thread: 2005-11-22 : A Seriously Social Issue
On 2005-11-22, Brand Robins wrote:
>How many of us get to play the games we want, with the people we want to play them with?
I do, mostly. I don't get as much Indy play as I might like, but considering that I do get to play two to three Forge games a month, I suspect whining on my part would be taken poorly by the crowd.
Most of the folks in my extended gaming circle seem to as well. This, I think, is largely due to size issues. If I were to put out a serious call for game, limited only to people I have played with and people they have played with and deem cool enough to play with again who also live in town, I could expect 25 to 30 people to get the note.
Of those, about 10 or so of those form my "core" group. These are the folks I play 85% of my games with. Anytime I talk about game I can count on all 10 of them hearing about it and coming to ask more questions.
Now, take those numbers and consider that I rarely play games with more than 4 players (including the GM), and you'll start to see one of the reasons I get to play so much different stuff. While I may not get to play everything when I want to, or with the exact people I want to, I can play most things with a group I know and trust.
But if you don't live in Toronto this may not be of help to you. OTOH, I'd be willing to be money that in most cities and university towns there are more gamers out there than you know—and if you look you may find. (I suspect this because I often hear from folks in Toronto that there aren't any gamers here... after having just had coffee with a 75 person LARP cast.)
>How reasonable is it to expect?
If you're willing to be flexible, listen to their desires in return, start out with compramise games, play with flexible groups, and find a large enough player base to work from? I'd say pretty reasonable.
If you want to make it your way or the highway, jump right into Dogs with a group that hates religion, play all the time with all the same members of exactly the same group... well, maybe not so much.
>How far should we have to compromise, and on what?
Anything that would make the game not fun for you should not be compromised.
Anything that could ruin friendships should.
Between those two things I think there is too much ground for most generalities to hold water.
This makes MS go "Nice post, Brand"
Nice. I find this helpful and constructive. Thanks.
