Friends or Strangers...

[Scribble]

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. Out of every table of six strangers, I've usually found one fantastic player who've I wanted to keep in touch with. I've met several of my best friends this way. Between RPGA games at conventions and EN World game days, I've met close to a hundred people who I think are incredibly frikkin' cool. I'm richer for knowing them.

True, I mean I didn't really put much more effort into it I guess... But I'm not really counting conventions and such in there. I've met a lot of cool people at conventions. Just not like gamer classifieds type things... those for some reason drew out the weirdos for me. (Or maybe I'm just the weirdo and they were all normal... shrug.)

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I've done both. What is funny is that the friends who I gamed with I am no longer in touch with. On the other hand I still get together, whether to game or not, with many of the strangers I gamed with, who then became my friends.

There are of course some strangers who I gamed with that I never became friends with, as well.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I answered "only with friends," but I'm not sure that's accurate.

F'r'instance, I met up with my current group because I worked with a gamer friend who invited me over to meet her husband and their playgroup.

The rest of the group were strangers at the time I met them (talk about obvious statements), but I consider them friends now.

 

[Umbran]

My general preference is gaming with friends. My favorite pastime in all the world is setting down with folks I like for a gaming session.

However, gaming with folks you don't know is sometimes called for - the Boston area gamedays can be fun, and in the live action games I play, there's usually several folks I don't know. And if a friend invites me to play, and there are folks I don't know at the table, that isn't going to stop me.

As P-cat said - one of the best ways to find new people for your table is to play with new people!

 

[Mallus]

A few years ago my group comprised of old friends sort of fell apart, and by 'sort of' and I mean 'did'.

So I found a game looking for players in my area here on ENWorld. Total strangers, I don't recall even conversing with any of them on the baord. Now, years later, the roster have changed a bit, and I'm running one of the games while playing in two others, all of which sprung out of that original group. I consider the whole lot of them friends now.

I can't imagine seeing people on a regular basis the way campaing-oriented gaming demands without those people becoming friends. In mean, if that didn't happen, I just couldn't keep gaming with them. I don't think any game is interesting enough to make the sustained company of people you don't actually like enjoyable.

 

[kenobi65]

The best way to make new friends is to regularly game with strangers.

Seconded. Most of my best friends, I've met through gaming.

And, most of the people I game with, I consider friends outside of the game, as well.

My gaming groups tend to grow organically (someone brings in a friend of theirs, who's interested in playing), and that's almost always worked out well.

OTOH, I started my college gaming group by posting a "Looking for D&D Players" sign on the dorm bulletin board, and through that, met some people that I'm still friends with, 25 years later.

 

[Asmor]

Funny, I was thinking about to post a poll like this a few days ago.

My current group started out mostly as strangers. I was acquainted with one player because he worked at the comic store they played at.

Now we're all friends. I've even introduced one of my friends into the group, and neither of us are the newest players in the group.

 

[TerraDave]

Game with friends, but met some freinds through gaming, but they where freinds of freinds. (Hence, I probably should have picked: chicken).

 

[SteelDraco]

The people I currently game with started as strangers. I met them at my college's gaming club. The game I had been playing in died at the end of a semester, and I wandered into the other D&D group, and asked if they had any open slots. That was... hm. Seven years ago? Been playing with them ever since, every Wednesday. By now, of course, they're friends.

Most of my other gaming groups have been people I already knew. Since I worked at a FLGS for years, I know most of the gamers in my home town, which makes establishing a game much easier.

 

[shilsen]

I've almost always gamed with people who were strangers or near-strangers when I started gaming with them, and it's almost always worked out extremely well for me. Just luck, I guess.