Local groups

Gaming groups of the San Francisco Bay Area with online contacts

Not just role-playing games but board games, miniatures, wargames, LARPs and whatever. Last updated: 2008-12 (Thanks Chris!) We are happy to list any and all such local groups. Be specific, and email pierre@rahul.net.

Greater Bay Area

Bay Area Role Playing Society: RPGs so far, aims to cover also board games and electronic games. Mostly ads of people looking for more players and games.
Critical Miss: A discussion forum for Bay Area D&D players. Includes players and groups looking for more people, also for non-D&D games. ("Critical Hit" blew up ca. 200809 and survivors now hang out at Critical Miss.)
Bay Area Gamers: RPGs, board and war games, conventions. send text 'info bag' to bag-request@skylee.com
sfbay-stratgame: a mailing list for strategy gamers. Including board games like Settlers and El Grande, classics like Diplomacy, beer-n-pretzels, etc..
Silicon Valley Advanced Squad Leader Wargamers: Plays ASL, a squad level combat boardgame, meets monthly in Santa Clara at Game Kastle.
Bay Area Diplomacy Association: Plays Diplomacy face to face, with games all over the Bay Area monthly as well as 3-4 tournaments a year. See the Yahoo Group or contact BayAreaDip@yahoogroups.com or adam.silverman@gmail.com.
Meetup groups: Looks like Meetup may be a useful resource if you are looking for a specific game in a specific location. You might not find a game quickly but you might find other people interested and eventually start a game. For example you can start around San Francisco, looking for Games > Role Playing Games > Call Of Cthulhu, and broaden your search from there.

San Francisco

SF Games: Card games and board games. Settlers of Catan, Acquire, Scrabble, Taboo, etc... Tuesday card games. Friday all games.
The SF Bay Area Boardgames Group: A San Francisco Meetup group.
San Francisco Settlers of Catan: Very specialized Meetup group.
Always Comes Evening (site gone as of 2008-11): A live-action (LARP) roleplaying game. Every other Friday night about Justin Hermann Plaza.

Peninsula, West and South Bay

Stafnord RolePlayers (inactive): RPGs only, on the Peninsula, from San Jose to San Francisco included. Inactive currently except for still hosting this page.
ChaosMedia Games Board Gaming Night: Pacifica game retailer hosts Friday night strategy board and card games. Also occasional miniatures gaming on Saturday nights.
Mr. Games & C^o: Weekly, closed and discriminating RPG group periodically recruiting players: see Mr. Games & C^o for info
Peninsula Gaming Club: Board games around Stanford. contact Gamers-Request@CS.Stanford.edu
Boardgame Addicts of the Peninsula (BAP): Into boardgames ("Eurogames", Settlers of Cataan...), card games (Family Business, etc), wargames (Glory, ASL...)
Silicon Valley Boardgamers (SVB): Open sessions some evenings at the Mountain View Community Center, at 201 S. Rengstorff Ave. Mostly for strategy boardgames of all kinds, also wargames and card games. They also have a Yahoo Group.
SouthBayWargames: Warhammer 40K and other wargamers who want to meet regularly. Plays in Santa Clara at Game Kastle.
South Bay Boardgamers: Board gaming group that meets at Yahoo! cafeteria in Sunnyvale Mondays at 6:30pm. Games played tend to be light, "family" strategy games. You need to go through Yahoo Security, see details at the web site.
Santa Cruz by Night: A live-action (LARP) vampire roleplaying game in downtown Santa Cruz.
Santa Carla by Night: Was a long running LARP (Live Action Role-Playing Game), based on Vampire the Masquerade, in Santa Cruz. The game is no longer active but a nice web site remains for reference material.
Bay Area Games Day: Occasional (but over 50 so far) weekend convention-style game days at the Los Altos library for strategy boardgames of all kinds. They also have a Yahoo Group.
The Bay Area Dungeon's & Dragons Meetup Group: A Meetup group also. Not clear where they meet, prehaps Fremont, perhaps not.
Warhammer Fantasy Gaming Group (site gone as of 2008-07): A long running Warhammer fantasy campaign, with most of the players in the San Jose area.
Pandemonium San Jose RPG & LARP Club (site gone as of 2006-10): Silicon Valley-centered, plays RPGs, LARPs, among other things, currently RPG tuesday nights, and LARP once a month.

East Bay

Berkeley Flexibles: Highly flexible AD&D players for modified system with lots of dice. contact frojas@math.berkeley.edu
Berkeley Area Social Gamers: Board, card and word games in El Cerrito or Oakland.
Berkeley Board Gamers: Strategy board and card games ... in Berkeley. A Meetup group.
Contra Costa Game Club: Meets once a month on Friday night in the Concord / Walnut Creek area mostly for strategic board and card-type games. From 30 minutes to 4 hours to play. For example, Formula Dé, Settlers of Cataan, Chrononauts. Occasionally plays something longer as a special event. No role-playing games like D&D. Contact Kevin at kevinwm0@sbcglobal.net
Calaveras Gamers: RPGs and other games (Skyrealms of Jorune, Champions, AD&D, Albedo) with a leaning toward obscure games in Milpitas. Contact harold@svpal.org
East Bay Offbeat: RPGs (Skyrealms of Jorune, Over the Edge, Space: 1889, who knows what else...), Joe is back! (as of Feb 2000 anyway) contact mercury@norcov.com
East Bay Strategy Games Club: Strategic board games: Tigris & Euphrates, Medici, Settlers of Catan, Cosmic Encounter, etc. Meets at EndGame in Oakland.
EBGD · East Bay Games Day: Strategy board games. Used to have a separate web site, but now meets at EndGame in Oakland and uses their online calendar.
EndGame events: EndGame is a game store in Oakland with a game room and a nice, eclectic schedule of "event nights" and weekend themes.
Wasting the Dawn (site gone as of 2008-11): A live-action (LARP) vampire roleplaying game in Berkeley. Every other Friday night.