Gaming in the basement
- Thread starter Bullgrit
- Start date
Aust Diamondew
First Post
Occasionally. More often we would have to play outside, even in the winter, on a porch, in the woods, or in an alley behind the school.
Orius
Unrepentant DM Supremacist
Wow they must be. Not being in a basement kind of boggles my mind, since that's where I keep the washing machine. Never gamed in one though.
Glyfair
Explorer
When I started gaming I was in high school. We had what I would consider an unfinished basement that we would use most of the time we were gaming at my house (occasional we would game at the dining room table).
While it wasn't finished (cinderblock walls, no carpets, exposed pipes, etc.) it was still quite comfortable. It was fully heated and air conditioned, so temperature wasn't an issue. My father had made a ping pong table to put on top of our pool table. We gamed on top of that, and it was huge. We could have sat close to 20 people around the table and had a huge miniatures battle, if we so chose.
Since then I have gamed in rec rooms that were in the lowest floor of the houses. Not what I consider a basement, but as they were on the same floor as the basement, it might count.
Regardless, most of my gaming still has taken place either at the dining room table, or at my FLGS. I spent almost every Saturday during the 80s at the FLGS and occasionally several other nights of the week there as well.
While it wasn't finished (cinderblock walls, no carpets, exposed pipes, etc.) it was still quite comfortable. It was fully heated and air conditioned, so temperature wasn't an issue. My father had made a ping pong table to put on top of our pool table. We gamed on top of that, and it was huge. We could have sat close to 20 people around the table and had a huge miniatures battle, if we so chose.
Since then I have gamed in rec rooms that were in the lowest floor of the houses. Not what I consider a basement, but as they were on the same floor as the basement, it might count.
Regardless, most of my gaming still has taken place either at the dining room table, or at my FLGS. I spent almost every Saturday during the 80s at the FLGS and occasionally several other nights of the week there as well.
Let's see. Not counting stores/conventions, just actual campaigns.
Played D&D in a basement in:
-- New York State (outer suburbs/Hudson Valley region)
-- Washington State
Played D&D above ground in:
-- New York State (living rooms & dining rooms, outdoors on the porch)
-- New Jersey (living rooms & kitchens)
-- Vermont (house)
-- Massachusetts (dorm rooms, shared dorm living rooms)
-- Washington State (dining room, living room, D&D "library" room)
But the coolest place? UNDER a dorm at college. We found a short wooden access panel in the wall of an early 19th century dorm, with wooden set of stairs behind it. It led to a dirt floored, stone-walled subbasement, with too-short to explore through tunnels running off it. Rumors (OK we created the rumors) had it that the room had something to do with the Underground Railroad, or forbidden frats (banned from our college in 1962, 30 years before us). Sitting down there playing D&D by candle light? Definitely something a Chick Tract or Tom Hanks movie would warn you against!
Eventually, Buildings & Grounds must have figured out they had a kid infestation, and sealed off the access panel. With us still inside!
OK, I made the last part up.
Played D&D in a basement in:
-- New York State (outer suburbs/Hudson Valley region)
-- Washington State
Played D&D above ground in:
-- New York State (living rooms & dining rooms, outdoors on the porch)
-- New Jersey (living rooms & kitchens)
-- Vermont (house)
-- Massachusetts (dorm rooms, shared dorm living rooms)
-- Washington State (dining room, living room, D&D "library" room)
But the coolest place? UNDER a dorm at college. We found a short wooden access panel in the wall of an early 19th century dorm, with wooden set of stairs behind it. It led to a dirt floored, stone-walled subbasement, with too-short to explore through tunnels running off it. Rumors (OK we created the rumors) had it that the room had something to do with the Underground Railroad, or forbidden frats (banned from our college in 1962, 30 years before us). Sitting down there playing D&D by candle light? Definitely something a Chick Tract or Tom Hanks movie would warn you against!
Eventually, Buildings & Grounds must have figured out they had a kid infestation, and sealed off the access panel. With us still inside!
OK, I made the last part up.
Shades of Green
Explorer
Basements aren't common in Israel; underground bomb shelters are, but I've never gamed in one. However, one of the book stores which carried RPGs back in the day where they were quite rare in here was located in a bomb shelter under the local library in my (old) home-town of Qiriat Tivon.
White Tornado
Explorer
What is this "washing machine" you speak of?
Not counting game stores, I played in a basement once - but that family's dining room and kitchen were in the basement. We usually play in a brick barn.
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