[Chaos] CitOW UK meet up - Next Meet Up April?

Cerberus

I thought I would start this thread up based on the conversation in the main CitOW thread. There seemed to be interest in a game of Chaos face to face for the UK players, so this is to see what people think to the idea and maybe organise something.

I'm not sure that I know all the UK players, so if you are in the UK and interested let us know.
These are the people I know of...

@Flimflammery
@Tayrun
@Belfast
@BobCesca
@Cutfang

I'm told @pesky is as well but am not sure.

So the general plan if people are interested, pick an area everyone is happy to travel to, meet up and have a few games and maybe a few drinks.
My initial thought was somewhere like Birmingham may be the most central location for everyone, but lets discuss.

Belfast

I thought Reading would be more central: this is just looking at three locations I know people are, London, Oxford, Cheltenham. There might be more info to consider though.

Cerberus

Tayrun is in Scotland, so we may need to make considerations for him, BobCesca is in Brum and I thought having someone local to give us a location that wouldn't mind us playing in would be good. But yeah what ever really.

pesky

Sorry guys wish I could join ya but Im about 10 hours ahead of GMT. :P

Flimflammery

I'm definitely up for this, Birmingham or Reading (especially the latter) would be good for me. Not sure when, though; I suppose a Sunday would generally be best in terms of availability, but I've got a lot of weekends booked up over the next couple of months :?

Sounds like it might be difficult for Tayrun to get down for a just a day trip though!

Cerberus

pesky wrote: »

Sorry guys wish I could join ya but Im about 10 hours ahead of GMT. :P

Last time I listen to Blah

BobCesca

I would be up for this, and @japan probably would as well. Obviously I live in Birmingham, so that would be nice, but I'm not entirely sure how many people I can fit into my house (I also have cats, so if people have allergies it might not work). @Bogart might be up for this as well.

Also, probably can't do this 'till September. I also have a spare room with a (not very comfortable) sofa bed which I could offer to one lucky player if it is needed.

Cerberus

I'm mostly tied up until September and we'll need a good amount of notice to organise everyone anyway.
If we do end up doing Brum then I'm sure there are pubs that will let us play in them, and I was hopeful that you may knows somewhere being local. Thought this would be preferable to inviting a load of strangers to your house, though is totally cool for you to offer.

I tend to find that picking a date and seeing what people say is a good plan, so lets start by saying, the 15th/16th of September, if we said that weekend how would people feel?

Flimflammery

I think that weekend is good for me, but I'm not entirely certain - will check with my gf.

A quiet but spacious pub would probably be the best bet; would be nice to see Birmingham again, I've not visited for a while, despite having spent most of my formative years there. Thanks for offering your house, though, Bob!

I do have cat allergies, much to my annoyance

Belfast

I reckon that's ok for me. I'm due to start teaching a new course the week directly after though. I'll just have to prep in advance rather than that weekend

blahmcblah

Cerberus wrote: »

Last time I listen to Blah

blahmcblah wrote: »

I'm usually wrong.

Belfast

Just a thought; does anyone in this proposed meet up actually own the game?

Flimflammery

Yep, and the expansion. Although I will likely be coming via train, so if someone has their own copy and is going by car, that would probably be easier. I'll bring it along if there's no other option, though.

Cerberus

I'll be along and have the game and expansion, though will also be coming by train.
We'll sort those details out closer to the time, as long as we have enough interest and can agree a date. Though looking good so far.

Belfast

ah good. I have neither, and I will all so be going by train. £7.50 for a "peak time" ticket at the moment to brum from London. Not too shabby.

blahmcblah

Will those of us non-UKers (which many more of us are than I had thought) be getting a report and pics from this event? I've never had a chance to play with more than one fellow PAer at a time IRL, sadly.

BobCesca

I'm sure I can find a pub or two that does good beer, food and will let us play. I'll need to do a bit of searching just to make sure (I say "I", I mean I'll make @japan do it...).

Cerberus

blahmcblah wrote: »

Will those of us non-UKers (which many more of us are than I had thought) be getting a report and pics from this event? I've never had a chance to play with more than one fellow PAer at a time IRL, sadly.

I'll happily write some sort of report up with pictures etc

Tayrun

Just spotted this thread, for some reason the @ didn't trigger a notification. I blame Darian.

Yeah so I'm still up in Scotland. The train tickets are weird. They seem to be about £120 for a return to Brum, but now an then, like once per day with no clear reason how it is chosen, one particular journey will be £60 return.

Much as I love you guys, I can't really justify that expense for this alone. I'll see about doing an extended journey where after this I move on to London to visit friends or something.

Or maybe Birmingham on the way back would be easier. Hmm, hmm.

What kind of day of the week and times of the day are we thinking of?

Flimflammery

We're definitely thinking of a weekend - sounds like some point on the weekend of the 15th/16th September has some potential. I'm not sure exactly what times, but I think we're aiming for a day trip, I don't think the intention is to stay overnight. So, yes, combining it with another weekend event sounds the most sensible course from your point of view, Tayrun! I didn't think a day trip from Bonnie Scotlande would be particularly practical or affordable...

Cerberus

Tayrun, the @ won't activate if your settings aren't set up to notify you of them, and it could have been updated in the code change, who knows?
Anyway, I thought it may be a bit of a pain for you, but when we spoke about it previously you spoke about visiting other friends near the time so thought it was worth including you. See if you can do something the week before or after the 15/16th of September and let us know.

It seems a lot of us will be training it so the Saturday would be better so there are good trains in case we finish late, but we'll fit in however.

Belfast

So, in an attempt to keep this ball rolling, everyone still okay for 15th/16th September? I think I'm right when I say we have 4 people? Do we know/need to decide any other details? Time, other games, etc,

I've just done some rough travel details for the day; this is based on the train lines info.
London - Birmingham; time to travel 1h30m , £15; station of arrival, New Street; Latest departure - 21:30,
Oxford - Birmingham; 1h 11m; £19; New Street; 21:03
Cheltenham - Brum; 50m; £13; New Street; 21:12
Birmingham - Birmingham; 0s; £0; N/A; N/A

Any thoughts on changing the city? Birmingham is no longer so central.

Flimflammery

If people wanted to come to Oxford there are certainly some nice pubs available

I'm still happy with Birmingham though; like I said, it's an old stomping ground and it would be nice to see it again after a long absence. That weekend is also still fine with me; I have a slight preference for the Sunday, but Cerberus is right, the Saturday would have more frequent trains available.

Flimflammery

Also, other games might be good in addition, but it'd be nice to get at least a couple of sessions of Chaos under our belts, as I never seem to be able to get a game together with people that I'm not explaining the rules to! If everyone is happy with that, obviously.

Belfast

Similar here, I think I've only played 3 games of Chaos in real life, each of those times I was explaining the rules even though I was playing with the same people. It's a hard life.

But yes, definitely a major theme of CitOW before other, inferior games.

Tayrun

Oxford would be much, much easier to make for me.

How do people feel about it? I don't want to massively inconvenience everyone!

Belfast

Oxford is infinitely preferable for me, as it's closer, and I know someone I could possibly stay if it comes to being a "late one". It does appear, however, to be awful to get to from Cheltenham. I could drive so I might be able to pick someone up from Reading, as it's on the way-ish.

Reading (the place), is accessible by everyone

especially me and, seeing as I'm the Londoner, what I say should be immutable law/what we should do :P

Basically anything more north than the Thames scares me.

Flimflammery

Reading would also be fine for me; in that case I would drive (it's only about 45 minutes away), and I'd be happy to bring my copy of the boardgame along; the latter also applies if we do it in Oxford, naturally. But yeah, it sucks that there's no direct rail route from Cheltenham, I think in that case driving (or taking a coach?) would be easier for @Cerberus if possible - not much more than an hour's journey.

Cerberus

Train seems like a lousy idea for me TBH looking at it. But there are basically no national express coaches so may be the only option.
@Tayrun, if we did Oxford would you definitely come? If so I'll make it there.

@BobCesca, does the change in location effect you much?

BobCesca

Change in location is fine if that's better for everyone else. I'm not entirely sure I'd be able to make it anyway as my attempts to find a job are not, so far, successful at all.

Tayrun

I will have to double-check with my friends to make sure I can make it into an extended Oxford-London trip, otherwise I can't justify the price.

If I can, I shall definitely attend. I'll get that info tomorrow hopefully!

Flimflammery

@Tayrun - are you keen on Oxford because you also have friends there? Otherwise, it may make a bit more sense to choose Reading, as a tad easier for @Cerberus to get to via train, plus closer to London for you and for Belfast.

Tayrun

I am indeed, but only one friend is currently resident there and perhaps I could persuade him to visit London if I head there after Reading, hmm.

I shall look into it asap!

Cerberus

It looks like this is go which is good. We'll wait to hear from Tayrun on if he can make it then confirm location.
I suggest that people local to Oxford and Reading try and sort out where we can play in case that is our location of choice.

Belfast

I know several places in Reading that would be good to play in. There's a game shop with space upstairs and the event pattern looks like they'll be holding a free board games day on that Saturday. Or there's a few pubs which are ok/have good beer.

Flimflammery

That looks like an awesome game shop, I am jealous.

I will look into pub possibilities in Oxford; we have a couple of game shops, but they don't really have events like the Reading, I suspect mainly due to lack of space.

Tayrun

Regarding pubs in Oxford:

1. Lamb and Flag.
2. Royal Oak.
3. Head of the River.

The Turf is always tempting, sure, but I bet it'll be packed.

Flimflammery

Lamb & Flag - only if we could get the little cubby-hole on the side, or the room at the back; I don't think there would be room elsewhere (particularly with regard to table-size), and I think it would be pretty likely that beer would be spilt on the board etc!

Royal Oak - a more likely suspect, I think, but again, it would be preferable to find an out-of-the-way section.

Head of the River - I'm not sure about table sizes inside; it's been a while since I've been there, though, and it is pretty huge.

The Turf - yeah, it'll probably be the last dregs of summer, it's gonna be tight. Although at least the OU students wouldn't quite be back then... and again, I think table size might be an issue.


Some other possibilities:

Angel & Greyhound - especially that massive table in the back corner, and they're keen on boardgames (although most of the ones they have are rather less hardcore).

The Rusty Bicycle/Rickety Press - two nice relaxed gastro-pubs.

The Bookbinder's - again good if we get the cubby hole.

The Mitre - don't know it too well, but apparently an Oxford boardgaming club uses it weekly, so they're likely used to our kind ;0)

The Plough/The Butcher's Arms - out of the way, but very nice and quiet possibilities, and doable if I, say, pick people up from the station in my car.

Tayrun

Yeah I may have been remembering the Lamb and Flag as bigger than it actually is.

I can't believe I'd forgotten The Mitre! Probably because I use the restaurant there more than the pub.

I've not been to the Angel & Greyhound, but from your description I'm thinking either it or The Mitre would be the best bet.

I can vouch for The Mitre having multiple huge tables, and it's right on the high street so I guess it'd be easy for people to get to?

Tayrun

Haven't forgotten, working on it, friend appears to have gone AWOL. Stay tuned.

Flimflammery

@Tayrun - Any more word on your friend? I assume if he's out of the picture then Reading is the most sensible location?