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How to plan & run a one week gaming trip with geeks
Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
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Hi,
In my first geeklist I want to share my experience on tours with geeks. Once a year, I am having a week off with some friends. Our common goal is: gaming! The trip is organized absolutely private, and without any commercial background. Everything is shared equally and in a fair way.
I did this kind of holiday with various people about 10-15 times over the last 25 years. We found out a scheme how to plan and conduct the holiday that works. This list is a step by step guidance.
I hope that you like it and it will inspire similar tips. If it does, send me a postcard (or geekmail)!
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
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After all, gaming is about people. Without a decent pool of people willing to do such a tour it will not work. In this type of holiday the participants should be gamers.
The minimum amount of people is around 5, but I also did a tour with 14. 6 or 7 is a particualary bad number because many games work best with 4 people. I'd say: the more the better. The advantage of more people is that you can avoid people better, if there are tensions. Also the choice of games is better if there are more options.
A local gaming group or a band of roleplayers is a good source of people.
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
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You have to agree on a date for the trip. My group favours some time out of season. Houses cost about 3 times less in November-February than during summer or other school vacation times.
One week is a good time frame. Longer trips with people that you don't know exactly may result in cabin fever.
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3.
Board Game: Fun House
[Average Rating:0.00 Unranked]
Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
We like to book a house for the trip. Danish summer houses work well for our group because Denmark is about 500km away, so travelling time is about 5 hours. In the good old days, paper catalogs were the way to find accomodations. Today, of course, the Internet is the source of our choice.
Booking a house that is more nearby did not work out. Last year our house was just 1 hour away, and it felt like a pigeonry. People went home in the middle of the game to take their kids somewhere and so on...
The main features of the house for us are:
- enough bedrooms/beds: Some people like the luxury of a single room. You might agree on an extra fee for that.
- a closed fireplace: for two simple reasons: First it provides confortable heat, although you have to care about it, second it is much cheaper. In Denmark most houses are heated electically, which will kill your budget.
- 2 or 3 large tables: for the board games.
- Sauna, Whirlpool for obvious reasons.
- close to the beach. The wild North Sea is an important part of the holiday for me.
In case you break something: also book an insurance for the trip!
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
When the house is booked and people have committed themselves to join the tour, the organizer collects 50 Euros from each person. We agree that this money is gone if the person drops of for whatever reason, except personal death. After all, we are private persons and do not have any safety other than the commitment of the travellers.
The travellers also agree on the fact that every cost is split in equally. If you drink a beer less than the others: bad luck. If you eat less than the others: bad luck. Exceptions to this rule may only be an extra fee for a single room.
Sometimes there are people who do not do the whole trip, but only a few days. In this case you have to split costs between the ride and the stay. We break down the cost of a day in this case. Every traveller has to pay one share for the ride and as many days as he stood at the house.
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
If you travel to another country somebody changes money for the group. Find out what you want to buy (eg. fresh buns each day, minced meat, salad) and estimate the cost. If you carry nealy everthing from home 20 Euros per person are a good estimation. On the trip back we spend the leftovers on fuel.
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
About 3-5 weeks before the trip we have a planning meeting. All kind of detail planning happens here. The agenda is as follows:
- who's driving?
- room sharing
- what you want to eat and drink
- which games to play
- other things which you need over the week such as soap, toilet paper, rags, dishwasher tabs etc.
I will explicate these points in more detail.
About at this time, the organizer collects another 50 Euros. The house normally is payed then.
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
The transportation of our choice is the car. We like to take everything with us, including food. This makes travelling by train/airplane next to impossible. You have to find out which person rides in which car, and who carries supplies and games.
For a 5 hour trip it seems to be the best to declare a meeting point and meeting time along the highway. It is in the responsibilty of the driver to be there on time. Normally a lunch is taken at the meeting place.
Another word on transportation cost:
We agree that all fuel expenditure is cumulated. On top, we pay a car wash to the owner. All other cost is neglegted. No matter if you travel in the supplies car with 2 people which burns fuel for 100 bucks or You ride in another car with 5 people that only uses fuel for 80 bucks, it does not matter: the cost of the ride will be the same for everybody.
Normally we have 2-3 persons per car, eg. 8 people - 3 cars.
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
Of course you have to agree about who shares rooms in advance. This might also happen before you book the house, especially if anybody needs extra space.
The detail about who will get which room is discussed when we are at the house. Certain constraints may guide you:
- does anybody like it warm: the room next to the fireplace or the sauna.
- does anybody like it cold: a room far away.
- snorers: far away from the others, especially from light sleepers.
- lovers: in the same room.
Funny things may happen here. We had quite a bit of room changing some times, especially if some people do not to the whole trip and rooms get free or occupied during our stay. We also did a snoring contest once. I only got the second place and did not sleep to much that nicht. Ouch!
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
Food. A good point. We organize it like this: there are always people who like to cook and some that you have to keep out of the kitchen. But we want to play it fairly. Our agreement is. that every day another person is responsible for the dinner. This way, everybody has to cook only once. People who are not able to cook can provide other services such as peeling potatoes.
We also plan one day for leftovers.
Main meals are
- a large breakfast (optionally with leftovers from the day before such as roasted potatoes)
- some sort of in betweener, like waffels, cake or junkets.
- a dinner.
Addidionally you have to think about crisps, chocolate etc.
For the dinner, normally easy meals work best. I could not imagine that even pizza can be a problem if one person dislikes fish, the next garlic, next spicy food and so on. Also regard allergics!
At the preparation meeting you should write down a list of all food. For the dinner, the cooks may also provide their list later. Everybody can place any wish, as long as he is really willing to eat what he suggested.
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
You may also like to drink something.
What you like to drink over the week is up to you, everybody can place his wishes. Keep in mind that you want to want to be able to play games too, so 1 bottle of whisky per person and day may be to much...
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
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One or two days before the trip, most of the food and the other stuff are bought. Therefore a purchasing commando is designated. Typically you select the drivers, because you need the cargo space of the cars now.
The shopping is done in advance for three reasons:
1. during the tour, we want to relax, not shop.
2. Denmark has a higher VAT. Everything, especially alcohol, is much more expensive there.
3. we know where to buy and we can read the labels on the cans.
I can imagine that at least two of these points do not work for you. In this case I propose buying at least the stuff that you need for the first day.
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
We found out that it is unnecessary to create a timetable. normally, a day works like this:
- someone stands up, and starts making breakfast
- from the noise and the smell of coffee the others wake up (walls in summer houses tend to be thin.)
- common breakfast
- a walk to the beach for those who want to.
- start playing board games
- when people get hungry: make light meal
- when people get hungry again: prepare dinner.
- play until everybody is sleepy.
It is a very straightforward plan, which works without a schedule.
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
Of course we take a couple of games with us. Some people agree in advance which really big (1+ days) games they want to play.
To make up a list of games of games we follow this algorithm. We do 3 rounds. Round robin everybody designates one game. This way we have 3 games per person, which is sufficient in our case. On the other hand, cargo space is limited. You also have to say who has to bring his copy of the game.
On top there will be games like Bohnanza etc., which are not counted.
The attached picture shows our selection for this year with 8 people. Of the 42 games, 27 were played.
We spend about 5-10 hours gaming each day, but there are some other activities to do, and things that might happen...
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
Besides gaming we visit the beach daily. This will remind us that we are far away from home.
We go to the beach directly after breakfast, because sun sets at about 16h-17h. After an hour or so of walking we start playing board games.
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
Can you imagine anything better that standing naked in the rain, opening a beer and not freezing? If you say no the sauna is for you!
Normally we run the sauna twice or three times in that week.
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
Sometimes people fall in love on the trip. This happened twice on our tours. One couple has married in the mean time.
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
Keep in mind that comflicts might happen. Please agree on that you live and let live. You will find out the demerits of others if you are together in a house. Keep that in mind and leave troublemakers at home.
An open conflict only happened once on a tour. One woman was so pissed that she left the other day. Most of the group haven't met her since.
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Ralf Wirth
Germany
Oldenburg
Niedersachsen
-
After the trip there will be of course the payday. Everybody is entitled to report his expenditures as soon as possible. The organizing person makes up an excel sheet about the cost and tells everybody who ows them money or whom they owe money.
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