Local group brings tabletop gaming to the library

By Cortney Casey
C & G Staff Writer

STERLING HEIGHTS — One Saturday afternoon a month, the Sterling Heights Public Library is likely the only place to find surgeons, chefs and knights working side by side, as Robert Fix of Metro Detroit Gamers leads visitors in gaming sessions.

But you won’t see any Wiis or PlayStations here; at least for a few hours, players eschew electronics for a more traditional form of entertainment: board games.

“(It’s) a means to get away from the computer, get together with some fellow kids — or adults — and have fun playing some of the many unique and amazing board games,” said Warren resident John Jamieson, vice president of role-playing games and director of marketing for MGD, a group formed in the early 1970s to unite gamers and host gaming conventions. “Most of the really fantastic games out there do not get sold in Target or Wal-Mart.”

Prior to joining MGD, Fix, as a Sterling Heights resident, was able to reserve the library’s Programming Center quarterly for game play sessions.

But when he presented an academic paper authored by a Syracuse University professor on the educational value of gaming in a library setting, he convinced the staff to loan him the room on a more regular basis.

Adult Services librarian Mary Newton said she was initially hesitant, wondering how board games would go over with a generation geared toward fast-paced, glossy video games.

“I had to mull it over a little bit,” she said, but “overall, I think it’s been relatively successful. I think it’s worthwhile.”

Fix, now MGD’s board games director and prize coordinator, began holding the longer, more frequent programs in early 2008, and they’ve become a monthly occurrence as a loyal following slowly built.

Though the library markets the program for teens, Fix said adults also are welcome — especially since they often have their own collection of games to share.

Not that there’s a shortage. On a recent Saturday, about five dozen boxes were spread out across multiple tables, with subjects ranging from combating zombies and simulating military strikes to assembling “recipes” and halting spreading viruses.

Some are conflict-oriented; some are cooperative. Group members are able to guide visitors in navigating any of them, a crucial component in a world where many are accustomed to simply picking up a controller without having to first digest the rigid rules customary to board games.

“We have it so that every game that’s there, we teach,” said Fix. “Instead of having them look through a 12-page rule book, I reduced that rule book to maybe a one-page outline.”

The selection he brings to the library, which he rotates periodically, is a mere drop in the bucket for Fix, who became enamored with gaming as a teenager in the 1970s and has since accumulated around 600 games.

History is a common thread among his favorites. One, “Twilight Struggle,” involves gaining global influence post-World War II and up through the Cold War; another, “1960: The Making of a President,” consists of cards that represent events tied to the election, with players vying to win different states.

Attendees Max Ballenger, 16, and Kevin Murphy, 17, of Sterling Heights and Clinton Township resident Alex Newman, 12, gushed about the selection as they pointed out their preferred games during a session in August.

They’d played bands of adventurers in “Red Dragon Inn,” operated on patients in “Pain Doctor,” and blew up the sun and warded off zombie attacks with bananas in an eclectic card game called “We Didn’t Playtest This at All.”

Though Fix and Jamieson agree there’s plenty to appreciate about video games, they insist board and role-playing games more deeply foster interpersonal relations and spur imagination.

“Tabletop gaming offers the chance to see, hear and interact with other people while having fun,” he said. “Granted, technology is getting better at that connection, but it still misses that certain je ne sais quoi of people getting together … rolling dice or throwing down cards, and having fun battles, adventures and stories.

“Yeah, it’s nerdy as hell, but you will not find a more accepting group of people on the planet,” he added. “Social misfits? Sure, there are some — but you get the same thing in the bowling league or golf group. And we’re having way more fun than they are.”

Upcoming gaming sessions, which run 11 a.m.-4 p.m., are scheduled for Sept. 19, Oct. 24, Nov. 14 and Dec. 19 at the library, located at 40255 Dodge Park Road, at Utica Road. For more information, call (586) 446-2640 or visit www.shpl.net.

MDG also focuses on role-playing, card games and miniatures. For more information, visit www.metrodetroit gamers.com.