An Introvert & an Extrovert Play A Place for All My Books
Meet Sarah. Sarah enjoys reading, can crochet with the best of them, and typically sits in the back of the room, cracking quiet, hilarious jokes. Sarah is a cat, and is our Introvert.
Meet Jess. Jess is in constant motion, texts a concerning amount of people every day, and is the loud one in the front of the room providing the material for Sarah’s jokes. Jess is a golden retriever, and is our Extrovert.
Our two intrepid adventurers sat down for an amiable game of A Place For All My Books, the recently released board game from Smirk & Dagger. APFAMB…wow, that acronym doesn’t work… let’s call it All My Books for the purpose of this adventure. Anyway, All My Books is a puzzly/organizing game with a worker placement component.
You get a house board where your books will live and slowly, but surely, fill up the space. You will organize and admire your books, earning you points for doing so in certain ways. Eventually, you need to go to town to collect more books for your house. Rather than spending money, you are able to go about town and add to your hoard as long as your social battery allows. Not enough social battery? Time to go home and recharge.
This is real life stuff here. This is where the theme is EVERYTHING. The mechanisms are not something you haven’t seen before, but the theme is so spot on, it’s hard not to fall into.
Enough about the game, let’s get back to our heroes. After a quick rules explanation, they dive into the game.
Sarah dutifully moved her books around her house, admiring them (meeting objectives), and earning points. Jess tossed them into the house, and headed to town as soon as her social battery barely allowed it.
Jess was disappointed by how long she could stay in town. What is this social battery crap?? What do you mean I’m too overpeopled to go to the library? How is that possible? She came back with like three books and a bad attitude.
Sarah showed up at just the right moment, came home with a backpack full of treasure, sipping a chai tea (metaphorical, not found in the game), with some battery to spare.
This continued. Sarah calmly collected, sorted, gathered, and admired her books, achieving public objectives, and flying forward with points. Jess beat her head against the wall, moving books for objectives, but not correctly. When in town, she just wanted to buy the treasures, but forgot she needed the books for the objectives.
The game ended in the politest slaughtering in any game, maybe ever. Jess stared at Sarah, dumbstruck, while Sarah just shrugged like it ain’t no thang.
The theme is so engrained into this game that Jess, usually a decent game player, lost her way. This cozy game about collecting, sorting, and loving your books while barely heading into town before running home with more does not make inherent sense to extroverts. What do you mean I don’t get to talk with the shop owner and ask them about their recent trip to Hawaii? Do I have to go by myself to town EVERY TIME?? It’s boring here.
Sarah, however, relished the solitude for a change. She did the equivalent of curbside pick up and was home in time to watch The Office reruns before cracking open the newest thriller.
All My Books gives Introverts something they can truly sink their teeth into. A game of living a happy, cozy, and quiet life with little treats along the way. A game of relaxation and contentment. A game without small talk.
