My Gaming Kit: Part 3 – The Cottage
Summary
Welcome to part 3 of my 3 part series on My Gaming Kit. In this article I’ll cover the place where I hold all of my games…the Cottage! The Cottage is a free standing structure that sits behind my house. (It was initially designed as a “Mother In Law” for the main house.) As the structure is completely free standing games can get pretty loud before anyone complains. 😉
Amenities
Here are the things that make the Cottage a GREAT place to game. (If you are reading this on my blog then you can click on the thumbnails to open high resolution versions that point out the various aspects of the Cottage. 😉 )
- Kitchen – The Cottage includes a sink, microwave, mini-fridge for beer…I mean beverages, and a gas stove top. It is really nice having all of this separate from the main house.
- Bathroom – It has it’s own bathroom so smelly gamers will not pollute the main house.
- Octagonal Table – Sermin’s Dad conveniently decided he did not want his old octagonal poker table. By adding a restaurant pillar to the center I ended up with a fantastic table for gaming. I have really come to like the octagonal shape. The square edges allow one to pull up a chair and the overall round shape really focuses the players in on the action.
- Office Chairs – I have office chairs without arms for everyone except the GM. The GM gets a fancy high backed office chair with arms…one of the GM perks in my “RPG Man Cave”. 🙂
- White Board and Pin Board – One wall has a white board and another has a pin board. The white board is really valuable for fast sketches and the pin board is nice for rule cheat sheets, pizza coupons, and Dork Tower comics.
- Shelves – Immediately behind the GM chair and under the white board my Dad made a set of short shelves. These act as a small desk for the GM and allow him to easily access books or other gaming materials.
- AC and Heat – The Cottage has a window AC unit and a wall heater. (See below for comments on the AC.)
Current Issues
The Cottage is still a work in progress. Here are some things that I would like to see improved.
- AC – Dad and I installed a window AC but it cannot keep up with 6 gamers on a hot summer day. I may want to consider a second window AC or maybe a larger one. It is also really loud. 🙁
- Rainy Season – During the rainy season the carpet near the doors gets wet. Turns out that the room has no sub-floor (i.e. it is built straight on a concrete slab). Thus water can sheet under the door during a heavy rain. 🙁
If there are things in your gaming room that I do not have I would LOVE to hear about it! Post a comment on this blog post with your suggestions. My players can post too if there is something that they would like to see. 😉
Hope you enjoyed the My Gaming Kit series! 😀