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?