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Down Back Tuesdays — FGC Tournament at Arrow Lodge Brewing

Every 2 weeks

127 Gathering

3 days away

127

Down Back Tuesdays — FGC Tournament at Arrow Lodge Brewing

Every other Tuesday · Next Oct 6 950 E 3rd St #1A, Los Angeles, CA …

The fighting game community does not care how long you have been playing. It cares whether you play. Down Back Tuesdays runs on that principle — a biweekly bracket at a brewery in the Arts District where Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and Skullgirls share floor space with people who came to actually compete. This is not a watch party. This is the version of esports where the person you just lost to can immediately explain what went wrong and then challenge you to a rematch. Amateur brackets run alongside the main event — first-timers are expected, not tolerated. The venue is Arrow Lodge Brewing in downtown Los Angeles's Arts District, which means the skill ceiling and the beer selection are both higher than you would expect from a Tuesday night. Doors open at 6pm for casuals. Tournament brackets start at 7pm. Entry is five dollars per game plus a fifteen dollar venue fee at the door. Runs every other Tuesday through the year. 950 E 3rd St, Los Angeles.

Weekly

4 days away

San Diego Nerd Night — Weekly at Twisted Horn Mead & Cider, Vista

Every Wednesday · Next Oct 7 Twisted Horn Mead & Cider, 1042 La…

Every Wednesday at four o'clock, a meadery in Vista becomes the room you wished existed when you were fourteen. No sign-up. No structure. No one running it. Just a taproom full of people who brought their character sheets, their miniatures, their half-painted Warhammer armies, their Switch, their board games, their cosplay-in-progress, and the specific relief of being somewhere that the word 'nerd' is not a category — it is the atmosphere. Twisted Horn Mead & Cider brews award-winning mead and hard cider in a tasting room that looks like a Viking hall designed by someone who also plays D&D. On Wednesday nights it fills with adults 21 and over who want exactly one thing: a place to nerd out with strangers who already get it. The tables hold campaign maps and Magic decks and laptops running Baldur's Gate and conversations about lore so deep you forget you are in a strip mall in Vista. This is not a scheduled event with a host and a microphone. It is an unorganized, recurring, come-as-you-are gathering that has been running long enough that the regulars have inside jokes and the newcomers are absorbed without introduction. The mead is good. The people are better. Wednesday is the night. Every Wednesday starting at 4:00 PM. Twisted Horn Mead & Cider, 1042 La Mirada Ct, Vista, CA 92081. Ages 21+. Free entry.

Weekly

91 Gathering

4 days away

D&D Adventurers League — Weekly Sessions at Temecula

Every Wednesday · Next Oct 7 GameStar Hobbies, 27380 Jefferson …

Finding the rules was never the hard part of tabletop roleplaying. Finding four other people whose weeknights line up with yours — and staying friends with them long enough to actually finish a campaign — is the hard part. Adventurers League deletes that problem. You walk in with a character — or you build one at the table — and you sit down inside a story that is already moving. Nobody asks how long you have been playing. A first-timer who has never held a d20 and a veteran of twenty years end up in the same party, and both leave with something they want to keep pulling on. The stories stack week over week, characters grow teeth, and eventually the weeknight stops being a weeknight. GameStar Hobbies, 27380 Jefferson Ave in Temecula, every week. Character rules live at dnd.wizards.com/adventurers-league. Send it to the friend who still has dice from high school in a drawer somewhere. The seat is open and the dungeon is already in there waiting.

TAC D&D Night at Off The Shelf Games — El Cajon

Weekly

32 Gathering

4 days away

TAC D&D Night at Off The Shelf Games — El Cajon

Every Wednesday · Next Oct 7 173 Fletcher Pkwy, El Cajon, CA 92…

Every player knows the dread: showing up to game night and finding an empty table — or worse, one exhausted Dungeon Master drowning under nine people who all want to talk to the same shopkeeper. That very specific dread is what this format exists to kill. Every Wednesday in El Cajon the club runs organized tables in Primordia, a homebrew world built for this group of players rather than pulled off a shelf. RSVP through Meetup or the store's Discord and the table assignments post before the session, so you never walk in wondering whether the game is actually happening. Returning players get real continuity — choices from earlier sessions carry forward — while newcomers can drop into a one-shot without needing a page of backstory. Off The Shelf has been the East County hub for tabletop for years, and the evening runs long enough to actually finish something. Text the friend who keeps saying they want to try this but is scared to walk in cold. This is where they start.

Board Game Night at Odyssey Games — Pasadena

Weekly

74 Gathering

4 days away

Board Game Night at Odyssey Games — Pasadena

Every Wednesday · Next Oct 7 1795 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA…

Somewhere in your closet sits a game you bought six months ago and have never once put on a table. This is where that ends. The back tables open up on Wednesday nights, and the store library is the real draw — hundreds of titles, gateway stuff through heavy euros through the social deduction games that ruin friendships, all free to play off the shelf. Come alone and slide into something already running. Bring three people and teach them the thing you have been evangelizing. Or finally cut the shrink wrap. The regulars here have been showing up long enough to know which games are worth the rules explanation and which new release is overhyped, and that informal knowledge is the whole difference between a game night that works and one that is merely organized. Doors stay open late and it costs nothing. Text the friend who keeps saying you should hang out more. This is the hang.

Coming Soon

37 Gathering

🌎 Nation's Best 5 days away

New York Comic Con 2026 — New York, NY

In 5 days · Oct 8 – Oct 11 From $45 (1-day) Jacob K. Javits Convention Center,…

The Javits Center in October, a hundred thousand people in four days, every niche of pop culture in one building — and the streets of Hell's Kitchen turning into something you've never seen on a regular Tuesday. The Javits Center fills with a programmatic density that rewards strategic planning. Main stage panels feature talent from the year's biggest genre properties. The show floor covers hundreds of thousands of square feet of publishers, studios, collectibles vendors, and artist booths. Artist Alley at NYCC skews heavily toward comics — the original fanbase — alongside anime, gaming, and TV, giving it a different character than conventions that have shifted more entirely toward film and streaming. The autograph and photo op schedule is extensive; tickets for specific sessions go on sale in advance and sell out. New York Comic Con in 2026 is celebrating twenty years, and the Coney Island theme suggests organizers are going big on identity and atmosphere. The anniversary edition will likely bring programming and exclusives designed for the occasion. If you have been considering NYCC as a destination event, this is the year to go. The East Coast advantage: NYCC is adjacent to one of the world's great cities. The convention ends at 7pm and New York starts. Restaurants, bars, and attractions are all accessible from the Javits Center. Hotel inventory near the venue is limited; book early and consider Hudson Yards or Hell's Kitchen options within walking distance. Tickets go on sale in June with a Superfan Presale for Popverse members opening before general on-sale. Javits Center, New York City. October 8–11, 2026. New York Comic Con was founded in 2006 and reached 250,000 attendance within its first decade. The 20th anniversary edition in 2026 with the Coney Island theme signals that the organizers are treating this as a milestone year — expect expanded programming, anniversary exclusives, and a level of production that reflects two decades of iteration. If you have been waiting for the right year to make NYCC a destination trip, the 20th anniversary is the obvious choice.

Weekly

644 Gathering

5 days away

644

D&D Adventurers League — Game Empire SD

Every Thursday · Next Oct 8 Free / $5 suggested 5037 Shawline St, San Diego, CA 92…

You do not need a group, a character, or any idea what you are doing. That is the entire design. Drop in on a Thursday evening, pick up a pregenerated character sheet, and join a table — mid-campaign or at the start of something fresh. Dungeon Masters are provided. Dice are provided. Rules questions are not tolerated so much as encouraged. Tables sort by Tier, so a first-time player rolling their first d20 sits with other new characters instead of getting lost behind a party three levels deep. If you already have a D&D Beyond character in Adventurers League legal format, bring it — after tonight it is recognized at any AL table anywhere in the world, which is the quietly remarkable part of organized play. Game Empire SD, 5037 Shawline St, San Diego — a dedicated tabletop store with real event space and staff who know the rules. Parking on-site. Most sessions need no reservation; check the store calendar. The only bad session is the one you did not show up for.

Hobby Night at Odyssey Games — Pasadena (Warhammer & Miniatures)

Weekly

16 Gathering

5 days away

Hobby Night at Odyssey Games — Pasadena (Warhammer & Miniatures)

Every Thursday · Next Oct 8 1795 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA…

There's a specific relief in a room with lighting good enough for detail work and a table you don't have to fold up at the end of the night -- somewhere your army can just live for a few hours. Odyssey Games in Pasadena runs Thursday hobby nights for miniature wargamers, model painters, and Warhammer 40K players who want exactly that. The format is intentionally social: players set up terrain for casual games or spread their models out to paint, Warhammer 40K leading but other systems welcome, the crowd a mix of competitive players testing list builds and hobbyists at every stage of the painting queue. The store stocks paints, brushes, primers, and Warhammer product, which solves realizing mid-session you're out of the one color you need. Bring the friend whose backlog rivals yours. Pasadena's Warhammer scene is active enough that finding a casual game on a Thursday is reliable -- no Discord coordination required. Open 10 AM to 11 PM; the community gathers from 6 PM Thursdays. Free entry.

Weekly

19 Gathering

5 days away

Star Wars: Unlimited Weekly at Bards & Cards — San Diego Gaslamp

Every Thursday · Next Oct 8 936 5th Ave, San Diego, CA 92101

Two years of circling a card game is a long time to stay outside of something. The deckbuilding videos. The set previews. The friend who will not stop talking about it. What finally gets people playing is almost never a product release; it is a room where the competitive players will teach you the game before the round starts, and that room runs weekly in the Gaslamp. Star Wars: Unlimited became one of the fastest-growing card games in the hobby by pairing the obvious pull of the universe with design that genuinely rewards strategic depth. A weekly gives a community the three things it needs to grow: regular opponents, consistent rulings, and a meta that shifts as people test and refine their builds. The Gaslamp location makes it the most reachable competitive weekly in the county, trolley outside, singles on the shelf as new sets land. Send it to the Star Wars fan who has been curious and quietly intimidated for a year.

Pokemon TCG Friday Night Draft — TCS Rockets

Weekly

151 Gathering

5 days away

151

Pokemon TCG Friday Night Draft — TCS Rockets

Every Thursday · Next Oct 8 7626 Miramar Rd Suite 3900, San Di…

Your best deck is worthless here, and that is exactly why the room fills. Everybody cracks the same number of packs at the same table, drafts in real time from whatever the cardboard gods hand over, and builds a 40-card deck out of it. Your collection does not save you. Reading what is coming around the table does. Which makes the crowd strange in the best way: grinders using the format to stay sharp, newer players who find it kinder than Standard, and people who mostly just like opening packs beside someone who knows what they are looking at. Competitive, not grim. Nobody sighs when you ask a rules question. Miramar Road, Friday nights, prizes for top finishers, with the entry fee and current set posted on the shop's site. Bring the friend who quit when the meta got expensive. This is the format that hands the game back to them.

SCG CON Los Angeles 2026 — Magic: The Gathering

Coming Soon

479 Gathering

6 days away

479 1 saved

SCG CON Los Angeles 2026 — Magic: The Gathering

In 6 days · Oct 9 – Oct 11 Los Angeles Convention Center, 120…

There are only two US Regional Championship stops this year. This is one of them. That single fact reorganizes the whole weekend. The Regional Championship determines who qualifies for the national series, which means the room is full of people whose season comes down to these tables — and you can feel it in how quiet the top tables get. But the weekend is built so you do not have to be one of them. Ten-dollar entry drafts, Commander brackets, and Standard opens run across all four days with no Regional-level preparation required. The dealer hall is one of the better places in Southern California to buy and trade singles, and it is worth the trip on its own. Star City Games runs the circuit, so the operation is tight — pairings on time, judges who know the floor, side events that actually fire. Marriott Burbank. October 9-12. If your Magic is competitive, the only question is whether this makes the season schedule.

Weekly

19 Gathering

6 days away

MTG Friday Night Magic — TCS Rockets

Every Friday · Next Oct 9 $15–$20 entry 7626 Miramar Rd Suite 3900, San Di…

Walking in alone with no deck is not the disadvantage you think it is. You join a draft pod from scratch, crack packs nobody has seen, build on the spot out of whatever the boosters hand you, and three hours later you leave with cards you opened yourself and a couple of regulars who now know your name. That is the whole engine of Friday Night Magic, and it is why the format has outlived every other night on a game store calendar. The local scene comes alive here. You battle strangers who turn into regulars, you finally trade for the one card you have been hunting for months, and somebody at the next table walks you through a rules interaction without making you feel stupid about it. All skill levels. Bring a deck or build one on site. Doors at 6, first packs crack at 6:30. Send this to the friend who keeps saying they used to play.

Weekly

29 Gathering

6 days away

MTG Friday Night Magic — Game Empire SD

Every Friday · Next Oct 9 $15–$20 entry 5037 Shawline St, San Diego, CA 92…

The regulars will not tell you this, but every one of them was the new person once — standing near the door with a deck in hand, not sure whether it was okay to ask. That is the whole function of a Friday night local. You crack packs with strangers, and about three weeks later the strangers have names and known tendencies and one of them keeps beating you with the same trick. Bring your own deck or join a draft pod cold; all skill levels genuinely means all skill levels in this room. Somebody always has the card you have been hunting and will trade it for something you forgot you owned. Nobody here is playing for a title. People come because it is Friday and this is where they go on Fridays. Doors open in the early evening on Shawline Street, first packs shortly after. Go once and find out whether you end up going every week. Most people do.

MTG Friday Night Magic — Artificer San Diego

Weekly

17 Gathering

6 days away

MTG Friday Night Magic — Artificer San Diego

Every Friday · Next Oct 9 $15–$20 entry 5005 Shawline St Suite B, San Dieg…

There's a particular kind of stranger you only meet across a table on a Friday night with a fresh draft pool between you - the one you battle three weeks running until, somewhere around the fourth Friday, they've quietly become a regular you'd notice if they didn't show. Friday Night Magic is where the local MTG community comes alive, and where those regulars get made. Crack fresh packs in a draft pod, trade for the card you've been hunting, and play out a night where the person who beat you last week is the one saving you a seat this week. All skill levels are welcome - bring your own deck or join a draft pod from scratch, no prior standing required. Draft is the great equalizer here: everyone opens the same unknown packs and builds on the spot, so a first-timer and a veteran start the night on genuinely even footing. Doors open at 6 PM and the first packs crack at 6:30. Come with a deck or come with nothing; either way you'll leave with a few more cards and a few more regulars who know your name.

Weekly

20 Gathering

6 days away

SoCal D&D Club — Tavern Night Temecula

Every Friday · Next Oct 9 A tavern in Old Town Temecula — lo…

Old Town Temecula — location revealed to RSVPs. June 13th. The SoCal D&D Club Tavern Night is the version of Dungeons & Dragons that uses an actual tavern: a night at a real bar in Old Town Temecula, at a table with people who showed up specifically to play, in the setting the game was always imagining when it invented the tavern as a starting point. Tavern Night is open play — you don't need an ongoing campaign, you don't need a regular group. Show up with a character or make one at the table. The SoCal D&D Club has the infrastructure to run one-shots, pickup sessions, and introduction games that work for people who have never played and people who have been DMing for years. The Old Town Temecula setting does the atmospheric work for free. Free to come. June 13th. The location is revealed to RSVPs — socaldnd.com to register and get the tavern address. Old Town has the food and the drinks and the historic building stock that makes playing a fantasy game in a real room feel exactly as good as it sounds. Show up ready to roll. The tavern is the first scene.

Friday Night Magic at Bards & Cards — San Diego Gaslamp

Weekly

28 Gathering

6 days away

Friday Night Magic at Bards & Cards — San Diego Gaslamp

Every Friday · Next Oct 9 936 5th Ave, San Diego, CA 92101

There is a specific relief in walking off a Gaslamp street after work and into a room where the only thing anyone wants from you is a good game. That is Friday night at Bards & Cards, the weekly anchor of San Diego's Magic: The Gathering community. The store at 936 5th Avenue runs FNM every Friday in a rotating mix of Standard, Draft, and Commander that shifts with the season, and the location means there is nowhere better in the city to play - trolley-accessible, surrounded by the best bars and restaurants for the post-FNM hang. The competitive level is real; players who win here go on to Regional Championships. But newer players working their way up are not stranded: judges are on hand for rules questions and experienced players give post-game feedback without making you feel small for asking. A deep singles selection means picking up that one missing card before the round starts is usually possible. If you play Magic in San Diego, this is the weekly proving ground. 7 PM every Friday. Entry fees vary by format; check the store for current schedule and registration.

Friday Night Magic at Odyssey Games — Pasadena

Weekly

20 Gathering

6 days away

Friday Night Magic at Odyssey Games — Pasadena

Every Friday · Next Oct 9 1795 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA…

If you live east of LA and Friday nights feel a little empty, there is a table waiting for you in Pasadena where the community outlasted a name change and never missed a beat. Friday Night Magic runs every week at Odyssey Games on East Colorado Boulevard, in the space San Gabriel Valley players have used for years - first as Game Empire, now under the Odyssey name with the same community intact. FNM here pulls players from across the SGV: Pasadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, Temple City, Alhambra. Formats rotate with the Standard calendar and occasionally feature Draft or Sealed for set releases. The store stays open until 11 PM, which leaves time for extra games after the official rounds wrap. The staff knows the community and keeps things moving - rounds start on time, standings post promptly, prize payout is straightforward. A solid singles inventory and sealed product mean you can finish your deck before pairings go up. This is the most accessible weekly Magic event in the region. 7 PM every Friday. Check the store for current format and entry.

Coming Soon

44 Gathering

7 days away

IndieCade 2026 — Los Angeles

In 7 days · Oct 10 – Oct 13 Paid - $20-$60 Culver City, CA (venue TBA)

The game that carries around in your head for weeks after you played it for four minutes - that's the whole promise of a room full of PCs, consoles, and handmade physical games that will never touch a Steam front page. IndieCade is the international juried festival of independent games, the Sundance of the medium, where developers show work no publisher's portfolio would ever have room for. It splits between a public-facing showcase, where you play nominated and featured games before they release, and a professional conference track for developers, educators, and critics. The showcase is what draws the crowd. And the stakes are real: past IndieCade selections include Monument Valley, Journey, Cuphead, and Disco Elysium. The 2026 class hasn't been announced yet - which is exactly the point. You see them before everyone else does. Held annually in Los Angeles in October, in recent years in Culver City, with IndieXchange running in the evenings. Venue and exact October dates to be confirmed at indiecade.com.

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