How To Find New Players (or Make Them), Pt. 1

Over the last two years, the desire to start RPG'ing has slowly consumed my everyday thoughts. After breaking out and subsequently reading and re-reading all my old books, modules, etc..., I soon found myself contemplating the main problem and reason why I got out of playing in the first place. It's difficult to find other like-minded players that will commit to a regular weekly or bi-weekly schedule.

Let's break down those two issues real quick. First, when I say like-minded, I mean - stable, nonalcoholic, non drug abusing people who don't have a rap sheet and aren't a giant pain in the butt simply there to make everybody's one chance in a while to get away from reality not worth the effort. These people should know who they are and not bother with any game I would like to be a part of or organize.

I desire this experience again to have fun and fall into a story. Not to examine the minutia of every rule written, not to berate a DM because my character died, not to take the game so seriously that it starts mirroring the junk I have to deal with in real life, i.e people with no imagination and a seemingly large stick up their behind. And if you were overly bothered by any grammatical errors in the last few paragraphs, you can remove yourselves from the list also.

Ok, now that that's out in the open, let's discuss schedule. My schedule is whacked. I work on the weekends, and generally have a few days off in the week. Around here, a bunch of people work in the tourist industry, so that is not so weird, but a typical 9 to 5'er usually can't do the weeknight thing. This stinks because I am really looking people who have stable jobs and familys, a decent supply of morals and ethics, and can actually smile and, once again, have fun.

I'll be honest, now that I'm older, wiser, and way more paranoid, I am even considering background checks on people that are interested in putting a group together. Sounds crazy right? Well, just go on your local sexual predator list for your area, it's a real eye opener, especially if you have kids.

Stay tuned for Part 2 on this topic, where we discuss option 2, making your own gamers from scratch.