How did your gaming group come about?

[Taloras]

The group I play in started back in February of 2002(Feb 16 in fact). I met one of the players on here actually(a friend here pointed me here, knowing i wanted to game and was in OKC, saw a topic about a game in OKC). Of that group of 4 players and a DM, only 2 of us still are in that group. We have added several players in the meantime..one contacted me online, came in, through him we brought in a few other players. Now we have 5 players and a DM. And only me and Tim are left from the original group.

The group I DM for....met them through a Vampire Larp...well, one of em is my brother, but the others I met through the LARP.

 

[Oryan77]

I learned D&D from my highschool friends but not until the summer after I graduated. Then I moved to the west coast and began hanging out with a friend I knew from playing Quake but didn't know in RL (because I lived on the east coast).

Then I met my gf and I don't remember how or why, but she asked me to DM her in D&D. After telling my Quake buddy that I started DM'ing a couple games with my gf, he wanted to play. Then his wife and 2 teenagers wanted to play. Then a coworker wanted to play. That lasted a year until everyone stopped playing.

I found 4 new people online to play with. One of them played one session and never contacted me again. Two of them didn't fit well with my gaming style and they quit. Then my gf and Quake buddy joined the remaining net guy a month ago and we've been going strong. They fit really well as players and we all are loving it.

I almost threw in the towel due to everyone quitting and getting frustrated, but so far so good.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Interesting stuff here.

That's funny. The one guy from our original 1st edition group (who still plays today--BadMojo on the boards here) got married in May and I was his best man.

My best man was also in our original "Wargames Club" core. He quit gaming in the late 80s though and although we still live in the same city, he got married and we drifted apart. Quite upsetting actually.

Marriage generally seems to be the deathknell to many gaming groups and friendships. Sad but true.

Still - as the years go on I have come to appreciate that gaming is the thread that runs along and has preseved those friendships among those who kept with the hobby. It is surprising that probably half of those 50 gamers I knew from back in the day are still in the hobby in some form. And so-and- so knows so-and-so who bumped into so-and-so... And we all keep in touch in some odd way.

There is no way I could tell you about people I knew 26 years ago for the most part. But if they are gamers? Yeah - I probably know what happened to 'em and what they are doing now.

 

[Henry]

My first group ever was me and 4 of my cousins, and lasted for one game. Period.
My second group was ME, and one other guy.
My third group I met in high school, and they became both a great group of gamers, but a group of good friends, who I sadly never see anymore, because most of them moved to other states and cities.
My Fourth group is the group I currently play with, and range from good acquaintences to strong friends -- some of them are closer to me than all of my blood relatives combined.

 

[Hor Kai Lan]

My current group has been together for about 2 years now... Just before I was to move cross-country for the 3 time in 3 years... I placed an ad here (under a different and now forgotten ID) and received a few responses... Was lucky enough to have a base before I even returned to Ohio...

Once here... I found that one of the guys that contacted me... went to the same junior high as me... it's a small world after all

The others have been added were added in time with only one depature I can think of. I've been blessed to find groups quickly when I'm looking and then have them be rather stable after being formed. *knock on wood* I see us staying together for the foreseeable future as we've all become good friends away from the gaming table.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Well, pretty smoothly, actually. I was at the con, I gave plenty of warning, and when I put the tiller over, my wife (who was on the jib sheets) allowed the jib to back, which brought the bow through the wind a little faster. I brought the tiller back to neutral, trimmed the sails, and off we went on the port tack.

[/sailing humor]

My current group is made up of three husband-and-wife couples, one married guy, and two single guys.

We game at the house of one of the married couples, and I used to work with the wifely half of the pair. While working with her, I got invited to game, and have been doing so ever since (other than a break in the middle when I was in school).

The married guy is a life-long friend of the couple at whose house we game. The other married couple and the two single guys have been gaming with them for years, now, as well.

My wife and I are the relative newbies to the group.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Since I have been gaming for over 20 years, I am only going to go as far back as the longest running player in my current group.

In September of 1999, I had DM'ed a grand total of 2 sessions of D&D since 1992. One of those two sessions, this one in August 1999, was with some former students who had graduated previously. I had recently moved about two hours north. My wife went to Buffalo, NY with her mother for the wedding of one of the members of our bridal party, but I had to work, so I stayed home. While she was away, we were visited by Hurricane Floyd. I was home alone with no electricity and no work for about a week, so I took to hanging out at a FLGS. The owner asked me to DM a weekly game in his store and he advertised for players. Seventeen of them showed up for the first session. One of those was the former student I had recently gamed with. He had also moved to attend college nearby. The group took some time to stabilize, but we had the same core group there for over a year, including one player from my high school gaming group.

The following summer, the player from my high school gaming group married another current player and they moved away. Most of those players drifted away, except two, one of whom is still gaming with me. The former student gamed with me until this past winter.

Another of my former students has been in and out of my group since 2003. The one player from my FLGS days that is still with me brought his best friend to the game in 2003. He had been at my original FLGS session, but left because there were too many people. He is also still with me. Two other players from the FLGS group just recently left my group.

The rest of my current group came from another local group. I met one of their members on a message board online (though not ENWorld) and he joined my group and eventually brought the rest of his group to mine. The final remaining member of his group is joining my game next week. He is moving away after next week's session, as is the former student, who is joining the US Army to be a combat medic.

It appears thatg the second group is going to entirely fold into mine (which could necessitate the rotating DM's I have been asking about) due to players leaving the area. My group has had to absorb the other to survive for the same reason (as well as my well documented player troubles).

DM

 

[Galethorn]

Well, let's see...

1. My best friend, who I've known since before either of us could speak, who I've managed to keep in touch with, despite him moving 'off-island'; he joined the group a couple months after some of my more local friends and I got a game started back in '02; he joined up when Campaign 1 folded and somebody else started GMing; since then, all of the Campaign 2 people have gone in different directions socially, but kept it touch to some extent

2. A younger friend (by 3 years or so) who joined Campaign 4 about a year ago; he's sort of like the younger brother I never had

3. A now-good-friend who I had known as an acquaintance for about three years before we decided to co-GM a star wars campaign this summer

Everybody else has come and gone over the years, and/or has been particularly busy this summer, and several are heading off to college in the fall, along with a couple who just got burnt out on gaming.

But my current 'core corps' of players is sure to be around these parts at least as long as I am (I've still got a few quarters at the local community college remaining when I go back next january), so I've got room for one more campaign before I go off to 'real' college.

 

[Taloras]

Now the question should be....how many of us met our current groups through EN World? *raises his hand* I love this place.

 

[caudor]

I've been playing since 1981, so I'll omit the history.

My current group is all family: Son (18 years old), Daughter (19), Daughter-in-Law (20), Nephew (18), and occasionally my brother (29)