Taking turns hosting: game nights at changing locations

Many gaming groups have that one person with the big table, the full shelf and the snacks. At first that is convenient. After a few months it becomes a burden: tidying up, shopping, the neighbours at half past midnight. That is why many groups eventually start taking turns.

It sounds simple, but it often fails on small things. Whose turn is it? Where does Jonas live again? And why was half the group standing at the wrong door last Friday?

A fixed order instead of asking every time

Agree once on the order of hosts and stick to it. If someone cannot host, they swap with the next person, but the order stays. That way nobody has to ask every time, and nobody ends up hosting three times in a row out of politeness.

Not every place suits every game

Not every flat has room for six people and a game with a big board. Note for each place how many people fit comfortably. Use the big table for the big nights and the living room for the small groups. A board game café or the community room at the library can be a fixed place on the list too, then nobody has to host.

The address belongs in the invitation, not on the internet

People who come should get the address in time, ideally right in the invitation and in the reminder the day before. At the same time, not everyone who gets the invitation link forwarded needs to know where you live. So only show the address to people who said yes.

The host takes care of the place, not of everything

Hosting means: door open, table cleared. The others bring snacks and drinks, and whoever has new games brings them along. That keeps the load shared, and people are happy to pass the host role on.

How Playnexi does it

In Playnexi you add your places in the group settings under "Locations", with address and host. One of them can be the default location that is preselected when you plan. Locations are managed by the group owner and admins.

For a recurring game night, choose "Rotate Location". Every new date then automatically gets the next location from the list, and the host changes with the location. The invitation and the reminder the day before show where it is this time and who is hosting. With "Show location only after accepting", only people who said yes see the location. And if you do not want to decide, let the group vote on the location.

You can see how to set up a recurring game night at playnexi.com/en/spieleabend-planen. If more people want to come than there are seats: we wrote a separate post about seats and the waitlist (playnexi.com/en/blog/spieleabend-grosse-runde-warteliste).

This article was written with AI assistance and reviewed editorially.