[Go Play Peoria] Thanks!

[jrs]

This is a big "thank you" to Seth and Crystal and all the other Peoria gamers for organizing the first Go Play Peoria event. It was a very satisfying day, and I got to play more games than I've been able to do so in a long time.

Julie

[Matt Snyder]

What Julie said. That was the most fun I've had just playing games and enjoying myself since the first Forge Midwest.

[GreatWolf]

You're welcome!

Given the response (and some additional volunteers), we're actually considering making this a monthly event.  Lots of boardgaming and indie RPG goodness for everyone.

I owe an AP post for the game of Dirty Secrets that I played, plus I think that I'll write up a little bit about what we did to make this happen.

(Hint:  it wasn't actually all that much.)

[Nev the Deranged]

Good times. I'm glad I came out.

I'm not sure whether having it more often would make me more likely to come out or less. Three hours is a hella long drive no matter how you slice it. Maybe some carpooling could be worked out with other interested Chicagoland folks, though.

[GreatWolf]

I'm not sure whether having it more often would make me more likely to come out or less. Three hours is a hella long drive no matter how you slice it. Maybe some carpooling could be worked out with other interested Chicagoland folks, though.

Sure.  Chicagoland is still a bit of a drive.  However, having it on a monthly basis actually means that more people will game with each other more often.  And, if you decide not to come on a given month, then you just come next month.

Now, for that promised step-by-step on how we organized this event.

1)  We decided to start a regional game group, similar to nerdNYC.

2)  We visited a local boardgaming minicon; I made observations.

3)  I visited a local boardgaming meetup, making contacts.

4)  I announced the minicon in a couple of places.

5)  We set up tables and brought food.

Um.

That's really about it.

Oh, yeah:

6)  We played games.

The food was a big deal, I think.  At the boardgaming minicon, I saw that folks brought food in crockpots to share.  It worked out really well there, so I stole the idea.  Crystal made a couple pots of chili, plus we provided bread and such for sandwiches.  Then other folks brought chips and salad and the like.  It really wasn't that pricey.

We also had an advantage in meeting at my workplace, which has a fairly liberal policy about use of the facilities.  Having a meeting room for the low low price of free is really helpful when putting something like this on.

Anyways, my point is this:  doing something like this is actually pretty easy.  Sure, there's some room for improvement, and I'm hoping that doing this on a regular basis will help iron out some of the bumps.  But, in the end, it was really just a big house-con, and I'm increasingly coming to think that those are the best for actually being able to play the games that we love.

[Tim C Koppang]

I'd just like to echo what everyone else is saying. I had a great time; the con was a big success if you ask me. Thanks to Seth for putting it all together.

I also wanted to share a few snapshots a took in between games. I apologize for the handful of blurry shots, but my camera is still relatively new. (I'll get the hang of it soon enough!)

- Tim

[Valamir]

Heh, great pictures Tim.

The fourth one is of me using my madskillz to beat up on a bunch of under 10 year-olds in Hero Scape...yeah...it was that fulfilling :-)

[Andrew Cooper]

I see Ron and Ralph and several others there but....   where the hell is Seth?!  This is the second time there have been photos of an event Seth was attending and he's managed to hide out again.  How does a man his size hide from anything?