I'm curious to see what kinds of play groups are out there. Who sits at your table? Are they freinds, classmates, strangers or family? How did you get your start?
My current group consists of two of my close freind and his grilfreind who i have gamed with before, a freind from college who has moved to my city, and annother freind from college and his wife.
I have played with relative strangers in the past as well as with groups of freinds who i have known for years and i'm wondering what the dynamic is like at different tables.
Hi Bengrayawhile!
I just started running 'Hoard of the Dragon Queen' last night for a friend of over 30 years. Many years ago we played with 3-4 other close friends, but now it's just him and me left. We enjoyed the session a lot though, and will play every other week from now on. Since the beginning of the events I've been playing official D&D Encounters on Wednesday Nights over at 'The Armchair Adventurer' under the talented DM Jason Takaki. My group is 5 other players, all guys, all younger than me, but then, I'm 50, ha ha! It's a great store and the D&D crowd there is first rate! Next week I'm going to start DMing for a group of 6 players who haven't played in a very long time either. I've never met any of them, we arranged to meet at 'The Armchair Adventurer' on the 'HawaiiGamers.net' local gaming message boards. They sound real nice though, wish us luck!
Haven't met a single player or DM yet that I haven't liked. I know I'm lucky and that won't always be true, but I'm not complaining
Does your group of old friends every game together anymore?
Your group sounds nice, everything going smoothly? Are you all young adult college age folk? What's your party character composition? Are you playing 'Hoard of the Dragon Queen' , 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' or something else?
Right now, I'm playing with my girlfriend and my friends. In the past, I mostly played with friends, girlfriends, friends of friends, or with total strangers I met at the local gaming club. I prefer playing with friends though. I like having a beer after our session and talk about the adventure. I don't really like one-shot adventures with random strangers that I never see again. I like seeing how my character or my players' characters evolve in the world.
My current group consists entirely of friends (4 of them), and my wife, but we are planning on skyping in a friend of mine from out of state, and leave an open invitation to some other friends which have moved out of state to join whatever we are playing whenever they happen to be in town (3 of those).
The group formed by way of me moving to town about 8 years ago, noticing a little gaming shop while out around town, and eventually popping in to join a game that was going on... and then I quickly took over as primary DM, got to know everyone a lot better, and as I did so I picked out the few out of the very large group (one session I had like 20 people at the tables-we had to push three together just to fit everyone around) that I wasn't completely irritated by, and we started hanging out and gaming outside of the game shop.
That's pretty much how I alway have done things though - I find people to befriend, and then game with those friends (I've moved tons, so I have a lot of practice - luckily I've settled down and don't really need to worry about making up a new group again).
I have a real life gaming group of approx 10 ppl who have played together for 30 years. In addition I play with total strangers on roll20 from time to time.
My regular groups are comprised of close friends for many years and a handful of people with whom I game but doesn't necessarily socialize otherwise. I learned to play a long time ago with close friends who introduced me to the hobby.
But up until very recently I ran a lot of pickup groups with players I recruited online. (I'll be picking this back up at the start of next year.) Nothing keeps a DM on his toes like running games for people he doesn't know, who usually don't know each other, and who have different levels of experience. I highly recommend DMs do this to gain perspective.
I have a hard time classifying the people on my gaming group because they constitute nearly 100% of my social circle. So I guess they're my friends?
Gerard_Lee wrote:
iserith wrote:
A good mix of games with close friends and games with total strangers keeps you on your toes, both as a player and a DM.
Your link to your Blog "The Secrets of Greymarch" looks very interesting, I enjoyed the write-up of your party members. Some strange but wonderful folk there! I've bookmarked it to study later on. Hope I get inspired and proficient enough to run something as ambitious and original as you have!
Have a blessed week!
Gerard
bengrayawhile wrote:
I game with friends. Well,they were actually friends of my firends sister,so through her I met this nice group of people,found out they are nice and funny bunch and now,7 years later, we are friends and hang out when we menage to synchronize our schedules. Previous (highschool) group was composed of 2 friends from school,2 aquaitances from school and dm who was friend of a friend. I don't really know how we all got together,especially since this was home game at DM's house,but it doesn't matter. We all gamed together and after saturday afternoon session went out and party all night with the rest of the crew
I play with my childhood friends and a few guys we met when we all moved to the city.
Currently DM-ing a kids' group, an adults' group of my friends, and a disabled-folks group.
Currently playing in Tia Nadiezja's online game & in another friends' group.
My main group are all my friends but could be broken down as follows.
1. My she who must be obeyed
2. Friend I met at university
3. Friend I met through the local RPG club
4&5 New couple recommended by friend from local RPG club
6. Ex work mate who at first did not know that I played D&D and knew what Pathfinder was when he was describing what he got up to.
The other group is the PFS player and h8is circle of frineds, good bunch of guys.
Group A: Brothers and childhood friends, plus the new guy we met slightly over ten years ago.
Groups B&C: Online groups, friends met in WoW. Average time of friendship six or seven years.
Now: Wife, Husband and Wife (friends of ours), Co-worker (wife's), and old army buddy (mine).
Previously: Wife, Husband and Wife (noobs who advertised on a gaming web site to be introduced to the hobby), old army buddy (same), Wife's co-worker, co-worker of mine and his wife (who have since moved).
Other groups:
*Various iterations of 4-6 students at the school where I teach
*Soldiers in the same unit (3 different groups over a span of 8 years)
*Father and high school buds
Looking forward to jumping in a new party when I move to Pittsburgh next year.
I have a few different groups I game with, the bulk of which are people I have known a long time, but a couple are complete strangers, some meet at my house, the folks I really dont know meet up at the game store.
I do an on-line chat game with a bunch of guys on Dragonsfoot once a week, but my "Friday Night Swordfight" (which can actually take place any night of the week) consists of myself, my husband, and a handful of his rowdy friends who are desperately trying to keep out of trouble. Yes, we've got bikers at our table!
I'm gaming with my girlfriend, another friend I've gamed with before, a young guy I know from the gaming store, and a co-worker-of-a-friend and his ladyfriend.
Sometimes I just game with whoever from the local meetup signs up for the game, other times I specifically recruit people. This time I went through Facebook, with the exception of the friend's co-worker.
I usually find it more enjoyable to game with friends rather than the assortment of people I get from the meetup.
bengrayawhile wrote:
Here is my entire D&D history of groups:
My current group (2008 to present) consists of:
- Myself (DM),
- Friend from way back,
- Son #1,
- Son #1's wife (sporadic),
- Son #2,
- Son #2's girlfriend (friend from way back's daughter), and
- Friend from WWD&DGD years.
NOTE: I also DMed for the first few years of WWD&DGD events, at a local coffee shop. These events consisted of random groups of friends and strangers. I even passed off the DM screen for one event, so I could actually play 4th Edition for once. I also hosted/DMed the first 2 seasons of D&D Encounters at that coffee shop.
My previous group (1998-2008) consisted of:
- Myself (alteranting DM/player),
- Friend from way back (alternating DM/player), and
- 16 teenagers (inclusing my 2 sons and friends 2 daughters).
NOTE: This group met steadily at first, but slowly dwindled in number as they graduated high school and weren't replaced; which wasn't all that bad, since 4th Edition was taliored for a smaller group size. We used to get together early Saturday morning and play until the wee hours of Sunday morning; it was great!
Group prior to that (1987-1991):
- Myself (player),
- Friend from way back (DM),
- Friend's Navy buddies,
- My wife, and
- Friend's wife.
NOTE: We got together Friday evening and played through to Sunday morning; although, I had to travel to another state to play, these were some of the best games (I was much younger then too). I had a hiatus for a few years after this group, where I didn't do much actual playing; I spent those years consuming TSR products and developing my campaign world.
Group prior to that (1984-1986):
- 6 high school friends (including myself), in the school's D&D Club.
Original "group" (1981):
- Myself (DM), and
- Childhood friend (player).
I play my homebrew game with several people that I have played with for over 20 years on and off with very customized rules. I do the organized play at our local hobby shop and love it. Sometimes I DM for organized play, sometimes I DM. We also have hardcore PF players there, so I still play that game some. The store owner recently did adventures in OD&D, Holmes, B/X, 1E, 2E, 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0 for those who wanted to see how the game has evolved and changed over the years. It had very good reception and made many players interested in earlier editions. Sometimes there are players that get interested in my homebrew game and they come and play with group for a while. I really enjoy interacting with old and new players. I really try to take an interest in others homebrew idea's and there setting creations. Some are good, some not, but I try to encourage others to keep creating things that they love.
Cool idea for a thread!
I am currently running Legacy of the Crystal Shard for my longest running group. It consists of a bunch of friends, some of whom I've known for most of the time I've been living in New Zealand, others of whom I've only recently gotten to know. We play fortnightly on a Friday.
I am also running Lost Mine of Phandelver for my wife and a couple who are mutual friends of ours. We are attempting to play fortnightly but it doesn't always work out.
I'm also teaching my oldest daughter, who is nearly nine, to play. She enjoys it but we don't often get time to play.
I am also playing in another group run by a guy I met through one of the previous incarnations of this website, back when 3.5 was still the current ruleset. I hadn't met the other guys in the group before but I've gotten to know them better over the past couple of years.
When I played D&D back in grade school/high school/college, it was always with friends.
lawrencehoy wrote:
bawylie wrote:
Being disabled myself, I know that a good session of D&D can be energizing, inspiring, healing, a way to break free of the dreary days. Bless you for sharing your talents with the children and the disabled folk! I pray you will always be blessed yourself, and that you will prosper and thrive in your gaming and in all other ways throughout your life!
bawylie wrote:
Currently...
Group 1: In Person
DM: guy I meet at FLGS that is now closed.
Player 1 his son
Player 2 his son's friend
Player 3 / DM; guy who worked at FLGS before it closed. (also DMs)
Player 4 / DM; myself.
Player 5 - 6 other people from FLGS.
Group 2: Online
DM: guy I meet online in a RPG G+ community.
Player 1: myself
Player 2-4: other guys and gals from G+ community.
Group 3: In Person
DM: Guy I meet at a RTR meetup.com
Player 1 myself
Player 2 guy that I meet during beta test of the game he is co-authoring.
Player 3-4 couple that we recruited through RTR meetup.com.
Player 5 gal that just joined that we recruited through RTR meetup.com.
Group 4: In Person/Online
DM: myself
Player 1: College friend/Best man at wedding.
Player 2-4: mostly people that I brought in because they never used hangout or played a particular rpg.
I had another group, but I was pushing my luck with the wife, so I preemtively left. 