So, for the rest of you, some questions:

1) Are you still interested in Games Night?

If your answer is "No" do not hesitate to say so. I won't be offended, you won't hurt my feelings. Many people on this list have never made it to a single game night. If you are never going to, I can take you off the list.

On the other hand, if you are still interested but also busy and the stars have never aligned properly for you to make it, feel free to remain on the list with the hopes that one day it will work out. Just let me know.

If you don't respond at all, I will assume that the answer is the first - that you aren't really interested.

2) Would you show up if the schedule were different?

Currently, we're doing the first Thursday, and third Tuesday of the month. If that happens to be the time of your Home Owners Association meeting, ski club, dance class, or dwarf tossers anonymous meeting, what days would be best for you? I make no promises to change anything, but I'm open to the possibility.

3) Would you show up if you knew ahead of time what game would be played?

As things have evolved, it's been impossible to do this - when we've declared ahead of time to play a 4 player game, 5 to 11 people have shown up. Then when planning on a game that works best with large groups, it's been just me, David, and Pearl. We've always taken a consensus of those who were there and tried to match the game to the interests of those present. If it turns out that we would get a more reliable turn-out by declaring a game for a specific date, asking people to "sign-up" until we meet the max number of players, we could try that.

4) Would you show up if we cooked you dinner?

We've been providing all kinds of unhealthy snack foods. If all it takes is serving a real dinner, we'll think about it.

5) Would you be more interested if there were prizes?

We had once thought about recording the games' winner on a plaque.
If we awarded points for each attendance and more for each game won, by asking for a $5 entry fee we could buy a really nice prize for the year's highest points winner, for example.

6) Is there some other suggestion you have that would really get you excited about Games Night?

Thank you to Pearl who brought me a copy of "Loot" last Games Night. It's one of a number of new games we can try come Tuesday. This past Tuesday, I had Jury duty, and while I was downtown I walked over to Horton Plaza and discovered a cool little gaming store. I picked up a copies of "Man Bites Dog," "Snorta," "LCR" and a card game called "Rats."

Loot is a pirate theme card game where various pirate captains battle to plunder from merchant ships.

Man Bites Dog is a card game where the objective is to combine the words on your cards to create wacky headlines. The only rule is they have to be structurally sound, beyond that they can get very bizarre.

LCR is a very simple dice game where a roll of the dice determines the passing of chips.

Rats I don't know too much about, but it wasn't expensive and looked like it had potential. At the very least, is has rat infested cards.

Snorta I think will be making an appearance next Groundhog's Day. Each player gets an animal, and stores it in a barn. When you play a card that match another player's card you have to race to make the sound of the other player's animal - meaning you have to remember what it was or just randomly start making animal noises. I predict lots of laughter.

Also untried is a game called Alibi, which is a whodunit type strategy game. Players score points for solving the mystery, but also for helping other players solve it, forcing them to make strategic decisions during play.

And thanks to Ben and Fran talking about it (yes Fran, you opened your mouth and caused me to spend money yet again), I went looking for Betrayal at the House on the Hill, which is a rare cooperative game. Play begins with all players working together to solve the mystery, and then changes to all against one as one of the players is revealed to be the Betrayer. Apparently, every horror scenario you can think of from pop culture is represented in the different scenarios, and the game never plays the same way twice. Amazon only had it through third-party resellers who thought it was worth gold ingots. I found it on ebay for half that, and it's currently in transit. (Of course, after I won the ebay auction I saw it in that store in Horton Plaza for the same price I paid, without the shipping costs. Thank you Murphy and your stupid law.)

So, there's all that in addition to the collection of games I already own as potential for fun this coming Tuesday. Hope you can make it!