[game pieces]

Game-a-thon: SUNDAY, August 22, 2010
Submitted by DC on Sat, 08/14/2010 - 23:18. ()

IMPORTANT REMINDER - Due to a schedule conflict at the Studio, this month's SWA Game-a-thon is on SUNDAY, August 22nd.  Please don't show up on Saturday!

Even with these circumstances, we've managed to pull together a pretty full schedule of events:

Morning Session ( 11am - 4pm )
Evening Session ( 5pm - 10pm+ )

For more information, including full event descriptions, click here for the August Game-a-thon page.

Several event descriptions have links to BoardGameGeek. Check them out for game reviews, pictures, rules and player aids.

We hope to see you there.
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Call for Game Masters - Council of Five Nations XXXIII (Oct 8-10, 2010)
Submitted by DC on Wed, 08/04/2010 - 21:20. ()

Hello Northeast Gamers,

It happens every year around this time; the Schenectady Wargamers Association starts cranking up the Council of Five Nations machinery once again.  This year will be our 33rd Council, one of the longest-running Adventure Gaming conventions in the world. 

Please block-off October 8-10 on your calendars.

We also now have preliminary Council info up on our web site.  Here are the highlights.


COUNCIL NEEDS GAME MASTERS

No game convention can exist without folks like you volunteering to run games, and we're no exception.  We'll have somewhere between 125-150 events this year, and it'll take a lot of GMs to make that happen.  Maybe you?

We offer some sweet incentives:  Free entry to the con and a special GMs-only T-shirt (last year's was black, this year will probably be some other color that goes nicely with the gold embroidered logo, like maybe Maroon...).

If you're interested in running a game for us, you can find all the details here:

www.swa-gaming.org/CouncilEventForm

We really, really need your events by Sunday, August 22nd so we can get the pre-reg material at a reasonable time.  Please don't procrastinate - get those events in now.


HOTEL LODGINGS

We've got your hotel options lined up and ready to go.  We have a special web page set up with all the info:

www.swa-gaming.org/CouncilHotels

Make your reservations now!


GENERAL COUNCIL INFO

The main Council info page is a hub of all the information you need to attend Council of Five Nations.  It is the page that will be updated the most frequently.  You can always find it here:

www.swa-gaming.org/Council

Check it often for the latest updates on Council of Five Nations XXXIII.



We hope to see all of you this October.

The SWA Planning Team
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Kid-Friendly Games at SWA Events
Submitted by DC on Sun, 08/01/2010 - 22:10. ()

If you've been coming to our events over the past few years, you might have noticed that we're making more of an effort to have a good selection of "Kid Friendly" games not only at Council of Five Nations, but also at our monthly Game-a-thons.

We've gotten some suggestions from both players and GMs; requests to clarify the definition of "Kid Friendly".

After some good internal discussion (and a little borrowing from the good folks who run TotalCon), the SWA Planning Team has come up with some new guidelines.  We'll definitely implement them for events at Council, after a little dry-run testing at the August and September Game-a-thons.

In summary, we now ask each GM to provide a "Maturity Rating":
  • Child rating is for children age 6 - 9, with adult supervision
  • E10+ rating is for players 10 and up in age (This is the default rating)
  • Teen rating is for players 14 and up in age
  • Mature rating is for players 18 and up in age.

If you'd like to take a look at the whole thing for yourself, please click to view the just-updated Game-a-thon event submission form on the SWA web site.

If you have any comments or suggestions for improvement, please email us at  officers /at/ swa-gaming.org

Thanks.
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Games for Educators
Submitted by DC on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 20:19. ()

This is a community service announcement.

I've been receiving the "Games for Educators" email newsletter for awhile now.  It occurs to me that there might be other folks out in the SWA community that might like to see it too.

Each month there are several articles related to... you guessed it: using games for educational purposes.

There is a web page, of course. 
You can click here for the Games for Educators Main Page
You can click here for a collection of the recent Games for Educators Email Newsletters

Feel free to spread the word around to anyone who might find this material interesting.
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August Game-a-thon: RESCHEDULED
Submitted by DC on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 13:02. ()

Important News!

Due to a scheduling conflict, we need to move the August Game-a-thon (originally scheduled for Saturday the 14th).

The new date is SUNDAY, August 22nd.

Yes, we know a Sunday is not ideal.  It is the least-worst of our options.  We fully expect to have fewer games in the 5pm-10pm time slot.  That's OK, as you should all be saving your energy up for Council of Five Nations, which is coming pretty soon (October 8-10).

We're looking for GMs, as usual.  If you'd like to run a game, please let us know about it using this online form:
http://www.swa-gaming.org/GameathonEventRegistration

Or, you can request a game to be run here:
http://www.swa-gaming.org/GameathonSuggestion

Please sign up by August 7th or sooner. That way we can get the word out in plenty of time for the Thon.

Thank you for your patience, flexibility, understanding and support.
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Call for GMs - Carnage the 13th
Submitted by DC on Sun, 07/25/2010 - 14:26. ()

Carnage is one of the best cons in the Northeast, November 5-7 this year.  They are well into their GM recruiting, but are still looking for events. 
They are especially looking for MINIATURES events.

Please click the following for more information:
GM Event Registration Page
General Info about Carnage
Carnage discussion Forums

Mike Griffin is also happy to answer any and all questions about GMing.  You can contact him directly at:
griffisgame /at/ gmail.com

GM event submissions are due on Sunday, August 1st, if you'd like to be sure to make it into the pre-reg booklet.
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Electronics Recycling at Best Buy
Submitted by DC on Sat, 07/24/2010 - 16:18. ()

This is a non-gaming, community service announcement.

I just learned that Best Buy has an excellent, customer-friendly and environment-friendly electronics recycling program.  We'd like to spread the good news so everyone can take advantage of it and help keep potentially recyclable stuff out of landfills.

You can get the full information on the Best Buy web site here (please click link):
Electronics Recycling at Best Buy

Here are some highlights:
  • Max 3 items per day per household
  • Many items taken for free
  • $10 charge for TVs and monitors (up to 32"), but you also get a $10 Best Buy gift card (sneaky marketing on their part...)
  • No hard drives.  Computers OK, but remove the hard drive first
  • No refrigerants
  • TVs/Monitors larger than 32", and large appliances, are covered by a different program (links to info on the web page).

Again, full info is on the Best Buy electronics recycling page.

We encourage the the whole gaming community to take advantage of this program, and other similar recycling programs.  Help get valuable materials back into the resource stream, and out of landfills.
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Game trading on the SWA Web Site
Submitted by DC on Wed, 07/21/2010 - 15:46. ()

There was a lot of interest in the Swap Meet at last weekend's Game-a-thon.  Six different people brought stuff to sell or trade, which might be a record for us.

A few of us got talking about how it's often more of a "win-win" to trade games than to sell them for cash.  So we want to try to facilitate more of that on the SWA web site.

We've set up a new section on the Forums just for game trading.  You can see it here:
http://www.swa-gaming.org/forum/78

Two guys have already posted lists of what they've got to trade, and what they're looking for in return.

We encourage you to post your own list and use the SWA forums as a community resource.
(You'll need to create an account on the web site if you haven't done so already.  This takes less than three minutes.)

We hope to see you at future SWA events.  Don't forget, Council of Five Nations XXXIII is coming pretty soon (October 8-10, 2010).
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Game-a-thon: Saturday, July 17, 2010
Submitted by DC on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 20:52. ()

We've got the July SWA Game-a-thon coming in a week, July 17th,

We have a nicely balanced schedule: RPGs in each slot, historical minis, and popular board games.

Don't forget that July is also a Swap Meet month.  One 2.5x2.5' card table is $2, two tables are $10, and three tables are $20 (we want to discourage 'dealers', and encourage everyday folks to clear out space on their gaming shelves... for more games!).

We encourage you to help generate interest by posting on the SWA forum a list of what you'll be bringing.  One guy has already done just that.  You can see it here:
http://www.swa-gaming.org/node/1421#comment-2003

We hope to see many of you next Saturday.  Bring some pocket money and get some gaming bargains!

Oh, and here's the full schedule of events...

Morning Session ( 11am - 4pm )
Evening Session ( 5pm - 10pm+ )

For more information, including full event descriptions, click here for the July Game-a-thon page.

You can also pre-register and guarantee yourself a spot in the game(s) of your choice here:  Game-a-thon Pre-registration.

Several event descriptions have links to BoardGameGeek. Check them out for game reviews, pictures, rules and player aids.

We hope to see you there.
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Announcing - Capital District Gaming Yahoo Group
Submitted by DC on Tue, 07/06/2010 - 14:30. ()

Hello Adventure Gamers,

A big part of the Schenectady Wargamers Association's purpose is to help facilitate adventure gaming throughout the Capital District.

We've been doing this for years with our web site and our email newsletter, SWANews.  We are now expanding our efforts to help Capital District gamers communicate by setting up an open Yahoo group, "Capital District Gaming"  ( http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/cdgaming/ ).

Over the course of the next week or so (we're limited to 50 per day), we will be inviting each of you to join the group via an email from Yahoo! Groups.

Capital District Gaming is an open* game discussion forum which includes individual gaming enthusiasts (like you) as well as members of various game groups in Southern Vermont, Western Massachusetts and Eastern New York. The "Capital District Gaming" list is aimed at discussing games of all types and genres with the emphasis on face-to-face gaming.  It also serves as a meeting place to find open game events where you can play and allows local gamers to communicate.

Resources provided via the list include:

+  Links to Game Stores within a two-hour radius of Albany, NY;
+  Links to Game Conventions throughout the Northeast;
+  and, an open Event Calendar listing Store and Group based gaming events within a two-hour radius of Albany, NY.

Capital District Gaming is an open resource that is intended to be used and updated by the whole gaming community.
Are we missing a store?  You can add a Link.
Are you running a game and need players?  You can send a message to the list, or you can add an event to the Calendar.

The three major game retailers in the extended Capital District are already using this new Yahoo group to publicize the events at their stores.  We invite you and your gaming group to do the same.


Capital District Gaming is not a replacement for the one-way SWA News announcement email list. Capital District Gaming is an open* forum for the community as a whole to communicate and facilitate gaming in the broader community. We are putting forth the effort to make this social space happen, but the activities publicized on Capital District Gaming are by no means limited to SWA sanctioned events.

Please watch your email box over the next few days.  Yahoo allows us to send only 50 invitations per day, so it will take several days to invite everyone.

[* While Capital District Gaming is an "open" forum, new members to the list have their posts held for moderation until we can confirm that they are not a spammer.  Messages from proven, trusted members will post without moderation.]
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