LFG/LFDM - Two Players thus far disappointed with group commitments on Roll20

I'm going to be blunt: A buddy of mine and I have been applying to campaigns for a couple months now. Naturally, everything you apply for you don't necessarily get to play - but there have still be a fair number we've managed to get involved in. We've been throwing our names into the hat for everything from Shadow Run, to 2nd Edition AD&D, to World of Darkness. Here is the problem; no matter how many campaigns we join, and how many characters we roll up, other players and GM's seem to have difficulty maintaining any sense of commitment to playing, and within a few sessions (the record being 3), the whole thing goes all quagmire, and people just find other things to do with their time. We've written up dozens of characters, done development and back-stories, even collaborated on a pair of twins, playing side by side classes... all to no avail, since the groups just close up shop after a couple of sessions "Trying it out" So, I turn to the forum; I am by no means disheartened by new GMs; we all start somewhere, and I see Roll20 as a very non-threatening place to try out running a session or two. I would just like to find SOME GMs that are willing to go the distance with a game, rather than just turf it at the first sign of finding something better to watch on TV. My friend (Ryan. D) and I, are open almost any day of the week, to as many games as our schedules allow. Evenings and weekends, GMT -4 (Atlantic Canada). At this point, I'll play just about anything, if it means we can land with a party that wants to make roleplaying a game enough of a priority that a real campaign can establish itself. After GM'ing for the last 12 years, I am in no hurry to just give up on getting a chance to play for a change. [And no, we are not interested in offering to GM a campaign, before you ask.] Thank you for your time.

I'm actually looking for a few more players for a Shadowrun game if you're interested. I'm waiting to hear from a few other people but I'd be glad to have you if you're willing. I'll send you my contact info in a minute. EDIT: Also looking to recruit a few for a D20 Modern game too on a different day. FYI.

Much appreciated. I have a lot of hope for roll20 - even outside of the "over the net" options, I had considered making it my default mapping tool for a home game we were running (live), that recently ended up going to the wayside.

That sucks. I've had that same problem, but on the opposite side of the table as a GM. Had to cancel my Pathfinder game last Monday, its such a drag. If you're looking for a GM who is consistent, if I'm not anything else I'm that. I show up for my games an hour before hand and try to get us up and playing when the time rolls around. I'm currently trying to put together a group for a Savage Worlds game in the Warhammer 40k setting, it will probably be an every other week game unless people can make it monday or wednesday mornings. Check out my thread here; <a href="http://community.roll20.net/discussion/2842/interest-ping-warhammer-40k-dark-heresy-savage-worlds-edition#Item_15" rel="nofollow">http://community.roll20.net/discussion/2842/interest-ping-warhammer-40k-dark-heresy-savage-worlds-edition#Item_15</a> And the actual campaign page here. <a href="http://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/47409/savage-heresy" rel="nofollow">http://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/47409/savage-heresy</a> Even if you don't decide its the game for you, best of luck finding your fit on roll20.

Shortland, I think my Darwin's World campaign will be a change of pace for you. I maintained a campaign for 4 months using a primitive VTT environment about 3 years ago. That one came to a halt due to a majority of my players taking off summer from college. I can't claim it was the best online VTT experience, but I did learn quite a bit about running games over the medium. I plan to run this one as "professional" as possible. That means consistent attendance, polished content and game aids, prepared presentation, etc. But it's a two way street between players and GMs. I imagine these games take the hindmost seat on the bus of daily life priorities for most people. Finally no matter how much effort I invest, I can't guarantee players will enjoy it as much as I do. Hopefully you will ;-)

I feel for you. Try Ajax if you're interested in Pathfinder, he seems pretty committed. Otherwise, it's just good luck while searching. I've had 3 campaigns on here that failed after their launch, but I'm currently balancing 4 that have been meeting for 3-9 weeks each. Like anywhere, it depends on the people. Keep looking, eventually you'll roll a nat 20. ;)

I'm really glad to see the support and call out from the community on this - I've had a few people send me inbox messages, sharing their similar feelings and experiences on the subject - and yes, sometimes, you just get a bad string of luck. As both a player and GM, I've seen either side of the table; you put hours and hours of thought and development into a character or narrative, just to have people drop or not show at the tip of a hat - it's really frustrating. You want the community experience, and the opportunity to participate in a dynamic, interactive plot, and circumstances seem to tear it apart at the seams. I'm going to check out some of these campaigns over the course of today, as well as a few others that have been mentioned to me. Your commitment to the hobby (although, calling it a hobby is almost insulting, given the work many GM's put into their product) is reassuring, and hopefully I'll be speaking to some of you in greater capacities later :)

Good stuff, wish i had more room, but we are at 7 active weekly players. As with real life there is always a surplus of players and not enough GMs

Ben. A - its sounds like it would be quite fun; I had a GM try a D20 campaign similar to that once (which also went belly up, sadly), but I don't know if I can work with the time, sadly. GMT -4, and working 9-5 weekdays is nice for most things, but somehow, not gaming, haha.. MMA - I am REALLY looking forward to trying this. I love post apocalyptic style game settings, and had a bit of fun with a Shadowrun campaign run this way, as well as using the PnP Fallout rules (short lived). I'm going to have to sit down and do some reading tonight, so I wont be such a Luddite sunday for character creation :) Zach - Yeah, it is a crap shoot. One of the great things about Roll20 is it allows people from EVERYWHERE to get groups together to game. The flipside to that, is times for games are ALL over the place. almost hooked up with a shadowrun group operating out of Shanghi, but couldn't make the times work :P

Yea - People can be very flakey in online games - but as someone who runs two PFS games a week, online through Roll20.net - you meet some real solid people too. Fear The Boot - just had a Podcast on these issues: <a href="http://www.feartheboot.com/ftb/index.php/archives/2796" rel="nofollow">http://www.feartheboot.com/ftb/index.php/archives/2796</a> Hope you find a solid group - maybe we need to come up with an Online Play manifesto to hand out to players and GMs to discuss etiquette in online games. ; b

or maybe create a rating system for users showing how active they are on the site. That would give some idea to a person seeking players or a gm to see how likely they might be to stick around more than 1 night (or even show up at all)

I think a lot of it also has to do with how new this medium is, and (in a lot of cases) the user base. Even in my personal experience, as a GM, if I tell a group of 5 players that I need 4 hours a week, and they know what they're getting out of it, it can still be hard to make the time work - but on Roll20, the pace of a 4 hour session might only encompass what a 2 hour session at the table would - and players/gms new to the game, let alone new to Roll20, may have a hard time balancing the pace that it uses. In the end, you've got players that don't know if they want to commit enough of their time, because they feel the outcome doesn't justify the time they spend on it, and GM's who have to debate if the time/effort they're putting into creating and prepping sessions is worth having players drop out when something more convenient comes along. This is likely more true for combat and turn heavy rule systems. I'd hate to feel like we needed to move to a peer review system, because in my opinion that can often get petty. but I think the campaign pages and user profile pages should be much further developed (and more fields MANDATORY to be filled before publishing a campaign) so that there can be clearer expectations between players and GMs.

This is what got me off of this site for a good few months, the commitment. I am new to roleplaying and found a few fun groups. But, with all of them, after a few games either the GM quits or some of the players quit. It kind of frustrated me to the point that I quit the site altogether and went to my friends house for the weekly gaming, though I haven't been over there in quite a bit either, due to being a bit busy now. And now that I'm back, I'd like to find a group on this site, which has potential, that is committed to seeing at least 1 campaign through.

Ben. A - its sounds like it would be quite fun; I had a GM try a D20 campaign similar to that once (which also went belly up, sadly), but I don't know if I can work with the time, sadly. GMT -4, and working 9-5 weekdays is nice for most things, but somehow, not gaming, haha.. Well I'm at GMT -5 and the days I have off to run the game, I have the entire day off to use. Since you and your buddy seem to be dedicated players we could do the game off the best of mine+your schedule as the core of the group. The question is if you would be ok with an every other week game? Also, from my recruitment thread; "So far the best possible day seems like every other tuesday starting with the 6th."

Just throwing my encouragement into the ring here - I've actually gotten pretty lucky, the 2 groups I've joined have met very consistently. Actually, the game I set up with my friends has been far less constant (grr to flaky people) than the ones I've picked up with random strangers. Keep trying!

I just had my campaign disappear after only two sessions too. When it's so easy to just drop out of sight and a person is not terribly invested in a game--after all, you've never met these people IRL before--it's very common to simply abandon ship because your interest or enthusiasm is off. On the other hand, I've had online games that have gone for 4 years plus, spanning a truly epic plot arc that was a ton of fun to GM. I think it comes down to enjoying the company of the people you're with. Gaming with friends is a lot better than gaming with total strangers. Spend your first session just shooting the breeze and getting to know the folks in your group, so that you look forward to playing instead of it being just another commitment like a business meeting.

My campaign has currently been running for 6 sessions and should continue into the future. Admittedly I'm running the game for people I know and who have all emigrated so this is the one way we still get to game together but I put some solid rules in place before we started. 1. Everyone needs to upload their character sheet to our Obsidian Portal site (can swap that with Google Docs). In this way if anyone skips a session at least we have the character sheet and someone can run the character. 2. You miss 3 sessions you are out. No if's, no buts. I've already had to drop one player with that rule, and another is teetering on the edge. Obviously it has to slide a bit if they miss one session, and months later they miss another, I'll probably reset the clock every now and then for it. 3. We only play 3 hours once every 2 weeks. Its far easier to keep a GM if you have smaller sessions, it means less to prepare and less of a time investment for everybody involved. I'd like to make it weekly like I did in the past but because of the radical difference in time zones we have to play on a Saturday morning and I doubt any of us can dedicate every Saturday morning to the game.

Ben - Tuesdays would be about the only day that I'm not great. The discussion here has really pushed me to start writing again, and hopefully get a campaign or two of mine off the ground again. After a 2 year live session that played for nearly 6 hours every week, the hiatus was nice, but I'm ready to really be involved in a narrative again.

Friday seems like a viable day as well if that changes anything.

keep me posted.

If you are willing to try 4e I have two slots currently open. Though I need one pressing. The game will start in five and a half hours of this posting, contact me on skype if interested, my skype name is Verbannon.

can't do it today - but Ryan and I are both interested - we've got a rad pair of Paladin Bros. At work until 5 (GMT -4) and then on the road until 8, sadly :/

Okay, I do first come first served so if someone joins before next game, I'm sorry. :(

no worries. This thread has generated a lot of interest with some groups, so I'm looking to potentially fill my schedule back up. A Calender system might be an interested add-on to this place, where once sessions had been set, if GMs/Players were still looking to add to their ranks, they could just look at a block listing to see who/what would be available, and where. would be good for players too, so they could put in what they *are* playing, and what they *could* still be available for. Like myself, I'd block out 9-5 M-F, since I work, but then be able to say "Hey, 7-12 wednesday nights, I'm open" or something of the like. Even handier if GM's could just click on profiles to see what kind of availability/current game load a player has.

Maybe I missed it, so please forgive me if it's here. Since we are talking about being in failed campaigns, how do I remove them from my campaign view. I have quit a few that either never started or have stopped making it harder to find the few that are currently running.

<a href="http://community.roll20.net/discussion/2370/leaving-a-campaign/p1" rel="nofollow">http://community.roll20.net/discussion/2370/leaving-a-campaign/p1</a>

Okay well, if you two are still interested the slots are still open. If you are interested, contact me on Skype, my name is Verbannon. Do it soon or tell me you don't want to play soon please, I do need to fill these slots by next week.

Im trying to get a DnD4.0 game going. I'm really bad with time zones so sorry if it bad times. But head over to <a href="http://community.roll20.net/discussion/2990/dm-lfpg-dnd-4-0#Item_1" rel="nofollow">http://community.roll20.net/discussion/2990/dm-lfpg-dnd-4-0#Item_1</a>