The Giant Brain

Over the last couple of months I have been running a monthly meetup for some friends at the lovely Cumberland Bar in Edinburgh. The event has been such a success that I am now attempting to grow it through Twitter, Boardgamegeek etc. and I thought it was about time to post a little about it on the site, in the hope of getting other people to do something similar in their towns.

So why did I decide to do this rather than just have friends round to the flat? Well the reasons are two fold. Firstly every time I mentioned to one group of friends that I had recently been playing boardgames with another, there was puppy dog eyes and much lamenting of not being there. The pub can take a lot more people than my tiny flat! Secondly I am an advocate the benefits of gaming, and enthusiastic about it as a hobby. By playing in public I hope to grow interest in the hobby and will be looking to advertise the meetup to the public in the future.

I hope to post more advice on how to go about setting up such meetups as this one grows but for now I would say you should consider the following. Keep in mind this advice is in regards to a regular meetup rather than a convention sized event:

1) Grow slowly: Don’t be afraid to start it off with just friends to see what works for you.

2) Take games you want to play: don’t be a martyr and just organise, make sure you get a game yourself. Also if you are enthusiastic about those games you will be a better teacher and advocate for them.

3) Know the games you are taking: as you expand and invite people outside of your friends you may have to teach some games. It will help if you know people are coming along who can teach games as well.

4) Make sure your venue is appropriate for your audience: tables, lighting, facilities, location these are all important to everyone’s enjoyment of the meetup. For instance I expect to be expanding this to the public next time, in may, and so I checked with the pub that children are welcome in case we get any families. A little forward planning will help everything run smoothly.

That is all I have for now, but I’ll post more as I move the meetup into the public realm. Hope to see some of you on sunday.

Happy Gaming

Iain

PS: I’ll post new info. on Nobel Intentions soon, hopefully I’ll get in a couple of sessions soon.

Well Games Expo was as good fun as ever and it was great to meet some B-Movie fans and general indie games enthusiasts over the course of the con.

For the majority of the con I was on the Indie games booth but I also managed to get in a game of Reel Adventures.  It was called ‘On her Majesty’s shrunken service’ and was a James Bond style story where one of the protagonists was only a few inches tall. It was a really fun game and I’ll try to write it up soon.

Of course no con is complete without a few purchases and I picked up Survive: Escape from Atlantis, Ascending Empires and some old school gaming in the form of Swords and Wizadry and Vornheim. Vornheim especially is worth a look, a beautifully produced handbook for running city adventures. The one other product I saw that I really want is Operation:Fallen Reich. An exquisite production with a crazy board game attached to it that is used for character creation. May see about picking this up later in the year.

It was really nice to be back at Games Expo this year and to meet Eero and Mark from Arkenstone. Also good to catch up with Andrew and Matt, whose imprints you can find links to under our Spotlight tab.

The expo reignited my enthusiasm for roleplaying which had been waning a bit recently, and I am hoping to back next year with a few new products including Action Movie, Reel Adventures and Nobel Intentions, which I think I fixed on the way back up from Birmingham.

All the best

Iain

Hello everyone,

If you are heading down to the wonderful UK Games Expo this coming weekend then be sure to drop by and say hi at Booth 17, the Indie Games booth. I’ll be there alongside Andrew Kenrick, Matt Machell and Eero Tuovinen, selling games, talking about games design and generally having a good time.

I will also be on a panel of other RPG designers, at 12am on the Saturday. Come along and ask any questions you like of myself and my fellow panellists and hopefully will be able to answer in a vaguely coherent fashion!

I’m running a game of Reel Adventures over the weekend, honestly I am going to release that this year, and I am hoping to get a playtest or two in as well. I’ll have the finished version of Action Movie with me and hopefully Nobel Intentions and Minions.

Hope to see some of you there.

All the best

Iain