Gaming groups: friends or all business?

[ergeheilalt]

I've played a number of games all with different compositions of friends. I dm'ed a game with this summer with friends from high school; most of whom gamed, but were friends beforehand. This is the only table-top game that I've run or played in for over 3 years.

A majority of my gaming is online. Almost 100% of the time; I did not know anyone in the game prior to playing; however they became people I consider friends. We have one game thats been running continuously for 2 years with almost all the same players.

I'd rather play a game with folks I know and enjoy rather than people I know nothing of and care nothing for.

Erge

 

[ergeheilalt]

double post

 

[EricNoah]

The groups I run have been composed of folks I knew very well (people I went to high school with) and people I didn't know at all. I don't take new people into my groups very often; I like to recruit them from groups where I'm a player and know them a little bit.

I have been recruited into a group where I was a complete stranger and that turned out to be a good fit. But overall I'm pretty picky -- hanging out with strangers isn't necessarily super fun for me so I don't do it a lot.

 

[Imperialus]

my group is a little odd... We only ever really see all of us in one place to game but my best friend from high school is in the group, as is my sister. On the other side of the coin there are 3 other people I very rarely see outside of the game but they are their own little clique, two of them being married and another one of their best friends.

It isn't that none of us would want to hang out more than 3 or 4 hours a week but between mark and I going to school full time working part time, Dwight and Anna both working and takeing care of their 18 month old, and Jerremy working rediculous hours we're lucky to be able to get together and game.

This is a very round about way of saying that I clicked on "other".

 

[orchid blossom]

I got started in gaming by friends who wanted to take my mind off some health problems I had at the time. About 3 years later, I had about 10 new friends, all gained at the gaming table.

When I moved to Albany, it took me a while to make new friends. Where did I make them? The local gaming store of course! Someone was starting a game with the (then new) D20 system. In the three years since, players have come and gone in that group until we have not only a group that games well together, but are also friends outside the game.

Gaming with strangers is a great way to make new friends, but if I didn't feel I could become friends with the other players, I don't think I'd stay in the game more than a few sessions.