into any collection as it is such a quick and pretty little two player.
As a hobby I am passionate about, I always want to share my love of games with the people I care most about. The bonus of that is that I have more people to play games with, something that is never a bad thing! Also during lockdown, everyone has more free time!