Civilian Game Night ~ Playing Around

C and D from last game night came in and we played together again.  A joined us.  She saw a game called "Scotland Yard" which she said she last played when she was 7 and liked.  The game was made for six, so two of us played two "hands."  When a new guy, Al, and a very nice girl, T, wanted to join we gave up our extra hands.  It was an OK game; I'd maybe play it once or twice more ~ there are two roles, and I'd like to try the other role at least once.  A said it was more interesting when she was 7, and I could see that.

We were joined by Charity, L, a woman we met a few weeks ago, and two other guys I didn't know, S and R.  T liked Cranium which some of the gamers had played before; I had not.  It involves trivia, acting, charades, wordplay, drawing, and clay sculpting.  Charity, D, and I made up one team; L, T, and A made up a girls-only team, and Al, R, and C were the other mixed team.

clockwise from left: R, C, Al, D, Meg, and L

I kind of loosened up playing the game.  I generally don't get involved in roles where I'm the center of attention in either drab or dressed, but I shy away from attention more as Meg ~ first off, there's a lot of talking and since there's a lot of noise coming from other games, it means I have to speak louder than I am comfortable as Meg.  I avoided picking cards and reading them, leaving that to other players but when there was a lull and no-one picked a card, I grabbed the next one and used my best Meg voice (still not nearly as good as I'd like it) to read it loudly.

Actions speak louder than silence.  I know people might be being "polite" or PC and feel like it's a personal virtue to treat that clear difference like it doesn't matter and then they can go home and pat themselves on the back.  But C and D sought me out to play a game, after our previous game night and the other players stuck around to play a second game after Scotland Yard was over.  When I was offered to be a "puppetmaster" for our team (some of the Cranium turns involved manipulating another person to mime the answer), L jumped up to volunteer to be the puppet.  And everyone stuck around to play Telestrations after that.  As we were leaving, I saw P who I was supposed to play chess with ~ she said she was sorry we didn't get to play and Next Time For Sure.  She was playing hearts with a guy, J, our host, and a woman who introduced herself to me as R (different R).  R asked if I played hearts, and I said I knew how to play and J said it was good to have another Hearts player.  So next time, I might try to play some traditional games.  A couple of people were playing backgammon as well, one of my favourite games.

And when I got home, I had six "good to see you" e-mails from different players!

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