Quick invitation to anyone who lives in the earthly paradise known as the Research Triangle that some of us hospital folks are trying to get each other out of the hospital and into the game store, specifically at Atomic Empire in Durham on Monday nights for open gaming. I suspect it is going to be very casual/Euro-friendly and one of the guys and his girlfriend want to do something called Pathfinder which sounds great for them, if anyone has heard any rumours from the tavern keep about the goblins from the dell. My plan is to slowly bring more and more hardcore boardgames to the table each week I can make it. This Monday I’m bringing Fire in the Lake. (I played it once there already against a guy from the Advanced Squad Leader group and it was lovely.)
Anyway, critical mass is awesome, so if you’re ever wondering what to do on a Monday night when you’re not on call, go to Gamer’s Armory in Cary to play Advanced Squad Leader, because that’s their open ASL night! No, really, do that, but then also come and play other stuff at Atomic Empire, unless you really do want to play ASL, in which case just shoot me an email and tell me which scenario and what side. Probably should be 1-2 boards and under 6 turns. No jungle or desert because the overlays drive me nuts.
Seriously, patronize all the game stores in the area, and play games with us. We have made a Google Groups thing or something for email announcements – if you want I can send you an invite. If you want to play some game in particular, bring it, or if you don’t own it and I own it, I will bring it, and if none of us own it I will consider buying it so we can play it, as long as it is about Stalingrad and does not have explicit elf content.
Next week, Thunder Alley! Oops, I’m on call that night. Ok, Thunder Alley in two weeks.
Again, that’s at Atomic Empire in Durham. Happy gamingz.
I know in the past Foundation’s Edge had some groups (it’s off Hillsborough St. in Raleigh just across from NCSU and traffic hell)- they might still be doing some stuff.
I appreciate the earnestness of your post, and it is tempting me to get more involved. The last boardgame I bought and played with a group was probably Advanced Civ by Avalon Hill, and that was back in the late 80s?. Other than some computer Catan and watching Will Wheaton lose at everything, I are a newbie with more recent games.
I loved Advanced Civ. If you feel like playing that again online, check out civ.rol-play.com (not a typo). Talk about tempting!
Being a newbie is no obstacle, and is probably an advantage. I plan to have games like Ra and “Hobbit Stratego” (hint: not really Stratego) available and will gladly teach them as they take very little time to learn the rules but have a high gameplay-reward-to-learning-investment ratio.
I was at Atomic Empire two weeks ago and it’s a good space for gaming with lots of tables, good lighting, and they serve beer. There were probably 50 people there two weeks ago playing all sorts of things (not with our group, just in general). You should seriously try it out. All you need to get sucked back in is a couple good gaming experiences. I plan to be there tomorrow (Monday 9/22, unless I get completely swamped at work) and I know several others will be as well, so there will be enough for games with 3-4 players at least, or a couple 2-player games.
Your messages are full but shoot me a private message if you want to talk – we have a group in Durham (Duke) that plays on Mondays. Caylus, Russian Railroads, Rialto, Agricola, Game of Thrones (board game), Brass, …
Heh. Monday nights I run my recurring Pathfinder game! I used to play at Gamer’s Armory, but the addition of the new Star Wars miniatures game made the place way too full and loud for us, so we’ve moved to one of my players’ workplaces instead, which is sad, because I hate not patronizing the local shops.
Luckily I’m spinning up a biweekly FATE-based scifi game at Gamer’s Armory on Saturdays, so at least I’ll still get to hang out.
If my Monday night game’s ever canceled, I may swing by Atomic Empire, though :-D
I did actually have time, and drove over to Atomic Empire for the evening. I got there about 7 and there was already a good crowd; probably 35+ people playing for most of the night. There was a threesome starting a game of Among the Stars, so I stayed to watch that game and then sat in and we played it again 4-handed right after. Then we grabbed and played Betrayal at House on the Hill (which I had seen on Table Top) and it played well also. We got an unusual Haunt which had none of us become traitor, and I died to allow the other 3 to defeat the evil and win just by 11pm. So 2 excellent game choices to try out.
About the time we packed up and were leaving, I remembered I was going to look up some guy named Brooski. Oops. Next time we can arrange to wear hats, or a rosebud or something. Thanks for the motivating invite. A.E. does have a great place and amenities, but I doubt I will be a regular just because of the 25 min drive to and from.
Brootski, I hope you don’t mind a slight thread-derail, but it’d be nice to address the local community very briefly:
If anyone in the RTP area is interested in playing a bi-weekly sci-fi RPG, starting October 4 @ noon, shoot me an email at armandopenblade at gmail dot com. One of my players just adopted a kid after a years-long wait and suddenly has a lot less free time, so I’m looking for 1 more :)
