I'm new to the RPG community and, as such, don't know many folks who play RPGs. I've set myself with a local game store and they let me use their Meetup group to schedule sessions. I've also put up a small recruitment poster to hopefully garner some interest. I've scheduled the meetups for every other Sunday.

My dilemma is deciding whether I should try to run a months-long campaign (since we only meet once every two weeks), or to try to draw people in with one-session missions, much like D&D Adventures. The logical part of my brain is telling me that single-session missions would allow a greater number of people to dip their toes in the water and see if they like the game. Then, once there is a decent player base, we could start scheduling closed campaigns with the folks who really enjoy the game and can/want to commit to campaigns.

How have yall gone about attracting people to the game?

Can't say I've done much wrt attracting people to the game (other than family), but that does sound like a good plan. I know to others I'm going to sound like a broken record, but the Beginner games are perfect for this kind of thing.

There actually is a campaign floating around here and the google+ community that is pretty much composed of single-session missions, called "Shadow of the Broker". I haven't done much to attract new people, but your concept seems to have already been proven.

To pull from another thread:

About campaigns. TV shows (Metaplot vs. episode plot) are a great model to use for these kinds of things. You want to make sure each adventure has a plot to itself - the "problem of the week". Sometimes this is enough, sometimes, you sprinkle in a piece of information about the metaplot. Then, every once in a while, you have a "Metaplot episode" that's centered around that campaign idea. Eventually the metaplot is resolved and you have your season.

It's very tempting as a GM to front-load metaplot a campaign. I've found, however, this is often the opposite of what works best for the story. Although it's going to torture you (because you know where the story is going) I've found it's best to start with "problem of the week" adventures with a sprinkling of metaplot, then gradually accelerate how important/screenside it is. That way, when you get to the second half of the 'season' you still have a lot of metaplot to make it feel climatic.

Adjust according to how long your groups stay together and on one game. The nice thing is, you can always keep adding in problem of the week episode to extend. Or, if it looks like you've got them for a while, close out your season and start up the next.

As for the prison episode. I haven't had to do one yet, but I know many GMs to keep a prison break episode and a "Mad Doc" episode built and in their back pocket for when the party needs it. Mortal wound beyond what the party medic can handle? Time for the "Find the rogue doctor episode" Screwed up and got captured by the Hutt/Imperials? Time for the "Prison break" episode.

In your particular case, I would try to create a background situation that allows for the easy addition/subtraction of characters from the party, that way you can have your campaign and eat it too. A "problem solving" crew run by a midlevel Hutt could be a good source, with the idea being he has numerous minions, and the party at the table is what he's assembled for this particular operation.

You could do both. Why not structure the campaign missions as short "one shot" types and just not tell them until they are 5-6 stories in that all the stories are connected. It takes a bit of extra planning but it could work. In fact I have a story I am about to start that is going to work like that.

I'm new to the RPG community and, as such, don't know many folks who play RPGs. I've set myself with a local game store and they let me use their Meetup group to schedule sessions. I've also put up a small recruitment poster to hopefully garner some interest. I've scheduled the meetups for every other Sunday.

My dilemma is deciding whether I should try to run a months-long campaign (since we only meet once every two weeks), or to try to draw people in with one-session missions, much like D&D Adventures. The logical part of my brain is telling me that single-session missions would allow a greater number of people to dip their toes in the water and see if they like the game. Then, once there is a decent player base, we could start scheduling closed campaigns with the folks who really enjoy the game and can/want to commit to campaigns.

How have yall gone about attracting people to the game?

I would echo the sentiment here. You should develop an episodic background and then have PCs come and go as it progresses. A good basis is to run it like a Star Wars meets Mission Impossible and have them act as operatives that are drawn together in a safe house on a given planet or location, Corellia, Coruscant, etc. You could make the safehouse a covert rebel base or just a merc for hire location with the safehouse acting as a skills broker bringing specialists together to serve the needs of rotating clients. The players could then be free to make more or less any type of character, a soldier of fortune, rebel dissident, religious zealot, etc.

There actually is a campaign floating around here and the google+ community that is pretty much composed of single-session missions, called "Shadow of the Broker".

Yup, we started out as a series of pick-up games based out of Coronet, Corellia. However sessions 1-20 still had an overall arc that culminated in a surprise Imperial assault on our headquarters. Contact was severed with our original patron, the Broker, while Borga the Hutt stepped in to guide the crew in a new series of missions centered in and near Hutt Space. My fellow GMs and I basically run it like a TV series, with stand-alone episodes interspersed among those dealing with the main arc.

I wrote a series of 4 episodic adventures. Each one is meant to be stand alone and players may come and go as they please.

Anyway, here's the link:

https://app.box.com/s/yeabou6jt02qbnpcrjxnoja5uqvgn3i3

I hope the flames aren't too bad...

--Lagspike

I love the formatting for your adventure modules! It really works well with the Imperial theme.

I'd keep `em single, one session, self-contained adventures. I wouldn't have an ongoing arc.

I'd write up a droid NPC to own the group's ship, or even cooler, make the ship itself a self-aware AI. The ship hires sentient fringers for each job, the PCs. Don't worry too much about background Obligations at first.

I think after a month of pickup games your regular players will make themselves apparent and you can move the direction of the "campaign" at that point.