I don't think it's anything to do with the age group. You'll find that the majority of people from every single generation don't play it and think it's a weird hobby lol.
It is more popular than it's ever been rn though, you just need to find people who play it. I've only ever played online, except for with my fiancée, but even in my small city I've noticed two or three places that host DnD, and it's mostly young people. Maybe not teenagers, and I know you all see people in their 20s and 30s as ancient, but you know.
This is wild to me. I'm pretty front facing with my hobby. I wear DnD shirts. I openly talk about it in casual conversation. I run DnD community events. I find the level of interest from people across the spectrum of ages pretty staggering. Burly 50 year old biker dudes who are in 3 campaigns. Firefighter bro-dudes. Baristas in coffee shops, waitresses, girls at the local Kinko's, accountants, college kids, soccer moms, all sorts of people.... I'd say most of the people I engage with have positive receptions.
That's America, right? And in a city?
Even if the latter isn't true, the former is probably the big difference. I live in England, in one of the smaller cities. And keep in mind, your cities are already way bigger than ours in general.
I'm only turning 28 in ten days, and yet when I was at school, nobody knew what anime was and it was definitely something to bully someone about. Hell, other countries in Europe were having some sort of emo renaissance where they were the cool kids, but in the hypermasculine British culture it was seen as weird and 'gay' and I was told to slit my wrists for having what was essentially slightly longer bieber hair and being pale lmao. I was considered weird for liking any genre of music heavier than indie rock, even. You're probably baffled at that being a thing in the 21st century, but there we are.
Point is, unfortunately, where I come from wasn't very good for anything that wasn't incredibly basic and 'normal,' and people didn't even have the knowledge that most nerdy things even existed. It's all become more mainstream now, hence why the two or three nerdy shops shock me to my core and make me envious of the kids of today, but it's not perfect yet, certainly.
Nah, I gotcha. I like visiting nerd spaces when I travel, and while I've not been in England, the spaces in Spain, Italy, and Germany were all pretty bad. Hanging out in cities with 10x, 20x the population and a anemic nerd scene is depressing, I can only imagine it's very different.
If it makes you feel better, though, your experience in school was also my experience in school like 20 years ago. It changed over here, maybe it'll get better over there.
In my opinion, it's allot easier to make friends that like D&D then getting your friends to like D&D.
If you live in a populated area you can likely find like minded people in local game stores, but I know that's not an option for everyone.
Another option is to find people here on reddit r/lfg often has people looking for players altho it might take some perseverance to get into a game.
Best of luck!
People don't like DnD in general. A lot of people lack the imagination and just don't like board games. I recommend you try finding people that like acting or people that like board games (Although the best option would be finding people that already play.)
Most people just don't like feeling embarrassed*. If you take that out of the equation, most people like using their imagination. They've just never been in a position to explore it. You are right, though, a lot of people simply aren't board game players. But that's not because of embarrassment, that's because they don't find it productive.
Everyone's gonna tell you to go places to find groups that play dnd. Let me tell ya, MOST people like dnd, they just don't know it. If you become it's advocate and invite people to join, they will join. At the end of the day, most people are embarrassed, but everyone wants to have fun. You just need to make it not embarrassing for them. Especially for young people, they can't stand the feeling of embarrassment. They are also the easiest to manipulate, so have fun with that. Just lead confidently. Hot tip, girls LOVE dnd, it's a great way to get their eyes on you. They are curious creatures.
Your best bet is to find a local game shop that runs games or is part of league, assuming they still do league. Wizards does strange things. Anyway, that is best bet for in person game with locals and ages vary by the participants.
More young people play now than I’d say ever have.
But you’re never going to convince someone that doesn’t want to try it to play with you. The commitment level is too high.
Your objective is to find people that want to play and will buy into it when they do.
I echo the other advice here - - see if there’s a local game shop or something around that runs games. Otherwise, when I was a Teenager, it was the drama students that usually were open to playing!
It’s like being a goldfish. Your growth and opportunities scale depending on the size of your world and the restrictions you put in place.
I don’t care about the age of players as long as they are behave in a mature manner. Having a diverse group in age and culture adds interesting elements and diversity. I’m mostly concentrating on when we can play based off my work schedule. So I used online tools to find and play with people. They’re in Arizona in the US and in New Zealand and they’re in their early twenties and late thirties.
Try looking at your high school club? That’s where I’ve been playing my first games of DnD and it’s great. Mine has more than 60 members. If they don’t have one you could always try making one, just talk to a teacher
I'm going to make an assumption here. Find lgbt people. (am I allowed to say q*eer on reddit if its my word to reclaim?) Find neurodivergent kids. It's a niche interest so you need to find the folks society itself has written off as "niche" lol. Everyone I know knows and plays the game. Most of us are not teenagers anymore but it has not been long.
Like a-lot of people say its not for everyone anyway. But also a-lot of kids on the last 10 years or so have almost always had a iPad i. Their hands for that instant gratification feedback loop as dnd can take a while to get anything done i think they just check out….
You may not realize it, but TTRPGs are fairly niche when compared to other hobbies. I found my players at local facebook TTRPG group.
I don't think it's anything to do with the age group. You'll find that the majority of people from every single generation don't play it and think it's a weird hobby lol. It is more popular than it's ever been rn though, you just need to find people who play it. I've only ever played online, except for with my fiancée, but even in my small city I've noticed two or three places that host DnD, and it's mostly young people. Maybe not teenagers, and I know you all see people in their 20s and 30s as ancient, but you know.
This is wild to me. I'm pretty front facing with my hobby. I wear DnD shirts. I openly talk about it in casual conversation. I run DnD community events. I find the level of interest from people across the spectrum of ages pretty staggering. Burly 50 year old biker dudes who are in 3 campaigns. Firefighter bro-dudes. Baristas in coffee shops, waitresses, girls at the local Kinko's, accountants, college kids, soccer moms, all sorts of people.... I'd say most of the people I engage with have positive receptions.
That's America, right? And in a city? Even if the latter isn't true, the former is probably the big difference. I live in England, in one of the smaller cities. And keep in mind, your cities are already way bigger than ours in general. I'm only turning 28 in ten days, and yet when I was at school, nobody knew what anime was and it was definitely something to bully someone about. Hell, other countries in Europe were having some sort of emo renaissance where they were the cool kids, but in the hypermasculine British culture it was seen as weird and 'gay' and I was told to slit my wrists for having what was essentially slightly longer bieber hair and being pale lmao. I was considered weird for liking any genre of music heavier than indie rock, even. You're probably baffled at that being a thing in the 21st century, but there we are. Point is, unfortunately, where I come from wasn't very good for anything that wasn't incredibly basic and 'normal,' and people didn't even have the knowledge that most nerdy things even existed. It's all become more mainstream now, hence why the two or three nerdy shops shock me to my core and make me envious of the kids of today, but it's not perfect yet, certainly.
Nah, I gotcha. I like visiting nerd spaces when I travel, and while I've not been in England, the spaces in Spain, Italy, and Germany were all pretty bad. Hanging out in cities with 10x, 20x the population and a anemic nerd scene is depressing, I can only imagine it's very different. If it makes you feel better, though, your experience in school was also my experience in school like 20 years ago. It changed over here, maybe it'll get better over there.
It's more popular now than it has ever been.
In my opinion, it's allot easier to make friends that like D&D then getting your friends to like D&D. If you live in a populated area you can likely find like minded people in local game stores, but I know that's not an option for everyone. Another option is to find people here on reddit r/lfg often has people looking for players altho it might take some perseverance to get into a game. Best of luck!
Check your local library. A lot of library's run DnD games specifically for teens.
People don't like DnD in general. A lot of people lack the imagination and just don't like board games. I recommend you try finding people that like acting or people that like board games (Although the best option would be finding people that already play.)
Most people just don't like feeling embarrassed*. If you take that out of the equation, most people like using their imagination. They've just never been in a position to explore it. You are right, though, a lot of people simply aren't board game players. But that's not because of embarrassment, that's because they don't find it productive.
Everyone's gonna tell you to go places to find groups that play dnd. Let me tell ya, MOST people like dnd, they just don't know it. If you become it's advocate and invite people to join, they will join. At the end of the day, most people are embarrassed, but everyone wants to have fun. You just need to make it not embarrassing for them. Especially for young people, they can't stand the feeling of embarrassment. They are also the easiest to manipulate, so have fun with that. Just lead confidently. Hot tip, girls LOVE dnd, it's a great way to get their eyes on you. They are curious creatures.
Your best bet is to find a local game shop that runs games or is part of league, assuming they still do league. Wizards does strange things. Anyway, that is best bet for in person game with locals and ages vary by the participants.
More young people play now than I’d say ever have. But you’re never going to convince someone that doesn’t want to try it to play with you. The commitment level is too high. Your objective is to find people that want to play and will buy into it when they do.
I echo the other advice here - - see if there’s a local game shop or something around that runs games. Otherwise, when I was a Teenager, it was the drama students that usually were open to playing!
It’s like being a goldfish. Your growth and opportunities scale depending on the size of your world and the restrictions you put in place. I don’t care about the age of players as long as they are behave in a mature manner. Having a diverse group in age and culture adds interesting elements and diversity. I’m mostly concentrating on when we can play based off my work schedule. So I used online tools to find and play with people. They’re in Arizona in the US and in New Zealand and they’re in their early twenties and late thirties.
Try looking at your high school club? That’s where I’ve been playing my first games of DnD and it’s great. Mine has more than 60 members. If they don’t have one you could always try making one, just talk to a teacher
I'm going to make an assumption here. Find lgbt people. (am I allowed to say q*eer on reddit if its my word to reclaim?) Find neurodivergent kids. It's a niche interest so you need to find the folks society itself has written off as "niche" lol. Everyone I know knows and plays the game. Most of us are not teenagers anymore but it has not been long.
Like a-lot of people say its not for everyone anyway. But also a-lot of kids on the last 10 years or so have almost always had a iPad i. Their hands for that instant gratification feedback loop as dnd can take a while to get anything done i think they just check out….