BOARD GAMES like the one seen above will be available to play at Patten Free Library’s International Tabletop Game Day event on Saturday in Bath. The event takes place in the library’s Community Room and runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Patten Free Library in Bath will host their first ever International Tabletop Game Day event this Saturday in their second floor Community Room. The event will feature five preset gaming tables and five tables where folks can bring their own board games and play at their leisure.
The event was organized by RSU 1 employee Dean Emmerson, who librarian Roberta Jordan said recently approached her about the idea of a tabletop game night.
“We’ve tried to do game nights here before but haven’t tapped into the right crowd,” said Jordan. “Dean is a big proponent of table top games, and has a big group that gets together all the time to play. This sounded like the perfect fit for us.”
Emmerson said that the upcoming game day is “for people and families who love to engage around board games involving strategy, a love of history or geography, fantasy worlds and more.”
“The 1990s saw a resurgence of interest in board games,” said Emmerson, who pointed to games like Settlers of Catan as catalysts for the spike in popularity that he said remains as strong as ever today.
Settlers of Catan is a strategy game where opponents roll dice and collect resource cards, like gold and wheat, so they can build up civilizations across the game board. Players must hash out trades to advance in the game, a feature which Emmerson said appeals to a broad audience.
“Games like that have helped spawn a huge industry and following,” said Emmerson.
An expansion of Settlers called Catan: Explorers and Pirates will be featured on Saturday, along with other strategy and fantasy titles like Fields of Despair, Memoir ‘44 and Dragonwood. Games will be played in block times specific to their average length, ranging anywhere from an hour to six hours. All of the scheduled games will be overseen by volunteers whose ages range from middle school to adult. Jordan said that some of the tables are already reserved, and advised folks to call the library and reserve a spot if they haven’t already.
Jordan said that a board game library will be on display for folks to browse and play at their leisure on the open tables if they don’t have any games to bring themselves.
The International Tabletop Game Day event takes place on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For a full schedule of board games and game descriptions, visit the Facebook event page Patten Free Library Tabletop Game Day.
bgoodridge@timesrecord.com
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