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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dragon Snack" data-source="post: 3563825" data-attributes="member: 9810">While I assume you've done some background research, <a href="http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/whatisdnd" target="_blank">THIS LINK</a> may be helpful for some background.  It links to Wizards of the Coast, who publish D&D.  In addition to the introduction, you may find some other good information there as well.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?-    It really would vary by the person.  In your case, since you are looking into writing a paper, I would most likely suggest just watching a group and their interactions.How would you describe yourself, your community, your level of engagement?-    I’m a self employed, late 30’s, weirdo (in the good sense).  The gaming community around me is relatively large (7 LGS within 30 minutes of me, 2-3 gaming conventions a year).  I spend too much time on gaming, but I love it.-    As for the actual gaming groups, I DM (Dungeon Master, the one who runs the game) a D&D game every other Sunday and play in a Serenity RPG on the alternate Sundays and a Savage Worlds game on Fridays (both are other RPG systems).  At one point I was in 4 D&D groups at once (see spending too much time on gaming above)…What do you love/hate about it all and what keeps you engaged with it?-    I guess it comes down to the interaction.  I mostly play with friends, even at conventions I usually stick with either painting or tabletop miniature games, not RPGs.  I’ve attempted 2 online games, one of which fell apart and the other which I left when the other players treated my character like crap.  The latter is what I don’t like about RPGs, some people are just jerks (but much of this can be mitigated by playing with friends, even if some friends don’t always get along with each other, and you have to deal with jerks with whatever you do).Gender and RPGs.-    It is a hobby mostly dominated by men, but I think the more women are involved, the more women will be involved.  I’m not being flippant with that comment, I’ve found that if a group has at least one woman in it, the better chance it will have more than one.  My D&D group has no women in it and when a player has tried to recruit a woman to game with us (both girlfriends and interested coworkers), they have declined.  My Savage Worlds group was half female (4 out of 8 players) at one point (and was a D&D group at the time).  While we have been paring down players (larger groups tend to be harder to run) and were down to one female player at one point, another one has recently joined.  I’m inclined to believe that it was easier to convince her to join because there was already a female player at the table.  I also notice this at painting events at conventions, there seems to be more women at the painting tables than at the gaming tables.-    As was mentioned above, the study that WotC did in 2000 estimated 20% of gamers were female.  I’m inclined to believe (from what I’ve observed at conventions and running events at LGS) that this percentage has remained somewhat constant, although there seems to be a higher percentage of women among younger players – so this may be changing as the hobby moves forward.Religion-    I consider myself religious, although I may not appear as such to outside observers.  I DO see some areas of concern for astute religious players, which I mitigate somewhat in my roleplaying (since having no ‘false gods’ is a major tenet of my religion, I avoid any actual discourse or entreaties to whatever deity my character worships - even when playing a Cleric, which is a class devoted to the worship of a deity)-    The religious stance against D&D seems to be overblown or a holdover from the 1980’s (and was probably overblown then as well).  Unfortunately I’ve seen some non-Christian gamers play up the “religious persecution” of D&D to bolster (or justify) their own beliefs.-    Anecdotally, someone from the Catholic school came to one of the LGS one day to do a paper (much like yourself) on non-Christian gamers.  The first 4 people she asked were Christian, so at least a few Christians haves reconciled their gaming and religious beliefs.Game Curiosity-    As with anything involving people, it really depends on who you find.  I’ll bet most people playing at a LGS will be more than happy to let you observe and even let you play if you wish (the game I mentioned above with 8 players was held at a LGS).  If you are lucky enough to have a gaming convention in your location before your paper is due, I’ll bet you’ll have tons of people willing to help you out.  The caveat, of course, is that you never know if you’ll run into that DM who has had a disruptive onlooker in one of their games or someone who will feel weird with someone watching over their shoulder (for the record, both apply to myself, but I would still try to be a good representative for the game).-    As I mentioned above, I haven’t had much luck with online gaming, so obviously I don’t have any suggestions about that aspect of gaming.Other Gaming Habits-    Oddly, I’m not into many other games.  When I played video games they tended to be sports themed (hockey and football specifically) or strategy based.  I play cards sporadically (usually when I’m with “non-gamers”).  As for Collectable Card Games (CCGs), I got into one once – only to have the ruleset changed to completely nullify the deck I spent so much time building (a Babylon 5 Human deck, which was essentially split into 4 separate factions in the revision, for anyone interested).  That experience has kept me away from other CCGs.  I am looking at getting back into a Tabletop Miniatures Game (TMG), since they just released a new ruleset that looks to be an improvement over their previous revision (Warlord from Reaper Miniatures, for those interested).Hope that helps.  Good luck with your paper!</blockquote>

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