Community Leader Highlight – Walter: RPG Paragon
An integral part of Level Up Games is fostering a community of tabletop gamers where everyone feels welcomed into our space and our hobbies.
A huge piece of that are the fantastic community leaders, or Paragons, across our stores. They are passionate locals who champion their hobbies by running special events for both brand-new players and veterans looking for a new game store to call home.
Walter is one of our amazing role-playing game Paragons who would love for you to grab a seat at his upcoming events!
Here’s a little more about him and his events from the man himself! :
My name is Walter, and it’s an honor to be one of the Paragons for the Level Up Games community. I primarily run roleplaying game events at the Johns Creek location, occasionally Duluth, and soon, I’ll run my first learn to play event at Dawsonville; more on that in a moment.
You can find me as “Walter (RPG/Johns Creek)” on the LUG discord server talking about my upcoming events, introducing players to one another who are looking for groups, and talking about roleplaying games that you may have seen on the shelves in the stores, but were uncertain as to whether you wanted to try them or whether you could find a gaming group that would be interested in playing those games. It is my goal to introduce new and veteran gamers to games they may not have played before, but more importantly, that a group of mostly strangers has a delightful time playing a game with one another.
Life offers rare opportunities for us to engage in fun activities outside of job and family duties & responsibilities, but roleplayers really have it the best when it comes to those rare moments. What other avocation offers individuals the chance to engage in a social activity wherein you create a shared story and you are also the audience?
I recently ran a Dungeons & Dragons learn to play session at Duluth in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of D&D and the release of the revised edition of the D&D Player’s Handbook. All of the players had a fantastic time and I’m looking forward to the next D&D 50th Anniversary event which will coincide with the release of the revised Dungeon Master’s Guide. Be on the lookout for the event sign-up on the Eventbrite app or website. It will also be announced on the Discord.
Some of the other RPGs that I regularly run include Call of Cthulhu (mystery, investigation, and cosmic horror), Pendragon (chivalry and romance during the times of King Arthur), and Runequest (sword & sorcery fantasy set in a deeply mythic world).
Other games I’ve introduced to the LUG community are Swords of the Serpentine (narrative-focused swashbuckling fantasy) and Fiasco (a game of powerful ambition and poor impulse control), and you can see that I’m interested in sharing games that are off-the-beaten path of typical high fantasy tropes. I enjoy sharing games that may be overlooked by the community.
Next week, to celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day, I’m running two Pirate Borg events at LUG stores. On Wednesday, September 18th, I’ll be at Johns Creek for “The Sinking of C’thagn,” and on Thursday, September 19th, I’ll be at Dawsonville for “Buried in the Bahamas.”
Last year I ran a wildly successful Pirate Borg session for five players. It was a crazy journey filled with buried treasure, swashbuckling skeletons, angst about the impending end of the world, and drunken tales to amaze! Pirate Borg is based on the grimdark, death metal fantasy RPG Mörk Borg, where the premise is that the world is ending, and you all know it.
So, what extreme choices and behaviors will you make in the final days of your dying world. Understandably, the “Borg” family of games are not for every gamers’ sensibilities.
My goals as a Paragon are paramount: To build and grow the gaming community, share my love for gaming with others, and introduce you all to some fantastic games that allow you to create stories and shared experiences around the table with one another. I’ve been involved in community building for many years in various sub-cultures & hobbies, and the gaming community is my absolute favorite community to be a leader of.
I’m preparing to run more game demos the future – Symbaroum, Tales from the Loop,
CY_BORG, and others. But, I’d like to hear about what you’d like to play and the incredible tales you’re telling around your table. Feel free to reach out to me on the LUG Discord, or join my events and let’s have fun creating shared memories over the course of a few hours at a Level Up Games store. Roll the dice and good gaming to you!
Level Up Games here again. We hope you can sign up for some RPG games with Walter! Even if you can’t make it out this weekend, always be on the lookout for more fun events with our Paragons, which include sessions for Mothership, Cy_Borg, and tons of spooky RPG fun in October!
Chat with our RPG community and see details for our events on our Discord here.
