So after having read this blog post, talking about RPG games and market appeal and such, as well as this forum thread, which links to this msnbc article is leaves me musing about the appeal of Role Playing Games to the public audience. As someone who spends a large percentage of their time and attention on games, I'm interested in the future of RPGs, and in introducing new players to RPGs.
Some of the talk on the D&D 4e forums has been related to whether D&D4 targets brand new players, unfamiliar with D&D, or old school players. That argument aside, I can glean one gem from it. We need to target new players. I'm not going to sit here and claim that D&D is some lost art or magic, about to die, if only we could get people to care. However, as much as I love Role Playing Games, I am eager to see new players get involved, as much for selfish reasons (I can play RPGs *with* them!!), as for longevity and posterity.
I'm being long winded and rambly, but here's where I'm headed:
I'd love to get some like minded folks together and try to do a (Local) RPG day. Memphis in this case, of course. I'm interested in getting all of my fellow 8-5 nerd couples crowd, and all of the other demographics out there that I think would love some D&D or Dogs in the Vineyard or Shadowrun or Modern d20 or whatever - I'd love to get them together and introduce them to Role Playing Games.
It bothers me that Memphis seems to have no gaming community whatsoever.
So here's what I'm kicking around in my head:
Picking a date, asking some fellow gamer nerds if they'll prep something and be prepared to run, and then doing a Memphis RPG Day somewhere. I'm not sure how I'd entice people who are not necessarily gamers to come, or perhaps even weed out the weird/bad/scary elements, but I'm still thinking about it. I'd love to introduce new people to the hobby. Having read that blog post that I linked at the beginning of this, I couldn't help but think about all of the small social groups, unexposed to Role Playing Games, who might love it, but are unlikely to pick up 600 pages of rules and say, "Hey, lets give this a shot!". Its going to take people running games that are accessible to people who may not consider themselves as "gaming nerds".
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2 comments:
I know this is an old blog post but I just found it.
What do you mean there's no RPG community in Memphis? As of this year there are three Conventions that have RPGs. MidSouthCon, ShadowCon and Games Day Memphis. There's also at least three game stores that have gaming tables.
I thought about your post for a few days.
I give that there are lots of role playing gamers in the midsouth area. But I still think that there is very little community amongst them. And I may be talking out of my ass here, but when I say "community", I mean people that know each other, people that have some sort of interaction with each other from time to time, and I don't mean once a year at the con. I also don't mean "your gaming group", or "my gaming group" for that matter.
I'll also fess up - I have not been to a memphis area con, or actually any con- ever. I'd like to go, but my full time job and full time life have kept me from attending.
The core gripe that I had, when I made this complaint, was more specific to the internet. I have spent hours and hours and hours scouring the 'net for local gaming related forums and such things.
So - I'm not trying to be argumentative really- but I just feel like that sure there are lots of gamers in memphis, and a goodly number of small gaming groups in memphis, but not alot of contact amongst the gaming community as a whole.
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