Jessica Alfieri

writes everything you see here.

• Witty

  Eric and I are Boardgame People. Not in the have they been outside since 1997? sense, but we like a good Scrabble fight, we’re both on a mission to bankrupt each other in Monopoly, and quite a bit of screaming goes on during Catchphrase.  (Which I suppose is more testament to taking things seriously than loving boardgames…) Still, when a boardgame comes out, the marriage goes on hold for a few hours and the claws come unsheathed.

  Boardgames for us are like boxing.  With our brains.

  Anyway, our friends are typically not enthusiastic boardgamers.  We used to have a game night with some of Eric’s coworkers who were at least mildly enthusiastic, but that dissipated as these things tend to do when a bunch of busy people try to match schedules with no real glue to the endeavor.

  I don’t know how I got to be such a fan of the boardgame in the first place.  My father won’t touch one with a ten foot pole.  Rolls his eyes like a teenager when we (I) ask him to indulge us (me) and play a round of… anything.  And I don’t remember this aversion to games when I was a kid, so his adulthood hate is confusing.  Aren’t you supposed to become a bigger fan of things that keep you inside and entertained as you get older?  (I know, Dad.  You’re not getting older.)

  A few weeks ago we were scheduled to have some Sunday night chinese food at his place, and since it was freshly delivered and yet unplayed, we decided to bring over Wits & Wagers, which we’d read about for months before remembering to buy.

  “Hey, Dad.  We brought over this game…”

  [HUFF]

  “It’s called Wits & Wagers… It’s supposed to be really fun, like hardly a boardgame at all… You’re witty, right? Let’s just play one round…”

  And we were in.  (I’m his only daughter; he hardly stood a chance.)

  We opened the thing up to find it as good as all the reviews promised: a little trivia, a little strategy, a little gambling.  Like playing educated craps.

  And now we’re about to bring the thing out to Omaha to play with a completely different crowd.  This weekend is Eric’s family reunion, and to be fair, I don’t yet know 90% of the people I’ll meet this weekend, but I imagine that many of them might fit into the boardgaming category I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

  (Just kidding, Family Reunioners! …Just kidding.)

  Aug 13, 2008 boardgames family reunion Wits & Wagers

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