Pick Your Games for International Tabletop Day!

Back in the day, before all of my friends lived in my phone and I only talked to my mother-in-law via Facebook, I played a fair amount of tabletop board games. You remember those? They have dice and little markers? And you play them in person, in “real space”? When I was a kid, board games consisted mostly of Monopoly (which we played every Christmas) and Parcheesi (which my Dad still beats me at). Board games have definitely progressed since then, and International Tabletop Game Day on April 11 is in celebration of that. International Tabletop Game Day is a day of gaming events throughout North America and Europe where people get together to play their favorite games in person. Crazy. Game stores host game-a-thons, cafes hold open gaming events, even libraries get in on the act. Me, I’m going to a friends to relax with a cold beverage and a few of my favorite games. Here are a few of my current favorites. Collect some friends and give them a try. The Classic: Settlers of Catan

Play this one with caution: I’ve seen friendships end over a game of Settlers of Catan. In this game, you build out the board at random, which is made up of five different zones: forests, plains, mountains, fields, and hills, each of which supplies a different resource. The point of the game is to control these resources by building roads and towns. You then grow your towns into cities and eventually control more of the map than the other players. It is heartlessly cutthroat and a blast to play. Dedic…