#RPGaDay2016 “What aspect of RPGs has had the biggest effect on you?”

The connections.

There’s been a lot of talk about “community” in our hobby recently, some asserting that there is actually one (or more), and some that there is not. I’m not sure I know one way or the other, but what I do know is that roleplaying is an inherently social activity, and it is the primary vector through which I have made friends — or grown closer to friends I already had — over the course of my life. There are actual communities, in the real-world sense, to which I am now connected because of RPGs.

I will also say that, the more I broadened my horizons within the scope of available product (i.e., I got into the indie publishing and theory scene), the more varied were the people I met and the perspectives to which I was exposed. This has a profound impact on my worldview — for the better, IMO.

So, community or not, RPGs have, more than anything else, helped me find My Tribe™, and for that I will always be grateful.

(I think there’s also a side conversation that could be had here about how approaching a social activity with the tools of antisocial behavior is inherently flawed and, in some sense, violent. Not sure where to go beyond that thought, but there it is.)