Reading about Scotts troubles I think that I'm quite lucky for having weekly local RPG-club where I can get my weekly roleplaying going on. Also the clubs format of 5-6 weeks long campaigns means that I get to play and run lots of different games with lots of different people.
My troubles aren't that big. Most people out there who want to play tabletop games don't even have any geeky friends at all. Go look around the Internet and you will find a hojillion posts to the effect of "I have nobody to play games with." I have people, and I am able to play RPGs occasionally, which is much more than most people. It's just that the people I have are not reliable and dedicated to the game enough to make an extended consistent campaign because it is far from their primary geekery. It's also not my primary geekery, but maybe if I found 4 other people who were dedicated to form a regular and reliable group, I would be sort of forced to go all out.
I've found it pretty easy, you pick a day of the week that is generally good for you or a set of days (like Tuesdays and Wednesday depending on schedule) you find other people who have a scheduled that is good for that and you always make sure you plan the next session before you end the one you are at. I have a long running now 4th ed game and 3.5 ed AD&D game that depending on who feels like running is played every Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday depending on our collective schedules. If a lot of people don't show up we play board games instead. We are all pretty local and we play regardless if we are down a few people. We now actually have more people then we can play with that are interested in some sort of role-playing games. So if we ever lose a few people we can replace them with others waiting in the wings. I've found the biggest problem around here is there are more people that want to play then spots in the game. (and conversely not enough people who want to run games, we are lucky to have two so if one is tired or busy that week the other plays his game).
You sort of have a perfect storm. You live in the sticks, but you also have a group of friends with sufficient nerdery nearby.
Here in the city there are tons and tons of geeks, so finding people is not the problem. The problem is that it's the city which means people have tons of other better things to be doing. The calendar is a constant stream of events. If I had the people of the city but we weren't actually in the city, people would have much more open calendars with a lot more room for a regular game.
I played D&D; every Sunday for most of high school. All day.
I don't think I could do it. We've had nights where we go from 6 PM to 2 AM, and in that period much pizza and Mountain Dew is had. I feel so gross the next day.
I played D&D; every Sunday for most of high school. All day.
I don't think I could do it. We've had nights where we go from 6 PM to 2 AM, and in that period much pizza and Mountain Dew is had. I feel so gross the next day.
That's why my game group is moving to the "Bananagrams and Grilling" solution during the summer. Between games we throw delicious meats on the grill, make guacamole and other delicious things, and have a feast while playing Bananagrams. Aw yeah.
I played D&D; every Sunday for most of high school. All day.
I don't think I could do it. We've had nights where we go from 6 PM to 2 AM, and in that period much pizza and Mountain Dew is had. I feel so gross the next day.
That's why my game group is moving to the "Bananagrams and Grilling" solution during the summer. Between games we throw delicious meats on the grill, make guacamole and other delicious things, and have a feast while playing Bananagrams. Aw yeah.
Making cupcakes and playing video games all day? Got it covered most Saturdays and Fridays. Not only are my circle of friends now hella skilled at Counter Strike, we make some mean baked good. Cookies anyone?
My Burning Wheel group took a break to play some shorts campaigns of Mouse Guard and FreeMarket. The D&D group picked back up and now we're playing Dark Sun monthly.
I'm running some games for meetup groups and local cons in the next month or two.
The Burning Wheel Secret Summer Surprise '11 is coming!
The Burning Wheel Secret Summer Surprise '11 is coming!
It's not a surprise at this point.
I haven't been following Burning Wheel news super closely. Enlighten us? Is the SSS11 the same thing as the 3rd ed. Burning Wheel that Luke announced a week or two back?
The Burning Wheel Secret Summer Surprise '11 is coming!
It's not a surprise at this point.
I haven't been following Burning Wheel news super closely. Enlighten us? Is the SSS11 the same thing as the 3rd ed. Burning Wheel that Luke announced a week or two back?
I don't think there has been any official announcements for any new next-gen Burning Wheel.
The Burning Wheel Secret Summer Surprise '11 is coming!
It's not a surprise at this point.
I haven't been following Burning Wheel news super closely. Enlighten us? Is the SSS11 the same thing as the 3rd ed. Burning Wheel that Luke announced a week or two back?
I don't think there has been any official announcements for any new next-gen Burning Wheel.
No, there's no official announcement, but it's pretty obvious. Burning Wheel Revised is out of print, that's official. I can pretty much guarantee you are going to see a new edition of BW that has the brown book and the character burner combined in a single volume plus rules changes.
No, there's no official announcement, but it's pretty obvious. Burning Wheel Revised is out of print, that's official. I can pretty much guarantee you are going to see a new edition of BW that has the brown book and the character burner combined in a single volume plus rules changes.
That, and it was revealed to us at Burning Con 10-10-10.
not even the novelility of playing an x-men style mutant or a ninja turtle?
At my age, that's not novel. It just makes me roll my eyes and groan. When I was a kid that might have been awesome, but not now. I'd much rather be a boring old merchant.
Helping out my school's new Pen and Paper Club as a sort of adviser-who-is-not-on-the-eboard-but-helps-with-behind-the-scenes-shit. I wasn't actually planning on playing anything (don't really have time), but then I found out the club's founder wants to have a MLP game. Sooo... fucking... tempting... I mean, I already have a pony made: Boggs Swampy, a stoic earth-pony who lives next to a swamp on the border of the Everfree Forest. He acts as a sentinel to any dangers, and is secretly a very posh, very intellectual transcendentalist-type. He is green with a black mane.
They're also planning an event with the game design department that would focus on building pen-and-paper demakes of a popular video game. I'm thinking on demaking Gears of War, where character sheets are ripped in half if chainsawed in-game.
not even the novelility of playing an x-men style mutant or a ninja turtle?
At my age, that's not novel. It just makes me roll my eyes and groan. When I was a kid that might have been awesome, but not now. I'd much rather be a boring old merchant.
At my age, that's not novel. It just makes me roll my eyes and groan. When I was a kid that might have been awesome, but not now. I'd much rather be a boring old merchant.
Because if you just wanted to be a superhero and punch shit there are roughly 10,000 other video games that will let you do that better than any tabletop game ever could?
not even the novelility of playing an x-men style mutant or a ninja turtle?
At my age, that's not novel. It just makes me roll my eyes and groan. When I was a kid that might have been awesome, but not now. I'd much rather be a boring old merchant.
not even the novelility of playing an x-men style mutant or a ninja turtle?
At my age, that's not novel. It just makes me roll my eyes and groan. When I was a kid that might have been awesome, but not now. I'd much rather be a boring old merchant.
Just had a conversation with a friend about the use of technology at the RPG table, especially electronic publishing that goes beyond just being a pdf. He's a purist who has been playing for a lot longer than I, and he says electronic devices rip someone out of the game, and the idea of implementing them is even worse. I say there are so many ways to share information within the group without the constant immersion break of "Hey man, can I see your character sheet!?!"
From there, I starting thinking about all the ways to automate things like hit point, to inventory management, and then thinking about implementing AI into NPC's. At first I was thinking about combat, but then I thought it would be pretty cool if an NPC had some set responses to being insulted, or trifled with, or very pleased. He told me at that point we'd just be playing a video game without controllers.
I relented and tried giving one more example: Parsely Games. Yes, they're already offered as PDF's, but it would be even better if things were more comprehensive - possibly in a smart-phone friendly format where the device can manage certain calls, pay attention to items, and do other basic things. My friend's response was way too obvious... "You just invented Zork."
I stayed silent and the conversation died with that. I am curious about everyone else's opinion: is it a good idea to introduce electronics to RPG's to streamline some shortcomings, or would it kill the purity of the genre?
You certainly went too far, but I don't see anything bad about using technology in rpgs. The best point of rpgs is their openness and freedom. I don't believe on that "you can do anything in an rpg" crap, but on the same time there is certain freedom to what you make your character do and how the world reacts to it. At the same time many games include lots of mechanics that are just playing with numbers and that kind of things could be computerized.
Actually it could be interesting to make a D&D style rpg, where managing your characters numbers and "tactical"-combat is central and make it a smartphone app. GM would have his GM app and players would have their Character-apps and those apps could store the rules, character sheets, handle the math needed and have maybe other functions. As long as the shared imaginary world between the players is still central thing it would be an rpg instead of a video game or something else.
Heck, I'd argue that Sleep is Death is just a roleplaying tool for 1-to-1 gaming.
Comments
Here in the city there are tons and tons of geeks, so finding people is not the problem. The problem is that it's the city which means people have tons of other better things to be doing. The calendar is a constant stream of events. If I had the people of the city but we weren't actually in the city, people would have much more open calendars with a lot more room for a regular game.
The only problem is sometimes the players are the rules sticklers because obviously they have to know more than the current DM and nofunallowed.jpg.
I'm running some games for meetup groups and local cons in the next month or two.
The Burning Wheel Secret Summer Surprise '11 is coming!
Boggs Swampy, a stoic earth-pony who lives next to a swamp on the border of the Everfree Forest. He acts as a sentinel to any dangers, and is secretly a very posh, very intellectual transcendentalist-type. He is green with a black mane.
They're also planning an event with the game design department that would focus on building pen-and-paper demakes of a popular video game. I'm thinking on demaking Gears of War, where character sheets are ripped in half if chainsawed in-game.
(I played it before it was a d20 game)
Also, I would like to play the official Watchmen RPG.
http://onceuponageek.com/2009/03/16/watchmen-mayfair-rpg-stats-1987/
From there, I starting thinking about all the ways to automate things like hit point, to inventory management, and then thinking about implementing AI into NPC's. At first I was thinking about combat, but then I thought it would be pretty cool if an NPC had some set responses to being insulted, or trifled with, or very pleased. He told me at that point we'd just be playing a video game without controllers.
I relented and tried giving one more example: Parsely Games. Yes, they're already offered as PDF's, but it would be even better if things were more comprehensive - possibly in a smart-phone friendly format where the device can manage certain calls, pay attention to items, and do other basic things. My friend's response was way too obvious...
"You just invented Zork."
I stayed silent and the conversation died with that. I am curious about everyone else's opinion: is it a good idea to introduce electronics to RPG's to streamline some shortcomings, or would it kill the purity of the genre?
Actually it could be interesting to make a D&D style rpg, where managing your characters numbers and "tactical"-combat is central and make it a smartphone app. GM would have his GM app and players would have their Character-apps and those apps could store the rules, character sheets, handle the math needed and have maybe other functions. As long as the shared imaginary world between the players is still central thing it would be an rpg instead of a video game or something else.
Heck, I'd argue that Sleep is Death is just a roleplaying tool for 1-to-1 gaming.