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Just wondering, why is it SO hard to find players to play face to face with?
I have been looking on Meet-ups, here, Discord, and fliers in game stores (What game stores I have in my area and ones that will let me post fliers.
If I want to play online, no issue, but for the past 3 years I have looked and looked and cannot find people who want to play face to face (When their is no major outbreak of pandemic)
Anyone got ideas, sites that work to find players?
I am in Colorado and SO frustrated!
BTW, prefer PF1 vs PF2 but will play PF2
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Online is super convenient for folks and was chipping away at the F2F pool for awhile. Combine that with a pandemic, that is not over, and folks are sheepish to get back to the table. Its going to be awhile, but I bet there will be a F2F explosion in a year or two when folks want to get back to the table.
In the meantime, Id try out some PFS locally and see if you can garner up some interest.
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Despite having the vaccine easily available, Covid is still a very real concern most places, especially here in the US. My FLGS has started hosting in-store events again, but the owner has had to cut way back on hours of operation, especially on weeknights (which were his lowest income periods, even before the pandemic). CCG events have always dominated the bookable game space there, and with the shrinking hours, it's looking like it won't really be feasible to schedule regular in-person ttRPGs there anytime soon.
I'm pretty sure that the pandemic will continue to impact home games for quite some time, too. I've been lucky enough to be able to treat some of my closest gamer friends as part of my "bubble" for the duration, so I haven't been completely deprived of in-person gaming, but our home group hasn't met as often as we used to. And with few if any exceptions, all the rest of our other gaming has been strictly online. I feel that most people would be perfectly justified in having second thoughts about meeting strangers to play games in-person, especially if they're hosting in their own homes.
On the other hand, a number of local (or local-ish) in-person cons are starting up again this summer and fall, with stringent safety precautions. My wife went to her first live gaming con in over 2 years this past month, and the rest of our family plans to do so in about a month. That resurgence may encourage people to put more effort into finding other opportunities for in-person gaming.
With most schools returning to in-person instruction this fall, at least some of those schools will be trying to resume in-person meetings of their RPG clubs. In my pre-pandemic experience, many college gaming clubs didn't require you to be a student to play with them, but Covid concerns may severely limit that inclusiveness for the foreseeable future. But those clubs might still be a useful resource to network with other gamers.
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As an 'essential' retail worker under normal operating conditions it'd be difficult to F2F.
With a pandemic resurgence, it's even more difficult, and that's before assurances of social distancing, vaccination status and masking.
If I get sick there's No One to do everything I do at work. As it is, some of the work I should be doing gets put off for months because we don't have the bodies.
EDIT: Miss F2F and going to conventions. Don't miss 'con crud'.
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We’re a year and a half into a contagious epidemic that has killed over half a million people in my country. Folks are understandably reluctant.
Also, IRL play with strangers is a big ask for folks, whether from social anxiety or the justifiable worry that they might not have any personal/storytelling chemistry with strangers. I don’t have an easy way to vet someone’s level of respect or know their play expectations if we aren’t already friends, and tabletop without either or both of those is not tabletop I want to play. I’m talking about filtering out both “I’m a cruel, transphobic jerk” and “I will make fart jokes at the table,” y’know?
Been online-only for several years now and I’m plenty happy with it.
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Most in person gaming groups are people playing with people they already know (friends and friends of friends)
I personally don't play with strangers unless a friend is friends with them and can vouch for them because I don't want to deal with transphobia or ableism at the table.
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My number one rule is no campaigns with people I dont know. So, I'll try folks out at PFS or one shots before moving into a campaign. I have on a few occasions just set up a chat or one shot with the intention of maybe getting to a campaign. Thats how I roll.
I haven't found that online gaming shields me from awful people.
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I understand Pandemic, but this started long before the pandemic (finding players). In my area, seems everyone wants to play 5E and will not give PF1 or even 2 a chance.
In the past, we offered to sit down with anyone, outside of the game at a safe spot to talk.
I know all to well about transphobia and racism, and I am very welcome and open to anyone (as long as they are not criminal) in my groups. One guy we recently lost we found out had a child exploitation record. And the last guy to leave LOVED to talk politics and argue. We asked him to stop and when he said No, and bailed.
I've never been a fan of PFS (not many in my area now days), used to be a lot. The one game store locally has kind of killed that. The other runs only D&D, and the one in the town I lived in closed. The one that runs D&D won't even let us put up fliers.
Very frustrating as we have been trying to find people for a long time, and just not having luck and the group went from 12 to 8, to 6, to 4, to 3, to 2.
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Maybe it's where you live? What do your advertisements look like? They could be turning people off. Are you looking to be the GM or a player? One of these is more in demand than the other.
I moved to the Phoenix area three years ago and posted a flyer on the corkboard at the FLGS. Within three months of living here (maybe a month or so after posting the flyer) I had joined an excellent 5e home game and a few months after that got them to join in the P2 playtest game I started (they had never played P1 before), and now we're playing through Age of Ashes (I'm the GM) as well as the 5e game (I'm a player). I didn't really want to play 5e initially, but saw it as a way to meet people and then perhaps transition into games I prefer. I stayed in the game because the group is great. Maybe the same approach will work for you and 5e/P1. Starting an unknown system with an unknown person is a big ask; removing one of those variables (even if just temporarily) might help.
Just keep trying, good folks are out there, though of course you're likely out of luck for in-person games until after the pandemic.
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Really the best way to find people to game with is to have an active social life and make friends - also, if you have friends that havn't explicitly expressed an interest in the game, try asking them if they are interested anyway. There are a lot of people on the fence about jumping into rpgs who just need someone they know to make it easy for them, or who just don't know about rpgs but might love it if introduced to it.
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Pandemic concerns aside (and I hope that folks always prioritize their own and others' safety):
The bottleneck of getting a TT game going is almost always at finding a willing and capable GM. If you're lucky that there are Pathfinder players in the area (perhaps with the aid of organized play), no problem. But there are always more players than GMs, and if there happen to be no GMs in your area that run Pathfinder/are uunfamiliar with it, you will of course not be able to find a group.
The solution to this may not be your ideal, but is really the only way to address this:
Become a Pathfinder GM yourself. Run a game, bringing folks you trust to play well. If all goes well, you get other players hooked on the system, and then as their interest grows, encourage some of them to learn to GM. You can then become a player in their next campaign, plus others may start new games and/or begin a PFS chapter. And then you will have an abundance of options, but it means stepping up to the plate first to get something started.
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This has been a problem long before the pandemic. I'm fortunate in that I have had a steady group for a long time and they're about all I can handle. I've encountered several people over the years looking for an F2F game. I took a gamble on one or two but we weren't a good fit for them and they dropped out. The FLGS here where I live is mostly filled with Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic, and Pokemon players, leaving little room for the folks who want to play TTRPGs. I hope you find a group!
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So I have been the DM/GM since I started playing in 1979. I run games. I love to play as well, but I always run games and am willing to run games. But after a while, I do need a little break and need to play a little.
Sadly, the Game Stores in my area are pretty worthless. The one in town closed up (Found a few players there) Two in the city north of me, one will not post fliers, the 2nd runs a meet up that is, well, pretty worthless, and cannot do fliers, and may be closing (Owner not a good business person) and the town 30 minutes east put up a flier, but no reply and fliers he had, when I called those people, I found the fliers to be old and they no longer were in the area or the number was no good.
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I don't play PFS myself, but back in 2019, I was curious about why our FLGS hosted a ton of D&D Adventurers League and no PFS/SFS, so I asked the owner.
He said that the bottom line is financial incentives.
First, he said, D&D outsold Pathfinder at least 4-to-1 by total sales volume at his store.
Since PFS scenarios are electronic, and only available from Paizo, he can't sell them at all. And because Paizo is bundling free scenarios with anyone who has 3 or more direct subscriptions, there's a huge disincentive for PFS players to buy their materials from a brick-and-mortar store. So when he used to host PFS events, pretty much the only thing he ever sold to the people at the event were soft drinks and the occasional dice set: Nearly everyone at the event was buying their Pathfinder books directly from Paizo. He also observed that general sales from walk-ins tend to fall whenever there's a game event: Having many tables of gamers loudly playing discourages causal shoppers from sticking around and buying stuff. All together: He realized that he was losing money for every PFS event his store hosted.
WotC, on the other hand, encourages Adventurers League players to purchase D&D materials from the local store, and provides in-game incentives for doing so. This tended to increase local sales during Adventurers Leage events.
Consequently, he encouraged D&D Adventurers League and MTG events, and stopped encouraging PFS events at his store.
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Adventures League scenarios are likewise electronic only and are also not for sale in the store - so I guess I’m not sure I see the distinction beyond “Paizo offers a discount to people who buy from their store rather than from me.”
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Adventures League scenarios are likewise electronic only and are also not for sale in the store - so I guess I’m not sure I see the distinction beyond “Paizo offers a discount to people who buy from their store rather than from me.”
I'm just repeating what the owner of our FLGS told me when I asked why he didn't host PFS at his store anymore: He said that hosting D&D Adventurers League events increased in-store sales during the events, while hosting PFS decreased in-store sales during the events.
Since Magic the Gathering is still a perennial favorite among many FLGS, it ain't too much of a stretch to expand stuff to D&D too- being all a part of the same company and stuff.
That being said, weren't there some PF1e PFS/Organized Play handout option that allows folks to buy a set amount of unspecified purchases from a FLGS hosting PFS a while back? Not sure if anything similar was done for PF2e PFS/Organized Play...
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One company offering discounts for bundled purchases while the other “encourages” purchasing product in the FLGS is not example of the latter company using “marketing” better than the former.
It also certainly doesn’t mean that one company is looking to expand and the other isn’t.
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Well, my prior post was to offer some hope, that if enough folks can get interested enough that there are a pool of GMs, often a community interested in a particular system can be sustained.
If there are folks in the area who aren't interested in running--or joining games that a GM offers--then the harsh reality may simply be that people in a given region are not interested in the same system and would rather play something else. You can't force someone to like a game, and particularly with regard to PF1, all marketing/organized play issues aside, it is now an outdated, no-longer-supported system that the majority of folks would prefer to eschew for a more streamlined system like 5E or a more codified crunchy system like PF2. And I am saying this as a PF1 fan who is neither interested in playing 5E nor PF2--I'm not saying OP should switch over nor anyone else; I'm acknowledging more my own circumstances that I like a system that a lot of other folks increasingly would rather skip for something different and I know if I'm gonna play PF1 I'm gonna be pretty much stuck playing in PBP. You can lead a gamer to a system but you can't force them to play. There's always hope for finding someone in the future--or making deals, like, "Hey, I'll play in your 5E game if you play in my PF1 game"--but sometimes people just don't want to play and you can't make them. Especially when there's a New Hotness other folks would prefer to put their limited time and energy into.
No matter what, I hope OP and other folks find something that works for them.
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Honestly, once you're a grown-up, finding people to play with and coordinating schedules is the biggest hurdle for TTRPGers.
Speaking strictly for myself, outside of conventions, I rarely-if-ever play F2F with strangers, even pre-pandemic. (And I'm still not meeting up with strangers during this pandemic despite being vaccinated, so no cons for me this year, either.)
I'm starting to feel that I actually prefer to play TTRPGs online rather than in-person. One big plus: There's no time spent commuting!
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Yeah, if you wont go online, then you have to work with what you can. If it has to be F2F, then its likely you need to start with organized play. If there is only 5E D&D in the area, you likely need to start there too.
One way to look at it is if you are forced to go 5E org play, there are likely others in 5E org play that feel the same way. You have a better chance of finding them there than hoping a flier will get their attention.
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I play in a 5E online game, I find it very lacking, not to mention paying $20 a game, and I am not so invested in the game. If it is Online, I won't be DMing. Playing? I would do, if the game captures my interest, and I don't have to keep paying to play, and it is in my scheduled free time.
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No playing a 5e game. Look at most Roll 20's or Start playing, and you will find DM's charging players to game. It's a business. Figure the money out. DM runs 1 game a day or even 4 games a week. They have 4 - 6players each paying $20 a game. AT 6 players, that is $120 a game they make for 4 hours of DMing. Times 4, $480 a week
It's a racket and prevents me from doing more, in fact, I debate on even that. But to play, I do what I can. And sadly, my husband does not get to play now, as his schedule prevents it and one reason I am looking for players who can do a F2F
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There are PFS groups that run exclusively online through Roll 20, and 5e games on Roll20 that aren't pay to play.
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No playing a 5e game. Look at most Roll 20's or Start playing, and you will find DM's charging players to game. It's a business. Figure the money out. DM runs 1 game a day or even 4 games a week. They have 4 - 6players each paying $20 a game. AT 6 players, that is $120 a game they make for 4 hours of DMing. Times 4, $480 a week
It's a racket and prevents me from doing more, in fact, I debate on even that. But to play, I do what I can. And sadly, my husband does not get to play now, as his schedule prevents it and one reason I am looking for players who can do a F2F
I'm not really going to be able to offer F2F suggestions for Colorado (a state I've only ever been to once), but I can offer assistance with online TTRPG opportunities that won't break the bank.
Pro GMs are a thing (I pay to play with GMs on the Magpie Games Curated Play Program from time to time), but they're the exception, not the rule. The vast majority of online play is with other gamers who just want to play.
I kick in a bunch of online RPG circles where games are free, with GMs who run for the love of the game.
We don't really do traditional RPGs like D&D or Pathfinder, but I'm pretty active on the Gauntlet Online RPG Community. We're always looking for new players. Subscribing to the Patreon gets you advanced access to game sign-ups, but the games themselves are all free. We're also running a free online convention in October. I'll be running three games for that, although I haven't yet decided what.
I'm also pretty active on the Magpie Games Discord, and we're running the monthly Community Play Day this Saturday. It's also free. I'm running two games, both with open seats at the moment: Trophy Dark and Bluebeard's Bride.
If you're looking to play Pathfinder online... have you looked at the Paizo Discord? I haven't been active there in over a year, but there had been a whole lot of free online play there. And a lot of it was 2E. Also check out the Know Direction Discord. There's a lot of people playing Pathfinder there, too.
Hmm, if you don't mind a dip into the well of past D&D editions [1e/2e, 3.0/3.5, BX/BECMI, 4e/Essentials] or giving OSR stuff a try [things like Castles and Crusades/Siege Engine games, D20 games, DCC, or Swords and Wizardry] or even Indy TTRPG stuff [Mutants & Masterminds [kinda really in the D20 category though...], Star Wars Saga, Starfinder, or Fantasy AGE/Dragon Age]; there just might be a player base for those that you could try out as well... if they're actually out there, of course.
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Used to play 1E. 2, 3, 3.5 Never touched 4. Would play Starfinder. Played Star Wars Saga. (been playing since 1979)
I was born in 1978.
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Just wondering, why is it SO hard to find players to play face to face with?
I have been looking on Meet-ups, here, Discord, and fliers in game stores (What game stores I have in my area and ones that will let me post fliers.
If I want to play online, no issue, but for the past 3 years I have looked and looked and cannot find people who want to play face to face (When their is no major outbreak of pandemic)
Anyone got ideas, sites that work to find players?
I am in Colorado and SO frustrated!
BTW, prefer PF1 vs PF2 but will play PF2
Currently running F2F in Billings Montana, some of us are thinking of starting a 2nd group. If your in region give us a holler.
1st edition as well, although the group tends to like Horror Style games
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Have you tried searching Facebook groups, Meetup.com or other sites where you can search for people who share a common interest in your area? I found a group of boardgamers to play with on Meetup and we eventually transitioned to D&D5e.
EN World has a Gamers seeking Gamers community forum here: https://www.enworld.org/forums/gamers-seeking-gamers.49/
I don't know if there is anything similar on the Paizo boards, I have never looked.
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I've tried to just register on those sites, and nothing. My email precedes me, and I can't even tell how it's there.
Real world TTRPG is a thing of the past. Usually sucked anyway.
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That's not been my experience, but maybe I am blessed to live in an area with a high density of roleplayers.
About 30 of us meet at a social club every Thursday night. There's another group that meets in my local library. I was buying a boardgame from GAME last week and the guy behind the till directed me to another group meeting weekly at a pub within walking distance.
There are probably groups playing face to face near you, and hopefully you will find them.
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I do want to note that we have passed 800,000 dead of covid in the USA. A lot of people are understandably hesitant to meet strangers in person right now.
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Given the number of... ... idiots that come into work sniffling, wheezing, hacking, not wearing a mask, trying to get within six feet of a person...
...I'm not seeing a lot of hope for the mid to long-term future of social gatherings.
It WAS looking good at SKALCon and Winter WolfCon, but... now?