Highlights from the Beach

Spring in Seattle has three distinct phases: false spring, wet spring, and real spring. Sometimes these are entangled with the additional seasons of new winter, last gasp, and the PNW typhoon interlude, but that’s another topic.

Every year in the spring, a friend I know rents a big vacation home on the Oregon coast and invites their friends to come down and spend a weekend playing games, cooking huge meals, and walking on the beach. It’s an opportunity to reconnect with folks I rarely see, get the latest game gossip, and decompress from the world of work. It is a moment of relaxation and relief in a world that feels increasingly hostile to peace.

Since Pandemic, I’ve been somewhat disconnected from what’s going on in games. This year, I’ve slowly started to come back. I’ve played, read, and purchase more new games this year than any time in probably the past decade.

One of the highlights this year was Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast.

Yazeba's B&B is a laid-back game about the strange rotating cast of characters who live at Yazeba's and the things they get up to.

This game is a lot, er… cozier than I usually play. The vibe tends toward low stakes slice-of-life exploration of the characters and the setting (both of which are largely pre-defined). That said, it comes with a library of scenarios that suit a broad range of moods (and which are tagged appropriately) so you can customize your experience somewhat. That said, it’s tons of fun to play and super easy to pick up and run with.

What makes this the standout, however, is the presentation.

The hardcover deluze edition is a joy to hold and browse. The game comes with a fabulous library of characters, situations, macguffins, and, yes, stickers to play with. The characters are rich and evocative and super easy to pick up. This game supports an ensemble style of play where we can come to the table with no idea which scenario or character we’re going to play and be up and running in 10 minutes.

However, there is a sublime complexity woven into this apparent simplicity. The characters and scenarios weave in a rich wealth of evocative themes in a way that lets play dwell in the moment while also moving the setting and characters along so that things are always changing. Each lighthearted scenario is also a meditation that's driven by the scenario, setting, and chose characters.

I may get some of the character and scenario names wrong here, because I don’t have a copy of the game available.

We played a scenario about catching fireflies in the yard. The scenario required two characters, Hey Kid, and Sal. Hey Kid is a wild child, always in trouble, looking on the cusp of growing up. Sal is a musician who dreams of pursuing fame. The two of them have moves (called Whoopsies and Bingos in Yazeba’s) that play off one another in a way that moves play towards themes of change, growth, and identity.

The scenario instructions add that they can be joined by any character who’s “feeling optimistic”. This little tag gives the players an important touchstone to what kind of character and vibe to the table. I was initially drawn to a skeletal character whose in game goal is to trigger the end of the world. But when I saw this cue, I switched to the house’s chef, a frog who was once a brave knight, but due to a cruel curse, is now making his way as a chef. Incidentally, playing the skeleton character to his goal doesn’t end the game. It just means you can now play the scenario “the world is ending”. That tickles me.

Completing a scenario also triggers some changes in the characters and the setting. Hey Kid checks off a track that moves towards them becoming a new character, Hey Teen. As a reward, we collected a jar of fireflies, represented by a sticker, that can be stuck on a shelf or a room in the rulebook. This in turn might unlock new characters or scenarios.

Unlocking more play

I like this because it's an interesting character-and-setting driven way of unlocking play. In traditional dungeon exploration adventure, new possibilities of play are typically unlocked by exploring the dungeon, leveling up a character, or acquiring treasure. This reveals new locations, quests, challenges, and abilities to explore. I'm attracted to the way Yazeb'as does it, because I can imagine a way to combine the explorative mode of the dungeon crawl with a story about a group of characters inhabiting a home. For example, this could be a template for a really interesting urban adventure set in Waterdeep, or Planescape, or many other settings.

It also puts me in mind of Gloomhave, which unlocks a tree of adventures and upgrades your setting as play progresses (it also has stickers).

Food

There’s so much more I could say about the games we played and the conversations we had, but I’m going to leave with a mention of some of the food. This gathering always features copious amounts of food prepared by the folks attending. One of the highlights this year was a fabulous bean and spinach soup prepared from this cookbook: Gaza on a Plate Recipes of Love and Tradition. I recommend anyone to check it out.

Until next time, as much as you are able, play games with your friends, eat good food, and be cozy when you can.