[Rq-rules] Been gaming a while!

Styopa styopa1 at gmail.com
Mon Mar 3 10:59:30 PST 2008


I believe average age of the the "pen and paper" role playing game cohort is
going to be rising at nearly a 1.0 ratio now over time.

I went to Gen Con the last couple of years it was in Milwaukee (I hope it
comes back...) and frankly, while the halls were packed with younger people,
they were almost exclusively card gamers or computer gamers....a very small
proportion that I ran into were actually RPGers.

I know from trying to run RPG games in an exurb of Minneapolis, finding
players is not terribly hard above the age of 30 (as I mentioned before, I'm
40) but despite having a couple of players who *really* love gaming, they
are having a rough time finding anyone who is interesting in role-playing
from week to week.  We've probably had 20+ boys (& girls) sit in on gaming
sessions, seemingly enjoy it, but not really be interested in coming back.
They enjoy playing, but they won't make a hole in their schedule.

Not to sound totally superficial or anything (and I think my generational
distance can define that I'm not trying to flatter MY generation), but from
my elder perspective, the ones I see playing wargames and RPGs are quite
clearly the more intelligent of their peers.  Maybe it's my sucky DM'ing,
certainly, but I find a lot of today's youth lack the attention span (or
sadly, basic arithmatic literacy) and want to go back to the very black &
white, flashy, no-imagination-required CRPGs.

Just seems like Role Playing Games and the people that play them are a dying
breed.  Not entirely absent from today's kids, but hardly replacement level.
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