D&D General Shocked how hard it is to get new players now-a-days

[DarkCrisis]

@DarkCrisis The post is tagged D&D General, so which game are you trying to run? As @payn mentioned 5e has AL and PF has PFS which are usually easy enough to find people depending on your community, but if you're trying to run OSE (which I've seen you make other posts about) it could be that you're just living in an area where either everyone playing OSE has a group already or there just isn't interest in playing that version of D&D.

OSE is just the latest. It's even been for 5E games.

 

[Mannahnin]

I do find it's much harder for many people to stay engaged online. I'm actually quite decent at it, luckily since I'm mostly stuck with it at the moment. My main gripe with the social aspect of it, funnily enough, is how hard it is to get a read on other people even with cameras on.

If you're not doing theater of the mind and are using a VTT with visuals, you're balancing between looking at the VTT and looking at the other players (though I suspect most people look at themselves in their videos rather than others to make sure they don't look silly lol). When GMing in person, I can get a feel for who's jiving with what in the adventure/campaign, but on VTT it's much harder to tell who's having fun without polling people or actively probing for feedback.

And as a player, it's harder to stay engaged if you're not looking at the GM or your fellow players, but it's also harder to keep looking at them through the cameras because there's an inherent disconnect between you and there's other things going on in the VTT.

Maybe my mind will change when one day a VTT comes out that makes what's hard to do online but easy to do in person also easy to do online. But between having to mechanize features so that they work on a VTT, finding maps that work well with whatever adventure/encounter is happening, and dealing with issues with either the mechanization of the system or generic tech issues, there's a lot I'm fighting with as a game host I historically didn't have to deal with.

THIS guy VTTs.

No, but seriously, you keep putting a lot of my thoughts and experiences on the screen without me having to type them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Whether you play online or in-person, period check-ins with your players either after or outside your games, to see if they're enjoying it, seeing what engages them and what loses them, is a good idea generally.

 

[The Soloist]

Finding players to play at a location has always been hard for me, beyond my first group in high school.

Groups made with random people from stores or message boards never worked for very long. No chemistry.

On the other hand, groups which I joined, as a player first and then became one of the GMs have worked well.

 

[R_J_K75]

Personally, I'd rather not play than play online, it's in person or nothing for me. For as long as I've been gaming my groups have always ebbed and flowed. Some lasted for years, some lasted for a few months. I had spells where I didn't play for quite a while because my group disbanded, or we just decided to take a break. One thing I've found is that sooner or later if I keep putting out feelers from time to time, I usually find another group. Sometimes I'll meet new players or run into an old friend and get another game together, and its usually when and where you'd least expect it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Groups made with random people from stores or message boards never worked for very long. No chemistry.

Groups that start off as friend groups work better in my experience. The odds are that lots of nerds have friends who are into nerdy stuff as well.

When you're talking about Dark Dungeons II or putting away the pieces from a Frostgrave game, bring up tabletop RPGs and see how many are interested. The odds are decent someone is.

 

[Blue]

I've found my habits about going out have changed post-pandemic. I'm an introvert to start with, though a well-socialized one. But the pandemic changed my behaviors, I am less likely to go out of the house at all.

I have a group that met regularly in-person pre-pandemic, and continued online during the worse of the pandemic. But now we've changed our membership some so that we're too geographically separated to go back, and I'm happy. I enjoy gaming in-person more, but the net experience with travel, traffic, food, and gaming just with whomever is close is less than online play.

I don't look for new in-person games anymore.

But the problem seems to be more of people saying they are interested and then not showing. If people are looking for games, that I can't explain.

 

[The Soloist]

Groups that start off as friend groups work better in my experience. The odds are that lots of nerds have friends who are into nerdy stuff as well.

When you're talking about Dark Dungeons II or putting away the pieces from a Frostgrave game, bring up tabletop RPGs and see how many are interested. The odds are decent someone is.

One of my best groups was met via a wargamer who also played RPG. I got invited to play with them. I guess I passed some kind of test I was unaware of.

 

[Katarhas]

Whether you play online or in-person, period check-ins with your players either after or outside your games, to see if they're enjoying it, seeing what engages them and what loses them, is a good idea generally.

I agree 100%, but in general it's easier to do with in person groups (for me) to also get a response that I can gauge against how they are reacting in play. It's harder for me to make those judgements, no matter how much feedback I get back, when I never get to see a live reaction to what's happening in game.

Part of it is English is my second language, so reading in between the lines of what they mean versus what they say in feedback is hard, and I don't particularly want to do constant polling with Google forms for feedback since then it'll just feel more like work than a game.

Definitely something I want to work on though, since online play is here to stay and likely to spread more, I need to improve on my ability to receive and evaluate feedback with people I'll never see in person. Changing with the times is hard

 

[bloodtide]

I had the same problem a couple of years ago. I had one player and was looking for a few more to make a group. Lots of interest from the local gamers...but few wanted to commit to a game. Eventually got a few, and had a game or two...until the dreaded 'life' popped up and people would quit, call off or not show. And look, if you want to do something, you will make it happen. Then:

Waiting in line at the deli. Next to me is Mary, mom of one of my daughter's friends...but I don't know her much. She notices my LotR Tee Shirt(the eye of Saron) and says she is a fan. We chat, she likes fantasy and I mention I play a fantasy game. Mary is intrigued. I give her the "well, I will be at the rec this weekend, stop by and see". A week later she shows up with four other women that all like fantasy and want to know more about this 'game'. And so were born the Mad Moms. None of them had played any sort of RPG before, but they took to it like a duck to water. The group lasted for years.

This got me thinking...if i can't find gamers....I would make them. So I did, out of anyone I could find.

About a year later, a young girl (16) came up to me in the library. She had the D&D game and tried to play it with her girlfriends, but just did not get it. So she asked me to teach her the game...and I said the best way to learn is to play. So I DMed her group of friends for a year, until she felt she 'got it'. I co DMed with her for a while...but she was off and running. Years later she is an adult, and still gaming

How did you get the library thing going? Can you explain how it all went down?

Here in the frozen north, parents would drop there kids off at the rec in the winter. But instead of going home, just wait around in the adult lounge. For hours. Then I was like...well, if people will sit here for hours...why not run some games. People jumpped at the chance to do something, so we gamed. Soon enough I was running three games. After a bit the new library director noticed and hired me as a part time 'game event master'. I grabbed every local game I could and had them move to the library.....and then made a whole bunch of new gamers (above).

The director was quick to add fantasy book clubs, book discussions, workshops and such to (vaguely) support the gaming.

At first I ran all the games....10-20 a weekend. Then a few more DMs stepped up. And then, it just sort of blossomed on it's own into a gaming environment.