Anyone ELSE having problems finding players

[siefertma2]

I'm getting really frustrated here. I've put up flyers at local game stores. I've posted to online bulletin boards. And so far, NO ONE wants to play Traveller in any form in my area.

Anyone have any suggestions on how break this, or should I learn to be just content with online games?

 

[Granpafishy]

I feel your pain. It took me 2 1/2 years to get a game going.

The only suggestion I can make is perseverence(sp). If you keep going you will get one going.

Another option, which might be just as slow, is to join in somebody else's game Traveller or not. Once you've got in, and know the group, offer to run a different game (Traveller) to give the Game Master a break to get his creative juices flowing again. This has the benifits of spreading Traveller, and getting in good graces with the GM and other players.

 

[Flynn]

My face-to-face Traveller experience was very erratic ever since I discovered the game back in 1986. (I was a late bloomer...) Only last year, with the T20 ruleset, was I able to find gamers willing to try a Traveller campaign, and then make it work for over a year. It takes a while, and you gotta keep on plugging away at it, trying different systems, playing in different groups, etc., but it will pay off.

Best of luck,
Flynn

 

[DaveChase]

I would suggest working toward the future (pun intended).

With the I, Robot and the Aliens VS Predator movies coming out, more people will take an interest in possible futures.

Plan ahead and have some small campaigns and scenarios set up with these type of themes. You do not have to follow the movies or create alien races like the movies but you can put the feel of the movies into the game.

I have many ideas about how each theme could be slightly twisted to fit any were, any time for any one.

Just a suggestion.

Dave

 

[savage]

Yes, it was difficult to put a Tampa Bay Traveller Group together, as well. It took a good year of advertising. There were two of us working on it. The guy who started it dropped out, for personal reasons, just before it began.

We advertised to the D&D crowd. We had originally setup 8 people. 4 dropped out before the game began including one of that co-sponsor.

Be certain to advertise or get a "one" shot session going at a local club. Try to meet up with everyone at starbucks before starting a real campaign. Give them the overview...etc.

Right now, I'm running once a month but one of the other guys is going to start a campaign too.
So, your going to have to setup a first adventure...and keep trying!

I don't think advertising at the local stores works as well as it use too.

Savage

 

[kaladorn]

I have a friend runs a games store in PA. The Mage Knight crowd predominates, and hero clix. We setup a stargrunt game (squad level sci-fi skirmish) and kept getting questions about clix-related attributes ... <cringe>

Younger folks who've never been exposed to aught else but Magic: The Bilking, MK or GW products or Hero Clix have a hard time integrating new games. I guess I came from the golden age of gaming - when I was coming into it, we had AD&D, Gangbusters, Boot Hill, Star Frontiers, Indianna Jones, Star Trek RPG, Gamma World, Morrow Project, Aftermath, Traveller, etc. etc. and so we tried it all. A few stuck, like AD&D and Traveller and we're still playing them 20 years later.

But the younger crowd just has a different experience and they really aren't taught to be broad minded or to appreciate anything other than GW/MK/Clix....

 

[eiladayn]

I'm going thru the same thing, I finally found a guy nearby (next county, about twenty miles) who had played Traveller 2300 and wanted to play something else, but now we can't get a time arranged that suits both of our schedules, maddening!!!!!

Pappy

 

[bubbawny]

hah...!

if the kids aren't playing yu-gi-oh there playing MTG or wasting away in Grand Theft Auto.

I'm in Buffa-looservile ...uh...i mean buffalo...and there's not SQUAT here.

i've been dying to find a group for CT w/no luck and have given up.

So now i read the books on my own and dream of days gone by and all the fun i had earlier.

One thing i hate about modern america is the lack of creativity.

What's really new about D&D except D20 rules?

What's new from Marvel? Ultimate xmen, Ultimate this, x-this, x-that, extreme x this, extreme x that...

...it's like...friggin 'a! What happened to creativity and social interaction?

I can't even THINK of one RPG store in buffalo that doesn't really amount to nothing more than a MTG/Yu-gi-oh store or comic book front.

it's sad...

 

[savage]

I can't even THINK of one RPG store in buffalo that doesn't really amount to nothing more than a MTG/Yu-gi-oh store or comic book front.

Ain't that the truth. When I moved to Tampa, I went looking for game stores. The advertising was aweful. I found them word of mouth. The stuff out of the phone book and internet were mostly GW, gothic or comics. Not that any of those are bad but they advertise like they have broad ranged product lines. The internet sales have also hurt the game store because they didn't change their ways. We have a couple stores here (not including hobbytown usa) that have RPG as a secondary line. Game tables are aweful or a thing of the past.
With the great depression of the 21st century in full swing, now is the time to look for a group.

There is a solid draw back to RPGs. Time. To run a game really takes time. I have a lot of friends that stick with Shadowrun and other 1 shot games instead of campaign games. To make an interesting environment takes work and imagination.

But isn't D&D selling well? Aren't there kids buying all of those different modules.

So here we are. Isn't bad when a major university (USF) cannot even support a decent game store.


Scott

 

[bubbawny]

YEah...!

we used to have a pretty decent RPG store outside of the University of Buffalo. It's gone now. has been for a while.

I admit i like computer games. Loved Halo, love unreal tournament (can't wait for 2004)...but it's just not the same:

Pizza, wings, coke (or beer), the LBBS and some dice! and some good friends who ENJOY expansive storylines and campaign playing!



Sometimes I wish I had the money...I'd like to open a biz that is made up of:

1/3 RPG (All flavors)
1/3 Books, Comics & CCGs.
1/6 Pizza / Sub joint
1/6 LAN Gaming area.

Neon & other dynamic lighting, comfortable atmosphere where there's space to just hang out & play.

I'd get the online games going...while the people came into play I'd see if i could get them interested in traditional RPGs too. Have contests of all sorts.

 

[wa11eye]

looks like I should be counting my blessings I have two great stoers 35 miles south of me and one 35miles north they carry lots of new and used books for just about everything you can think of and i have a gamming group of 8 who take turns with diffrent games T20, AD&D 2nd, Mageknight, Teenage mutant ninja turtles, Disk wars, and next it looks like twilight 2000

living good in middle of minnesota wa11eye

It also helps that the temp in winter is below 0 for long times

 

[TJP]

Originally posted by wa11eye:
It also helps that the temp in winter is below 0 for long times

Heh, it surely does, along with short daylight hours during winter.

Here in Helsinki (Finland) we have a decent game store, dunno how much the University of Helsinki has to do with providing customers - most of the time I see kids there (by the GW figure/miniature shelves) who are not even in high school yet. Sadly the store is slowly becoming engulfed by d20 and Games Workshop minis.

AFAIK, most of the roleplayers in the UoH, and I suspect most others too, are almost exclusively into fantasy or vampire/WOD. Getting players into any kind of sci-fi game (Traveller or not) is a moderate pain in the backside. It does not help, that once you get a few players, most of them expect Star Wars (I've nothing against SW, mind you, but when you're trying to run "hardish" sci-fi, it's not the way to go). To most, Star Wars equals sci-fi roleplaying, as D&D equals fantasy roleplaying; there seems to be no interest in anything else. That is something I can't fathom, that narrow-mindedness. It used to be that roleplayers were open-minded people, willing to try out new games and new genres. We're being assimilated...

To clarify: I'm an old fart and not in the UoH, but I know people from the university's roleplaying club. Also, I'm not trying to start a flame war with those who like d20. No. This is not which system is the "best" or anything. If you like d20, good for you, have a blast. I just don't see why everyone should play d20. Oh well.

 

[bubbawny]

CT is the way to go in my book. I own T20, and i'm sad to say i think it's comical.

it, for me, just doesn't have that essence that made up CT.

On a side note, i found an outlate that has assuaged my needs to play: i've been reading David Weber (harrington) and a set of books (3) by John Ringo.

Man...they've satiated my CT passions in a way...!

 

[Emperor Cleon]

I gave up the idea of face-to-face role playing a long time ago. About all I do now is either PBEM or solo. And... in the last PBEM I did the players were my wife and my 68 year old dad! (hey, he might not be young of body, but he's young at heart! I hope I'm still rp'ing at his age.)

 

[bubbawny]

That's awesome about your dad, Emperor CLeon!

I'm impressed! Does he really get into it?

I looked at PBEM and can't quite figure it out. I'll keep my eyes open for new recruiting. i'd like to try one day...

try the Ringo books...very cool stuff! If you liked STarship Troopers, you'll get a blast out of these!

 

[Lord Iron Wolf]

Sometimes the best place to pick up new players is a local convention. Usually the people attending are willing to try a new game as a one shot.

Any good interest and you may be able to get a small group together.

LIW

 

[ACK!!]

I have got plenty of players.

Three to Four players are always best for me.

3 definite and 1 possible.

Aim chat game.

//roll-dice in AIM chat equals 2D6 even.

It works. But ... What is the problem.

I got the players but the game is on indefinite hold.

One player is on short notice for going on rollout for one system.

Another player is absolutely obsessed over X-box fighting games. The man is nice but he has a real problem that silly X-box is like crack for him.

Another player has work scheduling issues and finally the other is a different time zone.

Ugh. I had given thought to actually posting here to see if anyone wants to do an every other week online chat game.

_

 

[Granpafishy]

I'm very lucky it seems. While the Traveller game isn't going anymore, We have a rotation of 3 other games (Star Wars d6, Mechwarrior 3rd Ed, and SLA Industries). I have 3 players plus my wife. I'm waiting on a response from someone else to see if it might increase by 2. Within 40 miles of home there are 6 good game store that I know of. If you're in the Everett, WA area and intrested in a any game that we have going, send me an email at.hastings @ verizon.net

 

[smilinggm]

I gues that I am one of the lucky ones too. My city has a great Comic Book Store Named "Comic Quest" (CQ for short)that has a very large gaming section. And a large gaming rom in the back. My local gaming group (Evansville Gaming Guild {EGG for Short}) meets there every Saturday nite. Our group has about about 40 to 50 active members at this time. We have over 150 who are not active anymore due to various life issues. Our club has been around for nearly 20 years now! We are very active in the RPGA but we also play many non RPGA games. Right now there are 2 to 3 tables of D20-D&D running, a Buffy/Angle table, a Batle Tech table, A World of Darkness dark ages table, A Marvle table, An on again and off agina SG1 table and a T20 table. There is also a large group of CCG players playing on the main sales floor. On Sundays CQ host the Wargamers and runs Destroy all Monster tournemants. Our bigest problems are actually not finding players, but finding time to run a specific game and NOISE. (BTW we are activally working wiht the owner of CQ to solve the accustic issues). EGG started with only 6 people and grew and it is still growing. Our oldest members are approaching 70 and our youngest officail members are 13. EGG was started by a core group of 6 people and by networking with other people and other non gaming clubs EGG has grown to what it is today. EGG has even hosted small convention. If you are interested here is a link to EGG's website: http://www.evansvillegamingguild.com
My point to all this is not to make people envoyous or to recruit more members, but to show that building a sizeable gaming communinty is possible. It took a lot of hard work and dedication to create this community, but it is well worth it.
If you do not live it an area that has a lot of gamers I suggest that (if you can) travel to one of the many gaming conventions that are being held every weekend across the nation and even the world. I also suggest that you become a member of the RPGA. I know that to many people the RPGA is only D&D, but that is not true. The RPGA is a very large international group of gamers. Yes, The RPGA is (IMHO) Wizards of the Coast lap dog and a part of Wizards marketing arm. But it is more than that is the RPGA is gamers. Here is the Link to the RPGA home page:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=rpga

I hope that this helps

 

[Todg]

I've been running Traveller here for the last 15 years or so, although the weekly game is now more like every two weeks. Same group of players, and burn-out is defenitely settng in. I wish I could find some new players.

I've had some luck with PBeMs. It's definitely different from FTF gaming. I host quite a few PBeM games on my server, so you might want to check in periodically to see if one of the Ref's has got an opening.

http://lists.travellercentral.com