The results are in!

Two sets of results to inform you of, the Global Gossip Game that a small number of you participated in during International Games Day and the painting competition last weekend.


International Games Day 2013, Global Gossip Game Map

We were one of 74 libraries taking part in the Global Gossip Game; which took place in 17 countries over 7 continents, by 840 players in 6 languages, sending a message 94,423.15 miles. The original message at Geelong West Library was "Play is training for the unexpected", taken from the title of a research paper by biologists Marek Spinka, Ruth C. Newbury and Marc Bekoff*. By the time the message reached us as "The Secret of the Dark" it had been passed onto 273 people and had changed 161 times. When the message reached the USA it was split ways and the final 5 messages were "I Love The World", "Clouds Travel Around the World" Glow, Glow Peanut Butter Jelly, "Ian Needs Help" and "Zombie". The full details of the game can be found at their blog.

The second result is that of the painting competition, which were pretty close. The open category was won by David with his Empire Pistolier on Pegasus and the speed painting was tied between Ben's Imperial Guard and George's Ork. Sadly, there can be only one winner, so the judges (i.e. my) decision is to award George the speed painting prize. David and George you can collect your prizes, a £5 book token, at next weeks session (I'm not likely to be there so ask for them at the main desk on floor 1).

Miniature © Games Workshop 2003. All rights reserved. Used without permission

Miniature painted by David. Photo by Darren Edwards





* In a bizarre coincidence I'm pretty sure I read this paper whilst studying Biology as an undergraduate. Evolutionary theory and sociobiology where my specialisms at the time and I definitely cited papers by these authors in some of my work.

Club Documents

We, as a club, have a set of rules that define how the club is run and how you should behave whilst at the club. These are displayed at every session, but how can now also find these online.

Club Rules
Code of Conduct
Safety Rules

These are all living documents and they can be changed by Lyndsey or Me at any time to best meet the needs of the club and Bournemouth Libraries. We will organise an official AGM at some point in the new year to dicuss how the club is working and think about improvements that could be made.

As well as these there are also a set of documents produced by the Gaming Club Network, which we are a member of. These documents can be found on their blog and Scribd account. The minutes for the recent AGM are here.

The Best Session Yet?

What a great turnout for Saturdays session on International Games Day we hit a total of 20 attendees (thats 3 more than our previous high attendance) and at least 10 more people were playing with the games that were left downstairs on the first floor. We are already thinking about how to do things better for next years IGD and have had contact with Poole Chess club who may be using the library for one of their weekly sessions in the future.

International Games Day at Bournemouth Library. Photo by Darren Edwards

In total we had eleven different games played on Saturday, which in order of number people playing  was Jenga, Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game, 7 Wonders, 5ive Straight, Ticket to Ride: Europe, Blokus, Judge Dredd Miniatures Game, Advanced Connect Four, Warhamer Fantasy Battle, Uno, Draughts.

Don't forget we have our miniature painting competition is next weekend, we will have some kind of exciting prize for the winners and will be roping some of our colleagues in to judge the competition.

Miniature Painting Competition

International Games Day is tomorrow and we are nearly set for the biggest event the club has yet run. The entrance display is complete, the rules for the boardgames have been photocopied, cards for the Round Bournemouth Game scanned and printed, emails sent to Ekerö library in Sweden and phone calls taken from Scandicci library in Italy and from the Global Gossip Game coordinator in Australia! The giant snakes and ladders game arrived in the post tray this afternoon as well. I hope your all as excited about it as we are here at Bournemouth Library.

Just look at how many other libraries are taking part around the globe.



The events are coming thick and fast and next week we are going to hold our painting competition. There are going to be two different contests, the Open category and the Individual Model category. The rules can be found below.

1. You must be a Worlds Away member to enter (i.e. you need to have filled in a membership form)
2. Only one entry per category per person.
3. Any model or group of models may be used into the Open category as a single entry e.g. a tank would be just a suitable as a squad of troopers or a single model. These can be in any scale and for any game you like.
4. Any single model in 28mm (or similar) scale may be used as an entry in the Individual model category. These models can be for any game you like.
5. All models used must be painted by the Worlds Away member entering the competition. Models for the Open category can be painted before the session but models for the Individual Model category must be painted at the library during the club session on the 23rd

International Games Day - 16th November

The time has come for us to announce what we will be offering for International Games Day and we are pretty excited about what we have to offer. We will be running games throughout the library not just in the meeting room and have a selection of traditional board and card games as well as the more  esoteric games that we love at the club.

Up in the meeting room we will have our normal tables set up for wargames (Warhammer Fantasy and 40K, Judge Dredd and X Wing) and roleplay games. In the Heritage Zone we will have a copy of the Round Bournemouth Game, which dates from 1969 and forms a part of Bournemouth Libraries' Local Heritage collection and also the game of train empires, Ticket to Ride: Europe.

Downstairs in the Teen Zone there will be a table set up for playing Subbuteo. Then in the Children's Zone we will have giant Snakes and Ladders and Ludo for the youngsters and in the main library we will have Chess, Draughts, Backgammon and packs of cards for the public to use. We'll probably end up with some of our regular favourites as well so expect some Munchkin, 7 Wonders or Settlers of Catan to make an appearance.

Between 2 and 3pm we will be taking part in the Global Gossip Game, will you pass on the Secret?

Let's make sure the rest of Bournemouth realises how much fun there is in games and maybe we'll get a few members as a result.

I am the law! Drop your weapons!

Judge Dredd Miniatures Game.

Photo by Darren Edwards

We have a new addition to our arsenal, the Judge Dredd miniatures game. We played a few games last Saturday and it looks like a great little game, perfect for our club.

The plan is to run an ongoing campaign using this system, and we are lucky to have one of the game's authors to do this for us! So dust of your leathers and lawgiver to deal some Justice, Mega-City One style. If your interested in joining the campaign you can contact us, and we can pass on your details to those who are running the campaign.