SpielMas - a dry run
Over the traditional Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, I came up with a way to play more tabletop games.
Starting on Thanksgiving Day and through the weekend, I celebrated playing a game each day with immediate family or online friends. This mimics the six-day SpielMas festival in December between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Day 1
On Thursday, November 26, I left out my Chess set to teach my daughter the opening move “The Queen’s Gambit” (1. d4 d5 2. c4), since we enjoyed watching the series on Netflix. She was mildly interested, but at least she got to see the board and pieces without taking a little green pill.
I also donated another game to my local Little Free Library, which is an idea I got from Monique Merchant, in Edmonton, Ontario.
Day 2
On Friday, November 27 (aka Black Friday), my wife and I stayed home to play two games of Wingspan with the European expansion. We also played several games of 7 Wonders Duel on Board Game Arena.
Then our online gaming group played our second round games in a double-elimination tournament of Settlers of Catan (see League of Catan templates). The group followed up with games of Downforce and Can’t Stop on BGA to end the evening.
Day 3
On Saturday, November 28, I started my morning learning to play my second game of Everdell but this time on Tabletop Simulator. I had learned to play it the first time on Tabletopia in an event I hosted during the BGG@Home virtual convention, and my teacher in that game was gracious enough to teach us the TTS version. The mods really came in handy, and it took an hour off the teach/learn.
Later, my wife and I played more Wingspan and 7 Wonders Duel. That evening we participated in a Ticket to Ride All-Star Tournament, which pitted members of our gaming group on the West Coast vs East Coast. So far the East is beating the West 1307-1244, so my wife and I need to pick it up!
(Update: The East eventually beat the West by nine points!)
Day 4
Today, we’ll start the morning with 7 Wonders Duel. We still have Wingspan left out on the table. My gaming group wants to play Wingspan on Steam this evening, and that usually leads to more party games afterwards on BGA like Incan Gold or Solo.
We also have a second Ticket to Ride All-Star Tournament game to play.
And I can always try to entice my daughter to learn more opening moves in Chess.
What was your festival like? Tag your posts using #SpielMas so I can find and share them on social.
Published Nov. 29, 2020.
