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View Full Version : DM Help Looking For Group: Methods and Their Practical Application



Volos
2014-07-21, 09:01 AM
Forgive me for the overtly formal title to this thread. I felt it was a necessary evil. The long title describes the sort of discussion I would like to start but also serves to ward off casual posters from commenting. Now, to the heart of the matter.

I am a Dungeon Master who has moved from a very populated area to a very sparsely populated area. In the Poconos there were twenty plus gamers vying for each individual seat at my gaming table. A gaming table, I should mention for context, that was in a private room at a Comic Book and Gaming store. Now that I have moved to the middle of nowhere there doesn't seem to be much of a Gamer or Geek base to draw from for my table. I need help.

I tried Gamer Connection threads on Pazio, MeetUp.com, GiantITP Forums, and even a few other sites but to no avail. I am still player-less and it is starting to drive me up the wall. I have this amazing campaign planned out but no one to share it with. Player-driven plot, sandbox world to interact with and change, villians you can hate and sympathize with, and a story that just needs to be told.

So I have been wracking my brain and tying to google-fu my way into a perfect solution. A way to reach out and find players in this small town. I live a couple of streets of the main st and can walk just about anywhere in town. There are a decent number of people living in and around town... just shy of two thousand. I was thinking of putting up flyers at the library and local businesses with a new email on them for people to tear off and messsage me with. But is this a good idea? How do I formulate said poster/flyer? Is there a better way to go about this? Some magic website I haven't heard of? Please... help.

Forever in your debt,
Volos

Melayl
2014-07-21, 09:52 AM
Out of curiosity, what area are you in now?

jaydubs
2014-07-21, 10:06 AM
If you're not attached to playing in person, I've had good experience with roll20.net. It's free, there's a healthy player and DM population, and the application works well. It's mostly played with the online tabletop and voice chat, though some groups use web cams.

Combine with http://www.myth-weavers.com/ for character sheets, and you're set.

Dawgmoah
2014-07-21, 01:34 PM
If you're not attached to playing in person, I've had good experience with roll20.net. It's free, there's a healthy player and DM population, and the application works well. It's mostly played with the online tabletop and voice chat, though some groups use web cams.

Combine with http://www.myth-weavers.com/ for character sheets, and you're set.

I have to second what Jaydubs wrote as I use the same exact setup (Roll20 for a game and Myth-Weavers for sheets). I advertised a while back and was able to fill the five slots in my game inside of 36 hours. And most of the folks who request a virtual seat at your game want to be there and stick it out. I've had but one turnover since the beginning.

The sad part is you are staring at a computer and talking into a microphone so facial expressions and body language, etc are lost.

The good part is when you want to take a break you mute your mic and you're completely isolated.

I would hazard to say it is not as good as a regular IRL group but far better than nothing.

Airk
2014-07-21, 01:42 PM
I realize this may come off as backwards to a lot of game geeks, but I suggest building social ties FIRST and a gaming group second, rather than trying to assemble a team of pretty much total strangers to play in your RPG.

Start at the local library (good thing you've still got one -they're going out of style in a lot of places) and see what sorts of groups/clubs/whatever are already going on. Explore whatever pre-existing social options are available to you. Hell, get to know your neighbors.

Then, once you know some folks in the area, start talking to them about games. If you can find someone who is interested, try to tap THEIR social network and see if there's anyone else interested.

Pros: You can pre-select for people you can tolerate. ;)
Cons: May take a while. You get new gamers. (Also a pro)

Dawgmoah
2014-07-21, 02:19 PM
I realize this may come off as backwards to a lot of game geeks, but I suggest building social ties FIRST and a gaming group second, rather than trying to assemble a team of pretty much total strangers to play in your RPG.

Start at the local library (good thing you've still got one -they're going out of style in a lot of places) and see what sorts of groups/clubs/whatever are already going on. Explore whatever pre-existing social options are available to you. Hell, get to know your neighbors.

Then, once you know some folks in the area, start talking to them about games. If you can find someone who is interested, try to tap THEIR social network and see if there's anyone else interested.

Pros: You can pre-select for people you can tolerate. ;)
Cons: May take a while. You get new gamers. (Also a pro)

Yeah, that may work in larger cities but not so much in the more rural parts of the country; probably any country. It is a noble suggestion, like growing your own players from your neighbors. In my case the one person who even knows anything had no idea what a roleplaying game was and thought it was all some subversive plot to ensnare the innocent and so on.

At least in a meetup or on Roll20, or any other such forum or mechanism for finding players, you are already dealing with people who want to play or participate in an rpg. In all cases and forms though: best of luck finding and keeping a group together.

Airk
2014-07-21, 02:48 PM
Yeah, that may work in larger cities but not so much in the more rural parts of the country; probably any country. It is a noble suggestion, like growing your own players from your neighbors. In my case the one person who even knows anything had no idea what a roleplaying game was and thought it was all some subversive plot to ensnare the innocent and so on.

No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying "Wander around and ask "Who wants to play a roleplaying game?"" (or worse still "Anyone want to play D&D?"); I'm saying "Tell people about the kind of game it is, and see if anyone seems interested" the same way you'd try to get people to play, say, Risk if they'd never played it.

Also, the important point is that these people need to be your friends on some level before you start pitching this stuff, so, you know, they might be willing to try something because you say it's a cool thing.

Of course, some people are completely averse to trying new things, but you can probably spot these before you bother pitching to them.

Dawgmoah
2014-07-22, 12:54 PM
I believe I know what you are saying. It has rarely ever worked out that way for me though. I move around a lot, on average every three years, so have to constantly find new players. All I can say is it is a hell of a lot easier now in 2014 than it was, say back in 1984. So since one of the few hobbies I have is gaming I go find gamers and then perhaps build friendships off of that. Other than that most people I know are from work and it has been 19 years since I was able to interest a coworker into playing. Of course that was fun back in those days; most of the team I was on was also in the same gaming group.

So at least in my experience it is easier to find gamers and maybe develop a friendship with them then to try and go out and make general friends and then see if they are interested in gaming. Results vary depending on area of the country or depending on what country.

Arimadios
2014-07-22, 03:46 PM
First Step: Look for nearby Card shop, Comic shop, Gaming shop, or Book shop. (Coffee shops also work.)

Second step: Befriend owners - Make sure they're moderately cool. Some guys who run shops are profiteering eighth planets, sooo, yeah. Avoid like plague. If they're not? Offer to host games there. If you have to drive 20 miles? Deal. If you can walk? Spend an hour or two there every day. Drive 50? Spend a day there every two weeks. People will get to know you, remain friendly to all.

Third step: Host some adventure of the week stuff at your place of chill (Unless it's a library, if it is, skip this step.), after making friend roots and letting the friend vines grow and ENGULF THE WORLD. MWHAHAHA. Sorry, that was a bit over the top.

Found players? Great. Play adventure of the week until everyone settles down. Got them settled? Great. Proceed to step four. If not? Repeat step two, new location.

Step four: House hosting. Move it to your house. Have everyone pitch in for pizzas, and drinks. (If everyone is above age, I suggest Hard Apple Cider as a drink. Old timey, sets the mood, loosens tensions, makes D&D Epic Relaxing. (ONLY HAVE ONE TO TWO PER PLAYER AVALIABLE. OTHERWISE, PEEPS GET DRAWNK.)) You provide the books, setting, and storylines. They provide munch, drink, and storyline derailment. D&D Ensues.

Step five: ????

Step six: PROFIT!

(Those last two are obligatory.)

Hope this helps.

Airk
2014-07-22, 03:56 PM
So at least in my experience it is easier to find gamers and maybe develop a friendship with them then to try and go out and make general friends and then see if they are interested in gaming. Results vary depending on area of the country or depending on what country.

I'm sure it does vary, but when someone says "I'm in a town of 2000 people, and I can't find anyone to game with" I'm inclined to say that "Find gamers and make friends" is doomed because I don't think there will BE any. Similar problem flows from "Find your local hobby shop"

Arimadios
2014-07-22, 04:46 PM
My local hobby shop (was) 50 miles away. Then one opened up 30 miles away. I went. Dragged my wife with me. Taught my daughter to play magic.

If you want to DM, if you want to play, if you want to have fun with D&D...

Work for it. Period. If the town has 2000 people, that means roughly 40 of them are gay, 40 are geniuses, 40 have severe to crippling dyslexia, and probably 40 want to play D&D, and have found out where a hobby shop is.

D&D? I'd say 2% of the people in any town not populated by geeks are interested or would play. So yeah. Go find it. Advertise for it. Beat the street, carry a deck of MTG cards (Because it's easy to go form MTG to D&D.) and play with them at mc'donalds. PEOPLE SEE THESE THINGS. And the nerds will come.

Basically? Make the commodity available (D&D.) And you will have consumers (Players.) Is it easy? Nope. But they WILL come. Online advertising sucks. Like, 3% of online advertising even yields results. Like, 25% of people buy stuff because celebs said it was cool. But what kinds of advertisement work? Radio, and hand-shaking. That's it.

Volos
2014-07-22, 06:27 PM
For those interested I have moved from the Poconos to Ridgway PA. Yeah. The middle of nowhere. Atleast I am in town and don't have to drive far to find people. Finding the right kind of people... that is the issue. I've been trying to talk up the locals about different things to see if there is some level of interest within the community but it hasn't gone well. Out of some fifty odd people I've met so far, only one has even heard of D&D much less Pathfinder. Any geeky sorts I run into are far too focused on high graphics or MMOs to even consider sitting down at a table to roll bones. It is a dire situation. Rather than waiting till I meet enough people and hoping some of them even know what I'm talking about, I'm going to put up a flyer. What should I put on it? "DM looking for group?" It seems the one person who knew what D&D was heard about it from the 'Darker Dungeons' movie that came out recently. There are some 8 odd churches in the area and the streets are empty on Sundays. I'm afraid if I don't word this flyer very carefully then I won't have it up for very long. Either that or there will be pitchforks and fire waiting at my front door when I get home from work.

Raine_Sage
2014-07-22, 10:44 PM
For those interested I have moved from the Poconos to Ridgway PA. Yeah. The middle of nowhere. Atleast I am in town and don't have to drive far to find people. Finding the right kind of people... that is the issue. I've been trying to talk up the locals about different things to see if there is some level of interest within the community but it hasn't gone well. Out of some fifty odd people I've met so far, only one has even heard of D&D much less Pathfinder. Any geeky sorts I run into are far too focused on high graphics or MMOs to even consider sitting down at a table to roll bones. It is a dire situation. Rather than waiting till I meet enough people and hoping some of them even know what I'm talking about, I'm going to put up a flyer. What should I put on it? "DM looking for group?" It seems the one person who knew what D&D was heard about it from the 'Darker Dungeons' movie that came out recently. There are some 8 odd churches in the area and the streets are empty on Sundays. I'm afraid if I don't word this flyer very carefully then I won't have it up for very long. Either that or there will be pitchforks and fire waiting at my front door when I get home from work.

Well how have you been wording your chats so far? Have you been just out and out asking the people you know if they've ever roleplayed before? Or do you ease in with tales of past games?

I've found "seeding" the conversation helps draw interest from people who have never played before, it worked for me with my circle of friends. Here's how it generally goes.

- Having normal conversation with friend about things we enjoy doing.
- Mention having fun with another group of friends playing a game, make sure to mention what the awesome thing was preferably something you know will grab the attention of the person you're speaking too. (i.e. "Oh man that reminds me of the time I was playing a game with some friends and one of them suplexed a dragon it was great.")
- If friend is interested they will inevitably ask what game it was you were playing. If not then don't keep trying to press the subject. Otherwise you become that annoying guy who can't shut up about his hobbies. Just move on to the next person.
- If they do ask, you tell them. Follow up immediately with "Have you ever heard of it?"
- After the inevitable no, explain the basic premise of the game. If necessary allay any fears about devil worship. If very necessary, tell them they can play a cleric who worships Jesus Christ as their deity if they really wanted.
- If they seem interested, mention that you wouldn't mind running a game sometime, and you'd be happy to help them roll up a character.

Rinse and repeat the above steps with several people until you have your desired number of players. Don't run your epic sandbox campaign on the first night, run something simple and direct and short to get them into the general idea of play. Then once you've got a feel for their playstyle you can run your epic sandbox campaign. It's how I managed to scare up 5 players for my Campaign.

Also as someone who enjoys both High Def graphics and Pen and Paper games played around the table, I will also remind you the two interests are not and never have been mutually exclusive. :P