Throughout history, games have served humans as competition, recreation, socialization and a way to sharpen skills, all in the name of good fun. The Lititz Game Club takes its fun very seriously.

The Lititz Game Club is a small group of local gaming aficionados who gather regularly to play a variety of games, mostly of the tabletop variety. The members are motivated by several stimuli, but none more important than a pure love for games.

"Games as a whole essentially bring joy and bring people together," said Brent Keath, the organizer of the Lititz Game Club. "Historically, games have always allowed people to have fun. I define games as a fun activity. It's fun that happens in a different format. They can make us laugh. They can make us think. I think the thing with games is that they let you see how other people play them."

The Lititz Game Club is very informal. Meetings, which are held the first and third Wednesdays of every month, from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Lititz Public Library, 651 Kissel Hill Road, are "meet-ups," or simply opportunities to interact and play games.

In the same vein, there are no formal members, just players or "gamers" with only first names.

"I think the club challenges people's assumption of what games are," said Keath, a resident of Lititz. "I think a lot of people say, 'I don't play games. I'm not a gamer.' My response is, 'You just haven't played the right game.' Maybe the question should be, 'Which game would I like?' We're a group of people in Lititz who get together to play games."

Typically, anywhere from 10 to 19 gamers show up at Lititz Game Club regular meet-ups. A lot of attendees play "lighter hobby games" or ones a little less traditional than, say, Monopoly, Scrabble or Risk.

"They tend to be more strategic than typical games," said Keath. "They're games you can teach in five to 10 minutes; they take 45 to 60 minutes to play and they usually involve three to six players. Everything we do is on a table. They tend to be games from smaller markets, so people tend to be less familiar with them."

"Some games are cooperative," Keath continued. "We're working together towards a common goal, and players either lose together or win together."

What separates board games from some electronic games is their social aspects.

"This is just a social activity," said Keath. "It's a very niche sort of hobby. I have friends from across Lancaster County and we get together to play board games. When you own a board game, you can play with whoever you want, anytime you want, wherever you want. It's a social activity in a box."

After moving to Lititz in 2020, Keath started the Lititz Game Club in March of 2023. The club serves as a chapter of the Central Pennsylvania Game Club, which is located in Harrisburg.

"The level of competitiveness varies on an individual basis," said Keath. "The one thing I've learned about board games is that there's not a fair playing field. What we've learned is that people improve every time they play a game. The more people play, the less individual bias affects them."