So my group, I am DMing with for years has come to the point of the cycle where life gets in the way.
Trust me I understand it. But, I am dealing of a forced retirement and am looking to do something I love, to keep me busy and the mine active.
So other just do it, can anyone offer any insights or advice?
Thank you in advance.
I posted in the players_lfg thread on discord and within a week or so had a couple of offers. Be specific in the post about what you are looking for, and your skill level. In my case I had no experience with Vaesen and wanted to join a game to get the gist of it so I could DM for my friends. They gladly let me hop in and learn the ropes. We have now switched over to a Pathfinder game and it's going well. My other game is a old school DnD game that plays every week now, and I am pretty happy with my character. I told the DM upfront that it had been decades since I had played, and they welcomed me in and away we went. I have been playing in both games for well over a year now, so I would call that a resounding success. That's just my experience, your mileage may vary.
FG forums, FG Discord and any Discord dedicated to the ruleset/system you want to play.
The be specific is super important. Day, time, game, game length. If you watch those "forums" a lot of time - its lots of posts like: Anyone interested in playing X? Then you get response: yes. Then they try to figure out a mutual day and time and loose half the interested people over the course of a week or so.
Don't take my word for it. Go back a few weeks in a forum/discord room and read a thread and see how it plays out. The advantage of discord is the process happens much faster than on a web forum, but a web forum can have a bigger audience.
Also, set the game when YOU the DM can play. You will be the only constant in the game. :)
It's been 6 years or so for me since I've had to recruit online. But at that time my approach was to run a bunch of con games via FG Con etc. Now days you can use the various organized play groups as well. While running these con/one-shots I took notes on the players. basically who I thought I would fit together well etc. Then I set a time and data that worked for me and send out invites to 12 of them. Got a few that it worked with their schedule and then started inviting by one and twos until the group was full. We've been playing together since then, with the addition and dropping of a few family members over the years.
To me, it's worth the upfront work to get the right players, than to just get players now. 6+ years for an online group sticking together is pretty good :)
I find my games and players on a Discord server dedicated to the rule system I prefer to play. It takes, literally, less than 48 hours to fill a game I'm GMing. I do know EU time zones can be more difficult, depending on start times, but US usually fills up quickly.
I will also say that being very specific in your description is key to actually finding people. Not just the time but also the flavor of game you're going for. It can be disheartening to launch a gritty, noir-style thriller only to find your players constantly looking for their next joke.