Every fortnight for the past 6 months I've been getting together with a few blokes on Wednesday nights to play games. I have finally achieved what I've wanted for years - a regular games club where I'm not teaching and supplying everything (as is usually the case at the school club). Instead, I look forward to our club - Odin's Night - as a chance to hang out with a great bunch of gentleman gamers and play relaxed games of SAGA, Battle Group and whatever else takes our fancy.
Why the title of this post? Odin's Night came about through Facebook. Last year I decided to make a concerted push to try to get a games club happening. Frankly, I really needed it for my mental health, so with the full support of the Duchess I started looking at the practicalities. The first problem was finding a venue. I investigated a couple of local halls, but found myself suddenly looking at considerable expense and the need for public liability insurance. Sod that.
Meanwhile, I put a couple of posts up on Facebook asking who was interested in a regular gaming club. Straightway I had a couple of former students, now friends, reply. What I wasn't expecting though was that I had two colleagues from work approach me to tell me their partners were into these sorts of games but didn't have anyone to play with. Could they come along?
After a false start trying to use a local gaming venue that suddenly closed down, we also found a home. The nice people at Good Games at Chatswood were happy for us to use a table or two on Wednesday nights for free.
Since then we haven't looked back. We have a solid core group of five or so, with another couple of blokes who come along when they can. So my suggestion to you if you don't have any regular gaming buddies is to put a message out to your friends on Facebook and see what turns up.
As a much younger wargamer, I went to school at chatswood high... :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat outcome - I hope to join you there one evening!
ReplyDeleteFacebook does indeed have its uses!!
ReplyDeleteThat's great! A group of like minded gamers is one of life's great joys. Weekly games is even better!
ReplyDeleteGood news story. Sometimes it just takes that little push to get a group going.
ReplyDeleteGreat news mate! Nothing inspires painting like being able to use the stuff you paint on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteI love the efforts that you put in with the kids at school but agree that it can be a hard task at times when one has to supply it all (including enthusiasm after a hard day) but to get something running at a proper venue is great. Yet if I understand you a little from the blog posts no doubt you will still be brining all the toys to the club when you want to introduce the chaps to a new set of shiny rules and toys. Never the less well done sir.
ReplyDeleteNice one! It would be great to have something like that locally, with free use of the venue and like-minded gamers.
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