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Hello and welcome to Beyond Monopoly! We are a boardgames club in York who meet regularly for fun boardgaming times. We play all modern boardgames- Euros, Social deducation, co-op, American; and if that means nothing to you, then come along and discover the exciting (genuinely) world of modern boardgames. We meet in the Bar Convent on the first and third Saturday (sometimes Sunday) of the month, from 10am until 9pm, and on the second and fourth Friday evening of the month, from 5pm until 9pm. If you can’t remember that then please sign up for regular reminders and updates!

Absolutely everyone is welcome, and with our numbers attending you’re usually never waiting long for a game. First visit is free (wow!). Given we’re in the Bar Convent we do ask that people don’t bring in outside food and drink – instead drinks are provided, and the cafe does fantastic food (and we get 10% off). The cafe is closed on Sundays, so when we meet on Sundays you can bring your own food, but please be respectful of the facilities, games, and other members by not bringing anything hot/smelly/greasy and making sure you put any waste in the bins provided.

If you want regular email reminders of club meetings, put your email address in the subscription box on the right and click on Sign Me Up! You’ll get a confirmation email. Follow the instructions in that to confirm your sub. After that, you’ll get an email when we post an item on this blog. That includes the reminders which go on the blog.

Thank you! (now scroll down for the rest of the blog…)

Ease into summer with some games!

Join us this Saturday (tomorrow!) from 1000 to 2100 for a full day of gaming at the Bar Convent.

Our gaming schedule will continue as usual through the end of the month into June, with Friday games 24 May, Saturday games 1 June (come and play if you’re not headed down to UKGE this year!), and then Friday games again on 7 June.

Regarding the weekend of 7 June, here’s a special announcement from our own John McCullough regarding this year’s FriedrichUK24 tournament:

“York is hosting the FriedrichUK24 tournament at the Gascoigne Room in the Bar Convent from 3pm on Friday 07 June to Sunday 09 June.  5 BM members are taking part.

Overall we are 1 player short of the 16 available spaces.  We thus need a reserve or reserves to cover 4 games in the 4 different roles: one on the Friday from 3pm; one on the Saturday from 9.30am; one on the Saturday from 3pm and one on the Sunday from 9.30am.  Games typically last 3-4 hours but occasionally can last 6 hours+.  

John McCullough would love to hear from anyone who is willing to help out and cover one or more of the slots: please e-mail him on jjj_mccullough@yahoo.co.uk

Spring Cleaning at Beyond Monopoly!

Hopefully you’re ready for some Friday night board games at the Bar Convent! BM will be there from 5:00 till 9:00 for some gaming fun after a day of beautiful weather.

Our intrepid games officer Paul has started a spring clean of the games cupboard and singled some games out for the chop; below is a list of these games. If you have any objection to these games finding new homes, let us know either at a games session or at bmyork@gmail.com by Saturday, 18/5.

  • Adventure Games The Dungeon
  • Adventure Games Monochrome Inc.
  • Airfix Blood Red Skies Battle of Britain
  • Brass (not Birmingham; the version with the giant man on the box)
  • Daring Dustbunnies
  • Dominion Alchemy
  • Escape from Las Vegas
  • Escape Room The Game
  • Escape Tales The Awakening
  • K2 Broad Peak
  • Kingsburg (the club has two copies)
  • Lascaux
  • Once Upon a Time The Storytelling Game
  • Panic Station
  • Samurai the Cardgame
  • Stephenson’s Rocket
  • Temporum
  • Ticket to Ride Asia
  • Unlock!
  • Ventura
  • What’s My Word?

In exciting news from Tang Hall Explore, they’re going to be starting their weekly Family Board Games Afternoon this Saturday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. They’re still looking for volunteers to help out with teaching games, so if you’re interested, email them at tanghall@exploreyork.org.uk, call 01904 552655, or chat with them at the library desk.

The votes have been tallied…

And the new additions to the BM library have been decided! Soon Horseless Carriage, Cascadia, Phantom Ink, and So Clover! will be available for all members to play and enjoy in the gaming cupboard!

On a related note, if you have a copy of Horseless Carriage, Cascadia, or So Clover! you wouldn’t mind parting with by selling it to the Club, email us at bmyork@gmail.com or speak to an organizer at one of our events.

Stay tuned for an exciting recap of our Double Competition from last week, and we’ll see you all tonight at the Bar Convent from 1700 to 2100 for our usual Friday night event!

Hive been looking forward to this!

Tomorrow is our Double Competition at the Bar Convent! Come play a bracket-style tournament of Hive and a bracket-style tournament of Quarto starting at 10:30 a.m. this Saturday, 20/4/2024! Entry is £6 or £4 for concessions and also includes entry to Beyond Monopoly’s regular Saturday gaming until 21:00. If you’ve got a copy of either game that you’re willing to let the club borrow for the competition, bring it in as well; it’ll be appreciated!

Prizes for the double competition are copies of A Game of Thrones, Ticket to Ride: Europe, MazeScape: Ariadne, Kingdomino Duel, and Quarto, as well as a £10 gift voucher for Board Game Guru.

Also keep in mind if you’re planning to come to the Convent via the train station, per York Station Gateway project updates on york.gov.uk – “Queen Street Bridge will be closed from 8.00pm on Friday 19 April until 6.00am on Monday 22 April 2024.” The LNER car park will also be closed this weekend and next.

Make space for some games tonight!

The solar eclipse of this week might not have reached York, but there’s plenty of space-related board game fun to be had at BM tonight at the Bar Convent – AND you don’t even need special glasses to view them (unless you have prescription specs, of course).

Come play from 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. and maybe squeeze in a thematic game of Terraforming Mars, Galaxy Trucker, Tzolkin, or (if you’re perhaps overly ambitious) Eclipse itself. Or prepare for next week’s double competition featuring Quarto and Hive.

April Showers Bring Saturday Games

Join us back at the Bar Convent this Saturday, 6/4, for our regular first Saturday day-long event from 10:00 until 21:00. The front entrance is still accessible even with all the scaffolding outside so don’t let that put you off.

Come and play some games, sign up for our Double Competition on 20/4 (Hive and Quarto), and don’t forget to get your discount cards re-stamped for the new quarter.

And in case you missed the announcement yesterday – check out here for all the details on our April Double Competition!

20/04/2024 Competition Announcement!

Exciting announcement from Kirsty RE: BM’s April competition:

Hello!

Its now April and the competition looms closer! Its a double competition, not just the one game!

Having two games means I don’t need to have as many copies of the game as you may fear – but I still need your help for this to go smoothly! So if you have a copy of Hive or Quarto or even better: both – please lend us it for the day!

Both games will be played at the same time, so there will be some down time, but hopefully not much.

Its a bracket style competition, once you are out, you are out… to move to the other game of the competition!

Quarto will be standard rules – match 4 in a line of one feature: tall/small, circle/square, light/dark, flat/ hollow

We are not playing advanced rules (4 in a line or 4 in a square that match a feature) – though feel free to challenge someone on advanced rules at some point!

Hive will be played with the basic tiles only:

1 x Queen Bee

2 x Spiders

2 x Beetles

3 x Ants

3x Grasshoppers

Each couple decides between themselves if playing one game, or best of three.

However if you are playing best of three I expect you to be making quick turns!

Prizes will be announced closer to the date.

Happy playing!!

BONUS Saturday session this weekend!

Come on down to the Holgate Club from noon to 9:00 p.m. 30/3 for games in YO24 4NT! There’ll be the travelling-sized BM library from last Friday’s session (see bullet list below). Feel free to bring your own snacks (but be prepared to tidy up); drinks will be available for purchase at the bar.

Some of the games traveling to the Holgate Club:

  • Balloon Cup
  • Blokus
  • Camel Up
  • Can’t Stop
  • Citadels
  • Coup
  • Diamant
  • Indigo
  • Kingsburg
  • Marrakech
  • Om Nom Nom
  • Railroad Ink Challenge
  • Skull
  • So Clover
  • Splendor
  • Subulata
  • Thurn and Taxis
  • Top Secret Spies
  • Trans Europa
  • Viva il Re
  • Zack & Pack

Our regular sessions start again the first Saturday in April, which makes two Saturday sessions in a row. We’ll be back at the Bar Convent then, on 6/4!

Out and About in York

Don’t forget, neither today’s nor next Saturday’s bonus session will be at the Bar Convent. Today will be at Hotel Indigo at 88 Walmgate, YO1 9TL, and 30/3 will be at the Holgate Club at 6 New Lane, Acomb, YO24 4NT.

We will have a selection of games from the BM! cupboard on hand, including:

  • Balloon Cup
  • Blokus
  • Camel Up
  • Can’t Stop
  • Citadels
  • Coup
  • Diamant
  • Indigo
  • Kingsburg
  • Marrakech
  • Om Nom Nom
  • Railroad Ink Challenge
  • Skull
  • So Clover
  • Splendor
  • Subulata
  • Thurn and Taxis
  • Top Secret Spies
  • Trans Europa
  • Viva il Re
  • Zack & Pack

Hope to see you there!

No Reason to Beware This Ides of March; it’s Game Time!

Unable to make it to Airecon this Saturday? Come play with us at Beyond Monopoly! in our usual Saturday scheduled event! We’ll be at the Bar Convent from 10:00 a.m. through 9:00 p.m. for games, games, and more games.

The last two sessions of March will be a little unusual so don’t forget: Next Friday, 22 March, we’ll be meeting at the Hotel Indigo at 88 Walmgate, YO1 9TL. We’ll have a small selection from the BM! library on hand from 5:00 p.m. on.

Saturday, 30 March, our bonus fifth session will be at the Holgate Club at 6 New Lane, Acomb, YO24 4NT, where we’ve booked space from 12 noon on. Again we’ll have a small selection from the BM! library on hand.

Speaking of libraries, Tang Hall Explore is looking for a games volunteer for new, recurring games events to be held at that location! Some of the games in their collection include Codenames, Love Letter, Sushi Go, Forbidden Island, Kingdomino, Quirkle, Pandemic, Telestrations, Chameleon, Ticket to Ride, Azul, and Quacks of Quedlinburg. Several members of BM were part of a couple of games days at some of the Explores last summer and it was a lot of fun to share our hobby and some of our favourites with families from around the city! For more information or to express an interest, email them at tanghall@exploreyork.york.uk.

International Women’s Day Gaming at the Bar Convent

Come game at the Bar Convent this International Women’s Day (today, Friday, 8 March)! We’ll be gaming as usual from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. so come join us for some games however you want to celebrate Women’s Day, be it through communist solidarity as the USSR in Twilight Struggle, enlisting various historical women as leaders in a hefty game of Nations, or a more contemporary way of celebrating Women’s Day by picking gifts for people in a round of Gift Trap.* Or, of course, just by playing games in a welcoming and diverse environment in the heart of York! Hope to see you there!

* unfortunately the club does not have a copy of Pank-a-Squith, photographed here at the People’s History Museum in Manchester