Forming a Gaming Community

Seattle Gamers Assemble! (SGA) is a loose community of role-players centered around Seattle, Washington. After several years of operations, we thought it might be nice to share what we've learned about setting up a gaming community.

(Article in progress; these are merely some talking points that will be developed over the next few days.)

WHAT IS A GAMING COMMUNITY?

In this article, we mean by "gaming community" a group of people that adopts a certain structure or organization to support game-related activities. At SGA, we focus on role-playing games but most of this advice is directly applicable for other types of games or even other activities.

People

Who Will Join Me?

Let's assume you're trying to get a group organized locally, focusing on role-playing games. Who might be interested in joinging?

• Newcomers and people without a regular game, looking to form small gaming groups.
• People looking for drop-in games or players.
• People who like to try different games.
• Game designers (whether they be published professional or hobbyists with a beloved homebrew system) looking for playtesters or actual play.
• Gamers looking for social contact with other people sharing their interests.
• Players and game-masters hoping to improve their skills through practice or discussion.

Many of those will be looking for other players, will make contact, and then will disappear from you club, mailing list, etc. Given half a chance, a few will form a core interested in recurring activities and discussions.

Different Strokes

Your community is likely to attract people with different skills and interests. That's a good thing! You want those different skill sets and points of view because they will allow you to do more things and attract more new people.

For example, in our group we currently have:

• A lady who is unfailingly reliable and has the inexhaustible patience to round up participants, week after week (fortunately, she has help these days.)
• A guy who loves to start discussions on various GMing and play topics, gathering threads from various online sources and pitching summaries to get weekly discussions rolling.
• A guy who took charge of updating the calendar on a weekly basis, coordinating with various GMs and organizers to help schedule their events without calendar conflicts.
• A gal who compiles and updates sources of information (useful links, store directories, wikis, etc.) and makes them available.
• A guy who is good with graphics and creates posters.
• Several people who have a favourite setting or system and love to run, play, or discuss it regularly.
• Several people who have recurring games ready for our Weekly Short-Shots.
• Several people who love to tinker with systems and playtest the results of their brainstorming.
• Several people who like to show up at events just to meet-and-greet and play whatever is available.

Naturally, several people wear more than one of these hats!

So check with your core group of people interested in starting this community, and see what everyone likes to do and/or is good at. And harness those skills! Let the artist draw, the organizer plan, the enthusiast start discussions, etc.

Structure

What kind of structure fits the community you are forming? There is a plethora of models available, some more structured, some more informal or flexible. Although for brevity's sake we often lump all of these into one big category, here are some fine distinctions to support discussion and generate ideas:

Online Group

That's the model for Seattle Gamers Assemble! We started out as, and still are, just a mailing list where people communicate to organize various events. We're as informal as they come: anyone who signs up or shows up is a member. We have few rules ("don't spam" and "don't troll" are about the extent of it), no officers, no assets.

To form an online group, all you need is a mailing list, a forum, a blog, a Usenet group, or whatever communication tool you prefer that will support discussions (but see Online Presence below for more discussion.)

Besides SGA, examples of online communities in Seattle include:

• Seattle Area Role Players (LiveJournal-based)
• Third Place Gamers (Yahoo! Groups-based)
• Puget Sound Roleplayers Meetup Group (Meetup-based)
• Seattle Dungeons & Dragons Meetup Group (Meetup-based)
• Shadowrun Seattle (Yahoo! Groups-based)

Gaming Circle

A gaming circle is somewhere between the minimalist organization of an online group and the much more structured game club. It may have a petty cash jar, perhaps some membership rules, etc. We don't have clear examples of game circles in Seattle, though perhaps one group qualifies:

• Seattle Mob (the local RPGA chapter)

SGA may slowly be morphing into a game circle; time will tell.

Game Club

A full-fledged gaming club is usually more structured because it typically owns or rents physical assets such as a meeting space, furniture, computers, supplies, games, terrain, miniatures, etc. In order to do this, a group needs money. As soon as you say money, you need to think about:

• a treasurer and thus other officers (president, secretary, etc.)
• hence a constitution or charter, by-laws, etc.
• membership registration
• a source of revenue, such as:
  • fees for events or services,
  • membership dues,
  • sale of club paraphernalia, used games, etc.

Gaming clubs are particularly suited to groups that need a physical location to store props, miniatures, or game components.

In the U.S., most true gaming clubs are associated with colleges and universities. In the U.K. private gaming clubs are more common. In Seattle, we have one private gaming club:

• Metro Seattle Gamers

Activities

Beyond having conversations (and/or flame wars) online, a group starts becoming a community when it organizes activities. Some may be recurring weekly, mmonthly, quarterly or yearly, while others may be one-off events. Some are gaming events, some are purely social.

Pick and choose the ones that your group will be interested in having. Here are a few ideas:

Weekly games

A new game and GM every week. Requires a few people with enthusiasm and persistence. See our article on Weekly Short-Shots

Meetups

Call everyone to meet for pizza on a Saturday, then those who are interested break off to play impromptu games. Requires little prep beyond advertising.

Bring-and-battle

Particularly suited to miniatures games and card games; announce a point budget and simple construction rules, everyone builds their characters, army or deck according to thos rules and meets on the agreed day to duke it out. Requires little prep beyond devising the rules and advertising.

Tournaments

Particularly suited to miniatures games and card games. Requires at least one dedicated organizer, some prizes, a moderator or host, probably some materials and a decent amount of advertising.

Mini-conventions/Game Day

Find a (free) location, organize a GM sign-up, recruit participants. Figure two to six months to organize, especially if this is your first event. Requires several dedicated people, regular meetings, a good deal of organization.

Full-scale conventions

The whole deal -- a two- or three-day weekend, a hotel or other public location, a pre-printed program, panels, tournaments, sponsors, etc. Figure six to twelve months to organize, especially if this is your first event. Requires several dedicated people, regular meetings, good organization skills, a legal framwork to handle money, a registration system, lots of promotion.

Social events

Everyone interested meets for for a meal or a drink. Requires little prep beyond picking a location and advertising, unless some brave soul wants to volunteer to host. In that case, you also need volunteers to help set up and clean up.

Newsletter

Physical or electronic. Requires a few people dedicated enough to write or draw, someone with decent edting skills, someone with decent graphic and layout skills, and a means of distribution. If it is going to be published regularly, you also need these people to have some persistence.

Swap meet

Everyone interested shows up with their used games to sell and trade. Only requires securing a location and advertising the event, but works better if people post in advance the list of games they're interested in buying, selling, or trading.

LINKING UP

Online Presence

• Mailing list
• Meetup group
• Yahoo! group
• Gaming blog
• Wiki

Networking

A community is a fractal beast: communities can network into larger communities. Don't limit your horizons with a very narrow definition of what your group is about, at least not on first approach. Sure, if you play DnD or Exalted in a metropolitan area you can probably find enough players to get a game going and even to organize events. But why not start wider and meet more people? If the community is very large, it will sub-divide soon enough anyway. But most of the time, you will find the opposite problem: too few people rather than too many. So how do you build your local gaming community?

Ask yourself: Who else is out there that shares your hobby? Although our main focus at SGA and in this article is role-playing games, most of us are interested in many other related activities:

• Board games
• Miniatures games
• Wargames
• Card games
• Live-action role-play (LARP)
• Console or online gaming
• Comic books
• Science-fiction and fantasy
• Creative writing
• Game design
• Theatre
• Movies

So your contacts in the local community might include:

• Gaming clubs and associations
• Gaming stores (RPGs but also board games, card games, miniatures, hobby stores, etc.)
• Comic book stores
• Book stores, especially those specializing in science-fiction and fantasy
• LAN gaming oufits
• Writing groups and workshops
• Improv theatre groups and workshops
• Movie clubs
• Local game publishers
• High schools, colleges and universities

Approach these contacts and try to build bridges. Exchange links and posters. Organize demos and common events. Your most natural allies are other gaming groups and associations in the area. Participate in one another's events, coordinate so you won't compete for players, share resources. Here are some examples based on our experience in Seattle:

PROMOTING

If other people who might be interested in participating in this gaming community never hear about it, they can't join it. You need to get people: (A) aware that your community exists, (B) interested so they'll want to join, and even (C) excited about it so they'll want to participate. That means you have to distribute information about what the group, club, list, etc. is all about, what activities you organize or support, and why it's fun and interesting.

Creating Buzz

• People
• Events
• Locations

Promotional Materials

Posters

Tutorial: Assembling the posters

If you have someone in your group who has graphic skills, consider putting together a poster to advertise your community.

• What: Put an attractive, eye-catching image but do not clutter the poster with an overabundance of visual elements. Include a clear title and your game club's name. In smaller print, you can have a short description of your club events, just enough detail to get people interested. And, of course, include the club's contact information (URL is best.) Do not include information that is subject to change without warning, such as the location for the games. That's what your Website or forum is for. And for Heaven's sake, proofread the poster before finalizing! Typos in promotional materials are at best a turn-off and at worst a cause of problems (e.g., wrong contact info.)

• How: We like to do ours on 11" x 17" "tabloid" format (A3 would be closest among international or ISO 216 formats), with tearaway tabs giving our name and URL. Remember to bring thumb tacks and tape when you go a-postering. See a tutorial prepared by Demongg for our club's posters by clicking on the image.

• Where: At the very least, hit all the gaming stores, comic book stores, LAN gaming spots, book stores specializing in science-fiction and fantasy, etc. We also try to hit coffee shops, Internet cafes, etc. that are located nearby. Ask the owner or manager politely whether they wouldn't mind you hanging the poster; be prepared to explain why it would be a good idea for them to have your poster around (e.g., building a more vital gaming community, promoting more different games, etc.) Other good places to post include college and university campuses, and high schools if you can get permission.

RESOURCES

• Game Circles: Bringing gamers together
• Games Workshop's gaming club resources
• Negative Space's Role-Playing Meeting Grounds
• Wikipedia:Game club (article stub)

(To be continued.)

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