In today’s world of smartphones and video gaming, one could be forgiven for writing off the shrink-wrapped stacks of Clue, Monopoly and Risk games on store shelves as quaint relics of a simpler time when people used to talk to each other. The humble dice, one might assume, have been replaced by an app for dice-rolling.But board games have never been hotter. We’re not talking about the daylong Risk offensives of ages past. Modern board games are fast. More than likely, they’re European. They do not hang out in big box stores. And increasingly, people from all walks of life are turning to them as a way to replace Facebook with face time. “People want to unplug, they want to not look at their smartphone or computer,” says Darryl Boone, an owner of Pizzeria Ludica in International Village, which has more than 500 board games available for customers to play. “They just want to sit with their friends and have a good time. And on top of that, the board games are a lot better than they were 40 or 50 years ago, a lot more fun and engaging. So everything’s just kind of coming to a head.” European invasion The board game renaissance, say those in the know, dates back to the mid-’90s when there was an influx of games from Europe, Germany in particular. These games are more cooperative than their traditional American counterparts, with players generally competing for points rather than to eliminate each other, says Kirby Krilow, owner of Board Game Warriors in New Westminster. The best known — and one of Krilow’s top sellers — is Settlers of Catan. “That’s a real Monopoly-killer, that one, because it’s shorter, you play for points, you aren’t eliminated in the game, but you still have all the trading and wheeling and dealing that everybody loves about Monopoly,” Boone says, adding that he does not have Monopoly at the restaurant. It’s too long, people get bored with it and players get eliminated, he says. “What are they going to do when everybody else is having fun?” Krilow describes Catan as one of several “gateway games,” which tempt people who may only have played Monopoly as a child back into the world of board games. Typically they will have played it at a friend’s place, loved it and decided they have to own a copy, Krilow says. Many such games have extensions that keep people coming back. For the hard-core geeks, there is even a Star Trek version of Catan. Between the mainstays such as Catan and new games — snapped up en masse in the weeks after they come out by hard-core board gamers — Krilow and his wife do a good enough business to comfortably support a family of three. They also host a Meetup group for avid board gamers in their store. On a recent evening, a dozen people braved the wind and rain to come out and play. Among them were Cameron Morland and his seven-year-old son Russell, poring over a game called Chicago Express. It involves buying shares in railroads and trying to earn the most money.

“It’s nice to play stuff we don’t have at home and it’s nice to play with more people,” Morland says. At the next table over was Demian Lord, who owns about 940 board games, including expansions. “It’s like a sickness, almost,” he says. While he has not played all the games in his collection, he has played “a good chunk” of them. Some remain unopened because he hasn’t come across the right group of people to play them with, he says. Not everyone is willing to invest the time and effort to learn a hard-core strategy game. Lord describes himself as a “geek pop culture junkie” who also loves movies, books, comics and video games. But board games hold a special place in his heart. “Tabletop gaming offers a social interaction that is missing from those other things,” he says. “I’m not going to give up movies and video games, but if I was pressed to choose, I would definitely go with tabletop gaming, just because it’s a good community, people are friendly, face-to-face. You can get out, talk to people. It’s just a lot of fun.” Businesses roll the dice Boone is one of several business owners noticing the trend and rolling with it. Board game cafes and bars are becoming popular in many cities, with lineups out the door at a well-known Montreal pub and similar venues well established in Toronto and Seattle. While there are a handful of places in Vancouver that offer board games, Boone says Pizzeria Ludica, which opened under its new name in January, is the first in the city to make them a central feature. “There isn’t really a place in Vancouver that’s doing it, at least to that extent. We’re actually making the board games kind of a focus of the restaurant,” he says. “It’s my passion. Actually, I have no idea if this is going to work. This could crash and burn.” Boone started out with about 400 games from his own collection, but then had to add titles such as Battleship and Connect Four because customers expected them to be there. He says he tries to steer customers away from such games and instead offers to teach them something more interesting. “I want to show people: these things are great, give them a try. I will teach you if I have to.” The board game gamble has worked out well for Commercial Drive’s Storm Crow Tavern, which opened in July 2012. Owner Jason Kapalka wanted to open a “nerd bar” and thought board and card games would help attract that demographic. He wasn’t sure if it would work, and worried that after a few days they’d have to replace the live-action sci-fi/fantasy movies on the big screens with sports. But on a recent weeknight, there was a wait-list to get in, at least five tables were playing games and Game of Thrones was showing on TV. “We thought maybe that the board games would be played by some small per cent of the people, but they’re very popular,” Kapalka says. “We’ve got people playing games every night.”