the giants lair

[nagged]

Hello table top generals, a while ago I asked what made the ideal war gaming venue.

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=306874

Well at long last, after many hours of discussions the “giants Lair” will open approx 24th sept in Faraday Mill Plymouth, and will use this log to chart our progress, ups and downs.

Bit of background on the venue; once we started looking at premises we had various properties to look at but unfortunately estate agents tried steering us towards office blocks, however the business park where we have settled is all owned and managed by one family firm, who so far (touch wood) have proven to be very helpful and sympathetic to our cause, indeed dissuading us from a perfect venue on the same estate which commanded a higher rent than the one we have.
It seems that with so many empty industrial units landlords are willing to accept lower rents and better terms just to get people in them.

About our goals; having enjoyed a sporty background it’s a clubhouse mentality, a home for our local club (cross swords) who at the moment like many other clubs use a pubs function room, a familiar tale I’m sure where the room is rented for a couple of hours, then scenery is packed away and stored in a cupboard/beer cellar/car boot.
The local GW has 6 4x4 tables and if you’re not playing or paying your asked to leave!!!
We want to offer the chance to play legendary battles/ apocolypse battles on awesome tables, with no time constraints. We have some awesome tables at our disposable however no one plays on them because they’re not set up, they’re not set up because no one uses them.

http://hirstarts.yuku.com/topic/5312/fieldstone-keep

http://hirstarts.yuku.com/topic/4272/sentinel-v




Any how stay tuned

[spikedog]

This sounds awesome, I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Opening a games venue/shop has always been a dream of mine so I hope you don't mind if I live mine out through your blog. :P

Consider me subscribed.

[Durek]

Good luck and have fun.
I know how frustrating it can be. Tried to get a small gaming store off the ground here but... local bylaws were far to restrictive. Glad to see another brick and mortar go up.
Subscribed.

[Daniel36]

Good luck with it. I hope it will work out. The world needs more FLGS's...

[nagged]

Just a quick progress report, (there are a few photos up on facebook, they're not on my camera so i can't post them here myself). yup planning was a bit of a pain although you do see lots of gyms and martial arts centres opening in commercial units, here in the uk its d2 leisure classification which is the same as a snooker hall.

luckily our local club has agreed to meet at the venue. they meet twice a week just outside plymouth in a local pub, it was here then plan started.
we meet in the basement function room, which although dark was adequate for the 15-20 regulars we got, the thursday meets got busier any extra members were steered to another function room which although ideal for the rpg ers ment any dice throwers were then left out of the general buzz. the pub is a tenanted one and has changed hands a few times prices have gone up service has differed and weekend events are harder to organise.
the fortunate thing with our cross swords club is they're good spenders with food and drink but being charged £2.60 for a pint of coke not even real coke just the syrup crap, buses well buses being english we had almost outgrown our venue, it didn't take long to figure out our roomhire, food and drink spending put between 20k-25k in the pubs till. almost our commercial rent!!

we've aimed to be open in a month (24th sept) so lots of bits and pieces to do but another update soon

[Tzarinchilla]

I'm loving the premise of this project. I will be paying attention to this one.

[juicytomatoes]

It's great to have a place of your own to play All the best with the new venue! I'll be checking in here to see how things go.

[Sinzaren]

Ah brings back memories of setting up a club up here, was great for a few years till the hotel we were meeting in closed down and things went down hill from there. Having your own place will be great, and I hope you give everyone here in the randoms an open invitation

[Swabilius]

Update on The Giants lair
, please like it
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Gi...75416262527669

The Management

[nagged]

progress is depressingly slow waiting for buiders to drink their tea, still!! the problem with not having silly money to throw at the problem, but still wanting to get things right. making sure the lightings good so we can all appreciate the efforts people have gone to. at the moment its in the basement of the pub. terrain building is sluggish, we really want the terrain to be a "usp".
I'm planning on having a row of 3 tables with a theme desert, jungle, ice + lava. fantasy on one side 40k on the other, sadly a few things have started to walk (builders!), still he who dares.
one thing we do have is a logo



and will be back after the weekend with photos of the venue, so you'll get more of an idea

[Daniel36]

Awesome logo. You should change your name in Facebook though, to the Giant's Lair.

I am very anal about those things! >_<

[nagged]

ok Daniel36 fixed that i hope,

The place which was once a fireplace showroom, has been gutted now rewired, painted and starting to take shape. The areas are now defined and workable spaces
ok now for some pictures

The view as you walk in through the door. the foreground area will be the store, with some demo areas. You can see the office which marks the start of "Asgards" bar area


Just in front of the stairs is a door leading to next door which is the main gaming area, been in today making tables, this room should 17/19 6ft tables



And upstairs at the rear above "Asgards"is this room. So there is another room next door and the wall will come down, giving space for 15 tables



So the other side of the staircase is a landing (again another next door)



Just off this landing are the toilets again one each side and these rooms, at the moment one is intended for roleplaying and one for a studio/ workshop






So hopefully in the next 7-10 days the place will start to resemble a decent venue!!

[Durek]

Looking good, dont loose heart, keeo up the good work.

[nagged]

well its been tough the last 10 days or so, builders have been dragging their heels and things seem to be dragging. Its been really frustrating not being able to get and get things done or leave stuff on site, light fingered gits!!! witha week to go before our big unveiling.
still on with the positives website up (no content tho)

http://www.thegiantslair.co.uk/home

bit off topic, 18 months ago I took over my dads carpet cleaning buisness. occasionaly meeting other hobbyists some just happy to remain in their own private circles, anyway this week I met a factory worker who is a really talented artist, just doing portraits for friends in his spare room. bit awkward when you ask someone where he got the pictures on his wall and he replies "I drew them" made his own terminator costume and sculpts some figures just for his own pleasure. talented bastard

We met at the "lair" this morning, Before the carpet cleaning i ran a restaurant and had a couple of artists hanging their stuff on the walls, we had free art and they had free advertising, and hoped we could sort out a similar arrangement. Espcially as the walls are very clinical lab looking.
awesome. to start with he's going to do a giant breaking thru the wall, the prelimarly sketch was great. followed by two marines pointing the way to the toilets. in the upstairs gaming room blew me away a volcanic mural on the walls, but he's going to attempt a floor mural with the lava flowing under a glacier!! again he did a prelim sketch, i don't know how some people can just draw stuff like that out of thin air, baam!
we also talked about the downstairs gaming room on the far wall making it look like a view from a space ship bridge ot onto a galaxy far far away.

but the rest was sureal finished setting up our castle , and the space hulk then just sat there eating bacon sandwhiches radio on full blast just chillin.

http://hirstarts.yuku.com/topic/5312/fieldstone-keep


http://hirstarts.yuku.com/topic/4272/sentinel-v


As mentioned opening day sat so will post some more pictures then

[nagged]

Well what a week!!!
We had our opening day on sat 1st, the week before had been quite stressful, but finally flung open the doors and so far very happy.
Without the rescources of a bank loan a decision was made early on only to spend what we've made, this luckily allows us to respond to our gamers needs.
Anyway back to saturday. A few diamonds of the community turned up to help at 6am (4 hours before zulu hour). Hoovering the floor, setting up terrain, setting up demo & participation games. Then the unexpected people queing at the door 1/2 hour early (despite the local rag giving us any coverage or announcements prior to the weekend).
The day saw a steady stream of people coming in, which was welcomed rather than being inundated. most of the people we knew many brought their kids which was great, but we also met a lot of new faces, also great!
The store offers 10% off all products, in order to get our alcohol licsence we need to be a private members club, membership costs £10 (giving another 5%store discount) and 50 members signed up.
The bar/food area was busy all day, and at one point 6 kids aged between 11 -all playing Talisman........Awesome!!!
As a venue we offer a pay and play fee of £3 doesn't matter how many games you play you still only pay £3 people we still playing at midnight.
In all honesty we have a bigger venue than we need at the moment but we're gearing up for tournaments, allowing us to (hopefully) expand, so far the response has been fantastic with our first "club night" bringing in 60 people, arriving earlier than usual most playing warhammer and finishing with game of magic the gathering.
anyway a few pics to show the story so far

http://www.thegiantslair.co.uk/gl_fo...read.php?tid=9

the scene at 6am
http://www.thegiantslair.co.uk/gl_fo...read.php?tid=6

[HereBeDragons]

Brilliant work guys! Congratulations! Looks like a great place you've got, well worth all the effort you must have put in. Im incredibly jealous!

[Daniel36]

Really cool! I also like how you embedded the facebook link button into your rusty "banner" on the website. I love the website!

[Swabilius]

Everything is complete and after 4 weeks of trading we look like this now http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Gi...75416262527669

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have supported us.

Thank you Da Management

[Daniel36]

Man I wished you had started this store near my house! O_o

[nagged]

Okay, its been a crazy four weeks since we opened. At the moment we are closed on tuesdaysand every day has seen new faces come in and have had people in for games or even just for a coffee and a catchup.
If I'm honest its the saturdays and sundays that so far let us down probably our quietest days of the week, what we need to do is to encourage the legendary/apocalypse battles. were people can field entire collections, we've had a couple so far and people are starting to take the opportunity.
Magic the Gathering has exploded onto the Giants Lair scene and we've been asked to host tournaments and launches, we can hold 80-90 people playing warhammer so possibly 120 playing magic.
Our scenary /terrain workshop will soon be online to start upgrading the facilities, and of course will be previewed here!!
The resident club has flourished, last night saw all but one table used (19 out of 20 tables available) with roleplayers and magic filling up the bar area, so more tables being built and we'll soon be ready to use upstairs.
Our main tournament season lands soon and we'll be looking for our house champions in fantasy, 40k, warmachine and magic.
Food is being well recieved (40 burgers ringing in the tills) and a couple of guys threatening to bring in wives for a meal!! realistic prices rather than inflated bar prices.

some pictures from a thursday




more updates coming soon