Greetings, all. I have been a facilitator for a few years and I love the AWA method. I keep trying to think of ways to get workshops out there as apparently where I live is the proverbial desert.
To cut right to the chase, I was thinking to lead workshops geared towards gamers, specifically role play gamers (think Dungeons & Dragons, but that is by far not the only one!). It takes an incredible amount of time to be able to write up these campaigns and the gamer fandom can be toxic at times. I wanted to bring the AWA method to some people who may be able to benefit from someone cheering them on v. tearing them down.
I guess my question is, does this already exist in some form? If not, how would be the best way to develop a system for these types of people (meaning, what basic things do I need to think about besides what we already know from AWA in general).
As an aside, this has special meaning to me as a dear friend passed away last year who was our Dungeon Master. He is the one who really encouraged me to play and write my own campaigns. After his death, I haven’t been able to get into it again. Not yet. But I hoped if I could set up a workshop of this type, it would help me move forward and well as honor his memory.
Thanks in advance!!!
Sandy
Hi Sandy,
I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend and Dungeon Master. What a lovely way to honor his memory! And the idea that the AWA method could help combat the toxic fandom culture is inspired!
To the best of my knowledge this does not already exist — I’ve never heard of it; that being said, you’re much better placed to have heard of something like this in that world than I am. It’s been many many years since I played D&D.
I do a version of what you’re asking, however. I often will lead a workshop because there’s a concept that I want to engage in (teaching from a craft book, or a particular kind of writing) and for me too, the best way to get something written is to lead an AWA workshop where I too will be doing the writing.
As for what basic things do you need to think about…
What are the basic elements that need to be covered? (World building, characters, etc.)
Will this be standalone workshops? Or will you offer, for instance, a 6 or 8 week introductory roleplay world writing workshop, and then keep going with an ongoing biweekly write or something?
Do you break the characters down into antagonists, helpers, and gaming characters and offer one workshop per kind of character?
Does each workshop centre around a space and an encounter in the game?
Those are just thoughts off the top of my head. It occurs to me too, that it might be possible to expand these workshops to include speculative fiction and fantasy book writers as well as just gamers.
But Bravo you!! I think this is such a great idea. And when you say, “I keep trying to think of ways to get workshops out there as apparently where I live is the proverbial desert” of course, with online conferencing, your audience doesn’t have to be close.
I wish you so much success with this! And if you have more questions, don’t hesitate to come back. Thanks for using the forum.
Warmest,
Sue
P.S. Technically, this is more a themed workshop than an affinity group. 🙂
YES! Themed! I could not think of the word to save my life last night and I really wanted to ask the question before it left my brain. 😀 We had 3 deaths (including my friend who was unofficially family) in the family last year in as many months, and we are quickly approaching the first anniversaries for them. My mind is not working properly all the time these days!
Thank you for answering my question! You have given me things to think about. I will definitely write it all down so I can get started. I do have an inkling of some of it, but you did give me some new points to consider.
Thanks again!!! <3
Hi Sandy, Oh my goodness; that sounds like a very heavy year. I’m not surprised that your grieving brain is objecting to being super sharp these days.
I’m glad what I offered was useful. Please don’t hesitate to reach out again if you have more questions or thoughts as you begin to work on this. My email is sue@amherstwriters.org
Thank you! I may do that!
I am brainstorming things with my husband rn to figure out how it will work and what to do. I am really excited about it as we do have a game store that has open tables close by…so I can do it online and/or in person there. We are also part of a few groups, so I have options. I have been putting out feelers to see if there is even any interest. And yes, this can be adapted to fiction/fantasy writing as most of us RP gamers tend to have aspirations of writing our own novels. 🙂
Hi Sandy,
I wanted to chime in to say I think this is a wonderfully innovative idea. I was thinking you could also have sessions where participants can write the story of what happened in a campaign—similar to the DnD books.
Please post an update when it launches. I’m excited to see where it goes.
Hi, Susan!
Yes! In the before-times (ie pre-covid!) I lead a writing club at the middle school. I did introduce D&D to them and that was part of what we were to do, play the game and then write out what we did in the campaign as the characters. The kids loved it, though it was short lived as that is the year that the world shut down. 🙁 I will certainly post when I get it running. There are some issues that I foresee and ideas I need to flesh out, first and I want to take my time with it, so it probably won’t be before the end of summer.