Mastodawn

Stephen Collins

I haven’t played #ttrpg or #boardgames regularly for a long time. The group I played with as a younger person dissolved long ago as we moved, found long term relationships, and built careers.

Recently, I’ve been feeling nostalgic for those pastimes, and pulled some things out of storage to refresh my relationship with them.

I definitely want to find a way to play both RPGs and board games regularly. Now the challenge is to work out the shape and size of the community here in rural NSW, or to find a decent group online. The game hub/store in Bega closed down over a year ago as the number of people playing couldn’t sustain the rent on their shopfront.

Keen for thoughts and ideas from anyone who is playing with some of the barriers I have.

Ed Chivers 6h ago

@trib I saw this on the ttrpg hashtag - I don't have anything to suggest, but I'll boost in case anyone else out there can help. Good luck!

Stephen Collins 6h ago

@edchivers thanks, Ed! You’re on the right server, I think.

Ed Chivers 6h ago

@trib boardgamegeek has a NSW forum page at https://boardgamegeek.com/forum/39/bgg/nsw-sydney

It's probably going to focus on Sydney, and you mentioned you were rural, so I don't know how useful that is to you...

NSW (Sydney)

Ed Chivers 6h ago

@trib one of the posts on there had a link to a map of Australian gaming groups on Google Maps - https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1sZ3OR763HLFyzA6qidkIfkdj-inbqkp-&ll=-34.87758690177148%2C148.60870936843946&z=5

Australian Gaming Groups – Google My Maps

Locations and days of all Australian Tabletop Gaming Groups

Google My Maps

Stephen Collins 6h ago

@edchivers I shall look when I get home from my once a week trip to town.

Tom Dullemond 6h ago

@trib faved this for when I have a spot - outside of our IRL group we play regular games/one-shot games through Discord. If you have a style or game system in mind, I can ping you next time I run something. We have a bunch of systems lying around and I’m keen to get my teeth into something 😝

Stephen Collins 6h ago

@Cacotopos thank you!

I’m up for almost any system or style. I’m rusty but adaptable. A short (long) list of systems I have played and enjoyed includes, in no particular order:
- D&D/AD&D including large LARPs at cons and several campaign settings going all the way back to original red box Basic set
- Traveller
- MERP
- Car Wars (pre GURPS)
- Teenagers from Outer Space
- Chill
- Nephilim
- Call of Cthulhu
- Pendragon
- Ars Magica
- Vampire/Werewolf
- Shadowrun
- Cyberpunk 2020
- and the one I can’t remember the name of that is an early aughts game set on an ocean world.

@trib Blue Planet, maybe?

FWIW, I play with @Cacotopos every fortnight via Discord. Lovely chap, great fun. Highly recommended.

Tom Dullemond 5h ago

@davej @trib worlds collide

Stephen Collins 5h ago

@Cacotopos @davej a proverbial virtual smooshing of worlds!

Stephen Collins 5h ago

@davej @Cacotopos yes, Blue Planet!

Dave Dawkins (D. Harrigon)6h ago

@trib CBG (Costal Board Gamers) in Rural Northern Tasmania is my local club. Venue is the difficult thing. Finding somewhere you can play regularly. Start your group small and scattered, then get everyone focussed on finding a decent venue. After that it's just a question of posters and showing up with stall at community events to do constant promotion. We get twenty to thirty people turn up regularly, but that took about five years of work. It's a great group, though and well worth it.

Talya (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️✡️5h ago

@trib
i'm gonna be a bit of a dick and say that the best way to have a group is to run a group. that's what i did.
online helps a lot. i gathered friends that live in a different country than me and managed to get us used to a weekly routine.
of course none of this is particularly easy. but it's better than one might think.

Talya (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️✡️5h ago

@trib also startplaying.games is a really useful resource. and because people pay they tend to commit.

Stephen Collins 5h ago

@Yuvalne I absolutely agree. I’m considering spinning up a group online of friends now scattered.

I’m out of the loop, so knowing the best places to host with the most useful toolset is my next challenge.

Talya (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️✡️5h ago

@trib depends on what exactly you need. if you do theatre of the mind with occasional screen sharing and everyone has their own dice then a mere Signal call will suffice.
if you need some fancier graphics, virtual dice and music (especially if you need it all in one place) then most VTTs will do regardless of the system, my personal favourite is Foundry but that's just me.

Stephen Collins 4h ago

@Yuvalne see, recommendations are a Good Thing™. With Wizards’ official, Roll20, and other VTTs, you don’t know what to work with unless you try them all or get recommendations on a couple to dig a touch deeper.

Thanks a bunch!

Talya (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️✡️4h ago

@trib cool, i'll do some more rec'ing then :)
i was drawn to Foundry because it's pay once for a perpetual license. at first i ran it from my laptop, but latency was too big for my players' content so we moved to managed hosting at Sqyre, each contributing part of the (admittedly not high) cost.
btw it may be that if i return now to self-hosting it'd work better because i optimised some stuff as well as moved to a different ISP, but if the current solution ain't broke i won't try to fix it.

Stephen Collins 4h ago

@Yuvalne the idea that Foundry is a one-off cost (unless you’re buying digital content for it) is a strong temptation.

Talya (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️✡️4h ago

@trib exactly!

thedarknite 5h ago

@trib we played a bit on board game arena with discord for voice chat during the COVID lockdown, but there are a few different options for online groups of you can't get together physically.

Neil Hopkins 5h ago

@trib playing online is worth exploring as an option. I have two regular games groups - one weekly, one every other week. The first uses Owlbear Rodeo for simple maps and dice , and Discord for chat. The second is Forbidden Lands on Foundry which has all of the bells and whistles with built in character sheets and 3d dice.

Stephen Collins 5h ago

@satsuma noice!

Damien (TIG BUSINESS)1h ago

@trib @satsuma same same. Its not as good as playing in person, but its better than not getting to play at all.

(online chat makes it hard to do conversation, that's the main drawback. )

S. John Ross 4h ago

@trib Check meetup.com as one possibility. My area has a couple game shops, but they're _mostly_ just for CCGs and have varying patience/tolerance for other gamers, so the local meetup helps spackle some gaps.

@trib Libraries are often a great place to host "startup" groups, as they ofen have free meeting rooms, and are a friendly neutral space to meet with strangers. And they can be of assistance with advertising to the local community as well

Arcadiagt5 2h ago

@trib @urbanfuzzy good luck!