Q - What is the Hobbits Hole?

A - The Hobbits Hole is the name of our Role-playing club, taken after one of our original members (nick named Hobbit) spurred the creation of our own club, the name’s stuck ever since.

Q - Where does the Hobbits Hole meet?

A - We meet at a rented hall in South-east London, on the border between Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham boroughs.

Q - When do you meet up?

A - We meet every week on a Friday, between 7:00pm and 10:30pm

Q - I'm interested in joining, what’s next?

A - Drop us an e-mail and we'll get back to you with our full address and we can arrange for you to visit one evening to see if you'd like the look of things and want to join us.

Q - What do you need to know about me?

A - We'd like to know as much as you’re happy to share about your Role-playing history, what games you play or run, how long you've been playing, your age, and whether you think you would be able to attend the club weekly.

Q - Are you a private club/organisation?

A - To an extent, although our doors are open for new people to visit any time as a guest, to join the club you must undergo a trial membership.

Q - What’s all this business about trial membership and rules?

A - This is simply a 4 week trial where you get to know the club members and we get to know you, at the end of your 4th visit the members take a vote on whether to accept you to the club.

Q - Why is the club exclusive?

A - Simply to protect you and us, it keeps a good environment for everyone to play in; it stops that odd bad apple that might want to spoil everyone’s fun from doing so.

Q - So who's the club leader?

A - No one, we run the club as a democracy, everyone gets a say, though some members may help out with certain tasks and responsibilities such as paying the bills they do so voluntarily.

Q - So do we have to pay to join or attend?

A - While you visit as a guest or a trial member the club is free, once you become a member you'll have to pay £2 a night, just to cover the cost of hiring the hall.

Q - So what do you do at the Hobbits Hole each week?

A - We run several Role-playing games with the occasional war-game; usually we have at least 2 or more games running every night.

Q - What exactly is Role-playing?

A - Role-playing is what you could call loosely as an evolution of board games. Instead moving a piece around the board, you take on the persona and character, of your playing piece. Like an actor would get into the character of his role, you do likewise, often with a character sheet providing extra useful information about the character you are playing. Rather than playing on a board, role-playing departs the limits of this field and is played in your imagination. One person acts as the GM or DM (Games Master) and builds the scene with their description, they're also responsible for planning the adventure for the players, and playing any characters they meet along the way. Another way to think of Role-playing would be to imagine your favourite films and tv shows, role-playing allows you to take on their roles and experience their adventure for yourself.

Q - What’s a DM or GM?

A - Short for Dungeon Master or Games Master, this person is responsible for running the game, the players take on characters within the adventure, while the GM runs the adventure for them, playing characters or creature the players might encounter. The GM deals with all the rules behind the scenes, battles the characters when they get into a fight, and pretty much runs the whole show.

Q - What Role-playing games do you play?

A - We play a huge variety of games from any genre, and we welcome any type of game. A lot of the games we play are home grown systems our own members have created from scratch, but we do play a lot of published games too. Here's a few of the games we play: Alternity, Babylon 5, Cthulhu, D&D, Delta Green, Gurps, Palladium Fantasy, Shadowrun, Rifts, Vampire, Werewolf.

Q - Who can play?

A - Anyone from all ages and backgrounds. We have a minimum age of 10 for our members, as some of the games are often fairly mature.

Q - What do I need to play?

A - The beauty of Role-playing is the lack of equipment needed to play, often a pen and pencil will do. A selection of dice is useful as they're used to decide the outcome of some events and tasks in a game. Some players also like to have a miniature to represent their character, though this is totally optional, but everything else the GM will provide for the game.