WHAT IS IT?

We don't stop playing because we grow old;

We grow old because we stop playing.

George Bernard Shaw

TableTop Games Group is a board game group that aims to bring the community together to chat, compete and co-operate whilst having fun and developing new skills and friendships.

We are now in a golden era of board gaming.

Quality has been driven up by game designers studying the games of old, taking the mechanisms and interactions that make these games great, mixing and refining them and making imaginative leaps to invent new games and new styles of games.

Success gains reward from respected

international bodies (Mensa, Spiel des Jahres- "Game of the Year" in German) and this success raises the bar for future designers.

There are literally thousands of games (BoardGameGeek.com lists 100,000+) with something for everyone.

Brain burning, deep strategy games

Creative story/picture games

Bluff, lie and deceive to win games

Co-operative (players vs game) games

Dexterity games

Bidding and negotiation games

Tetris style puzzle games

Obviously, the main reason for playing a game is to have fun but there are so many other benefits to doing it!

Kids will innately pick up simple social skills such as communication, co-operation and competition. I also think it's important to learn to be a gracious winner as well as a good loser and to focus on having fun while competing rather than on the outcome of winning/losing. Most games can be tweaked or re-balanced to allow people of different abilities to fully compete against each other rather than the stronger player "taking it easy" on a weaker player.

The social aspects of gaming are important for both young and old. Socialising is one of the most complex things we do and is a great workout for building or maintaining mental muscle. It improves our mood and lowers stress levels and blood pressure.

Gaming also builds useful skills for day to day living:

Logic

Deduction

Negotiating/Persuasion

Probabilities

Risk/Reward

Mental Arithmetic

Bluffing (and outright lying!)

Future Planning

Investing (time/resources for greater reward)

Memorising

Visual Spatial skills

Pattern Recognition