Age of Worms in Tuscaloosa, AL

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I've recently moved to Tuscaloosa, and am looking to get a game together. I'd like to put together a group for the Age of Worms campaign, which is appearing in Dungeon magazine.

I've also started a website to serve as a resource to gamers in the state. It can be found at http://bamagamers.uneasyaccess.com - Hopefully I'll be able to get some interviews with local game-industry insiders, gamers, store owners, and the like. Along with some reviews of gaming stores and things like that. Useful things.

Anybody know of anything going on in the Tuscaloosa area?

--fje

 

[ledded]

There's a small but thriving community down that way, and there are a few folks from the U of A who used to post on enworld that looked us up over here in Birmingham. Maybe if I run across them I'll point them your way. There once was a board for gamers in Alabama, but very few people ever posted on it at all, and I cant even remember what the addy was.

Let me know when ya'll get moved down, maybe we can get you two together with our Medallions group sometime.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

A chance to play in the Medallions game would be great, actually. I've tried to keep up with the SH (as much as I can't keep up with my own ... cost of running a very very involved homebrew every week and completing my M.A.) and its one of the games that's inspired me about my own ...

And secretly inspires my players when they decide to put on the big hat and get behind the screen. I'll be sad to move away: one of the people in my current group is really a fantastic GM, but so far his games have been limited in participation to our little "regular group". He ran an Urban Arcana game for a while that actually made me like that book.

Heh heh. I've finally put together a group of people that don't freak out when I say: "So I've decided on some house rules for this game ..." or "F D&D, let's do fantasy adventure with Grim Tales." Now I've got to move off!

--fje

 

[atom crash]

There's got to be something going on in T-town -- there usually is in any decent-sized college town, and my first plan of attack would be to check out posting in the student union -- but I don't know of anything specificially.

I'm another B'ham gamer (about 45 minutes away from Tuscaloosa) who would love to have a few more players in my game. Over the past two years we've lost two players to jobs in other cities, and our group is down from 5 players + DM to 3 players + DM.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I'm hoping I'll find a few things when we GET there.

I certainly would love to game where and when I can, but with the kind of workload I've been used to in my M.A. program + Teaching, if I had to drive 45 minutes to game ... I probably wouldn't game. Though, as it stands now, I'm going to be moving to T-Town mid-August and I still don't have any lines in on jobs. I was hoping for something teaching at UA or SheltonState but no responses there, applying for a few more things on-campus ... but I might be very very free for a while. Heh.

I've been spoiled here. When we arrived, the local gaming club had fliers up in the halls on campus, and has a weekly meeting on-campus where people can show up to play RPGs, board games (with a huge huge selection of games provided by the "Staff Advisor" weekly), along with a "Game Of The Week" being featured. It's been a wonderful asset and a great place to meet other gamers and play those fun board games you might not normally get a chance to play ... Illuminati, Zombies!, Settlers of Catan, etc etc. Within a few weeks of getting here we had a game group up and running and its been steady since then.

I'll keep in touch, might end up doing most of my gaming in B'ham. If I can't get a job in Ttown I might end up WORKING in B'ham as well. I've got an M.A. and I really really don't want to go back to bagging groceries.

Really really really. I remember doing garbage at the grocery store ... one makes pickles to preserve things, to keep them from going bad. Pickles, then, do not go "bad" ... they go "worse".

I wake up screaming sometimes.

--fje

 

[Stormborn]

You can try here: http://p206.ezboard.com/bbirminghamgamersmessageboard
although the site is pretty much dead, not that it was ever really active.

In Birmingham game stores are pretty thin, but the stand out is Legion, formerly Empire Comics, in Cahaba Heights near the Summit. The Galleria has a game store called Nord's in which you can find a lot of d20 and white wolf stuff, as well as war games, card games, board games, etc. Every Reaper mini too. I would be glad to give you directions from T-town if you are interested in either.


There is a game store in Tuscaloosa that I have heard of but not actually visited. If I can find the name I will post here.

 

[Stormborn]

Research Monkies come through again:
The Crimson Castle
618 15th Street in Tuscaloosa near The University of Alabama campus. The owner is Frank Woods who owned the Texas Game Company.

Again, don't know anything about it, other than it is reported to exist.

 

[atom crash]

It's worth noting that the guy who created and maintains the Birmingham gamers EZBoard meant for it to be a lot more active, but he was deployed to the Middle East shortly after he set up the site. He's returned to the States since but it's my understanding that he's currently back over there on active duty.

My point is that just because there's not much activity on the board, that doesn't mean there's not an active gaming community in the area.

 

[Stormborn]

It's worth noting that the guy who created and maintains the Birmingham gamers EZBoard meant for it to be a lot more active, but he was deployed to the Middle East shortly after he set up the site. He's returned to the States since but it's my understanding that he's currently back over there on active duty.

My point is that just because there's not much activity on the board, that doesn't mean there's not an active gaming community in the area.

Right. Good thing to point out. I still figured it might be a decent resource for Heap.

 

[ledded]

See, Heap, things are picking up now. Before you know it you will be inundated with Tuscaloosa folks just knockin' your door down to game...

<snip>I'll keep in touch, might end up doing most of my gaming in B'ham. If I can't get a job in Ttown I might end up WORKING in B'ham as well. I've got an M.A. and I really really don't want to go back to bagging groceries.

What kind of work are you looking for? Primarily teaching? I ask because I may be able to point you somewhere or the other, depending on what you're looking for. Shoot me a PM if you want, I may know someone who can hook you up.

Really really really. I remember doing garbage at the grocery store ... one makes pickles to preserve things, to keep them from going bad. Pickles, then, do not go "bad" ... they go "worse".

I wake up screaming sometimes.

<shudder> Been there, man. No one knows better than I just how fast mayonnaise will separate into it's constituent parts on a hot Alabama summer day, and just how... piquant... that aroma gets.

Man, seeing all these Alabama folks around makes me want to revive our group's idea for hosting "BamaCon 2005: Welcome to the 'Ham". We bounced around the idea of inviting a bunch of folks in, hosting several games, and doing some bar-b-que and whatnot.

Stormborn is right, Legion is pretty much the epicenter of gaming store-ness in the area, and unlike Nords has a fairly large gaming table area. It actually does a pretty good business and is almost always reasonably crowded (lord help you if you go in on a Saturday evening), and the guy who runs it is a pretty nice guy (he always gives my son free comics and stuff when I bring him in with me). It's funny, there are decent amount of really good comics shops in town but only a couple gaming stores have survived. There was a good gaming store in Tuscaloosa when I went to school there, well, heh, a while back , but I couldnt vouch for it even still being there.

Speaking of research monkies:

There was a guy who I once used to talk to named ArcOfCorinth who posted on enworld and ran some fun-sounding survival horror games, and he had a (now antique and near-useless to you) thread about gaming in Tuscaloosa:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?t=61458

From re-reading that thread, it appears that there may be a decent amount of gaming going on in Tuscaloosa, but it may be going on quietly for the most part. Which, Heap, since you are already familiar with Alabama, I wont remind you that in some of the more rural places playing D&D is still associated with devil worship, ritualistic murder, sexual perversion, mind control, communism, hippies, democrats, unsweetened tea and other indicators of the moral backslide of western civilization .