What I want in a game

Several people in gaming circle have complained to me recently that they are finding it difficult to recruit players. In the context of one of the discussions this person stated that he felt that people weren’t getting what he wanted to run. When I asked him what he had shown them he pointed me to a rather barebones post here on livejournal.

As I’m currently looking for someone to run me a game and am not happy with what I’m finding I thought I’d offer some advice. None of this is original to me, but it is the process I’ve followed in all of my games in the past few years and it has worked nicely.

1. Tell me about the genre and setting, basically summarize the high concept of the game


2. Who are the players? What do they do? Why should I care to be a player in this world


3. What will be the play style?


4. Mechanics


5. And what are your inspirations?

Basically give me a reason to be interested and excited up front. Let me know you’ve given some thought to the beast before I go to the trouble of making a character. In short, woo me.