Setting up Game Clubs

[fearjunkie]

I'm thinking about starting an RPG club at my college this coming semester. What should I have to successfully start a club? What systems would be best for introducing people new to the hobby? How long should meetings run on average?

Any and all input would be helpful.

[Gorkamorka]

I'm doing exactly the same thing where I am.  Starting after the new year.
Mine will be made up of stranger to begin with.

Here is what I'm doing.
I made friends with someone else interested in having an RPG club and who has some experience running games.

I'm starting the first evening with a GM less game.  Some thing none confrontational.  I'm going with "Penny for your though"
Then session I'm planning some easy to run one shot.  Psi run, or Paranoia.
Then I'm going to be making other people run one shots, starting with the aforementioned experienced GM, probably running DnD 5ht.

The reason I'm having a bunch of people running one shots is that I don't have time to be "The GM" and I want make sure everyone start on an equal social footing and no one is in charge.

[RadioactiveBeer]

I'm thinking about starting an RPG club at my college this coming semester. What should I have to successfully start a club? What systems would be best for introducing people new to the hobby? How long should meetings run on average?

Well, first of all let me ask - is there a card game/board game club as well? It might be good to have some variety there.

I'd recommend some beginner one-shot events, probably using pre-written scenarios and characters.

As for things that might be a good way in, let me tell you this from my personal experience - AVOID 3.5. I'd also recommend getting rid of too many math-heavy things. Not necessarily no-D20, just go for something faster and maybe more narrativey. I found Mutants and Masterminds 2e a good compromise.

Variety is important, I think, so try to make sure different things are running fairly often - maybe keep the campaigns short and encourage a rotation of GMs or systems. Nothing worse than letting newbies think that there's nothing more to the hobby than D&D and WoD.

[Teapot]

I kind of started an RPG club here, we just posted and when we got enough people we started playing.

Though for us it's a bigger issue to let everyone have a turn running a game they want to.

If you're bringing new people into the hobby, you may want to start with some kind of learning scenario. I did one for CoC where each section is a different part of the sheet and nothing is too confusing, it ended with all the PCs having made most kind of rolls and understanding the system without the numbers getting in the way.