RPG Hot (and Cold) Spots - What are good (and not-so-good) gaming towns?

[Mercurius]

I'm talking about cities, towns, villages, hamlets, etc. It seems that some places are RPG "hot spots" with tons of gamers, a fair share of game stores, and a lot of Geek Culture, while other locations aren't so great. Obviously population has something to do with it but there are other factors. For instance, it has seemed to me that ther

I'm looking both at total interest but also per capita. What towns have a large number of gamers? And what towns have a high ratio of gamers per capita? There is no easy way to make this judgment but I do think game stores have something to do with it - a thriving, well stocked, friendly game store usually indicates that there are a large number of dedicated gamers around.

What I'd like to see happen with this thread is people listing places that they have lived and describing them in the Cold-Cool-Moderate-Warm-Hot spectrum, as well as some discussion about the phenomena of different places having different gaming cultures (and "densities") and whether there are any meaningful generalities that can be made.

Some spots, hot and cold...

Obviously Seattle is a major gamer hot spot at least partially due to Wizards of the Coast being there, but it also seems that a decent number of game designers live there. Just down the road is Portland, OR, which seems to have a healthy gamer population and a few good game stores, including Powells' excellent game selection.

The midwest in general, in particular Ohio, seems to have a high gamer ratio per capita. I haven't spent much time in the midwest but it seems that a lot of folks are from there, not to mention GenCon.

I currently live in southern New Hampshire which seems to be a cold spot. The closest game store is about 20 minutes away but it is pretty poor; there are a couple about 45 minutes away which are decent, but you really have to go to Boston (Cambridge, actually) to get a good game store (Pandemonium), which is almost an hour and a half away.

I also lived in Colorado in the Boulder-Denver area. Boulder used to have a bunch of game stores but I think they've all dwindled away as yuppy culture has taken over (it also may be that its game stores thrived when all game stores thrived, back in the 80s and early 90s). Denver has a few good stores, in particular the excellent Black & Read, although I'm not sure how the gaming population is.

I also lived in Burlington, VT, which has nice game store in Quarterstaff games and, I think, a healthy gaming population.

So my known locations are:

Seattle, WA: Hot
Portland, OR: Hot
Boulder, CO: Cool
Denver, CO: Warm
Southern NH: Cold
Boston/Cambridge, MA: Warm-Hot
Ohio in general: Hot
Burlington, VT: Warm

Feel free to disagree with my "ratings" - these are just my impressions.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Living in the Washington D.C. area I've been somewhat surprised by the mediocrity of the local gaming community. There's really only one gaming store I'm aware of, and I'm unimpressed by it. When my group dispersed to various colleges around the area, no one found a good game, so we reconvened years later. The gamers I've met outside of my own group have not been people I'd be interested to play with; I get the sense that there are a lot of wargames going on in the area and a lot of WoW but not a lot of storytellers.

 

[Rhun]

I'm going with Salt Lake City as being a cool spot. There are a couple of game stores, but far less now than there were 10-15 years ago. And I know a few gamers, but they certainly aren't easy to find. My gaming experience here is similar to what Ahnehnois has said about D.C.

 

[khantroll]

I am going to say that Fort Smith, indeed the entire state of Arkansas as well as neighboring Oklahoma, are so cold a vampire might get frostbite. You'd think it would be better, considering the colleges that we have, but it's bad. When you do meet other gamers outside of a comic book shop, they look at you sheepishly, like I've seen people do adult video stores.

Stillwater, OK is an exception. Pretty sure every student in that college town plays.

Las Vegas is a hot spot, as is Dallas, TX.

 

[S'mon]

Lots of gamers in London, never had a problem finding some.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I'm gonna assume gmaes in English here, the gaming scene in Japan is quite good.

Tokyo (English) (warm) several groups and some store support
Nagoya (English)(cool-cold) My group is hot, know of only one other
Springfield, IL (warm) a few good gaming stores, only a bit of in-store play)

 

[ExploderWizard]

Living in the Washington D.C. area I've been somewhat surprised by the mediocrity of the local gaming community. There's really only one gaming store I'm aware of, and I'm unimpressed by it. When my group dispersed to various colleges around the area, no one found a good game, so we reconvened years later. The gamers I've met outside of my own group have not been people I'd be interested to play with; I get the sense that there are a lot of wargames going on in the area and a lot of WoW but not a lot of storytellers.

I know there are quite a few around. Have you ever been to the ENW DC Gameday that we have twice a year? Its a good place to meet area roleplayers.

Oh, and don't forget synDcon is coming up in our area too. Check out the thread!

 

[Stumblewyk]

I've been pleasantly surprised by the support for RPGs in the Harrisburg/Lancaster/York PA region. Not an overabundance of game stores, but I know of 4 that I've shopped at within 30-40 minutes of me (fairly centrally located between all three of the aforementioned "cities"), but I quickly found games to sample after I moved out here 4 years ago, knew of plenty of others, and in the last two years found two other local gamers who have joined my preexisiting game game group and joined a weekly group full time with my wife, and started another game out here.

Before moving here, I lived in the outer Philadelphia suburbs, and struggled to find a gaming group in the Montgomery/Berks/Chester County areas. I ended up reuniting my high school gaming group and adding two guys who kinda fell into our laps and worked out awesomely.

 

[Gilladian]

I live in Waco, Texas.

I have a core group of gamer friends that probably numbers about 10. If I put out a call at the local game shop, I can get 10 or more people interested in the game over a couple week's time.

I know there are any number of other games and gamers around, and could probably round up another 10 players by putting out the word with my friends pretty easily.

Then again, I've been here for 20 years. So I'd call Waco warm for the newbie (there is a good shop, and it has a strong bunch of gamers) but hot for me personally.

 

[Lalato]

I'm going with Salt Lake City as being a cool spot. There are a couple of game stores, but far less now than there were 10-15 years ago. And I know a few gamers, but they certainly aren't easy to find. My gaming experience here is similar to what Ahnehnois has said about D.C.

I concur. It took me over a year to find a group. SLC is definitely a cool spot. That said, I'm now in two separate groups and enjoying it.

The midwest is the birthplace of D&D. In the time that I lived there I had very little problems finding people to game with. So... I would say anything within a few hundred miles of Chicago probably has decent gaming opportunities.

I also lived in Florida and I would say that it's not too difficult to find gamers and stores there throughout the state. Well, south Florida is a little more difficult, but Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville are OK.