Board games at Knight Moves

posted July 30, 2015 11:24 AM | |

Sat August 29 at 6:00 PM, Knight Moves

1402 Beacon Street, Brookline, MA, USA (Map & Directions)

That sounds fun. I'll be out of town 8/12-18, but otherwise most evenings would work for me, though weeknights might be easier.
posted by jpdoane at 1:32 PM on July 30, 2015

I know M-Th is cheaper, but I don't think I am up for a trip out to Brookline on a week night. I would go on a weekend.

Would you want to do it on a trivia off-week? I can't do this weekend or 8/8.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 2:34 PM on July 30, 2015

If I'm in town, I'd be interested in a Friday evening meetup. But my presence in MA is unpredictable.
posted by sciencegeek at 3:21 PM on July 30, 2015

The best time to do it would probably be a trivia off-week, yeah. I'm driving in from the suburbs, so the only real problem would be if there were a home game or a Hatch Shell concert, both of which worsen traffic a great deal.

I'd be happy with weekdays or weekends, though Friday-night parking would be tough even in that part of Brookline.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 4:40 PM on July 30, 2015

Super duper interested! Btw, not sure if this is clear from the website, but last I knew of, once you pay the cover charge you're fine to come and leave as you like for the day.

I'm down for whenever-ish, but Brookline is an admittedly sticky wicket to get to with any speed, and if it's a weeknight I probably can't realistically be there til like 7.
posted by threeants at 6:58 PM on July 30, 2015

I just called the café. They said they were fine with people bringing their own games to the café, though of course the entrance fee still applies.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:40 PM on July 30, 2015

I'd be interested if we met up on a Friday or Saturday.
posted by sarcasticah at 2:54 AM on July 31, 2015

I would like to do this! KM is super close to me so I could make it to a meetup for once. I'm out of town this weekend but after Tuesday could do it, any night is fine.
posted by dismas at 4:04 AM on July 31, 2015

Date dependent, of course, but I'd be interested!
posted by maryr at 6:53 AM on July 31, 2015

Brookline is easy for me to get to after work so I would potentially be up for this. Or is it down for this? Whichever one it is, I am potentially that for this.
posted by bondcliff at 6:58 AM on July 31, 2015

I've been to Knight Moves many times, and it's really great-- huge selection of games. I can come on a weeknight
posted by Henrietta Stackpole at 7:14 AM on July 31, 2015

Definitely interested--this sounds awesome! I'd prefer a Friday/Saturday but will make anything work.
posted by cogitron at 7:42 AM on July 31, 2015

This thread is making me read weeknight as wee knight, which is pretty cute, actually.
posted by maryr at 10:47 AM on July 31, 2015 [3 favorites]

I'm glad people have shown so much interest! How do the following dates sound:

Wednesday, August 12th;

Saturday or Sunday, August 15th and 16th;

Wednesday, August 26th;

Saturday or Sunday, August 29th and 30th;

or would other dates work better?
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 2:50 PM on July 31, 2015

I could possibly make the 29th or 30th. And could bring by Boss Monster! Which I bought but haven't had the chance to play, as I am wont to do.

I could also do one of the Wednesdays, if we plan to play late (after 7 is always best for me on weekdays).
posted by ignignokt at 1:19 PM on August 1, 2015

My husband and I could do either of the Saturdays. And we've got a couple of games to bring, too!
posted by sarcasticah at 1:49 PM on August 1, 2015

ignignokt, if we met on a weeknight, we probably wouldn't start until 6:30 or 7:00, since I have to drive in from the suburbs and I dislike going directly from work to the city.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 4:44 PM on August 1, 2015

One potential problem with the 15th and the 16th is that the Mariners will play the Red Sox at Fenway Park at 1:30 PM on those days. There will be no home games on any of the other days I mentioned, though.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 4:51 PM on August 1, 2015

I'd be interested for a weekend night!
posted by maryrussell at 7:28 PM on August 1, 2015

Those dates are currently fine with me and I can carpool with people to/from Somerville/Medford.
posted by maryr at 10:58 AM on August 2, 2015

Add me to the list of "I <3 board games" folks but this month is complete crap. If this becomes a regular thing (please?!) I am super interested in joining in.
posted by danapiper at 12:12 PM on August 3, 2015

I'd like to make it a regular meetup, once a month at least, so don't worry if you can't make it this month.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 12:18 PM on August 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

How does Saturday the 29th at 6:00 PM sound to everyone? Would a different time work better?
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 12:19 PM on August 3, 2015

sounds tentatively good to me
posted by threeants at 2:00 PM on August 3, 2015

The 29th works for me.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 4:58 PM on August 3, 2015

I can't make the last week in August, but hopefully we'll return to knight moves if I have to miss it!
posted by Henrietta Stackpole at 7:58 PM on August 3, 2015

All right, then. If there are no strong objections, I'll go ahead and set the date for the 29th at 6:00 PM.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:44 PM on August 4, 2015

Awesome - I'm in. I like the idea of making it a regular thing too (though we'll see how things go after the baby comes...) Glad to see theres a lot of interest from non-trivia people too. It will be nice to meet more Boston Mefites
posted by jpdoane at 8:01 AM on August 5, 2015

Pray tell, what is the game "Nuns on the Run"? Hmm.

Are people allowed to come and watch others play games? I think the only ones I even remotely recognize are some of the Classic games. And I'm terrible at those.
posted by Melismata at 10:46 AM on August 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah! And if you don't know the games, then the people who do know them can teach you how to play, and if they can't, then the cafe has some people who can explain the rules, so feel free to come even if you aren't familiar with these games.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:54 AM on August 5, 2015

Yes! How did I miss this? I would like to play games. In fact, I just bought a new game!
posted by backseatpilot at 11:10 AM on August 6, 2015

Awesome! You haven't missed it, it's coming up on the 29th and I hope to make it a monthly meetup.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 8:21 PM on August 16, 2015

I can't make it this month but am interested in the abstract for future months.
posted by rmd1023 at 9:08 AM on August 17, 2015

Ahhh we're going to be away that weekend! I'll come to the next one.
posted by backseatpilot at 9:22 AM on August 17, 2015

I'm in the same boat as rmd1023 and backseatpilot, and others upthread. Next time!

(And if it becomes a regular thing, generally count me in.)
posted by cardioid at 10:38 PM on August 18, 2015

Can we bring additional games? We have two that we haven't played yet -- Exploding Kittens and a zombie card game called They're Coming.
posted by sarcasticah at 5:46 PM on August 26, 2015

Oops turns out I have to work this weekend. Will be interested to hear about any future things. Have fun everyone!
posted by maryrussell at 7:31 PM on August 26, 2015

Can we bring additional games? We have two that we haven't played yet -- Exploding Kittens and a zombie card game called They're Coming.

Yep!
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 3:55 AM on August 27, 2015

Welp, MeFi's own grobstein just gave me the massive Descent which I've wanted to try for a while, so I'm gonna try to lug that over!
posted by ignignokt at 1:02 PM on August 27, 2015

Just bumping this to remind everyone that this is tomorrow. I'll try to come in early to save us some tables. I called the location the other day, and they said the weekend tends to be busy. I'm bringing Tammany Hall, Coup, and Cosmic Encounter. Hope to see you all there!
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 8:50 AM on August 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oops, thanks, Rustic Etruscan! I swear, I read through the thread before I asked, but somehow missed that comment.
posted by sarcasticah at 12:34 PM on August 28, 2015

I am excited to see you all and not play Tammany Hall!
posted by maryr at 1:36 PM on August 28, 2015

I'll almost certainly be there. Excited to meet you all!
posted by glass origami robot at 11:20 PM on August 28, 2015

Hey, so does anyone want to car pool from the Somerville area? I could drive. Anyone else going from around here?
posted by ignignokt at 6:26 AM on August 29, 2015

Tammany Hall is actually good. If people want to play it, I will explain it better than I explained it last time and hopefully no one will get a headache halfway through the game
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 6:49 AM on August 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

I might be getting to Brookline through some circuitous errands but I would definitely pool into your car on the way back if you return by the same mode you come!
posted by threeants at 8:43 AM on August 29, 2015

Ack. Heading home early; will miss the meetup:(
posted by eviemath at 11:08 AM on August 29, 2015

In fairness, I also hate Risk, Diplomacy, horses, and other perfectly good things.
posted by maryr at 11:19 AM on August 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Sorry we'll miss you, eviemath. Have a good trip back home!
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 11:26 AM on August 29, 2015

I would love a ride if you don't mind the small detour to Medford!
posted by DiscourseMarker at 12:02 PM on August 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

I woke up feeling cruddy, and the cruddiness has continued, so the mister and I are going to stay home -- I hate to miss it, but would also hate spreading any potential germs to anyone else. Hopefully this will become a regular thing!!
posted by sarcasticah at 12:31 PM on August 29, 2015

Sure!
posted by ignignokt at 12:36 PM on August 29, 2015

I'm here. I've taken the round table on the left in back.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 2:36 PM on August 29, 2015

Shoot - i misremembered and thought this was as 7pm. I will be there but a bit late.
posted by jpdoane at 2:57 PM on August 29, 2015

Thanks for organizing -- this was tons of fun! (I was the person in the blue shirt playing "Ticket to Ride.")
posted by glass origami robot at 9:50 PM on August 29, 2015

Thanks to everyone who came. I had a great time!
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:34 PM on August 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Tons of fun dungeon crawling and monster killing (though benito.strauss thinks the monsters may just be misunderstood). Do not get in the way of maryr's demonkilling however - she means business...
posted by jpdoane at 5:26 AM on August 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

I would love a ride if you don't mind the small detour to Medford!

And that would have been on my way, if I hadn't turned wifi off immediately after sending my regrets. Next time! :P
posted by eviemath at 7:30 AM on August 30, 2015

Thanks for organizing, Rustic Etruscan!

And thanks to the people that gave my colossal and unwieldy dungeon crawl a shot! This is what you say after every time you stumble through a complex game for the first then never play it again, but: I think it'll go a lot smoother next time we try it!

On the other end of the spectrum, last night, I confirmed that Tsuro is genius. I think I'm going to get it!
posted by ignignokt at 9:21 AM on August 30, 2015

Great time. Thanks for organizing, Rustic Etruscan, and thanks for dungeon mastering, ignignokt. DM'ing means you have to wrestle with a 50 page book of instruction while everyone else is goofing around and I sure couldn't do it. I'd like to try some other games in the future, but I'm also reeealy curious about what one could do with a proper high-powered crossbow, not just a wimpy regular bow.

Tsuro was fun too -- simple rules, but not at all easy to figure out a good strategy. I did laugh at the question on the amazon.com product page for it: "After playing, I still don't understand the dragon tile, or the process by which more tiles are acquired after the draw pile is depleted. Help?"

Also, the next time someone posts an IRL for Knight Moves, be sure to mention that, while they've got some drinks and food for sale there, they seem to have a very open policy on bringing your own stuff in, including alcohol (I saw wine bottles at one table). The fact that there is a Trader Joe's just up the corner is highly suggestive.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:57 AM on August 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

And sorry we missed you, eviemath. The Tsuro game offered some good grist for some graph theory speculation. Maybe next time you visit the Northeast.
posted by benito.strauss at 10:04 AM on August 30, 2015

Tsuro is indeed the bomb.
posted by eviemath at 2:52 PM on August 30, 2015 [2 favorites]

Also, the next time someone posts an IRL for Knight Moves, be sure to mention that, while they've got some drinks and food for sale there, they seem to have a very open policy on bringing your own stuff in, including alcohol (I saw wine bottles at one table). The fact that there is a Trader Joe's just up the corner is highly suggestive.

I'll keep that in mind, though of course I'll also mention the $2.00 fee for bringing food in.

I might also schedule the next one for earlier in the day or for a weekday night. The initial crowd at 6:00 on Saturday was loud and distracting.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 9:19 AM on August 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

Look, if I'm going to play a tank, I'm going to play a tank. (Also, it turns out I kinda like playing a tank.)

I had a great time. Ticket To Ride is always fun and thanks for patience with my half-remembered rules of Oh Hell. I'll try to figure out if there's less draconian scoring for next time.
posted by maryr at 10:04 AM on August 31, 2015

It looks like one of the scoring methods recorded by Pagat may be the one you remembered:

In the simplest version, a player who wins the exact number of tricks bid scores 10 plus the number of tricks bid (10 points for zero tricks, 11 for 1 trick, 12 for two tricks, etc.) Players who take more or fewer tricks than they bid score nothing. This method has the advantage that the scorekeeper, having written down the bids at the start of the play, can simply write a figure "1" in front of those that were successful and delete those that are not. The game with this scoring method is often known as Blackout or Blob, because the scorer obliterates or blacks out unsuccessful bids, so that they become black blobs on the score sheet.

Perhaps the most widespread scoring method is to award 1 point for each trick won plus a bonus of 10 points for players who win exactly the number of tricks they bid. So for example a player who bid 2 would score 12 points for winning exactly 2 tricks, but only 1 for 1 trick and 3 for 3 tricks. This gives a player whose bid fails a slight incentive to win as many tricks as possible.

posted by Rustic Etruscan at 1:43 PM on August 31, 2015

Gah, this totally slipped my mind. Next time!
posted by dismas at 11:10 AM on September 1, 2015