The Absalom Lodge of Quincy

What: The Absalom Lodge of Quincy
When: Conclave: TBD
Special Events as scheduled
Where: Tri-States Games & Hobbies at 834 S. 8th St., Quincy, Illinois
Who: Venture-Captain – Stephen Ingram E-mail: stinger780@yahoo.com
Venture-Agent – Greg Rupp E-mail: grupp0013@yahoo.com

Here is their Facebook page. You can check their gaming schedules out on Warhorn at the League of Aroden Warhorn page.

Welcome to the Absalom Lodge of Quincy’s entry on the League of Aroden website! This lodge was conceived at QuinCon 33 in 2018 when J. David Gilbert challenged Jimmy Dick to start a Pathfinder lodge in Quincy to fill a pretty big void in the area. After all, there we were at a gaming convention in Quincy playing Pathfinder & Starfinder which were also the biggest draws of the entire convention that year. Yet, we had no organized play in the area other than some home games now and then. David’s challenge got the ball rolling and on September 29th, 2018 seventeen players and GMs ran four tables of PFS and SFS at the Quincy Town Center. We named our new lodge the Absalom Lodge of Quincy. Absalom was chosen as it was the home of the Pathfinders in PFS and Absalom Station was the home of the Starfinders in SFS. It was a way to connect the two games.

There was a lodge in Quincy before the Absalom Lodge was established, but it had ceased operations sometime before 2017. There were no active, or for that matter any inactive Venture-Officers participating in any of the various gaming groups in Quincy such as the Great Rivers Gaming Guild. There were no Pathfinder tables at QuinCon 31 in 2016 due to the lack of organization at that time. In 2017, the Regional Venture-Coordinator for the Great Lakes region, Bob Jonquet, and Ali Ohms, Venture-Captain of Springfield, Illinois coordinated Pathfinder tables at QuinCon 32. It was at that QuinCon that many of the future leaders of the Absalom Lodge met each other. Pathfinder and Starfinder tables were organized at QuinCon 33 in 2018 by Stephen Ingram and Jimmy Dick. After a bit of difficulty with the RVC for Missouri, we got the lodge officially recognized by going through Ali’s efforts on our behalf.

The Lodge started well and as with any new lodge, had its ups and downs as the new VOs worked to establish continuity while dealing with two game systems. We also had to play our games at the Quincy Town Center because we could not fit into the Quincy Hobby Center at that time due to its limitations for live gaming. This meant we had to adjust dates based on the availability of an available storefront. Still, it was very generous of the Town Center to allow us to use their space for free. In 2019, a game store opened up at the Town Center and we did run some games there until the pandemic hit. We eventually settled on the fourth Saturday of the month with a special Holiday event which took the place of the November and December dates.

Obviously, the pandemic has played a major role in the development and growth of the Absalom Lodge, just as it did everywhere Organized Play was taking place. The release of Pathfinder Second Edition was met enthusiastically by a lot of players. There were some reluctant holdouts, but over the next six months almost all of them tried it out and found it was actually a lot of fun. We were getting more tables to take place for 2e than we had for 1e when the pandemic ended our live operations for a full year.

When the Quincy Town Center finally allowed us to use their facilities again, it was May of 2021. A full 15 months had passed before we resumed live play again. The good news was that many of our former players did return to play and brought some friends along. Unfortunately, a pretty significant number of players had moved away, or experienced other life changes which made it difficult to game with us. Still, we were thrilled to be back live at the tables rolling the d20s! Our tables fluctuated from several to few over the next few months, but we began to grow again. When Tri-States Games & Hobbies opened up in October of 2021, we made the move to their location where we have played ever since.

Beginning in July of 2023, Stephen Ingram was promoted to Venture-Captain and Greg Rupp appointed to the VA position for the Absalom Lodge. The lodge is undergoing some changes based on player availability regarding regularly scheduled games, but there is a lot of gaming going on for Adventure Paths lately. As more information becomes available, we will update our page.

Here are some of the advantages you get to enjoy since the Absalom Lodge is part of the League of Aroden:

  1. AWESOME PLAYER EXPERIENCE – We seek to deliver as awesome a player experience as we can at every table. This is our hobby and we enjoy it. We want you to enjoy it just as much as we do. The best way for that to happen is to make having fun our main goal.
  2. NO TABLE FEES – The League of Aroden never charges a table fee for any of our events. The venue may charge a fee and some do, but we ourselves do not.
  3. GM TRAINING PROGRAM – We have a GM Academy program which we offer annually to train our GMs to be better at what they do. Our League officers are required to GM regularly to hone their craft and have the opportunity to consult with a 5-Star/Glyph GM privately. Two of our Venture-Officers have extensive experience in GMing and have earned multiple Stars, Novas, and Glyphs. They too are available to consulting our GMs. Several of our GMs have already earned their first 2e Glyph and are working steadily toward their second one.
  4. VENTURE-OFFICER CADRE – Every lodge has a Venture-Officer with a higher ranking VO to report to in the chain of command in order to resolve any issues that come up. The VOs are tasked with following the rules of the Organized Play program so that your gaming experience is consistent throughout the League, and therefore throughout Organized Play itself globally.
  5. COMMUNICATIONS – We maintain this blog, several Facebook pages, Warhorn sign-up pages, and e-mail lists for each lodge. We try to notify players well in advance of our events and offerings. We make the rules and information available to everyone so that they can learn about the game and participate at the level they prefer.