When and why did you stop playing D&D and other TTRPGs?

MGibster · Jul 14, 2019

I stopped playing TTRPGs when I was in graduate school. I was working 40 hours a week, I had 15 hours of classes. and I was working on my thesis so I didn't have time to attend a game on a regular basis never mind run one. Once I graduated I got back to playing.

MNblockhead · Jul 15, 2019

Dannyalcatraz said:
After being introduced to gaming in 1977, I haven’t played since...2016? 2017? No significant gaps besides this current dry spell.

The why? Well, I sort of had a falling out with my game group of 20 or so years about communication. There were other factors as well, but that was the proverbial straw. I haven’t seen any of them in person since December or January.

And for a variety of reasons, I really haven’t felt like finding new players to game with. I know some, but I don’t think I would be a good mix with them, again, for many reasons.

I don’t consider myself as having given up the hobby, though. I’m just waiting...

This post BEGS for a follow-up. Sorry that you've had a fall out with a group you've been playing with for 20 years. Sounds like it is more than just leaving the group, if you've not even seen any of them outside of gaming for over half a year.

Have your tried organized play, meetup.com, or Roll20 for one shots? Good way to try different games, meet new players, and if things don't gel, well, it's only one session.

Dannyalcatraz · Jul 15, 2019

Well, like I said, part of the reason was communication. I have continued to text & email one guy in particular, but he has been very spotty about responding. I was invited to- and attended- the annual celebratory dinner in Dec/Jan. But that was the last time I saw any of them face to face.

The guy in the group that I’ve known since 1985 hasn’t reached out at all. My house phone number hasn’t changed since 1998, and my cell phone hasn’t changed in a decade or so.

As to finding another group or something, I simply haven’t tried looking for anything at all. It’s not like getting back into dating after breaking up with a girlfriend, but there is an analogous lack of inclination to get back into that social situation. The effort. The uncertainty.

Plus, I do have a lot to do right now. The inertia of an ongoing, active group was a key factor in letting me continue gaming.

aramis erak · Jul 15, 2019

Dannyalcatraz said:
As to finding another group or something, I simply haven’t tried looking for anything at all. It’s not like getting back into dating after breaking up with a girlfriend, but there is an analogous lack of inclination to get back into that social situation. The effort. The uncertainty.

Plus, I do have a lot to do right now. The inertia of an ongoing, active group was a key factor in letting me continue gaming.

The organized play option is worth looking at. It's usually drop-in/out on a session by session basis. Much of the fun, none of the commitment.

There's also the convention method of finding a new group...

I know D/FW has a local convention. NTRPGCon.com. (Several Traveller fans have mentioned it.)

PAX-South is in San Antonio - a bit of a drive from Dallas. BGGCon is in Irving, TX, no idea where that is, personally.

Dannyalcatraz · Jul 15, 2019

I appreciate the suggestions.

I used to live in Irving. It’s the Dallas suburb just south of Coppell- my current suburb of residence.

I’ve lived in the D/FW Metroplex since 1982: I know what’s available in terms of cons (not really interested) and game stores in several of the cities in our 4 counties. Even while gaming in a stable group formed in 1985- which in 1998 essentially merged with the group I just left- I found other groups to game with in San Antonio (college), Austin (law school) and even Irving (different systems) at some point or another.

But right now is just not the time to find a new game.

Scott Christian · Jul 15, 2019

Like many, got married, moved and didn't have a group. Lasted for almost 10 years. What a drab time.

Zhaleskra · Jul 15, 2019

Stopped? I've never really stopped. Long pauses, sure. With the sole exception of D&D: 4e didn't appeal to me in anyway, and while it may not be fair, I see 5e as "damage control" and "too little, too late". Additionally, I came to the point where I asked myself "how many times am I going to buy the 'same' game?".

jasper · Jul 15, 2019

Stopped in 2004 due becoming parent to my parents, got tired of my group, needed more time with wife. Restarted around May 2016.
My old group was a mixed of SCA and just D&D players. Since I couldn't do SCA due to caretaker role, gaming was my only downtime. However old group wanted to move Sunday gaming, 30 minutes away. No problem there. But they wanted to do multiple systems; a little problem here. And not only were they always late to start they wanted to still play 4 plus hours once they started. This cut into my Sunday home time with wife. Since they wouldn't start on time, I got tired of them and quit.

Ralif Redhammer · Jul 15, 2019

Also when I first went off to college. I went to a place where I knew absolutely no one. Nevermind that playing D&D would probably have helped me make friends, for I was terribly shy at that point in my life.

In the last two years, I started running an AD&D game back at home during the summer and had a lot of fun. A bunch of my fellow musicians all discovered that we used to play D&D and wanted to give it a try again. But then that trailed off again until news of the Lord of the Rings trilogy being made hit. I can’t understate how just seeing that Quicktime trailer reinvigorated my love of fantasy again.

MNblockhead said:
What cause me to stop is going to college. I got together with some gamers maybe one or twice in my freshman year, but most of my new friends were not gamers and school, work, and other activities took focus and ended up selling all my gaming material.

drl2 · Jul 15, 2019

In the mid 80s the couple of small and occasional groups of gamers I played with just kind of drifted apart, pulled away by the usual stuff - jobs, school, dating, etc. Through college, marriage, career, and parenthood, I always kind of had it in the back of my head that I'd like to get back into it, but I never really took the steps to connect with a group. Then a little over a year ago my teenaged daughters said, "It might be fun to start a game of something like D&D," and I shouted, "YESSS!", and now we alternate between campaigns in two different RPGs in once-a-week sessions, and I've gotten fairly seriously into crafting terrain for the games.