Looks like that guy has seen the buisness end of a Bubble Shot! That's why you don't mess with George the Dolphin. He's hardcore.

My input on getting new gamers into the group, and more importantly gaming noobs into the hobby.

As a bit of background as a undergraduate I worked at a Games Workshop as a part time sales assistant, and so I was involved in not just the sale of games, but also running intro games to people new to the hobby. I learnt a lot of things from this.

First, it is amazing how many people know of the hobby. The amount of guys who once had a box set, or a few minis, or a friend who collected it, or they stopped playing after uni. For gals, I have found that my gf at the time had painted some of her cousins minis, my wife had also done the same. So that is an immediate point of contact to the hobby. From wargames, roleplay games are not much of a jump. There is also the hobby of ccgs, which again are a good point of contact as everyone has some contact with MtG cards or Pokemon.

While at uni my gf eventually got collecting, gaming, and is now an amazing painter, and worked for GW for a time. I learnt how to sell the hobby to people, in particular not just the gaming side, but the entire hobby, be it painting, the novels, and eventually the story element as these young gamers started to run campaigns and play more rpg like games such as Necromunda or Inquisitor. Most importantly I learnt to sell the game to those who seemed intimidated, in particular those unfortunate kids who suffered reading difficulties, or trouble with maths, who I saw mature and enjoy the games and become confident readers and maths wizards.

So I took on board with my rpgs. I have run rpgs since day 1 as I am a constant GM. I got my friends into it who were war gamers, so that was easy. But as I moved away from home I had to find more gamers. Through war gaming my then gf found roleplaying, and again it was easy for her as she could see the logical steps to it from war gaming.

Now since moving away again after uni, and leaving a number of gaming groups of established gamers, I have had to set up a new group. The group has under gone a number of player rotations and losses, but now is thriving to the point that it needs splitting up into two troupes. My group currently consists of about 50% relative noobs to rpgs.

My group began initially as a friend of a friend who was a gamer, my wife and a couple who were some of the local goths in the area (goths and roleplay go well together). My wife and the lass in the goth couple were absolutely new to table top roleplay. However, my wife had done a lot of forum based roleplay, the type that is on livejournal based on fandom. More akin to collaborative roleplay with no mechanics. So for her she understood the roleplaying element and was not bothered by rules too much. It was sort of the same for the other lass who was already doing some Larp with her partner, but she was more into the roleplay than the larp combat. Both felt a little intimidated by the three guys who knew the rules, but I simply stressed that for whatever we played (Unhallowed Metropolis in the end) I would be more interested in the characters and how they wanted to roleplay rather than them knowing the rules. I stressed that was my job and that if they wanted to do specific things then I would more than help explain the rules for them and tell them what to role. The key here was easing them in with a setting that we all liked (zombie gothic horror with a lot of dark humour).

Following that we then ran the main series, a Vampire the Requiem game. The rules were a step up from UnMet, so everyone was happy, plus character creation was even more intense and involved since the group being into Vampire films (bloody goths!) had a good feel for what the game would be like and the types of things they wanted to do.

Since then that group suffered some losses due to various reasons, had some new players that just didn't fit the dynamic of the group (far to rules focused and boring characters).

But then we got some new players. I and my wife went to the local gaming club for GW stuff. A friend from my uni days who worked for GW now lived in the same area so through him we met a young couple, again the lass had only played some trad DnD games. The guy knew of WW stuff but had never had the chance to play. We also got in touch with some more friends of one of the last lot of players who also had never rp'ed. But their integration was also easy (where I live has a few computer game companies and so the new guys were games artists). We had a movie night and a few drinks at the bar to get to know each other and for me to pitch the game I wanted to run and how I run things i.e. rules light, character heavy, and then ran a one shot mortals game.

Since then the group now has another 3 potential players and so we now have the issue of group size, player rotation and well finding another night to game on where someone else runs things.

The gaming group is about 50% mix of genders, something that is quite impressive, and the majority is composed of couples and spans ages 19-30+.

The main thing I have learnt here is to be open to inviting players, make it easy for them so you can what they like/want from the games, and be open to different one shots. I recently got the group into Fading Suns when most of the girls in the group hate sci fi genre tv. I just had to pitch that the game was more about the characters and that there would be no techno jargon since many of the characters would know jack shit about science. Also figure out what common things you have. Be it wargaming, computer games, ccg, or forum fandom rp. Hell even just music and films. I find that goths/alt crowd generally like to roleplay.

But also follow your gut, and know thy group, don't be desperate. If setting up a group or adding new players look for the group dynamic. I have suffered from the desperation of thinking I needed more players, when those that I added just didn't work. Just because we are all gamers doesn't mean we get on automatically. Don't be afraid to speak up and listen if things aren't working.

On the nongamer to gamer transition:
In the general case, I agree with the hosts. You join the group, not the campaign. If you want to play, be willing to bite the bullet and try something you otherwise may not be thrilled with (and if you go this route, for the love of god, don't spend the whole time complaining about the system). I also have to second Chad's point about speaking to the GM first, regardless of how dense the group may be to the fact you want to join.

There's also the fact that, sometimes, you just can't work a new player into the group without screwing things up. Maybe it's scheduling, maybe it's the power level of the game, whatever. But the fact of the matter is that you aren't always in a place where you can take time to get a new player into the group, acclimated to the dynamics, and teach them a system all at the same time. One-shots help, and are a great way to introduce someone to gaming with the group as a whole, but even they can't help with that particular aspect.

I thought something quite similar while editing the show last night. We were using one person's post as a jumping-off point for general advice, and it wasn't always clear which side we were addressing. So we took the "Go get 'em tiger!" tact with a rather heavy hand, only tempering that later in the show.

Hot damn, I can get in on the leading edge of a podcast response thread!

-"Pegmada" sounds like stigmata, except with pegs. While not even a little sounds-like-it's-spelled it's definitely memorable. George the Dolphin reminds me of one of the most horrifying monsters I've ever not encountered... The horror...

As someone who might GM someday this sounds like a fantastic resource.

-When you're the new gamer and your suggestions are being ignored, sometimes you need to just carry through on one of your reckless plans and either succeed spectacularly or die spectacularly. Having just ONE "You magnificent and/or poor bastard" moment can be what it takes to put you over the top and let people know that your presence and ideas can lead to memorable gaming moments. Just don't endanger people who don't follow you. The expression "the engine has to back up to pick up the cars" is one to remember.

There are certainly times when you don't want more people, as was alluded to at the end of the episode, but in my experience (and maybe it's because I tend to be in long-running campaigns) it's easier to be exclusive than inclusive.

r.e. bringing too many people in: My former group found it very difficult to say no to more people coming to our games. When we were all gaming together (which rarely happened) there were about 11 people all told. That was too many. The days when it was just five of us were great. That was a good balance.
Of course, having newbies was awesome. There was one guy we had who started out gaming with Warhammer, but then once the RP started, he was all about being in-character, and character development, and good things like that. He brought new perspectives into the campaign that the DM hadn't planned for (and the DM ignored as best he could). If the group had been smaller (and the DM less stubborn) I could see that newbie becoming a great roleplayer.

2 cent ramble finished.

I think that talking about this was a good topic. Something that maybe good is showing good ways for people who stopped role playing and wanted to get back involved with role playing games again.

Brownies.

Big dish of brownies for the GM. Once he or she is on your side, you're in.

Are you meaning regular brownies or the special brownies with vitamin t lol