D&D General Shocked how hard it is to get new players now-a-days

[Cergorach]

Couple of issue that you're stacking together and influencing the 'golden age of RPGs' in a negative way for you.

#1 Limiting to local players only (no online).
#2 Going through just the local FLGS
#3 Setting your game to your preferred system (OSR?), which is a relatively small niche compared to something mainstream like D&D5e.
#4 Possibly further limiting it by a very specific setting and/or play style.
#5 Going by your and possibly the FLGs schedule.

Advise: Go beyond your local FLGS with recruitment. Don't limit yourself to a specific system/setting/style. Don't limit your playing location to just the FLGS.

I tend to play my RPGs with a 35+ year old friend group, playing outside that group has been a long, long time ago. Currently not that much interest in playing in more RPG games then that. Too much other stuff I need to do an like to do...

Do I prefer in person gaming? Hell yes! But... It's not that simple.
a.) One of our players wasn't inside the country often, and these days is on the other side of the world.
b.) Even if everyone's schedule lines up, in person takes more effort/time then playing online. Time is important and time traveling is wasted time imho. Not to mention the cost of traveling/parking.
c.) Using computers can be beneficial, especially when tracking the boring stuff. Back in the day when we got into high level 3E I already needed a computer program to track everything (efficiently).
d.) VTTs have gotten way, way better! When used properly, the gap between online and in person has never been smaller. Don't get me wrong, there is still a gap.

We play together when we can (when that one player is back in the country) and if we can we'll rent a cabin for a weekend for in-person gaming, both pnp RPG and board/card games. Which can of course be financed with the savings in travel costs and parking from the rest of the year. That's a LOT of fun!

With playing online we went from a couple of times per year to 20-25 times per year. Which is enough for my RPG needs.

I do think that technology and the pandemic have driven VTTs, very far, very fast. What I can do with a mainstream game like D&D5e or PF2e is scary on something like Foundry VTT. It's not just the official stuff, it's all the fan mods, the (Patreon) resources, etc.

But it's not for everyone. I do recognize that if I had not driven Foundry VTT like I did, our online games might not have lasted at all. I've been a player, but running half my playtime as an assistant DM. I'm in IT and figuring out something like FVTT I find fun and building stuff in it I find interesting/satisfactory.

 

[Sulicius]

When I was looking to make my first in-person game last year, I intentionally told the players that I needed players with homes big enough to play in, since mine is too small.

It might have been a big ask, but a place to play is more important than what you decide to play!

 

[GrimCo]

Couple of issue that you're stacking together and influencing the 'golden age of RPGs' in a negative way for you.

#1 Limiting to local players only (no online).

For some, online play just doesn't do it. Playing ttrpg isn't only about playing game, it's about meeting people, hanging out, moving away from screen for a few hours. In my personal experience when my group played online, we played more focused, did more in game than usual, but there was less chit chat, joking, interesting discussions on unrelated subjects etc.

#2 Going through just the local FLGS

Agree. Internet is solid tool for finding like minded people and has wider reach.

#3 Setting your game to your preferred system (OSR?), which is a relatively small niche compared to something mainstream like D&D5e.

No point in playing system you aren't excited to play, is it?

#4 Possibly further limiting it by a very specific setting and/or play style.

Same as above. Playing system/setting or with play style you don't like is counter productive since there is good chance you won't have fun. It can work if you play with good friends and game is just good reason to hang out with them.

#5 Going by your and possibly the FLGs schedule.

Agree, it's much better to have private play space so you aren't depending on stores working hours and table availability. Disagree on first part though. Most of us here are adults, with adult responsibilities. It's absolutely makes sense he is going by his schedule. It does hinder him, but that's life.

 

[Cergorach]

For some, online play just doesn't do it. Playing ttrpg isn't only about playing game, it's about meeting people, hanging out, moving away from screen for a few hours. In my personal experience when my group played online, we played more focused, did more in game than usual, but there was less chit chat, joking, interesting discussions on unrelated subjects etc.

I have to disagree here, ttrpg is about whatever you want it to be. If it's only about playing a game, it's fine. If it's about meeting new people, that's also fine. For me it's generally about playing something fun with friends.

Online isn't for everyone, I can totally understand that. But there needs to also be some realization about how it's run, how the tools are used, and possibly the previous relationship between the people playing.

Our last DM wasn't fully utilizing the tools, that led to longer combats, often adhoc drawn maps, monsters that aren't correct, ect. As I'm the technical assistent DM, I was having a discussion with the new DM on how to run his sessions (and how to improve), his initial view was that the sessions degenerated to something akin to playing Warhammer (in his mind that is very negative and I don't think he's that familiar with actually playing Warhammer). To me he had a point, it did start feeling like Heroquest, all staring to a map constantly, sometimes switching over to Whatsapp to look at a picture. What helped a bit is that when we traveled we had a nice world map, but we could do better.

The new DM started learning how to run the system himself, with less help from me. Using prepared monsters helps a lot with a certain level of automation if we want it (adding bonuses automatically and seeing if it actually hits or not at one glance). Adding some tools to do make things run more smoothly and more visual. Mouse over on a token and you see the full artwork on the bottom left. Have images in the application itself so you don't have to switch, being able to easly share with the other players. Making RP scenes of a tavern instead of a map, the actual insides of the tavern as an image. NPCs as tokens so we know who's there, what they look like, when we know them we can hover over the token and see their name, etc. Adding sound to some scenes and those read-aloud sections actually converted to decent/good audio so the DM doesn't have to actually read that aloud. Yes, it's prep work, quite a bit of it, some of it is available ready to go (as a paid module), some of it you will have to do yourself. This resulted in an enthiousiastic new DM that thinks that his previous preconceptions about running a game online have been squashed.

And the advantage of the prepwork is that you have more time to actually play, interact, and have fun during the session.

Note: The points I made are pointing about the fact the OP is making a huge selection smaller and smaller based on their preferences, the more niche you go, the less people you'll find. If you want to play 'ARIA - Canticle of the Monomyth' (a 1994 Last Unicorn Games weird pnp RPG), in a cartoon Smurf setting, in that one FLGS in Smallvile, but only on weekdays when the moon is full. You better expect the worst for attendance...

 

[MNblockhead]

If you want to play 'ARIA - Canticle of the Monomyth' (a 1994 Last Unicorn Games weird pnp RPG), in a cartoon Smurf setting, in that one FLGS in Smallvile, but only on weekdays when the moon is full. You better expect the worst for attendance...

I fear I wouldn't be able to commit to an ongoing campaign, but damn would I want to show up for a session!

 

[DarkCrisis]

I fear I wouldn't be able to commit to an ongoing campaign, but damn would I want to show up for a session!

Im kind of sad there isn’t a Smurf RPG. Everyone of course plays a Smurf and Just classes like “Prankster”, “Leader”, “Engineer”, and “Woman”.

 

[jdrakeh]

Im kind of sad there isn’t a Smurf RPG. Everyone of course plus a Smurf and Just classes like “Prankster”, “Leader”, “Engineer”, and “Woman”.

Lucky you! I believe that a Smurfs RPG is in development! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maestromedia/the-smurfs-roleplaying-game?ref=discovery

 

[Lanefan]

I have to disagree here, ttrpg is about whatever you want it to be. If it's only about playing a game, it's fine. If it's about meeting new people, that's also fine. For me it's generally about playing something fun with friends.

Which is far better done in the same physical space, interacting as human beings rather than faceless voices. It's hard to read a room when there isn't a room to read.

Online isn't for everyone, I can totally understand that. But there needs to also be some realization about how it's run, how the tools are used, ...

...and whether everyone involved has the tech required to make it work.

I'm in an online game. We use roll20 for the VTT and discord for the audio. My desktop won't run roll20 if any of the fancy bells and whistles are turned on e.g. dynamic lighting and won't run discord well at all (there's a known bug in discord that causes it to slowly hog more and more cpu space on some machines, but it took me ages to learn of this; discord also insists on messing with my sound settings without my telling it to). So I use my smartphone for discord, and there too it hogs the cpu (I get a system warning every time but don't see it until I shut the app down) and drops out constantly due to my not-always-reliable home wifi.

All of which makes the experience considerably less than fun, much of the time.

And that's just as a player. Hell only knows how bad it'd get if I ever tried DMing on it.

 

[GrimCo]

Which is far better done in the same physical space, interacting as human beings rather than faceless voices. It's hard to read a room when there isn't a room to read.

Even harder if you are DM who likes to wing it and improvise with minimal prep work or runs very loose sandbox games.

...and whether everyone involved has the tech required to make it work.

I'm in an online game. We use roll20 for the VTT and discord for the audio. My desktop won't run roll20 if any of the fancy bells and whistles are turned on e.g. dynamic lighting and won't run discord well at all (there's a known bug in discord that causes it to slowly hog more and more cpu space on some machines, but it took me ages to learn of this; discord also insists on messing with my sound settings without my telling it to). So I use my smartphone for discord, and there too it hogs the cpu (I get a system warning every time but don't see it until I shut the app down) and drops out constantly due to my not-always-reliable home wifi.

All of which makes the experience considerably less than fun, much of the time.

And that's just as a player. Hell only knows how bad it'd get if I ever tried DMing on it.

Even if everything works fine, you still end up staring at the screen for few hours.

Maybe it's just me, but there is something very rewarding in rolling fistful of real dices, shuffling paper, scribbling on sheets, moving real minis around.

 

[payn]

Which is far better done in the same physical space, interacting as human beings rather than faceless voices. It's hard to read a room when there isn't a room to read.

...and whether everyone involved has the tech required to make it work.

I'm in an online game. We use roll20 for the VTT and discord for the audio. My desktop won't run roll20 if any of the fancy bells and whistles are turned on e.g. dynamic lighting and won't run discord well at all (there's a known bug in discord that causes it to slowly hog more and more cpu space on some machines, but it took me ages to learn of this; discord also insists on messing with my sound settings without my telling it to). So I use my smartphone for discord, and there too it hogs the cpu (I get a system warning every time but don't see it until I shut the app down) and drops out constantly due to my not-always-reliable home wifi.

All of which makes the experience considerably less than fun, much of the time.

And that's just as a player. Hell only knows how bad it'd get if I ever tried DMing on it.

The kids call your PC a potato.