Difficulty finding games with Calendar

[DeadlySecret]

I have been a licensed user for FG for a good year now. I love the software and I would love to be not only a GM but a player in Fantasy Grounds. The issue I have here is not the software itself but the LFG/Calendar.

It's frustrating to me when I look around the calendar and half the games aren't even set with a date or time. When viewing the list of games, the only dates I see is last GM activity. I also see a lot of games just sitting there that are old and didn't even start. Example:

[Savage Worlds] Hellfrost
Savage Worlds
sakmerlin37 No Yes
(needs 3) 0 + 3
3 to 6 2015-09-13 -9
[Savage Worlds] Hellfrost
Setting: Hellfrost
Ruleset: Savage Worlds
Genre: Fantasy

Hellfrost: Lair of the Vermin

and

*PFS Saturday Feb 7th (3pm EST)- Pathfinder Module: Feast of Ravenmoor (PFRPG)
Pathfinder
Trueshots No Yes
(needs 2) 2 + 9
4 to 6 2015-09-22 -5
*PFS Saturday Feb 7th (3pm EST)- Pathfinder Module: Feast of Ravenmoor (PFRPG)
Setting: Pathfinder Society Organized play
Ruleset: Pathfinder
Genre: Fantasy

and many others...

I have to go into each one just to see a date/time and sometimes or shall I say a lot of times there isn't a date/time. So I'm expected to go to the LFG forums to find the listing because there wasn't a direct link to the listing from the Calendar. Sometimes I can't even find a listing on the forums to go with the Calendar listing. After this process, I'm done... I close the forums and go to Roll20 to seek games. It's sad because I dislike Roll20 for many many reasons.

Thank you for hearing my frustration and happy gaming.

[damned]

It seems that most GMs dont actively use/maintain their Calendar entries...

[DM|Mag]

Being new here I haven't even looked at the calendar yet, or jumped into the LFG sections. I will be in the future though. I'm used to posting a recruitment thread elsewhere with a recruitment and screening process for games. Engaging them, talking them through character creation and getting to know about 25 applicants and selecting a half dozen out of that pool. Do a lot of people check these calendars, is that something I should use when I start recruiting down the road?

[damned]

Hey DM|Mag - recruitment varies greatly from GM to GM. Far and away the majority of FG users play in existing groups. GMs doing recruitment here will usually get the best results making a Game Recruitment thread and potentially also using it in combination with the Calendar. Depending o your genre, ruleset, timing you may find an overwhelming response here - or you may have to also widen your search and use other places to get the right players. Being in AUS I used to recruit on many forums - meetup.com, rpg.net, penandapergamers.com, trolllords.com, google+ etc and here of course. I find accessing players much easier these days but I will still use those other places at times.

[DM|Mag]

Good to know, I am putting together an application free for all for your FGDaze on June 25th I decided a few moments ago and figured It'd be good to know the way things are done here. So I should open a recruitment thread later on when I reorganize my character creation and information then. I may need to link back to my campaign forum on another site I am using for this campaign that's got info from the past few months. Is that taboo here? I know doing so on many forums I've frequented for years, doing that is ban worthy nowadays. :/ Want to be sure if this is allowed, or not, and if you folks don't know, point me where I find that out if you could?

[damned]

Running a couple of one shouts is a really good way to increase your familiarity with FG (and with DMing) without the burden/stress of having to prep for a campaign. Unless its a system with very fast character builds (or its ALO / PFS) its usually best to use pre-gens in a One Shot so that you dont waste time on that. It also allows you to setup the adventure and the pcs to match each other story and skill wise. Everyone is welcome to post a game for FGDaze. FGDaze is just a small event where GMs run stuff - mostly to give new players a chance to get in on a game.

You can link to your obsidian portal campaign page etc from/to here. That sort of thing is fine. Recruiting here for players for a competing table top would be poor form though :)

[DM|Mag]

*nod* It's a pbp site that is just the repository for multiple previous instances of this game that has a lot of chatter back and forth folks might find useful. Draw upon past experience of those who came before and all of that which would be convenient for new folks. I'd like to keep all groups consolidated there, so if not against the rules here, that'd be ideal for folks. If not, all good, but no, not a Maptools or Roll20 type situation. Thanks for the help.

[Trenloe]

And just to clarify - all FGDaze organization should be done on the FG forums - you can advertise elsewhere, but please keep these forums as the main place for discussion and organization of FGDaze events.

Additionally, these are one shots so, as damned suggest, use pregens for the PCs.

Re the game calendar - the game calendar is really handy for having game slots that adjust to the end user timezone. There are frequently misunderstandings regarding timezones and so a game slot that adjusts to your timezone (assuming you have this set correctly in your FG profile) is a major help. Yes, the game calendar isn't great to randomly find a game, but it's good to provide info regarding session times once you've got your group of players. Hence why GMs will frequently post in the LFG forum their game announcements and discussions, but link to a game calendar entry for player acceptance and session time management.

[DM|Mag]

Yeah, I'm having an incredibly difficult time setting up a recruitment thread here currently, I'll be running the FGDaze event as an application and screening one shot for a long term campaign. Folks can try it out, and free for all apply for it there during that evening after my weekly sessions ends is my goal. I'd gladly open a thread here if the site stops rejecting my attempts to do so. O.o I'll be recruiting elsewhere, which should generate some new users for FG, which is my intent. So I have my own game forum elsewhere and multiple threads worth of information already setup there, would be easy to link to it but the site rejects my threads when I attempt. I'll try again and just cram the 10 pages of information into one single thread in that area then and see if that works. >.< Just realized I hijacked the OP's thread thoroughly. My apologies for that.

[Trenloe]

Yeah, I'm having an incredibly difficult time setting up a recruitment thread here currently
You'll be having difficulty adding links to a post because you have a low number of posts (this is an anti SPAM measure - and we do get SPAM so we need it). In two or three posts you'll be past the threshold and you'll be able to create threads with links.

[DM|Mag]

That makes sense, it's been about 2 years since I've been a newbie needing to worry about that anywhere. Completely spaced that was a thing as I'm not a spambot lol. OK then, thanks that eases my puzzlement in that issue.

[Willot]

yeah, the calender needs to be better maintained. Check google+ communities there are a few fantasy ground people on there. Maybe a system should be intergrated into the software itself? And I dont mean a link to the forums.Maybe a fg matching system like eharmony cept people looking for fg groups.
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[DeadlySecret]

Don't you think that if you improve the LFG and LFP section and calendar, you'd get more attention to your software.

I know a lot of people who canceled their subscriptions because it was too difficult to get a game using this software.

[lesliev]

I've seen it mentioned (in the FGDaze announcement) that a person should set their time zone correctly - but that doesn't seem to improve the calendar at all. Time zones always seem to be in GMT, am I missing something? Also I don't know how to interpret the last column. The game "PFS7-11: Ancients' Anguish" has this: 2016-03--8 09. What does that mean? I suppose this only indicates last GM activity and not game time though...

I see some games mention game times in the subject line but they are never in my time zone (NZDT) so that's not useful. I've also tried the "game recruiting calendar". All times are in GMT. So that has made both of these calendars useless to me - I have clicked a whole bunch of these games and tried to convert the times but it's a very slow process only to find out that in almost all cases the games are at times when I am at work etc.

I'd appreciate a calendar where I could enter times when I am available (preferably in my own time zone) and filter games based on that.

[JohnD]

There are a lot of dead games that litter the landscape. The PFS games that ended months ago that sit at the top of the list because a few guys are too lazy to delete them or set to private. All things that have been voiced as issues for several years; still sit unchanged.

[Trenloe]

Time zones always seem to be in GMT, am I missing something?
The "TMZ GMT" column shows the GM offset from GMT. 0 is GMT, you're +12, etc..


Also I don't know how to interpret the last column. The game "PFS7-11: Ancients' Anguish" has this: 2016-03--8 09. What does that mean?
Look at the column headers at the top of the list. There are two columns here: "Last GM Activity" of 2016-03-09 and GMs "TMZ GMT" offset of -8.


I've also tried the "game recruiting calendar". All times are in GMT. So that has made both of these calendars useless to me.
It should be pretty easy for you, just add 12 to the times in the Game Recruiting calendar! ;)

I agree that things could be a bit easier, but I disagree that things at present are completely useless for you. I'd recommend using the "game recruiting calendar" and adding 12 to the times shown there.

[Black Hammer]

I've never been able to get times to display for my games at all, meaning I have to just type up the time slot in the description. I've been told it might be because I use Chrome.

[DeadlySecret]

I agree that things could be a bit easier, but I disagree that things at present are completely useless for you. I'd recommend using the "game recruiting calendar" and adding 12 to the times shown there.

Considering that I don't have that kind of time to enter every single LFG post on the thread, or enter every single game on calendar just to see if the date fits me is actually pretty useless to me. I go to Roll20 because of how easy it is to navigate without having to spend a dedicated amount of time entering each listing. In fact I can just save my search and load it daily and with a single glance I know what listings are available to my time. I am not glorifying Roll20, I actually really really really dislike them for many personal reasons but the system is simple and clean for LFG.

I am not sure if this is too complicated to implement but the game calendar "list" should have a date the game is to be played on, not just the last GM activity. I attempted to post a listing and I had the most difficult time finding a way to even set the date other than listing it in the topic or description. I was having a difficult time getting the date entry to even work for me.

It's really discouraging.

[Trenloe]

Considering that I don't have that kind of time to enter every single LFG post on the thread, or enter every single game on calendar just to see if the date fits me is actually pretty useless to me.
I wasn't suggesting that at all. Click the "Game Recruiting Calendar" button at the top of the Game Calendar page and you will be taken to a calendar that shows all of the games with session times entered. You are not entering each listing at all.

See this screenshot for an example (taken just now):

14313


I was having a difficult time getting the date entry to even work for me.
Enter the session time in your game in the "Suggest new game time" section of the campaign as numerical day and month, and time in HH:MM format, using 24 hour format or adding am or pm after (no space). For example, 7pm tomorrow is entered as Day = 9, Month = 6, Time = 19:00 or 7:00pm.

14314

Which gives:

14315

The time is entered in the timezone that is set up on my profile and is displayed in the scheduled play times section - as seen above "All times are MDT" as my setting are Mountain time and set for daylight savings.

[Black Hammer]

Trenloe, I just realized the reason I could never get it to work is that I'm used to writing military time with no colon ( : ). So I'd type in 1700 and wonder why it ignored me. The more you know. And knowing is half the battle!

[damned]

lesliev
If the calendar is not displaying in YOUR timezone make sure you set your timezone in your profile: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/profile.php?do=editoptions - scroll most of the way down to Date & Time Options and almost everyone should choose Automatically adjust Daylight Savings Time. If you are up for a late night session you are welcome to join this one: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?31977-FGDaze!-Saturday-June-25th-2016-Game-announcement-thread&p=273079&viewfull=1#post273079 and Im thinking of posting a Call of Cthulhu one shot too...

DeadlySecret
I dont know why other GMs do or dont use the calendar but I mostly only use the calendar for One Shot recruiting. My campaigns tend to be long term and I want to vet the players more than just via an application on a calendar where no comment is even required. My best suggestion is use your saved search to view todays posts instead and scan any new LFP posts. Is that as quick as teh calendar could/should be? No - but I think it will be your best bet.

[Nylanfs]

Trenloe, I just realized the reason I could never get it to work is that I'm used to writing military time with no colon ( : ). So I'd type in 1700 and wonder why it ignored me. The more you know. And knowing is half the battle!

https://36.media.tumblr.com/99658490ff5750ba861ab68ea0b396fa/tumblr_mfd5ea4YvU1qz740ro1_1280.jpg

[Willot]

Maybe, if there not activity in the calander for 2 weeks it auto sents you an email asking if the game is still active? Still think it should be incorporated in the software itself. Feel the software should be a "one stop shop" for all. (as far as the the games themselves are concerned not for purchasing).

[Ken L]

The LFG system does need some love as it's mostly neglected and out of the way rather than promenently displayed.

Some work on allowing the GM to post more detailed information with each listing would help. The reason I don't use it is that the tools are quite limiting. I'd recommend that Dave hire/contract a Web dev and work with them on developing a more intuitive interface.

FG isn't the best platform to meet/find other RPers, but is more suited for providing better tools for existing groups from my experience.

[DeadlySecret]

But it should help people meet up, especially since we have to purchase it.

[JohnD]

Get rid of the dead games, most noticeably the Pathfinder Society ones where the DMs have adopted putting a * at the front of the name so it shows up at the top of the lists. Those appear to have been dead for months.

One time I went through the whole listing to make a point and had a good 25% or more that were abandoned games. Someone did a clean up then, a couple of years ago, but it's back to how it was.

I can't figure it out. When I have a game that's full, I mark it no longer accepting players and it doesn't show in the list. When I have a game that's come to an end, it quite literally takes ~ 15 seconds to delete it or mark it private so it doesn't clutter the list.

[Trenloe]

I've mentioned it a few times, but it seems people are missing it. The "Game Recuitment Calendar" (click that blue button at the top of the Game Calendar page) lists the campaigns with game sessions assigned to them, thus ignoring old/dead campaigns. It tells you the day and time when there are upcoming sessions, you can filter it by system type too.

If you're looking for games that are currently active, go to this game recruitment calendar. Find some that have slots in the times you're interested in playing and then check out the more detailed game calendar entry (linked from the game recruitment calendar). If you're interested, send the GM a PM (don't just randomly sign up on the campaign page without communicating to the GM first).

Yes, it's not ideal (it would be nice if it did adjust based off your time zone) - but it seems to go a long way towards addressing some of the issues raised in this thread: it only shows active games, it shows game day and time without going through each entry in the big long list, etc.. This is a new(ish) feature that Doug put together based off people's feedback and speed/ease of deployment within the forum structure.

[DeadlySecret]

I just hope that our frustrations are not going unnoticed or ignored. I think it always helps to have insight of the common public and how they "feel".

[DM|Mag]

Being new here, the most successful place I've been at with game recruitment, and this was for PbP games was the way they organize things at Myth-weavers.com. You can sort by game system the games that are actively recruiting, and set the time within the forum thread when the DM initially recruits of when the ad closes. This singular thread in the recruiting area leads to a game forum setup for the DM to host his games. Obviously, this is needed for a forum based, everyone posts type game, the individual forum thing. The site uses the same forum software as this one, but the versions may be different. I know the owner and one or two others there dedicated lots of time to coding in new features as well, it may be they've hacked the V-bulletin software and coded these issues in, I'm not certain.

The big thing I've noticed in sites with recruiting areas and success ratios of finding a game: Separating the "Looking for Game" player made threads into their own forum. They clutter things, you want that as the hidden area from the DM created "Looking for Players" threads. The reason being, a DM recruiting for players will actually provide a game for multiple people, having a higher priority. The oodles of players posting "I want a game" threads bury these DM threads and make it harder to negotiate getting games running. If I am looking for 6 players, and post one thread, and 5 other DM's join me with the same, that's 6x6=36 slots open for games in 6 threads. If in the same time frame 50 players individually post "Hey I want a game" threads, it buries the DM created threads who actually do need players. Making it a chore to wade through all of these threads.

This doesn't help the calendar issues, but it will help people find games. Keeping the "I want a game!" player created threads in the same area that the DM's need to post their "Looking for players" threads tends to have a significant, negative impact in the ability for DM's to find players, and players to find games I've found in the last 12 years of gaming online. Too much clutter to sift through easily to find what you need efficiently. Separate the two, and a simple system filter would go a long way I believe to help people find the games they want. So you can select the forum for DM's hosting recruitments, then click "Pathfinder" or "5e" or "Rifts" and it will rapidly sort out active recruiting for the system you want only, and bam shorten the time spent on looking for games regularly. Just a thought.

[ddavison]

I just updated the link from the forums to go directly to the Game Recruiting Calendar instead of the Manage Campaigns page.

Known Issues:
It shows times in GMT at this point and doesn't automatically adjust to your timezone.