A few weeks back I put out a call for all those interested in building the community and helping out in making RPGs a more accessible thing.
I was expecting a few dozen responses...
Not a few hundred...
But a few hundred is what I got...
So now it's not just a project to slightly increase the number of games being played in the world, it's a project to increase games by a great amount around the world, and We need your help again to get the second part in motion.
This time we need places where games can be played, anything from Local Games Stores to Gaming Clubs, to Gaming Cafe's, and we need them to want to have games played there, because we don't have time to go around all the different places confirming that they're up for this.
So, get in touch with the places where you play games, if they've already got enough games, no problem, no need for our help, but if they're after more games and people to run them, get them to throw me a line. If you're a games shop or cafe that's after more people playing, get in touch and we'll get the rest of it in motion.
Let us be clear, we're not doing this to increase your customer base, if this works well, the number of people in the shop will likely increase, but it's not why this program is being rolled out.
Something that many people have mentioned about is the need for things to be welcoming to all, all games for all people, and there needs to be a welcome for anyone who turns up, so i'm putting this out now.
Any games that are run under this program will need to be accessible for all.
That means no adult themes, no swearing, no gratuitous violence, they need to be games that encourage people to get into the game and get involved. If you turn up to the table as a newbie and find out that all you're doing is killing things, the next thought you have might well be "Why don't I just play Diablo", and we've lost that player, so there needs to be equal amounts of character and carnage to show everyone what tabletop has to offer.
We've already had a large number of scenarios that work across a variety of systems, all of them suitable for all ages, genders, and experience levels. These are the beginner games that will see most time at the new player evenings, and there's nothing to stop players from looking for something darker or more adult when they get into games properly and want to play something more involved.
But to begin with, beginners games for beginners.
That brings us to No grief in gaming, which is the initiative that we're putting together now to show how the table should conduct itself when playing games with new players. When you're an old crew, you know each other well and you know what you can get away with, but when you're new to things, you need a place where you know you won't get shouted down, you won't get rules-lawyered, and you won't get excluded because you're catching up with things. These rules are going to be clear and we expect that those running games for newbies follow them, most of you already do, in fact, most of you are the ones suggesting the rules, but we need that to be clear.
We're looking for more scenarios, both for people to run and for people to take away to run in their own groups, We'll take any scenarios for any system, just leave a note when you send them as to what audience they're suitable for, We'll read through them anyway, but it helps if we have a jump start on what's going on in there so we know where to file it.
We've had a number of requests for sessions where younger players and women have their own spaces to attend and play games in a safe environment, and that is something we're taking very seriously. It's certainly something we are able to provide with the people that we've had offering to help, but any such sessions will need to be agreed with the venues ahead of time and so we're not confirming anything till we have tacit approval to do so.
One last thing
This needs a name...
We've had a few suggestions, but we're interested to hear more.
Spread the word, the snowball is on the top of the hill and we've got it rolling, it's only going to get bigger...
