Indianapolis gaming?

[SSquirrel]

Yes obviously GenCon has its home there, but what else is in Indy gaming wise? Lots of stores? Good community of gamers? I'm debating possibly moving there and want to make sure I'll be able to find a group. Preferrably something besides D&D as well tho heh. I like a lot of games and my gf is, frankly, sick of D&D right now.

Hagen

 

[JediSoth]

Indy gaming, eh?

Well, on the southside of town, there's one game store called "The Game Preserve." They do have a modest gaming area. They sell RPGs, miniature games, board games, card games, puzzles, etc. There's also a Game Preserve on the north side of town and one in Bloomington, near Indiana University, if I'm not mistaken. There's a place called Boardroom Games in the area called Broad Ripple (it's essentially a suburb on the near north-side).

There have been other game stores, but they've closed. There are several gaming groups that I personally know of (I'm sure there are many many more I'm not personally aware of). My group seems to always have room at the table, since we're almost all married with children and attendance can be sporadic. We're wrapping up an FR game and I'm just getting starting running my World's Largest Dungeon campaign. If we don't get enough people to show up (at least 4 total, counting myself), we play board games instead. We occassionally play the Star Wars RPG too. The Game Preserve has a "Book of All Gamers" people use to "advertise" their games when they're looking for some players and they have a cork board for that purpose as well.

I think there might be a few stores that specialize in card games like Magic: TG, as well, but I'm not familiar with them. Bookstores and comic book stores also sell a limited selection of RPG material.

JediSoth

 

[RatPunk]

There is also a Game Preserve in Lafayette. None of the GPs really have much in the way of in-store gaming space (though it has been a looooong time since I've seen the Bloomington store, so that may not be entirely accurate), but they are generally good places to service your gaming needs.

The five Downtown Comics locations spread around the city all carry varying amounts of gaming stuff, with the north side location (in Carmel) having the most variety and largest gaming area.

Boardroom Games has a very impressive selection of pretty much any gaming related item you might want, including a nice used games section. Beware of the owner, though. Most people I know don't care much for him as a person (though he certainly knows his games).

Last I knew the four Comic Carnival stores also carried a small amount of gaming stuff, but I haven't been in any of those stores in years.

There are also a small handful of "independent" stores scattered around the area, but I couldn't get more specific since I've never been to any of them. There are also stores in other nearby central Indiana cities, depending on where your at. Anderson, Kokomo and Muncie all being good examples.

As for actual gamers, I only know of a couple of groups personally (mine included), but I don't actually live in Indianapolis (I only work there). I would imagine there's quite a few since the Game Preserve, Downtown Comics, Comic Carnival and Boardroom stores have all been around town for at least the length of my gaming career, and that's going on close to 25 years now...