Find, Build, and Connect Community

By the One True Ryan Khan

RYAN:

I’m at the third hobby shop I’ve stopped at today. 

That’s three out of five that I’ve been able to find through Google. 

My once-familiar places of my childhood city seem to have disappeared. The place I bought my copy of 7th Sea - my first non-DnD game - is closed. The owner sadly passed away a few years back. The shop where I bought my first dice set seems to have disappeared. Googling the old name brings up a couple of dead links.

“I just moved here a week ago. Well, moved back. I’ve been bouncing around for the last 20 years, and now that I’m here I want to see what’s going on.”

I find myself saying this to I don’t know how many people. It’s almost a script, but I try to change up the wording. Keep it fresh, at least for myself. I’m trying to meet people. Connect with people. Maybe to help it feel more sincere.

Now that I’m in a new place, I want to know what’s going on in the RPG scene. There has to be a scene here. It’s a big enough place. There are almost certainly people playing games. And I would be surprised if there weren’t people making cool stuff as well. So I’m going to find them.

But shop number three is promising: L.A. Mood Comics & Games. Another familiar place, but in a new location. And it’s just as eclectic as it always was. Stacks of comics and vinyl. Board games, collectables, miniatures. Manga, anime, books. When I was in high school I bought a hex board (that I never used) comics (which I never followed), and dice. 

Lots of dice.

As I look through boxes of used RPGs I hear a woman’s voice coming from the store office. Immediately I remember being maybe 14, asking why two books were different prices and getting an friendly but incredulous response: “They’re different books!” 

I poke my head into the office where I see two familiar faces. A bit older, but certainly the two owners that I remember from my high school days.

I give my little spiel and we launch into a wonderful conversation. Talking about old locations of the shops and memories of visiting on my way home from school. By the end, we’ve discussed the idea of running an indie game night in their space and possibly running games at a local con in June.

This sort of conversation gets repeated several times. I stop at a place I would describe as a gaming community centre: Game Knight Leagues. The founder’s goal is to create a place where people can find people to game with: a safe and welcoming place, not unlike sports clubs or other hobbies. I end up talking to the fellow working there for two hours. He’s another RPG guy. 

We swap game stories of things that happen at the table, what we love about them. I leave with plans of going back to run the Wildsea on their weekly RPG day and an invitation to try out a scrimmage miniature game.

A couple days later, I go to a gaming meet-up at a library hosted by the Hamilton Road Gaming Group. They’ve been meeting since the mid 80s and the moment I walk in, just about all of the 15ish people there say hello.

 I get an invite to play Battletech using another person’s minis and sheets. He’s happy to sit out and teach me how to play. And while I don’t play, I do chat with the folks painting minis for about an hour, again, exchanging different experiences about games. They keep letting me know that they’re happy I dropped in, and that I should come back, that this is a safe community for people who want to play games and have a good time. 

“If you’re playing a game and you laugh,” they say, “ it’s a good game.”

I’ve been back in my hometown for maybe 10 days. And I already have opportunities to play games I’ve never played and share games I love. I’m inspired to create. I want to share these experiences (hence this article).

In design, finding communities where people share has been integral to my growth. It’s why I think less about commercial success and why I just want to make stuff to put out there. I want to connect with others through my games. And I hope that people can connect with others while playing something I made.

Find communities. Build communities. Connect with people. Create cool things, and share experiences. 

We all win.