RPG a Day: Day 8

After taking a few days off for my birthday and to work on some other projects I’m back to answer another question, and I’ll return with another double tomorrow for the weekend!

Day 8: How can we get more people roleplaying?

I think the biggest hurdle that people have with roleplaying are a some misconceptions, ones that actually kept me from playing till later in life myself.

The first big misconception is that tabletop is only for the most nerdy people, that those who play it are completely anti-social and are portrayed very negatively. Even being a self-proclaimed gamer and geek in high school I thought of D&D and the like as something even too nerdy for me. The perception of this is starting to change as more people take on the hobby, and shows like Stranger Things portray it in a more respectful and less demeaning way.

I also think people don’t understand how freeing it is, how you can essentially do whatever you want, and it’s a great outlet for imagination. A common perception of tabletop is that it is very rigid, and its more like a video game with more math to do. That’s how I saw it for a long time, after I had finally decided to give it a try many years ago and the game I played was a simple dungeon crawl with no real roleplaying or opportunities to make decisions. It wasn’t until about ten years later that I tried again and realized how great it could be, and I could use my skills as an actor and improviser.

All in all I think that making sure people know what the game really is is what will get more players to the table.