Chicago · board games · adult friendship
Find board games friends in Chicago.
Board game nights are one of the best adult-friendship contexts for introverts and analytical types. The game carries the social weight; conversation happens naturally between turns.
Why Chicago works for this
The Chicago board games scene, briefly
Friendly Midwestern social code, dense neighborhoods, real seasons that produce shared-suffering bonding. Underrated for adult friendship.
Are We Friends? matches you on personality first — the IPIP-NEO-120 Big Five test, ranked across the 30 facets that actually predict adult friendship — and then narrows by board games interest tags within your Chicago radius. The result: candidate friends who share your activity interest AND fit you on personality, not just one or the other.
How adults actually meet board games friends in Chicago
Three things that work
- Local board game cafes typically host weekly open nights — find one near you.
- Co-op games (Pandemic, Spirit Island) build friendships faster than competitive ones.
- D&D and other long-running campaign games are friendship-formation gold for committed groups.
Are We Friends? is a fourth channel — personality-matched one-on-one introductions you can use alongside the recurring activity above. The two channels reinforce each other; you don’t have to pick.
Activity-tag matching
How "board games" appears in your matching profile
Every Are We Friends? member tags interests during sign-up. You tag board games; we boost your match score with other Chicago-radius members who also tagged it. The personality overlap is the primary signal; the activity tag is the secondary boost. So you’ll see candidate friends ranked by how well your facet profiles fit AND whether you both actually want to do board games together.
The full matching model is documented at /personality-based-friend-matching. The Chicago city overview is at /chicago.
Frequently asked
Will I find board games friends in Chicago on Are We Friends??
Yes — assuming there are members in your radius who tagged board games as an interest. Chicago has an active member base; the board games subset is one of the more popular activity tags. If we don't have enough matches in your radius, the deck will tell you and recommend widening the filter.
Do I need to be a serious board games person to use this?
No. The matching is on personality + your declared interest. If board games is something you want to do MORE of, that's enough — you don't have to be experienced.
What's the matching radius?
Default is 50 km / ~30 mi from your set Chicago location. You can widen to 200 km or narrow to 5 km in settings.
Can I host a board games group meetup on Are We Friends??
Yes — Friend+ tier and above can host meetups (3-8 people). You set board games as the activity tag, the date, the venue, the headcount, and the platform invites compatible candidates ranked for personality fit + the activity.
Is this public or do I need to sign up?
This page is public. To actually see and message matches, you need a free account. Sign-up is at /sign-up.
Give it five minutes
Meet people who actually fit — and do something real.
Free tier: 5 matches/day, Chicago radius, board games tag built in. No card required.