Suggestions for finding a new group to play with

[Stone-Ears]

Hey all!

So, I'm kind of a noob when it comes to the D&D world as a whole. I've only ever played with one group of people and played a few different campaigns with them. We ideally like to play every other weekend but so many real-life issues come up. All of us except for one have Significant Others that keep making plans on the nights of the game and us being as flexible as we are, we just postpone it. This keeps happening and it would be weeks between sessions if not months. Because of this, we barely remember anything that we did last time.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to find a new group of folks that I can play with in addition to my current group. I love the sessions that my current group does have but I'm also looking to try and find something that may be a bit more stable and regular.

I'm deaf, so I'm kind of hoping that anything online would have chat rooms and stuff. The more visual it is, the better for me.

Can y'all help me out?

[stoutstien]

Hey all!

So, I'm kind of a noob when it comes to the D&D world as a whole. I've only ever played with one group of people and played a few different campaigns with them. We ideally like to play every other weekend but so many real-life issues come up. All of us except for one have Significant Others that keep making plans on the nights of the game and us being as flexible as we are, we just postpone it. This keeps happening and it would be weeks between sessions if not months. Because of this, we barely remember anything that we did last time.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to find a new group of folks that I can play with in addition to my current group. I love the sessions that my current group does have but I'm also looking to try and find something that may be a bit more stable and regular.

I'm deaf, so I'm kind of hoping that anything online would have chat rooms and stuff. The more visual it is, the better for me.

Can y'all help me out?


I'm currently learning a little ASL for a deaf player who has joined our monthly one shot session at our local library. If you have stone ears I have lead finger I can't even do some of the basic ones. 'what are you doing?' keeps slipping my mind.

How rural of an area do you live in?
To you prefer digital or in person games?
Any Local game stores?

I think books a million is starting a company wide program to start being a location for gaming nights if you live near one.

[Stone-Ears]

I'm currently learning a little ASL for a deaf player who has joined our monthly one shot session at our local library. If you have stone ears I have lead finger I can't even do some of the basic ones. 'what are you doing?' keeps slipping my mind.

How rural of an area do you live in?
To you prefer digital or in person games?
Any Local game stores?

I think books a million is starting a company wide program to start being a location for gaming nights if you live near one.

Hah, yeah it takes a bit of practice to get the hang of it, just like any other language. It's real cool that you're doing that for the deaf player that joins you.

As far as how rural an area, I actually live in Kansas City. So I probably do have some options available to me, but I just don't know what they are or where to start looking.

digital or in person: unsure. Digital might be more deaf friendly, especially if it has more visuals and an option for text based stuff. But all I've ever done is in person so I'm not sure which I would prefer.

I'll have to check my area for local game stores and see if they do D&D sessions and If I can join up

[stoutstien]

Hah, yeah it takes a bit of practice to get the hang of it, just like any other language. It's real cool that you're doing that for the deaf player that joins you.

As far as how rural an area, I actually live in Kansas City. So I probably do have some options available to me, but I just don't know what they are or where to start looking.

digital or in person: unsure. Digital might be more deaf friendly, especially if it has more visuals and an option for text based stuff. But all I've ever done is in person so I'm not sure which I would prefer.

I'll have to check my area for local game stores and see if they do D&D sessions and If I can join up

As much as I dislike adventures league it has a large following and in any large city you can find a session just about everyday.

There is also the play by post style online games gitpg has a subform for it.

[Stone-Ears]

As much as I dislike adventures league it has a large following and in any large city you can find a session just about everyday.

There is also the play by post style online games gitpg has a subform for it.

I'm interested in the play by post style online games. I'll check out gitpg for it.

[Sigreid]

Second AL. I'd bet a fair number of participants are scouting for home games.

[J-H]

Play By Post is very slow... look for a weekly game using Discord or Roll20. Both are digital platforms that support live chat programs. I think they support voice chat as well... not sure.

My wife picked up some ASL through a 6 week class at church (we have a few deaf people and an interpreter), and my 5 year old is using it when spelling things out. Good stuff. I am low dexterity and can't spell things out very fast. My understanding is that ASL has a smaller total word count than regular written/conversational English. Does that impact playing D&D? I would imagine there's not a standard ASL word for things like "Fireball" or "Mordenkainen's Mansion" or "Aboleth."

[stoutstien]

Second AL. I'd bet a fair number of participants are scouting for home games.

*Raises hand shamelessly*
I do fill in if needed when needed but I don't enjoy running published materials and magic Mart can go back to 3e and stay there.

[stoutstien]

Play By Post is very slow... look for a weekly game using Discord or Roll20. Both are digital platforms that support live chat programs. I think they support voice chat as well... not sure.

My wife picked up some ASL through a 6 week class at church (we have a few deaf people and an interpreter), and my 5 year old is using it when spelling things out. Good stuff. I am low dexterity and can't spell things out very fast. My understanding is that ASL has a smaller total word count than regular written/conversational English. Does that impact playing D&D? I would imagine there's not a standard ASL word for things like "Fireball" or "Mordenkainen's Mansion" or "Aboleth."

Fireball is an upside-down karate chop over a fist then spirit fingers i think lol. My player is a light cleric so i see it a lot

[Stone-Ears]

Synonyms to words are often signed the same and so that contributes to lower word count. As for if it affects D&D, that would be entirely up to the deaf player. I typically play supporting characters and am efficient in combat when deciding on things so communication isn't really an issue. The table I play with knows me really well and helps to accommodate me for the things I miss so I'm not missing anything important from the game.

For most of D&D related stuff, we might create signs for it if it was an all deaf group so we're not fingerspelling everything. ASL is very open to new signs being made as long as it is understood by those who you use it with.

I also don't mind if play by post is slower to resolve situations. It's more the interaction I'm craving.

[stoutstien]

DND beyond, Reddit, and a few other sites have play by post

[KorvinStarmast]

... look for a weekly game using Discord or Roll20. I did this a few years ago. Looked for a roll20 game. Still with that group and it's been over two years. The in-game chat is OK: the voice and video used to be very good but as time went on I kept running into bugs. So, we play in game and we use discord for chat. (If we all used the same browser I suspect that the in game r20 voice would be better)

[Stone-Ears]

DND beyond, Reddit, and a few other sites have play by post

I'll have to check those out for sure. I also applied for a few in gitpg but we'll see if I'm accepted. I'm even willing to learn new games to try it out.

[J-H]

Fireball is an upside-down karate chop over a fist then spirit fingers i think lol. My player is a light cleric so i see it a lot
That's great, thank you.


Synonyms to words are often signed the same and so that contributes to lower word count. As for if it affects D&D, that would be entirely up to the deaf player. I typically play supporting characters and am efficient in combat when deciding on things so communication isn't really an issue. The table I play with knows me really well and helps to accommodate me for the things I miss so I'm not missing anything important from the game.

For most of D&D related stuff, we might create signs for it if it was an all deaf group so we're not fingerspelling everything. ASL is very open to new signs being made as long as it is understood by those who you use it with.

I also don't mind if play by post is slower to resolve situations. It's more the interaction I'm craving.
Cool, makes sense.

My wife pointed out that with only 1 deaf player in the group, lip reading could potentially be viable as well, as long as people are looking up instead of staring down at their dice and/or character sheets.

[Bjarkmundur]

Print-out ads at local gameshop is a trend in some cities. If it's not, I suggest you make it a trend.
As for online pen-and-paper, I have no experience, but this is a good place to start. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?51-Finding-Players-(Recruitment))

[Aprender]

Stone ears is proving, once again, that variant human is a more interesting build.

I have standard ears that I have taken for granted and have never taken the bonus feat: ASL.

Kudos to you for doing the extra work to pursue a hobby you enjoy.