Merry Xmas Everybody

Yet another bumper turn out on Saturday and as it approaches the end of the year we can look back at the success of the club over 2013.

I think it was probably early this year or late last year that Lyndsey and a former colleague of ours first came up with the idea of running a gaming club at the library. They had already spoken to Medi (Library Service Manager) about the idea and had received positive feedback. I jumped on board as I had thought about running a club at the library before but hadn't got any further than that. I had a bit of experience of running gaming events from my time, about a decade ago, as Secretary of Bath Uni's LRP society.

Before anything got off the ground our colleague left for pastures new leaving Lyndsey and I to launch the club as part of the library's World Book Night celebrations. We'd spoken to a few people about the club before the launch and word had filtered through to Patrick at GW and on the day of the launch I ended up chatting to him about Mordheim and some of the other older games they made.. Making the link with GW was crucial as from this we ended up with our wonderful volunteers who have been the key in creating a successful club.

Shortly after starting we joined the GCN and as a result are advertised both on their and the GW website. In November we were one of a handful of UK libraries taking part in International Games Day.

Our first sessions had a mere 4 attendees but as word got around our numbers have increased and we now have a high of 20 people at any one session. Over the course of the year we have welcomed 51 different people to the club of which 19 have joined as members and another half a dozen or so have been attending regularly but haven't joined the club. Slightly over 30 different games have been played at the club and there is a list of around 30 other games that members have expressed an interest in playing. This blog has had over 1000 visits, despite the fact that it seems impossible to find via Google.

 

Have a great Xmas everyone (and New Year if I don't make it along next weekend). Next week I'll post up some of our plans for the club for the coming year, onwards and upwards!

Where is all the free stuff?

You may have wondered where all the free stuff that I mentioned in this post has gone. Well we haven't had any of it yet.

We have had contact with Gareth at Battlefront games regarding the free copy of Flames of War and to get this we would need someone to join their Rangers programme and actively promote the game. I have the application form to join the Rangers half complete on my desk so hopefully in the new year we can get this sorted.

Unfortunately the Empire of the Dead starter pack offer has been withdrawn so we won't be getting that one :-( It's a shame as it looked like a pretty cool game, the miniatures are well worth looking at.

I haven't heard back from Mantic games about Dreadball but they are offering a demo pack for Dead Zone and that should be on its way to us shortly.


There is a slight change of plan regarding this Saturdays session. Originally I said we would be in the small meeting room for the first hour but we will now be convening in the Heritage zone.

Local Clubs: Part 2

Further to the post about what other clubs are around locally I've finally managed to complete the map of local club and shops that I have been working on. I'm sure I've missed off a number of shops of interest so any other suggestions would be helpful.


View Gaming Clubs, Shops and Conventions in Bournemouth in a larger map

Local Clubs and Conventions

We aren't the only gaming club in the area, in fact there are a whole host of clubs, some long running others newly springing up just like us.

If you are interested in wargaming there is a selection of clubs running locally.

Poole Gaming Society run every Tuesday evening at St James Church Centre in the Old Town of Poole. They run a wide range of different wargames from Bolt Action and Judge Dredd to Warhammer and Malifaux

Southbourne Tabletop and Boardgamers (or STAB) who meet first and third Sundays of the month at Tuckton Social Club. According to their website they run a wide variety of wargames, roleplaying games and strategy games.

In Wimborne one of the newest GCN clubs is running. Warborne gamers club runs on Monday nights at Wimborne Town FC. They run the current crop of Games Workshop games.

Even further affield in St Leonards there is Wessex Wyverns,who formed from the ashes of the sadly deceased Battlescar club that met in Branksome. They meet every Monday evening at St Leonard's Hotel and play a wide variety of wargames and roleplaying games.

There was also Dicepocalypse running in Kinson, their facebook page hasn't been updated since the Summer so I'm not sure whether they are still running.

If roleplaying is more your thing the why not try one of these clubs.

Bournemouth Berzerkers who meet in St. Catherine's Hill in Christchurch Dorset on Friday nights. Or if you are Poole based there is Have Dice who meet on Thursday nights at Poole Rugby Club.



There are also 3 local roleplaying conventions, Consequences, Conception, and Indiecon. All of which  run at Naish Farm Holiday Park.

If your a boardgames devotee then Flirt has been holding a boardgames evening in association with locally based company Bag of Holding, though no dates for next year have been announced. (NOTE These are now set to run on the second Saturday of the month - 20/2/14)

If you happen to be a student at Bournemouth Univesity they have a gaming club as well, which meets on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Opening Hours over Xmas and New Year

Bournemouth Library is open as normal until Xmas Eve when we are close for 3 days reopening on Friday 27th. We close early on New Years Eve (5pm rather than 7) and are closed on New Years Day. We are then open normally from the 2nd January.

The Library is open all the Saturdays during this period so the Gaming Club will be running uninterrupted, hooray! Next week Wessex Young Musicians will be performing immediately before the club so we won't have our normal room to start with. It well worth coming along early to catch the concert, they will be playing between 10:30 and 12:00 in the exhibition area on the 2nd floor. Whilst they are clearing their stuff away we have the small meeting room where we can play some quick games and chat about the club. If you guys are willing to bring some food we could have a potluck lunch, as long as everyone doesn't bring cocktail sausages.

Looking further ahead, the Library will be hosting our traditional Chinese New Year celebrations on January 25th which will mean there won't be any space for the gaming club :-(

Who are We?

Club Coordinators

The club is coordinated by Bournemouth Libraries staff, Lyndsey and Darren. We share the duties of administering the club between us and supervise the volunteers who help us run the club.

Club Volunteers

Helping the coorindators run the club are a whole host of volunteers who are there to help you all have fun by teaching rules and running games. Currently our volunteers are Benji, David, Jon, Josh, Lisa and Ryan. We are not currently looking for anymore official volunteers.

Club Members

The club is open to anyone aged 13 or over (under 16's will need a consent form signed by a parent or guardian). To become a member you'll need to fill in a form (just ask one of the volunteers) and if you are also a library member you can get a free DVD hire, CD hire or book reservation.

Guests

If you don't want to become a member you can attend as a guest if you are 18 or over.

Contacting Us

You want to contact the club?

The best way of contacting the club is to email us using our club email address gaming@bournemouthlibraries.org.uk putting Gaming Club in the subject line. Both Lyndsey and I can access this email.

Alternatively feel free to ring the library on 01202 454848 and ask for Lyndsey or Me. There are only 2 hours a fortnight that neither of us are working (barring holiday and breaks).

You can also comment on the blog, you'll get and official response but there might be a bit of a delay.

If you're not after an official answer or want to organise a game for next weeks session you can post on the clubs unofficial Facebook Page. This page has a number of our volunteers as admins so they may be able to answer your query before Lyndsey or I get around to it.

How did you start gaming?

My first White Dwarf, Issue 201.

Its Xmas 1996, The Spice Girls are performing 2 Become 1 on Top of the Pops and I'm opening my presents, including a copy of Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Quest (my Brother got a copy of Warhammer). Such was my first introduction to wargaming; that Spice Girls song is now forever linked with gaming in my head.

Though, actually, my first dalliance with wargaming came from buying a copy of White Dwarf off a friend a few months earlier. Without any models or actual rules to use, my brother and I played a makeshift game of 40K whilst on holiday in North Wales, using some dice and a load of tidlywinks counters to represent space marines. Even before that I had played Heroquest and Space Crusade in the early 90's.

After getting Warhammer 40K I played regularly for about 3 years before slowly giving up. I still played some of Games Workshops other products (in particular Mordheim and Inquisitor) but my days as a wargamer were behind me.

8 years after first getting Warhammer I was at Uni, representing the Alternative Music Society at the Freshers Fair. Sandwiched between the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Society and the Live Roleplay Society I asked which of them would be best to join to start playing some Warhammer again: "Granny" the President of the LARP society responded "You don't want to be rolling dice, join us and do it for real. Its much more fun". I ended up joining them and not playing any Warhammer but spending almost every weekend larping for the rest of my time at Uni.

I still roleplay every week, mostly tabletop these days but also at a large professionally run live roleplay system called Empire. The games of Warhammer 40K I played at our club were the first in over a decade. I enjoyed it enough that I may actually get round to finishing the Imperial Guard army I've been considering for a while.

Empire LRP. Photo by Charlotte Moss.

Used with kind permission from the photographer and Profound Decisions Ltd

How did you get into gaming?

The results are in!

Two sets of results to inform you of, the Global Gossip Game that a small number of you participated in during International Games Day and the painting competition last weekend.


International Games Day 2013, Global Gossip Game Map

We were one of 74 libraries taking part in the Global Gossip Game; which took place in 17 countries over 7 continents, by 840 players in 6 languages, sending a message 94,423.15 miles. The original message at Geelong West Library was "Play is training for the unexpected", taken from the title of a research paper by biologists Marek Spinka, Ruth C. Newbury and Marc Bekoff*. By the time the message reached us as "The Secret of the Dark" it had been passed onto 273 people and had changed 161 times. When the message reached the USA it was split ways and the final 5 messages were "I Love The World", "Clouds Travel Around the World" Glow, Glow Peanut Butter Jelly, "Ian Needs Help" and "Zombie". The full details of the game can be found at their blog.

The second result is that of the painting competition, which were pretty close. The open category was won by David with his Empire Pistolier on Pegasus and the speed painting was tied between Ben's Imperial Guard and George's Ork. Sadly, there can be only one winner, so the judges (i.e. my) decision is to award George the speed painting prize. David and George you can collect your prizes, a £5 book token, at next weeks session (I'm not likely to be there so ask for them at the main desk on floor 1).

Miniature © Games Workshop 2003. All rights reserved. Used without permission

Miniature painted by David. Photo by Darren Edwards





* In a bizarre coincidence I'm pretty sure I read this paper whilst studying Biology as an undergraduate. Evolutionary theory and sociobiology where my specialisms at the time and I definitely cited papers by these authors in some of my work.

Club Documents

We, as a club, have a set of rules that define how the club is run and how you should behave whilst at the club. These are displayed at every session, but how can now also find these online.

Club Rules
Code of Conduct
Safety Rules

These are all living documents and they can be changed by Lyndsey or Me at any time to best meet the needs of the club and Bournemouth Libraries. We will organise an official AGM at some point in the new year to dicuss how the club is working and think about improvements that could be made.

As well as these there are also a set of documents produced by the Gaming Club Network, which we are a member of. These documents can be found on their blog and Scribd account. The minutes for the recent AGM are here.

The Best Session Yet?

What a great turnout for Saturdays session on International Games Day we hit a total of 20 attendees (thats 3 more than our previous high attendance) and at least 10 more people were playing with the games that were left downstairs on the first floor. We are already thinking about how to do things better for next years IGD and have had contact with Poole Chess club who may be using the library for one of their weekly sessions in the future.

International Games Day at Bournemouth Library. Photo by Darren Edwards

In total we had eleven different games played on Saturday, which in order of number people playing  was Jenga, Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game, 7 Wonders, 5ive Straight, Ticket to Ride: Europe, Blokus, Judge Dredd Miniatures Game, Advanced Connect Four, Warhamer Fantasy Battle, Uno, Draughts.

Don't forget we have our miniature painting competition is next weekend, we will have some kind of exciting prize for the winners and will be roping some of our colleagues in to judge the competition.

Miniature Painting Competition

International Games Day is tomorrow and we are nearly set for the biggest event the club has yet run. The entrance display is complete, the rules for the boardgames have been photocopied, cards for the Round Bournemouth Game scanned and printed, emails sent to Ekerö library in Sweden and phone calls taken from Scandicci library in Italy and from the Global Gossip Game coordinator in Australia! The giant snakes and ladders game arrived in the post tray this afternoon as well. I hope your all as excited about it as we are here at Bournemouth Library.

Just look at how many other libraries are taking part around the globe.



The events are coming thick and fast and next week we are going to hold our painting competition. There are going to be two different contests, the Open category and the Individual Model category. The rules can be found below.

1. You must be a Worlds Away member to enter (i.e. you need to have filled in a membership form)
2. Only one entry per category per person.
3. Any model or group of models may be used into the Open category as a single entry e.g. a tank would be just a suitable as a squad of troopers or a single model. These can be in any scale and for any game you like.
4. Any single model in 28mm (or similar) scale may be used as an entry in the Individual model category. These models can be for any game you like.
5. All models used must be painted by the Worlds Away member entering the competition. Models for the Open category can be painted before the session but models for the Individual Model category must be painted at the library during the club session on the 23rd

International Games Day - 16th November

The time has come for us to announce what we will be offering for International Games Day and we are pretty excited about what we have to offer. We will be running games throughout the library not just in the meeting room and have a selection of traditional board and card games as well as the more  esoteric games that we love at the club.

Up in the meeting room we will have our normal tables set up for wargames (Warhammer Fantasy and 40K, Judge Dredd and X Wing) and roleplay games. In the Heritage Zone we will have a copy of the Round Bournemouth Game, which dates from 1969 and forms a part of Bournemouth Libraries' Local Heritage collection and also the game of train empires, Ticket to Ride: Europe.

Downstairs in the Teen Zone there will be a table set up for playing Subbuteo. Then in the Children's Zone we will have giant Snakes and Ladders and Ludo for the youngsters and in the main library we will have Chess, Draughts, Backgammon and packs of cards for the public to use. We'll probably end up with some of our regular favourites as well so expect some Munchkin, 7 Wonders or Settlers of Catan to make an appearance.

Between 2 and 3pm we will be taking part in the Global Gossip Game, will you pass on the Secret?

Let's make sure the rest of Bournemouth realises how much fun there is in games and maybe we'll get a few members as a result.

I am the law! Drop your weapons!

Judge Dredd Miniatures Game.

Photo by Darren Edwards

We have a new addition to our arsenal, the Judge Dredd miniatures game. We played a few games last Saturday and it looks like a great little game, perfect for our club.

The plan is to run an ongoing campaign using this system, and we are lucky to have one of the game's authors to do this for us! So dust of your leathers and lawgiver to deal some Justice, Mega-City One style. If your interested in joining the campaign you can contact us, and we can pass on your details to those who are running the campaign.

Events for November and December

12 intrepid gamers braved the rain on Saturday to play some 40K, Carcassonne, Munchkin and Word Thief. We've now welcomed 42 individuals through our doors and we have 17 official members in the club. If you haven't picked up a membership form yet just ask me or Lyndsey (or one of the volunteers).

This weekend we have our Halloween Special be prepared for a selection of spooky games.

Then 16th November is International Games Day. We aim to introduce you to as many different games as possible, so we'll be running lots of short games, from WH40K using kill team rules, to quick board and card games. More details to follow including a full list of the games we will be offering.

The at the end of November we will be hosting our painting competition, again further details will be announced soon.

The Saturday before Christmas we'll be having our Christmas party and then the week after we'll all be trying out the new stuff we've received as presents (including those tasteful Xmas socks you're bound to be given!)


Munchkin. Photo by Darren Edwards

PS. One of you left your gloves last week, they are in our office at the Library.

The Greater Good by Sandy Mitchell: Book Review

With this post we welcome our volunteer David onto our blogging team. He's also working on another book review for us, so you'll be hearing more from him soon.

 

Darren





************************



The Greater Good - A Ciaphas Cain Novel

Sandy Mitchell’s “Cain” series is a much more tongue in cheek example of life in the Warhammer 40K universes Imperium of man. Where many books try to show the horror and futility of life in those dark times, the Cain novels have humour reminiscent of Blackadder.
Indeed the nature of the relationship of Cain and his aide is like that of Blackadder and Baldrick. (The books are also very reminiscent of the Flashman novels by George MacDonald Fraser - Darren)

This particular book is, in my opinion, a lesser example of his work. The book is a typical example of the Cain series, in that it is written in the form of the commissar’s unofficial memoir edited by an Inquisitor for distribution among a select few.
This style of writing is undeniably fast paced and humorous, the Commissars own take on events as well as the commentary from the Inquisitor makes for an entertaining read.

In the earlier examples of the Cain novels this style of writing is used to mention the future of past exploits of Cain as tangents. The details mentioned are self-contained and add to the overall narrative. Unfortunately this book relies heavily on the reader having read the previous book “The Last Ditch” and if you haven’t you miss out on a significant amount of the story of the book.
The title of the book as well as the cover art would suggest that the story would focus on diplomatic relations between the Imperium and the Tau, however those hoping for such will be disappointed.

However when all is said and done, it is still an enjoyable book and is recommended.
I would however urge future readers to read “The Last Ditch” first so that you can fully enjoy the story. Readers new to Cain would be advised to start with any other book from the series. They are all excellent ‘slice of life’ style books that can be enjoyed in any order.

David

What do you want to play?

This is the sister post to the last one. This is a list of the games that members and potential members have expressed an interest in playing or running at the club.

Edited 20/02/14: Links added for RPGGeek.
Edited 28/11/13: Links added for those games who have records on Board Game Geek and RPGnet.

Boardgames and Cardgames
The aMAZEing Labyrinth
Android Netrunner
Axis and Allies: 1941
Chess
Cribbage
DunegonQuest
A Game of Thrones
Firefly: The Game
Heroquest
Kingmaker
Mah Jong
Othello
Phase 10
Pyraeus
Race for the Galaxy
Risk
Sequence
Skip Bo
Word Search

Wargames
Ancients (Phil Barker Rules)
Bolt Action
Mordheim
Napoleonic Era
Necromunda
Warhammer Quest
Wings of Glory

Roleplaying Games
Deadlands
Dungeons and Dragons
Fate Accelerated
Fate Core
Necessary Evil
Neverwhere
Nova Praxis
Pathfinder
Prime Time Adventures
Risus
Sarps
Shadowrun

What do we play?

We  get asked fairly frequently what games are played at the club, this is an attempt at a comprehensive list of all the games that have been played so far.

EDIT 29/11/14 This list is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up to date in regards to what is currently popular. Games are consequently now in alphabetical order and we'll be adding posts every couple of months with what is currently popular

Boardgames and Card Games
Advanced Connect 4
Arkham Horror
Bananagrams
Blokus
Boss Monster
Carcassonne
Cards Against Humanity
Cheat
Chrononauts
Firefly: The Game
5ive Staight
Gears of War Boardgame
Gloom
King of Tokyo
Magic The Gathering
Munchkin
Munchkin Quest
Mystic Wood
North American Rails
Once Upon a Time
Pandemic
Power Grid
Quoridor
Race for the Galaxy
Rubik's Magic Strategy Game
Settlers of Catan
7 Wonders
Stak Bots
Survive: Escape from Atlantis!
Talisman
Ticket to Ride: Europe
Trapped
Uno
Word Spot
Word Thief
Yali
Yggdrasil
Yu-Gi-Oh

Wargames
Dungeons and Dragons Attack Wing
Flames of War
Infinity
Judge Dredd
Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit
Warhammer Fantasy
Warhammer 40,000
X-Wing

Roleplaying Games
Black Crusade
Call of Cthulhu
Dark Heresy
Dr Who
Legend of the 5 Rings
Only War
Pathfinder

Dave Gorman vs the Rest of the World: Book Review

Dave Gorman vs. The Rest of the World

So this is our first book review, we should have some more soon as David is reading the two Warhammer 40K novels that we got for free from GW. You won't find many reviews like this one on the blog, the book is several years old now, but its subject is pretty relevant to the club.

I read Dave Gorman vs The Rest of the World slightly more than 2 years ago having bought it in Southampton Airport on my way to the Summer Darkness festival in the lovely city of Utrecht. I bought it along with How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (which I also heartily recommend*) and read both books in the week I was in the Netherlands†.

The basic premise of the book comes from this tweet that Dave posted.

"Does anyone play any games? Real Life, not computer games. Would you like to play a game?"

A pretty innocuous question but if you have 76,000 followers your likely to get quite a response. Indeed Dave goes on a epic journey around the UK playing all sorts of boardgames, card games and sports. Starting off with the abstract strategy game Khet (or as Dave puts it, Egyptian Laser Chess – which we can all agree sounds far more exciting) and taking in Ping Pong (or Whiff Whaff if your Boris Johnson), Kubb, Guess Who, Kensington, Poker, Darts, Settlers of Catan, Bluke, Agricola... and many more‡. These kind of oddball trips are the bread and butter of Dave Gorman's books from finding people with his name in “Are you Dave Gorman?” to trying to cross the USA only shopping in independent stores in “America Unchained”. In many ways this isn't a book about games but a book about the people who play games and the places they play them in.
 

Khet -Egyptian Laser Chess. Photo from Wikimedia.

Dave Gorman vs the Rest of the  World is a great read, it is written in Dave Gorman's standard witty style and the characters he meets remind you how generous and friendly people can be. If nothing else it will give you a whole load of new games to find out about and that is something we are all in favour of at Worlds Away isn't it?

*if you enjoy laughing out loud on planes and having people look at you oddly as a result. Though to be fair people often look at me oddly even when not laughing at books on planes.

 

†Trivia - The Netherlands and Holland are, despite popular misconception, in fact not the same thing. Holland refers to the two most westerly provinces of the Netherlands, Noord and Zuid Holland. The rest of the country, including Utrecht, is not part of Holland.

A layout catch in a game of Ultimate. Photo © Darren Edwards

‡Personally my favourite is his description of Ultimate Frisbee, as an Ultimate player myself reading his description of a whole load of people I know and have played against was very amusing.

October and November Events

It was nice to see some more new faces on Saturday, hope to see you all again soon. The new longer session allowed us to run a whole host of board and card games (including 7 Wonders, Rubik's Magic strategy game and Wordspot), another Dr Who roleplaying game and two games of Warhammer 40K. The forces of the Tau and Dark Eldar fought to a bloody draw but I managed to notch up a victory against the forces of Chaos with David's Tryanids.

This coming Saturday we will be in the smaller meeting room as a course is running in the larger room. The week after (19th Oct) I will be bringing a selection of boardgames to play and cake as I will be yet another year older. On the 2nd November we will run a Halloween special and on 16th November we will be running something as part of International Games Day @ Your Library.

Another Great Week

Our new Wall of Martyrs Warhammer 40K scenery piece. 

Scenery © Games Workshop 2013. All rights reserved.

Used without permission. Photo by Darren Edwards 

What a great turn out on Saturday, 15 people in total including 6 newcomers and our new WH40K scenery, which our volunteers have kindly assembled and base coated, got its first use.

Sorry if it was a bit squashed in the Teen Zone and the small office, we shall be back in the meeting rooms from next week. Next week is also the first of our extended sessions from 12 til 4 so with less restrictions on time we should be able to get some new games into our repertoire. Speaking of which Martin has offered to introduce us to some abstract strategy games, which is something the club has yet to explore.
 

7 Wonders Cardgame. Photo by Darren Edwards

You will probably have seen some of the nice new posters that GW have sent us, but we do a whole lot more than GW wargames and would like to make some other posters for the club as well. If anyone would be willing to draw some artwork for us to put on our posters we would be really grateful.

We are also in real need of some scenery for wargames, if anyone has pieces that they are willing to bring along or would like to make us some scenery that would be great. It should be noted that we have very limited space to store anything, so nothing too large (whilst we would love something like this, reality is that we can only really store a few small stand alone pieces).

Upcoming Events

This coming Saturday is the last of our sessions from 2 until 4, from 5th October we will be running extended sessions from 12 until 4.

On 19th October we'll run a boardgames special in honour of me being yet another year older (there will also be cake), then on 2nd November we'll have a slightly belated Halloween special. Any suggestions for games to run at the Halloween event would be appreciated.

A Mysterious Package

I arrived at work this morning to be greeted by a mysterious package addressed to me. Slightly confused I opened it and found a whole load of goodies sent to us by Bek at GW HQ. There are 2 hardback novels, a Wall of Martyrs fortification, 4 White Dwarfs and a whole load of paintbrushes and posters. What a nice way to start the day!

...and you will know us by the Trail of Free Stuff

Miniature © Games Workshop 2003. All rights reserved.

Used without permission

Model painted by Henry, photo by Darren Edwards

Saturdays extended session went well, even if most attending hadn't realised that the session was longer until they arrived. We had a couple of games of Warhammer 40K being played, in one Orks were fighting the powers of Chaos and the other had Necrons, Chaos and Space Marines fighting (not sure if it was a 3 way tussle or some kind of unholy alliance). I managed to grab a few photos of the miniatures and hopefully we can get some more over the next few weeks as there was some very well painted stuff I failed to capture.

As well as the 40K we had a Dr Who roleplaying game and then after that the forces of the Holy Inquistion quashed a terrible Tzeentchan plot in a one off game of Dark Heresy.

As mentioned previously next week we are once again going to be situated on the first floor in the Teen Zone due to some workshops that are part of the Arts Festival by the Sea that are occuring in the meeting rooms.

Free Stuff, Prize Draws and Giveaways

We know that free stuff is good so I'll draw your attention to a few things that may interest you.

As the Summer turns to Autumn the South West Reading Passport promotion is coming to an end but there is still chance to pick up a passport at Bournemouth Library, read some books connected to the SW region, write a review of the books and get yourself entered into a prize draw for a Kobo E-Reader. The promotion ends next Monday, the 30th September.

The second competition is run by AudioGo, who produce BBC audiobooks, who are offering the chance to win a Dr Who audio box set. You can pick up a entry form from the display near the Teen Zone.


We also are also going to be trying to get some free stuff for the club; Battlefront Games are offering a demo kit of Flames of War to GCN clubs and West Wind Productions are offering Empire of the Dead starter packs as well. It doesn't stop there... we can get one of Kings of War, Dreadball and Warpath from Mantic Games and either Hail Ceaser, Pike and Shotte, Black Powder or Bolt Action from Warlord Games. We'd like to know what you want to play or we'll end up getting whatever Lyndsey and I think looks cool.

The final free thing comes when you officially join Worlds Away (forms will be available at the next session), in addition to becoming a GCN member and allowing us to contact you about the club you will get a voucher entitling you to a free weeks DVD hire, CD hire or reservation at Bournemouth Library. If you've already given us your contact details because you are under 16 or are a volunteer there will be a voucher waiting for you the next time you attend.

How to not be scared of sci fi

How to not be scared of sci fi | We Love This Book

An interesting article for those just getting into sci-fi.

21st September and 28th September

On 21st and 28th September the meeting rooms are not available so Worlds Away will be running on the 1st floor of the Library in the Teen Zone and Sci-Fi/Fantasy area. Please be considerate to other library users by keeping any noise to a minimum.

Though we cannot use the meeting room in the afternoon this Saturday, the library is open until 8:30 in the evening and therefore we will be running an extended session from 2 until 8. We should have a selection of small games of Warhammer 40,000, Mordheim, Boardgames and Roleplaying Games.


Miniature © Games Workshop 2003. All rights reserved.

Used without permission. Photo by Graham Brown

Hello and welcome to the brand new Worlds Away Blog

You’ll find all the information you need about the club on here; from when and where the club meets, what games will be running to who the clubs coordinators and volunteers are. Over the course of time you’ll also find photos of the games the club has run, reviews of games and novels, battle reports and all sorts of other interesting titbits about books and gaming.



Photo by Graham Brown

So the important stuff...

Where – The Bournemouth Library in the Triangle, next to Flirt and just around the corner from Marks and Spencer. We are normally located in one of the meeting rooms on the 2^nd Floor.

When – Every Saturday Afternoon, currently from 12 until 4.

What – Roleplaying Games, Miniature Wargames, Boardgames and Card Games. Most weeks we have people playing a mixture of Warhammer 40,000, roleplaying games and boardgames. If you have specific games you want to play let us know, there will almost certainly be someone willing to play it with you.

Who – The club is run by Bournemouth Library staff with the help of a number of volunteers. Anyone 13 or over can join the club, though those under 16 will need a consent form signed by a parent or guardian.