Playing Indie Games

[Albert of Feh]

I'm somewhat in the same position as Raven. Other than being a part of some larger larps, I've been entirely on the GM's side of the table for about a solid year-and-a-half now. I've gotten a chance to try a decent little selection of indie games through it (Burning Wheel, Dogs, InSpectres, Monkey Wrench), but started to feel really burned-out by the end of last school year. The summer has been good for resting up, but I still want to be on the other side of the responsibilities.

I don't really have the 'lack of players' problem. The Stanford Gaming Society is a thriving group of great gamers (even if we're going to be losing about half our membership to graduation this year). I've got a good pool of people, I just needed to reach them.

So I've started advertising.

Reading assorted articles and threads this summer, I've gotten really excited about Heroquest. Excited enough that I'm willing to run a game. To get friends interested, I made a series of posts to my livejournal on what I found cool about Heroquest. It was a good start. Next, I'm thinking about requiring each of the players that joins my Heroquest game to run at least a one-shot of some neat indie game. I'll show them around my indie shelf, find something they think is cool, and have myself an opportunity to play. I already have at least one or two players on board for this.

I also dissected the Buffy episode Once More, with Feeling, showing how it very easily could have been the result of a session of PTA, albeit one played by players with amazing musical improvisation skills. There are a lot of Buffy fans in the SGS, and I was hoping this would spark interest. Ironically, it got the best reaction out of one of the non-Buffy fans, who still sounded interested enough that he would probably join in if either I were to produce or dragoon someone else into producing.

[Ginger Stampley]

My own data point:

I moved cross-country last year (Houston to metro NYC). When I looked for groups, I looked for indie games. I've been able to play Dogs in the Vineyard with two groups and Primetime Adventures with another, and could do more if I had more time.

If I were still in Houston, I'd have to be willing to GM and game with some new people. I think some of my friends would be willing to try indie games, but others would not. I'd already reached the point of telling them not to call if they were just starting another D&D game. I tried it, I really did, and I just don't enjoy it any more, so I was taking a break. Had I not known I was moving, I would have made the effort to do something different (probably Dogs or PTA) anyway when I was ready to pick up gaming again.

[Marco]

Gamers are a hurt and fearful lot. 
Chris

I think you should add "superstitious and cowardly" too: Maybe if you dress up as a bat or something you can be more frightening than a new rules-set and scare them into playing.

If I had a game I wanted to play and no one to play it with (not a problem over here, and I play indie games almost exclusively--but alas, they're usually the kind with all those "broken assumptions") here's what I'd do (and what I *do* do): head over to RPG.net's IRC channel (#RPG.net) around 10:30 PM any night of the week and announce my game and round up some players. There's a pretty big pool of people there and they're all gamers (and they're on RPG.net so they know these other games exist and have interest in them--our SC game got a lot fo people coming to watch/play).

IME it's not too hard to get at least 3 people for a game and IRC play can be extremely enjoyable.

Of course they probably are some of those cultish (deprogramed?), insecure, and dysfunctional people that clutter up the hobby--but if you're running an L5R game and playing in a UA game you probably have figured out how to fool your group into thinking you have some respect for them.

sheesh.

-Marco

[Bankuei]

Hi Marco,

I don't see a problem with calling out real issues.  I know a fair amount of abused people in and outside of gaming, and it doesn't mean I lack respect for them as human beings to recognize that they are hurt and acting out of fear- it's an important thing to know and understand.  And I think there's a big difference between IRC and face to face gaming, a lot of people find IRC "safer" because you don't have to really know a person or feel bad if you mysteriously disappear and flake out on a game. 

If you think that the behavior I'm describing is irrational and extreme, then yes, I agree.  Conditioning from abuse tends to produce irrational and extreme behavior.

Chris

[Marco]

I've also worked with people who've been traumatized. I don't see any realtionship to them and people in the general gaming hobby. I will say this though: if your perception of the people you game with is as dysfunctional programmed victims then that, in and of itself, will probably do more towards creating problems in gaming with them than anything else I could think of.

My experience with IRC has been that it's no different from face-to-face gaming in regards to player commitment. Perhaps our world-view and approach is what makes the difference in our results and not the types of games we want to play or the people we play with.

-Marco

[Ron Edwards]

Oh, for fuck's sake!!

This thread is closed.

Chris (Bankuei), it's primarily your doing for bringing in the whole biz about dysfunctional gamers. "Independence" is an ownership and publishing issue, not a content issue.

Marco, your kneejerk defensiveness in response is almost equally at fault. Jeez. What do you want, a big banner at the Forge saying JAGS IS OKAY BY US TOO?

Why I bother to explain my moderating, I'm sure I don't know. Good try at a thread, Gordon. I think this one has to be saved for actual conversation so people don't succumb to their need to posture.

Best,
Ron