Financial Grants for gaming groups from WOTC?

[catsclaw227]

Has anyone read anything about WOTC offering grants to gaming groups?

Role play yourself into higher education.


Edit: And Officially from WOTC.

Is this what I think it is? Grants to subsidize gaming groups?

 

[Nikroecyst]

I found that the other day as well, however since you basically have to be in college (which I am not) I didn't read the entire thing. I like that they are supporting such an idea but the restrictions look a little unrealistic.

 

[Drkfathr1]

Obviously this is aimed at marketing the game, but methinks this money could be better spent...

 

[bento]

I forwarded this information to the college group I used to sponsor, but I think it will be difficult for WoTC to find any group who can honestly fit the grant's eligiblity rules.

I say this because one of the grant rules is the college-sponsored group's purpose is limited to playing D&D. The group I sponsored played all kinds of games, and we worked very hard to be as inclusive as possible. I think that most other college-sponsored organizations try to have the same philosophy - to be inclusive. We do this to build a community where all kinds of gamers can come together, play what they like and try new things.

Having a group that's exclusively D&D doesn't engender itself to community-building that many college-sponsored based groups work towards.

I feel WoTC needs to re-evaluate this part of the grant rules to widen the eligibility to any "gaming-focused" group, but the money given must be towards RPG activities. Even better, give the groups WoTC merchandise rather than money. How's about the core set, three Player's kits and a case of the latest DDMs?

 

[hexgrid]

I say this because one of the grant rules is the college-sponsored group's purpose is limited to playing D&D.

It just says that the "primary focus" must be D&D, not that it can be the only game played.

Seems to me like pretty much any official college gaming group could apply for this.

 

[Kunimatyu]

If I was WotC, i'd probably focus on things like PHBs, and maybe some dungeon tiles on the side or the odd DDM starter or two.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

Figures something like this would come up after I decided school was a waste of time.

 

[kenobi65]

Well, I'm long out of school, but I looked at this program, out of curiosity.

My biggest question is: how many student gaming groups have a faculty advisor?

When I was in college, we formed our gaming group into a registered student organization, so that we could get a meeting room at the student union for games. But, we didn't have anything like a faculty advisor. Maybe other schools are different, but at Wisconsin, I think you only needed a faculty advisor if you were directly affiliated with one of the schools.

This program feels to me like someone at WotC had a good idea ("let's see what we can do to encourage play at colleges!"), but when it got fleshed out, the amount of red tape became overwhelming.

 

[Imperialus]

oh cool. I don't have time to participate in my schools gaming society but I'll give them the link.

 

[Templetroll]

That's a fantastic idea. It could be the incentive for an existing gaming group to take the steps to create a club, making a presence on a campus. Also, the idea that they proposed to use part of the money to send members to a gaming convention is also great. Wizards can get some advertising and good publicity out of it by having several college groups at the next GenCon.

Have to see if they are interested in working with high school groups next. Even a much smaller amount would be enough to energize a gaming club at the high school level.

I don't think the restrictions are all that restrictive. This sounds like a cool concept for groups at a minimum of 15 colleges. Kudos to WotC.