"SUCCESS!!!! MY WIFE WILL GAME" Topic

In little more than a week I will be wending my way out to Lancaster PA for "The Weekend:When Wars Were worth it!" That's a small convention we hold in Lancaster PA, We go early and take two holidays on our own before the conventions starts. Usually she will then go home or might knock around the stores of the outletttery persuasion. This year she said she's tired of that and wants to help at the convention, but even more--!!! She said "A lot of the guys at the convention are really nice and they bring their wives and the wives game, maybe I'll try it out. I think she likes the socializing more than the game, but she wants to at least try it.

Part of it I suspect is that we have over the past 10 years gained our best friends from gaming. In 2005 I converted a whole family to gaming. I met this one friend on the net and we struck up a friendship outside the group we were on. She had never heard of gaming before and when I told her she became immediately interested. They were going to vacation in Maine (they live in Florida) and they were going to stay for two days at our place to rest. They asked if I could put on a game, I did, and not only did my friend love it, but so hid her husband, their 11 year old son and her 15 year old daughter. They're all still gamers. We since became friends with them and visit them in Florida each year and they us. The second family was a co-worker who's a Civil War Re-enactor and who I invited over for a battle. He loved it and he brought up his daughter and her fiance (who are D&D and role players) and his wife, who now goes flea-market and garage sale hunting.

She likes them very much and I suspect that she's hoping to extend the circle of friends… good….

Good for you! I have at least got my wife to join the Little Prince and me in playing Wings of Glory – have yet to get her to go to a con

My partner insisted on going to salute with me. once we had walked round she said she would be alright sitting and reading while i gamed. 5 mins after leaving her she rang me up and asked what i was doing. after several more phone calls within an hour i had to give up. i made some quick buys and we left.
never will i take her again.

My wife is a gamers as well. She likes the Napleonic era.

Otto,
What is this convention you are referring to?

My wife has played a few times, but doesn't really care for it. She does however like about half of my gaming buddies, so there is something… I even got her playing in a convention game back about 10 years ago.

I won't be bringing her to the Weekend; she has to be home to take our Daughter to a birthday party.

Much like your wife, I find myself preferring the socializing to the gaming these days as well. The games are still fun, I just play them at home all the time, when I go away, I find I spend more time running my mouth, and drinking beer, than playing. Still, the Weekend is my most looked forward to con of the year, closely followed by Johnny Con, both of which are small intimate gatherings where I can relax more than I can at larger shows were I am working…

Andy

Congrats! My wife quite likes X-Wing and Ludus Gladiatorius (had a game last night, in fact), and has enjoyed others (DBA, Might of Arms, Spitting Fire, Starmada) from time to time. It's a good thing to be able to share a hobby with your SO, even a little bit.

Doug

Much as I love my wife, I'm glad she has no interest in gaming. Not that I mind gaming with your wives, but I enjoy my guy time.

Steve

Socializing as the prime motive, this explains DBA, right? (ducks head!)

Seriously though, one of the reasons I like the simpler games is the socializing aspect as long as I can repurpose miniatures from another game.

Is it just me or do you shudder to think of spending all that time painting for a game that lasts less than one hour and depends on the result on one die roll?

My wife will go to cons, but not play.
But she does do D&D, and Formula D at home.
She is more of a RPGer.
So far, she doesn't do minis.

So… does she have a sister?

Is this convention open all gamers? I never heard of it.

You do know that she will have the Best Dice, luckiest had of cards or whatever the tool used it will, through no action on your part, favor her.

Prepare to be swept off the table! (even if you are running the game )

My wife likes most of my gamer friends, but has no interest in the hobby.

I like some of her friends, but have no interest in her hobbies.

Works out well for both of us.

Looking forward to The Weekend. Queenston Heights is ready to go. Going to paint up Brock this weekend.

Eric

Dear Saber 6

Oh without a doubt! Actually this happened, early in our married life she played a Fletcher Pratt Naval game with me. We played on the dining room table. I wondered how she was able to swat every ship as soon as she turned her attention to it. After it was over and all my ships had been sent to the bottom, she smiled sweetly and said "Well Honey, you know I do all my sewing on this table and so I'm very familiar with the dimensions…

Good for you!
My wife had the choice between fly fishing or wargamming. She choose fly fishing. However, we still haven't gone fishing together :(

Dear War Wizard and Nascatti

The Convention is called "The Weekend" and this year the theme(big deal right) is "When Wars Were Worth it. It is held June 21st, 22nd, and 23rd, though all we do is socialize over breakfast on the 23rd, Sunday, before the long ride home. It is held at the Continental Inn, 2285 Lincoln Highway, Rt. 30, Lancaster PA. It is the hotel right across from the Lancaster Host where the HMGS "Cold Wars" and "Fall-In!" conventions are held.

The convention is held in the basement ballroom, 5000 square ft (dated decor but we're dated too so it's nice) and if you take a room at the Continental there is no entrence fee as we get room credits for every room we take against the cost of the ballroom. If you stay elsewhere we ask for a $10 USD donation for equity's sake. There is no flea-market or dealers, but we have a "BRING AND BUY" table if you want to bring stuff to sell off, and we also have a FREE table for stuff you just want to get rid of and find a good home for with wargames that will love it -- while blowing it up every game night.

NOW THIS IS THE HARD PART! The convention is INVITATION ONLY, but don't be dismayed. Anyone can ask for an invitation even now and we will send you out the packet. This will consist of LAST YEARS After-Action Report/Keepsake Booklet (48 pages full color) which gives brief (or long) battle reports on the games, some articles of general interst on gaming and stuff like that, the invitation, badge, blah blah blah…

We do it invitation only not because of snobbishness but because of sloth. None of us wants to sit at a desk and take the money or deal with badges, so we do all that we can through the mail ahead of time, so Presently tonight I am stuffing the envelopes with the fifth of the convention updates (which we put out about every 2 or three months) and stuffing in badges etc. See this way we get all the bureaucratic crap done ahead of time so we can just come in and game, game game-- oh yeah, and drink, drink,drink, and et-eat eat. Lots of guys buy beer and munchies and drop them for everyone at the most important part of the convention-- the Munchie pit. This is a circle of comfy chairs where you can sit and relax after a game and tell tall stories to your friends (new and old) and rest up. It's also where GM's will come and press gan you you into their games when they are starting up.

We also hold an MST2000 which is kind of like Science Fiction Theater 2000, only we do the worst most historical movies we can find and we have no robots, only about a dozen or so over-educated guys and girls who snap out one lines and jokes and criticisms during the movie.Last year we had 18 Amazons, and The Amazon Gladiators. I leave the rest to yor information. This year, because it is in honor of the great B movie fils of WWII we are tearing apart the worst big budget movie ever made- "Battle of the Bulge " and the worst low-Budget movie ever- "They saved Hitler's Brain."

We generally get about 60 people and this year we are probably going to move it up to about 80 we think. Next year the theme will be "The Ancient World:" or "Honey! I sacrificed the kids!"

So far the games we have (and this is not an exhaustive list is The Battle of Yellow Ford – About O'Nei's uprising in Ireland, The Battle of the Java Sea, A Pre dreadnought game. One game from the Roman world of Caesar versus Pompey, Crossroads at Lamastad, a Black Powder Horse and Musket game, "Had Enough Leonardo" a game with Leonardo and Renaissance tanks etc. Victorian Science Fiction on Mons Olympus on Mars, A massive Fort Ticonderoga game, The Battle of Queenston, War of 1812, The Battle of Jallalabad, Jayne's Frightening Ships- a new system or WWI naval combat (no ship cards) Another 18th century battle with rules called "Oh God! Anything But a six!" Also up are a SAGA gaming free-for-all, Jingoes of the Sea (a hilarous game with completely scratch built models, An Axis & Allies Double Blind game, A Franco-Prussian War Game, a Romans versus Dacians Game, and another new game called YO-HO-HO! which is an 18th century sailing game, again on a new system (no ship cards) and which uses a hexagonal board and ships 8 to 12" long. This game is designed to be able to be used with table top figures and model amphibious actions and so forth. (No, no pirates!) There are several more games beyond these.We have several GM's who haven't decided yet buthave promised to put on games, (we are hoping one guy does his Dinosaur hunt game, and we always have five or six guys want to put on games extemporaneously. There's no tickets, no event listings, and we have lots of space for open gaming. Usually the ballroom gets filled.

We're also offering for sale back copies of Saxe N'Violets- the newsletter of the Society of Daisy, devoted to Imagi-Nations and fun in gaming.

There is also an "off the Table Painting Contest" and an "Off the Table Modelling contest." These events are for the units or terrain that are literally "right off the table." These aren't the finished creations of diorama makers and collectors, but stuff you use on the table, so it doesn't matter if there's a bayonet missing here or a ding there-- it's if they have presence. This year we think we figured out how this contest will be done by voting among the attendees. No-- we're not trying to make it more democratic. We're lazy, we don't want to judge it! There are for each contest, a $25 USD first prize, $15 USD second prize and $10 USD third prize.

Well that's about the whole story in a nutshell. If you want more, write me at sigurd@eclipse.net and I'll add you to our mailing list. We don't accept walk-ups, and you have to have an invite, but if you call me or write me ahead of time, well get you in with no problem. All you have to do is ask.

Anyway the spirit of the convention emphasizes, old friends, making new friends, games, fun, eating, having a good time, gamers, games, and fun.

I'm sure there's more but I forgot it.

Otto

Sounds like fun convention.

I don't know about wargaming but I have been trying to get my wife into role-playing but it turns out she has a latex allergy.

This sounds like the best convention I have never heard of but should attend. Will keep this in mind for the future. We are probably going to the NE and to PA in 2 or 3 years. Right now, it is a bit far from Texas and our travel budget was blown with a Disney World trip two weeks ago…

Congratulations!!!

Remember though, we won't tolerate your whining to us when she beats you at all the games you play, so beware what you wish for……

You might not be so happy about it after she wipes the floor with you & your troops.

Dear Anceints Gamer

Well, if you'd like to get on our mailing list now and receive the quarterly updates and pre-convention newsletter AND a copy of the 48 page After-Action Report/Keepsake Booklet, just send me your postal address to sigurd@eclipse.net and you'll receive them.

Otto