>From: "edgarfrancisiv" <gar_at_...>
>
>b) While MEN OF THE SEA finally convinced me that Heroquest could be
>neat, it's difficult enough for me to find *any* roleplayers, let
>alone groups running Heroquest.
Hi, Edgar is it? Glad you've delurked.
The RPG market is so small that, within any demographic area, the only games for which you'll find groups running said game are D&D and White Wolf products. Oh, sure, in your area there's the one guy running that Shadow Run game, and in another area there's another guy running Fading Suns, and in another there's one guy running his Hero System game. And the one guy who's running GURPS in every major metropolitan area.
Actually there are more than these, but how will you ever find them? They're playing with their friends, and not looking for new players. What, you've never been in a group like that? I've never been in a group that's ever recruited from outside the pool of friends I know who play RPGs. I've honestly never had to go looking for players because I always have tons of them who I know who play.
Just lucky? Well, many of those people didn't play RPGs before they met me.
If you wait for people to appear out of nowhere who want to play the same RPG you want to play, you'll be waiting a long, long time (unless it's D&D). Worse, how do you know you're going to like these people if and when they do show up? Oh, they're "gamers" too, and their willingness to play will automatically make them pleasant people? Ever see the unshowered masses at game conventions? Those are the most likely people you'll meet trolling for players at your FLGS? Why? Because nobody wants to play with them. Everybody else already has a group or has given up on RPGs. The odds of you finding enough players like yourself who want to play the same game as you and are people you'd like to play with and who need more players are minuscule. Even if you're in the middle of Manhattan (ask my buddy Luke Crane).
If you want players, the plan is simple. Make players. Find people you like, who you know would be fun to play with, and ask them if they'd be interested in playing a RPG with you. You'll be amazed at how many people will say yes. And you'll be playing by the weekend after next.
No, it's not easy. RPGs are actually quite intimate. Which makes it even more amazing to me that people play with relative strangers. But, yes, it's not easy to ask somebody you know well to play in many cases. But all I can say is that it's worth the effort.
Mike
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