Writing a paper on RPGs - looking for insights

[mhacdebhandia]

If you were going to introduce someone to D&D (or the like) who had never really been involved with it before where would you start?

I would start by asking them what sort of fiction and games they were interested in. Someone whose primary idea of fantasy is Harry Potter is quite different from someone whose mind turns to Ninja Scroll. Generally, I'd probably only use a game like D&D to introduce a new roleplayer to the hobby if they were fond of its derivatives - Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, Neverwinter Nights, or even novels like R. A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms books or the Dragonlance novels.

Absent that introduction to D&D's version of the fantasy genre, I'd probably start with something else, and exactly what that would be depends on what they're already interested in. Vampire: The Masquerade brought a lot of new gamers into the hobby back in the 1990s, so I'd be happy to use the modern version, Vampire: The Requiem, especially since it happens to be one of my favourite games, to introduce someone who seemed like they would be interested in a game of "personal horror".

What direction would you point them in?

I think one of the biggest stumbling blocks for a lot of experienced gamers is realising that not everyone who's interested in roleplaying is necessarily ever going to be interested in the games you play.

I mean, I think Dungeons & Dragons is a fantastic game, but not everyone is going to buy into its premises - plus there's the secondary issue of whether someone who will like D&D is going to like the worlds I prefer to play in.

That's why I think being in touch with your local community can be useful, because knowing where to palm off new players who won't be interested in the games you're playing is good for the growth of the hobby. I find my association with SUTEKH really valuable for this sort of thing.

How would you describe yourself, your community, your level of engagement?

I would say that I'm a moderately experienced, very involved and enthusiastic gamer. However, while roleplaying games are my primary hobby, my involvement in the "gamer community" is coloured by my preferences.

I strongly prefer to play with friends whose gaming style and preferences I know are compatible with my own. I don't enjoy gaming with strangers very much, and so I don't have the slightest bit of interest in gaming conventions (especially since conventions in Australia almost entirely lack the "dealer market" aspect of North American conventions).

I'm an active member of SUTEKH, the University of Sydney geek culture and gaming society, but I don't get involved in many roleplaying games right off the bat - I prefer to use the club to make friends, learn about their gaming preferences, and then put together or join the right group for a game once I'm familiar with everyone who will be at the table.

I am a very regular reader of online roleplaying game forums like this one, RPG.Net, and the official Wizards of the Coast D&D and Eberron forums, too.

What do you love/hate about it all and what keeps you engaged with it?

The main reason I play roleplaying games is because I enjoy being involved in the creation of stories which allow me to reflect on issues and phenomena I find interesting - hard moral and ethical choices, for instance, religious faith, war, the flaws and virtues of human beings, all sorts of stuff.

All the cool heroic adventure, crazy magical powers, and fantastical worlds I enjoy playing in are just the canvas for these things, because I find that taking "mundane" things like a flaw in one's character and placing it in the context of a "weird tale in an unreal world" makes the issue itself larger and more clear.

It's a bit like Buffy, I suppose - turning the problems of a teenager in high school into metaphorical monsters lets you explore those problems in a fashion which makes for an enjoyable story and a very fun game, and even when everyone else around the table is just focused on kicking butt or living out wish-fulfillment fantasies, I can (ideally) still get what I want out of the game.

My general impression is that the majority of players are male but sense a female community is present if not as vocal.

In SUTEKH and in my other contacts with the gaming community, it's definitely been the case that women are a minority, but I would say they're a visible minority. I've played in games with no women, but I've also played in games where women made up one-quarter of the players and games where they were one-half of the players. Right now, I'm running a game where my wife is the only woman out of six players, plus me as the DM.

My wife actually got involved in roleplaying because of me - though I'll note she was already involved in systemless collaborative fiction, which is also sometimes considered roleplaying by its participants (though it wasn't by her or her friends in this particular instance), when we first met. That kind of "RP" probably outnumbers the number of traditional roleplayers around the world, when you consider the number of people (especially adolescent and twentysomething women) who are doing it online today.

One of the reasons I consider the playerbase of a game like World of Warcraft fertile enough ground for recruiting "tabletop" roleplayers is that my wife and I convinced one of our guildmasters from that game to get involved in D&D, although she was in a better situation for conversion than most considering the other guildmaster was her boyfriend and my wife's former DM.

Religion.

I would say that Australian gamers around my age - I was born in 1980 - are probably among the last to be aware of the Eighties "D&D = Satanism!" hysteria in North America. I doubt if any of the 18- and 19-year-old first-year students who joined SUTEKH this year would remember the last gasp of that stuff from the early Nineties. Everyone's heard the stories, though.

Personally, I have never met anyone who had a problem with anything at the gaming table because of their religious beliefs, and I've known quite a few religious gamers. My wife is a lapsed Jehovah's Witness, and would never have played when she was a believer, but that's at least as much because she would have been discouraged from any kind of fantasy fiction and close association with people outside the organisation as because of any sense that D&D, specifically, was a problem.

Most all of you indicate the best way to learn about RPGs is to play. I would agree. Are there venues to do this online free of charge and, if so, are there any you would recommend for someone completely green? Failing that, it sounds like I should seek out players in my community.

One of the best ways I can think of to get an idea of the hobby without actually joining a group is to find a gaming club - university campuses are an excellent place to find them. I know that at least three of the universities in New South Wales have them - Sydney (SUTEKH), the University of New South Wales (UNSW Gamers) and Macquarie University (MURPS, Macquarie University Role-Playing Society).

There may also be independent gaming clubs in your area. When my family first moved to New South Wales, there was a private club in Hornsby which advertised through the local hobby stores and met in space they hired from the local shopping center and, later, the Police & Citizens' Youth Club.

Are you interested in other types of gaming? Video games, etc. If so, which ones? What platforms? And what percentage of time do you devote to gaming outside the RPG format?

I'm not really that interested in board or card games. I've played them from time to time - European-style board games are very popular in SUTEKH - but apart from roleplaying games I'm definitely a computer gamer.

Right now I play World of Warcraft and Half-Life 2, but in the past I've been very into computer roleplaying games (Planescape: Torment, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights), first-person shooters (Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Battlefield: 1942), and way back in the dawn of time (well, the early Nineties) adventure games (Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle).

In my life I've owned an Atari 2600, a Sega MegaDrive (Genesis), a Sony PlayStation and a PlayStation 2, a Nintendo DS Lite and a Wii. I've never been as big a fan of console games as of PC games - each of these I have shared with my brother or my wife - but there have been many times when the games available for my console have been better than the ones I could run on my PC.

 

[Firedancer]

Hello,

I am in the research stages of writing a paper on role playing games and communities and am hoping to glean some insight into the world via your forum. Admittedly, I am an outsider and am only beginning my exploration. A little handholding wouldn't hurt. I'm basically looking for ambassadors. If you were going to introduce someone to D&D (or the like) who had never really been involved with it before where would you start? What direction would you point them in? How would you describe yourself, your community, your level of engagement? What do you love/hate about it all and what keeps you engaged with it?

The thrust of my paper is around the history and evolution of the genre and the culture of those within it.

Thanks in advance. I'm really looking forward to hearing what you might have to say.

Hi there Willowisp,

Some of what I'll type will reiterate what you've already seen here by others. I'll start with some praise singing of ENworld and its members - generally these folks are great; really helpful, knowledgeable and as you can see from many of the answers well rounded, articulate and thoughtful (as in the write good answers, not that they send birthday cards!).

I'm a Brit, so my views and opinions may differ to those stateside you've already heard from; there is no religious stigma attached for one. There is a large international presence on these boards as well (and some of them have already posted), which will give you further insight as well possibly give you something of interest for the work you're undertaking.

These boards are English; RPG exist in many languages and so this is only a representative. I think Germany, France, Poland and (I want to say) Finland have equally active games and gamers that you won't see or hear much of here. Many of these games are created by peoples of those nations, in their primary language, and you won't hear from them here.

I really don't know a good way for you to learn of these, and other nations habits etc. but if its an avenue you want to cover start a post asking the community members from other nations. Shilsen is in India, Thanee is in Germany, Percy (something, sorry have forgotten, but he does great work as part of The Forge Studios!) is in Poland, so might be able to get some insight from these and other members, but I don't know first hand who might be in China or Hong Kong.

Right, I suppose I should actually answer a question or 2 now!

You can only guide someone who has some level of interest. Without it its pointless, RPG is a hooby and like all hobbies its done for fun. So, assuming there is some interest in the genre (either of films, books, TV shows, vid-games) then you have something to build on. RPG's cover the whole gummit of genres - you like Angel, well there are a number of systems that would enable you to play this type of show. Star Wars? Got it. Lord of the Rings; loads of choice. However, it needs to be a system the DM knows otherwise the game play won't run smoothly, and that's something that needs to happen in and intro game.

My mates wife started RPGing once they met. She sat in on a few sessions first, to get a feel for what it was all about (and she knew the players themselves so didn't need to know the players too). When she was ready we started a new low-level game, she had a character in mind and her husband helped stat it out. We then ran through the games explaining the mechanics and helping her through. That was the start for her!

Start at a low level character, help in stating and gameplay from experienced players.

How would I describe myself - young, fit and handsome! Ok, 1 of those is true. I'm a recent dad (she's 5 months, has a beautiful smile and loads of hair!), British, early thirties, working professional. I tick a few boxes on the geekometer - IT professional, I play wargames and roleplay games and I care about the environment (which is moving out of geek zone). I also surprise some people - I used to play rugby at a semi-professional level until injured, and that has a certain social capability to it let me tell you. I'm verbose, articulate and somewhat pedantic. Sometimes my mouth will get ahead of my brain. You could chuck in analytical too. I can seperate fantasy from reality (a criticism often leveled at the RPG hobby).

My community; my RPG community is small and are all friends. Over the years I've made lots of friends at the gaming table and some I still see, even though they've moved away and moved on with their lives. The style of game I play/run is long and involved so a fixed group is best for this. I daresay if I wanted larger group or just a fix of gaming there's groups here I could join, but I don't need to.

Its a quiet community. unlike sport you don't need a fixed number to play, you don't need special facilities and you don't need to look for replacements because of injury! once you have a team and a venue you're set to go.

The ENworld community is great. Friendly, knowledgeable and willing to help. Of course there are folks who break this trend, but you can't have everything.

I'm highly engaged as are my group. Our characters are defined and will not take the simplest course of action if that goes against an aspect of their character. They have goals and aspirations they work towards. They impact the world around them, making friends and enemies.

The DM takes these actions into account, changing the adventure to allow for them. The gaming world changes, evolves and moves on and we often discuss things out of game (email is great for this!).

I often read topics here, posting thoughts, opinions or ideas. I'm not afraid to ask for help (rules clarification, ideas) and always receiving something that helps.

I love: the creativity, the variety, the challenge (no matter how pretend) even the chance to explore some aspects of humanity in a harmless environment.

I hate: (not really an element of RPG, but..) the need for profit. Anything produced at a professional standard has to make a profit, and once you have a business theres a need to make profit. So we get innovation for innovations sake, not for the sake of improvement or refinement but solely to make a few dollars more. That's the way of the world unfortunately, and you can't produce consistent, quality products without profit.

What keeps me engaged is the fact I enjoy the game I play and I like looking at new ideas to incorporate into the game, creating new storylines and challenges. The style of game (long-term, fluid) also means I'm thinking of alterations inbetween sessions.

Lastly; the history of RPG. As a gamer I can tell you the modules (published adventures) themselves have undergone changes. They've evolved from static environmentally excluded dungeon-bashes of the early years to adventures with a more realistic drive and feel (you could say more sophisticated, poilitcally and environmentally aware). The best comparison here is vid-games which have had a similar evolution; started small scale in a controlled environment (PACman!) and have evolved (because of technology and expectations of the community) to complex multifaceted games like Warcraft or GTA.

Hope that was of some help (and not too long!).

 

[Firedancer]

to play a little with my boyfriend

ooo, the lucky man! You missed out there Umbran!

Promises of food and wine sealed the deal. I'll let you know what and when I end up with something and how it goes.

Good idea! Wine and food is always good bribe material. Get them hooked and they'll soon be briding you, the DM with wine and food!

No insult intended here, but there is a starters DnD game (i've not looked at it). You need 3 core books for DnD and its a lot of material to understand. Possibly the starter set will get the game going quicker; others will be better positioned to advise you on this.

 

[Stormborn]

Willowisp, I started a thread about what constitutes a "normal" game and group. You might want to check it out.

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=3573723#post3573723

I have gotten some good replies so far.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I really don't know a good way for you to learn of these, and other nations habits etc. but if its an avenue you want to cover start a post asking the community members from other nations. Shilsen is in India, Thanee is in Germany, Percy (something, sorry have forgotten, but he does great work as part of The Forge Studios!) is in Poland, so might be able to get some insight from these and other members, but I don't know first hand who might be in China or Hong Kong.

FWIW, I know that Yair is an Israeli and S'mon is a law lecturer in England.

One sure way to find people from other countries on this board is to check out the various (probably closed due to heated discussion) threads involving Intellectual Property and Copyright. While there are a lot of similarities between the laws of the various countries, details do differ, as others are quick to point out.

Don't start one- ask a Mod or get a membership and do a search of your own.

Your experience was certainly different than mine; you might be in a larger city with more than one FLGS, though.

Here, M:TG effectively killed a roleplaying community. <snip>

I'm not sure size had that much to do with it as compared to how individual stores handled the game and unique city demographics.

M:tG showed up while I was living in Austin. None of the places there ran any tournaments, so there was little friction between traditional gamers and the youngbloods. Typically, the stores that carried it sold out within a month.

King's Hobby shop- the store that introduced me to the game- was able to keep the store supplied in M:tG months after all the other stores had run out in the heady days of Alpha and the first few expansions. It seems the owner had a buddy with a game shop in Los Angeles who had heard about the M:tG market hype and pre-ordered BIG with every set...and then couldn't move any of it. KH bought out his surplus at a discount.

Unlike your area, though, not many game shops I've seen in TX (Austin, D/FW Metroplex/, and San Antonio) even have a significant sized gaming space, and those that do usually have them reserved. Sure, you might encounter a M:tG or even Pokemon tournament, but you were still just as likely to find a boardgame demo, a LAN game, Wargame or RPG being played.

Because of this, most games in Tx that I've seen are run out of someone's house, apartment, or neigborhood hangout (like a pizza joint) as opposed to in a game store.

 

[Oryan77]

I am a 25 year old paralegal.... no one I work with can believe I play.

For a second I thought you might have been my fiance posting here...but she never reads D&D websites She is a 25 y/o paralegal that plays D&D and you would never know she plays by looking at her

Failing that, it sounds like I should seek out players in my community. How likely (purely an opinion question here) are people to open up their circles to someone like me?

Most of the people who will be posting here on Enworld seem like pretty normal people (not all of you though...some of you guys are nutjobs ). Since they've covered the good stuff about the gaming community, I'll go ahead and mention the negative side.

Even though RPG players have a stereotypical image, and most of us here will claim to be different & normal people; there are definately plenty of odd-ball gamers around. So be careful if you decide to meet random gamers and sit in on their game. Just like anything else, bring your boyfriend with you when meeting people and only join a group that comes off as friendly and not awkwardly sociable. We wouldn't want you to leave your experience with a bad taste in your mouth and thinking that the creepy people make up the majority of the RPG community.

I've met a lot of gamers when shopping at RPG stores and I've interviewed potential players to join my group. The ol' "smelly grown man with a neck-beard who lives in his moms basement" stereotype definately isn't a myth. Don't get me wrong, they're usually innocent people, but they can easily make a person think that all gamers are weirdos and that D&D is for geeks.

I would highly suggest finding someone to run a game for you and your friends. It will make much more sense and you'll be drawn into the game much easier if an experienced player was around to give you an idea of how to play it. And even then, there's a 100 other ways that the game might be played depending on a groups gaming style Learning it on your own with your friends really won't give you any sense of what playing a roleplaying game is like. It'll also be very hard to do if the Dungeon Master (or Game Master) is also brand new at it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The ol' "smelly grown man with a neck-beard who lives in his moms basement" stereotype definately isn't a myth.

QFT!

And some aren't living w/mom or growing beards...they're just smelly!

"Why?" is anyone's guess, though.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Something else you could do is design an online survey somplace like SurveyMonkey and post a link here and at other gaming boards.

A single, well-designed survey of 15-20 questions with links to it all over the internet could get you more demographic info than 15-20 single-issue threads at ENWorld.