What are your recruiting standards for your F2F games?

[MGibster]

How do you pick replacement players for your regular face to face games?

A currently player will say they know someone who might be interested, we have them ask, and if the answer is yes they show up and we start playing.

My current game is weekly, and has been together for 18 years. We play at a player's home chosen for its central location (I live out in the country, so even though I am the GM, I cannot host).

I've been with my current group for about six years now. We've got a solid core of 5 players with one person rotating out on occasion.

I maintain five players; in the rare occasion that I need a replacement, any potential candidate must be endorsed by at least one present or former player, and pass a background check (several of us have careers which would preclude gaming with a felon, for instance, and the host has small children).

I don't even know how you'd ask someone for the personal identification information necessary to conduct a thorough background screen. Okay, I get it, you just ask. But I'm very reluctant to provide anyone with my PII. Do you get them to sign an authorization form?

In addition, we prefer players who are over thirty, ex-military, and possessing comparable personality traits and views with the group, although the first two are waiver-able. Regular and timely attendance of the game is a must; we average 49-51 sessions a year.

I prefer gaming with people in their 30s or older but the folks at my table all have wildly different political beliefs. I do expect all players to attend games regularly and on time.

Currently we are not allowed to recruit female players by (several) wifely fiat, and by currently, I mean never.

Oh, wow. Admittedly all the women in my group are married to other members of the group. But my wife has never voiced concerns to me that there might be wimmen in any of my gaming groups.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I don't even know how you'd ask someone for the personal identification information necessary to conduct a thorough background screen. Okay, I get it, you just ask. But I'm very reluctant to provide anyone with my PII. Do you get them to sign an authorization form?

I don't ask for their ID information, nor do I need a form. All I need is their name. Commercial data bases have as good or better data than governmental services, and a lot of the useful governmental data (sex offender, for one) is public.

 

[MGibster]

I don't ask for their ID information, nor do I need a form. All I need is their name. Commercial data bases have as good or better data than governmental services, and a lot of the useful governmental data (sex offender, for one) is public.

I use a commercial application to run background screens on people for employment purposes. The company we use won't run a background check unless the candidate signs a document giving his or her blessing.

 

[Ulfgeir]

I think* the standards in my group are:

• Knowing someone already in the group (most likely the person whose apartment we play at). We have been playing since 2004 or so. Some players have longer histories.
• Not be a complete naughty word. Yes we have some friction sometimes.
• Have similar intrerests, so that it is someone one can hang out with even when not gaming.
  
  *It was a number of years ago since the last player entered, and I have no idea how he came into the group (there has been a few that left earlier). At the moment we are 8 players including the GM, so it is a bit too large as is..

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

For me they pretty much have to be a friend or someone I would spend time with outside of gaming. Not really interested in spending a several hours a week with randoms I wouldn't otherwise hang out with. And people I otherwise don't associate with aren't usually going to be invited to my house.

 

[Umbran]

My standards are fairly simple:

I have to know you beforehand. Failing that, someone in the existing group (or proto-group if we're just starting new) has to know you beforehand.

...

I'm pretty much in this camp, too.

 

[Umbran]

But my wife has never voiced concerns to me that there might be wimmen in any of my gaming groups.

Yeah. I know there are folks who cannot manage to keep their heads screwed on straight around women, but they fail at the "don't be a jerk" level.

 

[Morrus]

Wow. Strict.

 

[MGibster]

Over 30, and are in a job where the legal status of other people at the table are an issue, and... you can't be trusted with women?

I think you quoted the wrong person. I'm not the one with a spouse who says I can't be trusted with women.

 

[Umbran]

I think you quoted the wrong person. I'm not the one with a spouse who says I can't be trusted with women.

Yeah, sorry. General-you, not you-MGibster. I have edited the post because of the ambiguity.