1. Questions for Interviewee: Write the three or four of the questions that elicited the best responses. How did these change based on previous experience?
   1. How do you go about recruiting new players?
   2. Can you think about a time when recruiting new players / or looking for a new game to be in for Tabletop RPGs was a successful experience?
   3. Can you think about a time when it was not?
   4. What style of play do you look for when recruiting dnd players? Can you describe what that style entails?

One change to these questions from those asked in my first interview was to change “great experience” in question 2 to “successful experience.” Interviewee 1 interpreted “great” as meaning “fun.” The process of recruiting isn’t really supposed to be fun, so I wanted to change the meaning of the sentence so that we are told about a time when recruiting was productive.

1. Interviewee 2 Summary
   1. 10/11/2021 at 5:00pm via Discord
   2. This interviewee had a preference for playing TTRPG online using virtual tabletop programs. They typically prefer to play in groups with close friends and has found that recruiting close friends has led to better quality groups. The experience that led to this was that they were present for someone being kicked out for being unkind and unruly. This has made them nervous about recruiting people they are less familiar with. This individual valued players who treat others with respect and play together as a team. There is also the issue of mismatching schedules.
      Part of their solutions include: Playing with close friends, not being the DM preferring to be a player. They are trying to avoid conflict within their TTRPG groups. The preference of playing with close friends is a means of vetting players. They also don’t GM, so they don’t take on the responsibility of vetting players.
2. Interviewee 3 Summary
   1. 10/12/2021 at 3:30pm via Discord
   2. This interviewee has both online and in-person games and helps to moderate a TTRPG server where members are often bringing in friends and family members. Their in-person game only friends and close family members were recruited. Their online game and their server see recruitment from people they know to people they don’t know brought in through other server members and advertising on social media. They have found a lot os success in finding other groups via the “Dungeon Dudes” (a youtube channel for TTRPG topics) discord. They have a game with people they had only recently met when joing that is still going strong. Communication and cooperation has been key in ensuring that happened. They did cite a times where they played with someone who wanted to “lone wolf.” They were not collaborative and focused more on “min-maxing” (where someone tries to optimize their character to be the best it can possibly) at the expense of the party.
      This player values the collaborative story-telling aspects of DnD. They are more willing to risk the fallout of a bad party because they enjoy DnD. Although they mentioned it takes a number of tries before finding a party that meshes well.
3. Interviewee 4 Summary
   1. 10/12/2021 at 6:30pn via Discord
   2. This individual has experience in both TTRPG recruiting and LARP recruiting. LARP involved throwing a line out via social media, flyers, forums etc. and seeing who responds. TTRPG though, historically for this individual, has involved playing with close friends when it comes to in-person recruiting. However, during the pandemic, this person joined a TTRPG discord server where after getting to know others she had been invited to a number of games.
      They described a negative experience where a couple was invited to one of their games. They couple did not mesh well with the rest of the group and actively sabotaged the plans and goals of other players. The existing players were not consulted on this matter.
      This individual values storytelling at their table. They also value collaboration and communication. They feel that these were the aspects that broke down in their unsuccessful experience. They also want people to be courteous and adaptive.
      This player seems somewhat cautious of recruiting people they don’t know as well, but would be open to doing so.
4. Interviewee 5 Summary
   1. 10/14/2021 at 6:00pm Via Discord
   2. This individual recruits primarily through their close in-person friend groups. They say that these groups are robust and full of people who enjoy board games and TTRPGS. It makes recruiting a comfortable and easy experience. They did mention some curiosity about branching out into fiding games through DnD communities on Tiktok – they are nervous about finding compatible people but also very excited to meet new people! They specifically said that recruiting people is easy but it is harder to keep a game going between ongoing scheduling and emerging party dynamics. Finds that scheduling is especially difficult since they prefer in-person games.
      This person values communication, the ability to separate the game from real-life, people interested in stroy-telling, and to be clear with expectations from the get-go.
5. Analysis: 
   1. Players typically recruit friends since it ensure better part cohesion
   2. Players valued communication, collaboration, and story-telling
   3. Both play online and in-person
   4. Have utilized discord and social media as means to connect with others or as a tool in their own DnD games
   5. The players are very concerned with player dynamics and as well as scheduling
6. Insights: 
   1. These players want to have enjoyable TTRPG experiences
   2. Past experience have made them cautious about recruiting people they don’t know
   3. Some are more willing to take the risk of having a game fall apart, but it is still a concern
   4. Scheduling still remains a major obstacle in finding compatible players for a TTRPG group