I'm recruiting new players - how does this sound?

[Nyaricus]

Nah - transit in Winnipeg runs past midnight, actually.

You from the 'Peg too? Or just been there?

Also worth noting Winniprg is Canada's 5th largest city, with a population of over 600,000 people of many races an ethnicities Actually, some study a few years back said we'd be the first in Xanada (if not the world) to have over 50% of the population be of an indigeonous people in descent. Kinda cool, actually

I'm afraid that most of (populated) Canada (and Manitoba in particular) really aren't colder than Minnesota (and many places in Canada are much warmer!).

Nope, looking at a map I'd say a couple degrees celsius at most - not really all that much at all.

 

[Arnwyn]

You from the 'Peg too? Or just been there?

I'm one of the (surprisingly) many ENWorlders from the 'Peg.

 

[Dog Moon]

Actually, to continue the tangent here (and to shamelessly *bump* this thread), you really are not that far from me at all, given everything. That's actually pretty awesome

Me? How close are you to the border of Minnesota?

 

[Nyaricus]

I'm one of the (surprisingly) many ENWorlders from the 'Peg.

Awesome! I am actually surprized at how many there are. I know that one of the guys from Campaign Outfitters (the big, bearded guys with ~one eye) lurks here a lot, along with devilbat and I think one otehr one who I know. It's a nice little cluster, anyways

Me? How close are you to the border of Minnesota?

Here's an inpromptu map of where I beleive you approximately live and where I do.

 

[Emirikol]

Nyarcus:

I feel for you. If you've yet watched "Roleplayed" you'll feel even more depressed about not having enough gamers

Anyways, I keep a PERPETUAL advertisement up here, WOTC, and the various game stores here in Denver, CO USA. I get a couple bites a month. Most of the people I can say, "We're full..but you may contact these other people."

The gamer ad needs the following:
1. To sound like traditional DUNGEONS & DRAGONS gaming. Yea, everybody's looking for a 'different' style of game... Nobody bites on advertisements that sound non-traditional D&D. AS A RULE, people looking for a game group are looking for something familiar FIRST. That's been my experience for the past 10 years.

2. List your CITY (Manitoba right?). Don't list an obscure suburb if you live in one. List the main town.

3. Don't list your time if it seems like it's going to be inconvenient (Friday nights and saturdays are traditionally harder to get players). Why don't list time? Because people look for ANY excuse they can NOT to game (see rule #1 above) becasue people are lazy.

4. Even though you take newbies, don't list it. There are a LOT of experienced gamers who think that because you list 'newbies welcome' that it's going to be tables of 9-year-old kids.

5. TITLE: D&D Players Wanted!!!

6. You don't ahve to list your name in your body text. Leave it at the bottom: CALL RYAN FOR DETAILS AT XXX.XXX.XXXX. Use email too.

7. Body text: don't go into character generation or house rules. It's not necessary.

8. Body text: list some kind of exciting blurb about your campaign. "The old crag tomb north of town hides a sinister secret. Can your group find out what it is?"

9. Body text: it's important to note that it's a NEW GROUP, even if it isn't. Most people are looking for a new group. Nobody wants to feel like a fifth wheel. "New group forming. Experienced DM."

10. keep it short and keep your title large: NEW D&D GROUP FORMING IN WINNIPEG (or wherever you are). D&D PLAYERS WANTED!

11. If you're posting this at a game store, do two things: tell the owner of the store to help you find other gamers (that works really well); AND have little tear-off strips at the bottom of your advertisement that have your NAME, GAME, and phone (or email). I can't tell you how many of those things I see with jsut the phone number. What was that for again?

Check out some of the ad's on ENWORLD's players seeking players. You'll see some really stupid ones, like the ones where people dont' even list the CITY or PROVINCE they're gaming in..nobody checks those. Always list CITY, PROVINCE (or state) and then D&D players wanted for new group.

Keep it up there and bump it occasionally. Expect it to take a while and DON'T JUST TAKE ANYONE TO FILL YOUR GROUP. If someone lives on teh other side of town, doesn't have a job (and is an adult), and sounds flaky, don't take them. In my experience, those three things only end in WASTED TIME AND WASTED CAMPAIGNS. There's nothing worse than working up a campaign, getting three sessions into it, and then the flakes drop out; leaving you to have to either design a new campaign or bring in newbies that are IMPOSSIBLE to bring up to speed like only a new campaign group can.

jh
..

 

[Dog Moon]

Cool, that's definitely not TOO far away.

 

[Nyaricus]

Nyarcus:

I feel for you. If you've yet watched "Roleplayed" you'll feel even more depressed about not having enough gamers

That movie won't work on my computer for some reason....

The gamer ad needs the following:
1. To sound like traditional DUNGEONS & DRAGONS gaming. Yea, everybody's looking for a 'different' style of game... Nobody bites on advertisements that sound non-traditional D&D. AS A RULE, people looking for a game group are looking for something familiar FIRST. That's been my experience for the past 10 years.

Well, how does my add stand up in this part? I play FR and my homebrew Ascension and am willing to DM otehr worlds (DL or DS, for example). Does it count?

2. List your CITY (Manitoba right?). Don't list an obscure suburb if you live in one. List the main town.

kk.

3. Don't list your time if it seems like it's going to be inconvenient (Friday nights and saturdays are traditionally harder to get players). Why don't list time? Because people look for ANY excuse they can NOT to game (see rule #1 above) becasue people are lazy.

okay, that makes sense. AT least more people will check out my add, if that's the case. It's somethign, I suppose.

4. Even though you take newbies, don't list it. There are a LOT of experienced gamers who think that because you list 'newbies welcome' that it's going to be tables of 9-year-old kids.

Of course, I am hoping to get ~18 year old gamers, so getting noobies is likely. I personally wouldn't feel comfortable gaming with a person older unless he was related to a core group memeber. Or he DMed.

I dunno, I guess I was trying to sound as approachable as possible. I also guess this can be a bad thing...

5. TITLE: D&D Players Wanted!!!

Works for me.

6. You don't ahve to list your name in your body text. Leave it at the bottom: CALL RYAN FOR DETAILS AT XXX.XXX.XXXX. Use email too.

I was trying to remember that rule, but I could. So I just started off with "Hi, I'm Ryan...."

I'll have to change that.

7. Body text: don't go into character generation or house rules. It's not necessary.

I added CHarGen because I didn't want to have to deal with poeple coming and being like "where's my dice and PHB?" Despite having 4 PHBs to my name (long story), I'm not a baby sitter.

House Rules will not occur in the qualification round, but will likely swat a few of them in the ass once we get going. Mostly, they end up ehlping the play though

8. Body text: list some kind of exciting blurb about your campaign. "The old crag tomb north of town hides a sinister secret. Can your group find out what it is?"

I am now decided on one of two modules from the feedback from my other thread, so this might have a lot of merit Thanks.

9. Body text: it's important to note that it's a NEW GROUP, even if it isn't. Most people are looking for a new group. Nobody wants to feel like a fifth wheel. "New group forming. Experienced DM."

Good point. Considering only one of my players are experienced (and still not the best player - he still wants to play monks!) so this is a great point/

10. keep it short and keep your title large: NEW D&D GROUP FORMING IN WINNIPEG (or wherever you are). D&D PLAYERS WANTED!

okay, so my text is too long, you're saying? I could trim it a bit, basically?

11. If you're posting this at a game store, do two things: tell the owner of the store to help you find other gamers (that works really well); AND have little tear-off strips at the bottom of your advertisement that have your NAME, GAME, and phone (or email). I can't tell you how many of those things I see with jsut the phone number. What was that for again?

Oh yeah, I'll have a chat with the manager there about this

Check out some of the ad's on ENWORLD's players seeking players. You'll see some really stupid ones, like the ones where people dont' even list the CITY or PROVINCE they're gaming in..nobody checks those. Always list CITY, PROVINCE (or state) and then D&D players wanted for new group.

Keep it up there and bump it occasionally. Expect it to take a while and DON'T JUST TAKE ANYONE TO FILL YOUR GROUP. If someone lives on teh other side of town, doesn't have a job (and is an adult), and sounds flaky, don't take them. In my experience, those three things only end in WASTED TIME AND WASTED CAMPAIGNS. There's nothing worse than working up a campaign, getting three sessions into it, and then the flakes drop out; leaving you to have to either design a new campaign or bring in newbies that are IMPOSSIBLE to bring up to speed like only a new campaign group can.

I am trying to be as professional as possible with the new players. I had to turn down two due to their leaving within the next ~2 months. I am running a pregen module at a game store to keep it neutral, giving out my cell number and seeing if my friends and fellow gamers like the new people. If they do, we keep em until we don't.

Thanks for all your great feedback - it's been a big help. I'll likely work on this tomorrow and crank out a new version. Thanks again so much

 

[Emirikol]

>Well, how does my add stand up in this part? I play FR and my homebrew Ascension and am willing to DM otehr worlds (DL or DS, for example). Does it count?


> Of course, I am hoping to get ~18 year old gamers, so getting noobies is likely. I personally wouldn't feel comfortable gaming with a person older unless he was related to a core group memeber. Or he DMed.

One of the tricks that I've used to get people in our age group is to say, "group is made up of players aged 25-40." You could say something like "14-24 or whatever."


>I added CHarGen because I didn't want to have to deal with poeple coming and being like "where's my dice and PHB?" Despite having 4 PHBs to my name (long story), I'm not a baby sitter.

Yea, that sounds reasonable. I usually discuss that with players after they've inquired.

In fact, we have a "Bring your A game" thing that we go over with all new players. Its basically table rules (cocked die rules, don't be late, bring your books, if you forget your character you get "the loaner" character, you can't leave your character behind and skip a week if you want x.p., etc." We also have a house rulebook that goes over our rule -tweaks.

The single most important thing that I've done however is to start a YAHOOGROUP or GOOGLEGROUP for each different campaign (only current players go in the current yahoogroup, thus not worrying about the hassle of not inviting players back..or you just kick them off the yahoogroup). Doing a website is nice, but it's a lot more work than is necessary when there's stuff out there that's already set up. www.groups.yahoo.com or groups.google.com.

Make sure you make it clear to everyone that you get a chance to try them out and "if you don't fit, no offense."



> I am now decided on one of two modules from the feedback from my other thread, so this might have a lot of merit Thanks.


You could post the adventure 'blurb' on your advertisement.


> okay, so my text is too long, you're saying? I could trim it a bit, basically?


There's a rule in advertising: 3 seconds to catch your headline or you lose them. The rest of the text can be whatever you want, but if you don't catch them with the headline, they walk on by.

I'll see if I can round up a copy of my Ad and attach it to a post here so you've got a format to work with. Oh, one more thing. I always stick a piece of artwork on the advertisement. not big, but enough to show that your game is a cut above the guy who wrote his ad on the back of a playing card with a dying pen...

The key is to get your ad out to every forum you can find (game stores, comic stores, online, hobby shops, etc.) Just don't forget to put your phone number on there

jh

 

[Emirikol]

Here, I've attached an old ad that I used to use at the local game stores. Feel free to modify it as you wish and use it as your own

Hope it helps,

Jay Hafner
Lakewood, CO, USA

 

[Nyaricus]

Thanks! I'll be updating my add tomorrow, taking intoi account all the suggestions thus far

cheers,
--N