Dale Yu: Gaming with the non-gaming family

Happy Independence Day everyone!  For those non-Americans reading the column today, July 4th is the day that the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the treatise in which the thirteen American colonies declared their separation from the English crown, was made public.  (Though any history major, such as myself, will be able to tell you that the darned thing was really signed on July 2.  But somehow, “The Second of July” just doesn’t sound as romantic!) In celebration of this event, everyone takes the day off, drinks too much alcohol and then watches fireworks at night.  An extremely small subsection of the population takes a few minutes out of their holiday to read about boardgames on the Internet – to those people, I salute you!

In fine American tradition, I am on vacation this week with my family.  In general, my family has been very tolerant of my boardgaming – in terms of the size of my collection and the amount of travel I take each year.  Though they understand my love of gaming, they have never really had any interest in playing games with me.  My wife started playing games when I was just getting into the hobby (when we were playing games like Settlers of Catan, Manhattan, and Through the Desert…), but she has since decided that games are not for her.  Her parents have always been interested in the hobby and are always asking questions about the conventions I’ve been to and the like.  However, they too have never been interested in playing games.

Through the years, I’ve had a significant change in my approach to games.  When I first started playing, I was a veritable “Gaming Missionary”.  I would always have at least one car in the game just in case I met someone who hadn’t played our type of games before.  I’d always try to introduce new people to the hobby and make sure that they knew when our game group’s next meeting was.  I would oftentimes bring up gaming or even bring out my copy of Settlers without provocation! My gaming goals back then were: 1) to buy and play as many games as possible and 2) to add as many people to my game group as possible.

There are many prominent gamers that are still in this mode – and I will admit that without people like these, our hobby could easily become stagnant.  Many new gamers are added to the hobby only because some gung-ho gamer has made a point of having a neighborhood party involving games or started a gamenight at the local church.  However, I’ve chosen a different route for myself.  I’m to the point where I really only bring out games when people ask to see them.  That’s not to say that I don’t talk about gaming or that I’m embarrased to talk about them – nothing could be further from the truth.  I’m always happy to talk about games, gaming, my column, etc. when people ask me what I like to do in my spare time.  As a matter of fact, I often wear my gaming related T-shirts as a potential conversation starter.

I haven’t given up on my goal of adding people to the hobby, I’ve just chosen to take a much more insidious or laid-back approach.  I just wait until they’re ready to see the games – primarily noted when they ask me to show them a game.  This week turned out to be a perfect example of this process.  I am up at our summer house in Michigan with my wife and her family.  Each year while I’m up here, I usually make a point of meeting up with the local gamers (though calling Grand Rapids “local” to my current location is a very generous definition indeed!) to catch up and play some games.

This year was no exception.  However, unlike in years past, my friends came to visit me here at the house instead of me heading up to Grand Rapids.  Of course, in order for this to happen, I had my wife ask her folks for permission to have friends over to my in-law’s house.  They naturally said it would be fine, and they asked if I’d be playing games with my friends.  When my told told them something along the lines of “Duh!”, my father-in-law then made the breakthrough remark, “That’ll be great.  Maybe he could show me some games too.  It would be fun to play games up here.”.

Whoa!  This is the first time since I’ve known them (about 14 years) that he’s asked to actually see or play a game!  This could be my big chance – if I could get him to become interested in games then maybe I could get the rest of the family involved as well!  And my father-in-law is the perfect person to be interested in gaming: he is recently retired, he enjoys puzzles and other intellectual pursuits, and he has enough storage space in his basement to hold his soon-to-be-started game collection!

So, in the twenty four hours before I left for my trip, I was faced with the important decision of picking out games that would provide me the best chance to show off these games that we like to play.  Before I reveal the list, let me make a note that my father-in-law’s greatest interest is cars and auto racing.  I definitely took this hobby into account when I made me selections.  He’s also someone who likes to know all about something before he dives into it, so I made a point of choosing games that were in English (both board components as well as rules).  I was guessing that he might actually be more comfortable with the games if he had a chance to look over some of the rules first!

So here’s the list of games that I chose to bring:
Qwirkle
Tsuro
Terra Nova
Gemblo
RaceDay
Detroit Cleveland Grand Prix
Ticket to Ride
Ingenious
Diamant
Pick Two
Exxtra
Formula De: Mini


As you can see, there is a nice mix of game types/genres in the game box.  It may not be the most traditional set of “gateway” games, but there’s a good enough mix to satisfy the tastes of just about anyone interested in playing games.  So why did I choose the games that I did?

Qwirkle – This is a surprisingly good game which has become one of my favorites to play.  It is (in some regards) a simplified version of Scrabble.  In this game, you build “words” that consist of tiles that share either a common color or common shape.  You are not allowed to use a particular color/shape more than once in that word.  There are six different colors and six different shapes, so no “word” in the game can ever be more than six tiles long.  Scoring is extremely simple – after you play your word, you score one point for each tile in each “word” that you make.  This proves to be a simpler system than Scrabble because all the tiles are worth the same, and there are no special spaces on the board that modify scoring.  I find that this is a game that can be taught in about two minutes and provides a nice half-hour of entertainment.  There is a fair amount of room for clever tactical play (enough to satisfy a gamer) while it is simple enough for a non-gamer to pick up. (As an aside, in a recent game, I did manage to make a 27 point play.  I’m fairly sure that I’ll never see that particular coincidence of tiles again!)

Tsuro – This is a cute filler that my group will play occasionally.  In gaming circles, it’s nice because it plays up to eight players easily (in fact, it is really only good with 4 or more IMHO) and takes about 15 minutes including setup, rules, and cleanup.  It is also good for beginning gamers as it gives you some choice in play but not enough to be overwhelming.  This game has its roots in Iron Horse/Metro.  Each player gets a pawn.  On your turn, you choose a tile (out of your hand of three) which extends the path on which your pawn is on.  The tiles each have a different set of pathways on them which create all sorts of convoluted paths.  If you collide with another pawn, both pawns are eliminated.  If a pawn runs off the gameboard, it is eliminated.  The winner is the player who is last to remain on the board.  That’s it.  To be frank, it’s a bit too simple to get a lot of play around here, but for non-gamers, it’s ideal.

Terra Nova – Admittedly, this game is a bit more complex than some of the others in the bin – but I wanted to have a few “meatier” games just in case.  This is a nice territory control game which is quite elegant.  The rules are also surprisingly simple to learn.  On your turn, you can move some of your meeples and then use the rest of your three actions to place barrier stones.  The idea is to isolate off sections of the board where you have the majority of meeples.  When this happens, you score points.  Areas are worth more if they have fewer types of terrain.  There is a great bit of point-counterpoint strategy in this game.  There is also a nice bit of tension as each player has to decide whether they are going to spend their turn reacting to the last player or move the action to a different part of the board to try to take the initative.  I personally think that this one shines with two players, and may in fact be in my top three two-player games (Scotland Yard, Terra Nova, Bridgette) of all time.  It’s not bad with three.  And I’m getting quite interested in a team variant for four players where two teams share two colors.  This would bring back the two-player feel that I love about this game.

Gemblo – This is a game that I am kind of hoping that the strange large size box would generate interest.  This is a beautiful game to play and I’ve found that beautiful components generally help attract interest in newbies.  If you haven’t seen Gemblo before, you can think of it as a relative of Blokus – a version that uses hexagons instead of squares.  I find that Gemblo is good for 4 to 6, and its biggest advantage is that it can handle 5 or 6 compared to Blokus.  The downside of Gemblo is the frickin’ huge box that it comes in.  If it stays quiet this week, I may finally modify the board with colored Sharpies… I’ve always found it hard to easily see the boundaries of the board for 3, 4, and 5 players, and I have always thought that it would be much easier to see if the outer borders for each number could be delineated with color. 

RaceDay – This is the “constructable racing game” put out by Wizkids in 2005/2006.  Unfortunately Wizkids has stopped production of this game, so it’s getting a bit harder to find this now.  This is a game that I brought along because of my father-in-law’s attraction to cars and auto racing.  The racing game itself is a bit light, but I’m hoping the NASCAR theme here is enough to generate interest.  I’m hoping to find a bunch of packs at Origins this weekend (at super discounted prices) to get a full set of each season just to have.

Detroit Cleveland Grand Prix – Another game in the racing vein.  This was another of the games that I brought along in case more complex games were needed.  This is a game that I’ve always liked though I’ve found that scoring system (payouts for your race finish position) is a bit wonky.  In the past, we’ve just played one race and declared the only goal as to win the race.  The card play is interesting enough, though I will admit that I’ve had problems in the past making sure the rules concerning the white (wild) cars are understood by newbies.

Ticket To Ride – I just like it.  This is one of my classic gateway games, though to be honest, I think that it may be a bit much for this weekend.  In any event, I couldn’t bear to leave this one out of the box.  The other game that this vies with is Carcassone.  In years past, Settlers of Catan would have also been on this list, but in retrospect, Settlers is an awful game to use for newbies.  It’s too easy to have a bad setup in Settlers and have an awful experience—one that could be made worse with unlucky dice rolls.

Ingenious – Another abstract matching game.  I really like using games like this to introduce people to gaming as there isn’t any foreign languages or strange rules to possibly intimidate the new gameplayer.  This also has a nice team version which could go over quite well with the family.  I’d actually thought of bringing up the Knobelspass version of this, but I don’t think that the speed element would have been good.  The Knobelspass, though, makes a fine solitare pursuit. 

Pick Two – This is a “build a crossword” type speed game.  Generally speed games aren’t the best to use when introducing someone to gaming, but the family has played word games in the past (Scrabble, Upwords, etc) so I figured this might be a safe choice.  I’ve got the deluxe set which has a few more tiles than the original.  This is not necessarily a good thing as some of the rounds can get too long; but when I was looking for a copy, the original Pick Two couldn’t be had.  C’est la vie.

Diamant – I personally don’t care for this game.  I just don’t find it very compelling.  However, in the right group, it can still be a lot of fun as the group gets into the action.  This is slowly rising in status as an introductory game for me because of the ease of play.  Players pretty much only need to make one decision to play the game, and you can even play it with the kids.  This game also keeps its place in my game closet because it is like Tsuro—good for a large number of players at a convention for a filler while you’re waiting for something else to happen.

Exxtra – This has always been one of my favorite dice games which offers a bit more choice to the players.  Dice games are always good IMHO because, if nothing else, lady luck can smile upon anyone giving everyone a decent chance of winning the game.  I like this a bit better than Can’t Stop for beginners mainly due to better success in the past with this one.  This game has been the primary dice game in my local game group for a few years now.

Formula De: Mini—This is the simplified version of Formula De.  This is not my idea of a typical gateway game, but given the love of auto racing (especially F1), I thought this was worth including in the box.  I personally like the simplified game in Formula De: Mini; I think the game is much more playable given these rules.  However, I lament the loss of all the expansion tracks that came with the original.  I have modified my copy of this game to add a few extra d20 dice.  They are much easier to deal with than the gold scoring chips that came in the box.


So, that’s all the games that I brought with me.  I’m still not sure that I’ll have a chance to get any of them to the table, but it’s still the largest opening I’ve had to date.  My plan is to bring the games in the house and then wait for them to ask to play.  I know that this strategy may not succeed, but I am still firmly convinced that it’s best to wait them out.  Even if I don’t get any games to the table at all, just the fact that they asked about them is a step in the right direction.  I’ll let you know how it goes!  In the meantime, I’d be interested in hearing what games would make up your ideal “gateway” pack…

Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor

Comments:

< Back Home