Establishing a new tabletop gaming group

Should I start a new game group?

Maybe the groups in your area don’t often play the kinds of board games, TCGs or RPGs that you enjoy, maybe there’s someone you clash with, or maybe there isn’t a game group near you at all. ****Whatever the reason, starting a new game group that plays regularly can be a daunting prospect. Depending on your situation, you may not need to go as far as starting a new group entirely.

If you really like the people in a group you’re already a part of but you have, for example, a scheduling conflict with the regular game night or you wish the group played different games, you can have a chat with the organizer and see if they’re open to having you host a second regular game night for the group on another day and/or with a different focus.

Tabletop organizers are usually volunteering their time and it’s no small feat planning game nights, coordinating venues, managing attendees, and keeping folks engaged between sessions, so bringing on a second, third, or fourth person at the organizing level can be a huge benefit.

If the organizer isn’t open to expanding the group that way, you can take a look for other game groups in your area that fit your life better, with the option to approach them the same way and see if they’d like to expand their game night offerings. Search “place name” board game/tabletop group on your search engine of choice to see if anything great is happening nearby.

Depending where you live, Aftergame might also show active game groups in your area, with the added benefit that you can see what events they have coming up, who will be attending, what games they’ll be playing, and whether or not the games you’re excited about have space left at the table for that night.

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Starting a new game group

If none of the above points are an option for you or you’re excited to have a group of your own, there are lots of things you can do to help establish your new group.

Decide on your main platform

You’ve got a few good options for where to host your new game group. In speaking with many organizers over the last year, a common theme has been that people are trying to minimize the channels they need to maintain and monitor in order to run their groups, so depending on how much energy you plan to devote to this endeavour, be sparing with your platforms.

Choose a platform that is at least capable of doing everything you need to do to run a successful game group, which, depending on the type of group you want to have, may include:

• Planning events
• Planning games at those events
• Chatting with group members before, during, and after events.
• Engaging group members between events
• Showing members what games are available to play (due to the venue, your own collection, or the combined group’s collection)
• Being discoverable by other players in your area
• Sharing great gaming moments
• Keeping play logs

Choosing a platform that covers all your bases (such as Aftergame) will save you a lot and frustration and gives you room to grow without increasing your workload.

Be clear about your mission

If you can clearly articulate your group values, you’ll have a much better chance of finding players who want the same things. Finding people you get along with is more than half the battle for keeping a game group happy and healthy. There are lots of different kinds of things you might hold as your top-line value, such as the types of games you play, how social (or not) you want to be, or what kind of space you want to create (safe, inclusive, experienced, social, etc).

Show people what games to expect

If it’s not part of your top-line mission statement, making sure people know what kinds of games they can expect to encounter in your group is important. Even if you’ve said something like “This group is for experienced players,” showing a photo of some games they can expect to encounter or, better yet, a link to your group’s Aftergame list, helps players decide if their definition of “experienced” matches yours.

I worked in a board game café for seven years and can’t count the number of times people would call themselves experienced board-gamers and then tell me the most complex game they’ve played is Catan. No shade on Catan, but those folks wouldn’t know what they were getting into if they turned up at your Twilight Imperium game.

Check out other groups

If you have the luxury, check out some other groups in your area and see if there are any folks who are interested in what you’re offering. It wouldn’t be good form to go to a nearly identical group and try to poach members but if you’re doing something different, there’s no harm in making some connections and seeing where that leads. Chatting with the other organizers, too, might open up opportunities to collaborate (or at least coordinate) and they might be keen to attend someone else’s event for once.

Additionally, you might be able to borrow some ideas that fit with how you want to run your group.

Post on the socials

Sending out invites is a vital step that you can take a little further than just inviting your friends.

You can find local community groups, either general groups (like a group for a town or neighborhood) or groups dedicated to tabletop gaming, in which to post about your group. (If the group is a dedicated game group, best practice would be to check with the admins regarding posting about another game group. Much like the above point, there might be some negative feelings if you go ahead without permission, especially if the group is already doing a similar thing.) A lot of people don’t think to look for new groups very often so putting your group in front of them is possibly doing them a favor, as well.

If you’re hosting on Aftergame, you can easily share a link (online) or QR code (in person) so people can head straight there and check out your group.

Host regular events

Whether it’s weekly, fortnightly, monthly, or even an annual event, keeping the schedule regular helps people fit your game night into their lives. That being said, don’t be afraid to shift the days or the focus as required by your current group members (inflexibility is the reason some of you are here in the first place) but communicate clearly before making big changes.

If you’re not sure how often you want to host, keep in mind that it’s easier for people to mentally adjust to scaling up than scaling down. If you’re aiming for weekly but you’re nervous about it, you could start your game day as a monthly event and see how it goes.

Choose a day

While your own schedule is probably the biggest factor in this decision, other game groups near you will be your next biggest consideration. Especially if you’re splitting off from another group, it’s tempting to pick the same night because you’ve already set aside that time but if you choose the same night as another group, you’ll be in direct competition for players. Check out your community calendar before deciding on your day.

Choose a place

If you’re starting a big group that will require using a community space such as a café, game store, library, or community centre, it’s worth considering how people will get there. Is there parking nearby? It’s hard to lug heavy board games around. Is it accessible by public transit? Sometimes games go late and getting to and from your venue easily can remove a barrier for players.

If you’re starting a small group, is your living space appropriate? Consider carefully before inviting strangers into your home. Perhaps you could meet in public a few times first. In addition to the venue ideas above, a pub with large tables can be an excellent place to play a (non-precious) game or two.

It’s okay to start small

If your group only has one or two other people to start with, that’s a great opportunity to explore games with smaller player counts that are tough to fit into a big game night. As long as you’re having fun, it doesn’t matter how people are there. It will grow with time.

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Happy hosting!

Download Aftergame or use our web app to start planning today.

For more info on using Aftergame to host your group, check out the help site.