GGB Ft. Lauderdale – Gaming Girls January 2018 Brunch
At the end of every brunch, the Ft. Lauderdale officers confer and say the exact same thing: This was our best brunch ever. Our first brunch of 2018 was no different. Gaming Girls celebrated all things game whether it was tabletop or video games, whether RPG or family games, whether current or retro. We welcomed so many new faces to our chapter and our returning girls made every single one feel right at home.
The goal of our January brunch was simple: Be as interactive as possible. For that, we needed to find a special space that encouraged collaboration, lots of talking and movement, and still provided the brunch basics. Grind Coffee Project in Downtown Fort Lauderdale (Facebook, Yelp) was the perfect spot. We reserved their soundproof conference space and set up games and pixel art crafting area, and linked up our Firestick chock full of Jackbox Games 3 to the projector. Thanks to the generosity of Grind Coffee Project, our group was allowed to order delivery for an expanded brunch menu from Riverside Market in Downtown Fort Lauderdale.
Bags this month included a few special treats unique to GGB Ft. Lauderdale: Pac-man charm danglers and retro videogame-themed pixel/ perler hairclips crafted by Officer Meghan. Space Invader, Super Mario, and TV show bingo cards rounded out some of the other goody bag items. Almost every attendee walked away with a raffle win. Some left with perennial card game favorites including Coup and Adventure Time Love Letter. Lots of Pokemon, Legend of Zelda, Megaman, and Minecraft prizes found their forever homes with a brunchette. An ultra-special, unique GGB Ft. Lauderdale Raspberry Pi raffle item was generously created by Officer Aurora’s hubby, Seb, with retro videogames galore saved on it and including an original Super Nintendo controller. (Thanks, Seb!)
Everyone who games knows how hard it is to put together a game night. The older and busier we get, the more difficult it is to find time when anyone who’s interested to play is available for a long enough amount of time to get a good game going… near impossible if you’re planning a campaign like many of the RPGs we like. Having a few hours to kick back and play games – whether it was Exploding Kittens or Bob’s Burgers Jenga or Trivia Murder Mystery or Tee K-O – is priceless; so was meeting people interested in setting up those game nights to try something new. Some of the games mentioned today included Bluebeard’s Bride (Magpie Games), Night Witches (Bully Pulpit Games), Dracula’s Feast (Kickstarter – Blue Beard Entertainment), Coup (on Amazon) . We come to Geek Girl Brunch for lots of different reasons and from lots of different places, but most of us come with a hope of making friends that we can carry over to the days between the brunches… and for some of us that includes gaming buddies. By that measure, Gaming Girls was a success!
Throwback to December 2017: The Last Jedi Movie Meet-up & Holiday Party
Though we didn’t post for last month, the Ft. Lauderdale chapter did celebrate the holidays… and Star Wars of course! We met up for one of our regular Sunday movie matinee meet-ups for the latest installment of our timeless, classic fandom: The Last Jedi. Afterwards, we gathered at Funky Buddha in Oakland Park for a casual brunch/ lunch with our guests, family, and friends.