Xenolution

I have been wondering of late if we have reached some sort of evolutionary dead end as a roleplaying club. Somewhat like a charity that works extremely hard for its own obsolescence there may have been natural forces at work over the years that may have revealed a sociological rule perhaps. As a public facing club the membership has always had a gentle rotation of people - this is natural and whilst we mourn the loss of an adventurer, new characters emerge through the doors. Gently though we have hit a capacity of three games and on occasion pushed the limits by starting a fourth game in the bar space of the club which whilst not ideal with all the other activates, has been possible; a healthy club by many accounts.

But like the Roman empire we may have become decadent and inward looking as our capacity seems to have finally stabilized as a sort of natural iteration - we have a full compliment of people that are generally speaking always regular. There has been a new phase I feel where people have got to know each other and as friendships formed and personal roleplaying preferences have emerged, some will play in certain gaming combinations and not others - a sort of collection of home games. Natural patterns have formed that stress the balance of personal preference versus group activity. Its a tough on gamers like us - when roleplaying there is for some a commitment to see it through whilst for others its a mater of choice- the former behavior though, only supports the latter which is only sustainable to a point. For the most part you suck it and see as broadly speaking almost all games complete and rotate in good order.

As with our discord being both covid essential as well as digitally divisive there are some for whom its a no brainer necessity and others who rarely if ever interact with it. The digital divide has I believe also created a board gaming divide with some members dominating our social space necessarily at the exclusion of others who have to negotiate a conversation at their backs. Interestingly the Craft Beer club dealt with this issue early on and separated the boardgamers from the roleplayers by simply having two separate nights, one for each, and seem to have a much healthier atmosphere. At some point we will have to address our physical return to club but as for myself it may be time to trial spreading membership across two evenings now as we have discussed this as a solution to our capacity problem before. Its our Game of Thrones moment when the wheel turns full circle and its time to raise new dragons from new eggs.