Ive had a wonderful D&D game going for a long time.
Every Thursday after work we all gather at my friend Kenn's house and play from 6:00 to midnight. Six hours every week. Its awesome.
Now Im in my 30s so finding a group of guys my age that can actually get together on a weekly basis with maybe one or two call outs a year is fantistic. I feel very blessed.
Well Kenn and his wife (who is also a player) have announced they will be moving away to another state thats about 12 hours drive away in November.
Theres just myself and 2 other players. We lost our DM, one player and the house we play in. Its just the 3 of us now.
My game is dead meat. Even if one of us becomes DM we need more players.....
And we need a place to play that is not far enough to turn off some players...
And we need guys who can play to midnight and not mind the drive home and goign to work the next day...
And we need guys who dont have excuses always coming up why they cant make it wheter its children or whatever...
And the biggie....Players who want to play 3rd edition or Pathfinder and not 4E.
Doesnt look so good.
As a send off for our beloved DM we all went to the local Renesance Faire. We dont go all out and wear costumes but he wore a T-Shirt that said "Im the DM" and mine just had the D&D logo on it.
One of the Fair people in costume who worked there pointed at our shirts and asked if that game still exists and that he thought it died out in the late 80s.
If Ren Faire people dont know D&D anymore it really is a dying hobby. Or at least it feels that way more than ever to me now.
Just felt like venting. Thanks for reading.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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That always sucks when your game breaks up like that. However, on the bright side, you have a core nucleus of 3 players to start a new group with, so you're ahead of the curve there (I've had to start groups from scratch often, and getting the first few people always seems the hardest.)
Also, I'd advise to be as flexible as possible in your schedule to get a good game going. If the night of the week can be changed based on new player needs, and you can accomidate it, do it. If you need to call the game at 10:30 or 11 instead of midnight, do it. It's a lot better to have a good regular game that's a bit shorter than not have one at all.
There seems to be lots of interest in 3.5/Pathfinder, so if you post on the appropriate forums here at Paizo.com, ENWorld, and other sites, hopefully you can find another 2 players.
Jason, where do you live ?
Do you have a RPG store nearby ? Do they have a place to play, a classified pannel for players ?
Even if the store is closing at regular hours, you might be able to meet some players in the week end and organize a campaign in one of the players home, which would fit your usual game on thursday evenings.
It might take time and organization, but everything is possible when you really want it to happen.
Edit : I just checked you profile, Jason, and saw you are from New York. Check these two places if not already :
Neutral Ground or Complete Strategist (my own favorite).
They have a huge gameroom for games, and people play there every week end (including myself once a month).
EDIT: Ninja'd by Seldriss.
Ha-ha !
Sneak attack ! :D
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I know it can be hard finding a group - I was blessed with a pretty awesome one after a brief look on the WotC Gamer Connection. But I went through the dry spell, when my old high school group slowly dissolved after one last epic-level campaign.
We still hang out, but nobody wants to play D&D anymore. They pretend they are "too mature".
Anyways, luckily I also conned 2 of my brothers into playing, and I can say from experience that playing in a 2 player group is not half bad. There is tons of time for each PC to shine, players can run extra PCs if they want and try something new, the DM can run a PC and not tread on anyones toes. Some of my favorite gaming moments have been in smaller groups, and not just with my brothers.
All I can say, Jason, is find a place to play and trek on with what you've got. You never know - one of you might blossom into a great DM!
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Jason, don't give up. When you focus on your situation, you can actually change it. For example, I responded to a DM-want ad on the wizard messageboards several years ago. It turned out the player who placed the ad lived just a few streets over. This opened a huge opportunity to network and make new friends. I went from 4-5 folks I knew to 20+ gamers to choose from, turning more away than I would like.
The ren faire has never really been about d&d, although the two hobbies does possess parallels. Gamers lend themselves to the ren faire type crowd, but not necessarily vis a vis, and our game has never truly had a presence there, so that correlation may be spurious.
As for d&d being dead... well, depending on how you mean... its always been an underground kind of thing, and I assure you if it is dead - it certainly is an undead and undying sort of thing as well. Because of legal maneuverings of wotc, and the marketing of another game as d&d, I wouldn't mind agreeing that it seems dead in a kind of tudor house kind of way. But the succession of d&d now passes from 3.5 to Pathfinder and the Jason/Monte/PAIZO team.
As for getting players together. Just tell folks that no matter how busy they are, they can make time if its something they really want to do. Everyone does this... but maybe the folks you talk with just need to experience the value and fun the game brings again before they can commit, so don't try to get folks to overly commit before they see a sample of your game. Trust me - demands for peoples time is nearly impossible these days, but people will make time to do something they know they enjoy.
Hope that helps encourage you a bit. Take some action, let me know how it goes. Good luck.
Well its not NYC and thats really out of the way.
The closest gaming store is the Dragon's Den in Poughkipsee(sp) NY and even that is about an hour or more away.
But hey its a start.
Thanks :)
I can't help but feel the same way.
I had a great game going for awhile but people getting married, having kids, moving away, etc. has really done it in. I was at the end of AOW and the thing just fizzled. Years of playing and we're at the climax of the adventure and- suddenly nothing.
I've been (finally) trying out 4th edition with a group of 4 but already one of the players has basically told me: I'd rather just play WOW. I asked: Would you like to go back to playing 3.5 or maybe try out Pathfinder? No, he said, its not the system. He just doesn't find it (table top role playing) fun anymore, and frankly he doesn't have time for it.
I also feel that the rift that was caused by the poor handling of 4th edition coming out has caused damage to the greater gaming community that probably can't be repaired. I love reading the Pathfinder stuff, its all great, great material. But, secretly, in my heart, I wish that all of this had never happened and the Paizo team was still helping make D&D great.
Ah, well.
Well its not NYC and thats really out of the way.
The closest gaming store is the Dragon's Den in Poughkipsee(sp) NY and even that is about an hour or more away.
But hey its a start.
Thanks :)
Oh... Sorry.
When i see "NY" i always assume it's New York City, forgetting it can be in a remote part of the state...
Sorry if this may seem like a threadjack but where can I get directions to Dragon's Den? I've been looking all over for it on mapquest and the number they give me is no longer in service. I was afraid it closed down.
Jason, if I were you I'd dig around a bit locally, and online, hunting for replacement players, I bet you they're out there.
I live at present in an area in the UK I would have sworn had no roleplayers whatsoever, the nearest gameshop is London, and people just don't know what roleplaying is here ... or so I thought.
However I recently stumbled online into a website that seemed to be local to me, I joined up, and would you believe it ... someone who lives literally two doors down from me is a gamer, with the same books on his shelves as are on mine. And there are many (about two or three regular groups of 4-5) other local roleplayers too!
I was rather amazed at this I can assure you, and have begun to game two nights a week now (stepping up from the bi-weekly game I've run for about twenty years).
Sniff around a bit, you may be surprised.
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Well its not NYC and thats really out of the way.
The closest gaming store is the Dragon's Den in Poughkipsee(sp) NY and even that is about an hour or more away.
But hey its a start.
Thanks :)
I wouldnt bother with the Den. Its not what it once was. Epeically if your looking for a 3.x game.
They've shrunk the gaming and miniatrue sections pretty small.
This is how I found a game up in this area of NY.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/gamers-seeking-gamers/
Good luck.
Theres just myself and 2 other players. We lost our DM, one player and the house we play in. Its just the 3 of us now.
My game is dead meat. Even if one of us becomes DM we need more players...
I sympathize with your disappointment, but I wouldn't be so sure that additional players are necessary.
If one of the three of you is willing and able to DM, then there's no reason a two player party can't work. My current gaming group consists of two players and the DM, and it's far and away the most enjoyable gaming experience I've ever had. While our DM says it takes more careful planning to adjust encounters to our abilities, it gives each of us MUCH more time in the spotlight and more opportunities to shine as players and characters.
I'm planning to take over as DM when this campaign finishes up, and we may have the opportunity to add two more players, but I'm hesitating about doing so for fear of messing up the fantastic game chemistry we've got going right now.
This is, of course purely personal experience and may not apply to your particular situation, but a very small party can work. So don't necessarily dismiss it out of hand.
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Wow, I know how you feel. I've not had a game going for more than a year now. I'm stationed at a small post in Korea, and as far as I know, there's no-one here that plays. I brought all my game books over here and they just sit there gathering dust.
My old group in Alaska use to play on Thursdays and Saturdays.
I'm kinda sad to think of it all now.
Play online over a virtual table top. With something to help you speak to each other it can be very enjoyable, almost as nice as playing face to face. There are some fantastic table tops out there for very few dollar investment.
You may even grow to like it better than the original in some aspects.
www.fantasygrounds.com
www.kloogeinc.com/
www.openrpg.com/
To name a few.
Fantasy Grounds let me resurrect my old D&D group, and we've had a regular game running for a couple of years now - I heartily recommend it!
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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Some guy I used to DM back in 84 or 85 contacted me through facebook. The last game we had played got interrupted with his 10th level elf (elf was a class back then) standing outside of the entrance to the BBEG's lair.
His message read only: "I open the door and draw my sword."
Actually, gaming with a small group can be very rewarding. I'm DMing a 1 PC campaign right now and it's fantastic. With two people, it could really work as well.
I have two players each running two characters (they run both in combat and I RP the "back up" characters). It works all right; I would suggest giving it a shot. The only problem is if neither person can think of a solution for a given problem, you're kind of stuck giving hand-outs just to keep moving.
Some guy I used to DM back in 84 or 85 contacted me through facebook. The last game we had played got interrupted with his 10th level elf (elf was a class back then) standing outside of the entrance to the BBEG's lair.
His message read only: "I open the door and draw my sword."
Now that guy, is a Gamer! Great story. And a great line.
My high school group had a similar end. We got back together about a year after finishing high school. Some were off in different universities, some were out working, but one last night we managed to get together and roll some dice. White Plume Mountain. Got to the Giant Crabs, characters squared off against them, ready to do battle, and... we ended. Never got together again. I picture those characters still standing there, ready to go at it even after all this time. Maybe someday...
Do not give it up. You will find new players. Apart from the son of one of my players all my players are above 30, most are above 40. We play once every 2-3 weeks and do not feel "too mature". So it is possible.
When I was around 30 I had 3 players left, but we still played. Now I have 6 players and some more people wanting to play.
Perhaps you cannot play every week, but do not let that stop you. Good luck!
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My high school group had a similar end. We got back together about a year after finishing high school. Some were off in different universities, some were out working, but one last night we managed to get together and roll some dice. White Plume Mountain. Got to the Giant Crabs, characters squared off against them, ready to do battle, and... we ended. Never got together again. I picture those characters still standing there, ready to go at it even after all this time. Maybe someday...
Nah, we picked their pockets and threw them in with the other monsters while they were in stasis...
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Some guy I used to DM back in 84 or 85 contacted me through facebook. The last game we had played got interrupted with his 10th level elf (elf was a class back then) standing outside of the entrance to the BBEG's lair.
His message read only: "I open the door and draw my sword."
That actually made me a bit teary-eyed. Very nostalgic.
I have a feeling if I ever get around to finishing my epic Epic campaign my brother will feel the same way. He loved his half-orc barbarian/ranger.
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Asking new players to play on a week night until midnight is a death sentence to a campaign. If you can be flexible, and move it to Friday or Saturday, you will have a much better chance to make it work. I've never played in a weeknight game, because it's just not feasible. I don't know how you guys do it.
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Asking new players to play on a week night until midnight is a death sentence to a campaign. If you can be flexible, and move it to Friday or Saturday, you will have a much better chance to make it work. I've never played in a weeknight game, because it's just not feasible. I don't know how you guys do it.
I go into work the next day very very tired.
Asking new players to play on a week night until midnight is a death sentence to a campaign. If you can be flexible, and move it to Friday or Saturday, you will have a much better chance to make it work. I've never played in a weeknight game, because it's just not feasible. I don't know how you guys do it.
This can definitly be true but I personally find the opposite. Weekends are nearly impossible for us. Some one always has to take their kid to a party, or ones spouse is adamant that they are going to visit her aunt or there is a birthday that my player has to attend etc. etc.
We have actually found that week nights work a lot better for us as older gamers because very few people have significant social engagements on a Monday evening.
Essentially gaming weeknights strikes me as often asking the participants a slightly different question then gaming on weekends. Gaming on weekends means sacrificing social engagements while gaming weeknights means sacrificing productivity at work the next day ('cause your tired).
I suspect that age can play a big part in what the priority is in this regard. Young people often have critical exams or are just starting their careers and can't afford to not be the very best employee ever, while older gamers are often married with kids but comfortable with their job. They can perform passably even if they only have 5 hours sleep once a week and chances are no one will notice but you can't refuse to take little johnny to his friends play date without getting into a huge amount of hot water with ones significant other.
There are of course exceptions - if your a trial lawyer, for example, you can't appear in court the next day with five hours sleep. You need to be at your best but you probably make so much money and work so hard that your spouse recognizes that you deserve to be able to relax when your not working and that means gaming on the weekend unless its a really close relative that kicked the bucket.
We play once a week on a wednesday/thursday night and there is only 3 of us.
As mid-Twenties gamers, we tend to play the weekend. Lately, it's been a couple hours on Friday and maybe Sunday if we're lucky.
Back when we were in high school we gamed all weekend long. I miss that.
Tuesday nights for my group. 7 til midnight. (I'd like to start at 6) We rotate games and GMs, 2 wks at a time.. The only bummer is if we push til later 'cause we're stoked about the game. If you can't make/don't want to play a certain system it's cool. eg. I can't settle into Fantasy Hero so I skip those weeks.
When we can swing it we'll hit a weekend. Trouble is we have a big group and getting them all together is well nigh impossible.