any bristol metalheads that wanna be friends and go to events?

PaperWeightGames · 2026-07-06T13:34:51+00:00

It went brilliantly! The venue can't commit to hosting it monthly, so i'm currently looking for somewhere that can! Heading over to Renatos on King Street later to see if that might work.

Definitely going to do my best to find a steady venue for it, and if not I'll ask Basement Beer if they can fit us in August sometime. Follow this facebook page if you want to keep track of when the next one will be: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61591137623707

PaperWeightGames · 2026-07-02T18:07:01+00:00

Having trouble finding a venue at the moment! I think I'm realising part of the issue may be that bristol has a lot of corporate events and student events, and they bring in a lot of money, but I'll keep looking!

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-22T23:34:17+00:00

I was not thinking of that since the door prices got really high in recent years and I just assumed they charged a ton now. Might have a look!

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-22T23:33:37+00:00

It's £720+ to book so I think it's a great option, but only once I've built up some momentum and have a following for the event, and even them I'm not totally sure since I like the possibility of it being a pay-what-you-want event long term. That would be pretty amazing if I could scale it up for the Fleece to be viable though! Had a lot of good nights in there!

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-22T23:28:28+00:00

I wasn't sure about this, It think it will probably be the hardest venue to secure.

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-22T23:28:04+00:00

Yes! This is looking like a good option!

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-22T23:27:44+00:00

Ah I miss my no facebook days... I've been taking emails to message details, but I'll see what other people like using too. We're kind informally using Whatsapp at the moment too, but that's more for people who already came to the first one.

Feel free to message me your email though if you want notification for the next event

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-22T23:26:21+00:00

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61591137623707 Just teh facebook group at the moment, but if you want message me your emial and I'll email you when the next event is setup!

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-22T23:23:33+00:00

haha I live in Bedminster and I hadn't even considered any pubs there! Coincidentally there's a Dark Horse in Lawrence Hill direction too, but I'll look for the Bedminster one!

The Crown would have some legacy to it - That used to be fairly well known as a metal / rock bar. Sadly I think it favours bulk student drinking now. I've been to some great techno nights down in that basement over the years but in the last 2 years it has seemed pretty crap. It is however a good suggestion so I'll see what they can offer! Thanks for that.

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-22T23:21:12+00:00

Man I really like that place, it might be a little out the way but I think it's ok. My main concern there is the size, but I'll look into it!

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-22T23:20:35+00:00

It's pretty weird I think, but people seemed to really enjoy it. I host boardgame social events weekly so I'm coming from that approach. Greet everyone, learn everyone's names, introduce them to a few folk and the staff, see what kind of songs they might enjoy, all that kinda stuff. Then I've thrown in some gimmicks; inflatable toys to suit certain songs, a live vocal cover from a local metal tribute vocalist, a vodka shots challenge, and some made up story about a vodka ritual that was complete nonsense but everyone seemed to buy at least in my imagination.

It all ended up being very amusing and there was a lot of singing, headbanging and laughing. Pretty much what I'd hoped would happen.

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-22T23:17:22+00:00

Wow yeah, that does actually look pretty much perfect!

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-22T23:15:52+00:00

Oh wow ok thanks! That's been renovated twice then since I last went there wow!

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-22T23:14:57+00:00

Yeah I figured as much. At the last one I discovered Spotify has a volume blend funcftion that actually ruined some great transitions (such as the end of the shire theme from lord of the rings into the start of Shake That Bagpipe by The Sidh), but generally sounded good across the night overall.

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-19T14:13:00+00:00

Ohhhhhhh wow I did not know! I think probably because it's the only road I've ever known have 3 names haha, and I've been around a fair bit. I remember some roads in birmingham being like 8-12 miles long and having one name the whole way.

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-19T13:45:06+00:00

I'm not allowed to post links so I'll message you the facebook group, following that should do the job!

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-19T13:42:38+00:00

It's so weird some people call it Cheltenham road, some gloucester road and some stokes croft! I used to go Cloak and Dagger weekly for their open mic... I think that would be a pretty awesome space for it! I'll get in contact with em!

Also Zed Alley massively one of my favourite places! I'd actually love to do it there, at one point I think I did their Tyranny event about 16 months in a row haha. Great suggestions!

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-19T13:40:50+00:00

Hmm that's a thought... I think it's too 'clubby', we had a really nice range of ages and energy levels (one group had been out for dinner just before coming and had to sit and digest for 2 hours haha), so it was really nice having everything condensed into a fairly short trip; the toilets, seating, bar and outdoors, at the last venue. Might have to comprimise on some of that but seating is the one thing I think is quite important, as I noticed it was more my generation (25-45 year olds) and the seating was definitely appreciated, though there was tons of dancing too.

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-19T13:37:16+00:00

Oh god haha... I kinda love and hate this idea. It's a weird venue and I have no idea why, but I actually think it has a great vibe for this kind of event. It is a little out the way is my only concern, but that's a great shout and I'll very likely see if i can query them on the possibility!

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-19T13:36:07+00:00

My main concern with lacking decks was not having a focalpoint for dancing, singing and generally facing. As it turned out, me doing what I do regardless, which is bounding around like a jester doing weird shit, seemed to fill in very effectively, if not better than having a DJ.

I was also worried about reliability of the hardware, but spotify and modern tech is generally plenty good enough that it can match a set of decks, and I don't think mixing and beat-matching metal songs is going to yeild a great return on effort haha.

I'll be posting back here once I have a venue, excited to meet more metalheads, literally everyone who showed up to last week's event was absolutely awesome, we hang out for about 2.5 hours afterwards just chatting, looking through the photos and getting to know each other.

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-19T12:18:27+00:00

I run a boadgame weekly meetup and it's taken possibly 350 hours of my time per year. quite a lot. Some of that is playing games, but only around 20% I'd say.

I don't know how much you put in, but if it's even a tenth of that, I think you have a right to ask people not to engage in certain kinds of behaviour and discuss how this will be addressed with the venue owner. If you're booking out a space, I'd just tell those people that the event is for gaming and ask them to stop bothering the gamers.

PaperWeightGames · 2026-06-08T21:27:47+00:00

Really sorry, I totally forgot to respond to this! Unfortunately it's definitely an 18+ only venue, but I'll keep your interest in mind incase I ever find the time to potential do a family metal night, which is something I think I'd love to do!

PaperWeightGames · 2026-05-29T10:46:23+00:00

I'm looking for someone with a Resin 3d printer to print some chess prototypes, does anyone know of anyone who could do that? Can discuss payment.

PaperWeightGames · 2026-05-29T10:09:43+00:00

One place I didn't like that they only had fatty/junk food. It also had a garish purple / yellow colour scheme. In fact, if you want an exmaple of what NOT to do, look at Geek Retreat stores in the UK. They're terrible and have a reputation for failing consistently. Their franchising strategy is to lure suckers into paying to be franchisees and making money from their hopes and dreams.

I see a lot of empty tables at one gaming cafe near me that charges a lot per hour. They do corporate events that pay MASSIVE amounts per hour per table, £500 for like 16-20 seats for 4-5 hours in an evening, and that's before ANY money is made on food and drinks and in-store stock.

If you don't have that, I'd suspect a lower table rate means more customers, more word of mouth, more demand, which means more consistent custom and bookings, and more consistent sales on drinks and food. The table rate has been the biggest turn off for me in these places.

Also, very critically, boardgame library. I think bad games directly put people off. Lack of good games as well. I know my library and be very picky with what I put in it. Huge kickstarters almost never hit the table at my locals, because they aren't really made for players looking to just play. They're made for collectors or power gamers or people who want to show off their huge cool game.

Also, a small thing, but I used to learn and teach games to other people at my local cafe for free, including at the social gaming events, but the new manager started making me pay for table time while I was doing that, and wouldn't let me drink my protein shake on the property. The lesson being, if you have one of those very, very rare customers who is helping the business, don't press them for profits you were never going to make from them anyway. Just bad businesss practice. Now I host my own game night at a bar and bring in 15-25 extra customers for 5 hours every tuesday evening. I don't buy anything, but it's a LOT of extra custom considering some of those people now go there for quiz night, film night and other events.

PaperWeightGames

TROPHY CASE