GM question: how do you find new players?

[scott2978]

So, as a GM, how do you go about locating new players for your game?

I know a lot of ways to do it, game stores, online, etc, but what I'm asking is how do YOU do it? What has worked best for you and what hasn't?

[Gry Sarth]

My players are my friends, first and foremost. I have only once tried gaming with a group of people who were only gaming buddies and I really didn't like it. For me RPGing is just one more of those leisure activities you come up with to enjoy the company of your friends (like drinking, watching a game, going to the beach, etc) not the other way around.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Ankhanu]

Yep, my gaming groups have been my friends. Now that my friends aren't terribly interested in gaming, I'm kinda screwed for a group.
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[hisham]

[Esoomian]

I stumbled into a group of gamers that became my friends... And then because gamers (that I've known) tend to be very uhhhh dramatic when that group self destructed I forged a new group out of friends that I knew gamed or were interested in gaming.
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Don't waste money on expensive binoculars.

Simply stand closer to the object you wish to view.

[Vanion]

My best RP buddies were ones I stumbled onto while not really looking. I.E.-I met one guy because we noticed he was reading a dragonlance book on the steps of our apartment building. He turned out to be one of our most enjoyable friends and player.

Overall, flyers at any store that sells any pen & paper game supplies seems to have worked the best for me in the past. Usually when I find just one person, that person knows one or two other people who will play as well.
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"Life is not measured in years, but by deeds"

[TheDoctor]

I pick up random strangers and drifters off the street.
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"We attack under cover of daylight. Yes it's the last thing they'll be expecting, a daylight charge over the minefield." - Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC SSC

[jmanski]

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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[Ray]

[Orpheus]

Reminds me of that Will Ferrel skit where he played Neil Diamond doing VH1's Storytellers. He came up with ridiculous stories filled with debauchery for Neil Diamond songs and then when he sang them you could totally see them that way. My favorite part: "I wrote this song about the time that I killed a drifter...to achieve an erection. (sings)Forever in bluejeans baby!"
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"He is a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of a conservative."-G.K. Chesterton

[TheDoctor]

[Blain]

I break out the gaming books at most family reunions. I got my siblings playing years ago, and my sister in law is interested now too. A couple more years and my kids will be rolling the dice!

In between the holidays and vacations, I only have one guy I play with. (Which sucks, becouse I hate running game, but he won't do it and he's not up to snuff with all the rules yet.)
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Jedi don't die. They're just metaphysically inconvenienced.

[K21DUBIE]

I have been somewhat lucky in finding gamers in the past at the local comic book-gamers store. But as the years pass, it seems that interest of most gamers is minatures or cards. I am not crazy about either of those so I have had to do more online but it is just trying to find time that is the hardest.

[Jallok Harr]

Yeah same with me, now I mainly game on PBP sites with friends of mine from MMORPGs and other sites.