Help us plan an Atlanta gameday

[RangerWickett]

I'll see if I can track down contact numbers for WW. Meanwhile, I do work at Emory, and am friends with lots of folks in the gaming club there, plus I game with the faculty advisor. *grin* I tried last semester, but never really got momentum going. I could try again.

Nowadays at Emory, weekend parking is free, but finding a space to run multiple games would still be difficult. The best I could probably do would be to have two adjacents rooms, with a game in each, maybe two if we don't mind the noise overlap.

 

[diaglo]

Goodman Games used to be local too. they might know someone or someplace to use.

 

[howandwhy99]

Why don't you call WW and I'll call the Gaming Pit and try to settle on a place and time of day? After that we can discuss (here and on CM) about dates of availability. Let's try to get both Saturday and Sunday time availabilities.

Gaming Pit seemed very open to the possibility. With at a month's notice we should be able to schedule for any weekend. They regularly hold events during the week and can easily hold up to 100 participants.

Food and Beverages are available in the store and just outside in the shopping mall.
These locations include: Schlotzky's Deli, Wendys, Arby's, Subway, and Publix.

Location-wise they are a good bit North on I85. At the Pleasanthill Rd. exit they are 3 lights down and inside the Publix shopping mall. Shouldn't be too difficult to find.

Time may be the only drawback. They are open Saturdays 11am-1am and Sundays 12pm-6pm. There was no way to change these times for a special event, so Sundays may be right out as 6 hours is pretty short. The problem with Saturday is evening drives home. I'd prefer something long-term like 10am - 8pm for 2 full Game Sessions with a lunch break between. 11 to 4:30 and 5:30 to whenever would likely mean we lose half our participants after lunch.

According to the owner (and to my knowledge too) there is no other Gaming Store doing open gaming in the Atlanta area. Everyone goes there. So unless we find another location outside RPGS, this may be our only option.

Any comments regarding distance to the store, late night gaming, and possible other event locations?

 

[diaglo]

Any comments regarding distance to the store, late night gaming, and possible other event locations?

The Dragon's Hoard on Memorial does open gaming. but they are very, very, very small. and they mostly have tournaments scheduled well in advance.
Tony, the owner, is a great guy. but unless we were under 25 people they just can't handle us.

 

[RangerWickett]

Time may be the only drawback. They are open Saturdays 11am-1am and Sundays 12pm-6pm. There was no way to change these times for a special event, so Sundays may be right out as 6 hours is pretty short. The problem with Saturday is evening drives home. I'd prefer something long-term like 10am - 8pm for 2 full Game Sessions with a lunch break between. 11 to 4:30 and 5:30 to whenever would likely mean we lose half our participants after lunch.

Any comments regarding distance to the store, late night gaming, and possible other event locations?

Sounds like a good option, honestly. I personally would not really want to game for 8 or 10 hours straight. I'll save that sort of madness for Gen Con thankyouverymuch. We could shoot for, say, Saturday, Feb. 10, and start at 2pm. 9 hours until closing gives us an easy 2 slots, plus half an hour for food (restaurants are right nearby) and half an hour to clean up. I'd probably only game one slot, unless the spirit moved me to do more.

I haven't called WW yet.

 

[howandwhy99]

Here is a crosspost from CM about Gameday preparations:


http://www.circvsmaximvs.com/showthread.php?t=7799

I found that thread. There is some great advice on setting up and running gamedays by those who already do.

How many different area gamedays are there?


EDIT: Here are some ENWorld threads as well:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=174284
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=140465

Chicago Gameday planning and memory threads (all of these are qute long and look very successful)
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=175768&highlight=gameday
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=172893&highlight=gameday
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=162559&highlight=gameday
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=152732&highlight=gameday
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=145898&highlight=gameday
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=134760&highlight=gameday

It's possible publishers can be persuaded to support a gameday too. (free swag I imagine)

 

[howandwhy99]

Sounds like a good option, honestly. I personally would not really want to game for 8 or 10 hours straight. I'll save that sort of madness for Gen Con thankyouverymuch. We could shoot for, say, Saturday, Feb. 10, and start at 2pm. 9 hours until closing gives us an easy 2 slots, plus half an hour for food (restaurants are right nearby) and half an hour to clean up. I'd probably only game one slot, unless the spirit moved me to do more.

I haven't called WW yet.

My thinking is folks from Alabama and out of town will have a heck of a journey late at night and won't stay. I'd really prefer to allow a finish for 8 or 9 and let those who want to continue do so.

OTOH, if we can't get very many participants, it won't really matter. One slot will be enough. The calendar on the site does show a 10:30 time for an event they are holding, so the owner may be more flexible if we are successful in getting these things going.

The website with calendar: http://www.thegamingpit.com/
and Feb 10th is open (if it is up-to-date).


BTW, I'm thinking about writing WhiteWolf myself and trying to get some swag or other incentives. You can hold off if you want to. Incentives are really want brings in people. The location being free, and events being free are 2 big plusses. We want to give our GMs something for their time and effort.

 

[diaglo]

BTW, I'm thinking about writing WhiteWolf myself and trying to get some swag or other incentives. You can hold off if you want to. Incentives are really want brings in people. The location being free, and events being free are 2 big plusses. We want to give our GMs something for their time and effort.

if you get ahold of them and need someone to pick stuff up or transport it. they are right across 78 from me in the industrial park. i can do that any day of the week.

 

[loki44]

Good work 99. Sounds like you're making some headway there.

 

[howandwhy99]

Thanks guys.

We need to sight locations.

WhiteWolf has virtually no tabletop events - just one recent at the War Room (nifty search engine). They do have an enormous number of LARP locations (I've been to 2 of these several years ago. These aren't suitable for tabletop) and Card Tournaments. The card tournaments are all over the city in hotels, so it may be too high end for our simple get-together. Regardless, WhiteWolf is brimming with activity, so I'll find out if they will send some swag our way or not. It may just not be relavent to what we are doing. And they may not have anything we could use. Where are Goodman Games located?

Back to the WarRoom. They have a website as well and look to be as busy as The Gaming Pit. When did these guys move? I was there 1 1/2 years ago and they were in a rundown stripmall. They are almost exactly in the same location as the Gaming Pit, so I'm guessing there is some rivalry. Got me. When I was there last it was... less than inspiring. But I can't speak on the Gaming Pit either. Carpeting would be step up.