D&D General In this day and age, people still laugh when you invite them to play D&D.

[Scribe]

I think it's a bigger issue with people having a hard time making friends or committing to social events. It's a real thing.
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This is super true. I have something of a 3 strike rule I took from my Uncle.

If you express interest, I'll offer 3 times, you find a way to decline or excuse yourself that's fine by me, but I am not chasing after anyone due to their own hang ups.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I am not chasing after anyone due to their own hang ups.

 

[R_J_K75]

but work friends and IRL randos is pretty dismal.

Are the people at work really your friends or just colleagues that you associate with on the job or do you actually do other things outside of work together? I can say that in my professional career I met two people that I would actually consider friends and hung out with after hours. I think some people find it best not to mix work with pleasure. As for random people, I have played with random people I have met, and it never panned out more than a few a sessions at best. I've always had the most success finding players within my circle of immediate friends or people they knew. People are more apt to play if you have other interests in common.

 

[MNblockhead]

Age and industry make a difference. Generation X and older will tend to hold more negative connotations about TTRPGs than younger generation, in my experience. Also in my experience, for people in their 40s and older, I'm far more likely to find people participating in, or interested in, the hobby in the tech sector than most professions.

 

[R_J_K75]

Age and industry make a difference.

Definitely. A group of roofers usually hit the bar immediately after work, rather than playing an RPG.

Generation X and older will tend to hold more negative connotations about TTRPGs than younger generation, in my experience.

I'm Gen X and I don't recall anyone ever making fun of me or my friends for playing when we were young. In fact, there were a lot of people in my neighborhood that played.

Also in my experience, for people in their 40s and older, I'm far more likely to find people participating in, or interested in, the hobby in the tech sector than most professions.

The people my age I met at work were more into videogame RPGs, or board games rather than TTRPGs.

I think barring going to a LGS where you're bound to find gamers; it comes down to being at the right place at the right time and striking up a conversation with the right person or group of people to get new players. Whenever I actively went looking for players it rarely had any worthwhile results.

 

[MNblockhead]

I'm Gen X and I don't recall anyone ever making fun of me or my friends for playing when we were young. In fact, there were a lot of people in my neighborhood that played.

I don't mean when you were young. For folks in their early to mid 40s and older, I think many would find it strange for adults to be playing TTRPGs. I don't think that is the case for people in their 20s. Just personal experience. I don't know if there are any good polls or studies on this.

 

[R_J_K75]

For folks in their early to mid 40s and older, I think many would find it strange for adults to be playing TTRPGs.

Are you saying nowadays that younger people would find it strange for older people to be playing TTRPGs or back then? You said, "Generation X and older will tend to hold more negative connotations about TTRPGs than younger generation, in my experience.", I was just saying that when I was in high school and college, I never had that experience, and I still don't.

 

[Sacrosanct]

As a huge introvert, there’s a big difference in me saying “that’s so cool I’d love to experience that” and “oh crud, now I have to actually commit to going to a strangers house and talk to people for hours”

 

[zakael19]

Where I work (non-tech) a bunch of the folks under the age of 30 play TTRPGs & war-games / watch anime / do general geeky things, the people >40 generally don't. That's not to say there's not lots of Gen X - Boomers who play, but proportionally you're just less likely to see em.

The vast preponderance of folks I see showing up to the hopping local Discord to hit up the TTRPG meetups or get games together are <30.

 

[Distracted DM]

Make a date, a time. That's how you'll know if it's actual interest, or "oh yeah maybe sometime someday not really."

"We're playing next week, Wednesday at 7p. Oh, can't make it til 7:30? No problem. Hop on in, it'll be fun- no one knows the rules to start out with! We'll just throw some dice, kill some orcs, maybe rescue a prince." Have a few characters for them to pick from, but you can just give them a quick description of what each does and then hand them the sheets.

This of course depends on a few factors, but it's just an example of how to make it happen. If it's someone you know well, "hey sit down, here's a character sheet, we're playing DnD" can work.