I got a call on Thursday afternoon asking me if I could host two teenagers on a month trip to Israel who need a place for shabbat. Sure, I said. I was supposed to give them a shabbat experience.
Gave me an opportunity to turn them on to games. Which is my kind of shabbat experience.
They had a pack of cards with them, so I knew they were casual gamers at least. They played the typical cards games: President, Rat-Screw, Crazy Eights, etc...
My first move was Blokus. Before shabbat, I introduced this to one of them while the other was resting. I was impressed with his play; he was both serious and casual, which made for a nice game experience. I won fairly handily, but we both enjoyed the game.
The next day I found them playing Crazy Eights when I got back from shul. While we waited for my other lunch guests, I introduced them to The Settlers of Catan. Big hit.
One of them was a natural. The other spent too much time buying developments cards. I won fairly handily, 10 to 7 to 5 (5 only due to Largest Army).
While we were playing, Nadine had arrived and started some of our other waiting guests on R-Eco, a very good light card game. They finished a game when my last guests finally arrived.
After lunch, I joined R-Eco for a second round, and then a third round. The other player besides Nadine was a friend who is not normally a game player and probably wouldn't survive a more complicated game, but really enjoyed this type of light game. She and I each won one game.
The three of us then played It's Alive twice, basic and advanced versions, and she won both games.
I then went to sleep while the teenagers went for a walk. When they came back they asked to play Settlers again because they loved it. I won again in a tighter game. The natural said he was going to pick up a copy when he got home. Yay! One more convert.
Oh, yeah. They, uh, also had a nice shabbat experience.
Yehuda
3 comments:
My Knowledge of Shabbat is extremely limited having only seen public community shows about young French Canadian kids (We're 98% raised as Catholics) spending a weekend in a jewish family.
Regardless, I didn't know that gaming was a'okay during that time and I find it way cool... it is a great social pass time.
Euro games are particularly good for shabbat, since we can't play games with eletricity, writing, or sculpting.
There are some who won't play games with play money or cards, but that is a stringency.
So yes, it's cool.
Yehuda
Congrats on the conversion. I've made inroads with Blokus as well.
Wizard or Oh Hell, even Sheepshead, might be a good choice for those who need to take even smaller baby steps.
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