Board games often simulate dangerous situations in a safe environment, allowing children to engage in aquatic battles and senior citizens to deftly navigate a hazardous path of snakes and ladders. Face the danger with today's Groupon: for $13, you get $30 worth of games at Strategies Games & Hobbies on Main Street.

With an emphasis on fantasy and strategy and an outsize library of games, Strategies vends a virtual bumper crop of board, book, and card-based amusements. Bring a stagnant bash back from the brink with myriad party games ($16.99–$59.99), such as Apples to Apples ($39.99), the award winning, card-garnering match-'em-up that pits friend against friend in a battle of wits and free association. Hash out long-standing rivalries with siblings or pets in the safe, pseudo-aquatic forum of Battleship ($32.99), or distract precocious child detectives from discovering your candy smuggling ring with Clue Jr. ($28.99). Board game traditionalists can practice their castles and captures on a portable wooden folding chess set or their marble moving skills with travel Mancala ($25.00).

Strategies stocks a whole host of Dungeons & Dragons gamebooks ($12.99–$44.99) and hosts gaming events each month, including open board game Fridays, where guests can join games or bring their own. Miniaturists can brush up on their brush work with free figure painting lessons running from 10:15 a.m. to 12 p.m. every Saturday. Spaces are limited, so sign up in advance.

Reviews

Three Google Mappers give Strategies Games and Hobbies an average rating of five stars:

• This store is ace. I have gone a few time [sic] with my friends and this place tailors to everyone. The staff are pretty friendly and I have never had a bad experience. They even do special orders and I can always get what I want. – Google Mapper, 05,15, 2010