How do *you* find players for your campaigns?

[Lancer]

I was curious as to how other fellow DMs/GMs find players for their campaigns. Do you all just have lifelong buddies that you play with that you met long time ago through school/work? Or do you guys put ads online in gaming sites, in stores etc? Or just bug the neighbors to play? Or some other method?

 

Basically, my questions for GMs/DMs comes down to:

 

-What is the main method(s) you use to locate players for your campaigns? Has it become harder to get players now (especially with the steady popularity of CCGs )?

 

-And has it become difficult to run campaigns as family or work committments increase for you and your players? In my particular situation, I am a full-time grad student doing research so it is probably close to impossible to be doing any serious GMing.

[EnderAndrew]

Mainly through friends. I have become semi-elitist in who I game with.

 

I do occassionally run games for newer players who are referred through friends.

 

My time in the Camarilla introduced me to hundreds of new roleplayers.

[Reveilled]

I talk about it with my other players at parties until someone comes up and asks what the hell I'm talking about, and then I start my sales pitch.

[Walsingham]

I have age-old buddies who I play with. And it's more or less a means to keep the drinking going.

[EnderAndrew]

I take the drugs and imagine the other players.

 

Then I go to church, and Jesus exorcises the D&D demons away.

[Jediphile]

I play almost exclusively with the same old crowd I've known for years and years, and even then I tend to be choosy about who I play with.

 

If I meet new players, it's usually because someone in the group wants to introduce someone else to the game, but that doesn't happen very often.

 

A notable difference was about five years ago, when I met a guy in the local gaming store (which is now closed ) and got to talk with him. We both liked Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and he tried to get me to join the Last Unicorn Games version of Star Trek, that I already knew, but hadn't actually gotten around to playing.

 

So I said yes, and we played Trek RPG for years. Can't complain since my PC ended up in the captain's chair, but the others seemed to think it was fun also. That added many new players to the people I game with, and those are mostly the same people I've played Exalted with until recently.

[Lancer]

I don't seem to have as much free time as I used to. I am a full-time graduate student, not married yet, but that won't be too far around the corner.

 

I am assuming some of you are married, might have kids, or even be students like I am. Where the heck do you find the time to game?

[Jediphile]

I don't seem to have as much free time as I used to. I am a full-time graduate student, not married yet, but that won't be too far around the corner.

 

I am assuming some of you are married, might have kids, or even be students like I am. Where the heck do you find the time to game?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Actually two of my players are married... to each other. They have two children now, and she was *demanding* that the rest of us gather at the table to play a day or so after giving birth! I must be doing somthing right as GM...

 

I just talked to her yesterday because I have to move and therefore may have to shut the campaign down a little before I intended, but she was adamant that we should continue playing, even though they both work full time jobs and have little spare time with two kids growing up. I guess she's been infected badly with RPG-fever

[metadigital]

Throw knifes at people. The ones that don't move are perfect.

[Walsingham]

I'd suggest waiting until you complete your qualification. being a working stiff occupies the body, but not always the mind.

 

Like I say, the gaming just happens while we're chatting. It's a way of being entertaining, without repeating stories based on fact but we all know already!

[Lancer]

Is it possible to be married, successfully raise a family, work AND run a satisfying campaign?

[6 Foot Invisible Rabbit]

Head here: www.enworld.org

 

Sign up to their forums and see if there are anyone in your area that games.

[metadigital]

Is it possible to be married, successfully raise a family, work AND run a satisfying campaign?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's hard enough to keep fit (mind and body), raise a family and enjoy a career. That said, if one manages scarce resources, then efficiency brings benefits.

 

It means having a schedule, and sticking to it, no matter what. Just like going to work from nine till five, have a monthly, fornightly, weekly, bi-weekly social gathering for gaming, for a set period of time (with allowances for running over, say a lack of sleep) and it's possible.

 

(Easy to say, try making that happen with a screaming neo-natal depriving you of sleep, or making three seperate sports day return journeys for each child, or ... you get the idea.)

[Ewen Brown]

i kidnap them and lock them in my dungeon then they either die or live depending on the roll of the dice

[Walsingham]

I personally opt for ditching the children from the equation. Children either confuse me, or bore me. On the few occasions they have been interesting they generally quickly move on to vomiting on me (this actually happens), or stabbing me in the legs (which doesn't actually happen, but I'm sure they'd like to, if I wasn't too wily for them).

 

As the man Bill Hicks once said 'You're not a human being until you're in my phone book'.

[metadigital]

...

As the man Bill Hicks once said 'You're not a human being until you're in my phone book'.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I wonder who he bequeathed his phone book too?

 

This is the question! Who is real?!

[Cantousent]

Tom foolery!

 

At any rate, I have two DnD groups. One group consists of three people. In that group, I am joined by two friends, one of ten years and one of 20 some odd years.

 

The other group consists of six people. In that group, I am joined by some family and long standing friends.

 

I have plans on trying to subvert... uh, I mean, invite, one of my former classmates who watches our house for us while we're out of town. If she joins, then my wife might actually play again. If that happens, I'll be quite happy.

[metadigital]

What were the odd years like?

[Cantousent]

Think Dante's Inferno mixed with Laugh-in.

[Walsingham]

What were the odd years like?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

God help me. Why do I laugh?! :D

[Loof]

I don't seem to have as much free time as I used to. I am a full-time graduate student, not married yet, but that won't be too far around the corner.

 

I am assuming some of you are married, might have kids, or even be students like I am. Where the heck do you find the time to game?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Umm well I don't think I have played anything except the ocasional one session game for the last five or more years so yeah I have been wondering the same thing...

[EnderAndrew]

Either I have a very active imagination, or they share my padded cell.

[metadigital]

I'm going for the former, but that's only because I don't beleive the mental health system has fallen so far as to isolate people who might pose a threat to themselves and others together.

 

 

Yet.

[Darth_Schmarth]

I have a problem, and you guys might be able to help. See, I like girls, but I don't ever want to get married and have little kiddies. How to tackle?

[metadigital]

Pay for visitations. It's the cheapest way to accomplish your goal.