While everyone moves into their second month of social isolation, it’s safe to assume that the gamers of the world are the demographic doing the best at keeping themselves entertained at home — and the Moose Jaw Gamers Association is certainly no exception.
MJGA spokesperson Kristian Sjoberg surveyed his fellow members to find out just how local gamers have been keeping busy and staying connected, in case anyone else may be in need of some new ideas as the pandemic measures continue.
“Right now, where we have to be apart from each other, this can actually bring us all together, having all these activities to do that nowadays don’t necessarily require you to leave your house anymore,” said Sjoberg.
For starters, the MJGA has moved it’s usual public Dungeons & Dragons adventure sessions onto the MJGA Discord server, with dungeon masters hosting video chats to play one-shot RPG sessions with eager adventurers.
The next virtual D&D session is set to take place on May 9, with three different adventures available, and Sjoberg encourages anyone to reach out and sign up to take part in the event.
The MJGA Discord server is actually a great place to be right now, said Sjoberg, as plenty of members are getting creative with how they can use the online chat app’s features.
“The other day they were doing karaoke and they did that through the video chat thing [on Discord] as well,” said Sjoberg. “That was hilarious, it was like a Friday night kind of thing, where normally you’d go to the bar [for it].”
The Discord server is also an easy way to stay in touch while playing video games as well, since the app offers text and audio capabilities, and lots of members have been playing together that way as well.
Some MJGA members have even been sharing updates on their new non-gaming hobbies through Discord — like one member’s growing stack of crochet projects, which she’s calling 'COVID Couture', said Sjoberg.
Members have also used the flexibility of the Internet to stay old school in their entertainment, playing card games and board games together over video — setting up the same board game on both ends of the video call and playing along for each turn.
“So the boards match each other and then you're still able to play board games that way,” said Sjoberg.
There is also a website that lets people play cards and other games together called playingcards.io, said Sjoberg, which has also become pretty popular with members as of late.
Now is a great time to get into something new and nerdy, agreed Sjoberg, whether it be a new video game, board game, or tabletop RPG game — and the MJGA is always happy to help with the journey.
The MJGA is always open to give recommendations on games to try or ways to get started with a new hobby, said Sjoberg.
“As nerds, we've been preparing for this our entire lives, so we actually have lots of great ideas for things you can do,” laughed Sjoberg. “People can message us on Facebook or anything like that and we’ve got lots of suggestions if they’re having trouble thinking of stuff.”
There’s plenty of resources available to run your own online RPG sessions, including the specialized website Roll20 made for virtual D&D, and the MJGA has already shared some advice and tips on their Facebook page.
The MJGA Discord server is open for anyone to join right now, and the MJGA recommends keeping an eye on their social media for more stuff coming soon.
