Board game club is recruiting new members

WATERVILLE, Ohio (WTVG) – What’s your favorite board game? Either way, a board game club in Waterville probably has it!

Black Swamp Gamers are working to get back on their feet after the pandemic. It won’t be easy, but members are hoping they can save their playing space.

“It’s a great passion for me. I started collecting these games 15 years ago … all I had was my wife to help me play them. But you can’t play some of them with just two people, ”says Anthony Kniss, president of Black Swamp Gamers, a board game club in Waterville.

He has around 300 of the 400 games stored at the club.

“I have a bit of an addiction to the board game collection,” he laughs.

The group meets on weekends to compete against each other on the table fighting dragons, building farms, and developing friendships.

Vice President Matthew Gruenwald met Kniss through the club and now they are friends.

“It was a great opportunity for people to come together as a community and to be social and all to engage in something unique and interesting for them,” says Gruenwald.

But as with all social gatherings, the club took a hard hit last year. It’s hard to distance himself when hunched over a common plank, so they closed for much of the last year.

“Those first few months were tough and then we started to lose limbs… It looks like we are heading towards the inability to renew this place,” says Kniss.

“It breaks my heart a bit. I shouldn’t say a little. It breaks my heart a lot, ”says Gruenwald.

But members are hopeful that after a year of isolation and virtual tours, the lure of having something real – a pair of dice, a hand of cards – may well attract enough people to save the club.

“People love tabletop games and we want that to stay as long as possible,” says Gruenwald.

If you want to help the club, you can purchase a membership that allows you to play every weekend and attend matches. You can purchase a single guest pass or make a donation. To do any of these things, see a list of their games, and get more information, visit the Black Swamp Gamers website.

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