If you’re reading this article and you don’t know what a roleplaying game is, you should go ahead and Google that. I should also mention that you should filter out the results that include video games, although, those “kinda” fit the genre, though I am going to be talking specifically about the “table top roleplaying game” variety (or TTRPG).
Recently, I (the Emerald Specter) have opened up the private Discord for the website to the public. You can join if you’d like, we welcome you to come on in, where you’ll find topics including sumo, CURSE wrestling, and the aforementioned roleplaying games. All things you can find generally on the website here, all over the place. There is another Discord specifically for BuJoRPG, which (I suppose) will eventually be merged into the other Discord, but for now, they are separate.
The main reason for opening up the Discord to the public was to begin building a player base for the RPGs we (as a group) have been playing behind the scenes for things like the actual play feed (such as Emerald Nights). We, as a group, have decided to just “play the games” for a while and not produce any actual plays, so don’t think you need to be prepared to be an on air personality at the moment to join us. In fact, if you join, there is a large possibility that you’ll not be on the air anytime in the near future as the current goal is to just play games for the love of the games for at least two to three years (you can mark that as of this post).
So, what kinds of things are we playing?
Well, that’s a good question. The first answer is: we’re open to damn near anything, really. Originally, we formed as a Vampire the Masquerade (V5) group to specifically play that game. However, since then, we’ve also played the Expanse RPG (from Green Ronin), a superhero game in the FATE system, a home-brew game set in the world of Ivan Kal’s Infinite Realm LitRPG series, and we’re even planning out the games we’re going to be playing in the future! Some of those include Old Gods of Appalachia, Doctor Who RPG, and TORG Eternity (just to name a few)!
There is our “traditional” game time and schedule, of which only Emerald Nights is going to be adhering to in order to finish out the final season of the game (of which I do intend to record it and will consider releasing seasons 3 through 5 just to complete the series… they may or may not be edited). Then there are the new folks who have already joined the server who are bringing in new times and dates (scheduling) with them, and increasing the ability to play more games more often on the server! This is partly why I opened things up to the general public.
We are on Discord, so obviously the players are likely to be all over the place. As I type this, we have several people in the Pacific (USA) time zone, several in the Central (USA) time zone, and a couple in the Eastern time zone (USA and Canada). There are also interested parties (that haven’t joined the server but have inquired) in the UK, continental Europe, and Japan, so don’t think we’re only doing North American gamers only! I would LOVE to have an International group to work with!
Ideally, we would have many groups gaming at many times to give everyone on the server a chance to play as often as they’d like (or run games as often as they’d like) and get to participate in this wonderful hobby! We love RPGs and want to play!
There is another theory going on here, too. I will openly admit that I would love to eventually delve back into actual play production again in the future. This is a far off option but an option I’d like to keep open. The idea would be that a group would be able to produce a high quality gaming experience with little editing needed and could help collectively tell an amazing story for a listening audience. Eventually, that is… eventually.
We don’t have a barrier to playing any type of game. Some of us prefer not to play Dungeons and Dragons (due to personal reasons, for me specifically it is Wizards of the Coast’s conduct over the past year with the OGL and the Pinkerton Incident) or other games but those are down to each individual and not to the group as a whole. I will not limit anyone’s fun on this server just because I personally do not care for a certain system or parent company. All you need to do (if you’re a game master) is go to our Discord forums and pitch your game and see who wants in! Simple as that.
But what if you’re not a game master? Well, you can discuss what you’d like to play with everyone in the discussion channels (or on the forums) and see if anyone wants to run that game… there are always GMs that seem to want to try new things (I am one of them!) and maybe you’ll get someone who says “hey, I didn’t think anyone else would want to try that!”
So, why not come on over to the Discord and give things a try? We’re welcoming, inclusive, and looking to play some games! We want to bring in a variety of experiences, players, and expand the player base to be able to play more games, more often, and make things better for everyone.
