genshou said:
Sounds like fun (for you!)
I moved to Meridian, Idaho, which is 10 miles away from Boise city limits. There are NO gaming stores anywhere around here, and nobody sells D&D books as far as I can tell. Not even Barnes & Noble or anything. And I don't have any idea how I can find other players here...
Oh, well. That's why I got into online gaming. My current PBEM game has four PCs who have known each other since childhood. They spent at least a month and a half working on their characters before they started. I think from now on I'm going to insist all my players are as into the campaign as those four wonderful players.
I'm too lazy, so will someone please direct me to where on this website I can find out how to use vB code? I want to include above game's story hour link in my signature.
Momentary "Hijack"
Hello Genshou. I also live in the area. The Treasure Valley area has a fair amount of gamers, but for some reason they do not interact much. It's more like they are a multitude of isolated groups. I have always had a difficult time finding new groups to be a part of. Fortunately, persistence has paid off for me more often than not. After all this time, though, I have yet to find a consistent method to find other playing groups.
As for stores with RPG products, the selection is narrower than it used to be, mainly for economic reasons, AFAICT. There is a bookstore in downtown Boise called Book & Games (located at 9th & Main) that I recently discovered. I hope it is able to be successful, because it is even open on Sundays, which is unsusual for small downtown businesses. It has a section on RPG products, similar to Dark Horse Games, which is still around (at 23rd & Main). Hobbytown USA in Boise at Cole & Ustick is also available, but they have less of an emphasis on RPG products. Hastings at Cole & Fairview in Boise is something to look at as well, if there is the desire to. All are hit or miss, because product stocking is less than it was in the past (special orders are more common these days). Incidentally, Meridian has a small comics shop which I visit infrequently. Weird but true.
End Momentary "Hijack"
As for the main point of this thread, I have found that this has been basically true for all the years that I have been gaming. People have different expectations and playing styles, and most game so as a form of enjoyable escapism. Part of this includes not having to put too much effort into personal gaming. I can understand and accept this, because we are talking about a social/leisure activity made by chioce. Note that this belief is based on my personal gaming experiences and interacting with others, and not that this is indded true for nearly everyone. I happen to think it's the most popular truism, so to speak, but I could be wrong.
The following is a comment directed at no one in particular, and is based on my own experiences again. I would be very careful at trying to have players act in certain ways about specific things that matter to you as a gm. This is mainly because not every player fits one mold, which, IMO, is a good thing. If one is interested in having players share the same, or nearly so, interest in what you favor, then an effort needs to made to find the players, not alter or change the current ones for one's purpose alone. I know the gm typically puts in a good deal of time and effort into a campaign, but it is easy to lose perspective on these sorts of things because of that.
I learned the above through experience as a player and a gm, which was both good and bad. What I have learned is that either one accepts what the playing group is like, or one discusses it with them to find out what can be done about any such issues, if possible. A key here is discussing it without it becoming a personal and/or scorecard conversation. If the issue is important enough, perhaps a change of some type is a possibility to explore. If not, it's one of those things that simply are always there.
