A while ago I moved west. It's a modest home, nestled overlooking a creek running down from the western mountains outside of Salt Lake City Utah, but it has some great trees, and most importantly, it looks west, into the winding canyons of seldom traveled mountains.
This small little corner of the Salt Lake Valley to me, always seemed a distant far green country. Often shrouded in mist, higher than the valley below, and less traveled and traversed than that of the more well known Wasatch range to the east.
Now, Tolkien references aside, the reason for posting this small little diatribe is to examine, if only momentarily and internally, the correlation between those of us who hear the "call" of the fantasy-genre and the geographical location in relation to others who at least seem to as well.
I long for days of old-school roleplaying, without the need for a Roll20 interface or a "virtual tabletop." And I have no doubt that as suburban sprawl continues to invade west like a festering malignancy, this will be less of an issue than it is now, but for the time being, the solitude and quiet of the west means solitary Hermit-like fantasy involvement. Especially in relation to gaming.
And this is the part that always seemed odd to me. Life of course, always gets in the way, but at least here in Utah, there seems to be a correlation between the number of RPG players, and those fans of the Fantasy genre, and the more crowded, urban areas. Why does there seem to be so very many Gaming groups from the East Coast of the US? Why here in Utah, do they all seem to be located in such major urban areas? If the desire to be "in the wild" plays such a crucial role in the genre, and in Fantasy gaming in general, why are so many of my fellow fantasy gaming and genre gamers so bent on being located in such urban areas?
Would it not be a gaming paradise to be located away from the Urban sprawl? Away from the congestion and modernization of concrete and steel? To be more centralized in an environment that resembles the trees and mountains and misty vistas of the fantasy genre?
I have no doubt that I could find, on any given Friday night, a good session of D&D more centrally located in the urban trough of the Salt Lake Valley. But thats not what, Larry Elmore for example, paints in his genre-defining paintings! Sprawl and pavement and constant traffic is not the common vista that we see in any number of the works by Jeff Easley. So why is it so hard to find that distant, secluded, almost sacred and secret gaming club that one would imagine would be the perfect D&D group?
THIS is what I aim to develop and create outside of Salt Lake City. The small town I live in, only about 20 miles from downtown Salt Lake is a world away, with mountains and vistas and trees, and the feeling of seclusion and privacy. This is what a true D&D and fantasy genre group should be.
From Gaming to LARP, finding real life environments and a sense of seclusion and mystic imagination is what I hope to convey. Naming this new club has been an arduous task to say the least, but hopefully soon, some sessions can materialize.
For any readers of this quiet, solitary blog, I would, for the time being, HIGHLY recommend attending SaltCon this next month, the premium small-scale gaming convention for the Wasatch front: http://saltcon.com
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