I *love* tabletop gaming. I like to say TTG rather than board gaming because I enjoy them all, from card games to board games to TT RPG’s. However, I am pretty new to the hobby. I have only been playing these games for about two years. I want to tell you how I got into the scene so maybe you can as well if you are thinking about it.
To tell you a bit about myself, I have a partner, a daughter, three dogs, and four cats. We live in an apartment above our escape room, which we design, own, and operate. I have a BS in biology and physics. I taught biology briefly after college, and, until recently, I planned to work towards my masters to teach again. Then I began designing a card game.
My partner and I had been toying with the idea of creating a game for our escape room customers to take home. We had been designing escape rooms for about two years with great success. How hard could it be to create a the same experience through a different medium? The answer: very hard. When you have little to no experience in that area, that is.
My partner proposed a card game of some sort. I spearheaded the project. I had recently found out I was pregnant, and I needed a creative outlet that was not quite as physical as building escape rooms. Looking back on the first prototype with virtually no experience behind it, it was a disaster. To me, it was genius. I decided I was going to take it to Kickstarter and make $1M dollars with the hottest new party game. <<If you are a game designer, I humbly apologize for this arrogant ignorant attitude. I had no idea.
The TTG community is not a force to be reckoned with. These people have a passion for their hobby that is admirable, to say the least. The more I read and learned about TTG, the more I realized what a tight-knit community it was. I decided to go to promote my game at our local con. That was when I met someone who became an incredibly great friend to have.
This guy, we’ll call him Tim, played my game over and over with me. Little did I know, this was my first playtest. He mentioned he had come from a town about 3 hours away, and he played with a gaming guild there. I decided I would take my game there to market it. (Another testing session, unbeknownst to me again.) Everyone was so great. We had a wonderful night playing games. They added me to their facebook group. A few weeks later, someone mentioned that Geekway to the West had opened 200 additional tickets to purchase due to some error on their end. I happened to get one, just to check it out. It was fate.
My eyes were opened during the most amazing weekend of my life. I participated in the game design contest as a tester and took my game to the game design party, seeing what actual game designers were doing. I met a few people there, and I played games the entire time. It was a board game bender. I ordered my four favorite games as soon as I arrived home.
Not only had I received a well-deserved slap in the face of what this industry is about, I realized that I actually loved playing these games. I took a big step back on my project. I spent the next six months attending conventions, visiting game stores, interacting with other designers and gamers online. This thing that began as a work project had turned into my life. I feel so honored to have the opportunity to meet other designers in the industry and learn more about the hobby by playing their games. Even games I might not ever be interested in designing are just so fun to play with people who are passionate about them.
That’s another thing. If you are thinking of involving yourself in the TTG community, as a designer or as a player, you are going to be surrounding yourself with such a strong supportive community. I have made more friends over the last two years than I had in the ten prior to it. I am talking people that are so ready to help you because they love their hobby and want it to succeed. Your TTG friends want the best for you, and that can eventually trickle into other areas of your life. The human connections I see when I am playing a game with a group of people are unlike anywhere else in my life. I created a Facebook group just to keep up with the designers I met at CinCityCon in Ohio.
I enjoy designing games, and I plan to continue pursuing it as a career. But even if it doesn’t work out, I am so glad to know I will have a welcome spot in my new community. If you are considered joining in, just know you will be welcomed by generous humans from all walks of life. There are ten thousand different stories you can dive right into. Check it out online, find your local gaming group. Give it a try. I guarantee you won’t regret it.
