Board games

We spent this rainy afternoon sitting in a cafe with friends playing Trivial Pursuit and drinking coffee, which is the best way to spend a rainy afternoon that I can think of. Bouldin Creek Cafe, an Austin fixture, has moved down the road to a new and spacious location - I must admit, I miss the shabby old one a bit, but it's nice to have the extra space! And they don't mind you ordering two drinks and sitting there over a game for three hours, which is downright wonderful of them.

Anyway, it made me think of all the hours I've spent over the years playing various board games. I think they bring out a person's true character - or, at least, certain sides of a person's true character. Some people practice quiet brilliance, where they lie low for the majority of the game and then surge up from behind to win; some people sulk and are sore losers; some people are surprisingly magnanimous; some people dance around singing "Nyah nyah nyah," songs when they win (I'm looking at you, Ally). I am not competitive. At all. In fact, I am anti-competitive. I like to beat my own goals and personal records, not compete against anyone else - I fall apart when placed in head-to-head competition against another individual. If I win, I feel horribly guilty and unworthy, and if I lose I feel horribly miserable and unworthy. I can't win. Or lose. (Har har). My favourite games are those that you can play collaboratively or in teams - or those where all the other players are light-hearted and not taking the game too seriously, which doesn't often happen. Usually I seem to be playing with a bunch of whooping, shrieking savages, who see me, inexplicably, as an oversensitive, over-apologising board-game-wimp. For some unknown reason. Yes, all right.

Monopoly is the ultimate test of character, I think. Everyone has his own version of the rules and defends them to the death. (One of my house rules states that all tax money goes in the centre and you get it when you land on Free Parking - does anyone else do this?). The mildest people become frighteningly cutthroat. The most unlikely people show a flair for subterfuge and money-laundering worthy of the Godfather. Understandably, you have to be in the right frame of mind to play Monopoly. LOML and I don't play often, as he is a ruthless Donald-Trump-type player and makes me cry. And when I'm winning I keep apologising for it and it drives him nuts. We weren't much good at chess together, either, partly because he's really good at it and partly because I become way too emotionally invested in the pieces and give them names and get sad when they are taken. I was on the chess team at school, but not for long - I tended to protect my knights more than my queens because I liked the little horse figurines. I don't think I have the right brain for chess.

There are some games that we enjoy equally, however - among them, Carcassonne and Settlers, the best board games on the planet (we also play Warhammer, which is a little more embarrassing. And yes, I played Dungeons and Dragons in high school). whole weekends get swallowed up by these two. Do you play board games? Which ones? (And did you ever name your chess pieces?)