Fun in Tabletop RPGs ... Why we play (& explaining to others why we play & encouraging others to join the hobby).

[Of Horrors & Heroes]

Hello fellow gamers - dunno about you but you but there are people in my life that I would be keen to introduce to TTRPGs but explaining exactly what makes it so fun has always been kinda hard. I've had a go at popping my thoughts in this video to unpack what I find fun about the hobby.

When you are trying to encourage someone new to gaming to start a tabletop RPG how do you go about it? Do you start with the community "hey such and such is playing you should too"? Or is it more about the storytelling thing? Of is it just simply coz its fun?
How many people have your successfully introduced to this hobby out of interest?

Maybe this video could be useful for you to share with those people in your life you would like to "recruit" to gaming but are sitting on the fence .. ??

So I kinda got my hand slapped (with, I think, good intentions/reasons) for previously posting stuff that could be considered "spammy/click baity" in this forum - this isn't an attempt to be a dick but rather to prompt some thought and legitmate quiestions;

What is fun in TTRPGs (with the obvious comment that of course such things are subjective)? How do you desribe this very strange hobby to other people?

Keen to hear your thoughts and opinions?

Fun in Tabletop RPGs ... Why we play

 

[Teo Twawki]

I feel like I should share my response from another forum to your message here.

How do you desribe this very strange hobby to other people?

One common offering from me is, "Have you ever talked back to a movie?"

If their answer is Yes and they mean something more than talking back at the Rocky Horror Picture Show, I suggest they may very much enjoy RPGs.

If their answer is Yes and they mean only the RHPS, then my suggestion for interest in RPGs is usually sidelined by a discussion of Richard O'Brien, performativity, personality personas, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, and other such strange ilk that I likely forget to suggest RPGs by the time we part ways. But usually remember to if we cross paths again.

If their answer is some kind of No then I usually shrug and move on to something else.

To me, the concept-in-a-nutshell of playing an RPG is very much like watching a character in a show do things you-as-viewer think they should be doing differently.