If there is one thing I can proudly brag about is that I'm part of the Elite that have that running for several years. With few hiccups of missing sessions, and sometimes extra games on the same week as the "main" game.
For those stuck looking for groups, just start it yourself, you'll be surprised how many people around would like to try and will probably like, but don't want to start the thing themselves.
Having a group is only half the battle, the other half is getting that group together when one person works odd hours, another has chronic illness with lots of medical appointments, and a third has a bitch of a commute during the week so often can't get home in time.
For years we had games every Friday and Sunday, all it takes is a couple of people changing jobs to completely disrupt that setup.
My experience is that you're much more likely to succeed if you find people that want to play and make friends with them than you are making your friends play.
If you pitch to your existing friends, they're more likely to say yes because they're your friends. They want to hang out. But they might just be saying that to be nice or because they're afraid of confrontation. They might not realize you're looking for a commitment on par with joining a sports team. If they don't already play RPGs, they might not know they're going to have to do some reading and writing. A lot of people just don't read and creatively write. That can be difficult and embarrassing.
On the other hand, if you post online or in a local game store, you can find people who are ready to go. People who can already do your schedule and also know the game you want to play. There's a small risk of getting a weirdo, but a quick screening catches a lot of that.
yup. I played for years with a group that grew out of a college group and as far as I know they still play (unfortunately I had to stop)
If this was the brain to galaxy brain meme, the bottom one might be "a group of 3+ players who want to play more than just DND"
There are so many things I actively dislike with DND, but it's way harder to find people to play other games. Luckily my Friday group has agreed to try other stuff. We're currently doing this "year zero engine" thing and it's great. Whole sessions go by and I have nothing bad to say about the rules. (I think the willpower rules might be kind of janky, but nothing is perfect)
Next up is a forged in the dark game someone wants to run, and then maybe a short go of Vampire.
Yeah I've been part of a group of 5-6 players a d we played almost every week until recently it started being much more infrequent.
I think we're all just burned out on DnD, everyone is going off the rails with their characters and we completely lost sight of our actual objectives and end up in pointless encounters because someone wants a magic item and I sit there twiddling my thumbs while the DM lets the interactions go on way too long.
I wanna play some fun strategy games or something.
"at least once a week"?
That's crazy lol. I've had a couple once a week games over the years, but most of the time we've done every other week. Everyone is just too busy. Granted we have a larger group going right now, 6 players in both my big games that play every other week.
I'm sorry this is so off topic to the community but this meme reminded me how much I hate that advice. What if I only want sex too?! It didn't prepare me for ANYTHING. It treats teenagers like one dimensional objects where girls only want romance and commitment and guys only want sex and will behave like a movie villian to get it. When reality doesn't match it gets all disregarded
So PSA not good advice
The secret is to do everything as improvisation. If there is no preparation, then there's no lost time!
...
Who am I kidding? I've not played in months and haven't GMed in years ...
It's only a hard sell if you want it to be a hard sell. The fact my table plays once a week was a big plus for me.
What's your session time? I used to play 12hr sessions and they were just too long for me
For most games, three hours is about the minimum to get anything done. It takes some time to get settled and ramp up into the game.
More than five hours is typically too long. Most people lose focus or get bored. Or just have other stuff in their life blocking that many consecutive hours.
We play for 3 hours, maybe 4 when no one has work the next day.
12 hour sessions are a fucking slog. They are hard to get through and are really only good for people who want that.
Shorter sessions are less likely to burn you out.
Three to six hours are pretty standard when doing weekly DnD, but DnD parties (like LAN parties) are also pretty awesome every now and again.
But I cannot really imagine purely doing 12 hour games. Weekdays are too short for that, and I prefer keeping weekends free for non-repeating events.
That's good to hear. My first ever D&D group did those and i was worried that was normal. I want the character i made to live again someday
In high school, Mom was always pre-empting game nights with visits to Aunt So-and-so or whatever. "You can play your game any time."
These days I play 2 or 3 times a week. But I can stop any time I want.
