R.I.P., My Gaming Group

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

At the beginning of August, our characters defeated the powerful dragon Ashartalan and became epic heroes, whose exploits will be sung about for ages by bards and muses. This was the culmination of weekly gaming sessions for the past two years, where the characters started from first level. Along the way, my cleric changed gods, the sorcerer got married, and the barbarian learned how to turn into a bear.

And now it’s over. The next week, the GM and her husband moved across the country, leaving me and one other player.

So I’m sitting here, still in The Habit, having recently bought Hero 5E (and the Champions book), Adventure! by White Wolf, Talislanta 4E, GURPS Atomic Horror, and Feng Shui. I also own Call of Cthulhu d20 and Star Wars d20, and of course, D&D. I’m working on a d20 version of the computer game Fallout, I have ideas for a Feng Shui-based Victorian Sci-Fi game called “Steam-Fu”, and I’ve been thinking about an all-Rogues D&D campaign.

Except that I only have one person to play any of this with.

I live in a pretty small town. Even though it’s a college town, it’s never been able to sustain a game store of any quality. The current incarnation of the one game store this town ever has is awful. And I’m not a college kid, and neither is the one gaming friend I have left. Call us a bunch of fuddy-duddies, but I don’t want to play with a bunch of trenchcoat-garbed, combat-monster, Holy Grail-quoting, Kevin Smith-worshipping kids. We’d like to play with other adults. Which isn’t to say we don’t have a good time.

Of course, there’s a flip side. Gaming with adults has a lot of problems. Most adults don’t have time for weekly or biweekly sessions. Many have kids, which make things problematic. Thankfully, my job allows me a lot of free time, so I have no trouble GMing, if I just had players.

I don’t know what to do. I know I’m really picky about who I want to game with. I can’t imagine having people audition or whatever for gaming. In the meantime I look at my game books longingly, work on my little projects, and hope something comes along, but I’d rather be playing.

2

Where you located?

I’m looking for a group, & I have won prizes in tournament play at cons.

E-mail me the locale.

3

I’m in Central Illinois.

4

Lego, what about looking online for gamers? On the WotC website (www.wizards.com), there’s a messageboard for gamers seeking gamers. There’s a similar messageboard on www.enworld.org (another really good d20-themed website). You may have some luck with either one.

5

You may want to look into Neverwinternights.

6

Sorry, I’m in Tennessee. :frowning:

7

Have you considered turning any of those into a Play By Email game (PBeM)?

It moves slower, yeah. But it’s a game. It’s how I get my fix.

8

How about gaming by AIM? I have never been a RPGer, but it seems to me that might work. Set aside a day and time and everyone get on AIM. Then geography doesn’t matter.

StG

9

Can someone explain exactly what you do in these rpg sessions? I’ve heard of them, but don’t really have an idea what goes on. (I’m in my mid-40s; we didn’t have these games when I was a young 'un.)

10

Actually, I’ve been running a game since October, 1996 on IRC. We have long since given up on the public ones, but having a group of computer geeks is useful. We now meet Sunday nights on a private IRC client, usually co-ordinated via meeting on ICQ to exchange the IP address for that night.

It is a freeform game, loosely based on the <i>AMBER Diceless Role-playing Game</i> manuals, but it has been quite fun. The players tell me I must generate plot-threads in a manner akin to dumping out a pot of cooked spaghetti. Median age of the plotlines runs to two years, plus, although there are shorter plots happening each four-hour gaming night, of course.

I’m looking for a few good players, but with a campaign of this age, I’d really like to get some stalwart types. I don’t like the game for two weeks then leave players; I deserve more try-out for fit than that. Especially after all the effort I do to work in a new character in a comprehensive, sensible way.

Anyone, er, game to try?

11

I would say you can try gaming online, there’s a few dedicated programs made for gaming in a chat room. I’ve even written one, if you’d like it, has a dice roller and all that wonderful stuff.

The other thing you can do is try to find other geeks at work, as I"m sure there are a few closet gamers where ever you look. The only thing I’d say about trying online, though, is do it with people you know. D&D isn’t really like Diablo and you want steady players, not someone who’s jumping in for a 30 minute fix.

I’m pretty big into D&D, but not big on time, but if you want any info or need any resources to get started online, give me a buzz (I think my e-mail is in my profile).

John

12

That sucks. I had something similar happen to me a while ago, when half my gaming group abruptly moved to Florida. I had to go for a few years without gaming before I managed to put a new group together.

One thing I tried was adveritsing on the forums at www.herogames.com in the looking-for-players section. That didn’t net me any local, non-flake players, but you might have better luck. I had to wait until word of mouth through my gamer freinds who didn’t move away managed to gather enough players for a decent game.

If you were local, I’d invite you to ours, but you live way out there in Illinois.

13

Actually, they were around when you were a young 'un. The first Dungeons and Dragons game came out in the ealy seventies. '74, IIRC.

Anywho, what happens in your typical RPG sessions is you get together with a few of your friends, get massively inebriated, and tell each other stupid jokes until the sun comes up. Some die rolling maybe involved at some point, but not necessarily.

Okay, no, seriously. Basically, a good roleplaying session is like writing an improvisational, collaborative novel. You need at least two people, but four to five is considered optimal. One person is the Game Master, or GM. The GM creates the scenario the rest of the group is going to play. A typical scenario could be, “Rescue the princess from the dragon,” or it could be “Prevent the nations of Guilder and Florin from going to war.” The GM decides what sort of monsters the players are going to face, how other, non-player characters react to the players, and what sort of treasure they find.

The rest of the group make characters. At their root, characters are a collection of statistics derived by rolling dice, whch leads some people to think that “RPG” stands for roll-playing game. Actually, it’s role-playing. Each player invents a personailty and background to go with their character, like characters in a novel. The GM describes where the characters start out, and sets up the plot for the adventure, and the players describe how their characters react.

Here’s a little example of what a typical session might go like:

GM: After many days of travel, you have finally come to the Temple of Akzerosh. It is night when you get there, and a heavy fog blankets the land. The decaying spires of the evil temple pierce through the thick mist, looming ominously over the forest. As you try to see through the murk, a booming voice calls out, “Who goes there?”

Bob: Sir Garak calls out, “We come from the town of Fairdale, and seek the Necromancer!”

Carol: I drop to the ground, and try to hide.

Ted: Just in case, I get my Wand of Fireballs out.

GM: Okay. Carol, roll your hide skill.

Carol: I got a fifteen. Am I hidden?

GM: As far as you know, nobody can see you. Sir Garac, the voice speaks again: "What business have you with the Necromancer?

Bob: “We come to make him answer for his crimes!”

Ted: Don’t tell him that!

Bob: I have to! I’m playing a paladin, I’m not allowed to lie.

GM: It’s too late, anyway. Instead of answering, a hail of arrows comes out of the fog. <Rolls some dice> Bob, what’s your armor class again?

Bob: Twenty.

GM: Okay, two arrows shatter against your plate mail, and Ted, your wizard is hit in the thigh by an arrow for… <rolls again> five points of damage. Carol, no one shoots at Fingil. Apparently, your hide roll worked. Even as the arrows strike, you see two heavily armored humanoids approach, each wielding a greatax.

Ted: Dammit, that’s it. I cut loose with the Wand.

GM: It’s not your turn yet, first everyone rolls iniative…
And so forth. Some adventures last only for one evening. Others, like the OP’s, can have plot lines that stretch over years. The more characters adventure, the more powerful they become. Wizards learn new, more devastating spells, fighters perfect deadly combat technique, characters get powerful magic items, etc.

With the right group of people, it can be incredibly fun. And the options are literally infinite. I’ve been gaming for more close to fifteen years, and it’s never been repetitive. There are also a fantastic variety of roleplaying games out there, for every conceivable genre: fantasy, science fiction, horror, even comedy. There used to be a game called 'Toon, where the characters were Lonney Toon-style cartoon characters. There’s an RPG set in the Star Wars universe. There’re games based off of HP Lovecraft, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Judge Dredd. There are games that let you play as werewolves and vampires, paranormal government agents, or demi-gods. There are dozens of games based off of various Japanese animes, or just based off of the Anime genre in general.

14

Well thanks for the advice. I don’t think an online solution will work, for a few reasons (like, two of my former group share a computer, so it would be tough) so I think I’ll have to go the “post an ad” route.

The problem is, how can I do this without sounding obnoxious? Because when it comes to this, I guess I am kind of obnoxious. I enjoy gaming, but I really don’t enjoy a lot of gamers. If I read the WOTC D&D forums, for example, I end up wanting to destroy humanity within ten minutes.

I don’t want power gamers. I don’t want munchkins (people who believe an RPG can be “won”.) I don’t want people who want to play insane, evil characters (unless they want to GM and those are the bad guys). I don’t mind GMing, but I would like people who are willing to run games every now and then to give me a break. I’d like to play stuff other than D&D (I like D&D, but coming off a 2-year campaign, I’m ready for a break from it.)

I don’t want immature people. Yeah, we laugh and joke during our games, but we also play the game. I don’t need to hear Monty Python quotes every five minutes. I don’t believe Highlander is the greatest film ever made, or even in the top fifty. I don’t need to hear about your religious beliefs or lack thereof once an hour. Nor am I overly interested in having to hear constantly about your politics, views on women, views on guns, and so forth. MAybe eventually we’ll get to the point where we can discuss these things. Maybe we have similar views on them. But this is a gaming table, not a soapbox.

You’ll be playing at my house for some of the time. I live here, and I’ll expect you to treat it as such. That means no smoking, because I don’t want the place to smell like smoke. Bathe, because I don’t want the place to smell like B.O. Respect my home and my belongings. Don’t come over and get into arguments with my neighbors - you don’t live here and have to deal with the consequences (I know someone who had a “friend” who did this.)

And oh yeah - bring your own dice. Do not touch another man’s dice unless you’re invited to.

So am I just out of my tree here? Should I just resign myself to a future of solo computer games? The thing is, I’m not a very social person, in many ways. I’m the type of person where, I don’t have many friends, but the ones I have are close. I don’t have very many “casual” friends. Two of them just left town. This activity (playing RPGs) is one I enjoy, and I don’t necessarily want to do it with just anyone. The thing about posting an ad in my local game store is that I hate my local game store, and most of the people I see in it make me cringe. But, in this small town, it’s all I’ve got.

Sorry, rant-of-consciousness there.

15

How about this:

“Experienced gamer, looking for a mature group to join. Willing to GM, host (no smokers), interested in games other than D&D. Looking for rational, intelligent people who don’t play Monty Haul campaigns and who understand that hygiene is not an option.”

Check Yahoo! groups for local gamers. There may be a bunch of reasonable people in your town who stay away from the local gaming store because they, too, are creeped out by the people they see there, and they now do all their shopping on-line.

16

Man oh man do I feel your pain.

My own group finally succumbed to jobs, marriages, careers, graduate school, and children after a great run. I also live in a (very) small town with few options. I tried the message board/message posting route and only ever encountered Conan spouting, rules arguing, cheeto munching, mountain dew slurping, fingernail chewing, 7 of 9 worshipping, star wars technical jargon spouting, samurai sword wielding, living with mom socially inept hygenically challenged weirdos who think that the culmination of comedy is giving their character’s name to the guy at the pizza place.

Screw that. I’d rather not play.

17

I killed off my group after a three-year run recently, and have taken a six-month break from gaming altogether (barring occasional board-game fests) while I got a whole new life together. Now, I’m jonesing.

So I decided what I want, as a GM. A small group; three players. A weeknight, not weekend, session; four to five hours play, max. The option to play D&D or board games, depending on whether I’ve had the time to set up a session.

So, I got in touch with the best two players out of the rotating cast of my old game, plus my boyfriend, who’s rapidly turning into a good player, and I suggested exactly that. And they’re psyched.

My best recommendation: talk to the people at the gaming store. Find out who’s good, who might want to get into your type of campaign. Leave your number for them, maybe. Ads won’t get you good gamers. Other gamers might. Or, knowing what kind of game you run, you might end up with a game stocked with game store employees.

18

Places to look for local players:

http://www.rpg.net/etrigan/
http://www.nggnet.com/classifieds/Wanted/gamers.htm
http://www.pen-paper.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewforum&forum=8

Hope this helps.

19

I’m bumping this ancient thread to celebrate that I have a new gaming group. The other two players we happened to meet by chance (I’ll eventually tell the saga of posting an ad - shudder).

We played a one-shot a few weeks ago and have now officially begun our real campaign. You can read about it here:

http://www.legomancer.net/gaming/arnheim.html

Huzzah! Phoenix-like, my gaming group is reborn from the ashes!

20

Great! I have to say that I’ve had middling success in using the online classifieds myself. I’ve discussed gaming with a few people, and finally found a couple of people who were trying to get a group started. I dragged my daughter along after one session (with the DM’s permission, of course), and it turned out that SHE had a couple of friends who were looking to get into a game. So now we have five regular players, and a DM. Five is a good number of players.

And I’ve always made appointments to meet people in a neutral place, and it was understood that we’d see how we meshed. I did have a couple of meetings that didn’t pan out, but I did manage to get into a group at last.

And there’s NOTHING like playing a character with a 16 Wisdom and 6 Intelligence. Makes for lots of fun!