[OffWhite Knight]

Well, it's dead.

Okay, not technically. Technically, next month is the one year anniversary game and there will be a special plot and an auction of sorts and whatnot, but attendance has been piss-poor for months now. October had *maybe* twenty people and six of us left to go see The Prestige halfway through it was so boring. No one went November, as it was the same time as GenCon. December, didn't go, hear it was about a dozen people. Went last weekend, it was around a dozen folks. And two of them were the head STs.

I'm kinda sad, as I really like the PC and I like Requiem. But the ST staff made too many basic errors in the game. If anyone wants, I'll talk about it more, but I won't unless asked.

I'm in an Anarchs OWBN game, but I'm already jonesing for more. Maybe 7th Seas, maybe Deadlands. Hell, maybe try a Cam Fan Club game.

Just wanted to say something about it all.

[AstraKiseki]

Then hope that your group decides to do an amazing endgame.

>.> I posted about that in the Changeling forum, but perhaps we can exchange some stories.

And perhaps you could look into UC Irvine's Ravenloft larp? I know they have one, they have done a crossover with the UC San Diego's larp. During the game I missed. xD

[Jess_Hartley]

I'm kinda sad, as I really like the PC and I like Requiem. But the ST staff made too many basic errors in the game. If anyone wants, I'll talk about it more, but I won't unless asked.

I'm in an Anarchs OWBN game, but I'm already jonesing for more. Maybe 7th Seas, maybe Deadlands. Hell, maybe try a Cam Fan Club game.

Just wanted to say something about it all.

I've been a member of the Cam for almost a decade now (omg, I'm teh old). One of the things I really like about it is that not only are there email and IRC "games" available 24-7 (which are tied into the global continuity) but if you find one domain's games boring, there's a good likelyhood that there may be another domain within a decent drive's distance that you can try.

Good luck with whatever you choose...

~jess~
www.jesshartley.com

[Glacialis]

Personal experiences with large network games aside, if you haven't had a bad experience that turned you off to network games such as OWbN or the Cam, try them out. It can't hurt!

Sorry to hear about your game. Ours ended rather blah in OWoD, then it never really took off when we went to NWoD. I mean it was fun, but we had 20 players on an exceedingly good night.

Unless of course you're playing on a college campus with college students. That's where the large non-network larps seem to reside. Too bad I'm old now at 28...

[AstraKiseki]

Hey, a bunch of my larpmates at the UCSD larp (including one of the STs) aren't students!

[Glacialis]

Drawing in a younger crowd is getting more and more difficult. When the people that run the game are beyond college age, how do you get onto a college campus? How do you advertise? We've been trying to get players for the last five years. No dice.

[ROMzombie]

Generally, if even a few students play, they can talk to a sympathetic tenured professor to act as a signatory for the group. Instructors in Theater, Humanities, Communications and English tend to be relatively easy to talk around for RPG clubs.

[zenten]

Drawing in a younger crowd is getting more and more difficult. When the people that run the game are beyond college age, how do you get onto a college campus? How do you advertise? We've been trying to get players for the last five years. No dice.

You havn't had any new players for 5 years? wow. I assume you've done stuff like advertise at all the gaming stores in your area and whatnot.

[OffWhite Knight]

You havn't had any new players for 5 years? wow. I assume you've done stuff like advertise at all the gaming stores in your area and whatnot.

And the problem with that, is there are fewer and fewer gaming stores around. I was going to hijack my own thread complaining about the lack of gaming stores, but I'll refrain...

I don't have a dedicated gaming store near me. The closest, as far as I know, is the Games Workshop store, which sure as hell doesn't help here, and Pegasus Hobbies. They don't really have a RPG side to their business; their main business is RC cars, mainstream modeling and table top games like Warhammer.

Where did I get my last Requiem book? Online, but I could have gone to the local Borders. They had Mythologies also.

I'm really stumped personally about how to attract new people to gaming. I think it's one of the reasons the last game died; too many people already had preset alliances and enemies. Too many people know that this guy plays this kind of PC and this girl plays this kind. It's stale. And while some of those people are excellent roleplayers, we need new, fresh blood too.

Argh.

[zenten]

I'm really stumped personally about how to attract new people to gaming. I think it's one of the reasons the last game died; too many people already had preset alliances and enemies. Too many people know that this guy plays this kind of PC and this girl plays this kind. It's stale. And while some of those people are excellent roleplayers, we need new, fresh blood too.

Try putting up adds in supermarkets. Not sure if you want the type of people that would attract though.

[AstraKiseki]

I feel guilty because there *is* a gaming store in my area, and there is where I found the changeling larp... >.>

[jadedeath]

You need gamers for a LARP you say?

hijack the nearest Goth at gunpoint...

all the angst and pain you need in one black-clad little package of pain and suffering...

seriously dude... I've had a game down to 3 players before and it survived for at least 3 years... it topped out around 25 players before it finally kicked the bucket... don't give up there's always hope...

Logan

[ROMzombie]

Treat a LARP like a company. Market it.

Commission an art student at the campus to paint a Requiem-esque picture. Let them keep it, just buy the rights to use the art. [$25, or less if they are a gamer or a sympathizer].
Get a high-res scan/photo of it (300dpi+). [$Free. If you don't have a good (5Mp) camera, someone else will, or the school will].
Photoshop on the Requiem header and a game blurb. [$Free. Who pays for Photoshop, anyhow?]
Have your local Kinkos print it out. [$5]
Sandwitch it between two sheets of plexiglass and seal with electrical tape for durabiltiy. You only want to have to print it once. [$5]
Post with business cards containing contact info in the MU or other student central location (with approval from Student Affairs, if needed). [Print your own, $5]

Around $40 for the first one, and $15 for each additional posting, but well worth the cost if you do it right. I've done it before for lesser known CCGs (Magi-Nation), and you'd be surprised the kind of attention that a carefully done gaming advertisement can pull.

[Glacialis]

The game died about a year ago, was dying for a year before that. Stagnant before that. This is west Michigan, a highly conservative area. Difficult at best, colleges and universities got us nowhere. We put up advertising, sure, and were on one campus or another most of the time. Grand Rapids is known for hospitals, schools, and churches. We had no shortage of schools to put ads up on, they just didn't get us anywhere.

[JadeMage]

If you have a local Convention, take your fliers to it. Most of them let you put stuff out. For that matter, offer to run your game AT the Convention. You might find yourself some new players...

If there's a local gaming list, or store, advertise. Also keep an eye on it for players.

Advertise on the White Wolf lists, and again, keep an eye out for possible players.

As for gaming on a university campus, the first LARP I played in was held at one, and a lot of the players (including me) weren't students there. We played in the public areas and we just weren't allowed to scare the straights. Heck, sometimes being out in public in your costumes can generate interest. Age is not really an issue.

This post has been edited by JadeMage: 12 March 2007 - 02:51 AM