Bay Area Games Day

"Fifteen years and counting!"

**** GAMES DAY RULES REMINDER ****

Please do not park next to the library : see the parking rule for more details.

**** GAMES DAY NEWS FLASH ****

Update on food policy as of Sept. 20, 2012 : We are allowed to have food and drinks in the room, but the food can only be "light refreshments", not "meals". What's the difference? A "light refreshment" is something that, if some of it gets on the carpet, can be easily cleaned up (such as by vacuuming), and a "meal" is something that's harder to clean up. So cookies or apple slices are OK, but fast food or even sandwiches are not. You may bring meal-type food into the library, but you have to eat it out in the lobby, where there are tables and a tile floor that you can easily clean if you happen to get anything on them. Here are all the rules about food.

There have been problems recently with people not cleaning up before they leave, and letting the trashcan in the room overflow. Here is what you are expected to do to keep the room clean.

We have been informed by library staff that we are not allowed to play games on the tables in the lobby! So if there is no table space in the community room, you cannot play in the lobby. You must wait until table space opens up in the community room. (For some games, playing on the floor in the community room may also work, though it's not the cleanest place.) If you see Games Day attendees playing games in the lobby, please ask them not to play there, and remind them that we will get into trouble with the library if they don't comply.

To help prevent this problem, please consider bringing a folding table to Games Day if you have one.

Because the table space problem keeps recurring, your humble Games Day organizers do intend to restart the effort to donate some more tables to the library.

Bay Area Games Day is a full day of convention-style open gaming at a very low cost. Games Day is coming up soon:

  • Date: see the Yahoo group for upcoming dates
  • Time: 10 AM to 11 PM (though see the group for possible changes)
  • Place: Los Altos Public Library, Community Room
  • Cost: Just a $2 donation!

What Kinds of Games Do We Play?

Most of the games we play at Games Day are German-style strategy boardgames (they're also often referred to as "Eurogames", "family strategy games", or "designer games", and sometimes as "these games of ours" (TGOO)). Because this category of games has become popular in the United States only in the last five or ten years, it is unfamiliar to many American boardgame enthusiasts. Fortunately, there are some resources on the Web that explain what German-style games are all about:

Here are some specific examples of German-style boardgames and cardgames that are particularly popular right now. All of these are played frequently at Games Day:

(Thanks to online game store Funagain Games for providing such informative descriptions of these games in their catalog.)

We also play other sorts of strategy games at Games Day, including these:

To get an even better idea of the kinds of games we typically play, here are lists of what got played at Games Day XLVIII, Games Day XLVII, and Games Day XLVI.

Typical attendance at Games Day is 50 to 75 hobby gamers who like to play all sorts of games. Whatever you want to play, chances are that somebody else wants to play it too.

It's easy to start or join in "pick-up" games of typical German-style titles like Settlers or Puerto Rico. For longer, more complicated games (like wargames), it's a good idea to use the mailing list to find players and pick a starting time in advance. There are usually multiple copies of currently popular games on hand--but please do ask before borrowing someone else's copy! For other titles you can bring your own copy.

If you attend Games Day, there are some rules of behavior you should know about. These are just common-sense guidelines that we need to follow to keep us in the good graces of the Los Altos Library staff.

Special Events

No special events have been scheduled yet. Please read these guidelines if you are interested in organizing an event.

Driving Directions

The easiest way to get to Games Day from most parts of the Bay Area is to take 101 to Mountain View, and get off at the San Antonio exit headed south (away from the bay). The Los Altos Public Library is at 13 S. San Antonio Road in Los Altos, near the Civic Center on the east side of San Antonio (just across from the intersection with Edith). The library is at the southwest corner of this group of buildings, with City Hall just to its north. Games Day is in the Community Room, which is next to the south lobby of the library. The library's phone number is (650)948-7683.

Click on map at right to go to one you can zoom, pan, ask for get driving directions, etc.

Want more information? Want to contact other Games Day participants so you can schedule long multiplayer games, vote for the date for future Games Days, or arrange other special events? Join the Games Day mailing list by:

If you have problems getting onto the list, you can contact the list owner, Dave Kohr, at gamesday-owner@yahoogroupsSPAMFOILER.com. But be sure to remove the SPAMFOILER from this address!

If you like the kind of games played at Games Day, check out the Silicon Valley Boardgamers.

Acknowledgement

Many thanks to Dave Eisen for shouldering most of the burden of actually running Games Day for the past eight years, and for helping a lot with scheduling. If you attend Games Day, please help out Dave E. in any way you can. It's especially important to help clean things up at the end of the day.

We thank

  • Gator Games of San Mateo for their help with publicizing Games Day.

    And thanks also to the San Francisco Chronicle for mentioning Bay Area Games Day in this article about boardgames.

    Last updated 2017-05-06 by Brian D.