Board games: Going back in time but with a twist
View(s):By Gajendraraj Moorthy
A scene similar to those times, took place two weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon, at a coffee shop down flower road in Colombo 07. While the ground floor was almost empty, the first floor was buzzing with noises of people cheering, laughing and clapping. To realize, it was a bunch of like-minded youngsters and adults playing board games in groups of 10-15 people per table. Mesmerized by the enthusiasm and socializing of everyone gathered, there was a team of organisers leading the crowd, teaching various games. The meet up event is free of charge and anyone willing to join can walk in for the first time and has to RSVP from the second meetup via the meet up app or an email invite.
Some of the members of the Table Top community
‘Tabletop Sri Lanka’ is a board game meetup run by a team of five members who organises meet ups once in every two weeks on a Sunday at the ‘Brew 1867 by Dilmah’ coffee shop in Colombo. The Sunday Times Magazine caught up with Milinda Dias, the founder and brainchild behind Tabletop Sri Lanka who introduced the concept of board games meet up.
Milinda is a software engineer with over ten-years of experience under his belt. He is an Alumni of the University of Oxford. When he is not coding and building complex software, he will be found engrossed in board games and spreading the love of it to as many people as possible, so much so that his friends refer to him as ‘the guy who carries around board games everywhere he goes’.
How it all started – “I always fancied board games, but was never super invested in it, until much later, when I truly got hooked and embraced it as a hobby during one of my trips to the UK. I happened to attend a board gaming meetup, where I played a game called ‘Power Grid’, and this gaming experience ignited a newfound passion for the whole concept of board games for me. Consequently, before I returned to Sri Lanka, I made sure to buy four board games to bring with me,” Dias explained while highlighting that he was struck by the volume of people at a board game meetup in the UK, where lots of people were visiting in and out, and the event stretched from afternoon till night.
In December 2019, the first ever public board game meetup was held with ten people. Within a couple more meetups down the line, the country went into an inevitable hiatus of about two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Things kicked off again in late 2021 and since then the community has grown to over 400 enthusiastic individuals trying their hand, learning, mastering, teaching and most of all enjoying board games.
As the board game meetup community is growing, the organisers are exploring ways to include everyone who would love to join and enjoy playing the games. The coffee shop can accommodate up to 75 people in one sitting, while people keep moving in and out within the timeframe between 1.30 and 7.30 pm. None of the board games are available to purchase locally, whereas most of them are from the UK. Some of the board games played at the venue are Jamaica, The Resistance, Anomia, Take 5!, Marvel United, Canvas and It’s a Wonderful World. The games are adventurous and thrilling that keep the players on the edge of their seats.
The organisers of ‘Tabletop Sri Lanka’ are strict with their house rules. No board game involves the use of physical cash or gambling. Anyone aged 18 and above are only allowed to attend the event while it’s not suitable for kids. Attendees will have to adhere to the rules of the coffee shop with no food or beverages from outside are allowed.
A fresher attending the board games meet up will not feel left out or turned down due to language barriers or not having the ability to understand the game at the first attempt. The organisers have assigned experienced attendees at each table to communicate and explain the game to everyone on the table and makes sure everyone is included and respected during the course of the game. People make new friends and it’s an opportunity for socializing and getting out of the fear of talking to strangers and getting to know people.
‘Tabletop Sri Lanka’ earns no revenue by any means, but has future plans to showcase board games at corporate events and also obtain the license in duplicating the games and printing them locally to sell the games to the local market. These ideas are in the pipeline as the community is growing, one of the organizers said.
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