The Future of Nerd Adventures

The History

Since the beginning, Nerd Adventures has been a passion project built from inspiration. It started with the idea of playing D&D and board games in a castle. We wanted to see if we could get together enough people to make that possible. We did, and it was magical! So much so that we knew that we had to keep doing it. 

A lot has changed since that first adventure. We have now completed 5 trip adventures in 4 different locations around Spain, with 43 different attendees, and countless quests completed in each one. We developed and played several games including escape rooms, murder mysteries, Cocktails & Carnage, LARP games, Toa, and more. Each time we have iterated on the ideas from the previous adventures to make improvements.

A few people have asked, “What is your vision for Nerd Adventures?” This isn’t a simple question to answer. In short, I want to keep the ideas alive. 

I love so much about Nerd Adventures. I love creating, the locations we go to, sharing with friends, playing games, and bringing people together. I love how it challenges me. It has been a hobby that has brought me so much satisfaction that I have never experienced anywhere else. It has also been an incredible amount of work too. I call it the job that doesn’t pay.

Stefanie and I have the vision to bring the events to life. We make the games, write the stories, book the spaces, gather the people, coordinate transportation/meals, and create the schedules. However these events would be impossible without the community. That said, getting enough people to go on these adventures is one of the biggest challenges. It can be hard to find the “right people” who are open to being silly and play games in a fantasy world. 

The Challenge

With 6 months between each event, a lot changes within our community from one event to the other. People move away, have kids, and get new jobs. Interests change and so do relationships. The list goes on and on. This has made it clear to me that if a community doesn’t grow, it shrinks. This is why we are trying to grow this community. 

I have also recognized that people in the community have different preferences. Some would prefer to have adventures in castles, others are happy to stay in a casa rural. People have different preferences on levels of comfort, quality of food, distance to travel, and so on. 

I recognize that it is impossible to make the perfect event for everyone, but also that there is opportunity for different types of events. For example we could do more of a destination style event in a different country. We could offer adult only or family friendly events. We could do more affordable adventures and more extravagant ones. Our current community isn’t big enough to offer different events, but it would be great if we could.

The Future

I want to keep the ideas of Nerd Adventures alive. Truly I would love for it to be more than that though. I would love to do more than 2 events in a year. I would love for it to be financially sustainable. I’d love to make money doing these events. I’d love for people from far and wide to enjoy our games. I believe that the way to get there is by growing the community and our reach.

While we could try to make a business out of it and advertise, we simply cannot right now. Our current visa situation doesn’t allow us to make money outside of our school contract until we have been here for at least 5 years. This means that the soonest we could try to start doing something like this legally in Spain would be August of 2026, and my alignment prevents me from breaking the law (I know that I am lawful, though I don’t have enough information to say whether I’m Good or Evil). 

This means that this next year we are focused on trying to grow the community. We hope that this will help us to continue to learn, host awesome events, and that not only will Nerd Adventures be alive, but that it will thrive.

What to expect

We have lots of ideas for how we can grow the community. We plan to do this by hosting events through the new Meetup group. We will be hosting LARP events, game nights, and we even have ideas for doing mini Nerd Adventures locally. I will also be connecting and collaborating with other similar communities around Madrid to meet new people who might be interested.

At the same time, we want to continue to create games to share with the community, while hosting Nerd Adventure trips, and create a good online image on social media (Instagram, Youtube, and Meetup).

What you can do

If you want to help, there are lots of ways you can contribute. All of our past growth happened through word of mouth. You can:

• Keep talking about the events we host.

• Keep showing up and adding to the magic.

• Invite new friends to join.

• Share your feedback to help us improve.

• Host casual events of your own in The Tavern.

• Like, share, follow, and comment on our social posts.

• Share this post!

• Leave a Google Review if you’ve attended one of our events.

Maybe you have other ideas on how you can help. If so, know that my ears are open and I am always happy to talk about Nerd Adventures.

But perhaps the most important thing you can do, is keep being you. Keep being nerdy,  and keep being adventurous.

Thank you for reading,

Daniel