Virgin Gamers Survival Guide - Part 1

OK - my previous post inspired me to write something for those folks out there who might be thinking about starting up their first ever game. Perhaps they have played an little and want to try their hand at GMing or perhaps they are interested in trying roleplaying but don't have a clue where to start. I was at that point when I started and I have had a lot of experience since then throwing games together.

Additionally, I don't think I can have a proper roleplaying blog without starting some sort of episodic post series to draw you all back in and keep you salivating, eagerly awaiting the next time I deem you worthy of my attentions. :P

There are a lot of reasons why you might want to get into roleplaying. Perhaps your friends do it but you have never had the opportunity. Perhaps you read fantasy novels and think it might be a cool and natural extension of that. Perhaps you have played some computer games, like Baldur's Gate and Elder Scrolls (or even World of Warcraft) and wonder about where this all came from. Perhaps someone just bought you a book thinking you would like it and you have no clue where to start with a Clanbook Brujah.

Whatever the reason you have a task ahead of you. If you are lucky, you will have a group of supportive friends who will be willing to give it a try with you and perhaps they will like it and they will thank you for introducing it to their lives. Sadly, most of use are not that lucky. We have to work to find a group of players, and this is one of the most common issues with gaming today. People are so busy, they travel so much (even to and from work) that it can be difficult to even get a group together for a character generation session, let alone a regular gaming night for a long haul campaign.

So where can you find players?

1. Your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store)

You will hear that term bandied around the net an awful lot but they are often hard to find in a location that is nearby. Check your local Yellow Pages under Comic Books and Games Supply and see if anything comes up. Often FLGSs will stock comics or your local comic shop will have a friendly relationship with a FLGS and will happily pass on the details on the understanding that the FLGS owner will do the same in return for comics customers. Additionally, try a Google search for "roleplaying games your area" and see what you get.

Ideally, you are looking for a FLGS which has an area to play in and has regular gaming nights with experienced GMs and players who will be happy to welcome you and let you learn the games they are playing. Even if the FLGS does not have a place to play in the store, it is often a good place to try and locate players or a game you can join. The FLGS owner will most likely be happy to hook you up with other players and let you advertise games in their store.

2. The Internet

Clearly you have an internet connection, so get your monies worth and try joining some of the internet forums dedicated to roleplaying. There are lots, and quite often they will have a section where you can ask if there are any other gamers in your area. I heartily recommend giving RPGMP3 a shot for this. Mainly because I run it, but also because I think it is one of the friendliest gaming forums on the net and as long as you are pleasant the folks on there will be lovely and try to help you out.

The net is also home to wonderful blogs and webpages dedicated to gaming and you can bone up on some of the lingo. But to be honest just make sure you know what THAC0 means and you will be just fine.

3. Conventions

Somewhere near you there must be a town or city that will be holding some kind of convention. I live in Houston and there are about 8 or 9 minor cons throughout the year. Obviously if you can get to one of the big cons (Origins, Dragon*Con, or Gen Con) then you are good to go and all your gamer dreams will come true. Otherwise little cons are a good place to start and meet local gamers and businesses in your area.

If they are doing things right you should be able to find them with a simple net search. If they are not doing things right then you will need the blood of a virgin calf and the bones of a black cockrel on the night of the full moon.

4. Universities

Universities are little communities all to themselves. They even have a higher geek concentration than most "normal" communities. There is a pretty decent chance that any university or college nearby will have some kind of gaming society associated with it. The problem here is find it. Some universities will have a list of the socieites and clubs that they have and may even have contact details - others will not. If you find that the latter is the case for you then see above re. blood and chicken bones.

5. Beer and Pizza Bribery

OK. So you have tried everything else and you still can't find any local gamers. You are going to have to create your own. Now we are not talking digging up corpses in the middle of the night and performing some crazy ritual (that would require the "real power" and you are too low level at this point). So you are going to have to brainwash er.... persuade some of your friends that it is something they want to try out.

This is best done by endless pleading and resorting to bribery. Always let them know what they are letting themselves in for, but lay it on thick with pizza and beer (or at least some Mountain Dew).

If you are in this position, chances are you are going to be GMing all on your own from the start so you best look for a system that will work for you and perhaps thats what we will talk about next time...

Rainy Rainy Day!

I live in Houston at the moment (though I originally hail from the UK). We (my wife Lindsay and I) came over here after she completed her archaeology degree and I decided my job working for the wonderful Police of West Yorkshire was leading nowhere. Additionally the job with the Police was rolling shifts and severely ate into my social life and game time. My parents had moved out the US about 6 - 7 years earlier with my Dad's job and I thought it might be nice to come over for a while, so I took on a Masters in Instructional Technology and we moved over just before Christmas 2006.

All in all it has been an interesting experience. A lot of things we were promised could happen have changed or were never correct in the first place. My course is pretty good and I have met some decent people through it. Lindsay had come over on the understanding that she could open a vintage clothes shop but found out that the red tape involved with a non-US national trying to do that were not worth the effort. She has been honing her skills with her sewing machine, she has learned to drive and I am very proud of her.

It is coming to the end of my time on the Masters and we are looking at options at the moment. If we choose to stay I will have to secure a job that will transfer me onto a working visa so that we can apply for a green card. There are some pretty tight time frames involved in things but apparently having done a Masters here puts me in good stead. While I am talking about me finding work I might as well use this platform to point folks to My Portfolio which contains a copy of my CV / Resume and other stuff I have been doing recently. If anyone knows of an appropriate job for an archaeological instructional technologist who loves games feel free to pass my details along or drop me an email.

Lindsay has signed up to do a course in Theatrical Costume and Fashion Design starting at the end of this month (assuming we hear back about her change in visa status). Otherwise she will have to wait until the next intake in at the start of next year. She has had nothing but issues with the international office at her college and it is starting to get a little tiresome I suppose.

On the gaming front, we met some really great gamers when we arrived here in Houston and we have been educating them slowly to the world outside of DnD. The original game shop we found has closed down recently due to some very bad business decisions and some bad personal decisions even though it was the top store with Wizards in the city. Its a shame. If I could have worked here at the moment I might have considered trying my hand at a FLGS. There are rumours of some of the regualrs opening a couple of new stores but neither of them have much experience in retail and pretty much know nothing about the gaming industry outside of playing the odd game of Dungeons and Dragons and butchering Vampire Dark Ages. If two stores open as close as I believe they are going too they are just going to put each other out of business.

I have thankfully found a very nice (and pretty stable) FLGS about 35 miles away across the city and have been buying my DnD supplies from there recently. I love that the internet is a great place for bargains but with a game that requires face-to-face interaction I think we all should support our local stores. Too many have been dropping like flies round here due to bad cash flow or bad decisions and it would be awful not to have a store nearby. I am a browser, what can I say?

I am not going to say that moving to Houston was the best choice we could have possibly made, but it has opened some doors and firmly closed some others. If we can manage to get me a nice happy job and get set up as real people I think Lindsay and I will both be much much happier and so will Ruby the Pug (eating a Hydra nearby). I always felt guilty that the decision to move over here was more mine than Lindsay's so hopefully it will pay off soon.

Anyway, there we really not a lot about gaming in this post, but I felt that a little introduction was in order. Feel free to have a look through my portfolio, which I really must updated, and drop any jobs that look good my way. I can work from January without many restictions. Going to watch Lindsay play the Sims 2, I always find that theraputic and I have been a rather neglegent husband of late, what with all the files I have been adding to my website and the start of the redesign project.

Thanks to everyone who commented on the first post :) I will try and keep talking and pull it back to a more gaming track tomorrow. I have managed to weather out Tropical Storm Edouard today and only had to go out into the garden once to dig trenches to get the water away from the house. I like the rain but sitting inside without the option of heading out has made me a little cabin feverish.