By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — The tiles clicked across a table at The Depot Coffee Shop on Saturday morning as a mahjong game got underway, and Dusty Hampton kept one eye on the board while he explained what he and his wife, Heather, are trying to build in Ruston.
“This is a community board game day,” Hampton said. “It marks probably one year anniversary. I think we started in July last year, when we began to partner with the library, to honestly just try to build excitement and awareness and just kind of community enjoyment of board games.”
The Hamptons have hosted a weekly game night at their home for years, and the Saturday gatherings are their attempt to move that circle outward. The group plans to meet again in October. It does not yet have a name.
Hampton grew up on the games most households own — Monopoly, Scattergories, Pictionary. About seven or eight years ago, friends came over and brought a cooperative game, and he said it rearranged how he thought about the hobby.
“I grew up with an appreciation of board games, but that just flipped my whole entire world,” Hampton said. “Like, you mean there’s this kind of stuff out there? I didn’t know it existed.”
The timing was fortunate. Tabletop gaming boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Hamptons went all in — weekly game nights with friends, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and a habit that now shapes their travel.
“When we book a vacation, we’ll book a place to stay, and before we even look at things to do, we’ll look up local board game shops so we know where we’re going to play,” Hampton said. “Like, it’s a priority.”
Friends began bringing friends, and the house games grew. Hampton said the community events grew out of a simple gap: for a city Ruston’s size, there is not much organized board gaming.
“It’s a great place to get out, meet new people, put your phones down, communicate, work together, find calm and enjoyment,” Hampton said.
The goal, he said, is to host something like this once a month, once every other month or at least once a quarter, rotating through different venues and partners. The longer-term vision is bigger — a board game convention in Ruston.
Right now, the Hamptons drive for theirs. They attended a convention in Lafayette this year, the Southern Board Game Festival in March, another in Tennessee in April and a Board Game Geek convention in the Dallas area in May.
“It’s three hours minimum to get to a big board game convention,” Hampton said. “So we’re like, man, if we could get this started here, do at least one or two all day, that would be awesome.”
Part of the effort is a collection that has gotten away from them in the best way. Hampton said the couple owns roughly 2,300 to 2,400 games and is weighing an application for the Guinness World Record for the largest board game collection, which Guinness lists at 1,531 games.
The complication is the fine print. Guinness defines a board game by pieces that move along a pre-printed surface according to a set of rules, which eliminates card games and a fair number of boxes on the Hamptons’ shelves.
“We’re having to go through our collection, open every box and determine, is this a pre-printed surface? Do you move pieces?” Hampton said. “It’s a process, man. It’s a process.”
Among Saturday’s players was Dustin Gulledge, who drove in from West Monroe. He has played mass-market games since childhood and hobby games for 10 or 12 years, and he has made the trip to several of the Ruston gatherings.
“It’s very relaxed, but a fun time — good people, some good games,” Gulledge said. “I get to try something new. No reason not to. It’s a good time. It’s very relaxed. It’s just in general a lot cheaper than a lot of things you could be doing. Everybody’s welcoming. Everybody’s pretty open. There’s no reason not to (come out).”
For anyone convinced they are not a board game person, Hampton has an answer ready.
“Board games, to me, are like books,” Hampton said. “If you don’t have one you’re in love with right now, I promise you there is one that you will find that you like. There is some version that you will absolutely love. It’s just giving them a shot.”
He said teaching new players is his favorite part and always makes sure there are games within a wide range of difficulty and skill level available.
“I can sit down and talk to you for four hours about these games, what they play like, give you some recommendations,” Hampton said. “That’s probably my favorite part, honestly.”
