How did you find your gaming group?

[Savage Wombat]

At the University of Kansas we have a bona fide Gaming Club, K.U.G.A.R. Over the years I've just accumulated players that showed up next year and said "are you running again?"

My favorite player, of course, I married. Never underestimate the benefits of a spouse that shares your hobbies.

 

[UniversalMonster]

How I did it...

My local Wizards of the Coast used to host Thursday night D&D open gaming. I had recently met 3 players online, but 2 suddenly washed out in January. The third player stuck with me.

So I figured, what the heck- I'll go down to topen-gaming night and see whats up.

Well, I go down there, and the only 2 games are closed. Also- they each have about 8 players. Yikes.

I announced that I wouldn't mind running a game - and I got two players who had never played before and wanted to try it out. The 3rd player from my other group decided to just watch. That night, I actually launched my current campaign.. Afterwards, one of the new players said he had a friend who would like to play too. These two showed up along with my original player from earlier consistently every thursday for a month.

So I suggested we move the game to my house (we were still playing in the open gaming area) so we could use my miniatures and scenery. Slowly the game grew- after another month I met some other players in my local area. I had a problem player that I ended up kicking out, but I quickly replaced him.. things have gone really well!

But basically I did it all online and doing the legwork of calling and inviting and tracking people down. Thats the critical step.

Advice to people wantting to form a group: use Http://Accessdenied.net and the gamers seeking gamers forums (right here at Enworld) to find people and just do it!

Also join any yahoo group that are local that have anything to do with rpgs. If such a group does not exist, form it.

 

[shadow]

Met my current group from an ad placed here on the boards. I never new that EnWorld would lead me to new friends!

 

[Harlock]

My most recent group

I had not been gaming for a few years and then one day my sister-in-law said she was interested in D&D, so I broke out my books and started DMing for my wife and her sister. Later we added my sister-in-law's boyfriend. That's my current group, and we are looking to add another player, a guy at work is interested and we'll give him a try out next weekend. As for past groups I mostly gamed with other geeks from school, but I did have one group I organized off a bulletin board at my FLGS. I think any way you can find a game is good, because I dig gaming. Why do you care anyway? Have fun!

 

[VoodooGroves]

Silly story

I put "close friends since school / college" and that is essentially true...however.

The core started out as about 6 people in early highschool (mid 80s - right after I moved to North Carolina). Two of us went to the same school. Two more I brought into the fold from my sunday school classes at church (no lie). The fifth of the original core I met online on a WWIV BBS looking for a gaming group to play (wait for it) Battledroids. The sixth and final person was added shortly therafter and went to the same high school as one of my sunday-school friends.

Two moved away, some of us are just not as close as we used to be. However, the guy I met online playing Battledroids was actually the best man at my wedding in 1998 and even though our silly-ass schedules don't permit alot of gaming, we're still in touch.

Everyone else was a follow-on after that, either added during high-school or college time period. We really haven't had alot of new additions that didn't know one or multiple of us during college (and that was 10 years ago). Occaisionally someone new shows up but nearly invariably, he or she turns out to be a friend of a friend or some other wacky relative back into the group. At this point our "group" is really at any one point in time about 5-6 groups but the 20-30 folks who make up the "parent" group are generally from those sources. I think maybe there are a handful of folks who came into the fold later on of by other means.

 

[Knight-of-Roses]

Well, I am involved in five games at them moment (I know, lucky me). In order of age:

Game 1: Palaestra/Wednesday Night Game
Which I am in the process of leaving as soon as the current story arc concludes. I know most of the people involved through the MOTiVE APA (for more info visit: www.athens.net/~rlyeh/MOTiVE.htm) before I moved out to Athens, GA, to attend the University of Georgia.

Game 2: Champions of the 60s / Heroes Inc. (www.athens.net/~rlyeh/champs.htm)
Met almost all the players though Tyche's Games, the gaming store that I work at.

Game 3: Saturday D&D Game at Tyche's Games.
This is an open game, pretty much anyone who stops by and follows the campaign characrer generation rules is welcome to join in, so we have a bit of a revolving cast.

Game 4: Monthly Game.
Most of the people in this game are from the IT depts of UGA but I was invited by the GM as someone he could rely upon.

Game 5: Saturday Evening AD&D campaign (Drakonhold Campaign).
GMed by my wife and most of the player were recruited from the Tyche's crowd as well.

I guess I rely mostly on working in a gaming store for locating and sounding out player. <grin> Tyche's is located in Athens, GA, and we have a posting board for people looking for players and games . . . (www.athens.net/~rlyeh/tychespage.htm) And I am also lucky that my wife is a gamer.

 

[Leopold]

Player 1: met through the gaming club at USF

Player 2: Player 1 was in a game once with player, player 2 got a job at the same place I worked at, we became friends and he joined the group

Player 3: Nephew of Player 2

Player 4: Another friend from work who happened to walk by and see me and Player 2 making D&D characters while at work

Player 5: Met him at a Game Convention in Tampa

Player 6: Freind of Player 2

Not using my players name to protect the guilty

you game in tampa? Hell i am moving there..need another

 

[Buttercup]

Well, my husband is one of my players, but I guess you don't really want to know how I found him. Two others are colleagues of mine, one of whom introduced me to the fourth player, who is a friend of her husband.

I once answered a gamer-seeking-gamer add that I found on another board, but never actually played with the guy, since he scared me a bit.

 

[MaxKaladin]

The group formed after I posted on REC.GAMES.FRP.ANNOUNCE looking for a local group. The only exception was one guy I noticed on a mailing list who mentioned he lived locally, so I emailed him and asked him. Replacements have mostly come from ads in game stores, but I think we got one or two off the gamers-seeking-gamers board here. I can't remember for sure since someone else usually takes care of that stuff.

 

[Ferret]

Whilst on holiday my math teacher said to my friends he plays BG1, I proceeded to ask if he played D&D, he did, now he's going to start a club.