From: "Walt O'Hara" Subject: DC Area: 1st DC Area CONSIM Dinner a success "Minutes" of the CONSIM Dinner Well, 7 of us met at Bardo's last night to bend some elbows, eat overpriced obscure food and talk about the hobby (as I anticipated, we didn't get any actual gaming in, but the 8th AF box (GMT) served as a a beacon to pick me out of the crowd). Bardo's is perfect for this sort of gathering; convenient for Marylandites, many big big tables, so much elbow room (being at the site of an expired car dealership helps), a good microbrew list... Attending were: Myself, Mark Guttag, his housemate (I apologize for not catching his name, he sat on my "bad side"), Winston Forrest, Wade Hinkle, Bill Salvatore, Dave Bieksza. The discussion mostly centered around the potential for a new club in the DC area, specifically the one that Winston has mentioned already. We all agreed that the DC area seems to have a disproportionate amount of wargamers (and gamers in general). More specifically, we seem to have a large base of gamers that have access to information dissemination devices like Web Pages, email, etc... so we are an ideal regional location for "getting the word out" about events and regular, club like activities. We discussed a couple of issues to foster gaming of more complex, longer setup games like DAK, War in the East, etc. (basically, games that need to be set up over long periods of time-- where to set them up? Will a a retail store be willing to devote the space/time associated with this?). One solution mentioned was the purchase of a map storage table. Where to get the funds? Create a REAL club (vice a group of guys who hang out, drink beer and play games) and charge dues? Join an existing club and browbeat the treasurer to approve the purchase? No clear consensus was reached on that one. All present (except for Wade, who left early) thought that a contributing factor towards the success of the miniaturist clubs in our area (HMGS-East, NOVAG) was their events. Especially NOVAG, which holds small GAMEDAY events, where a single day is devoted towards miniature games. We would like to emulate this approach, with less complex, easy to understand and easy to teach games, probably of a less historical nature than wargames. Hey, it gets the word out. Do we do something like this on our own, or become affiliated with NOVAG? Something to think about. Some proposed events came out of this: A "family games day" that features competitive, focused-on-fun style games (Settlers of Cataan, Serennisima, Trivial Pursuit, even Candyland) for EVERYONE IN THE FAMILY, esp. the youngsters. Mark Guttag is planning something like this through his church. I like the sounds of it, myself... A GROG-nard based "Grog and Games Night" that I (me, Walt O'Hara) will be happy to plan, once a quarter, to be held at a Metro-Accesible location (I favor Bardos still, mostly because of the big tables in the back). This will be held on a weeknight, and will feature games that are quick to set up and quick to resolve (microgames, card games, low complexity boardgames like quadrigames). A convention, or at least participation in an existing convention like NOVAGCON, but bringing a sharper focus on boardgaming. Lots of candidates were mentioned for con games (Winston, Mark and Mark's roomate had all attended the last Avalonicon and had a good idea of what works and what doesn't). So that was mostly what was covered. Did I mention that a good time was had by all, even with the wretched parking situation? === Walt O'Hara --------------------------------------------- NEW Home Page: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/1861 Email: Doktor_Rat@Humanoid.Net --------------------------------------------------------- _____________________________________________________________________ Sent by RocketMail. Get your free e-mail at http://www.rocketmail.com From: Wade Hinkle Subject: Re: DC Area: 1st DC Area CONSIM Dinner a success Many thanks to Walt for organizing an enjoyable evening. I like the idea of a grog and game night, and a family game day. My playgroup has in the past reserved the commons room in one of the Fairfax COuty Public Library for all-day gaming on Federal holidays. We used it to run naval minatures games using Shipbase III (free plug), but we could also easily set up tables for the family day gaming. All the library requires is that the event be open to the public, and hey, that's part of the idea. Wade