So, while there is still new blood coming into the hobby, the main people involved are getting older and greyer (including myself). What does this mean for them? Will they pass on their gaming enthusiasm to their kids if they show some interest?

One of my Traveller colleagues passed away a couple of months ago and I have been in contact with his daughter who is wondering what to do with his collection of gaming material. She has no interest in it and his surviving wife does not want the books around either. So, I have offered to take all of the books and give them away, one to each Traveller enthusiast who wants one with a hand written Thank You card inside. This way, his memory will be honored and a bit of him will go on as a legacy.

This has made me think. What will become of my favorite hobby collection when I die? So I ask, what will become of your own game collection when you die? What do you want to happen to the books and PDFs? Have you even thought about this at all? Or is this too early to think about and too morbid to consider?

You're confusing your own immediate social circle with the wider population. We tend to hang out with people of our own age, ethnic background, and socioeconomic status. It'd be like me thinking every woman can deadlift 100kg because that's what they do in my garage gym, even the 69yo.

Each week I go to a store with open game tables, lots of groups have people in their early 20s. There are thriving clubs at our local universities, and they have few visitors over 30yo. University years were always the biggest gaming years for people.

I'll take your game books when you kick it, though.

Well, in my family we have the legacy legos. Although the original collector is not dead. And maybe that's the key. You got to let go of your collection and pass them on while the children are still young. Sure, a lot of the original legacy legos got lost. But some are still there, and the total collection is larger now than it was when I "inherited" it.

Makes me think at some point I'll pass on the username and password to my drivethrurpg account. Do they even have a gifting option post purchase? That would be handy.

Its your immediate circle, man.
I used to teach my students to play D&D back when I lived in Korea. I would go to my favorite FLGS, the Dice Latte, and see a lot of young Korean people there playing various roleplaying games (and even homebrewing their own!)
There's even a TTRPG community here in China. Sure, it's a little different. Chinese college students think 'Twilight' and 'The Vampire Diaries' when they imagine vampires, so they come into V:tM LARPS expecting to use it as a dating service. A search for TTRPG's on Taobao turns up Call of Cthulhu, Fiasco, and One Way Heroics. Most of my students here are aware of tabletop roleplaying games; they just haven't had anyone to teach them how to play...

..until now.


Anyone here looking to get their role-playing game published might consider getting it translated. I see a rising social backlash against online gaming coupled with a rising interest in board games. A publisher that times it right could potentially ride a surge in the East Asian market.

I paid a visit to a couple of FLGS recently, something that I usually avoid, and I observed a big split in the age groups.  For the most part, the younger players (under 30) were playing CCGs like MtG, and the older players (40+) were role-playing or war-gaming.  There were a few younger folk who were role-playing, although for the most part, they were playing with popular and shiny systems like 5e and WoD.  We did have two younger players join our DCC funnel on free RPG day (side note: they were amazingly clueless, like old-school nerds), although the GM was complaining about his sciatica and one of the players had recently survived a serious heart attack.

These weren't my usual cohort, so it was a bit of interesting demographics.  I currently run two groups - a weekly one with guys in their 30's using my homebrew system and a monthly one with guys mostly in their 40's (and one high-schooler) playing DCC.

What does this mean?  It's very simple: old-school gaming is played by old players, for the most part.  It's going to die with the players if they don't find a way to pass the torch.  Maybe that's happening outside my very limited experience.

For what it's worth, I've never met a storygamer in the flesh.  I'm starting to think they're only found online, entities like Eliza that exist solely to piss off grumpy old OSR gamers.

Quote from: Edgewise;972124For what it's worth, I've never met a storygamer in the flesh.  I'm starting to think they're only found online, entities like Eliza that exist solely to piss off grumpy old OSR gamers.

Story gaming in public is found at conventions mostly, game stores are bastions of organized play. However often a game store has a specific night or nights set aside for RPGs (along with other games). So what people are doing will vary depending on what day of the week it is. And changes seasonally and year to year as referees drop in and out.

Currently I am involved in two game stores (Purple Fox and Gold Star Anime) and both have roleplayers in their 20s and 30s. Purple Fox has a regular organized play campaign, and Gold Star is more about referees doing their own thing.

Overall what occurs at the game store is highly depended on founders effect. For example Gold Star doesn't have a formal sign up but the gamers, including myself, rely on facebook managed by a gamer named Jay to handle who doing what when so we don't stomp on each others campaigns.

Quote from: Cave Bear;972123Its your immediate circle, man.
I used to teach my students to play D&D back when I lived in Korea. I would go to my favorite FLGS, the Dice Latte, and see a lot of young Korean people there playing various roleplaying games (and even homebrewing their own!)
There's even a TTRPG community here in China. Sure, it's a little different. Chinese college students think 'Twilight' and 'The Vampire Diaries' when they imagine vampires, so they come into V:tM LARPS expecting to use it as a dating service. A search for TTRPG's on Taobao turns up Call of Cthulhu, Fiasco, and One Way Heroics. Most of my students here are aware of tabletop roleplaying games; they just haven't had anyone to teach them how to play...

..until now.


Anyone here looking to get their role-playing game published might consider getting it translated. I see a rising social backlash against online gaming coupled with a rising interest in board games. A publisher that times it right could potentially ride a surge in the East Asian market.

My wife is from China and her best friend does translation work professionally and I've talked to them about building a business translating RPGs into Chinese. They just don't think there is a market of TTRPG players in China because they've never experienced it growing up. They are in their early 30's and they may have missed the boat you're talking about.

Every player I have introduced to the hobby, or have introduced rules light, old school style to, has been younger than me, in many cases, significantly. Of course, this is because I am old.:-) The important thing is, I see a good portion of them running their own games now, introducing others to play. One day, they will teach their kids to play, and so on, and so on.

How does this relate to the original question? I have already given a lot of gaming stuff to some of these folks. I also gave away a lot of board games and chess sets to the last class I taught. The stuff wasn't important to me. What was important was the caveat I provided with the gifts, "Make sure you teach someone else to play."

Well, if we say tabletop RPGing started in the 1970s, and also note that many of us who started in the 70s, 80s, and 90s are still playing, then mathematically the overall demographic mean is getting older regardless of whether the new blood is still as youthful as ever. In 1977 the vast majority of us RPGers I ever ran into were teenagers.

I don't have kids myself, but I sure hear plenty of stories in forums like this one about old school guys teaching their own kids to play. Personally, I teach lots of people to play D&D, mostly 20- and 30-somethings, with a full range between early teens and mid-70's in age.

Quote from: Ulairi;972132They just don't think there is a market of TTRPG players in China because they've never experienced it growing up.

That's the exact same reason no one ever bought a car or cell phone.

Over the last 20 years, my main group typically has a 25 to 30 year span in ages.  About the time one of the older guys dropped out, we had some kids join.  Even when in college, I occasionally ran for groups that included a friend's parents.  It's all about who is available to you that is interested in the game you are running.

My grandmothers loved games (but not roleplaying games).  My parents mostly didn't.   My sister doesn't.  I picked up D&D based off of a general love for games from the grandmothers and interest in fantasy.  My daughter enjoys playing in our group.  My son gave it an honest try, and found he didn't care for it.  My daughter may or may not eventually run her own games.  We'll see.  If she wants my stuff, that's great, but I'm not going to worry about it.

Quote from: Ulairi;972132My wife is from China and her best friend does translation work professionally and I've talked to them about building a business translating RPGs into Chinese. They just don't think there is a market of TTRPG players in China because they've never experienced it growing up. They are in their early 30's and they may have missed the boat you're talking about.

I teach at a college. If there's a lack of a market, I don't think its for lack of demand.

I think you would want to market it as a social activity. A friendly substitute for sitting alone in front of a computer screen for hours on end.
The MMO honeymoon is over, and people are waking up to the realities of electronic addiction. One might market TTRPG's as a healthy alternative.
I wouldn't try to localize games too much; people actually seem to dig Western stuff here. It's exotic.
I wouldn't pander to Western notions of feminism, as that seems to be a bit off-putting to feminists here (different cultural contexts, different priorities) but I think TTRPG's might have more appeal to women here (purely anecdotal observation, though.)

Quote from: Ulairi;972132My wife is from China and her best friend does translation work professionally and I've talked to them about building a business translating RPGs into Chinese. They just don't think there is a market of TTRPG players in China because they've never experienced it growing up. They are in their early 30's and they may have missed the boat you're talking about.

I feel like there is a market there, myself. A really rich mythology really itching to be tapped. I don't know that any western rpg has done it justice.

Quote from: jeff37923;972105So, I have offered to take all of the books and give them away, one to each Traveller enthusiast who wants one with a hand written Thank You card inside. This way, his memory will be honored and a bit of him will go on as a legacy.

You might want to write up a blurb about the original owner with a pic and paste it inside each book cover. Then there's some personalization to the legacy.

When I've bought used books with the prior owner's name inside, I have often wondered about them.

Quote from: jeff37923;972105This has made me think.

No! Thinking is bad!

Quote from: jeff37923;972105What will become of my favorite hobby collection when I die?

The wandering monster who ate you will bring your stuff back to its lair. Then brave adventurers will arrive, kill the monster and take your stuff. [cue Circle of Life theme]

Quote from: jeff37923;972105So I ask, what will become of your own game collection when you die?

Burnt on a Viking pyre with the sacrificed hooker while death metal blasts in the background!

I'm traditional.

Quote from: jeff37923;972105Have you even thought about this at all? Or is this too early to think about and too morbid to consider?

Not really.

The USA isn't a "hand-me-down, respect-old-stuff" culture. Every generation wants their own new shit.

Quote from: Cave Bear;972123Chinese college students think 'Twilight' and 'The Vampire Diaries' when they imagine vampires, so they come into V:tM LARPS expecting to use it as a dating service.

Exact same as the 90s college kids in the US, except switch out "Anne Rice" with "Twilight".

Quote from: Cave Bear;972123Anyone here looking to get their role-playing game published might consider getting it translated.

I know the Chinese boardgame and cardgame market is extremely rocking.

BTW, do you know if the Chinese kids are buying RPGs from the web or through book stores? Are they playing with books in English or Chinese?

Quote from: cranebump;972133The stuff wasn't important to me. What was important was the caveat I provided with the gifts, "Make sure you teach someone else to play."

Absolutely. That's a great way to share stuff.