honorentheos wrote: ↑Tue Jul 23, 2024 12:54 am
Hey Xeno,
I've thought about this a bit more and my best answer is to cast a wide net in finding players. My work game started as an email to a group of over 100 people. A few folks got excited about it and started talking it up. Then we had a few preparation meetings and, as mentioned, I ran a very quick run through tutorial game using pre gens. The players then got excited about building their characters. This excitement led to the build up for the game. I think the first session being fun made a huge difference because after that I'd heard a few times folks showed up despite being tired because of FOMO.
Hi Xeno-
I thought I'd come back to this with an update of my own. I have had a few folks express curiosity about D&D at work who have heard about our game and, with BG3 also giving folks a bit of the TTRPG bug, I decided to send out an email and ask if there were folks who might be interested in playing a beginner friendly one-shot? I have six people now, not in my current group, who want to play after one day. So I am going to make another pitch for casting a wide net. You never know.
It's been about two years since the work campaign got underway. Of our original group, we lost one player, plus two other folks who joined later but then quit at different times. We also had a person move away as mentioned recently. We've also gained three that have become regular, engaged players. So we've stayed around six-seven active players since January of this year. I also think the three folks who quit would have stayed had the group been smaller or they otherwise felt consistently engaged in the larger group. Because of that I've learned a few things. I am now always prepared to throw a gun into the room, figuratively speaking, as soon as the party starts stalling out. I pre-plan an encounter that can go off whenever needed. Also, I've found it important to insert backstory moments for everyone in a session, even if only a touch. And if someone seems to need it, I'll try to pivot to a backstory moment.
For example, the College of Spirits bard player came to the last session saying outright she'd had a stressful day of work. This is often a sign someone decided they would come but had considered skipping to go home. And I want to be sure they feel that was worth it. So when she got fed up with some party shenanigans, I took the opportunity for her dead orc foster father to walk with her and talk. She was very engaged in that roleplay, at the end of which I had her roll two d20, narrating it as the two of them walking to the Stoa in the dark as he shared flashes of things to come that relate to his lost half-orc son that they now know is with the Atakar orc tribe. Then I told her that the two results were portents, and she could substitute each one time in the future for any d20 roll - hers, an ally's, or enemy, it didn't matter. Then she got to have a bit of narrative fun at the Stoa, while I bounced back around with the rest of the group. My impression was it made it feel worth coming and fun, with the portents adding a bit of excitement for the future.
One other player who has found a +1 vorpal great sword finally had a crit with it, beheading a drider at the top of the 2nd round of combat. Cool, cool. He was hyped and that's how that part of the game goes. I'm glad for him even though the drider had 100 hp left when it did. It worked for the story, too. Then after he got in the face of the night steward of the Stoa when they got back, he was held up for questioning. He was then told he couldn't enter because something was off about him and the rest of the party wouldn't vouch for him because of things he had done earlier that session. So he convinced the barbarian to go with him to the brothel-turned-pawn shop ran by the jackelwares he had promised he would protect from Lady Meissa as couch to crash on. Only instead to find the place empty except for the head of one of the jackelwares left on the desk with a note in its mouth stating, "Their betrayal is know, their debt is paid". Hmmm, I guess that's what happens when someone makes a promise and then puts it off a couple of days, leaving a powerful entity time to do some investigating.
So, if I were distill some more lessons learned down, when it comes to my engagement as DM when interacting with the players and in the game, it's most important I convey as a DM I'm on the player's side...but I am also running the world as a world with consequences. I think that is the sweet spot where there are real challenges, but the challenges feel like they aren't coming directly from me but through me via their actions and choices if that makes sense?
Anyway, hope things are going well and you are getting closer to being able to get a game going.
