From Uno No Mercy to Yutnori: Our International Board Game Night

    How did you spend your weekend? Last Saturday, Sept. 20, I had a very special evening with friends. Two friends from Ohio, one friend from Taiwan and another Korean friend joined me at Honors House for a Board Game Night. It was my first time playing board games with friends from so many different countries, so I was excited even before we started. 

 

    We began with a board game called Uno No Mercy. I’ve played plenty of regular Uno, but this was my first time trying this version. Uno No Mercy has a variety of draw cards, and if you end up with more than 25 cards you’re eliminated. It also adds new rules like stacking, swapping and passing. It took me a while to get used to them, and I came in last, but the game was still a lot of fun.

    Next we played some traditional Korean board games. My Korean friend and I had brought Yutnori and Gonggi from Korea. Have you ever heard of Yutnori? The game uses four wooden sticks called yut that are rounded on one side and flat on the other. In simple terms, they act like dice. You throw the sticks, move your pieces according to the result and score a point by bringing all your pieces back to the starting point.

Basic rules of Yutnori

• One flat side is Do, two is Gae, three is Geol, four is Yut and zero is Mo.

• You move your pieces according to the number of flat sides, but mo lets you move five spaces.

• You get an extra throw if you roll Yut or Mo or if your piece lands on a square already occupied by an opponent’s piece, which sends their piece back to the start.

    Our friends listened carefully as we explained the rules and asked lots of questions, which we were happy to answer. Even though none of them except the two of us had ever played before, our international friends turned out to be surprisingly good at it.

    We ended the night with Clue, a mystery-based board game. It’s popular in Korea, so my board-game-loving friends play it almost every day. I had only played it once back home, so even though I tried hard I didn’t fully understand what was happening. Still, the process of solving the mystery was so entertaining that we ended up playing Clue for nearly three hours.

    Playing different board games with friends from several countries gave me more than just fun. It was also a chance to share our cultures and gaming styles. I hope to host more board game nights like this, learn new games and create even more special memories with my friends.