How to meet other gamers/geeks?

[Ancano]

I'm a senior in college and I've had a lot of trouble meeting other gamers/geeks in real life. I haven't been in a D&D group since high school, and I'm really desperate to meet people who I share interests with (my social life is pretty much nonexistent at this point). How do other playgrounders fare when it comes to meeting fellow geeks? Any tips/suggestions for me?

[Traab]

Easiest way is to post flyers around campus setting up a meeting with like minded individuals. First meeting is just to see who shows up and what you have enough numbers to do. I would also recommend you mention that you would be willing to teach people interested in learning to play, as I for one have always wanted to learn but never found anyone else around that could help. That could help bring in the curious as well as the experienced.

[Dr.Epic]

I second the flyer idea.

[SaintRidley]

Does your university have clubs? It should be easy if you go to club meetings either for gaming interests or other interests that are liable to draw in gamers.

[Dr.Epic]

Are there any local gaming shop? You can usually meet people there or even find out about gaming sessions there.

[Jack Squat]

I've never had a problem finding fellow geeks (though that may be because I'm an computer engineering major turned accountant :smalltongue:). Head to the engineering/math/sciences areas in your college, they'll definitely be there (but certainly aren't lacking in other majors). Does your college have a gaming/roleplay or HvZ group? They're becoming fairly popular at colleges around here, and you're bound to find geeks of all sorts at clubs.

Flyers are great if you're wanting to start a gaming group, but a little odd if you're just wanting to meet new friends. In general, I might suggest advertising your interests a little more. I normally wear a diving hat and have a firefly sticker on my laptop (getting an OotS one soon). These don't stand out as much as a Starcraft shirt, or walking around in LARP gear, but they're enough to break the ice with people who share similar interests.

[Dr.Epic]

You could just wear a D&D or some other geek hobbie themed shirt and befriend anyone who gets the reference and comments about it to you.

[Whiffet]

Your college doesn't have some sort of gaming club? Wow, that really stinks.

Yeah, put up some flyers that say you're looking for a D&D group. Surely your college has a community bulletin board somewhere, right?

[Sturmcrow]

Game club at the College? Start one?
Local hobby store?
Meet-up?

[thubby]

you're on a college campus and having trouble finding nerds/geeks/gamers?
where are you? jock university?

every campus im aware of has a an anime club if nothing else.

[Feytalist]

My university didn't have a D&D club, as such, but it did have message boards (online forums, like this one) for news, adverts, discussions and such. If yours has anything like it, it would be a perfect place to start. That's how I got in touch with our local RPGA guys, at any rate.

'Course, anime or film or Go (or whatever) clubs can be useful as well.

[Castaras]

Post up things around your college saying "I'm a geek and want to play these games! Come join me, we can get pissed after as well."

Do you have events where clubs advertise themselves? I found when I was wandering around the Freshers Fairs (societies trying to get as many freshers as possible) with an Order of the Stick tshirt on got a lot of people saying "Your t-shirt is amazing. Join usssss, we have fellow geeks!".

[Tyndmyr]

If you don't have a gaming club, make one.

Likewise, if your local game shop doesn't have a gaming group for your preferred game, make one of those.

Few months back, I just started up a local 3.5 group, posted it in the shop and on here...now, I have enough extra players that want to play that a second group could start up if another DM could be found.

If you're active, finding other geeks is easy!

[Traab]

If you don't have a gaming club, make one.

Likewise, if your local game shop doesn't have a gaming group for your preferred game, make one of those.

Few months back, I just started up a local 3.5 group, posted it in the shop and on here...now, I have enough extra players that want to play that a second group could start up if another DM could be found.

If you're active, finding other geeks is easy!

Also, keep in mind, just because you start the club, doesnt mean you have to be the sole person in charge of things.

[GeekGirl]

I just sat down in the common area with some D&D books, writing either characters of campaigns and let people find me :P I assume the same would work with Magic cards or any other game people would recognize. Flyer also works.

[Karoht]

Internet Cafe
Nerd Convention
Coffee Shop
Start a group and advertise it on college/community boards/social media.
If you are a Starcraft fan I highly recommend looking up Barcraft events in your area.

[Whiffet]

I just sat down in the common area with some D&D books, writing either characters of campaigns and let people find me :P I assume the same would work with Magic cards or any other game people would recognize. Flyer also works.

Oh man, there are always people around a certain area playing Magic where I attend. And I just go to a small community college. I can't imagine how many geeks you could find at a big university.

[Hattish Thing]

Try the theatre people! We are usually rather geeky. :amused:

[Anarion]

I notice that you said you were a senior, so given that it's already near the end of January, you may not have a ton of time to get a club or organization running if there isn't one already in place for you to attend.

Do you know where you're going to be working/studying next year? If it's near where you live, now's a good time to look for business establishments that run various gaming activities. You could try Wizards of the Coast or Teamliquid if you happen to play Magic or Starcraft and want to find a place to go. If you're a Brony, we organize meetups in most major cities. For a D&D group, you can also try Wizards of the Coast although fewer stores organize D&D events and they're all 4th edition. If you're not into any of those activities, try looking for a cybercafe or similar that has LAN Left 4 Dead and just grab any friends, geeks or not and head down there.

If you also have no friends...may I recommend the play by post section of this forum?

[Knaight]

Just meet people in general. You'll run into some people you like eventually, and odds are some of them will be geeks. In my experience, you can accidentally meet even RPG players within a week or two of starting classes.

[The Durvin]

Get friendly with the staff at any book store besides the official college one. The people at used book stores tend to be a little pretentious, but I've gotten invited to several WoW groups by Books-a-Million baristas, and one of the cashiers had to get me to explain the differences between Carnage and Venom to his manager, who actually wanted to hear it.

[The Succubus]

1) Get a trap of some sort. Pit traps or cages work best.
2) Bait with bags of d20s or OotS books.
3) Wait.
4) Profit!

[Tyndmyr]

Just meet people in general. You'll run into some people you like eventually, and odds are some of them will be geeks. In my experience, you can accidentally meet even RPG players within a week or two of starting classes.

I met one of my current groups at Denny's, by simply overhearing very specific gaming terms and striking up a chat. Being social overall definitely does help!

[noparlpf]

Either post flyers around campus or send out emails to the student body about club interest meetings. Senior year might be a bit late to get a serious club going, but you could at least meet people in the area with similar interests.

[Ancano]

Maybe I should have prefaced this by saying I have no social skills and don't actually know how to talk to people in real life. I'm too self conscious to join a club, much less start one (as far as i can tell we don't have any nerdy clubs anyway).

[Karen Lynn]

DC 25, Charisma based.

What school do you go to?

[Tyndmyr]

Maybe I should have prefaced this by saying I have no social skills and don't actually know how to talk to people in real life. I'm too self conscious to join a club, much less start one (as far as i can tell we don't have any nerdy clubs anyway).

Well, getting over that is step #1. D&D is a social game, and you're certainly going to be joining a social group no matter how you get into the game. So, if you want to play, you basically have to talk to other people.

[Ancano]

It's just a nameless state school. And i thought D&D was a way for fellow antisocial people to be social together.

[Yardo]

What I did in the past, that worked realy well, was go to any convention, meeting, gencon, etc, that I could find. I went to so many, that the sales people at stands would start to recognize me. :smallwink:

At those conventions, just join groups of like minded players/geeks etc, that are playing RPG's etc. What I did was register to scheduled play sessions at these evenst. Thats how I met the pleople that I played D&D with for years.

[Knaight]

I met one of my current groups at Denny's, by simply overhearing very specific gaming terms and striking up a chat. Being social overall definitely does help!

Something similar happened to me. While at a party for a friend, an acquaintance made a D&D joke while we were having a conversation, I picked up on it, and we later became friends. Moreover, I met an entire group of friends through this person. Being social is pretty much key.

[WalkingTarget]

You could also try a few other websites/forums.

Board Game Geek (http://boardgamegeek.com/) can be a handy way to find local board gaming groups. I'm in library school now and there's a weekly game night run by one of the professors. We have a bunch of people from other departments (or even just who live in town) that attend after finding out about it via BGG (just by asking/checking if there were any groups in the area).

RPG.net's (http://forum.rpg.net/forumdisplay.php?21-Gaming-Gatherings) "Gaming Gatherings" subforum is all about this.

Good luck.

[Pepz]

It's just a nameless state school. And i thought D&D was a way for fellow antisocial people to be social together.

There's a big difference between antisocial and socially awkward :)

Anyways, I'll join the other people in saying:

Theatre groups are pretty geeky, plus working together on a play in general lets you see people in ways that can be quite refreshing. During my year in the US that's where I met most of my friends :smallsmile:

There's a couple of boardgames that every store has because anyone can play them (settlers of catan, carcassonne). I currently have a "gamesafternoon/night/day" every couple of weeks just with friends and their friends. People bring the weirdest games to the table and it just fun in general. D&D can scare people off, but it you get them hooked via other games......:smallbiggrin:

Lastly, if you truly don't know anyone, can't find a place or people, or just want to get started now, check the PBP section of this site. It's an easy way to get into a fun game without too much social stress or responsibility. Just some gamers from all over the world playing a game they like :smallwink:

Good Luck!

[KingHywel]

Get one other person (this may be the hardest part). Do a ridiculously over-the-top public LARP. Recruit people who talk to you about it.