Last week I mentioned the podcast But Why Vikings?, and I’ve been listening to them a lot. They talk in depth about all kinds of things related to gaming and I love it. One of the episodes recently, Ava spoke a bit about gaming as devotion. Fascinating.

She spoke about particular games which encourage players to care for each other as part of the gameplay—there are games with heavy themes where players may want to request certain topics not be brought up and the other players are meant to respect that request—as well as games that have a spiritual or religious dimension that might feel devotional to some. The conversation was less about a specific spiritual tradition, and more about a gaming table being a place where we hold space for each other. Perhaps that space is time spent and the game itself doesn’t matter, or perhaps it’s a game of A Gentle Rain while you’re going through something hard that soothes the anxiety. Perhaps it’s a friend taking the time to learn a game ahead of time so that she can teach the rest of you quickly and well, so that you feel confident in playing. Or perhaps it’s a game like Holding On (below) or I Guess This is It where the emotional space between the players is everything.

I love how Ava framed these experiences as devotion—devotion to each other and the relationships between us, devotion to telling a story in game form, devotion to learning something new or simply resting together. How does that description sit with you? And, if I may, what are you devoted to?

Alice C., board game librarian

Play Holding On: The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr!

This is a new addition to our cooperative games shelf, and friends, it’s a doozy. Holding On is a game about love and family and dignity and death. Billy is an old man rushed to the hospital and given days to live. You play his nurses, helping his death be less painful and asking him about his life. The publisher’s description says this: “As you discover more about Billy, can you help him find the courage required to confront the three regrets that keep him holding on?” What did I tell you? It’s a doozy.

The gameplay itself is fairly simple—you’ll assign nurses to three shifts of each day, both players in the game and some extra back-up nurses, you’ll give him the medical care he needs not to decline too much, and you’ll play beautifully-illustrated cards to a central tableau to learn more about his life. Each round of the game brings new challenges and new information. My eldest and I played through it last year and it was both beautiful and heartbreaking. You might need a couple orders of our some cookie dough wontons to provide some comfort.

Try our cookie dough wontons!

Listen, I know we’ve hilighted these fairly recently, but my family was in the other night and they ordered them and hatchi-matchi they’re tasty! It’s homemade chocolate chip cookie dough filling a wonton wrapper, and deep fried til golden. We serve them with chocolate sauce for dipping, perfect for sharing. Or order your own and eat them all!