GAMING IN TAIWAN

Author Joel Haslam

Photographer BG Hut

Editor Chih Yi Chen (Chelsea)

It may be finding Wingspan in Target, Ticket to Ride on Saturday Night Live, or the eager friend at a party encouraging you to play Werewolf or Codenames; everywhere you look, board games are on the up.

Forget your childhood copies of Monopoly and Scrabble, board games have come a long way since then. With the advent of crowdfunding platforms like Gamefound and Kickstarter, board gaming has grown into a multimillion-dollar business.

Since the explosion of the “gateway” euros like Catan and Ticket to Ride, (so named after the style of game that developed in Germany after World War 2; games that eschew direct conflict in favor of things like resource conversion, trading, and worker selection) the last twenty years have seen a year-on-year increase in board games being made, publicized, and distributed. With more than 1,000 new games hitting the shelves each year you may be keen to keep up with the latest board game hotness when overseas.

Bg Hut: Taipei’s Board Game Gem

This brings us neatly to the jewel of Taipei’s board gaming scene, BG Hut. Like most board game stores in Taiwan, BG Hut is hidden away on an upper floor of a non-descript concrete block. Nestled on a junction of Chongqing South Road, in a busy part of Taipei Main Station, at number 43, on the second floor, you can find all the latest in card and cardboard.

Just past the pepper bun store, once you decode the yellow wall sign inside the street level corridor, take the elevator up to floor 2. As the elevator doors slide open you will be greeted with a life-size R2D2 behind a plate glass beauty parlor window. Turn right and you have arrived.

BG Hut was opened in 2008 and moved to its current location in 2018. It stocks a wide variety of small, large, and heavy games in both Chinese and English. (Heavy being a descriptor of how many rules a game contains and how long it takes to learn to play).

What’s Inside?

Open the door and you are greeted by row upon row of the latest, and most popular, board games. Starting with small card games and progressing to big boxes and new arrivals the store is roughly divided into English-language games on the left and Chinese-language games on the right. For the savvy shopper, a quick visit to the website BoardGameGeek (BGG.com; a website that ranks and describes almost every known board game in the world) will identify those games that are language-free or feature very little text allowing you to pick up some of the harder-to-find games in Chinese at a (usually) lower price; it’s even possible to find the Chinese language version of games that have not yet had an official retail release.

Starting after the small card games by the entrance you can find a wide selection of the definitive gateway games; (games suitable for those new to the board gaming hobby); Pandemic, Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, and a few heavier classics like Dominion.  Above them is an array of the latest games to hit retail and on the opposite shelves is a healthy range of games starting from simple kids’ games like Safari and progressing up to the heavy (both physically and in terms of complexity) classics of Vital Lacerda: Vinhos, the Gallerist, and Weather Machine to name a few. On the back wall are mainly mid to heavy ‘euros’; there are some great gems to be found here including an English language version of the highly sought after Dwellings of Eldervale (if you are strong enough to carry it home).

The games range from around 400-800NT for the small card games, 1,000-1,500NT for small box games, and up to 4,000 or 5,000NT for the big heavy euros like the deluxe Lacerda’s. As mentioned, the Chinese versions are generally cheaper provided you can translate them. 

Meet the Owner

The friendly owner, Mr.Alvin (Peng Renyou；彭任右), says that he started the store when he and his fellow friends, who were members of a small game group, found that games were both expensive and difficult to import; the majority of games being published in English language only versions. Mr.Alvin began to import games primarily to feed his small game group, and as interest grew, BG Hut was born.

When asked how he selects the games, Mr.Alvin says he chooses the games that are award-winning, highly discussed, or the most aesthetically pleasing with either unique gameplay or high ratings.

A small group of three or four employees work for Mr.Alvin and the staff are all very friendly and helpful although with (admittedly) a range of English speaking ability; Mr.Ken is the most proficient and very knowledgeable when it comes to the latest board games.

Mr.Alvin says that the store sees visits from around 20 foreigners a day, with the majority of customers being from Hong Kong, followed by those from Japan, South Korea, the US, India, and Brazil.

What’s in it for You?

BGHut offers a loyalty scheme that gives a generous 15% discount to purchases and hosts a gaming library where you can rent a table and play a large selection of games for 70NT an hour. They also offer a range of gaming accessories like dice and card sleeves and are happy to order a game for you providing it is in stock and you make a deposit payment of 10%. Whilst you can find board games cafes all over Taipei that will let you sit and play games from a small library for a similar price there are only really two other game stores that can compare to BG Hut; the first is JOOL- a hard-to-find second-floor store on Fuxing North Road(復興北路) just past the roundabout where Fuxing North meets Minquan East Road. In the past few years, JOOL has shrunk its English language game collection so it now occupies only one shelf unit. The second is Sunny Board Games found on the back street of Civic Boulevard where it meets Guangfu South Road. Sunny Board games occasionally hold a distributor sale where you can pick up a classic for less than 1,000NT although they no longer stock any English language games at all. If all else fails, the thirsty gamer can turn to the internet and search one of Taipei’s Facebook game groups (although the best ones are predominantly Chinese and trade in mostly Chinese language games) or the online store Shoppee; a variable selection but still some great deals to found.

Wherever you end up, playing anything from a loud party game to a quiet solo, enjoy and have fun at the table!