The Commandments of Gaming: #8 Thou Shalt Grow the Hobby

Jul 212011

The Commandments of Gaming is a series of blog posts where 8one6 gets up on a soapbox to proclaim from on high how he feels that games should be run or could be improved.
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As far as I’m concerned every person who plays RPGs should bring at least one new person into the hobby.

The RPG hobby only exists if people are playing RPGs and RPGs can’t bring in new people without your help. Like it or not you are an ambassador of the hobby. What you and your group do or don’t do has a very real effect on the hobby. Being a bunch of mouth-breathing trolls in public does the rest of us (us being anyone who has ever been a gamer who was told “gamers are creepy/rude/whatever”) a disservice.

You want to grow the hobby, because if the hobby grows then the companies that you buy your gaming stuff from (From the Friendly Local Gaming Stores all the way up to the game publishers) will do better. It ensures that rolepalying will continue to exists.

What’s the best way to grow the hobby? Run a game in public. Somewhere like the FLGS is good, you could draw people from some of the other tabletop hobbies, (the Undergophers have converted 3 Magic: the Gathering players so far) but a better place would be somewhere that gamers don’t normally congregate, like a Barnes and Nobel. Running a game in public, having lots of fun, and being open to letting new people sit down and trying it out is one of the best ways to show people that the hobby can be a great use of free time.

Stacey Chancellor

I just appreciate this post so much. I like how it is up to us to get other people to enjoy something we already love to do.
http://undergopher.com 8one6

I was “recruited” into RPGs, as was the person who got me in, as were all of my friends who play. The subset of all people who were introduced to the game is far larger than the subset of people who passed an RPG book in a store and said to themselves “Hmmm, I think I'll give this a go.” I wish the hobby were big enough that its mere presence attracted gamers, be we haven't gotten there yet.
Vb Wyrde

I think it's a great idea. I've been working on that for some time, but my success has been modest. To give you an idea of how earnest my efforts are, I started the Literary Role Playing Game Society of Westchester (yahoo group and meetup) and since 2006 we've had a huge number of very interesting discussions and meetings. I also run the Westchester Area RPG Society (WARS) meetup. And I go to local conventions and try to GM public games as time permits. However, in the past year I've seen a distinct decline in participation in my groups. I'm not sure why, as no one has mentioned any particular reason for it, so I am left to guess. Perhaps it is my own lack of leadership skills? Or maybe it is environmental, or circumstantial. In any case, I could use some help and advice on how to get things fired up again. Any suggestions are gratefully accepted! Thanks! And yes, I totally agree with you.
http://www.gameknightreviews.com/2011/07/news-from-around-the-net-22-jul-2011/ News from Around the Net: 22-JUL-2011 | Game Knight Reviews

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