Poll: How's your local ASL club doing?

How's your local ASL club doing?

  • Great! Active/Growing!

    Votes: 11 17.7%
  • Just Fine. Plugging along as usual.

    Votes: 14 22.6%
  • Kinda Falling Off. Fewer people/meeting less often.

    Votes: 6 9.7%
  • I dunno; I've lost touch with them

    Votes: 2 3.2%
  • What local ASL club?

    Votes: 29 46.8%

  • Total voters
    62
  • Poll closed .

Tuomo

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Just wondering what the state of the community is at the local club level.
 

fenyan

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SoCal ASL meets the first four Saturdays at every month at a different game store in the Los Angeles area. We've had from three to 13 players show up each time with an average of eight. These numbers seem similar to last year.

Last year we had two players who got into the game via Starter Kit and now play full ASL and have become somewhat regular attendees. This year, there have been at least five new faces that have attended the events and one of them has been showing up regularly.
 

Alan Hume

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Up until a couple of years ago we had a regular meet up at Highlander Games in Dundee, Scotland but it fell off and basically came to a stop so we don't really have anything other than folks getting together directly in their homes now
 

Michael R

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Montréal has never had an ASL club. The good news, however, is that Dean Limosani is starting one that will meet for the first time on October 4. Dean has secured a space that isn't anyone's home which could be nice.
 

Vinnie

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Up until a couple of years ago we had a regular meet up at Highlander Games in Dundee, Scotland but it fell off and basically came to a stop so we don't really have anything other than folks getting together directly in their homes now
We can start this again over the winter if you want.
Locally, we have a semi regular meet up which doesn’t happen over he summer as I work too much.
 

Alan Hume

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That could be tempting. My only reservation is that I don't think I will actually be able to be there very much as I work most weekends and I couldn't afford to take the day off to game as I would lose my weekend allowance payment which really helps fill out my wages.

Would be good though
 

Ric of The LBC

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SoCal ASL meets the first four Saturdays at every month at a different game store in the Los Angeles area. We've had from three to 13 players show up each time with an average of eight. These numbers seem similar to last year.

Last year we had two players who got into the game via Starter Kit and now play full ASL and have become somewhat regular attendees. This year, there have been at least five new faces that have attended the events and one of them has been showing up regularly.
I resemble those remarks
 

olli

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Up until a couple of years ago we had a regular meet up at Highlander Games in Dundee, Scotland but it fell off and basically came to a stop so we don't really have anything other than folks getting together directly in their homes now
It fell away due to problems getting the gaming space, me working away from home and not able to organise and also Pete Phillips who took over sorting it our having too much workload with his University course that and people not being able to meet up on the same days .
 

Alan Hume

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It fell away due to problems getting the gaming space, me working away from home and not able to organise and also Pete Phillips who took over sorting it our having too much workload with his University course that and people not being able to meet up on the same days .
Yep, people did their best to make it work though which was appreciated
 

Tuomo

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Guess I'm surprised at the large number of people who voted "What local ASL Club?" Maybe there's different perceptions of what "local" means, but I doubt it.

Maybe I should have invited people to comment: what's keeping your local area from having a club?

In no particular order, clubs need:
  1. Enough players in a "local" area
  2. An organizer
  3. A place to play
#1... meh? One's definition of a "driveable distance" varies with geography and population density. Colorado's Front Range ASL Club draws people from an area that would probably contain 4 clubs on the US east coast, but that's just normal human perception. Outside of Boise, Idaho won't have an ASL Club, but how many Idahos are there. In Europe, are things so close and integrated that the concept of a club really doesn't hold, because everybody can go everywhere?

#2 is important. Bless those people who run things. If they didn't do that work, sometimes nobody does it.

#3.... meh?
 

Yuri0352

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Guess I'm surprised at the large number of people who voted "What local ASL Club?" Maybe there's different perceptions of what "local" means, but I doubt it.

Maybe I should have invited people to comment: what's keeping your local area from having a club?

In no particular order, clubs need:
  1. Enough players in a "local" area
  2. An organizer
  3. A place to play
#1... meh? One's definition of a "driveable distance" varies with geography and population density. Colorado's Front Range ASL Club draws people from an area that would probably contain 4 clubs on the US east coast, but that's just normal human perception. Outside of Boise, Idaho won't have an ASL Club, but how many Idahos are there. In Europe, are things so close and integrated that the concept of a club really doesn't hold, because everybody can go everywhere?

#2 is important. Bless those people who run things. If they didn't do that work, sometimes nobody does it.

#3.... meh?
In response to:

1) I have been very fortunate to have been playing ASL with the (apparently) only other ASL player in my town for the past 6 years. I'm fairly certain that the two of us don't really meet the definition of an ASL club. The nearest established ASL club is over 200 miles away, which in my opinion does not really qualify as being 'local'.

2) N/A, see 1) above.

3) We have been playing ASL FTF on a semi-regular basis at our town's excellent game store (no wargaming products therein however) for about 6 years. Despite our frequent and visible presence, and our willingness to pause our games so as to describe ASL to the other players who stop by to chat, we have yet to meet ANYONE who has ever played ASL or has shown any interest in learning the game.

All that being said, I consider myself very lucky to even have a fellow wargamer in my home town, so I won't complain too much. A local ASL club would be great, however, since I'm not keen on hauling my kit over long distances, I'll take what I can get!
Also, to give credit where credit is due, I most likely would not have connected with my home town ASL opponent were it not for a long ago post in the 'Opponents Wanted ' sub-forum, and by Witchbottles noticing that there were two ASL players in this small town.
 

Vic Provost

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Even though, due to my ongoing medical rehab, my participation has been intermittent, my ASL friends, Ralph McDonald in Palmer and Joe Gochinski in Greenfield, both in Massachusetts, hold meetings at least once, if not twice a month and keep adding players to our local e-mail notice lists and every time I can attend I see new faces and a crowded room. So our local scene seems to keep growing even when we lose a player.

Chuck Tewksbury just held the 'Garage Barrage' at his place out in Gardiner, MA with 20+ in attendance so ASL is alive and well here in Mass.

Plus I have Tom Morin for VASL when needed. I am very lucky in that I can get ASL when needed, no problem, Vic.
 

Evan Sherry

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Terrible. We have one dead damn it. Today I deleted Dave Brown's name from my cell phone contacts.
 

BattleSchool

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...our local scene seems to keep growing even when we lose a player.
This has been our experience over the course of the last decade, although many of our "losses" have proven to be temporary. Apart from the odd player moving out of the area, we have seen a steady increase in the number of local players returning to ASL--sometimes after a shortish hiatus--and players new to the area joining our local ASL mailing list.

Picking up on Tom's point re "local" area, the majority of our regulars live within a 45-minute drive of each other. One gent travels about two hours to attend a game day every couple months or so. There are probably about 25 ASL players in the national capital region. But it is rare to have a dozen on any given game day. (Btw, an RO-FB monster-scenario weekend is scheduled for 15-17 Nov. at an out-of-town resort. PM for details. Please do not reply to this thread.)

It was a pleasant surprise to see more than 35 players at the Canadian ASL Open (CASLO) this past May. An active and motivated local contingent is key to hosting a successful tourney. As are a dedicated bunch of participants above and below the 49th parallel, who have supported this modest event over the years.

And while not everyone is keen to play in a more formal setting, these events tend to raise awareness of the hobby, and encourage (some) local ASLers to drop by and meet their fellow gamers for the first time. Regrettably, a few still resist the temptation to drop by and have a dram of single malt when the CASLO is in town. I wonder how much this has to do with a TD substituting "moonshine" for scotch a few years ago. No names, no pack-drill. ;)
 
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Philippe D.

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In no particular order, clubs need:
  1. Enough players in a "local" area
  2. An organizer
  3. A place to play
In France, the only active, dedicated ASL "club" that I know of is in Paris. Monthly meetings; I've never been there but I think they average between 10 and 15 players monthly.

For me... "local" has to mean "within public transportation range" - I don't own, or drive, a car. On a "local" scale, I know there is a semi-active wargames-oriented "club", but with players more interested in playing varied games, so ASL is at best a second thought for a very few of them.

The need for an organizer is indeed a big one. Someone has to make things work. I've experienced this a dozen years ago, during my ASL hiatus - I was involved in other types of gaming, and keeping a local community active was a lot of work.

(And once you've got the players and the organizer, finding a place to play is typically not the biggest problem)
 

commissarmatt

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Texas ASL is still chugging along. Probably about the same overall. Some players fade away for a while, some move out or lose touch, but others come in. Austin, Houston, DFW, and San Antonio all have regular monthly game days. Our newsletter keeps publishing on its neurotic irregular schedule, and the Austin tourney seems to break attendance records each year these days. There's also a tourney in Fort Worth in early November.
 
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