I am a long-time tabletop gamer, and often I ran into the problem that all players eventually do – finding a time everyone can get together. It’s common enough that it’s become a joke in the community, but I had it rough. With an irregular job schedule, every time I had to schedule a block of time to play was time that I wasn’t working, and every time we had to cancel last minute was time that I could have been scheduled. I ꧙could afford to take time off for D&D, but I couldn’t afford to take time off for nothing.
One of my sessions even fell apart because of this. There were only a few of us; one player didn’t learn their schedule until last minute and I had to plan ahead of time. I had hoped to find a community group to get my regular tabletop gaming fix, but then Covid-19 got worse, the lockdown was instituted, and going out to sit around a card table in someone’s garage became inadvisable, to say the l🥀east. I was officially in a slump.
The only game that I still was in was a Fallout RPG I had made that I was running to playtest. With the exception of a few people I knew already, most of the group were people who were interested after I posted the rules to the game online. We met when we could, but most of us were in different time zones, so we could only explore 🌳the post-apocalyptic wasteland of New Orleans before it got too late on the East Coast.
When COVID-19 hit, suddenly everyone was at home. I was furloughed from my j꧅ob. It was a rough time, especially since my job was and still is a public-facing non-essential business, and I still don’t know when it will reopen. Suddenly🧜, I was focused on getting whatever freelance work I could scrape together.
But my group started meeting more regularly. Sessions became almost weekly. We got to get into the meat of the story. With more time to plan, I could write stories and plan for sessions that were a lot more involved than I could working full time. I could even dive into the backstories of my players’ characters, introducing their fam﷽ilies and shadowy figures from their past.
It wasn’t just me though. Everyo꧃ne was getting more into the adventure. We used Hero Forge to design minis of our characters and NPCs – just for fun, since there was no way𝄹 we would ever play on an actual tabletop. Some of my players even made art of the campaign.
I live for that. I love the idea of GMing for players that were excited for the next session. I love giving my players a reason to be excited. I love getting into backstories and giving my players something that relates to their characters 🍎personally. As a storyteller, I want people to enjoy my stories. With tabletop RPGs, it’s a two-way street. I’m not just telling a story to my players, they’re also telling a story to me. We’re creating a narrative togethe✃r, and I want everyone to have fun.
I also know that it isn’t up to me. It’s not even up to my players. None of us were disengaged with the adventure before the lockdown. We all had characters and stories that we cared about. We were having fun. Lꦦife just got in the way. We all had jobꦓs or school, and we could never meet as often as we wanted. It’s hard to get into a game that you play once a month. COVID-19 didn't make the game better, it just allowed me to do something I love, and to do it as much as I would want to if I didn't have to work.
I know that things are going to go back to normal soon. Places are already beginning to open up agai💖n, for better or for worse. I don’t want to be stuck at home forever. Still, the pandemic brought my tabletop group together. I’m worried that the group will shift back to what it was before the lockdown.
Then again, maybe it won’t. When we started, half of the players were people I connected with online. Now I consid🅠er them my friends. Maybe we won’t beജ able to play as often when things go back to normal. Maybe we’ll make time. Either way, we won’t be playing with strangers anymore.