You know the feeling; you finally find an open Dungeons & Dragons group only to have it fall apart after one session due to scheduling conflicts. Or that player puts on a one-man show while you wait an hour to swing your sword once. Or one of the most unfortunate situations: the Game Master is very welcoming and weaves your backstory into the plot, but their gritty homebrew setting just isn’t doing it for you. Back to the LFG mines you go.
Thanks to the vast variety of people and communities available on the internet, it’s never been easier to find D&D groups. That’s true for most any tabletop RPG. Players all over the world are posting in forums looking for a Game Master. The GMs, too, are out there looking for the ideal party to delve into their next dungeon. So with all these people searching for each other… why does it seem so difficult to get hold of a good online D&D group?
It turns out that many of the popular methods for finding games have critical flaws. The classic forum websites have seen their user bases dwindle, scattered to various other platforms. In their place, hopeful players have flocked to various subreddits, social media groups, and virtual tabletop forums.
Subreddits are specialized communities, wonderful for when you want to find fans of a certain setting or franchise. However, subreddits tend to be more dedicated to celebrating and discussing rather than finding play groups. There are some LFG or “looking for group” subreddits, and those are quite helpful. They have informative listings and a nice variety of games. The one problem, and the same problem with other social media-based LFG initiatives, is that you don’t know who you’re playing with.
That’s where StartPlaying.Games comes in. On StartPlaying, you’ll find a selection of professional Game Masters each with their own profile and 50,000 other players. GM profiles give you an idea of their individual style, such as whether they specialize in immersive storytelling or if they run large-scale battles on detailed maps. The GMs can also add tags stating if they’re multi-lingual, are published game designers, have podcasts, and other characteristics.
Previous players also help your search by leaving verified reviews to back up these descriptors, describing what they loved most about a GM and how many games they’ve played together. The StartPlaying profile gives you a great overall sense of a GM before you even decide to play. There is a cost for many games, but the returns are many. The GMs are professionals who put time into crafting high-quality games with elements like personalized story arcs, cinematic music/visuals, and expansive rules knowledge. Your fellow players also tend to be more invested and collaborative, with many forming communities around their favorite GMs so they can keep playing together.
Now how does one find these amazing GMs and communities? StartPlaying’s search tool shows you a colorful collection of about 10,000 games happening at any given time. Much like top posts on the Roll20 forums, these listings provide a clear glimpse of the campaign being played, the level of play, how many players are needed, and much more. Click on the listings that appeal to you to see a detailed breakdown of the session’s themes and allowed characters. They’ll also communicate safety tools and potential serious content you may want to be aware of.
If what you’re seeing doesn’t match what you’re looking for, you can type in certain specific searches for game systems or VTTs like Roll20. You can even enter the exact name of a D&D campaign such as Curse of Strahd! If you want to get even more particular, the filters give you options for day of the week, time, session duration, price, age range, and more. And if anything gives you trouble, feel free to reach out to the dedicated customer experience team.
The best part is that it’s all very easy to use! If you can type in a search bar or work a drop down menu, you can use StartPlaying to find the right D&D group for you. So come find D&D game today, and start playing!