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

[Sulicius]

After being a player for a couple years, and being a DM for a few online campaigns, I decided to start an IRL group.

I've been lucky living in the Netherlands. We have a small, densely populated country with great public transport. I pretty much live at the country's center city.

My goal was to find local players of 25+ who were dedicated enough to play Curse of Strahd every second sunday for at least a year.

I shared this in my FLGS, on facebook groups, discords and D&DBeyond, and received a large amount of interested players. I interviewed all of them with a call, and then had a meetup with all the players in a nice café. We talked about expectations and experiences and hashed out stuff as a session 0. This went great!

We have been playing for a year and a half now, and I love being a DM in person.

If I lowered my bar, I think I could have found a second group easily.

Setting expectations and sharing my goals with the people who were interested in playing was detrimental in all of this.

I hope you find players! Let me know if you need help.

 

[Zardnaar]

After being a player for a couple years, and being a DM for a few online campaigns, I decided to start an IRL group.

I've been lucky living in the Netherlands. We have a small, densely populated country with great public transport. I pretty much live at the country's center city.

My goal was to find local players of 25+ who were dedicated enough to play Curse of Strahd every second sunday for at least a year.

I shared this in my FLGS, on facebook groups, discords and D&DBeyond, and received a large amount of interested players. I interviewed all of them with a call, and then had a meetup with all the players in a nice café. We talked about expectations and experiences and hashed out stuff as a session 0. This went great!

We have been playing for a year and a half now, and I love being a DM in person.

If I lowered my bar, I think I could have found a second group easily.

Setting expectations and sharing my goals with the people who were interested in playing was detrimental in all of this.

I hope you find players! Let me know if you need help.

My province is similar in size to your country. It has 280k people lol. 32 vs 41k km square. Okay Belgium is better comparison. 16 million hmmn.

 

[Mannahnin]

I wasnt making fun, I just didnt realize how much it affected some aspects of lives. After 3 months of D20 we quit for a month and then just started in person again June-ish of 2020. There are definitely pre-and-post COVID things that have changed. @DarkCrisis just keep looking, and thankyou for making me know how fortunate I am for having the group I have.

We didn't start to normalize around here until after everyone could get vaxxed, so in 2021.

But even with a lot of us going back to semi-normal (but better about not attending things if we felt sick, and testing before gatherings), a number of baseline assumptions and routines had been disrupted by the (fairly small) percentage of people who got really sick or died. And the vulnerability of elderly family members for those of us who are relatively healthy. My mother is in her 70s (and has an ingredient allergy so she's only been able to do the J&J vax) and my brother and I normally see her for dinner every week, assuming we're all healthy. But I've had to make decisions about what gatherings to attend and what risks to expose myself to bearing in mind the risk to her by proxy.

 

[KYRON45]

Gaming is hard. I feel your pain.
Covid broke up my last game because we were playing in a community center. Then poor player engagement ruined our game when we switched to online play. There is a lot of chemistry involved with a cohesive game group. If everyone doesn't have the same level of commitment problems pop up faster than they can be fixed.
I don't enjoy playing with strangers so I never bothered an attempt at regrouping.
Cherish the game you have my friends.

 

[Oofta]

Gaming is hard. I feel your pain.
Covid broke up my last game because we were playing in a community center. Then poor player engagement ruined our game when we switched to online play. There is a lot of chemistry involved with a cohesive game group. If everyone doesn't have the same level of commitment problems pop up faster than they can be fixed.
I don't enjoy playing with strangers so I never bothered an attempt at regrouping.
Cherish the game you have my friends.

People you haven't gamed with are friends you just haven't met yet.

On a serious note, I've had to move a lot over the years and gaming has always been one the the main ways I meet new people, make new friends, as an adult. The shared hobby gives us a common starting point that makes it easier to make connections.

Do what makes sense for you of course, but going out and playing with people you don't know can be rewarding in the long run. Even for a dedicated introvert, like myself.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah exactly my thoughts as well. If you REALLY love DnD then you're always going to want to DM.

I don't buy this. I know forever DMs that wish they could play more, and forever players dedicated to

 

[R_J_K75]

Most consider it in the rear-view mirror. Though, the effects of living through it still linger on many aspects of life. YMMV.

Thats a great way to look at it. My father was if not the first, one of the first people In Buffalo NY to get COVID. I got it in Dec 2022 I think and if I didnt test myself I'd never have known I had it, My point being, my dad said during the Hong Kong flu of the 60s no one cared. Watch "the Beatles" "Let It Be" Paul says I think I have a touch of the Flu thats going around

 

[billd91]

I wasnt making fun, I just didnt realize how much it affected some aspects of lives.

It completely turned my family's lives upside down. Just as the vaccines were starting to become available to essential workers, my wife caught COVID from work. In fact, she had just gotten her notification that her round of vaccinations was scheduling when she got the positive test. That was January 2021. She ended up with long COVID and has been disabled ever since with chronic fatigue.
So, we lost her income, lost her employer's health insurance and had to switch to mine (hers was better - bigger employer than mine so better networks), and now she has to get around with a rollator and can barely be in a social setting for a couple of hours before she's physically exhausted. And then crashes harder the next day (or 2 or 3).

 

[payn]

Thats a great way to look at it. My father was if not the first, one of the first people In Buffalo NY to get COVID. I got it in Dec 2022 I think and if I didnt test myself I'd never have known I had it, My point being, my dad said during the Hong Kong flu of the 60s no one cared. Watch "the Beatles" "Let It Be" Paul says I think I have a touch of the Flu thats going around

I think it’s a matter of perspective. Many think it was simply the flu, but I have family that work in hospitals. It was a big deal.

I was mostly referring to folks moving more digitally remote in their lives. Normal routines for most folks were disrupted and folks are getting back to a new normal.

 

[SubrosaGames]

I think it must vary by location.

I'm on a facebook 'looking for game' group for my city, and every time I've posted there I get multiple expressions of interest within a day, even for my weeknight in-person game in a hard-to-get-to far-flung outer suburb.

Trying to find a DM - now THAT'S harder...

Well, isn't that something? I'm trying to find players (I'm a GM/Storyteller). We need to all move together to a single city so we are all near each other! lol.