I have a good RPG group. It wasn’t always that way. In fact, if one goes back in my YouTube catalog one could hear me talking about wanting to assemble an ideal game group. And now, here I am.

These days I play RPGs exclusively online. This wasn’t by design, but it is what happened. I would definitely like to assemble a local in person group as well, so this remains a project. That said, the group I am a member of is quite satisfactory. I have met exactly one member of my extended group. Everybody else I have only interacted with through the magic of the Internet.

My group requires a Venn diagram to be fully represented. It’s true that there seems to be more of a core group of people that I game with most often, but there are several people in my extended group who I still consider members even if I have not played with them in quite some time. Some people I only play one game with, and others I play a multitude of games with. Some of us meet as regularly as we can, and others meet only sporadically. In every case scheduling can be a huge obstacle. We are in a variety of time zones and have a variety of schedules based upon work, children, and what have you. Sometimes the only time we have to meet is early in the morning for some of us and late at night for the others. Often we only have a couple hours to play before somebody must leave to honor another commitment. It is not infrequent for the game to have to be canceled or substituted because somebody can’t make it.

If it’s so much trouble, why play with this group? I’m glad you asked. In life, it’s important, no, it’s essential to find “your people”. If you’re not engaging with your peers you will cease to thrive, at least that’s how it works for me. Because people are so different, you find that you have to assemble different groups of “your people” depending upon the activity or situation. If you’re lucky, these people will be members of several different groups devoted to different activities, but if not, it doesn’t really matter that much. After some time and searching I have indeed found “my people” when it comes to playing RPGs. (I did sneak that 4th axiom “play with the right people” into the holy Trinity after all).

It would have been nice to just handpick players and inform them that we were all going to play together. However, life isn’t like that. However, the magic of the Internet allowed me to have discourse with several people and we soon began to recognize similarities in what we wanted from the RPG experience. By actually playing together, we were able to discover more about our compatibility. Different games were pitched and different people responded to those lines in the water. Over time a semi-stable group of people emerged and eventually became more cohesive and “permanent”. Even many of the people that I have not played with in quite some time I would readily game with if the opportunity arose. They are still part of “my group”.

The funny thing is, overtime we have become more than just a group of gamers. We have become friends. We have found more of “Our People”.

Gabba Gabba We accept you We accept you One of us