About 25 game enthusiasts spent nearly seven hours together on October 25, rolling dice, moving pieces, and playing cards in dozens of games at the year’s first Games Club Lock-in at Fossil Ridge High School.

During lock-ins, held three or four times each school year, students play games with friends and meet people with common interests. 

“The type of kids that come to [lock-ins], a lot of the time, are the kids that don’t have a lot of other places they feel comfortable,” said English and Journalism teacher Nick Peardot, who has sponsored the club for the last four years. “A lot of the things we do here are stigmatized as nerdy or uncool, but I think that kids that come here find a spot where they can be safe and do what they like to do.”

Lock-ins provide a different environment than the usual Games Club meetings. The Friday nights from 4:30 to 11:00 p.m. allow students to play games that may take longer than the normal two-hour club times after school on Tuesdays.

“It allows us to use more time to play longer things and do more stuff,” club leader and senior Alex Harglroad said. “There’s a lot of things that are very time dependent.”

Students are welcome to the lock-ins even if they do not belong to Games Club or have not played a lot of games.

“The good thing about [them] is that we oftentimes get quite a few people that aren’t involved in the club. They’re brought by their friends, or they see the signage around the building,” Peardot said.

The evening was a surprise for first-timer freshman Samer Adbo. 

“I had a lot of friends [at lock-in] and I thought it would be fun to play ‘Magic: the Gathering’,” Adbo said. “It was a lot more fun than I expected.”

Some members do have suggestions on improvements for future lock-ins. 

“I think that they’re always a little bit disorganized to be honest, we could manage them a little bit better,” Harglroad said. “[We could have] some more stuff, like events and things to do.”

Even in its current state students still have fun at lock-ins, which is what they are meant for.

“I think that people would like things like door prizes or raffles or tournaments,” Peardot said. “Our model of just making it a thing for the people and to have fun, I think it’s great. I like that.”