Introduction: The Sequel...

Board games are like movies.  So many pieces have to come together for them to work.

Like movies, board games start with a theme.  These span all sorts of things: fantasy themes, space exploration themes, historical themes, panda themes (I swear the last one is a real thing.  I'll show you sometime).  The game then plays out a story around that theme, with some resolution at the end with some people winning and some losing and everyone full of snacks.  Not unlike a movie.

I almost never win.

There are a number of other key elements involved in the film-making world and the board-gaming world.  Here is a bit about how our group makes the magic happen...

The Players:

Or the actors, if you will.  Except we don't make nearly as much money.

Our group is small.  Typically only the three of us.  But three is a magic number.  Yes it is.  (+1 to Schoolhouse Rock). 

This is Bic.  She wins our games fairly regularly.  At my expense.  While playing Candy Crush at the same time.

Copy and Paste is awesome...

She told me to use this picture of her, because penguins are black and white just like pandas!  She gets me so well.
While we're here, penguins definitely make my top 5 favorite animals list.  Which means I need to go to this penguin bar in Japan. http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/meanwhile-in-tokyo-a-bar-where-you-can-watch-penguins-while.  There are so many important things I still need to do in my life...

Anyways, Bic is an aviculturist.  It means she likes birds.  She has two parrots.  And a blog about them, which you should check out. She will be pleased.

                                                     The Flying Chaucer!!!!!!

Bic only has two birdies, but sometimes a wild one will appear!

This is Jake.  Also hangin' with the birdies.

A Hypnosis-Dream Eater combo might extract some winning game strategies from that mind...

Jake is my board game arch enemy.  He wins a large majority of the games we play.  He is a strategic genius.  If there were an emoticon for "jealous bitter face," it might go here.
Jake is always up to play games.  Which is awesome, because it means I get to play more games.

And then there's me.

Mind-blowing yo-yo tricks = splitting Psyduck headache.

I like yo-yo's.  We'll save that for another day.
I don't win a lot of board games.  But I love playing them with my board-game-buddies (see above).  It's the journey, not the destination that matters.  But I sure wish I won more.  Because everybody knows that the journey is better if there is something AWESOME at the end.  Like treasure.

Enough with the people.  People are nothing without their stuff.

The Equipment:

Here's the stuff.  I realize the movie analogy starts to fall apart here.  Movie makers use cameras and special lighting and technology.  Board games use cardboard.  And sometimes plastic.  And I'm lucky if the lightbulbs in my game room are not burnt out.
And I've never had a nice camera in my life.  Which is sad, because with a nicer camera I could post even nicer pictures with Pokemon edited into them.

Here's what I got.

The collection.

Now that I look closer at this picture, I realize just how few games I have.  I need more.  So many more.
Jake actually has a much bigger collection than I do.  One more reason to be jealous.

The bookshelf is from Kmart.  I don't buy things from Kmart, because I don't understand what the K stands for (atomic symbol for potassium?  I wonder if they sell bananas.  Even though I would never buy a banana from there ever). But it was cheap and it looks nice, so I made an exception.


On Location:

Finally, every movie needs a... place...thing...

We live in the Midwest.  Right around here...

New Zealand!!!

A bit more zoomed in..

It's just a table.  Deal with it.

I recently converted this room into a game room.  Before it was basically a room to throw stuff that I didn't want to look at.  Now it has a nice big table and a shelf full of games (BUT NOT ENOUGH GAMES!).  Oh, and I finally got around to changing the light bulb.

That's a Wrap

So in summary, board games are like movies.  But not really.  I just needed a creative jumping off point, and it sorta works.

No more background and introductions now.  My next post should be my first look at an actual game we recently played.

And movies have pandas sometimes.

Edit: Found out how to add alt text to the pics.  More fun!