Another good night. I thought it'd be interesting to show you how since the last one we've had a bit of gamers circulating (as they should with Game Circles!)

June:

• me and my four players who play GURPS Postapocalyptic (Kyle, Aron, Emil, Nick, Graeme)
• an old player from my group we'd not seen since he went overseas for a bit six months ago, from the Second Tiwesdaeg days (Chris),
• one from the Fitzroy mob playing Delta Green (John),  
• one associated with them, previously had run Burning Wheel in a Romanesque setting (our own droog)
• one from the Blackburn mob playing D&D (Matt)
• one from a pair of Melbourne groups playing Fudge Traveller and Tribe 8 (Phil)

September

• me and my three players who play CIVIS ROMANVS SVM (Kyle, Chris, Matt, Nick)
• An old player from the GURPS Postapocalyptic game (Graeme)
• Two from the Fitzroy mob, now playing Burning Wheel (Russ and Richie - John is in Peru or somewhere)
  
• three from the GURPS Banestorm group (GM Wilfrid, Aron, Shane and the same Chris as above - their fourth, Emil skived off, the lazy sod)
• one from a pair of Melbourne groups playing Fudge Traveller and Tribe 8 (Phil)

So here you can see the Geektogether in action. The last one had helped us get together with people and recommend them to groups; the GURPS Banestorm group and my own formed out of it. We didn't actually arrange the games on that night, but reconnecting with people and meeting new ones, this helped when it did come time to form the group.

Basically, for those of us there, the people we game with are limited not by how many gamers we know of, but how much time we have. Russ wants to run HeroQuest and invited me to play when he does - but he and Rich have their Burning Wheel game at the moment, and that takes up their time. Phil's a great bloke and lots of people would like to game with him, but he already has two games a week and that's about as much as he can regularly handle. But if his groups ever have vacancies, he knows he can fill them - they're fairly tight and steady groups, though.

Soon I'll be starting a new campaign, and I'll begin by asking among those guys, since even if they're busy, they have groups with people in them who might want another game, if they hear of one they like. Behind the twelve gamers there are another twenty.

I still intend to have the Summer Geektogether, three months from now, first monday in summer, 3rd December 2007. What I might do is head to the nearby uni group and game and socialise a bit with them. I've previously been in contact with them and invited them, but with them as with others what I've found is that people don't come unless they get a personal invitation. If I say to a whole group, "you guys should come!" none do. If I say, "Anna, I'd love it if you could come and tell us about your homebrew. Bob, would you come and tell us about your fighter? Charlie, we want to hear about your new job at Sofitel," and do that individually, not in some group email, then a couple of them will come. People like the personal touch!

It's funny how easy it is to do, and yet how people don't do it. The June one came about because a couple of people emailed and asked me when the next one was. I thought, "mate, you have everyone's emails... all you do is choose a time and place and ask them to come." Beats me why it doesn't happen more often.

And now we've had the Summer Geektogether for 2007

A good turnout last night! 17 in all, as I remember it, though after 6 Guinesses and 3 other beers of provenance unknown I could be forgetting or hallucinating someone or getting names wrong. My apologies if that's so.

Those in game groups,

• Kyle, KiwiNick
• Mark M
• Matt, Mike
• Phill, Dave
• Elizabeth, Ben, Jeff
• Aron, Chris P

Groupless (as far as I know) gamers,

• Graeme, Ian, Martin (mate of KiwiNick), DarwinNick, Tom

Apologies given by,

• Dave DG (of Matt's group), Shane (of Wilfrid's group)

Name and shame! - those who said they'd come, but then bailed without bothering to tell anyone. I don't include the "maybe" people, since we all know with gamers that means "no", nor do I include those who after two weeks hadn't even the courtesy to reply either way (a single email with two or three letters "no" or "yes" is a big ask, I know).

• Dominik, Mark P.

So while a couple didn't show, we had some new ones brought in (thanks Elizabeth, Phill and KiwiNick!) so it came out alright.

Normally we find that a game group or two forms from these nights, and some loose players join existing groups. But it seems like everyone was too busy socialising to manage this. So I'll remind people that

• DarwinNick is looking to run a game in the new year, either fantasy or cowboy bebop. He is a good GM in the short campaigns I've seen him do so far.
• Aron is wanting to dip his toe gently into the waters of GMing for the first time, and has a crazy idea of roleplaying dodgy backpackers in a seedy backpacking joint. As a Hungarian he is of course crazy, but he is a fun guy with interesting ideas.
• Ian is looking for a game group, he said he doesn't care what system or how far he has to travel as long as the people are good, but that could have just been the drink talking, I don't know. He is a good guy with a great love of gaming, he even ran a game store once.
• Martin is gameless out in Seddon or somewhere near Woop Woop.
• Graeme is up for a game, too, and is new to gaming so isn't too fussed what he plays so long as gets to blow things up.

The next one will be the Autumn Geektogether, Monday March 3rd 2008, at PJ O'Briens as usual. There'd been some talk of changing the location due to the music which starts at about 9pm, but to be honest even at 7pm I could barely hear the person speaking across the table to me because of the other loud conversation going on - the music really doesn't matter.

Err, sorry about that. It completely slipped my mind.

Quote from: droogErr, sorry about that. It completely slipped my mind.

I figured you just didn't like any of us

That's the beaty of the Geektogether, like other kinds of parties, you don't have to like everyone there to enjoy yourself. You're unlikely to hate everyone. There was in fact in the past one person who asked why I was inviting them when they'd done nothing but insult me online for years, I explained that,

• "Just because you hate me doesn't mean I hate you."
• "It's not Kyle And His Mates Have Some Beers, it's a Geektogether - it's for everyone, even people who don't like the person organising it - much like a con."
• "Maybe if you see me having a few drinks with some gamers it'll either confirm your bad opinion of me, or change it."
• "In any case, no gamer should be without other gamers."

One of the Named & Shamed in fact is currently without a group, and would had they come have met 14 gamers they didn't know. Surely at least a couple of them would have been right for them to game with. And several of those who never deigned to reply are either without game groups, or else want an extra one or two reliable gamers for their current group, as they keep having to cancel games for lack of people.

It's a pity, really. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. I drank deep last night, and not only beer. I drank deep friendly gamer company. I wax poetic!

[/I]

'E goes on a bit, don't 'e?

When you show up to things, you get to go on as much as you like

Incidentally, if you decide to arrange your own Geektogether, make sure that it's at least 72 hours before your game session, otherwise one of your players might still be hung over and bail on you.

:raise:

That man needs better drugs!

And we'll have the fifth, the Autumn 2008 Geektogether, coming up on March 3rd. Attendance has been 16, 10, 11, and 17 - let's hope it breaks 20 this time!

Good luck with that.

RPGPundit

And now we've had the Autumn Geektogether for 2008

First up, a big mazeltov to Ben & Elizabeth, who are expecting a baby.

We had a good attendance last night. We didn't crack 20 as I'd hoped since two of the people who were likely to bring some of their group couldn't make it. But still we got up to 17 people in all, from six different game groups, with 3 groupless gamers seeking a group, and 2 groupless not seeking, just socialising. Everyone was able to meet at least a couple of people they'd never met before - including me, who was delayed by crappy public transport and was rung up and asked "where are you?" by someone he'd never met before...

Nobody got drunk this time, I think some are still recovering from the last Geektogether. I s'pose they need a couple more before they forget the suffering of last time and let loose again.

Those in game groups,

• From Oakleigh's weekly Fourth Tiwesdaeg:- Kyle (GM), Aron, Matt
  
• From Blackburn's fortnightly AfterWorld:- Dave DG. This group is GMed by Matt, and also played in by Kyle and Mike (leave)
  
• Northcote's weekly Tuesday Knights:- Phill, Dave, Peter
  
• In Carlton, an unknown weekly campaign (I was too distracted by their real life news to ask them about gaming!):- Ben, Elizabeth, and Jeff.
• In the inner city, a fortnightly GURPS Banestorm (no webpage, slack of the GM, eh?): Graeme. This group is GMed by Wilfrid (absent), and also played in by Aron and Chris (AWL).
  
• Fitzroy's Burning Esgaroth:- John. This group is GMed by Russ (AWL) and also has Richie in it.

Groupless gamers,

• Aidan - coming to us via GameCircle.org, fresh out of school and ready to do some "real gaming", he says.
[/I]

• Colin - also from GameCircle.org, hoping to run an A|State campaign.
  
• Dominik - generally keen to game, things a bit in suspense while he waits to see if his Aussie contract is renewed, if he goes overseas or what.
  
• Emil - formerly of me and Wilfrid's groups, on a break from gaming
  
• Martin - mate of KiwiNick, works odd hours (4 days on, 4 off) so misses out on gaming.

Leave granted to,

• Darwinik, KiwiNick (of Kyle's group), Ian, Jeff Z., Mark M, Mike (of Matt's group), Shane (of Wilfrid's group)

AWL

• Chris P, Damian M, Russ, Wilfrid

And so we met again last night for the seventh Geektogether, Monday 18th May 2009, there was good attendance and it seems everyone got to chat to someone they'd never met before, as well as catch up with old gamer friends.
 
There were,
 
Chris and his Dark Heresy group meeting at RMIT, Wilfrid (Banestorm GM of same group plus Aron away in the savage lands of the Hun), Graeme, and Shane. They shared the adventures and coming doom of their party.
 
Colin blithely strolled in with the victims of his TPK in Khara Tel, Kyle and Phill, who all looked forlorn and in need of a new campaign.
 
Melissa came with her "Fly the Black" group, Aaron, Tara and Tom, actually two campaigns but I'm not sure who was in which group.
 
John came as the representative of the Fitzroy Mob, now the Inner City Mob, and told us something of the thespy communist game of being small mice with swords, and their new campaign, The Mask of NyarlotheDoomOfPCs.
 
Ben & Skiz came along, but since they're moving out to help establish a colony in the wilderness in the orclands near Bacchus Marsh, we may not see them again for some time.
 
Darwin Nick emerged from hibernation to grunt and roll over and go back to gameless sleep, offering an enthusiastic "definitely maybe" to offers to game.
 
Ian, fleeing from the conflict-ridden Western suburbs appeared to tell us more than we wanted to know about his lovelife, and traded many a drunken thrust, parry and riposte on subjects gaming and not with Colin.
 
And so, 16 people in all, with four different active game groups represented, at least 6 of whom have less gaming than they'd like to and so should be nagged by those who want to give it to them
 
Thanks all for coming, it was good to see you all, those I didn't catch up with on the night I hope to soon!
 
The game must go on!

How do you sign up to hear about the next one?

Why, are you on your way down to Melbourne?

Just send me an email. Each time one's coming up, I go through my email address book and email everyone who I know is a gamer and who's in Melbourne. I also cruise gamecircle.org, meetup.com and so on to find half a dozen new people to invite.

If you just want to hear about it but not attend, then I'll keep on posting these reports up