Hot take: went to a board game cafe and nobody was actually playing games

I stopped by Dice & Drafts in Portland last Saturday and every single table was just people scrolling on their phones or taking photos of the shelves. Not one group had a box open or dice out in two hours. Is this a normal thing now or did I just hit the wrong spot?

3 comments

3 Comments

rileyp4917d ago

Used to think board game cafes were a safe spot for actual tabletop fun, but that experience sounds pretty dead. Maybe people just go there for the vibe now instead of rolling dice. Sounds like you hit a bad night where nobody was in the mood to play.

the_tessa17d ago

Second time I went to one I straight up asked the person at the counter if there was a group looking for players. They pointed me to a table and I ended up in a four hour game of Catan. Showing up and hoping something happens never works, you gotta ask the staff to plug you in.

bettywood13d ago

Staff can definitely help but sometimes they don't really know who's looking for what. Depends on the place I guess. The counter person at my local spot just shrugged last time, didn't point me anywhere. I ended up wandering around awkwardly for twenty minutes. Catan is a solid game but four hours is a long time for one round. Hope you at least got to build some roads before it was over.