Hello everyone! The other day I toddled off to a board game playing cafe thing – there were people, and games, I was outside my house, it was exciting. I know that games such as Dungeons and Dragons are good for creative types, but these are games I’ve played with my own little hands.
1. Gloom. Gothic families suffer tragedies and misfortunes! The aim is to make your family as miserable as possible before killing them off while making other player’s characters happier. Plus you get to tell a story with each move you make.
The best part for me was hearing our tentative attempts at fiction whilst simultaneously worrying about making an incorrect move, resulting in: “Darren Dark tripped over something…and it really hurt…and stuff.” Full marks goes to my friend Nathan for coming out with this: “So embarrassed was she by her fashion faux pas that she refused to be seen in public again.”
Here’s a video clip as an example of people who know what they’re doing:
2. Dixit. If I tried to explain this game, which won the 2010 Spiel des Jahres, it wouldn’t make sense. All I can say is that it’s very French and very wonderful, and the pictures give me lots of ideas. It’s a favourite of mine and my boyfriend and we force it on weeping people every Christmas. Here’s another video:
3. Slash: Romance Without Boundaries. I must make a confession here; I haven’t had a chance to play this yet. However it’s not my fault as they’ve run out of copies and are currently making more. Hooray! I’m sure we all know what slash fiction is. For those uninitiated it involves ‘romance’ between two fictional characters who aren’t known for being a couple, eg: Sherlock Holmes and Watson. What? We all knew what was going on. 
Anyway I’m sure this will be very entertaining, here’s a video of people who work for the Cards Against Humanity Game reviewing and playing Slash:
4. Cards Against Humanity. Self described as “the party game for horrible people,” it’s probably stretching it a bit to say this is creative. however you do have to construct sentences and ensure they’re as grotesque or weird as possible, which definitely counts. Fun!
You can play for hours or for a few minutes. One person reads out a black card and the others choose from their deck of white cards to finish the sentence. It’s up to you how terrible you want to be. Below are a couple of my very own choices, plucked from the depths of my mind. Enjoy!
Madeleine Swann 