In Downey, a party of adventurers searching for riches moves slowly through a dark, ruined castle toward distant cries for help.
Members of another group alternately cooperate and compete against each other to build a railway from St. Louis to Sacramento.
Yet another group has taken on the role of competing bee colonies, collecting pollen, building hives and expanding territory.
Downey City Library has become a lively hub for fans of fantasy role-playing games and contemporary board games and card games. The library offers multiple free, public, recurring events where novices and veterans alike can jump in and play.
Kristina Paul, who with her husband hosts the monthly Board Game Club, said the library’s offerings are creating “a great community of board game lovers.”
While earlier, more familiar generations of games—think Risk, Monopoly, Parcheesi—might provide a strategy fix, Paul said they are more abstract. Today’s games are more “kinetic” and immerse players in an entire world.
“Like, I played Cacao recently, and it does feel like you’re really on [an indigenous] plantation trying to harvest the cacao.”
“Right now, we’re kind of in a renaissance of board games,” she said.
Two events occur monthly, and a third occurs twice a month. The Board Game Club meets on the second Saturday of each month, and Game Day, hosted by the Orange County-based So Cal Game Connection, meets on the fourth Saturday. The library’s Tabletop Role-playing Game Club meets on the second and fourth Wednesdays.
For more on schedules and other information, check the event calendar at the library’s website, https://www.downeylibrary.org/.
The library and hosts make sure the gaming events are accessible and inviting. Board Game Club and Game Day hosts provide a variety of games and invite participants to bring games they enjoy, though none is required. Some participants bring backpacks or cases chock full of games to share.
For the RPG club, host and Game Master Mark Shocklee selected the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, a game similar to early Dungeons & Dragons in its simpler rules and emphasis on role-playing.
Prospective participants said they wanted to play D&D, the veteran RPG player said, “but they would prefer if it was a low- or no-cost rule set. So, of the rule sets that I knew, Basic Fantasy is no-cost.”
One of the biggest draws of the library’s games offerings is the welcoming atmosphere that makes it easy to meet new people and build a sense of community.
Cesar Leon, who moved to the U.S. a year ago, said board games and the groups that play them provided the opportunity for social interaction he had been seeking.
“I like meeting people,” he said, “and people in the board-gaming community are very welcoming.”
RPG club participant Drew Love said she enjoys developing characters for games and “also really enjoy[s] collaborative storytelling in general. Like, RPGs in general.”
Playing Basic Fantasy for the first time “was a fun learning experience,” she said.
Kristina Paul, the Board Game Club co-host, said the supportive people facilitating and hosting the games events at Downey City Library are a critical factor in the welcoming vibe.
“Having a core of people who are so friendly and open to each other I think makes such a difference,” she said.
“So, I would say if people are nervous, they should just come and try.”
