Welcome to The Game Shelf!

After getting into the board game hobby at the end of 2014, we've decided to share our thoughts on the games we're collecting on our shelves. The collection has certainly expanded over the last few years and we've been making up for lost time!

Sometimes our opinions differ, so Amy will be posting reviews every Tuesday and Fi will post on Thursdays. We hope you enjoy reading some of our opinions on board games - especially those for two players.

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Sunday, 15 January 2017

The Yellow Meeple Starts a Board Game Group at Work - Week 6

This time it was our first week back after the Christmas break and I was excited to see if we could overcome the drop in numbers that I experienced before Christmas. Unfortunately my dreams did not come true but I did get the chance to introduce some new games to some new gamers.

Week 6
Number of Attendees: 5
Games Played: Dixit, Dingo’s Dreams, Takenoko

The Challenges

My work schedule
This week I had to work late, meaning that I didn’t get to game group on time. I let my close colleagues know and told them where to look to find my games – especially the small, easy to learn games that I keep in the top drawer of my desk. I worried that any new people might be looking for me in particular, but had to trust that they’d get by without me – it’s a good test for the inevitable weeks in the future where I will be on holiday or otherwise unable to attend.

New teachers...
As a result of working late I had to rely on a new teacher to teach the first game. I certainly don’t think of myself as the best teacher and had been hoping that others in the group would eventually start to share the burden. When I arrived I believe they’d spent around 20 minutes being taught Dixit – probably not the best teach ever, but they were playing correctly and everyone was having fun. So long as you don’t mind losing, Dixit is also a game you can jump into as a late player, so enjoyed some Dixit too!

The Successes

New gamers!
Having said that numbers were low, it’s certainly exciting to still be seeing some new players. I have had to move our game night to Monday which has opened up the opportunity to come along to a couple of people, which is great! At the same time I’m unsure if it will mean others can’t make it, but only time will tell. Both the new players are entirely new to modern board gaming, but they’re also very close colleagues so it’s nice to have some support and the opportunity to introduce games to even more people at work!

New games!
All three games we played this week were new to the group. My goals over the next few weeks are to deliberately try and introduce some new mechanics and then slowly move to some more complex games to keep me interested, as well as some of the players in the group who obviously have an appetite for some heavier games. I think all three games went well – at least someone in each game expressed interested in playing them again. I think the least successful was probably Dingo’s  Dreams which I seem to always over simplify when teaching and cause some confusion as a result.

Lessons for Next Week

I’m all out of ideas. I’m trying my best to run a good game group, being welcoming, bringing engaging games and always reminding people the event is running. Over the weeks I think I’ve had around 15 unique people come along, and a further 5 or 6 expressing an interest but never attending. I’ll keep doing what I’m doing for now and just hope that I can have more successful evenings in the future.

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