Hot on the Heels

Just a few days after I posted my editorial about how RPGs and tabletop wargames were in dire need of smartphone-enabled apps, I noticed War Room, an app that was announced in February for the Warmachine and Hordes games.  This is pretty much everything a wargame needs in one app, and is a huge step forward.  For those who just want a quick and dirty YouTube video without having to click thru to Privateer's web site, follow the jump.

Dungeons and Dragons for d8 Players

One of the challenges we came to see as my gaming group aged was attendance.  People got jobs, started families, and with that, had other responsibilities that they considered more important than attending a weekly (or bi-weekly) gaming session.  While they were clearly wrong, I've been challenged with how to accommodate a variable number of players while still providing content to those who can make it.

The Games Steam Says I've Played the Most (Total)

One of Valve's more interesting quirks isn't that it keeps tabs on how you play game -- it's that you can see much of this information, and it reveals rather unique things that you wouldn't expect to see otherwise.  Much like looking at heat maps of deaths while playing shooters, it shows what pits I've fallen into.  Today, I'm looking at one statistic in particular -- the top ten games Valve says I enjoyed based solely on time played.

FLGS 2.0

While in high school, I watched hobby shop after hobby shop shutter its doors in my (original) hometown.  I couldn't understand why this lucrative and noble profession didn't flourish as I loaded box after box of steeply discounted RPG materials that didn't sell into my car.  It didn't occur to me until the dawn of Amazon that it was particularly regular that I couldn't find specific books in my friendly local gaming shop (FLGS).  I had more luck finding Vampire: Revised books in my local Waldenbooks than at my hobby shop.  For the next decade, I would primarily make my purchases online, not only not supporting my FLGS, but encouraging their obliteration.

It wasn't until I saw Games Workshop's sales figures for the first time that I particularly understood why.  Here are ten lessons I've come to learn about a successful FLGS thanks to Games Workshop stores.

Internet Killed the RPG Star

Ten years ago, a few dice, a pen and paper, and a stack of game books cut it.  You could amass a group with regularity, and attract new players.  It also helped that ten years ago I was trapped in a college dormitory for two days without power while a hurricane hit.  In the past decade, though, video games became infinitely more accessible, intuitive, and enticing than tabletop gaming could offer -- lush worlds, massive challenges, and other players immediately at your fingertips have almost completely marginalized tabletop gaming.

It hasn't helped that the big names in tabletop gaming have largely ignored new technology and refused to meet the demands of an ever more connected market.  It also hasn't helped that by and large, the electronic medium has done its best to minimize direct player to player interaction with things like words, instead reducing players to stale macros and random player generators.   Only a handful of years ago, I tried running a paper and pen Shadowrun game for a group of players who'd never touched an RPG before, only to be met with blank stares and players fiddling with phones because the pace of combat was too slow, and quite a few cancellations due to scheduling conflicts because traditional RPGs don't particularly support variable players or handle pick-up groups.  After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that they were right.

Technology has developed quite a bit, but game developers have been reluctant to interact with it.  Publishers continue to make only books, while all of the pieces of software that enable a digital game table are largely third-party.  A large part of this likely has to do with the lack of overlap between electronic and tabletop game industries.  Many digital tools are fan-created and fan-supported, and likely not authorized by the actual developer.  These days, for example, I use a Pathfinder SRD application on my iPod (which avoids direct mention of Paizo or the game in its App Store description) to make a convenient rule index, while my roommate is dungeon crawling online using fan-made maps of 4th Edition D&D boxed content.  Virtual tabletop software is frequently complicated to set up, and Wizards' own D&D Virtual Tabletop for 4th fell flat on its face likely due to the complexity of designing appropriate software.  It does not help that the bastion of tabletop (the FLGS) is becoming less and less available (or profitable).

In any case, follow the jump to view what I feel will be essential to keeping tabletop RPGs competitive: