Getting new people into the role playing hobby

[EarthsShadow]

I was reading a post on rpg.net about this and it seems that the hobby isn't getting that many new people into it and is still losing more than gaining. I don't know if this is true but what kinds of ways could stores and companies try to get new people into the hobby.

Commercials maybe? I don't know. What was WotC's initial plan on this matter when they did 3e?

 

[Harlock]

I was reading a post on rpg.net about this and it seems that the hobby isn't getting that many new people into it and is still losing more than gaining. I don't know if this is true but what kinds of ways could stores and companies try to get new people into the hobby.

Commercials maybe? I don't know. What was WotC's initial plan on this matter when they did 3e?

Not trying to be argumentative on purpose today, but just pointing out different things I am seeing. Anyway, here's a quote off of the ENWorld main newspage. This is Ryan Dancey speaking about various trends in gaming:

On the tabletop RPG fanbase:

The evidence available suggests that the number of tabletop RPG players is growing, not shrinking, and that net sales, if you exclude core D&D book sales, is growing, not shrinking over the period from 2000 to 2003.

Also, as far as getting new folks into the hobby I think it's imperative that WotC get out a set of "Basic Rules" or something geared to a younger crowd. I got into gaming at a young age and grew up to remain a gamer. I recent totally unscientific poll here on these boards indicated a majority of us got into RPG and or D&D before age 16 or so. I say you have to focus on that younger market because otherwise us old guys are going to die off at some point and there'll be no "new blood" to keep this industry afloat.

 

[spacecrime.com]

Re: Re: Getting new people into the role playing hobby

Also, as far as getting new folks into the hobby I think it's imperative that WotC get out a set of "Basic Rules" or something geared to a younger crowd

The boxed adventure set is a good first try at this, and I'm hopeful that the upcoming <i>First Challenge</i> set will do an even better job. But yes, the main rulebooks are tough sledding to a group that's totally new to the game.

OTOH -- to repeat a thought I had on rpg.net -- any experienced gamer who wants to see more kids in the hobby might want to think about planning to run some introductory games at a FLGS when school gets out. It's pretty easy to get 13-year-olds excited about gaming, and they can be a lot of fun to play with too.

cheers,

 

[Krug]

I think it'll be tremendously helpful if the following were done:
1. Intro kits in Computer RPGs such as Diablo, Warcraft and so on, or at least discount vouchers.
2. Choose your own adventure books. It's a logical progression. I think this got a lot of people curious about the hobby.
3. There's a Free comic day. Maybe a Free RPG day? Since Deadlands and Ars Magica are distributed free already, and there's a ton of free adventures for D&D. Perhaps a collection of these printed on CD? Though I think print might be more appealing... a 16 page B&W free zine with adventures for different games perhaps?

 

[Drawmack]

How about friends, friends kids yadda, yadda, yadda. I have personally intorduced 20 people to role-playing in the last 2 years and I did this by answering, "What is this game all about?" with, "Come on sunday and find out."

 

[Harlock]

Re: Re: Re: Getting new people into the role playing hobby

any experienced gamer who wants to see more kids in the hobby might want to think about planning to run some introductory games at a FLGS when school gets out. It's pretty easy to get 13-year-olds excited about gaming, and they can be a lot of fun to play with.

Now that is an excellent idea. I'm pretty lucky in my town I guess, in that the FLGS owner is a married military retiree with two pre-teen kids of his own who are often at the store and often have friends there gaming already. Also, during the summer, theowner sometimes has marathon gaming sessions that the store hosts inviting people to come and go over 24-48 hour period or to even come in and try and stay awake and game a while. It's pretty cool, I think.

 

[Kyramus]

http://gamers.deadgentlemen.com/

go here, get the tape, make the people watch it, if they enjoyed it, they might want to play.

 

[Storminator]

I posted that I taught some neighborhood kids to play recently. According to my son (freshman in HS), about 50 kids have started to play since the start of the school year.

PS

 

[EarthsShadow]

Not to sound totally pessimistic on what Ryan said, but do you honestly think he would actually report that the number of gamers is shrinking vs. saying its growing? I don't think so.

The reason why I say what I say is because I have known many people around here who are leaving the hobby because of whatever reasons, and I am sure we are getting new people all the time but it might be equal. Then again, what he says might be true, but he has to say what he said in order to make it sound as if things are going as they want, and I don't think things are going as peachy keen as they want them to be, but they are going just good enough to keep it going.

What I am wondering is what things could we do, either as gamers or as companies that produce rpg games, to get new people into the hobby?

It would be nice if each FLGS would go out of their way to try and run demo's for kids after school, but we all know that they cater to card games more and most LGS's are just fine with that. Speaking from experience, all the employees at my LGS don't care about rpgs and none of them play them, so they never promote them. Then I hear them complaining about the lack of rpg sells, and this is now why they are now ordering only d20 stuff, and a few non d20 products.

If your happy with just saying that things are fine and there is no need to try to get more people into the hobby, that's fine...but at the rate things are going we will see the same people playing the games (maybe a few people will be lucky enough to live in a location where others are actually willing to show up to see a rpg game but most are not so lucky) and no mass fresh newbies coming in.

If there needs to be any new point, the average age of gamers has steadily increased over the last 20 years, as most of you on these boards have been gaming for at least over 10 years, if not 20, and the numbers of new gamers is not as high as they report. IMO of course.

 

[EarthsShadow]

Its even more sad that we can spend countless posts and threads on repeated threads like "what do you want to see in 3.5/4e?" and repeat our opinions constantly and bicker and argue over pointless things like this, but when it comes to a real topic of discussion most people ignore it.