So I mentioned this briefly a few months ago, and I just thought I’d give a bit of an update because I’ve been neglecting this blog for the summer, and this is one of the things that has taken up my time. My friend Hayley is attempting to open a community-driven cafe called Board in the City in Southampton, which isn’t the easiest thing to open up because of funding, but we’re in the process of starting a kickstarter campaign and applying for grants, and hopefully we’ll have some good news about a property soon! I’m on the board of directors and we have some exciting plans coming up.
Over the summer we’ve been trying to get our name out there and get some influence in the community. There have been a couple of events where the others taught board games to teenagers, which I didn’t take part in because of work commitments. The other thing we did, which was really fun, was a giant game of Catan.
We adapted the game to be played in a giant version, for example we used poker chips instead of cards for resources and changed the cost of everything you could build to encourage trading. The biggest change was to have four seasons in every year, so first there was spring, where you can play a development card and resolve it, the next was summer where every team, in turn, rolls the dice and generates resources, then there’s autumn where trading takes place, and finally there’s winter in which you build! We were fortunate to be able to host it in Southampton Art Gallery so we weren’t affected by the weather, and it was really fun! Unfortunately due to the Gallery shutting at 3pm we had to cut the game short, but everyone enjoyed themselves and we’re going to be doing more of these in the future. Including a giant version of Takenoko. Speaking of which…
Some kind people have been donating games to eventually be added to the cafe’s library, so I have the great job of learning to play all the games! These are a bunch I have to play right now. Takenoko I have played it before, but I need to play it again if I’m to devise the giant adaptation. I played a quick game of Dominion with my flatmate already, but I’m particularly eager to try Twilight Struggle.
So yeah, hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have more news about the Kickstarter campaign as we’re in the process of figuring out what rewards to have for pledge levels, but we’re making progress, which is good, so stay tuned for more news! And if you want to find out more and see more pictures of the things we’ve been doing then like us on Facebook at Board the in City.
