Page 8 of Stops Along the Way
“I could tell by your hair,” Declan says. I’m unsure if it’s supposed to be simply observational or mean.
I tuck a frizzy lock behind my ear, relieved my hearing aids have stayed relatively dry. “Whatever. Is anyone else coming to play?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think any of the other games are ready yet.”
“Oh.” I lower my box a few inches.
“I’ve got mine, though.” Declan gestures to the mess of dice in front of him.
I frown. “Yeah, but mine needs at least four players. Five would be more ideal.”
He taps his fingers on the counter, thinking for a second. “We could each play two turns so it’s like there’s four people.”
“But it’s sort of a mystery kind of game. If you know what another player’s cards are, that takes away the guessing.”
“I understand that; however, it is unfortunately our best option right now. We’re just playing it as a test, not for actual fun, so it doesn’t really matter if we don’t get the full experience, does it?”
“I guess not,” I grumble.
Declan slides his dice into a small nondescript box, folding the laminated chart inside, as well, and leads the way over to the wooden table in the corner, the one that stays up all the time, as opposed to all the extra folding tables that get brought out for things like Rivalry night.
“It’s weird with no one else around.” Sitting across from him, I’m unsure what else to say. We both have our boxes out on the table, but neither of us has a clear desire to be the one to open ourselves up to critique first.
“I’ve been alone in the store all afternoon. But now you’re here.” Declan doesn’t look at me as he says that, staring down at his box of dice.
“Sorry to disturb your peace?”
I seriously don’t know where I stand with this guy. I would guess we’re acquaintances bordering on friends, if only because we’ve frequented the same spot for several years now,but if I were to refer to him outright as a friend, it would feel somewhat misleading.
Now we have to sit here cordially and each learn a brand-new game.
That’s generally the biggest hurdle people have difficulty overcoming when first getting into board games. Learning a new rule book can feel frustrating and overwhelming, because you have to open your mind up to an unfamiliar experience.
But once you’ve figured out a game or two, you get the hang of the medium, and learning more board games becomes slightly easier when you’re more comfortable with dice and cards and tokens and meeples and mechanisms.
I’m guessing most things in life are probably like this, and that once you get over initial hurdles, the journey is relatively smooth on the other side. Maybe that’s how my hearing loss was. I got sick super young, so it’s not something I remember well, but there must’ve been a bumpy adjustment period, learning to live life without an accustomed sense.
Yet if I have to experience losing a sense again, I doubt it will be an easier experience, so this probably isn’t the best comparison. Just the topic I keep trying to shove to the back of my mind but that always manages to float its way to the surface.
Anyway, nothing and everything makes sense in life, but board game rules can be logical to figure out…if they were designed to be logical in the first place.
Which is to say that Declan’s game, with its twenty-page rule book, makes no sense whatsoever.
“If you roll three matching pairs, you can swap to enter the third tier.” He’s in the midst of explaining, jamming a finger at a column on his laminated chart since consulting the list of figures is somehow integral to this gameplay. “Which, you know, has its benefits, but is a riskier gamble. Like, for example, it would be a safer bet to keep these in tier two, but over the course of the game, you’re not going to be able to accumulate enough tokens if your opponent is playing a more offensive approach.”
I reach forward and pick up a single die, my face contorted like I’ve tasted something sour. “What are you calling this game?”
“I’m submitting it with a working title.”
“And that is?”
“Numbers.”
My brows scrunch so far down that my eyes are almost closed. “I can’t possibly have heard that right. You’re calling this Numbers?”
“Yeah, it’s growing on me, actually. Like, what else would I call it?” He smiles to himself as if it’s some sort of silly personal joke.
“I honestly have no idea.”
