Is the Looking for Group search worthless?

Is it just me? Or is the LFG Game search the most pointless thing on this site. Most games seem to rot on the vine after being created with no real input from the OP. If that isn't it then a game gets swamped with 30 applications most of which are terrible for a setting. (Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords AP. Player wants to be a goblin bard...etc). Of those prospective player posts that are well thought out and fit a setting you never are responded to....EVER. The game just disappears one night and for all you can tell the game never started because there didn't seem to be responses to anyone. Just *POOF* gone. Please tell me it isn't just my internal psychosis.... I just want to play a damn Pathfinder campaign and my local scene is a ghost town

I've found games to play & players for my games in the LFG. It took some effort (whether as player or GM) to find the right fit. Multiple applications and a couple weeks of looking. I've seen some of the off-putting things you mentioned. Here are a few tips to remember. First, there are thousands and thousands of games happening on Roll20 that are not seen in LFG. And second, the LFG listings come-and-go, sometimes quickly, and there are new LFG's offered every day. Maybe the people in this week's thousands of games recruited their friends through email, or met people on another site, or maybe they used the LFG "that one time" a year ago and found their group in a week or a month of searching, then *POOF* like you said, it disappears from LFG with no trace. The many successful, ongoing campaigns on Roll20 this week are not in LFG by their nature, right? They aren't looking for players anymore, they are rolling along. So a lot of the great campaigns started in LFG, on some particular day in the past. I think the lesson is that the next great campaign for you might be listed today, or tomorrow, or next week. When it's listed, only the few players with the most fitting and timely applications will make the cut and join to play. After that it will be poof / gone from LFG. Check the LFG daily. Read the campaign description carefully. Make a good thoughtful application that appeals to the campaign style that's presented.

Don't give up Addkell. Gold is spot on. I've responded to LFG postings for weeks and never got anywhere to have a good game fall in my lap. And from the GM side of the screen I've advertised about half of my games and get wildly varied results. But at the end of the day I always get a full crew and some of them have been together now for six or more months. If not today, you may find the game for you tomorrow.

There's an unfortunately high ratio of players to GMs, so player applications to a campaign can get heavy. You have to make sure you stand out when you apply and you check back in the appropriate threads.

LFG is not the only way to find games. Check the forums for unlisted games in order to increase your chances of getting into a game. This, however does not beat the old way of GMing a game yourself to gather people of the same tastes as you and run future games with them. As the above people may have already said, reading the pre-requisites that GMs post is really useful. By this I mean not only what is posted on the game details but also on the forums of that game. For example, I give a basic description of the scenario on the game details and I follow it by posting the long and tedious guidelines of house rules and what players would be best fitting. Sadly, not everyone reads it and I do not bother giving them a reply if the number of players is too much. Some GMs may also have hidden or personal screening processes. I will go and give you some of mine that I use to distinguish players through my totally subjective and biased point of view; -If they use "u" instead of "you" or other net-speak acronyms too much -If they include anything involving "I am a better match than the others ;)" in their application form -If they do not agree with part of the scenario's hook due to real life beliefs or opinions, want to join and want me to change that aspect because of them. (i.e. Gay, Feminist, Political, Racist etc.) If you keep your application easy to read for the GM while complying with their regulations, you should get there in no time. Just be careful when copy-pasting applications, some GMs may stumble on your same application on someone else's game and get angry at it.

Brother Sharp said: -If they do not agree with part of the scenario's hook due to real life beliefs or opinions, want to join and want me to change that aspect because of them. (i.e. Gay, Feminist, Political, Racist etc.) Has that actually been an issue? I would think role-players would be a little more open-minded...

DKitten said: Brother Sharp said: -If they do not agree with part of the scenario's hook due to real life beliefs or opinions, want to join and want me to change that aspect because of them. (i.e. Gay, Feminist, Political, Racist etc.) Has that actually been an issue? I would think role-players would be a little more open-minded... i had a guy play a paladin in my homebrew campaign when i first started on Roll20... it was pg-13 the whole way.. One of the players was playing a dragonborne that was uninterested in scaleless women folk. The ranger was building a budding romance with an elven soldier. the mage was courting a sorceress, everything was clean and pg-13... about level 6ish they are adventuring in Chult and the party gets captured, stripped naked, and imprisoned in a Yuan-Ti temple complex to be sacrificed. they break out, destroy the guards and the two female Yaun-Ti (they had snake lower bodies like Medusa) say "dont hurt us anymore we will do what as you say and tell you everything!" Dragonborne player proceeded to take them into one of the cells and... "You make woopie with the captured guards, the sounds can be herd as far as the prison floor stairwell" he crits the endurance roll so i put heart tokens on the Yuan-Ti's because he turned them to his team, and became NPC followers.... (that was it, wasn't graphic, wasn't dirty, was kept as clean as possible without stepping on player creativity, and was well roleplayed.) the next thing we know is the paladin leaves teamspeak, leaves r20, removes himself from the game, and spams me with private messages... the rest of us are like "wtf?", his excuse - "Just because i didnt say anything doesnt meen its ok to have sexual content" (this was the first remotely adult like situation in the campaign) if i had known he was a Prude, i never would have let him join, period. Players in LFG tend to be self-entitled, thinking we GM's should be grateful we get to play with them... just look closely at all the LFGm posts.

This is the TTRPG scene in general if you're playing with strangers. The most stable groups are those where chemistry aligns. I don't recruit from the LFG much anymore, but that's because I have a network I can pull from for players.

it seems like that's how it turns out... i did lfg for my first two games, then on my third, i just posted on the forums for the other two and asked some rl friends, and it was filled up in 2 days... sucks, but if u really want to play, learn to GM.... from what i can tell, the community is very friendly to beginner GM's, and regardless of ur skill (yeah i used u instead of you... suck it!!!!) you will probably attact alot of test subjects players.

The LFG tool now is far better than what it use to be. It works now IMO. Its not perfect, but it is way better. They did a good job on the changes including the 'show new' and if it maxes out the player count it removes it. I threw down a 5e monday night campaign that filled up from the LFG tool in like 3 hours. My non-D&D campaigns took more advertising though, I had to post in the LFG forum, on reddit.com/r/lfg, and i think the tool got me like one player.

I do admit, GMs can do a heck of a lot better job replying back to their responses. Apparently it's a super common trend nowadays, I'm sorry to hear. I'd try checking out the LFG forum instead of the tool though. Results there are more instantaneous (which is why I like it a lot) and it's pretty darn alive and kicking, despite the tool still existing.

Benson Y. said: I do admit, GMs can do a heck of a lot better job replying back to their responses. Apparently it's a super common trend nowadays, To be honest this is the biggest thing that bothers me about it. A simple blanket post or a PM is really all that it needs. This practice has occured in 70% of the games I have applied for in LFG

When I started up my games here on roll20 years ago, the game search engine was very basic and not very easy to use. It has grown in leaps and bounds not steadily but more randomly because it is growth was based on the communities usage of it and their constructive feedback (see the suggestion forums - that is constructive feedback). When I recruit for a game I use a basic two step method. I create my looking for game listing which contains all my info then I also post in the Looking for game forums the most of the info but with a link going back to my game. This encourages the interested players to go to the actual campaign and read all the info then post there. When a post is made in the LFG campaign forum, the creator gets a notification usually which allows they to read, review, and answer even if the answer is "no".