As a New Years Eve tradition, both last year and again this year, I have put on “Boda Borg Columbus” to serve as a “year-in-review” game, based on our fun experience at Boda Borg Boston.
If you’re unfamiliar with Boda Borg, see last year’s post for a longer description.
Here were the rooms this year:
1 - Twister Trivia
Players had to step on tiles on a twister mat corresponding with answers to trivia questions from 2020, without stepping on any of the white parts of the mat.
2 - Party like it’s 2020
Players were given 20 wooden blocks, each of which had one of the numbers from 1-20 written on it, along with a person’s name (someone personally known by at least one member of the group), and some colorful symbols. There were also three six-foot long strings, a rectangle taped on the floor, and a floor lamp labeled “Party Light”. A sign told players to “Party like it’s 1999”. When matching symbols were placed together, the blocks formed a rectangular puzzle that fit inside the tape rectangle. If they players turned on the Party light after the puzzle was complete, they moved to the next phase.
The sign was then changed to “Party like it’s 2020”, and the light was turned off. At this point, if players turned the light back on, the GM (me) rolled a D20. After finding the block corresponding to the number on the D20, I pulled out a measuring tape and measured the distance to the nearest block. If it was less than 6 feet, players failed the room. Of course, the first time players enter the room, it’s entirely unclear what’s going to happen. So this generally looked like fretting about what to do, eventually turning the “Party Light” back on, me inexplicably rolling a die, pulling out a tape measure, and measuring something.
3 - The Zoom of Doooom
Several laptops and phones were set up in a multi-way Zoom call. Players had to end the Zoom call without being seen. This involved crawling under tables, and one group managed to close one of the laptops to reduce the number of cameras they had to avoid.
Stamp
After solving all three puzzles consecutively, players could stamp the 2020 stamp into their Boda Borg passport. Note that I’ve reversed the image of the stamp, so that it can be read more easily.