Magpie Adventures

Lisa:
Hello friends! Welcome to Magpie Adventures, where we explore how we feel in the spaces we share. I’m Lisa Pruden. Thanks for being here in this space, where a past version of me speaks to a future holding the present version of you. What are we up to? Maybe a little walk n’ listen?

The theme of this season is play. I’m curious about where we go when we’re feeling playful and what play can look like. I’ve found 3 great places to show you.

This is episode 2, and it’s about gathering with your friends around a table top. Fire up those little grey cells, we’re heading to The Hexagon Board Game Cafe.

Hexagon has over one thousand board games in its library for guests to try. They have fancy coffees and other drinks too, and snacks! They have everything to help power you and your pals through a gaming sesh. And if you’re trying a new game, their team members can help walk you through the how to, so you don’t get bogged down in the rule book. This place is all about play!

Hexagon is located on Whyte Avenue, at 107street. Quite a few bus routes come this way. And it’s all at street level, so it’s accessible for folks who use mobility equipment.
I’d like to introduce you to Randy.

Randy:
Yeah. My name is Randy Wong, co-owner of hexagon board game Cafe, and my partner is Kellie Ho also co owner of hexagon board game cafe.

Lisa:
Randy is going to give us the tour, and later he’ll share a couple heart touching gaming moments that neither of us expected to come up.

Randy:
So this is the front area of the cafe. Basically, when you come in, you'll see the counter. There are special machine shelves of board games, Magic the Gathering in the back, and then to the right, yeah, just a selection of games, D&D dice.

Lisa:
This nook, this corner is so beautiful in the natural light. Can you tell me describe a little bit more about this pile, kingdom of board games?

Randy:
Funny thing, this wasn't always in this section when we first opened the cafe. It was actually just seating area, and just part of our plan was to just try to get coffee customers as well as gaming customers. But during the pandemic, the business had to change a little bit. We tried to, we evolved a little bit more in trying to be a little bit more of a retail, or expand a retail experience.

So yeah, in here we have the center table. We try to feature some of our hottest games, or games that I really enjoy. So over there, “Quacks” is being featured, and it's, it's a game that I've always enjoyed, but recently they came out with a second edition. And usually when they come out with second editions, there's like, a huge shortage of the original copy, and everyone's been dying for it. Over here, we have, like, our cool miniature paint rack. It's just something else that we've tried to expand on. So not only just board games, but also like trying to tap into, like miniatures D&D has been pretty big the last I don't know it's been a thing since the 80s, but I feel like with Stranger Things, it really exploded. So now people can come here for their painting supplies, paint their little miniature figures.

Lisa:
They really support this hobby. They even have Paints + Pints nights where you can bring your characters and paint with your fellow gamers. And they’ve got us covered for classic games, too.

Randy:
Behind us, we have, like, shelving full of some of our kind of introductory or common games. So if you're a board gamer, everyone kind of remembers, like, what was their first game. So I kind of feel like this shelf is kind of like a classic modern game, if that makes sense. So it'd be like the catans, the ticket to rides and the pandemics.

Lisa:
And the code names, for some of us.

Randy:
And the code names, yeah, the code names, they know me. So like very accessible games, yeah, over here. Oh my gosh, we have so many dic e. And basically, like, people eat up dice like crazy. I'm like, how many dice do you need? And you're like, I need one for each character. So yeah, it's our small, little, tiny D&D section.

Lisa:
I love it. I feel like, I have not played D&D yet, but I feel like dice would be the reason why we get into it, because they're so beautiful, some of them.

Randy:
I don't know. I feel like people are just addicted to rolling. And then I don't know, it's like, it's like, geeky bling, yeah. And then, yeah, our retail section kind of continues a little bit more, but around the corner is where we have our gaming library.

So the gaming library, it's coded with like difficulty and types of games. And when you come to the cafe, if you're not too sure what game to play, like our staff are always like, there to kind of help or get you going. Yeah, and then the library has just been something that's just always growing, always being revised. And then behind it is our seating area. So we have a combination of seats for two players, four players, and then, like, bigger group tables.

The tables are like a dark wood stain. The flooring kind of like, a light kind of wood. We have high ceilings and like chalkboard wall with game recommendations, as well as our menu. To the left we have like some wall detailing of like hexagons. So it's kind of like a cool little thing that we wanted to do, just kind of honeycomb it.

Yeah, it's kind of funny, because when we first started the cafe. So this is actually our second location, our first location was fairly small, probably like half the size of this space. And when we first started, it was kind of like on a shoestring budget. But after being fairly successful, expanding into Calgary, and we decided, oh, let's, let's upgrade the Edmonton location. And, yeah, all this cool detailing is just because we were able to save up and we had the funds to do so. Whereas I remember painting the first Cafe myself, and I'd probably never paint anything ever again because I did such a crappy job of it. So, yeah, I guess if you go into this cafe, like and then compared to other cafes, it's not like, I would say this is like an evolution of, like, humble beginnings,

And that's, that's basically the cafe, minus, like the kitchen, but we don't need to, like, do a tour of the kitchen.

Lisa:
That's right. All folks need to know is that there are snacks to facilitate your game.

Randy:
Yeah.

Lisa:
This whole place is dedicated to play, but what does play mean to you?

Randy:
What does play mean to me? Well, like what for me getting into board games, it was all about just the gathering of friends. So just giving you a little bit of origin story, how hexagon came to be. Me and my friends, we all graduated 2008 from university, and that was like the very start of the economic downturn. So we were always like, like, we're always applying to jobs and just not finding anything. But after like, you know, applying all day or whatever, then we would kind of gather, and it was board games that kind of brought us together. And it was just like, like a Hangout. So this was before board game cafes were actually like a thing. And yeah, I just remember, like it after applying or after, like, doing, like, whatever small part time job I had, it was something I just always looked forward to.

And for me, the idea of play is it's part of the conversations you have with people. It's it's the community and the connection. And the experience, and there's always like the moments that for us, like board games, like what they created. For example, yesterday, I was running a Catan qualifier, and I've already qualified for the national tournament, but I had a friend who was trying to qualify for the first time. He's always been so close, but just always comes up short at the end. And yesterday, he won his first qualifying tournament, and like, I think I was just, I was more happy than he was. It was, yeah, it's super touching.

Lisa:
Randy’s eyes are tearing up just a bit here as he shares about how much time and effort his friend has put in to qualify.
Randy:
So it's interesting because, like, I met him at a qualifier. I don't know how many years ago? Maybe a couple years before the pandemic. I don't know. I'm not mathing. I'll say five years, and, yeah, it was something that we would go to together. And his sisters qualified, like a bunch of times. I've qualified recently in the last couple years, but he's always, like, in the mix, just never got there. So I don't know, maybe your goal was always to qualify, but it started like five years ago.

Lisa:
Amazing. So that's like, that's a huge day, then.

Randy:
It is, yeah. Because yesterday, we started at 9: 30 and I don't think they finished the tournament till like five ish, four or five ish. So it was like all day trying to grind it out, and he made it.

Lisa:
Friends, I’m starting to get the impression that I underestimated how big of a role games and play really have in our worlds. I came into this space thinking of just a nice time with friends, but of course when you share time with people there’s always more to learn. Randy tells us about how he feels when he’s playing board games.

Randy:
You know, I feel like it's kind of curated to the type of game we're playing, right? There's some games where I'm like, Okay, I gotta outwit outlast this person. Go all survivor mode one, whereas, say, I'm playing like a group game. It's kind of cooperative, then it's more like, Okay, how witty can I be? Or am I? Am I like the person that's holding my team back because I'm trying to be too witty? And then it's just like, no one's getting my clues.

So yeah, and for me, when I when I play a board game, it's all about the experience. Sometimes there's like, a heavy game where it's like, super strategic, and then I'm looking at it, I'm like, oh, all I'm doing is moving cubes around. Like, this isn't fun at all, right? Whereas, like, sometimes there's like, simple games, and I think last night. It's been tradition that every time one of our friends, like qualifies, we kind of like do a little celebration at the end. But this one was low key, so we played like a simple card game where you're trying to, like, go out and like, accumulate points. But sometimes the problem is, like, you're trying to save up for a big move, and then someone finishes the game, and then it's, like, just devastating. Like, no, why did you finish you so, yeah, I think, yeah, fun is about the moments. I guess it's kind of hard to recreate. They just kind of happen.

Lisa:
These moments are what Hexagon is all about. Before we leave Hexagon, Randy recalls an a moment that will stay with him far into the future.

Randy:
Oh, well, our mission is to deliver on the experience, right? Like you could get coffee anywhere you could play games at home. But for us, it's, it's us trying to create those moments. I remember, this was in our old location, probably within the first year that we opened the cafe, and this guy, this customer, elderly gentleman, calls or contacts the cafe. I can't remember if he emailed or phone call, but he wanted to buy a game. And I'm like, Okay, what? Which game? He's like, Oh, it's the. Game you showed us in the library, Fish Eat Fish. I'm like, oh, okay, looking up. Oh yeah. I remember teaching this game is kind of like a whatever kind of game, like, maybe a game of you play with your friends. It wasn't, like, very deep or anything. And he's like, Yeah, I want to buy down your library. Usually in those cases, like, if it's a game that I could order, then I'll just order them a copy. But some board games kind of go out of print, and usually, if something goes out of print, I don't sell it because I can't replace it. So I'm like, oh, blah, blah, blah, blah, I can't really sell it.

And then he kind of told me, six months ago, I came to your cafe with my wife. We played this game. We really enjoyed it. I've been searching for it everywhere. Can't find it. And then he kind of drops the bomb that his wife passed. And he's like, it was just really rewarding. Like, wow, we created this memory, and this is just kind of like some kind of token. So anyways, I just gave him that game. But like, those experiences don't come by every week or whatever, but it it's something that you kind of remember, right? So not necessarily like a fun play kind of game, but it's about the memory and experiences that are created.

Lisa:
Thanks very much to Randy Wong for showing us The Hexagon Board Game Cafe and sharing such wonderful memories and moments. And a special shout out to Kellie Ho who helped organize us for the tour. I loved this reminder that play can be more than just fun, it can also be about sharing and working through all sorts of feelings - even the hard ones.

This is a great place to try new games and share time with friends. Who knows what kind of moments are waiting to be made here.And if you’d like to hear more about what it takes to start up and run a successful board game cafe, Randy shared his experience on the Antsy to Gantsy Podcast, a show all about board games. And I’ll have the link to that in the show notes.

This podcast is created by yours truly, here in Amiskwaciwâskahikan (ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ ). Edmonton, Alberta in Treaty 6 territory.
If you have ideas for vibes and locations - or memories about playing games with your friends, email me at himagpies@gmail.com. Or, find me on Instagram at hi_magpies.
Thank you for listening and sharing this time together. It means a lot.

I’ll leave you with sound of four friends trying to outwit and out last each other in a game called Happy Little Dinosaurs. A game of cute dinos being absolutely ruthless in their goal to survive.

Stay safe and keep trying out there.