Booting up a new group

[Umbran]

For a very long time, gaming has been about getting the Usual Suspects together to play. Occasionally we'd switch games, and rotate GM-duty around. Occasionally we'd add someone new to a game. Sometimes, the group would go into hiatus for a while, and then we'd start up something new. Everyone pretty much knew everyone else, and we knew each others' play styles. Whoever was GMing didn't need to ask much about what others wanted - we already knew, as discussion of our games was part of our usual social existence.

That is no longer my situation. Life and career changes has rendered the Usual Suspects inert. Our fitful attempts make it clear that it simply isn't possible to get them all together on a regular basis any more. Thus, I'm in the process of putting together a new group of Usual Suspects.

I don't mind playing with strangers at Gamedays. But for longer-term campaign work I far prefer working with people I know, or at least for whom I have confidence they'll pass my "No Jerks at the Table" rule. So, I'm not putting up signs in my FLGS or in the Gamers Seeking Gamers forum - I've kind of limited myself to people I know, who are gamers, and who live close enough and have time to devote to a regular game. That's being kind of picky, and it has taken a while, but it looks like I have a crew.

So, now we get to the fascinating bit. In the past, I've had specific inspirations, or could cater to known quantitites. This time around, I have enough inspirations of my own to inflict option paralysis - I've got a dozen systems I have ideas for. And, while I know they are good people, I don't know the gaming preferences of the group yet.

I've undertaken discussions with each player in turn - the basic question that needs answering is, "What do you want from a game?" That question, though, has many facets.

I'll be using that information to inform my choice of system. Then, if they aren't familiar with the system, there'll be a setting and system primer session - I tell them about the world, what they can choose to do, and run them through a sample scenario with simple pregenerated characters so they see the mechanics in action.

Then comes character generation, and then I start filling up the world with stuff they're likely to want to poke at...

So - assume you're in my position, and need to talk to new players about what they want. What questions do you ask?

 

[ggroy]

Whenever it's a new game I'm DMing, I always ask the players what exactly they want. Such things would be:

- Which system?
- Sandbox or railroad?
- A module or completely homebrew adventure?
- An off the shelf campaign setting or a homebrew world?
- Pure hack and slash, or not much combat?
- A storyline, or very little?
- How much role playing, or very little?
- Powergamers or casual gamers?
- Monty haul or very little treasure?
- Wish lists, or randomly generated treasure?
- Deadly combat or superhero?

If the players are asking for something that I can't give them, then I just tell them somebody else should be DM.

EDIT: There's nothing more frustrating than playing a game where expectations of the players are completely at odds with the DM's expectation. IMHO, no gaming is better than bad frustrating gaming.

 

[diaglo]

So - assume you're in my position, and need to talk to new players about what they want. What questions do you ask?

i tell them what i am willing to run.
i ask them if they have something they want to run.
i share data with the others in the potential group on an open forum or website. wiki works for this.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Since these people are all gamers already and you don't need to introduce the concept of an rpg to them I would start out with the major questions:

1) What genre?
Is this a group that wants a fantasy game or are they looking for horror, supers, or something else?

Once you know what genre the campaign will be about you can discuss:

2) System

The most important thing to find out is how generally involved or picky is the group in general. Do they enjoy system mastery and complexity or do they like rules lite, "lets just get to playing already I don't want to spend an hour making a character" types of games.

Do you have a split group or a very mixed group of playstyle preferences? This is the time to find out.

If you can get general agreement on genre and rules weight, the rest is cake.

 

[Celebrim]

I've been in the same situation for a few years now, think I may have found a new crew and I'm about to boot up a new group myself and feeling much the same feeling of uncertainty. Looking forward to the answers.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I would ask some specific questions about play style and their tolerance for other playing styles. I've run into situations where players conflicted in terms of style and just were not tolerant of each other. The Powergamer would get annoyed when an entire evening was "wasted" with the Thespian talking to NPCs and vice versa on a combat heavy night.

 

[Barastrondo]

What I've done is put together a pitch list. Essentially, about twenty, thirty ideas that I feel confident enough about running, give them a sentence or so of elevator pitch, and then run that past the list of players, asking them to point out anything they they'd like to try or anything they'd prefer to avoid. Once everyone's had a chance to say "hmm, I might try that," I take the concepts that have gotten the most attention (usually there's about five that have gotten multiple notes of particular enthusiasm and no vetoes), write up a paragraph or two of pitch to go into some more detail, and send those around. From there we talk a bit more, and a clear winner emerges.

If I'm at all lucky, somewhere in the pitch process players will start talking about character concepts they might like to try out in some of the winning pitches. That'll help crystallize things even further, and give me ideas about how to flesh out my pitch into an actual game. I think it's a pretty good compromise; I only put out ideas I'm enthusiastic to try, so I'm not stuck running something that doesn't excite me, but there's a lot of choices for the players, and the developing one-line to two-paragraph pitch process lets me incorporate player feedback as early as they're willing to give it.

(The backup plan is that if nobody picks something, or if they won't narrow down the list of finalists to one distinct winner, I roll a die and that's what we play.)

We're about to play the third session of the "3/4 new players" game this week. So far, so good.

 

[ggroy]

I would ask some specific questions about play style and their tolerance for other playing styles. I've run into situations where players conflicted in terms of style and just were not tolerant of each other. The Powergamer would get annoyed when an entire evening was "wasted" with the Thespian talking to NPCs and vice versa on a combat heavy night.

Even when a game is being put together, I usually try to figure out what the already committed players want. For example if it's primarily powergamers, then I'll look for more powergamers to play. In my experience, most of the powergamers I know locally absolutely hate playing games with thespian and other roleplay heavy types, and vice versa. DMing a game with powergamers is a lot different than DMing a game with roleplay heavy types. (In general, I find that DM'ing powergamers' games is a lot easier than DM'ing roleplay heavy type games).

 

[EnochSeven]

Sometimes there can be paralysis when you try to please everyone perfectly.

I'd get a general consensus, but beyond that you have to run what you want to run in order to do your best job.

i tell them what i am willing to run.
i ask them if they have something they want to run.
i share data with the others in the potential group on an open forum or website. wiki works for this.

 

[Thanael]

How about the cheetoism / Player Preferences Questionnaire (from cheetoism / How I Made My Best Campaign Ever)

Or use chattydms questions: http://critical-hits.com/category/chattydm/player-psychology/page/11/