What do Monopoly, Dungeons and Dragons and Old Maid have in common? They’re all games, which is the focus of a fairly new NIU club.

The Gaming Guild is starting its third year at NIU and involves the members getting together to play games.

The club has open meetings from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays in the Holmes Student Center, room 406, where people can learn about the organization and participate in games.

“We provide an opportunity for students, faculty and community members to relax and be sociable through games,” said Nikki Parchomenko-Marten, president of the Gaming Guild.

There are basically four types of categories of games played. They are board games, card games, role-playing games and miniature war games.

Parchomenko-Marten said the role-playing games are comparable to Dungeons and Dragons. There is no board, and you create your own world and go around in this world trying to complete your goal.

The miniature war game has miniature fighting men on a battlefield. “This is the coolest game. The members paint all the miniatures and they are in such intricate detail that if you saw them in full color in front of a battlefield, you would be in awe,” Parchomenko-Marten said.

Each type of game is offered every night of the week in different locations around campus, and members can choose what type of game they would like to participate in that night. Parchomenko-Marten said a lot of people have a favorite game and they just basically focus on that particular type of game.

The members are free to put as much or as little time into the club as they wish and there are no fees to pay, although Parchomenko-Marten said members are encouraged to pay a $3 semester donation, which will allow them a 15 percent discount at The Northern Lights Bookstore.

The Gaming Guild has about 50 members and this is the first year it is advertising and putting on special events. It recently had its first social, ” … where we talked to each other instead of playing games,” she said.

From 8 to 11 p.m. Friday, in the Heritage Room of the Holmes Student Center, the club plans to hold its first big event, which is a masquerade ball and a murder mystery. This event is open to all and is free of charge.

Parchomenko-Marten said the founder of the Gaming Guild is Mark Apolinski, and she got in touch with him when she saw a flier he put out looking for people interested in role-playing games.

Apolinski’s roommate was into board games, and the card games and miniature war games started as the interest grew and people started to bring in more friends and share information.

“The biggest thing we promote is to use leisure time in a healthy, creative way. It is very easy to get involved with this every night of the week, but our purpose is to relieve stress from school, not to create more stress by getting behind,” Parchomenko-Marten said.

For more information on the Gaming Guild, call 756-1574.