Dale Yu:  Party Games – but not the kind you’re thinking of!

Another rite of summer has come and gone at the Yu household: the end-of-summer dinner party.  We usually invite over a bunch of our friends and have a nice evening of eating and socializing.  Each time that we have a dinner party like this, the question always comes up:  Should I bring out any games for the guests?

Before I get into that all-important question, let me tell you a bit about the party first.  This year, my wife and I settled on a new theme: A Cake and Pie Party.  All the dishes we made would hopefully be cakes or pies.  Though this theme would make the prep work much harder than our usual potluck menu, it gave us a chance to really flex our cooking muscles…

For those that are interested in the details, the menu included:

Appetizers
Frozen Margarita Pie
Lumpmeat Crabcakes

Entrees
Meatcake (see my 3/21/07 column for more details)
Hand-tossed Pizza Pies (cheese and pepperoni)
Artichoke Pie
Chicken Pot Pie
Spinach and Tomato quiche – an “egg pie” of sorts

Desserts
Boccone Dolce – a meringue and cream cake
Chocolate Malt Cake
Traditional yellow cake
Apple Pie (with vanilla and double chocolate chip ice cream)
Lemon Cloud pie


So, did we play any games?  Yes… but not the kinds that you’re thinking of.  Almost all of the guests at the party were already familiar with my gaming hobby, and while having Age of Steam or Heroscape set up on the coffee table would have been quite a conversation starter, it seemed to be neither the right time nor place to try any gaming evangelism.  Admittedly, as I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m not that big on trying to convert people to gaming as I prefer to wait for them to come to me.  I have started coverting a few of my friends after their curiosity had been piqued during the tour of the game closet during dinner parties in the past.

That said, I did set up some entertainment for the guests—mostly to try to keep them out of the kitchen while we were finishing up the food!—so there were still plenty of games and activities for the guests to amuse themselves with. The short list of games that I considered included:

Cornhole
Billiards
Nintendo Wii
Piratenbilliards
PS2 (Guitar Hero 2 or Dance Dance Revolution)
Tumblin’ Dice
Assorted children’s games
Crokinole
Spinball
Table Tennis
Pirates on the High Seas

I needed to find games that were easily approachable by any of my guests.  They either needed to be “standard” activities that people already knew the rules to OR easy enough to pick up in just a few minutes.  So what made the cut?

Cornhole - This is the unofficial backyard game of Cincinnati (and much of the Midwest).  If you’ve never heard of it, you can think of it as a cousin of horseshoes.  In this game, you throw bags filled with one pound of corn kernels at an inclined wood board with a hole cut in it which is thirty feet away.  For more information, I’ll refer you to the Wikipedia article on cornhole

Billiards - This game probably needs no introduction.  It makes the cut primarily because it’s really hard to move your 8-1/2 foot pool table into a storage closet when you have guests over.  As an additional bonus, just about any guest should know the rules of at least one game played on the pool table.

Nintendo Wii - This is currently the favorite toy of my kids, and there wasn’t a chance that this would stay off for more than about 15 minutes.  The Wii is an amazing game system and is truly trans-generational.  During the course of the evening, just about everyone stopped at some point to watch the action on the Wii, and there were a few games of Wii Sports that included both my four-year-old son and some senior citizens.  Regardless of who was actively participating in the game, there were always cheers or peals of laughter coming out of the room with the Wii. 

Tumblin’ Dice - This is one of the few games that emerged from the game closet for the dinner guests.  If you are unfamiliar with it, check out its BGG entry for details.  It is a nice wooden game that always attracts attention with its multi-colored dice.  The rules are amazingly simple to learn, and everyone seems to always have fun flicking the dice down the wooden stepped platform.  Though I didn’t play a game of it myself during the party, I know that some people must have fooled around with it as there were dice all over the board when we were picking up the room.

Spinball - Though I didn’t have it truly “set-up”, I did have Spinball leaning against the basement wall in case someone wanted to see what it was.  Of course, no one asked about it, so I didn’t get it out – but I think that it would be an ideal activity for a party like this… You wouldn’t even have to play a full game as I think that some people would get a kick out of just trying to get the ping pong ball to get into the hole.  If you’re unfamiliar with Spinball, head to its BGG listing.

In the end, a good time was had by all—and so far, no cases of food poisoning have been reported!  A game of Funkenschlag didn’t break out, but that’s okay… There will always be other times for more traditional games, and I’m still waiting to see whether anyone asks questions about the game closet in the weeks to come!  In the end, I think I made a good choice by not bringing out any more “traditional” Euro Games, but I’m always on the lookout for things that I can put out to try to attract attention.... Any suggestions?

Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor

© 2007 Dale Yu

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Comments:

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I’ve had success with pretty abstracts/dexterity games.  A game like Fire or Gobblet, just sitting on a table or countertop, begs to be played with.  Hamsterrolle is another very attractive game, and the co-operative gameplay adds considerably to the “fun factor.” Blokus is another sure-fire hit.  The components are big, bright, and colorful, and you can teach the game in 30 seconds...while cooking in the other room, even.  Once players discover the blocking possibilities on the third or fourth turn, they’re hooked.  Also, the game is entirely plastic, so there’s no worries about damaged components from being on the table on the back porch (or having a spilled drink).  And it really sounds like your Spinball board is in neglect, and that’s a shame.  I’m gonna have to take it off your hands.  Just bring it to BGG.con, and I’ll pick it up from you there… Posted by Jon Theys on Sep 12, 2007 at 01:41 PM | #

I like your passive/aggressive ways.  I’ve learned the hard way to try not to be so proactive in evangelizing.....after many shameful failed attempts....specially in large social events like these.  The most painful of all involved me trying to convince people at a gathering to play Puerto Rico (I was somewhat of a boardgaming newb).  Needless to say, it was like pulling teeth.  But hey, I learned.  Now I’m at peace with the idea that gamer’s games are just not right for these kinds of situations.  I have a regular gaming group for that. During my last get-together at my place, me and my wife left Apple to Apples (crate version) on the coffee table, which we understood had a pretty good chance of getting played.  We didn’t force the issue, until people started asking about it.  So of course, we opened it up, explained the rules in 2 minutes, and had a blast.  No Caylus, but pure fun. Posted by Robert Ramirez on Sep 12, 2007 at 02:21 PM | #

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