How to Set Up a Regular Gaming Night
I love games. It doesn’t matter if it’s a board, card, or video game. I love playing games. Games are fun. Games bring out laughter. Games build memories. Games bring you together.
I’ve wanted to set up a regular game night with others for I don’t know how long. It’s something that has always brewed inside my head and never had the chance to explode.
But, remember I am very quiet in person until you get to know me and I get comfortable with you. So sometimes getting others to take the chance of coming over to one of my parties and getting to know me and allowing me to relax with them is VERY hard. I don’t know how else to get to know people so I can showcase “me” other than inviting them once I decide I like them and want to get to know them more. Do you? As being someone who is very quiet; but loves being around other people anyway.
As my sister said though, get a few drinks in me and I get giggly and talkative too. So it depends on how you want to throw the dice on getting to know me. I relax a bit more in my own home on getting to know others because if I get slightly uncomfortable I can get up and do something to relax myself again. Easy.
So a game night. Something I love to host and have people over to play some good old fashion games and conversation. I never leave out food or drinks. Never.
Debbie and I talked that we wanted to do a more regular game night and try to get others involved. After having three, yes THREE, game nights in December – it sparked our juices and made us want more. Especially since each one of those game nights were very different from each other.
I am not an expert on getting people involved. I’ve tried so many times. But, I want this game night and I want it badly.
How to Set Up a Regular Gaming Night
Set up a Group
I’m finding one of the best first steps is to set up a group where you can gather all those interested and talk about what you want exactly. I set up a facebook group in hopes that I’d gain interest, even over time. Here we can hash out the details and see who actually has an interest in playing along.
Adult or Kid Friendly
I like to accommodate both kids and adults. My idea was to set up two monthly, or maybe monthly switching back and forth. One being kid friendly while the other is adults only. We might not have kids, but love kids and have no problem playing games with them too. Of course, there are amazingly great fun adult only games too. So decide what works best for you and your group.
Food, Drink
Decide what you’d like to do for food or drinks. Do you want to do a full meal? Do you want to do a potluck like dinner? Or do you just want snacks and drinks? The group gathering will help decide what will work again for your group. We quite often do a potluck type of thing, so we aren’t providing all the food and spending mounds of money.
Where
Where are you going to be gathering? Are you going to switch between houses or just stay central to one? We normally host, only because thus far, it’s only been Debbie coming over and her family. I have an idea of switching between houses, but again it’s really what fits you and your group of people.
Now that you have the basic details down and go forth and set up a regular game night. I hope that Debbie and I can get ours off the ground and get more people interested. I’d love a larger group of friends.
Even if it ends up being just us, having a regular get together is something i would really love to do. And as soon as we are able to get into a house, we will be able to host at our place also.
I agree. We’ll try starting it next month!
I wish I lived close to you I would be there for game night. Sounds like so much fun. My in laws love playing cards every time we go there to see them they play cards. I am not a fan of playing cards but I do enjoy playing board games, like you said it brings people together and is so much fun. I hope you can get a group together and have your game nights more often
I know April, I so wish you live nearer! Bah!
I love games and I would love to do this! Me and Travis really need to get out and meet new people who will participate with us! I’m going to set a goal of 4 game nights by the end of 2015. That’s one per quarter. It’s a modest goal considering our social circle is very small. It’s attainable and it’s very likely I can bypass it by leaps and bounds. In fact, I’m headed over to a few local Facebook groups to spark some interest.
I wish our social circle would grow some. I keep trying and failing. Even if our game night is just Debbie at least its something. Though a lot of the adult games need 4 or more players to play and be fun. Bah! Good luck on getting yours together too!
Ya know sometimes it’s about quality over quantity and you can always try to improvise on those games that typically require 4 or more players. One way to grow your group is to ask someone to bring just one friend, then another or offer a small prize.
now that i have a bigger house, we will have to try doing a game night here. once we get our table built that is. 🙂
Yes 🙂
we love having game nights! such fun!! we have a big game table i love
Big tables are great additions! It helps to be able to include everyone in one table 🙂
I’ve been wanting to have a game night, so these are some great tips.
I hope you can use some of them Dandi!
This is great information. My daughter and her family have a regular game night and it goes well for her family.
Thanks Jane
Thank you so much for all the info! I will use this to pick more games.
Good luck to you Breanna!
My family and I love board games. I live out of state so when I visit we always have a game night. It is so much fun:)
Oh I love a good family get together game night – we do the same!
Theses are very nice
Thanks Sara!
I wish we had time for a regular gaming night–we get together every six months or so!
But at least you have those every six months or so, that is something! I’d take it!
Great info! We try to get a game night in atleast once a month!
You do, such fun!
This sounds like so much fun, I wish I had some friends to invite over! Me & my son have our own mini game nights when my husband works late.
Nothing wrong with a mini-game night for two, my husband and I do that too!
im gonna give this a try!
Do! And please come back and let me know how it goes!
My youngest nephew, especially, loves to play games. He’s 6 & loves card games, memory games, etc.
Games are so great for all ages, I love that he loves them as much as he does. I hope he keeps that love of games when he grows
Regular game nights are always so much fun! My friends always play games whenever I’m there. It’s always nice to have food and drinks too. 🙂
It is. All around a good night if you throw in some yummy treats and drinks.
We love family game nights, good times!
They truly are the best!
Love game nights!
game nights are the best, a perfect way to spend an evening together
me and my husband love playing board games, we would play all day everyday if we had enough people to play.
I agree and yet we don’t do it often enough!
My family grew up playing games, and now my kids play them too.
me too!!
We like when our grandchildren come over. They want to get on the floor to play Uno. And so we do.
So much fun!
These are great ideas and I love a family game night 🙂
Thanks 🙂 family game nights are so much fun!
We have friends that we regularly geocache with, but in the winter we try to get together every two weeks or so for a game night.
so perfect!
I like family game night but we don’t have them much now that the kids are older.
time to schedule in some game nights then 😉
We love family game night at our house. So much fun! 🙂
It is!! I think people need to do it more often.
Funny you should ask we just had a family board game tonight. We had fun playing Apples to Apples and Monopoly.
Both are so fun!
They are, I agree and it’s a fun way to get the kids involved in things.