Game Activity question from potential customer

[Donegal]

Hello all,

I am interested in finding some gaming opportunities and like what I have seen of FG but have some reservations about being able to find a game. I've looked in the Game Calendar and there are only a handful of games with GM activity in that past month. I also see some threads in the Guild Hall where players have posted LFG and there are no responses. Now, there could be alot of activity on PMs, email and such that I can't see but from what I can it looks like games are sparse.

So, my question is, if I invest in the software are there enough gamers out there to make it possible to quickly find a reliable game?

Thanks in advance!

[cpbs]

Welcome to the forums :D. Glade that you have stumbled upon this wonderful VTT. To answer yours questions. For the most part there are plenty of active people out there looking for or hosting games. Many of them are not just d20/3.5 but also 4E, Call of Cthulhu, Savage Worlds, etc.

The GM activity on the Calender page is kind of broken, in that it only keeps track of changes made to the calender information about the game. For I just posted comments on my calender page and new game times on there and my calender page still shows that the last time I have updated it was 3/31/10, which is not true. So looking at the GM activity does not really show the actual activity of the forums for game that are out there.

Right now I run a game, which is full, and I still see people looking for games to play. The main reason I see, is that right now there are tons of game going on and they fill up pretty fast. We do have some dedicated GM/DMs that are willing to run multiple games during the week to increase the amount of game available.

With Fantasy Grounds, a game will not just spawn into you lap. You will need to put some time in, putting your name out there, posting your abilites, what types of rulesets you have played, or can play, or are willing to play. This makes it pretty easy for a GM to come along and pick you up if they are starting a game soon. From my experience, there are plenty of games out there, if you just put the time into it and look, ask, and possibly beg to get in.

The major things, when looking or posting for a game, is to include the times you can play and also what time zone your in. There are many people from all over the world that use Fantasy Grounds, so being able to match up with the people with the right time, is crucial to also being able to play.

I hope all that information helps. Don't worry to ask more questions the community here is pretty open in point people in the right direction :D.

Welcome again!

[GunnarGreybeard]

Reading through the forums it seems the issue is the same as in real life. Not enough available DM/GM's, on X day at X time.

Personally I am looking to start up a game as GM BUT my skills are rusty, haven't played an RPG in well over 15 years and the main game I played is not supported by FGII at the moment (HarnMaster). This means I may have to learn a new system just about from scratch and try to get up enough knowledge to be able to GM that system. I do have some limited knowledge with Rolemaster but only on the Arms Law part so to use that ruleset I would really need to learn the complete system.

There does seem to be quite a few players available for Wednesday games, which would be perfect for me since that is my day off of work. Its just a matter of deciding on a system and learning it enough to GM (as well as building enough of the module in my copy of FG to run it). :D

[templarghost]

I agree with everything cpbs said in his post, and I just want to add this: all you need in order to make the most out of FG is to find a group that works best for you.

Tabletop gaming it's not only about playing, it's also about having fun getting to know the people you play with, sharing ideas and finding new and exciting ways to enrich your gaming experience.But since this is a personal opinion, don't take my word for it.
Once you get in a group, you'll realize that you don't have enough time to play as much as you'd like (honestly, I like to play once or twice a week, that way I have more time to think about what the DM has in store for us players or if I'm the DM, what I can add so that the players will be surprised and excited during each session).

I also want to welcome you to this wonderful community and may you join as many games as you wish!

[ronnke]

Welcome to the forums.

As a suggestion. First find yourself a game/group that plays when you are available. Once you are happy with that, then go ahead and invest in the FG software.

[philth]

My FGII success story. I bought the program, 'bout 3 years ago. Played in a game or two..that fizzled out, then kept looking for another game/group. Not being able to find anything during the time I was available to game, I said to hell with it and started running my own game. Fast forward to now, my online group is more reliable than my face to face group was, and is where I go to get some serious game on. So, my advice is, go ahead and dive in. If you can't find the game you are looking for....create it.

If you build it they will come.

[Grey Hunter]

My FGII success story. I bought the program, 'bout 3 years ago. Played in a game or two..that fizzled out, then kept looking for another game/group. Not being able to find anything during the time I was available to game, I said to hell with it and started running my own game. Fast forward to now, my online group is more reliable than my face to face group was, and is where I go to get some serious game on. So, my advice is, go ahead and dive in. If you can't find the game you are looking for....create it.

If you build it they will come.

You know, I'm half considering this myself, I'm going to spend some time looking for a game, and if I don't find one, then I'm going to get myself the GM books as well and set up a noob game.

I've done it before with Shadowrun (twice) - So I should be able to muddle through once more.

Of course, I would prefer to try being a player before I try the Big Chair. but I've not really started looking that hard yet. (I've got a holiday for a week, so I don't want to commit to anything until that over, but Its a good time to be reading books.)

[Griogre]

Hello all,

I am interested in finding some gaming opportunities and like what I have seen of FG but have some reservations about being able to find a game. I've looked in the Game Calendar and there are only a handful of games with GM activity in that past month. I also see some threads in the Guild Hall where players have posted LFG and there are no responses. Now, there could be alot of activity on PMs, email and such that I can't see but from what I can it looks like games are sparse.

So, my question is, if I invest in the software are there enough gamers out there to make it possible to quickly find a reliable game?

Thanks in advance!
This is always an important question. The best way I can answer this is to tell you to look at the guild house messageboard. Go back a few weeks and see if how many games people were advertising for games you would have been interested in playing. In addition, if there is a message board for the ruleset(s) you are interested in you can check there too. People are now looking for groups and players on both the guild house and ruleset boards - which is unfortunate.

The list of games available calendar web page is not used for the vast majority of games because until recently it was a poor tool. Even now there are disadvantages to using it so you will get a much better feel for the chances of finding a game by looking at the messageboards back a few weeks.