1KM1KT Free RPG Community

Where is the best place you've played RPGs? Where is the best place you could imagine playing RPGs? What makes them great?

For me, my old friend's basement room had one purpose. RPGs. There was no other reason to go down there. It was dingy and it was kinda dark, but it was super special because it was dedicated space.

The best place I could imagine playing an RPG would be in that under water hotel in Florida (Atlantis?). It would be amazing to play a water game, under the waves.

I roleplayed in a pub recently, for the first time in many years.

(cf. our transatlantic cousins: pub = public house, bar, house of ill repute. To their members, they’re the fourth branch of the DSS. Like everything else in England, they’re dying of the crisis in late capitalism.)

It was instructive. I was playing ‘Houses of the Blooded’ with four other guys at an outside table when Gary arrived. Gary was a large man in a two-piece suit of the loudest pink I have ever seen.

Gary picks up my pen & proceeds to scribble all over my character sheet. I want to say something but I’m dumbfounded by a) the pink & b) the baleful glare of Gary’s can of Special Brew.

One of the other guys engages Gary in a bit of banter but Gary doesn’t want to budge. I’m encouraged to wrestle my pen from Gary by a member of staff, but Gary is keen to show off his ability to read & write. Eventually he is persuaded to move on.

Around a decade previously, I’d been running a game of Vampire in the Bedford Arms in Balham – it was Gehenna & things were kicking off, as they do – when we noticed we’d inadvertently cleared half the Public Bar. People were seen edging their way to the exit. One woman hissed: “I think they’re Jehovah’s Witnesses!”

As such, I’ve always avoided roleplaying in public. I’ve become set in my ways, though, & just recently I’ve been trying to branch out.

My friend Steve & I used to drive round fantasising about having a house dedicated to roleplaying. We used to pick them out on the street. One floor for wargaming – two huge tables & a painting studio – & another for Cyberpunk, full of props & costume. And yeah, a basement for overnight games of Vampire: The Masquerade. Candles & all that jazz.

Psychologists say that there is the Ideal Self & the Real Self & that if you conflate the two, you’re on your way to a narcissistic personality disorder. I think something similar is true of roleplaying. You sort of have to settle for what you can get. A touch of nostalgia is fine though, & half the fun is in the dreaming.

Roleplaying in public leads to misunderstandings or at least strange glances from bystanders. Nine times out of ten. The sight of five guys in a pub shouting about assassinating the president is, well, open to interpretation. There are, of course, designated clubs or hobby shops. But I've never played in any of them (never played RPGs, that is. I've played boardgames, though). Most of my gaming takes place at someone's place. If you can find a decent table that can sit the whole group, it's basically all you need. So the greatest place to play is one with no distraction and a comfortable table.

I've had mixed luck with game shops; it depends on their target clientele and the time you visit. Card shop by the university? Noisy as it gets, at all hours. Game shop by my house? Nice and quiet, and the staff are incredibly friendly.

Stodgy traditionalist that I am, I have yet to find a place better than gathered around a dining room table. High-backed chairs to be comfortable, plenty of room for sheets and dice, natural focus points of attention, and a stable place for snacks.

There is something to be said for a good basement, of course. Cool, decent lighting, a couch, carpeted floor... I have indeed enjoyed many a game in subterranean conditions.