Whats a person to do?

[Sigdel]

Right now, as a player and a DM, I am torn between two different choices. Do I stick with the group that I am in now? Which over time has become less and less frequent in the times we actually get to play. Or do I join up with this group of all new people, expanding my experience by playing with new people?
The group I am in now is made up of five closely knit friends, but due to timing conflicts, we get to play once a month. If we are lucky. We have talked time and time again about changing the day that we play on (Sunday), but its been just that, talk. The five of us have gamed together for around about four years, and it's grown kind of repetitive. We have one guy who knows a lot about FR but little or no about anything else. Another guy who doesn't care...about anything! Another guy who is so used to being DM in another game that he doesn't know how to be a player. My brother who doesn't know enough about the game to DM it full time. And myself, who is the default DM. I don't have the right POV to discuss my flaws as a gamer, but I am absolutely sure I have them. I like playing with these guys, but it's grown stale. Plus It seems like D&D is just an excuse to get together and socialize during gameplay. On top of all this, my turn to DM is coming up in a couple of weeks (I plan on running the incursion campaign). I don't want to devote a lot of time in to the Incursion when we are only going to get to play once a month. And what makes it worse, they seem excited about the game. But they still don't know it's the Incursion.
This new group is full of people I don't know. In a home brew world filled with its own rules. DMed by a guy I only talked to through e-mail. They too want to play on Sundays. So to play in one, I would have to give up the other. I don't want to make a mistake and find out I cant go back on it.
Do I stick with what I know, but fall in to the same routine? Or do I go with the new unknown and risk getting in to a game I don't like with people I may or may not like?

 

[Li Shenron]

Both.

 

[MonsterMash]

I'd say keep gaming with the guys you know, but give the other group a try as well. I've recently done this as my main group is very irregular these days (monthly if lucky), while the other group has been two sessions a month. I might be lucky in that the new group I've joined has a suitable approach, but then again as the GM is a regular poster here I could see that he had a similar approach to the game which suggested that I'd fit.

 

[Steverooo]

You really don't have a problem!

Play with your group. That gives you three weeks to try out the other, and decide if they're worth switching to. If not, tell them "I won't be able to make it, next week.", and go back to the old group, perhaps still playing with them three weeks/month, if they're okay with that.

 

[Turanil]

Play with your group. That gives you three weeks to try out the other, and decide if they're worth switching to. If not, tell them "I won't be able to make it, next week.", and go back to the old group, perhaps still playing with them three weeks/month, if they're okay with that.

That's of course what you should do indeed. In any case, don't let pass the opportunity to know other people and try a different game.

 

[diaglo]

Both.

ditto. have your cake and eat it too

 

[the Jester]

Hmm, unanimous.

Do both.

And get off yer asses as a group and switch to a better day!

 

[kanithardm]

We have one guy who knows a lot about FR but little or no about anything else.

Sounds like me.

I had this problem, and I screwed my old group and left.

 

[sniffles]

Why would you have to give up one group to play in the other? If your current group only plays once a month, that gives you 3 other Sundays per month to play with the new group. If the new people play every Sunday, you just have to tell them you may not be available every Sunday. Or use this as a motivator to get the old group to switch days - maybe if you will have to drop out due to scheduling conflicts and they really want to play with you, they'll be willing to make a change.

 

[Sigdel]

Why would you have to give up one group to play in the other? If your current group only plays once a month, that gives you 3 other Sundays per month to play with the new group.

But it's not that easy. Every week, when it get near Sunday, I start calling around to make sure we can play. But some thing usualy come up and we can't. Then its too late to do anything else. True, me up and leaving the group to play in a more regular one might motivate them...