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So, I’ve been thinking about setting up a monthly game club.. renting a local VFW or fire house hall, setting up the tables and folks can come and play whatever they want, maybe for like $20 admission.. or less if the place is cheap enough. You bring your own models and stuff, but the club would provide tables, gaming mats, some terrain, etc. It would generally be open gaming, but possibly running small tournaments too. And there would be a set date, maybe something like the first Saturday of every month at first, more often if there’s interest. Not really a for profit kind of thing, just a club that meets regularly. Basically split the cost of renting the hall among everyone, and any cash left over could be spent on ordering a bunch of pizzas or sandwiches for lunch or something like that.

I used to host a monthly game day at a hotel around here back in the 90’s, but the hotel is long gone now. It worked ok, but was kind of expensive for me, there were some regulars but attendance was mostly low so I ended up paying like half of the bill myself. I think these days it will be easier to get the word out.. the internet wasn’t what it is now back then. Trouble is I’m kind of out of touch with the local community, I don’t really go play at any stores anymore since since I moved away from the my old FLGS. Well, there’s are a couple of shops around where I live now, but neither seem to focus on miniatures as much as MTG and RPGs. I'd ask them if I can post a flyer or something about the club. The club wouldn't just be 40k, but would include all of the major games and really anything you want to play, but I imagine 40k would be the most common.

Anyway, if something like that were happening around you, would you be willing to pay to play there? And what would you expect to get out of it other than just a space to play?

This sounds like a fantastic idea actually, I'd sign up if I were a local in your area for sure.

That's a fairly common scenario over here. I help run a games club that meets weekly on Tuesday evenings. We've got tables, boards, scenery and are close to a wide variety of takeaways £3.00 per head covers the hall hire, job's a good 'un.

Frankly, a place to play is all I'd need - the scenery collection our club has built up is frankly luxurious by the standard of our local GW and other clubs I've been at, and is basically a way to soak up excess funds.

I don't mind paying a few bucks to pay for an evening of gaming. $20 might be a touch on the high side, but it depends on the setup I guess.

One local FLGS rented out an exceptionally large space so that they could rent out table space with an area large enough for a whole club to be playing simultaneously.

It's going to come down to the people in your local area though.

20 is very high, in my opinion. I personally wouldn't go above $5, unless I was paying for prizes every night. Other than that, I think it's a good idea.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
That's a fairly common scenario over here. I help run a games club that meets weekly on Tuesday evenings. We've got tables, boards, scenery and are close to a wide variety of takeaways £3.00 per head covers the hall hire, job's a good 'un.

Frankly, a place to play is all I'd need - the scenery collection our club has built up is frankly luxurious by the standard of our local GW and other clubs I've been at, and is basically a way to soak up excess funds.

Similar, we have a club in Altrincham in the UK which meets on Tuesdays and costs something similar to £3 to visit. It's less than the cost of a beer, so you can't really be too mad about it.

I wouldn't pay $20 (five times what I currently pay) unless I was getting some serious value for that, though... maybe some comes back in prizes? Or there are drinks and snacks availanle? $20 is more comparable to the cost of a tournament entry fee. Otherwise people will just get each other's contact details and then arrange their games at home for free.

Perhaps a $20+ joining fee to help you set up your space and then $5 for a week's gaming might work, although it's still a lot.

I would pay $20 if it was once a month and fun But I came up with that number just doing some math in my head.. if a hall costs $500 to rent for the day, it'll take 25 people at $20 a head to cover that. If there were 50 people, it would cost $10.. but I don't really expect there to be anywhere near that many. I guess you never know, but still. Or maybe 50 people @ $20 still, and lunch is included (ordering pizzas or sandwich trays)?

There might be some cheaper halls, and maybe we'd get a discount if we schedule multiple days in a row. I just did some online searches and $500 seemed to be a fairly common price.

How does your club manage to charge just £3? Are there a lot of people?

We get charged about £40-odd for the night (we get a discount rate because we're running a club and we've been in that venue for well over a decade now), and usually have about 30 - 40 people. It's a theatre hall (we put the RPGers on the stage), so there's plenty of room.

Like I said, that's after over ten years. In the beginning, we had a much smaller meeting room with room for about 20 people. In the beginning there were weeks where we didn't cover the cost of the room, but overall we broke even or thereabouts.

I wouldn't pay $20 per time, but I'd consider a monthly fee

I was thinking it would be cool if it could be someplace every weekend, with a monthly fee, but it might be tough to find a hall that would be available that often.

I had an idea a while ago to rent out a small warehouse and or office space turn it into a big gaming club HQ where it's open on weekends and has a monthly fee... but rent alone would cost in the thousands, it wouldn't be possible without a huge community. So better to just start small.

I have a few places in mind, if I can get a hall rented out for like $300, that might work for a $10 admission. Would probably have to be a sunday, I think saturdays are usually more expensive.

We do this with the multipurpose room in a member's condo building. Ask everyone you know who plays if their apartment building or condo association has a multipurpose room and find out what it costs.

I don't know about US prices but I'm willing to pay club fees. Our club has an annual fee and a per night fee.

I contacted this place and already heard back, they charge $100 per hour for their meeting room that seats up to 150, but I imagine for gaming it would probably be like 20-30 people max with 40k sized tables. I just wrote back and asked if there would be a discount for booking a day every month to set up an ongoing thing.. maybe do something like noon-5pm on a Saturday or Sunday? I liked this place because they have a bar and cafe on site, and could do catering but I think most folks would rather just order whatever they want from the cafe. They also lots of other fun things to do if you wanted to stick around afterwards and play laser tag or something, I’d skip that since I have no athletic ability whatsoever.

40K? Not in a million years...but if we separate it into "would I be willing to help pay to cover a gaming venue I was using"...then sure.

I am very much in favor of gaming clubs.

But at this point, you would have to pay me to get me to play 40K.

The Auld Grump, and buy me an army, since I sold off my Dark Angels a few years ago....

Would you pay to play 40k?

I thought that's how it works already.

 Necros wrote:
I contacted this place and already heard back, they charge $100 per hour for their meeting room that seats up to 150, but I imagine for gaming it would probably be like 20-30 people max with 40k sized tables. I just wrote back and asked if there would be a discount for booking a day every month to set up an ongoing thing.. maybe do something like noon-5pm on a Saturday or Sunday? I liked this place because they have a bar and cafe on site, and could do catering but I think most folks would rather just order whatever they want from the cafe. They also lots of other fun things to do if you wanted to stick around afterwards and play laser tag or something, I’d skip that since I have no athletic ability whatsoever.

If you're out of touch with the community I'd be careful about setting up an expensive venue without being sure you can get enough gamers to make it worthwhile. That also seems a rather unusual venue at least around here. The places I've seen used are churches, town halls, community centres and if it's a small enough group a room at a pub. If you're interested in a price a nearby boardgame club rents a hall (sitting capacity 150 people) that charges £13 a hour. However it is in a village so is presumable cheaper than in a city.

OK I changed the subject line to say "in a game club"

Yeah that place I was looking at is pricey, I just liked the idea that they have good food right on site. There's also a board game club that does a game day at a local brew pub on a saturday afternoon, but they have to clear out before dinner so the place can start seating dinner guests.

I think since I'm close proximity to major areas, the prices are going to be a bit higher. I'm gonna keep looking around and see what else is out there. I have found some cheaper spots, but the areas are pretty crappy and I don't want people to think it would be too dangerous I'd like it to be a spot that's easy to find and has plenty of free parking.

See if there are any community programs/organizations that might want to host.

Colleges, YMCA, etc. might be a workable way to handle things.

The Auld Grump

I have some experience with this and I'll say that the reason I am no longer for this idea is simply because when I did this (twice) I was left holding the bag both times as getting people to pay up was a full-time job unto itself chasing people down, and I ended up losing a decent amount of money paying the rent for the place mostly myself.

 auticus wrote:
I have some experience with this and I'll say that the reason I am no longer for this idea is simply because when I did this (twice) I was left holding the bag both times as getting people to pay up was a full-time job unto itself chasing people down, and I ended up losing a decent amount of money paying the rent for the place mostly myself.

Yeah, while I'd be happy to be a part of such an event, I sure as hell wouldn't be the one trying to organise it

 TheAuldGrump wrote:
See if there are any community programs/organizations that might want to host.

Colleges, YMCA, etc. might be a workable way to handle things.

The Auld Grump

That's what I would suggest. The premises may well be inferior but they will be much cheaper.
in the UK at least schools often seem to have an annex or something that they are happy to rent out. Of the 2 clubs I go to locally 1 is in a school and the other is in a community centre. Both charge £3 per session.

Does your local area have a Facebook group? If it does, I'd go there to get in better touch with your local community. It would be a great way to gauge interest in a regular meetup and you could also ask people what their priorities are for such a meetup. Some people may only be concerned that there are plenty if tables with decent terrain and not care about available food/drink.

If I was starting something like this I would keep it simple to start. Booking a smaller space at the library (which is often free) or a community center. Once you have a core group and a better sense of how many people you'll get at each meeting you can see what the interest is in upgrading your space to something more fancy (and therefore more expensive).

Just remember what your competition is, LGS offers space to play for free most of the time.

Great idea though, I'm always a little envious of the Brits and their dedicated clubs.

I would definitely pay like "club dues" once a month or something for renting a facility and/or having club terrain or even armies and such.

Yeah I just thought about facebook groups, so I'm gonna try there. There are some FLGS's in the greater Philadelphia area, some are really great stores, but there isn't much in my general area. The store I used to play at is over an hour away now (mikhaila's Showcase Comics) so the only time I ever get to visit is if I happen to be doing an airport run. So I was hoping to do something more local. Maybe setting up my own FB group for it eventually?

I'm going to have to really shop around for a big but cheap venue.. I'd like members to pay as little as possible. There might be some restaurants willing to do it cheap as long as people buy food, but it wouldn't be easy to set up a big wargame sized table, that seems better for card and board games.

I thought maybe I could set up a paypal thing where it automatically bills you each month for your membership fee, or you can pay for a 1 time pass, and I'd just set up my own games near the door so I can catch people when they come in Probably easier said than done though.

auticus wrote:I have some experience with this and I'll say that the reason I am no longer for this idea is simply because when I did this (twice) I was left holding the bag both times as getting people to pay up was a full-time job unto itself chasing people down, and I ended up losing a decent amount of money paying the rent for the place mostly myself.

I thought this was the easiest part. As the organizer, you get to the venue first and you set up a table (even if it's a small tv table) facing the door and you physically take the money from people as they come in. If someone comes in later than the initial rush you go "excuse me" to your current opponent and go take care of it.

"I'm sorry, I don't have cash on me, can I pay you double next time?"
"There's an ATM at X"

"I'll get it for you after I go put my bags down and set up"
"You can set your bags right there on the floor beside you."

There's a few gaming clubs in my area, they charge around £3-4 per game or per gaming night. One uses a scout hall, another uses a function room on the side of a club.
As far as food and drink are concerned one of them runs a tuck shop (do non Brits know what this is?) and the other lets you bring your own snacks.
I wouldn't want to be the one organising a gaming club/night but would advise anybody doing so to start small and let it build up if necessary

I'm not sure where you are based exactly since your profile says Norristown but you say Showcase is an hour away, but there are lots of groups meeting weekly for free all around you.

The Plymouth Meeting Mall has 40k on Saturdays at Uncanny!

The Basement War Gamers club has 40k (and AoS and etc) Tuesdays and Saturdays in the Boyertown area.

The enormous Berks-PA club plays at various sites in Reading, but especially at Owl Central. (Not sure what their schedule is, though someone is always available for a game.)

People also meet up for 40k and other games at Gamer's Heaven in Phoenixville, which charges a small membership fee to come in and play a wide variety of games. I'm not sure whether there's a regular 40k club meeting there or just people playing one-off games.

I'm in Norristown at the moment, moving to Pottstown shortly. Never even knew Gamer's Heaven existed, I'll have to check them out. That Boyertown club might work for me too. My old club the Green Dragons is based in West Chester and that's also a bit of a hike. There's also the Complete Strategist in King of Prussia, but I've never been in there.. I heard they are mostly RPGs and MTG, same with Alternate Universe in Norristown. So I was hoping to try and get a club started that meets regularly and focuses on miniatures, and also miniatures board games like Zombicide and stuff too.

If you're moving to Pottstown, the nearest group to you is definitely Basement War Gamers who meet at Modelbahn Ott. You wouldn't be painfully far from Owl Central either. I would recommend looking up Basement War Gamers and the Berks-PA Gaming Club on Facebook.

The Alternate Universes group runs a monthly 40k tournament at the Blue Bell store, but their regular club gaming happens at the store in Holmes PA which is a hike for you. I don't think Complete Strategist has a regular 40k crowd anymore, but I don't know for sure.