Perhaps less "baby gamers" so much as a new generation of tabletop roleplayers.

My life has become pretty intensely mixed with stress and responsibility of late, but in the midst of it I've found something that I'm really enjoying and thought I would share for the entertainment of it as well as because I'm curious if any other folks have really spent time sharing roleplaying games with a new generation?

We've started up a kids roleplay club out of the library where I work, specifically for kids in 4th - 6th grade where we had been playing more specifically "kid friendly" RPGs, such as Hero Kids and Little Wizards. About a month ago, a handful of those kids talked us into running a D&D (5th edition) game for them through the summer. There is a table of 7 kids who have met once a week to play, just for a couple of hours - which always goes over just a little bit, and they are really-really getting into roleplaying. Things are being kept pretty simple and straight forward, following pre-planned adventures, but the notion of being in-character and interacting with one another (and using "voices" and playing characters that possess character quirks), it is all coming very easily to these kids.

As an example, this afternoon's game ended with the group going into a large town to an inn and the course of RPing between themselves and the GM towards the goal of getting rooms was hindered by the fact that one of the people in the party has a very low charisma. He's decided this is because he smells bad and is known to eat and smoke weird things. This hindrance was overcome by another of his party choosing to cast "Charm Person" on him to convince him to take a bath which he was refusing to take. He failed his saving throw and got a bath and the party got their rooms. And all of those kids were laughing and having a great time.

That's a pretty good feeling.

Re: Raising Baby Gamers

Not quite 2 years ago, I shared that I had just started sponsoring a "Tabletop Gaming Club" for elementary school-aged kids out of the library where I work. Fast-forward to the present and this particular Gaming Club (which the kids that participate in it refer to it as HAK Club) has been so popular that we featured it as part of our summer reading programming for the past 2 summers in the library where I work + it has expanded into 2 groups. HAK Club Lvl 1 and HAK Club Lvl 2. The Lvl 1 group is still the original model, 5-6th graders, while the Lvl 2 group are Jr. High kids who want to learn more mechanics and build on what they picked up from the first group which was learning to role play, do collaborative storytelling and also the basics of the system of choice for the kids. (They all seem to prefer playing D&D 5th Ed, but we also keep Pathfinder, Savage Worlds and Hero Kids available for them.)

And now the older of those Lvl 2 kids have actually started coming in on their own to the library and setting up a gaming table to run a game for their own friends, letting the Tabletop Gaming Bug spread to other kids!! This is something that has had me incredibly happy.

And tonight I just found out that the Gen Con Trade Day Event that I submitted to teach other librarians/teachers how we started this and the ups/downs of it since it began has been accepted and will be part of the line up of events offered on Trade Day. So I had to share, with people that I figure will get why I'm so very-very excited about this.

I thought I would share a bit of the latest from the little Dungeons & Dragons group I had previously mentioned.

This particular roleplaying group (of 4th - 6th graders) has dubbed themselves the H.A.K. Club (Heroic Adventure Kids). We're up to 8 players now, an even split of boys and girls, though for the last couple weeks they aren't all there at once - so adventures happen for the characters who are there and they are all part of an adventuring company that works together. And I can tell you that these 8 players have rounded out 8 very unique and entertaining characters.

Gandalf the Brown - A human male wizard who likes to chew on mushrooms, smoke strange things and while being very smart has a charisma of 8 (because he smells bad).

Bob - A human female druid, one of the co-leaders of the group, she's never met a captive animal she wasn't willing to turn loose (which works out great in the wild but less so in town).

George - A human male fighter who is very likable, incredibly clumsy and thinks he's a great tracker. (He isn't.)

Puff - A dragonborn female fighter, she is the sworn protector of Bob, doesn't really talk much at all and is the group's "tank".

Seth-Shadow - A male half-elf bard, who is more of a jester than he is a singer. He tells jokes and puns almost constantly and now has a chicken animal companion because he cast "speak with animal" on it so many times, and kept feeding it, that the chicken now loyally follows him everywhere and even tries to defend him in a fight.

May - A female halfling ranger, the group's other leader, a position she earned by being the one who would IC jump in to talk and take charge during the games so it just kind of fell to her. (This is the youngest player in our group but one of the one's who has really jumped into this. She started writing "journal" stories about her own character after they would play.)

Raid - A female halfling thief. She's very loyal to the group, but very much one of those "not exactly a good thief". (She is our oldest player, and to a tiny extent she has her own agenda, but she plays the character as also kept in check by May and the bard.)

Merlin - A male dragonborn sorcerer with wild magic. This is the newest character to join the group and in today's game, the very first roll for a spell he did went wild and he ended up with a third eye opening up in his forehead.

We're still working out how we want to chronicle the adventures these kids have - blog posts and some youtube videos is the current preference of the kids, but a final decision hasn't been made yet. In the mean time, the library where I work ended it's summer reading program for this summer (and started the kick off for a "year round" program, which is why this was such a short summer) which always ends with prizes given to people who participate in things. One of the prizes that I was able to arrange is a D&D 5e Player's Guide went home with the player of May the Ranger. You would have thought that little girl won a trip to Disney World. She squealed, jumped into the air and then hugged that book all night after it was given to her. Her mom said she kept it with her everywhere she went and today when she came to the game, she marched in carrying that book of hers.

It was another one of those "good feeling" moments.

All the cool kids are doing this, it must be the things to do. This is who I have been:

Past Staffing:
Harahel@San Francisco (Mortal/+ Staff)
Ruin@SHH (Headstaff)
Dresden@The Reach (Build co-TL, various family staffing)
Windshear@Depraved Creations (General Game Admin)
DarkRider@Dark Metal (Mortal+ Admin)
Voodoo@Denver: Dark Destiny (Headstaff, Mortal+ staff)
Cold Spell@Ashes to Ashes (Mortal+ Wiz)
Mspris@Wicked Purity (Headstaff)
Mspris@Bloody Roses (Headstaff)

Past PCs:
Charlotte and Miriam@San Francisco
Lucy and Agatha@SHH
Crystal, Lucy, Agatha, Honey@The Reach
Poppy, Panthea, Regina and Cierra@Depraved Creations
Calliope@Haunted Memories
Jenny, Eliza and Brenna@Denver: Dark Destiny
Lydia@Ashes to Ashes
Hannah@Due Rewards
Iolia@Aether 1.0
Cassandra@The Forth Cycle
Mira@Metro
Dyan@Eternal Night
Faith, Lily, Geneva, Sorcha@Crack

And there are probably another dozen or so PCs that I don’t remember offhand. There were a bunch of Marvel Comics mushes before I started playing WoD heavily.

Currently
Isla@Goldenroad (1st year Mysterium Acanthus)

I'm also currently working on building a CoD game, a small handful of people know about that and that's enough for now as it's not ready to be shared broadly yet.

There is a snowstorm on my horizon. (Yes, yes, I know how much most people hate snow. I love it and I would like to be snowed in for a few days and that's not really something that has happened this year.) It won't be anything like hit part of the US recently, but I'll take what I can get!

And Monday I begin the first full time job I've had in 12 years. Full time librarian. At a library only a few blocks from my house. So I can give up the housekeeping work/combination of part time jobs I've done for other people for the last 10 years to make ends meet. It's a good thing.

@Coin said:

Maybe Troy's right. >:|

gasps in shock, drops a coffee mug... somewhere in the background a baby cries

There was really nothing remotely nerdy about my family when I was born (way back in the 70s), except I was an avid reader of anything I could get my hands on, including stuff I eventually got to read that I probably should not have read. From age 3 - 10 I lived on a farm in the middle of no-where in Nebraska and all there was to do was read and ride my bike and otherwise "play outside" unless I wanted farm work to do. So I read everything that came across my path. (I literally have report cards with the comments added by teachers indicating that I read too much and to please discourage me from reading as much as I do at home, they were sure it would be unhealthy for my development. I was also a quick-learner that there were things that should not be told to my parochial teachers & family that I was reading that wouldn't be approved of. I did read Playboy (thanks, Dad) for the articles.)

About halfway through elementary school I started playing a musical instrument, thus ensuring my future status as a "band geek". And in 7th grade my parents divorced, which is significant because my mom started dating someone (who eventually became my step-dad) and he was just out of the Navy. He had been a SEAL, and while in the Navy between missions his SEAL team apparently spent a good chunk of their travel time playing D&D with him running games for them. So when he got out of the Navy, and involved with my mom, for this new blended family (there were 6 kids total + 2 adults = 1 heck of a gaming table) D&D was our family bonding. He was also my introduction into the vast world of books of a fantasy and horror genre. I was probably the only 9th grader who had read all of Lovecraft's works, could quote large chunks of Beowulf and I wrote an English paper on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales that same year. My reading comprehension level well surpassed anyone else in my school. For that I got to be the Academic team's English captain.

D&D 2nd ed. being the gateway game that it was lead to ALL MANNER of geekdom and nerdy activities and I continued through my mid-twenties just obsessively reading all the stuff I could get my hands on. I tell people I'm a 2nd generation nerd, raising a 3rd generation, because that's basically accurate - but I wasn't born into it, more like adopted.

Lunch delivered to you at work. And it's the best grilled cheese sandwich (3 types of cheese, herbed tomato and bacon) ever. SO VERY GOOD.

And it's my birthday. I understand that's suppose to be a good thing. (In truth it tends to run hit or miss, but I'll fall on the "Optimistic" side this year.)

@Cirno said:

I jest, of course, but you must admit that the hobby is displayed as being Less Than Ideal, here. I credit this place with dampening my enthusiasm about MU*ing, personally.

I think that if you were to look hard enough (especially online - since the internet is full of trolls), every possible hobby or interest is a terrible/horrible thing depending upon who you ask. And I've been on the various incarnations of WORA long enough to be able to weed through most of the vitriol and spewing to recognize what is genuinely enthusiasm dampening and a problem and what is just people blowing off steam/spouting off.

Granted, this recognition doesn't prevent me from stressing about things outside of my control or being upset by certain situations or individuals. Someone not part of this hobby but who is a writer told me that emotional investment is indicative of the value that I put on the hobby/the people interacted with and something that I'm passionate about. (Your mileage on that sage advice may vary, she's a bit of an old hippy who is a great spoken storyteller but is learning to tell stories through writing and she struggles with it.)

Sadly I did not win any cool prizes for the Fitbit challenge at GenCon. I did, however, manage to walk between 13,000-15,000 steps a day for that 5 day stretch though, so at least I wasn't slacking.

I have a number of memories of Brus and this made me very sad to learn yesterday. He was a steady and steadfast presence, particularly through my years of playing oWoD Mage. A chunk of time was spent yesterday with various "old Mushers" that remain in my close circle remembering the man and the fun that we had. RIP Brus.

Getting old is really sucking, I gotta say.

So, just for disclosure, I'm a librarian IRL. And while I've not got a Discord Book Club in my pocket (our only Discord server is for teen use), what I do have is a Facebook Group that's a bookclub that chats twice a month for people to share what they've been reading with as much/or as little info about their opinions as they like. Open to ANYONE really, but direct invitation to @cirim13 since the magic words "book club" were mentioned. Night Owls Book Group - We chat at 9pm Eastern on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month. It's an aspect of the job, I'm always all for talking about books & sharing recommendations of my own.

@Arkandel

Mind you, I have several "ins" for how I can see the books that are upcoming. Mostly book distributors such as Baker & Taylor and Midwest Tapes. But there are a couple of things that we use & give out to the public to see to see a decent number of what books are upcoming:

Book Page

Reading Books like a Boss

Neither of them are perfect, but it's something. Most retail sites also have some kind of "what's upcoming", but it's also not accurate these days. The Covid closings have pushed a lot of publication dates back by months if not a year+.

I got a completely impractical but lovely to look at wooden book-stand, the sort that sits on a table and holds a book open nicely. It's very nice, and I keep setting books on it and standing back to admire them, but I seriously do not have a house furnished to make it practical to leave out all the time. (My house is a small 1940s Sears kit house that is 950 square feet of living space.)

And a Dana Scully Barbie doll.

And a piece of scrimshaw set into a pendant on a chain. The scrimshaw is a family heirloom, obtained a long-long-long time ago by a grandmother, but being given a piece of it was a surprise.

@Arkandel said in Resume Help:

As I said, I'm not sure if that helps you at all, especially for fields other than mine.

It, honestly, very much depends on the field. My experience has been that educational fields can be really particular about it. I tend to get a lot of high school and young college age individuals come into the library who want to "fill out an application" but these days libraries are pressed to make sure that they receive resumes. Not all decisions are based on a resume, but more attention is paid to those that are thorough on skills, that tends to lead to the interviews we get. But other fields I've worked in they barely paid any attention to my resume.

I help teenagers and college students write them as part of my job. I would be willing to take a look at yours to give pointers? And I can give you some of the same advice that I give them, if it helps:

1. Experiment with the templates in Word. (Or whatever you use for word processing.)
2. Write a functional or skills-based format resume. You've not been working in a while, so you don't want to highlight that specifically. Summarize the amount of time you spent doing specific jobs without giving specific dates. (Ex: 8 years of customer service experience. You don't need to specify that it was 10 years ago.)
3. Keep in mind to include any skills that you have used in the time since you've worked - any groups you've been part of (professional or hobby) could have marketable skills. (Not joking, I know a lot of people who have used gaming related skills on their resume - I'm one of them.)
4. Google it. If you check online there are TONS of examples of other resumes people have shared, there are also literally hundreds of sites that give free advice and other free templates you can try out so that you can build something that suits what you are wanting to do.

But honestly, I'm willing to help.

I haven't updated this in a LONG time, but I was asked about what I'm doing presently so resurrecting this just for updating purposes because why not.

(Not quite as much free time over the last few years so I've been much more sporadic. A lot of time spent teaching the next generation of gamers how to game! But I still find some time.)

This topic makes me feel old, thanks for that @Arkandel!

With that said, I've been doing this hobby a LONG time and I've come to several personal observations when it comes to RPing the IC romances/TS/Etc. YMMV on these, of course.

1. While I've played Poly characters before, it's actually rare and I kinda suck at it. In part because...

2. I'm REALLY picky about just who I want to have my character in IC relationships with. If it's not someone I know, I tend to quietly "check references" because I've had some truly bad experiences with people failing to recognize that IC intimacy does not equal OOC intimacy and that makes me very uncomfortable very fast. (And in a couple cases led to RL stalking that had to be addressed to the NOT FUN of everyone.)

3. Having been on the staff end of actually being called in to help mediate a situation of "we're gonna have a fun, if a little rough, kinky sex scene" that 2 days later turned into the female PC trying to start a super-war by telling Mages & her Changeling IC Boyfriend that her PC had been raped by a werewolf (Who didn't know she had an IC boyfriend, insert other complicating crap such as them spending time in her bed which probably would have smelled like said boyfriend who also lived with her.) - who was then being hunted down by those she reported it to, and she OOC several times lied and told players that it genuinely happened that way - and ultimately logs of both the scenes and OOC conversations involved between people had to be read by staff - I rapidly lost interest in paying any attention to who spends time with who situations and am a fan of OOC disclosure because that type of train wreck really does ruin the fun of many people.

I'm not vegetarian or vegan, I like burgers, chicken and eggs too much. I am one of those people who would be content to eat the same food at each different meal on a daily basis, especially when I am very busy. (Example: I eat 2 eggs for breakfast and have a cup of tea for breakfast 6 out of 7 (and sometimes 7) days a week.) What I eat tends to be seasonal, lots of salads through warmer weather as sides, steamed vegetables as sides through the colder weather - or I have a lot of soups/stews.

I don't do artificial sweetener at all, I prefer unsweet black tea and lots and lots of water. Occasionally I drink soda. I'm the mother to kids who won't drink anything carbonated at all, which I've always found kind of funny (but personally am totally okay with, it's healthier anyway).

I wish I was ready to the "I need STs!" phase, but I'm not quite there yet. But if I can get all my ducks in a row and my cats wrangled soon....