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View Full Version : How do you recruit DnD players in a low concentration area?



Stormthorn
2009-06-10, 11:16 AM
I think the quesiton says it all. I got like one game shop for this sorta stuff within 30 minutes of where i live and i only have two friends who play DnD. Im trying to get at least four people. I dont have many contacts amongst the DnD world since my friends and me are all highly inexperianced.
How do i go about this getting players thing?

Choco
2009-06-10, 11:20 AM
I had the same problem, so I feel your pain...

After enough badgering, I was able to convince some of my non-D&D playing friends and co-workers to try it at least once. Turns out they all liked it and we got a nice group going now :smallbiggrin:

JellyPooga
2009-06-10, 11:25 AM
Conscription. Or shanghigh people off the street. :smallbiggrin:

Is there a university or college near you? They usually have a role-playing society hidden within their dusty halls somewhere. Failing that, just see if your other firends and/or family are interested. They may not like the idea at first but I've found that enough wheedling, begging and pleading will get them to play one session and then they'll come to more because either a)they feel obliged or b)they find that they like it!

Vortling
2009-06-10, 11:34 AM
Try getting your other friends into it. The ones who play video games and/or read fantasy and science fiction are the most likely candidates. There's also sites like meetup.com, nearbygamers, and a few other internet sites that locate people in your area who play.

Kantur
2009-06-10, 11:36 AM
If the game store has a website, try starting a thread on their forums. It's how my local group went from not existing (Well, I think 2 of the groups members have been gaming together for a few years, but this was a new venue and a search for an actual group with a decent number of people), and the group went to about 8 for the first session and we're now (Two years on) at the point where we're regularly running two games and nearly at the point of three.

Whether they do or don't, then ask if you can put up a poster in the store with contact details for one of you and where you meet.

If there's a local paper that'll do free or cheap adverts, it might be worth putting something in there for a week or two.

Egiam
2009-06-10, 11:39 AM
Harvest them.

Go to the local ren fair. Find a booth where people sell replica swords, and recruit the guy who has stood staring speachless at a specific warhammer for a hour straight.

Find the guy at the university reading LOTR.

Go to the community theatre-house. Those things are infested with roleplayers/ previous dnd players.

yeah.

cdrcjsn
2009-06-10, 11:53 AM
WotC has a forum section dedicated to finding players.
http://forums.gleemax.com/forumdisplay.php?f=347

Or you can try the RPGA and find players through that.
http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=rpga

valadil
2009-06-10, 11:57 AM
One game shop within 30 min was enough for me throughout middle and high school. Hang out there, meet the regulars, post fliers, and you'll get enough players pretty quickly.

bosssmiley
2009-06-10, 12:47 PM
I Can't Find Any Players (http://lotfp.blogspot.com/2008/05/i-cant-find-any-players.html) - tips and tricks on catching and keeping those elusive geeks from an American living in Finland. He's found gamers, and he lives in a country infested with ravening Moomins. :smallamused:

LibraryOgre
2009-06-10, 12:50 PM
Offer incentives. Food. Drugs. Sex.

Mystic Muse
2009-06-10, 02:15 PM
I think you better just offer food. bad moral implications surrounding drugs and sex won't end up well I don't think.

daggaz
2009-06-10, 02:16 PM
Candles of Invocation. Gate them in.

WeeFreeMen
2009-06-10, 03:10 PM
How I did it.
University/College -> Books-a-million -> EB (A lot of their employee's play surprisingly) -> Wal-Mart hanging around in the game section waiting for someone to grab DnD Online and then yelling "ITS A TRAP" play with us instead.

(Ok, that last one was absurd and a lie. but non the less the other 3 worked)

Best of luck.

Funkyodor
2009-06-10, 03:58 PM
Design & print out some leaflets, then stick them in fantasy books at a plain jane book store, preferably a second hand book store.

Do the same for D&D manuals in your lone game shop. But if you like the people there, see if you can instead put one up at the counter.

Flickerdart
2009-06-10, 04:41 PM
In a tavern, of course. :smallbiggrin:

AslanCross
2009-06-10, 04:44 PM
Teach people. That's how I got my students into it. I asked them if they were interested and willing to learn. This would be my third year of DMing for them.

Stormthorn
2009-06-10, 11:20 PM
Try getting your other friends into it. The ones who play video games and/or read fantasy and science fiction are the most likely candidates. There's also sites like meetup.com, nearbygamers, and a few other internet sites that locate people in your area who play.

I have three friends. Three close friends, period.
Two are alreayd playing.
One doesnt want to.
He wont say 'no' but i got him to play a game once and the DM wasnt very good and he doesnt like to RP. (he plays an mmorpg, but its more for the standing around for five hours wating for a monster to pop so you can kill it over the next five hours sort of game. FF11)

Also, knowing firsthand how insuferable nerds can be (from my MtG days) i cant take "regulars" from the game store because no sane person with any experiance under their belt would join the game of a first time DM. Also, they are too busy playing MtG and Warhammer.

One sister, who might play but she wont consider anyhting if the session would go over 1 hour, because after that its wasting her social life time.


ravening Moomins
??

Fhaolan
2009-06-10, 11:41 PM
Methylphenidate. Also known as Ritalin. Dump it into the water supply, and the level of concentration in the area will go up...

Oh you meant low concentration of *gamers*... sorry. :)

bosssmiley
2009-06-11, 04:13 AM
??

Finland, yesterday (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugwngR6Pn_A) :smallamused:

Froogleyboy
2009-06-11, 12:42 PM
Game shops for the win! I started reading the base books a while back at the library and thought it was cool but i had noone to play with so i gave it up. But one day I was walking down the road when I saw a place that said "Ice cream" on the door. I walked in and noticed the DnD stuff. I was hooked like a drug. I never had any friends who played but now i don't have any friends that don't know.

Telonius
2009-06-11, 01:17 PM
If you have no gaming stores, but do have a Barnes and Noble or Borders, check out the D&D sections there. You'll sometimes find gamers rifling through the books. That's really hit and miss, though. The message boards here are actually a fairly good way to find gamers. In my personal experience, the best way is through existing friends.

crimson77
2009-06-11, 02:15 PM
There is also penandpapergames player finder (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/memberlist.php).

Dixieboy
2009-06-11, 02:17 PM
How I did it.
University/College -> Books-a-million -> EB (A lot of their employee's play surprisingly) -> Wal-Mart hanging around in the game section waiting for someone to grab DnD Online and then yelling "ITS A TRAP" play with us instead.

(Ok, that last one was absurd and a lie. but non the less the other 3 worked)

Best of luck.

Last one

yea

i did that... :smallredface:

Fitz10019
2009-06-11, 04:50 PM
...sites like meetup.com, nearbygamers, and a few other internet sites that locate people in your area who play.

Seconded.

I moved from Manhattan, where I could have 3 games a week if I had the time, to rural Germany. When I updated my Meetup profile, with my interests in D&D, d20, RPG, Fantasy, and SciFi, the system alerted me to 8 other members also interested in D&D in my immediate area. No D&D meetup group existed for this area, so I started one. Now I have a group of 7, we meet once every 3 weeks, and play in English.

Another tack is to look for boardgame clubs. Sometimes strung-out D&Ders find shelter in those groups.

RebelRogue
2009-06-11, 05:19 PM
Methylphenidate. Also known as Ritalin. Dump it into the water supply, and the level of concentration in the area will go up...
Quite the opposite would happen, actually...

Artanis
2009-06-11, 09:52 PM
Unless your entire town is full of people like me, who have...SHINY! SHINY SHINY SHINY! *runs off*

:smalltongue:


(And yes, I really do have ADHD)

Maerok
2009-06-11, 10:24 PM
Harvest them.

Go to the local ren fair. Find a booth where people sell replica swords, and recruit the guy who has stood staring speachless at a specific warhammer for a hour straight.

Find the guy at the university reading LOTR.

Go to the community theatre-house. Those things are infested with roleplayers/ previous dnd players.

yeah.

They should make a movie about this as per Old School. That would be interesting... Recruiting montage, etc.

Fhaolan
2009-06-12, 01:41 AM
Quite the opposite would happen, actually...

Have I got it backwards again? I know there's one drug for 'fuzzing you out' to break up OCD behaviour, and another for 'narrowing focus' for dealing with ADD. I get the two mixed up occasionally.

Which explains a great deal, now that I think about it. :smallcool: