SEASON 3, Week 1: The Return!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand we're back.

Hey folks!  It's been a while, but I have returned to update the blog.  Now that Summer is over, the school year has been underway for three weeks.  I held off restarting the club until we had our first full week of class.  Holding off on our first session allowed me to get my courses ready, but also allowed me to do a little advertising for the club.

This is the third year in a row I've been running the Table Top Game Club, so I'm going to call it Season 3.  If you're reading this and you want to review how my first and second seasons started, you can check out the Board Game Geek forum here for Season 1 and the start of Season 2, and look at this blog's archives for most of Season 2.

Season 3 brought some interesting challenges and changes.  Going into this season, we knew we lost only one or two grade 12s due to graduation.  A couple members from last year moved away, so I wasn't sure what the turnout would be like.  We also lost a staff advisor who is taking a year off to travel.  If our weekly turnout is large, I would need another staff advisor to teach games and oversee the operation of the club when I can't make it. 

In the first two weeks of class, word started to get around that the club was returning.  New grade 9s started asking me about when the club starts, and I realized that I may have an overwhelming number of players for just one advisor.  I also knew that the first couple of games we feature should be playable by larger numbers.  Lucky for me, an additional advisor arrived, courtesy of a retirement from last year.  Our previous library technician retired, which meant we had to bring in a new staff member.  As it turns out, our new library tech is a huge fan of board games, and offered to help out with the club.  Thank goodness, because the turnout for the club was big this week.  Luckily, we were ready; we featured King of Tokyo and Diamonds.

I'm not going to go into the specific details behind King of Tokyo.  Next to Catan and Ticket to Ride, King of Tokyo might be the most recognisable title in the gaming community.  I chose it because it has instant "wow-factor" (standees, big fun dice, monsters), it's a very easy game to play, and it plays six players.  The students who played were really into it, and I know when a game works when afterwards they're still talking about the game, and strategies for "next time".  I don't think I've ever encountered a player who hates King of Tokyo, and I'm eager to try the expansion King of New York: Power Up.  This expansion will add Evolution Cards to the KONY monsters, and allow them to be played in KOT!  I can't wait to show the club.

Diamonds is a fantastic trick-taking card game that has a nice twist on the suits and taking tricks.  Diamonds comes with a deck of sixty cards in the classic four suits (although there are no face cards).  The centrepiece of the game is the collection of gems, a nice pile of "diamonds" and "rubies" (five diamonds = one ruby).  Diamonds also comes with six cardboard standees called "vaults".  Each player has a vault that acts like a miniature shield, sort of like a tiny GM screen.  While playing and taking tricks, players either score points by grabbing diamonds from the pile, stealing diamonds from other players, or securing diamonds into their vault.  The game-play is elegant, easy to learn, and wonderfully tactile. For added flair, I purchased a large piece of black velvet for the gems to sit on, making them look like a display in a jewellery store, adding to the theme of the game.  Students like this game, as classic card games like Hearts and Kaiser are big in Saskatchewan.  The crew felt at home with the mechanics, and the diamond scoring system is brilliant.

Friday's open gaming session brought three surprises:

1. Germans!!!  This year, a number of students, veterans of the club, signed up to be partnered with German exchange students.  They brought the German students to the club, and big surprise....the students from the country that brought us Essen Spiel and the board game renaissance we are experiencing today LOVE board games.  Their enthusiasm, energy, and overall joy towards the games is an exciting addition to the club.

2. Citadels.  I know nothing about the game.  I don't own it nor have I ever played it.  I have heard positive rumblings about the 2016 edition due out later this year, so it is on my radar.  However, our library tech owns the game and offered to bring it to the club.  This is great, in that it allowed us to split the turnout into two groups, and she knows her game like the back of her hand.  An extra expert makes a game session smoother, and students can seamlessly move from one game to the next.  It also allowed me to focus on surprise #3....

3. Spyfall.  This game came to my attention this summer when I started listen to the Shut Up and Sit Down podcast. I picked it up because the podcast discussed game sessions they've had with the game, and that it accommodates up to eight players.  The rules are incredibly easy to learn, and it can expand from a single eight minute round to a longer session effectively.  Players can drop in and out to try the game once an eight minute round is over.

The game play is fairly easy to learn; the dealer hand out cards from one of thirty small deck.  Each deck features a location and occupations found in that location.  For example, the Hotel deck features occupations like a maid, a security guard, a guest, etc.  One card in each deck just says "SPY".  Players can look at their cards to reveal the location and their specific occupation, but their cards are hidden from everyone else.  The goal of the players with the location is to find the spy.  To do this they must ask each other subtle questions that only someone in that location would answer.  Say you are at the theatre, you might ask "So...Mike...How do you like your seat?"  Mike could respond, "It's great...and considering what I paid for it, it should be!"  Based on Mike's answer, you have a decent idea that Mike knows you two are at the theatre.  The spy, who has been listening to this exchange, might think the group is at the theatre...or...an airplane?...a train?  The group wins if they can identify the spy, usually because they answer or ask a question one would not make at a given location. For example, if the group is in a submarine, why would someone complain about the rude customers?  That person is definitely a spy!  The spy wins if they can guess their location based on people's questions and answers, or if no one is able to identify the spy by the end of the round.

We loved this game.  It was a great game in learning the art of subtlety.  The students had to really think about their words, and there were quite a few moments of a player (me mostly) stopping the clock, revealing they are the spy, and declaring with great confidence and swagger "I'm the spy, and we're at the circus!", only to have the students flip over their cards and raucously reveal that in fact we're at a corporate party.  It was tremendous fun, and a great exercise for our EAL students.

It's good to be back.  I bought a few new games for the club over the summer, and I can't wait for them to hit the table.  I'll do my best to keep up with the blog and weekly or bi-weekly reporting.

Thanks for reading!