CAR-PGa NEWSLETTER, Vol. 28, No. 11, November 2019

CAR-PGa Chair

An international network of researchers into all aspects of role-playing games

David Millians, Editor

Paideia School, 1509 Ponce de Leon Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA

millians.david@paideiaschool.org

ARTICLES

Letter from the Chair

Hello All,

There was a time when we didn’t have a controversy about role-playing games every month, but as the game continues to evolve and expand new topics relevant to the CAR-PGA arise. I thought it’d be helpful to point out the latest:

I tried to explain on EN World that x-cards and consent in gaming have all arisen out of an increasingly diverse player base who may not have the same experiences (and thus, new traumas) of earlier gamers. Empathy is a first step to understanding the need for these kinds of tools. Thanks to the Internet, more players than ever before are meeting each other through gaming before becoming friends first. Recognition of all these factors begins with “bleed,” the idea that role-playing games can affect your real life and vice versa.

As our senior game designers get older, the shaky system that supports them is becoming strained. Many of our gaming luminaries barely make enough money to live on and when medical expenses crop-up they’re increasingly turning to online crowdfunding to make ends meet. For a recent example, Rick Loomis’ family needed a Gofundme just to manage his funeral expenses. And Jim Ward (who co-authored Deities and Demigods, Pool of Radiance, Greyhawk Adventures, and is the creator of Gamma World) needs in excess of $100,000 to cover his medical bills.

I see these two topics as related. If we’re so unwilling to consider changing how we play or the possibility of accommodating someone with a different experience from our own, then it’s going to be a pretty big leap to ask for anyone to pay our medical bills. This is a shared problem — for all of us in the game industry, the ability to “pay the bills” determines how much time and energy we devote to it — and the larger the audience, the large the industry’s ability to support our endeavors.

I hope the CAR-PGA can continue to reinforce the value of diversity, empathy, and collaboration as fundamental aspects of what makes the gaming community great…so that in the future we will have to rely less on the charity of others to pay for basic needs. As Thanksgiving looms large this November in the United States, I’m thankful the CAR-PGA and our supportive community exists.

Thank you for everything you do!

Sincerely,

Mike

Convention Report: Library Mini-con 2019

By Ted Skirvin

This event took place on July 20th from 10 am to 4 pm. The con was at a local facility that is part public library and part arts and culture facility in Marietta, Georgia. There was a vendor area that had about eight vendors. There was a room set aside for tabletop RPGs. They were running D&D but nothing else. There were about fifteen people playing three different games. There was a table in the main library area with a small collection of board games, but I never saw anyone playing a game. There were various discussion panels, crafting demos and trivia contests. There was also a puppet show.

Since it was a free event it was certainly worth attending. I bought a dice vault from one of the vendors. My wife and I entered one of the trivia contests and won an Incredible Hulk bobble-head figure.  

NEW MATERIAL

FROM DAVID MILLIANS

FROM MIKE TRESCA

CONVENTIONS

New listings this month were provided by Paul Cardwell and Lou Zocchi. Others are urged to submit information. If you attend a convention, be sure and check the conventions table and let us have a copy of the fliers (or at very least the when, what, where, and contact information) for upcoming conventions available there. CAR-PGa is international, so this includes anywhere in the world.  

Dates, precise venue, contacts’ URLs or phone numbers, and other information, where missing from this list, would be particularly appreciated.  If we have missed any, send the information to plcardwell@gmail.com  Convention reviews should be sent to millians.david@paideiaschool.org

“[LARP]” means only LARP events as many RPG cons include at least some LARP, as likewise applies to the mention of specific game systems. The same bracketed information applies as well to game systems when the con will have only those games present.

In an attempt to get more face-to-face meetings of the membership, we list who will be going to what convention, if they will tell us.  Get this type of information in at least two months before the convention itself, so we can run it at least once.  Support your local cons by helping in the staff. It is a good way to promote RPG and you generally get in free for the brief time spent helping.  

A review of any attended convention afterwards for the Newsletter would be appreciated too. These reviews should include demographic data such as attendance, percentage male/female, white/ethnic minorities (or whatever is the majority/white/others), games in addition to tabletop RPG, and more subjective matters such as unusual events, quality of games and dealers’ room, encouragement of new gamers, and whatever seems worth reporting. We need to work to restore CAR-PGa’s reputation as the media’s go-to on gamer demographics, especially since the media are still citing a study that cut off all those over 35 – at a time when that was the median age of gamers – it is closer to 40 now – which indicates we also need to work on recruiting younger players, although some increase in college age players at conventions has been noted.

November 2019

December 2019

January 2020

February 2020

© Copyright 2019 by the Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games (CAR-PGa), ISSN 1071 7129. The CAR-PGa Newsletter is a monthly publication. For more information contact David Millians, Editor, Paideia School, 1509 Ponce de Leon Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA, phone (404) 808-1070, fax (404) 377-3491, e-mail millians.david@paideiaschool.org. Back issues are available. Contributions of material from the membership are urged, and the byline is responsible for content. Deadline is the last weekday of the month, email preferred. Permission is granted to copy anything in the Newsletter, provided we get a credit line in the publication copying it, and it doesn’t have someone else’s copyright on it. Information, including details on joining CAR-PGa, can be obtained on the Internet at car-pga.org.