{"id":6257,"date":"2016-08-05T07:00:58","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T12:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/?p=6257"},"modified":"2016-08-05T07:57:38","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T12:57:38","slug":"hoolys-ask-a-gm-those-games-be-upside-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/hoolys-ask-a-gm-those-games-be-upside-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Hooly’s Ask a GM – Those Games Be Upside Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

When one walks into a games store, you would hardly expect this to be a unique experience for a\u00a0gamer, especially one such as myself. Unfortunately, this is not the case, for outside of the United\u00a0States and the Europe, gaming stores that actually sell Role Playing Games are rare, to say the least.\u00a0In this weeks’ “Ask a Gamer,” I tackle three related questions that are not your average discussion on rule “X,” but more\u00a0centered on my experiences as a gamer, living in the Land Down Under. Both questions come from\u00a0fellow contributor Dain\u00a0Simpkins. Dain writes:<\/p>\n

How do you think your experience as an Australian gamer is different from those in the major RPG\u00a0markets in Europe and the United States?<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Great question and one that made me ponder for many hours on how to respond, only to realize\u00a0that I may be the wrong person to answer this question. Given my connections with individuals and\u00a0stores outside of my local area and overseas, mainly due to my involvement with the Order 66\u00a0Podcast<\/em>, Gen Con<\/em> and PAX<\/em>, I find it fairly easy to get the product that I want. Casting my mind back to\u00a0my early days of gaming, and even looking at things from the perspective of the “average” gamer, I\u00a0can see that the world of gaming is very restrictive in this country.<\/p>\n

Board games and card games are very popular in games stores across Australia, as is obviously\u00a0computer gaming, but role playing games are not as readily available. The greatest challenge is\u00a0accessibility caused by the fact that products such as board games and card games are accessible for\u00a0major retail stores, and thus readily available to the public. Role Playing Games are a niche market\u00a0and tend to be left to the realm of specialty book stores, and games stores themselves. This may be\u00a0true worldwide, but it makes things even more challenging when the number of games stores is\u00a0minuscule to say the least.<\/p>\n

The biggest factor in this country is population. Australia\u2019s population and geography mean that\u00a0gamers are spread far and wide, with the majority of games coming from the larger cities. A smaller\u00a0population also means that product coming into the country is also small, and therefore \u201cbulk\u201d\u00a0deliveries are organised by distributors who then must ship those items around the country. The\u00a0cost of the product is therefore greatly increased which means that not only is the product scarce,\u00a0but it is expensive \u2013 another obstacle for \u201cnew blood\u201d to become involved in the hobby. This then\u00a0leaves the online retailers to reap the rewards as it is often cheaper to purchase the product online\u00a0than it is to buy \u201cin-store.\u201d The follow-on effect of that is that it becomes harder to obtain products\u00a0as retail stores go out of business, and the vicious circle continues. I try to encourage people to buy at\u00a0their FLGS (Friendly Local Gaming Store), but it ends up being a cost versus loyalty argument, one\u00a0that is often driven by an individual\u2019s budget. But I digress.<\/p>\n

The very basic response to the question is that games are harder to come by here in Australia than\u00a0elsewhere in the major RPG producing countries, and the costs of the product when they can be\u00a0found is expensive. This no doubt results in pirated material being used or PDF versions of the\u00a0products purchased online for as cheaply as possible.<\/p>\n

Do you think it impacts the kinds of games your players are willing to play, the themes of your\u00a0games, the availability of products, that kind of thing?<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another good question. I think the answer is yes if you are talking about a game which is not\u00a0available in electronic form, such as the likes of the Star Wars Role Playing Game<\/em> lines. I think the\u00a0rest is just dependent on how accessible the different games are, whether that be through direct\u00a0publication, Kickstarter<\/em> campaigns or access to a well-stocked games store. It also depends on how\u00a0well suited a gaming group is to try new systems. This is more a universal trait rather than being\u00a0specific to Australian gamers. Gamers are a resourceful bunch however, and even games that are out of print can be found, often with ease.<\/p>\n

Answering the question more precisely, I would say that the type of games and themes played by\u00a0Australian gamers is not affected, and with the advancement of online gaming software the likes of\u00a0Roll20<\/em>, D20Pro<\/em> and Fantasy Grounds<\/em>, roadblocks preventing access to different game systems has\u00a0literally been removed. What is yet to be removed is the sheer cost. Games such as the Star Wars\u00a0Role Playing Game<\/em> line have this as their major hurdle, not for existing gamers but for bringing new\u00a0people into the hobby. Games like Dungeons and Dragons<\/em> along with Pathfinder<\/em> make the chance of\u00a0a new gamer \u201cfinding\u201d the hobby easier by being more readily available either at a general\u00a0bookstore or online with a purchasable PDF version of the game. These are definitely entry level\u00a0games, with the more expensive and\/or less accessible games falling to a secondary market or into\u00a0the \u201cIntroduced by Friends\u201d category. This is where games clubs and conventions come into their\u00a0own, allowing new and old gamers to find exciting new systems to try. Unfortunately conventions,\u00a0where I am from, are few and far between, with a focus more on board, card, and miniatures games.\u00a0The reason for that though, is a different discussion entirely.<\/p>\n

How do new gamers get into the hobby in Australia?\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well that was the discussion I was alluding to in the paragraph above, so that\u2019s a great question.\u00a0Primarily, new gamers are introduced to gaming by old gamers. This is not a new concept and is a somewhat universal\u00a0constant across the globe in the gaming community. Gaming in Australia is a bit different due to our population, and the distances between our cities. It is therefore up to conventions, clubs, and stores to introduce new players to the hobby, or as mentioned, old time gamers who have a penchant for fresh\u00a0blood.<\/p>\n

With only a handful of conventions for the entire country though (the majority\u00a0being in both Melbourne and Sydney), and an even smaller number of clubs, the lion’s share of the “recruiting” has to come from games stores and already established groups. As mentioned above, getting product is\u00a0difficult and expensive, and so we end up with a catch 22. The only other way is for small game groups to recruit on their own, or for people to accidentally stumble across a game. I’m sure this is no different to the way things happens everywhere else on the planet, but I do think that due to the distances and lower number of options (we do have 1\/15th the population of the United States), it’s no wonder many gamers from the Lands Down Under take great joy in visiting major conventions in the United States and in Europe.<\/p>\n

Next week I’ll be returning to a discussion regarding NPCs and building them to create suitable challenges for your players, along with some tips on how to use Minion Groups more effectively in your Star Wars Role Playing Game<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When one walks into a games store, you would hardly expect this to be a unique experience for a\u00a0gamer, especially one such as myself. Unfortunately, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[875],"tags":[922,369,371,315,929,657],"class_list":["post-6257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ask-a-gm","tag-australia","tag-dungeons-and-dragons","tag-gamers","tag-pathfinder","tag-players","tag-star-wars-roleplaying"],"yoast_head":"\nHooly's Ask a GM - Those Games Be Upside Down - d20 Radio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/hoolys-ask-a-gm-those-games-be-upside-down\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hooly's Ask a GM - Those Games Be Upside Down - d20 Radio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When one walks into a games store, you would hardly expect this to be a unique experience for a\u00a0gamer, especially one such as myself. 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His first game EVER was the original Top Secret RPG by TSR and soon after, original D&D. His first GMing gig started in 1987, when West End Games released its first version of the Star Wars RPG using the D6 system. Ian is a former Police Officer but has since retired from active duty. Ian took his passion for games to the next level by running Gen Con Australia in 2008 and 2009, and was involved in the inaugural PAXAUS in 2013. Ian enjoys running all manner of board games, card games and RPGs as well as spending time with his son. Ian is now the Host of The Dice Pool Podcast covering the Genesys Role Playing Game.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.obsidianportal.com\/profile\/IanHoulihan"],"url":"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/author\/gm-hooly\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6257"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6306,"href":"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6257\/revisions\/6306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}