Let the geekiness begin!

[Imbibovita]

Welcome all to our own little Geektopia!

Just wanted to say hello, and start an open forum for suggestions and thoughts on where this group should go!


Now... everyone discuss!

[Farcaster]

Aye! Welcome a'board!

[Edward]

I would say the primary purpose of the group is to help players find games and to help games find players. The secondary purpose would be to get together periodically (once a month?) to meet other Portland-area gamers and talk about . . . well, anything. What types of games are running in the area, maybe.

On a related note, I'd like to suggest a more general name. Some members will undoubtedly be using non-D20 systems, and some will be involved in tabletop wargaming or other types of games. Perhaps "Portland Gamers"?

[Imbibovita]

I would like to see this be more than just a site with 5 or 10 active members. We have a thriving gaming community out there, why not get organized...

We can post any events on the calendar and help them thrive.

I think we should have a "GM" section that offers ideas and discussions about how to handle issues.

It would be fun do have some social events too. I know with enough pillows I could seat probably 20 or so in my home theatre... (oh, and I work for InFocus, so I have a pretty nice one). We could do a movie night of sorts. Or maybe meet for food and or drinks... No clue, I just enjoy hanging out with like minded people.

Obviously I think we should encourage people to fill out as much detail as possible in their profiles.

Maybe we could have something educational... like GM'ing classes or something. Would anyone be interested in things like that?

Any other ideas???

[Edward]

I would like to see this be more than just a site with 5 or 10 active members. We have a thriving gaming community out there, why not get organized...

I think this could work, but it should include other types of games such as tabletop wargaming. The lines between different types of games often blur anyway.

We can post any events on the calendar and help them thrive.

Sounds like a good idea.

I think we should have a "GM" section that offers ideas and discussions about how to handle issues.

I agree; having discussions on various topics would be useful.

It would be fun do have some social events too. I know with enough pillows I could seat probably 20 or so in my home theatre... (oh, and I work for InFocus, so I have a pretty nice one). We could do a movie night of sorts. Or maybe meet for food and or drinks... No clue, I just enjoy hanging out with like minded people.

Sounds like fun. Is parking available? How often would we get together?

Obviously I think we should encourage people to fill out as much detail as possible in their profiles.

Perhaps you could post some things to include. We want to provide enough detail to let people know our playing style and the types of campaigns we enjoy, but not so much that people don't read them.

Maybe we could have something educational... like GM'ing classes or something. Would anyone be interested in things like that?

Referees tend to have a lot of disagreements about the best way to run a game; I doubt if many experienced GM's would be interested in attending a class (though they might be interested in arguing -- I mean, discussing.). Perhaps new GM's would be interested, though.

Even if we have a large core of active members, most members will not be active (except when they're looking for players or a game). People who just join to find a game shouldn't have to feel guilty about that. We should keep in mind that matching games with gamers is our primary purpose, and having a large pool of inactive members is a good thing. It's great to have other activities and active discussion; we just don't want to make people feel like they shouldn't join if they can't be (or don't want to be) active.

Any other ideas???

Perhaps a list of active games and discussion of what's happening in them.

[Arkon Blackfire]

Gods!!! Seemed to have some trouble for awhile there but it looks like I'm on. Well, I'm 27, like long walks on the beach... wait... ummmm oh! Looking to start some craziness in the SE area... I'm a little ways out(92nd-ish) but wateva.

As far as our group here it looks like we need an enema! There has to be a way to start getting people excited and involved here. :eek: I'd love to see more "meet-up" type stuff. Would anyone show if I offered some mundane prizes(more for the prestige) and we had some sorta roleplaying competitions or something? Who will grab the next golden goblin??? lol Of course, there are always the "salt mines", as a friend of mine used to say, impeding our fun time... of course money does help buy all the nifty books, so sorta a double-edged vorpal sword there.

Weeelll,, just happy I can post now, ah yes, sweet, sweet, wonderful posting. Hopefully, some real-world eventually. I guess that Lucky Lab thing is coming up soon hopefully I will make that.

[Imbibovita]

I'm glad you brought that up Arkon! The lucky lab meetup is coming up and I would greatly appreciate if as many members of this group could come as possible. As most of you probably know I am the organizer of that group and am working to transition them to here. We have gotten some resistance to it, but as a whole the active members want to move. This next meetup will revolve around where we want to group to go, and also voting on the transition, and how to make it easier. The larger a showing we can get the better, so please please please be there!

[AscentStudios]

Hey guys,

While you're discussing the local scene, there's another game community around (mainly for wargamers) at http://www.ordofanaticus.com and http://www.robertsguild.com/. Ordo is mainly GW wargamers (though they're a good bunch of guys and willing to play pretty much anything); Robert's Guild are tourney-oriented Warmachine players (a very strong community in PDX).

Ordo has Game Nights every Tuesday at Western Oregon Wargamers, near the Lucky Lab. If you're just looking for players or space, you'd be set there.

Me, I don't get out much to play RPGs...I spend most of my time writing them :)

[Imbibovita]

That is GREAT! Thank you for the info. And if you want to write anything for us we wouldn't mind that either. Even if you don't get out to play much we still love the input!

[Edward]

The lucky lab meetup is coming up and I would greatly appreciate if as many members of this group could come as possible.


Could you post the date and time, and a link to their website? I'm not very familiar with Portland, so I'll need to pull up a map.

[Arkon Blackfire]

You can find it at meetup.com under Portland d20 or something like that.

[dragonmamma]

This is off the Meetup site...hope it helps...


Our next Meetup: March Meetup Madness!! (http://dnd.meetup.com/820/calendar/5160311/)


Who should come? Are newcomers welcome? Everyone and Always!!!
Why should people come? Cuz there will be pizza and games!
What will it be like? um... FUN!
Should members bring anything? any games you want to play.
What's a good ice-breaker question members can ask each other? Hey Baby.... whats your level?
How will members find you when they get there? Look for the geeks!

When? Saturday, Mar 3, 2007, 4:00 PM Where? The Lucky Lab
915 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 236-3555

[Edward]

That does help. Thanks.

Here's a map (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&hl=en&q=Lucky+Labrador&near=915+SE+Hawthorne+Blvd,+Portland,+OR+97214&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=14&ll=45.512229,-122.656541&spn=0.043606,0.080338) if anyone needs it.

[BrotherD]

One thing to keep in mind whil we're all decided whether or not we want to support a group here at P&PG or over at Meetup.com is that Wizards of the Coast has identified the D&D Meetup.com as a resource for players looking for games and community. At one point, the RPGA was also approached by Meetup.com members, and support was offered.

I don't know if P&PG can boost this as well, but it is interesting to note that Wizards has taken interest in Meetup.com.

[Edward]

I don't know if P&PG can boost this as well, but it is interesting to note that Wizards has taken interest in Meetup.com.I hope P&PG is platform-neutral. Personally, I don't like either D&D or D20. I played them for years, but I finally got fed up with the rigidity and lack of realism. I tried other systems and ended up using a homebrewed game. (I still think we should drop "D20" and "Roleplayers" from the group's name, to allow for other systems and other types of games. How about "Portland Gamers"?)

As for WOTC, attracting their attention is sort of like attracting the attention of Zeus: He's much more likely to squash you than to grant you a wish. :)

[Imbibovita]

Edward, please don't think that I have ignored your request for a name change. I think it definitely may be a good idea. But I would like to get a consensus from the members and see whether the group as a whole wants to be more focused or broad. Though I can't imagine them wanting to limit membership.

As far as wizards support goes... yeah, I'm not really all that excited about it. Wizards and meetup are both very profit driven companies. They focus on what can make them the most profit. Realistically what can they offer us that we cannot do for ourselves? The only benefit would be exposure. But we as a group can create a lot of that locally, which is all we really need it.

Hell, we could even sponsor an add on yahoo for the money that we are paying to meetup. At $0.10 a click that means we could get 120 interested people visiting our site every month for the cost of a meetup membership. My contention has always been if we are going to put money into this, it can be much better utilized than giving it to meetup. Think if 120 people visited our P&PG site a month... even if only 5% join that still 6 new members a month... 72 a year... our membership at meetup has stagnated....

Those are my thoughts anyway. We are going to have sort of a debate at lucky lab so get your thinking caps on because I have the feeling we are going to need to show people why this is a better site to be at.

[Imbibovita]

I won't be making it to the meetup this Saturday. I'm tired of being abused and unappreciated. As of right now I will continue moderating here, and will put effort into growing this group, but I am completely leaving meetup.com.

If any of you still attend, feel free to post here and tell us all how it went.

Daniel

[dragonmamma]

Just a thought on the name change..if any...I don't have a problem with the current name but if it was changed..."Portland Gamers" may get hit with the boardgamers out there...I've seen them and they are a great group but not really in this realm...just a thought...

[blenderkitten]

I agree that "Portland Gamers" may get a lot of hits from boardgamers (unless they read the title of the website...pen and paper...but some might not know what that means). What about "Portland RPGs" or just "Portland Roleplayers?"

My opinion is to generalize the name, though. I'd hate for somebody local who has flushed all their d20s down the garbage disposal in favor of d12s to feel unwelcome. ;)

[Imbibovita]

I agree. I will change the name to Portland Roleplayers.

Also lets start getting the word out. Call your gaming friends, post on sites you are a member of. Talk to people. Word of mouth is much more powerful than advertising.

Lets get growin! :D

[Zine]

Hey thanks to whoever posted a link to this site on craigslist, I'm glad to see some local gamers.

Anyhow, hi everyone!

[Imbibovita]

You are welcome Zine! And welcome to the group! I'm going to try to keep that add up so we can get some more traffic.