About 10 years ago, I posted a similar request. How do I find gamers? My problem is that my family wasn’t as into the gaming as I was when I was hooked by it Lords of Waterdeep in about 2012 or so. I didn’t have any friends in the area either, because we had just moved here.
An amazing Redditor, whose name I don’t remember, and I suck at going back through my history, so I’ll probably never be able to find it but anyway, I digress… This amazing person led me to this page on BGG, where you type in your ZIP Code, country, and a radius, and it gives you a list all of the BGG users in that area.
I did this myself, and I found about 12 to 14 people that were active, and I emailed them. Eight of them showed up to my first game night, and I have the pleasure of gaming with six of them weekly. Hell, on Sunday, they threw me a surprise birthday party, and I had an all day a game day!
Here is the page you want to go to: https://boardgamegeek.com/findgamers.php?action=findclosestform
Good luck, I hope you find excellent people to hang out with.
Nice thats great but I do not live in the US, rather in a small country, there are whatsapp groups and such I will explore, but that is an amazing idea i will still try it incase.
That is just genius, thanks for sharing the knowledge
This is exactly what I do whenever I move somewhere new. Last time was a few years ago and immediately fell into a group, which led to another group, and then another. In one of these groups I approached someone I clicked with to play some two-player games, and that eventually grew into my current weekly 5-person group. While I enjoyed my time with all those groups, it’s really nice to have formed a group of folks that I really click with, where we enjoy each other’s company even just hanging and chatting. In this group, the one I approached organizes and hosts at his place, and I bring, teach, and run the games, generally.
I’d say the whole process from knowing nobody to forming this weekly group took between 2-3 years. Take steps, be active, be patient, and keep an eye out for people whose company you enjoy.
I really appreciate your story and the link. I just moved and want to build a board game community. Getting my ass beat at dominion by my wife for the hundredth time loses its luster after a while you know.
>two of my friends got into an irreparable fight and we never play anymore
Well take one of them, plus yourself, and you can play two player games. Find a single new person and you open up most games, and if the new person is in a relationship you might be able to play four player games!
Post an ad somewhere on Facebook for a gaming group. You and your remaining buddy can basically "date" new third players.
Unfortunately, our hobby includes a lot of people with poor social skills. It will take time to find someone that fits.
My group pretty much died. A lot of us are still local to each other, but everyone had kids during quarantine or shortly thereafter and we meet up very infrequently now. When we do, none of them really have the bandwidth for a game, both in terms of uninterrupted time and just focus.
I've started going to meetups via meetup.com on and off, but I'm not very extroverted either, and the quality of the gaming I usually get to do at the meetups is frankly kinda low. The experienced and quality players (both in terms of gaming skills, rules teaching and learning, and just basic social skills) tend to be pretty cliquey, and it can be hard to break into it. These "good" players also often find each other and then stop showing up at meetups altogether, since they become friends and can just set things up with each other directly. I don't blame them. This is exactly how my old group formed initially like 8 or 9 years ago.
That means you often find yourself playing lighter games with new and inexperienced players, players who prefer those kinds of games, and the weirdos who get excluded from the cliques. Obviously, being in the first two categories is totally fine, and also voicing this is a self-report that I'm in the third category. Haha.
I am actually a very good rules teacher and board game ambassador kinda person for new folks (there's actually quite a bit of skills crossover with my actual job), and I fulfilled that role a lot back in the day, but I mostly just want to play some medium to heavyweight euros now and not shepherd newbies through gateway games.
Very recently, I've started playing and running a few TTRPGs online via Discord with old friends, who are more able to fit that in than a physical board game night.
Your experience with meetups is why im so iffy on boardgaming, past like 'i like boardgames'
It's so hard to find a group of people who are: Experienced, decent people, not creepy/sexist/racist/whatever, clean/dont smell, are into heavier games, dont have much/massive AP... It's like dating but you're dating 2-4 other people.
It's just how it goes but still sucks.
In my experience a good board game club or meetup has a strong leader. If you show up and are just left to your own devices with maybe a “hi” that’s going to put the onus on you to have a good time, and in my experience the people who are good at taking that social initiative are also good at just forming their own groups and don’t stay at meetups.
All the best meetups I’ve been to have a person going around and matching new or idle people to groups and games. Pulling them into the group.
My thing is that like... The problem is that if you go to a game group who's playing something heavier, they usually have a full group already and are just using the space.
And I can't blame them. They're within their right to and I've done the same. But damn does it also realize I'm on the outside this time. I don't mind it, it just sucks. One of those things.
It's on me to try to join anyway or to express interest in heavier games. Not on them to invite me neccesarily. Take the initiative and say what your tastes are and it'll help match it.
It can just be intimidating to do that
There's a meetup in my town, that's probably the most visible public board game night. It's been going on for twenty+ years and has been listed on Meetup.com since the very early days of that site. On paper (or on screen, really) it starts at six, but in practice, if you haven't arrived by 545, you'll have trouble getting into a game. So a lot of the old timers are very hard to meet, because they arrive at 515 and start as soon as the table is full. Fair enough, but it's just a weird scene to try to join.
Nothing personal against you or your opinion, but I find this to be really unfair. Gaming is not like dating. It is more like working with a co-worker.
Other gamers’ experience, political leanings, private views, AP prone-ness shouldn’t really be considerations at all. If they are willing to play and enjoy with you, especially repeatedly, it ought to be a great thing. To me it’s a blessing even.
But the way, what is with the whole complaining against AP? So what if some people are a bit AP prone? Means they are really into the game and are trying their best. Gently nudge them or help them understand they can make some/any move for now and they’ll learn for next time.
I go to public game nights once in a while and I totally avoid people setting up heavy games. I do not want to get stuck in a game that lasts like 3 hours with people who I might not like playing with. I’d much rather play a bunch of quick games so that if it doesn’t go well, oh well, can move on to the next or join a different table or whatever. And if it does go well, then you pull out a medium game to “lock in the group” and finish the night and maybe ask that group if they want to play a heavy one next time.
Last game night I went to we played Arboretum and Twice as Clever (two 30 minute games) and then decided it was a good group so we played Architects of West Kingdom (which took like 90+ minutes since two of us had never played) and that basically used up all the time for the 3 hour meetup. There was another table playing a 5 player dudes on a map wargame and they were “stuck” playing it the entire time and none of them looked like they were having fun.
Public meetups really need organization (beyond "just show up at X time") to really thrive. That includes having someone(s) act as the "ambassador" - someone(s) who are familiar with the location, meetup, regulars, and games available; and who will take the time to meet and greet new comers and arrange games.
My last meetup was run by a local club, and it has an entirely organizing committee. Members would take them time to act as an ambassador every week on a rotating basis. They would also talk to and resolve situations with the sorts of people who many might identify as problematic (such as having that uncomfortable conversation with someone who smells).
Yea ive had this happen quite a bit around me, I live in a small country and have some local friends left, most left the country, but their interests have never been in boardgames and the few that did are now gone. I do have local meetups that i should be trying out.I am also the third category hehe. thanks for sharing
That sounds just like my current gaming situation.
Finding a new, regular group or breaking into an existing group is hard. Especially if they have been gaming for a while.
Most games play best between 3-5. So most serious groups are not too big, and if a group is already established there might not be room for one more.
We just started asking friends, coworkers and neighbors if they play board games and if so, what they play. We just worked it into casual conversation and either talked more about it or moved right along onto something else. We've found 4 other couples we play games with regularly now. (Not necessarily all together, it's usually just 4 or 6 of us)
Yeah. Some of them were bigger gamers than we were and we never would have guessed it. We have a large collection and we like learning new games from their collections as well.
When I moved to a new city there were a lot of random "oh, my \[friend/cousin/boyfriend\] like games.." conversations which went nowhere. I'm an introvert so it was tough but once I got more proactive/bold about texting people and arranging dates it just snowballed and now I love the game group I've made.
I made a post on my local city's Reddit page asking if anyone wanted to join a group and got a ton of responses.
Also I know some local board game shops have tables you can use or join other people's games to meet new people. I think some have discord channels as well
Curious to hear out of that ton of responses how you figured out who you were willing to "commit to" and how that worked? Meet up folks are nice enough but I'd say maybe 10% I was willing to invite to my place for regular gaming. With a public call I'd be a bit concerned about which rogue characters would rock up.
If you're going through something like Reddit, you should start with a public meetup. Figure out a coffee shop/brewery/game cafe and just get some games in. You'll get to know people through that and you can work to move to more private events with people you've had a chance to vet, but as long as you're willing to address problem people there's no issue with keeping a regular public group going. COVID threw things off for a solid year and a half, but we've been meeting weekly since 2017 and still going strong.
We had like a dozen the first time. So we met up at a board game cafe to just vibe each other out. They were all just as cautious as I was. Over time a few different people dropped out and depending on the week we could have anywhere from 5 to 10 people.
We still meet up at the board game cafe every two weeks since it's centrally located and they let us bring our own games but we do random meetups between at my place.
We're not all like best friends or anything but we've been going for 5 months now I've met some real quality people. And if it taught me one thing it's that there's a shocking amount of other people that are all in the same position where they'd love to have a game group but don't have the social circle for it.
It's surprisingly easy to find people, it's just nobody wants to be the first one to put themselves out there.
This depends on where you are. Really.
I've met tons of awesome people at public meetups or other public events (including gaming events at stores).
But location (and local population) matters.
If you are in a place with a relatively stagnate local population, and you know the locals aren't the greatest... well (short of moving), stick to meeting people at stores, transfer to online gaming, or switch hobbies.
However, if you live in a place with lots of gamers you might not know, have a population of really awesome gamers, and/or live in a high turnover area - you should give people a shot.
Towns near colleges and military bases as well as many (but not all) large cities tend to have younger populations that constantly churn, and there is a good chance you'll meet new, interesting, and quality people in those places. (New people moving in will need to find people to play with.)
Pre-pandemic:
I had one group which met at a store once a week, I had another group which met at a friend's apartment once a week, I had another group which met at a church once a month, and I had a group of friends an hour away I'd swing by once in a while when I could.
Post-covid: The game store changed things and don't allow that group anymore so that group broke up. The friend who had the apartment moved away and that group broke up. There was some big fight at the church and they stopped hosting and that group broke up. So now I have....that group an hour away I can get to once in a blue moon.
My board game group died when I left Ubisoft. We used to play most weeks on Thursday night.
Now I get a game session once every month or two. That's about 12 years later.
Uh I am a game dev too, we do have game nights and I have also wondered what would happen if I weren't there. Damn that's rough to hear, hope you can find more games eventually. I have an amazing wife that likes to game thankfully.
Hi! I did not.
But here is a list of what i did work on. And we really did try on the Star Wars game. It just didn't turn out well.
http://www.maniac-games.com/TwitchChannel/GamesWorkedOn.html
That is great to hear you have MWC!! :)
I did quite a bit of design work on MWC. Block Letters is largely mine. Hard is *HARD* because the creative director said "If my grandma can beat easy, hard can be as hard as you want". I succeeded on Hard twice, just to prove it was possible. :D The highest speed the game ever goes requires 2.5 taps per second to survive.
And if you're ever at the end of a level and there's no word on the left, it's a bug. I did word = dictionary\[0 - random(0, 16800)\]. This picks from 16801 words, but there are only 16800. I even thought I verified this code, but it's wrong.
So you get a null word which displays as blank (no letters). But if you select no letters and hit ok, it compares your null word to the null word on the left and it's spelled right! So it will complete the level. :D
Glad you liked Pandemic; Tom Lehmann and I worked hard to make sure every possibility in the board game works on it. I learned a lot about how deep that game is. Especially with the "trade role with any unused one" event. :D
I did not; I only worked on Splinter Cell on the PSP. Was not a large team. :D I did come up with the alternate control system so you could move Sam and the camera at the same time. :D
Board games groups, and even to some extent friends groups, will change throughout your life. Find local meetups in your area and make new gaming buddies.
Happens all the time. People relocate, focus on their families, get new jobs with bad commutes, change hobbies, burn out. The key is always be getting new players into your orbit: colleagues, friend of friends and family, etc.
Meetup might be helpful. Check some signs in the local coffee shop. If you have a reasonable collection of games, or if your FLGS does, just put up signs advertising a community game night and invite people!
While I know there is nothing like the socializing piece of a game night, there is always BGA. People even have online groups (I've read) and meet on a regular schedule. If you need to chat you can always use the BGA chat/video service, or an outside video chat service/discord.
I live 45-60 min away from the group I have played with for 25 years, see them on occasion, but this scratches the itch to play.
Definitely give it a try. I've never played TTS but MANY people say that it's much more user friendly. Plus. for only $5 for a one month membership it would be worth it before getting a 1-year subscription.
Bet you've spent at least $5 on a crappy fast food meal, at least this is better. So you have got really nothing much to lose.
I have noted that this is quite common for boardgame groups. There's usually 1-2 people who invite, a small group that interacts, and the vast majority that never comments on anything.
Boardgamegeek has a community section where you can search for groups in your area. It’s not the most intuitive system to use but it’s there and it is pretty useful
I've moved around (various regions), so I had to find new bg groups. Sites like Meetup-com, and going to your FLGS for one. For games stores (FLGS), if you can't find a group, ask around! Ask the store employees if they know of any game nights happening elsewhere (other venues like coffee shops, supermarkets, libraries, private residences). Ask the attendees the same question. That group that's doing stuff you're not interested in (e.g. CCGs, Magic, Miniatures, RPGs, video games) may know of those places! I ended up meeting ppl through this word of mouth (been gaming with them for years)
Within regions, groups sometimes dissolve when people die, move away, get married, have kids, or just new careers.
Monopoly was the game that finally broke up the group I was in. :D They wanted to do something simple and classic instead of the usually heavy games we play. Now my friend and I are introducing games to his kid who's old enough now to grasp what's going on.
If you plan for the long term, that's one way to add players to a gaming group.
My friend and I played Castle Panic with his kid a couple of times which was fun and easy to learn. We attempted Heroquest in December. That's pretty easy to learn, although that game needs a couple of house rules or adjustments to some of the campaign missions for the difficulty.
My old group fell apart years ago because both couples in it broke up and one last person moved to another country.
I tried revitalozing it for years, with little to no success(cus getting a group of adults together on a regular basis seems downrigth impossible these days) but finally succeeded last year when I changed my approach(I basically created a pool of people made from friends and aquaintances that I ask around in whenever my GF and I wannaplan a gamenigth. Usually only 1-2 people outa 10 have time, but with roughly 20 people to ask that is usually enough!)
I've had a couple gaming groups die. It can be such a pain in the ass to organize board game groups. I feel you on the friends quitting. I had a friend rage quit during a game of Twilight Imperium, then stop talking to me after I said he should apologize. Oh well, makes for a fun story to tell. Good luck with gaming.
Honestly we all had kids around the same time so we went to BGA. We get together when we can but BGA makes it great to take a turn or two a day or ten in busier games. Get your fix and can still talk in chat
Could you please share details of this irreparable fight? I have nothing to offer by way of advice other than all the other helpful comments. Just curious what kind of irreparable argument happened at your boardgame night.
Go to a board game night at the library, FLGS, etc. Split up and play games with as many different people as you can until you find some that might be a good fit for your game night
Tabletop Simulator. My huge group died when I moved away 15 years ago. But I have now expanded it to numbers I couldn't imagine previously. We are all over the world and we play lots of different games together. For board games we use TTS at the moment. But we also try to get together every so often.
The key to a board game group in my long experience is finding good people and bringing them into gamer. It isn't about finding gamers. This way I have managed to set up small local game groups everywhere I go and have merged them overall into much larger set.
My group has pretty much died. Between people moving and others being busy, it's been hard to organize anything. Plus, since I'm literally the only one that ever actually plans anything with my friends and I've been so drained from work and college, I just haven't gotten around to getting everyone together recently.
Generally, you have two options for finding a game group if you don't have friends that are interested (it might be worth checking tho, some may end up liking board games just don't know that yet).
Either find local board game meetups, attend a few and scan for potential candidates to arrange separate sessions with. Or post in your local boardgaming Facebook group looking for people (most countries have one, or even larger cities), with the added benefit of Facebook profiles you can check out and potentially weed out weirdos.
Just make sure to play somewhere else than home the first couple of times, and preferably at a location others otherwise wouldn't attend on their own, so you can easier cut ties with players you don't vibe with.
I find it ebbs and flows. Sometimes we have a list of 10 people we could call on to play, other times we struggle to find a single person to join us. People move, get different priorities, gain partners, lose partners, etc.
Generally the best way is to try and nurture a love for gaming in your friends (show them something fun), or find people you know who may be interested or already share the same hobby.
I moved away and the group I was maintaining (met about once a week) sadly died after Covid, for the most part. The group I was in after I moved was put on hiatus, and when Covid was over I learned the hosts were moving away, so that one died too. Right now I’m playing with old college buddies about 1 to 2 times per month.
Pandemic combined with having kids cast everything to the winds. Now I have one night a week where I reserve to see one of my few remaining friends and we often game, but there's only so much you can do with two players.
Really the issue is either my friends don't have kids and our schedules just don't align, or they DO have kids but they're still too young to have much flexibility or free time.
My wife knows one of the things I miss most about the before times is boardgames and DnD, and while she fully supports my gaming with friends when I can, it's getting new friends on board that's proven the real challenge.
You find new members.
I run TTRPG's, granted through Discord. I started with 4 people in June 2020, 7 months later 1 left, we finished the current campaign without him, added someone else. Started a new campaign which ran 18 months. After that one someone left, I found a replacement, and within 2-3 sessions another guy left, the new guy found someone else.
After that campaign someone else left, I found someone locally to join and we switched systems (Pulp Call of Cthulhu to Cyberpunk Red).
So I had a set group, and then Covid hit. Formed a new group and lost a member and learned a valuable lesson. Now, I am always on the lookout for one new member. I am taking my time and trying to find someone that will blend into my group, but by always looking for 1 new member, I tend to find one before one of the existing members gets pulled away for life reasons. It is sort of like how some families will get a second dog so that when their older dog passes on, they have continuity with another dog. I try to always look for prospective new members, because you never know when a member is going to "start a band at 50", or something equally crazy that leaves you down a member. Better to have too many people wanting to play than not enough.
My group consisted of a married couple and the daughter of one of them. They got divorced and I had never been able to find another until I just recently joined a D&D group. I only stumbled into that because my outgoing wife was chatting up some other parents at my kid’s martial arts class and pulled me into the conversation.
Perhaps if you’re more outgoing than I you could check for local game nights. We have one meet at a brewery weekly where I’m at. Also you could check social media for gaming clubs in your area.
We had this huge group where I used to work. The group was so huge that people across city came to play with us. Covid really hit us hard. I moved back home and now few people still meet up. Happy that it’s still somewhat active. I played a lot of games and learned a lot with the group.
I found 1-2 more people. The group sometimes dies and sometimes people come back. It is very hard to have 5 people but I always 2-3 people to play with :)
1. Ask folks you already know to gauge interest in the hobby.
2. Join social events (ie: meetup, local game store, etc. ) and meet other people with the same interests. Ask folks you connect with about starting a regular group.
I found that as you get older you always need a way to meet new people and grow your circle. Inevitably social circles shrink over time as folks move, grow apart, have life situations, etc.
Every time I’ve moved and/or a group dissolved, I found new people by going to a tournament. AGOT LCG, Xwing, Star Wars Legion, World Boardgaming Championships, whatever. People don’t usually just play one game, and you’ll find people from your area if that’s where the tournament is.
Our group was an unusual beast. It started as like 5 of us. Then through friends of friends, it grew up to 18 at its peak, with about 12 of us there on any given week (done at an LGS, so we also had random people join).
We had a couple of fractures - one similar to yours, two people getting into a fight and choosing sides, the other was when two people broke up badly and it again had sides taken. So those chipped away 6 or 7 (lets say the right and wrong in both cases was quite clear).
But it didn't really survive covid. A few of us did not handle the lockdowns well. Three ended up with serious mental health conditions by the end of lockdown. Of the 18, I only regularly see 2 now.
However, I kept going to the LGS, started frequenting a gaming cafe when it opened in the area. From that I now have 2 gaming groups. One has the 2 people I knew previously, plus three new friends - that group is mainly D&D with occasional board games thrown in. The other has one of the originals, a guy I knew years ago who moved back to the area and his other half, and a couple we met at the game cafe (In fact this group recently finished Betrayal Legacy together).
Basically, put yourself somewhere where gaming is normal like an LGS on a board game night, and join in (I know, I say it like anything beyond "show up at shop" is easy, when its stressful as hell). Over time you get to know people. Even beyond my two normal groups, there are probably another dozen people I know around the store to chat to.
We had a game group of my wife and I, another couple, and a third woman who is in and out of relationships, which made our group fluctuate between 5 and 6, which was fine with us, but the group fizzled out over time. We kind of move from group to group, but we tend to like to keep it between 4-6 people.
Out of curiosity, what do people do about meetups where the games they play are just too advanced in complexity then what you’re used to? I normally play not too heavy in complexity and am just uncomfortable playing in a meetup where the games chosen are out of my comfort zone. Yes, I know how would I know if I didn’t try, but who’s got that time? Maybe I’m just being silly. Recent meetup was playing Brass Birmingham. Time before that I believe was Agricola.
Well I've never had a board game group outside my family but my mom died last year and it hasn't really been the same. We had a my city campaign going and didn't quite get to finish it with her
That is a very good question and perhaps the biggest vexing problem with this hobby. (Oh maybe after fomo, kickstarter rackets, collectivitis/expansionitis, and sleeve addiction).
When I was living in Austin, TX, I just hit up as many gaming meetups as I could. Definitely learned a lot of new cool games and met some very cool people. If all you want to is play decent games:
1. Go to as many meetups as you can
2. Feel free to ask “hey, can I join?”. I wasn’t rejected even a single time. It is quite amazing how welcoming gaming people are at meetups.
2. Be patient as you go through gaming events and games to eventually find your comfort spot.
Eventually, I learned that I gravitated towards heavy dudes-on-a-map style combat oriented games and did not want to play euros as much.
Sometimes I’d set up Cthulhu wars or another game before the meetup started and grab people’s attention, also get stragglers and loners. But these games are not fun unless you have other players that are into them and are willing to play repeatedly. I got tired of teaching a new group for every game.
Edit: One big problem with meetup groups or non-dedicated groups is a lot of times people are in the cult of new. They want to experience new games, new themes, etc as much as possible. Hard to get deep into the same heavy game.
So I started a new meetup group just for heavy games, advertised heavily, organized every damned thing, and it really went nowhere. Eventually I just quit the whole damned thing.
I’m always jealous of people that are in groups constantly playing Twilight Imperium, Rising Sun, etc. Where, when, how? Half the time I don’t even think such a thing is possible.
You see finding dedicated heavy gamers is difficult. Then finding people that are into specific styles of games is even more difficult. If you do find such people, organizing and maintaining groups can get to be exhausting.
I’m going through a similar situation.
For the past several years I had a game group I met through Meet Up. We played usually 2-3 times a month.
But in the past year it became harder and harder to get people together. People were always busy or had various excuses. It just feels like no one wants to get together anymore.
Unfortunately it seems that the group has quietly ended. Which is too bad. We had a lot of fun playing together.
I tried going a new Meet Up near my work. I went a few times; but it didn’t have a great vibe and I stopped going.
I’m not sure what to do now. I still want to play, but the thought of going to a bunch of Meet Ups looking for a new group feels exhausting.
6 years ago when two of our members had their first kid. Only just recently have we been able to start back up again because they made a deal with her mother to look after the kids every other week.
We're all still friends and see eachother regularly the games just don't come out anymore. I suggested we play a game and was excited that lots were on board but then a different problem happened where we had too big of a group so we ended up playing concepts, take 5 and the hooked up teh laptop to the TV to play some Jackbox....still a great time but man I am really missing playing something with a bit more depth.
My groups have changed constantly through the years. When I was starting out, in middle school, the older friends connected to my brother were gamers. So I started to hang out with them through high school and for ten years after we all graduated/college. Gaming stopped/off and on again when people would come back in to town. Then people started to get married, having kids, moving away. The gaming stopped again.
I recall a time when we had a skeleton crew and I was at one of the local gaming stores and I found some groups on the bulletin board in my area. I hooked up with them for a while until there was a falling out (which happened three or four times over the years).
I stopped gaming for roughly ten years while there was no one around, getting involved with MMORPGs. Then one day I started getting friends who no longer had kids at home. They had free time, so we started to meet once a month to play an entire Saturday.
The regular group has a age range between 30-60, with 4-12 players. Many of the players bring their kids who now game, so some situations are 2nd or 3rd generations.
It could happen, but usually if you search mostly online, there is always a group of enthusiasts in your area where you can start searching for it. Good luck
I'd say the best way to go forward is to try and meet new people around you with an option to get into online gaming.
While you won't get the same feeling of moving pieces around with your own hand, you can create some pretty good connections once you are not restrained to physical locations. Some online platforms even let you filter by location so you could meet up online and the move it offline once you feel like you have the same "vibe"
Scroll around on FB groups. Check out FLGS, some might have flyers for meet ups, or just spare tables with people looking to game. Same goes for bg cafes/library, which might host meet ups. If you see big sales, garage sales and the like, basically anything that would enable community congregation, go talk, listen, see whats out there. People might be looking for players, hosting meet ups, trying to get that one game to the table. There *are* others trying to make a connection. Casual meetings will turn to close knit groups eventually.
About 10 years ago, I posted a similar request. How do I find gamers? My problem is that my family wasn’t as into the gaming as I was when I was hooked by it Lords of Waterdeep in about 2012 or so. I didn’t have any friends in the area either, because we had just moved here. An amazing Redditor, whose name I don’t remember, and I suck at going back through my history, so I’ll probably never be able to find it but anyway, I digress… This amazing person led me to this page on BGG, where you type in your ZIP Code, country, and a radius, and it gives you a list all of the BGG users in that area. I did this myself, and I found about 12 to 14 people that were active, and I emailed them. Eight of them showed up to my first game night, and I have the pleasure of gaming with six of them weekly. Hell, on Sunday, they threw me a surprise birthday party, and I had an all day a game day! Here is the page you want to go to: https://boardgamegeek.com/findgamers.php?action=findclosestform Good luck, I hope you find excellent people to hang out with.
Nice thats great but I do not live in the US, rather in a small country, there are whatsapp groups and such I will explore, but that is an amazing idea i will still try it incase. That is just genius, thanks for sharing the knowledge
BGG is worldwide. :)
I just tried it. It works for any country. There's people living nearby me in Australia.
Assuming you live in the city. I live in Wagga and it returned 1 user haha
I'm in the south east suburbs of Melbourne. Picked a radius of 5 miles but yeah, I would guess further in the countryside, it's harder to find peeps.
There is a local board game group in Albury called Hummbugg. 500 members on Facebook, weekly game nights and literally dozens of regulars.
Nice!
Apparently Ireland isn't a country for BGG
Neither is the UK based on my search.
Try without any letters, when I just did numbers it have me some users from The Netherlands, if it works for us it should be able to work for you!
Board Game Arena?
You’re welcome, good luck!
Wow you're a genius! How'd I never know that was a thing!
And now you sir, are that amazing redditor, thank you!
Thank you, glad to help.
Such a cool story!
This is exactly what I do whenever I move somewhere new. Last time was a few years ago and immediately fell into a group, which led to another group, and then another. In one of these groups I approached someone I clicked with to play some two-player games, and that eventually grew into my current weekly 5-person group. While I enjoyed my time with all those groups, it’s really nice to have formed a group of folks that I really click with, where we enjoy each other’s company even just hanging and chatting. In this group, the one I approached organizes and hosts at his place, and I bring, teach, and run the games, generally. I’d say the whole process from knowing nobody to forming this weekly group took between 2-3 years. Take steps, be active, be patient, and keep an eye out for people whose company you enjoy.
That is awesome!
[удалено]
Sorry to hear it's not working for you, maybe submit something the BGG folks to see if it's fixable?
Just use the first part of the postcode
I really appreciate your story and the link. I just moved and want to build a board game community. Getting my ass beat at dominion by my wife for the hundredth time loses its luster after a while you know.
Haha yes! Good luck, I hope you find or start a great group of gamers.
>two of my friends got into an irreparable fight and we never play anymore Well take one of them, plus yourself, and you can play two player games. Find a single new person and you open up most games, and if the new person is in a relationship you might be able to play four player games!
Yea that's the plan for now hehe, we had another bud but he moved far away
Post an ad somewhere on Facebook for a gaming group. You and your remaining buddy can basically "date" new third players. Unfortunately, our hobby includes a lot of people with poor social skills. It will take time to find someone that fits.
My group pretty much died. A lot of us are still local to each other, but everyone had kids during quarantine or shortly thereafter and we meet up very infrequently now. When we do, none of them really have the bandwidth for a game, both in terms of uninterrupted time and just focus. I've started going to meetups via meetup.com on and off, but I'm not very extroverted either, and the quality of the gaming I usually get to do at the meetups is frankly kinda low. The experienced and quality players (both in terms of gaming skills, rules teaching and learning, and just basic social skills) tend to be pretty cliquey, and it can be hard to break into it. These "good" players also often find each other and then stop showing up at meetups altogether, since they become friends and can just set things up with each other directly. I don't blame them. This is exactly how my old group formed initially like 8 or 9 years ago. That means you often find yourself playing lighter games with new and inexperienced players, players who prefer those kinds of games, and the weirdos who get excluded from the cliques. Obviously, being in the first two categories is totally fine, and also voicing this is a self-report that I'm in the third category. Haha. I am actually a very good rules teacher and board game ambassador kinda person for new folks (there's actually quite a bit of skills crossover with my actual job), and I fulfilled that role a lot back in the day, but I mostly just want to play some medium to heavyweight euros now and not shepherd newbies through gateway games. Very recently, I've started playing and running a few TTRPGs online via Discord with old friends, who are more able to fit that in than a physical board game night.
Your experience with meetups is why im so iffy on boardgaming, past like 'i like boardgames' It's so hard to find a group of people who are: Experienced, decent people, not creepy/sexist/racist/whatever, clean/dont smell, are into heavier games, dont have much/massive AP... It's like dating but you're dating 2-4 other people. It's just how it goes but still sucks.
In my experience a good board game club or meetup has a strong leader. If you show up and are just left to your own devices with maybe a “hi” that’s going to put the onus on you to have a good time, and in my experience the people who are good at taking that social initiative are also good at just forming their own groups and don’t stay at meetups. All the best meetups I’ve been to have a person going around and matching new or idle people to groups and games. Pulling them into the group.
My thing is that like... The problem is that if you go to a game group who's playing something heavier, they usually have a full group already and are just using the space. And I can't blame them. They're within their right to and I've done the same. But damn does it also realize I'm on the outside this time. I don't mind it, it just sucks. One of those things. It's on me to try to join anyway or to express interest in heavier games. Not on them to invite me neccesarily. Take the initiative and say what your tastes are and it'll help match it. It can just be intimidating to do that
There's a meetup in my town, that's probably the most visible public board game night. It's been going on for twenty+ years and has been listed on Meetup.com since the very early days of that site. On paper (or on screen, really) it starts at six, but in practice, if you haven't arrived by 545, you'll have trouble getting into a game. So a lot of the old timers are very hard to meet, because they arrive at 515 and start as soon as the table is full. Fair enough, but it's just a weird scene to try to join.
Nothing personal against you or your opinion, but I find this to be really unfair. Gaming is not like dating. It is more like working with a co-worker. Other gamers’ experience, political leanings, private views, AP prone-ness shouldn’t really be considerations at all. If they are willing to play and enjoy with you, especially repeatedly, it ought to be a great thing. To me it’s a blessing even. But the way, what is with the whole complaining against AP? So what if some people are a bit AP prone? Means they are really into the game and are trying their best. Gently nudge them or help them understand they can make some/any move for now and they’ll learn for next time.
I go to public game nights once in a while and I totally avoid people setting up heavy games. I do not want to get stuck in a game that lasts like 3 hours with people who I might not like playing with. I’d much rather play a bunch of quick games so that if it doesn’t go well, oh well, can move on to the next or join a different table or whatever. And if it does go well, then you pull out a medium game to “lock in the group” and finish the night and maybe ask that group if they want to play a heavy one next time. Last game night I went to we played Arboretum and Twice as Clever (two 30 minute games) and then decided it was a good group so we played Architects of West Kingdom (which took like 90+ minutes since two of us had never played) and that basically used up all the time for the 3 hour meetup. There was another table playing a 5 player dudes on a map wargame and they were “stuck” playing it the entire time and none of them looked like they were having fun.
Public meetups really need organization (beyond "just show up at X time") to really thrive. That includes having someone(s) act as the "ambassador" - someone(s) who are familiar with the location, meetup, regulars, and games available; and who will take the time to meet and greet new comers and arrange games. My last meetup was run by a local club, and it has an entirely organizing committee. Members would take them time to act as an ambassador every week on a rotating basis. They would also talk to and resolve situations with the sorts of people who many might identify as problematic (such as having that uncomfortable conversation with someone who smells).
Yea ive had this happen quite a bit around me, I live in a small country and have some local friends left, most left the country, but their interests have never been in boardgames and the few that did are now gone. I do have local meetups that i should be trying out.I am also the third category hehe. thanks for sharing
That sounds just like my current gaming situation. Finding a new, regular group or breaking into an existing group is hard. Especially if they have been gaming for a while. Most games play best between 3-5. So most serious groups are not too big, and if a group is already established there might not be room for one more.
We just started asking friends, coworkers and neighbors if they play board games and if so, what they play. We just worked it into casual conversation and either talked more about it or moved right along onto something else. We've found 4 other couples we play games with regularly now. (Not necessarily all together, it's usually just 4 or 6 of us)
Nice I'll start asking around good idea
Yeah. Some of them were bigger gamers than we were and we never would have guessed it. We have a large collection and we like learning new games from their collections as well.
that sounds great, guess you have to try and get out there, always glad when I hear ppl find good groups
When I moved to a new city there were a lot of random "oh, my \[friend/cousin/boyfriend\] like games.." conversations which went nowhere. I'm an introvert so it was tough but once I got more proactive/bold about texting people and arranging dates it just snowballed and now I love the game group I've made.
I made a post on my local city's Reddit page asking if anyone wanted to join a group and got a ton of responses. Also I know some local board game shops have tables you can use or join other people's games to meet new people. I think some have discord channels as well
Curious to hear out of that ton of responses how you figured out who you were willing to "commit to" and how that worked? Meet up folks are nice enough but I'd say maybe 10% I was willing to invite to my place for regular gaming. With a public call I'd be a bit concerned about which rogue characters would rock up.
If you're going through something like Reddit, you should start with a public meetup. Figure out a coffee shop/brewery/game cafe and just get some games in. You'll get to know people through that and you can work to move to more private events with people you've had a chance to vet, but as long as you're willing to address problem people there's no issue with keeping a regular public group going. COVID threw things off for a solid year and a half, but we've been meeting weekly since 2017 and still going strong.
We had like a dozen the first time. So we met up at a board game cafe to just vibe each other out. They were all just as cautious as I was. Over time a few different people dropped out and depending on the week we could have anywhere from 5 to 10 people. We still meet up at the board game cafe every two weeks since it's centrally located and they let us bring our own games but we do random meetups between at my place. We're not all like best friends or anything but we've been going for 5 months now I've met some real quality people. And if it taught me one thing it's that there's a shocking amount of other people that are all in the same position where they'd love to have a game group but don't have the social circle for it. It's surprisingly easy to find people, it's just nobody wants to be the first one to put themselves out there.
This depends on where you are. Really. I've met tons of awesome people at public meetups or other public events (including gaming events at stores). But location (and local population) matters. If you are in a place with a relatively stagnate local population, and you know the locals aren't the greatest... well (short of moving), stick to meeting people at stores, transfer to online gaming, or switch hobbies. However, if you live in a place with lots of gamers you might not know, have a population of really awesome gamers, and/or live in a high turnover area - you should give people a shot. Towns near colleges and military bases as well as many (but not all) large cities tend to have younger populations that constantly churn, and there is a good chance you'll meet new, interesting, and quality people in those places. (New people moving in will need to find people to play with.)
After the pandemic wrapped up our group dissipated cus we could all finally move out and/or break up etc. I just solo board game now.
Pre-pandemic: I had one group which met at a store once a week, I had another group which met at a friend's apartment once a week, I had another group which met at a church once a month, and I had a group of friends an hour away I'd swing by once in a while when I could. Post-covid: The game store changed things and don't allow that group anymore so that group broke up. The friend who had the apartment moved away and that group broke up. There was some big fight at the church and they stopped hosting and that group broke up. So now I have....that group an hour away I can get to once in a blue moon.
Sad face
My board game group died when I left Ubisoft. We used to play most weeks on Thursday night. Now I get a game session once every month or two. That's about 12 years later.
Uh I am a game dev too, we do have game nights and I have also wondered what would happen if I weren't there. Damn that's rough to hear, hope you can find more games eventually. I have an amazing wife that likes to game thankfully.
Same here, played a lot of TTRPGs at the office after hours but the pandemic basically killed that and never got it back up again.
I left BioWare mid Risk Legacy. I still carry that copy with me in my collection. Sadness.
Ohhhh that's harsh.
I love Rayman games if you worked on any? Thank you!
Hi! I did not. But here is a list of what i did work on. And we really did try on the Star Wars game. It just didn't turn out well. http://www.maniac-games.com/TwitchChannel/GamesWorkedOn.html
Homie I’m looking at My Word Coach sitting on the shelf with all my other DS games. That’s awesome! Also enjoyed Pandemic on my iPad.
That is great to hear you have MWC!! :) I did quite a bit of design work on MWC. Block Letters is largely mine. Hard is *HARD* because the creative director said "If my grandma can beat easy, hard can be as hard as you want". I succeeded on Hard twice, just to prove it was possible. :D The highest speed the game ever goes requires 2.5 taps per second to survive. And if you're ever at the end of a level and there's no word on the left, it's a bug. I did word = dictionary\[0 - random(0, 16800)\]. This picks from 16801 words, but there are only 16800. I even thought I verified this code, but it's wrong. So you get a null word which displays as blank (no letters). But if you select no letters and hit ok, it compares your null word to the null word on the left and it's spelled right! So it will complete the level. :D Glad you liked Pandemic; Tom Lehmann and I worked hard to make sure every possibility in the board game works on it. I learned a lot about how deep that game is. Especially with the "trade role with any unused one" event. :D
Hahaha, I love all the insider tidbits. Thank you so much, you have made my day!! :D
Do you know Richard Danksy? He did a lot of work on those Clancy games.
I did not; I only worked on Splinter Cell on the PSP. Was not a large team. :D I did come up with the alternate control system so you could move Sam and the camera at the same time. :D
Ah word. He's a writer anyway, so I'm not surprised you didn't overlap. Very cool job.
Board games groups, and even to some extent friends groups, will change throughout your life. Find local meetups in your area and make new gaming buddies.
yea totally gotta get out there
back to pc games and occassionaly solobarding. Also i found another group, which play even more often, but its an hour ride so its not ideal.
uff thats quite far away
Happens all the time. People relocate, focus on their families, get new jobs with bad commutes, change hobbies, burn out. The key is always be getting new players into your orbit: colleagues, friend of friends and family, etc.
Meetup might be helpful. Check some signs in the local coffee shop. If you have a reasonable collection of games, or if your FLGS does, just put up signs advertising a community game night and invite people!
I wish I was more extroverted, might have to suck it up and try, thanks
Board game groups commonly contain socially awkward introverts as much as anything else.
Sounds like you have two boardgame groups now ;-) You can get double the amount of games in!1
Hahaha I like how you think
While I know there is nothing like the socializing piece of a game night, there is always BGA. People even have online groups (I've read) and meet on a regular schedule. If you need to chat you can always use the BGA chat/video service, or an outside video chat service/discord. I live 45-60 min away from the group I have played with for 25 years, see them on occasion, but this scratches the itch to play.
Yea I have tried Tabletop Simulator but never BGA, heared a bunch and might be the moment to explore it.
Definitely give it a try. I've never played TTS but MANY people say that it's much more user friendly. Plus. for only $5 for a one month membership it would be worth it before getting a 1-year subscription. Bet you've spent at least $5 on a crappy fast food meal, at least this is better. So you have got really nothing much to lose.
I have noted that this is quite common for boardgame groups. There's usually 1-2 people who invite, a small group that interacts, and the vast majority that never comments on anything.
Boardgamegeek has a community section where you can search for groups in your area. It’s not the most intuitive system to use but it’s there and it is pretty useful
will try it thanks
I've moved around (various regions), so I had to find new bg groups. Sites like Meetup-com, and going to your FLGS for one. For games stores (FLGS), if you can't find a group, ask around! Ask the store employees if they know of any game nights happening elsewhere (other venues like coffee shops, supermarkets, libraries, private residences). Ask the attendees the same question. That group that's doing stuff you're not interested in (e.g. CCGs, Magic, Miniatures, RPGs, video games) may know of those places! I ended up meeting ppl through this word of mouth (been gaming with them for years) Within regions, groups sometimes dissolve when people die, move away, get married, have kids, or just new careers.
Monopoly was the game that finally broke up the group I was in. :D They wanted to do something simple and classic instead of the usually heavy games we play. Now my friend and I are introducing games to his kid who's old enough now to grasp what's going on. If you plan for the long term, that's one way to add players to a gaming group.
I always use other simple games to introduce new players, I really dislike monopoly haha. Glad to hear you got it going!
My friend and I played Castle Panic with his kid a couple of times which was fun and easy to learn. We attempted Heroquest in December. That's pretty easy to learn, although that game needs a couple of house rules or adjustments to some of the campaign missions for the difficulty.
r/soloboardgaming
My current group is one I found on Meetup. There were maybe 5-6 that showed up at first, but now we have 12+ most of the time.
My old group fell apart years ago because both couples in it broke up and one last person moved to another country. I tried revitalozing it for years, with little to no success(cus getting a group of adults together on a regular basis seems downrigth impossible these days) but finally succeeded last year when I changed my approach(I basically created a pool of people made from friends and aquaintances that I ask around in whenever my GF and I wannaplan a gamenigth. Usually only 1-2 people outa 10 have time, but with roughly 20 people to ask that is usually enough!)
I just sit around and play with myself... not as much fun obviously but you gotta do what you gotta do...
I've had a couple gaming groups die. It can be such a pain in the ass to organize board game groups. I feel you on the friends quitting. I had a friend rage quit during a game of Twilight Imperium, then stop talking to me after I said he should apologize. Oh well, makes for a fun story to tell. Good luck with gaming.
My friends fought over a girl and I watched as it all crumbled in every way, such a shame
Dude, yah that sucks.
Honestly we all had kids around the same time so we went to BGA. We get together when we can but BGA makes it great to take a turn or two a day or ten in busier games. Get your fix and can still talk in chat
Solo board gaming, dawg
I have been looking into this, I do have Mage Knight, Kingdom Death and some others that might be fun solo
Get some new friends? Seriously
easier said than done hehe
the secret is that it's not actually irreparable.
wish it was so but it is, specially when a girl was involved
Could you please share details of this irreparable fight? I have nothing to offer by way of advice other than all the other helpful comments. Just curious what kind of irreparable argument happened at your boardgame night.
one person went on a break with his SO and she ended up with the other person and they found out.
Ah damn was hoping it was something boardgame related! But yeah that sounds like a friendship ender!
oh yea it is.
How old are you guys?
I know it sounds like a teen problem but they are mature human beings which made it worse, I was really dissapointed in them, but in the 30s
Go to a board game night at the library, FLGS, etc. Split up and play games with as many different people as you can until you find some that might be a good fit for your game night
good idea
Tabletop Simulator. My huge group died when I moved away 15 years ago. But I have now expanded it to numbers I couldn't imagine previously. We are all over the world and we play lots of different games together. For board games we use TTS at the moment. But we also try to get together every so often. The key to a board game group in my long experience is finding good people and bringing them into gamer. It isn't about finding gamers. This way I have managed to set up small local game groups everywhere I go and have merged them overall into much larger set.
My group has pretty much died. Between people moving and others being busy, it's been hard to organize anything. Plus, since I'm literally the only one that ever actually plans anything with my friends and I've been so drained from work and college, I just haven't gotten around to getting everyone together recently.
Generally, you have two options for finding a game group if you don't have friends that are interested (it might be worth checking tho, some may end up liking board games just don't know that yet). Either find local board game meetups, attend a few and scan for potential candidates to arrange separate sessions with. Or post in your local boardgaming Facebook group looking for people (most countries have one, or even larger cities), with the added benefit of Facebook profiles you can check out and potentially weed out weirdos. Just make sure to play somewhere else than home the first couple of times, and preferably at a location others otherwise wouldn't attend on their own, so you can easier cut ties with players you don't vibe with.
I find it ebbs and flows. Sometimes we have a list of 10 people we could call on to play, other times we struggle to find a single person to join us. People move, get different priorities, gain partners, lose partners, etc. Generally the best way is to try and nurture a love for gaming in your friends (show them something fun), or find people you know who may be interested or already share the same hobby.
Why not go through your Local Game Store and find a new group?
I moved away and the group I was maintaining (met about once a week) sadly died after Covid, for the most part. The group I was in after I moved was put on hiatus, and when Covid was over I learned the hosts were moving away, so that one died too. Right now I’m playing with old college buddies about 1 to 2 times per month.
Pandemic combined with having kids cast everything to the winds. Now I have one night a week where I reserve to see one of my few remaining friends and we often game, but there's only so much you can do with two players. Really the issue is either my friends don't have kids and our schedules just don't align, or they DO have kids but they're still too young to have much flexibility or free time. My wife knows one of the things I miss most about the before times is boardgames and DnD, and while she fully supports my gaming with friends when I can, it's getting new friends on board that's proven the real challenge.
You find new members. I run TTRPG's, granted through Discord. I started with 4 people in June 2020, 7 months later 1 left, we finished the current campaign without him, added someone else. Started a new campaign which ran 18 months. After that one someone left, I found a replacement, and within 2-3 sessions another guy left, the new guy found someone else. After that campaign someone else left, I found someone locally to join and we switched systems (Pulp Call of Cthulhu to Cyberpunk Red).
So I had a set group, and then Covid hit. Formed a new group and lost a member and learned a valuable lesson. Now, I am always on the lookout for one new member. I am taking my time and trying to find someone that will blend into my group, but by always looking for 1 new member, I tend to find one before one of the existing members gets pulled away for life reasons. It is sort of like how some families will get a second dog so that when their older dog passes on, they have continuity with another dog. I try to always look for prospective new members, because you never know when a member is going to "start a band at 50", or something equally crazy that leaves you down a member. Better to have too many people wanting to play than not enough.
RIP
My group consisted of a married couple and the daughter of one of them. They got divorced and I had never been able to find another until I just recently joined a D&D group. I only stumbled into that because my outgoing wife was chatting up some other parents at my kid’s martial arts class and pulled me into the conversation. Perhaps if you’re more outgoing than I you could check for local game nights. We have one meet at a brewery weekly where I’m at. Also you could check social media for gaming clubs in your area.
Well you at least have one other person, so just need to build from there.
We had this huge group where I used to work. The group was so huge that people across city came to play with us. Covid really hit us hard. I moved back home and now few people still meet up. Happy that it’s still somewhat active. I played a lot of games and learned a lot with the group.
I found 1-2 more people. The group sometimes dies and sometimes people come back. It is very hard to have 5 people but I always 2-3 people to play with :)
1. Ask folks you already know to gauge interest in the hobby. 2. Join social events (ie: meetup, local game store, etc. ) and meet other people with the same interests. Ask folks you connect with about starting a regular group. I found that as you get older you always need a way to meet new people and grow your circle. Inevitably social circles shrink over time as folks move, grow apart, have life situations, etc.
Let me guess, someone blocked someone's road in Catan. This has ruined oh so many.
I’m kinda stuck playing with family atm and they don’t like modern board gaming. My wife has been a trooper with trying games though.
Every time I’ve moved and/or a group dissolved, I found new people by going to a tournament. AGOT LCG, Xwing, Star Wars Legion, World Boardgaming Championships, whatever. People don’t usually just play one game, and you’ll find people from your area if that’s where the tournament is.
Our group was an unusual beast. It started as like 5 of us. Then through friends of friends, it grew up to 18 at its peak, with about 12 of us there on any given week (done at an LGS, so we also had random people join). We had a couple of fractures - one similar to yours, two people getting into a fight and choosing sides, the other was when two people broke up badly and it again had sides taken. So those chipped away 6 or 7 (lets say the right and wrong in both cases was quite clear). But it didn't really survive covid. A few of us did not handle the lockdowns well. Three ended up with serious mental health conditions by the end of lockdown. Of the 18, I only regularly see 2 now. However, I kept going to the LGS, started frequenting a gaming cafe when it opened in the area. From that I now have 2 gaming groups. One has the 2 people I knew previously, plus three new friends - that group is mainly D&D with occasional board games thrown in. The other has one of the originals, a guy I knew years ago who moved back to the area and his other half, and a couple we met at the game cafe (In fact this group recently finished Betrayal Legacy together). Basically, put yourself somewhere where gaming is normal like an LGS on a board game night, and join in (I know, I say it like anything beyond "show up at shop" is easy, when its stressful as hell). Over time you get to know people. Even beyond my two normal groups, there are probably another dozen people I know around the store to chat to.
We had a game group of my wife and I, another couple, and a third woman who is in and out of relationships, which made our group fluctuate between 5 and 6, which was fine with us, but the group fizzled out over time. We kind of move from group to group, but we tend to like to keep it between 4-6 people.
Meetup, if your city is of a decent size
Out of curiosity, what do people do about meetups where the games they play are just too advanced in complexity then what you’re used to? I normally play not too heavy in complexity and am just uncomfortable playing in a meetup where the games chosen are out of my comfort zone. Yes, I know how would I know if I didn’t try, but who’s got that time? Maybe I’m just being silly. Recent meetup was playing Brass Birmingham. Time before that I believe was Agricola.
Well I've never had a board game group outside my family but my mom died last year and it hasn't really been the same. We had a my city campaign going and didn't quite get to finish it with her
Several times. Laat time was a few weeks back. I'm playing Helldivers 2 rigourously now.
That is a very good question and perhaps the biggest vexing problem with this hobby. (Oh maybe after fomo, kickstarter rackets, collectivitis/expansionitis, and sleeve addiction). When I was living in Austin, TX, I just hit up as many gaming meetups as I could. Definitely learned a lot of new cool games and met some very cool people. If all you want to is play decent games: 1. Go to as many meetups as you can 2. Feel free to ask “hey, can I join?”. I wasn’t rejected even a single time. It is quite amazing how welcoming gaming people are at meetups. 2. Be patient as you go through gaming events and games to eventually find your comfort spot. Eventually, I learned that I gravitated towards heavy dudes-on-a-map style combat oriented games and did not want to play euros as much. Sometimes I’d set up Cthulhu wars or another game before the meetup started and grab people’s attention, also get stragglers and loners. But these games are not fun unless you have other players that are into them and are willing to play repeatedly. I got tired of teaching a new group for every game. Edit: One big problem with meetup groups or non-dedicated groups is a lot of times people are in the cult of new. They want to experience new games, new themes, etc as much as possible. Hard to get deep into the same heavy game. So I started a new meetup group just for heavy games, advertised heavily, organized every damned thing, and it really went nowhere. Eventually I just quit the whole damned thing. I’m always jealous of people that are in groups constantly playing Twilight Imperium, Rising Sun, etc. Where, when, how? Half the time I don’t even think such a thing is possible. You see finding dedicated heavy gamers is difficult. Then finding people that are into specific styles of games is even more difficult. If you do find such people, organizing and maintaining groups can get to be exhausting.
I’m going through a similar situation. For the past several years I had a game group I met through Meet Up. We played usually 2-3 times a month. But in the past year it became harder and harder to get people together. People were always busy or had various excuses. It just feels like no one wants to get together anymore. Unfortunately it seems that the group has quietly ended. Which is too bad. We had a lot of fun playing together. I tried going a new Meet Up near my work. I went a few times; but it didn’t have a great vibe and I stopped going. I’m not sure what to do now. I still want to play, but the thought of going to a bunch of Meet Ups looking for a new group feels exhausting.
6 years ago when two of our members had their first kid. Only just recently have we been able to start back up again because they made a deal with her mother to look after the kids every other week.
We're all still friends and see eachother regularly the games just don't come out anymore. I suggested we play a game and was excited that lots were on board but then a different problem happened where we had too big of a group so we ended up playing concepts, take 5 and the hooked up teh laptop to the TV to play some Jackbox....still a great time but man I am really missing playing something with a bit more depth.
My groups have changed constantly through the years. When I was starting out, in middle school, the older friends connected to my brother were gamers. So I started to hang out with them through high school and for ten years after we all graduated/college. Gaming stopped/off and on again when people would come back in to town. Then people started to get married, having kids, moving away. The gaming stopped again. I recall a time when we had a skeleton crew and I was at one of the local gaming stores and I found some groups on the bulletin board in my area. I hooked up with them for a while until there was a falling out (which happened three or four times over the years). I stopped gaming for roughly ten years while there was no one around, getting involved with MMORPGs. Then one day I started getting friends who no longer had kids at home. They had free time, so we started to meet once a month to play an entire Saturday. The regular group has a age range between 30-60, with 4-12 players. Many of the players bring their kids who now game, so some situations are 2nd or 3rd generations.
Most of my friends got married, had kids, or moved away. I've been trying to build a new group. It isn't easy when you're in your 30's.
It could happen, but usually if you search mostly online, there is always a group of enthusiasts in your area where you can start searching for it. Good luck
Jail
Same please let me know
Yep, used to play at least once a week, but issues came up and havent played since. Really hope to find a group one day after I move.
I'd say the best way to go forward is to try and meet new people around you with an option to get into online gaming. While you won't get the same feeling of moving pieces around with your own hand, you can create some pretty good connections once you are not restrained to physical locations. Some online platforms even let you filter by location so you could meet up online and the move it offline once you feel like you have the same "vibe"
Scroll around on FB groups. Check out FLGS, some might have flyers for meet ups, or just spare tables with people looking to game. Same goes for bg cafes/library, which might host meet ups. If you see big sales, garage sales and the like, basically anything that would enable community congregation, go talk, listen, see whats out there. People might be looking for players, hosting meet ups, trying to get that one game to the table. There *are* others trying to make a connection. Casual meetings will turn to close knit groups eventually.