|
I feel like I've heard rumors and descriptions of gaming clubs like this that are more common/still exist in the UK, but more focused on tabletop wargames like warhammer, historicals, etc. Often with a clubhouse or community space where shared resources like model terrain and gaming tables can be located. Pop down to the game club to get in a game of epic 40k with whoever happens to be around, or maybe organize a blood bowl league, or maybe just hang out and paint a mini and shoot the poo poo. IIRC Dave Arneson's RPG grew out of a similar style of gaming group, and that's how Gygax got involved to begin with. One of the aspects of that old-school style of play was the ability to sketch out and develop and iterate on new games - you write up your custom thing on some note cards, play with folks you're familiar with, get feedback, brainstorm, etc. Fax, are you thinking of doing stuff like developing/iterating on your megadungeon design by leveraging a gaming club as a resource?
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2022 19:21
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 10, 2024 02:07 |
|
|
hyphz posted:Can confirm these still exist for historicals as the one I'm in on Thursday has existed for at least 40 years, but was largely focussed on historicals for most of that. More recently, it's expanded to modern board games, which also work well within that model. They do occasionally do RPGs, but always as long term campaigns within fixed groups. I think it's more of a "we've got space in the village rec hall to store our terrain and we get to use the main room on thursdays from 5 to 10" kind of dedicated space, not "we own this building" kind of space.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 27, 2022 05:05
|
|
|
We're kinda jumping the gun with offerings about how to mitigate these failure modes, given Fax has already foreshadowed that a large group can have mitigating options not available to the "standard" table. Specifically, there is less need to try to accommodate the bored, apathetic, distracted, or simply misfitting players at a table to which they are ill-suited when it's far easier to both replace them from the ready pool, and maybe find a different table within the pool to which they are better suited. I anticipate commentary about distribution of authority, reinforcement of community norms, and more. This thread is about gaming clubs; it's not "yet another thread to hotly debate what the problems are with RPGs." I interpret Fax's reminiscence about curbside gaming was intended to exemplify the attraction of drop-in, ubiquitously available gaming, or perhaps a spirit of experimentation with loosly- or dis-connected bite-sized narratives; rather than some desire to have a game club emulate a 1990s 12-year-old's style of roleplay in whatever particulars might be labeled as immature or problematic somehow (and those presumptions are themselves unnecessary).
|
|
#
¿
Apr 27, 2022 22:05
|
|
|
Schools, community centers/rec hall type places, and libraries immediately come to mind. My sister gamed at a local university's student union for years, even though she didn't attend that uni. And many cities and towns have a recreation center or senior center that is available to anyone who signs up, sometimes with a small fee or sometimes a large fee, often with specific hours and rules. And while libraries need to be quiet spaces, some of them have meeting rooms/study rooms available to be reserved. In all of these cases, it's necessary to know the rules, usually you need to reserve well in advance, you have a limited amount of time, and you may have to deal with a certain amount of "woops the time slots we wanted next week are all taken, now what" so your fallback idea is good. Senior centers are mostly for seniors, obviously, but some have rooms and facilities that are available to anyone. For example, here's my local senior center's signup page: https://www.cityofconcord.org/442/Senior-Center---Room-Rental I would also say, don't discount the option to meet outdoors, in a park or similar. Bring a clean picnic type tablecloth for use on outdoor picnic tables to keep the bird crap off your stuff, and if you need lots of paper sheets etc., bring lots of paperweights. Obviously weather can spoil your day, and some climates just aren't suitable for this much of the year. Lastly, commercial meeting rooms might be within your budget. I did some searching and this was one of the cheapest ones I found in my area: https://evenues.com/meeting-space/private-office-Lafayette/30405 $20/hr might be way too much for a game group to use on a regular basis, but maybe it'd be an option as a fallback.
|
|
#
¿
May 28, 2022 06:43
|
|
|
I was just wondering like, yesterday, how this was going so it's cool to get an update. Are you finding that your players are still treating it like a traditional RPG, by which I mean: inhabiting the gamespace with characters that come alive through RP? Speculating about what's to come, discussing plot twists, collaborating to solve a crisis? Are you getting lots of feedback, or are the players just low-key satisfied with how stuff is going?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 15, 2022 23:03
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 10, 2024 02:07 |
|
|
I wonder if there's any possibility of pulling in an additional member of staff to run a parallel group? Honestly with so little time per session, at 15 players you'll have some kids who only get to say or do one thing per session, and maybe some who do nothing at all. Even with a streamlined game system that isn't D&D I'd be worried about engagement at that group size with such short sessions.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 22, 2023 18:49
|
|