Gaming Club / "Home Base"


Gamer Life General Discussion

Sczarni

An interesting possibility was brought up in the FLGS Open Letter thread.

Shifty wrote:
Would you as a Gamer be happy to pay a couple of dollars to use a nice airconditioned conference style room with WiFi thrown in and close to all amenities and a great coffee shop next door, loads of free parking and ready public transport access?

So, would you?

If so, what amenities and services would be "must haves" or "deal breakers" for you?

What would it be worth to you?

1$/hr/person at the table?

A monthly/yearly "club dues?"

How far would you be willing to travel for such a facility?

Inquiring minds want to know!


I used to play in a group that used paid-for facilities in the basement of our FLGS. I think it was something like $25-$50 for a 4-hour [weekday evening] slot once a week, for 3 months.

We used it for less than 6 months however because of several reasons.


  • M:TG players. Less specifically, there were other groups that would use the rest of the basement at the same time, and many of those groups would get quite noisy.
  • Cleaning. Several of the players were seriously grossed out by the space. I wasn't - you could tell they didn't do a good job sweeping the floor, but there weren't spilled drinks or big pieces of trash lying around.
  • Other events. The store had a policy that planned events preempted the people who paid for the facilities. We agreed to this under the assumption this would happen once, maybe twice during the 3-month agreement, and we would be given significant advance notice. While we did get about a week advance notice each time, we got preempted 4-5 times while we were still gaming there.
  • Partly due to issues 2 & 3, some of the players decided that they didn't like the owner and would rather not frequent his store.

We then tried to do the same thing at another FLGS nearby. They were very nice, but the space was unacceptably small.

Now, to answer your questions:

Must have amenities - private or semi-private room, sturdy table, chairs. food/drinks must be allowed, although restrictions are okay.

I'd be willing to pay about $10 for a gaming session: for me that's about 5 people for 4-6 hours. The competition (someone's house/apartment) may lack amenities, but you can't beat the price of free. Prepay is fine - I'm never going to run a pickup game of Pathfinder.

I'd be willing to travel up to an hour for a great facility. For an "average" facility, probably 30 minutes. It also obviously depends on the average commute for all players. This is the same sort of competition as with price. My own apartment has a travel time of zero.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

Depends on how much is being charged.

Before LanSharks in Savannah, GA closed down, my group would gather there to game. They had a nice card table with cup holders and trays on the edge that worked well for gaming as well. It was no charge, and the store offered 50 cent snacks and dollar drinks. There was a small shelf of gaming books as well. We would not have used it if there were a charge since the couches and chairs did not fit the table well, and there was the ambient noise of the LAN party crew and console gaming going on.

Now if the place had a Sultan gaming table with separate soundproofed room and comfortable chairs, I would certainly have rented for a good price. I've looked into hotel conference rooms and other event areas, but a hundred dollars a month is a bit too much for me to invest, nor will I ask my players to invest 'club dues' for my games.


Must-haves: significant table space, wi-fi, comfy chairs, easy access to food/drinks.

I'd pay good money if I felt it offered significant advantages over playing at home. Any reasonable asking price would be entertained.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

My group doesn't use Wifi at the table, so that wouldn't be a factor. Mostly we would be looking at adequate space and comfort, since having seven plus players is hard on small apartments. My friend has a huge dining table and house, but another player is allergic to cats so we can't game there.

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