Getting on board (games)

Liberty alumni seek to open “Meeples,” Lynchburg’s first board game café

For many people, board games are a fun party activity or a way to ease boredom on a rainy day.

But for Patrick and Whitney Logan, who graduated from Liberty in 2016, board games are more than just entertainment – they are a hobby.

Both played what Patrick Logan calls “classic Hasbro and Parker Brothers games,” such as Monopoly and Apples to Apples growing up, but began to view board games as a hobby once they got to college and friends introduced them to more complex board games like Settlers of Catan and Dominion.

Last fall, Whitney Logan, a current Liberty grad school student, started talking with her husband Patrick Logan, who works at Liberty’s IT department, about opening Lynchburg’s first board game café which will be called Meeples.

“I had heard about (board game cafés) on the Internet, and I got a chance to visit some when I went to Europe,” Whitney Logan said.

They realized that Lynchburg would be a prime location for a board game café due to the amount of college students and young professionals in a city without much activity in the evenings.

“Currently nearby there are both cafés and hobby shops that sell board games, but there are no board game cafés,” Patrick Logan said.

“The way a board game café differs from a retail hobby shop is that it doesn’t focus on selling the games themselves, but instead on selling entertainment – providing an environment for people to enjoy each other’s company and a large library of games for people to try without needing to buy any of them.”

In addition to having board games to play, Meeples will sell food, tea and coffee, which Whitney hopes to source locally.

Those interested in going to Meeples will have the option to either pay to play or be able to play for free if they buy a certain amount of food and drink.

When open, Meeples will serve as more than a place where friends can go and buy a snack and coffee and play board, card or role-playing games.

Whitney and Patrick Logan hope to have space for homeschool co-ops, book clubs, script read-throughs, video game design groups or other creative endeavors to meet.

They also hope to support the community and host charity events such as Extra Life.

“Our vision is to have a strong creative community space where creative groups can meet up to work on projects,” Whitney Logan said.

“Meeples is going to be a place for people to play games, get together, have fun, and push themselves and each other toward their goals,” Patrick Logan said, echoing Whitney Logan’s sentiment.

“We want to host exciting events and competitions, create groups to help people pursue dreams like writing and game design, and provide a generally enjoyable atmosphere for families during the day and an older crowd later in the evening.”

Whitney Logan said she eventually would not mind emulating the environment of European board game cafés, which typically target those who play board games as a hobby.

She wants Meeple’s atmosphere to be welcoming in order to introduce amateurs to gaming.

“I want this place to be people’s first thought of where to go hang out,” Whitney Logan said.

The Logans are currently waiting for the funding to acquire a physical location, which they hope to receive by the end of the year.

To promote Meeples in the mean time, they host game nights on Thursdays at the Toolry in downtown Lynchburg.

Whitney is pleased with the turnout for the game nights and said they have an average of 40 people each week.

They are also hosting an event with Good Karma Tea and an Extra Life event for charity.

Word about these events is spread mostly through word of mouth, according to Whitney Logan.

In the long-term, Patrick Logan says they would like to franchise.

For now, the Logans are focused on getting Meeples established and on its feet with the hopes of introducing people from all walks of life to the joys of gaming.

DePiero is an opinion writer.