January 23, 2025 1:56 PM
Sequence
I first played the game Sequence when I was in...high school maybe? I don't really remember when it was, but I remember that it was my aunt (on my dad's side) that introduced me to the game. We were having a little family board game night, and Sequence was nice because you could play it with a lot of people and it only took a few minutes to explain the rules.
Everyone is dealt a hand of cards, and on your turn you 1) put a card down, 2) place a chip on a spot on the board that corresponds to your card, and 3) pick up another card. You ultimately just have to get five chips in a row. If you have more than three players involved, it becomes a team game, but there's a twist. You don't know what cards your teammates have, and there is no table talk allowed.
.-~-. .' _ `. : )_( ; .-~-. '.___.' .' _ `. : )_( ; .-~-. '.___.' .' _ `. : )_( ; '.___.' The game comes with blue, green, and red chips
After we played it a few times, I was convinced that I wanted to buy myself a copy of the game, and I ended up bringing it with me to college. During my sophomore year, the school received a whole bunch of bomb threats and we were frequently evacuated from buildings. There was one night where I got evacuated from my dorm building, and I decided to bring my copy of Sequence to the other building that we had to go to. It was a good idea, because we were stuck there for at least an hour and my friends and I had a great time playing it.
I also have very fond memories of the night that I played round after round of Sequence with a boy that I had recently met. It was the night before I had a final math paper due, and I literally stayed up all night just playing Sequence with him! I ended up writing that paper the next morning and turning it in shortly before the 5pm deadline. I got a C+ in that class, and I had never felt so relieved just to pass a class.
,^. /\ _ _ _ / \ / \ _( )_ ( `V' ) (_, ._) \ / (_. ._) `. .' /_\ \/ /_\ " It also includes a double deck of playing cards
Along with introducing the game to friends, I also introduced it to my mom's family. And my mom was even more hooked than I was. We taught my grandma how to play, which was easy to do because it doesn't matter what language you speak. All you have to do is be able to identify playing cards on a board. My mom ended up buying several copies of the game, and she brought it with her on a trip to Germany to introduce it to even more relatives, and they all loved it too!
Sequence became my family's go-to game to play. We love to joke around and yell "No cahoot-ing!" at each other. We like it so much that we've bought different versions of the game, and we'll usually play with our set of Jumbo Sequence (which is honestly less jumbo than you'd think, compared to the size of the container it comes in). I think we've bought at least 10 copies of this game between all the different family members.
_______________________________ | ___________SEQUENCE__________ | ||@@|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|@@|| ||__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|| ||__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|| ||__|__|__|__|__|__|()|__|__|__|| ||__|__|__|__|()|__|()|__|__|__|| ||__|__|__|__|__|()|()|__|__|__|| ||__|__|__|__|__|()|__|__|()|__|| ||__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|| ||__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|| ||@@|__|__|__|__|__|__|()|()|@@|| |____________SEQUENCE___________| And a board! Each spot on the board has a card on it, but I can't really add all that in the ascii art
There was definitely a time in my life where I would have said that Sequence was my favorite board game. But as the years have gone by, that enjoyment has definitely waned. It's not really a game that has too much strategy involved. It really is mostly luck based. And after playing so much Sequence, I hit a point where I was just all Sequence'd out.
So every time I go home to visit family, there's a pretty good chance that we'll play Sequence at least once. At this point, it's something that the older family members enjoy a lot more. For us "kids", it's less about playing a fun game, and more about spending time with the rest of the family. So I'll still join for a few rounds, but I'm usually the one that has to tap out early.
I still have a copy of Sequence on my shelf. It mostly collects dust nowadays, but I don't think I could ever get rid of it. I don't think I'll ever be the one to suggest playing it, but it's good to have, just in case my mom is visiting and she really wants to play.