They say we live in an era of communication and information. News travels faster than we blink our eyes. Careers are made over the social network. A statement in just 140 characters can bring a revolution of ideas. However, we also find ourselves in a time where we surprisingly lack human interaction. Sometimes, it breaks my heart to see a group of friends sitting in a restaurant, busy with their own phones. Sometimes, I catch myself doing the same thing.
In such times, a hang-out place like Fiat Caffe is a refreshing change. With tons of new and interactive games, this place will force you to look up from your screens and join the fun. I had the opportunity of visiting this place as a part of a blogger’s meet. Games in cafes is not really a very novel idea. I went in with the thought of playing a few board games, sipping coffee, meeting interesting like-minded bloggers and basically unwinding myself on a Friday evening. However, I was in for a gaming surprise!
Fiat Caffe is a beautiful love child of an automobile store and a café. The interiors are interesting with a few seats designed in the shape of cars. Being a person who loves cars, it was fun stepping in this ambiance. Although I joined a bit late in the Game Of Ducks called Dixit, I soon got a hang of it and ended up being the runner-up. I also had a quick chat with Pooja Dwivedi, Executive director of Fiat Caffe who told us that they have around 75 board games including international and Indian ones. We were all engrossed in learning and playing these new board games and we didn’t even realize that we were playing non-stop for 2 hours! Time always passes away in a moment when you are enjoying yourself!
After great ambience and some games to up the fun factor, the only thing missing was food to complete the trinity of amazingness. Soon enough, we were served with starters and cocktails. I personally loved the deep fried chicken and Nachos. Fiat Caffe also has gaming nights on fridays which usually goes on till 1 am!.
Here are four Board games we played and loved:
DIXIT
3-6 players, 30 minutes
It’s a game of storytellers. Look at the images on the 6 cards in your hand, make up a sentence and says it out loud (without showing the card to the other players). Every other player selects a card in their hands which best matches the clue. All cards are shuffled and pictures are shown face up and every player has to bet upon which picture belonged to the storyteller. If nobody or everybody finds the correct card, the storyteller scores 0, and each of the other players’ scores 2 points. Otherwise the storyteller and whoever found the correct answer score 3 points. Players score 1 point for every vote for their own card. The game ends when the deck is empty or if a player scores 30 points. In either case, the player with the most points wins the game. The base game and all expansions have 84 cards each.
NO THANKS
3-5 players, 15-20 minutes
Either take a card or pay a chip. That’s simple, right? But there is a catch. No one wants to take the card though it comes for free because they give u points in a game where you have to score the lowest to win. And yes the chips are scarce. The deck contains cards numbered 1-35, One card is opened face up from a deck at a time. So you either take it or put a chip and say NO THANKS. Making sequence helps lower your score and so do the chips. People can be really smart and deceptive! So thanks but no thanks.
HOBBIT
2-5 years, 30 minutes
Yes, you guessed it right, its evil vs. good. The basic mechanism is trick taking and the person who wins the trick assigns cards to others as per the respective character cards. Thorin, for example, has to shuffle the cards won in the trick and assign them randomly to all! Characters have special abilities and affinities with the motives that govern them. Gandalf, Bilbo, and Thorin are the good characters. Smaug and Bolg are cruel and evil. At the end of two rounds, the survivors decide the winning side. If evil characters have killed enough heroes they win but if enough good characters have survived, Why you giving me damage, you were my friend? Don’t give the trick to Thorin!
QWIRKLE
2–4 players, 30–45 minutes
An abstract game with 108 wooden blocks. There are 6 shapes each of 6 different colors. Each player has 6 blocks with them at any point in the Game. The mechanism is to place blocks of a single matching attribute, colors or symbols. Shapes or colors cannot be repeated in a particular row or column. After your turn, you replenish at random from the bag of blocks. Players score 1 point each for the blocks added and the ones where the sequence is added. And if you add block(s) that makes it 6 blocks in a row or column you score double i.e. 12, that’s a qwirkle. The game end when any one player has finished placing all the blocks and there are no more blocks in the replenish bag. The player also gets 6 bonus points for being the first to finish placing all blocks. It does sound like scrabble, isn’t it… But it isn’t with symbols and colors and works on patterns.
Basically, this place has something for everyone and it is a great recommendation for a huge group of friends or even a small bunch of 2-3 people. “Where should we go?” is a question that is never settled without some degree of conflicts among friends. Maybe, you have an answer to this question for your next meet-up!
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