I could sure use an additional three hours of awake time every day. Who couldn’t? Now, admittedly, three hours is an arbitrary number. Some days I could use a little more, some a little less. The point is, I have more things I need to do (or more accurately, want to do) than I have time in the day. The next question is if I had that time, would I use it wisely? The truthful answer is probably not, at least not all the time. Sure, I do have legitimate projects (such as Half Air) that really could use more of my attention during the course of the week. Additionally, I could help out with some community or church projects. But right now what I would really like is more time to devote to playing tabletop games. Many weekends my wife, my daughter, and I will play a game or two. However, those are usually shorter games that take, at the most, an hour. They include such favorites as Clue, Life, Sorry or the many Jackbox computer games. Parties and game nights are a similar experience: Balderdash, Taboo, Catch Phrase, Flux, and the like. Those are fun, but what I am longing for is a more long-form game, one that requires a time block of two to three hours, possibly more. Here are three of the games I am most interested in.

Pen and Paper Role Playing Games

What probably comes to mind is Dungeons & Dragons. In Junior and Senior High school, I was an avid D&D player, as well as the Warhammer Fantasy RPG. At several times during those years, I had a regular group of five to seven friends who would meet once a week to continue our campaign. We had a blast running our party through storylines that would stretch across several months, creating distinct personalities for each of our characters, even stirring up a romance or two (in the game, not in real life). Now, I admit, joining a regular pen and paper group is a bit of a pipe dream. I don’t see myself anytime soon having an opportunity to meet on a regular basis for three to four hours at a time. There are, however, a couple of other games that can be completed in a single sitting, as long as you have a few hours.

Munchkin

Munchkin is a card game that parodies genres such as fantasy, superhero, sci-fi, horror, and several others. I have heard only good things about this game for well over ten years but only played the game about three times myself. I own one set: Super Munchkin. I even received its expansion set of cards several Christmases ago, but have not played a single game using that expansion. One of the obstacles to really getting into Munchkin is that, due to the fact I don’t play that often, much of the game is spent explaining the rules to other players and stopping to verify what we are supposed to do in specific circumstances. As a result, it’s hard to get into the rhythm and flow that may create the mirth and fun that I have heard can often happen during a good game of Munchkin.

Fiasco

This is the top game on my radar right now. Fiasco is probably the easiest of these three games to get into. There is little set up and rules can be explained easily as you go along. The point of the game is to create story by ad-libbing scenes based around semi-randomly generated characters, locations, items, and motivations. It is cooperative and there are no winners or losers. (Or, depending on how you look at it, no winners and all losers.) Every game is unique. Every game is entertaining. Even though I discovered Fiasco about a year ago, I have only had the pleasure of actually playing the game twice. One way I am able to scratch my itch is by listening to Fiasco gameplay podcasts. However, the more I listen the more I have the urge to play myself. Time is really just one obstacle. The other is having a group of friends who not only have the same gaming interests but can also carve out large blocks of time that correspond to everyone else’s large blocks of time. That might be easy to do when you are younger and all your friends basically have the same schedule . . . school. But as adults, everyone has different jobs with different schedules, family obligations, and, in some instances, children to take care of. It’s much harder to schedule time together and when you can, it’s only two or three times a year. At least that’s how it appears to me. In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy the time I have as much as possible. The majority of my free time is at home with my wife and, as I have written before on this blog, we share a lot of good times together, such as watching Hallmark movies, spending some Living Room Time together, going out on date nights, and playing Jackbox with my children. And when those two or three special times do come around, I’ll be sure to make the most of them. Happy gaming, everyone!