Why Ilkley

I was asked the other day why I wanted to establish a gaming club in Ilkley.

The question needs slight alteration, as to me the question is 'why now would I try and form such a group?'

The germ of the idea comes from my virtual trips around the interwebz to various forums over the past few years and seeing threads from people in Keighley, Skipton, Otley, Guisley, Shipley, Ilkey, Burley in Wharfedale, Silsden and other surrounding towns looking for people to play games with.

Then there was the spin put on the opening of Little Lane Children's Centre by local media, that it wasn't fair that the council was spending money on things for babies and young children, when there is nothing for teenagers to do. Which is not to say that the intention is for the gamers group to be some sort of youth club, but I do recall an interview with Lawrie Stewart, of GCN, on the Bad Dice podcast in which he said that young people with a hobby were less likely to get in trouble. I remember thinking, as I passed the teenage girls being interviewed outside the Children's Centre, "I bet they would enjoy a game of Carcassonne."

And I have been impressed by the number of community activities within the town since moving here. Gaming is a very sociable activity, and a gaming group would be an excellent addition to the social fabric of the town. Offering the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life, men and women, young and old, and spend a pleasant evening trying to save the earth from a Pandemic, scheming to get them eaten by a dragon, or hacking up their painstakingly researched and painted Vikings.

Though I guess, the reason is partly selfish, as I am in the process of building a WWI trench system to play Through the Mud and the Blood. And I would like somewhere local to play with it. It being rather heavier than I expected - though quite why I thought cutting a 6 by 4 sheet of hardboard into squares, screwing inch by inch batons to it, fitting sheets of foam core and covering it with plaster and sand, would be lighter than the component parts, I can't say.

Still...

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