Just last week, a representative from the IMAG History & Science Center reached out and asked us to host a few family friendly board gamed for their member’s nights. According to my sources inside the IMAG, their member nights haven’t been as well attended as they would like them to be so in addition to opening these up to the public, they feel that adding gaming to their arsenal of things to do during member nights may help.
Member nights are from 6-8PM on the third Friday of every month and anyone attending is invited to peruse the museum to see what they might have to offer. We’ll be featured from Feb to June (starting in the summer, they have an extensive summer camp; but I did sense some interest in some special events to come.
In my post, So… Why are we doing this?, I outline the concept of SNAKS which will help me to choose the right games for these events, but we also want to consider the kinds of gamers we’re about to encounter here. As a personal rule, I tend to separate gamers into one of four categories:
- Social Gamers are the type of gamer who will not plan on playing a game, but will do so if that is what everyone else is doing (or if there is nothing better to do). This usually encompasses parents as they are generally too busy to plan a game night. This gamer likes games with little to no setup time, and a very easy to learn rule-set (if not one so common it would be known by everyone).
- Casual Gamers will plan an occasional game night, but would not structure them on a regular basis. Open to new experiences; including the social interaction gaming brings, casual gamers will tolerate a more in depth setup if the game itself will provide a quality narrative and social experience.
- Gamers are more likely to plan game nights at regular intervals and tend to concentrate on most of the aspects of SNACKS with the exception of the game’s narrative and a special focus on knowledge; priding themselves in knowing the obscure nature a lot of games offer. These are the types of gamer who value quality and quantity at the same time. They tend to enjoy more involved logistical rulesets and solving the puzzle games present.
- Hardcore Gamers are the type of gamer that will spend their downtime between gaming sessions preparing for the next gaming session by gathering knowledge and materials. a great example of this would be role playing gamers who would pour over rules texts to get the upper hand in the next encounter or the wargamer grinding away at painting his army to impress his buddies at the next tabletop session
I’ll be concentrating on the social and action aspects of SNAKS with games such as King of Tokyo, Karuba, and Kingdomino. Any game with no more that 2 or 3 different components may be considered, and dexterity gamed like Bisikle, or Rampage would be good too.