Gaming with limited time

[Old One]

Yep...

DPM -

Very busy professional with full-time job (~ 40 hours a week), small professional practice (~15-30 hours a week), out-of-town business travel (2-10 days per month), the "commute from hell" (12 hours a week in the car...minimum), non-gaming wife, 1.33 kids, exercise schedule and (somewhere in all of that) sleep.

I DM for a group that plays 1/x per month (ideally, although it ends up being about 10x per year) and have been running the game since May of 2001. Keys to success (IMO):

(1) Find a compatible group that understands gaming w/ other responsibilities.

(2) See #1 above

(3) Be flexible

(4) Come to the MD-VA-DC Game Day (TerpCon) on 10/2/04 to meet other gamers in the DC Metro area (see my sig for details)

~ Old One

 

[maddman75]

As far as meeting people from an ad or whatever -

This is very doable, and I'm pretty much in the same boat you are - full time job, lots of other hobbies, late 20s. Not really wanting to game with a bunch of teenage powergamers. (not that I discount all teenagers, but a young player and me looking for the same thing are pretty slim odds).

Just set up a meeting before hand, either at someone's house or at a restraunt or what have you. Just talk to them, not just about gaming but whatever comes to mind. Ask yourself 'would I hang around this person when I'm not gaming'? If the answer is no, send them a polite email explaining that you don't think there's going to be enough room in the group or something. Believe me, this is much better than having someone start to game with you then discover that they don't mesh with the group.

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm honestly amazed at how many otherwise busy folks make time to game.

As for being a geek, well, I work in the software industry, so I'm a computer geek. I'm also a gamer geek. I just started helping out in community theater, so I'm a theater geek. I read sci-fi and can name episodes of Babylon 5 by name. I am highly functional, though...

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Um, this may be a dumb question, BG, but how do you "drop someone a line" on the boards? The e-mail links in profiles don't seem to work, or maybe I'm missing something?

 

[maddman75]

Click on their user name. A menu will come up, and one of hte options is Send <username> a Private Message. This will send them a message they can get next time they log in.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Um, this may be a dumb question, BG, but how do you "drop someone a line" on the boards? The e-mail links in profiles don't seem to work, or maybe I'm missing something?

Private messages work on these forums unless you turn them off (the default, which you are one). derekbecker@hotmail.com to reach me on my email account will also work.

Incidentally, if my group isn't a good fit for you I'd take a look at the DC gameday that Old One suggested. The worst that can happen is that you rub elbows with Washington DCs sexiest and most infuential elite.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

MojoGM and I both work full time (same place; different dept's) and have busy schedules outside of work, with familial obligations , a puppy who likes to eat RPG books whenever he is unsupervised, and more stuff stored up on Tivo to watch than could fill the average persons viewing schedule for a year.

We're both "mature" as you put it, late 20's / early 30's. We have our non game friends. But we also game together in two groups.

We have a pretty set schedule for one of the groups, where the ages range from 22-36. The other group meets less often and more sporadically due to schedule conflicts (the others usually; not ours, we're almost always willing to shuffle plans if everyone can meet up).

 

[Mark]

We actually play at the FLGS (Game-Plus.com in Mt. Prospect ruLeZ! ) and do so on Sunday. The general plan is to play on every Sunday, but holidays come almost every month, or some sort of commitment, so we wind up playing two or three times per month, as a group, though most of us only get together twice a month (someone will miss a week, then someone else will miss a different week, etc.). We start at Noon (when the store opens) and play until roughly 5:30, though we do have the option to go until 7:30 if we wish to let it run long.

(I do some IRC stuff also but that is more haphazard and generally just to playtest through some material so it isn't rigidly scheduled.)

My suggestion is to over-schedule as many game sessions as you can but don't worry too much if some don't work out. If you plan on once a month, I find, you wind up playing nine or ten time a year because of things that come up at the last minute and such.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Private messages work on these forums unless you turn them off (the default, which you are one).

[coughCommunitySupportersOnlycough]

-Hyp.

 

[Threedub]

I just repeat what most people have said on gaming with limited time so I won't bore you.

Over the past ten years I've played with a lot of people I've met through the boards at my local gaming store(s)--somewhere around 15+ people. Save for one there were always problems with these other people that made playing with them a pain. Not showing on time, unable to pay for their own food/drinks, poor role-playing, anti-DM role-playing, etc. I'm not a fan of FLGS hookups.

Now where I've found success is in the subtle discoveries. Finding someone at work who shares the RPG bug but doesn't talk about it, since as a rule it isn't something that most people are interested in. A young relative who is curious enough to ask, "What's that map of?" Someone who likes F&SF might be a good newcomer to the game that you can teach from scratch. Well-balanced friends of existing players are a good source.

If a person doesn't have a job (or a source of income that doesn't begin with Mom&Dad) or transportation that's the first mark against them for me. Not to say they can't be good players, but in my experience the people that didn't have these things also didn't have respect for the group.