Change your game plan: switch off those gadgets and get ready for board games on Table Top Day

On June 1, International Table Top Day, Bengaluru-based board gaming community ReRoll will host Battling Board-dom, an extravaganza for board game enthusiasts. Join in or cheer as players try their hand at strategy, fun, role play and deduction.

Saturday June 01, 2019 , 5 min Read

Think games, and most likely your mind wanders online. But games in the real world have gone from Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Monopoly, Scrabble, Cluedo, and Pictionary to Pandemic, Mafia, Azul, Settlers of Catan, Secret Hitler, and the world of ‘meeples’. The new lot takes board gaming to another level, making players strategise, plan, co-operate, deduce, socialise, and guess.

Haven’t heard of most of these yet? Well, it’s time you did and there could be no better day than June 1, which is celebrated as International Table Top Day (ITTD).

Started by gaming counter culture group Geek & Sundry, primarily a YouTube channel and gaming-based media company in California, this day aims to celebrate new-age board games across continents every year.

ReRoll, one of Bengaluru’s largest board games collectives, will host ITTD, which is sometimes referred to as International Board Games Day in India, at Watson’s Indiranagar.

Groups of people, around 150 or more, will be seen gathered at tables. They will be busy rolling the dice, battling dragons, collecting cards, seeking clues, teaming up against their latest enemy - the board itself. It may seem like nothing short of war, but only in spirit for the vibe is friendly.

There will be quizzing and other game-related activity as well. All in all, a great way to get away from screens and gadgets, and give your tired eyes and jaded minds a break.

Board game Pandemic — The board game, *Pandemic* is based on the premise that four diseases have broken out in the world, each threatening to wipe out a region

In Bengaluru, which has had a thriving community of board gamers, Koramangala and Indiranagar have come to be the hubs of new-age gaming. There are also pockets in Whitefield, Marathahalli, and other areas. Victory Point, Meeples Of Bangalore, and Board Gamers of Bangalore are the major board gaming communities that meet up and play regularly. Other cities in India with strong gaming communities include Chennai, Mumbai, and Delhi.

A whole new ball game

ReRoll was started in Bengaluru in mid-2016 when two gaming aficionados Karthik Balakrishnan and Mithun Balraj came together with the idea of developing a board gaming community in the city.

“These games are a genre by themselves and people in Europe and the West are quite aware of them. These are challenging games, complex and nuanced. We ourselves got into this by accident when we saw some of these games being played live on YouTube,” says Karthik Balakrishnan.

Board game - the ReRoll team — The ReRoll team

But people here weren’t familiar because there was no visibility for these games.

Ever since they started, for the last 140 weeks, they have got together every Thursday to game, without a break.

“About 70 to 80 people turn up every week,” Karthik says. At present, they meet regularly at Lahe Lahe, a community hub, in Indiranagar.

Fun, games, and more

Board game Karishma — Karishma at a boardgame with her opponent

Karishma Joseph, a 25-year-old communications specialist, has been going to these meetups since July 2018.

“I was not from Bangalore. I had just started working in a startup and had time on hand. I wanted to do some socialising that didn’t involve pubs and alcohol. Someone in my co-working space told me about ReRoll. What stood out for me was that I started making friends at these meetups; the community even helped me find an apartment when I quickly needed to move,” Karishma says.

For most people like Karthik and Karishma, this is a hobby and passion. ReRoll has grown into a group of seven volunteers who, apart from having full-fledged careers, devote time to help newbies enter the world of board gaming.

Most of the people who come to the weekly meetups are aged between 20 and 35 years. However, people from other age groups are also regulars. Techies, writers, bankers, professors and researchers – the group is diverse; even the gender ratio is 50:50.

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Time off the black mirror

Board gaming is a great way to unwind after work, and keep your hands and minds off gadgets.

Karishma says board gaming is for you “if you want to explore a whole world that doesn’t involve a ‘black mirror’ (gadget),” referring to the Netflix sci-fi series that looks at human-technology relationships in the future. “Sometimes, after a bad work day, hanging around with the community makes you feel better.”

One does not need to know the games and how to play them to be a part of this group. Volunteers teach and explain how they are played and handhold till you get the hang of things. As Karishma says no one has the energy to read a six-page leaflet with game rules end of a work day “or you will just zone out”. Group volunteers do the explaining to help you. They also livestream games on YouTube for people to see and learn them online.

Games people play

Mafia is popular with the college crowd. It’s a light game, needs only chits, and falls in the category of social or party games.

“But people also want complex and challenging games that can improve their skills. We rotate our games, from the repertoire of about 200 games that we have,” Karthik says.

Code Names is a social deduction card-based game. Secret Hitler allows you to indulge in secret role play where you pass fascist or liberal policies; the idea is to figure out which of the players is Hitler, says Karishma for the benefit of the uninitiated, like me.

Board Game Azul — Board games like Azul are very popular now

“My board game knowledge was limited to stuff like ‘Dead of Winter’. I like resource games like Azul where you create a tile pattern. Co-operative games were a foreign concept for me – where participants play together against the board."

The stress of competition is also eliminated in games like Pandemic where you’re fighting against viruses that could create an epidemic in the world, in your role as a scientist, medic or dispatcher,” she explains.

Interested yet? On June 1, you could be a spectator and watch the many games people play. Or register on the spot (very few slots left) and participate. For details check out ReRollBLR’s handles on Facebook and Instagram.