Hey Tyler welcome to the life. One thing that you're going to want to do is specify what time zones you are in and what days and times you are available within that time zone. So for example if you're at East Coast Eastern standard Time Wednesdays from 9:00 to midnight. Tuesdays or Thursdays from 6:00 p.m. on. Friday's all evening after 7:00 but sometimes you get called in to work. Some kind of situation like that but specify your time zone and the days and times you're available. That is crucial to know because we have game masters from around the world and it's real critical because usually there's international teams of players... especially if the game is a niche game. I run Star Trek Adventures and so I have had players from Israel, Germany, Russia, Turkey, UK, Canada, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia and most of the players come from America.. so we try and match up days and times. Also what game systems you're interested in playing... as there are a thousand game systems out there. So if you're looking for playing 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, that's far and away the most popular second advice a game called Pathfinder which is an extension and rework of the D&D 3.5 Rules by a different company. Both of those are far away that two most popular games although there are other games like Call of Cthulhu which is based on HP Lovecraft. Lots of games....yo u can look at the listings and just see there's so many games out there. Harder to find but if you're a fan of middle-earth there is middle-earth role-playing, which is a port of the 5th edition D&D rules or a game that was specifically written for middle-earth emulation which is called One Ring. That is an excellent narrative style game that is run completely different from classic or later editions of D&D but it's still Epic Fantasy. If you're open to science fiction there is Starfinder and one of my personal favorites as it's the game that I started with back in 1977 called Traveller. If you're a Space Opera fan, there is Star Trek Adventures (I currently run two of those a week but they're on break right now for Christmas and New Year's holiday) and Star Wars Fantasy Flight. There are also games that are very narrative style games that do not use a traditional format but there are more storytelling games. There's a very popular one called blades in the dark that uses a Time clock system to put pressure on players. So I would support the idea of going through the looking for game tool and look for games that say they're willing to teach or assist new people in playing. The ratio to dungeon Masters to players is very high... I think it's now about 1 dungeon master for 20 players maybe more... so from the beginning realize that if the game system is very popular whenever somebody puts out an ad for a pretty decently run D&D 5th edition they're going to get 20 applicants within 2 days and they really only need five or so to get going. But each game master is going to want something different for their game some are going to want heavy combat some are going to want heavy role-playing some are going to have lots of puzzles somewhat some specific setup like it's a game where you're all playing undead so it tends to filter out based on the different categories of what the GMS are looking for. But sometimes it's going to be an interview process and you have to be prepared for the better games to go through some type of vetting or something like that now. Now some people just open up a voice program and invite everybody in and let people filter themselves out. So even within games there's a different kind of vetting and hiring process some people have no vetting process, especially if it's a niche game. If I'm trying to recruit for Twilight 2000 which is a post-apocalyptic military game I'm usually only going to get people who are interested in the military or real world veterans usually older to play in that game so I'm not going to be too picky and if I find six people that can sort of get along that's all I need to know and then we run the game. But I think it's true that the most accomplished and experienced game Masters are going to run the best games, and they're just going to ignore someone's response that says hi I'm interested PM me, as well as everybody else that isn't proactive is going to get weeded out and not even make it into the first round, let alone second round of interviews. Still there are a lot of dungeon masters / game Masters out here looking for quality players and as long as you are someone that gets along with the group and doesn't create problems even if you don't know the rules, you might get picked for a training game over a more experienced player that has an abrasive personality. Also it's my experience that the more experience and accomplished game Masters are always trying to help newer dungeon Masters to become better and to help new players to come into the hobby and make it easy for them. There are often times free rules sets for various games on sites such as open RPG or you might go to the specific site and look for a starter set. So to wrap this up I suggest you keep looking don't give up sometimes it takes a few weeks to find a good game that's a good fit for your personality and style. Keep looking around you'll eventually find something. What usually works is if you see a game that's advertised and as soon as you get in there you describe what you're looking for as a character, with a friendly post that shows that you read their post and you comprehend what game they're trying to pitch and you try and fit into that with a concept. Mark that thread on the upper right that you're following it so you don't lose track and maybe send a private message to the DM via the system and keep track of it everyday. Then you go from there. What doesn't usually work is if you post something in the general community to say "hi I'm a player and this is my character...hire me for your game." That usually doesn't work because the dungeon Masters already have 20 applicants and then looking for applicants not usually unless the game is a very niche game. Sometimes you can find a game if you have people that are looking for a DM and they say they want to play and then six or seven people will join that thread and then a DM will pop up. It definitely pays to be open and friendly. I'm a pro roll20 subscription DM that's been here since the beginning and I have run I think over 20+ campaigns now here. Game conventions, learn how to play games, short-term three shot campaigns multiple long-term campaigns. I and personally acquainted with and know many designers in the industry, either from submitting articles to dragon or challenge magazine or through my own board game design team efforts. If you're looking for more advice or assistance you can feel free to send me a PM. I run games free here. I'm also a professional paid game master for games here and on other sites, and I've been employed in the industry off and on. and I've been a gamer for 46 years and I know hundreds of people here. I'm currently running two Star treks a week and I'm setting up to run five games a week in 2024 (Space Opera, Fantasy and Military). Finally it wouldn't hurt you to get a Discord account because it's very easy and a lot of people are using Discord for connection by voice. Best of luck and I hope you find the game you're looking for.
