My New Happy Place

If you have spent more than about thirty seconds in my presence, you have probably heard me mention my board-gaming habit. If you have spent more than about three days in my presence, you have probably been forcibly placed in a kitchen chair and taught the rules to Power Grid whether you liked it or not.

Anyway, board games are important to me. From my first Settlers of Catan experience (at Mynde Games, in Fayetteville, GA, at the tender age of twelve), I was hooked; one by one, the people in my life have generally fallen into my board-game habits, a situation which works out nicely because it means people very rarely try to make me watch television.

But I thought I'd have to abandon that while here, of course. I only brought one suitcase: while I considered bringing my copy of Citadels, I decided that even that would prove to be silliness and luxury. So when the lovely-and-wonderful Kevin--a co-worker here at TPR--casually mentioned a board-game bar, the sudden and violent gleam in my eyes was a little too eager for me to pretend that I wasn't excited at the prospect.

Last weekend, we traipsed down to Gongguan to go to the Witch House, and it exceeded my every expectation. This place is not just a board-game bar: it's a militant feminist board-game bar. Bras hang from most of the chairs, and the menu drips with sex jokes (pictured to the right is my drink, which was definitely called a Frothy Cock. It was non-alcoholic: I want to keep my wits about me to win at Dominion, of course). The venue advertises 10% off to any woman who drops to the floor and does 10 push-ups. The androgynous-looking ladies behind the bar are unapologetic about their policy: no food or drink on the same table as an open board game. No exceptions. The Witch House menu boasts an impressive collection of cold, sweet drinks, topped with cherries and inclusive of bendy-straws.

The Witch House gaming shelves are well-stocked with dozens of games, including several of my favorites. Of course, they're all in Chinese, which provides some added difficulty. I went with a speaker and a non-speaker, so we had to choose games with limited reading. After a few missteps--I forgot just how much reading is in Puerto Rico!--we settled on Settlers of Catan. I see several others, though, that require little to no language skills. Finca (the blue box with orange/yellow writing at the top) and Carcassonne both strike me as games that I could teach effectively to anyone.

Kevin and Lom and I dove into Settlers, the Chinese version of which has pretty pieces and cards. We didn't use all of the development cards--mostly just the Soldiers and the +1 point cards--which made the game a little less variable even than usual (and it's not a complicated game to begin with...), but it worked out fine for the most part. Maybe next time I will introduce the others. Without the cards, though, anything sufficiently important--like these trade rules--is represented pictographically.

And the little pieces are so cute! Up top you can see a settlement and some road, and this little orange château represents a city. I was pleased to see that the original game's colors are retained; I would be sad if I could not be orange. The Robber piece was extremely strange-looking--I think they were dwarves, maybe, or hobbits? Holding what looked like baseball bats? I don't know, maybe that's what robbers look like here in China.

Once Kevin left to make his train to Kaohsiung, Lom and I played several rounds of Lost Cities. Each of us won by an embarrassing margin once, so I guess we'll call it a tie overall (though his win over me was more decisive than mine over him: the final score was something like 150 to -36. Why yes, that is a negative sign). Lost Cities is even better than Settlers in that it requires no reading whatsoever--just pretty pictures!

Chinese Dominion proves a little more difficult because of its high level of reading. I went back--the next day, maybe, or the day after?--with the perfect person: Dave is both a native Chinese speaker and a person with preexisting familiarity with Dominion. We played a fun original-set game; fortunately, each card displays its name in English at the top, so as long as I remember the cards (and have you met me? Of course I remember the cards), I'll be fine. 


The Witch House sells games, too. I am strongly considering buying a Chinese copy of Citadels or another small game--or buying a new game, once I can ascertain that English rules are available on BoardGameGeek! Anyway, I am eternally indebted to Kevin for his casual mention of this place. He has enabled me to pester all of my Taipei friends into early graves with my board-game addiction. They're not going to know what hit them.