Fort Mill couple bringing board gamers together

About once a week, Mark and Gina Kale pillage, destroy or generally off each other. Neither takes it personally. It’s all, quite literally, fun and games.

“We’d be divorced by now if we did,” said Mark, a trucking dispatcher who moved to Fort Mill three years ago.

“For all the times I’ve killed him, sent him to jail, convinced someone else to shoot him,” said wife Gina, a Charlotte banker and former toy store operator for 15 years.

The Kales play board games. But not the kind most people imagine. Other than Monopoly, the couple has a hard time naming many popular games on the market. Yet an entire room of their home is filled with complex games of various sorts, which they know like the backs of their boxes.

“They’re higher strategy games,” Mark said. “They’re usually considered hobby or craft games. They’re made by smaller companies that cater to the board gaming community.”

In recent years, the Kales found and fostered a growing board game community in the area. Now they’re hosting MegaMooseCon — think ComiCon, but board games — this weekend at the Gateway Conference Center in Richburg. Near halfway between the Columbia and Charlotte markets, the event should draw 150 or more players.

MegaMooseCon will have an escape room and some role play games. The main attraction is the board games. Explaining those games to the uninitiated can be a task. There are “Euro” games, which Mark explains as “mostly cubes you just push around.” The “Ameritrash” games are thematic with direct conflict. There are party games. They range from single player to 25 people, 10 minute play time to eight hours.

A few games just defy explanation.

“The goal of that game is to build sushi rolls,” Mark said, pointing to one at his home. “If you do it ‘with style,’ you get a piece of wasabi, which earns you points.”

Another game involves intergalactic long haul trucking.

“You build a spaceship from various parts, and the idea is to fly it across the galaxy and still have the most pieces left,” Mark said.

Like many gamers, the Kales found The Settlers of Catan as a “gateway game.” They met people online for games, which can be tricky.

“It was nice,” Mark said. “People were really welcoming, but you can imagine going on the Internet and saying, ‘hey, we’re playing at our house, come on over.’ ”

Five years ago, when the Kales both turned 40, they held “TurkeyCon,” a board game event the day after Thanksgiving.

“The idea was the wives would go out shopping, and the husbands would go out to play,” Gina said.

Except for Gina, of course.

“I think I was the only girl there,” she said.

Players insisted on more events, which grew to quarterly “MooseCon” gatherings of about 50 players at the Moose Lodge in Rock Hill. The Kales said gatherings would continue as long as players chip in for the facility cost. They haven’t run dry yet.

“We decided to step it up a level, and let’s do a big one,” Gina said.

Hence MegaMooseCon this weekend. Established and new games will be there with prototypes and vendors. Most games will last between an hour or two. Drawings for board games will be held throughout the weekend, and there will be special guests. Newbies are welcome along with more seasoned players. Board gamers are a welcoming and understanding community, Gina said.

“You can kill someone,” she said. “We’re not going to hold a grudge. It’s OK.”

This story was originally published July 19, 2016 at 9:20 AM with the headline "Fort Mill couple bringing board gamers together."