Birmingham Central Roleplayers Club

I usually write about TTPRG conventions. But this post will be about another part of the hobby, a TTRPG club.

One of the truly great things about TTRPGs is the way you can play the same character over and over again and watch them grow and develop. This happens when you play a game repeatedly as part of a campaign. This is actually the default way to play TTTRPGs, with the "one off" games at games conventions being the exception rather than the norm.

Every week across the world hundreds of thousands - possibly millions - of people get together to play the next instalment of their TTRPG campaign.

I haven't actually been able to do this for a couple of decades.

Then the Birmingham Central Roleplayers club moved near to where I live. I'd tried to  attend it before but it was based in Ladywood in Birmingham which made it difficult for me to get back from at the end of the night. Now, however, it's in a Social Club in Selly Oak, a short bus ride from my house. So I started going.

The club has been running for years. I don't know how long. (I know I started a short lived club with a similar name back in the 80's - maybe this is a continuation?) It has dozens of members and is bigger than most conventions I attend. It's run by a small but enthusiastic and effective committee. Communication is via a Facebook page - whose usage seems spotty - and a website - which is in need of an update.  Mainly everything works by word of mouth. And works well.

As I said, it's now in a Social Club - what used to be a "working man's club" - in Selly Oak. As this is on one of the major arterial roads out of the city centre and right next to a railway station, it's easy to get to. The club is bright and completely appropriate for a TTRPG club. A couple of people have commented that, with the club being so busy, the acoustics can be a bit loud. But there is at least one side room, and I haven't personally noticed a problem.

Being a Social Club, the beer is cheap and the staff are incredibly friendly - a real bonus. It think it's a symbiotic relationship. The takings at the till on Thursday evenings must be quite significant.

Cleverly, I think , the club doesn't have an open structure. They break each year into 3 or 4 sessions and encourage referees to run limited duration campaigns that last c. 3 months. I started attending a few weeks before the end of one of these sessions and was easily able to fill my time running or playing in one-off games. There are a regular trickle of newbies and these usually seem to be able to find a place in an on-going group.

At the end of a session, referees are encouraged to finish their current campaigns and players are encouraged to sign up to new games. Some people enjoy the games they are in so much that they just carry on, and I suppose that's OK.

There's the mix-up week. Players are encouraged to sign up to new games. This is through sign up sheets like at conventions - except that you're committing several months of your life so it's a big decision. At the same time a big mix-up game is run designed to let the club members move around and play with a variety of different people. This is, of course, a very difficult - almost impossible - thing to set up. The one I witnessed used a very simple multi-genre system developed by one of the club committee members. Each table was a different world. After a bit of play, each world came under attack through multi-dimensional portals and characters were sucked between worlds to try and piece together - and defeat - a larger threat.

I played in a zombie apocalypse world and did my usual thing of focussing on achieving my character's individual goals rather than engaging with the larger storyline and spent a fun evening twatting zombies.

Them the new campaigns started. I offered a Steampunk one using my The Code Of Steam and Steel rules and Martin Pickett's marvellous Victorian Colony of Mars setting. I got 6 players, one of whom disappeared almost immediately with no explanation.

I knew none of the players previously - though a couple may have played in one of my one-off games. We had a couple of note-takers who really tried to engage with the system, a quiet player, an inventive player with a scientific mind (who successfully used Archimedes'  principle against me - kudos) and a typical student who'd only ever played "what you see is what you get" D&D types games. The narrative control elements of my game went to his head a bit and we had sweeping changes to the storylines. I think the players were a bit surprised, initially, how I went with these and embraced random changes to the plot.

"How does alcohol affect Martians?"
"I don't know. Let's make a random table and roll!"

The highlight was easily the moment when a player not only illustrated her own and her partner's characters - professional standard - but then was so enamoured of one scene that she produced a whole page of comic illustrating it. The first time
Martin and I had actually seen his cat-like Martians in the flesh.

It was a fun campaign and I learnt a lot about being a weekly Referee again - mainly about the crushing responsibility. If you have a referee who regularly runs games for you, treasure them and treat them well.

As you play each week a marvellous man comes around and collects £2 from each player. Not from the Referee though. We get to play for free.

I'd always intended to run the campaign within the club's recommended constraints. Campaigns were due to end at Christmas. Rather than a mix-up game, the club has a quiz session with a buffet laid on - and a seemingly endless tab at the bar - paid for from club funds. It's a real party event.

My group chose to play through the quiz and into the final, optional pre-Christmas, week. (The club was still busy.) I bought my whole group a round of drinks and drinks for the bar staff. (It cost roughly the same as three pints would at UK Games Expo.)

"Afternoon, Simon. Just wanted to say thank you for the sci-fi/steampunk campaign over the past three months or so and for managing an ending that had some drama and 'last minute' dice rolls. I liked the flexibility and simplicity of the mechanics.....

"I'd certainly play again, now I have regenerated limbs, and whether our travels take us across mars, or back to Earth, I'm sure the others would probably feel the same! Have a good holiday season and see you next year. Cheers, Paul."

I've chosen not to run a campaign in the next session but to play - I'm in a Savage World's "black powder - probably pirates" game for three months. I'm intending to offer to referee again in the summer, when I'll put in place everything I've learnt from this recent campaign.

I really love this club. The people - players and staff - are lovely. The venue is perfect. The club management is effective but unobtrusive, easily facilitating games and gamers' quirks. Most of all I love the structure where we get to play in extended games and encouraged to mix with other people and sample different systems. Yes the "I only play D&D 5th with people I know" die hards at present, but they're catered for as well.

I'm really glad they moved near me!