# Age of Worms in Tuscaloosa, AL



## HeapThaumaturgist

I've recently moved to Tuscaloosa, and am looking to get a game together.  I'd like to put together a group for the Age of Worms campaign, which is appearing in Dungeon magazine.  

I've also started a website to serve as a resource to gamers in the state.  It can be found at http://bamagamers.uneasyaccess.com - Hopefully I'll be able to get some interviews with local game-industry insiders, gamers, store owners, and the like.  Along with some reviews of gaming stores and things like that.  Useful things.

Anybody know of anything going on in the Tuscaloosa area?

--fje


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## ledded

There's a small but thriving community down that way, and there are a few folks from the U of A who used to post on enworld that looked us up over here in Birmingham. Maybe if I run across them I'll point them your way. There once was a board for gamers in Alabama, but very few people ever posted on it at all, and I cant even remember what the addy was.

Let me know when ya'll get moved down, maybe we can get you two together with our Medallions group sometime.


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## HeapThaumaturgist

A chance to play in the Medallions game would be great, actually.  I've tried to keep up with the SH (as much as I can't keep up with my own ... cost of running a very very involved homebrew every week and completing my M.A.) and its one of the games that's inspired me about my own ...

And secretly inspires my players when they decide to put on the big hat and get behind the screen.  I'll be sad to move away:  one of the people in my current group is really a fantastic GM, but so far his games have been limited in participation to our little "regular group".  He ran an Urban Arcana game for a while that actually made me like that book.  

Heh heh.  I've finally put together a group of people that don't freak out when I say:  "So I've decided on some house rules for this game ..." or "F D&D, let's do fantasy adventure with Grim Tales."  Now I've got to move off!

--fje


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## atom crash

There's got to be something going on in T-town -- there usually is in any decent-sized college town, and my first plan of attack would be to check out posting in the student union -- but I don't know of anything specificially. 

I'm another B'ham gamer (about 45 minutes away from Tuscaloosa) who would love to have a few more players in my game. Over the past two years we've lost two players to jobs in other cities, and our group is down from 5 players + DM to 3 players + DM.


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## HeapThaumaturgist

I'm hoping I'll find a few things when we GET there.  

I certainly would love to game where and when I can, but with the kind of workload I've been used to in my M.A. program + Teaching, if I had to drive 45 minutes to game ... I probably wouldn't game.    Though, as it stands now, I'm going to be moving to T-Town mid-August and I still don't have any lines in on jobs.  I was hoping for something teaching at UA or SheltonState but no responses there, applying for a few more things on-campus ... but I might be very very free for a while.  Heh.

I've been spoiled here.  When we arrived, the local gaming club had fliers up in the halls on campus, and has a weekly meeting on-campus where people can show up to play RPGs, board games (with a huge huge selection of games provided by the "Staff Advisor" weekly), along with a "Game Of The Week" being featured.  It's been a wonderful asset and a great place to meet other gamers and play those fun board games you might not normally get a chance to play ... Illuminati, Zombies!, Settlers of Catan, etc etc.  Within a few weeks of getting here we had a game group up and running and its been steady since then.

I'll keep in touch, might end up doing most of my gaming in B'ham.  If I can't get a job in Ttown I might end up WORKING in B'ham as well.  I've got an M.A. and I really really don't want to go back to bagging groceries.  

Really really really.  I remember doing garbage at the grocery store ... one makes pickles to preserve things, to keep them from going bad.  Pickles, then, do not go "bad" ... they go "worse".  

I wake up screaming sometimes. 

--fje


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## Stormborn

You can try here: http://p206.ezboard.com/bbirminghamgamersmessageboard
although the site is pretty much dead, not that it was ever really active.

In Birmingham game stores are pretty thin, but the stand out is Legion, formerly Empire Comics, in Cahaba Heights near the Summit.  The Galleria has a game store called Nord's in which you can find a lot of d20 and white wolf stuff, as well as war games, card games, board games, etc.  Every Reaper mini too.  I would be glad to give you directions from T-town if you are interested in either.


There is a game store in Tuscaloosa that I have heard of but not actually visited.  If I can find the name I will post here.


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## Stormborn

Research Monkies come through again: 
The Crimson Castle
618 15th Street in Tuscaloosa near The University of Alabama campus. The owner is Frank Woods who owned the Texas Game Company. 

Again, don't know anything about it, other than it is reported to exist.


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## atom crash

It's worth noting that the guy who created and maintains the Birmingham gamers EZBoard meant for it to be a lot more active, but he was deployed to the Middle East shortly after he set up the site. He's returned to the States since but it's my understanding that he's currently back over there on active duty.

My point is that just because there's not much activity on the board, that doesn't mean there's not an active gaming community in the area.


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## Stormborn

atom crash said:
			
		

> It's worth noting that the guy who created and maintains the Birmingham gamers EZBoard meant for it to be a lot more active, but he was deployed to the Middle East shortly after he set up the site. He's returned to the States since but it's my understanding that he's currently back over there on active duty.
> 
> My point is that just because there's not much activity on the board, that doesn't mean there's not an active gaming community in the area.





Right.  Good thing to point out.  I still figured it might be a decent resource for Heap.


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## ledded

See, Heap, things are picking up now.  Before you know it you will be inundated with Tuscaloosa folks just knockin' your door down to game... 



			
				HeapThaumaturgist said:
			
		

> <snip>I'll keep in touch, might end up doing most of my gaming in B'ham. If I can't get a job in Ttown I might end up WORKING in B'ham as well. I've got an M.A. and I really really don't want to go back to bagging groceries.




What kind of work are you looking for?  Primarily teaching?  I ask because I may be able to point you somewhere or the other, depending on what you're looking for.  Shoot me a PM if you want, I may know someone who can hook you up.



> Really really really. I remember doing garbage at the grocery store ... one makes pickles to preserve things, to keep them from going bad. Pickles, then, do not go "bad" ... they go "worse".
> 
> I wake up screaming sometimes.




<shudder>  Been there, man.  No one knows better than I just how fast mayonnaise will separate into it's constituent parts on a hot Alabama summer day, and just how... piquant... that aroma gets.

Man, seeing all these Alabama folks around makes me want to revive our group's idea for hosting "BamaCon 2005:  Welcome to the 'Ham".  We bounced around the idea of inviting a bunch of folks in, hosting several games, and doing some bar-b-que and whatnot.

Stormborn is right, Legion is pretty much the epicenter of gaming store-ness in the area, and unlike Nords has a fairly large gaming table area.  It actually does a pretty good business and is almost always reasonably crowded (lord help you if you go in on a Saturday evening), and the guy who runs it is a pretty nice guy (he always gives my son free comics and stuff when I bring him in with me).  It's funny, there are decent amount of really good comics shops in town but only a couple gaming stores have survived.  There was a good gaming store in Tuscaloosa when I went to school there, well, heh, a _while_ back , but I couldnt vouch for it even still being there.

Speaking of research monkies:

There was a guy who I once used to talk to named ArcOfCorinth who posted on enworld and ran some fun-sounding survival horror games, and he had a (now antique and near-useless to you) thread about gaming in Tuscaloosa:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?t=61458

From re-reading that thread, it appears that there may be a decent amount of gaming going on in Tuscaloosa, but it may be going on quietly for the most part.  Which, Heap, since you are already familiar with Alabama, I wont remind you that in some of the more rural places playing D&D is still associated with devil worship, ritualistic murder, sexual perversion, mind control, communism, hippies, democrats, unsweetened tea and other indicators of the moral backslide of western civilization .


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## Stormborn

ledded said:
			
		

> Man, seeing all these Alabama folks around makes me want to revive our group's idea for hosting "BamaCon 2005:  Welcome to the 'Ham".  We bounced around the idea of inviting a bunch of folks in, hosting several games, and doing some bar-b-que and whatnot.




ledded, if you guys get serious about this let me know and I may be willing to lend a hand.


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## atom crash

Indeed. That would be cool.

My extended gaming group -- a group of about 12 to 16 friends across Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee -- have 3 big get-togethers -- we call 'em home cons -- each year where we basically just hang out and game. We just recently had one in Birmingham.


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## HeapThaumaturgist

Guess I'll have to do some investigation when I get there.  Thanks to everybody that's been keeping up with this thread and feeding me information.

It looks like we'll be moving down the end of the first week in August, so rather soon now, really.  Thus things have been a little mad on this end.  (One of my comittee members forgot when I wanted to do my exam, and left town, and now I can't get my degree until December.  So I'm going to be sitting in T-Town for 4 months without an MA.  GRRRRRRR)  

It'll be interesting to meet some ENworlders, so I'm definately in support of some sort of 'Con or get-together in the area.  Especially since we'll be missing GenCon this year, what with moving and whatnot.

--fje


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## Stormborn

HeapThaumaturgist said:
			
		

> It looks like we'll be moving down the end of the first week in August, so rather soon now, really.
> --fje




Oh, Heap, I am soooo sorry.  Can't tell you how  miserable it is here now.   August is a terrible time to be unloading  for a move. Well, best of luck, maybe we can muster up a freak low humidity week for you.

EDIT:  Let me add for anyone thinking about starting up a local 'con: you must get the most recent issue of Dork Tower.  Funny and Scary all at the same time.


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## HeapThaumaturgist

Oh, you can tell me.  I know very well.    I've lived in 'Bama for 13 of the last 15 years.    The weather down there is a miserable cuss about eight months of the year, and August is the Grand High Poobah of Miserable Cusses.

It's no picknick up here right now either.  I'm thinking of it as endurance-training for what's to come.  Dennis swirled a great deal of humidity into the area and it's been 90s and HUMID for the last few days.

--fje


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## ledded

Oh, I dunno, I've always felt that September was the biggest copper-plated b*tch of them all.

See, it's like August, but usually a little more humid, except that you see on the news where it's starting to get cool and all Fall-funsy everywhere else, and by this time you're seriously looking at brochures from "brisk Autumn in Alaska" and thinking, "yeah, I could do that".  If you're lucky, you get that first spurt of fall, where the temp unexpectedly drops down into the 60's or 70's for a week before you get blasted in the face by 2 more weeks of 95+ summer.

Any folks here not from LA (that's Lower Alabama, where I believe Heap did his time) or other nice southern spots like Houston, New Orleans, etc, listen up:  sometimes it gets so humid here in the summer that the humidity will be in the upper 90 percentile, close to 100%, yet it's still hot as heck and sunny.  In most places, humidity that high means that it's actually raining, and here it would be also, except that it's so hot the rain evaporates before it gets anywhere *near* the ground and just settles in like a nice, toasty sauna .

But hey, we've got lots of lakes and spots to hang out and get cool on the weekend, plus we can play sports outside all year 'round.  Plus, Autumn is the best here, all 9 days of it .


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## Old Drew Id

I went to school in Tuscaloosa from 92 to 95, and back then, there was an active student gaming group of about 10-20 people that met every other week to play 2e, but that was student-only. (And that was only advertised in occasional notices in the student paper. )Other than that, there were no publicized gaming groups that I was aware of. 

The "campaign" we were in was pretty much 90% random wilderness encounters with no discernible plot and no clear destination. Kind of like Wagon Train with swords.  (I never DM'ed back in those days). But, there were still some shining gaming moments that I recall fondly, and it taught me a lot about what I wanted out of a game and showed me what I wanted to do when I decided to DM years later.


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## HeapThaumaturgist

My hope is that I'll be able to find as good a collection of people to spend time with as I've found here.

I've been into RPGs for the last fifteen years, but the last two have been the only time that I've been able to game on anything resembling a regular basis.  

--fje


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## ShaggySpellsword

If you are willing to play with college students, last I heard, there was a number of gamers at the Mallet Assembly on campus.  Its the freaky student-governed honors dorm behind the president's mansion.


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## HeapThaumaturgist

Freaky honor's dorm?

Sounds like where I spent most of my undergraduate career.  And I didn't even LIVE there. 

I've been playing with college kids for the last two years ... 'course I was sort of still a student, myself, but still.

I'm hoping to find a meeting-ground where I can get to know people and build a group.  My wife will be a graduate student there and we're looking into helping put together some sort of student group that would be able to get together in a campus building for playing board games, card games, and the like.

--fje


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## ledded

Stormborn said:
			
		

> ledded, if you guys get serious about this let me know and I may be willing to lend a hand.




Sure, no prob.  Shoot man, I've never noticed before that you were posting from the 'Ham.  Silly me.


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## atom crash

My group and I wouldn't mind taking part in any get-together that might take place. My gf and I would also be willing to help out.


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## HeapThaumaturgist

I would certainly love to help out and attend a gathering in that area of the state.

Without a job I currently have a surplus of time, but a distinct lack of financial liberty.    So I can give some time.

--fje


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## HeapThaumaturgist

I've set up a messageboard website for Alabama Gamers.  

I'm planning on printing out some flyers to go up in some campus buildings directing interested parties there, put some up in the local game store if they have a board, etc.  Also I thought it might be a nice place to talk about a BamaCon type get-together.  All of that could be done on ENworld, but I've sort of made the forum a sandbox that people can hop into and post quickly without doing the Email Registration Dance.  I would have put up a wiki, but my webhost's Fantastico is acting funktastico.  There are also forums for a few of the major cities like the 'Ham and Huntsville and Auburn.

The URL is:  http://bamagamers.uneasyaccess.com

It currently just redirects to the forums, but the bamagamers subdomain is open in case I want/need to create more of a web presence.

So:  BAMA GAMERS

--fje


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## Stormborn

Heap, I have posted in the "Hi My Name Is..."  and am going to try to mention the sight to some other gamers.  Maybe we can build support for it.  If Ledded and Co. would let you cross post the Medallions Story Hour - as a sample of gaming both set and played in B'ham that would be cool.  Maybe some shop reviews or interviews for more local content.  You know, Bobby Jackson who does minis for Reaper lives in Helena - that kind of thing might attract attention to the site.


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## HeapThaumaturgist

Excellent.  Thank you very much for the traffic and the ideas.  I've been planning on doing some website building for a while now.  I'll eventually remove the redirect from bamagamers.uneasyaccess.com and make it a website with reviews, interviews, maybe some resources for setting games in Bama, etc.  Nothing dense, but mostly a content management portal.

Hopefully some content will help to grow the boards into something that'll be a resource for gamers all over the state.  Ring a bell for Research_Monkey's current and future publications, other writers and designers in the state, etc.

But right now ... baby steps.    Took me 20 minutes to wrangle the board into position and put the proper redirects in place.  Maybe I'll use my meager photoshop skills to try and make it look a little custom.  Never was much of a visual designer though, better on the theory end of it.

--fje


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## ledded

Man, this is great stuff fellas. Thanks for setting that site up, Heap, I posted in one of the forums with a link to the Medallion story hour just to give folks an idea of a typical birmingham game.

Edit:  Holy CRAP!  Did I read that right?  Bobby Jackson lives in Helena?  I live off of Valleydale road very near there.  I had no idea such miniature sculpting goodness was going on that close to me.  

Hmmm... maybe I can sneak around his place and grab some of the new greens and... wait, did I say that out loud?  Ahehheh.  Never mind


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## atom crash

I too posted over there. I'll try to spread the word among my gaming group about it next week (there's no game this week because the other DM is at Gen Con) and on our messageboard.

You've gotten the site up and running. That's the easy part. Good luck with keeping it going.  

You might want to post something about your site on Meetup.com as well:

Birmingham D&D Meetup group

Huntsville D&D Meetup group

Columbus, GA D&D Meetup group (Columbus is right on the state line and about 20 minutes from Auburn; Phenix City is its sister city on the AL side of the AL-GA state line)

Tuscaloosa D&D Meetup group

Decatur D&D Meetup group (Decatur is near Huntsville)

I don't know how active any of those groups are, but there's the links anyway.


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## Stormborn

ledded said:
			
		

> Man, this is great stuff fellas. Thanks for setting that site up, Heap, I posted in one of the forums with a link to the Medallion story hour just to give folks an idea of a typical birmingham game.
> 
> Edit:  Holy CRAP!  Did I read that right?  Bobby Jackson lives in Helena?  I live off of Valleydale road very near there.  I had no idea such miniature sculpting goodness was going on that close to me.
> 
> Hmmm... maybe I can sneak around his place and grab some of the new greens and... wait, did I say that out loud?  Ahehheh.  Never mind




Yeah, he does.  My wife has actually worked with him on something else, nongame related.  I seem to recall that an issue of Casket Works (the reaper catalog) also mentioned it in one of those wierd little comments onthe margins.


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## HeapThaumaturgist

ledded said:
			
		

> Edit:  Holy CRAP!  Did I read that right?  Bobby Jackson lives in Helena?  I live off of Valleydale road very near there.  I had no idea such miniature sculpting goodness was going on that close to me.




*snif*  This is exactly what Bama Gamers was designed to do ... I'm overwhelmed with emotion.

  Hopefully by organizing information for and about gaming in Alabama we can get it out to people.  I remember when I was an undergrad at Auburn, there just didn't seem to be much in the way of support or organization and most gaming was just happy (or not so happy) happenstance to stumble across a few people who played.

LEDDED:  When I get the site itself going do you think your group would mind if I placed the story-hour aside as content in the site proper?  Drupal has a nice "book" feature which I think would be very interesting for story-hours.  Sort of a more full-featured cross-posting/population.

--fje


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## ledded

HeapThaumaturgist said:
			
		

> LEDDED: When I get the site itself going do you think your group would mind if I placed the story-hour aside as content in the site proper? Drupal has a nice "book" feature which I think would be very interesting for story-hours. Sort of a more full-featured cross-posting/population.
> 
> --fje




I'll have to ask OldDrewId because it's pretty much his baby, though he will probably be interested.  When is it that you are hitting T-town Heap (or have you already)?


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## HeapThaumaturgist

We've "moved" but then immediately went to my parents' house in L.A. (lower alabama) for a week to relax and let mom stuff me with pumpkin pie and apple pie and pumpkin bread and ... well, y'know, stuff I prolly aught not be eating anyway.

We'll be permanently entrenched in T-Town as of this coming Monday (21st).  My wife begins classes the 22nd and I begin looking for a job.  

((I'm currently burying my nervousness about having no source of income in my press to develop this website.  Ahh, transferrence, we love thee.))

--fje


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## Neowolf

ShaggySpellsword said:
			
		

> If you are willing to play with college students, last I heard, there was a number of gamers at the Mallet Assembly on campus.  Its the freaky student-governed honors dorm behind the president's mansion.





I had the pleasure of living at the Mallet Assembly for the last three years, and I can tell you there's no better place to find gamers (that I know of) on campus.  They're all cool, laid back guys for the most part, and geeky as all hell.  I know of a Star Wars game running there as well as a few D&D games.  If anyone wants more info you can contact me on AIM at the screen name DT Neowolf


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## HeapThaumaturgist

Neowolf - I've added you to my aim list ... at least I think so, there was nobody home when I added the name.

For anybody else who reads this and is interested in contacting ME via AIM, my handle is fjeTheNarrator.  I'm on pretty much whenever I'm online, which is pretty often.  

I'll also reiterate the BamaGamers boards ... currently a few ENWorlders are members, posting now and then, discussing a Birmingham-based Con.  Hopefully, in a day or so, I'll be putting up a flyer at the Crimson Castle that might draw a few more members.

http://bamagamers.uneasyaccess.com

--fje


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## Nemigar

Greetings... new enworld member, just read through this thread, had some offerings.

I run an AD&D game in Birmingham about 1/month, I currently have about half a dozen to ten show up each time but wouldn't mind a few more bodies.  PM me if interested.

As for a Bham Con, I'd be happy to toss my hat into the ring to help, I've been con chair for a couple of 100-people cons and one that was about 200 people; nothing huge, but probably on par for a BhamCon's expectations.  Please just don't run it at a horrible location like Transdimensicon was at a few years ago... I still have bad memories of that con, including people who turned their con shirts inside out by day 2 and scrawled 'this con sucks' on the back, and a dealer's room that did not prohibit smoking.


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## JollyDoc

Hey guys!   I didn't realize we had such an active gamer/EN World population in the B'ham/Tuscaloosa area.  

Our group has an ongoing thread over in the Story Hour.  Check out JollyDoc's Shackled City!


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## HeapThaumaturgist

Mostly the B'ham area.   

Been trying pretty desperately to find some folks out here in T-Town.  Guess I'll have to move to Birmingham, get in on the gaming goodness.

Still holding out hope, though.  Got this whole Age of Worms thing sitting here just asking to be played.

The Friday Night board-gaming at the Crimson Castle is fun, though.

I'd like to ask a favor of anybody that happens to read this post, though:  Stop by http://bamagamers.uneasyaccess.com and look around.  Vote on the poll(s), create an account, follow the links.

It's hard to totally debug the site from the machine I'm working on it with, I'm not 100% sure how it shows up for others (I.E. for the last two days I wondered why no votes were made in the current poll, until I realized -I- was the only user able to vote.  >.<)

If you find any problems or want to make any suggestions, try reaching me via my AIM handle:  fjeTheNarrator or at my "Admin Hat" email:  webmaster@uneasyaccess.com

Thanks.

--fje


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## JollyDoc

Our group is currently running through Age of Worms.  We just started Hall of Harsh Reflections last week.  We're really enjoying it so far...even more so than Shackled City.

I'll take a look at your site.  Sounds interesting.


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