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SWA Benefits

The Schenectady Wargamers Association exists to serve the Adventure Gaming community in the Capital District of New York. We are also happy to help promote gaming throughout the entire Northeastern United States. Here's a list of benefits that we provide for our members, and the whole gaming community.


Regular gaming We sponsor weekly gaming at our official headquarters: Studio of Bridge and Games. We meet most Saturdays, but the Studio can be available at other times as needed. If you're looking to run / GM / judge a game, we can help you find players. If you're looking to get into a game, we can refer you to established gaming groups we know are active. If you don't see what you're looking for on the web page, send an email and ask. We're happy to provide space on our web site for game reports, campaign narratives, or other information about the games that you're playing. We can even set up special web pages for you, as long as you're willing to write the material. Communication and Information Sharing We've worked hard to set up our web page to be a wealth of information:

  • We post regular News stories of interest to the gaming community. These appear on the main website page, and are also archived by category.
  • We have a Discussion Forum section where you can share all sorts of info and opinions. We are happy to set up new sections and categories for you and your games, just ask.
  • We have a Downloads section to help you share files in electronic format. Email them to us and we'll get them up there.
  • We have a Web Links section to point you to other web sites of interest. We'd love to have you submit your own links to add to these lists.
  • We maintain listings of gaming groups & clubs around the Northeast. We're always looking to grow this list, and to keep the info current.
  • We maintain a calendar of gaming conventions around the Northeast. Contact us to get your Con listed with us, or to update the info we're displaying.
  • We maintain listings of gaming stores around the Northeast. Contact us to get your local store listed with us, or to update the info we're displaying.
There are other ways we facilitate information sharing: We maintain SWANews, an email list. It currently has 180+ members. We send out regular announcements of interest to our subscribers. If you register as a member of this web site, you will automatically be subcribed to SWANews. Let us know if you have an announcement you would like us to distribute. We sponsor email discussion lists. Whereas SWANews is an "announcement list" (we send and you receive), "discussion lists" facilitate discussion between all members. Contact Dave Cheng if you'd like us to host an email discussion list related to your game or gaming group. We maintain a postal mailing list. We generally send out postcards to announce each Game-a-thon, and a pre-registration booklet for Council of Five Nations. Email us to be sure to get on the list, or to update your information. SWA Events We sponsor Council of Five Nations, our annual three-day convention, every October during Columbus Day Weekend. We sponsor five Game-a-thons per year. These are bi-monthly, one-day gaming events with 6-10 events scheduled. Other Conventions We send members to many gaming conventions around the Northeast. We might be able to facilitate carpooling or hotel room sharing for you. Post a message on one of the Discussion Forums, or email Dave and we'll see what we can do. What does all this cost me? Membership here on the web site, and in the SWA in general, costs you nothing. We charge on a per-game basis for Game-a-thon events. Council of Five Nations is our biggest event each year. There is a registration fee and individual event fees. We go to great lengths to make sure these costs are reasonable and in-line with costs at other conventions. The Studio of Bridge and Games is a business, totally separate from the SWA. We just have a good, long-term relationship with them. Regular Saturday gaming sessions at Studio cost $3.50, or $2.50 for GMs. Regular Saturdays are divided into "afternoon" and "night" sessions, so if you play all day, the total cost is $7.00 (12+ hours of gaming for less than the cost of a movie). The SWA gets nothing from the weekly Saturday gaming session fees at Studio. If we're lucky, we cover the costs of Council and the Game-a-thons from their event fees. Now that this web site is up and running, we will be pursuing advertising opportunities to generate revenue. Since the SWA is a Not-for-Profit organization, this money will go toward helping keep the event fees at Game-a-thon and Council lower. The SWA has run at a modest deficit for many years, funded by the donations of a handful of officers and organizers. If you really want to go the extra mile, we will warmly accept your donation too. Click on the link on the lower left of any page if you're interested and able to contribute a little something ($20 has been a common donation in the past).

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