Well, I've decided to truly stake my own way now, and am trying to decide a good place to live. I'm looking at moving summer/'13, and need to select a location.

I'm putting this up, to see if anyone has any say, or wants the chance to add a new player to the group, or maybe a GM to the rotation.

I'm looking at the following, based on a number of factors:

1. Denver, CO
2. Somewhere from Milwaukee, WI to Green Bay, WI
3. St. Louis, MO
4. Greater OKC/Tulsa area, OK
5. Greater L.A. area, CA
6. Orlando, FL
7. Jacksonville, FL

My job allows me free reign pretty much anywhere I want, and I chose these locations based on Colleges(Majors available, reputation), Gaming Stores, Cost of Living, and Familiarity.

Any tips?

Aw, hell, I'll pipe in here.

How about Toronto, Ontario? Three universities in one city: University of Toronto, York University and Ryerson University. There are five more universities within a one hour drive, too. You're bound to find what you want in one of them!

No, no... I'm not trying to draw SR players to my city. No way. These are not the droids you seek.

Wonder how much that would cost a "Statesman"(or whatever you crazy Canadians use to insult us Americans. C'mon, CanRay, pipe up!).

Are they good in the Physics/Engineering side of things? That's what really piques my interests right now. How's the cost of living?

I'll go ahead and throw in my support for my own hometown here. Metro Detroit is a surprisingly nice side of life. It gets a bad rap because of Detroit but once you get into the Sterling Heights and Novi areas this are really nice. A handful of good gaming stores within driving distance and the cost of living is really cheap compared to the metro areas of other major cities.

University of Waterloo. One of the best engineering schools in the world. A degree from there is a ticket to anywhere. My nephew has one. He has never, ever had difficulty finding work.

Look up the Perimeter Institute. -The- premier think tank for theoretical physics.

Foreign students pay more tuition, but it is still less than tuition at a commensurate university in the US, and there are a lot of perks to living in Canada, not the least of which is the health care system. And living in Kitchener/Waterloo is cheaper than in a larger city like Toronto, yet is only a short drive/transit trip away from that most multi-cultural city in the world.

Okay. Second question for Canada-Land, do I need to learn French?

Nope. Two official languages, so that anyone can get official services in his own (single) language. Most parts of the country it would be hard to know that there are two official languages. Then there's Toronto, where over a hundred languages are spoken. But still English is primary, and French is available in government offices.

University of Waterloo teaches in English. Well, except for the language courses.

Well, it's definitely worth looking into. Wonder what it would take... Passport, Student Visa... Cashflow? Work? Definitely on campus living... It'd be an interesting, unique life experience, for sure.

On campus living would cost a bit more than an apartment, but coming from (far) out of town, on-campus would be easier to set up. I don't know what documents you need coming from the US, but the ones you mention are probably right. I don't know if a work-visa is required.

Check out their WEBSITE.

So I might as well throw up a suggestion. Atlanta isn't a half-bad place to live. We've got Georgia Tech here, one of the best Engineering/Technology universities in the country (or the world), and housing is cheap compared to other large cities. Also, Dragon*Con is here, and Dragon*Con is completely awesome. Also, Atlanta's a pretty cool place in general, even if we lack the history of some older cities.

I dunno getting burned down is always a nice bit of history

Atlanta is too freaking hot and humid, and I've lived on the Mississippi Delta for most of my life, and in southern Texas for another good chunk! But yea, nice city, at least for visiting

I envy you... You would think running servers across the country would allow me to work from anywhere with internet... sadly no, they make me always go to the office *sigh* but the other staff, they can work from home *facepalm*

Of your list I dont like LA or Denver, way too much polution in both (Denver is in a basin, the rest of Colorado seams fine) I have not been to any place else on your list but other than the traffic I love gloomy Seattle, (so put that in perspective) makes me happy... Living anywhere outside the west coast would be too hot, or too cold, or too dry, or too humid. We are called Seattle whimps for a reason.

They should get you a PFY to physical turn on and off the servers when needed.

I can chime in here. I'm an American (from MN) doing grad school at U of Calgary. Canada's great, dude. It's got neither the economic nor the cultural mess of the US. Really not looking forward to going back south when I'm done with my program. And yeah, tuition even with the international fees is about like regular in state tuition back home. Also, MA programs are way more likely to get funded.

I'm on a study permit, though, not working. You can work on campus with a study permit, and after 6 months can apply for an off campus work permit. Otherwise, you might want to look into the work permit first and I won't be much help with that.

French, it REALLY varies depending on where you are. Anywhere west of Manitoba, basically nobody speaks any French. In Quebec, especially outside of semi-bilingual Montreal, you'll definitely need it. Anywhere else is somewhere in between.

Thanks for the tips. Especially pro-Canadia Land comments. Opened up a lot of ideas.

I'll throw a couple out there,

first: Jacksonville FL: Cost of living is pretty decent, lots of gaming stores but i found it hard to find a SR game in town. ended up playing a werewolf (Get of Fenris Ahroun) in a white wolf dark worlds game. University wise theres two and i dont think either of them is high on physics.

Orlando has a lot of gaming stores but cost of living is high. Emry is in the area some what, as is U of F however i dont know what their physics dept. are like and i dont know how rare SR games are

I know its not on your list but DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth) isnt to hard on the wallet, game stores are plentiful, and between UT arlington and SMU (Both of whom i think have decent physics dept.) as well as the base in Fort worth, games are fairly plentiful if you know where to look or who to ask. Night life is pretty good also

I'll chime in on California. I live in San Diego and have seen L.A. enough to recommend San Diego. Amazing weather, lower cost of living than L.A., much better traffic, local colleges, and beache. It's sunny and in the 70s right now, I wear shorts most of the year. I never have problems finding people to game with, and I can recommend a good game store or two. That being said ... stay away from L.A. .

You had me at "I wear shorts most of the year".

Thats not the issues... my servers are in South Carolina... the issue is the company REQUIRES all I.T. staff to show up in the Seattle office from 9am-5pm M-F, regardless of our ability to work from anywhere. Outside of that time window we can work from home...

I vote Jacksonville but I'm kinda partial. We need more players done here.

To add to the piping up for Canada, I'll agree, University of Waterloo is one of the best engineering universities in the world, and I'm pretty sure their physics department is at a similar level, and I know their math and CS departments are, although that wasn't what you asked directly.

It also happens to be just down the street from an excellent game shop in J&J Superstore (formerly J&J Cards and Collectibles) http://www.jjcards.com

I'll guess that it's also home to a few SR games as well, but if not pbangarth and I are both in a group that flips back and forth between Toronto and Hamilton, neither of which are too far away by car, maybe an hour and a half from campus in either case, although who knows what another year will bring on that front.

If Tech_Rat decides to move to Kitchener-Waterloo, I'll have to find a way to thank pbangarth and Raven the Trickster for sending a shadowrunner my way. And he's right about The Permimeter Institute. Stephen Hawking was here last summer doing work of some sort up there for a month or two.



J&J's is definitely an awesome shop, but I have yet to find a Shadowrun game out here. Both Toronto and Hamilton are just over an hour's drive away, but that only works if you drive...

However, with the GO Train starting to run out here, it may actually become affordable to run into Toronto for a games night.

Always looking for fresh gamers!

They may not carry it regularly, but they'll order in pretty much anything game wise from my experience.

I wasn't trying to imply they're a bad gaming store. Sorry if that's the impression that I gave. J&J's is an awesome store, especially if you're looking for boardgames, they just don't have a great selection of RPG's on-hand. However, as Raven the Trickster pointed out, they are really good about special-ordering product for people. They've gotten me a couple fairly obscure gaming-related indie films on DVD in the recent past.