Do you have auditions for your gaming group?

[yangnome]

Auditions? Not exactly. Generally if hte person shows up and doesn't run away screaming or calling hte police after the chicken sacrifices, pigs blood, robes and candles, they're accepted into the group with open arms.

Seriously though... Up until now, I've generally just screened them via email. Allot can be told about a person through the messages they give. iF i GeT A meSSaGe LikE tHiS, TheY DoNT gEt A ReSPonSe. If I get a bad feel for the person, I tell them that the game is full. If I have an OK feeling about the person after the first contact, I forward them entirely too much email about my expectations in my game (house rules, character journals, backgrounds, etc.) This generally tends to scare off those that aren't serious and I've noticed those that will be a good fit tend to start getting excited. They are then of course invited to a session and provided things go well, part of the group. I do heavy recruiting from the local military language school, so cleanliness, intelligence and such isn't much of a problem. Differences in play style is generally the only problem we'll run into. I also worked in that field for a pretty long time, so I have contacts I can use to screen people.

When doing research recently for a new campaign, I ran accross an interview/audition process I am tempted to try. Once the person is invited to play, they are on probation for the first four sessions. Any regular member of the group can vote them off the table at any time no questions asked. After four sessions, the person becomes a regular member of the group and has the same voting privleges for new people. This seems a bit harsh, but I kind of like it. It gives a little more control to the members of the group rather than just the DM. I imagine it would also cut back on personality/play style conflicts that might go unmentioned and cause problems further down the road.

 

[frankthedm]

I have a motley crew of players

Host- thin quiet guy into melee weapons [in real life] No GF as far as i know - few friends outside of work[50 hours +/week]- early 20's- gets bad headaches related to air pressure. has two younger brothers in high school and a father with a very lax parenting style.

Closet gamer -thin normal guy, normal friends outside the gaming circle, last GF was earlier this year-early 20'

Carpenter - sexist, racist & would be a powergamer if he was a bit smarter. Has the mother of his child living with him. mid 20's

Big J- perverse casual gamer looking for something to do, at odds with closet gamer and carpenter for a non negative remark about hermaphodites he made a few weeks back. A little too good natured overall. Ex GF still living with him, he hasn't the sence to kick her out. mid 20's

Bum- Jobless, lives at home with folks, baths infrequently, plays magic, no GF...ever. late 20s

Maverick- ex druggie- ex LARPer who plays quite well. numerous exGFs, mid 20s jobless, homeless.

Me- a monster garbed in flesh, amoral, uncaring for anyone, enjoys driving people into therapy.smart enough to take advantage of most people, relativly clean, can act like a human being for a short time, Of the Wyrm, lousy job. a few ex girlfriends [on speaking terms with NONE of them] mid 20's.

i won't play with tree huggers, we order meat lover's pizza, you eat it our you are out.

 

[sellars]

In some of my groups we hold a "testing session" forst before we decide to keep someone.

But most of the times a new person comes along with one of the players.we trust each others' judgement that the new person will fit in the group.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

My girlfriend told me to ask them first thing "Do you have or did you ever have a girlfriend?" as a first test of normalcy

I know some really socially inept weirdos who have girlfriends and vice versa.

 

[Psimancer]

YES, OH YES, BY THE GODS YES!!!

We had a REALLY bad experience a couple of years back. A guy came into our group via an email contact. We were play testing at the time, so our group was down as a RPG club. We thought what the heck and let him in! A couple of weeks later, he was drinking, getting aggressive and driving home drunk. We tried to talk to him, but to no avail. We asked him to take it easy on the grog, but he never slowed. Eventually we decided, in a democratic vote, to ban the consumption of alcohol at the table. He went into a tirade about how he fought in the war to preserve his right to drink! He left and never returned, thankfully.

About a month later, we had another email about a player wanting to join. I was dead-set against it! But, being a democratic group, I was out voted. This time we met the guy at a restaurant and talked, not only about rpgs, but about life, the universe and everything. He was a great guy. He joined and eventually DMed for the group. And is now one of my best friends.

The moral to my story… definitely interview… sometimes you get crap, other times you get gold!

 

[Desdichado]

Not officially I haven't, but in for all practical purposes, yes...

We're a smallish group (which, personally, I prefer anyway) and one of the players is my next door neighbor, whom I know pretty well and have played with off and on for a while now. The other two players are guys that I met here on ENWorld, of all places. Before we "met" we had naturally had a number of online interactions, and we (in both cases) decided we should hook up and meet face to face at Chili's, which went well.

But it wasn't really until after the Detroit Gameday that we decided we should really game for real together, and following that, we pretty much started up my campaign.

Part of the reason it worked out for us is that we all get along really well, and we spend a fair amount of our "game time" chatting about all kinds of other things too. We all have a lot in common; we're all in our early thirties, have three (or in my case, four) kids, relatively successful careers, etc. so we feel very comfortable together.

Anyway, yeah, it wasn't an audition per se, but we made sure we gelled well before made anything like a permanent group.

 

[Desdichado]

i won't play with tree huggers, we order meat lover's pizza, you eat it our you are out.

I like that rule,

 

[S'mon]

I like to meet up with prospective new players at a pub meet beforehand, to see if they'll fit in the game group ok. It's a neutral venue and helps everyone get to know each other.

 

[WayneLigon]

We have selected a person that we think is going to work and are going to give him a trial run before giving him the go ahead. We were joking around as a group that we should have potential players come with a resume.

We always have a trial period and at the end we sit down and discuss if we wish for the person to continue playing with us. Generally, it's about a month. Four sessions will generally tend to point out any problems. Most of the time that works. Some people don't get to the end of that trial period, while others sometimes can behave themselves for a few weeks longer until it becomes apparent we've made a mistake.

 

[StalkingBlue]

All of the players in my current campaign either were my friends before I started up the game, or were recommended by friends. In my experience, this is the way to go if possible.

Very much seconded. There's no comparison IME between a group of friends who game together, and a group of gamers who don't share any interests outside gaming (or worse, don't have any).


For everyone who isn't either a friend or recommended by a friend, I'd recommend meeting at a pub first. Good way to avoid letting living zombies into your house without meaning to - also a good way to allow the new player to decide he or she doesn't want to game with this particular group after all without having to suffer through an entire session.