Games for Guys
I had recently moved into town and didn't have many friends, so when I saw the sign up on a small-ads board it caught my eye:
Games for Guys!
Board games with the lads!
All kinds of games
All skills welcome
Every other Saturday
New members welcome
Contact Michael on 555-100-1209
I enjoyed board games and this sounded like a good way to get to know some people, so I gave Michael a call. The next meeting was this coming Saturday, from midday until late. I noted down the details and assured him I would attend.
Game Day
On Saturday morning I fell a little behind and arrived at Michael's house around half-past twelve. Given the number of cars in the drive and on the street outside quite a crowd was already there. Michael lived in a large modern house on a quiet street. Welcoming me in, he led me into the lounge where everyone else had gathered.
The large lounge ran full length of the house with windows at front and back, and various gaming tables were set up so several different games could run at once. There was an area with beanbags and cushions in a rough circle. A set of shelves containing more board games than I had ever seen in one place ran along one wall, and a table containing snacks and drinks was opposite. A couple of games were already in progress, one person was sitting at a table idly shuffling a deck of cards, and a group of people were standing around chatting. I counted twelve people including Michael, which made me unlucky number thirteen.
"This is Elliot," Michael announced. "He's new this week, so please give him a warm welcome." He led me quickly around the room, introducing me to the group. "We're about to start this," the guy introduced as Lawrence told me, showing me an unfamiliar box, "care to join us?"
"I've never seen it before, but am very willing to learn!" I said, so a small group of us settled down at a table. Lawrence was an excellent communicator and ran through the rules quickly and clearly, taking special care to stress the key mechanics and even described a few general strategies that could be employed. Also playing with us was Alan, a well-built man of few words who didn't seem exactly delighted for me to join them, or even to be there at all - I couldn't quite tell - and Robbie, who turned out to have a serious gaming mind and a competitive streak. Robbie was the clear winner of our game, with almost twice the points of anyone else.
We packed the game away. Another table had also just finished, so a couple of people swapped groups and we each started something new.
Half-way through the next game, Michael dropped by our table to see how we were doing. Alan looked up and said quite loudly: "Hey Mikey, are we going to play Fate today?"
There was a pause - all sound stopped in the room. On the other table, Robbie froze in the middle of moving a piece and looked over at our table. Suddenly everyone was paying close attention. Michael glanced around the room making eye contact with every person, and I felt as if his gaze lingered slightly on me. "We'll have to see, let's discuss it later," he said.
Our game continued, with Alan and a guy named Chuck battling for first place and me and the other guy trailing some way behind. In the end Chuck pulled ahead and was declared the winner. He wore a confident smile as we calculated the final score as if there was never any doubt that he would be victorious.
We packed the game away, but the other guys didn't seem to want to start anything new at that moment. Looking around at the other tables I noticed that one group had also finished and were just watching the room and chatting while the other was in the process of adding up scores.
Michael was leaning up against a wall, also eyeing the room. He looked like he was waiting to speak, but was unwilling to rush anyone. Once the last group finished and realized all eyes in the room were now on them they fell quiet, and Michael said: "Right. Let's discuss what we play next."
The Game of Fate
"There's a game we frequently play here, not in every session but most of them," he said. "We call it the Game of Fate. I can't remember who came up with the idea in the first place, and the rules have changed over time, but the core principle has always remained the same: everyone plays, and everyone consents to play. If anyone ever doesn't want to play, it's no problem - we skip it. There is no pressure. It's a fundamental part of the game that everyone must accept this.
"Mechanically, it's a trick-taking card game using two decks. Hands are dealt, and the rest of the cards form a draw pile. Each person plays a card, each person draws a card, and play proceeds to the left. There are scoring rules for each hand that we'll go through in detail later. Score is kept using colored beads. You get a point for winning a hand, but you've got to be careful because you can get a penalty point in certain situations.
"If you get ten points, you win. If you get ten
penalty
points, you