So with the advent of the summer months also comes more time spent away from the TV (gasp) and more time spent playing cards and board games. Since I was a kid, games have always been a huge part of summer. Until I was around 12 we spent every summer at my grandparents’ lake cabin until we got a cabin of our own. My Mom was constantly ushering me outside. And since I was a bookish kid that meant spending a lot of time reading outside (OK, I did do active things but I also read a lot)! But there were inevitably rainy days and that’s when the board games came out. My sister and I once spent 5 hours with our friends playing Monopoly. I don’t actually remember who won that game (you’d think I would, but I don’t).
Flash forward to present day and games and time at the lake cabin are still linked. Whether during a rainy day or at night, games are still a great deal of fun in the summer.
Recently we introduced my niece and nephew to the board game “Clue.” We had fun playing with them and teaching them the game. (Note to self: watch the 1980s movie version with them someday.) I’m sure this game has frustrated detectives for years because there’s no motive. You poke around this mansion using your deductive reasoning skills to find the suspect, the murder weapon and the location. It’s a tad backwards to real life because usually the crime scene is found around the same time as the body (not always, of course). And usually you cement your accusation by attaching it to a motive.
So I decided it would be fun that the winner (the person who accuses correctly) would guess what the motive of the killer was for murdering poor Mr. Boddy. When I won my motive I chose was that Professor Plum (the killer I guessed correctly) murdered Mr. Boddy (the victim) because they were playing the super popular video game Fortnite (which is a multiplayer game if you’re uninitiated) and Professor Plum was angry at Mr. Boddy because he felt he had lost the game intentionally. And since Fortnite is multiplayer and the two men were playing on the same team, Mr. Boddy tanking the game caused Professor Plum to lose as well. This was a case of me pandering to my audience! Since I was playing with my niece (age 14) and my nephew (age 11) was observing and they’re obsessed with Fortnite, I thought tying it into a game of classic board game Clue was perfect! (That’s such an old person thing to say: “I was relating to the youngsters by talking about the thing they like.” 👵🏻)
Well, I’m spending too much time on my device. The great outdoors beckons! Let me know what board or card games your family is into.
Writing By Laura 