Recruiting Random players in r/l?

[CyberThread]

So am thinking of starting a game at my college, and just put flyers about recruiting for a game, that would happen in a semi public area( like a study room reserved for an hour , when no one else has ever been using it type thing)

What sort of things, should I take into consideration, do you think, while am recruiting, and developing this?


(The adventure in question, is the age of worms)

[SciChronic]

well... more than an hour for one, that won't even be a full encounter sometimes. I dislike any session that's less than 3-4 hours myself.

See if you can make it an official club as your college, that way you might be able to squeeze out some funding for books, dice, battle mats, snacks and drinks, etc.

[Red Fel]

Get to know your players before starting. You don't have to become best buddies, but at least get to know them - their experience, their expectations of the game, etc. E-mailing in advance helps with this.

Definitely block a large amount of time (3-4 hours is great) in a space which can accommodate three things: the gaming table, with all papers and dice and such; the people; and food. Definitely food.

If you want to earn "awesome DM points," provide the meal for the first game out of your own pocket. Don't make a habit of it, obviously, but planning the evening's repast can take up valuable gaming time, and if you're choosing by fiat, you can do it quickly and efficiently. Also your players' attitudes towards you will improve by one step.

Be sure you're clear with your players on expectations, gameplay, rules, etc. If you have newcomers, get them to arrive early, so that you can go over basics and mechanics. Offer to loan them dice.

[QuintonBeck]

Echoing what the others have said (All very good advice) talk to the people who are interested beforehand and get an idea on their experience level, their preferred playstyle, etc.

Prepare prepare prepare would be another bit of advice and keep it very orderly and organized. People like going to something that's very well put together.

Also, provide as much material as you can at the beginning so everyone can use what they need. You can scrape the excess later, best to be overprepared rather than under.

Make sure everyone feels comfortable, introduce people after you've met them to the next person to walk in, ask people questions together that sort of thing.

[Amphetryon]

"Open Enrollment" gaming adverts come with the danger of the Rotating Cast, where you're never quite sure who will show up from week to week, in what numbers. Ever run a game where 22 people suddenly had Characters? I did; wasn't fun for anyone. Ever runa game planning for 7 PCs, only to have 5 no-shows due to the Open Enrollment policy? It's not much fun either.

[Red Fel]

"Open Enrollment" gaming adverts come with the danger of the Rotating Cast, where you're never quite sure who will show up from week to week, in what numbers. Ever run a game where 22 people suddenly had Characters? I did; wasn't fun for anyone. Ever runa game planning for 7 PCs, only to have 5 no-shows due to the Open Enrollment policy? It's not much fun either.

To be fair, that's how I met my gaming group back in undergrad. The DM posted a notice, asking if anyone was interested in joining. Of those who showed up, everyone remained for at least one more game; only one person of that original core group ended up leaving.

So it does work, when done right.

[Amphetryon]

To be fair, that's how I met my gaming group back in undergrad. The DM posted a notice, asking if anyone was interested in joining. Of those who showed up, everyone remained for at least one more game; only one person of that original core group ended up leaving.

So it does work, when done right.

Ah, so you're saying I did it "wrong," then. Good to know.

[Red Fel]

Ah, so you're saying I did it "wrong," then. Good to know.

Sorry, I did not mean that.

I should have said, "It does work, sometimes."

No offense was intended.

[AzureKnight]

Make sure you add what version of the game you plan on running just to be sure if you are playing a 3.5 campaign you dont have players expecting 4th.

[HalfQuart]

And clarify if character creation will happen during the first session or if you're expecting people to build their characters ahead of time and show up to play. Especially if you get a bunch of new players, they'll need a lot of help building characters, so you may want to have a building session.... but if experienced players show up to that with their fully built characters expecting to play, they may get really frustrated. So just be clear to manage people's expectations.

[Amphetryon]

And clarify if character creation will happen during the first session or if you're expecting people to build their characters ahead of time and show up to play. Especially if you get a bunch of new players, they'll need a lot of help building characters, so you may want to have a building session.... but if experienced players show up to that with their fully built characters expecting to play, they may get really frustrated. So just be clear to manage people's expectations.

Depending on the number of folks who show up, their experience level, and the amount of available resources, a single session may not prove sufficient time.

[SciChronic]

And clarify if character creation will happen during the first session or if you're expecting people to build their characters ahead of time and show up to play. Especially if you get a bunch of new players, they'll need a lot of help building characters, so you may want to have a building session.... but if experienced players show up to that with their fully built characters expecting to play, they may get really frustrated. So just be clear to manage people's expectations.

Experienced players should be helping new players develop their characters

if the group gets large, you should set up multiple groups, and have other experienced players be the DMs/co-DMs.

You also need to set a solid schedule that the people involved will agree to follow, people who are consistently missing from the group might as well not be involved.

If you do successfully make it a club at your college, have an entrance fee (which would be put towards dice for them and snacks) this promote having members who will actually appear for scheduled sessions.

[Tvtyrant]

If you want to make a reliable system out of it, pick team captains. These individuals will fill in as DMs if there are too many people, or you cannot make it some week. Generally you want experienced players who are likeable but mature, and then you can cede a lot of authority to them to make it more of an organization than a single group.

[HalfQuart]

My FLGS runs a 4e Living Forgotten Realms game twice a month.. they have a few DMs that prep adventures for various sets of levels, then depending on how many people show up to play split into tables of 4-6 players. If not enough players show up, the DMs usually join a table as a player. It's not as much fun as the continuity provided by a steady campaign with the same players and cast of characters, but it's a good way to play when you have no real idea how many people are going to show up, or what crazy collection of characters you're going to get.

[Maginomicon]

To help alleviate the "open enrollment" issue...

Mention in your advert that there is limited seating unless the person is fully capable and willing to DM.

Utilize Google Calendar create an event for invites for each game (you can send invites to non-Gmail addresses and it works fine so long as you make it crystal clear how to RSVP to the invite). Require that everyone at least respond with a "maybe" as soon as they see the invite and by some date/time before the game would happen, and use the "required/optional" icons in the invite manager pane to great effect.

Alternatively (or in addition to the above), get everyone who is interested to give you a copy (anonymized if desired) of their free/busy schedules. Then, you can simply import that information into a different calendar in Google Calendar for each person and it'll be visually obvious when the relevant people have time free for a game. This will give you a good educated guess for the best time to set the game.

Ultimately, it'd be much less hassle on you as DM to require as a condition for being in the club/game that they each create their own Google Account (if they don't have them already, and no that does not mean a Gmail account since you can create a Google account with a non-Gmail address, such as the college email address) and each create and maintain their own availability information because then you don't have to enter their availability information yourself. (This however can often feel like pulling teeth unless they're truly responsible people).

[Glimbur]

It's more work, and I haven't tried it, but I would suggest meeting each prospective player alone before the first session. ~15 minutes, casual setting (coffee shop or similar), and talk about the game. What their experience level is, what interests them, whether they would ever consider DM'ing, that sort of thing. Then you can figure out pregens versus char gen with players and other such stuff. It will also help you build a campaign that targets your players' interests. But it could also be a lot of work, especially if you talk to a bunch of people and it is difficult to find a time they can all meet or a playstyle they all like.

[Kudaku]

From what I can tell the Age of Worms is an adventure path intended to take players from level 1 to level 20... That might be a little ambitious for a random pug.

However you go about recruiting players, I'd strongly suggest doing a trial game (or more) with the people who are interested before you start on the Age of Worms - preferably something light and short. I try to do this whenever I start a group with players I don't know (or people I do know but are new to the game) since it's a great way to feel them out and find out what kind of player personality they are, what they enjoy etc.

My go-to module for those games is We Be Goblins, which is free, funny, starts at level 1 and lasts anywhere between one and three sessions. That module is Pathfinder-specific though.