Where to Meet

[cmbarona]

My friends and I love to play tabletop RPGs. Problem is, we only have one place to meet, and it's at the apartment of one of the members. And before you ask, folks would love to host, but the logistics only work out at his place. When he can't make it, the rest of us are out of luck.

Does anyone have any suggestions where we could meet? We all live in or around the Washington, DC area and play on Saturday evenings, so no public libraries I know of are open at the time.

If you like, you can also use this thread to discuss meeting places in general, or mention clever locations you've used in the past.

 

[Caliber]

I don't live anywhere near DC, so I can't help you out specifically, but here are a few of the places I've played.

Abandoned Warehouse (never found out whether someone in the group owned it or we were just borrowing it)
Backroom of a bowling alley (pretty sure the owner was a relative of one of the players)
Player's house (naturally)
Library (in a private room; still got in trouble for being loud)
School (both public High School and College ... there were almost always empty rooms people were willing to let us use)

Obviously the first two aren't available to everyone, but maybe you could try to find a local school that could let you use a room? Lots of gaming stores are willing to let groups play in them, although I've never taken one up on the offer.

 

[Cincinnatus]

Local college or university union/common room (might be good to ask someone first)

Starbucks/other coffee shop

Bar/pub (might be slightly loud, but you can probably find a good one)

 

[Cincinnatus]

Or, might there be a gaming store around DC open on Saturday nights?

Or, is that too obvious?

 

[Edgewood]

A couple of places I would play with groups:

Museum: When I lived in Halifax, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic would allow groups to book rooms after hours. All we had to do was set the meeting and book the room. The rooms had everything you wanted including audio/visual so we could play any background music.

Coffee Shop or cafe: There were several small quiet cafes in Halifax that would allow groups to gather and hang, as long as you kept buying something. Halifax is a University town so there were plenty of places to choose from. Which brings me to my third one...

Universities: They have several rooms to book and in addition, most have a gaming club with it's own gaming room (space).

 

[fba827]

My friends and I love to play tabletop RPGs. Problem is, we only have one place to meet, and it's at the apartment of one of the members. And before you ask, folks would love to host, but the logistics only work out at his place. When he can't make it, the rest of us are out of luck.

Does anyone have any suggestions where we could meet? We all live in or around the Washington, DC area and play on Saturday evenings, so no public libraries I know of are open at the time.

If you like, you can also use this thread to discuss meeting places in general, or mention clever locations you've used in the past.

What part of DC metro are you all at?
Both Game Parlor (Chantilly and Woodbridge) as well as Dream Wizards (Rockville) have game tables that you can reserve -- or at least last time I went to either they had tables that could be reserved.

 

[cmbarona]

Ah, good to know. I'm at work at the moment, but I'll be sure to check out both of those options later.

To answer your question, I'm actually in Potomac at the moment, but my gaming group comes from all around the DC area. In fact, our current meeting place is near the Pentagon City metro stop.

 

[fba827]

I'm actually in Potomac at the moment

Hahaha. Out of the entire freakin' Internet, out of everyone on this board, I post a response to someone in Potomac.... it's funny, cause, well, I'm there too... off River Road. (That's all I'll say cause otherwise this will turn in to some wierd stalker type situation).

As for the three places I mentioned ( two companies but one is at two locations), I have rather differing opinions on the atmosphere (management vs. customers vs. overall) of all three... but I won't say what since I don't want to cloud your own opinion, plus it's been a while since I set foot in two of them. I'll just say that if you/your group finds one a little less friendly or less comfortable and one of the other locations are equally convenient, then try the others out too.



Game Parlor - has locations in Chantilly (not far from Dulles Airport) and Woodbridge (probably a bit out of the way if you're group is used to meeting in pentagon city)
http://www.gameparlor.com/

Dream Wizards - is in Rockville (not far from White Flint Mall)
http://www.dreamwizards.com/

The website calendars for either aren't necessarily "up to date" but you can get the address/directions and store hours off of the sites.