Roll The Dice

Introduce yourself!
Hello, I’m Lucien, and I’m a freelance video editor. Outside of work, I love playing board games and I like to organise board game nights for board game cafés. I’m even designing games of my own right now, but only for myself and friends to play with.

Fun! What’s your favourite board game?
It’s a bit niche, but it’s this game called Unmatched. It’s a combat game where you have all these different mythological and legendary characters—like Sherlock Holmes fighting with Alice in Wonderland, you know? It has an absurd combination of characters, which to me is fun because I love games that are asymmetrical and let you play as different characters and start on different playing fields, with everyone having a different sort of function.

How did you first get into board games?
I mean, this hobby started maybe 20 years ago, so I can’t quite recall how I got into it, but board games are just so many different things to me. It’s an excuse for friends to get together, and also an excuse for friends to open up and have fun without alcohol, you know? Like when you get into a good game and you’re really into it, you get more excited and give a lot more energy, which is so much fun! Not saying that there can’t be alcohol or anything, but it’s just a wholesome way of letting loose. It’s also a safe space and time to experience losing, because if you lose in a board game, it doesn’t mean anything. At the end of the day, it’s all about that community.

Agreed! So would you say you’re now more comfortable with losing, not just in board games, but maybe in other aspects of life as well?
Well, yes because I’m usually the game master, so I don’t care if I lose—I just want everyone to have a good time! And I have a big capacity for games, so I like anything from casual to deep games. It all depends on the crowd that I’m organising for and their propensity for certain games, which most of the time are simple, casual games. But it’s still fun because we get to hang out, and that’s the main point of it all.

We all need that one friend!
Yeah, someone has to be that cringe guy, right? (laughs) But all jokes aside, I would ideally love to make a career out of facilitating games if I could. As an introvert, it’s very fulfilling to bring a group of people together and have them get all excited and just enjoy themselves. It’s a collective experience that I really appreciate.

So is that your goal for this year? To try to turn this hobby into something more sustainable?
More than that, I would just love to live more honestly this year and discover who I am and live a life true to that through my decisions and my relationships with people. Singapore is so structured and life here tends to follow a set script, so if everyone could just be themselves without the pressure to fit in, life would be so much more fun and diverse.