Pretty new to the Star Wars FFG game (played in a one-shot) but love the system and narrative play. Looking for a group in the Bay Area that could take on a new player. I am pretty open to playing anywhere in the Bay Area. I'm from San Jose and I currently play in games in Pleasanton and in Palo Alto so travel isn't too much of a deal breaker for me. I can play Mondays, Tuesdays, every other Wednesdays, every other Saturdays or every other Sundays. I've played and run a lot of D&D in most editions but am new to Star Wars.

*crossing my fingers*

I used to live in Cupertino, right on the border with San Jose, on Stevens Creek Blvd.

That was back when I was doing some contracting at Apple. When that job was complete, I decided it was way too bloody friggin’ expensive to try to live out there, and I moved back to Austin, TX as quickly as I could.

Good luck, and let me know if you find anything!

I used to live in Cupertino, right on the border with San Jose, on Stevens Creek Blvd.That was back when I was doing some contracting at Apple. When that job was complete, I decided it was way too bloody friggin’ expensive to try to live out there, and I moved back to Austin, TX as quickly as I could.Good luck, and let me know if you find anything!

I agree, it's ridiculously expensive living here. It works out perfectly for me because I'm work in real estate, specifically in mortgage lending, so the strong market actually benefits me. You get so much more for your money outside of California though. I can't believe the beautiful homes that some of my friends have outside of California. If you work in software, mobile app development, etc., you'd be in the right field to afford living here. It's techie heaven here.

Anyhow, thanks for the encouragement. It's not as easy finding a Star Wars game here as it is finding a D&D game or Pathfinder. Perhaps it's the presence of league play that draws all the activity. I really like this game though so hopefully I get lucky and find a good group.

I'm running a monthly Edge game in the area through a normally D&D Meetup group (Search for I Attack the Darkness).

I'll probably open it up to new players after we finish up an arc this month and I'm also planning on running an AoR beginner's game one-shot next month to get more people (maybe even more GMs) interested. Shoot me a PM if you want/need any more details!

Heh - Any tips for a renter who desperately wants to buy a place (in SJ-area).

I'm running a monthly Edge game in the area through a normally D&D Meetup group (Search for I Attack the Darkness).

I'll probably open it up to new players after we finish up an arc this month and I'm also planning on running an AoR beginner's game one-shot next month to get more people (maybe even more GMs) interested. Shoot me a PM if you want/need any more details!

I think I did send you a message or posted a comment on your Meetup. I think it was the once a month Star Wars game. I'll send you a PM.

Heh - Any tips for a renter who desperately wants to buy a place (in SJ-area).

Biggest tip I can give for buying a home in the Bay Area is to do all your financing upfront. By that I mean, submitting a loan application with all the documents as if you have already found your home. Get the full underwriter approval, clear all your loan conditions upfront and now you're shopping with blank check from the bank. At that point, you'd only need an accepted bid and an appraisal to close on a house. You can bid non-contingent like a cash buyer and close as fast as a cash buyer at that point. Makes you head and shoulders stronger than most other bidders who don't make the effort to do all the hard work upfront.

If you work in software, mobile app development, etc., you'd be in the right field to afford living here. It's techie heaven here.

I was working for Apple, in the Retail Software Engineering group — they’re the ones who develop and support the back-of-house software that Apple store employees use and talk about only when they are actually in the back of house area, and are forbidden to even acknowledge outside of that space.

As a contractor, Apple was paying a much higher rate for my skills than if they were to hire me on as an Engineer, and I probably would have been closer to the top end of the pay scale than the bottom. And yet, I could still just barely afford a 1BR apartment that was at the very edge of the Cupertino/San Jose area.

There were shacks in my neighborhood that were not fit for rodent habitation, much less humans, and yet they were still valued north of $600k — the structure actually had a negative value, and the land was probably worth north of $750k. The houses that were fit for human habitation (barely) were north of $1m.

I worked out the math, and figured that if you were supposed to be paying the normal maximum portion of your salary for housing, that they would have to be paying more than $250-300k/year in order for me to be able to afford to live there.

Everyone else I knew who worked at Apple was much, much further out — like an hour-and-a-half or more away from the office, and they commuted in on the Apple shuttle bus, and worked while they were on the bus, and they were actually in or near the Cupertino office for only about four or five hours a day — because they spent the rest of their work day on the bus.

Work-wise, I found that everyone expected everyone else to be the next Steve Jobs, and if you weren’t at least two or three times smarter than everyone else there, and you couldn’t think at least a half dozen moves ahead of them, then they weren’t going to be bothered to even talk to you, much less employ you.

No, I’m much happier here in Austin. I feel that I’m a reasonably smart and talented guy, at least in my field. But I have much lower housing costs, much better commute to work, and overall much better life/work balance.

Anyhow, thanks for the encouragement. It's not as easy finding a Star Wars game here as it is finding a D&D game or Pathfinder. Perhaps it's the presence of league play that draws all the activity. I really like this game though so hopefully I get lucky and find a good group.

Yeah, I agree that it’s a good game. And I’m sure that there are some really good gamers out there in that area who are interested in playing it.

I just wish that I knew who and where they were, so that I could give you some pointers.

I will say that DunDraCon is apparently going to be going on out there very soon, and a number of notables in the FFG/SWRPG community will be on-site and playing Star Wars EotE, AoR, F&D, etc…. So, it might be a good idea for you to try to hook up with them.

I would recommend using the search field at the top of the page on the term “DunDraCon” in this forum, and see what other info you can turn up.

Yeah, I should have added that you'd need a two income household to afford living anywhere near the Cupertino area. That market is ridiculously competitive because of proximity to tech companies but also because of the extremely strong schools that draw the huge Asian and East Indian presence. Nothing drives home prices up more than those Asians bidding on homes with cash without any regard for comparables

Cupertino, Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, etc are just crazy right now. It's bled out into the Peninsula and Sunnyvale too. You really have to be ready to drive about 45 mins a day to get something decent under a million.

Also, my buddy also suggested Dundracon this coming weekend. He told me it might be difficult to get into a game unless I got there early for the wait list signup.

Dundracon is great! Even if you don't get into one of the scheduled games (they are scheduled by weighted lottery of people who signed up) and don't manage to crash into one (replacing no-shows) there is a very large an active open gaming area where you can join a pick up game.

Asking around about gaming groups can also be effective. My current group (The Z-Team) was formed at Dundracon.

Also, if you're there on Saturday, sign up for the Star Wars Megagame (Saturday 5pm game 319), It's run by our group, I'm one of the GMs.

Dundracon is great! Even if you don't get into one of the scheduled games (they are scheduled by weighted lottery of people who signed up) and don't manage to crash into one (replacing no-shows) there is a very large an active open gaming area where you can join a pick up game.

Asking around about gaming groups can also be effective. My current group (The Z-Team) was formed at Dundracon.

Also, if you're there on Saturday, sign up for the Star Wars Megagame (Saturday 5pm game 319), It's run by our group, I'm one of the GMs.

Yeah, I played in a Star Wars one-shot yesterday and met a Benjamin who said he was a part of the group running the Star Wars event. He's the one that told me about Dundracon and the Megagame. I'll be there and will try to get into that. That sounds like a cool concept.

I think I did send you a message or posted a comment on your Meetup. I think it was the once a month Star Wars game. I'll send you a PM.

You sure did! That'll teach me to point someone toward Meetup without actually checking my presence on Meetup beforehand!

Thanks for the PM, I'll write back to you there!

I'm interested in joining a SF Bay Area Edge of the Empire RPG group. I missed Dundracon and I want to start playing soon. Please PM me if you are open for a player to join your group. I have read most of the core book and I ran the beginners game. I have been playing RPG games for over 30 years but I'm new to FF EOE but I'd be a very active player.