School Club Information
Tabletop Club
Everyone is familiar with the concept of a ‘good old fashioned’ board game and getting the family sitting around the table together. Whilst the concept of spending time together is sound, for most it conjures up the image of mind numbing hours of boredom grinding through a never ending session of Monopoly.Thankfully though, things have changed. Enter, TEC Tabletop!
At Tamworth Enterprise College, our Tabletop Club find out what it really is to play a really great board game. Modern games have advanced well beyond the dry and dull and offer a range of beautifully crafted experiences to suit everyone. Modern board games put a lot more effort into presentation and gameplay. Hardly anything relies on just rolling dice and moving around a board any more. There’s an emphasis on creating memorable games that you’ll remember and talk about long after the game is over. Winning is a bonus. Getting together around a table in person with friends and having a good time is the real goal.
A prime illustration comes from Sheriff of Nottingham. Here our tabletop club have tried their hand at being sly and subversive market traders trying to earn a (dis)honest crust. In a fantastic social game of bluffing, bribery and negotiation players must try to slip their goods and wares through the gates of Nottingham without arousing the suspicion of the law.
The dealings get dirty, the price of a bribe skyrockets, and it becomes hard to pick apart the double bluffs as the market traders move to outwit the Sheriff before the time runs out and the gates to Nottingham close.
What’s that? Honestly Sheriff, I have no idea how that crossbow got mixed in my apples, I promise!
Not only are the club exploring the immense world of modern day board gaming, but we’ve also taken the chance to take our first steps into the world of a fantasy epic and explore the infinite possibilities of a pen and paper based RPG (role playing game) in the vein of Dungeons and Dragons. Players join together in a collaborative storytelling adventure where anything is possible, the names are impossible to pronounce and the dice are at least twenty sided.
In the last few months since the club started up we’ve played the roles of master spy, thieves, warriors, a mafia Godfather, werewolves, witches, zombies, pirates, Godzilla… and we’ve barely scratched the surface. There’s a lot more to explore yet.
The Tabletop Club meets every Friday from 3pm to 5pm.
You can check out our ‘Games Cupboard’ and the group’s story so far in the world of our HackMaster RPGon the TEC Tabletop website.
Banish Monopoly. Play something good.