Critical Miss is an on-campus club that facilitates various tabletop board games and card games. They offer weekly Board Game Nights in the cafeteria of the Smith Memorial Student Union. Students can freely partake in a wide array of games, including Catan, Ticket to Ride and Cards Against Humanity. They also help students create small groups who meet for more long-form games, like Dungeons & Dragons. These small group sessions usually happen outside of regular club meeting times and are scheduled at the players’ discretion.
“ I think that play is something that we really lose starting at around our age,” said Melina Jacklet, an officer for the club.
They elaborated on how board games can be a great way to connect with your community and how joining this club helped them meet people when they first came to PSU.
Members of the group can find camaraderie in the world-building based games like Dungeons & Dragons, where participants role-play as characters of their own creation. Jacklet mentions how role-playing games have been an avenue for players to explore new kinds of self-expression and identity through their characters.
The group’s main line of communication is through a bustling Discord server. Scrolling through, you’ll find loads of text channels dedicated to specific games, groups and topics. Joining the server is commonly met with many greetings from current members, and a sense of welcoming is clear. Their weekly Board Game Nights feature a long table packed to the edge with games of many kinds that participants can pull from, but students are allowed to bring their own games as well.
The club provides a space for students of diverse interests to come together and share the experience of joy through board games. Whether it’s an epic quest of might in Pathfinder or a casual game of Checkers, this club will surely lead students to finding community on-campus.
Critical Miss’s Board Game Nights happen every Friday from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the Smith Memorial Student Union cafeteria.
