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Suffolk Gaming Information |
If you've just moved to Suffolk County, Long Island, finding a gaming store or, particularly, a gaming group can be a little challenging. The large number of small townships in Long Island make internet searches based on city somewhat useless, for example. This page intends to be a gateway to various role-playing and wargaming stores and groups in Suffolk County. Hopefully, you discovered this page through an internet search and it tells you what you want to know.
If you know of a group or place that should be listed here, or want to have corrections made to existing entries, please send mail to suffolk at divnull dot com.
Organizations
Along with the standard gaming groups you can find nearly anywhere, a number of gaming related organizations operate within Suffolk County and greater Long Island:
Long Island Boardgaming Organization
The Long Island Boardgaming Organization meets to play primarily Eurogames (Rio Grande, Mayfair, some Fantasy Flight) games. They also run a Heroscape league (or two) each year, and one GameDay per year is dedicated to wargames (predominantly old-style hex and counter).
Long Island Gamers Club
You may see some stray references on the net to the Long Island Gamers Club, one of the oldest gaming clubs on Long Island, but their web-site claims they no longer meet.
Long Island Role Players Meetup
The Long Island Role Players Meetup communicates with (and requires membership in) the meetup.com web site. They organize games in central Long Island, usually meeting in Ravensblood Games (see below).
Long Island Role Playing Group
The Long Island Role Playing Group is a very informal group of players and game masters who “enjoy good company, bad food, and plenty of soda”. They are always open to having new people join us.
Pathfinder Society of Long Island
The Pathfinder Society of Long Island hosts Pathfinder Society Organized Play events for Suffolk (and Nassau) County.
Role Players of Long Island
The Role Players of Long Island (RPLI) started as a meet-up group through meetup.com and are a diverse group of role-players from across Long Island, the five boroughs, and beyond. Through the RPLI, players can find new campaigns, and campaigns can find new players. They also provide a means of meeting new players face-to-face once a month.
Role-Playing Game Historical Society
An “old-school” gaming group, the Role-Playing Game Historical Society “is dedicated to bringing together role-players who share an interest in RPG titles that date back to the beginning of the hobby. Its primary purpose is to gather together gamers seeking to play ‘old school’ or ‘classic’ role-playing games and to create a renewed interest in those games and their various retro-clones.”
Suffolk County RPG Group
Organized through Facebook, the Suffolk County RPG Group is “interested in organizing and playing tabletop role-playing games”.
Nerd NYC
Though off the island, nerdnyc.com is “a non-profit community in NYC that promotes nerd culture.” This includes a heavy does of roleplaying and other gaming. The group often organizes gatherings of gamers.
Nassau Board Gaming Alliance
Dedicated mostly to board gamers, this group has a Yahoo group and regular Friday gatherings.
Conventions
A number of gaming conventions are held in or around Suffolk County:
I-CON
A large convention held since the early 1980's, I-CON is generally held in late March on Stony Brook University's campus.
RetCon
A relatively new convention, RetCon is “Long Island’s gaming convention run by gamers, for gamers”. This convention is heavily associated with Ravenblood games (see below).
QuestCon
Once claiming to be Long Island’s only hotel gaming convention, QuestCon is generally held in mid October in Ronkonkoma, though has not been held in a few years.
Further afield
Given the sprawl around Manhattan, you can find other conventions with a bit of travel:
Stores
Suffolk County gaming stores tend to be small businesses within strip malls, sometimes a bit off the beaten path:
Fourth World Comics
33 SR Route 111
Smithtown NY, 11787
(631) 366-4440
While Fourth World Comics seems not to have a web site, it does have a large role-playing selection, as well as a huge number of comics and related toys.
Men at Arms Hobbies
134 Middle Country Road
Middle Island, New York 11953
(631) 924-0583
Something of a Suffolk institution, Men at Arms sells a selection of role-playing, wargaming and model building gear, but doesn't seem to have a web site.
Brother’s Grim Games & Collectables
1244 Middle Country Road
Selden, NY 11784
(631) 698-2805
Brother’s Grim, formerly Monkey Head Games, sells wargaming and role-playing material both online and in their store, where they host numerous tables for gamers to use.
The War Store
47420 Main Road
Southold, NY 11971
(631) 765-5549
Located far out on the North Fork, the War Store sells a wide variety wargaming materials both on- and off-line.
Empire Gaming
37 Main Street, Farmingdale, New York 11735
Plainview, NY 11803
Located near the border of Suffolk and Nassau county, Empire Gaming opened in 2012 and “want to raise the bar in the gaming scene; to not to just be another venue, but to be the venue.”
Ravenblood Games
1163 Old Country Rd
Plainview, NY 11803
Located near the border of Suffolk and Nassau county, Ravenblood Games opened in 2008, but closed in 2013. It was a full-service gaming store, offering a wide selection of RPGs, CCGs, miniatures, dice, and apparel. They also offered a private, reserved area for games that could accommodate up to 14 players.
Further Afield
Grasshopper Comics
76 Hillside Avenue
Williston Park, NY 11596
(516) 471-5724
Grasshopper Comics, located in far-off Nassau County, provides comics, role-playing and wargaming material. They also run a Warhammer league.
Games & Gifts Galore
3937 Merrick Road
Seaford, NY 11793
(516) 804-2265
Games & Gifts Galore, also in Nassau, sells games of all kinds, for all ages, including party, roleplaying, war, card and classic games. They also offer play space.
Game Master Games
954 South Broadway
Hicksville, NY 11801
(516) 597-5555
Though more dedicated to computer and war games, Game Master Games also offers roleplaying games. The same group also operates a gaming cafe in Mineola called Game Master Grill.
Scorpio Ink Games
224 Merrick Road
Lynbrook, NY 11563
(516) 612-2092
Scorpio Ink Games, near JFK, sells Warhammer (Fantasy, 40k, board games), Dungeons and Dragons (Books, Dice, and Miniatures) and can be hired to paint miniatures. They feature open gaming Monday-Thursday.