Gaming Clubs and the US

I live in the US (for now anyway, who knows what will happen after this election), and as much as I like it here, many problems and issues aside, there are often times I look at folks in other countries with a great deal of envy, especially when it comes to gaming and hobbying. As a result of probably a hundred and one different factors, the table-top gaming culture manifests differently in certain ways in the US (and probably by extension Canada) than it does over in the UK or France or Australia or wherever. One of the biggest differences I’ve observed, and which I totally bemoan, is our dearth of gaming clubs in the US.

Sure, we have gaming stores, both indie and GW-officials, though depending on where you are in the country, you may not have access to those either. But we (mostly) don’t have the gaming clubs you hear about in other countries where folks are getting together at a regular spot, on a regular schedule, often to play games with long running campaigns. Since I play Necromunda the most of any rule-set, save maybe Forbidden Psalm, the club that most immediately comes to mind is the Guildford Games Club, the club that the producers of the Guilders-Ford Radio podcast (which is great, go listen) play through. They’ve been running Necromunda campaigns through the club for years now, and have amassed a huge amount of lore surrounding the settlement of Guilders-Ford, and other associated locations, through all the games and narrative they generate. Seriously, listening to an episode of Guilders-Ford Radio will immediately make it clear how the regular club setting has fostered an environment of creativity, collaboration, and inspiration.

I wish we had that in the US. Don’t get me wrong, I know there are groups like the GGC in the US, but they are few and seem to be mainly restricted to the largest urban areas. Instead, what we have, as mentioned above, are of course our FLGSs, many of which have gaming space, and official GW stores (which personally I avoid going in to unless I really need to pick something specific up and there’s no other option), or maybe a private home.

Personally, I live about 20 miles away from the store that is most convenient for myself and the rest of my gaming group to meet up at for games. It’s where we have run all of our Necromunda campaigns so far. Now, 20 miles is not the longest distance in the world, but I live outside of Philadelphia, and the store is in Philly proper. Anybody who has ever driven around Philly knows that it is a stressful and anxiety-inducing activity, and I work in the city. That means I’m in the city usually 5 days a week, and so the last thing I want to do on one of my days off is drive back into Philly, even for something fun like Necromunda, because of the associated anxiety. It’s mostly a me thing, I know, but I’m sure readers can sympathize slightly with not wanting to spend your time away from work in an environment that is similar to work.

This is before we even get to the fact that the FLGS, being a business in a (unfortunately) capitalist society, has to make a profit, otherwise they won’t be there anymore and we lose access to another 3rd space that isn’t work or home. This means I’m always feeling the obligation to buy something substantial when we’re there, and encourage others to do so too, so that we aren’t just using their space and not patronizing them at all. Granted, the store could always charge for the use of the gaming space (which to be fair is what I’ve seen about 50% of FLGSs I’ve encountered in the US do), but even then I feel like the sense of community and long-term bonds that develop through gaming clubs with regular meetings outside of a specifically commercially-oriented space are definitely lacking in the US.

Maybe I’ve got it all wrong though, and there is a plethora of gaming clubs that exist across this country, and I’ve just been mind-bogglingly ignorant of them, wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened. So if there is, let me know. I wanna play with y’all!