Pre/Post PAX Maryland Meetup

nevermore13

With PAX East still months away and PAX Prime soon to be in the past I was thinking that those of us in the Maryland area might want to meet up for some gaming and socializing with other PAXers to help make the wait for East easier. Wondering if anyone else in the area would be interested and if so what you would like from this type of meetup. Let me know of interest and ideas in this thread.

Exodus1

Our next meetup is Sunday October 19th 9:45am at the MD Renaissance Festival.

CHECK OUR events calendar FOR FUTURE MEET-UPS!

G+ - @MD_PAX_Meetup - Facebook

Contact: You may contact me at or on twitter "@exodus64", if you need directions or information.

I've been speaking with nevermore13 and am also interested in a meet up. If you're in the Maryland area, post here what you think we should do at a meet up. I've been thinking some table games and food would be in order, any other ideas?

BigSassy

Yeah, I'd be down for that. I have a few friends that I go to PAX with that I'm sure would come too. Table games and food sound good to me. I can bring Pandemic plus it's expansion pack, "On the Brink".

What city would this shindig happen? FWIW, I'm in Rockville, MD.

HuskyDork

Marylander here too (Gaithersburg), I need something like this between now and PAX East. I'm starting to get the shakes.

Exodus1

Cool, I'm in the gtown area, but wouldn't mind driving a bit. I'd nominate rockville for a location, there's a shop (dream wizards, many prolly know it) we could meet/play at, and plenty of options for food. Depends on who our farthest participant is thouh

nevermore13

I'm closer to the Baltimore area, but don't mind driving down to Rockville if we get decent sized group together.

zepherin

I'm in NOVA about 8 minutes from DC. I might be down for a meet up in rockville or Bethesda. Or really any place not too far from the beltway.

adastra

I'm just outside of DC and definitely interested! I've got piles of board games...

Exodus1

Cool, so this may be all we get, but still a good size group for some games. Let's start talking days off the week. I think sat or sun would be best. What games do you guys have/want to play?

nevermore13

I figured I would wait a little to see if others show interest, and give people who went to PAX Prime a little time to comment or miss PAX like those of us who only went to East do. Unfortunately I don't have any board games to contribute having just gotten in to tabletop not that long ago, but I would love to play just about anything.

Only really have experience with Munchkin and Dominion but I love learning new games.

NickTheNewbie

Have you guys considered coming to MAGFest? It's a the beginning of January, and is perfect for a meetup halfway between PAX East and PAX prime. This year it will be in National Harbor, MD. Barring that, I'm in Laurel, MD, and would be up for hanging out.

zepherin

I got weekends free.

HuskyDork

NickTheNewbie wrote:

Have you guys considered coming to MAGFest? It's a the beginning of January, and is perfect for a meetup halfway between PAX East and PAX prime. This year it will be in National Harbor, MD. Barring that, I'm in Laurel, MD, and would be up for hanging out.

Just registered for it this morning. Can't wait!

NickTheNewbie

HuskyDork wrote:

NickTheNewbie wrote:

Have you guys considered coming to MAGFest? It's a the beginning of January, and is perfect for a meetup halfway between PAX East and PAX prime. This year it will be in National Harbor, MD. Barring that, I'm in Laurel, MD, and would be up for hanging out.

Just registered for it this morning. Can't wait!

WORD. I'll also be there, of course. Who else wants to join in?

nevermore13

@NickTheNewbie In theory I feel that this is a great idea. A gaming convention between PAX Prime and PAX East where we can all hang out with other gamers and each other. In practice however not exactly what I was thinking. I think that MAGFest has its place and for some people is a very good convention.

However, I went to MAGFest last year and was not a huge fan of the convention. There was just something about it that did not connect with me. The "tabletop" area seemed kind of lacking to me. To be fair I did learn Munchkin, Dominion, and Burning Wheel which was great.

When I thought about this meetup I did not see attending a convention. What I saw was a bunch of people getting together, maybe playing some games and getting a bite to eat.

While I feel that if people want to head to MAGFest and experience it for themselves I think it is a great idea, but I would like to keep this as something else that is just at most a day. If everyone would rather just do the meetup at MAGFest I won't stop it and hope you all have a great time.

HuskyDork

@nevermore13 I think it would be good to have a non-conventionish meetup as well. More gamer community events, I say!

zepherin

We don't have to have a board game meet up either. This is a good chance to become a closer community but just meeting up at a five guys (because five guys is awesome) would be fine. Also we can make Pax East Travel plans together. Maybe get a carpool or two together (tolls killed me last year).

HuskyDork

zepherin wrote:

We don't have to have a board game meet up either. This is a good chance to become a closer community but just meeting up at a five guys (because five guys is awesome) would be fine. Also we can make Pax East Travel plans together. Maybe get a carpool or two together (tolls killed me last year).

If you haven't done so already, I would recommend going up to Boston on the PAX train from Union Station. It's pretty much six hours of Mario Kart DS and awesome. (EDIT: And Amtrak has a sale on Northeast Regional right now, it's $70 one way. I've already picked up my tickets!)

And yes, Five Guys is awesome. Choosing between their burger or hot dog right now is a tough choice.

zepherin

I can't be buying stuff like that for another couple of months. I got a new job so there is a paycheck delay. I was planning on getting deux ex too, but that gets thrown on hold too. Still long term it is a good thing.

The train though, that isn't a bad idea.

NickTheNewbie

Well I'm down for hanging out. As I said, I'm in Laurel, so I'm about as central as you can get.

zepherin

My lease runs out in December and I'll be working in Northern DC so I think I'll move up to Greenbelt or Silver Spring then near the metro if at all possible.

Kyuss

I would have loved to do the train last year from Philly but I couldn't beat the $1 midnight Megabus deal.

NickTheNewbie

So are any of you guys beer snobs? There's a bar in columbia called frisco tap house that has 30 beers on tap. There's also a LAN center across the street called hardwired.

zepherin

Yes yes I am a beer snob. Although If I'm drinking beer chances are I will not feel like a lan. I tend to be more of a console party game person if I'm drinking.

Emporium

I am in College Park (and occasionally Frederick), I would be interested in meeting up with some or all of you fine folk. I am up for pretty much anything gaming, food, or alcohol related.

Onmitsu

I'd be down with this, though I practically live in the delaware.

NickTheNewbie

The LAN center across the street from frisco also happens to have consoles set up as well! Do you think this bar/gaming combo could work out for us?

zepherin

yes. But I'll need a month before I have moneys.

Iruka

Woah hey I'm in German town. I'm broke as hell but I'd love pop into a meet up.

nevermore13

I would be up for most of the ideas mentioned although my preference would be what Exodus1 mentioned, mostly because it sounds like the location would be great for board/tabletop games which I have always felt are more sociable and can only be played with a group of like-minded people (which for me means PAX East). I am not averse to the other options, because I miss the people probably more than anything, but I can just sit at home and play console games and if I want to play with people hop on Xbox Live, can't do that with tabletop.

Tipperzack

There is a local lan party that meets up in MD called
marylandlangamers
http://www.marylandlangamers.net/
And there is a party going down at the end of this month
DATES: September 30-October 2, December 2-4
TIME: 9:00 PM on Friday until 12:00 PM Sunday afternoon (nearly 40 hours of non-stop gaming) J
LOCATION: Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department, 125 Crescent Road, Greenbelt, MD Directions via MapQuest

So if your looking for a place to meet gamer and play PC games take a look
Zack

Exodus1

Glad there are so many people interested =D. I agree with nevermore13, I kinda wanted to do table games since I really don't get a chance that often, at least with a sizable group. If our first meetup goes well, we could always do a second for the video games =D.

zepherin

Table games are fine, I may not know the rules to several of the games if you don't mind teaching me I'm game.

LANs are really out of the question for me though, my computer is hooked up to my TV and as such is not portable.

TabooPhantasy

I've never been to a PAX and am thinking about going to Boston next year. I'd certainty be down for a meet-up. I'm in Germantown and know exactly where Dreamwizards is.

BigSassy

Nick, the beer followed by Hardwired (followed by more beer?) sounds like a plan to me. +1

We should probably start talking dates. Or at least a month that would be good. Maybe early November? Anyone else agree?

HuskyDork

We can do both, have Hardwired or Dream Wizards in November, then do the one not selected in December (assuming the November meetup goes well, which why wouldn't it?).

Also White Flint Mall is near Dream Wizards, so I guess you could get boozed up and partake in drunken gaming at Dave & Buster's.

nevermore13

I was actually thinking that we should start talking more specific dates now that we have an idea of what the plan is. Also having it date in advance makes it easier to plan things in general. I like the idea of Dream Wizards and while my tabletop game experience is fairly lacking, based on my experience last year in tabletop freeplay and my experience with fellow PAXers in general most are willing to teach new games. Early November should work for me although not sure whether Saturday or Sunday work better yet will depend on what works for everyone else. Also, if Dream Wizards allows us to bring and play our own games sounds like a good place to do this.

Let me know what dates work for you and what games you would be able/willing/want to bring. I am suffering from serious PAX withdrawal especially after reading everything that went down at Prime this year.

As far as other meetup ideas LANs do not work for me at all as I have on older Mac laptop as my main computer.

TabooPhantasy

I work retail, so the closer we get to Christmas the harder it will be for me to get a weekend day off. That being said, Fridays and Saturdays after 5 are usually free for me.

zepherin

HuskyDork wrote:

We can do both, have Hardwired or Dream Wizards in November, then do the one not selected in December (assuming the November meetup goes well, which why wouldn't it?).

Also White Flint Mall is near Dream Wizards, so I guess you could get boozed up and partake in drunken gaming at Dave & Buster's.

I like this plan. Weekends are the best for me, but a Friday after 5 would be acceptable.

More people will come if they think we have punch and pie.

HuskyDork

Any time Saturday works for me.

Exodus1

I agree, I think there is time to do both, but lets get the first one set, then move on to planning the second (maybe third?).

Ok, so if we want to do Dream Wizards for the table top stuff, friday night might be tricky since they run FNM, there should still be enough room, but I think sat/sun would be best. I vote for Saturday so we can all go out to eat afterwards and not worry about how late it gets. Someone mentioned D&B which I think is a good option if you guys want some more games with our food/drinks and is like 2 stoplights from Dream Wizards.

Schedule: After checking the Dream Wizards Calendar, it looks pretty open in November except for the 19th. What are you guys thinking, maybe earlier in the month like Nov 5th or 12th so it's not too close to Black Friday?

Games: I can bring my copy of Munchkin, if anyone has expansions, they are welcome! I also have mtg cards if anyone wanted to have an EDH or free-for-all (could also do a GGD). What other games are out there? I might be willing to buy an expansion for Munchkin for the occasion.