Table Top Gaming and Mario Night!

Last week we had another table top gaming day on Wednesday, the first of what is now a regular monthly Table Top Gaming Club! Nine gamers showed up to play, and I ran a game of King of Tokyo, where each player takes the role of a giant monster, gaining energy to buy crazy new powers and attacking the other players to become the king of Tokyo. Things got pretty cutthroat, but it was all in good fun! There were also games of Donkey Kong Jenga, Connect 4, Monopoly and Uno. I'm already looking forward to next month's meetup, where I think we'll try out a game of Munchkin. If you're interested in playing some table top games, we're meeting on the second Wednesday of each month!

My monster's name was The King, but he did not live up to that title..

Playing King of Tokyo

Monopoly and Uno!

Then that Friday night we had a Mario Night, the main draw of which was the Mario Kart Wii tournament! All characters, vehicles and courses were unlocked, with stages set to random. Everyone played two rounds or two races each and their point totals were recorded. After the two rounds were up, the top four players faced off for one final race on Rainbow Road! There were three different Mario prizes, and first place got first dibs, and so on to third place. In the end Sarah took first place and choose the Mario t-shirt as her prize, Brian took second and choose the Mario poster, and Mary took third and choose to skip over the final prize, the Mario DVD, and instead took one of the Mario mushroom brownie pops I'd made! So the DVD went to fourth place racer John!

In addition to the tournament, there were various games set up for people to play at their leisure. We had Super Mario 3D World running on the Wii U for up to four players, an N64 with Mario games like Mario Party and Mario Kart 64, and a Super Nintendo with Tetris Attack and some Mario titles. Oh, and also a TV playing the old Super Mario Bros. Super Show, the campy cartoon from the late 80s/early 90s! Everyone had a good time, and I hope we get another Mario Kart tournament going shortly, this time for the upcoming Wii U game!

gathered around playing Mario 3D World on Wii U

tournament racing, with old-school systems in back

Mario Kart banana peels and Mario Kart spare tires!

Fireballs and Peach Punch

Table Top Gaming @ Sellers Library

Last week we had 11 teens show up to play various table top games, from classics like Connect 4 and Uno (and seriously, I'd never seen an Uno game go on as long as this one did!) to newer stuff like Castle Panic and Zombie Dice. I played Castle Panic with a small group, and while we made it quite far, our castle was eventually destroyed by the incoming horde of monsters. I think next time we'll try playing on the "less panic" rule set, our castle has been destroyed so many times! One new addition to the gaming lineup was "Life of George", a Lego game that's an iPad/real world hybrid game. You're given an image to build, then when you've built it you use the iPad camera and the game grades you on how close you came and how fast you built it. 1 to 4 players can play!

I'm often asked about when the next table top event will be, so I'm thinking that starting shortly we'll be making table top a regular monthly event. I'll have more on this soon, so be sure to check back!

Our selection of games!

Castle Panic and Connect 4 craziness!

Right as the Jenga tower fell!

They wanted to do a posed one too.

Random-A-Thon and other upcoming programs!

Our big fundraiser for Sellers Library teen programs, the Random-A-Thon, is just a week away! Next Saturday from 10 to 3 we'll be hosting all sorts of events, from anime to Connect 4, from papercrafts to Super Smash Bros, there's something for everyone to check out! It's a $10 minimum donation to enter.

On Wednesday, March 5, we'll be doing temporary tattoo crafts at 3:30. I'll have some designs on hand for anyone to use, such as the Deathly Hallows symbol and the Hunger Games Mockingjay, but you're welcome to bring in your own or just freehand it if you're feeling brave!

On Wednesday, March 12 we'll be making 6-second book trailers for Teen Tech Week! We'll have some iPads on hand to use, or if you've got a Vine-enabled device you can use that too. We'll plan out and make some 6-second book trailers, then at the end we'll show them on the projector for a mini-marathon! Come with a book in mind, and if you have any props you'd like to use, feel free to bring them too.

March 19th is the third Wednesday of the month, and that means it's the Anime Club! Each month we vote on a title to watch while we hang out and talk manga, anime and anything else!

Pokemon Night will be Friday, March 21 from 6 to 8. We'll be having a tournament for the X and Y Pokemon games, as well as free play on older console Pokemon titles. Come in costume for a chance at a prize!

March 26 will be the Tabletop Gaming event, a personal favorite of mine, where for two hours we'll be offering a ton of board games to choose from! From classics to new titles, we'll have a little of everything. You're welcome to bring your own games as well!

I hope to see lots of you at all these upcoming events! And if you're around Saturday, make sure to stop by the Random-A-Thon fundraiser, which helps us raise money to do all these teen programs!

Tabletop Gaming @Sellers Library!

Last Wednesday we had 17 teens show up to play all manner of tabletop games for a couple hours! Of course the classics were still played plenty, such as Connect 4, Clue and Monopoly, but a lot of people tried new stuff too! Sarah brought her copy of Tsuru again, which is a game I really enjoyed from the last event, plus she brought a card game about the stock market called Pit which was really cool! A group played a few games of King of Tokyo, one of my favorites, where each player is a giant monster and has to get enough power to rule Tokyo! I led a game of Castle Panic, another personal favorite that has all the players working together to defend their castle from orcs, goblins and trolls that are attacking from the forest. Unfortunately, we lost the castle to the monster horde!

The event was a lot of fun, and lots of people asked when we would do this again. Soon! Tabletop gaming is a great way for people to get together, think creatively and have fun, and I'm looking forward to doing another one as soon as possible! This was the last event of the Fall schedule. The Winter schedule of events should be up around mid-January, so please look forward to it!

Playing Castle Panic. "We're about to lose!"

King of Tokyo

Operation (Nightmare Before X-Mas Edition) and Donkey Kong Jenga!

A shot of the game selection before everyone dug in!

Tabletop Gaming at the library!

Last Wednesday, 20 teens came to the library for some unplugged gaming fun! We had people bringing their own games, games borrowed from the Primos branch, as well as Sellers' games and a few of my own. In addition to the two copies of Munchkin that were available, someone had brought the deluxe edition (which comes with a board and player pieces) and that version was the favored one. Sarah brought in a game called Tsuro, which I tried out and really enjoyed playing. I'd never heard of that one before, so big thanks to Sarah! Quite a few rounds of Zombie Dice were played, which is a fun, quick and easy game. Classic games such as Checkers and Connect 4 were also popular. Everyone that won a game got a candy prize (although since Connect 4 matches can sometimes last only minutes, you could only win candy the first two times you won). There were a few iPads on hand with Ticket to Ride loaded on them, and a few people gave that a try, sometimes solo and at other times with people. I think they found it less intimidating than the Ticket to Ride physical game that was available.

The event went from 1:00 to 4:30, and it felt like it was over so quickly! I definitely look forward to doing another tabletop game day soon, it was a lot of fun!

Settlers of Catan, with some Yu-Gi-Oh! playing off to the side.

This game of Clue sounded like it was getting pretty heated as they looked for the culprit!

Tsuro was a surprisingly fun game!

Board Game Blast

On July 11, 24 people spent the whole afternoon in the air conditioning playing board games, card games, and bingo.  We had a great mix of people playing a lot of different games, including Life, Monopoly, Apples to Apples, Sorry, checkers, Connect Four, and Uno.  I had a great time being the bingo caller, which we played at the beginning and end of the afternoon.  Several people also brought their own games in for the program.  I really liked Sarah's game of Zombie Dice.  I might have to buy that one!  During the event, I gave away 23 full-size candy bars for winning long games, and 86 minis for winning short games. Plus, people who played bingo got to keep the M&Ms we used as markers. Everyone was all sugared up by the time they left! It was a great afternoon!

Book Swap and Board Games Extravaganza!

Yesterday, 30 teens descended on the library program room for an afternoon of book swapping and board/card games.  I have never run this event for four hours before, but I declare it a success!  Exactly half of the people brought books to trade, and their swaps added up to 70 books.  That's a lot of new reads!  The longer time gave people room to play some time-consuming games, as well as shorter ones.  I had little candy for short games and big candy for long games, and it worked out really well.  I had to cut off some people from too many games of stuff like Uno and Connect Four, however, because they were taking all of my candy!  We had a wide variety of games in play, including Munchkin, Quelf, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Life, and Apples to Apples throughout the afternoon.  Thanks to the 20 people who stayed to play all day!!  We'll definitely do this again, probably over winter break.

Board Game Day

Today, 24 people showed up for our winter board game day! Groups played all kinds of games, including Life, Apples to Apples, chess, checkers, and Scattergories.  A group even tried out my new random game Quelf, with rave reviews. 

The deal was that if a group played a game by the rules to the end, the winner would get a box of movie candy.  (For games like chess and checkers, you could only get candy once, even if you played multiple times.)  I gave away 26 boxes of candy, plus we ate our way through four bags of potato chips, several pounds of other candy, and a bunch of soda and lemonade! 

The best moments of the day included Saranjeet needing two cars to carry her family in Life, Owen naming one of his Life children "Ke$ha," Kathy singing "Rawhide" while waving her scarf in the air like a lasso, and Janae thinking McCain was a U.S. President.  I also had fun teaching a group how to play Scattergories with the rules.  And, thanks to Jasmine for bringing in Tutti Frutti...dinging that bell was a lot of fun!

If you like board games, we'll have them out at the Random-A-Thon in February.  Be sure to sign up!

Board Game Blast

On Friday, 9 teens showed up for our winter board game event. However, we made enough noise for about 20 people, so it all worked out. One group played an epic game of Lord of the Rings Risk, and the rest of us played Scattergories and Apples to Apples. Both of the word games caused random outbreaks of singing, and even dancing. I learned that Billy has some pretty convincing Michael Jackson dance moves! We will definitely have more board game events later in the year, so check the schedule.

This random picture from that event has nothing to do with games. It has everything to do with ninjas.

Board Game Blast

Yesterday, 27 teens showed up for our summer Board Game Blast event. All I did was provide snacks and prizes, and everyone amused themselves for 2 hours! I put out some of the library's games, but a lot of people brought their own and we had a good variety. People orgainzed themselves into groups to play everything from chess and Scrabble to mancala and Clue. I gave a box of movie candy to the winner of each game played, as long as the group followed the rules and the person won by playing the game until the end. (Winners of two-player games could only get candy for their first win.) I also did a drawing for a free board game, which included everyone's names. We will definitely do this again!

Pokemon Monopoly...who knew?!

Chess is a (mostly) serious game...

Trying to pick a winner in Apples to Apples.

They're not usually this focused!

Watch Out for Scrabble!

Just in time for our Board Game Blast (today, 3 to 5 pm, upstairs), comes this article from The Onion: Jilted Hasbro CEO Laughs Coldly As Scrabble Destroys Another Relationship