Local gaming groups of the San Francisco Bay Area
Role-playing games, board games, miniatures, wargames, LARPs,
card games, and whatever.
We are happy to list any and all such local groups. Be specific,
and email pierre@panix.com.
Not all these groups are open to all. Groups may be closed at this
time, may be private with very selective admission, may have age limits,
whatever they want. The page is here to help players and groups find
each other. Last updated: 2016-04 (Thanks Lauren!)
Greater Bay Area
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 and the
Meetup 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.
Meetup also has precomputed links like
RPG Meetups near Stanford, California.
- Bay Area DnD / Critical Miss (site dead as of 2016-04)
- 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 Role Playing Society (site gone as of 2016-04)
- RPGs so far, aims to cover also board games and electronic games.
Mostly ads of people looking for more players and games.
- sfbay-stratgame (Yahoo group gone as of 2012-10)
- a mailing list for strategy gamers. Including board games like
Settlers and El Grande, classics like Diplomacy, beer-n-pretzels, etc..
- Bay Area Gamers (email gone as of 2010-05)
- RPGs, board and war games, conventions.
San Francisco
- SF Games
- Card games and board games, simple to very involved. Settlers of Catan, Acquire,
Scrabble, Taboo,... Friday (20-40 people) and Sunday (5-15 people)
at cafes. Veterans and new players welcome. See
also the Meetup group
- San Francisco Settlers of Catan (meetup gone as of 2016-04)
- Very specialized Meetup group.
- The SF Bay Area Boardgames Group (meetup gone as of 2016-04)
- A San Francisco Meetup group.
Peninsula, West and South Bay
- Stanford Gaming Society
- Looks like on and off depending on interest: RPG, miniature, LARP, board
games, etc.
- Mr. Games & Co
- Weekly, closed and discriminating RPG group periodically recruiting players:
see Mr. Games
& Co for info
- 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.
- 40k Lords of War
- A South Bay club that plays Warhammer 40k usually on Tuesdays and Sundays
in San Jose or Santa Clara.
- 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.
- Bay Area Masquerade (BAM)
- A live-action (LARP) vampire roleplaying game in downtown Mountain View. The
game is based on the old World of Darkness LARP "Vampire: The Masquerade" with a
modified Minds Eye Theater system.
- Gaslight
- Weekend-long LARP at a camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The characters
are werewolves, ghosts, vampires, wizards, normal humans, etc, in Victorian
England. Players join a community-driven game for all or part of a 3-4 day
event. The primary focus is roleplay - with a rule system intended to
stay out of the way - but boffer combat and packets are used when required.
This is based on old World of Darkness, and the Shadow Accord game in Seattle.
Operates about 6 games a year. Fee: $55 observed in 2015 for a 4-day event.
- Realms of Conflict (RoC)
- A dark fantasy LARP often as over-nighters in the Santa Cruz Mountains
but sometimes other locations such as a Redwood City park. Fee starts around
$20 for a day game. 8 sessions planned in 2016.
- Alliance LARP: San Francisco
- (Yes, there really is something of a web site at that URL). Seems to be
a fantasy game with a broad range of possible game play (reenactment combat,
role-playing, casual observer, NPC, elaborate costuming, etc). Around 9 sessions
planned in 2016 at camps in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Fees seem to be as of 2016,
per game $45-100 plus meals and options for player characters; or $80 season pass.
- 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.
- Game Kastle events
- Game Kastle has game stores with play areas and event calendars at their
locations in
Santa Clara and in
Fremont.
- Isle of Gamers
- Tabletop game shop in Santa Clara. Lots of board and card games in stock
and play tables for 70 gamers. Large calendar of scheduled games and open gaming.
- Stafnord RolePlayers (inactive)
- RPGs only, on the Peninsula, from San Jose to San Francisco included.
Inactive currently except for still hosting this page.
- Illusive Comics and Games (no more play space as of 2016-04)
- A games and comics store with play space and a scheduled events in
Santa Clara.
- The Bay Area Dungeon's & Dragons Meetup Group (meetup gone as of 2016-04)
- A Meetup group also. Not clear where they meet, perhaps Fremont, perhaps not.
- ChaosMedia Games Board Gaming Night (site gone as of 2016-04)
- Store/games closed for now. Pacifica game retailer hosts Friday night
strategy board and card games. Also occasional miniatures gaming on Saturday nights.
- Santa Carla by Night ((site gone as of 2012-10)
- A long running LARP (Live Action Role-Playing Game), based on
Vampire the Masquerade, in Santa Cruz.
- Santa
Cruz by Night (site gone as of 2010-04)
- A live-action (LARP) vampire roleplaying game in downtown Santa Cruz.
East Bay
- 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.
- Super
Action Oakland D&D Group
- (Does this still exist? I don't do Facebook). We are are well built, sexy bunch
of tattooed and pierced Rock and/or Roll types who, weekly, travel to The Forgotten
Realms and accomplish all kinds of exciting things. The current adventuring party
(Team Awesome-Sauce) plays 4th eddition, but we are not limited to this system.
Occasionaly accept/look for new members. Interested in organizing new groups.
- EndGame events
- EndGame is a game store in Oakland with a game room and
a nice, eclectic schedule of "event nights" and weekend themes.
- Black Diamond Games events
- Concord game store with busy demo, for-pay and game night calendar. In
the calendar, "Game center" means the store.
- The Misanthropic Gamer (seems inactive as of 2016-04)
- Intelligent, creative, boardgames, RPG's, cards. 6 hours Saturday
evenings in El Sobrante. Quirks, flavor, anything, democratic, easygoing,
casual, non-hardcore, nude, insects, snacks, latex, dice, come, play,
with, us, NOW.
- East Bay Strategy Games Club (site gone as of 2012-10)
- Strategic board games: Tigris & Euphrates, Medici, Settlers of Catan,
Cosmic Encounter, etc. Meets at EndGame in Oakland.
- Berkeley Area Social Gamers (site gone as of 2012-10)
- Board, card and word games in Berkeley, Albany and Oakland.
- Contra Costa Game Club (emails unanswered 2011-04)
- 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 (email gone as of 2011-04)
- 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 (email gone as of 2011-04)
- 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
- Berkeley Flexibles (email gone as of 2010-05)
- Highly flexible AD&D players for modified system with lots of dice.
- Berkeley Board Gamers (site gone as of 2010-04)
- Strategy board and card games ... in Berkeley. A Meetup group.