Hey, welcome back to my blog, today I’m going to tell you about the three day long board game convention I went to and the board game community. Now I know your thinking I’m insane, it’s fine most people do. When most people think of board games they think about playing Monopoly or Apples to Apples with their friends or family. However there is a MASSIVE variety of board games that are WAY more advanced and complicated. In fact it’s such a big thing that there are YouTube channels about it with over 200,000 subscribers.

Growing up I always played games much more confusing than the common ones you think of. I thought this was normal though. It wasn’t until I started having friends over who had no idea how to play any of the games I had, that I realized it wasn’t something that most people did. Slowly, I started teaching my closer friends a few of my favourite games and now playing games is something we do a lot.

Although it seems strange to have complex and long board games it’s so much fun. There are games where everyone is a team trying to beat the game. There are games where everyone is trying to sneakily eliminate each other. There are so many types of games, each with their own positives.

Something I didn’t know about this community as that there were conventions. It was news to me when this September my dad told me that during a weekend in October I’d be going to a board game convention called SHUX. I was really confused because I had no idea what you would do at a convention for board games, but with the help of my mom and brother I understood what would be happening.

On the first day we would be doing something called a megagame. A megagame is basically a large role playing game with certain parts that are on dice, boards, cards, or other board game materials. The one I participated in was called “Watch the Skies”. In this game each team of five was a different country’s government and we as the leaders in the world had to figure how to control the sight of aliens on our planet. My family was team India and I got to be the prime minister. My main job was to talk to other presidents and prime ministers to try and make allies or gather new information. I was also in charge of talking to the press and held a conference talking about in India we had eliminated the use for fossil fuels. The other roles were a UN delegate (my dad), a deputy head of state (my mom), a military leader (my brother), and a chief scientist (a stranger). This was one of the funnest things I’ve ever done and I’d love to do it again.

Me with Scott Westerfeld

On the next day we basically went around the big room trying out new indie games, watching panels by board gaming youtubers, and playing games from the huge game library. I even competed in a pitch Car tournament. Not to mention I also met Scott Westerfeld, the author of the book I was reading in school at that time.

Overall I really loved this convention and had a great time. It’s something I would totally go to again. I hope you gained some insight into the mystical world of board gaming and maybe one time you could try a more advanced game.