One of the more fundamental divides in tabletop roleplaying is between those who have a gaming group and those who are going to play a game.
It seems subtle, but it’s actually huge.
If I have a group, we all need to find something we can enjoy together. That’s true whether it’s an RPG or a book club.
But if I say, “I’m running a game about dragonslayers, who’s interested?” that’s different.
“I have dracophobia! I don’t want to play a game with dragons!”
Great! Maybe the next game will work for you!
This isn’t some radical notion.
If I say, “Hey, let’s all go see a movie next week,” we need to agree on a film we all enjoy.
If I say, “I’m going to see Encanto, anybody want to come?” then you just don’t come if that’s not a movie you’re interested in.
Each event has a different premise. And when it comes to books, for example, people have no difficulty understanding the difference between book club selections and personal selections.
In tabletop roleplaying games, on the other hand, there’s a good portion of the fanbase who only reads books in book club and many of them simply assume that it’s the only way to read books. So they interpret a statement of “this is the book I’m reading” to mean “I’m going to kick you out of the book club if you don’t read it with me.”
You’ll frequently see people online, for example, replying to statements like “this is the game I’m running” as a “red flag” revealing that the GM is some sort of tin-pot dictator forcing their players into misery.
Those who aren’t in a movie club, on the other hand, are baffled by a claim that it’s some sort of ethical failing to arrange a group outing to see a specific film.
(The Geek Social Fallacies may also play a role here.)
THE LOCAL POOL
For context, rather than having a gaming group, what I have is a local pool of a few dozen people that I will pitch specific games to: These might be roleplaying and storytelling games (like Blades in the Dark, Ars Magica, or Brindlewood Bay). They might also be board games (like Captain Sonor or Gloomhaven).
Those interested in that game join. Those who aren’t, don’t.
I’ve built this pool primarily through my open tables, which make it a lot easier not only to introduce new players to RPGs for the first time, but also to invite existing players into my circle. (One of the many reasons I suggest that, if you want to increase the amount of gaming you do, having an open table in your pocket is an essential tool.)
I also have a couple of specific social groups active at the moment that stick together between campaigns or who got together as a group first and then figured out what game to play next. For those groups, of course, we find the game that everyone wants to play.
Returning to board games for a moment:
Sometimes we’re getting together to play Captain Sonor.
Sometimes we’re getting together to play with Peter and Hannah.
These are different premises.
They’re both okay.
In my experience many gaming groups do not have the numbers to split. If three of my four friends commit to playing an underdark DND campaign, then that’s going to define my in-person options for at least a year.
Admittedly I’m in the darkest part of my gaming life- Just graduated and moved, so no access to college groups AND no social network carefully amassed over 30 years.
What also makes things murky, is that the call “I’m looking to play this campaign, who’s interested?”, is a call to form a gaming group, at least for the time that campaign will last.
Another complicating factor is that the styles of play in pickup gaming and dedicated tables can be very different. In the Pacific Northwest, the common advice seems to be that to assemble a new gaming group, first start attending the likes of Adventurer’s League and Pathfinder Society games… but those are fundamentally different in character from the kind of play a long-term, dedicated group is capable of, because nothing personal is possible.
Organized play rules are more standardized, more restrictive, and less amenable to improv rulings than those at a normal table. By necessity, the hooks are generic and the scenarios railroaded. Group composition will change from week to week, and even if a character recurs, they may have randomly gone to do something else in between that’s none of your character’s business because there’s no time for IC interaction between characters either.
I’ve compared it to trying to judge people’s suitability for a pool league based on their pinball performance… a metaphor that flies over most people’s heads.
This is spot on. I’ve implemented your open table concept over the past year with great success. Using meetup and a public place to play, I’ve grown the pool to nine players for my West Marches and have met a lot of cool people along the way.
Here’s an interesting anecdote about how often I get to run a game. My sessions seat five players (as that’s what I can manage as a DM). Using a cooldown mechanic for organizing groups, each dedicated player (the ones who want to play as much as possible) on average gets to play about 3 out of every 4 sessions.
One of my players figured out how often she gets to play in her “normal game” (where a consistent group has to meet every week to maintain the story) vs my game. The result was she’s playing more in my campaign, due to how often her other group cancels because someone can’t make.
So, I want to say thanks Justin, for sharing such great tools to make some great gaming happen!