What is SGS? The MIT Strategic Games Society is a club devoted to playin games of all types, including historical wargames, role- playing games (RPGs), business games, railroad games, Magic (the collectible card game), and others. Why "Strategic"? MIT-SGS was founded by people interested in historical military simulations. "Strategy" was a big part of these. Since then, the club has branched out. When and where does the SGS meet? MIT-SGS meets Fridays at 7pm and Saturdays at 1pm. Boardgames are usually played in 50-316 (that's in Walker Memorial Hall). Role playing groups meet in the first floor classrooms of Building 66 (the triangle building), although they sometime meet on the second or third floors of Building 26 if their rooms get pre-empted by other activities. Where can I play Magic around MIT? There are at least four places to play Magic Friday nights at MIT. They all start around 7pm. Of course, you can go to SGS HQ in 50-316. People also play Magic there some Saturdays. The Boston Magic club meets on the first floor of Building 16. Some of the SGS RPG players also play Magic in Building 66 either Fridays or Saturdays. Finally, if you're at least 21, you can go to the Thirsty Ear pub, located in the basement of Ashdown House (right at the inter-section of Massachusetts Ave. and Memorial Drive). Enter the courtyard from Memorial Dr. and go down the stairs into the Ear. If that won't keep you satisfied, MIT Medical offers very good psychiatric counselling. Why should I join SGS? Can I still play games there without joining? We generally don't insist that people join SGS until they start showing up regularly to play games. We do have a certain responsibility to our members, so if you come regularly, we want to know who's who, etc. Being an SGS member does confer several benefits. First of all, you can check out games from our extensive collection (about 600 games at last count, including many out of print titles). We take suggestions from members on future acquisitions as well. Second, as an SGS member, you get a 10% discount on purchases at The Compleat Strategist (located on Mass Ave. in Boston). You can save a lot of money that way -- especially if you play Magic! Third, from time to time the SGS has special super-discount game orders where you can save 40-50% off the retail price of games that you buy. That's real savings. In the past, we've also ordered several boxes of Magic boosters and Starter decks. For members, the boosters are $1.75 and the Starter decks are $5.25. How do I join SGS? How much does it cost? The good news is that SGS membership is free for MIT undergrads! There's no reason not to join. Everyone else pays $5 per year, which is pretty cheap considering the discounts you can get as a member. To join, you need to see one of our officers. You can usually find one around at most regular meetings. Who's in charge of this thing anyhow? If I have questions, who can I contact? Current SGS officers are: President Martin Duke patton@mit.edu Vice-President Sheldon Price (You can find him in Bldg. 66) Secretary Chuck Krueger ckrueger@crl.com Treasurer Chris Falling cfalling@the- tech.mit.edu You can also send e-mail to sgs@mit.edu which will reach several officers who can answer questions. It also reaches John Carr, a former President of the SGS, who helps out with maintaining our various electronic links. Does the SGS have any other events? From time to time, the SGS runs tournaments for various games. Entry fees vary from $1 to $5 (so far), but are traditionally free for MIT undergrads (so far). Suggestions from members are always welcome. Recently several Magic tournaments have been held which have drawn well over 50 entrants. Will people want to play the game I like? How do I learn new games? Generally, SGS operates very informally. People show up, agree on a game to play, and off they go. My best advice to people is to show up close to the start of the meeting (i.e. 7pm on Fridays, and 1pm on Saturdays) so that games don't get started without you. Some games require a certain (i.e. large) number of players or aren't played as commonly as others. If you want to set a date for a certain game, send mail to sgs-members@mit.edu, including an address to reply to. You are then responsible for getting everyone together and seeing that everything goes right. If you're interested in learning a new game, either of these two procedures can work. If you just show up at an SGS meeting, members will be happy to teach you a game that they're going to play. You can also "advertise" through the SGS-members mailing list for a specific game. What games do you play? As stated above, there are over 600 games in our collection, but among the games commonly played are Titan, Magic: The Gathering, 1830, Eurorails, History of the World, Axis & Allies, Fortress America, Victory in the Pacific, Over the Reich, Breakout Normandy, Cosmic Encounter, World in Flames, and Nuclear War. Recently the club has acquired several new games including Wrasslin', Outpost, Red Empire, Advanced Civilization, and Advanced Third Reich. Often, someone will be looking to play one of these, or a game will be underway (as is the case with Empires In Arms, which takes an entire semester). However, SGS members are usually open to trying new games if suggested, and are certainly willing to teach the ones they know. Generally, games work best when they require 5 or fewer players, but games with seven (like Diplomacy or Advanced Civilization) have been put together. Anything else I might want to know about If you want to get more involved in the gaming hobby beyond joining SGS, I would suggest subscribing to Usenet newsgroups such as rec.games.board, rec.games.deckmaster (Magic, etc...), rec.games.trading cards.magic.strategy, rec.games.diplomacy and several others. These newsgroups offer excellent forums for discussing strategy and rules. In addition, the newsgroups can usually point you in the direction of relevent electronic mailing lists and homepages which exist for many single games.