Let’s Give Thanks: A Shout-Out to Tabletop Games

I’ve been working myself to the bone recently, and it’s not always easy to break out of the work-mode mindset.  Because of this, I make a point at the absolute very least once a week to sit down with some cool people and do some cool things to maintain that work-life balance and keep myself from going insane. The swift approach of Thanksgiving has got me thinking about how damn grateful I am about one of my favorite ways to blow off steam: tabletop games.

There’s nothing quite like sitting with some of your closest friends with snacks and a couple of drinks on hand while you’re all loudly trying to slaughter one another—whether it’s by trying to deduce how many of your friends are part of a spy organization like in The Resistance, or it’s by having the least amount of points at the end of each round of cards (like in the rummy-style game, Five Crowns), or whether it’s just about not dying and keeping your team safe while improvising and rolling dice to unfold a brand new story (like in Dungeons and Dragons).

My Board Game Love began when I was young, with family game nights almost weekly. We’d play everything from classic chess to Monopoly to Texas Hold‘em poker. Though this fun tradition slowly ceased when I hit high school, that love for loud, interactive games with loud, interactive people has never left me; I’ve bonded with new co-workers by playing Settlers of Catan, I’ve gotten much closer with brand new roommates through our shared sense of messed up humor in Cards A…