OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — Thousands of board games were made available for free this Sunday as Verika's Board Game Library capped off a weekend of tabletop play at Gameapalooza in Oshkosh.
Gameapalooza hosted multiple tabletop vendors, organized games, and had Verika's Board Game Library in attendance. The library has been around for 20 years, loaning out games at conventions around the area.
I spoke with Verika Philipp, the namesake of the group, who said they make it easier for folks trying to find a new game to dive into.
"We will offer those recommendations and we will do that teaching and we will give them the right advice. We want people to have fun and not get stressed over trying to learn a new game," Philipp said.
Gameapalooza drew in a diverse background of skill levels.
Shane Luniak started his own board game convention in Stevens Point, directly inspired by Oshkosh's own gathering.
"I've been coming here for 10 years," Luniak said, "I keep coming back every year cuz you meet new people, make new connections. There's always new games coming out every year, new games to play."
WATCH THE FULL BROADCAST HERE:
One first-time attendee told me that she and her friends arrive 9 a.m. sharp and stay until 11 p.m. closing time.
Heather Granger drove from Waukesha to be here, a roughly hour-and-a-half commute. She shared with me what motivated her to come all this way.
"We probably would stay later, but you know, the building has to close up once in a while," Granger said, "Sometimes the instructions can be really lengthy to read through or figure out a game. So when you go to a game convention, you can quickly learn games because you have the game masters leading the table, telling you how to play. You can just learn it, jump in and play and have a lot of fun."
Verika's Board Game Library will host more events in the coming year.
___________________________
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
