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Hi everyone,

I've been intrigued by the UK wargaming club scene for some time. As a gamer in the USA, it seems most of us will either drive 10 to 45 minutes and congregate at a game store, or try to set up a gaming table in a friend's house and have weekly gaming sessions with our friends. However, it seems as if the UK is a bit different - with space more at a premium, and transportation more expensive, it _seems_ to me that there are a lot of wargames clubs in the UK. I mean, the kind that have a permanent space, where members pay a monthly fee, and often the club has product for sale.

Does anyone on Dakka, that is in the UK, operate or manage one of these clubs? Or are you a member of one?

I'd love to know how it operates, what kind of expenses are involved, etc. I've been considering trying something similar in my city here in the USA and would love to hear any experiences or anecdotes with running or being a part of such a club in the UK.

Thanks!

I help run one. We rent a space from a bar/restaurant twice a week. As we run as not-for-profit, the bar owner only takes half the subs for the session as rent, with the rest going back into the club for terrain, mats, competition prizes, etc.
We're part of the GCN, and they provide our insurance (which is our biggest yearly expense).

beast_gts wrote:
I help run one. We rent a space from a bar/restaurant twice a week. As we run as not-for-profit, the bar owner only takes half the subs for the session as rent, with the rest going back into the club for terrain, mats, competition prizes, etc.
We're part of the GCN, and they provide our insurance (which is our biggest yearly expense).

Interesting. So your club is purely not for profit, with all proceeds being reinvested. Do you also have any trade accounts for members to buy games/minis through? Or do they just shop online/etc?

 judgedoug wrote:
Do you also have any trade accounts for members to buy games/minis through? Or do they just shop online/etc?

We don't have our own accounts - however a lot of gaming companies offer GCN members discounts, or if we're placing a large enough order we can sometimes negotiate a discount (just done this with mats). We started out as a GW only club (our local GW store is 3 doors down from the bar).

You mentioned insurance. What do you need insurance for ?

beast_gts wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:
Do you also have any trade accounts for members to buy games/minis through? Or do they just shop online/etc?

We don't have our own accounts - however a lot of gaming companies offer GCN members discounts, or if we're placing a large enough order we can sometimes negotiate a discount (just done this with mats). We started out as a GW only club (our local GW store is 3 doors down from the bar).

So you use large volume orders to leverage some discounts, that's interesting. On a personnel issue, do you have memberships or do you do a one-time-fee for an event? How do you handle ejecting players that are acting against the rules (assuming you have rules)?

 adamsouza wrote:
You mentioned insurance. What do you need insurance for ?

In case of personal injury or property damage.

You potentially need public liability insurance.

I can't think of any gaming clubs here that have a dedicated space, though there are a few stores with a gaming area, if that makes sense?

Of the 4 clubs I'm vaguely involved in, they all rent a space for the evening and have a storage space, but it's all multi-use rooms and has to be cleared at the end. Some of them have 10%ish club discounts with various stores/companies, but none of them involve themselves with sales at all beyond a gaming fee and maybe tea/coffee/soda.

Very few, if any, clubs in the UK are run for profit, usually they charge enough to cover the rent and provide funds for terrain/tables. Generally its £2-3 per session (I have never been to a club that charges per game). Clubs often have a committee although personally I can't really see the point as they never seem to do anything worthwhile.

Clubs tend to be based in various council run premises, often schools, but basically anywhere cheap and secure will do. I have gamed in pubs, veterans clubs, a library, a Boy Scout hut, a restaurant and a garage/workshop.

My current club is based in a local primary school annex (cheap, ample storage space and readily available) with club nights on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Most/all club organisational matters are conducted via its facebook page.

 judgedoug wrote:
do you have memberships or do you do a one-time-fee for an event?

We do have memberships, but they're not compulsory. Sessions are £3 for non-members or £1.50 for members, with a years membership costing £10 (including club dice). You only have to pay if you play (so visits are free), and if you're running demo or intro games there's no charge.

 judgedoug wrote:
How do you handle ejecting players that are acting against the rules (assuming you have rules)?

There's always at least two of us who run the club there, so we take the player to one side and have a chat with them. With us meeting in a bar most problems are caused by people having too many beers...
We have banned a few WAAC/TFG people from our tournaments as other people weren't buying tickets once they found out those people had a ticket.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Silent Puffin? wrote:
Clubs often have a committee although personally I can't really see the point as they never seem to do anything worthwhile.

Having a committee was a GCN requirement - not sure if they've changed it. It also means one person doesn't get to dictate what the club does.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Herzlos wrote:
I can't think of any gaming clubs here that have a dedicated space

There's a club near me (who's name escapes me right now) which has a floor to itself in their local Working Men's Club building, but they've been established something like 40+ years...

I've always thought the 'Committee' thing was overblown and kinda silly tbh. It's a bunch of grown men playing toy soliders in a room above a pub, not the Supreme Soviet! Some of the old grognard clubs are notorious for this kind of thing.

OP - As others have mentioned the only real expense is a) the rent for the venue and b) the terrain/boards.

http://www.gamingclubnetwork.net/documents/


that/other parts of that site might be of use .

Pistols at Dawn wrote:
I've always thought the 'Committee' thing was overblown and kinda silly tbh. It's a bunch of grown men playing toy soliders in a room above a pub, not the Supreme Soviet! Some of the old grognard clubs are notorious for this kind of thing.

OP - As others have mentioned the only real expense is a) the rent for the venue and b) the terrain/boards.

As chairman of my local gaming club, let me be the first to welcome you to the execution wall

We have 3 positions; chairman, events coordinator, and treasurer which nominally are voted on each year at the AGM. We also endorse people to run campaigns etc "officially" on behalf of the club.

We have a nightly fee, and a yearly optional membership. All the money raised after paying for the use of the village hall goes into terrain, starter sets, etc.

The one in my home town shifts around a lot due to not many people being able to find it but so far it's found a nice home in a pub. £2 a session.

My home town is also a bus journey away from Warhammer World (and I can get a lift easily) so we sometimes go there.

In my experience most clubs are clubs, not run for profit and not to sell stuff but for the mutual benefit of the members.

You find a suitable space, it might be a church hall, a function room of a pub, or a cricket clubhouse on non-game nights and try to attract members. These days the internet is probably the main recruiting avenue.

You have to charge some membership fees to cover the rent if there is any. (Pubs will sometimes let you have a function room for free because they know people will buy beer.)

If the club seeks to acquire any permanent collections of books, terrain and other equipment, storage space of course will be needed.

Any club needs a small organising committee, it might start with one guy and grow from there. As it grows there is a growing need for a formal constitution, especially if the club comes to own any substantial amount of property and money.

Larger clubs will often organise various events such as an open day, visits to shows and other club open days, a Christmas dinner, annual competitions, and the like. These also required more admin from a committee.

This concept is definitely something that I would love to see more in the u.s. what I frequently say is that people just congregate to a certain game store and that becomes their game store other game stores are not to be mentioned people who play there are the enemy Etc it's very territorial instead I would rather have a club that met in a neutral location with people from different game stores that way people could also indulge in games that do not have to be supported by a game shop, historical for example which you often cannot buy at a game store and as a result cannot really encourage people to try them lest you be seen as stealing money from the store. I fart too often see people discouraged from even mentioning games that the store cannot or will not stock, with the idea being if they cannot stock it you are not allowed to play it because it does not benefit the owner.

In comparison to that the concept of a gaming Club that rents out a hall or something and has a small membership fee but gives you the opportunity to indulge in a variety of games seems like paradise. Seems like also a good opportunity to do things almost like a potluck but not quite have people bring snacks to share or things like that like we used to do back in the day playing D&D at somebody's house

I play at HATE Club, which rents out space at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club every Wednesday. We pay £5 each week, but it is all non-profit, and money goes into terrain boards, etc. On a couple of occasions, there has been too much money in the kitty, so the club has bought a round of beer for everyone.

We have storage at the club, but have to set up and put away every week.

There is a committee, but it is pretty relaxed.

It started out as predominantly 40k based, but currently Infinity, Blood Bowl and Frostgrave seem to dominate, plus we've taken over another room for Role-Playing and there are often board gamers too. A few weeks ago, with over 70 people present, there were ZERO games of 40k taking place, one game of AoS, and a few games of Blood Bowl. Despite loving 40k, that made me happy.

We have a club in the function room of a bar. The landlord lets us have it for free as we are there twice a week and 30 or so people can put a lot of money in the till !
We are members of GCN (which someone mentioned above) and have insurance through them. We charge a £10 yearly membership fee for those aged 16+, and £1 a night to play. All the money goes towards prizes, trips (the club went to the UK Games Expo today!) terrain, books and games.

 SilverMK2 wrote:

Pistols at Dawn wrote:
I've always thought the 'Committee' thing was overblown and kinda silly tbh. It's a bunch of grown men playing toy soliders in a room above a pub, not the Supreme Soviet! Some of the old grognard clubs are notorious for this kind of thing.

OP - As others have mentioned the only real expense is a) the rent for the venue and b) the terrain/boards.

As chairman of my local gaming club, let me be the first to welcome you to the execution wall

We have 3 positions; chairman, events coordinator, and treasurer which nominally are voted on each year at the AGM. We also endorse people to run campaigns etc "officially" on behalf of the club.

We have a nightly fee, and a yearly optional membership. All the money raised after paying for the use of the village hall goes into terrain, starter sets, etc.

I think ours has a chairman, secretary and treasurer, voted on from nominations at the AGM. It helps to have someone in charge otherwise nothing will get done, one to keep track of the money and once to keep track of memberships. Plenty of volunteers to help out in other ways too (like painting scenery).

I'm President for Norwich Last Stand, and have been so for the last seven years.

I don't think any clubs are run for profit. We aim to have sufficient cash in the bank such that if something bad happens, we have the funds to buy some new boards and terrain and carry on as a club. Anything over that we invest in terrain or better boards.

We charge our members £3 for a night or £10 for a month. We're lucky enough to have good on-site storage and some good terrain builders, so our members have a great selection of scenery. We normally operate that people get a board out, get a box of scenery out, play a game and put it back.

Our membership tends to be focused on 40k, but we have a small Dystopian Wars group as well. Norwich is lucky enough to have another very good general gaming club as well which tends to focus on alternative games, plus there is a great historicals club just outside the city. There is a very large gaming shop in Norwich as well, so all these things can co-exist. People want different things out of their gaming hobby and we all provide a slightly different experience.

There are idiots in all hobbies, and we've encountered a few. We therefore have very specific rules over membership, so that members can only be voted in by the rest of the membership. Anyone can play at our club, but membership is what entitles you to vote for committee members and on club decisions.

Maybe a stupid question, but clubs are used because there's no space to play at a friends house or something?

 KiloFiX wrote:
Maybe a stupid question, but clubs are used because there's no space to play at a friends house or something?

Good luck cramming fifteen people's worth of gaming into a single house!

 Ketara wrote:

 KiloFiX wrote:
Maybe a stupid question, but clubs are used because there's no space to play at a friends house or something?

Good luck cramming fifteen people's worth of gaming into a single house!

We fit eight comfortably on the two, 8ft x 4ft, gaming tables I have set up in my house. I've never seen 15 people playing 40K/Fantasy at the same time, outside of a tournament.

The only tabletop gaming clubs I've seen locally, just eventually became stores.

The whole concept of tabletop gaming in a pub, is just an alien concept in the USA. The locations would either be too small to game in, or more like a restaurant, and not willing to rent out table space to people not eating on them.

Pistols at Dawn wrote:
I've always thought the 'Committee' thing was overblown and kinda silly tbh. It's a bunch of grown men playing toy soliders in a room above a pub, not the Supreme Soviet! Some of the old grognard clubs are notorious for this kind of thing.

OP - As others have mentioned the only real expense is a) the rent for the venue and b) the terrain/boards.

We have a "Committee", but its really just a formality. We have two guys in charge of keys who open up, myself included (we rent a small room in a community centre, and its just us in the centre on a Saturday night). One kid is in College, doing media or something similar and happens to be the son of the proprietor of our local town newspaper so he handles anything related to advertising (free local newspaper ads! yay!)

Really we're just a glorified circle of friends renting a room in a community centre each week. The committee is basically the core members who attend most regularly. "You there! You attend the club each week! Would you like to be on the committee?" Basically, anyone on the committee has a right to a vote on club matters.

Forming a committee was just a formality to cover everyones' arses and nip potentially divisive problems (like missing cash or property) before they ever arise . Only two guys including me have keys to the community centre and the cupboard (and therefore access to the cash and our club property). And, should we ever expand enough to be more than just a group of friends, then we have a formal structure already in place. As it is, we have just 6 regular members.


Our biggest challenge is that our town, though fairly large, lacks a University or big sixth form college, so theres not much of a gaming scene here.

In my experience people don't run formal clubs in houses in the UK but groups of friends play depending on the space available. Maybe 4 to 8 if you have a large garage. It's usually for a multiplayer game or campaign.

 adamsouza wrote:

 Ketara wrote:

 KiloFiX wrote:
Maybe a stupid question, but clubs are used because there's no space to play at a friends house or something?

Good luck cramming fifteen people's worth of gaming into a single house!

We fit eight comfortably on the two, 8ft x 4ft, gaming tables I have set up in my house. I've never seen 15 people playing 40K/Fantasy at the same time, outside of a tournament.

The only tabletop gaming clubs I've seen locally, just eventually became stores.

The whole concept of tabletop gaming in a pub, is just an alien concept in the USA. The locations would either be too small to game in, or more like a restaurant, and not willing to rent out table space to people not eating on them.

I don't mean run a Club at a friend's house.

What I mean is, in the US, instead of Clubs and assuming that playing at an LGW or LGS is impracticable, we just play small 1vs1 or 2vs2 games at a friend's house. Is this not done as much in the UK?

Genuine question.

Yeah, of course people play at home. However, clubs are how you find NEW people to play with.

Overall, there's only a few "American style" FLGS with tablespace in the UK. - The two main ones I know of being Wayland Games and Firestorm Games. Most other shops, you'll struggle to fit 3 6' by 4's in the place.

The gaming clubs I attend tend to be weekly, on a specified night, running from 7pm to about 10:30pm. Even smallish (eg 30000 people) towns tend to have one, though they can be difficult to track down and may be more 'historical' focussed.

I'm in the lucky position to have about 6 gaming clubs in a 3 mile radius from me, with two I attend regularly (One on Monday, one on Tuesday), averaging at least 20 people each.
One club, it's £2.50 a night. The other, has a membership fee of £10 per year, but gives you a discount on local stores, then also has a price of £3 a night.

In the US, gaming stores are pretty much expected to have gaming space. They give us space so we will go there to play and buy their stuff while we are there.

Our local comic book shop decided to carry 40K and they let us have their cellar for gaming space. They even gave us a budget to build tables. We get the space for free to game in and store terrain. One night is officially for 40k, one for MTG, and one for Heroclix, but free tables are open for anyone to play what they want throughout the week.

 adamsouza wrote:
In the US, gaming stores are pretty much expected to have gaming space. They give us space so we will go there to play and buy their stuff while we are there.

There just aren't that many gaming shops in the UK, the ones that do exist are often very small so don't have the space for gaming. There are of course exceptions but I have seen only 3-4 that had anything like a decent gaming space.

Which leads into the need for gaming clubs in the UK. I get that. I'm just saying, stateside, stores that carry GW product and don't have gaming space often don't carry GW products for long. There just isn't the same incentive for gaming clubs in the US, at least in the North East.

I know Southern states often have a higher concentration of actual GW shops, which may corrolate with a tendancy to build houses without cellars, or not. In the Northeast, cellars are a pretty common. I don't think I know anyone with a house without a cellar. Raised ranch style houses, which have been popular for the last 20 years, often have finished cellars.