Shuffle the Deck, Roll the Dice, Turn Boring Stuck-in-the-City CNY Into Fun Board Game Nights
For those of you who have a penchant for analog gaming and happen to be staying in Beijing during the holidays, there's a bit of good news: Quite a few board game bars have announced plans to keep their doors open for all of the capital's meeple gurus throughout Spring Festival. So what are you waiting for?! Grab your icosihexagonal dice, open up your imagination, and start exploring the city's dramatic worlds of cards and tokens.
Meeplepedia
Meeplepedia – located on the third floor of Shangdu Soho (easily accessible by subway Line 6, Bus 118, 115, 615, or a Didi) – is one of the highest-rated boardgame bars and cafés in Beijing. From light-hearted party games to a German board game that requires hours to play, they have a diverse archive catering to everyone’s needs. More importantly, however, the owner cares about the professionalism of his employees, with everyone from full-time to part-time staff needing to pass rigorous training before getting hired. As a result, Meeplepedia attracts not only the devout boardgame enthusiast but plenty more folks thanks to stellar service and a staff that's well-equipped to simplify complicated games, guiding visitors through all the rules within a couple of minutes. This Spring Festival, Meeplepedia will be open throughout the entire holiday. What's more, on Lunar New Year’s Eve, you can ring in the Year of the Ox with your friends by playing until 2 am.
Meeplepedia 桌迷藏
Spring Festival Hours: 1pm-2am (CNY Eve), 1pm-1am (The rest of the holiday)
2323, 3rd floor, North Tower, Shangdu SOHO, No.8 Dongdaqiao Road, Chaoyang District
东大桥路8号SOHO尚都北塔3层2323
Tele: 13811213609
One Comes Two Go
Formerly located in Dongsi, 一来二去 recently resettled at Beixinqiao Toutiao, a mere hop skip and a jump from Exit B of Beixinqiao Subway station and a few blocks south of Lama Temple. Compared to its older, slightly more humble location, the new venue is a lovely three-story building with brand new furniture and an expanded game collection, including video game consoles for people who don’t want to limit the fun to a tabletop. And as if taking a page from the KTV bible, they even have separate, private rooms for players looking to fully immerse themselves in gameplay. Want a side of giggles with your game? Then swing by during the week, when 一来二去 hosts comedy shows with Danliren Comedy.
One Comes Two Go 一来二去
Spring Festival Hours: 10 am to 12 am, 1 pm to 12 am (On the first day of CNY)
No.277 Dongzhimennei Boulevard, Dongcheng District (Close to the Exit B of Beixinqiao Subway station)
东直门内大街277号（近北新桥地铁B口）
Tele：13269012637
GSTONE
Aside from the traditional categories of tabletop games such as deck-building, identity-guessing, or dungeon-crawlers, there's an altogether different genre of gaming that's currently picking up some major devotees in Beijing: 剧本杀, literally translated as "Script Kill." For the uninitiated, think of it as TRPG-lite, in which players get to impersonate a role while inhabiting an unknown fantasy world. However, unlike hardcore TRPGs, the backstories and characters are already written, meaning you don’t have to spend hours reading through a tome of instructions before you even get to create your character, nor will it alienate those who are coming to the game for the first time. Indeed, TRPG enthusiasts may consider this version child's play, but it's certainly a more friendly way to introduce the charm of role-playing games to a new cast of players.
Originally, GSTONE was a favored board game retailer and online playing platform among Chinese gamer communities. Now, the company has decided to bring that experience to a newly opened venue in Dawanglu. Focusing on the Script Kill genre, all of their private rooms are decked out in a certain theme, with full-blown costumes to boot. However, we would be remiss if we didn't mention that playing a Script Kill title will require a relatively high level of Chinese reading proficiency.
GSTONE 集石酒馆
Xiandaicheng Building D, 1102 Chaoyang District
朝阳区 现代城D座1102
Huoxing Game Center
One constant in the Beijing boardgame landscape is Huoxing Game, aka the board game library. Their two-story-tall shelves are filled with all sorts of board games and will undoubtedly leave a deep impression on your mind. It is also one of the oldest board game bars in Beijing and has fostered a large, loyal community among university students (for whom they usually have some pretty significant discounts) and technology companies due to its location in Haidian. Pro tip: There's no telling who you might be sitting next to as you while away the night with a seemingly endless selection of games. In fact, I ran into another board game designer on my first visit to Huoxing Game, only to find out he also wrote the script for The Wandering Earth! Needless to say, I suggest every gamer interested in moving beyond low-stakes party games check out Huoxing Game.
Huoxing Game Center 惑星游戏
Spring Festival Hours: 1pm-midnight (Feb 11-13), 10am-midnight (The rest of the holiday)
1st floor Bldg 2. Times Zhiguang Famous, No. 45 Xizhimen North Boulevard, Xicheng District
西城区 西直门北大街45号时代之光
Tele: 13051343344
Turn Wherever You Go Into A Board Game Bar
If you don't happen to live near any of Beijing's dedicated board game bars, or simply want to skip on the cover charge so you can save up for your own collection of games, the city's board game community is pretty damn robust, and there's even a number of WeChat groups founded and organized by expats who regularly host gaming nights at various bars around town, such as nugget café's which we previously covered.
The largest of these groups is Beijing Meeples. Formerly an invitation-only group, they recently decided to welcome a new wave of curious gamers to the family, which you can join by scanning the QR code above (valid throughout Spring Festival). One of their members organizes an event every Wednesday at The Great Outdoors (besides this week, unfortunately, as the bar will be closed for Spring Festival), and they are currently putting together a board game night for CNY Eve. Curious to know more? Then scan that QR code already!
Read: 2020 Beijing Spring Festival Bar and Restaurant Opening Hours, Feb 11-17
Images: Dianping, Facebook, Wechat
