Roleplaying in Cork

nesf

Haven't been around Boards for ages, so apologies for being out of touch and all that. I was wondering, whether any roleplaying developments had occured in Cork, or if any Cork ppl were looking to start some kind of Roleplaying funness going.

Good to see y'all again btw.

dent

If your into White-Wolf games they have a large Camarilla Chapter. http://www.camarillaireland.com/

They play loads of other games too.

nesf

dent wrote:

If your into White-Wolf games they have a large Camarilla Chapter. http://www.camarillaireland.com/

They play loads of other games too.

Tis cool, am a member of the camarilla, and partake in it events, coming to the national next weekend?

I was more curious to see if the population of cork roleplayers had increased on here. A few years back, I was the only one around regularily

Specky

I was more curious to see if the population of cork roleplayers had increased

Oddly enough that's a question we're looking for an answer to....actually we're looking for the answer to a whole bunch of questions, biggest amongst them being are RPGs on the increase or the decline?

As far as I've been able to ascertain there has been no really meaningful (or reliable) research done here or in the UK on this subject or on what gamers are looking for, what keeps them involved, what makes them stop etc etc etc.

We're currently preparing a study to try to gather some of this information which we'll hopefully have ready to roll (pardon the pun) starting at Gaelcon (IGA willing) and following on at every con we can get to over the coming year.

If anyone has any opinions on the state of gaming or comments, suggestions or heckles concerning what we're trying to do please toss them in. I'd be most interested.

...the "we" I've been mentioning will be the topic of another announcement to be made between now and Gaelcon...

Sarky

It's certainly on the increase in Galway, if that helps.

Specky

To be honest (and I don't want to display any initial bias that might lead people to think our research will not be done in a purely impartial manner I hope you understand) my feeling is that it is back on the increase everywhere.

All we want to do now is prove it.

nesf

Well, as far as I've seen, in general, gaming is on an increase in Cork. Mostly this is due to the shiny new Other Realms gamning shop, that has raised alot of interest in it. But most of the growth has been in CCG's and Wargames as far as I can see. Role playing seems to remain the mature gamer's refuge, after learning the ropes for a few years on CCG's or the like. I've noticed that roleplaying seems to not be taken up by fresh new gamers, rather it seems to be something that people from other areas of gaming go into.

Although with the rise of good CRPGs in the last few years, the number of people who potentially could transfer from computer based to pen and paper, is huge. But i'm unsure as to how one could realise such a transition.

Maybe CRPGs are the future direction of roleplaying games, with pen and paper RPGing becoming smaller and less well known?

Specky

Maybe CRPGs are the future direction of roleplaying games, with pen and paper RPGing becoming smaller and less well known?

Certainly it would seem logical to assume that eventually CRPGs of one sort or another will kill off pen and paper play, but probably not for some time.

There is certainly a rising tide of on-line play and massively multiplayer stuff that will tempt CRPG players who have never been involved in P+P play...and probably prevent these people from seeking out P+P as the next step up from CRPGs.

Increasingly I would see on-line play being able to offer the social element and the dynamism that CRPGs do not offer, but I think you'll have to look a long way into the future before on-line or computer games can offer the same sort of experience a P+P game has the potential to provide.

I think you're absolutely right in that more people are becoming attuned to the idea of role playing games through their maturing in the computer game sector, but, as you rightly point out, I don't think these people are migrating towards P+P as a result.

Oddly though, P+P play has not changed much in the past 20 years (and I speak as one who's been around to see 20+ years of gaming), despite the rise of computer games during that time I can still find people playing games I played 20 years ago using the same rules, the same dice, the same character sheets etc etc. There are lots and lots of new games that have appeared during the last 20 years, some of which have been quite revolutionary in their games systems, but at the end of the day they play just like any other game with people, pens, paper, dice and imagination.

The rise in sci-fi/fantasy wargaming I think is good. It's switched a lot of people on to the wargaming scene which was formerly a real elitist, underground hobby. It's great to go to the cons now and see hundreds of youngsters battling away with storm-troopers and space ships where years ago there were only old men in christmas jumpers with big beards re-enacting some napolionic or ancient battle.

I really don't know what the future holds for P+P RPGs but I'd really like to be able to see where it is now and what direction it is going in, hence the research project I mentioned.

Interesting you should mention that you believe the rise in interest in Cork could be partly down to a new retail outlet, I think that has a lot to do with the popularity of games in different areas. A prominant shop window was what started me off in RPGing many years ago and I believe it probably still has a lot of value.

dent

Nesf
I will indeed be at the national. Who do you play? I sdon't think CRPG's will take over completely. I mean look at the foam sword people. Don't nearly a thosand of them attend the gathering?

The LARP scene is still strong in the US, UK and here.

To be honest its being a while since I've played a table top.

I guess as we get older we will intoduce our kids "shudder".

I guess it will be interesting to see how many youngsters turn up at Gaelcon. Its one great thing about that con thats its open to all ages. It was my first con when I was a wee nipper.

Specky

dent wrote:

I sdon't think CRPG's will take over completely. I mean look at the foam sword people. Don't nearly a thosand of them attend the gathering?

I think every game that isn't currently played on computer has a certain something that cannot be realistically re-created on the computer. That goes for all games. I'd say more people play chess on computer these days than face to face, but some people still play f2f for the social interaction. If you could sit in front of a computer and not be able to tell that you weren't sitting in front of another person playing the game then there would be little point in going to the inconvenience of trying to find other people to play against.

The same goes for RPGs. If/when you can make a game on a computer feel the same as a f2f game (or better) then people will stop playing f2f. You may still (forever) get a nostalgic die-hard few that may play face to face but the commercial viability of supporting those few in any mass-market sense will have disappeared.

Even LARPs will one day be replaced, but obviously the physical sensation of being run through with a latex broadsword is going to something of a challenge for computer scientists for some time to come....

As I said before, I've been playing for over 20 years and table top games haven't really changed at alll. I'd be surprised if they really change all that much in the next 10 years but I think it's only sensible to face the inevitable that they one day will be no more.

I guess as we get older we will intoduce our kids "shudder".

I think this does happen a lot. Interesting research done by Wizards of the Coast in 1999 seemed to find that once you were "in" for more than 5 years you were likely to stay "in" for a very long time. My own personal experiece seems to be that people who play seriously become very strong advocates of role playing and certainly introduce their kids to the hobby.

nesf

Dent, I've not played for a few months but my characters have attended (with me ) most of the venues in the country.

In Cam/Anarch, I play(ed) a Nosferatu called Brian Crowley [Brian won't be at the national, and hasn't been seen for over 4 months]
In Garou, I play a Corax called Joe
In Changeling, I play a Redcap called Lucius.

ApTyp

Hello,i am 22 years old male form russia,playing AD&d and rpg for about 7 years,came to Dublin 3 weeks ago and would like to join good ad&d group,any world is good for me and i dont care about edition 2nd or 3rd
I live in Bayside,Dublin 13,my english is descent but i can communicate easy so if any GM's have openings send mail to arturbohan@mail.ru or send sms to 087 2627050 and also my dayoff is monday