Convincing players to try a strange setting

[Blake]

It's not really a problem with older groups, once they know my DMing style they're usually okay with something more unusual, but I move *often*.  I regularly run into the problem of having to build a new gaming group up, and new players are very skeptical about starting in something strange.

While d20 as a system is useful, I just don't like the standard setting when I can make things so much more interesting.

How do you convince players to play in something particularly unusual?  

I'm not just talking slightly off or goofy, like a D&D setting in an arctic wasteland with a twisted evil version of santaclause, but more of a "you're a potted plant" unusual.

Some quick sketches I did of of some "races" in one world

(if for some reason you want to read about the world, and a short argument, you can

How could I convince new players to try something odd ball?

[Ninja D!]

If they don't want to do it, they just won't do it. Some people are not into that sort of thing and would rather just play core D&D.

[Steerpike]

[blockquote=Blake](if for some reason you want to read about the world, and a short argument, you can Here )[/blockquote]That's sorta what we're all about at the CBG - reading other people's worlds.  Yours, incidentally, is friggin awesome.  Reminds me very much of Brom's Plucker, which is high praise indeed, and I love your illustrations.

I'd play a campaign like that in a heartbeat, but as for convincing your players, that's a bit tougher.  You can always say, "OK so I want to try this, and I think it'll be really fun, so if you all agree, we'll do it as a one-off, and if you like it, we can always expand it to a full campaign."

Giving examples or adventures and characters is probably a good idea, too, to make your world sound exciting/playable.

[Matt Larkin (author)]

It can be hard even to get players set in their ways to try a new game system. Some say, I know core D&D, why should I learn another game (even another d20 game, much less an Indy)?

Steerpike's suggestion is a good one, though if the setting (or game) is complex enough to require more than a page or two of reading, it may not be worth it to them for a one-shot.

[Lmns Crn]

If you can bear to run a game over various digital media, forming an online group can be very rewarding. You have a larger pool of potential players to draw from (and are thus more likely to find people willing to try your unusual ideas-- not to mention the increased ease with which you can bypass the local weirdos you might otherwise need to fill out a respectable-sized group), and you can keep the same group intact even when you move.

If you are skeptical or inexperienced about online playing or just wish to chat more about it, I've had some good groups in the past and will gladly swap stories.

Welcome to the community. I dig your art.

[Blake]

Thanks everyone,

Steerpike,

You can always say, "OK so I want to try this, and I think it'll be really fun, so if you all agree, we'll do it as a one-off, and if you like it, we can always expand it to a full campaign."

If you are skeptical or inexperienced about online playing or just wish to chat more about it, I've had some good groups in the past and will gladly swap stories.[/quote]

Thanks!  I'd certainly be willing to give it a try.  I've not had very much luck running online games in the past.  Maybe I've been going about it wrong.

[Ninja D!]

I'm not just talking slightly off or goofy, like a D&D setting in an arctic wasteland with a twisted evil version of santaclause, but more of a "you're a potted plant" unusual.

On another note, if you're looking to run that game play-by-post, I'm in.

Oh and inb4 "Not again."

[LordVreeg]

Well, when selling a product, something different and new, what would we do?

We'd create some kick ass collateral marketting material, like maybe a map, and a few exciting blurbs.  I'd get some testimonial material (some written notes about what a great time they had and maybe an adventure specific testimonial), and of course some slanted propaganda as to why it is better than that bland-and-oh-so-tedious-brand-X setting (do you really want to play the same game everyone else has been playing since Gary Gygax shat out Greyhawk, when you could be so Cutting Edge...).

I'm only half being sarcastic.  I've inadvertantly sold my setting too many times.  
 

[Lmns Crn]

Crayon,

If you are skeptical or inexperienced about online playing or just wish to chat more about it, I've had some good groups in the past and will gladly swap stories.

Are your problems more technical or organizational? On a technical level, I've found mIRC is about all I need.

Organizationally, many online games seem to collapse because of scheduling problems. Too many consecutive canceled sessions due to schedule conflicts, especially early on (before the game's momentum has been established), can rob a game of its impetus, leaving it pretty much dead in the water. Real life will inevitably intrude from time to time, but impressing upon your players the importance of blocking off your weekly gaming time-slot can be a powerful way to hold the game together. Callous as it sounds, you may find that closing your game to players with unpredictable schedules (or who just seem flaky or less than enthusiastic about playing) and playing as scheduled despite missing players can save a game by reducing absenteeism and canceled sessions.

In IRC games and other chat-run games, everything takes longer to do than it does over the tabletop, so pacing is especially important. You'll need to start things with a bang and work hard to keep the action moving, in order to get the players hooked and enthusiastic right from the get-go (in order to reduce crippling absenteeism, as mentioned above.) I have very little experience with play-by-post gaming, but I do know that although it is more forgiving for players with unusual schedules or who live in inconvenient time-zones, the slowdown factor is dramatically increased (as must be your efforts to compensate for it.)

I don't know how much of this is going to be useful to you and how much is mere pointless rambling, but I'll be glad to answer any specific questions you may have, or just to continue to pontificate.

[LordVreeg]

Crayon,

If you are skeptical or inexperienced about online playing or just wish to chat more about it, I've had some good groups in the past and will gladly swap stories.

Are your problems more technical or organizational? On a technical level, I've found mIRC is about all I need.

Organizationally, many online games seem to collapse because of scheduling problems. Too many consecutive canceled sessions due to schedule conflicts, especially early on (before the game's momentum has been established), can rob a game of its impetus, leaving it pretty much dead in the water. Real life will inevitably intrude from time to time, but impressing upon your players the importance of blocking off your weekly gaming time-slot can be a powerful way to hold the game together. Callous as it sounds, you may find that closing your game to players with unpredictable schedules (or who just seem flaky or less than enthusiastic about playing) and playing as scheduled despite missing players can save a game by reducing absenteeism and canceled sessions.

In IRC games and other chat-run games, everything takes longer to do than it does over the tabletop, so pacing is especially important. You'll need to start things with a bang and work hard to keep the action moving, in order to get the players hooked and enthusiastic right from the get-go (in order to reduce crippling absenteeism, as mentioned above.) I have very little experience with play-by-post gaming, but I do know that although it is more forgiving for players with unusual schedules or who live in inconvenient time-zones, the slowdown factor is dramatically increased (as must be your efforts to compensate for it.)

I don't know how much of this is going to be useful to you and how much is mere pointless rambling, but I'll be glad to answer any specific questions you may have, or just to continue to pontificate.

Expectations are also critical, and combat-heavy games can be very tedious online.  Slower-paced, detail heavy games do well, or at least that has been my experience.

[Blake]

Expectations are also critical, and combat-heavy games can be very tedious online. Slower-paced, detail heavy games do well, or at least that has been my experience.

My games are remarkably combat light most of the time.  I wouldn't have a problem running like that.  Thanks for the tip.

Also, good points about marketing.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Expectations are also critical, and combat-heavy games can be very tedious online.  Slower-paced, detail heavy games do well, or at least that has been my experience.

I agree that combat can slow things down, but the amount of slow-down depends on the system (how complex it is and how fast it takes a combatant to go down).  I can't comment effectively on slow- vs fast-paced, but it makes sense.  I don't think I'd recommend detail-heavy, however, as that sort of approach, if your players forget stuff a lot, requires more player-GM communication which is what I find to be the biggest slowdown.

From personal experience the most important thing for player involvement an online game is that the player have a grasp of the type of RP that's going to go on.  Someone who is reasonably competent at comedy by not drama isn't going to get much out of a serious game, and is not going to be able to improvise well, either.  I realize this is probably true of face-to-face games (I wouldn't know, I'm working off my online-only experience), but at least when having to type out your comments means any delay from having to think about what to write is a very significant time waister.

[Lmns Crn]

On a technical level, I think it'd have to be through some sort of chat where I can draw- I'd love to do it in a paint-chat, actually, as I make much use of drawing when I DM, and those have layers.

I'm pretty sure these programs exist, but I have no experience using them (or even names.) Though I've been content to do things with prose and verbosity, I'd be interested to give a drawing-chat game a try, so please let me know if you run across a program that would make it possible.

I'll commend you to Vreeg for more detailed expertise-- he's got more experience running online games than anyone in this community, as far as I know. And I'll point you towards No Stats Theatre, which is a project I'm trying to get off the ground, involving a series of mechanics-lite one-session games, each taking place in a different world and set up and run by a different person.

[Blake]

Definitely- there are many of them.  Some very easy to use, while some need to be hosted on a server so the session can be private.  Check out the Wikipedia article on them- there's a good list there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_chat

I don't have a server right now to host one on, though- there are some private web based ones, but they're usually vector based, and get pretty slow after a short while of drawing (and don't look all that great- basically like MS paint).  The good ones have nearly the functionality of gimp, minus the effects.