Now that you’re starting to get an idea of the many different ways that one can delve into the nerdy world, do you really want to do so alone? If you are reading this, then probably not. So what are some ways that you can hang out with nerdy friends?

One of the biggest ways to meet new nerdy friends and generally hang out with people is THE CON! This somewhat intimidating mass of humanity is a nerd party that is already well-established. The one con that I’ve been to a few times, CONvergence (held in Minneapolis, MN), is basically a non-stop party. There are panels you can go to, games you can play, performances you can see, and rooms to party in. And there are obviously other bigger cons that you could go do as well, like SDCC (San Diego Comic Con), GenCon, or PAX. These are even larger than the approximately 6,000-person con that is CONvergence. However, going to a con can be intimidating, and for that reason, either Kristen or I will post about navigating conventions at a later date.

So what are some things that you could host yourself when you don’t want to go out and spend energy meeting new people?

Board Game Night: Kristen and I host one of these every month. It’s very simple; since we already have a ton of games, we invite people over to play them, and base each game night on a different theme, or just play whatever the group feels like playing that night. And we don’t even have to worry about all the food, as we ask people to bring things to share if they want to, and we always have more than enough.

And how could you theme a board game night, you ask? To give you a few examples, we’ve done themes like cooperative games, war games, horror games, and party games before. Now, you will of course need to have a collection of games to pull this off (or have several friends who can bring some along), but even just saying “Hey, come over and let’s play some board games!” without having a theme works just fine as well.

Movie/TV Show Marathon (or finale screening): There are so many different trilogies and combinations of movies that you can marathon through, and it’s a perfect excuse to stay up too late, eat too much popcorn, and generally just have a great time. Pick your favorite movies to watch through — you could go Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, or Batman, to name a few. You are only really limited by your imagination. Once you’ve picked what you’re going to watch, put up decorations or prepare food that will go along with it. If you watch Lord of the Rings, put a sign on the door that says “No Admittance Except on Party Business,” or if you go with Pirates of the Caribbean, make like Captain Jack and insist that your guests have some rum. This same premise works for hosting a screening of the finale of your favorite TV show, or in the case of shorter-running shows, like Firefly, marathoning the whole thing.

Theme Party: This varies slightly from the previous one in that you put much more effort into the look and feel of the whole party. You could pick pirates again, so, for example, instead of just making some rum punch and putting on the movies, you get all dressed up in a pirate costume and invite others to do so as well, and then you walk around talking to all the scurvy dogs that be showing up aboard yer ship. Or you could have a fancy tea party and dress up in the styles from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

LAN/Video Game Party: Maybe all you want to do is hang out with your friends who all play the same computer or video games as you do. Get together and plan an evening where you hang out playing and watching others play that game, whether it is League of Legends, DOTA (Defense of the Ancients), or another one that allows for group play. Or, if you are old school, you could set up a LAN to play Command and Conquer against other people in the same room as you. Or maybe you are into more active games — let everyone go crazy playing Just Dance until you are out of breath from either dancing or laughing.

There are even more options as to what you can do for a nerdy party, but these are just some fun ones to get your braining working on coming up with more ideas. With some of them, like going to a con, or hosting a board game night or movie night, I’m sure that we’ll write more later to expand on those ideas. And if you have some great nerdy party ideas that you’ve tried (or want to try), let us know in one of the ways below:

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