Coben Scott
March 15 marked the second annual Board Game Expo, hosted by the El Paso County fair staff at the county fairgrounds. Inside the event center, vendors and visitors from the Front Range packed the building.
Almost all of the vendors focused on selling merchandise not found at a typical exhibition. Local board game creators and a custom puppet maker shared their creative processes. A standout vending duo from Falcon was father and son, Will and Benji Stroh, who specialize in creating Lego keychains. Will Stroh said, “It started when he was 6. Benji came up to me and said he ‘wanted to make the moneys’ and so we started coming up with ideas — that was two years ago so I’d say it’s working out. Benji drills the holes in the minifigures and I glue the keychains in.”
The Dungeons and Java coffee and board game shop in Colorado Springs supplied the majority of the board games for the visitors. The entire center of the event was dedicated to board game use. Fair staff hosted “Learn to Play,” which brought a large group of people to one table to learn more complex games such as Magic the Gathering or Dungeons and Dragons; other tables offered more games, including Hungry Hungry Hippos and Ticket to Ride. The fair staff also hosted various sessions of game-themed Jeopardy, where participants formed three groups and played a game of Jeopardy to compete for prizes. Musical bingo was a big “hit.” Each bingo card featured a grid of popular song titles, artists or lyrics. The bingo caller played short clips of songs and players marked the corresponding squares. Two rounds were played and both winners earned prizes.
Teens, kids, adults and families filled the expo. One attendee, Christopher Wright, came from Fountain to check out the event. He and his family are avid board gamers and have a weekly Dungeons and Dragons night.
Staffers Skye Bogle and Andschana Aljets talked about the event and why they created it last year. Both shared that family game nights have always been big in their lives, so what better way to get the community out than having a community game day? “It’s just so great seeing strangers come together to play games and have a good time,” Bogle said.
To close the expo, Henson-studio-trained puppeteer, Averie Morgan, raffled off one of her creations, which landed in the hands of an excited young lady who was heard saying as she left, “This is the coolest thing ever, today was awesome!”
