Section 31 is a non-profit social gaming community, that runs events every Wednesday night in Leicester (UK). We run events for the public to meet up and play a wide variety of card games and board games. Our events are run by a voluntary committee, who are keen to share their knowledge of gaming to others. We encourage people to bring their own games to the events, but also have our own library of games that can be played there. Every event costs £1 per person, but don't worry, your first event with us is always free.
Origins
Our Chairman and founder(Chris) started up the group as a place to play games with some of his friends, after playing Heroclix at Phoenix Games for a few years, and his venue closing down. At the time, he was helping to run Starbase Leicester, the local science fiction and fantasy social group, as their First Officer, but he wanted to do something different.
The group's first venue was the basement of The Darkside Cafe, a goth/anime themed cafe that he frequented from time to time. To begin with, it was a couple of friends meeting once a month to play card games, but soon more folks were added to our roster. Sadly, the cafe shut a few months later and the group moved into a spacious art gallery called Fabrika. The main attraction there was that their tables were recycled wooden cable drum reels, which were a metre in diameter and provided more space than we needed. It was there that we began reaching out to other gaming groups, including the Leicester Sabres at DeMontfort University and started to visit other gaming shops and communities in other cities. We also started to use Meetup to attract new people to the group and included Magic the Gathering at some of our events.
Another year later and Fabrika shut down for renovations, but after a chance communication with a couple who were setting up a new bar in the Leicester City Centre, the group moved to Speekeasy Leicester, which was a console-gaming themed bar that was sat above the La Vida/Mono Vita Italian restaurant. They stayed open for a year, almost to the day, but we managed to remain in the venue after further negotiations with the restaurant downstairs.
In early 2020 we moved once again to Leicester's oldest standing house, Wygston's House, which had recently been renovated into a really nice looking venue. We were there a few short weeks, when Covid 19 started to raise it's ugly head, and with a majortiy we closed down our group's IRL meetings, opting instead for weekly gaming sessions online, using services such as Discord, Tabletop Simulator and Board Game Arena. We're looking forward to meeting again IRL at some point, but at the time of print, the virus is still contagious and a lot of people are still quarantined at home.
What's in a name?
One of the things we get asked about, from time to time, is why Section 31? Is there a reason why you use that name? Well, as discussed above, our Chairman was once upon a time running events for the local Science Fiction group Starbase Leicester and came across the name doing research for a quiz. The name Section 31 comes from Star Trek and was an autonomous group within the Federation set up to deal with any covert missions needed to help out the goody goody image of the Federation. It's appeared in many episodes of the show, across the many variations of the show throughout the years and is often portrayed as the super secret organisation it is. The main way Section 31 differs in this respect, is that it's not connected to any other group and is run by a voluntary committee and our Chairman/Founder/Overlord Chris. We're also not super keen on murdering folks that get in our way or disagree with our methods.
Origins
Our Chairman and founder(Chris) started up the group as a place to play games with some of his friends, after playing Heroclix at Phoenix Games for a few years, and his venue closing down. At the time, he was helping to run Starbase Leicester, the local science fiction and fantasy social group, as their First Officer, but he wanted to do something different.
The group's first venue was the basement of The Darkside Cafe, a goth/anime themed cafe that he frequented from time to time. To begin with, it was a couple of friends meeting once a month to play card games, but soon more folks were added to our roster. Sadly, the cafe shut a few months later and the group moved into a spacious art gallery called Fabrika. The main attraction there was that their tables were recycled wooden cable drum reels, which were a metre in diameter and provided more space than we needed. It was there that we began reaching out to other gaming groups, including the Leicester Sabres at DeMontfort University and started to visit other gaming shops and communities in other cities. We also started to use Meetup to attract new people to the group and included Magic the Gathering at some of our events.
Another year later and Fabrika shut down for renovations, but after a chance communication with a couple who were setting up a new bar in the Leicester City Centre, the group moved to Speekeasy Leicester, which was a console-gaming themed bar that was sat above the La Vida/Mono Vita Italian restaurant. They stayed open for a year, almost to the day, but we managed to remain in the venue after further negotiations with the restaurant downstairs.
In early 2020 we moved once again to Leicester's oldest standing house, Wygston's House, which had recently been renovated into a really nice looking venue. We were there a few short weeks, when Covid 19 started to raise it's ugly head, and with a majortiy we closed down our group's IRL meetings, opting instead for weekly gaming sessions online, using services such as Discord, Tabletop Simulator and Board Game Arena. We're looking forward to meeting again IRL at some point, but at the time of print, the virus is still contagious and a lot of people are still quarantined at home.
What's in a name?
One of the things we get asked about, from time to time, is why Section 31? Is there a reason why you use that name? Well, as discussed above, our Chairman was once upon a time running events for the local Science Fiction group Starbase Leicester and came across the name doing research for a quiz. The name Section 31 comes from Star Trek and was an autonomous group within the Federation set up to deal with any covert missions needed to help out the goody goody image of the Federation. It's appeared in many episodes of the show, across the many variations of the show throughout the years and is often portrayed as the super secret organisation it is. The main way Section 31 differs in this respect, is that it's not connected to any other group and is run by a voluntary committee and our Chairman/Founder/Overlord Chris. We're also not super keen on murdering folks that get in our way or disagree with our methods.