Occasionally we feature a post from our friends at The Malted Meeple. This time around, it’s about something many geeks can understand – the camaraderie of gaming.

It is 1:00 AM. There are four of us huddled around a piano bench on the porch of a cabin in the middle of the woods.

Our group was quiet, because the wives were asleep in the cabins. We are – quietly – building a haunted house, only to find out soon that one of us is a traitor.

This past weekend I stayed at Ravenwood Castle with my wife and 13 of our friends. My wife and I both turned 30 this year and we wanted to celebrate by staying at the castle. We stayed at a part of the castle called The Huntsman’s Hollow. It is a private area that we had all to ourselves because of the size of our group. There are five cabins in the Hollow, that can sleep about four people per cabin.

The game we played the most during our stay was Betrayal at House on the Hill. It is an exciting game where the players place tiles to represent the exploration of the house. Players draw cards as they explore the house that affect one another. Over time, one of these cards and a paired dice roll will trigger “The Haunt”. Once “The Haunt” is revealed, one of the players will become the traitor, and their goal will be to defeat the other players.

We had all enjoyed our time with the game so much that we had to play it one more time before bedtime. Although we loved the game, our wives were more interested in sleeping than participating. Because of the need for sleep, we were subject to playing under porch light, with the beers that were leftover at the end of the trip. Sure, we could have walked to the castle and played in the pub and selected from the great beer menu. However, the charm of the porch and piano bench kept us in the Hollow.

Read the conclusion of this gaming adventure on the Meeple Moments blog.