Moving to San Jose

[unmaker]

There's a very good chance that I'll be moving to San Jose in the near future, so I thought I'd just take a quick survey to find out how many players are, say, within an hour of San Jose.

I'm a GM (and a damn good one), but I haven't run anything for about five years now. I could be convinced to run a campaign or possibly to co-run with an existing GM. If I could PLAY every once in awhile... that would be PERFECT.

I've never been to San Jose. What's it like? I'm in Los Angeles right now (in Westwood, right near Bel Air) and have pretty much lived in Southern California my entire life.

Unmaker

[Arkham]

I'll be the first to send up an 'Oi!' for the count.

I live in San Jose, fairly near the bay itself, which means I've got the city of Alviso as a foul smelling neighbor.

I should note, that depending upon traffic you can live _in_ San Jose, and still be an hour away from some other parts of San Jose...

I've only been to LA once or twice, so I can't give much of a comparison...

I'm currently running a campaign with Eight (8) irregular players, but have been dying to actually play too.

[Cool_Manchu]

I live right over the hill from San Jose in Santa Cruz.

Personally, I am not a fan of San Jose, however I do work here. Its pretty expensive and dirty. But you can meet tons of really cool people in the area.

[lemming]

Similar to parts of LA. The traffic is not as bad.
I was thrilled with SJ, but it's in between a lot of cool stuff. You're only an hour from SF unless it's rush hour.

I grew up in the Bay Area, lived there 35 years before moving to Portland.

[unmaker]

Arkham,
So what kind of campaign are you running (genre, point-total, etc.)? I'm up for running/playing just about anything, as long as it's Hero. I'm most drawn to Champions/Dark Champions however...

Cool_Manchu,
Santa Cruz is beautiful. UCSC is the first campus I ever drove through that actually required me to stop for a deer. A DEER! Like <points at own head>... with antlers! You have to understand, for an Angelino... this was like a religious experience. I would *think* that housing would be more expensive in Santa Cruz, what with all those deer.

Lemming,
I'd heard from some people (mostly nothern californians) that the traffic is worse in San Jose than it is in Los Angeles. Obviously a qualitative comparison would be difficult considering the size of the two cities. I imagine each city has its problem areas and/or problem times. BUT... my experience with San Francisco traffic, well, THAT wrecked me. People wandering into the street. Cars stopping for no reason. Drivers going wherever they damn well feel like. ROADS going wherever they damn well feel like. The streets of San Francisco (in addition to being a mediocre 70's TV series) are punishing. Please tell me that San Jose is a kinder mistress.

[lemming]

Originally posted by unmaker
Cool_Manchu,
Santa Cruz is beautiful. UCSC is the first campus I ever drove through that actually required me to stop for a deer.

Lemming,
I'd heard from some people (mostly nothern californians) that the traffic is worse in San Jose than it is in Los Angeles. Obviously a qualitative comparison would be difficult considering the size of the two cities. I imagine each city has its problem areas and/or problem times. BUT... my experience with San Francisco traffic, well, THAT wrecked me. People wandering into the street. Cars stopping for no reason. Drivers going wherever they damn well feel like. ROADS going wherever they damn well feel like. The streets of San Francisco (in addition to being a mediocre 70's TV series) are punishing. Please tell me that San Jose is a kinder mistress.

UCSC was the college I went to and learned how to play Champions. Great campus.

San Francisco. I enjoy driving in SF, but then I liked driving in Boston as well. Parking was always a challenge. (Most friends say I could justify combat driving. Or at least an NND, only on passengers...) San Jose is much easier. My wife who grew up in Hermosa Beach says that SJ traffic is nothing compared to LA. There are some spots in San Jose that are worse, but they're shorter than the LA ones. It's usually where there isn't a good shortcut. (The route between San Jose and Santa Cruz. yech during rush hour and parts of the weekends.)

Of course, I've been in Portland now for five years. Things might be a bit different. Traffic in the Bay area was fairly light in 1985. It got steadily worse while I was there.

[Arkham]

Originally posted by unmaker
Arkham,
So what kind of campaign are you running (genre, point-total, etc.)? I'm up for running/playing just about anything, as long as it's Hero. I'm most drawn to Champions/Dark Champions however...

Being fairly new to the system, we decided to jump in head first and see where it breaks... So we're running a Champions game, rapidly approaching cosmic level. Current point total being 400+200 and rapidly growing.

The game is way, way wrong, but in the best possible way.

Pitting the PCs against Charon, Mephistopheles, and gods from another galaxy. From time travel and universe-threatening plots to college issues, and the subtle threat of Dr. Martini. It is both mind-blowing, and quite silly.

But once we've thoroughly explored what breaks the system, I'll be running a Dark Champions game with a much more personal focus...

[MarkusDark]

It has been going on for the last 6 months+ and we have a pretty good group of players. I would LOVE a co-gm/player so that I could get to do a little adventuring from time to time.

Our website is at http://www.larping.com/Hero/Hexagon if you'd like to see what has been happening. I have been a bad GM and haven't updated in a couple of weeks due to a new job I just started. The game runs on Friday nights.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. My email should be here somewhere...

[JohnTaber]

Hi Guys,

I've lived in San Jose my entire life and I love it. Right now I live in Santa Clara. I'm currently running a Champs campaign but if you want to look me up when you get here a link to my site it below.

FORGOT! And you get to go to DunDraCon. THE Hero con.

[unmaker]

Well, here's hoping that DundraCon is better than the Los Angeles conventions have been lately. They've just about dried up and Hero is nowhere to be seen. As for superhero games, all I saw was Silver Age Sentinels.

Unmaker

[MarkusDark]

Well, you would have actually just missed DunDraCon (President's Weekend) so you can try KublaCon in May or wait for the season to roll around again.

[Pogo]

I've lived in the bay area for about 2 1/4 years now (yup, moved here just in time for the crash). Either traffic has gotten better over the past few years, or I've just gotten used to it. Surprisingly for a car-heavy area, there's a lot of good biking around.

As far as gaming goes, I'm contemplating starting up a Nightbane-ish game, but I don't have much prep work done yet.

[tgaptte]

Hey unmaker!

Welcome to San Jose! I've lived here all my life and think it's a fine place to live. Sure there's some traffic...but nowhere as bad as LA. And as other have mentioned, this is a center for HEROphiles! Why, our very own favorite company president lives just to the north of us in SF! Hero's roots are here and there are plenty of HERO gamers to play with. I'm currently playing in MarkusDark's Champions game, which runs on Fridays in Fremont (~45 min north of San Jose). I've been playing champions for about 21 years and love the HERO system.

Hope we have a chance to game together!

Tim
tgaptte@yahoo.com

[tgaptte]

Just thought I'd bump this thread...still coming to San Jose?

Tim

[unmaker]

Thanks for all the replies! Yep, I'm still coming to San Jose. I'm currently wrapping up some loose ends. I should be up there in a few months. =)

Unmaker