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J-H
2019-03-06, 05:05 PM
I'm already running a 5e game for my wife, and 4 3.5 games on GITP. My plate is full.

My FLGS has plenty of people who want to play (including me) but is short on DMs.

Favorite tips for recruiting DMs or getting people to step up and try DMing?

So far the only one I've thought of is "If someone will commit to DMing I'll put $10 towards their DMG!"

Man_Over_Game
2019-03-06, 05:22 PM
Offer modules, play it on their schedules. That addresses the concern of "I'm not experienced enough" and "I don't have time". Anything past that is straight up bribery and isn't going to make a good experience for anybody.

Sir_Chivalry
2019-03-06, 05:32 PM
Pay them. I mean you can do it on a hourly basis it's not bribery if it's up front

But more often than not contributing food, refreshments and the space to play goes a long way

Son of A Lich!
2019-03-06, 05:36 PM
I DM on behalf of my FLGS to boost sales on RPG books. While we do run AL and other games, each month I recruit 5ish players who have never played a RPG before and maybe 1 or 2 who are a bit more experienced.

The first session is all about character creation and how to play, with the players all sorta making their first adventure together by defining what kind of game they want to play. If everyone wants to be evil, I'll make the game about trying to reach an artifact on behalf of an overlord and let the players set the course of how to accomplish it. If they want to explore the wilderness, we'll set up a game that really explores the feywild, that sort of thing.

I get a discount on RPG books (They haven't been selling very well, so it's mostly an excuse to get them off the shelf) but not collector editions or anything, and I do not accept any kind of payment for what I do from the players, as that is just bound to have disastrous results.

The last couple of sessions I start to focus more on how to set up your own campaigns and get your own group of Players together on a set schedule. The hope is that a Player will buy their own copy of 5e Player's handbook and get his friends to play a ravnica game or whatever, and if not, maybe they'll attend Adventure League or Pathfinder/Starfinder AL equivalents.

I've mostly been doing D&D, but that's because it just so damn popular. I'm trying to get people into M&M, and I've been trying to talk to the Hero Clicx crowd to get them to sit down and go through a session, but it hasn't really panned out. I've done Dread, kids on bikes and something else I can't quite remember off the top of my head...

I wish I could Professionally DM games. I'm in need of a career and damn near homeless right now.

JNAProductions
2019-03-06, 08:16 PM
I DM on behalf of my FLGS to boost sales on RPG books. While we do run AL and other games, each month I recruit 5ish players who have never played a RPG before and maybe 1 or 2 who are a bit more experienced.

The first session is all about character creation and how to play, with the players all sorta making their first adventure together by defining what kind of game they want to play. If everyone wants to be evil, I'll make the game about trying to reach an artifact on behalf of an overlord and let the players set the course of how to accomplish it. If they want to explore the wilderness, we'll set up a game that really explores the feywild, that sort of thing.

I get a discount on RPG books (They haven't been selling very well, so it's mostly an excuse to get them off the shelf) but not collector editions or anything, and I do not accept any kind of payment for what I do from the players, as that is just bound to have disastrous results.

The last couple of sessions I start to focus more on how to set up your own campaigns and get your own group of Players together on a set schedule. The hope is that a Player will buy their own copy of 5e Player's handbook and get his friends to play a ravnica game or whatever, and if not, maybe they'll attend Adventure League or Pathfinder/Starfinder AL equivalents.

I've mostly been doing D&D, but that's because it just so damn popular. I'm trying to get people into M&M, and I've been trying to talk to the Hero Clicx crowd to get them to sit down and go through a session, but it hasn't really panned out. I've done Dread, kids on bikes and something else I can't quite remember off the top of my head...

I wish I could Professionally DM games. I'm in need of a career and damn near homeless right now.

Aw. I mean, that was nice up until the end. I hope things start looking up soon for you! Good luck!

J-H
2019-03-06, 08:36 PM
The FLGS has the space, refreshments are a reasonable price (he says he wants to keep it affordable to HS students)... it's just a matter of DMs. There's at least a half dozen of us posted on the cork board as "LFG."

Son of A Lich!
2019-03-06, 08:49 PM
Aw. I mean, that was nice up until the end. I hope things start looking up soon for you! Good luck!

Thanks, Love. I'm a tough cookie, I'll figure something out.

That's 'love' as in sharing/returning the love - not like a pet name "Love".


The FLGS has the space, refreshments are a reasonable price (he says he wants to keep it affordable to HS students)... it's just a matter of DMs. There's at least a half dozen of us posted on the cork board as "LFG."

Does your FLGS run Adventure League? AL usually has a tutorial thing (Don't want to call it a 'Course' but whatever) for DMing. You might be able to get people DMing for AL games and then translate that out to other RPGs.

as others have noted; Inexperience and Time are the two biggest factors. Cutting teeth on AL adventures and learning to schedule your own games from there is a pretty good tool for developing both personal skill, confidence and time management.