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View Full Version : [1ed-3ed] How far are you willing to travel for a good game/group?



newbDM
2009-04-15, 11:39 PM
First let me say thank you for the help guys/gals! A few months back I made a thread asking for helping finding a new group, and I was surprised that I got so many replies giving advice, help, and ideas. Much appreciated! :smallsmile:


So, I've recently begun playing with two new groups. 3.x becoming rarer and rarer, it is becoming ever more difficult to find a campaign in my preferred edition, so finding a fun and enjoyable group is a blessing.

I need to drive about 1:20min back and forth for each, but while gas isn't so bad I find it is worth the travel. Getting home around 1am-2am isn't great, but again worth it.

So how far are you willing to go for a good group, or just for one that plays your preferred older edition?

Ponce
2009-04-16, 01:41 AM
I wouldn't be keen on having to leave the city I live in. Given that most games occur after work/school for most people, having to travel great distances and coming home late only to have to get up in the morning again is a drag. Fortunately, there are multiple Universities and colleges where I live, and the city itself has a population of over half a million. Plenty of opportunity.

BobVosh
2009-04-16, 01:48 AM
I typically travel about 1 minute to downstairs, as we usually play in my townhouse.

However, for a good game I would go about an hour, and have.

Pink
2009-04-16, 01:50 AM
I don't think I could go farther than a half hour, maybe hour drive outside of the town I live in, simply cause I really don't like driving that much >.< I'm not the best driver. But if that was the choice I faced, for a good group and a good time, I'd do it. Less than good group, probably wouldn't leave town.

Thurbane
2009-04-16, 01:52 AM
The farthest I've travelled was about 45 minute drive to a game. If the game was really good, I'd be willing to travel about 90 minutes, I suppose...

For my regular Monday night game, we have 2 weeks at my place, a 2 weeks at one of the other guy's houses. When I have to travel there, it's a bit under half an hour...

Narmoth
2009-04-16, 02:45 AM
35 minutes each way

Dixieboy
2009-04-16, 04:24 AM
2 hours each way but then it'd have to like... godly.

Realistically, 1 hour.

Kantur
2009-04-16, 05:32 AM
Currently it takes me a fair whack of time to get to my weekly games, though a large part of that is that it's on a Sunday morning and I don't have a car so I'm using public transport.

So because I have to get the first train, I typically leave the flat at 8am, arrive at the train station at ten to nine, get off the train at ten to ten and thankfully get a lift for the last part of the journey arriving at five past. So about 2 hours. If the buses ran early enough on a Sunday admittedly it would be closer to an hour and a half overall, or an hour if I had a car and liscence.

Kaiyanwang
2009-04-16, 06:09 AM
20-30 minutes or 0, if we play in my house.

A lot of people still play 3.x, anyway.

Baalthazaq
2009-04-16, 06:37 AM
Living in Dubai means it is a struggle to find a good group.

Some members of the group I play with live in Abu Dhabi, which is ok for us because those members come to Dubai on the weekends anyway.

If I drive from my home (Int City) to Abu Dhabi, that's a 2 and a half hour drive, then two and a half back. We usually end up playing 5 hours.

I should prolly mention, that's about 160Km one way, so about 100 miles. (320Km, 200miles).

Galileo
2009-04-16, 06:51 AM
10 minutes taking the bus. But then I got lost and spent a further 10 minutes wandering round small streets looking for the right house.

bosssmiley
2009-04-16, 07:57 AM
Would that be uphill, or on level terrain? It's a right slog carrying all those books up a slope you know. :smallwink:

Seriously: ~40 minutes travel time each way is probably my limit.

valadil
2009-04-16, 09:33 AM
I'm not willing to go very far to play D&D. But I have friends who only get together for game and live about an hour away. So I end up commuting an hour each way to hang out with them and hanging out happens to include D&D.

LibraryOgre
2009-04-16, 11:03 AM
I have about a 45 mile drive from my Thursday night group (to is a bit shorter, since I'm coming from work; about 32 miles).

Oracle_Hunter
2009-04-16, 11:47 AM
Hmm... I'm guess I'm unusual then.

I currently travel ~75 minutes each way for a game. To be fair, it is on mass transit so perhaps that's a lot less traumatic than driving? :smallconfused:

Thrud
2009-04-16, 12:06 PM
I used to travel about 100 miles to get to my group, but since I live in California that is considered right next door for us.

:smallbiggrin:

Anyway, it only took about an hour with 65 mile an hour speed limits because pretty much the entire trip was on a highway, another advantage to living in California. Of course, my group has split to 3 different states now, so I have no real game any more.

*Sigh*

Kobold_Love
2009-04-16, 12:14 PM
I used to travel about 100 miles to get to my group, but since I live in California that is considered right next door for us.

:smallbiggrin:

Anyway, it only took about an hour with 65 mile an hour speed limits because pretty much the entire trip was on a highway, another advantage to living in California. Of course, my group has split to 3 different states now, so I have no real game any more.

*Sigh*


Wait. That math seems funny.

You needed to drive 100 miles.

You went at 65mph.

Yet it only took you one hour?

Fjolnir
2009-04-16, 12:15 PM
with mass transit I will travel ~2 hours to game, but if I have to drive about 45 minutes is my limit

Thrud
2009-04-16, 12:42 PM
Wait. That math seems funny.

You needed to drive 100 miles.

You went at 65mph.

Yet it only took you one hour?

Hmmpf, that's what happens when you have to type the same note out 3 times cos you keep losing it when the dang thread won't load correctly. The first 2 times it said an hour and a half. Third time I apparently forgot to add that. Feh. Stupid board loading issues.

Another_Poet
2009-04-16, 12:44 PM
40 minutes by car would just about be my maximum.

Pink
2009-04-16, 01:46 PM
Hmm... I'm guess I'm unusual then.

I currently travel ~75 minutes each way for a game. To be fair, it is on mass transit so perhaps that's a lot less traumatic than driving? :smallconfused:

Yeah, if it was mass transit I could probably go max of 2 hours either way. Driving is essentially a time sink, best you can do is listen to something. Mass transit though, you can read, play on a portable game system, even watch a movie on a portable dvd player or something. Or possibly even do work and homework on the ride. Infinitely more useful than driving.

Keld Denar
2009-04-16, 04:50 PM
When I used to play Living Greyhawk, I used to travel all over. I once drove 4 hours with 2 friends from Boston to Montreal, QB for a LG convention. Cost be about $350 for a weekend of gaming by the time we covered gas, lodging, and convention fees. I also flew from where I was living in Kansas City to Washington, DC for DDXP. That was about a $400 plane ticket + ~$200 for lodging and food.

Then there's the number of times I've driven at least and hour for a single game. Adding them all up, and I probably spend about $2000 on gas in about 6 years of playing LG

ocato
2009-04-16, 05:52 PM
Some guys were playing in Indianapolis (about 45ish minutes away) and invited me to join them, but I passed. Not that 45 minutes is a harsh drive, but I get lost in this town finding people's houses, and that's a fair trek to meet strangers. Especially considering I'm not exactly a social butterfly. I'd feel a little out of my element, almost stranded. But my anxieties aren't the topic here.

Also, I was fortunate and found a nice group that plays right down the road. Maybe takes 10 minutes to get there if I hit all the red lights.

Now, how far would I travel to game? If I knew the game was good and knew the people? I can see driving to Indy. Maybe further (2+ hours), especially if I was crashing and coming back the next day or something.

EDIT: Sorry you're having trouble finding 3.5e games. I know the frustration! Then I caved and started playing 4e. They're both fun.

Jarawara
2009-04-16, 09:36 PM
My friends Terry and Melony would routinely travel from eastern Washington over the Cascades into western Washinton, probably a six hour drive minimum and sometimes through snowy conditions, just for the game.

That was before I drove, so they'd stop by at my house and pick me up. After six hours, what's a 30 minute detour?

It wasn't even a very good game. But it was a consistant one.

ken-do-nim
2009-04-17, 03:16 PM
I play in one monthly game (30 minute drive), host one monthly game, and play in one bimonthly game (45 minute drive). In the past I've been in a game which required an hour commute.

Actually, now that I'm in the kids phase of my life, the bigger question is how much am I willing to pay for babysitting per month to get my gaming in. Right now it is $120.

Shortest commute definitely is to my play-by-post and play-by-email games. :smallsmile:

gibbo88
2009-04-18, 03:53 AM
At the moment I travel no where, since two of the players (inc me) live at my house, 2 of them travel about an hour each, and 1 travels like 10 mins. I think I'd probably go an hour each way, if it was a good game.

Mobey_Wee
2009-04-18, 03:48 PM
Living in SW Louisiana, there aren't too many options. I would be willing to drive more than an hour, if it was a good group, and I considered the people friends also. The only group I really know, only plays every now then. We'll get together to play for a couple months, then won't play again for a year :smallfrown:. And for that group, I would typically drive for about 50 minutes, and those were friends.

So, anyone around Lake Charles, LA, or Beaumont, TX, want to play :smallbiggrin:?

oxybe
2009-04-18, 04:03 PM
30-40 minutes tops, since that's the time it takes to go from downtown to uptown using our transit system.

other then that it would require paying horrible taxi fares and unless it's the most awesome game evar (so awesome it busts the english language) i really don't feel like paying additional transportation fees if i can help it.

luckily all games i play are at the FLGS so i've only need to walk 5 minutes at a leisurely pace (though i heard rumors about moving it to the common area in our building).

AslanCross
2009-04-18, 06:30 PM
Travel is horrible in Metro Manila. It's either too expensive, incredibly dangerous, or bogged down by so much traffic that it won't be worth it.

I'm not even willing to travel further than a 5 mile radius of my house, though I have a couple of times--because transportation was provided for. :P

Thankfully, I can get good players from the school I teach in. If only they were a bit more committed. :P

Bluebeard
2009-04-18, 06:52 PM
An hour-twenty on a fixed-gear bicycle.
Along a street with bad shoulders and heavy traffic.
With 40 lbs of climbing gear on my back.
(Okay, maybe I'm not just going for the game.)

...Starting now.

Assassin89
2009-04-18, 10:16 PM
For me, it's about a ten-fifteen minute walk between the dorm room and the student center at college, and then three flights of stairs in order to reach the third floor of the student center.

THAC0
2009-04-18, 10:28 PM
I'm not willing to travel far at all. Currently, it is difficult enough to find time to play, much less time to commute in order to play. The last game I played in was via the internet. Before that, we hosted at our place.

Knaight
2009-04-18, 10:59 PM
Half an hour, both ways, by bike. Bike is my only reliable method of transportation(it used to be bike and bus system, before I found out that the people in charge of the bus system apparently routinely cut routes with a one day warning), and I would really prefer to not lose too much time. That said, I do like biking, so there is that. Right now its 15-20 minutes both ways, once or twice a week. Everybody else within my group lives within a minute walking distance of each other, so it kind of sucks. The only reason I'm in the group(as they could meet much more often without me) is that I'm by far the best GM, mostly due to having a lot more practice.

Out of curiosity, why is this marked 1st-3rd Ed? The question is pretty much universal, and certainly applies to games other than D&D, such as in my case.

horseboy
2009-04-19, 02:55 AM
Well, it's 50 miles from my house to town. My old RM group was 15 miles on the other side of town, so 70 miles one way was pretty average.

Premier
2009-04-19, 04:43 AM
For my Saturday group, I travel some 45 minutes to the coach station - maybe more in heavy traffic -, then another half hour with coach; same back.

For my Sunday game, it's only 20-25 minutes by bus to get there, but it lasts until well after midnight, and I have to take night buses back home. That's easily an hour or more, including one (or if I miss the 2nd bus, two) kilometers of walking.

newbDM
2009-04-19, 11:04 AM
Out of curiosity, why is this marked 1st-3rd Ed? The question is pretty much universal, and certainly applies to games other than D&D, such as in my case.

Well, originally the fact that older edition games are getting rarer and might require one to travel more was part of the question.

newbDM
2009-04-19, 11:06 AM
EDIT: Sorry you're having trouble finding 3.5e games. I know the frustration! Then I caved and started playing 4e. They're both fun.

*You are reading this in the Braveheart voice*

Not until WotC pries my 3.x books from my cold dead hands!