D&D 5E How Do You Find Players?

[wedgeski]

I found a message-board designed specifically for UK roleplayers, and posted in the meetup forum. Originally I assumed I would have to join a group, but I quickly found that when you're a willing and able DM, people find you. And they almost always have at least one friend. Since the game was to be run at our house, my wife and I "interviewed" (i.e. had a drink with) each responder, and built the table that way. We got very lucky, and didn't have to say no to anyone.

 

[CydKnight]

Not to be difficult, but... no Craigslist or Meetup for the area. And really want a physical game if at all possible.

Have you tried door-to-door in your new neighborhood?

More seriously, I had issues finding players or groups to play with even online. I've had DMs quit after 1 session ending the game. I had another group with a new DM that came to session zero admitting he was in over his head and felt it best if he didn't continue. I've used Meetup.com to sign up for games that were presented as (OPEN) tables at the local Hobby Shops only to arrive and find out that they were a (CLOSED) group that had been playing together for years. I have even tried the Hobby Shop Newbie tables a time or two only to find they either had inconsistent players and DMs leading to gross inconsistency in-game or they were simply one-shot adventures which are OK sometimes but not long-term.

I just wanted to play (not DM) with a consistent group of the same people in an on-going thing. Well, I found after several months that I had to grow my own game. Through my own personal networking (or just casually mentioning I play D&D in conversations), I eventually compiled a group of 5 that consist of me, my 11-year old son, two friends from his school (both older), and one of his friend's father.

By necessity I became the DM and we have been playing for nearly 5 months almost weekly. I have kept casually mentioning my D&D exploits in conversations and now it appears that I will be expanding my gameplay as a PC one other night a week. So, I suppose what I am saying is that it may take time but you will eventually find a group. For me it took a couple of months just to get that first game going but then the fire was lit.

 

[redrick]

It sounds like you might need to recruit some new people into the fold!

I'd suggest using Roll20 or similar to scratch your itch until you find some willing folks in your area. I remember first trying to get a D&D group together a few years ago, when I didn't know anybody in my town who played, and I started to get this hungry-predator-in-autumn feeling as potential players (friends and friends of friends) backed out. Roll20 was nice because it let me meet my baseline need of regular D&D, and then, once I found players in my area, I transitioned out of the online campaign into an in-person group.

I think the comic book store is a good idea. Some stores will even be willing to let you host an event in their space, which might make it easier to bring new people in. Beyond that, if you bring up D&D in conversations (and having a Roll20 game helps for this, because it is you talking about something you are doing instead of wistfully saying, "god, I wish SOMEBODY would just play some D&D with me), eventually somebody will say, "Oh, I'm interested in that!" We had somebody in our group who overheard two other people talking about D&D and said, "wait, that sounds awesome, I want to try."

 

[pdzoch]

I had to make my own from scratch. Thankfully, the wife helped. But now they are growing up and leaving. Good news is that I anticipate the grandkids playing. (Gaming group is getting big!)

 

[redrick]

We started a D&D game at the new comic book store in my neighborhood, and I thought I'd share how it went, in case that is a route you choose to do.

Two of us had separately approached the owner of the store (who has a large downstairs event space with tables and a mini-fridge) about organizing RPG events there. The other of us went ahead and set up a date and time for "introduction to D&D." The owner sent an e-mail out to the store's mailing list, which is how I heard about it. I don't think there was any other publicity. A separate e-mail went out the day of with a different time.

I showed up with 30 pounds of D&D in my backpack. Just the organizer was there. We sat for 45 minutes discussing D&D, our respective gaming groups, the 5th Edition vs 3rd Edition vs 4th Edition, etc. Two people came down who were curious to see the game being played. They realized that we hadn't started playing and, despite our warm and welcoming pleas of "STAY WITH US!!!" they claimed to have dinner plans and left, but did ask about which kind of dice to buy and promised to come "next time." We talked about D&D for another 45 minutes and began to lose hope.

The owner of the store suggested, "if you move the table in front of the register, I'll play." (He had never played D&D before, but took pity on us.) The organizer had the starter set with him, but since we both had played through Klarg's cave countless times, I offered to run this little dungeon I'd scribbled down an hour before hand (that was not nearly as well fleshed out as I intended it to be.) I passed out some pregens and we got to playing.

Right as the characters were scouting out the entrance room to the dungeon, a teenager walked in, saw us playing D&D at the register, said, "are you guys playing D&D? I've never played?" A character sheet was warmly and welcomingly shoved in his face and he was invitingly told to sit his ass down and grab a d20. We started dungeon crawling. People would come into the store to buy comic books, the owner would jump up and help them out, and we kept playing. People were mostly amusedly curious about D&D. Somebody came in to buy some Yugioh cards (young adult, probably past school age) and asked if he could watch us play. We offered him a character sheet, but we were close to closing time and he decided it didn't make sense to roll in with only 30 minutes left.

The three characters got a little split up and got into it with two furry, long-clawed humanoids (slightly modified orcs). The comic book store owner ran away. The other two characters were knocked unconscious and dragged off to an oubliette. The end. The observer wants to come next time. The school aged kid asked if we were playing again this Sunday because it was awesome. (Sadly, we are not.) Hopefully next month we'll be a little more organized.

tldr: As long as you have the DM, a public space, the starter set or a half-baked napkin dungeon and two people willing to humor you and put up with D&D for an afternoon or an evening, you can start to create interest. It might take a few tries to get enough people to siphon off a proper "gaming group," but we had a half dozen people express interest in playing D&D with us at some point down the road, and I know interest will grow as we keep holding the event. We plan to do this monthly.

 

[PrometheanVigil]

View attachment 82900

Trying to justify the cost in an area where I have no idea if there even are other gamers, not to mention whether or not they'll search meetup by the name of the small town...

It's worth it, trust me on that. My club? Benefited greatly from being on Meetup, exposure-wise. For you, unless you're working a retail job or something, then bite the bullet (if you're actually serious about getting a group together) and sub for a month or two. Great thing about Meetup is when you first start-up, they push you to everyone in the area who's noted down the same interests you've categorised the meetup for: make sure you max out the interests list, create a first meetup on there with a concise and friendly description of your intended game and where you're hosting (include an address) and have a catchy, simple title. You will defo not need the Unlimited unless you're where I'm at now with running my club. So go do it, you'll thank yourself later down the line.

I had to make my own from scratch. Thankfully, the wife helped. But now they are growing up and leaving. Good news is that I anticipate the grandkids playing. (Gaming group is getting big!)

Awesome!

We started a D&D game at the new comic book store in my neighborhood, and I thought I'd share how it went, in case that is a route you choose to do.

Two of us had separately approached the owner of the store (who has a large downstairs event space with tables and a mini-fridge) about organizing RPG events there. The other of us went ahead and set up a date and time for "introduction to D&D." The owner sent an e-mail out to the store's mailing list, which is how I heard about it. I don't think there was any other publicity. A separate e-mail went out the day of with a different time.

I showed up with 30 pounds of D&D in my backpack. Just the organizer was there. We sat for 45 minutes discussing D&D, our respective gaming groups, the 5th Edition vs 3rd Edition vs 4th Edition, etc. Two people came down who were curious to see the game being played. They realized that we hadn't started playing and, despite our warm and welcoming pleas of "STAY WITH US!!!" they claimed to have dinner plans and left, but did ask about which kind of dice to buy and promised to come "next time." We talked about D&D for another 45 minutes and began to lose hope.

The owner of the store suggested, "if you move the table in front of the register, I'll play." (He had never played D&D before, but took pity on us.) The organizer had the starter set with him, but since we both had played through Klarg's cave countless times, I offered to run this little dungeon I'd scribbled down an hour before hand (that was not nearly as well fleshed out as I intended it to be.) I passed out some pregens and we got to playing.

Right as the characters were scouting out the entrance room to the dungeon, a teenager walked in, saw us playing D&D at the register, said, "are you guys playing D&D? I've never played?" A character sheet was warmly and welcomingly shoved in his face and he was invitingly told to sit his ass down and grab a d20. We started dungeon crawling. People would come into the store to buy comic books, the owner would jump up and help them out, and we kept playing. People were mostly amusedly curious about D&D. Somebody came in to buy some Yugioh cards (young adult, probably past school age) and asked if he could watch us play. We offered him a character sheet, but we were close to closing time and he decided it didn't make sense to roll in with only 30 minutes left.

The three characters got a little split up and got into it with two furry, long-clawed humanoids (slightly modified orcs). The comic book store owner ran away. The other two characters were knocked unconscious and dragged off to an oubliette. The end. The observer wants to come next time. The school aged kid asked if we were playing again this Sunday because it was awesome. (Sadly, we are not.) Hopefully next month we'll be a little more organized.

tldr: As long as you have the DM, a public space, the starter set or a half-baked napkin dungeon and two people willing to humor you and put up with D&D for an afternoon or an evening, you can start to create interest. It might take a few tries to get enough people to siphon off a proper "gaming group," but we had a half dozen people express interest in playing D&D with us at some point down the road, and I know interest will grow as we keep holding the event. We plan to do this monthly.

This is a great little story. I'd add that for those reading this story, do make sure you have some people skills/sales ability. Otherwise, you'll just scare off store owners who are just trying to offlift nerd merch onto people walking in the door. If it works out, don't be afraid to get more aggressive with it and ask for dedicated space and schedule a regular time you'll do a game for them (again, make sure you've got some points/dots in Diplomacy/Persuasion/Negotiation here!) because that can potentially mean they can stock RPG stuff (at least D&D/Pathfinder if not FFG/Catalyst swag) and get other types in the stores -- and it can't hurt to have a busier store, too!

 

[Slit518]

I'm looking to find out how people have found players if they don't have any of the following resources:

1. Gaming shop (i.e. there aren't any near you)
2. Work (i.e. you work alone or with non-gamers)
3. Previous friendships (i.e. you just moved to the area)

So given those criteria, what steps would you take to create a gaming group or find gamers to play in your game?

Do you want to play in person or online?

If it's online I would suggest signing up for the forums on this site https://roll20.net/ and put what you're looking for.

Or, there is also a searching for players on this site as well. You can try either of those options. And this site lets you know how far actual real live people are from you.

 

[Henry]

I'm looking to find out how people have found players if they don't have any of the following resources:

1. Gaming shop (i.e. there aren't any near you)
2. Work (i.e. you work alone or with non-gamers)
3. Previous friendships (i.e. you just moved to the area)

So given those criteria, what steps would you take to create a gaming group or find gamers to play in your game?

I moved to my locale a few years ago, and left my old gaming group, finding not one but four different gaming groups here.

The first one was through the Meeting Gamers forum here on ENworld.
The second group was also through ENWorld, though work meant I couldn't make the time to keep gaming with them.
The third group was through the local game store, though I had to quit through similar reasons.
Finally, the last group I met through Meetup, and am still with them and the first group to this day.

 

[Blue]

View attachment 82900

Trying to justify the cost in an area where I have no idea if there even are other gamers, not to mention whether or not they'll search meetup by the name of the small town...

$20 for 2 months of basic should get you a start. And once you find some gamers, hopefully they know more like sourdough bread. It is a rather social hobby after all.

 

[LordEntrails]

There's a really good blog How to Build a Successful Long Term Gaming Group that I would recommend. Though it's on the FG forums, it really applies to any format.