In these blog posts we hope to help you explore deeper into the library by highlighting different tags we use to catalog our games and how and why we came up with them.
We had big plans for this summer. Before our official launch we wanted to invite all of you to see the collection up close, meet each other, and play a few games. Everyone would be vaccinated and there would be no worries, we figured. The Delta variant is pushing that plan into the future. Someday we will host that big event. Hopefully that can be sooner rather than later.
Of course we are now sitting on hundreds of games we desperately want to play and no other option but to play them outside. So we made a list of "Outdoor Friendly" games and added that tag to the Library. These are games with chunky tiles, very few or no cards to blow away in the wind, or wooden pieces that will stay put.
After playing so few games over the last year, this is a list we wish we had made earlier and are glad to share it with you now. Those of you blessed with backyards might have added a tent or dry area for socializing in the fall and winter (and spring, and some of the summer if we're lucky to get rain that long) where these games will work great.
Here are a few of the titles you’ll find under the ‘Outdoor Friendly’ tag:
Carcassonne: With only thick, cardboard tiles and wooden pieces, this is a nearly ideal game to play outside.
Sagrada: There are only a few cards in this game and you could probably keep them in place with a pebble. The rest of it is played with really colorful dice that slot into their own space on the board, keeping them snug in place.
Medina: This game uses only wooden pieces, placed on top each other, to build out a city. It’s probably the second most windproof game in the library.
Nunami: Each triangular card in this game fits into a special wedge on the player boards, helping to keep it in place in case of the wind. The cards are even water resistant if you get caught in a drizzle.
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective: This is the most Outdoor Friendly of all our games. With nothing more than a map, a couple of books, and a few newspapers, this game is easy to enjoy outside, at distance. In fact you could play this at your school's undercover basketball court, around your local bar's outdoor tent, or even online.
All that said we recently sat around outside playing Cole Wehrle’s Root, a great, weird, and complicated game full of cards and little tokens scattered across a big board. Not very “Outdoor Friendly,” but sometimes the weather cooperates.
There are plenty more games and tags in the catalog to find. And we can’t wait to gather together with you all when things are safer.