Play Something Else

[MNblockhead]

I think there are many people who don't ever play with strangers (home game exclusives and the like). I have a Discord game and two in-person games, all with friends.

Which is is rather sad. I'm not criticizing, I have the same inclination. But I try to take myself out of my comfort zone. But I generally only play one-shots with complete strangers, on-line, at a FLGS, or at a convention. I never felt comfortable running games at a convention. Still, I believe that if I really want to run a specific system, I just have to put myself out there and meet people. Before my job made in-person play mostly impossible, I started putting up flyers at my local flags for running one shots of various systems I never get a chance to run. I enjoyed it. I think with conventions it is more that the players are paying for a slot, whereas the games I was running at my FLGS would only result in a loss of some time if the players didn't enjoy it.

Now that I'm moving back to the US, I'm hoping to run some one shots of Paranoia, DCC, InSPECTREs, and others, once I've settled into the new city.

Another thing I would like to do is run "let's learn together how to play this board game." There was a great boardgame group that met at my local FLGS in Minneapolis that I used to attend regularly until about 5 years ago. But they were pretty intense about not introducing a game that you were not very familiar with the rules. So I only played games, I never brought my own. Not sure if there would be much interest, but I would like to schedule a session where someone brings a new game and we all figure out the rules and learn to play it together. Otherwise you seem to have the same small group of people always being the ones to bring games and teach others how to play it. I think this makes more casual board gamers shy to introduce anything.

 

[MNblockhead]

I don't know if anyone else has this experience, but I have a pretty big player pool in general. If I mention a game I would like to run on my Facebook group, I almost always get positive repsonses. But when it comes time to actually find 4 or 5 people willing to sign up for a weekly game it is very difficult. Tellingly, this is NOT true if that game is 5E D&D (which i don't want to run anymore).

Can be an issue online as well. I find it easier to run a number of one shots with a system I like and tell any players who join to let me know if they'd be interested in playing it again. Once I get a good number of people, I would try to schedule a mini-campaign. I find many people (including myself) are cautious about committing to a campaign for a system and with a group with which they are unfamiliar.

 

[SableWyvern]

Which is is rather sad.

There is nothing sad about having an activity that you engage in with your friends, and have no interest in engaging in with random strangers.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, even though we probably all agree that experiencing new things is good in general, there is no particular reason anyone's new things need to involve TTRPGs specifically.

Would you consider it sad if @Micah Sweet had said, "there are many people who don't ever go out for dinner with strangers"?

 

[GrimCo]

@MNblockhead
Born, raised, and living there right now. To be fair, complaining without doing anything about it, is national sport in most South/ South East Europe. It's kinda like people on internet, complaining for the sake of complaining.

About not playing with strangers. There is decent amount of people who care more about who they play with, rather than what they play. For them, playing ttrpgs is primarily social thing, opportunity to hang out with friends. Funny thing is, there was time when people you call friends were also strangers. I usually see this more among us "older" gamers, who have very limited time for gaming and for socializing with friends in general. Playing with friends gives best bang for the buck, you get to game and hang out with friends at the same time. In the same vein, some people don't like playing online (i'm one of them). For them, big part of ttrpg experience stems from meeting and interacting with other people in person, which i totally get, it's just different atmosphere, different vibe.

 

[MNblockhead]

There is nothing sad about having an activity that you engage in with your friends, and have no interest in engaging in with random strangers.

Yes, true, but... For me TTRPGs are a great way to meet new people and playing with new people exposes me to new games and styles of playing. I also think that it is good for the hobby. But I shouldn't cast aspersions on those that have no interest in that, for whatever reason.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, even though we probably all agree that experiencing new things is good in general, there is no particular reason anyone's new things need to involve TTRPGs specifically.

No need, but it doesn't hurt to discuss the benefits of branching out.

Would you consider it sad if @Micah Sweet had said, "there are many people who don't ever go out for dinner with strangers"?

For him, personally, I have no idea. It would be sad for me. I enjoy going out to dinner with strangers. I don't turn down dinner parties because I don't know everyone there. When I was in college, I would invite interesting people to lunch. For about 18 years my job involved meeting with lots of strangers for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Sure, this was part of my job and these potential strangers were potential vendors, clients, industry peers, etc. But I enjoyed it. I've done all kinds of meetups. I realize that I'm am probably an outlier in that I seek out and enjoy meeting new people. But I also believe that it is a good habit to get into, especially in an increasingly online, home-based world.

 

[MichaelSomething]

If you only wanna play with friends, that's fine. That can create the situation where you object to the game but play it anyway for the sake of your friends. It's about priorities at that point.

 

[Thomas Shey]

If you only wanna play with friends, that's fine. That can create the situation where you object to the game but play it anyway for the sake of your friends. It's about priorities at that point.

Can very well end up being a lesser-of-two-evils situation then, however.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Can very well end up being a lesser-of-two-evils situation then, however.

I'm all ears if you have a solution!

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm all ears if you have a solution!

Just because I don't think the situation likely has an easy solution doesn't mean I can't acknowledge its often a problem.

 

[GrimCo]

I'm all ears if you have a solution!

Solution is always the same when it comes to conflicting preferences. Sit down and talk. We are talking about group of friends here, people who like and respect each other. So open and honest discussion and you find common ground. It can be game that everyone at the table loves equally. If table is divided between games x and y, you can go back and forth between games, and if someone really dislikes other game, he/she can skip the session when that game is being played. Or, worst case, if everyone really wants to play X and you hate the game, you take a break until they finish campaign and just hang out with your friends outside of gaming.

This is from personal experience. We play 5th ed D&D since it's a consensus game that everyone likes well enough. My personal favourite is still WoD, my friend loves his Warhammer Fantasy, my brother loves CoC, DM loves Houses of the Blooded, for other 2 D&D is their no1 pick. About 12-3 years ago, i had fantasy burnout. It wasn't fun for me any more. We stared alternative Hunters game that faded out cause of conflicting schedules after only 5-6 sessions. Same thing happened with my D20 modern SF game, 2-3 sessions and fade out. D&D campaign was still going strong. So i took time off, stooped playing for almost a year. We still hung out. We were still friends. Their campaign ended, i hoped back in, we played a bit of 7th sea, then some 2ed AD&D and when D&D Next playtest started, we switched to that. It's ok to take a brake from playing if game isn't doing it for you any more.