I've been looking at moving to Austin and love board games. Unfortunately with everything canceled I can't currently use Meetup to check out the scene. Would you mind talking a little bit about what the board game scene is normally like in the area?
Sure thing! I'm caveating this with the fact that I've only been in the area for 2 years now. After I found some good groups, I haven't actively looked as often.
Meetups
- Austin is pretty heavily split between North/South of Town Lake (Lady Bird Lake). A lot of people don't "cross the line".
- North Austin has a lot more gaming groups than the South Austin region, at an estimated ratio of 3:1.
- A majority of groups meet at local game stores, but there are a few that meet at restaurants and breweries (which I prefer the vibe of).
- Most groups meet in the evenings on weekdays. I haven't seen many weekend groups, unfortunately.
- Most groups play a wide variety of modern games, so you'll always be learning new games. There are very few groups if you like the "classics" (Monopoly, Life, Sorry, Catan, etc.)
- Most groups are decently sized, with anywhere from 10-30 folks showing up on a weekly basis.
Locations
- Austin has a small, but high-quality selection of Board Game cafes. Favorites are Vigilante and Emerald Tavern.
- Austin has a lot of local game stores. One of the more heavily trafficked ones is Dragon's Lair.
Conventions
- Austin has a yearly board game convention with a great group of regulars (https://www.boardgamebash.com/)
- You're only 3 hours away from the Dallas/Fort Worth area which holds BGG.con in both the Spring and Fall (https://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/BGGCON). Biggest board game convention in the US next to GenCon.
- You also have PAX South in January held in San Antonio, only 1.5 hours away.
Other Notes
- There's a really welcoming community of 20-30 folks that meets once per month to help board game designers get feedback and playtest their games. One of my favorite recent finds.
- There used to be a REALLY popular weekly meetup that was specifically for heavy games (2+ hours) that pulled in a crowd of 30-40 folks, but it got dissolved and never really had a replacement. I'm not sure what happened, but there is more of a demand for that here.
- It's an unfortunate truth that the board game hobby can sometimes cater to some...interesting characters. From my experience, there's MUCH LESS of that in Austin and everyone has been super friendly and welcoming.
I hope that helps! If you're interested in more info, feel free to reach out to me. Email is just my username@gmail.com.
Awesome thank you! I'm up near the twin cities; the saint paul board game meetup goes to a lot of breweries and I prefer that vibe too. I like the game aspect but I think the social part is important too. I'm hoping to move this year, but a lot of that depends on how long the pandemic lasts unfortunately. I'm happy to hear there's some good groups. I don't mind traveling a little bit to meet up, but I'll check out the north side a bit more if it's nerdier.
