Forging Legacy of RPG Vienna Together: Ideas and Volunteers Wanted!

It was our pleasure Neil! Thanks all for coming and active participation! :two_hearts:

Got my notes+ ones from Will. Hope I will find time today/tomorrow to process those :crossed_fingers:

@SilentButDeadly if you could get those notes typed up it’d be great. While it’s still fresh in our minds :blush:

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Will do today :eyes:

Summary of the meeting

Attendees (in alphabetical order):
Asmodai aka Stefan (WoW keepers councellor & treasurer)
@cat4laugh
@Neil
@Otschi
@Rayce_Kaiser
@SilentButDeadly
@Takanari
@Tersidian
@xaosseed

Reposting below notes from Will (@xaosseed) who did amazing job putting all our thoughts together. Added some minor edits (hope I did not butcher it too much :cold_sweat:):

Topic 1: On the goal of encouraging DMs

Question: How can we increase numbers of active game masters (DMs)?

  • @Rayce_Kaiser has run DM workshops previously, let’s do more of those. Those can be done for different DM needs, e.g. ā€˜run your first game’, ā€˜run great one-shots’, ā€˜start your first campaign’, then later specific campaign masterclass/troubleshooting sessions. Could be done on Thursday or Sundays to avoid collision with Fri/Sat games.
  • We could reserve a ā€˜1st-time/new DM’ table on Fri/Sat games where new DMs can give it a go. This table should have min 1 experienced player/DM to assist new DM.
  • Circulate a poll to check what blocks people from DM’ing, what would help them get started to target our help
  • Create a roster/depo of recommended Adventurers League adventures - something that can be run withing 3 hours and tested by DMs before. Those can be further classified into subcategories (role-play, fighting, mixed) to help DMs to choose something fitting their style/abilities.

Topic 2: On scheduling tools & RPG Vienna website functionality

  • Would be great to have some type of event-calendar to gain visibility on events further out into future (a month?)
  • Current system where DM/players write short message to confirm attendance on Fri/Sat games works very well. Writing short message gives nice community feel to it in contrast to just pressing ā€˜RSVP’ button.
  • DM & players should be able to confirm attendance for events further in the future
  • We want to be confident that at least some DMs will be available before publicising a date via Meetup/Reddit
  • @Neil & @cat4laugh have taken initiative to try some plugins/solutions to enable long-term planning & scheduling (google calendar, doodle poll, etc). Those will be run in test mode for next couple of month. Give them a shout if you have ideas or want to participate in testing.

Topic 3: On WoWKeepers

  • It would be great to get a locker for storage (books, spare game things from community can be stored there). Open shelving along the wall shold not be used & is to be kept clear
  • We could print battlemaps and put them under the perspex tabletops (@Otschi apprently has access to some A0-enabled printers).
    (Update from @Lux_Tenebraeque : Ad battle maps: I’d have access to a A3 printer and laminator - would work for tiled maps. I.e. find/create some maps with matching border transitions and plug them together (like the map books, but more robust and expendable/expandable))
  • Friday nights are usualy very quiet at WoWKeepers. WoW keepers are happy that we are filling the attendance gap with our VALUE games.
  • Action: investigate getting folding chairs; we use a lot more chairs per table than the rest of WoWKeepers. WoW keepers would be happy to accept and store those if footprint is low (hence foldable chairs).

Other undiscussed topics (due to the lack of time):

  • Bring back Indie/non-DnD5e game nights
  • Bring back tournament (same story done by different groups, best solutions wins?)
  • Collate all the ā€˜welcome aboard’ info into a single reference place where new arrivals can read about how our games operate, rules of conduct, how to become DM…

Surely I forgot something, please edit it if you have access right here or drop your comments below :slight_smile:

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Um, er. Well.

Fine.

See you in late September, early October.

And bring your A game. You might need it …

(In all seriousness, thanks to whoever thought these things were memorable enough to call for a revival. Much appreciated.)

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Came from @Tersidian if I recall correctly :thinking:

just for your planning:

in late September I will not be able to make it
early October should be fine

Thank @silentbutdeadly and @xaosseed for writing up the notes!

Verein

Probably best to address the verein-sized elephant in the room! :smiley:
The conclusion is that RPGVienna as a community is just not ready for it yet. It should still be discussed in future and remain open but right now the cons outweigh the pros.

Forum Features

We talked a bit about the forum and what it’s used for. People seemed happy with the focused amount of sub-forums and the auto-close timer for posts in Arrange a Game. It feels tight and manageable which is what I originally intended.

I installed the ā€˜discord-event’ plugin over the weekend and it’s now available when creating a post in Arrange a Game. Please use it when setting up an event and let me know if you run into any problems.

I’m also looking into a ā€˜template’ plugin that people can use when setting up a regular game so they don’t have to copy and paste info every time a regular event is posted. :+1:

Forum Donations

Everyone seemed happy with the possibility of donating towards server costs for the forum and offered to highlight the donation links in future games/posts. So, I don’t feel bad posting the links now!
Someone mentioned being a bit put-off that Patreon takes a high percentage in fees but I looked it up and Patreon takes 8% in fees. buymeacoffee was also suggested so I set up an account there too. (buymeacoffee takes 5% in fees)

Patreon if you want to set up a recurring donation.

buymeacoffee if you just want a one-off donation

Regular meetings

We also talked about having such a meeting at a (semi) regular pace which will remain open to all. There’s still a lot to talk about (especially in regards to future events etc.) and I’m hoping to get a bit more involved where I can.

Once again thanks a lot to everyone whether you were there, or you’re just reading along. :heart:

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