How do you Recruit New Players to a In-Person Group

[Easy e]

Greetings all,

Simple question, hard answers.

How do you go about recruiting a new player to an existing, in-person group that has an opening? Tell your story?

Our group recently had a long time, well-liked, and skilled player move away. We play a variety of games, with 5E being the baseline game. We have about 4 GMs and lead in a rotation of short campaigns. We meet consistently at the same time and place each week.

We would prefer to recruit another female player who has some experience with RPGs. Obviously, it is an in-person group so we have to be able to get along well. We are a rather rambunctious group with a lot of cross-talk who are friends outside of the the game, but that friendship came from the table. We are all adults in various stages of life and careers.

I look forward to your stories and suggestions. Thanks!

[Buufreak]

There are plenty of places online to post looking for locals. Facebook groups, discord servers.

If I may, why particularly a female player?

[Atranen]

For me, the best way has been to involve myself with the local RPG community, by investing time in AL and other community spaces. Then you can meet a lot of new players and see if they're a good fit.

Absent time for that, I see people posting listings on discords for the FLGS, sometimes having a questionnaire (Google form) for prospective players. It's tricky though, because it's hard to know if someone will be a good fit until you've played with them.

I have found some quality games through meetup before. I've also found some dreadful ones.

[KorvinStarmast]

Each of your RL friends in your RL group has friends, including you.
Plan 1:
Invite a friend.
See how it works out.
Plan 2:
Talk to all of your friends (all of you do this) and see if they know someone interested in trying out RPGs.

Use your current social network to your advantage.

[Vahnavoi]

Put up advertisement in your social media and local hobby spaces, telling what you're playing, when and who to contact. Or go hold an open table game at a convention or a club, see who shows up and then ask if they're interested in joining your longer-term group once you've seen them play.

[Mastikator]

Sometimes I tell stories of what my players do and the fun shenanigans they get up to. Then I casually let slip that my table is open for guest players.
Sometimes I also tell friends that they should give TTRPG a try.

Yeah neither approaches work. Almost everyone I know is interested in TTRPG... but not interested enough to try it out even once at no cost or strings attached :smallannoyed:

[False God]

Either go to a store I trust and post a "want ad" or host some one-shot games there to get a feel for people. I wouldn't recommend a want ad if you're looking for someone of a specific sex. You'd be better served IME, by showing up with your group there.

Otherwise, leverage your friends to get one of their friends. IMO, this has been my more successful approach to getting women to join.

[Easy e]

To answer a few questions,

1. Why a Female Player
When the group started we had 3, now we are down to 1 and we want to bring it back up to 2. It is a preference but not a requirement. The first requirement is being able to attend on relatively consistently, and some compatibility is the second major requirement. Female is a preference.

2. Asking friends
In the past, we have had an audience of 2-4 players, but COVID killed that and we have not really had an audience since. We generally pulled new players from the audience when needed as they had proven they would show up consistently. Recruiting is a relatively new phenomena.

Most of our remaining friends are not into RPGs. Plus, we are looking for someone familiar with the game and not introduce newbies. We have done a lot of that before and want something a bit different if possible.

3. Recruiting online/game store
We live in a relatively rural, low-population area. There really isn't a local game store, convention, or club within hours of us. There are some HS groups out there, but we are looking for adults. We actually meet in and play at a bar!



Some great ideas here so far. Perhaps we can post something at the local public library, a nearby community college, or at a few local coffee shops/bars.

Perhaps we could also play a game or two at a more public venue to try and rebuild the audience pool. I have been toying with the idea of a "charity" game. Maybe that would attract some eye-balls and interest?

I think about how I joined, and it was at a larger social event. We were at a random table with some folks, and I made a stupid D&D themed joke. This led to a former member of the party asking me if I played. We were then invited to observe and eventually made the cut to play. Perhaps I need to just go out more often and make more D&D jokes!?!

[Vahnavoi]

If you play at a bar, hold an open game at the bar. Presumably you're not the only customers there.

[gbaji]

If you play at a bar, hold an open game at the bar. Presumably you're not the only customers there.

I was going to suggest this. IME, one of the best ways to recruit people is to be in an environment where people can see the game being played, and then talk to those who express an interest/curiosity in it, and see if they work out. Then again, it's entirely possible that everyone who attends that bar and is interested in RPGs is already playing in your game, so...

I was fortunate that I grew up with some cousins who were similar age and also interested in RPGs, so we basically all played together, along with various friends we had (seriously, my cousins' dad's place turned into a kinda silly level hang out place when we were teens). And that more or less continued through my adult life. But my other primary gaming group developed as a result of playing/GMing at game tourneys. We'd chat about games with folks there, play games with them, and get an idea of who we might want to invite and who might be interested in our game. We actually had a pretty decent track record of picking/finding good players that way. Actually, the only player we ever had who was an actual problem, was the one player we *didn't* pick up this way (one of our players worked in a bookstore, and had a customer who literally overheard him talking about the game with another friend, and just kinda popped up and introduced himself).

Um... But living in a more remote area, that may be problematic. I might still see if there are any game stores running games somewhat nearby. The occasional Saturday day trip to someplace with various players (actually playing games) might be worth it, if you can pick up a new player. I've just found that by far the best way to determine who might be a good fit for a game is to actually play with a player first. Anything based on just talking about gaming, either in person or online, is kind of a pot-luck thing IMO.

[GreenDragonPage]

Play in store-run Adventurer's League and Pathfinder Society events. It is a great way to meet new people and see how they actually play at the table. :smallsmile: