How do I find people to play Scrabble in-person?

August 10, 2009 1:03 PM

How do I find people to play Scrabble in-person?

Thank goodness for the small degree of anonymity afford by the Internet. I have a shameful secret: I love Scrabble to a (probably) embarrassing degree.

I play online, compete in tournaments, and occasionally attend the local club. What I'd like to do, though, is to find people to play with, in-person, that are roughly my age. I'm in my late 20's, and most of the people at club are pushing 70. I certainly don't mind games with them, but would appreciate the opportunity to socialize a bit more, too.

Any suggestions for how to meet people who might be in the 20-35 range, who might enjoy a pint and a patio, along with a few games?

It's probably not particularly relevant to the question, but I'm in Canada, have generally good hygiene, and no outstanding warrants.

posted by iftheaccidentwill to grab bag (11 comments total)

I'm not really sure how much of a Canadian presence there is, but meetup.com generally caters to a variety of interests, up to and including Scrabble and other boardgames. It's free and attracts internet savvy folks. The age range varies depending on the group, but if there isn't an existing group near you, you might start one and see if there are any takers. Or possibly craigslist?
posted by Diagonalize at 1:08 PM on August 10

You could look to leverage meetup.com . Unfortunately, as you can see there aren't any currently - although there are 7 people within 25 miles of winnipeg signed up to recieve an alert should someone form a meetup group...
posted by Nanukthedog at 1:10 PM on August 10

There are a few bars with board game nights here in NYC. I've also found some ads on Craigslist for board game nights, so you might try browsing through your town's CL listings. If you can't find an ad, post one!
posted by HotPatatta at 1:11 PM on August 10

There's a bar here in Toronto (Kilgour's) that hosts a Scrabble group weekly. I've never played there but have been present on the nights that they meet. It seems to be a younger crowd than you describe.
A friend of mine has played there, and she reports that the quality of play and, uh, observance of rules really varies from player to player.

Of course the commute from Winnipeg would be a bit of a pain, but you might try looking for existing bar groups that already do exactly what you're describing. Or try to set one up yourself.
posted by flipper at 1:17 PM on August 10

If you're on Facebook, try the Scrabble appliction. One of it's features is that it finds friends have it installed or you invite them to install it and best of all, it's totally free.

If you have an iPhone or iTouch, you can buy the official Scrabble app, which can hook into your Facebook account, so you can play anywhere there's WiFi or phone service.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:17 PM on August 10

I will also recommend the iPhone Scrabble app.

Not only is it quite good (could use some more AI gradations beyond easy, medium, hard though...), and the Facebook feature is cool, but you can also just hand it around a group of friends to play 2, 3 or 4 player games wherever you happen to be.

I've had some great pick-up games in the ferry line, at bars and shows, and even on the beach. You can select point limits for shorter games, too. It's great for those random Scrabble encounters.

I've been very pleasantly surprised at the much-increased level of enthusiasm for the game once the board and tiles aren't involved anymore.
posted by Aquaman at 1:35 PM on August 10

try meetup.com i think there are meetup groups in canada and if there isn't a group dedicated to scrabble or board games, you could start one. Also yahoogroups has several scrabble groups in the area I live in. once again if there isn't one where you live, you could start one. there are scrabble lovers everywhere. Try to read the book "Word Freak" for an amusing journalist depcition of the competitions.
posted by dmbfan93 at 1:37 PM on August 10

Scrabble fans in Montreal tend to organize a monthly get-together in the local Livejournal community. Check and see if there's something like that local to you?
posted by zadcat at 2:10 PM on August 10

I mean, maybe you could also turn some of your friends onto this. Beer and scrabble sounds like an awesome evening to me. Or maybe try to organize something with coworkers? Otherwise, the suggestion so far are what I was going to put down.
posted by TonyDanza at 2:13 PM on August 10

"...I play online, compete in tournaments"

If you're rated >1300, then living-room players that you find are going to be pissed when you hand out 500+pt beatdowns at a bar.

It's a shame that isc.ro doesn't have a profile page. Perhaps email NASPA and ask if there's a HIP-scrabble club in your neighborhood.
posted by lalochezia at 4:21 PM on August 10

Thank-you to all who responded! I've looked into meetups.com and craigslist.com - nothing there yet, but maybe I will take a shot. The LiveJournal suggestion was especially good - I will definitely post on the Winnipeg journal.

One thing I thought of, albeit just now, is putting up paper ads at my university. Might be able to garner a bit of interest with a funny poster.

TonyDanza: I've tried this, but most of my friends would rather just do the beer!
Lalochezia: Yes, I am >1300, but I try to mitigate the pissed-off-edness by being friendly and non-cocky.

Thanks all!
posted by iftheaccidentwill at 6:47 AM on August 11