Most people in the United States associate board games with Monopoly, Risk, Sorry, or Candy land. As people grow older they believe that most board games are either too simple, too complicated, or too long to play. Our goal with the board game club is to introduce kids, and through them, their families, to a genre of light strategy board games that appeals to all ages. We want to give the families in our community an activity that the whole family can enjoy without resorting to the television or video games. These games will also help students develop social, developmental, and cognitive skills they will not build by watching TV or playing Call of Duty. Each game involves making important decisions and taking actions, as opposed to rolling a die. Check out the links below for an idea of what we mean.
Gallery of the Game Club's games - all available for check out from Sr. Wood. Click on the graphic of the little boxes to see pics.
Verona Library Game Selection - all available for check out. You can call and reserve one, requires active library card.
Board Game Geek (BGG) - Literally the best place in the world to look up games, it has a database of all the board games ever made, as well as reviews, pictures, and resources.
Boardgames 101 and Intro to Board Games two great videos to introduce people to the hobby of board gaming and to games you've probably never heard of but are of a deeper sort than Risk and Sorry.
Spiel de Jahres - The Spiel des Jahres is the one of the best awards you can get in board gaming. These games tend to be light strategy games that are super-family friendly with lots of fun and replay value. If you like a couple of SdJ games, you will like others.
Mensa Winners - The Mensa is a well-recognized American award for well designed, original, and challenging games. Like the SdJ games, this is a good standard to go by if you like other awarded games, as they were all judged under the same standards.
Table Top - A youtube series from geek legend Will Wheaton who uses his celebrity pull to bring in other TV favs to play board games. They play through each game, so it can be both hilarious and a little long.
The Dice Tower - A comprehensive youtube channel of reviews, unboxings, and general gaming info.
Watch it played - Boardgamegeek's very own review channel.
Board Games with Scott - This is an oldie, but one of the first review channels: A University Professor gives video reviews of a variety of games complete with rules and a play by play.
Days of Wonder - Catalog, digital store, and online play of several DoW games, including Ticket to Ride.
Rio Grande Games - Publisher of many of the "game of the year" titles. Great website for finding and learning about different games. Broken into both mechanics and titles.