How to find players

NEW: http://www.tabletoptournaments.net/ - seems populated database, checking now.

Finding players is a huge issue for some of us.

Well-supported, popular games and you don't care who you play or what terrain or format or how things are done or the WAAC meta? Congratulations, you're all set. But for Man O' War, BFG, Aeronautica Imperialis, Epic 40K, Necromunda, Mordheim, Dark Future and whatnot you're a bit S.O.L.

I've been working on solutions. Best I can find is these:

• Google gaming stores. Use the Games Workshop store locator. Google "" and all the games you're interested in. Keep in mind that people who play a well-spread game like Epic 40K might be open to BFG or AI. 40K players might be interested in Necromunda or its fan-made variants that they don't have to buy stuff for. Fantasy players will be interested in Mordheim etc.

• http://nearbygamers.com/ - Probably the biggest of the "let's make a database for gamers" websites.

• http://www.accessdenied.net/ - Nicely set up, but seems to have a lot VERY OLD information.

• http://www.meetup.com/ - Good for lots of popular things, not so good for trying to find people to play old board games/wargames with. If you want something not just for wargaming, this is it.

• http://needgamers.com/ - New startup that looks great. But not so great once you realize the guy who's operating it is just doubling up on the work already done by people on the three above websites.

• http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?372312-A-List-of-Player-Finders - Where I found most of this, some dead links, and the RPG one is a non-functional website (process died halfway through registration).

• boardgamegeek.com is a great website, but sadly not much in the way of finding players. They really should have put a map up and let people network.

I recently purchased an awesome vintage 1980s GW game called "Dark Future" - but finding people to play with is going to be a...

San Diego specific stuff I've found (might be in DC soon enough):

• http://www.gameempire.com/forum/

• http://rpg-sandiego.org/

"Deathsquads" - Fan-based WH40K skirmish game.

Horrible name with some nasty real-world connotations, but great idea.

http://www.deathsquadsgame.com/

http://www.deathsquadsgame.com/

Basically Necromunda with some updated rules, less gangs, more pre-existing 40K miniatures and races - IG, Renegade IG, Orks, Kroots, Eldar, Chaos whatever, Spess Mehrines. Incidentally, it appears that others have tried to do the same thing: http://iten-game.org/ I have never played either, nor have I ever played an actual game of 40K, or actually played any GW tabletop games whatsoever, though back in 1989(?) I had a copy of some 40K rulebook, Blood Bowl box, Titanicus box and actually painted some Terminators. Either case ITEN seems a bit more "throw out the rules and let's rewrite everything" than DS, so I'm digging DS a bit more. There's also Kill Team and some other 40K skirmish variants, with their own issues (KT supposedly being madly unbalanced).

Now for something completely different:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1827/chainsaw-warrior

In other news the guy I just bought Dark Future and Chainsaw Warrior from turns out to be a 15-year employee of Games Workshop. Swell guy named Max Bottrill:

Max Bottrill
This is Max clutching his first ever Citadel Miniatures Catalogue. It's proper old and was made before we filled the catalogue with full-colour photographs - back then all of the miniatures were represented by illustrations.

Why is he swell? Because he listed Dark Future and Chainsaw Warrior on http://boardgamegeek.com/ without including any shipping costs to the US, so I emailed him asking if he'd consider checking how much it'd be. He took the games to the post office and got a quote for £48. I sprung on the deal seeing as how Dark Future is up on Ebay for $350 and he was selling it for much much less, with added models to boot. Send him the money and he goes to the post office to ship. And they now tell him they made a mistake and it's £70 to ship. He decides to just eat the extra cost. Good guy. I decide to split the added cost and send him an extra £11. So yes, there are good people working at GW, and they're not all heartless, non-gaming greedy bastards.

EDIT: Also, hello IHOP - Int'l House of Paincakes Blog Network.

Int'l House of Paincakes Blog Network

...hmmm, Chainsaw Warrior models, old school, for 40K or better yet Necromunda/DS. The DS name needs to change, I'm forum-warrioring about getting it done, see http://www.deathsquadsgame.com/t2281-the-meaning-of-the-term-death-squad