Advice needed on how to build interest in DND?

[Moon_Goddess]

I live in a small city, 2000 census list us as 25,919, I have trouble holding a game due to lack of players. I'm thinking that problem could be solved with if more people were interested in playing but I'm looking for advice on how to do that.

We have a game store here in this town, but years ago it lost all interest in roleplaying games. I'm interested in starting the new Wednesday night thing in the game store but I'm worried I'd work it all out with the store owner and no one would show.

What advice do you guys have for me?

 

[S'mon]

Advertise at the games store and any other suitable venues: "I'm looking to start up a D&D group, if interested email me on XXX XXX or call me on XXX" - that'll work much better than hoping people turn up cold at a scheduled time. When people call you, arrange to meet them at a neutral venue - here in England we use pubs, but in the US a diner might be better. They can see if you're a freak and vice versa; you can talk about your game ideas and get their input.

If you get several people call/email in quick succession then you might want to hold a single meeting for everyone, but this can make it harder to reject any players you don't want. Often a good approach is you meeting 1 player, then the 2 of you meeting a third player, and so on.

Once you have at least 2 players, preferably 3, you arrange a place and time to play; if it's available the game store or another neutral venue is probably better than your basement, but your call. You keep the ads going until you have as many players as you want, 5-6 is good.

I'm assuming you're willing to GM, it will be much harder if not, but once the group is going you will probably find other players interested in GMing.

Edit: The WoTC Wednesday night thing should make it a lot easier on you, since you'll be a sort of franchisee and it imparts a bit of authority and hopefully some support.

 

[darjr]

Actually, the first time you probably won't get anyone, or only a few, even if your town is burgeoning with players. Which leads to my first suggestion, keep it up. Keep showing up, keep posting and announcing that your doing it. I have found that sometimes it takes a long lead to get gamers to show up to a public event. Don't be unreasonable about it, however. I'd try to find another group as well, and if you have no one at first then just use the day as a rendezvous.

Book a World Wide D&D game day. The one for PHB3 is soon, there will be two others soon as well. I think one for Darksun and one for Gamma World (could be mistaken, heard it on the podcast).

Get your event on the Wizards event locater, also get your store there, unless it's 'Hall of Heroes', it's already there.

It looks like there is a store and a PHB3 D&D game day up in Winfield Kansas. If your not going to get your store to run it's own, go there. They are also on nearbygamers.com and I'll bet other gamers will be there that are closer to you.

I'll bet that there is already another semi-organized group, find them, and see what you can do to help them, or let them know about your town and store. You might find gamers there who either travel or know other gamers closer to you. 'Local' cons are great for this, if you can, get on board and help them. Others will notice and it'll get you positive cred and you'll be doing something great.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Sorry I should have been more clear, sometimes I think i typed things that don't come out my fingers.


Yes, It's the Wednesday Night D&D Encounters program that I'm looking to get started, and Yes I'm looking to DM it. The game store in question is "Hall of Heroes" They are already listed by WOTC for Magic, but not for DND.

I've got a current game going on, few players but we're working it, but it's a online maptools game and those players wouldn't be able to attend a Public game on Wednesday Nights.

The time I've spend around in places here in town makes me think that posted an ad in the game store wouldn't help. I'm looking for the people who arn't coming to the game store in the first place, how to get them to come into the game store....

 

[Windjammer]

Yes, It's the Wednesday Night D&D Encounters program that I'm looking to get started, and Yes I'm looking to DM it. The game store in question is "Hall of Heroes" They are already listed by WOTC for Magic, but not for DND.

Well, that's excellent! I was going to suggest to transition newcomers from a more familiar i.e. boardgamey product (like the, now sadly defunct, D&D Miniatures) into a fully fledged RPG, but "Wednesday Night D&D Encounters" is certainly a much better way to draw them in.

I'd certainly put up post'ed notes to advertise you're doing this, just like the others recommended. I'd pitch it in terms of 'if' questions...

If you like Lord of the Rings...
If you like boardgames like Descent...
If you like 'choose your own adventure' books...
...then THIS is for you! Because D&D is all of these rolled into one!

Come along for a short and relaxed game, and get some free stuff to take home.

<insert an image from e.g. Mike Shea's photostream>

 

[Rechan]

Social networking sites are useful too. If there's any local things you can find on Facebook or Livejournal, make posts there.

Also Craigslist.

 

[S'mon]

Well, I would pitch it mostly to people who already know they want to play D&D, either they've played before or they've played CRPGs and want the real thing, etc.

Re advertising, I'm spoiled being in London, but the Internet might work for you too - a Meetup group if you can afford it, or Gamers-Seeking-Gamers forums on ENW and rpgnet are something, plus you can set up a blog/facebook page etc.

Re real-world venues, if it's a small town presumably there must be places where potential D&Ders hang out? A college, an entertainment venue (bowls, laser tag, whatever), a particular cafe/diner? I'd think the games store would still be a good start though, especially as you're looking to run an officially WotC-sanctioned event, the store already has a WoTC sanctioned event, and they can maybe order & sell some D&D stuff off the back of it.

You might get some decent advice on the WoTC forums.

 

[darjr]

Then I think you should look into finding them. Go to the PHB3 game day at the other store and see if anyone there is closer to you or knows others who are. At least setup the Wednesday Encounters events let them know about it. Also I'd setup the next couple of game days and tell them.

Look for local cons, rinse, repeat.

I also forgot to look at the RPGA event locator.

There were game days in 09 scheduled at Hall of Heroes. There is contact info for the organizers at the Public Play site at wizards. I suppose I could PM those to you.

 

[maddman75]

That's rough being in a smaller community.

I've had astounding success with Meetup.com. Yes, it costs money, but if you decide to drop the cash to go for it ($12 a month) it has a lot of potential. First of all, you can see if there's a wait list for your city. There might be people already signed up waiting for someone to organize a group.

Now, I'll tell you what I've done, maybe it will work for you. First, I didn't go out to try and find a game or a player for a spot. I went out to build a network of gamers. I started the site, made arrangements with the FLGS for monthly meetup games. Meetup has tools that are very handy for such a thing. Message board, calendar, publishing to Craigslist and Facebook, and good google page rank. I didn't have to do anything, and if you google 'Springfield Illinois Roleplaying', you get us on the first page. Sections for files, polls, and photos are also useful.

The biggest thing is that you have to just do it. Set up your meetup and just hang out with whoever shows up. Have some game material in case no one shows up but a passerby is interested. You're aiming to be the face of your local gaming community. My first meetup there was one guy that showed up, besides my own gaming group. But it grew from there, we've got nearly 50 members, with about a dozen that are active. I've got more gaming than I know what to do with. I'm gaming twice a week, and have invitations to two more games that I'd love to play, but just don't have time.

But there are some things to watch for. First, this is the internet, so there's a high flake factor. About 2/3 of the people who sign up will stop posting after about 2 days (if they post at all) and never come to a meetup. We also maintain a policy that you should come to a meetup before trying to get into a regular game. Its a lot better to see if someone is going to mesh with you personality-wise and game taste wise after you game with them. And well, its nice to meet an internet person face-to-face before letting them know where you live.

As for the meetups, we started with a single game in the evening, but moved it to Saturday so we could play two games. We've gotten large enough that we're doing four games at a time. We don't do campaigns, its a group of one-shots every month. I think that's a part of the success - people are committing to a campaign, they're just coming to meet some gamers and try out some games. We generally vote on what's being played, and it has worked out really well. Last one we did 4e D&D, d20 Conan, Don't Rest Your Head, Dungeon Slayers, and Kill Puppies for Satan. Lots of fun .

Anyway, this is what has worked for me. There's a link in the sig if you want to check out the site. We've been going for over a year now and just keep getting stronger .