The Journey Begins

Gday, Mates!

Welcome to Derferd’s Boardgame Expeditions. My actual name is Fred Prueter and I currently live in Sheboygan, WI. I picked the nickname, Derferd, because it is unique and it’s fun for me to watch people faces figure out where I came up with it. Here is a hint: Look at the letters of my nickname really close. I grew up in Plainfield, IL (Yes, I was there for the F5 tornado. No. I did not see the Wicked Witch of the West flying by) and then bounced around until about 10 years ago. At that time I met the love of my life, Keri, and wanted to settle down somewhere between where I was currently living, Lake Geneva, WI and Green Bay, WI where Keri was living. Sure enough, Sheboygan fit the bill and we have been lucky and/or blessed since then.

For as long as I can remember, I love to play games. I started to play card games with my parents and siblings ranging from hearts, spades, and crazy eights. Later on, there were traditional board games like Monopoly and Sorry. Unfortunately, when I became a teenager, nobody in my family wanted to play board, tabletop, and card games with me (Cue sad music) 😦 . I filled in the gap between the years of then and now with video games, but it was a lonely experience. It wasn’t until I moved to Sheboygan, WI that I was able to get back to playing board games with people. I made friends with some people from my church who are big into playing board games and I mean “big”. Their house had as many board games as a small game store in Milwaukee! I was able to try modern board games like Settlers of Catan, Citadel, and Mysterium and fell in love all over again. That was about 6 years ago and have been playing new and exciting games coming into market ever since.

Now, I have decided to write this blog in hopes to either reignite people’s lost passion for board games or to encourage people to try them out. Board games are so much different than they were years ago. There are strategy, D&D, deck-building, and cooperative board games that are challenging as well as fun to play. Please join me on my journey in exploring the new and upcoming games being developed and released to us.

“The way a man plays a game shows some of his character. The way he loses shows all of it.” – Uncredited.