Loving a Fringe Hobby and the Trouble with Quibbles
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 08:46AM Do you read Penny Arcade? Gabe has just started DMing, and he posted about his game a week or two ago. The response was a deluge of basic questions about Dungeons and Dragons.
It seems odd that there are, apparently, a zillion PA readers who don't play D&D (or even have a clue about it). Mike's (Gabe’s) experiences as player and DM were so commonplace to me that I never imagined gamers that had to ask “what’s with all those funny dice?”
It brought home that this hobby is still rather fringe, even among gamers, and it's pretty cool that his/their D&D experiences as the web-powerhouses they are brought more “legitimacy” to tabletop RPing.
Oh, relax; I know not one of us who enjoy the game need it to be legitimitated by anyone to feel secure that our hobby rocks (don’t believe me? Check out Die-Cast Ignorance). Despite believing that, I know that for many, tabletop RP games are as strange or odd as the people who play them (and maybe that’s true).
Limited Player Pool
I’ve had a falling-out recently with a longtime friend who I’ve shared many tabletop adventures with on both sides of the screen. This, too, has helped me realize something— how few RP gamer friends I have. As I gear up to launch a new 4E campaign exploring over four sessions levels 6 – 30, my players are mostly made up of those pals I’ve been playing with since the beginning. I’m not complaining, mind you; these are the people I want to play with. I have a lot in common with these guys.
The problem is that three of my six players live in other cities, so planning sessions will be difficult. I could really use some new blood to help sate my RP-cravings, but that brings us full-circle to D&D’s lack of an install base, even among other gamer types.
I work for a software company full of young gamers, for example, yet I’m the only one who plays tabletop RP games (I recently explained to our IT guy that no, I wasn’t planning a LAN party on the 7th, but rather our “gaming day” was a Dungeons and Dragons session).
Status Quo?
Is anyone else out there loving this hobby but wishing it was just a tiny (and I do mean tiny) bit more mainstream? Do you wish that those people you work and associate with—people you have much in common with—would also have this in common with you? How have you gone about recruiting more players to a game that non-players have trouble even picturing? Should I just take my extrovert pills and meet some new people?
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Reader Comments (7)
I think many RPGer are not aware of how fringe Tabletop RPGs are. Do I wish it was a little more mainstream? Yes, I do. Do I expect that happen? No, I don't. RPG did try to get a little more main stream in the 80's, but I think eventually computer games won out. While I like computer games, I've never liked the computer games take on RPGs. I actually consider them role assumption rather role-playing (and yes there is a difference). As to people I work with, it sort of depends. I been in places that many of the people I work with played and there were place where none played. Honestly, it doesn't matter. I don't really get the looks I did 10 years ago when I mentioned I played DnD. In someways, I think it people just think to themselves, of course he plays DnD. Which in a way is sort of scary. I guess this means that tabletop gaming is a bit more mainstream, just not as mainstream as we would like.
I wonder if 4e (and its seemingly video-game inspired mechanics) could be a bridge for some of the LAN-party/WoW generation?
As I get older I realize the value of the direct human interaction provided by tabletop gaming. It's too easy these days to get lost being plugged in to a console or a PC.
To Bonemaster:
I echo your sentiments, but really, I'm pretty cool with tabletop games being less mainstream. Obviously I'd like it to be less of a challenge to put a new group, campaign, or session together, but there's also a small thrill in being able to describe a much-maligned piece of entertainment to non-players.
@ Anarketih (fun name, btw):
In my early days of playing I kept my gaming a secret from everyone—parents, friends, and even my then-girlfriend. These days (as an adult, or near-to, anyway) I'm pleased to tell people what I play and how it works at least partly thanks to what you're hinting at here: 4E *is* acting as that bridge.
Therefore, I disagree with you, Bonemaster. tabletop gaming (or the increasingly tech-laden variant that tabletop gaming is becoming) will become more mainstream. As the geeks of today are becoming the most successful and influential people around, their interests will reach greater "acceptance."
It could be worse. At least on your side of the Atlantic the hobby is reasonably widespread with big cons, a choice in games shops and so on.
Over in Europe the hobby is next to non-existent. I live in a city of 500,000 (Urban area of a million) and it has one shop selling RPGs plus a Games Workshop for the WarHammer crowd :p
Could be worse though, at least some people play it ;)
I do quite enjoy it being a fringe hobby tho. It helps to weed out erm...for want of a better term...assholes. If gaming was popular, it wouldn't be a refuge for the geeks of this world ;)
Not that you don't still get assholes from time to time.
Hey Hammer, that's terrible, and really helps put things in perspective. Where are you writing from?
That's an interesting way to look at it. In Edmonton we have near to 700,000 people living in city limits, and before hearing from you I would have complained that we only have about a half dozen shops in the city where I can get D&D material, and probably about just as many for the warhammer types. I guess I had better just swallow those complaints. Quibbles, indeed.
Heh. As for the assholes, well, there are still a few of them playing D&D around here... *looks in mirror*
Thanks for stopping by. I'm always pleased to hear from international gamers. :)
I live in a college town, and we have no game shop. Granted, it's more a tourist town than a college town, but we can't even buy polyhedrals here. There's a baseball card / rare coin shop that has some old Magic cards, and that's it.
I'm lucky to have found some great gamers here, and we're working to expand our circle. I think the secret might be to trick them with other games. One of our guys never played RPGs, but is a huge Star Wars geek, so we lured him in with Star Wars d6, and now he's hooked to the point where he comes up to me on weekdays to ask if he can really trust the paladin, and what did I mean by, "There aren't any dragons near here?"
We're trying to get some more girls in the group. I'm not sure how well it's going to work. I think the guy who always introduces me with "this is my lesbian dungeon master" is probably not helping our image.
Heh heh. Hmmm... yes, I suppose that could make it difficult to introduce new players to the games we love.
And jeeze you people! How do you manage without any gaming shops around? That sucks.
I think you're dead on about introducing other games first, and it would be easy to craft a game around espionage or pro wrestling or just about anything you can think of to make the idea of rolling dice and describing actions line up with someone's other interests.