Tag: D&D

Posted on

How to Recruit Players for Your D&D Group

At work right now, I’m involved in a recruitment campaign. I review CVs, help shortlist candidates, and sit in on interviews as we look for the right people to join our team. Of course, technical skills matter. We need people who can do the job. But experience and qualifications are only part of what makes someone successful in a role.

What we are really looking for is cultural fit.

  • Are they passionate about botany or zoology?
  • Are they proactive?
  • Do they volunteer for opportunities?
  • Will they take initiative and get things done without constant direction?
  • Will they work well with the rest of the team?

These are the things that often determine whether someone will truly succeed and enjoy their role long term. The more I have been involved in recruitment at work, the more I have realised that recruiting players for a Dungeons & Dragons group might well be very similar.

Your D&D Group Needs the Right Culture

When people look for new D&D players, they often focus heavily on experience and rules knowledge.

  • Do they know how to play?
  • Have they played before?
  • Do they understand the system?
  • Can they build a character correctly?

Those things can certainly help, but they are not necessarily the most important qualities in a long-term group. The bigger question is whether they fit the culture of the table.

  • Will they get along with the other players?
  • Do they enjoy the same style of game?
  • Are they interested in roleplaying, tactical combat, storytelling, or character development in the same way as the rest of the group?
  • Will they contribute positively to the table dynamic?

A player can learn rules over time. It is much harder to change attitude, engagement, or play style.

Recruit for Long-Term Fit

At work, my goal is not simply to hire someone to fill a position for a few months. Ideally, I want someone who will stay with the company, grow into the role, contribute to the team, and find genuine fulfilment in what they do.

The same applies to a D&D group.

When recruiting a new player, you are not just trying to fill an empty chair at the table. You are looking for someone who will become part of the group long term. Someone who contributes to the stories, the friendships, and the overall experience of the campaign.

Thinking back to my most successful campaigns, it’s group dynamic that really made them tick. So it is absolutely worth taking the time to protect it.

Referrals Can Make a Huge Difference

One thing that often helps in recruitment is referrals from trusted staff members. Recommendations can provide confidence that someone will fit the culture and work well with the team.

Of course the same is true with your D&D group.

Some of the best additions to a gaming group come through existing members. Current players already understand the group dynamic and often know who is likely to fit well with the table’s style and expectations. While referrals are not a guarantee, they can often help avoid many of the issues that come from bringing in completely unknown players.

Where to find new adventurers.

Where to Find New Players

If you cant get any referrals or are starting completely from scratch don’t despair, there are more ways than ever to connect with potential players, both online and in person.

Facebook Groups

Local Facebook groups are still one of the easiest ways to find players. Most cities have tabletop gaming or D&D community groups where people regularly post looking for campaigns.

The advantage of Facebook is that you can often get a sense of someone before inviting them to your table. You can see how they communicate, what sort of games they enjoy, and how they interact with others in the community.

When posting, it also helps to be clear about the type of game you run. Mention things like:

  • Tone of the campaign
  • Frequency of sessions
  • Experience level required
  • Whether the game is roleplay-heavy or combat-focused
  • Expectations around commitment and attendance

Being upfront helps attract players who are genuinely suited to your group.

Reddit and Online Communities

Reddit can also be a useful recruitment tool. Subreddits dedicated to D&D, tabletop RPGs, or local gaming communities often have players actively searching for groups. Online platforms like Discord communities and RPG forums can serve a similar purpose.

The key is not to recruit the first available person immediately. Treat the process carefully. Have conversations first, ask about play style, and make sure expectations line up on both sides.

Local Game Stores

Even in this digital world we live in local game stores are still one of the best places to meet tabletop players. Many stores have noticeboards where you can post flyers or group advertisements. Even a simple poster with your contact details and a short description of the campaign can attract interested players.

Game stores also allow you to meet people face to face before committing to a long campaign. You can often get a much better sense of personality and enthusiasm through casual conversation than through online messages alone.

A DnD interview…

Public Gaming Groups

Another excellent option is attending public gaming groups and community events.

Groups that run open or public games are often full of people actively looking for regular campaigns. They also give you the opportunity to actually play with potential recruits before inviting them into your long-term group.

In Western Australia, groups such as DnD Fremantle provide a great way for players and Game Masters to meet others in the local community. Public games can act almost like a trial run, helping everyone work out whether the personalities and play styles fit together naturally.

This approach can often lead to much stronger long-term groups because everyone has already experienced what playing together is actually like.

Take Your Time

Whether it is in the workplace or around a gaming table, finding the right people matters. Rules can be taught. Systems can be learned. Experience can grow over time. But building a strong group culture takes care and patience.

If you want a D&D campaign that lasts for years, with players who genuinely enjoy playing together, it is worth taking your time and recruiting wisely.

Posted on

Dungeons & Dragons: A Surprising Tool for Workplace Success

While I have talked about this before I thought it would be worth revisiting for people who are a bit newer to this blog. While most of us know Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) as the worlds most popular fantasy role-playing game, I really believe that it offers more than entertainment. D&D has the potential to be a powerful tool for personal growth and professional development. Surprisingly, the skills honed at the gaming table—creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking—extend far beyond the dungeon and can have a lasting impact in the workplace. In this article, we’ll revisit three compelling reasons why playing D&D can help foster a productive and innovative work environment.

1. Fostering Creativity

At its heart, D&D thrives on imagination. Players immerse themselves in complex worlds, creating unique characters, crafting storylines, and solving challenges in unexpected ways. This exercise in creativity translates directly to the workplace, especially where fresh thinking and innovation are highly prized.

Employees who engage in creative activities like D&D become adept at looking at problems from different angles. They are better equipped to brainstorm unconventional solutions and tackle obstacles with creativity. This flexibility is especially valuable in industries where problem-solving requires innovative approaches. for example film production, software engineering and marketing could really do with more D&D players amongst their workers. Additionally, D&D encourages players to adapt on the fly, sharpening their ability to remain agile in the face of rapidly changing situations—a skill that’s equally important in all fast-paced professional environments.

Workplace Takeaway: By nurturing creativity, D&D empowers employees to approach workplace challenges with enthusiasm, confidence, and a sense of resourcefulness, benefitting the entire team.

2. Encouraging Collaboration

D&D is a collaborative experience. Players must work together as a team, using their individual strengths to overcome obstacles and achieve shared goals. Similarly, in most workplaces, teamwork is essential for success.

Through playing the game, employees can develop essential collaboration skills such as effective communication, cooperation, and trust-building. The game offers opportunities to practice working together, combining diverse talents to achieve the best outcomes. In doing so, D&D mirrors real-world team dynamics—players need to listen to one another, adapt their strategies, and support each other to succeed. They may also come up against disagreements in game. Navigating these helps hugely in overcoming similar situations in the real world.

I see the game as also being a fantastic space to develop leadership skills, as players often take turns guiding the group through quests, motivating others, and coordinating efforts toward a common goal.

Workplace Takeaway: D&D builds a strong sense of camaraderie and helps employees understand the value of working together, ultimately leading to improved collaboration in the workplace.

Not this sort of collaboration…

3. Cultivating Critical Thinking

D&D is filled with complex challenges, from solving intricate puzzles to navigating moral dilemmas and tactical combat. To overcome these obstacles, players must think critically, analyzing situations and making decisions that could affect the outcome of the entire adventure or campaign. While not real, the in-game consequences can be vast, with whole worlds in the balance. Of course, these decision-making skills are highly transferable to the workplace.

In professional settings, critical thinking is a cornerstone of problem-solving and strategic planning. D&D teaches players to evaluate situations, consider multiple perspectives, and anticipate consequences. What’s more, the game encourages players to embrace failure. When a strategy doesn’t go as planned, the group regroups, reevaluates, and tries again—fostering the ability to persevere in the face of setbacks. This mindset is invaluable at work, where adaptability is crucial, and learning from failure is essential for long-term growth.

Workplace Takeaway: By sharpening critical thinking skills, D&D helps employees become better problem solvers, enhancing their ability to navigate complex situations in the workplace.

Final Thoughts: Why D&D Is Good for the Workplace

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll already know that I consider D&D to be much more than a game. It really is a gateway to developing skills that are essential for a thriving workplace. From sparking creativity to enhancing teamwork and sharpening critical thinking, D&D equips players with tools that can transform how they work and collaborate with others. Whether you’re looking to foster a more innovative team, improve communication, or build resilience, the lessons learned through D&D can have a profound impact on workplace dynamics.

So, keep an eye out for D&D players at work and don’t dismiss it as just a pastime. It could be the key to unlocking their potential as creative problem-solvers and collaborative teammates as well as helping forge your next cohort of effective and successful leaders.

Posted on

Discovering the Hidden Joy of One-Page RPGs

Roleplaying games come in all shapes and sizes. Some arrive in beautifully bound rulebooks hundreds of pages thick, complete with detailed character creation systems, extensive equipment lists, and years of accumulated lore. I love those games. But sometimes, the funnest adventures fit on a single sheet of paper. One-page RPGs occupy a special place in my gaming heart. They are unapologetically focused, delightfully weird, and incredibly accessible. In a hobby that can sometimes feel intimidating to newcomers, a one-page RPG keeps it simple: “Here’s the premise. Grab some dice. Let’s play.”

Theme Heavy, Rules Lite

The magic of a one-page RPG isn’t found in complex mechanics. It’s found in commitment to a theme. A good one-page RPG takes a single idea and runs with it at full speed. The handful of rules exist purely to support that concept. There is no attempt to simulate every possible situation. Instead, each game asks a simple question:

“What if we spent the next few hours fully embracing this particular fantasy?”

That focus creates something remarkable. Players aren’t spending the first hour learning rules or optimising character builds. They’re immediately stepping into the tone and spirit of the game. The result is often a session that feels more like an improv comedy show, a favourite movie, or a particularly chaotic stage play than a traditional campaign.

Perfect for a Single Evening

Where I think One-page RPGs really shine is as one-shots. Most can be taught in less than minutes and completed in a three to four-hour session. That makes them ideal for game nights when the full Dungeons & Dragons campaign isn’t happening, when new players are joining the table, or when you simply want to try something different.

There’s also a peculiar freedom that comes from knowing the story begins and ends in a single sitting. Players are more willing to take risks. They make bigger choices. They embrace ridiculous plans. Nobody is worried about preserving a carefully crafted character for the next two years of campaign play.

If the plan fails spectacularly, then that’s a great way to finish.

Nice Marines

One of my favourites is Nice Marines. I ran this back at MartyCon 2026 with ten minutes prep and we had a blast.

The premise is wonderfully simple. You’re genetically engineered super-soldiers in enormous power armour, capable of crushing enemies and surviving impossible odds.

Your mission? Diplomacy. Helping a planets government after the war. The contrast between the imperial murder machines and the non combat scenario became a great source of comedy.

Want to play regency era? Virtues and Scandals might be for you.

Virtues and Scandals

Then there’s Virtues and Scandals, which I would like to run for my current gaming group. This throws the players into a Bridgerton-esque Regency-era romance drama. Think grand balls, whispered rumours, unsuitable romances, ambitious social climbing, and enough scandal to keep society talking for months.

Here success isn’t measured by defeating monsters or collecting treasure. It’s measured by reputation, romance, influence, and whether your latest social disaster can somehow be turned into an advantage.

The stakes are completely different, yet somehow feel just as important. And for a group that enjoys the rough and tumble of combat it will make for a fun change of pace. I might even buy some cheap fans for the players to hide behind during the game.

This One Time at Bard Camp

If Virtues and Scandals is Regency drama, This One Time at Bard Camp is pure college comedy. Players take on the roles of aspiring bards attending a summer academy dedicated to music, performance, and probably causing trouble.

The game embraces all the classic teen movie tropes: rivalries, friendships, crushes, embarrassing mistakes, talent competitions, and authority figures who are somehow always one step behind the chaos.

I think this would be great fun for my group to get let loose on.

A Perfect Fit for the Workplace

One of the biggest challenges when introducing roleplaying games to a professional audience is overcoming the learning curve. Participants may only have an hour or two available, and few want to spend half that time reading rules.

That’s where one-page RPGs excel.

Explaining the rules takes minutes, allowing groups to spend the majority of their session actually playing, communicating, and solving problems together. The simplicity removes barriers and helps participants focus on the experience rather than the mechanics.

The strong themes also make it easier for people to engage quickly. Most people immediately understand the social dynamics of a Regency romance, or the chaos of a summer camp comedy. Familiar tropes give players permission to jump straight into roleplaying without worrying about getting the setting “wrong.”

For workplace conferences, training sessions, and leadership development programs, this makes one-page RPGs an ideal tool. In a single 90-minute session, participants can practise communication, teamwork, creativity, adaptability, and problem-solving while sharing plenty of laughs along the way.

In many ways, one-page RPGs demonstrate one of the greatest strengths of roleplaying games as a learning tool: meaningful experiences don’t require complex systems. Sometimes a simple premise, a clear theme, and a group of willing participants are all that’s needed to create genuine engagement and lasting memories.

Why They Matter

One-page RPGs remind us of something important about our hobby. The rules are not the point. Rather, we should be focusing on is gathering around a table with friends and collectively creating fun, memorable stories.

A one-page RPG strips away almost everything except imagination and theme. What’s left is often pure roleplaying joy. They’re easy to learn, easy to run (usually), and easy to share. As such they allow us to explore worlds and genres that would never justify a year-long campaign but make for an unforgettable evening.

Most importantly, they remind us that roleplaying games don’t need to be complicated to be memorable. Sometimes all you need is a single page, a handful of dice, and a group of players willing to embrace the premise completely.

Jump onto google. Search one-page RPGs, and find one that has a theme that appeals to you. After a quick read you can have it at the table in 15 minutes. I think you’ll enjoy the results.

Posted on

GM Book Club Podcast: International Chapter

I meant to post about this over a month ago, but failed drastically. However, better late than never I suppose. (Sorry Eric). Myself and my good friends Rich and Marty were invited by the host Eric to feature on the GM Book Club podcast. This episode is called From Graphic Novels to Gaming Tables: How Monstress Inspires Adventure and is all about Monstress by Marjorie Liu.

I love graphic novels and comics and find that the stories tend to be bit wilder in this format. So it was a joy to do a deep dive on this one with the others. Eric did a masterful job of hosting and kept us all on track.

We discuss the book in the context of roleplaying and look for things to port into our games. Great fun!

If you would like to check it out choose one of the links below.

As the three of us are based in Australia, we now make up the international chapter of the podcast! I’m looking forward to recording more of these episodes in the near future and we have a couple locked in already.

For more podcasts I’ve been involved in check out my podcast page here.

Posted on

How Often Should You Play Dungeons & Dragons?

rustic december calendar page with vintage style

One of the questions that quietly haunts many gaming groups is simple: how often should you play Dungeons & Dragons? I once met “that guy” who was very militant in his thinking. Weekly was the right answer and fortnightly at a push, anything else was unacceptable to his rather limited world view. But let’s be realistic there isn’t a universal answer. Like choosing a class or rolling up a character background, the right cadence is deeply personal. It depends on life, work, family, enthusiasm, and how much space everyone has in their schedules. Over the years, I’ve played at several different rhythms, and each one has brought its own flavour to the table.

The Golden Age of Weekly Games

Many moons ago when I was an undergraduate at Edinburgh University we played every Sunday night at GEAS. It was a sacred time slot. We all attended come hell or highwater.

Weekly play has a kind of magic to it.

The story stays fresh. Everyone remembers what happened last session. Plot threads remain tight, character relationships develop naturally, and momentum builds quickly. Over a typical ten-week university term, our party could accomplish an astonishing amount. Dungeons cleared, villains defeated, mysteries unravelled. It felt like living inside a novel that advanced a chapter every week.

If you can manage weekly sessions, you are fortunate indeed. It’s the closest thing to an uninterrupted narrative flow. But life has a habit of filling Sundays.

The Fortnightly Campaign

These days, my main game runs every two weeks.

The story takes a little more effort to remember. We always begin with a quick recap while we settle in and character sheets appear. But the trade-off is worth it. A fortnightly rhythm fits comfortably around work, family commitments, and the other obligations that quietly accumulate in adult life.

Because the group can maintain consistency, the campaign still thrives. Our adventures tend to run one to two years, which gives the story plenty of space to breathe. Characters evolve slowly, reputations grow, and the world responds to the party’s actions over time.

It may not have the relentless momentum of weekly play, but it has something equally valuable: sustainability.

The Monthly Table

For a long time I also ran a monthly game.

Monthly sessions have their own rhythm. The longer gap means there is usually a bit of catching up at the beginning. Notes get checked, stories retold, and memories nudged back into place. But there is a surprising benefit for the Game Master.

More time between sessions means more time to prepare. Encounters can be polished, storylines carefully woven, and worlds expanded without feeling rushed. I even had time to build specific terrain pieces for the more involved encounters.

My friend Rich now runs that monthly slot and does it brilliantly. His sessions are tight, focused, and enormous fun. The only real side effect of monthly play is that campaigns stretch out over longer periods. What might take a year in a weekly game can take several years to complete.

But if the table is enjoying itself, time is hardly the enemy.

The Quarterly Experiment

Finally, there is the most unusual cadence I run: a quarterly game of Imperium Maledictum.

I really wanted to run the system, but I simply didn’t have space for another regular campaign. So instead of forcing a traditional structure, I borrowed inspiration from cinema.

Each session runs like a film in a franchise.

Think of something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Characters grow over time, relationships deepen, and the setting slowly evolves. But each individual story is self-contained. You can enjoy a single adventure without needing to remember every detail from the previous one.

The result is a campaign that feels episodic. Every few months the characters reunite for another dangerous mission in the grim darkness of the far future. It works remarkably well for a group with limited availability.

Play at the cadence that works for you and your friends

The Real Answer

So how often should you play Dungeons & Dragons? for a start ignore “that guy” I mentioned above. Instead:

As often as works for you.

Weekly games create powerful narrative momentum. Fortnightly campaigns balance story with real life. Monthly sessions allow thoughtful preparation and long-form storytelling. Quarterly adventures can feel like cinematic episodes in an ongoing saga.

There is no wrong schedule.

If you gather every week around a battered table with maps and miniatures, you are lucky indeed. But if your group only manages a few long sessions a year, that is just as valid.

Because the real magic of D&D isn’t the frequency.

It’s the moment when friends gather, dice tumble across the table, and for a few hours the world becomes a place of dragons, danger, and shared imagination.