Engine-Building Games: Level-Up Board Game Club Week 6 Wrap-Up

After half a dozen club meetings, I’m starting to notice some patterns about how students pick the games they want to play each week. Foremost, if there is something new and shiny, every student will be drawn to it. Last week, that was Jumanji Stampede. Perhaps in my infinite concern about which games the kids may find the most interesting each week on-theme, I overlooked one very simple fact: 7 to 9 year olds just want to have the most fun possible. And what looks more fun? The game with painted minis based on a movie franchise that’s played on a 3D jungle board where you launch panthers and other hazards at one another? Or the boxy game with number pegs that you need to do math in order to win? Every week there’s at least one flashy game that demands I regulate who gets their turn first. But this means that week to week, there is consistent demand for back-logged games that some students didn’t get to try. And demand is good. It keeps the kiddos interested and prevents the nightmarish scenario where my selections came too far out of left field and there was otherwise nothing interesting to play.

So, of course, I’m going to keep bringing those in-demand titles back week to week even if they don’t fit the theme. There isn’t anything remotely “engine-building” about the cooperative, Ameri-trash adventure survival game Jumanji Stampede but with every single kid in the club chomping at the bit to play it, how could I say no? And, unsurprisingly, for the second week in a row it was the big winner. This week’s play was once again taught by the student who brought it, though things went south real fast for the players. Two of them were eliminated by the natural hazards of the island in the first thirty minutes, and the other two struggled to hang on much longer. Although they lost, the students were excited by the narrative element of the game, making up their own stories about why the villain was after them, and how the character succumbed to their demise. That play beyond the play is something I’m chasing with the games we play in board game club—games that will offer up a lasting memory, that let students tap their creative imagination, that give something a little more than make them want to play again and again and again.

Dixit seems to have that hold as well. Since the game made an appearance in week 3, it’s come out for a play every week either to kill some time while something else wraps up or as a dedicated large group affair. This week, some boys who missed on a chance to play Jumanji instantly asked about Dixit, and assured me they didn’t need a refresh on the rules. The three of them set it up, handled the game nicely with minimal support and redirection, and by the end were getting really clever with the clues they were giving one another. It feels like some of the games in the school’s collection I’m building are part of the club’s “repertoire” now. That is, go-to titles that are fun, replayable, and well-known enough among board game clubbers that I don’t necessarily need to have a lead role in facilitating it.

Halfway through the engine-building meetup, I noticed there was a distinct lack of engine-building games being played. I only brought a few: Machi Koro 2, Wingspan, and Spendor. But all were left untouched for more appealing games. One of those more appealing games was Beacon Patrol along with the Ships & Shores expansion that I had combined into a single box. It took a couple of false starts to actually play using the rules of the game. And to be fair there are a lot of rules to remember—you can’t move across islands, water matches water and land matches land, etc. And the feeling of ending your turn and discarding unused tiles feels gross. But what I love about Beacon Patrol for these kids is that you can enjoy it without really caring about how well you do. Sure, there’s a beat-your-score chart that you’re aiming for, but there are plenty of little wins along the way that make you feel good just playing. Maybe that’s putting all three of your tiles down correctly in one turn or exploring an entire big island somewhere on the map.

I don’t have a theme for next week. Instead, I’m going to bring along all the games that have been best-sellers, so to speak, as well as some others, allowing students to gravitate to what they want to play.