The weather’s getting warmer, and all across the network we have premiere games and national events springing up. This means a lot of us will be traveling over the next few months, visiting other chapters all across the country. Travel can be one of the most rewarding things about Dystopia Rising - you have dozens of games to visit and thousands of friends to see. But it can also be stressful, challenging, and even disappointing. So how do you make sure you have an awesome experience, worth the time you put into it?
The Challenges of Travel - Change & the Unknown
After a few Dystopia Rising games at your home chapter, you know what to expect. You have a routine. You’ve figured out how to store your gear, load it into your car, and when you have to leave for site. You know who you’re getting a ride with and where you’re sleeping. You know what to do for food and where Afters will be. And when you head to a different chapter, a lot of that goes out the window. Maybe you have to fly and figure out how to get your gear through the TSA. Maybe you have no idea about the bunk situation at the new camp. This means changes to your routine, and further, a lot of unknown variables. And people generally don’t like changes to routine.
So what do you do about these challenges? Here are some suggestions:
Be Early. Everything gets easier if you have time. Getting to site early means you don’t have to worry about a bunk, can head to the store to buy groceries, and have time to explore the site. If you can plan to be early when traveling, it’ll give you a lot of options when you encounter an unfamiliar situation.
Pack Light. Your character is traveling too… you probably don’t need all your gear. Figure out what you, the player, need to be comfortable and focus on that. The pad you have to sleep on at night? Bring that. The awesome trunk that’s very genre but is a pain in the ass to find space for in a crowded bunk room? Leave it behind. Take what you need to be comfortable, and don’t worry as much about aesthetics and other extras.
Be Flexible. Maybe at your home chapter, you and your six friends always grab a cabin and bunk together. You’ve done this every game, and now you’re all traveling to a different chapter… and there’s no space for the six of you to stay together. That’s cool. Split up, meet new people… it’ll be fine. Sometimes, you have out-of-character needs that you have to meet but if it’s an in-character preference, be prepared to let it go.
Don’t forget: if you do have an out-of-character need, contact the staff before you arrive. Let them know if you need med sleep or have specific needs: that gives them time to accommodate (remember, “be early.”)
Being Part of the Game
The biggest challenge of travel might not be the obstacles to getting on site and finding a bunk, but your own expectations. A travel game is special… you might only have a couple a year… and you arrive hoping to have an extraordinary game. And when you get there, you don’t know the local plots, you don’t know the local setting, and all the local players are busy doing their own thing. Sometimes, it feels like you’re a supporting character in someone else’s story.
The trick to countering that is to get involved. Just like you might advise a new player to “try everything,” you have to actively seek out plots and stories. Here’s a good travel challenge: say “yes” to everything. Say yes to every NPC who asks you to help them, say yes to every local who wants to show something, and keep saying yes until you find your niche in this new game. Remember: you are the one responsible for your own good time, and so it’s important that you take charge of your own experience at travel games.
Remember, the difficulties getting involved aren't always a bad thing, particularly if there are other players from your local game there. Often, at our own games, players have a lot to do: multiple meetings, businesses to run, and all sorts of responsibilities to regular players. At a travel game, you might have more time to relax, and might even find yourself spending more time with people you see regularly than you would at your local game.
Helping Travelers
While the onus is on travelers to take care of themselves, they are guests in your chapter… and valued guests at that. They didn’t come here to hear negative things about their home, or how awesome you are. They didn’t travel all this way to sit on a bench and miss out on the plot. They came because they heard your game was a lot of fun and wanted to try it, and probably need your help. It’s important to identify travelers and get to know them: pull them into your role-play and schemes and give them things to do. A good way to do this is to find a feature unique to your game and share it. For example, no one who visits Requiem is disappointed with a trip to the waterfall, so you can invite travelers out to see it. Making the effort to share the game with them could be what makes the trip worthwhile for them.
Travel is what separates a networked game from a bunch of individual local games: we gain something by having a wider world out there, and travel is how we realize that value. The better prepared you are when you travel, and the better you treat travelers, the better all games will be across the network.