While Caroline Pace and her buddies are stretching their craniums in South Philadelphia, some regulars are pursuing trivial matters in Bryn Mawr. And from Central Pennsylvania, college students are striving to dominate the world. It's all fun and board games.

Around the region and beyond, players in their 20s, 30s and up are making moves (not that kind!) at an increasing number of game nights that feature old-fashioned fun, from Trivial Pursuit, Cranium and Risk to even that sweet, old staple, Candy Land. Gamers can get a fix at bookstores, colleges, coffee shops, bars, parties, even grocery stores and movie theaters. Once a month, Pace, 24, a third-year medical student at Temple University who grew up in West Chester, gathers with her friends for games.

"We're all intelligent people," she said of her law school, graduate school, pharmacy school gang. "We've never been into drinking and bars and clubs and stuff. We got into board games, the nerdy side of us... . It lets you be goofy and act the age we all wished we were." In the past, the friends have drawn pictures and molded clay, Cranium-style. On Saturday, Trivial Pursuit was on the menu for an annual "fake Thanksgiving dinner" the weekend before Turkey Day. "Once you start talking about it, you realize a lot of people play board games," Pace said.

Game nights are retro cool social events, minus the bar scene (and bar tab) that many Xers say they have outgrown. But game nights also conjure images of more carefree, simpler times for a stressed, wired generation, trend spotters say. "It's kind of cool to unplug from the Net, from the cell phone, from everything around you," said David Morrison, president of TWENTYSOMETHING Inc., a Philadelphia marketing consultancy. "It's nice to have something old-fashioned that doesn't require a battery." Consumers apparently agree. Family board game sales have increased 7 percent through August, compared to the same eight-month period in 2003, according to one study. That gain should grow as the holiday buying season approaches.

And no wonder. Barnes & Noble in Bryn Mawr holds Scrabble and occasional trivia matches. Online networks are posting game socials. College students are forming clubs. A California movie house keeps a stash of games in its lobby. During its "games and grooves" night, the Whistle Stop Bar in San Diego puts out classics: Battleship, Operation, Connect Four. The Devon Whole Foods Market rolled the dice on a Monday game night this fall, adding it to its mix of cooking lessons and networking events, as "a great way to meet other people on a budget," marketing assistant Erin Routzahn said. Yahtzee was the name of the game last month. "It doesn't take a skill set. It's not leaving anyone out." Attendance has been spotty at the Devon store, with the October game night drawing only two - an older, married couple. But the chain's South Street location, which has hosted twice-a-week game nights for more than 18 months, gets up to a dozen for Scrabble or classics such as Trouble and Candy Land. Others are turning to social networks to bring out those looking to make friends over Monopoly and the like. Last month, Liz Gable, 32, got 13 others to come out for three hours of playing at Infusion Coffee & Tea in her Mount Airy neighborhood through a posting at Philadelphia People Connection and elsewhere. She plans to have another game night in the new year. "It was awesome," she said. "It's a different way of meeting people."

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