Okay, Veeky Forums. How can I steer people away from D&D and into other systems?

Okay, Veeky Forums. How can I steer people away from D&D and into other systems?

Storytime
>Be GM
>Running L5R
>Post it on local RPG group
>Get response, get posted on weekly board
>The rest are D&D
>Out of seven: Five tables, all full, all running Curse of Strahd
>Got zero interest, even with blurbs and art on what L5R is about
>Try again next week, but with 7th Sea 2E (Replaced the "Story" and "Levelling" systems to make things less shit, changed a bit of the inner lore because John Wick can't write for shit.)
>Fuck-all interest, only got players who didn't get a seat in the D&D tables
>Ask around
>No-one has any interest in anything other than D&D
>mfw

All I want is to get these people into things that are neither samey nor shit.
I mean, I'd DM for D&D, but this shit is ridiculous.

>how do I steer people away from shitty pop 'music' and into other styles

Plebs abound, OP.

You've already asked around, found nothing but a plebby wasteland in all directions, and so you've done all you can. I guess you could keep placing ads around to try to hoover up the few non-DnD players on the scene.

I'm having much the same problem. Posted several ideas for groups on my college Facebook, no replies on any of them.

One guy says he's looking for 1 more player for a 5e group, 20 replies.

Feels like whenever I'm talking to someone about a system that's not D&D, they look at me like I'm spouting String Theory.

>"Uh, but what if I want to play a Sci-Fi game?"
>"Have you tried... [Insert rudimentary how-to-play in a system that's not 1d20]"
>"Uh... I don't want to learn that, that's not D&D..."

I gave up on people who identify as nerd/gamers, learned narrative systems, and started asking people from work who seemed like normal and sane individuals. It's much better this way.

Nerd culture is trash.

>tfw I'm having the opposite problem
>tons of WoD, RIFTS and GURPS groups near me
>I just want to play D&D
>nobody wants to play D&D with me

>Narrative Systems
I know one guy who likes to push his Narrative System version of Shadowrun.

I have not felt a greater level of disgust quite like what I felt then.

Play online.

>WoD, GURPS, RIFTS
I would swap to D&D as well. Jesus.

Not possible. Internet is garbage, and Roll20 players are also garbage.

Play the long con user.

>Start/join a D&D group
>Form strong bonds with everyone in the group
>When the campaign ends, convince them to let you run another system.

That how I got my current GURPS group.

Then you'll never find any players. Sorry.

Just tell them you'll be running D&D, but with a different system. I've been doing that with GURPS for a couple years now and it's been going great.

People are morons and sheep. They want to be coddled and led into familiar environments, so don't tell them things they don't need to know, which includes the name of the system.

Did this. I have a regular group, we're all friends, all read the rules to new games, take turns gming, plan campaigns and otherwise act like adults with a hobby together.

I wouldn't try running Shadowrun like that because it's mostly a game about gear and heists (overcoming mechanical obstacles) None of them really have an interest in Shadowrun though. If they did, we could make it work. It wouldn't be what they're used to, but they like to try new things. Posts like yours are exactly why I avoid "gamers" So many of them are overly opinionated children with a narrow definition of fun. People who aren't heavily invested into the hobby are typically more open minded.

It's not like the average gamer posses skills normal people don't have, they certainly don't possess anything that's critical to playing an RPG.

Welcome to 5 years ago, just replace D&D with Pathfinder.

Damn right. Your best hope of a fun gaming group is people is people from work.

Gurps is best tho,


Yet another causality to the Veeky Forums gurps is complicated meme


Honestly you guys are missing out
>3d6 everything
>can play dnd better than dnd
>a 40 point martial can chop up a 200 point wizard, if played correctly
>a 40 point wizard can chop up a 200 point martial, if played correctly
>devlopers care, and write articles about it all the time

Reiterating because this will solve literally all of your group-finding problems forever (whether you play narrative systems or not).

Make friends first, turn them into a gaming group later. If you don't know how to make friends, develop that skill before you try to GM--it'll be better that way anyway.

>tfw you're up for D&D
>tfw Stradh is pretty fun

>overly opinionated
>narrow definition of fun
Though I may sound hypocritical, by the sound of your post, you do too.

>People who aren't heavily invested into the hobby are typically more open minded
You have not met people who have played RPGs, or people in general, have you?

Already got a group of friends who will play whatever we feel like. We're looking at Shadows of the Demon Lord, Paranoia, and Infinity RPG.
All I want is to branch out and get new people into the fold.

>All I want is to branch out and get new people into the fold

That's forbidden love

No one actually plays GURPS though, it's just a meme people keep repeating.

I've played gurps session, in 3 hours baby

Okay OP. Give us some details. Let's break this problem down, see if we can't find a solution.

1. Demographics. What's the demographics of your group? Sounds like a big group what with 5 tables full of dnd. That's anywhere between 20 to 30 people. So, give us the age groups, race groups, gender groups, that sort of thing.

2. What's the set up of this rpg group? You mentioned a weekly board. I assume it is a digital board. Do you have a site? Is this a physical group thing or a purely digital one? If it is physical, is there a physical meet up point? What is the nature of this said meet up point, if it does exist?

3. Are you close with any of the players in this group? Do you have a set of friends who enjoys your games because you run them?

It's okay, you don't have to lie, we're all anonymous here.

>Though I may sound hypocritical, by the sound of your post, you do too.

I probably worded that too strongly, let me clarify.

I find that gaming, like a lot of hobbies, is filled with people who define themselves as members of a particular camp. Once that happens, you're left with a bunch of irrational people who are incapable of trying new things, dealing with opinions that aren't theirs, etc. People from outside of the hobby are much less likely to have rigid opinions about how to play pretend. If I suggest running a new game to them, they know that I want them to have a good time, and they'll give it a shot.

A lot of roleplayers, on the other hand, are in very insular groups and stick to one system or one methodology of play. For me, variety is the spice of life, and I don't want to be around people like that. I know they don't account for the hobby as a whole, but I've still had more success introducing friends to RPGs.

Tribalism is a thing in every hobby, so I avoid people who are already in a tribe. Does that make sense?

>What's the demographics of your group?
White, 20-40-somethings. Some asians, no black people (Australia).

>What's the set up of this rpg group?
Weekly Facebook postings, run off of local hobby shop/MtG Dispensary, 15 minutes by car from city centre

>Are you close with any of the players in this group?
Not much. Though I'm associates with one of the GMs. One of his players came up to me to post to my friends about her club (the one in question).

Have an established relationship with them that you can use to promote the game, that and talking about the game before hand in person can really get people invested

Look online I guess. I'd love to play L5R but I'm in too many games to support another one.

Two of 5e, one of which is curse of strahd. Another is our bastardized kingmaker campaign for 5e.

After that I'm playing in a rifts game as a leyline walker.

Annnnnd two mutants and mastermind campaigns.

Jesus I'm in too many games... even if some do alternate days.

Out of curiosity what's your location matey? Big city, small, NA, UK, AU, EU?

I play and run GURPS often. It's by far the best simulationist system out there.

My own experiences are purely anecdotal but I have found that people with prior experience to games - we shall call em gamers - are more inclined to try out different things and they have they added benefit of being capable of appreciating why said thing is different. Now non-gamers are probably easier to convince to try something new but even if they do it is likely due to them being okay with whatever and they might not appreciate the intricacies or nuances of a system.

This has led me to believe that it really boils down to the types of gamers you hang around with. Yea, you'll get the rabid fanboy types and you'll have to work to find the other types of gamers. In this I realize that I am blessed to have a group of gaming friends who appreciates trying out new systems and talking about them as much as I do.

solo play doesn't count m8

Kind of this. Normies literally don't know other systems exist. I've had to say "DnD but with different rules" so many times to people. Saying "roleplaying games" makes them think bedroom fun times or LARPing. But if you just say "you know Dungeons and Dragons? That but in space" they get it immediately.

It's pretty easy to get people to play GURPS if you have friends or social skills

I don't have many friends or great social skills and I still manage to convince people to play it

Even better

Which part of Australia? My friend when he lived in Perth reported a healthy variety of games. When he moved to Melbourne, it became dnd/pathfinder for the most part.

Geographical issues aside, you have a long road ahead of you. My suggestion is the same as . Get to know the people there. Find out who you like and who don't. The ones you do? Find out what makes them tick. Why do they game? What do they like in a game? Work with that. Appeal to that. And the best way to do that? Run a couple of DnD games for em. From the sound of things, everyone is running Strahd. Find out why. Is it like some weird adventurer's league thing? If not, offer them something different. A homebrew campaign. Make it awesome. Be an awesome DM and then selling a new rpg will be a whole lot easier.

GURPS is quite popular in Russia. It makes about 10% of all games here.

This is so fiendish I love it

japan is boring and for weebs. No wonder you didn't get any bites

DM for D&D then. They don't want to have to learn a new system to play the game. House rule away things you don't like, steal from other settings, etc.

>>tons of WoD, RIFTS and GURPS groups near me
Can I swap with you? I want to play all those and everything near me is fucking PF and D&D 4e.

This OP, nerd culture was a mistake. Im sick and tired of people who play D&D and MtG and nothing else other than the occasional boardgame of the month.

Either DM D&D from them and try something else when you build up some trust with them or try running something they can't "get" with D&D as in don't run fantasy.

Like some other anons have mentioned, you basically have to bait them into thi king they're playing dnd when they aren't, and once they realize they aren't and are having fun, you can get them to branch out. Works best if you know them, since names of foriegn things scare people, like when you post them on facebook or something.

Why does it bother you so? Why should it bother you? You are under no obligation to interact with anyone you do not want to just as no one else is under any obligation to conform to your own ideals of fun. You do you and let them do them and all that jazz, you know?

Meet players through other games. Become friends. Introduce them to the games you want to play. That works pretty much every time. Once people want to play with you, they will rarely take issue with system and setting.

Yeah, if I had a nickel for every time I had the following interaction:

>"You know Dungeons & Dragons?"
>"Yeah."
>"Same kind of thing."
>"Oh! Okay I get it."

I'd have, like, dozens of nickels I guess.

You could say you're running a "D&D Style game." Then don't actually use 5E/3.5/Pf. Instead run it in.

>Dungeon World
>Any OSR clone
>AD&D
>Gurps Fantasy
>Harnmaster
>Runequest
>Rolemaster

You don't really need to explicitly tell players this unless they ask and by the time they sit down for session zero you've got them anyway.

Ask them if they want to do sci-fi or some other setting.

The problem is that the vast influx of shitty and inflexible players heavily pollutes the tabletop scene, making it more difficult for people who actually care to find other people who actually care in the sea of mediocrity.