Interest Check - A virtual club

So as a GM who relies on Roll20 for my players, I find that it can be difficult to gauge the compatibility of people off of some application or their bio... and plenty of times you won't really know if people will be able to get along or if the will enjoy or want to play the same kind of game until you've played with them... Because of that, when I sometimes want to run a short campaign or try out a new system or setting... I'm deterred by the process of finding players and the difficulty of communicating what you're looking for in games etc... and end up not bothering unless I'm planning a long term thing. So I thought why not try to put together a group of people who are all compatible with and enjoy a certain kind of game... so that when one of us feels like running something or someone is looking for a game to join everyone can skip that whole "vetting" process and just know that whomever signs up from this group will be cool. I mean putting the group together in the first place will require some vetting... but at least it'll be a one time thing... you won't have to repeat the process every time. Now clearly, the club house I'd be interested in putting together would be for people with similar interests and preferences as myself... but other such club houses for people with different tastes and sensibilities could be established... I'm just curious if anyone else thinks this might be a good idea?

I'm in a couple such communities in Roll20, where different groups spin-off to play games at varying times. I started the one called the "2E Tavern" for enthusiasts of 2nd Edition AD&D on Roll20. It can be found in the LFG and has 150 participants. I'm also a member of a couple other groups, one for Old School Revival in general, another for the game Basic Fantasy RPG. It can be done and is not a bad idea. Only obstacle was, I think your post doesn't say at all what kind of Players you want to be in your club. You mentioned vetting, but didn't say what any of the qualifications would be. Tell us what play-style you are focused on recruiting for this?

I'm in a Warhammer 40K group where there is about 50 players. And I've love to join others.

Gold said: Only obstacle was, I think your post doesn't say at all what kind of Players you want to be in your club. You mentioned vetting, but didn't say what any of the qualifications would be. Tell us what play-style you are focused on recruiting for this? I didn't know whether anyone would think it was a good idea to begin with, much less care what kind of club I'd want to be a part of... I had seen groups dedicated to a system, like various D&D groups, but I've never seen one dedicated to a play-style before... It's hard to sum up a play-style in a short post... which, incidentally, is why it's also so difficult to communicate properly during the vetting process or on a campaign listing page... but I'll give it a shot And to preface this... I really don't mean to come off as judgmental or as condemning anyone's way of having fun with RPGs... I'm looking for people that don't want "quest givers", "balanced encounters" nor a railroaded path... players who would be trying their damnedest to make it feel like their characters are real (as well as interesting) people who live in a real (and hopefully interesting) world... because that's when they have the most fun. In other words: Simulationists, with an eye for good narrative... (Simulationists would be the players who strive for internal consistency within the game world, to aid immersion, and narrative players would be those primarily interested in telling or being part of good stories) As a GM primarily, I'm not really looking to play much... but these are the kinds of players I'd be looking for... and I'd hope other GMs would find equal value in having a group with said preferences available for their games... Needless to say... it requires genuine interest in telling or hearing human stories, more so than describing explosions and action scenes... So really.. it's a question of would your ideal game play more like Saving Private Ryan... or would it be more like The Expendables?

I think it's a good idea. I'd love to be able to have a bunch of people interested in Pathfinder and get along well to be able to make games together.