Roleplaying and other stuff – RPG Saturday and Misfit Hobbies

RPG Saturday

You may remember I mentioned in a previous post here that I was hoping that RPG Saturday would get off the ground – especially as this meant I could get some more regular role-playing in.

So what is RPG Saturday?

RPG Saturday is currently just an unofficial gathering of people enthusiastic about playing tabletop RPGs which was spawned off the back of Free RPG Day. I am currently organising a loose collection of gamers to try and build a community which I am hoping will turn into something more concrete and hopefully more official in the future. I am very reliant on others to provide venues and help with marketing, and although I have been organising this for about eight months now, it still just feels like organising a group of friends around to your house for a game – not that there is anything wrong with that – but it is a lot of effort up front.

I am pleased to say that there now a regular monthly RPG event, which I decided to name as RPG Saturday, currently running at OnTableTop and although it has been a reasonable success so far, it is a lot of hard work as I am the main organiser for this – I have no one to blame but myself as I was the one making the most noise about not having a local RPG meet-up, and after my persistent bemoaning that there wasn't a local RPG event it seems only fair I am the one trying to bring RPG players together.

Most of the work so far has been in actually trying to corral and herd people to attend, which has often times led to just chasing people through private channels to see if they will turn up on the day. At least right now I don't have to organise the venue, which really takes a huge burden off my shoulders - a big thanks to the folks at OnTableTop for having the space available for this each month.

So how does RPG Saturday work?

The plan behind RPG Saturday was to play several different game systems over the course of the year. It is not about running one-shots, but more about mini-campaings, or short adventures which can form the basis of a larger campaign. One of the problems which was discussed back in Free RPG Day 2022 was that if you start a big campaign you have a forever GM and a small group of players dedicated to that game, but you also end up with several people who are not playing that game or who don't want to play that particular game – therefore you really need to have a pool of GMs and systems available to play, to keep the masses engaged and coming back every month. It was this mindset which has led to the running of mini-campaigns or short adventures which would be able to be run over two to three sessions, four sessions at a stretch, after which we could then play something different. This would hopefully keep people coming to the event, but also provide the GMs a break.

There is nothing to stop GMs running longer or more involved campaigns, it is just that we are asking of our GMs to curtail the action for that particular campaign arc to the smaller number of sessions. After a short break, that campaign can be picked up again. Should RPG Saturday grow and there are enough GMs and players available, there could be more regular games and campaigns played each month, rather than having to swap out every so often.

Again, with regards RPG Saturday, there is nothing to stop a group of players breaking off to play a particular game with a particular GM, although that does take away from the community spirit that RPG Saturday was intended to capture.

So far we have played through one shots of The Quiet Year and Most Trusted Advisors, and whilst the first part of a Blades in the Dark campaign is just about coming to an end, I have started a Mouse Guard campaign. Looking forward I have a game of Labyrinth Lord lined up, and there are also mutterings of D&D and Vaesan one-shots awaiting to be palyed.

There are around 8 to 10 players in the group so far, with about half of these turning up each month as regulars to play games. This is a good start although I would like to see the group grow so we can have more games run concurrently, but for this there would really need to be more GMs to step up to the plate and asking to run games.

It is all positive so far, so let's hope that RPG Saturday can keep going all the way to the next Free RPG Day where all this started! Speaking of which the next Free RPG Day is scheduled for sometime in June 2024 – maybe I'll see you there.

Misfit Hobbies - A Pop-Up Game Store

The wonderful Samuel Steele (formerly Tabletop Hub, now rebranded as Misfit Hobbies) has thrown his hat in the ring and started a pop-up game store. Samuel has taken a multi-faceted approach and is running demonstrations, open gaming spaces, workshops, RPGs, board games and miniature wargames, as well as have a small store front selling everything from Warhammer, Bolt Action, Fallout Wasteland Warfare, paints and scenery, even his own TTRPG Zines and Resources – all of which I can definitely get behind.

It is more of a community space and as such has a really cosy feeling. I have helped out by running a one-shot RPG and I ran my Meddling Kids scenario from Free RPG Day earlier this year. I had two new players to TTRPGs in my group which was really nice to see. I have also attended a board game evening and a terrain making workshop, as well as a couple of the demonstration events. I built a nifty ruined tower in the terrain workshop – not bad going for a few hours work, and will post about this separately.

The pop-up store ran it's course to the end of December 2023. The seven weeks it was open was very short, but time which I am grateful I spent in attending and supporting. I really wish Samuel all the best in this venture, and hope that he can get the funding he needs to keep the store running as a going concern. Obviously I have volunteered my services for both RPGs and Terrain Workshops in the future so lets hope that he can keep the store running.

J