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Alternate Reality Games

Meet others in your local area interested in Alternate Reality Games. ARG is known as a cross-media game that deliberately blurs the line between in-game experiences and the real world.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Yes! Check out alternate reality games events happening today here. These are in-person gatherings where you can meet fellow enthusiasts and participate in activities right now.

Discover all the alternate reality games events taking place this week here. Plan ahead and join exciting meetups throughout the week.

Absolutely! Find alternate reality games events near your location here. Connect with your local community and discover events within your area.

Alternate Reality Games Events Today

Join in-person Alternate Reality Games events happening right now

Heart Stealers: An Arcade for a Cause, Women's History Month Edition
Heart Stealers: An Arcade for a Cause, Women's History Month Edition
**If you have registered for Early Access via Patreon you do not need to sign up via Meetup** Heart Stealers is a community engagement-focused, “King of the Hill” challenge that will introduce guests to new people and new games, and encourage folks to play with purpose. **To celebrate Women's History Month, this month's causes are fem-focused!!** This month the non-profits to champion are: DC [Coalition Against Domestic Violence (DCCADV)](https://dccadv.org/), The[ Women’s Foundation](https://thewomensfoundation.org/our-history/), and the [DC Abortion Fund](https://dcabortionfund.org/). How well you and your team do at stealing necklaces from the other teams will determine what portion of the prize pool your nonprofit will receive. Every nonprofit goes home with something! **To participate, guests will be requested to contribute a $10 donation at the door. This will go to the donation pool for the event.** Folks may also purchase tokens from DCGG or tokens can be purchased with cash. Tokens are 25¢ each and games are typically 2-4 tokens. Upon arrival, each player will get three heart necklaces to represent their lives. Lives can be won or lost by challenging other players to one of GameOn's amazing arcade games. **Schedule** 7:00pm – 7:15pm: Mingle Time 7:15pm: Welcome and Game Start 7:20pm – 9:30pm: Heart Stealers Gameplay BUT WAIT THERES MORE: **To support DCGG programming and get sweet perks like early access to events** visit [https://www.patreon.com/DCGamingGroup](https://www.patreon.com/DCGamingGroup) Interested in wearing your support? We have fundraiser shirts designed by local artists. [https://dcgaminggroup.printful.me/](https://dcgaminggroup.printful.me/) Feel free to join the DC Gaming Community in pickup games and game discussion by hopping into the Discord: [https://discord.gg/NP7v7VF](https://discord.gg/NP7v7VF) **Disclaimer and Community Code of Conduct:** The DC Gaming Group is dedicated to creating a safe and inclusive space for participants. To learn more about our code of conduct, you can read more here. Events may be recorded for promotional material.
Come Play Tammany Hall
Come Play Tammany Hall
We have one copy of Tammany Hall, so we can accommodate up to 5 players. If you have a copy, let us know. Otherwise, if we get more than 5 players, we will play additional appropriate games. From BGG: ***Tammany Hall*** *is a game of backstabbing, corruption, temporary alliances, and taking power at all costs. If you want to rule New York, you are going to need to play the city's growing immigrant populations against one another. Help the immigrant groups who owe you political favors, call in those favors to slander your rivals, and win elections.* *In **Tammany Hall,** players help immigrants settle in New York, collect political favors from those immigrant groups, send ward bosses into Manhattan to secure votes, and slander political opponents. An election is held at the end of every fourth year, and the player who uses his power base best will be elected mayor. The Mayor's grip on the city is tenuous at best. After every election, the Mayor must pay off his political rivals by placing them in offices that they can wield to try to take control of the city. Every player is your friend, every player is your enemy.*
What Technology Are You Optimistic About?
What Technology Are You Optimistic About?
Details Location: Crimson Whiskey Bar (Either the downstairs whiskey bar, or main floor bar, TBD) The purpose of Thinkers and Drinkers is to facilitate casual but meaningful and interesting conversations with other people in a face-to-face setting. The topics cover a wide variety of issues and are different for every meeting. While conversations may get heated at times, we ask that all members be respectful of each other and refrain from personal insults. Here's the updated version: *** **Topic: Reasons to Be Excited (A Technology Optimism Round)** It's easy to doom-scroll your way into thinking the world is falling apart. And honestly, some of our recent meetings haven't helped. So this time, we're flipping the script: what technology are you actually *excited* about? This isn't a request for blind techno-utopianism. Skepticism is welcome. But the goal is to spend some time on the genuine wins and promising horizons, because there are more of them than the headlines suggest. Here's a quick tour of some things worth being optimistic about: * **AI in everyday life** — Love it or hate it, AI tools are genuinely saving people hours of tedious work. From coding assistants to writing tools to writing this very event descriptin you're reading now to AI that sits inside your spreadsheets and email, the practical applications are moving faster than most people expected even two years ago. The question is less "will this be useful?" and more "who actually benefits, and when?" * **Clean energy's quiet boom** — Solar and battery storage have had a decade of jaw-dropping cost reductions. The U.S. added more renewable capacity last year than any year on record. It's not fast enough for some, but the trajectory is real. * **CRISPR and gene editing** — In late 2023, the FDA approved the first CRISPR-based treatment for sickle cell disease — a condition that has caused lifelong suffering for millions of people with very few good options. It's the first of what could be a long list of genetic diseases that are now, for the first time, actually curable rather than just manageable. * **Lab-grown meat** — Chicken and beef grown directly from animal cells, no slaughter required. It's real, it's been approved for sale in the US, and while it's still expensive and not yet on your grocery shelf, the cost curves are dropping fast. Whether you care about animal welfare, climate, or just think it's cool, this one is quietly wild. * **SpaceX and the new space economy** — Reusable rockets went from fantasy to routine. Launch costs have dropped by an order of magnitude in 15 years, opening the door to satellite internet in remote areas, new science missions, and yes, eventually humans on Mars (whether or not that excites you). * **Brain-computer interfaces** — Still early, still expensive, but Neuralink and others are giving paralyzed patients the ability to control devices with their thoughts. The sci-fi shelf life on this one is getting shorter. **Questions to Consider:** * Is there a technology you were skeptical about that has actually won you over? What changed your mind? * Which of these feels most overhyped — and which feels *under*hyped? * Are the benefits of new technology reaching people broadly, or mostly concentrating among the already-fortunate? * Is optimism about technology a luxury? Does it depend on where you live, how much money you have, or what you do for work? * What's something small and unglamorous — not AI, not space — that has genuinely made your life better recently?
Magic The Gathering League Play - 3 Gear Games
Magic The Gathering League Play - 3 Gear Games
**Join us for our very first MTG League Play!** Are you ready to elevate your Magic the Gathering experience to new heights? Look no further! 🚀✨ We're thrilled to invite you to join our Magic the Gathering League Play – where the realms of strategy, skill, and camaraderie converge. Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a novice spellcaster, there's a place for you in our League Play. \* **Date**: Thursdays starting January 4th \* **Time**: 6pm - 9pm \* **Cost**: This event will be $15 and $7.50 for pass holders/ gold patrons. Each participant will receive a booster pack with purchase and a 2nd pack after playing a round. **(Pay at the shop the day of the event)** \***Place**: 3 Gear Games 25 C Street, Laurel MD 20707 --**Game Room Code Of Conduct**--[https://www.3gearstudios.com/service/code-of-conduct/](https://www.3gearstudios.com/service/code-of-conduct/?fbclid=IwAR054LDLzN5OeBImBfQpND1a_83AGAxPeFHwMO303UD3Z7rggbPn-TRYH64) Email questions to 3geargames@gmail.com
Board games Thursday evening
Board games Thursday evening
Blue Note Burlesque at Sid Gold's Request Room
Blue Note Burlesque at Sid Gold's Request Room
TICKET LINK: [https://www.eventbrite.com/e/blue-note-burlesque-at-sid-golds-request-room-mar-2026-tickets-1980559218939](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/blue-note-burlesque-at-sid-golds-request-room-mar-2026-tickets-1980559218939) Adv: $25 \| Day\-of: $30 Doors: 7:00 p\.m\. \| Show: 7:30\-9:00 p\.m\. A blue note is a musical moment that doesn’t quite land where you expect. And that's the spirit behind this burlesque revue from DMVariety! Start your weekend early with Blue Note Burlesque, a night of vintage tease and thrilling variety acts that'll leave you exclaiming "I can't believe I found this in an alley!" Join Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey alum Jim Dandy, award-winning burlesque performer Delilah Dentata, and guest artists D3ADP4NN, London St. Juniper, and Miss Rachael for a night of performances that are a little off-key in all the best ways. We invite you to stick around after the show - Sid Gold's piano karaoke begins right where we leave off. Start your evening with our sensationally skilled performers, end it by attempting a piano-backed rendition of Eminem's "Lose Yourself." Please note: The entrance to Sid Gold's is in the alley between 4th and 5th St. NE. (Look for the "Piano Bar" sign!)

Alternate Reality Games Events This Week

Discover what is happening in the next few days

Family Board Games
Family Board Games
Looking for a fun, screen-free way to spend your Sunday afternoon? Join us every other week at the Community Center for a few hours of friendly competition and laughter. Feel free to bring your own treasured game or borrow one from our shelves. It’s the ultimate low-pressure way for families to connect. Note: This is not a drop-off event. Please ensure children have a parent or guardian joining in on the fun.
Rockville Gamers
Rockville Gamers
Root (6pm)
Root (6pm)
*Root* is a game of woodland might and right. Stalk the woods as one of the Vagabonds, seize the initiative with the Eyrie birds of prey, rule over your subjects as the Marquise de Cat, or command the Woodland Alliance to create a new order. With creatures and cunning, you'll rule a fantastic forest kingdom in the ultimate asymmetric board game of adventure and war.
High Interaction Board Games at Western Market
High Interaction Board Games at Western Market
We play a variety of games with a focus on high interaction Euros. Events will start with quick games while people arrive and eat lunch. We will start longer games between 1:30pm and 2pm. While the official end time is 5pm, people are welcome to continue playing games afterwards. Western Market closes at 7pm on Sundays. This page has more examples of high interaction Euros: [Old-school German-style Games](https://boardgamegeek.com/guild/view/3948). Here are some games that have been played at past events: High Interaction Euros * [Medici](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/46/medici) * [Catan](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13/catan) * [Hansa Teutonica](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/43015/hansa-teutonica) * [Puerto Rico](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3076/puerto-rico) * [Concordia](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/124361/concordia) * [Power Grid](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2651/power-grid) * [Brass: Birmingham](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/224517/brass-birmingham) Other high interaction games * [Innovation](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/63888/innovation) * [Imperial](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24181/imperial) There are a variety of food and drink options. Western Market is allowing us to use the space for free. Please reciprocate by purchasing something, even if it is just a soda. Directions If you're taking the Orange, Silver, or Blue lines, exit at the Foggy Bottom metro station and walk two blocks to the east. If you are taking the Red Line, Farragut North is an approximately a 15 minute walk away. There is also free street parking to the north.
Underwater Cities
Underwater Cities
We will be playing up to two games of Underwater Cities. All experience levels welcome. Expect the game teach to start promptly within the first 10 minutes. In Underwater Cities players represent the most powerful brains in the world, brains nominated due to the overpopulation of Earth to establish the best and most livable underwater areas possible. The main principle of the game is card placement. On their turn players select an action space on the board and play a card from their hand. They only gain the advantages of the played card if its color matches the selected action space. Players may always resolve the action space they selected. Actions and advantages can allow players to intake raw materials; to build and upgrade city domes, tunnels and production buildings such as farms, desalination devices and laboratories in their personal underwater area; to move their marker on the initiative track (which is important for player order in the next turn); to activate the player's action cards; and to collect cards, both special ones and basic ones that allow for better decision possibilities during gameplay. Build the best underwater city and score the most victory points to win. Find [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHvkzOAgsyM&pp=ygUdaG93IHRvIHBsYXkgdW5kZXJ3YXRlciBjaXRpZXM%3D) a how to play video on youtube. Find [here](https://www.riograndegames.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Underwater-Cities-Rules.pdf) the rulebook. Note: Please remember to update your RSVP if you can not attend the event. By updating your RSVP when you can't make it other players on the waitlist will have a chance to attend. No-shows may make it harder to attend future meetups. Also, all library rules apply to this meetup event. Mainly that no food is allowed in the library. Covered drinks are allowed.
The Dulles Area Gaming Group at the Herndon Library
The Dulles Area Gaming Group at the Herndon Library
Hey, adult Gamerinos! Join the Dulles Area Gaming Group for a fun-filled day of gaming [Eurogame](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurogame) and [Amerithrash](https://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Ameritrash) style at the Herndon Library! This game day promises to be a fantastic opportunity to connect in-person with fellow adult board game enthusiasts in the Dulles Area. Our group is passionate about board games and excited to welcome new adult members for a day of friendly competition and camaraderie. Bring your favorite games or try out one brought by another player. Whether you're a seasoned gamer or new to the tabletop world, there will be something for everyone to enjoy. Don't miss out on this chance to roll the dice, strategize your moves, and have a blast with Dulles Area Gaming Group! We advise players arrive 10 minutes before the start time, since selection of games and instructions begin shortly after. Late arrivals will most likely have a hard time joining a game already in progress. This event is for adults age 18+. There is free parking and free Wi-Fi at this location. We look forward to having you join us!

Alternate Reality Games Events Near You

Connect with your local Alternate Reality Games community

Board Game Garage Sale
Board Game Garage Sale
Head out to FANGs 2nd annual board game garage sale! **We will have multiple sellers and hundreds of games!** We're selling games from 5pm - 8pm. Swing into the event room on the first floor and pick up some great "new to you" games. Grab a beer while you're there and tip our bar tender friends Seventh Son has a small parking lot & street parking is free on Sundays. They will also have a food truck. You can play your games in the Sun Room (up stairs) or at the tables in the main bar.
Board games at The Forge
Board games at The Forge
The Forge does have a full bar and kitchen. There is no cover charge but they do request all attendees to purchase a minimum of ~$20 per person. Soft drink refills are $1 each. Please support our hosts so we can continue to provide great events for the group! The Forge has a large library of games available for us to enjoy. Hosts and regulars will also provide numerous popular games but please bring any games you would like to teach and/or play. Doors open at 6, and we expect gaming to be rolling by around 630. Please promptly end your games and clear out the space at 10pm when the bar closes. We encourage socializing but do not permit disruptive behavior of any kind. Thank you for your continued commitment to providing a fun and welcoming space to veteran, newbie, and rookie gamers in the Columbus area. Parking can be challenging. There is a parking lot behind the neighboring Mexican restaurant that is free and easy to walk from but it's a bit hidden.
CABS March Saturday 3/21
CABS March Saturday 3/21
Thanks for being a part of the CABS Meetup Group! We meet @ the COFFEE UNDERGROUND on Indianola Avenue. We play many different games @ CABS - bring your own or play one of the OVER 2000 in our library. What are your favorite games? What was the last game you played? Hope to see and game with you soon! Check us out on Facebook! Doors open early on Saturday Mornings at 10am and around 4pm on Fridays if you are interested in learning new / simpler games ... or new to the hobby or just want to check us out come in early just after noon and we will show you around before the crowd grows. Stay for a game or two, an hour or two or for the day! Your first visit is free and after that it's $5 a meeting or you can join for the year! It's Your Move
Casual Boardgames - make friends, then beat them in games
Casual Boardgames - make friends, then beat them in games
Welcome to Casual Boardgames, where we enjoy classic tabletop games and social deduction games while bonding over good food, drinks, and great conversations. 
We started this group to meet new people and make new friends, and bonding over games in a relaxed atmosphere is a great way to do that. We currently meet near route 23 and Polaris Parkway, and this is close to areas like Powell, Lewis Center, Worthington, and parts of Westerville and Columbus. 
Feel free to bring your own games or play one of the many games our members bring. If you are inexperienced, we will help you learn. 
Here are just a few examples of the kind of games we play. 
Tabletop/board games: Splendor, Catan, Azul, Dominion, 7 Wonders… 
Social deduction games: Code Names, Chameleon, Werewords… 
IMPORTANT: 
1. While we love playing a variety of games and competing, we are not just about the games. We interact and talk while playing, and this leads to a lot of laughter and fun. If you just want to compete and focus solely on the game, then this is probably not the group you are looking for. 
2. Many people join groups like this and never (or rarely) show up after weeks or months. If you join and never really come, we will eventually remove you from the group as a courtesy to our members. Why? Because limiting group conversations (on the app) to regular members makes communication and planning much easier. Also, while it may be rare, it protects members from people who join because they are interested in following a person instead of having a real interest in our group. If you get removed, it is just because you haven’t come, and we follow this protocol as a courtesy to our regular game players.
CABS March Friday 3/27
CABS March Friday 3/27
Thanks for being a part of the CABS Meetup Group! We meet @ the COFFEE UNDERGROUND on Indianola Avenue. We play many different games @ CABS - bring your own or play one of the OVER 2000 in our library. What are your favorite games? What was the last game you played? Hope to see and game with you soon! Check us out on Facebook! Doors open early on Saturday Mornings at 10am and around 4pm on Fridays if you are interested in learning new / simpler games ... or new to the hobby or just want to check us out come in early just after noon and we will show you around before the crowd grows. Stay for a game or two, an hour or two or for the day! Your first visit is free and after that it's $5 a meeting or you can join for the year! It's Your Move
The Bi-Weekly Board Game Extravaganza!
The Bi-Weekly Board Game Extravaganza!
All Fem Board Game Night
All Fem Board Game Night
Join us for a night of board gaming with FANG (Fem All Night Gaming). **We are an all fem board game group** in Columbus, Ohio. No cis-men, please! We play modern hobby board games! If you're unsure what that is, we can teach you! We'll be meeting on the second floor of Giant Eagle in their cafe area. Giant Eagle has a lot of food and beverage options including their hot foods bars. You are also welcome to bring in any outside food.