Kind of building on the D&D subject, if you look up your local game stores that have playspace, they probably have a calendar on their website listing lots of “Open Play” events or something similar. Mine also has craft/hobby nights.

You normally just show up to these and play.

The card and army based games may expect you to have your own stuff, but I would get in touch with somebody because a lot of the time there’s going to be somebody who will let you try the game with their stuff and teach you how to play in hopes of getting you interested long-term.

Most game shops host some games that are open to people signing up.

At one of my local stores, they specifically have the “D&D Adventure League” once a week. It does have a $5 entry fee.

In some circumstances the company also gets a cut of rebate. I don’t know about anything that may or may not be going on in the US on this front, but in Canada Tesla’s been under scrutiny because they submitted a bunch of forms last minute claiming sales that did not look legitimate, just before the Canadian program ended.

Seems to be a kind of online conference. For being open source focused it’s opening is very salesy/buzzword salad-ish.

"Open protocols, not closed platforms. The Fediverse, Mastodon and ActivityPub. ATmosphere, Bluesky and AtProto. Human connections, not AI bots, nor fake news nor manipulative algorithms. New funding models. New forms of governance. Better trust and safety. Direct relationships to stakeholders and customers. Interoperability across social platforms everywhere, and so much more.

After a decade of stagnation, next-generation social media is breaking out of the closed silos and connecting the world into a global, open social web. It’s a wild world full of opportunity.

FediForum brings together the leading thinkers and doers who build this new Open Social Web."