Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sussin 12-02-03, 08:10 PM	I've had my DnD books for just about 4 years now. And i've only been in 2 partys. One in highschool which i only played 3 games in. (they didnt even bother to learn my name, they just called me "bard") and second when i DM'd for my friends. Problem was that they where..... well not the best party to have. They couldn't get down to playing, they couldn't get thier rules strate. They all shared dice (my dice) till finaly i decided they would be called the public dice and then bought my oun My point is i'd realy like to play as a PC with a good party and a good DM but i don't know where i'd find one. How did all of you end up with the partys you play with?
paintedmask2 12-02-03, 08:15 PM	My DM had played in middle school, and it was the sort of thing I found interesting, so we got some of our freinds together and started playing (until recently, I was the only one with books; one other player got the set for her B-day and my DM bought mine when I went to 3.5). It's not the ideal group for serious, in-depth RP, but we have fun with it.
Glock-9mm 12-02-03, 09:02 PM	Dbl Posted, sorry.
Glock-9mm 12-02-03, 09:02 PM	The gropu I GM in atm has its roots dating back to 1987, Seems like a long time when I think over all the adventurers I've played in or run with them. Today there are only 2 surviving members of the 87 Group, Me and my my best mate. Over the years we have gained and lost members due to various reasons. But today the game still hammers on in the 3.5 setting. I find the best place to meet and greet fellow RPGers and other groups is either at RPG Clubs or RPG Conventions. That way you get to play with them as a player and get a feel for other players styles. If you like how it goes ask them if they have a spot in their normal game, If your lucky they will :)
Serene Selene 12-02-03, 09:39 PM	My IRL group happen to be mostly my High school friends who were interested. We're young, with the oldest being 21 and the youngest 17. Most are 18-19. I began playing two years of 2nd Edition before 3rd was released, and continue to play to this day. Why oh why do my friends have to be such idiots? And nearly all boys? The smells... :eek:
Koga:The ninja trick 12-02-03, 10:21 PM	The net. There isn't a forum on the net The Koga probably doesn't know about..
The_EvilDungeon_Master 12-03-03, 01:08 AM	I have two groups I play with. The First one, every month, I've been playing in for 'bout 4 years now. And The second, I DM, Started only last year.
Simpi 12-03-03, 06:00 AM	I met my group through a friend who played with them. That was around 1999 and it was almost 8 years since my last D&D (or AD&D) session. Turns out that this group had been going on from 1988 and played every wednesday (therefore the title Wednesday game). I rolled my first character, did not much like the game and skipped it. I tried again couple of months later and this time I stayed. Now we take turns between so called 'The Original Series' and 'The Next Generation' (Yeah, I know, Trek titles). Only difference between them are the rules. TOS still uses 1st ed. rules and TNG uses 3.0 (slowly converted to 3.5). I would not mind switching to 3.5 for TOS. At least we would get rid of one player who frequently gets drunk during the sessions. He says 3.0/3.5 is too difficult:eek: One interesting thing is that one the Finlands best comic artists was playing with us (he has now been away for few years because of a child) and he still makes us character portrais (cost: One pint), though we don't get them to net that often. You see some of them here: http://www.helsinki.fi/jarj/hysfk/kepeli/hahmot/kuvat.htm
Gothic_Demon 12-03-03, 11:03 AM	I first started playing DnD in High School 14 years ago, and a teacher there ran a weekly game. I got to play because I also played chess (and had done since I was quite young). That group took off when I started DMing it as well (separate adventures) and we got to play twice a week. My Sunday group is still the core of that group, 3 of 5 played way back then. The other two are one players wife (who has always been interested in fantasy), and the same guys best friend, who played WW at uni. My Friday group consists of my wife, two cousins, my cousins ex-girlfriends uncle, and the brother of my Sunday night friends wife. Both groups have been running for a long time now. I guess I'm luckier than most here in the UK. There's no demonisation of role-players. I was popular at school even though I had 'nerdy' hobbies. There seems to be a decent abundance of people who want to roleplay and are willing to try hard and play well.
jack haas 12-03-03, 07:48 PM	i joined an established group through a friend and when that particular group dissolved, i did the only smart thing: married the dm so i would never have to go without a game again. however, when it was just my partner and i, we put an ad up at the local gaming store(s)--we're lucky, there is more than one where we live but i know many places don't--and commenced with the auditions. you can get some real wierdos on your doorstep in this manner but we managed to form a stable crew that we've played with for about a decade now. when real life concerns snatch one of our players, we just advertise for more. if you are so unlucky as to have no gaming stores in your town, try an advert at the local college(s); we've picked up a few players through that venue as well though it's not as reliable.
StormKnight 12-04-03, 01:14 PM	Well, there are several places to get players. One good one is door to door salesmen. Welcome them inside, then tell them that you will buy whatever they are selling if they play just one game with you. They'll do anything to make a sale, and will happily join the table. Then you've got them - just let them know they agreed to one game, not one game session. Don't let them know that D&D games can last practically forever! Just realize that they need that sale and will keep coming back as long as they have the hope of getting it. Another option is to just visit any store with open gaming. Watch for players who are clearly spending every penny they have on some collectible game. These players are normally fasting to afford their addiction, so just leave a trail of pizza crust bits to draw them to wherever you want to game. Once they are there, grab them, tie them to the table and force them to play. You may be able to make stray money by selling "collectable" character sheets and dice to them. Finally, company CEOs make excellent gaming group additions. They have tons of free time as they don't actually do anything useful, and can usually afford to provide refreshments for all. The trick is getting them to your group, but a few comments about a "Prioritization paradigm quality discussion" should lead them along nicely. Good luck with this information.
StormKnight 12-04-03, 01:18 PM	Actually my group consists of my girlfriend, who I have known for 10 years, a good friend of hers who she has known since they were kids, a co-worker who happened to mention she was into games, and her husband. That isn't very helpful advice for where to find people, is it? Every time we have tried meeting people who posted on "gamer's wanted" boards, its been well...wierd.
Sussin 12-04-03, 07:13 PM	weird? could you be more specific?
Asi the red 12-04-03, 10:09 PM	Hey ya'. I met my group through Magic: The Addiction originally. I ran into another group here at school at a computer gaming group. StormKnight has a good point, hang out at game stores that hold tourneys, regardless of whether they're offical or not. Ask anyone that you see hanging out there or that you see playing any CCG if they play D&D. It's really not that difficult to bring up, especially if the game that they're playing is D&D minis. I started out with my cousins as the players, but they lost interest after about a year or two. If oyu're in school, any kind, there are probably people there that game. Asi the Red.
Tarlac-Redclaw 12-05-03, 01:08 AM	The best place to find a group is the internet. Google a search with good key words like "dnd rpg player, group, or dm locator and watch the info come in! I even found one of my players from a post that was 6 months old he had made on an msb. Also a good place is your local gaming store, even if they don't hold games there, the people who work there normally know the groups around and most stores also have a bulletin board with groups or people looking for groups. Sometimes its alot easier to start a new group than find one already playing. There's quite a few people out there who play, but don't have a group. This is what i did and it's worked out great. My group has been running for a couple months now and i've got more people who want to play than i have room for.
Slivvy Gaidin 12-05-03, 01:20 AM	There is a youth centre that just went up around the corner from me. It just so happens that, round about the time I purchased my first ever PHB (version 3), a group of guys who had been playing sinse OD&D decided that they needed to update their gaming (to version 3), and that they needed a bigger room to play in (the youth centre). Lo and behold, the kid from down the road comes up to me one day and says that there is a D&D group up the road. Huzzah!!! After playing for a while, I decided to do a little DMing in a game with my brother and cousins.
Addi83 12-05-03, 02:50 PM	If you're lucky, like me, you're friends will make fine RPG buddies, but if I recall your story, they don't. Tough luck.
Sphyre 12-06-03, 07:05 PM	:) I know too many people. About a year ago my friend Ken (Whom I met in highschool) asked me if i wanted to try it out. I accepted and he gave me the basics of minmaxing a wizard (basically told me to put the 18 i rolled into int) our friend from highschool joined us for a 2 person party. I played the wizard from level 2 to 20 and broke 3.0 haste and 3.0 timestop along with killing 39 level 5 fighters at level 6 with my wand of fireball. In that time i learned all the rules and i got tired of the hack and slash (or more properly the haste and spam spells) so i suggested the other friend i was playing with DM. Early in that campaign i was becoming better acquated with my friend whom i had known for 4 years but never really knew how to talk to her. I introduced her to our game and she loved it. :) Then a friend of mine who had a crush on my friend that i invited in before wanted his shot at D&D - and he does the most insane things in game. ("i shapechange into a bird and attempt to poke it's eyes out!" not mentioning theres no called shots... IT WAS A TENDRICULUS :P) Then I started wanting to DM and everone's schedules were freeing up so I had a campaign with 10 (11 at one point) people in it. Oddly enough they were all friends I had in highschool. Everyone loved my DMing so i guess that's good. Currently I DM a game on friday nights that includes 3 people, the first two people i played with and the person from my second game who wants to play but isnt free on saturday nights. And the other is saturday nights where someone who played in my evil campaign wanted to try their hand at DMing. We started at level 1 and are at 14 now. He has a funny obsession with saying "you die!" but last session the only 2 people he didn't say "you die!" to died... :P I find that people i make as friends before we know that each other likes D&D make great D&D buddies... but as my friends say, I'm mr popular and impossible to get a hold of so it may just be the pool of people I know that allows me to have such a good groups of RPers. oh... and if i wanted to have no life and add a 3rd session all my Magic: the Gathering friends at my college play it too... but i don't want to have no life :P I think the easiest way to find people to play it with is to go to a sci fi/fantasy/chess/magic club at school if you are in school make friends and see if they are interested. I'm sure you'll find a few.
Darth K'Trava 12-06-03, 07:27 PM	We started out as being a "core group" running a SF literary convention (we still do) and then started gaming when 3.0 came out. Have been playing ever since and are still friends. There's about 8-9 people who play, although not all in every game! There's about four games I play in of varying levels from about 6th level all the way up to 33rd level. And, I guess we're lucky in this regard, three different DMs. There was a fourth, but she had to drop her game for awhile due to stress and job issues.
Felonious Monk 12-07-03, 12:58 AM	A co-worker of mine and I were on break together, standing and chatting near the automatic doors, when he mentioned he was into D&D. We talked about the new system (I had only played 1e) and noticed that one of the doors was not opening. People were trying to get into the store and walking up to the door that didn't open automatically. Then they'd do the funny little why-doesn't-this-door-like-me shuffle before going through the other door, which would open. We argued for the remainder of the break and most of the rest of our scheduled shift that day about whether that was more of a Spot check or a Search check to figure out that the door wasn't working. (I'm still not sure how I would rule that... good thing I'm not DMing d20 Modern.) We got some other guys from work together weekly to play and The Rest, as they say, Is History.
StormKnight 12-09-03, 01:31 PM	weird? could you be more specific? Not sure its all that interesting, but... First group was playing Legend of the Five Rings. The GM gave out lavish extra powers to all the characters at the start of the game, then proceeded to waffle between allowing of complete munchkinism (gave one player 10 character points for having the "spoiled" flaw which is supposed to be 1 point) to refusing to let players do other things (telling same player it was impossible for his actor to impersonate a certain person because he had barely met the person. Scoffed off the argument that the person he would be trying to fool had NEVER met the person he wanted to impersonate). The GM also set up most of us to dislike others in the group, but said it wouldn't break down because if one person attacked, all the others would turn on them. Actually, when it came down to a party brawl about half of us readily allied against the others. This party brawl came about when the Crane artisan decided to stab the Phoenix clan champion in the middle of a treaty discussion that we were arbitrating. This, by the way, was an artisan character with no combat skills attempting to stab one of the greatest samurai of the clan...with an arrow. The GM ruled it killed him immediately. When I declared that my character (of the Phoenix clan) was cutting down the Crane the GM attempted to explain to me why I shouldn't care that he just killed my Clan Champion in cold blood. He seemed genuinely baffled when the Unicorn and the Lion (the other two honorable characters) rushed to help me. Fortuanetly, for the safety of the party, HIS character (yes, a GM played character) was somehow able to deflect all three of our attacks while simultaneously stopping the Battle Maiden on her warhorse from even getting to the Crane, which led to the three of us pretty much throwing up our character sheets and declaring this was ridiculous. Then the GM was suprised when we turned down the invitation to come back next week. We knew it was off to a "questionable" start with another group that we met with to play World of Darkness when the GM introduced my girlfriend and I to the other players and then clarified "<her name> is the one with the breasts". It very quickly became clear that having a female PC in the group was just too much for them to handle. Additionally, at the end of the session (which basically consisted of our characters meeting each other) we were given about 12 experience. To compare to D&D terms, it would be something like getting 1500 experience each just for introductions. Munchkin alarms going off! No more sessions with them. I guess by many peoples standards these don't sound all that odd, but well, these and similar things were enough to make us give up on gamer boards and such. One reccommendation I have, if you are considering adding someone to your group, try playing a boardgame or something with them first. Get together in a one-shot situation where you won't have to worry about telling them not to come back since there are NO plans to come back and just play a game to get a feel of whether or not this is someone compatible to game with.
Thorak 12-09-03, 10:55 PM	My first group: A friend of mine invited me into the group he was playing with. I joined. We enjoyed. My second group: The same friend and I got a bunch of our other friends together when that group fell apart, and kept on going. My third group: My wife, who's absolutely not interested in this stuff, got back together with an old highschool friend, who's also absolutely not interested in this stuff. Her boyfriend, on the other hand, was just starting up a new campaign.... Good god it's weird how things work out some times.
Shadowchaser84 12-11-03, 05:44 PM	I have trouble keeping groups together. My first group was me and a couple of buddies from school. We'd play whenever we could, but then there was some... unpleasantness... and now we aren't a group anymore. (it had nothing to do with me, it was a bad break up and a failing friendship between two others. I won't go any further...) Then I graduated, and now we've kinda dispersed to the point I couldn't get us back together if I poured my soul into it. My second group was some of my old buddies who I knew played DnD, but we never actually played together until after I moved. I don't see them regularly enough in order to keep up a continuous campaign with them (I normally DM for them, but they have a good DM who runs for them normally). I'm currently in the market for another group, and I've come to the realization that Hobby Shops are a horrible place to pick up other players (I would've thought the exact opposite)! I've posted on the gamers wanted for groups, but I don't get answers because there is no one in my area who wants to start a new group or get a new member. In the mean time, I've been contacting the members of my last group. I figure, why lose out on a good thing. So, whenever we can I try to get us together. I don't know the next time we'll play, but now that there is a new highway to where I live the time between our games should be less than a month now, lol. Still, its only the four of us, so we can't even have a full party and I'd like to get at least one more person to join in our games. Sigh, finding a group is hard. Keeping them together is even harder. In the end, its worth it though.
Lady_Firehawk 12-12-03, 08:27 PM	I actually haven't been playing DnD for very long, though I'd been looking for a group for several years beforehand. (No one in my other town really was interested... and forget finding anyone at church! ;) ) It was actually the week of Halloween when I happened to randomly meet someone at the public library, we got to chatting, and whaddaya know, he happened to be a DM ready to start a campaign- on Halloween! (Hmmmm... wouldn't some folks think that's a BAAAAD sign? *runs away from pack of angry exorcists* :angel: ) And the rest, as they say, is (recent) history!
necrodude16 12-27-03, 03:34 AM	my party consists of my friends who i have known scine primary school and we have been playing the same campaign since we started and all under my mighty reign as DM.:cool: :D :cool: :D
DM Zoc 12-27-03, 04:39 AM	I sent an e-mail to the (card and board) gaming club at my University. I got two responses from people who had found the wrong place, as I had. One was an experienced GM, so we started that way; then his room-mate, a class-mate, etc. etc. until we eventually had like twelve people, at which point we divided into two groups. The easiest way to find people is to walk around carrying one of the books; it would only be of use to other who play, and they would likely rather join you than steal it from you.
The Stray 12-27-03, 05:04 AM	I started playing in High School. None of us (the guys in the group) had ever really played D&D before, but since I had all the core books (2 ed.) I got to be the DM. We played during the lunch break in the empty classrooms of teachers who didn't mind us unless we got too loud, and it was a blast. After that group broke up I played Vampire and other WW games for the longest time. I joined an online forum and had many happy hours playing with people I've never met :D . I joined a brief Shadowrun Game before answering an ad in our local game store for a group who was looking for players. This was the best thing I had ever done. I'd DMed before, but I was a bit too heavy-handed and controlling. I watched a few of my games tank online before practicing some "good DM" techniques in a wild west Mage: the Ascension game that I ran online. And the group that I'd joined up with over the tabletop were the most excellent DMs I've ever known. After playing with them for about 6 months we broke up (they moved). So I had a hankering to play, and since I had met some people who were interested in joining a D&D group, I decided it was time to take up the DM's screen once again. I asked some aquaintences that I knew (my boss from one job and a co-worker from another) if they'd be interested, and they said yes. Added to that was one of my best friends, who was on shore leave for a couple weeks, and I asked him if he wanted to join. And thus was born the game that I run to this very day. Well...not quite. The Moving thing hit my table again, when two of the players moved away (this was not unexpected...I'd known from the beginning that they were planning to move). So my game ground to a halt. But since I just couldn't let a good thing die, I advertised in our local gaming store, hoping to get a repeat of what had happened when I'd answered such a call. Lo and behold, it worked! And the game was back on. Sure, we've gone through some changes in the roster, and we have a player who's only around at christmas and during the summer break (he goes to school out of state), but the group is thriving well. Still, it's a bit smaller than I would like, so I'm starting to activly look for players again. (I live in central Arizona, if antone's interested in joining...;) :D ) But that's my tale of how my gaming groups have formed.
Wizard 12-27-03, 10:15 AM	My group is just my friends. My friend has two brothers who played, so he's been gaming since he was like six. I was introduced to the game in sixth grade or so, and now it's our group! Problem is, it'll completely dissolve in a year when we beat it for college. :(
lotterybucks 01-30-04, 04:40 PM	I started also by playing Magic, got introduced to fantasy though that game.
Orcish Fury 01-30-04, 07:08 PM	I found the local RPGA. Eventually I was invited to a home campaign by people I met while playing Living Greyhawk mods.
streydog80 02-02-04, 04:40 PM	I met my group freshman year in the dorms. I walked into my friends room and there was a PHB laying there. I used to think D&D was for dorks but I started reading it and begged him to start a group. so a bunch of guys who lived on our floor started playing and still do at least once a week.