I am not shy about being nerdy, I will talk anyone’s ear off about board games. That said, and as the previous paragraph implies, I want my living space to be functional for nerdy things, but for other things as well. So I don’t want every inch of the place to look like a massive board game fan lives here, unless I have enough games for all of it.

Bold or Subtle

As I talk about this, I am sitting in a very nerdy room. I have board games everywhere around me, I have action figures for comics, movies, and anime, there are D&D books and comics on shelves as well as classic video games. This room is a very bold and nerdy room. I even have expansion box covers on the floor that I am going to be putting up on the walls. This is a very bold and nerdy room.

On the flip side, in our living room. It looks pretty standard. Yes, there is a Switch and a PS4 hooked up to the TV. And yes, one of the pieces of art does have a T.A.R.D.I.S. as part of it. But it’s the subtle little pops of nerdiness that you might not notice if you aren’t looking for them. Like, in the kitchen on the sill next to the sink, there is a baby Yoda little figure. It isn’t something that you’d notice walking into the room, but it is there.

Why talk about this, because not every room needs to be so obviously nerdy. I don’t need a Kallax of board games in my living room. I don’t need movie posters hung up there. But in some of the other rooms, I can really lean into the nerdiness. When thinking about decorating nerdy, I don’t think people should hide the fact that they are nerdy. I proudly show off my game room to people. But with that, I also don’t think every room needs to be only nerdy.

Decorate for Function

What do I mean by this? Well, in my gaming room, I can make it super nerdy, because it is meant to be very nerdy. The room has a single focus, to play board games. The room with the games at our old house, that was for storing games and a guest bedroom. So I shouldn’t have gone crazy in that room and made it all nerdy with all the decorations because, it had to function as a bedroom as well. Here, I can have a gaming table and it’s all good.

But on the flip side, consider the function of your living room or kitchen. Those are supposed to function as well, a kitchen and a living room. If I were to put game shelves in our living room and a gaming table, I have now changed the function of that room. And I don’t just have people over to play board games. I want to hang out, maybe watch a movie, play with the toddler, have conversations, host holidays, things like that. If I were to make the living room extremely nerdy, it would no longer meet that functional requirement, and the house as a whole wouldn’t.

That is why the living room and kitchen might have those nerdy pops, but they aren’t completely nerdy. They aren’t going to be a space where it loses the functionality of the room in order to be nerdy. Now, this varies with your living situation, when I lived as a bachelor in an apartment, I could have the main areas be nerdier. Why, because I didn’t have the excess space for a game room, for a library. Everything had to be in the main area.

But What Do You Decorate With?

Well, let’s talk about our three nerdy rooms to be. I say to be because the theater room will get finished over time and the library will be getting it’s wall creating it in June and the start of July.

The Gaming Room

With the gaming room, I have just gone all over the place with nerdy. Right now since I have comics in here, I went with comics as well as just some other posters and things that I had. But I am going to be changing it up. The comics will likely stay, but there are a few things that I want to do.

Firstly, I have expansion box covers, and this actually drove some of the thinking. With that expansion box covers, I want to put them up on the wall to create some cool art. In particular I have 5 box covers for Marvel United that I can put up which will bridge that gap between the games and the comics. It also means that I don’t feel bad about throwing away the rest of the boxes and condensing stuff down, because now I got some art.

I also want to add in some hanging shelves or maybe even a plate rail. A plate rail is basically a thin shelf with a little lip that generally goes up pretty high in a room. If I were to get that, I could start to story and display the action figures up there but as well minis that I have painted to show them off. For example, all the Marvel United minis that need to be painted. All of that together would give it a cohesive feeling for gaming.

The Theater Room

I won’t talk about this one as much because I already have talked about it. You can find that in the article on Building a Home Theater. But to do a quick recap, we are going to have movie posters on the wall or TV show posters, we have a popcorn machine and we have some soft lighting to give it more of that movie theater feel. We want it to be a cozy space, as well, though, for sitting and enjoying a movie, so we have a futon, a 6″ long bean bag chair, and a chair down there.

As the room gets finished off, I might add in some sound dampening and I am guessing we’ll paint it a darker color so that the screen doesn’t reflect off the walls as much. Basically, we want it to feel a bit like a theater and mainly like a really relaxing place to watch a show or a movie.

The Library

Finally, we have the library. The library we are going to be focused on a few things. We had some fairy pictures that we had in a bathroom at our old place. Now we don’t have room for that, so they will go in the library. Along with that we are going to be adding in other book related nerdy things. We have a Hobbit throw pillow, a Sherlock Holmes cutout, and Kristen is going to go create a book nook.

The book nook is going to fall in line with books as well fairies as it is going to be a like a little fairy themed one. I think that will be fun to really be that subtle nerdy things in an already very nerdy room. I like it when a space has enough going on in it that you are looking and finding new things over time. This also works well with subtle things.

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But we all know about all of those things, sometimes it’s just tricky to remember.

Instead, I want to look back on 2020 thus far, and call out things that I have been thankful for in the nerdy realm.

I’m thankful for finishing Gloomhaven. It took a while, but we got through all of Gloomhaven, and as much as I love that game, and as much as it’s not terrible on Table Top Simulator, I was glad to play the last few sessions in person, outside, and wrap up that game. I’ll miss playing it, but next year I will have Frosthaven eating up space on my shelf as well to play.

I’m thankful for the virtual game nights that I’ve had. I’ve done a few with different groups of people Yes, it isn’t the same as in person, but I’ve made a lot of games work via video. Ganz Schon Clever, Criss Cross, Scattergories, Cross Clues, Just One, Hues and Cues, and I’m probably missing one or two. And beyond that we’ve played Jack Box Games as well which works nicely via Zoom. We had a few months with moving where we didn’t game, but overall it has been good to do that.

Starting Tainted Grail. Tainted Grail is not a game that should work that well via Zoom. However, we made it work, getting a few rules wrong in Chapter 1, and with a slight change on my end, I think it’ll be even better for us. I’ve been wanting to play this game in a group as it was good solo, but I love sharing an interesting story with people.

I’m thankful that I got to do a few games with the virtual GenCon. Probably my biggest disappoint was not being able to go to GenCon in terms of nerdy things this year. As an extrovert that was just so incredibly fun last year. I didn’t do a full slate of things like I would have had I been going in person, but I got three games in, which was a lot of fun. I got to play Night Cage, which I was backed on Kickstarter at the time, Fruit Picking, and The Librarians, which I almost backed because of playing it on Kickstarter. It was different, but I did have fun getting to play those games and be a part of the community that way.

I’m also thankful for the Mandalorian. We haven’t gotten much in the way of nerdy things on television or in the theaters this year. We will have nothing from Marvel and DC, honestly, I just kind of ignore at this point. But we did get Season 2 of the Mandalorian which is still just as good as the first season. It’s nice having that Friday evening fun back again.

All Systems Go is another thing that I’m thankful for. It’s a little local game shop that I get my Marvel Champions stuff from and where I trade in games. It’s been nice to be able to swing in there, look at their trades and chat for a few minutes once a month or so when I pick up the next hero or villain pack for Marvel Champions. And they delivered when businesses were shut down in Minnesota this spring into early summer. So even though I might not be playing quite as many games, I still have a steady supply of them.

I am thankful for GloryHoundd YouTube channel and community. I don’t watch many live YouTube videos, but every Friday at work, I join to watch their Kickstarter stream and it’s been a blast interacting with GloryHoundd and DrGloryHogg there and on their Discord and with the other people who are showing up to watch as well. It’s been a really nice way to have community even without being able to get around people.

Finally, I’m thankful that I was able to get a D&D game going via Zoom. I hadn’t been running a D&D game for a bit, and there was a chance I was going to play in one, but with Covid, that game didn’t happen. So instead I took up running a game and I’ve been a lot of fun, I have a lot of Friday Night D&D written about it the Tower of the Gods game, if you want to catch up with where I’m at. But D&D works well via video, sometimes we talk over each other, but I’ll try and get back to someone if that happens, and it’s a good time that I’m very thankful for and thankful to have friends to play with.

So with 2020 coming to a close in a month or so, what are some of the things that you’ve been thankful for?

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So, how does this pertain to us now, or if you break a leg or are stuck in a location for a while for some reason or another?

For some people, it’s going to be great, they can pick up the million hobbies that have been sitting around waiting for them to have time to get to. But if you truly are stuck, or an extrovert, you need something beyond the normal to pick up because you’ll go stir crazy or you’ll pick up a bad habit. Again from John Rhys Davies, he commented how on some films, people hobbies would be, a drink in the evening, late morning, mimosa in the morning, day off, drink by the pool. And it’s easier to slip into those more destructive habits than it is to get into a new hobby.

We should be taking this opportunity to return to hobbies that we maybe can’t get to because of social obligations or to pick up a new hobby if your current hobbies are mainly social. For me, I thrive off of social interaction, and in person social interaction in particular. I have a solo gaming channel, and that helps me be able to play more board games and play them solo, but it still isn’t the same as playing with someone in person. I just like the option to talk too much. The channel gives some outlet for that, but not really enough. And currently, I just had two nights of gaming in a row, and three in a week have to be cancelled because of being responsible and social distancing. So I’m already, without having social distancing going on too long, hit the point where I’m wanting social interaction because my base level is gone already. This is something that maybe not a ton of nerds are going to have going on, but there’s also still going to be a number of us out there that will struggle. Kristen put it well, as she’s an introvert, social distancing for an extrovert is like her having to interact with 50 people face to face every day, not just a passing “Hi” but having to spend a moment in conversation and actually interact with them.

But that’s a little bit of a tangent, but kind of sets the base for why I’m talking about picking up new hobbies. While a hobby isn’t going to solve the lack of social interaction, it can certainly help abate it as you can focus in on something new or something challenging. There are a number of things to consider when picking up a new hobby that I’m going to give a run down of quickly.

How Do I Pick?
Yeah, there are a lot of hobbies out there, even removing the ones that can be done in a group, the recommendation is pick up something that’s adjacent to a hobby that you already have. For example, picking up solo gaming a while back for me was an extension of the board gaming hobby. Board gaming was kind of an extension of RPG’s. Now, I’m picking up painting minis because that’s an extension of both board gaming and RPG’s. If you love knitting, crocheting, or cross stitching, and haven’t done your own patterns, do them. If you love cooking, try and create recipes. If you love video games, start learning some coding.

How Much Do You Jump In?
There’s part of me that wants to jump into any hobby feet first, but I don’t think that’s responsible. Using the John Rhys Davies idea, it was a hobby for filming a movie. Or with social distancing or a broken leg, it’s a limited amount of time. So, when things get back to normal you might find that you don’t have enough time to really devote to that hobby still, so is it worth it to invest heavily into something that you won’t keep up long term? I’d argue that it doesn’t make a ton of sense. For painting minis, what I’m going to start doing, I bought a kit that has paints and a few other tools for it, and a cheap game with a bunch of minis, so that I can practice on something I care less about. Will that be all I get for it, who knows, but it was a fairly cheap start. I didn’t go out and buy five brushes and twenty paints and a massive minis game, plus other things like a light with a magnifying glass on it to see the finer details. That can come later if I find that I have time and that I do love it.

What If You Don’t Love It?
That’s what the first two things are for. But it’s very possible that you won’t love it. Or you won’t even like it, but that’s why you don’t invest too much into it. That’s why you pick something that if you don’t continue it, you won’t feel bad about not continuing it. Not every hobby is for everyone, I might find out that I don’t like painting minis, but now I know without investing too much money into it. And I’ll still have the game I got for it, so the only money I’d really be out is for paints. But if I love it, I have tons of games that I can paint. If not, I can probably find someone to pass on the paints to.

So, while you’re social distancing, or in the future, while you’re stuck at home, what hobbies could you pick up or pick back up? Is there something that you’ve been meaning to try that you haven’t gotten around to? Is this the time to try it? Let me know your ideas in the comments below.

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Now, there are plenty of things that we can start as a new nerdy hobby, maybe you want to start playing Dungeons and Dragons, get into board games, or read more Sci-Fi books. But where you jump into them can be pretty tricky for some of them. So how do you pick that starting point of joining into a hobby that already has a lot of people in it?

Let’s use, what I know well, board games, as an example. In 2019 there were thousands of board games that were published, and that’s just last year. And in that, there were thousands of bad board games published, so if you are getting into the hobby, what should you be looking for? Is there some proper starting place?

It is going to be overwhelming to jump in, but thankfully, there are a lot of articles out there about good starting places for board games. So to start with board games or any hobby, I’d use Google and simply research, “Introductory…” and it’ll give you some good options. Now, that might seem off, because you want to play the best board games, so maybe you would go to somewhere like Board Game Geek, which will probably come up in search results, and just buy games in the top 10, but a lot of those are much bigger and heavier games, and the same with picking the most popular Sci-Fi or anything, it is going to lean more into what those who are already steeped in the hobby like.

The other reason that you want introductory is that while the games aren’t always cheaper, they are going to be teach you about the hobby. So something like Carcassone teaches you tile placement, how games can have various ways to score, and generally gets you to a point where you can understand board games better, and the different introductory games are going to be good at teaching different things. Catan can teach you about probability and resource management. Ticket to Ride is about set collection, route building, and there are so many other intro games that teach other things.

But, maybe you won’t like all of the introductory games, so should you really go out and get all of these games? You will probably find some that you don’t love, so did you just waste money? Thankfully, if you’re in a larger town/city, you might have a couple of options. A lot of larger cities are going to have gaming stores. These places often has games that you can just try or the employees should be willing to open up a game and teach you how it’s played a little bit so you have an idea before you purchase the game. Also there are other spots that you can try and game. A lot of breweries are going to have some games, and while you might mainly find Cribbage and Cards Against Humanity, I’ve seen Catan at a lot of them as well. And who knows what gems you might find there. Also, you can look on Facebook or other places used to schedule Meetups (again Board Game Geek could help) and you can find a public one in your area that you can join. I’m in a city, so there are more options, but in more rural areas, you might be able to at least connect with people who are already in the hobby. But use these ways to start playing the introductory games and then when you have a better idea of what you like, you can get some.

Now, that section seems fairly specific for board games, but it works well for D&D as well. For something like Sci-Fi, this would be the library. Get a library card and check out books that are different types of Sci-Fi to see what sort you want, maybe you want the hard core scientific Sci-Fi, or maybe you prefer one that focuses like on the science aspect and is more a grand space adventure. Who knows, maybe your library even has a Sci-Fi book club or would have up a poster for one. There are always groups around for various nerdy things, whether it’s in person or an online forum that you can join as well and ask questions. Now, it’s the internet so there will be people who get annoyed because you aren’t already into the hobby like they are so you’re stepping on their turf and wasting time by asking questions, and while it’ll seem like they stick out more than anyone, it is really less people than those who want to grow the hobby, so ignore the trolls.

This is all a good way that you can start and it helps get rid of some of the chafe that might be less than ideal stuff to dive into to start. But any hobby, unless it’s something with technology that is brand new, is going to have a lot to dive into. So it’ll seem intimidating when you’re jumping. And you’re going to run across games or books or DM’s or whatever it is that you don’t like. Don’t let that drive you off and don’t let those people who feel like it’s their hobby and because you’re just joining keep you from joining the hobby. It might take you time to find the area of it that you like, so the last piece of advice is patience. And with that, if you don’t like part of it, move on and try another part of it, if you don’t love heavy Sci-Fi, go and try some more adventure type Sci-Fi, if you don’t like deckbuilding, try area control games, if you don’t like playing a wizard try playing a fighter. Experiment until you find something that you like more. And maybe the hobby won’t be for you, but there is so much diversity in all of these hobbies now in different types of things that hopefully there will be something for you.

I could talk more about this topic, but I don’t want to overwhelm someone who wants to get into a new hobby. To summarize, try and find an existing local community that can help you or a good online community. Try a wide range from the hobby you want to join, and while everything might not be for you, find what is for you.

If you’ve already gone through this process, what other simple tips do you recommend?

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We’ve talked a little bit about it already when we went through packing, but let’s quickly hit those points again.

GenCon is a HUGE con. That means that a lot of areas are going to be packed and it’s probably going to be tough to move around. Be considerate with what bag you bring. The board game bag that you brought might be cool looking and work well for taking games to play with your friends, but it’s probably too bulky for something like GenCon. Keep it simple with a backpack or something else small that isn’t going to be swinging and hitting other people. Even though it might be obvious you’re wearing something large, it is still your responsibility to make sure you don’t hit someone, not theirs to give you a large birth to avoid being hit.

The other thing that I mentioned before is that you should please follow a 1/2/6 rule. That’s one shower per day. Two meals per day minimum. And six hours of sleep, which is actually the trickiest or should be. But when you eat and sleep you are going to be in a better mood and better to be around at the con. And the shower is really important for everyone else to be in a better mood to be around you. So please, do these things all days at GenCon or whatever Con you are going to be going to.

There are a few other things you can think about as well.

One of them will be in a con as huge as GenCon, don’t spend a ton of time on your phone in the bahtroom. If you need to get away from people for a little bit, GenCon has a quiet room or get out of the convention center for a little bit, you can probably go not too far and be out of the throngs of people. Clearly, something like GenCon is going to know their bathroom needs, but I’m sure once in a while a random bathroom will have a line at it, so don’t spend extra time.

When on the dealer floor and getting ready to make a purchse, if you know your cash or credit card is at the bottom of your bag, work on getting to that prior to being at the front of the line. This is especially important for hot games because there’s probably going to be a line, so don’t be the person holding up the line. You also never know when you’ll be the person in line buying that set of dice you forgot or decided you needed for a game that starts in five minutes and someone is taking a while. So be responsible yourself when you are in line. And if there’s no line, that’s fine to take your time, but if people are starting to queue, be courteous.

And this last one is going to seem pretty general. But pay attention to your surroundings. I know it might seem super obvious, but there are a lot of things to look at, and you might not notice everything and everyone around you. I’m 6’4″ so this is something that I have to pay attention to, and I always have to pay attention to, so I doubly do so at Cons. But when you’re always on the lookout for people shorter than you whom might not be in your eye-line, it helps. But there will be kids there, there will be people with accessibility needs who might not be in your eye-line, keep an eye out for them and be courteous about it.

Finally, I just want to say, all of these “rules” seem like they might be a lot of work. And sometimes these rules are going to be broken by me and by you and that’s fine. The simple rule you should ask yourself is if you’re stepping on someone else’s fun. The goal of a con is for everyone to have fun, so make sure that you are having fun, and that those around you are having fun. I think with that simple mindset, you’re going to have a good time and be courteous to those around you.

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And that’s where community education classes come in. Before you scoff at such a seemingly old-folksy kind of thing to do, just hear me out. If you know where and when to look, you can find community ed classes on just about any hobby you can think of, from drawing to pastry-making to fiction writing and beyond.

I discovered this wonderful resource for nerdery a couple of years ago, and took an eight-week Japanese class through community ed — it was ostensibly to strengthen my language-learning skills in general, but let’s face it; it was really so I could pride myself on knowing about one word in twenty whilst watching anime. It served both purposes quite nicely in the end, and was a darn good time to boot. And this year, I renewed my love for community ed by taking a calligraphy course — I’ve been a self-taught amateur calligrapher for a while, but the class was a great way to solidify my basic skills, and I can now make cooler stuff than I could just based on my own knowledge.

Beyond strengthening an interest you already have, community ed classes can be great places to find that next new geeky interest you’ve never had a chance to try out (or that you may never have even heard of before). Want to start a blog? Lots of community ed programs have intro to WordPress classes. Always been curious to try sculpture or pottery making? Community ed is a great place to get started.

As with the best nerdy things, you might have to get a little creative sometimes — for example, let’s say you want to become a better cartoonist; you could take a watercolor or oil painting class to learn new techniques to apply to your current style. Or maybe you’d like to get started with cosplay — you can take a sewing class to learn the basics in a setting where there will be someone to guide you in person, and then build on those skills to make your first costume.

Now, you may think that there aren’t good options for community ed where you are. But chances are, you’re wrong — larger cities will generally always have a plethora of options available, of course but even small towns often have community ed courses available, through libraries, schools, churches, or even local businesses. Sometimes, all it takes is a little digging or asking around to find great classes held in nearby places.

Community ed classes are one of those things that just go to show that nerdy fun can be found in lots of unexpected places. Have you taken any community ed classes? If not, is there one you’d like to take to strengthen your geeky skills?

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But what do you do when you’re a fandom of one?

It’s pretty inevitable that this will happen at some point (or even several times) for most nerds. As we discover more things we love, and delve deeper into them, and seek out other, new things that spark our interest along the way, our paths will eventually diverge and lead us to other new things, and before we know it, we’ve fallen in love with something no one else is interested in — maybe even something that no one else we know has even heard of.

So what’s a lonesome nerd to do? That nerdy energy has to go somewhere, after all. You can nerd out about something by yourself by writing a blog or some fanfiction or creating fan art (all things I’ve done to cope in the past), but ultimately, that will never be quite as fun as it is to talk over the finer points of the story, discuss theories about what will happen in the next installment, or geek out about the latest plot twist with someone else who loves the new thing you’ve found.

Fortunately, there are a couple of good ways to solve this problem. The first stems from the fact that, while you personally may not know anyone else who loves your new nerdy interest, there are almost definitely other people out there somewhere who already love it, and thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can find whole forums full of them. In bygone days, nerds had to join fan clubs to find others with the same interests, and frequently had to communicate with other members of those clubs primarily by mail, but these days, if it exists and it’s nerdy, there’s most likely an online forum for it, or at the very least, someone on Tumblr who has gif-ed it to perfection. I myself am part of a forum centered around historical/period films and books, and despite the fact that I now know more people IRL who enjoy such things than I did back when I joined the forum, it’s still one of my favorite places to fangirl about Jane Austen and Shakespeare and suchlike.

Another great way to assuage your loneliness is to bring more nerds along with you for the ride. You may be the first among your friends to discover this great new thing, but you certainly don’t have to be the last! If your new thing is similar to other things you know a friend already likes (or even if it’s not, and your friend is game for trying something new), go ahead and recommend it to them so that they can share in the joy (and pain, if your fandoms are anything like mine…)! You’ll want to proceed with a little caution here — as you’re already super excited about this thing and really invested in it, it’ll be hard not to make your recommendation of it a little…overwhelming.

I can attest to this fact — those of you who have been on the receiving end of my evangelical zeal for books like the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor know that this sort of thing can get a little intense. But if you can curb your enthusiasm just enough (but not too much, mind) to make a good pitch, pretty soon you just might have another friend who’s joined the fandom train right along with you. Ah, sweet victory.

These are just a couple of ways to handle being the single member of a fandom — what’s your preferred approach? Have you tried these strategies, or something else altogether? Tell us about it in the comments!

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