Meeples in your neighborhood: Jason Vanstone

By Carmen Pauls Orthner

Curious as to how a biologist became a board gamer? Blame the zombies.

Jason Vanstone is a leader with Play with Your Food as PwYF’s Social Media Coordinator. He’s clearly a smart, creative, out-of-the-box thinker – and if this was a zombie apocalypse movie, he’d be right on the frontlines. Instead, he’s on the frontlines of helping to solve complex issues in entirely different ways in his professional and personal life.

Jason spends his working hours as a research scientist with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, seeking to improve clinical care and the stewardship of the province’s health care resources.

As to what fuels Jason up during his leisure time, we have to go back to the zombies – or rather, Zombies!!!, the 2002 restless dead-battling board game that turned an innocent undergraduate into a devoted board gamer willing to work tirelessly to raise money for Carmichael Outreach, all in order to feel like a zombie himself after 24 consecutive hours of board gaming.

Jason has been playing games since childhood, starting with classic board games and card games with family at home or at their cabin. Jason was about 12 when his dad introduced him to chess, igniting an interest in strategy games. Soon thereafter, he discovered HeroQuest, which introduced him to fantasy dungeon crawlers, and in high school, he started playing Magic the Gathering.

“But it wasn’t until my undergrad that a friend brought out Zombies!!! for a game night, and my passion for hobby board games really took off,” Jason says. “Living on a graduate student salary in Ottawa hampered my ability to really dig into the hobby, but as I found a group of friends there who also enjoyed gaming, I started into Magic the Gathering once again and began to find more and more board games I enjoyed.”

For Jason, board gaming is a way escape from the stresses of everyday life, “to be able to sit down with a group of friends or family for an hour or two and just enjoy the twists and turns of a good strategy game, or the silly hijinks of lighter games.” He has always liked worker placement and dice games, but more recently has really started to enjoy games that feature multi-use cards. “If you have to make tough, agonizing decisions in a game, about which card to play or which move to make, I love it,” he says.

“I’m a true nerd in all aspects of my life, so a good science-themed game or anything to do with ancient history or civilizations is something that immediately attracts me to a game,” Jason says. He is especially fond of “heavy euros” with scientific or political themes, anything Star Wars-related, and games based on real-world history, such as Wir Sind Das Volk – a game about the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall – and Watergate, which was inspired by the Washington Post’s investigation of Richard Nixon.

Jason feels very fortunate to have found a solid group of friends to play with in Regina. He’ll sometimes play with his wife Megan or other relatives as well, and he’s now working on building the next generation of Vanstone gamers. “My two boys are really getting into the hobby, and we are able to play bigger and more complex games with each new game learned,” he says.

“For me, playing board games is a way to spend time, face-to-face, with other people,” Jason says. “Online board games or video games – while a great relief during the recent pandemic – just don’t scratch the same itch as sitting around a table with friends and family, rolling the dice in your hands, or seeing the expression on your opponent’s face when you take that worker-placement spot they really needed!”

“I think this has always been true for me. I love the competition and exploring the puzzle of a new game, or even an old favourite,” he adds. “The scientist in me loves to identify a problem and find the solution and board games provide just that – how do I get the best score with what I have in front of me, or how do I win this one?”

He also feels fortunate to have found the board gaming community in Regina, and he’s grateful for all that ChewsDay Challenge and Play with Your Food have done to grow the hobby in the city. After attending local gaming events and joining a team started by his Dungeons & Dragons group, Jason started his own team last year to bring more people on board. The six new teammates dubbed themselves The Sinister Six – after the Spider-Man villain team of the same name – and they’re back for their second year as a group.

After two years as PwYF’s social media coordinator, Jason will be stepping down after this campaign, but it’s a role he’s greatly enjoyed – especially the community engagement part. “I often get a chuckle from the comments and jokes that are shared by others, and always laugh at my own dumb jokes I build into the posts,” he says. “And it’s always heartwarming to see the connections that people create through this medium and the real sense of compassion and community that rallies around the cause we are all working towards.”

“It’s so great to see the contributions that this community makes toward Carmichael Outreach and to learn about the programs that are supported through our efforts,” Jason adds. “To be able to volunteer even a small amount of my time to help that come to fruition is very rewarding. It’s also a joy to get to work with other people who share the same passion.

“At a time where I find my faith in humanity is often dwindling, Play with Your Food reminds me that there are people in the world who truly care about others and are willing to put in the effort to make the world a better place.”

We’re glad you’re part of that effort, Jason – and we’ll be in touch if we ever find our city overrun with zombies!