New RPG Club, The Pen And Paper Club, Meets At The Central Library On The First Saturday Each Month

Library Assistant Ⅲ James Waller is starting a new club at the Central Library! The Pen and Paper Roleplaying Game Club meets on the first Saturday of each month at the Central Library from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m.

Patrons can play pen-and-paper role-playing games, like Dungeons & Dragons (but not just Dungeons & Dragons!), in cross-age groups of 3–5 people each. All experience levels are welcome, and you do not have to bring supplies.

Strengthen your story-telling skills and make new friends as club members come together over tabletop RPGS. 

James Waller is a Library Assistant Ⅲ working in the Citizen Services Department at the Birmingham Public Library's (BPL) Central Library. He grew up and moved around the Gadsden area before attending college at JSU, where he graduated with a BA in a hybrid English and communications degree in 2019. Then, Waller started working on his MA in English in 2020 and moved to Birmingham with his husband partway through grad school around 2021. He joined the BPL this past April, which is also when he finished his master's degree!

In a Q&A with BPL PR Director Roy Williams, Waller shared the inspiration for the club and what people can expect. 

BPL: For those unfamiliar, what is the Pen and Paper RPG club?

Waller: For the unfamiliar, the club is just a gathering of people to play role-playing games together on a drop-in basis in the library.

BPL: How often will this club meet and where?

Waller: We meet the first Saturday of each month. We're currently set to meet in the eastern conference room [on the 1st floor of the Central Library], but I'm looking at moving to the Create 205 Lab [located on the second floor].

BPL: Must you register in advance, or are walk-ups accepted at the first meeting?

Waller: Attendance is entirely drop-in. That may change if we start to see a high-volume attendance. Our first meeting already strained the capacity of the conference room. 

BPL: What can those interested expect at the first meeting on Saturday, August 5?

Waller: People can expect improv acting, rolling dice, and a lot of imaginary action.

BPL: For those like me not familiar with Dungeons & Dragons, what is involved in the game?

Waller: For the unfamiliar, pen-and-paper role-playing games, also known as tabletop role-playing games, usually involve two roles: game master and player. Players step into the role of fictional characters whom they improv act as across fictional scenarios. Players are the protagonists on whom a collaboratively built narrative is centered. The game master creates these fictional scenarios, acts out the background and side characters, and generally sets the tone and pace. Conflict resolution is usually handled with rolling dice. 

The approach to dice, conflict resolution rules, and the nature of the players' and game masters' roles can vary wildly depending on what type of game is being played. Just as all that game rule stuff can vary, so can the fiction. The players may brandish swords and magic to fight dragons and classical fantasy villains, as is often the case with Dungeons & Dragons, or they might negotiate peace between warring alien civilizations in a space opera game like Traveller. The variety of games one can play in this milieu is abundant. 

BPL: What inspired you to start the Pen and Paper Club?

Waller: My love of fiction and novel ways to engage with it inspired me to start this group. I noticed other libraries had similar organizations, like Hoover's Pen & Paper RPG Society, and I thought that was a lot of patron engagement that Central was missing out on. I also noticed that local groups are completely dominated by Dungeons & Dragons, which is a lot of people all playing the same thing. I wanted to expose the public to a bigger variety of games than just Dungeons & Dragons. 

BPL: What is your favorite tabletop RPG? Or, if you don't have a favorite, what is an RPG that you think is underrated?

Waller: If I had to pick a total favorite, it would be Mage: The Awakening. It has rules for a free-form magic system, and characters who can do anything, or almost anything, are part of the game's expectations. Awakening focuses on the players as people who wield vast magical power grappling with the mysteries and magic hiding underneath the concrete and steel of an urban, modern setting. There's a separate game line with different thematics that operates similarly called Mage: The Ascension, which is also very good, but I have found it more difficult to play in practice.

A game I would want to pull attention to as underrated is Changeling: The Dreaming. Changeling: The Dreaming and Mage: The Ascension both exist in this sort of greater continuity of games called the World of Darkness. The World of Darkness is most famous for its flagship game line of Vampire: The Masquerade. Changeling has core themes like self-expression, living with authenticity, and found family. In this game, players are reincarnated fairy souls in human bodies, trying to get by in a modern world with no time for beauty, magic, or individuality. 

BPL: Anything else to add?

Waller: I communicate with people interested in the club via a Discord server. The link to joining that server is here. I use the server to ask people for suggestions about what sort of games they'd like to see and get involved in, but I am also cultivating [it] as a space for people to start their own personal game groups outside of the library. 

Follow the BPL on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn for more updates on programs like this one! Check out our catalog to find more media on RPGs.

By Cheyenne Trujillo | Library Assistant Ⅲ, Public Relations Department