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Game Of The Week - Cappuccino. It's Friday and you're exhausted, but you've got a full weekend of human sacrifice and antique shopping ahead of you - cue the coffee machine! Pour yourself a frothy mug of EXTREME CAFFEINE and settle yourselves in for a 2-4 player board game with cups as your weapon! Players must arrange their cups amongst each other's in the centre of the table, until it's just a random pile of coffee cups. Then you take turns to stack your cups on top of everyone else's in the hope you can build the biggest stack! Stack on your own cups, stack on others - as long as your stack is the same height or taller than the one you're conquering, it's all gravy man! Or, um, coffee. This game is only 20 minutes, making it the same amount of time it takes for the 'coffee shakes' to take over your bones - yay! Wobbly thumbs up for coffee beans! 

Two Classic Holidays Become One. This weekend, two great holidays merge to become a spectacular event of creepiness and boxes of chocolate with Friday the 13th and Mother's Day. One features terrifying supernatural creatures that scare us to our cores, and one is Friday the 13th. Ba dum tssh! Although Friday the 13th is originally a day of scary superstitions and unluckiness, it's now thought of as a huge horror movie franchise with that weirdo Jason in a hockey mask. Mother's Day is still devoid of horror (mostly) and remains true to its celebration of mammies everywhere. If you're looking for something fun to do this weekend, then why not try a board game? We've got just the right thing...

Gloom. Ain't nothin' unluckier than this sad lot. In this 2-4 player card game, players control miserable matriarchs and suicidal siblings in the bid to make their lives as dreary as possible in the hope that the afterlife pays off big. Lower your characters' self-worth and hope, all the while cheering up your opponents. Your families must be as sad and blighted as you can make them - play this tonight on Friday the 13th for a dread-fest treat!

River Dragons. Tiny oriental pawns crossing a river on colourful planks and stones, while occasionally falling in and having to go back to the start - it's every mother's dream! This 2-6 player game relies on 'card programming', where you choose your actions ahead of time, which calls for strategy and foresight. The first player to successfully build their path across the river and reach the opposite side is the winner. Huzzah! A great game for mams.

The Resistance. What better way to spend a day of superstition than being paranoid about everything?! This 5-10 player board game uses lies, bluffing and deceit as it pits players against each other when they should be against the corrupt and awful government! Some players are secret spies, and some are resistance fighters; spies must wriggle their way on to missions to try and make them fail. However, everyone's identity is a secret. Argue your case all you want, and accuse everyone else - there's no way of making them trust you. Great for conspiracy theorists and Illuminati-botherers.

Concept. Celebrating Mother's Day often includes a family gathering, which can quickly lead to an unexpected game of charades and watching your auntie drink two glasses of wine and turn it into a theatrical one woman show. Spare the unnecessary pain and play Concept, a 4-12 player party game of guesswork and ridiculousness! Players must team up, taking turns to make other players guess at particular words and phrases, by using icons, symbols and pictures on the Concept game board. It's fine when it's 'milk', but how you gonna make people guess 'Madame Tussauds'?! 

So there we have it - whether you're celebrating Friday the 13th or Mother's Day (or merging the two to be super cost effective), these board games shun the traditional celebrations in favour of something a little more fun! Happy Mother's the 13th Friday Day! 

(Author's note: Friday the 13th is definitely real, folks. I didn't even try to refresh the page, yet everything I'd written above was lost when the internet went a bit wobbly. I had to re-write it all. There are poltergeists in our blog. Help!)

Board Game Bar is back this Monday, at Urban Tap House! 5-10pm, £3 entry per person. Notable recent releases include Loony Quest and Tiny Epic Kingdoms. Come play, come win!

International TableTop Day 2015 is less than a month away! Come celebrate with us, at either The Chapter Arts Centre for a day of family fun with board games, or at The Gate Arts Centre for an evening of board games and beer. Or do both, if you've got the stamina! Both events are completely free and look set to be incredible!

New Releases / Restocks / Coming Soon!

New Releases Coming Next Week! Brace yourselves, Robin - it's Batman Love Letter! Round up Arkham Asylum's escaped criminals in both the boxed and velvet pouch edition of the game; the newest Smash Up expansion with Pretty Pretty; Rise to Power; Dungeons & Dragons Dice Masters starter set; Dungeons & Dragons Dice Masters Gravity Feed booster packs; Yu-Gi-Oh Premium Gold 2; Shadow Throne; Bullfrogs; Hawaii; Saint Petersburg 2nd Edition; Star Wars Edge of the Empire - Fly Casual; and TimeZero Tales (Savage Worlds).