UL Games Society

The University Of Limerick Games Society

One of the oldest societies based in the University of Limerick, Ireland. Also known as GSoc or G~Soc.

The UL Games Society is a society primarily for students of the University of Limerick, but membership is open to anyone. The purpose of the society is to provide an opportunity for people to take part in non-sporting- or alternative sports games and to socialise with others interested in such activities. The activities of the society include Paintball, Speedball, multiplayer LAN gaming, RPGs or Role Playing Games but are not limited to these.

The History Of GSoc [in so far as it is known]

The Long Long Ago, The Before Time: [1989 - 1994]

The society was founded in 1989 by John O'Sullivan and Joe Vaughan, not that we have any idea who these people are, or indeed if they ever existed. But apparently their legacy lives on at this web site DSP Server. Very little is known about the first five years of GSoc's existence, but it's rumored that it was a pure RPGs society with a leaning towards heavy drinking and archaic systems like D&D and MERP. It also held its own Gaming convention, called LugCON, which combined all these aspects of the society, and invited other people from around the country to come and have fun. But for all we know they could have been more interested in floral arrangements and making patch-work quilts.

The Fall Of The Unholy Gaming Empire...Nation...Fifedom...erm Microcosm? [1995 - 1999]

During this period of time the society began to decline. Nobody is sure why but with the lure of REAL ale and wenches on campus it became harder to draw people to the worlds of fantasy Ale and fantasy wenches.

Some 'blame' has been assigned to CCGs or Collectable Card Games like Magic: The Gathering. The dilution of the gaming community with the comercial quick-buzz crowd slowly and surely drew people away from the RPGs which required imagination and hard work for intense rewards. Wargames such as Warhammer and Warhammer 40k had come along and added nicely to the gaming scene but as the society slowed under the battle-damage from CCGs, it is thought that wargamers distanced themselves organisation-wise but maintained the strong friendships with the society for the most part.

This time also saw the demise of the LugCON convention, as it slipped from one of the premier conventions in Ireland to being something people avoided like the plague. LugCon had it's final hurrah in 1998, and has never been seen since. The continued success of the ConClave convention, run in limerick means that it's unlikely to ever surface again.

Things reached a new low in 1999 when one of it's staunchest supporters declared the society "dead". And the people did mourn. But it hadn't died, the torch was passed with but 3 active student members remaining. And they formed 'The Fellowship of the...Torch'.

The Age Of Necromancy [2000 - 2004]

In 2000 a new committee of people were formed, most first or second years. These people were David Martin, John Drohan, Keith Nolan, and John Kelly, they were joined shortly after by Jim Foley. Under their stewardship the society rose from the dead [hence the naming of this era]. At first it focused on the traditional GSoc activities, building up a small but dedicated base of role players. In 2002 GSoc joined with another University of Limerick society called FragNet. With this GSoc had access to the new and shiny world of LAN games. The ability to hold events with popular titles as Quake and Counter-Strike drew in a new kind of society member, those who didn't know what a D20 was, or what the correct way to kill an orc is [for the record, the correct way is as fast as possible, then run away: he may have friends]. With a newly invigorated membership Gsoc decided to expand again, this time into the realm of Paintball.

A difficult period followed as the new direction that the society was taking did not sit well with older members of the society, who had been around since the the time of the fall. In the events that followed GSoc lost alot of its Role Playing element, who chose to run their campaigns on their own time, unaffiliated with GSoc.

Meanwhile GSoc moved in the direction its membership requested, with expanded LAN parties and paintball trips becoming a frequent fixture on the GSoc calender, while RPG's dwindled in quantity.

In 2003 both John Drohan, the most influential of the new committee, and David Martin, the heart and soul of GSoc, graduated from UL. With the new committee now dwindling in numbers successors had to be drafted from the ranks of the current members.

In 2004 Keith Nolan and Jim Foley graduated.

The Modern Age [2004 - present]

Currently the committee of GSoc is Conor O'Byrne, Aaron Smart, David Finn, Barry O'Dea and many other members who contribute when they can. The Society also received recognition for its growth and success in 2005 by being voted "Most Improved Society of the year" by their peers on campus.

The Hall Of The Damned [Past Presidents]

• Year 1-5: Unknown
• Year 6: Adrian Harte
• Year 7: John MacNamara
• Year 8: John MacNamara
• Year 9: Mhici Ní Mhurchú
• Year 10: Michi Ní Mhurchú
• Year 11: Michi Ní Mhurchú [The long-serving]
• Year 12: David Martin [Appointed the right man for the job]
• Year 13: Jim Foley [The first democratically elected president in at least 5 years]
• Year 14: John Drohan [The first president elected out of spite]
• Year 15: Aaron Smart [Elected by surprise, possibly the only first year to ever be president]
• Year 15: Aaron Smart [Elected by convenience]

Roleplaying Games In The Society

Since 1999, a number of RPG campaigns, mini-campaigns and once-offs (one night games) have been run within the society. The games played include the following:

• Dungeons & Dragons
• Cyberpunk 2020
• Vampire: The Masquerade
• Vampire: The Dark Ages
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse
• Mage: The Ascension
• Fallout Pen and Paper RPG
• Star Wars RPG
• Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game)
• Shadowrun
• Middle-Earth Role Playing
• Zombi!
• Paranoia RPG
• Prime Directive

The society also has a large collection of RPG manuals, many of which haven't been used in years.

Principle members

• David Smart: Joined in 2000, responsible for a number of games including: a simple WWII Zombi! map based once off, a short Zombi! map based campaign called "The Thousand Army", a Werewolf: The Apocalypse campaign called "The Poison Flock and the Drunken Shepard". This campaign ended abruptly due to university affairs. Currently he is running a spin on the white wolf system, but it's been delayed till after the exams in may 2005.

External Link

The GSoc Website