"Philadelphia Local gaming groups [rant]" Topic

I'm a little peeved right now. I spent most of my life in the suburbs of philly, bouncing from mall to strip mall visiting smaller shops to get my gaming fix. Which is fine, I was young, I didnt have much better to do. I moved to lancaster, and found a great group of gamers out there, doing great, lots of activity. Now there is where I get mad …

I move to downtown philadelphia – 6th largest city in the united states – and the gaming scene is dead. nothing. I can get one bite. And when I do, I get people telling me to visit these shops I grew up going to! Not that there is anything wrong with those shops, I would just like something a little closer. and being in the 6th largest city, I don't think that is such an abnormal request!

SO would someone for the love of god point me to some gaming activity in the city and pretty please with a cherry on top prove me wrong???

-kevin

Umm… Can't help you too much, since I have the same complaints. There are two groups downtown that I know of: the Penn Gamers ( dolphin.upenn.edu/~pgamers ) and the Philadelphia Area Gaming Enthusiasts ( recently advertised on TMP: TMP link ).

I'd love to have a game store downtown somewhere, but there ain't one. Quite a few comic shops, and a very nice train/model shop on 3rd and Market, but that's about it.

Indy is even worse. We host Gencon, and our FLGS scene needs help. G2D4 is okay, (only handles mostly "The big three"), but you'd think we'd have more game stores here.

Try moving to Boise, Idaho.

Kevin

I just came across a group in Center City, PAGE mentioned above, and they do 40K once a month and I will be joining them at the end of the month for my first game in Philly.

I too have had the same frustration. With some of the largest cons in the country a hour or so away you would think the city would be swarming.

I live in Center City and would love to get a permanent group to game with. Time to get the dust of these painted miniatures.

Check out our group:
link

We are mostly located South of Philly, Northern Delaware.
I have not been that active in it yet myself, but there is gamming every week usuall. FOW, WAB, etc..

hey Guys, Its the same story all over Northeast PA. That is why we opened up Dragonhead Distributors in Emmaus PA. It is strictly a Wargamers store owned by a gamer for gamers. Over 1,200 Square Ft with 3 plus tables.Why Emmaus ? Its less then an hour North 0f Phila, Less then an hour south of Wilkes Barre / Scranton Area ,Less then a Hour from the Tunnel into New York City and 45 – 60 minutes from Lancaster Lebanon Area. We are open Tue thru Fri 3PM to 9PM and SAt & Sun noon to ? Tuesday night is Paint & play night . The Address is 422 Chestnut street Emmaus PA . Store# 610-967-4058 . or dragonheaddis@aol.com . Come check us out and visit your neighbors.

Philly has always been that way ever since I can remember, even when it comes to model railroading. All the action is in the suburbs. I grew up in Reading and always traveled to King of Prussia or Norristown for my gaming needs. Everyone from center city Philly always came up there as well.

For the past 11 years I have lived outside Orlando. If I ever get back to visit PA, I must stop in to see the store in Emmaus. Sounds far better than anything we have down here!

BTW you must always mention how nice a small town Emmaus is as well. I along with my young son used to travel from Reading to Emmaus every Friday afternoon and hang out photographing Conrail trains. I always enjoyed the town. There used to be a large HO model railroad club that met in a building by the fire station. Not sure if they are still there.

Kevin,
Where are you? I am in South Jersey. We have a "group" of 4 at best, playing in either of two homes. Basically all historical. We are all in our mid-late 50s.

Nick
nnascati@yahoo.com

Kevin,

There are several loose groups of historical gamers in Montgomery County (about 15 miles north of Center City Phila.) but they do tend to be composed of guys who have known each other for years, and year, and years and aren't really in growth mode.

There is a store located in Abington, Abington Games, that does mostly fantasy and sci-fi (Warmachine, etc.) but I'm trying to rouse interest in FOW there.

There is also a store called Showcase Comics in Granite Run Mall (Delaware County--about 20 miles southwest of Center City) that has a very lively FOW presence.

Drop me a line at kportner@wglaw.com . I'd like to know what you play and I'd be happy to introduce you to the people I know who play historical wargames.

Further up the pike in the Scranton Wilkes Barre area, is the Pennsylvania Wargamers Militia:
link

We are not downtown Philly, but about an hour and a half away at our FLGS:

link

sixfeetundergames.com

Doc

There was a group that met on Sundays just off Rittenhouse Square.

This has always seemed to me to be the rule, rether than the exception.
-Kle.

Move back to Lancaster is my suggestion ;-) haha.

Hello frustrated gamers,

I became an owner of Abington Games because I wanted to keep a good place to play games around. We are dedicated to supporting a community of game players of all genres, including historical Miniatures, RPGs, board games, and more. Our gaming area has been remodeled and is a well lit and comfortable place to play games and hold events or just casual gaming.

Abington Games is located at 1128 Easton Road, Roslyn PA 19001. We are about 2 miles south of the Willow Grove Mall, 15 miles from Center City and a block from the Septa R2 Roslyn train station. Our Phone number is 215 657 9550.

As far as miniatures go we recently had one of a series of historical minitures games that receated the battle of Edge hill durring the American War of Indipendance, historicaly fought right next door to our store.

Every Wed evening several very talented miniature painters get together to relax while painting, help those not touched by the golden brush, and tell bad jokes.

You can reach me directly at Tom 'DOT' AbingtonGH 'DOT' com. to find out more

hey doc,

that was the store I would visit in Lancaster. great place – wish I could move back but my career says otherwise. Give everyone my love.

Anyway, I don't mean to be a tight ass about this, and I hope I don't offend anyone, but I know of these stores and if you read my original post this is exactly what I was complaining about.

I live in pretty much center city philadelphia. Home to 1.5 MILLION people. You can't tell me that there isn't enough people out of 1.5 million to form a downtown gaming shop and/or club? I find that to be proposterous. I don't want to have to drive to springfield or willowgrove or reading or litiz. I've visited a lot of these and they are great places, but I really can't fathom fighting traffic for an hour just to game at a mall. Sorry, I'd rather walk/septa/bike downtown to a shop. That's what cities are for, right?

I can go downtown right now and find plenty of comic shops, record shops(I'm talking strictly vinyl), tea shops and thosands of other speciality shops. hell, I can think of 3 places off the top of my head that strictly sell homebrewing equipment! And not one gaming store?

I hope I'm not off base in thinking that this is a little strange. Abington, showcase, sixfeetunder – great places – but it's too much effort to get one game in. If I started going one night a week, it would throw a major wrench into my schedule.

Glad to hear about PAGE though, it sounds promising. I couldn't really tell much from their homepage though. I'm not a GW gamer, save their specialist games. I do do Sci-fi/fantasy (battletech, warmachine/hordes, warzone/chronopia, stargrunt, looking at infinity ..) and am interested in doing some historicals. Just something. Let me know how things go, and maybe if there is enough disgruntled philly wargamers we can add to their ranks – hell we can even start something of our own!

So guys, how many more of us are out there?

Kevin,
I am less than 30 minutes outside Center City. Again, we are a very small, very informal bunch, and play roughly twice a month. Drop me a line if you are interested.

Nck – where are you located? I am in Chester County and am looking to do Historicals. Feel free to PM me!
Tanc