An Idea

So I had those really good days, and got to go outside. Then I had not so good days. At one point I thought I might be relapsing again but luckily it didn’t get that far. Still, I had some good days and I’m happy about them. Since then I’ve watched the Doctor Who Christmas episode (it was weird, but I think I liked it), watched several episodes of My Little Pony, watched some of the films I recorded over Christmas, and have read a couple of ebooks. Most of them with very little concentration but yay!

I’ve also been playing World of Warcraft a bit, doing dailies on my level 90s and levelling my Shaman and Monk. My WoW guild has swapped to 25 man raiding after absorbing some of the members of the previous best guild on the server that died not long ago, and is now 11/14 heroic 10 and 25 man. I’m not raiding (not well enough for the flex raids at the moment- I wouldn’t attempt heroic with how bad my brain is even at my current best) but Johan is currently on trial for a spot as a disc priest. He’s been raiding since the swap to 25 man and he’s really enjoying being at the more top end of play. There’s another disc priest in the guild (who is really good) and Johan isn’t doing too bad in comparison, especially considering he’s less well geared. He says he’s improved a lot this week over last, and I’m really hoping he gets a permanent spot. It took a lot of persuading from several raid members to convince him to apply, something I’ve been nagging him to do for months. Overall I’m really proud of how well the raid team is doing, as they’ve caught up to their 10 man progress in 2 weeks, and there hasn’t been much time to get to know each other and work together. I was seriously impressed with their Spoils heroic kill, as they were only giving it one attempt that night and they got it down in one 🙂

Anyway, my idea. For quite a while now I have wanted to set up a local tabletop gaming club (board/card games). It’ll be mostly for autistics, but other people would be welcome as well on the understanding that it’s an autistic safe space (I know it can’t be universally accessible to everyone but I’d want to make sure people were comfortable being autistic there, and make sure there’s somewhere quiet for those who find noise a problem). Currently Autistic North East does social meetups, but they are nearly always held in a pub and I know that’s a problem for some people (including me at times, even before I got ME). Both Johan and I like games, and want to try more, but I’m often not well enough and quite a lot of them require more than two players. My idea was to have a selection of games available, from snakes and ladders to Monopoly to Settlers of Catan and Munchkin, and people could play the games they wanted. I know I find it easier to socialise if there’s a distraction available, and if nothing else it would be fun to play games.

The main problem with my idea at the moment is I’m too ill to do anything about it. Being stuck in bed means it’s on hold. When I am well enough to do it (in the future) I’ve got quite a bit to work out and plan. I’d need to find a space to hold it (preferably central Newcastle as it’s easy to get to from most of the North East), somewhere we could meet on a regular basis without too many changes (as change is bad). It would preferably be not too public and have somewhere quiet nearby that people could go to if things are getting overwhelming. Ideally there would be some facilities for basic snacks and drinks, either to purchase or to consume if brought in. We’d need tables and chairs (how many would depend on how many people would be interested, something I’d need to find out closer to the time) and figure out the best way to provide games (either bringing in favourites from home, purchasing some especially for the group, or both). It might need some form of funding (especially for purchasing of games, and maybe for the venue space if I couldn’t find somewhere for free), and there might be some other legal stuff to consider that I’ve not discovered yet. Then it could only go ahead if people were interested, and I’d need to advertise the group to make sure local autistics know it exists. And it’s quite possible I’ll need some help with organising it.

I’ve thought quite a lot about it. I can’t plan it more than just the basic idea though. I was originally going to propose it to Autistics North East (and might still do so) but am wondering if it might work better being separate. I first thought about it after hearing of a similar group in Aberystwyth that a friend goes to and enjoys and thought it would be great for this area. That was years ago now though (I was still able to get out and about) and I’ve been sitting on it since. I’ve also been looking generally for tabletop gaming groups/events in the North East as I’d want to go when well enough and I think Johan would enjoy it, but not found anything yet. Even if they existed I’d still want to arrange an autistic friendly one if there was enough interest, but as that’s probably years away it would be good to know of an alternative until then.

So that’s my big idea- making the world a bit less sucky by playing tabletop games with other autistics. Don’t forget to be awesome 🙂