How Old Are We? II
- Thread starter aramis
- Start date
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
The big question will be how many show up in the 30 and younger category.
Presently, I am the oldest.
Presently, I am the oldest.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
What is disturbing is that the 30 and below category still has no one in it, while the very heavy majority is 40 and older.
o:I think almost no-one starts role-playing games anymore. d&d and traveller are just creatures of their times. nowadays the kids are all staring into their iphones or their computers. you have to admit, the graphics are better. but I suspect they have no clue how to use their imaginations, there are entire multi-billion dollar industries devoted to giving them everything they could imagine at the press of a button. kinda hard to compete with that. who wants to grow their own oatmeal when they can buy a truckload of twinkies?
I assure you, you're QUITE wrong.
At my alma mater, Chugiak High School, there were in 2013 still at least 3-4 groups playing at lunch, in two cases, in the exact same places my groups played in 1984-1987. (I got to see this first hand because I substitute teach.) Games in play include AD&D 1E (in the same spot Tyler Nordgren ran his), Rifts (in the SSC, where I used to run Traveller), I'm not certain exactly what in the choir room - it was printed out, but was definitely RPGing - I suspect Ponies & Parasprites, as one of the guys was a definite bronie.
At another local high school, also in 2013, East Anchorage High, Rifts and D&D 3E in the hallway between East and SWS. A homebrew in the choir room. Rifts in someone's classroom. Mongoose Traveller in the lunchroom.
At a third, in some point after 2010, I got asked to autograph a T20 book - next to Hunter and Marc's signatures, at Service HS. I also got grilled with rules questions. They took up their lunch hour doing T20 Q&A...
My daughter is one of 3 co-GM's for a group that played D&D 5e this spring at Eagle River High School.
At expeditions/encounters every week, I see kids in Jr High and High School ages playing - both in Anchorage (AK) and in Corvallis (OR).
At justagamecon - I saw half a dozen kids from ages 10 up... playing D&D & Pathfinder.
Several more were doing "The Games Workshop™ Hobby" (minis wargaming - both WFB and W40K.)
There are a new generation of RPG gamers - they just don't use BBS's much - they instead use facebook, twitter, and pinterest. They DO go to cons. But they're as likely to be gaming at local bronie cons, cosplay cons, and anime cons as they are to be going to game-specific cons.
And a lot of them seem to be registering here - 334 of our users are under 18 as of today according to their profiles. 42 of whom have been active in the last 30 days. 3 of whom have posted in that time. One of whom has been rather active... I'm not going to reveal whom - but if he wants to chime in... well, I'll PM him. One "under 18" user is in fact the corporate account for Ad Astra Games... I don't know if that's a typo...
Easterner9504
SOC-13
You'd think the Administrator wouldn't double post.
However that is good to hear. Heading to Consimworld in 2 weeks, have to see if many youngsters play boardgames. I'm pessimistic on that.
Do you talk to the gamers Aramis?
However that is good to hear. Heading to Consimworld in 2 weeks, have to see if many youngsters play boardgames. I'm pessimistic on that.
Do you talk to the gamers Aramis?
If they come to me about it, sure. But I don't initiate the discussions.
Excepting, of course my kids. But I don't sub in the elder's school.
Re: double posts: Normally, I catch it - but it was due to a network error. I wind up DPing 1-2 times a week, but delete the dups.
We are sandwiched between organic farms, staffed in no small part by volunteers, of to relation to the owners, young enough to be my children. They spend hours a week to use bikes to get around when they could drive. They are neither representative of their generation nor, however, an irrelevant fringe. Similarly, I believe there are those in the younger generations who seek to buck the trend, in games as in other things.
I also disagree. There has been a transition...
At my 16-yr old's High School there is a regular RPG gaming club. I know they tried One Ring (LOTR) and Star Wars, but from my son's comments it sound like they exclusively played Pathfinder in the last semester. (I have watched Pathfinder and this old DM finds it overly complex.) If not playing Pathfinder my youngest would choose Star Wars. They know about D&D but have only played Pathfinder.
My older son (22-yr old) role plays Star Wars and is a GM for the Doctor Who RPG. I believe he also has a Marvel Comics RPG.
College students around the corner play Pathfinder, plus a lot of card games and board games like Pandemic, Settlers of Catan, or DC Comics. They've got a lot of board games, but I don't believe any of them have the hexes that we cut our teeth on. (I assume with our ages there are a lot of Avalon Hill games in our pasts.)
I've introduced my kids to Traveller. They enjoyed it, and will play if I GM, but wouldn't run a campaign themselves. I'm contemplating running a Space 1889 campaign and my 26-yr old ex-English major daughter is excited about that prospect.
I guess we are a bunch of old grognards.
... of course, twenty-somethings play Video Games.
I spend a lot of time at my local game store, I am there at least 2x a week, and I see all kinds of games being played by people of all ages. I also am running my own Traveller campaign. Here is what I have observed over the past year or so:
- D&D 5E and Pathfinder are by far the most popular RPGs out there. I have seen regular players of both games ranging in age from teenagers to the 40+ crowd, with most being between early 20s and early 30s.
- I also know of groups that play a myriad of other games from Star Wars to Shadowrun to Iron Kingdoms to older versions or D&D. Again, the ages range from late teens/early 20s to mid 30s/early 40s.
- My Traveller group has myself (46), Chris (late 30s), Tony (early 40s), Samantha (early 20s), and Alexis (18-20) currently in it. We had 2 others that played a few sessions that were in their mid-20s, and I have at least one friend (also early 40s) who wants to play, but doesn't have the time.
- My son (13) has expresses interest in D&D, but his ADHD makes it very difficult, through we do play the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.
- There are a TON of 20-somethings that play other tabletop games (mainly CCGs like Magic, Yu-gi-oh, etc), Catan, X-Wing Miniatures, Star Trek Attack Wing, D&D Attack Wing, and more. So they aren't all playing video games.
- And of course there are the Warhammer/Warmachine folks, who are mostly mid 20s to mid 30s.
So while this poll if probably a decent approximation of the demographics of the Traveller players out there, I don't think it is all that accurate as many are not hardcore like us lunatics.
My son just turned 18, and his small high school had a gaming club that played RPG's - he plays in out 5E game, has played CoC with the group, and merely missed out the last time I did scifi (Traveller or CP2020). He also plays the various 40K RPG's, and he and his friends have already started kitbashing and game-designing to get "just the right system".
I just spent a weekend camping at a festival, and had several conversations about gaming with a number of 20ish-year olds. 5E, Pathfinder, and Numenera seemed to be mentioned the most as the "games people are playing".
D.
I just spent a weekend camping at a festival, and had several conversations about gaming with a number of 20ish-year olds. 5E, Pathfinder, and Numenera seemed to be mentioned the most as the "games people are playing".
D.
