It was perfect timing.
“I was actually thinking of getting out of gaming right before this happened,” said Brian Mola of Cedar Lake.
The friends the board game aficionado regularly played with had moved back to the Chicago area, and he didn’t know anyone else nearby who was interested.
But while visiting his college roommate in Elkhart, it was brought to his attention that someone in Merrillville posted on boardgamegeek.com looking to meet up with other local board gamers. Although Mola, who was living in Highland at the time, missed it because he was out of town, he contacted organizer Scott Hankins of Merrillville. They agreed to meet that upcoming Monday.
“We met, we hit it off and we’ve been friends for the last 11 years,” Mola said.
Three people attended that first meeting. Having enjoyed themselves, they decided to try it again the following week. More people came.
“Within a few months we probably had about 20 different people by that summer that come in and was coming in regularly,” Mola said.
Now, the group known as the Board Game Association of Northwest Indiana meets weekly from 6 to 10 p.m. Mondays at the Holiday Inn Express in Merrillville.
“We usually draw about 20-25 people every Monday night, probably from a group of 40 regulars or so,” Mola said.
Open to the public, there is a $5 charge to cover the cost of the room rental.
“Your first time is free so you can come out and join us and see what it’s all about,” Mola said.
The group plays a lot of strategy, card and party games, he said.
“We don’t usually play the role playing games because those are like three or four hour sessions by themselves,” Mola said. “So a lot of what we play are board games that last about an hour or two hours.”
Games like Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan and Terraforming Mars.
“That’s been very popular in our group,” he said of the Mars-building game.
In addition, the group now meets from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday nights at Sip Coffee House in Highland. In January the group started hosting meets Wednesday nights at the Sip’s Hobart location as well. The association also holds a monthly game night at Sip in Cedar Lake. There is no charge for the meet ups at Sip locations.
“At the Sips and stuff we try to do more party type things, things that allow more people to play at one time,” Mola said. “Quicker games because we only have three hours there. Those games usually last maybe 45 minutes to an hour, hour and a half so we can get a couple games in, try to switch up the tables and who we’re playing with.”
Monthly all-day game days and special events are held at different locations throughout the year too.
While the Association has about 40 regulars to the meet ups, on its official Facebook page there are more than 600 members.
“We got a lot of people that come here, met us and moved away and we still keep in touch with them,” Mola said. “We’ve connected with people in the south suburbs of Chicago, people out in Elkhart, stuff like that.”
Members also join the Facebook group after learning about the Northwest Indiana association at Gen Con, the largest tabletop game convention in North America, held annually in Indianapolis.
“It’s like a family reunion at times,” Mola said. “People come from all over the country, in fact the world, showcasing their new games. So we met a lot of people that way as well.
“We’ve had people that have actually published board games that have been a part of our group,” Mola said.
Among those was Alan Ernstein, whose games include Inca Empire and Nevada City.
“He was a visiting professor at (Valparaiso) University, so we met up with him — we got to actually play test a lot of his games,” Mola said. “Some of them have gotten published and so we’ve gotten credit as play testers for him in the rules set.”
Through its volunteer work teaching games at Gen Con, association members were asked to help test the Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures game.
“We play tested that quite a bit,” Mola said.
Most of the games played at the meet ups are what players call Euro games, he said. “They originated in design from Europe primarily and then other countries started developing them,” Mola said.
The games are typically easy to understand, but still have a lot of interaction and strategy. They’re done in about an hour or so. And usually nobody gets eliminated.
“That’s what I always remember from games like Risk. Growing up we’d play it in the Boy Scouts … and it would be an all-night affair. People would get eliminated, so if you were eliminated you did something else or went to bed and the last two people were playing until 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning,” Mola said.
“These games are a lot more quick. You can finish them out and people aren’t eliminated. Once the game’s done, you figure out who won, shake hands and move on to the next one.”
Although the meet ups don’t involve role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, those who are interested often get together at members houses to play the longer games.
Association members are a diverse group, drawing men and women of all ages. Many of the teens that attend grew up coming to the meet ups as children with their parents.
Mola said one member commented that one of the great things about gaming is “when we you come to the table, you’re all equal.” People from all walks of life play and get to know each other.
“We try to be very inclusive. Everybody’s welcome. If you don’t know much about gaming, that’s fine. We’ll sit down and teach you. We’re going to try to be fair and make sure you have a good time as well,” Mola said.
“It’s not all about winning and stuff like that. It’s not a competition. This is something we enjoy doing and want other people to enjoy it as well.”
northwest Indiana Board Game Association weekly meet ups
When: 6-10 p.m. Mondays
Where: Holiday Inn Express Large Meeting Room, 8460 Mississippi St., Merrillville
Tickets: $5 to pay for room rental. First visit free
When: 6-9 p.m. Wednesdays
Where: Sip Coffee House, 2815 Jewett Ave., Highland
Tickets: free meet up
When: 6-9 p.m. Wednesdays
Where: Sip Coffee House, 310 Main St., Hobart
Tickets: free meet up
Information: boardgamegeek.com/guild/1078 or facebook.com/groups/NWIBGA/
www.eurogamer.net
www.chicagotribune.com
www.pcgamer.com
www.digitaltrends.com
