Chennai emerges as the capital of board game cafes in india

Time of India

6 hours ago

It's 10 pm, the eatery on the ground floor has closed, but the night has only begun on the third floor of The Board Room cafe. The tables are packed, and groups are setting up for hours of intense 'gaming'.
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Only, in place of joysticks and consoles are meeple, dice, and tokens on a board. Phones are forgotten here. The game could go on till 5 am, but it doesn't matter to the players.
"There is no limit to imagination in board games. It can become more immersive than video games," says Ashish Venkat, a hardcore board gamer. For many, the progression from video games to board games was natural once they got to know the variety and range, but others such as Ashish just walked into one of the cafés one day and got hooked.
"During Covid, I got some free time and attended an online game session for beginners at The Board Room.
Soon I started visiting the café every day. I'd play for eight hours a day, at times till 2 am," says the 34-year-old.
In 2019, Chennai had just a couple of such cafes where a small group of regulars used to congregate. But today, there are more than 20, the highest in the country, says Phalgun Polepalli, founder of Mozaic Games and TTOX, one of the major board game conventions in the country.
"The board game cafés in Chennai are also the most occupied in the country," he says.
"The city has about 5,000 hardcore players today, and the games are available even in grocery and bookstores," says Suwetha Sundar, senior game guru at The Board Room, supposedly among the largest of such cafes in the country. "After Covid, youngsters wanted to connect in person, and to do something that doesn't involve screens," says Thara Srinivasan, game master, Dungeons and Dragons.
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Masters are an indispensable part of a game café as they explain rules and often join teams.
While it's mostly hardcore gamers and young adults who throng the all-nighters, in the daytime, the cafes see families coming in with children, solo players, beginners, and tourists who want to experience something new. Board game birthday parties are becoming the rage too. Most players are in the 16-35 age group — IT folk, lawyers, students — but there are also those who get introduced in their 40s, says Suwetha.
"Adults want to get away from workplace stress, for young people it's mostly a form of bonding, as they don't have a space to meet up every week.
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It was Carnatic vocalist Sanjay Subrahmanyam and wife Aarthi who introduced stand-up comedian Aravind S A to the world of board games, and now he does the same to new "minions" he says. "Sanjay has 1,000-plus games at his home and he's a patient teacher as well, which I'm not. So I take the newbies to cafes to get them acquainted with the rules, and then we all play together at my home.
And no, these aren't Monopoly or Uno which most millennials grew up with but a massive range of 30 categories. Nature-themed games are among the most popular now, such as WingSpan where you set up bird trays, place the dice in the bird feeder, and play with egg tokens and bird cards, learning about species as you play. In Evolution, you score points by feeding rare species, boosting population as you progress.
Gameistry, Egmore, and The Board Room have more than 1,000 games each, mostly imported.
"People are also interested in strategy games these days," says Prashaunth Kamalakannan of Gameistry. The games can be expensive if one tries to buy them, costing from Rs 5,000 to Rs 26,000, which is a reason many prefer to pay the hourly rates at cafes, at Rs 150 per person. For example, 'Foundations of Rome' has 3D miniatures of Roman architecture, which users have to construct, is among those which costs above Rs 20,000.
The cafes have now diversified to include workshops, quiz nights, events, and all-nighters. Also, Chennai is unique in that there's a culture of teaching games at these cafes, says Sriram Mahalingam, co-founder of The Board Room. They started out as a restaurant serving as a free meet-up group in Adyar renting out board games and conducting online gaming sessions. "There wasn't much of a game scene until 2019, but soon the community started growing, and today, we have three branches.
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It takes 45 minutes or more to teach the rules for a new game, which is difficult in café hours, and that's when they hit upon the idea of an all-nighter, around two years ago, says Sriram. "We began hosting one every other week and it evolved into a community event. Many also use the workspace option to work and play." The best part of these cafes, says Thara, is the open table concept. "You don't need to bring your friends for teammates; you can pick them from the community.
" Gamers get notifications on WhatsApp groups on what will be played where and when, and form teams before they arrive. "Board games are a great socialisation tool but work best for introverts too. You don't need to make small talk or open up about your life. You're all there for the love of the game," says Thara.