How to Find a Group
Central Coast Game Community
Welcome to the Central Coast Games Newsletter, a newsletter that covers events, meetups, and in-person gaming on the Central Coast of California for tabletop roleplaying games, historical wargames, tactical wargames, trading card games, cosplay, associated crafting & other hobbies. There is a lot of exciting events coming up this year, one in particular that is near and dear to our hearts, our beloved MimicCon
A Message from the Editor
Well everyone, it is my great honor and pride to announce that we are less than TWO weeks away from delivering a brand new gaming convention to the Central Coast. On our journey to create this convention we have developed a lot of relationships with local gaming superstars, podcasters, game designers, community developers, patrons of gaming, and hardworking volunteers. We've fostered a handful of RPG campaign groups, miniature wargaming clubs, a new cosplay club, and relationships between the communities that I hope will continue to spread.
MimicCon will be the capstone to what we have accomplished so far; and it is our hope that we will shine even brighter, as a beacon for nerds and geeks to find fellowship and camaraderie. So thank you for supporting us, and making all of this possible.
To show our gratitude for all of your support we built a game and event signup sheet. You may follow the link below to sign up ahead of time for all of our games and events. 2/3rds of the seats for each event are available for early sign up, and 1/3rd of the seats will only be available at the MimicCon reception desk. We hope that this way you may all see what MimicCon will have to offer, and can build your itineraries accordingly. If you have not acquired your tickets yet, feel free to check out all the great things we have and consider supporting us.
Humbly, we thank you,
Chay Comas
Central Coast Games Presents: MimicCon
April 2nd 9:00 am - 9:00 pm at the Abel Maldonado Community Center
600 S McClelland St, Santa Maria, CA 93454
Battletech Competitive Gaming League
Between the booming Battletech community at Gordon’s Good Games in Atascadero, the emerging groups now playing in Santa Maria, and the fact that Catalyst Game Labs and Aries Games & Miniatures have been so helpful in our community development goals, we have decided to put the effort into starting a competitive gaming league on the Central Coast. In fact, Catalyst Game Labs has approved a representative of ours (Dakota Matney) to be an official Battletech ambassador, and he’s going to be rubbing elbows with game developers and model designers very soon (congratulations Dakota)!
Two short term goals for the league are, to be beginner friendly, and to focus on community development. Eventually we will be nominating and sponsoring a champion to represent the Central Coast in Northern California (where our de facto rivals will be waiting).
Battletech is a miniatures game, meaning it requires miniatures and table terrain, so that concepts like Line of Sight, and Range can be measured directly with tape measures and laser lights. The biggest selling point for Battletech in our opinion is that it has a very low price to entry, a lance (all you need to play) costing approximately $25 depending on where/which you purchase.
I’m really excited to be working with Dakota on this project, we expect to be running Battletech demonstrations and tournaments in April and through the summer in Lompoc, Santa Maria, Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo, Atascadero, and Paso Robles.
Dungeons & Dragons and Many Other Roleplaying Games
For the last 8 months I have been indexing roleplaying groups across the Central Coast, and frankly I have since lost count, which might surprise you because I know this would have surprised the hell out of me 8 months ago when I was just trying to find one. Just from memory, there is an Adventurer’s League campaign in Atascadero, a Shadow of the Demon Lord campaign in Paso Robles, a Star Wars RPG organized play community in San Luis Obispo that often tries cool indie games like Kids on Bikes as well, a D&D 5e campaign in Arroyo Grande, a D&D 5e campaign in Santa Maria, a D&D 5e campaign in Lompoc, a D&D 5e campaign in Santa Ynez, and lots of one-shots for various playtests all over … and these are just the public games. The list for private groups is even longer. How can you join one of them? I’m glad you asked.
We have cataloged every game or community in our Discord server, and have created an association of gaming communities. There are more than 2,000 gamers represented now in our association, spanning 9 different discords covering various regions all along the Central Coast of California.
Cosplay
Halo Kitty on the left is Jaden. A month ago Jaden and I threw an impromptu (two weeks notice) cosplay meetup for whoever wanted to show up and hang out. We promoted it on IG and FB, and thought this would be the start of a small club to discuss techniques, and eventually organize some larger events like contests or con tours.
More than 40 people showed up in costume, and another 20 or so showed up just to see, we were absolutely blown away. We’re currently in process of planning a cosplay party & trivia in Lompoc, and a competition in Santa Maria; likely we’ll be holding some workshops at some point. Our discord server gained ~50 members for cosplay specifically, and we’ve now dedicated a portion of the community just for cosplay & anime.
Historical Wargaming
We are just now beginning to network with historical gamers in the region. We’re happy to be hosting pre Avalon Hill Kriegsspiel (circa 1850s) historical wargame at MimicCon and we hope to work with the organizer to help train more umpires for this very rare game. There is a historical wargaming club in Nipomo I’m hoping to get acquainted with soon because I’d love to reintroduce these games to the contemporary gamers, including myself.
Trading Card Games
Every LGS in the area has a half dozen trading card game groups it feels like, but what has become apparent is that despite many shared interests the TCG communities seems to be mostly separated from the rest of the community, in their little niche. We’re currently in talks with a handful of TCG enthusiasts and game store owners and are planning to put together demonstrations for TCGs aimed at the general public and other tabletop gamers. The hope is to cross pollinate a little, and help foster a healthier more connected tabletop gaming community.
Upcoming Events This Summer
Rockettown Comic-Con
June 10th & June 11th 10:00 am - 5:00 pm in Lompoc CA. We talked to the showrunners for this, and it sounds like it’s going to be a Fan Con, and may have some really exciting special guests. I would definitely keep my eye on this if you’re at all interested in fan conventions.
PolyCon: We Rise Again
A tabletop gaming convention at Cal Poly SLO, University Union June 23 - 25. Three days of tabletop games, miniatures, Magic, and related activities. They are currently seeking volunteers who are interested in running events, anyone running 2 games ore more gets in free. You can submit your events here. Also, all students attend FREE!
PolyCon is celebrating it’s 40th year of this event, and is an institution of nerds on the central coast. Historically they’ve held fun events like Bad Movie Night, Crafting Workshops, Live Action Role Play, and rare games/systems only found within the PolyCon network.
Community Highlights
Prism CCG - Paso Robles
A new game store in Paso Robles owned and operated by Nicholas Horton. Nick’s shop just opened very recently, and he’s working very hard to help foster a community of gamers in the Paso Robles area. He holds many gaming events, and we’re currently in talks with Nick to partner on some demonstration days targeted at a more general population to learn and play.
Central Coast Collectibles - Lompoc
A relatively new game store in Lompoc at 1321 N H St Suite A. Owned and operated by Tyler Santos. Tyler’s shop opened in the last year and he’s been hosting cash prize tournaments as high as $400, and I think some of them are free to enter even.
