Anything but D&D

[Necropolitan]

This is why I got into play by post roleplaying. It's way easier to find non-D&D campaigns to join/players to join them because you can draw from people around the world.

I'd be happy to help with suggesting how to get involved in play by post if you're interested.

 

[zakael19]

Washington state, USA, but I'm open to running on Discord. I've been doing gaming on Discord and before that other platforms for many years.

Look, I can’t speak to the general attractiveness of what you want to play/run, but Reddit is a great place to find groups. The r/LFG sub is hopping, even if it is mainly 5e. I’ve filled well over 7 games through there with quality groups that have become online friends, a number of whom do little short-shot games to try random rules with. Also, many games have dedicated discords with supporting LFG channels - Dolmenwood/OSE/OSR/4e/etc etc.

 

[Distracted DM]

You could also check individual games' Discord servers/community/forums. For example, the Shadowdark and DCC Discord servers have dedicated LFG sections which are very busy.

 

[MNblockhead]

Seriously, does anyone here besides me play anything else? I've got four game stores where I live and can't find so much as one other player for anything that isn't D&D.

Yep, but it is hard to keep discussions going here on specific game systems. It is almost always more rewarding to go to a forum on Reddit, Discord, etc. that is dedicated to the game. My current main campaign that I've been running for a year now is Warhammer Fantasy. But I play a lot of one shots online and at my friendly local game convention (Gamehole con is my current annual gaming pilgrimage.

As others have said, online play is the best way to play more obscure game systems. Meetup.com used to be a good place to find gamers, but I've found it to be less useful.

I've been to three stores here. None of them want anything in store other than D&D.

See up-thread where I stated that none of the stores has a game wanted posting board, and also discussed the lack of engagement on their Discords.

A fairly nearby game store in my area has an online events calendar where DMs can post games for people to sign up. I've used that to try out some new games. In my previous city, I would just post a looking for players sheet on the community board that they the stores have. Sucks that your local gaming stores don't have a way for people to post calls for players.

 

[Wandering Beekeeper]

You could also check individual games' Discord servers/community/forums. For example, the Shadowdark and DCC Discord servers have dedicated LFG sections which are very busy.

Shadowdark is D&D. You didn't read the opening of this thread.

 

[TiQuinn]

Shadowdark is D&D. You didn't read the opening of this thread.

You didn’t say anything about Shadowdark, and if that’s how you respond to people trying to help out…

 

[Basic Expert]

I haven't played in game stores and don't spend much time there, but my impression from looking at schedule boards that it's almost all D&D 5E with a much smaller subset of Pathfinder and OSR. Maybe the odd Starfinder game. D&D and or some variant of D&D. I think it's a self-fulfilling cycle: people know D&D and want to play D&D so people run D&D games in these places. People haven't heard of Savage Worlds or whatnot so don't know to ask for it or join a game if one is offered.

Your best bet is gaming conventions to play different systems.

Other game systems do get played, but in home campaigns among friend groups. Our group plays D&D variants (Pathfinder, 13th Age) far more than D&D itself and we also play Fate, Call of Cthulhu, PbtA, and a bunch of systems of my own devising. Some of us have been playing together for 30+ years and we started with several non-D&D systems, so we always had a broad mindset when it comes to games.

 

[aco175]

Shadowdark is D&D. You didn't read the opening of this thread.

This seems a bit off to me. Something more like Oregon Trail is Baldur's Gate 3. I guess it depends on what you think "D&D" is today.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This seems a bit off to me. Something more like Oregon Trail is Baldur's Gate 3. I guess it depends on what you think "D&D" is today.

What one does with Shadowdark is incredibly similar to D&D. A large portion of the Facebook Shadowdark group is using it strictly to run TSR modules.

On the other hand, it's very hard to play an edgelord character just trying to get laid in Oregon Trail.

Maybe @Wandering Beekeeper should have written "fantasy adventure RPGs" instead of "D&D" in the title, but speaking as a huge proponent of Shadowdark, if someone said they were done with D&D for anything other than technical rules issues, I wouldn't think they'd be interested in Shadowdark or Dungeon Crawl Classics or True20 or anything.

The beekeeper wants to do something more distinctly different and is finding it hard to find people to play with.

 

[Micah Sweet]

This seems a bit off to me. Something more like Oregon Trail is Baldur's Gate 3. I guess it depends on what you think "D&D" is today.

This is why I asked much earlier in the thread what the OP's definition of "D&D" was.