I checked out our new local game shop pretty early on to see how friendly they might be.
They actually sat up shop where an old one used to be located. A place that had been pretty nice and open back when I ran stuff at the original FLGS. They struggled monetarily and wound up shutting down, which was a shame because they actually stocked RPG books a lot better than our primary place. If I had not already been ingrained in the Encounters program at the other place, I probably would have done all my gaming there.
But this new shop was the second store for an already successful one in the next town over. Their storefront was pretty small and they were smart about things focusing mostly on Magic and board games. The RPG's amounted to a small rack of 5e and Pathfinder stuff along with the blind boxed minis for each line and supplementary things like sets of dice. They'd special order things, but otherwise, that was it. Regardless, I make it a point to pick up the 5e releases there rather than going online.
I asked about any RPG stuff going on, but there wasn't much word. I got a lot of mixed messages between workers. One mentioned they have a group at the other store and might coordinate something. Another talked about testing potential GM's. Personally, I was feeling reasonably gunshy about even trying public open table games again so I just let it go and decided to wait.
Here and there veterans of the old shop cropped up and eventually one of the older guys that used to game a lot got in touch with the actual owner, who was very favorable on having an RPG presence in the store and worked out having an open meeting to discuss things. A lot of people wondered if I was going to be involved and in the end, I decided to turn up and at least hear what everyone had to say. Things were generally pretty positive and the owner was very supportive of things. Given my schedule with work I was really only free on the weekends now, but if people were keen on giving it a shot I was willing to put out for running a game to get things going.
We had a rocky start. I really wasn't able to bring back into the fold many of my old players. Among them were any number of weird grudges they held against other players and it always amounted to a scenario of "well, if they are there then I won't come" to such a way that all of them kind of just ignored the situation. Others had different schedules and couldn't swing any of the potential game times. In the end, my only old player who came back was the guy who yelled at everyone for talking over my game. But it had been a year or two now and we had the buzz of a new store so we gave it a shot.
I reasoned that something simple might be best to kick off with. I had recently received The Black Hack which I think is a great little OSR game. So with that in tow, I billed a sort of retro throwback thing running through some old TSR modules and Judges Guild stuff using Black Hack.
And it completely bombed.
We advertised the heck out of it and nobody came but the two or three of us that were organizing everything. It failed to fire another weekend and we were back to the drawing board. The consensus, everyone was excited with 5e now between how the game had developed and the rise of stuff like Critical Role.
It seemed to be a situation of 5e or bust and so, rather reluctantly, I found myself with a new table once more running through the Hoard of the Dragon Queen. For me, I was happy to be playing again but rather tired of 5e. Since its launch, it had been the majority of what I ran. Initially from the hype of a new game then later at the library by request of everybody and thus once more. I wanted to try new stuff like the Black Hack or some Apocalypse Engine games or even get back to my Fantasy first love of DCC.
But 5e took off.
We started having two alternating games of 5e going on. For a very short time, I began to run the excellent Maze of the Blue Medusa using 5e, but it floundered and fell off as only a few really dug its style and the old school lethality. Some guy came in and started a public game of 5e on Friday's. Another guy just started this month a 5e game on Monday. Another is in the work for Sunday's. I think a few other groups come in and play at the shop unrelated to our organized group. RPG's definitely flourish there for now. We've made some attempts at getting Sunday games off the ground, but thus far turnout hasn't managed to keep anything afloat. Members rotated in and out, continuity suffered but I learned to just appreciate the game I guess, and we ran on.
We just finished the final session of the campaign this month and the group had their final confrontation with Tiamat. Just shy of two years and we finished the whole campaign start to finish (along with a few original side treks of my own design in response to some story choices they made). Thinking about it, it was really the first "full campaign" I have ever concluded for D&D that actually ran through most of the range of levels/play experiences in a game. I'll definitely be writing up a bit about how it all turned out in the future.
That is not to say there have not been problems. On and off again there has been a lot of drama mostly between player personalities clashing. That's, perhaps, a story for another time. Best of all, we've finally kind of reached a place where we have a lot of regulars that at least seem to trust in my devotion towards trying to make a good experience at the game. As I did back when the game launched, I've talked everyone up into giving Dungeon Crawl Classics a shot once we wrap up the Tiamat Campaign.
I can't be more excited. DCC is my element and I feel so much more passion to throw at the game. We still do the alternating Saturday thing so everyone has a chance to play. The off-slot from my campaign has struggled a bit through a few different games. We're making a sort of new game initiative right now. So while I'll be leading on with DCC, the off-week we've got a guy running Starfinder. We already know I'm not a 3.5 guy. But like I have said, I will give any game its shot. I've also been involved in an intermittent but very story-focused and involved 5e homebrew campaign that a guy has been running as a private thing. it's been a blast and despite my 5e fatigue, the story and roleplaying have been so good it sort of transcends all that. It's definitely something I want to write up a little about to share because it's been so cool every step of the way.
So there's still a lot of frustration here and there. Nothing as extreme as there used to be. I think personalities will always clash sometimes and that is just a problem within trying to organize a club of this type. We are in a good place now where the other guy who helps organize things and I are generally on the same page about stuff. So any sorts of issues can get handled and sorted out well enough without too much trouble. Communication is key, in my mind.
Overall, there's actually a lot of good games going on both public and private. This new public playgroup hasn't managed to grow much past supporting a single table, but for as long as it lasts I think it is a good thing and we've managed to bring a few people in (or back in) to the game.
Here's to hopefully many more good games in the future.
And what of this blog?
I have a lot of stuff I want to talk about. Games I've played. Games I want to play. Campaign ideas. There's a lot to be said just in the Kickstarters I have backed.
We'll see what happens!
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