The Hunger (for) Games Part Two:People
Posted by GamePlaya on 2018.02.17
You found the time to play. Now you need to find the players.
Even if you can only free up one night a month for playing tabletop games, that's more than a lot of people get to experience. If you found two or more time slots for getting to the tabletop, you are truly blessed! Let's try to find some company for you!
(Remember, until you have a regular gaming troupe, you can always play tabletop games online, or even solo games or games with solo rules.)
In order to find people to sit with you at the tabletop, we gotta find where the people are. First, you need to consider your circle of friends and family. Don't be afraid to ask everyone. You never know, he might be a
Castles of Burgundy pro, or she might be secretly passionate about
Twilight Struggle. Just throw it out as an idea: "Hey, I'm thinking of having a few people over for some tabletop gaming, and I was wondering if you'd be interested."
If you can compile a list of friends and family who are interested, find those blocks of time you mapped out in your schedule, and ask them which time would be better for them. Once you have a consensus, send out the invites to your first tabletop game night!
Don't label this gathering. This isn't a group, yet. You'll be conducting a secret interview process to find out who is going to be compatible with the group that ultimately forms. These are try-outs. Your best friend might not be the tabletop gaming type, so you don't want to set anything in concrete just yet.
If you've exhausted your friends and family list, and couldn't find a good group, the next thing you can try are online forums, including our own "
Looking for Players." Post everywhere you can online looking for local players. Again, hold try-outs for any responding gamers. You don't want a group of people just to have a group a people. You want to weed out the know-it-alls and the sore losers. We want kind, but competitive, tabletop gamers, who are going to enhance our experience, not detract from it or make it miserable.
Finally, if those two things don't work out, you'll want to visit some local, public gatherings in your area. The idea here is to find people who are passionate about gaming who want to play more than just once a month.
This whole process of finding a good group of tabletop gamers will not be quick. It could take you six to twelve months, or more, to solidify a good group of dependable, fun-loving, tabletop gamers who have that same hunger for games that you do. Give it time.
In the meantime, make sure to log plenty of plays at one of the online tabletop gaming sites, or invest in a solo tabletop game or two.
In our final article in this series, we'll discuss forming the group, and how to make sure it lasts a long time and brings joy to everyone involved.
