Moving to SF/Bay Area -- What's the Gaming Scene Like?

[Lizard]

My wife just took a job in Palo Alto, so we will be moving to the Bay Area soon. What's the gaming scene like in the area?

Also, while I have your attention, where'[s a good place to live? To hang out?

Anyone hiring Perl programmers

I've done more gaming the past five years than any time since high school. There are several good stores, and the high percentage of wired folks means it's easy to find gamers.

 

[Thorin Stoutfoot]

The gaming is fine...

... but the outdoors life in the Bay Area is nothing short of fantastic. In a mere 50 miles, you can go from suburbs to desert to deep redwoods to ocean, along with spectacular views and gorgeous weather. The cycling is heavenly (though given that the local hills are 3000' tall, most flat-landers need about a year or so to get fit enough to ride them), the sailing in San Francisco Bay is fantastic, and there's enough greenery, water falls, and rock climbing to please any and all enthusiasts.

The place is expensive to live in. You can get $1000/month apartments in Mountain View and Sunnyvale, and those are reasonable places to live. You will pretty much need a car, as public transportation is abysmal anywhere except in the East Bay and San Francisco.

The gaming? I found my group at http://www.bayrps.com, so that's the place to go. If you post a game, it will fill up within a month or two.

 

[Gizzard]

...but the outdoors life in the Bay Area is nothing short of fantastic...

No, no, no, it is all very bad. Everyone else must stay in their current states; there is nothing to see here in California. Nothing to see, move along. ;-)

 

[Chaldfont]

Re: The gaming is fine...

... but the outdoors life in the Bay Area is nothing short of fantastic. In a mere 50 miles, you can go from suburbs to desert to deep redwoods to ocean, along with spectacular views and gorgeous weather. The cycling is heavenly (though given that the local hills are 3000' tall, most flat-landers need about a year or so to get fit enough to ride them), the sailing in San Francisco Bay is fantastic, and there's enough greenery, water falls, and rock climbing to please any and all enthusiasts.

This is one of the big reasons I am really looking forward to getting out there. We vacationed in the area a couple of years ago and it was great. We have lived all our lives in Indiana so this will be great adventure for us.

The housing will be hard. We have to give up a 2000 sq. ft. home we love to go back to apartment living--and our monthly housing costs will probably increase by 50-100%!

Sounds like I won't have any trouble getting into a game out there. It might be fun to actually be a player again rather than DMing all the time.

Thanks!

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

game

By the way, if any of the participants in thread are interested, I'm looking for a 6th player in my swashbuckling shipwrecked-on-a-lush-tropical island DnD 3E campaign. We play on Sundays at noon until about 6, in Oakland.

drop me a note at kenmtraveller@yahoo.com

Ken McKinney

 

[Maerdwyn]

My wife works at Stanford (Ob/GYN resident), and we live up in Redwood City, which is one of the cheaper places to live on the Peninsula - the drive to work in the morning is 10-15 minutes, depending on traffic.

Before that we had an apartment in Mountain View (1 BR, $1100/month) but apparently the rent at that place is around $1500 now.

The gaming scene - especially the post-college gaming scene - is better here than some other places I've lived. I run one game, and could easily have enough players for one or two more groups if my schedule allowed. There are several cons in the Bay Area during the year, too.

Lots of game stores around - my favorite being Gator Games in San Mateo.

Good luck!

 

[grodog]

Gaming's good in the Bay Area, and there are a lot of Greyhawk geeks here, too, which is always good.

If you're looking for housing/etc., email me off-boards and I'll shoot you links to various places I found useful when I moved here from Kansas in 2000.

 

[Kichwas]

Palo Alto is one of the more expensive cities in the region. By contrast East Palo Alto is probably one of the cheaper, but requires a glock and a chevy Impala to live in; as well as picking your gang colors.

Thanks to the dot-bust rent in some places is going down. But on the other hand a lot of landlords are trying to hold out and leaving places vacant rather than lower the rents below $10k per square inch...

I've never even heard of any anti gamer sentiments here; and I'm a native of the region. You'll just be another geek and in an area flooded with tech workers that's nothing unusual (if the dot-com boom had lasted any longer, Klingon would have been added as an official language in some of the cities around here...).

There's plenty of gaming shops and several local cons.

Get on the local mailing list:

BayRPS: http://www.bayrps.com/

Budget 1 to 2 months for your housing search; that will let you find the best option. I would recommend that if you have to use a freeway to commute try for the 280. Try to live along it somewhere, it's the lowest traffic freeway in the region. By contrast the 101 is a nightmare and if you get stuck using the 880 and then 101 expect 2+ hour commutes even if only 20 miles from work...