Day three of 30 Days of GMing, and I’ll get to the question in a moment. I just want to take a moment to remind folks I am taking part in the Extra Life fundraiser this year. Along with a bunch of friends I am a member of Team Knifeshoes, and we’re raising money for children’s hospitals. You can donate to the cause by clicking on the graphic in the margin; it will take you to my donation page where you can donate securely on-line. Any amount will get me closer to my goal, and amounts $25 and over get a tax receipt. And I’ll post information about how to follow along as I game away 25 hours. Because I’m hardcore!

But now, today’s Challenge question.

How do you find players?

I’ll admit, I haven’t had to go out and look for players for a while now. I have one group I’ve been gaming with once a week (more or less) for about 8 years, and another two I GM (one bi-weekly, the other monthly) that have been together just over a year. Between that and Pathfinder Society Organized Play, my GMing slate is pretty full without having to look for new players.

BUT, if I did need to find players I actually have a few options. If I was starting a new Pathfinder campaign specifically, I’d probably put the word out through the Pathfinder Society players. Your local organized play events are often good places to find players for a game, especially if the campaign you want to run is for that game. Be advised, though, it is NOT COOL to schedule your campaign at the same time the organized play runs. Then you’re just poaching players, and that’s a dick move.

I also belong to a few gaming Meetups, and those are great places to meet and recruit new players. If you haven’t already, run a search on the Meetup main site for gaming groups in or near your area. You’ll likely be surprised by what you find.

Another good option is to join some gaming forums, and make sure to post your location so other forum members can find you. Many such forums have “Looking for Group” sections for both GMs and players. They can be hit and miss, depending on the size of the forum and how active it is; less so if you are good with playing on-line via a virtual tabletop. At the very least you get some good conversations while you wait for someone to show interest in your game.

I still see notices up occasionally at my Friendly Local Game Store, but I’ve never used that method myself and I’ve never responded to it unless it was for in-store organized play. So it can work, but the better looking you can make your notice, the better. I see so many “LFG” notices scrawled out on loose-leaf pages in crappy hand-writing, and I honestly don’t know why anyone thinks they work. Even something typed out in 10 minutes on your computer is going to look way better than that.

How do you find new players? Leave a comment and let us know.