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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ourchair" data-source="post: 5369427" data-attributes="member: 85362">I'm fortunate in that we have lots of women in our gaming circles, and therefore if we get them, we are able to get the boyfriend too, or vice versa.That said, I'm also lucky that this same group forms the core of a committee that organizes gaming events, so we're all pretty passionate.Still, many good points have been made, and I'll reiterate some of them while providing my input:* Commitment is shown by what your players do, not what they say - There's only so much you can do to reach out to those players, and I've found that so long as you make your game(s) easy to attend -- convenient and accessible location, consistent dates and frequent sessions -- then you're pretty much off the hook when it comes to them whining about not being able to game.* Players need to know they're there to be playing, not goofing - I'm not suggesting making a social game a tyrannical experience on your end, but sometimes the people who complain about not gaming enough are the ones who can't focus on playing. They're too busy making Monty Python jokes and taking excessively long turns.I have a very forgiving standard of roleplaying even for crunch-heavy games like 4E, which is something I say to all my players. "Ask yourself, what would my character do? Then tell your DM. He'll tell you to roll a d20 and add a number." That's it.My point is that I don't expect my players to be experts at the mechanics, I don't expect them to be Shakespearean actors, and heck I don't even run the best game EVAR, but they have to understand that these games require focus and spending the first hour of game time talking about what was on TV last night is the easiest way to NOT get anything done.Accept the fact that your players may not have anything in common but the game - Outside of my core group, I run a 'open seat' campaign. The setting is very sandbox-like, in the sense that there's a well-developed geography and history but a very story lite approach to campaign planning and I use pre-built delve-sized adventures.I set this up because I knew there was no way to get people to agree on consistent schedules on a long-term basis. One player is a math major on his umpteenth year of school, another player is a freelancer with unpredictable work commitments, another player is a banker who gets up early. All of them have unpredictable weekends.Sometimes, the problem of getting games on a regular basis is not anyone's fault but the fact that they are all different people with different lives, and the core of a very good and consistent group is a strong social contract with all individuals involved.</blockquote>

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