Thank you for the effort of posting these reports. I really like to see a thriving community.

(Btw, what does "strays" mean? That you lost those from the last Geektogether? That you lost them after that particular Geektogether? That they were new, walk-ins?)

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;407632

• James, I think busy starting an anarchist revolution

Sorry I didn't come. I've been giving more time to writing lately.

Kyle, practical question if you don't mind. I saw upthread you said the activity is a drink & chat, not gaming. I beg your pardon if I skipped over where you addressed this, but what kind of location, physical setup, and eats do you have?

At one minicon, a bunch of attendees went out, between events, to a nearby restaurant. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't want to schedule a get-together there. It was too noisy in general and both the seating and the type of food made mixing difficult. It was a long rectangular dinner table. A round table might have been better but those get unwieldy after a dozen people, not to mention it's hard for sub-conversations to break off.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;407705(Btw, what does "strays" mean? That you lost those from the last Geektogether? That you lost them after that particular Geektogether? That they were new, walk-ins?)

By "strays" I mean, not attached to a particular game group. Like a stray dog rather than a pack dog Ideally the strays hook up with each-other or an existing game group at the Geektogether, and next time they're part of a group, no longer stray.

Quote from: Elliot WilenKyle, practical question if you don't mind. I saw upthread you said the activity is a drink & chat, not gaming. I beg your pardon if I skipped over where you addressed this, but what kind of location, physical setup, and eats do you have?

I keep forgetting to take my camera... It's a pub, an Irish pub. It has cubicles, the space we go to is semi-enclosed (walls to waist/chest height) and can fit about 12 people. Another few people can fit around the outside standing and leaning, or in small groups chatting.

The booth consists of a long couch along three-quarters of an oval shape, and a few small tables in between, and some low stools. So in the beginning, a person can be heard by at least half the group.

This booth is the far side of the pub to where the bands play, but the bands usually don't start until 9pm. By that stage a few people have gone home (eg the two couples with children), and everyone left has a few pints in them and they're loud anyway even without the music playing.

Usually at 6-7pm the conversation is mostly me or someone else talking and the whole group listening, but by 9pm when the band starts the ice is broken, the 12 or so people around are in groups of 2-4 having chats. So it doesn't matter if the people in the next group can't hear them.

People are always up and down getting drinks and so on, this breaks up the little groups as the person will tend to talk to someone else on the way back with their drinks. Most people keep circulating around that way.

Food is just whatever's on the menu. Usually about half the people order a proper dinner, others get dips or hot chips, etc. Drink is, well, Guinness

In terms of mixing, I have found that the limit is how outgoing and interested the person is, not the circumstances. Some people will barely say a word the whole evening, others will talk to everyone for at least a few minutes. Some stick to talking to those they know already. Obviously, those who are less willing to branch out tend to find that they come to many Geektogethers and yet still don't have a game group, or new members for their own group. Those who talk to everyone end up conscripted into several games

We have had several people who don't drink alcohol, those don't seem to hook up for gaming. This is why I emphasise the importance of snacks in gaming, sharing food and drink binds people together, "I don't drink, and no I won't have a coke," tends to put a little wedge between people.

Thank you for the pointers. When I give it a go I will post my results!
  cheers all!

I didn't run one at all last year, but that's what having your first child does to your gaming life!

Next one will be January 25th.

Promotional trailer here.

2012 JANUARY 25

We had a good turnout last night, 20 people in all.

PRESENT
Ben the Rugged Indoorsman and his wife the onetime MUD Mistress Elizabeth came along, and Elizabeth was kind enough to lie about how much fun she had in my Tiwesdaeg campaign some years ago. They then announced they were leaving to attend to their plague-ridden children, but were still seen conversing happily half the pass of a glass later. Rumours that their children were being babysat by Bargle the Wizard could not be dismissed out of hand.

Chris the Bruce showed up and spruiked his D&D4e campaign a bit, but we like him anyway. I was disappointed not to hear once more his rendition of a Scottish dwarf. Since dwarves live in holes underground, constantly dig for mineral riches, enjoy copious amounts of lager and their women are rare, hidden and bearded, I'd always imagined them as coming from Coober Pedy, but there you go.

Daniel the Luckless, who if I recall correctly used the last Geektogether to enter into the lofty realms of tabletop gaming, showed up to share stories of all his characters who'd been killed in various games he'd played. He'll be playing in Chris the Bruce's game group, which since it's D&D4e, we all hope he enjoys boardgames.

Gavin, the ad hoc webmaster of the rpg dungeon, went looking for geeks and found them, introduced himself, and then showed a flattering interest in my profession of personal trainer, perhaps he's considering a career change, though when I confirmed that not all personal training clients are hot chicks in lycra he seemed to lose interest.

Graeme showed up and looked tired, apparently unlike people like Freeloading Phill he is burdened with working for a living.

JMW the Kiwi gatecrashed and was welcome, and we shared memories of the fizzled game club Renaissance Gaming, which morphed into Zone One Gamers, and was later distilled into the thespy liquor of the Fitzroy Mob, still going strong despite the exile to Wellington of its charismatic leader Russ.

Julian strolled casually in and began regaling us with tales of his Dragon Age game, which apparently requires detailed descriptions of blood, gore and viscera spilled like a burst lot of Heinz's tinned spaghetti. He brought with him the extremely outgoing and geeky Candice, whose favourite game is D&D3.5, which is to say, her favourite game sucks. But if we can forgive Chris the Bruce we can forgive anybody.

Karel, who like Daniel the Luckless was first introduced to gaming by way of the Geektogethers, came along, and had much to say, but little of Julian's GMing.
Kiwi Nick, who it seems only yesterday returned from the humid urban jungles of southeast Asia, attended all too briefly, and so far as anyone could tell bought absolutely no-one but himself a drink.

The appearance of Kiwi Chris brought the number of Kiwis to at least 3, prompting me to remember the words of Macbeth, "What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?"

Rob the devotee of Old School retro stupid play, former primary schoolteacher now turned corporate monkey, brought along his childhood friend Shane.
Roy the vegan Briton came along to inform us that his busy cosmopolitan jetsetting lifestyle was taking him to England's rainy climes once more, but he still wanted to roll up a character for Kiwi Chris' Dark Heresy game, so that when he was once again sentenced to transportation to the colonies, he'll be ready to rock and roll.

Wade showed up again after a couple of years, and I still didn't talk to him, but Chris the Bruce talked to him a lot, perhaps he knows him well enough to make fun of him now.

Wilfrid appeared and told us a little of his extraordinarily long-running GURPS Banestorm campaign, which has now moved onto the blistering pace of one game month per real year.

ABSENT
Amy, the companion of Kiwi Chris, thought better of spending the evening with a bunch of geeks, and so didn't show up.

Beau the Mad Scientist penned an electronic mail at a quarter to six to inform us that an unfortunate lab accident prevented his attendance. His exposure to the accidental detonation of a gamma bomb cannot be confirmed, but a large green man resembling Lou Ferrigno was seen leaving the university grounds later that night. Don't make him angry.

Damian, having the more pressing business of losing hands of poker to attend to, did not appear, leading Julian to comment, "it's not a real Geektogether unless Damo's here to leave us with his dinner and drinks bill."

Freeloading Phill feared there might be a duel between some of us representing Old School and the apparently thespy Paul, and so fled to the cosy confines of his dusty hovel in Westgarth.

Jon, a man unknown to all and sundry, who had proudly announced he was now in the country, was not seen. But there was a mysterious cloaked stranger sitting in the corner of the tavern with his cowl pulled over his eyes. None dared speak to him, and a distant DM's voice was heard to curse, "that's the adventure hook, you fools!"

Paul emailed to tell us all about his games of InSpectres, Capes, Polaris, and so on, he then simply failed to show up and thus gave us no fun at all. We were unsurprised by this since unfulfilled promise is a common feature of thespy New School play. His nonattendance is a pity since I'd got a spare copy of the AD&D1e DMG to give him to tell him the Right And Proper way to play.

The mysterious Tom, game tablemate of Julian and Candice, could not be seen, perhaps he was Hiding In Shadows.

CONCLUSION
All seemed to have a good time, and I saw a lot of contact details being exchanged, if only so people could complete their old sets of AD&D1e figurines. Only two people bought me a Guiness this year (thanks Jules and Rob!), the third I had to buy myself. This was a disappointing tally, dwarfed by the 8 Guinesses I had one time, the same year Damo's friend Matt had to take three days off work afterwards. Only 2 pints? Ridiculous! Why do you fools think I organise these things?!

But still, there was much talk of gaming and more gaming to come. I suppose you might say we met in a tavern and decided to adventure together.
Thankyou all for coming and helping make it an excellent night.

2013 JANUARY 31st

The first Geektogether was December 2006, this was the 13th since then.

When I showed up, we were not in the Poet's Corner. Julian and Dave had protested but been fobbed off for the better part of an hour, I spoke to the staff and they explained nothing had been written in the book, perhaps the manager who took the booking partakes of too much of the pub's product. Five minutes later we were in the right place.

We had 14 people attend representing 6 different game groups - with some overlap - and 6 people who as far as I know have no game group.

PRESENT
Roy Taylor CBD Caltrops
Julian Dellar CBD Caltrops Glenroy Dragon Age
Graeme Wilson RMIT ejectees
Phill Webb GROUPLESS
Wade scifi easterly
Daniel Kinsman GROUPLESS
Amber & friend GROUPLESS
Bastien Burkart GROUPLESS
Mark Moncrieff Reservoir Dogs
Shane Harvey RMIT ejectees Caltrops
Chris Pritchard CBD Caltrops
Luke GROUPLESS
Dave Tuesday Knights

LEAVE
Ibrahim Peasell CBD Caltrops
Emil Zanettin GROUPLESS
Damien Wilman Western Orcs
Mike Dwyer Western Orcs
Nick Melchior Brunswick Bashers
Robert Stephens CBD Caltrops Glenroy Dragon Age

ABSENT
Ben & Skiz unknown
Wilfrid Legoussouart RMIT ejectees

Dave was the first to show up but was still the last one to order his food. He lamented that in 6 years they hadn't changed how they made their wedges, though how many ways one can cut up and fry a bit of spud is surely limited. Mark reiterated his previous opinion that potatoes are so good, they should be an honourary meat.

Roy came along and told people about his vegan fasting lifestyle which caused bewilderment among the gamers since cheesey snacks are as essential to gaming as dice and ham acting. His players sternly rebuked him for the sin of not reading the module. Roy has committed to a more professional approach in future, staying up past midnight to calculate xp, though the treasure still hasn't come through to his players so he obviously has some work to do.
Shane shared his continuing glee at munchkining the fuck out of GURPS in Wilfrid's campaign, which is apparently on hiatus while they play Dresden Files. I asked if you could play a flying bear with laser beam eyes and was told, "probably not," at which I declared that the game was obviously inferior to World of Synnibar.

Daniel told us of going for a long drive with some friends and introducing them to roleplaying, using the license plates of passing cars as his resolution mechanic. It is unclear whether his group managed to kill everyone and take their stuff, however.

Amber brought a friend who she did not introduce, so he shall have to remain anonymous, perhaps he was just her valet.

Luke appeared for the first time some years after joining the mailing list and told us about the Hulk going on trial in a comic, or some such story. At this point I informed him that a Geektogether tradition is that since Kyle organises the things, everyone has to buy him a drink. It's not really a tradition but I keep trying to make it one. He said, "I thought you were going to say, the tradition is the new guy buys everyone a drink?" I replied that this would be an excellent tradition to establish, luckily for Luke's wallet there were only a few of us left at this stage. Cheers for the brew, Luke, may all your dice roll criticals.

Phill told us about politics on the Traveller Mailing List, and said of Marc Miller's Kickstarter, "I'd pay him $100 for 600 pages of shit just to thank him for Traveller."
"Couldn't you just send him a small thankyou card and perhaps a box of chocolates?"

Bastien lamented that in the wilds of Healesville there were few or no gamers, Mark directed him to the Nunawading Wargamer's Association, which no longer meets in Nunawading.

Kiwi Chris said something but everyone else talked over him.

Julian took some photos but everyone has evil eyes, we probably shouldn't publish our possession.

Thankyou to one and all for coming.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;628621Yes, we've had Geektogethers since I was here last. I didn't know anyone would be interested, I'll post them.

Great. Thanks a lot.

There is not much that I can add to your reports. I asked one or two questions in the past but normally I am quite content to just read how local communities organise themselves.
(I also follow the NerdNYC Recess mini-cons and some of the OSR gatherings, like SoCal Minicon and the Red Box meetings.)