So you want to find a Traveller group....
Good embleer luck, brother. If my own experiences in that respect were
any indication, you're in for a long haul. But I'm hoping that if I can pass
along some of my thoughts on the mistakes I've made to you, maybe you can do a
short-cut on the time I've spent.
Please keep in mind my perspective on this subject: I consider myself
a Traveller referee first and foremost. Despite the other games I've played,
run and written, my first love has always been Traveller, from the day I
discovered the game in early 1978 until today. Because of that, I'm much less
willing to compromise on the people I ref and the campaigns I organize than
you may be. But if you have a good idea of how important or unimportant this
game is to YOU, then you're capable of deciding on how stringently you wish to
follow my advice.
First, examine your own motives. This should be done not only for
Traveller, but for any game campaign about which you care. Are you doing it
because you're just curious about the way the system rules run? Are you just
interested in giving SF as opposed to fantasy RPGs a try? Have you heard good
things about the universe provided by the manufacturer? Or are you basically
looking for a good time, with the potential to develop a serious and ongoing
campaign if it turns out that the rules ARE your cup of tea? These are
important questions: they determine how strictly you're going to demand that
your players follow the rules (and yourself as well), they let you exercise
criteria for choosing gamers that are appropriate for the level of interest
and involvement you desire, and they help you avoid people with attitudes that
are, while not necessarily "bad" or "wrong," simply not going to mesh with
yours or the other players'. Sound complicated? It is. And it should be! In my
experience as a gamer, all thirteen-plus years of it, I have learned one vital
truth: People with whom you game on a regular basis become very intimately
connected to your life. They become, in a very real sense, a significant chunk
of your circle of close friends. (For some poor folx, they are their ENTIRE
circle of friends.) You'd better like them and the way they approach your
game, or they're going to make your life hell. I know; I spent the chunks of
time from 1979 to 1983 and 1984 to 1987 running games for a strong-tempered
admixture of people I really liked and people I just put up with, and I
decided in 1988 during an unwilling and forced departure from gaming that if I
were ever to run another campaign, I would damn well LIKE the people with whom
I gamed! And now, in 1989-90, I've done that and am very pleased with the
results. Give it some thought and compare it to your own experiences; I think
you'll see what I mean.
Second, I can suggest a few places for finding players, and a few
places which are, in my experience, NOT good for finding players, and why.
It's been my experience that posting notices in game stores is an iffy
proposition at best; you get a huge spectrum of gamers, both good and not so
good. If you want to do this, you should follow two basic ground rules: first,
list any criteria (level of experience, age, etc.) that you feel are important
to you on the notice; you then have the right to reject out of hand anyone who
answers the notice in violation of your expressly stated desires. Don't worry
about sounding like a snob; remember, if all goes well, you're going to be
seeing these people on a regular basis for a long time! Second, never promise
anyone anything over the phone. Meet them face to face and take them out for a
burger and fries or something, or run a trial game. But get to know them and
hear how they talk and act, before you go letting them in. Be honest with
yourself: do you need the aggravation of dealing with someone who sets your
teeth on edge? You don't have to be impolite, or even to close the door
permanently on a possible gamer; if they aren't appropriate, just don't put
yourself in the position of HAVING to take them. The same goes for running ads
in either the local gaming papers (if there are any) or in the nationals
(CHALLENGE has an ad section that's either free or cheap that posts requests
from refs and players all over the world), or advertising on the computer Nets
as well. But never, never underestimate the importance of meeting prospects
first!
Another popular place to meet local gamers, ones who usually have a
lot of experience in a wide range of games, is the Gaming Club of your local
high school or college, depending on your age bracket of interest. In
particular, college Gaming CLubs attract a decent number of grad students and
older folx who are looking for mature gamers with whom to play. In a perfect
world, anyone who walked into a Gaming Club would istantly be beseiged by
interested, interesting people eager to get an exciting new campaign going.
In practice, however, this is rarely the case. I've dealt with gaming clubs in
about a half dozen colleges in the past thirteen years; they've netted me some
of the best and worst gamers I've ever met. Once again, conversation is a
great way to spot good and bad prospects-- there's something about gamers that
lets you learn volumes about their playing style, just by interacting with
them in a social situation for a bit. I believe that this largely is due to
the social-interactive nature of RPGs in general. Whatever its source, it's a
lifesaver. Again, remember you're not after "good" and "bad" GAMERS, or "good
and bad" PEOPLE: you're learning about gamers who may be "good" or "bad"
PROSPECTS for YOUR game. Don't damn somebody forever simply because they don't
agree with the way you do things. But that doesn't mean you have to put with
them on a weekly basis for the next year or two, either.
In your search, it pays to find people who are willing to either learn
the rules to a degree you deem appropriate, or who are willing to at least get
into the mindset of the game. Nothing ruins a Traveller game more than players
who moan, "I *hate* this combat system/time scaling/set of rules of psionics/
what have you! Why can't this game have blasters/magic/teleportation/Vulcans/
what have you?" You should make it clear from the outset with whomever you
meet that you're getting a group together to play Traveller, that will at
least try to appreciate Traveller for what it is. You'll get one of three
answers:
1. "Well, okay, but I'd really rather play (fill in the blank)."
2. "Well, okay, but I need to absorb the rules first. Do you mind?"
3. "Yeah, sure, great! I'm looking forward to it!"
None of these three classes is clear-cut in their suitability or lack
thereof. For instance, if you don't have your heart set on Traveller (often,
people who are having trouble getting a Trav group together are actually
saying that they're having trouble meeting ANYONE who plays RPGs), and you
meet a good-sized group of likable people who all want to play something else,
then maybe you should go with the flow on this bunch, and keep an eye out for
other prospects as you go. (I met all of the members of my current Trav game
but one, while running a (blegh) D&D variant campaign that took three years to
wrap up.) People who fall into the second category need to be judged on a case
by case basis; my current group consists of five people, only two of which
knew anything at all about Traveller before the campaign began. The other
three taught themselves on the fly, and did a damn good job of it, too.
It's the last category you have to watch the most carefully, though.
If you were careful about selecting people before you got down to discussing
rules, you should be okay, but Traveller, like any game, has its points where
the wrong sort of attitudes tend to collect. I recently attended a wedding
reception for a colleague in the Pitt Physics Department, an informal dinner
where many people from his various hobbies had a chance to mingle. I hadn't
known it but he was a member of a local gaming club, perhaps Pitt's but I'm
not sure. Anyway, so here I am, getting some cheez nips from the cracker tray,
when this guy next to me strikes up a conversation, and it went something like
this.
HIM: "Hi. You a friend of the bride's?"
ME: "Uh, no, the groom's actually. We work together."
HIM: "Oh, you're in Physics! Okay! I know him from Game Club."
ME: "Game CLub? You play role-playing games?"
HIM: "Yeah, man! You too?"
ME: "Well, yes, actually. But he and I have never--"
HIM: "HOT SHIT, MAN! What rules do you use?"
ME: "Traveller...."
HIM: "TRAVELLER? EXCELLENT GAME, man! Fukn AWESOME! Me'n my friends
we've been running this Traveller game for a while now, it's gettin' kinda
lame because the ref is like a total DICK, but it's still a lotta fun, I run
this Imperial Death Squad Trooper with like an FGMP-16 FUSION rifle and battle
dress and shit, and me and my friends we were doin' this sorta crossover thing
with Call of Cthulhu, y'know? Anyway, we were all holed up in this hotel and
these things were attackin' us and I was blowin' em away, man, ain't NO fukn
Elder God gonna stand up to no FUSION GUN, man, and so I'm goin' BABABABABOW,
just BLOWIN'em away, when like this total GEEK I'm runnin' with screams,
'THEY'RE COMIN' UP FROM THE BASEMENT!' and he starts just un-LOADING his Gauss
Rifle down the stairs, an'-- SHUT UP, BITCH! I'm GETTIN' you yer fukn TUNA
PATE'! 'Scuse me a second, will ya?"
Need I say more? The point is that Traveller doesn't suit everyone,
nor does everyone necessarily suit Traveller. But if you exercise a little
care and look at the gaming community in general where you live and/or work,
you can actually do pretty well for yourself. One other worthwhile way to meet
other gamers, although it's hit-and-miss, is second degree referrals: other
people who are good gamers who are at least on speaking terms with the people
you meet and whom you can meet through them. The best gamer I've ever played
with was referred to me by a mutual acquaintance, whom as it turned out
neither of us could stand playing with.
The essential point to remember is that there are a lot of gamers out
there, and your task is not only to hook up with them, but also to hok up with
the ones you enjoy playing with. If you keep that in mind, you can get in
contact with ANYONE, even the groups in your local store that only advertise
D&D interest, and find worthwhile people. At worst, you could do what I did,
and suffer through a fantasy game for a while while building up a player base!
Anyway, good luck to you. Let me know if any of this does you any
good; it's a subject on which I feel strongly.
metlay
PS. The following is encased in strong personal-experience-only disclaimers:
Traveller is the only RPG I know of that has absolutely no implied sexual
bias. Women in Traveller are as strong and competent as their male
counterparts, and there are no overlaid images of "the sexy SF bimbo in the
skintight vacuum suit zipped open to the navel" like one tends to get in games
like Space Opera and Star Ace. This is a huge plus for Traveller, as it tends
to attract not only the small but eminently worthwhile subgroup of female
gamers, but also those male gamers who are able to leave their sexual hangups
at the door when they come to play, all of which leads to better gaming. Keep
this in mind when shopping around for suitable people.
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