Weekend Plans Post: The Pitfalls of the Team Game Night

I am lucky enough to work with a group of folks that gets together to play VR games in the family room, play board games in the dining room, and graze on the 14 different appetizers that we, as a group, Stone Souped together. Play this, play that, just sit down and watch other people play, maybe gossip about the people who didn’t come to game night.

Given that new people show up for each game night, and given that new people tend to have never played stuff like Lords of Waterdeep or One Night Ultimate Werewolf, it’s pretty much my job to sit down and help shepherd the new people through these games that are opaque if you’ve never played them before (but after 10 minutes, you’ll have it pretty much down).

So while I play Werewolf the first couple of rounds, after that, I’m the guy who is in charge of the phone app. Or I’m the guy who sets up Lords of Waterdeep and acts as the banker and explains the cards to the new guy or gal who, up to that point, hadn’t played anything much more complicated than Monopoly or Cards Against Humanity.

So it’s my job to welcome the new people, walk them around the appetizers and tell them to get a plate, explain the nuances of worker placement (“well, according to your quest, you want clerics and thieves and someone already placed their guy in the Grinning Lion Tavern… so you probably want to place in The Plinth”), and try to explain that BLUFFING isn’t exactly LYING and so if you’re the Werewolf, it’s not precisely immoral to tell everyone at the table that you’re really a villager.

Though I’m not sure it’s a great idea to play bluffing games in front of your bosses. “Sure, I should be able to finish that document by Thursday.” “You scratched your nose when you said that the same way you always scratch your nose when you’re pretending to be a villager.”

I’d suspect a really sneaky agenda here but I’m the guy who introduced the game to these guys.

And so I’ve got TWO game nights this coming weekend, but I’m looking forward to both of them. (And just hiding in a dark room on Sunday to get some Introvert points back.)

So… what’s on your docket?

(Featured image is “120/365 Game night” by Webhisheck. Used under a creative commons license.)