By Nicholas Wansbutter, Esq.
Since the writing of a short article entitled "Boardgames" quite some time ago, and my subsequent review of Puerto Rico, I suppose I've become somewhat of the "boardgame geek" of Traditionalist Catholic bloggers. Even in the real world, my household is known at our chapel as the place to go for boardgames. With this in mind, it seems time to revisit the topic in more detail since I promised in Part I of the RadTrad Entertainment series that I would explore alternative forms of entertainment to the television.
At the outset, the very fact that playing boardgames tends to be marginalised and ridiculed among people of my generation, suggests to me that it is a worthy past time. Most of the people my age and a bit younger are "e-slaves" constantly plugged into their iPod or cell phone, or plunked down in front of their TV, X-Box, or computer; they seem to live a lot of the time in a virtual world, detached from reality and other people. They further seem to scorn anything that is good: religion (especially the Catholic faith), family, children, rural life, temperence, &c. On the other hand, they embrace license, partying, overindulgece, technology dependence, free-thinking ... given such proclivities, one is often tempted to automatically embrace that which is marginalised. With that in mind (and with prompting from Stephen Heiner who originally commissioned this piece), I felt I should expand a little more upon why I promote boardgames as a "meaningful diversion instead of being a slave to what Society gives us" (with a tip of the bowler to Mr. Heiner and his blog "truerestoration.com" which, sadly, no longer exists).
Furthermore, there is a sort of passivity involved especially in watching television which garners the most attention of those things listed above (with iPods also being passive and occupying a lot of time as well) and it is filled with propaganda. Propaganda which, according to Fr. Griego, "makes boobs out of men - fools for the dogmas of the world". The passivity does not involve interaction with others, or even using one's brain.
How then, is the "geekish" pastime of boardgames different? One of the prime elements, in my view, is the social interaction aspect. Instead of playing against a computer as with an X-Box, one competes (and/or cooperates with) other living human beings. This not only adds a level of complexity and unpredictability, it is a social activity which, unlike passively watching a movie "together", involves interacting with others both within the scope of the game and whatever problems that presents for resolution, but also in the tangental conversations that invariably emerge outside the scope of the game as people play. Any form of recreation that involves a social element like this is beneficial, I think.
It keeps us rooted in the real world, it helps us to continue to build relationships with others, and this is always a good thing. As Bishop Williamson has said, "... generally, a card game or board game is much better recreation for children and adults because you get to interact with other real people. This way children will become socially normal, and not used to machines or electronics. Children lose their social skills to the degree they become familiar with electronics.".[1] I certainly agree. Increased interaction with others also helps us develope and foster Catholic friendships which are if not absolutely necessary, very helpful in our aims of attaining salvation and restoring society. As a priest at my chapel points out from time-to-time, in his experience, exceedingly rare is the man with good Catholic friends who abandons the Faith.
You can't play a boardgame by yourself, but you can play computer games by yourself. Boardgames then become a means of getting groups of friends together. Also, I quite frankly can't think of any other recreational activity that I've partaken with friends that resulted in as much laughter as boardgames. Ok, maybe I need to get out more, but even when one is playing a game that isn't specifically humorous, there is lots of fun to be had; highs and lows; even a degree of honour (as I said in my previous piece on the subject, good sportsmanship is necessary and can be learned here as in sports). For children, learning how to follow rules and discipline one's self is important.
As to using one's brain, most boardgames do require a fair bit of thought, and those who are most successful tend to be the players who can see a few moves ahead and plan accordingly. It's never a bad thing to use one's head. A game like Scruples can go so far as to force people to consider tough moral decisions (forewarned being forearmed, this is good too). Finally, boardgames don't (at least for the most part) contain propaganda or corporate advertising. There may be a few that ought to be avoided because of certain notions ingrained in them (like "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus), but by-and-large one is detached from our modern world when embroiled in a battle over Middle Earth, a contest over trivial knowledge, or trying to get your friend to guess what your scribblings on a piece of paper mean. Another plus: they are relatively inexpensive and last a long time if taken care of.
All this said, what really wanted to write here, was a "primer" on boardgames. It seems only fitting after I've told everying that they should consider boardgames as one of their recreational past times that I give some more basic information about them. There are a lot of ways to tackle the issue of introducing people to boardgames; I've opted to break them down into what I see as the five main categories and use a few games that I think are good (or in some cases, bad) examples of each as discussion points. My categories are: The Classics, Party Games, Strategy Games, Adventure Games, and Childrens' Games.
There are variations within each group that I will discuss, but I hope that once people see a sampling of what's out there, they might have a sense of what their and their friends/family might enjoy.
I. The Classics
Chess
Checkers
Backgammon
Chinese Checkers
Most people are familiar with these games. They are classics for a reason; they are are simple to learn but very difficult to master. Even young children can get a solid grip on the rules of these games in a short time but there are many subtle strategies below the surface. Most of these can be played in less than an hour, although chess often takes longer if played by two more seasoned opponents. These games are good to start with because the rules are brief and not complex. However, they are all for two players only, except Chinese Checkers.
II. "Party" Games
Trivial Pursuit
Pictionary
Balderdash
Scattergories
Cranium
These games require more than two people to play, and are fun with larger groups. Arguably, these could be seperated into different subgroups, but I keep them together because they are have the same basic ingredient of requiring at least four people divided into teams.
Trivial pursuit is one of the best known; it consists of asking "trivial" questions and attempting to collect a number of markers corresponding to topics in order to win. For people like me that have a lot of worthless knowledge in their heads it can be fun, but I find the questions are often generation-sensitive and a little bit too pop-culture oriented. Pictionary is a great game where players must get their partners to guess a certain word based on drawings, while working against a timer.
Balderdash is a game I love. Players are all given either a ridiculous obscure word, a date, a movie title, an acronym, or person's name, and they must all come up with definitions, events that happened on the day, and so on. The true answer is mixed in, and players get points for how many people think their definition is the true one. Scattergories involves players filling in words according to categories based on a die roll that yeilds the letter their words must start worth. For example, if an "S" is rolled people must think of words in categories such as "items in the refrigerator", "boys names", and "colours" that start with S and recieve points for every inique item they come up with.
Cranium is all the above games crammed into one, basically, plus charades and some word games. Great, clean fun for a group of people. None of these really require any special expertise and can be enjoyed by all kinds of people. They are most fun when played with larger groups, which is why I call them "party games" although I obviously mean party in a different way than most people do.
III. Strategy Games
a. War Games
Axis & Allies
War of the Ring
Risk
Warhammer
I think the subcategory name speaks for itself. These games always involve players competing against each other, often in teams, with a specific victory condition in mind ("killing" all the other players' armies being a common one).
I included Risk in this category mostly because it is widely available for purchase and it is probably the best-known wargame. While risk has a very easy-to-grasp set of rules and does involve some strategy, my experience with it is that it tends to take an awfully long time to play and after about 3-4 hours starts to get a little boring. It's not a bad game and it is a classic. It's certainly not a bad way to start out. If you think you can handle something a little more complex than pure dice rolling, Axis & Allies is my choice for a next step up. The dice rolls to determine victors in battles are more nuanced, and there are a variety of units with different abilities. The players must manage an economy of sorts as well. The only problem with Axis & Allies is, given its historical basis, can get repetetive.
War of the ring is yet more complex. I love it partly because it is based on the Lord of the Rings novels and does an excellent job of immersing the players in the world and giving the feel that you are reliving the epic conflict of those novels.
Warhammer is a game I mention with some hesitation only because it is incredibly expensive and some people treat it as much more than just a game. It belongs to what could possibly be a whole other subgenre, that of "miniatures" where each soldier is represented on the battlefield by individual miniatures or models. When I say expensive, I mean that each soldier costs around $5 US and you need about 100 of them to field one army. Warhammer is the best I've come across of this genre, and it comes in two "brands" the Fantasy and 40,000 (science fiction) versions. Perhaps part of the reason people get so engrossed in it, is that it is a hobby as well, as the soldiers should be painted. Units are moved about by measuring distances with measuring tapes (each troop can move so far in a turn) and this is the most tactially challenging and rewarding. It's a fantastic game that I could spend a whole article talking about. Each game takes 2 hours almost exactly every time which is nice, too. But it is not a game that can be played casually and the makers of it (GamesWorkshop) want you to make it a lifestyle rather than a game.
b. Building/Economics Games
Settlers of Cataan
Puerto Rico
Monopoly
These games focus on building (be it a colony or a personal fortune) rather than waging wards. As such, they tend to have a more general appeal than the war games. Most people know Monopoly; I do not like this game because of its focus on greed. I've already done an extensive review of Puerto Rico which you can read here. Settlers of Cataan is different yet again, but also fun for a broad range of people, and different every time it's played owing to a randomised map made of octagonal tiles that link together. As with war games, players do need to be a little older to understand the rules of these games.
IV. Adventure Games
Lord of the Rings
Shadows over Camelot
Hero Quest
Some might say that these games come dangerously close to role-playing games (I'll discuss these another time; I personally think that there can be a safe way to partake in roleplaying games and that they aren't inherently evil). However, they almost always involve more cooperation than any of the other games, and the object is to defeat the game rather than each other. In the Lord of the Rings, for example, each player takes the role of one of the fellowship of the ring and does his part to try to destroy the ring of power. I don't actually own any of the above games, so I can't comment extensively. As a young teenager I did have Hero Quest (which may not even be made anymore). It involved players navigating dungeons that were revealed as they entered each room (set up by a game master) and fighting the orks and goblins that lurked there and saving prisoners, finding treasures, or just getting to the end alive. It definitely required teamwork, which I think is a big plus for younger players.
V. Childrens' Games
Sorry!
Snakes & Ladders
Gulo Gulo
Depending on the child, I think most children could play many of the games we've already covered, especially The Classics. The games I list here are just a few games with simple rules that very young children will be able to handle and remain interested. Many of the above games will just confuse and bore anyone under 5, but again, it depends on the individual child I think. The above are pretty good to get children started on board games, if you want to ... I think they could just play checkers untill they're ready to start into some of the more serious games myself.
Conclusion
Certainly, I've left many great titles out. I merely wanted to give a brief survey of what is out there, and the types of games available. Most of the titles listed can be found at a local Walmart or Toys "R" Us. The building games and war games I listed are more difficult to find and must be purchased at specialty stores or online.
Boardgames are not necessary to a Catholic life, certainly, but they are as Mr. Heiner has said, an example par excellence of a form of recreation far superior to television. I hope that this "primer" has given some ideas to the uninitiated for the next time they're looking for something to do either as a family or with friends.
Posted on the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin, a.D. MMVIII
Since the writing of a short article entitled "Boardgames" quite some time ago, and my subsequent review of Puerto Rico, I suppose I've become somewhat of the "boardgame geek" of Traditionalist Catholic bloggers. Even in the real world, my household is known at our chapel as the place to go for boardgames. With this in mind, it seems time to revisit the topic in more detail since I promised in Part I of the RadTrad Entertainment series that I would explore alternative forms of entertainment to the television.
At the outset, the very fact that playing boardgames tends to be marginalised and ridiculed among people of my generation, suggests to me that it is a worthy past time. Most of the people my age and a bit younger are "e-slaves" constantly plugged into their iPod or cell phone, or plunked down in front of their TV, X-Box, or computer; they seem to live a lot of the time in a virtual world, detached from reality and other people. They further seem to scorn anything that is good: religion (especially the Catholic faith), family, children, rural life, temperence, &c. On the other hand, they embrace license, partying, overindulgece, technology dependence, free-thinking ... given such proclivities, one is often tempted to automatically embrace that which is marginalised. With that in mind (and with prompting from Stephen Heiner who originally commissioned this piece), I felt I should expand a little more upon why I promote boardgames as a "meaningful diversion instead of being a slave to what Society gives us" (with a tip of the bowler to Mr. Heiner and his blog "truerestoration.com" which, sadly, no longer exists).
Furthermore, there is a sort of passivity involved especially in watching television which garners the most attention of those things listed above (with iPods also being passive and occupying a lot of time as well) and it is filled with propaganda. Propaganda which, according to Fr. Griego, "makes boobs out of men - fools for the dogmas of the world". The passivity does not involve interaction with others, or even using one's brain.
How then, is the "geekish" pastime of boardgames different? One of the prime elements, in my view, is the social interaction aspect. Instead of playing against a computer as with an X-Box, one competes (and/or cooperates with) other living human beings. This not only adds a level of complexity and unpredictability, it is a social activity which, unlike passively watching a movie "together", involves interacting with others both within the scope of the game and whatever problems that presents for resolution, but also in the tangental conversations that invariably emerge outside the scope of the game as people play. Any form of recreation that involves a social element like this is beneficial, I think.
It keeps us rooted in the real world, it helps us to continue to build relationships with others, and this is always a good thing. As Bishop Williamson has said, "... generally, a card game or board game is much better recreation for children and adults because you get to interact with other real people. This way children will become socially normal, and not used to machines or electronics. Children lose their social skills to the degree they become familiar with electronics.".[1] I certainly agree. Increased interaction with others also helps us develope and foster Catholic friendships which are if not absolutely necessary, very helpful in our aims of attaining salvation and restoring society. As a priest at my chapel points out from time-to-time, in his experience, exceedingly rare is the man with good Catholic friends who abandons the Faith.
You can't play a boardgame by yourself, but you can play computer games by yourself. Boardgames then become a means of getting groups of friends together. Also, I quite frankly can't think of any other recreational activity that I've partaken with friends that resulted in as much laughter as boardgames. Ok, maybe I need to get out more, but even when one is playing a game that isn't specifically humorous, there is lots of fun to be had; highs and lows; even a degree of honour (as I said in my previous piece on the subject, good sportsmanship is necessary and can be learned here as in sports). For children, learning how to follow rules and discipline one's self is important.
As to using one's brain, most boardgames do require a fair bit of thought, and those who are most successful tend to be the players who can see a few moves ahead and plan accordingly. It's never a bad thing to use one's head. A game like Scruples can go so far as to force people to consider tough moral decisions (forewarned being forearmed, this is good too). Finally, boardgames don't (at least for the most part) contain propaganda or corporate advertising. There may be a few that ought to be avoided because of certain notions ingrained in them (like "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus), but by-and-large one is detached from our modern world when embroiled in a battle over Middle Earth, a contest over trivial knowledge, or trying to get your friend to guess what your scribblings on a piece of paper mean. Another plus: they are relatively inexpensive and last a long time if taken care of.
All this said, what really wanted to write here, was a "primer" on boardgames. It seems only fitting after I've told everying that they should consider boardgames as one of their recreational past times that I give some more basic information about them. There are a lot of ways to tackle the issue of introducing people to boardgames; I've opted to break them down into what I see as the five main categories and use a few games that I think are good (or in some cases, bad) examples of each as discussion points. My categories are: The Classics, Party Games, Strategy Games, Adventure Games, and Childrens' Games.
There are variations within each group that I will discuss, but I hope that once people see a sampling of what's out there, they might have a sense of what their and their friends/family might enjoy.
I. The Classics
Chess
Checkers
Backgammon
Chinese Checkers
Most people are familiar with these games. They are classics for a reason; they are are simple to learn but very difficult to master. Even young children can get a solid grip on the rules of these games in a short time but there are many subtle strategies below the surface. Most of these can be played in less than an hour, although chess often takes longer if played by two more seasoned opponents. These games are good to start with because the rules are brief and not complex. However, they are all for two players only, except Chinese Checkers.
II. "Party" Games
Trivial Pursuit
Pictionary
Balderdash
Scattergories
Cranium
These games require more than two people to play, and are fun with larger groups. Arguably, these could be seperated into different subgroups, but I keep them together because they are have the same basic ingredient of requiring at least four people divided into teams.
Trivial pursuit is one of the best known; it consists of asking "trivial" questions and attempting to collect a number of markers corresponding to topics in order to win. For people like me that have a lot of worthless knowledge in their heads it can be fun, but I find the questions are often generation-sensitive and a little bit too pop-culture oriented. Pictionary is a great game where players must get their partners to guess a certain word based on drawings, while working against a timer.
Balderdash is a game I love. Players are all given either a ridiculous obscure word, a date, a movie title, an acronym, or person's name, and they must all come up with definitions, events that happened on the day, and so on. The true answer is mixed in, and players get points for how many people think their definition is the true one. Scattergories involves players filling in words according to categories based on a die roll that yeilds the letter their words must start worth. For example, if an "S" is rolled people must think of words in categories such as "items in the refrigerator", "boys names", and "colours" that start with S and recieve points for every inique item they come up with.
Cranium is all the above games crammed into one, basically, plus charades and some word games. Great, clean fun for a group of people. None of these really require any special expertise and can be enjoyed by all kinds of people. They are most fun when played with larger groups, which is why I call them "party games" although I obviously mean party in a different way than most people do.
III. Strategy Games
a. War Games
Axis & Allies
War of the Ring
Risk
Warhammer
I think the subcategory name speaks for itself. These games always involve players competing against each other, often in teams, with a specific victory condition in mind ("killing" all the other players' armies being a common one).
I included Risk in this category mostly because it is widely available for purchase and it is probably the best-known wargame. While risk has a very easy-to-grasp set of rules and does involve some strategy, my experience with it is that it tends to take an awfully long time to play and after about 3-4 hours starts to get a little boring. It's not a bad game and it is a classic. It's certainly not a bad way to start out. If you think you can handle something a little more complex than pure dice rolling, Axis & Allies is my choice for a next step up. The dice rolls to determine victors in battles are more nuanced, and there are a variety of units with different abilities. The players must manage an economy of sorts as well. The only problem with Axis & Allies is, given its historical basis, can get repetetive.
War of the ring is yet more complex. I love it partly because it is based on the Lord of the Rings novels and does an excellent job of immersing the players in the world and giving the feel that you are reliving the epic conflict of those novels.
Warhammer is a game I mention with some hesitation only because it is incredibly expensive and some people treat it as much more than just a game. It belongs to what could possibly be a whole other subgenre, that of "miniatures" where each soldier is represented on the battlefield by individual miniatures or models. When I say expensive, I mean that each soldier costs around $5 US and you need about 100 of them to field one army. Warhammer is the best I've come across of this genre, and it comes in two "brands" the Fantasy and 40,000 (science fiction) versions. Perhaps part of the reason people get so engrossed in it, is that it is a hobby as well, as the soldiers should be painted. Units are moved about by measuring distances with measuring tapes (each troop can move so far in a turn) and this is the most tactially challenging and rewarding. It's a fantastic game that I could spend a whole article talking about. Each game takes 2 hours almost exactly every time which is nice, too. But it is not a game that can be played casually and the makers of it (GamesWorkshop) want you to make it a lifestyle rather than a game.
b. Building/Economics Games
Settlers of Cataan
Puerto Rico
Monopoly
These games focus on building (be it a colony or a personal fortune) rather than waging wards. As such, they tend to have a more general appeal than the war games. Most people know Monopoly; I do not like this game because of its focus on greed. I've already done an extensive review of Puerto Rico which you can read here. Settlers of Cataan is different yet again, but also fun for a broad range of people, and different every time it's played owing to a randomised map made of octagonal tiles that link together. As with war games, players do need to be a little older to understand the rules of these games.
IV. Adventure Games
Lord of the Rings
Shadows over Camelot
Hero Quest
Some might say that these games come dangerously close to role-playing games (I'll discuss these another time; I personally think that there can be a safe way to partake in roleplaying games and that they aren't inherently evil). However, they almost always involve more cooperation than any of the other games, and the object is to defeat the game rather than each other. In the Lord of the Rings, for example, each player takes the role of one of the fellowship of the ring and does his part to try to destroy the ring of power. I don't actually own any of the above games, so I can't comment extensively. As a young teenager I did have Hero Quest (which may not even be made anymore). It involved players navigating dungeons that were revealed as they entered each room (set up by a game master) and fighting the orks and goblins that lurked there and saving prisoners, finding treasures, or just getting to the end alive. It definitely required teamwork, which I think is a big plus for younger players.
V. Childrens' Games
Sorry!
Snakes & Ladders
Gulo Gulo
Depending on the child, I think most children could play many of the games we've already covered, especially The Classics. The games I list here are just a few games with simple rules that very young children will be able to handle and remain interested. Many of the above games will just confuse and bore anyone under 5, but again, it depends on the individual child I think. The above are pretty good to get children started on board games, if you want to ... I think they could just play checkers untill they're ready to start into some of the more serious games myself.
Conclusion
Certainly, I've left many great titles out. I merely wanted to give a brief survey of what is out there, and the types of games available. Most of the titles listed can be found at a local Walmart or Toys "R" Us. The building games and war games I listed are more difficult to find and must be purchased at specialty stores or online.
Boardgames are not necessary to a Catholic life, certainly, but they are as Mr. Heiner has said, an example par excellence of a form of recreation far superior to television. I hope that this "primer" has given some ideas to the uninitiated for the next time they're looking for something to do either as a family or with friends.
Posted on the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin, a.D. MMVIII
[1]Janzen, Bernard. "Road to Reality: Interview with Bishop Richard Williamson". The Angelus. November 2006. Angelus Press. <http://www.angelusonline.org/print.php?sid=332>
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