I am having the absolute worst time trying to find a group of people to play Descent for more than one evening. I have lived in Chicago and now I live in Northwestern Los Angeles (The Valley). Every store I ever go into, it's 40K, Warmachine and Magic. No one wants to play, let alone has ever heard of Descent. Then, I will see it sitting on their shelf, and they say, "oh yeah. Well, why not just play D&D?" Granted, that's a fair question. As a former DM/GM, I can tell you that the biggest draw to Descent is that it's a plug and play RPG-Lite esstentially where the DM is an active player and the tells a good little campaign story regardless of who wins. What's not to love there.

Anyway, I have posted on boards, talked to Gamers at Game Stores in Chicago and LA now over the past 2 years. I have posted Demo opportunities on number MEETUP's and Game Store Boards. No one is interested in ever playing. I thought I would jump on here and ask, how do you guy find your groups? Is geography just not my friend for this game?

How did you all find people and get a campaign going?? Or we all just collecting this game for..."Someday!"

Also, even games of Imperial Assault have been tough to get going. Though the Star Wars label help coax people more. IA is fun, but again, it's SO hard to keep a group going in a campaign.

So again, what have you all done to keep it going with and finding groups!

I managed to assemble a group of friends (we are all in our 30's) that meet once every 2 months for one saturday evening (4 to 10pm). Most of us have kids so this is how the timing work out for 5 of our schedules to align.

I first introduced them to the game by playing the intro mission of the original campaign. They were hooked. I asked if they'd be interested in a campaign and they ran it by their bosses (wives) and we've been playing for over 2 years now. While it isn't as often as I'd like it's better than nothing.

I recommend a few things:

1. Rather than ask people to dive into a campaign, ask if they want to play the intro quest. After the intro ask if they enjoyed it and, if so, if they'd be interested in a campaign.

2. Realize that in general people cannot play night after night. Expect to meet on weekends or once a month even to get a group going. Be flexible in your scheduling expectations and people will find a way if they are interested.

Completely agree about flexibility. I'm a new dad myself and over 30+, which is why Descent vs. D&D is so attractive to me. I'm just trying to get a once a month thing at best going.

I got lucky and was introduced to Descent a few years ago by a friend. He moved away, I grabbed my own copy, and have been running campaigns with coworkers and friends. We usually meet for games once a week (but sometimes less often) and lately Descent has been popular on the table.

I have a mate and his wife who I regularly game with, so that was one group already sorted.

Then, I was in my local game shop when the owner told me a guy was starting a Descent evening on Tuesday nights so I started turning up. After a few weeks, his game got over subscribed so I started running the Heirs of Blood campaign.

I had a friend I often played boardgames with and my girlfriend. Since every game always turns into an everyone vs me in the end I was like "here's a game where the whole concept is everyone vs one!" when I saw it in the little FFG catalog booklet.

Then I asked my girlfriend to invite a friend of hers.

After 2 campaigns my brother has now also joined us in our current campaign.

So:

1) Find at least 1 friend that is into (board)gaming

2) Get a boy/girlfriend, he/she is pratically required by relationship laws to at least play it once

3) Get her/him to invite a friend, this makes Descent more than just 'your thing'

4) Ask your parents for a baby brother/sister

I am playing two campaigns right now:

The first is with two of my good friends, who are interested in board games and RPG as well. We wanted to start a game with our girlfriends, but they are always having different activities when we want to meet. So we are three people, them are playing 4 heroes and it is most fun. Mostly we are playing for many hours - 4 to 5 quests in a row. And we are playing every 1 to 2 month.

The other group is with colleagues on business trips. The group varies in size and the players change from session to session, but every player is okay with this. They are not very much into the story, so they don’t mind missing a quest or two.

I also had groups with my friends, but it is very hard to get a common date. Last time we rented a cabin for a weekend and completed "the shadow rune" in one long session.

I playing two campaigns as well. First is family, pre made group. Second was with work

My advice would be to check with your local game store and see if they have a board game night. That is the best way I have found to try games and get people to play my games. I also posted on there lfg boards. And then just in general bug people to play. And last if you can get at least one person to show and play you will be amazed how many people will start to want to play just because they see games being played

I didn't manage to find one for my 1ed descent.

For 2nd edition i gave some a lift at work and it turns out they were going to a local board game shop. I recommended a few games. somehow within the space of a week we had set up a 4 person work gaming group. i have worked with these people for 4.5 years and none of us knew we all liked board games.
sadly due to our shifts we are lucky to get one session a month with the 5 of us (one player wife makes 5) but we do out best when we can which is usually smaller 2-3 person weekly meets.

They are all big star wars fans though so IA has recently taken over from what would otherwise be descent time
I'll just have to make sure they dont totally forget descent.

I'm in the same boat. Had a steady group of me and 3 friends for a full campaign, playing about once a month. One friend moved 8 hours away, the remaining three of us tried to keep it together but they also moved and/or had kids.

Now it's me still buying new items for a game I haven't played in over 6 months. Still keep buying expansions, H&M packs, and Lt Packs because I hold out hope we'll play again.

In the greater St. Louis area if anyone wants to try forming a group!

Edit: GalaxyUC you listed the exact games my local game store plays on a weekly basis. Also no love for Descent.

I live near most of the gamer friends I've had for the past 10 years. So getting a group together has not been that hard. Granted, some have moved away and some have moved closer. Another big boon is that my wife plays games, it helps when planning. So all in all, I've been lucky not to have any issues getting a group together and I hope people won't move away.

A lot of gaming friends I have gotten through different forums, so first we met up to play Warhammer 40k/Fantasy battles, various roleplaying games etc. Then when we got to know eachother more we sort of branced out to playing other games together. So a tip could be to play Warhammer, Magic, D&D or whatever (if you like those games) and get to know some more gamers. It might be easier to ask a someone you befriended while playing warhammer/magic/D&D to try another game (Descent), than converting a stranger to give up warhammer/magic/D&D to play it.

I think the best way to get a game group going is to start with your close relatives and friends. For instance if you have some job mates and use to go out with them once in a while to get a drink in town, play some sport, bowling or whatever, then you could suggest this as the next activity and see how people react. I´ve had poker nights in the past, XBOX nights, etc. As you expose people to what you like, you get them to talk about their affinity to it and start seeing common interests.

But the thing is that you can hardly get a game like Descent going straight off the bat, you need to see if people are interested in board gaming in general, because if they´re not then they will absolutely hate it. Otherwise what I said seems to work, I´ve had some friends once telling me how much they used to play D&D (the roleplayging game) in their youth, and it lead to me suggesting playing the adventure board games. They could instantly relate to it even though they had near to zero experience with heavier board games (that are not Monopoly or Risk). To some extent these D&D games were our "gateway" game (it's really not technically due to complexity) and we could play a ton of other games as people's interest in the hobby grew.

You need to start "somewhere" and be patient. If you´re lucky to know at least one person who would be interested in forming a group, stick to that core (the two of you) and have both invite one friend each, and see how well it fares with 4 people. Have everything set conveniently for everybody, if it's easier for people to get to the place the session takes place etc then they will show up. Ultimately what people want is a break from real life for a couple of hours. You don't need to be a hardcore board game fan to play board games, but hardcore board gamers (e.g. the people in the hobby) also need to respect that and be tolerant.

Sadly I think going to a blind date with a game association has very little chance to give you anything. It "should" be the best way to get a group going but it's not, at least in that corner of the world I live in. You said it: people aren't interested in playing Descent. they want MTG or wargames. You can go to stores and stick your name exactly like a drummer would ask for a band to play in. That rarely pays off, but why not doing it in case you´re lucky.

There is the occasional game association where people play Descent and some other similar games. But they tend to be overcrowded, it's not difficult to get to play games but you may find the feel of a real group lacking. If you´re an extravert then you can give a try. I personally prefer to stick to a group I meet with regularly but it is a matter of taste.

I put it out on ashley madison, now everyone knows I play descent......

I put it out on ashley madison, now everyone knows I play descent......

Many dates so far?

sadly none. lol

A bloody axe for my profile pic may have had something to do with it.

This is an extract of hideousprime's profile on AM:

[...] As for what I enjoy doing in the evening, I like watching a good movie with some good company, or sitting in a rocking chair drinking a glass of wine, reading a nice book [...]

[...] I enjoy playing a board game (for the non-initiated Monopoly is a board game) featuring some dudes fighting in a cave over a lady who is not even nice, and gain some gold so we can buy boots to walk over lava. One player is generally despised by all others but we´re having great fun. To make it cozy, we play this on a ping pong table unfolded in the basement every night, talking loud and with heavy drinking involved. We fart all night singing war chants and then we swing these golf clubs to reproduce the epic fights we´re having in that game, then once we´re all done I am usually very sour and tired [...]

P.S. Str= 6 I'm a Wizard and moonlight rpg's

Int=8

Wis=5

Dex=8

Cha=8

....Lowered Expectaions....