End of the Evening Games...err...Activities

Don't L.L.A.M.A.
A semi-mindless Reiner Knizia game? Pretty much. Play a...

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Last time we played LLAMA was at 3 AM when staff members were pulling an all-nighter in our warming shelter for the local unhoused population so, yes, it worked well with people who were kinda punchy at that stage (and after playing two other games earlier, just as you describe.) It was, however, my first of three all-nighters in a row (low volunteers last year...)

As for suggestions, the only thing I can recommend among what I usually play and which probably doesn't meet your parameters is Lovecraft Letter. Just like LLAMA, you just have to have the highest card. There is a tiny bit of thinking when it comes to deciding whom to use the particular cards on, but that usually just boils down to revenge for something that happened in a previous game, so it works out.

Jackwraith wrote: Last time we played LLAMA was at 3 AM when staff members were pulling an all-nighter in our warming shelter for the local unhoused population

Way off topic here but do you actually use the term "unhoused population"? Maybe I'm out of touch living in the Midwest but thar always felt like a "Foxafication" term. Kind of like when they started using "climate change" instead of "Global Warming" because it sounds "less distressing."

In regards to Lovecraft Letter. Do you know it took Rodney 37 minutes to do a how to play video for Lovecraft Letter? That's about 3 minutes less that it took him to do a how to play of Kemet. Yea, Loveletter base is a simple game and would fit but teaching Lovecraft Letter to half buzzed players at 4am would require a sanity check for me.

Unhoused can be considered more respectful since homeless can imply some sort of personal failing, as opposed to a systemic lack of affordable housing. The differences can seem pretty gray in places, and I doubt anyone actually affected cares, but what do I know?

Hotseat is correct. People began using "unhoused" because it avoids the "personal responsibility" aspect, which was always bullshit. Just as an example, the vast majority of the people we helped last winter were/are employed full-time. They're not HOMEless. They live here. They just can't afford to pay the rent anywhere because housing values/rents in our area are absurdly high in the same way they are in many other places. These people often lack reliable transportation, as well (another cost), in order to get to those jobs. Fox News and similar outlets would be much more prone to use the term "homeless" and also to use pejoratives like "vagrant" because it allows for typical biases to take hold ("If those bums would just get a job, they could afford rent-!")

Yeah, I figured Lovecraft Letter might be a stretch. Other than LLAMA, I don't think I own anything that would work in the same way that does. Of course, part of the fun of some games when in that mental state might be trying to get them right in the first place...

Thanks guys for the clarification, I was looking at in from the wrong perspective.