Quote from: Captain Rufus;356423Those of you that could magically form a new group in under a month ought to count yourselves lucky.

In my area its virtually IMPOSSIBLE to get an active group going.

Are you anywhere near the Groton, CT submarine base? We always had guys willing to game from there.

Quote from: jeff37923;356437Are you anywhere near the Groton, CT submarine base? We always had guys willing to game from there.

Bit north of there, about 45 minutes or so.  People don't want to drive more than 20 around here.  No posters I ever put up at the Citadel did much either. A couple LARP troupes wanting me to join (LARP + White Wolf + Weekends = NO), and a couple D&D requests.

My group such as it is' biggest problem is that we:
A: Are unavailable weekends.
B: Want to play more than D&D/Magic/40K.
C: We used to have this douche who because he had a kid (and later popped out 3 more) acted like we should all play at his convenience and his leisure.  And he changed schedules roughly every 9 months or so.  This generally kept anyone from sticking around too long as schedules continued to get hosed every time he (understandably) got a new position or timeslot.  He just seemed to think we were playing FOR him and not WITH him.  It ran more than a few people off.  One dude I had recruited from one of those meetup type sites even in a Yahoo group told him he needed anger management.  

I don't even want to get into that bit.

This REALLY puts a dampener on getting a group going.  In the near decade of putting up player's wanted posters I have maybe gotten 2 players to come on down and give us a shot, and only 1 stayed.  (Though he hasn't even played in 3 months due to family concerns.  I have honestly written him completely off by this point.)

I've gotten a few through online but either due to work, they not liking what we play, or distance only 1 has stayed, and I don't actively play with him since he does 4e in our splinter Thursday group which is mostly comprised of friends of the various players biweekly and the other game they have been running is pretty shite.  (I and the guy above both didn't play in the other Thursday game more than a session or two.  I'd talk about WHY, but as its some secret hush hush fan project game by a friend of the Thursday host even me minorly complaining about a bit of it on IRC without mentioning a single thing about the game got my friend angry at me.  I've explained to that GM why I quit though.  He took it well enough.)

I quit the monthly White Wolf Changeling LARP because I like games where characters are dickheads (something WW games seem to want and attract) in political power struggles.

My Tuesday group has mostly devolved into the "weekly cancel group but always last minute so my schedule gets FUCKED" since its only 2 other people at the moment and one as mentioned is pretty much a write off at the moment.

I play 40K on Wednesdays, but the group is mostly early 20 somethings and they aren't exactly people I would ever spend time with outside of gaming, and some I have issues with even that.  They all but sound like the kinds of people you hear on X Box Live in some cases.  

Being a dickhead isn't my scene.   I know I am not the most fuzzy wuzzy cuddly wuddly person in the world, but I generally do try to be as nice as I can.

I would just call on the other people in my game circle. I run short (8-18 session) closed-ended campaigns, and after each one at least one player leaves and another comes in. So I know 3-4 game groups' worth of gamers, and indirectly 3-4 other game groups - since ex-players of mine join other groups, some current players will be in another one at the same time, etc.

Gamers come and go from groups and campaigns all the time anyway, may as well plan for it.

In the past it's taken 1 week when I was really organised, 2 weeks if I took my time to prepare some campaign materials and make sure the mix of players was right. It's not happened since I got married, but only because I've been slack. And there's the thing - if I don't organise it, it doesn't happen. I mean, we're talking about gamers here.

Quote from: Kellri;356422Being a hardcore gamer in Southeast Asia has brought me to realize that ANY group of people ANYWHERE is a potential gaming group. If I'm there, and in the mood for a game, I'm going to suggest it. I've played with university professors, Buddhist monks, Korean elementary students, trading company secretaries, and retired war veterans, both American and Vietnamese. Call it the Campaign of Dreams - if you build it they will come (even if you have to call them).

Word. If there are no gamers near you, you can try to create them.

Quote from: Imperator;356466Word. If there are no gamers near you, you can try to create them.

So...what?  Roll them up randomly, or point-buy?

!i!

Quote from: Ian Absentia;356468So...what?  Roll them up randomly, or point-buy?

!i!

Randomly, I think. Though it would be interesting to have a group of optimized gamers, with high social skills, intelligent and lots of positive character traits, and filthy rich, that wouldn't be physically competent

I am doing 6 cons a year now so I don't miss having a regular group, except for my monthly FLGS 4e meetup.  I am considering adding two more gaming vacation weekends this year.   Travelling around and gaming hither and yon has been a blast.  

I find that I enjoy getting my gaming in big chunks.    The advantage for me is that con gamers are there to game.  We sit down, we toss dice, we go home and all the focus is on having fun during the session.

If WotC ever gets that damn online game table, I might consider running virtually in the future if the tools were great.

Quote from: RPGPundit;356309Would you call it quits?

Don't be silly.

QuoteWould you go out looking for new players?

Well, only other option, really.

QuoteIf so, would you know where to look?

The good thing about this being a small country is that there's one single RPG forum worth mentioning, so I'd know where to post if I wanted to set up a Hungarian language group. And the good thing about being familiar with the English-speaking expat community is that I could fish around there if I wanted an English group.

QuoteWhat methods would you use to get a group again?

For an English group: "You know X, Y, Z and W? They used to play in my group before moving to Reykjavik! It's a cool game for cool people, give it a try."
Where X is a black DJ whom nobody would think of as nerdy, Y is a well-known antiques dealer and transportation expert, Z someone who used to work the NGO circuit, and W a retired US diplomat and popular party animal.

QuoteHow easy do you think that would be to do in your area?

If I was content running any sort of game, easy as pie. If I insisted on running to games I like, a tad less simple, but doable.

Quote from: KellriI've played with university professors, Buddhist monks

I'd love to hear the story, if you'd care to share.

Quote from: Ian Absentia;356392Are you insane? At your own apartment? This is like responding to one of those God-awful pop-up windows that suggest "Have hot, random sex NOW within 5 miles of your ZIP code -- 16 people are currently available."  Eew.

Huh. I wouldn't invite random strangers into my home, but I gotta give Maw props for refusing to buy into the stereotype of gamers as mouthbreathing dangerous freaks.

Quote from: RPGPundit;356309Let's say that for whatever reason, everyone in your gaming group drops out. They all move to Rekjavik or something.

I'd like to move to Rekjavik.

Quote from: RPGPundit;356309So tomorrow, completely unexpectedly, you have no gaming group.

I'm already there.

Quote from: RPGPundit;356309Would you call it quits?

No, but I have considered it. However, a face-to-face gaming group isn't the only option for playing, so there's really no reason to quit altogether.

Quote from: RPGPundit;356309Would you go out looking for new players?

When I'm ready I will. RIght now I don't have the time to commit to playing due to school and work, but when things lighten up a bit in a few months I'll start looking for players.

Quote from: RPGPundit;356309If so, would you know where to look?

Sure. It's not like gamers are invisible.

Quote from: RPGPundit;356309What methods would you use to get a group again?

Pundy, has the fact that we live in a time of unparalleled social networking completely gotten past you?

Anyway, we have a couple of active local meetups here in the LB/OC, there's Facebook, Obsidian Portal/Pen-and-Paper Games, other gaming forums, and my local gaming stores.

Quote from: RPGPundit;356309How easy do you think that would be to do in your area?

If I had an interest in playing AD&D, no problem at all. I'd be gaming in a couple of weeks.

But for the games I like and would prefer to play, realistically, it's a challenge. My tastes run to a tiny niche within the tiny niche that is our hobby.

Quote from: Balbinus;356382Really?  I mean, I've played with random people at cons, a significant proportion of them are utter fucknuts, either weird or utterly passive or some other style of too strange to happily have in your home.  LFR or not, I'd screen those people.

Abyssal Maw is one of those utter fucknuts . . .

Quote from: RPGPunditWould you call it quits?

Not permanently. I'm in the middle of a break to focus on school.

QuoteWould you go out looking for new players?

When I have the time to run a game again I will. Maybe. In all honesty, last campaign (my only real campaign so far) had one of my players twisting my arm into starting up a game.

QuoteIf so, would you know where to look?

It's hardly a special skill. There are gamers everywhere. If for some reason none of the 20 or 30 local gamers I already knew could make it, I'd probably just teach new gamers. Geek shit's mainstream now, and there are plenty out there who are curious but never tried it out.

QuoteWhat methods would you use to get a group again?

I'd create a FB group and send out an invite to all eligible gamers and anybody else I feel like inviting. This'd get me at least 10 people usually, which is good because usually I'll lose a bunch of that original group and get a bunch of friends of friends before things settle down.

QuoteHow easy do you think that would be to do in your area?

Very easy. I'm blessed to live in a gaming area and to have a knack for meeting new people who play.

I might actually run a game online for some friends from highschool, so... yeah... possibly different answers for my next game as opposed to my last.

Quote from: Thanlis;356517Huh. I wouldn't invite random strangers into my home, but I gotta give Maw props for refusing to buy into the stereotype of gamers as mouthbreathing dangerous freaks.

Dude.  I know my people.  There are stereotypes, and then there are prevailing trends.

!i!

Quote from: Ian Absentia;356581Dude.  I know my people.  There are stereotypes, and then there are prevailing trends.

!i!

It's not as bad as you make it out to be. Also keep in mind that I don't offer an open invitation to show up every week. It's just a single sesion and a couple of hours-- I have an apartment with a security gate and a non-working buzzer, so if I never want to see you again, it's not too hard to do that either.

There's one two guys in my area - ok maybe three guys. (and by 'my area' I mean, the greater Baltimore area)  I would never invite, but I already know them by name and reputation. Thanlis knows one of them, because he was DMing for the guy when I met him (big Pathfinder fan, by the way- no, that isn't a jab). So word gets around. I've hosted people from MD, Pennsylvania, DC, and VA, just put the invite out and had them show up. It's been fine.

But this is not to say I haven't had bad experiences... the only one that sticks out is a guy with actual mental health issues who showed up only once at a 3E game in 2002 or 2003. In my immediate groups (we all know his name). On the plus side, the guy is a real D&D hater so I doubt I will have to deal with him. Anyone in the Baltimore area who posts here that needs to know a name and a story, feel free to PM. (I think this person is actually dangerous, so I don't put that out lightly). Oh, and you could interview this guy to till the cows came home and never realize what danger you were in until later. Has anyone read the Sociopath Next Door?

I game every week, and I'm mostly connected well enough to know who not to invite before the fact. One thing I notice? Most of the real freaks don't even have cars.

Quote from: Abyssal Maw;356598One thing I notice? Most of the real freaks don't even have cars.

There not freaks they are doing their bit for the environment

Quote from: jibbajibba;356603There not freaks they are doing their bit for the environment

I was assuming inability to hold down job/qualify for insurance, etc. Maybe that is harsh! Lord knows I would be screwed if I lost my car. Well, kinda.