(no subject)

[prog]

I just placed a nifty Amazon order. Found a cheap copy of Sid Sackson's A Gamut of Games, that sainted designer's seminal work -- there are several used copies for under $20 still there, if you'd like to go look yourself. I'm pleased coz the last time I looked there was one bozo selling it for $300 or something. Anyway, lots of grist for Volity, I bet, with leftover inspiration besides.

While shopping I found that cross-medium design guru Greg Costikyan has his own Amazon list on game design books. So I purchased A Theory of Fun and Rules of Play, based on that.

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I want to start increasing the frequency of my community game play, perhaps hosting a monthy or even biweekly game night myself. I have been talking about this for a long time but every time I start drafting an email I get stuck in the same spot. I don't like talking about it because it's socially tricky, so I haven't really sought advice. I'll do it now though while I'm hopped up & brave from the day's First Coffee.

My problem boils down to the fact that not everyone I like likes each other. A common enough situation, and easily manageable through crafty invitation-juggling when planning small events. With things like game nights, though, one usually casts a wide net, inviting every local friend who digs games. But if I did that, and everyone showed up (which I wouldn't expect, but if they did), igry situations would follow.

At the same time, though, I don't want to seem exclusionary. The most efficient, cold and calculating solution would probably involve simply not inviting everyone who is involved in a no-likey pairing, because everyone left over are still cool friends and I'd have fun in their company. But I'm not one for cold maneuvers like that!

I welcome social advice here... would inviting everyone and letting the invitees sort it out for themselves be the best route? That certainly seems to be the favored stance with other email-based community events. Or is that falling into one of the old Geek Social Fallacies, and something I should seek to break out of? Meh...

Comments

[apkeimel.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, my response is "Suck it up or stay home". If you're there for the game, play the game (if you're there for the bride & groom, be there for the bride & groom). You can pick up your grudges again when you step out the door and take them back home with you.

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that too! Sadly the host often ends up in a hot spot when guests decide to be immature.

I was at a wedding recently where the couple had to perform fairly intricate maneuvers with the seating chart at the reception to keep previous-couples-now-broken-badly apart. Led to some weird combinations.

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

It all depends on the type of gaming thing you want to have. If you've decided to go large, find a big enough space and let people sort themselves out. If you want something smaller, rotate the invite list, and do your invitations personally so everyone knows this is an "intimate" gathering.

Plan C would be to talk someone else into hosting and dealing with that.

Plan D would involve all new friends, but that might be hard :)

invitation thing

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

So how about on one occasion, invite set X, and on another occasion invite set Y, and put half of the feuding people in X and the others in Y? Where both sets can include everyone who's not feuding, but only half of each feuding pair. That way no one gets left out all the time.

[novalis.livejournal.com]

Do RSVP-by-LJ-comment. Then, if people see someone they can't stand to be around on the list, they can not sign up.

If you see an incompatible pair both signed up, e-mail them separately to note that the other is coming, and you're glad to see that they've worked out their differences (or at least can be civil), and that civility is very important to you, and that incivility will decrease your desire to run game nights.